Am. Society of Civil Engineers
Automated people mover standards; pt. 1.
This first in a four-part set on standards illustrates the minimum requirements for safety and performance, design, construction, operation, and maintenance for an automated people mover system. It is a revision of ASCE 21-96, prepared by the American Society of Civil Engineers Automated People Mover Standards Committee, and aimed at transportation, civil, and safety engineers, as well as contractors. Sections cover the operating environment, safety requirements, system dependability, automatic train control, and audio and visual communications. (Annotation ©2006 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Don't throw this away!; the civil engineering life.
Brenner (engineering, Tufts U.) brings together a collection of 46 of his short, often humorous, essays that first appeared in engineering journals on topics as diverse as his own start in the industry, engineer "fashions," urban form, suburban sprawl, organization, bridges, tornadoes, technology, the engineering process, and life insurance. There is no index. (Annotation ©2006 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Estuarine and coastal modeling; proceedings.
In these proceedings of the conference of October and November 2005, contributors of these 48 papers describe their research in developing, testing, application, calibration, validation, and visualization of predictions. Major topics include climatology and skill assessment, particle tracking, residence times, spill analyses, biochemical modeling, numerical techniques and structures, "nowcast" and forecast systems, sediment re-suspension and transport, restoration modeling and combined wave-current modeling. The case studies and application modeling papers of the poster session are included and the editors have thoughtfully provided a subject index. (Annotation ©2006 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Forensic engineering; proceedings.
The editors (both professors of civil and environmental engineering at Cleveland State U.) present 50 papers from the Fourth Forensic Engineering Conference (October, 2006), organized by the American Society of Civil Engineers Technical Council on Forensic Engineering for the purpose of disseminating information on the investigation of failures and performance problems of engineered facilities, failure mitigation practices, and ethical practice within the field. The papers are taken from sessions which addressed forensic engineering practice; hurricanes, earthquakes, and natural hazards (two sessions); residential investigations; structures (three sessions); geotechnical and geo-environmental concerns; Colorado historic bridge field testing; historical cases and education; vibrations; nondestructive evaluation and repair; forensics and design practices; and tunnels and culverts. (Annotation ©2006 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Geomechanics II; testing, modeling, and simulation; proceedings.
This work presents 37 papers by Japanese and US investigators, describing experiments, modeling, and numerical simulations in geomechanics. The papers were presented at a September 2005 workshop convened to build cooperative efforts between Japan and the US. Material is in sections on elastic and small strain behavior, highly nonlinear stress-strain behavior and strength, numerical methods and probabilistic analysis, compaction and collapse, viscous effects on stress-strain behavior, mechanics of shear behavior, liquefaction of soils, boundary value problems, mechanics of unsaturated soils, and microstructure of soils. (Annotation ©2006 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Hurricane Katrina; performance of transportation systems.
The Technical Council on Lifeline Earthquake Engineering formed a reconnaissance team in the wake of Hurricane Katrina to survey the damage to the Gulf Coast's transportation systems that went down to the area in November of 2005 and also conducted follow-up telephone and email investigations. Their report, presented here, contains a overview of the hurricane damage; looks at emergency preparedness for transportation infrastructure; discusses the state of bridge, roadway, and railroad repair; considers issues of rerouting and traffic demand; and evaluates impact on new design. (Annotation ©2006 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Reliability-based design of utility pole structures; prepared by Reliability-Based Design Committee of the Structural Engineering Institute (SEI) of the American Society of Civil Engineers.
The current rules for selecting design load and strength factors of utility poles and lines are based largely on experience, but do not have a strong theoretical foundation. Therefore, designers sometimes find themselves overly restricted and sometimes times marooned by uncertainty. The manual provides a design methodology for distribution and transmission poles that yields consistent structural reliabilities across all material types: wood, steel, concrete, fiberglass, and other new materials. Later editions are expected to cover other utility structures and components as well. (Annotation ©2006 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Shotcrete for underground support X; proceedings.
The 30 papers discuss the current technology related to spraying concrete to support underground structures. Their topics include standards, test materials, and guides; designing bolt anchored reinforced shotcrete linings subjected to impact loadings; the deformation of round determinate panels containing fibers; Beacon Hill Station in Seattle; DOZ Mine in Indonesia; and computer controlled application. (Annotation ©2006 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Tipon; water engineering masterpiece of the Inca empire.
Wright (founder and chief engineer, Wright Water Engineers) analyzes the archaeological evidence of the Incan site Tipon in order to characterize the "water management masterpiece" achieved by Incan builders. He discusses the engineering planning for the whole site and describes the irrigation terraces, canal system, construction technology, and related buildings and structures in the area. (Annotation ©2006 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
