The brick diaphragm wall is a wide-cavity wall with the two leaves bonded together not by the normal cavity ties but by cross-ribs of brickwork. The leaves and cross-ribs, acting integrally, form a series of connected box or I-sections having a high section modulus and radius of gyration. This gives the wall a much greater resistance to lateral and vertical loading than the normal cavity wall. The technique enables diaphragm walls to be used for tall single-storey structures where experience and investigation have shown them to be faster, simpler, and cheaper to construct than the traditional steel frame and cladding. The paper discusses the development of the idea, its applications, the design philosophy, and future developments. W.G. Curtin
Professor A. Bolton (F) (Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh): The Code Servicing Panel has done a great deal of painstaking work on our behalf, and its members deserve our commendation. It seems to me, however, that they have been constrained to give us a formal shadow of what is really needed.
Dr. 0. A. Kerensky (Past President): I consider that the particular case of the Kessock Bridge is almost sub judice since, apart from the historical background supplied by Mr. Clements, we have no details of the original design, nor of the reasons for the very much cheaper alternatives-and there must be some very good reasons for this! But, most important of all, we do not know how the job will turn out and what will be the final cost to all concerned-i.e. to the nation.
Our subject of theory of structures had its origins around the beginning of the 19th century, and centred first upon the tension and compression properties of the structural materials then current, and upon the behaviour of beams. By 1807 Young had published his work on the theory of beams and struts, and by 1822 George Rennie and Tredgold had reported the results of their tests on materials. Thus the engineering science now known as ‘strength of materials’ had emerged. Sir Alfred Pugsley
The intensity of snow loading and the provisions of CP3: Chapter V have generated a deal of interesting correspondence over the past year. Verulam