One of the duties of the Institution ’S Science & Research Committee is to review and identify research needs in the field of structural engineering. As a means of performing these duties the committee decided to undertake a review of relevant papers prepared in the context of the report Long-term research and development requirements in civil engineering commissioned by the Science & Engineering Research Council and the Departments of the Environment and Transport and prepared by a Civil Engineering Task Force, under the chairmanship of Sir Alan Muir Wood, in August 1981. Members of the Science & Research Committee reviewed a selection of these background papers to assess their current relevance. The reviews were not undertaken by the authors of the papers, a task which is being undertaken in a separate review by the Institution of Civil Engineers. Mr Brian Simpson (F), Vice-chairman Science & Research Committee, prepared this statement. A list of the papers selected for the purposes of this review is appended. This paper summarises the views of the reviewers who were asked to examine whether the original background papers were still relevant as a source of information on current research needs.
1. Introduction At their meeting in February 1985, the Council of the Institution accepted a recommendation from the Policy Advisory Committee, arising from the Institution’s ‘Development Plan’, that a Working Party should be established to review and report on closer working relationships between the Institution and other bodies.
Published below is the text of a report received and adopted by Council at their meeting last June, relating to implementation of certain aspects of the Institution’s ‘Development Plan’ as published in The Structural Engineer, January 1985, p25 (1) Introduction This report has been compiled by a Joint Working Party, comprising members of both the Literature and the Science & Research Committees. Following the adoption of the ‘Development Plan’ by Council, this Working Party was charged with implementing those parts of the plan which relate to: -The Structural Engineer -the sessional programme -library information services -Institution publications -Institution activities relating to Codes and Standards -science and research activities generally
This paper describes a method of analysis that may be applied to the CUBIC space frame and which is suitable to run on microcomputers. The program described requires only the minimum of input, and from this information a grid numbering system is generated and a flexibility matrix derived forassumed corner supports. Subsequently, load intensities and support positions may be input and member shears, axial forces, and node deflections, determined for any number of support or load configurations. An example is given to demonstrate the capabilities of the program, and comparison is made with an established finite element analysis program. J.C. Chilton, C. Daffern, M.L. Kubik and R.E. McConnel
The Institution has always supported the production of practical Codes of Practice. It was for this reason that no action was taken on the withdrawal of CP114 until after the publication of BS8110 and the Institution’s Manual for the design of rein forced concrete building structures which it is hoped will be accepted, in due course, as an approved document. The Institution has already started the drafting of design manuals for steelwork and masonry structures.
Despite the overall cost competitiveness of steel in construction, many steel framed buildings remain more costly to manufacture and build than they need be. Details and components often become unnecessarily complicated and expensive because the factors that govern production costs are not always appreciated. The aim of this paper is to describe the nature and sequence of routine workshop processes from plain rolled steel to the finished fabrication stage, with an explanation of the various operations that may be involved. Emphasis is placed on general building structures supported by typical examples to show the influence of basic design decisions on ultimate costs. R. Taggart
The recent history of Codes of Practice for structural concrete work in the UK has hardly been happy. For evidence of this, one need look no further than the sorry case of CPllO1, which was introduced as a new Code in 1972 and withdrawn in 1985, while the predecessor it was meant to replace, CP1142, is still in use today. It is widely accepted that CPllO did not live up to expectations, earning a reputation of being cumbersome to use and requiring over-complex calculations for simple problems. CP110’s successor, BS8110, has been a long time in preparation- partly because a completely new text was prepared, with the intention of producing a more acceptable document. Has it succeeded? Despite its substantial improvements in presentation, the omens are not promising. Already, a ‘design manual’ has been published by the Institution and a draft revised CP114 has been published by the Campaign for Practical Codes of Practices, both claiming to be simpler to use and more in line with practising engineers’ needs. Only time will tell whether BS8llO wil gain the general acceptance that eluded its predecessor. A.N. Beal
Suddenly applied loads A year ago, we published a letter from Mr N. W. Sutton in New Zealand. He asked for help in resolving what he considered to be an anomaly in the standard solution for the effect of a suddenly applied load on a beam. We received a variety of replies, which ranged from incredulity that the letter should have been published to the more academic, pointing out the limitations of the usual textbook solution that the deflection is twice that under static loading. In retrospect, the value of the contributions appears to have justified the appearance of the letter. Verulam