Dr J. F. A. Moore (M) (Department of the Environment) I am not sure whether you classify someone walking off a railway platform in front of a train as a basic risk, a voluntary risk, or an involuntary risk, but that is the explanation for my late arrival this evening, for which I apologise!
Sir Michael Latham, author of the joint government and industry report ‘Constructing the Team’ believes that participation of professional people such as structural engineers is absolutely crucial to the success of his plan for creating a modern and competitive industry.
A considerable amount of work has recently been carried out to provide a scientific basis for the analysis of masonry arch bridges. However, thefidure modes of multiring brickwork arch bridges in particular will often be very diflerent to those corresponding to bridges containing a single ring of blocks; this is because the constituent rings will often separate, causing premature failure of the bridge. Most analysis techniques developed to date make the implicit assumption that shear failure between rings will not occur; it is demonstrated that these methods are inappropriate for the calculation of the strength of multiring brickwork arch bridges. Professor C. Melbourne and M. Gilbert