This work provides a comprehensive introduction to housing studies. Integrating contributions from across the spectrum of areas connected with housing, this multi-disciplinary, topical book is designed for students embarking on degree and diploma courses in housing, surveying, town planning and other related subjects. Professionals within these fields should also find the book useful as a source ofup-to-date information and data. Multi-disciplinary and including many illustrations and examples, this book focuses on key topics which include: equal opportunities and housing organizations; town planning and housing development; housing management, design and development; environmental health and housing; property, housing law, policy-making and politics; housing policy and finance prior to and post Thatcherism; and future policy issues under the new Labour government post 1997.;Housing, often the largest item in personal expenditure, is humankind's most essential need after nourishment. Examining ways to satisfy this need, whether through an adequate provision of public or private investment or through mixed funding schemes, the authors stress the importance of housing market activity

This dictionary represents today the most extensive rock blasting dictionary available and it is therefore a valuable tool and essential for research and writing reports, papers to international journals.

Terminology is important in the process of development of a science because it is the language for communication between students, teachers, technicians, scientists and practitioners in the field of blasting. This dictionary contains 1,980 terms, 316 symbols, ninety-three acronyms, abbreviations and shortened forms, 221 references, thirty-one figures, thity-two formulas and twenty-eight tables. In this book, not only short definitions of the terms are presented, but also a quantification of some terms is included, and their relationship to other parameters in blasting is highlighted.

All students, teachers, technicians, engineers, scientists and practioners in the field of blasting should get a copy as a desk reference book. If we all use the same symbols for example, the reading of blasting papers is speeded up and facilitated a lot.

Topics covered in this text include: geology and structural geology; mechanics; dynamics of jointed and faulted rock; physical modelling and testing; constitutive modelling; seismicity and tectonics; instrumentation; hydraulics; and applications.

The contributions to this volume examine: geotechnical hazard acknowledging the deversity of local ground conditions and environmental factors which play a decisive role in designing engineering structures in Danubian countries.

This text was compiled by the Japanese Geotechnical Society. It describes everything about the remedial measures against liquefaction currently used in Japan following research projects after the Niigata earthquake of 1964.

This volume contains invited contributions from eight of the Gold Medal winners of the Institution of Structural Engineers, presented at the seminar held to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the granting of the Royal Charter to the Institution. The authors are among the pre-eminent engineers of the latter half of the twentieth century, and are of international renown.

This collection focuses on the development of novel approaches to address one of the most pressing challenges of civil engineering, namely the mitigation of natural hazards. Numerous engineering books to date have focused on, and illustrate considerable progress toward, mitigation of individual hazards (earthquakes, wind, and so forth.). The current volume addresses concerns related to overall safety, sustainability and resilience of the built environment when subject to multiple hazards: natural disaster events that are concurrent and either correlated (e.g., wind and surge); uncorrelated (e.g., earthquake and flood); cascading (e.g., fire following earthquake); or uncorrelated and occurring at different times (e.g., wind and earthquake). The authors examine a range of specific topics including methodologies for vulnerability assessment of structures, new techniques to reduce the system demands through control systems; instrumentation, monitoring and condition assessment of structures and foundations; new techniques for repairing structures that have suffered damage during past events, or for structures that have been found in need of strengthening; development of new design provisions that consider multiple hazards, as well as questions from law and the humanities relevant to the management of natural and human-made hazards.

This book forms the proceedings of the international workshop to be held in Essen, Germany. This workshop summarises the conclusion of the technical committee's investigations into the resistance of concrete to freeze-thaw attack, specific in this to resistance with or without de-icing chemicals. It presents the RILEM recommendations on testing the freeze-thaw and de-icing salt resistance of concrete.

To optimise formwork costs and minimise the time for its construction, the contractor needs to understand the guiding principles of safe and efficient formwork construction. He must also have some insight into the relative merits of the various methods, and should appreciate the practical details of formwork construction. This is a practical, heavily illustrated and comprehensive manual for the construction industry. It is equally useful as a text for building students and teachers and trainees. Its large format, and extensive use of line drawings make it clear and straightforward to use.

Risk and Safety in Play draws on PLAYLINKS 35 years experience with adventure playgrounds and the findings in its three year development project 'Quality Play and Safety.' The text has been widely researched and commented on by playworkers, managers and safety experts. Risk and Safety in Play is an essential hanbook for practitioners. It reviews the theory and practice of adventure playgrounds, introduces recent changes to legislation and gives guidance on the interpretation of legal responsibilities. Particular attention is paid to the duty to carry out risk assesments and the book shows how they fit into the values and the daily management od adventure playgrounds. Backed by PLAYLINK's advisory and technical srevices, appendices provide pro forma checklists, consent and report forms for photocopying and information on further reading and useful contacts.

To facilitate a deeper understanding of tensegrity structures, this book focuses on their two key design problems: self-equilibrium analysis and stability investigation. In particular, high symmetry properties of the structures are extensively utilized. Conditions for self-equilibrium as well as super-stability of tensegrity structures are presented in detail. An analytical method and an efficient numerical method are given for self-equilibrium analysis of tensegrity structures: the analytical method deals with symmetric structures and the numerical method guarantees super-stability. Utilizing group representation theory, the text further provides analytical super-stability conditions for the structures that are of dihedral as well as tetrahedral symmetry. This book not only serves as a reference for engineers and scientists but is also a useful source for upper-level undergraduate and graduate students. Keeping this objective in mind, the presentation of the book is self-contained and detailed, with an abundance of figures and examples.

Finite element model updating has emerged in the 1990s as a subject of immense importance to the design, construction and maintenance of mechanical systems and civil engineering structures. This book, the first on the subject, sets out to explain the principles of model updating, not only as a research text, but also as a guide for the practising engineer who wants to get acquainted with, or use, updating techniques. It covers all aspects of model preparation and data acquisition that are necessary for updating. The various methods for parameter selection, error localisation, sensitivity and parameter estimation are described in detail and illustrated with examples. The examples can be easily replicated and expanded in order to reinforce understanding. The book is aimed at researchers, postgraduate students and practising engineers.

Engineers from around the world recount in this volume their successes and failures in attempting to deal with unique and quixotic landscapes.

This text deals with the dredging of rock by large cutter suction dredgers. The rock properties influencing the mechanical cutting of rock and the wear of cutting teeth are examined, and to verify the model of mechanical rock excavation developed, case studies of dredging projects were performed.

This is a book written by those at the sharp end of leisure service contract management. The lessons that can be learned from it are of value to everyone involved in, or studying, all forms of contract management. Readers will be able to benefit from examples of best, and worst, practice. The book will be especially valuable for clients, contractors, and students, directors and consultants.

Deterioration of cement-based materials continues to result in substantially shortened lives for conventional structures due to poor performance and the need for early repair. With more advanced applications, where very long service lives are essential such as the storage of nuclear waste, understanding the degradation processes resulting in poor durability is very important. This book forms the proceedings of the latest in the series of symposia at the Materials Research Society Fall meeting in Boston dealing with cementitious materials in which the emphasis is on the chemical processes of deterioration. With contributions from leading international researchers and specialists in the field, the book provides a reference for all those concerned with current thinking on the subject.

This text presents a complete treatment of the fundamental themes of structural mechanics, from the traditonal to the most advanced. It covers: the mechanics of linear elastic solids, theory of beam systems and phenomena of structural failure. Structural symmetry is considered in one chapter and dynamics are dealt with at various points. The book is intended as a text for students and a reference for research workers and practising engineers. Logical presentation allows the clear introduction of topics such as finite element methods, automatic calculation of framed beam systems, dynamics, theory of plasticity and fracture mechanics. Key features of the text include: coverage of statics, dynamic, automatic computation of framed structures and the finite element method; an explicit consideration of all the static and dynamic operators of structural mechanics with their dual character; discussion of instability, plasticity and fracture; and examples and exercises with complete solutions.

The contributions to this book derive from the Second Cardington Conference held in March 1996 and are based on experimental work carried out on the first test structure at the LBTF, and eight-storeyed steel-framed building. They examine the role of full-size building tests in the development of structural design methods, and give recommendations on improved construction practice and safety of a building's occupants in the event of fire and explosion. Projects are covered in the fields of construction, static loading, dynamic response and the effect of fire and explosion loading. In addition, there are papers describing the future programme and other planned structures.

These proceedings, arising from an international workshop, present research results and ideas on issues of importance to seismic risk reduction and the development of future seismic codes.

This book introduces practising engineers and post-graduate students to modern approaches to seismic design, with a particular focus on reinforced concrete structures, earthquake resistant design of new buildings and assessment, repair and strengthening of existing buildings. Fundamentals of engineering seismlogy are covered in the first part, including structural dynamics, calculation of structural response, energy considerations, structural configuration, static and dynamic analysis of structures under seismic actions, represented by equivalent lateral loads, or by elastic and inelastic spectra including the Eurocode 8 spectrum. The second part explains the earthquake-related properties of reinforced concrete materials, and seismic behaviour of structural members. Eurocode 8 design provisions for each type of member are presented in detail, as well as a fully worked design application. It concludes with a discussion of methods for assessing seismic performance of structures, and several case studies involving concrete buildings with frames and structural walls with and without masonry infill panels. Seismic pathology of concrete structures, assessment of seismic capacity of exist

The interaction between engineering and the law is undergoing dramatic changes. Product liability, laws have been introduced in Japan, patent claims over living organisms have been made in bioengineering and the differing national laws of copyright protection and liability are in the process of harmonisation, especially in the European Union. The pace and complexity of these changes make it essential for technologists, lawyers, engineers and insurance experts to establish a common basis for understanding, co-operation and exchange of expertise. The recently founded International Society for Technology, Law and Insurance aims to foster such co-operation. This volume features 46 selected contributions which address various topical issues and the law. The most important issues relate to engineering risks, quality assurance and assessment and legal implications assiciated with them. Recent failure cases are explained and the technical, legal and insurance-related issues discussed in detail.

This book presents the development of an optimization platform for geotechnical engineering, which is one of the key components in smart geotechnics. The book discusses the fundamentals of the optimization algorithm with constitutive models of soils. Helping readers easily understand the optimization algorithm applied in geotechnical engineering, this book first introduces the methodology of the optimization-based parameter identification, and then elaborates the principle of three newly developed efficient optimization algorithms, followed by the ideas of a variety of laboratory tests and formulations of constitutive models. Moving on to the application of optimization methods in geotechnical engineering, this book presents an optimization-based parameter identification platform with a practical and concise interface based on the above theories. The book is intended for undergraduate and graduate-level teaching in soil mechanics and geotechnical engineering and other related engineering specialties. It is also of use to industry practitioners, due to the inclusion of real-world applications, opening the door to advanced courses on both modeling and algorithm development within the industrial engineering and operations research fields.

This work consists of two parts: engineering seismology and earthquake-resistant design. Special attention is placed on bridging the gap between these two disciplines. The fundamentals of seismology, earthquake engineering and random processes are introduced. This is followed by a chapter describing the earthquake intensity, ground motions, and its damage effects. In ensuing chapters concerning the earthquake-resistant design, both fundamental theories and new research problems and future directions are presented, including methods for foundation design and structural experiments. Finally, in the last chapter on engineering applications, seismic risk and its damaging effects, seismic zonation and features of earthquake-resistant design of different types of structures and design standards are introduced.

This book is a collection of papers presented in the NDT Conference held on February 20-23, 1996 at San Diego, California. The conference provided an opportunity to share experience and provide additional input to the Federal Highway Administration.