The Use of an Expert System in Selecting Paint Schemes to Protect Structual Steelwork

This paper presents a non-linear finite element procedure for the strength determination of cold-formed box columns. The effects of residual stresses, local buckling, and initial imperfections, are all included in the analysis. The proposed theory is validated and its accuracy assessed against experiments conducted at the University of Sydney. A table for the strength of the sections with various member slenderness (L/r) and plate element slenderness (b/t) ratios is also produced, so that the typical relationship between the strength and these two ratios can be understood. The suggested method can be ufiiised to supplement experiments in the generation of design curves and in the parametric studies of the behaviour of cold-formed hollow sections subjected to various types of loading and boundary conditions. S.L. Chan

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John Grant (Viewpoint, 3 October 1989) exhorts us to teach computer analysis and to be inspired to design by sitting at the feet of those such as Professor Sir Alan Harris. He implies that design cannot be taught; we can learn only by example. I too have listened to excellent lectures by good designers, who have opened my eyes to the way design is carried out. But Sir Alan’s adage that ‘design is what is done in the bath, and analysis is the process to prove that design’ is too simplistic. It is worth defining what we mean by analysis and design, before being too specific about what is taught. C.J. Burgoyne