The Art of Resisting Extreme Natural Forces

About this book

According to the ancient Greeks, nature was composed of four elements: air, fire, water and earth. Engineers are continuously faced with the challenge imposed by those elements, in activities such as the design of bridges and high buildings to withstand high winds; the construction of fire resistant structures, the control of floods and wave forces; the minimisation of earthquake damage; prevention and control of landslides and a whole range of natural forces.

Natural disasters occurring in the last few years have stressed the need to achieve more accurate and safer design against extreme natural forces. At the same time, structural projects have become more challenging. Because of this, it is important to provide information on the current capabilities and problems in this field and the Editors hope that this book will help in this regard. The Art of Resisting Extreme Natural Forces contains papers presented at the first International Seminar on the Art of Resisting Extreme Natural Forces, held at the Wessex Institute of Technology in 2007.

Contents

- Designing challenging bridges in northwest Spain
- Improvement analysis of long-span bridges flutter: Messina bridge example
- Seismic analysis: past, present and the future
- Seismic analyses of the Messina Bridge project
- Recent tendencies in wind storm climatology with implications to storm surge statistics in Estonia
- Safety design of lightweight roofs exposed to snow load
- Safety investigation on rail and road vehicles exposed to cross-wind: wind tunnel tests and multi-body simulations
- Sustainable management of Prespa Lake
- Fire risk assessment of historical areas: the case of Montemor-o-Velho
- Lateral-torsional buckling of ferritic stainless steel beams in case of fire
- Rise in brittle fracture resistance of spherical vessels for storage of liquid ammonia under extreme forces
- Early warning coordination centres: a systemic view

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