Issue 22

An investigation of coupled shear walls is carried out, using the transfer matrix technique, by considering the local flexibility at the wall-beam interface as well as the overall joint flexibility. The latter is investigated by treating the intermediate joint as a rectangular panel with a finite element-type displacement model. Finally, fully elastic joint models are obtained by combining the local with the overall flexibility of the beam-wall junction and also by considering the joint as a rigid joint of negligible vertical dimensions, i.e. a line connection of successive wall segments. I.A. Akintilo and S. Syngellakis

In the United Kingdom, structural fire protection in buildings is generally based on prescriptive specifications, to meet the performance requirements set out in the regulations and the statutory guidance on fire safety. Structural engineers may therefore find that the proposed methods for calculating structural fire protection set out in the draft Eurocodes are different and novel, and it may be advantageous for them to gain a closer understanding of the fire engineering principles underlying these calculation methods. S.B. Desai

Using an energy method, the lateral response of an initially curved raked pile to an axial blow from a piling hammer is derived. By treating the blow as an impulsive force, a considerable simplification results which enables a closed form solution to be obtained. The solution is in general terms and enables all boundary conditions of practical interest to be studied. The cases of cantilever and a propped cantilever pile are presented as being of most practical interest. Propping corresponds to supporting the hammer in leaders and results in lower bending stresses. The most critical case is the raked cantilever pile. This can experience significant bending stresses. Professor T.J. Poskitt

Statutory control - and how? Owen Hope of Bradford queries the factors dictating the choice of the design methods required for ‘statutory control’: There has been considerable discussion of late about methods of design to be used and accepted for ‘statutory control’. Verulam