The Structural Behaviour of Concrete Masonry - Reinforced and Unreinforced

Dr. Nwokoye has written in reply to Mr. Sykes' comments on timber grading and the relationship of strength to elastic modulus in timber (June 1976), comments which were stimulated by a paper by Dr. Nwokoye in the March 1976 issue. Dr. Nwokoye's observations are fairly lengthy by the standards considered appropriate to this column and we have been making rather an issue concerning brevity recently; neverthless what Dr. Nwokoye has to say is likely to attract the close attention of some members and may stimulate further discussion which could be of interest at a time when a new limit state code for timber is being formulated. So as to maintain a semblance of our real concern for brevity in contribution we are putting this one at the end of the column where it can masquerade as a separate article, or a reply to a discussion on a paper, which it is. Verulam

Various means are commonly used to rectify lack of straightness in stiffened steel panels to bring them within working tolerances such as those stipulated in the Merrison Rules for box girders. The paper describes tests to establish whether panels straightened by various heating, jigging and over-loading procedures have the same strength as panels fabricated to meet those tolerances without resort to such procedures. The panel proportions and modes of testing were designed to produce in all cases collapse by failure of the outstand. It was found that, while straightening procedures which caused compressive residual stresses in the outstand left the panel with a decreased capacity in compression, procedures which left a tensile residual stress could restore the full carrying capacity. M.R. Horne and R. Narayanan

The President: Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to this rather special meeting, which is a combined one with the the British Group of International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering. As well as welcoming all those of you in the body of the hall, we have a number of special guests that I would mention. First and foremost, Professor Leonhardt and Frau Leonhardt, and of course of Professor Leonhardt more later. We have Baroness Sharp, Dr. and Mrs. Feilden, Sir Hugh Wilson, Sir Charles Husband, Mr. Philip Gooding, and Professor Baker.