Ground bearing concrete floors, industrial concrete hardstandings and concrete highway pavements have not, in the past, been perceived as a single type of structural element and their construction has taken place independently of each other. This is in spite of their obvious commonality in the areas of design, materials, geotechnical appreciation and construction. Ground Bearing Concrete Slabs has been specifically written to break down the 'walls' that have arisen between these three areas and focus on the issues that are common to them all. In one practical, yet comprehensive volume, it integrates the three crucial phases in the development of ground bearing concrete slabs - design, specification and construction. Numerous case studies are provided which illustrate the design, construction, investigation and specification of each type of ground bearing slab and each case study has been selected to represent those areas likely to be of most relevance to slab designers. For example, a high bay racking warehouse is illustrated and the overlaying of a heavily loaded industrial hardstanding is described.Because concrete is often the preferred construction material for industrial roads where loads may be infrequent but heavy, two such projects are explained. The book draws from many international authorities, from industrial practice and from the author's own extensive research and, where it is safe to do so, design short-cuts are presented involving simple charts and tables. Through new design methods, such as the 'ultimate limit state analytical approach' and 'cost-effective steel-free design', along with such topics as materials, construction, loading and specifications, Ground bearing concrete slabs examines and elucidates on one of the major areas of structural engineering.

Winner of the 2004 Claire P. Holdredge Award of the Association of Engineering Geologists (USA).

The only book to concentrate on the relationship between geology and its implications for construction, this book covers the full scope of the subject from site investigation through to the complexities of reservoirs and dam sites. Features include international case studies throughout, and summaries of accepted practice, plus sections on waste disposal, and contaminated land.

The subject of this book is the design of aluminium alloy structures. The topic is treated from different points of view such as technology, theory, codification and applications. Aluminium alloys are successfully employed in the transportation industry; a parallel trend has been observed in the last decades in civil engineering structures, where aluminium alloys compete with steel (long-span roofing, bridges, hydraulic structures, offshore superstructures). This volume collects the lectures of outstanding international experts who are all involved in the codification activity of Eurocode 9 on Aluminium Structural Design. It illustrates, with particular reference to the fields of transportation and civil engineering, the basic design principles from the material properties and the technological aspects of their application, to the evaluation of the resistance of the structural elements (member and plates) under static, dynamic and fatigue loading conditions.

George Ellis was one of the premier English writers on carpentry and joinery. This, the author's last book, was originally issued in two volumes; the present edition is a reprint of the 1932 one-volume edition.

The trade of wooden stairbuilding has enjoyed a rebirth during the last ten years. Unfortunately, most trade schools do not teach this complex craft, and there has been little published in the field for many years. This leaves the craftsman at a loss, both for available information and training.

George Ellis has written a very lucid book on the subject. He covers much the same ground as Alexander Mowat in A Treatise on Stairbuilding and Handrailing (page 92), but Ellis is much less technical and more shop oriented. He includes detailed information on taking dimensions and setting out stairs (geometric, spiral, and elliptical), newels, balusters, brackets; constructing soffit linings, single and geometric handrailings, and wreathed handrail to spiral stairs; and he explains the cylinder method of making wreaths.

Stability of structures is one of the most important and interesting fields in mechanics. This book is dedicated to fundamental concepts, problems and methods of structural stability along with qualitative understanding of instability phenomena. The methods presented are constructive and easy to implement in computer programs. Recent exciting experiments on dynamic stability of non-conservative systems are described and shown by many photographs.

Environmental Geomechanics covers a broad class of problems where deforming geomaterials are involved, usually coupled with fluid flow and transport of some substance. Transport of contaminants and other substances may occur in the fluids, e.g. water, water vapour and air, filling the pores of geomaterials as happens in waste disposal problems or durability problems. Mass transport also takes place in reservoir engineering problems, where the fluids involved are oil, water, and gas. All these aspects are addressed in this book together with a theoretical framework.

Deployable structures can vary their shape automatically from a compact, packaged configuration to an expanded, operational configuration. The first properly engineered deployable structures were used as stabilization booms on early spacecraft. Later on, more complex structures were devised for solar arrays, communication reflectors and telescopes. In other fields there have been a variety of developments, including retractable roofs for stadia, foldable components for cars, portable structures for temporary shelters and exhibition displays. Three main themes are discussed in this book: concepts, working principles, and mechanics of deployable structures, both in engineering and biology; in addition: theory of foldable bar structures and application to deployable tensegrities; formulation of large-rotation analysis of deployable structures and finite-element simulation methods.

Digital manipulation of landform is revolutionizing how our built environment is designed and constructed. On a technical level, three dimensional geometric modeling of topography has its origins at the interface of geographic information systems (GIS) and computer aided geometric modeling (CAD): the former with its representations of spatial attribute information with digital terrain in several representations (Triangulated Irregular Networks, contour lines, etc. ); the latter focusing primarily on the parameterization and combination of geometric primitives. The broadening of these two disciplines to embrace new surveying and navigation advances, e. g. global positioning systems (GPS), together with developments in engineering on the application side, are leading to powerful new suites of functionality. There has been a pronounced need for a forum where these traditionally separate parties can interact. These proceedings contain the technical papers selected and formally presented as part of the scientific program of the First International Symposium on Digital Earth Moving, 2001 (DEM 2001) held September 5 7, 2001 at the CIM Institute for Computing Science and Industrial Technologies of the University of Applied Science of Southern Switzerland (SUPSI iCIMSI) in Manno (Lugano), Switzerland. It is the first volume published on this explicit theme. Thirty six submissions were received, from fifteen countries, with thirteen select papers and posters presented in the official program and in this publication.

Numerical application of Plasticity to Geomechanics is an area of research that has grown rapidly since its origins in the late 1960s. This growth led to new methodologies and analysis approaches that are nowadays commonly employed in Geotechnical Engineering practice. Through the contribution of well-known scholars this book intends to provide an updated overview of some relevant developments and applications in this field. The topics covered in the various chapters of the volume can be summarised as follows: constitutive models for geomaterials, "damage" soil mechanics, non-linear consolidation, swelling soils, influence of the statistical variability of soil properties on the stability of slopes and foundations, numerical analysis of ground improvement techniques, tunneling problems.

Most of the existing strong motion instrumentation on civil engineering structures is installed and operated as federal, state, university, industry or private applications, in many cases operated as a closed system. This hampers co-operation and data exchange, hampering the acquisition of strong motion and structural data, sometimes even within a single country. There is a powerful need to inform engineers of existing strong motion data and to improve the accessibility of data worldwide. This book will play a role in fulfilling such a need by disseminating state-of-the art information, technology and developments in the strong motion instrumentation of civil engineering structures. The subject has direct implications for the earthquake response of structures, improvements in design for earthquake resistance, and hazard mitigation. Readership: Researchers in earthquake engineering, engineers designing earthquake resistant structures, and producers of strong motion recording equipment.

This book covers problems and their solution of a wide range of geotechnical topics. Every chapter starts with a summary of key concepts and theory, followed by worked-out examples, and ends with a short list of key references. It presents a unique collection of step by step solutions from basic to more complex problems in various topics of geotechnical engineering, including fundamental topics such as effective stress, permeability, elastic deformation, shear strength and critical state together with more applied topics such retaining structures and dams, excavation and tunnels, pavement infrastructure, unsaturated soil mechanics, marine works, ground monitoring. This book aims to provide students (undergraduates and postgraduates) and practitioners alike a reference guide on how to solve typical geotechnical problems. Features: Guide for solving typical geotechnical problems complementing geotechnical textbooks. Reference guide for practitioners to assist in determining solutions to complex geotechnical problems via simple methods.

Summary: This book presents necessary background knowledge on mechanics to understand and analyze elastic wave propagation in solids and fluids. This knowledge is necessary for elastic wave propagation modeling and for interpreting experimental data generated during ultrasonic nondestructive testing and evaluation (NDT&E). The book covers both linear and nonlinear analyses of ultrasonic NDT&E techniques. The materials presented here also include some exercise problems and solution manual. Therefore, this book can serve as a textbook or reference book for a graduate level course on elastic waves and/or ultrasonic nondestructive evaluation. It will be also useful for instructors who are interested in designing short courses on elastic wave propagation in solids or NDT&E. The materials covered in the first two chapters provide the fundamental knowledge on linear mechanics of deformable solids while Chapter 4 covers nonlinear mechanics. Thus, both linear and nonlinear ultrasonic techniques are covered here. Nonlinear ultrasonic techniques are becoming more popular in recent years for detecting very small defects and damages. However, this topic is hardly covered in currently available textbooks. Researchers mostly rely on published research papers and research monographs to learn about nonlinear ultrasonic techniques. Chapter 3 describes elastic wave propagation modeling techniques using DPSM. Chapter 5 is dedicated to an important and very active research field - acoustic source localization - that is essential for structural health monitoring and for localizing crack and other type of damage initiation regions. Features * Introduces Linear and Nonlinear ultrasonic techniques in a single book. * Commences with basic definitions of displacement, displacement gradient, traction and stress. * Provides step by step derivations of fundamental equations of mechanics as well as linear and nonlinear wave propagation analysis. * Discusses basic theory in addition to providing detailed NDE applications. * Provides extensive example and exercise problems along with an extensive solutions manual.

Topology optimization of structures and composite materials is a new and rapidly expanding field of mechanics which now plays an ever-increasing role in most branches of technology, such as aerospace, mechanical, structural, civil and ma terials engineering, with important implications for energy production as well as building and environmental sciences. It is a truly "high-tech" field which requires advanced computer facilities and computational methods, whilst involving unusual theoretical considerations in pure mathematics. Topology optimization deals with some of the most difficult problems of mechanical sciences, but it is also of consid erable practical interest because it can achieve much greater savings than conven tional (sizing or shape) optimization. Extensive research into topology optimization is being carried out in most of the developed countries of the world. The workshop addressed the state of the art of the field, bringing together re searchers from a diversity of backgrounds (mathematicians, information scientists, aerospace, automotive, mechanical, structural and civil engineers) to span the full breadth and depth of the field and to outline future developments in research and avenues of cooperation between NATO and Partner countries. The program cov ered * theoretical (mathematical) developments, * computer algorithms, software development and computational difficulties, and * practical applications in various fields of technology. A novel feature of the workshop was that, in addition to shorter discussions after each lecture, a 30 minutes panel discussion took place in each sesssion, which made this ARW highly interactive and more informal.

This notable book - formerly Durability of Structures - discusses the durability of construction materials in a variety of structures and in diverse environmental conditions. A wealth of information including numerous examples and case studies is provided by a team of international experts. The chapters illustrate the durability of elements in a structure, materials performance and identification and resolution of problems. The book is liberally illustrated and provides a very useful work of practical reference in this important subject.

A detailed presentation of the major role played by correctly designed and fabricated joints in the safe and reliable response of steel, composite and timber structures. The typology/morphology of connections is discussed for both conventional pinned and rigid joints and semi-rigid types. All relevant topics are comprehensively surveyed: definitions, classification, and influence of joint behaviour on overall structural response. Also presented are the application of the component method, the notion of rotational capacity, the local ductility of different types of earthquake-resistant structural joints as determined in cyclic experiments, numerical techniques for the realistic simulation of joint response, simple and moment-resistant structural connections. Readership: An incomparable resource for engineers who analyze and design steel, composite and timber structures; researchers and graduate students in the same areas.

The catastrophic earthquakes of the last decades (Mexico City, 1985; Loma Prieta, 1989; Northridge, 1994; Kobe, 1995) have seriously undermined the reputation of steel structures, which in the past represented the most suitable solution for seismic resistant structures - even if in very few cases the performance of steel joints and members was unexpectedly bad, showing that it was due to some lack in the current design concept. As a consequence of the lessons learned from the above dramatic events, much progress has been recently achieved in the conception, design and construction, by introducing the new deals of performance-based design, including the differentiation of earthquake types, and considering all factors influencing steel structure behaviour under strong ground movement.In this scenario, the aim of the book is to transfer the most recent achievements into practical rules for the safe design of seismic resistant steel structures. The seven chapters cover the basic principles and design criteria for seismic resistant steel structures, which are applied to the main structural typologies such as moment resistant frames, braced frames and composite structures, with particular reference to connections and details.

Properties for Composite Structures: Theory, Applications and Software L N McCartney, Materials Division, NPL, UK A comprehensive guide to analytical methods and source code predicting behaviour of undamaged and damaged composite materials The book provides readers with all relevant theoretical information to help them understand the ways in which thermo-elastic properties of two phase and multi-phase composites can be estimated using consistent methods from properties of reinforcement and matrix, and from geometrical data, especially volume fractions, for both undamaged and damaged composites. Properties for Composite Structures: Theory, Applications and Software focuses on the use of fibre properties that are transverse isotropic and the inclusion of the effects of thermal residual stresses. The book offers very useful explicit formulae and theoretical extensions that are not published in learned journals. Divided into four parts, the book covers: Principles, formulae for homogeneous materials and applications; Properties of undamaged composites; Properties of damaged composites; and Derivations of key results. Key features: * Focuses on descriptions of the theoretical derivations using analytical methods that are the basis of estimating the undamaged and damaged effective properties of composite materials. * Provides computer source code to enable readers to reproduce results given in the book, and for their own purposes. * Includes previously unpublished results. Properties for Composite Structures: Theory, Applications and Software is an essential guide for designers of composite materials and composite engineering components.

Smart structures that contain embedded piezoelectric patches are loaded by both mechanical and electrical fields. Traditional plate and shell theories were developed to analyze structures subject to mechanical loads. However, these often fail when tasked with the evaluation of both electrical and mechanical fields and loads. In recent years more advanced models have been developed that overcome these limitations.

"Plates and Shells for Smart Structures" offers a complete guide and reference to smart structures under both mechanical and electrical loads, starting with the basic principles and working right up to the most advanced models. It provides an overview of classical plate and shell theories for piezoelectric elasticity and demonstrates their limitations in static and dynamic analysis with a number of example problems. This book also provides both analytical and finite element solutions, thus enabling the reader to compare strong and weak solutions to the problems.

Key features: compares a large variety of classical and modern approaches to plates and shells, such as Kirchhoff-Love, Reissner-Mindlin assumptions and higher order, layer-wise and mixed theoriesintroduces theories able to consider electromechanical couplings as well as those that provide appropriate interface continuity conditions for both electrical and mechanical variablesconsiders both static and dynamic analysisaccompanied by a companion website hosting dedicated software MUL2 that is used to obtain the numerical solutions in the book, allowing the reader to reproduce the examples given as well as solve problems of their own

The models currently used have a wide range of applications in civil, automotive, marine and aerospace engineering. Researchers of smart structures, and structural analysts in industry, will find all they need to know in this concise reference. Graduate and postgraduate students of mechanical, civil and aerospace engineering can also use this book in their studies.

www.mul2.com

All buildings in the UK must now adhere to the recently published wind code BS 6399-2. The introduction of a new code is often traumatic, especially so in this case,as the previous code has been in place for 25 years.The authors considerable practical knowledge of wind engineering, together with his involvement in drafting this standard and his experience in conducting workshops on this subject make him the ideal person to convey the strengths and weaknesses of BS 6399-2 in this guide.Following recent amendments to BS 6399-2(2002) this popular guide has been revised.

This book helps designers and manufacturers to select and develop the most suitable and competitive steel structures, which are safe, fit for production and economic.

An optimum design system is used to find the best characteristics of structural models, which guarantee the fulfilment of design and fabrication requirements and minimize the cost function.

Realistic numerical models are used as main components of industrial steel structures.

Chapter 1 containts some experiences with the optimum design of steel structures

Chapter 2 treats some newer mathematical optimization methods.

Chapter 3 gives formulae for fabrication times and costs.

Chapters 4 deals with beams and columns. Summarizes the Eurocode rules for design.

Chapter 5 deals with the design of tubular trusses.

Chapter 6 gives the design of frame structures and fire-resistant design rules for a frame.

In Chapters 7 some minimum cost design problems of stiffened and cellular plates and shells are worked out for cases of different stiffenings and loads.

Chapter 8 gives a cost comparison of cylindrical and conical shells.

The book contains a large collection of literatures and a subject list and a name index.

A reference for shotcrete technologists and practitioners on this method of concrete placement and its great scope for adaptability, optimization, and error. The text assesses laboratory research projects and also focusses on innovative developments in this field.

Building Services Design Methodology clearly sets out and defines the building services design process from concept to post-construction phase. By providing a step-by-step methodology for students and practitioners of service engineering, the book will encourage improved efficiency (both in environmental terms and in terms of profit enhancement) through better project management. Generic advice and guidance is set in the current legal and contractual context, ensuring that this will be required reading for professionals. The book's practical style is reinforced by a number of case studies.

eBook available with sample pages: 0203478703

This book presents the state of the art of artificial intelligence techniques applied to structural engineering. The 28 revised full papers by leading scientists were solicited for presentation at a meeting held in Ascona, Switzerland, in July 1998.
The recent advances in information technology, in particular decreasing hardware cost, Internet communication, faster computation, increased bandwidth, etc., allow for the application of new AI techniques to structural engineering. The papers presented deal with new aspects of information technology support for the design, analysis, monitoring, control and diagnosis of various structural engineering systems.

A comprehensive review of the material behavior of concrete under dynamic loads, especially impact and impuls, opens the volume. It is followed by a summary of the various analytical tools available to engineers interested in analyzing the nonlinear behavior of reinforced concrete members for dynamic load. These range from relatively simple and practice-oriented push-over analysis to sophisticated layered finite element models. Important design-related topics are discussed, with special emphasis on performance of concrete frames subjected to seismic loads. The significance of modern software systems is recognized by including extensive examples. For readers not current in dynamic analysis methods, an appendix contains a review of the mathematical methods most commonly used for such analysis.

The aim of the book is to fill up the gaps between theoretical, numerical, and practical design approaches in the field of coupled instabilities of metal structures. The book is organized in a way leading progressively from the mathematical basic theories to the design aspects through numerical and semi-empirical approaches of the interactive buckling of metal structures. Optimum design account taken of coupled instabilities and code aspects are also briefly covered.