Tuesday, August 14, 2018

Engineers drift away from physics

Reference


As a retired engineer and all-round gadfly, I have lost my faith in structural engineers.  They build buildings that tilt in earthquakes, and bridges that collapse in mild winds.

I blame this on a drift from physics, just like all the other sciences.  Everybody thinks they know what's going on, and make a stand on fossbook.  Then they can never retreat.  They test the dynamics on a shake table, but that isn't real physics.  They need more on-line monitors to see what the structures are doing, and physics experiments.

Sadly, just like carbon warming, nothing will get changed until there is a drastic change from assumptions.  That would mean an ice age, or lots more things collapsing.

ps.  As pointed out, the thing is from the 60's.  However, testing, maintenance, etc is modern.  Here's a grainy video of the centre span tipping

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