Mr. T. D. Shephard (Member) said that, at about the same time as the building described by the authors had been under construction, his firm had been concerned in the design of a 16-storey office building for the Electricity Corporation of Nigeria, to be erected on a site between the Marina and Broad Street, jointly occupied at that time by the Public Works Department, the Electricity Corporation of Nigeria (ECN) and the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA). On the same site at about the same time the NPA had intended building a new six-storey office building.
Introducing his paper, Mr. Partridge said there were one or two points that might be emphasized. The end product of the Joint Committee’s effort was, simply, a method that could be used in design offices to establish the beams and columns of a fully rigid building frame, the kind of frame so eminently suitable for welding. Judged as a solution to a problem of great complexity and compared with the many procedures investigated, the method could be said to embody simplicity and accuracy to a degree quite beyond earlier expectations-and even hopes. Its accuracy was vouched for by the research specialists on the Joint Committee. The meeting provided the opportunity for wider consideration of the value of the method in terms of its practical application and further development.
Dr. F. G. Thomas (Hon. Treasurer; Building Research Station) made the following points:- (1) The Building Research Station was extremely interested and was actively studying the problems discussed by the authors. For over ten years the Scottish Laboratory of the BRS had conducted an investigation into the moisture movement of natural rock aggregates and its effect on the properties of concrete and on the behaviour of plain and reinforced concrete members. For most of that time their concern had been primarily with the durability of concrete, since the work was prompted initially by the experience of manufacturers with such products as kerbstones and other precast units. Their investigations had indicated that the weathering properties of a concrete were influenced by the difference between the shrinkage of the coarse aggregate and that of the mortar matrix; the greater this difference, the poorer the durability. However, the solution to the problem of durability was not quite as simple as this. The matter had been discussed in a report by two of Dr. Thomas’s colleagues, Snowdon and Edwards, in the Magazine of Concrete Research, No. 41, in July 1962.
Strength tests are reported on single angles, in alloys HE30WP, HE2OWP and HEl9WP, loaded in tension through one leg. R.E. Smith
A warm welcome will be given by all members to Mr. D. A. G. Reid, BSc(Eng), MIStructE, MICE, President of the Institution 1965-66, who takes office on 7 October.