Interview. Sam Thorburn's Year - A Safe Pair of Hands

Les Clark will succeed Sam Thorburn as President of the Institution 1998-99 at an Ordinary Meeting at Institution headquarters on l October p.m. when the new President will give his Presidential Address ‘Evolution or decay’, the full text of which will be published in The Structural Engineer in a forthcoming issue.

Fixing steel sheet cladding Verulam has had another anonymous contribution in response to that from Mr Allan (19 May 1998). The problem where the fasteners fixing the steel spacer through a nylon ferrule to a structural rail had snapped overnight is well understood in the automobile industry and amongst manufacturers of bolts and self-drilling fasteners for roofing and cladding applications. The problem, known as ‘hydrogen embrittlement’, is created during the heat process. Very simply, hydrogen is trapped in the microcrevices of the fasteners. If the hydrogen is not removed a potential time bomb is introduced which, when exposed to moisture and certain salts, creates a small explosion which snaps the fastener.

This paper presents an experimental investigation involving 12 reinforced concrete deep beams tested under fatigue loading. Three diflerent types of web reinforcement were investigated, and the tests revealed that web reinforcement has significant influence on the structural response of deep beams under fatigue loading. With load repetitions, the midspan deflection and the maximum crack width increased, while the shear strength decreased. Comparison with the current CIRIA guide design procedure for deep beams shows that the CIRIA guide may be safe for up to a certain range of load repetitions. S. Teng, W. Ma, K.H. Tan and F.K. Kong