The Institution - our Future

Stressed brickwork exhibits a visco-elastic behaviour. A number of rheological models have been used in the past to explain this behaviour, notably the Maxwell, Kelvin and Burger models. In this paper, the author proposes a 'modified' Maxwell model to explain the behaviour of brickwork under a sustained load. Using this model, a number of practical problems can be solved such as change of stress with time in reinforced, post-tensioned and composite brickwork construction. The paper also explains the process of stress relaxation in confined brickwork. The problems are illustrated with examples. D. Lenczner

The structural behaviour of reinforced concrete coupled shear wall structures is greatly influenced by the behaviour of their coupling beams. Flexural and shear (diagonal splitting) are the two main modes of failure of reinforced concrete coupling beams. The behaviour of coupling beams in shear (diagonal splitting) mode of failure is represented by a mathematical model, and a method for the ultimate strength analysis is presented. The proposed method of analysis for rc coupling beams is used to verify the results of nine beams tested by a previous investigator. N.K. Subedi

The Eurocode for Actions (Eurocode A) is in preparation. It is concerned with the loads and other actions, e.g. prescribed deformations, to be considered in the design of buildings and civil engineering structures. It is one of the ‘structural’ Eurocodes, i.e. it is a companion Eurocode to the ‘design’ Eurocodes, e.g. Eurocode 2: ‘Design of concrete structures’, which present common rules for the design of structures. J.B. Menzies