Wiley

Is modelling and analysis of historical masonry structures necessary? Is the experimental behaviour of historical masonry constructions known? The answers seem to be ‘yes’, and substantial developments have occurred in recent decades in the challenging issues of conservation and restoration. A key issue is what type of analysis should be used. It seems that all methods are of interest, depending on the actual constraints of the engineering problem. In this paper, the possibilities of analysis of historic structures are addressed and a set of guidelines is proposed.

The use of advanced polymer composite (APC) materials to upgrade and to rehabilitate metallic structures offers an attractive solution for short‐term retrofits and long‐term rehabilitation. The basic principles of plate bonding metallic structures are similar to those used for the plate bonding of reinforced concrete (RC) structural units, but metallic adherends pose a different and a more difficult set of problems from those for RC systems.

This paper reviews the problems encountered in plate bonding onto metallic structures and discusses how these problems might be overcome. Initially, the paper investigates some of the in‐service problems associated with APC and metallic adherends and reviews their solutions. The weakest link in the bonded joint is the adhesive, and a review of the various solutions is included. Another potential area for concern is the durability of the APC and adhesive and a review of this area has been undertaken. The degradation of metallic structures has been covered in the literature, and consequently, this area is not covered. To date, few upgradings of metallic structures with APC plates, have been undertaken and generally these have not been published, therefore, a review of the practical applications of this technique to metallic structures is included, discussing some case histories.

Composite concrete–timber building and bridge structures are gaining in importance throughout the world. The approach is to pour fresh concrete over the timber. Mechanical linkage between hardened concrete and timber is provided through keyed indentations in the timber or various sorts of mechanical fasteners inserted in the timber before the concrete is poured. The technique is commented on from research and design points of view.

The corrosion of steel reinforcement in concrete structures induced by chloride ion contamination is a major problem. Deterioration starts with the loss of protection provided by the concrete cover as the result of chloride ingress. This is followed by corrosion initiation and then propagation. Recent advances in models of chloride penetration into concrete, based on mathematical models of the physical transport processes and an analysis of empirical data, have been made. Inhibitive and aggressive properties of solid phases present at the steel which affect corrosion initiation have been identified. Improved methods have been developed to monitor corrosion rates as well as chloride ingress into the concrete cover. An improved understanding of the deterioration processes has led to new developments in repair techniques.

This paper gives an overview of ongoing research and development in the field of structural health monitoring technologies in the US, with application to long‐span bridges. Specifically, this paper attempts to review various key structural health monitoring technologies, including sensor development, data processing, damage detection algorithms, data analysis and information processing. Several examples are cited from the aerospace, civil and mechanical communities. Monitoring of constructed systems are of considerable interest since the consequences of failure can have a significant effect on the society at large. For instance, consider the 1100 major long‐span bridges in the USA (those with spans of 100 m or longer), many are over 50 years old, and several notable ones are over 100 years old. These bridges fall outside the Standard Specifications issued by AASHTO (1998), and there is little generic experience related to maintaining their performance, especially after they age and/or following any damage. More than 800 of the long‐span bridges in the National Bridge Inventory are classified as fracture‐critical. It follows that structural health monitoring techniques may prove to be useful for maintaining and preserving this population of aging civil infrastructure. It is hoped that the following will stimulate additional discussion regarding the importance of structural health monitoring as an emerging research area for a variety of aerospace, civil and mechanical applications.

A single and unified concept for the design of structural joints in building frames made of any material has been developed in recent years, and is now widely implemented in European design codes. In the present paper, this concept is presented, its merits as far as the economy of a project are demonstrated, and practical design tools for its application in daily practice are briefly described. The paper also contains references to user's manuals and design handbooks.