Verulam

The use of centrifuges to improve similarity in geotechnical model studies has developed rapidly over 2 decades, in the UK and elsewhere. With increased numbers of machines of varying size, power and sophistication, the opportunities for engineers in practice to avail themselves of this technology are increasing. A review is presented of what has been achieved to date, and some conclusions are drawn. A new era of model testing, with the inclusion of greater precision in simultaneously modelling above- and below-ground components of complex structures, is foreseen, for both static and dynamic situations. W.H. Craig

U-frames are an available option used to brace the compression flanges of beams used in deck-type composite bridge decks and in halfthrough bridges. E. Jeffers

David Lazenby will succeed James Armstrong as President of the Institution 1990-91 at an Ordinary Meeting at Institution headquarters on 4 October. The handover ceremony begins at 6pm, when Mr Lazenby will deliver his Presidential Address ‘Whose Institution is it, anyway?’, the full text of which will be published in The Structural Engineer in November.