N/A
Standard: £10 + VATMembers/Subscribers: Free
Members/Subscribers, log in to access
The Structural Engineer, Volume 53, Issue 12, 1975
Mr. J. A. Baird has written in amplification of his earlier letter which appeared in this column in September 1975: Somehow my edited contribution on training and engineer's failures has been misunderstood (The Structural Engineer, Vol. 53, No. 9, p. 400). Mistakes are being made and of course they have to be investigated, preferably by someone experienced, perhaps even specializing full time in such work. However, my communication was to draw attention to the appointment made necessary because we, as a profession, are making sufficient errors for a fulltime inspector to be required, and to ask if we are satisfied with current training which has led to this situation. Verulam
As a result of an international architectural competition a Conference Centre and Hotel was designed and built in Riyadh. It was the intention that they should set new standards of building in a country which had previously been almost totally closed to the West. This paper gives the story of the design and construction of this building and describes the types and standards of construction which were achieved. E. Happold, W.I. Liddell and P.A. Woodward
The opening section of the clause on design in the Code of Practice for concrete reads: 'The purpose of design is the achievement of acceptable probabilities that the structure being designed will not become unfit for the use for which it is required.. . ' The clause goes on to refer to variations in loading and in the properties of materials used; it mentions the need for statistical data on these variations and introduces the partial safety factors necessary to achieve this design objective. It does not, however, define the acceptable probability of a structure becoming unfit for use which is basic to the design concept. At present this is not possible in quantitative terms and may never become so; it can however be stated qualitatively after appraisal whether individual structural failures or cases of unserviceability are acceptable or not. Experience shows that structural inadequacy is seldom due to a single cause; it is often the result of a combination of effects, which may include overloading, fire, impact or explosion, settlement, design errors and faults in construction. Of these, faults in construction have played a major contributory part in causing failure, as illustrated by a few examples drawn from the building field: