Building in Scotland

Crossing the Firth of Forth Over the centuries, the river has been crisscrossed by ferries. With the prevailing winds and high seas experienced on the Firth, these were often rather hazardous crossings. However, in the 18th and 19th centuries the alternative was a long, circuitous coach trip via Linlithgow and Stirling and back again along the north shore of the river. D.G. McBeth

I was surprised and a little awestruck when the Scottish Branch requested me to write on the above theme. However, the Branch conjures up so many happy and fulfilling memories that the request could not be gainsaid. W.G.N. Geddes

It has long been convenient to assume ‘pinned’ or ‘fixed’ connections to simplify analysis for steel frame design. Until recently, there has been little interest in research on real behaviour of joints because of mathematical complexity of solutions. However, there is a revitalised interest in this topic because of cheap computing power and new Codes highlighting a number of grey areas of design. This paper discusses the effect of joints on a number of structures and attempts to show, by use of fixity factors and a modified moment distribution method, that analysis need not be difficult and that, even when full connection data are not known, the techniques may provide qualitative data of great practical value in many cases. R. Cunningham