Book Reviews. Research and Development Requirements

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

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of this, one need look no further than the sorry case of CPllO1, which was introduced as a new Code in 1972 and withdrawn in 1985, while the predecessor it was meant to replace, CP1142, is still in use today.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

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