Strcutural Analysis of Wall Systems

The Lord's decision in Ann's case continues to stimulate discussion in this column; whatever other outcome there may be from that decision it has certainly brought about an interesting airing of points of view from members and a worthwhile clarification of the issues concerned for many of us. Mr. I. W. Menzies adds his comments when he writes: The roughly cobbled road in which Mr. Tietz (August 1977) finds himself is, I think, the result of his taking a wrong turning in following the 'Anns' case. Verulam

Dr. Eastwood (Past President) : A matter of some interest is the behaviour of the inclined piles. Some of the piles are vertical and some inclined and all are attached to a fairly rigid frame at ground level. Thus the tops of the piles will move down bodily in a vertical direction under load, whilst the toes of the piles will move in the direction at which the pile is inclined. The toes of the piles will tend to move apart and the piles will bend. With the amount of settlement which is expected could this bending be sufficient to produce cracking of the piles?

The paper published in January in The Structural Engineer was written about two years ago. Since then I have conducted further tests and discussed my ideas with a number of lecturers and engineers, all of which has confirmed the conclusions drawn in the paper.