Report on Future Building Regulations

Mr. W. G. N. Geddes, BSc, CEng, FIStructE, FICE, FIWE, FIES, has the distinction of being the first Scot to serve as President of the Institution while actually domiciled in Scotland. Taking ofice on 7 October next, Mr. Geddes will deliver his Presidential Address at an Ordinary Meeting at 6 pm that evening at 11 Upper Belgrave Street, London.

The paper describes a simplified method of analysing cylindrical shells with a view to reducing numerical work to a minimum by using a set of design tables and solving only four boundary constants at a time.

The influence of column stiffness, damping and foundation interaction on the earthquake response of multi-storey shear buildings is analysed. Using Ramberg-Osgood and bilinear formulations, the moment-curvature and shear-deflexion relationships for the columns are computed, based on the general nonlinear inelastic stress-strain relationships which include the hysteretic loops and strain hardening range. It is found that damping can sometimes prevent buildings from going into inelastic deformation. The decrease in column stiffness causes a decrease in the natural frequency of the building but increases the amplitudes of the forced vibrations. Avinash Singhal