All the articles published in the July 2016 issue.
Publish Date – 1 July 2016
Congratulations to the winners of awards at the Institution’s annual People and Papers event, which celebrates the best papers published in The Structural Engineer, excellence in education, achievements by young engineers, and those members who have given outstanding service to the Institution.
In this highly personal address, 2016 Institution Gold Medallist, Robert Halvorson, describes how his long relationship with structural engineering practice and with the UK began with Sherlock Holmes.
Halvorson explains how, in many ways, his career has been guided, for better or for worse, by how Holmes conducted his consulting practice. His detective practice involved many of the same issues that engineers face: his work required technical knowledge; he had clients of all sorts to deal with; he worked with intransigent public officials; he had to use his skills to investigate unknowns and arrive at logical conclusions; and so on.
Halvorson shares some of the little bits of wisdom that others – colleagues, friends and, of course, Holmes himself – have shared with him over the years.
The Institution of Structural Engineers' Kenneth Severn Award is an annual essay competition for young engineers under the age of 28 in which the question is set by the President. In this essay, 2016 winner Robert Jackson sets out a checklist of eight items that structural engineers should consider in order to embed sustainability into their designs.
As part of the Northern Hub project to improve rail travel in the North of England, Network Rail is building a new section of railway in Manchester. The Ordsall Chord will provide a direct link between the city's Piccadilly and Victoria stations, which will allow trains arriving from the east to reach Manchester Airport without congesting Piccadilly. The new link will require the construction of 330m of elevated railway viaduct. The viaduct will deviate from the mainline alongside Grade I and II listed structures, crossing the River Irwell and a dual carriageway to merge into existing lines.
The challenges posed by designing such an ambitious project in a city location led to a myriad of structural options being considered. The selected option for the River Irwell span was an 89m single-span network arch bridge. On completion, the bridge will not only be the first network arch bridge in the UK, but also the second-longest in the world to carry twin heavy-rail tracks.
This article gives an overview of the initial design processes that led to the proposition, recommendation and selection of the network arch-type bridge for this particular span within the overall system.
The series from Griffiths & Armour now examines the effect that claimants' costs can have when defending a professional indemnity claim.
Sean Brady examines the remarkable engineering works that may have underpinned the Hanging Garden of Babylon - one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
This article explains why risk assessments should always consider the potential for human error along with the consequences.
Dematerialisation – or the efficient utilisation of materials to achieve a specified product performance – is the structural engineer's weapon in the battle against global warming, explains Tendayi Munyebvu in this call to action.
This updated book will be of great value to anyone interested in structural fire engineering, particularly those using the Eurocodes for that purpose, concludes Roger Plank.
Michael Bussell enjoys this authoritative and generously illustrated account of the world’s first iron-framed building and hopes that it will help secure the future of this historic structure.
This informative book is a worthwhile read for engineers new to Building Information Modelling, its use and protocols, concludes Paul Perry, but less so for those with experience of complex, BIM-orientated projects.
This month's letters reflect on the EU referendum and lament the insatiable desire for change; look at how engineers are portrayed in France; and question whether engineering is still a rewarding profession today.
Upcoming events at HQ and from around the regional groups.
In this section we shine a spotlight on papers recently published in Structures – the Research Journal of The Institution of Structural Engineers.
Structures is a collaboration between the Institution and Elsevier, publishing internationally-leading research across the full breadth of structural engineering which will benefi t from wide readership by academics and practitioners.
Access to Structures is free to Institution members (excluding Student members) as one of their membership benefits, with access provided via the “My account” section of the Institution website. The journal is available online at: www.structuresjournal.org
This month we bring you another question from the Institution’s Structural Behaviour Course. The topic is indeterminate bending moment diagrams. Answers will be published in the August issue.