BOOK REVIEWS

Aerodynamics of large bridges

Edited by Allan Larsen
A A Balkema, Rotterdam,
The Netherlands, 1992
,55, 320 pp
ISBIV: 9054100427
This book is the proceedings of a twoday conference held in Copenhagen in
February 1992, and contains 22 papers
presented by an international assembly
of engineers. It is well printed and bound,
and although expensive, will be an essential addition to the libraries of civil engineering companies.
With such a variety of papers, it is
possible to review only some of them, so I
have selected papers which report advances in the state-of-the art.
The overview by Ostenfeld and Larsen
describes various structural and aerodynamic proposals for maintaining aerodynamic stability on ultra-long span
bridges. Single spans of more than twice
that of the Humber (1410 m) are envisaged. The combination of a central
cable supported on A-frame towers with
an enclosed elliptic deck is one of the
proposals which looks promising. Torsional coupling between side and main
spans would be eliminated, and the traffic
would be protected from the wind.
I am not keen on the active control
systems, with winglets operated by hydraulic actuators. They seem to me to be
too prone to failure compared to passive
devices. The use of carbon fibre reinforced polyester for the main cables is
also discussed. It is stiffer and stronger
for the same weight as steel, but has
lower inherent damping. Perhaps this is
too far into the future. Manufacturing
continuous lengths of many kilometers
presents enormous problems.
The paper on the construction phase
(Brancaleoni) deserves special attention.
The deck sections of suspension bridges
are raised into position after the cables
are in place. During this stage the bending and torsion frequencies can become
close together and reduce the flutter
speed. The erection stages of the Humber
bridge are illustrated in a drawing (originally prepared by this reviewer). One
technique to avoid this problem, by placing bags of water at the deck edges, is
described. When the direction of a high
wind is known, the leeward water bags
can be jettisoned. This mass-balancing
technique is used on aircraft wings and
control surfaces. The engines of jet airliners are located ahead of the wing to
achieve this effect.
The new wide boundary layer tunnel
at the Danish Maritime Institute (Smitt
and Brinch) is described. It is nearly three
times as wide as the NMI (now BMT)

466

tunnel at Teddington. It has been built

especially to test full aeroelastic models
of long-span bridges.
The bistayed bridge concept (Muller)
is a new concept for cable-stayed bridges.
The longest cables from each tower are
anchored to the earth on each sidespan
and together at the centre of the mainspan. The shorter cables then produce a
tension in the deck instead of the usual
compression. Large compressive forces in
the deck have hitherto limited the spans
of such bridges. Their superior vertical
stiffness compared to suspension bridges
can then be exploited on much longer
spans.
The Akashi Kaikyo bridge in Japan
will be the longest in the world when
completed in five years time. The paper
by various authors describes the very
many deck structures that were considered. Box sections (with or without slots)
were finally rejected for a variety of reasons. The final truss design may look oldfashioned, but was found to be the most
economical solution.
I hope that the authors of those papers
which I have not reviewed will forgive
me. Some of them are old friends, but
there is not enough space to cover every
paper. I repeat. This is a valuable book.
Buy it.

R. Richardson

Engineering construction
risks: a guide to project risk
analysis and risk management
Edited by Peter Thompson and
John Perry,
SERC, London, 1992 56 pages,
17 ISBN: 072 77 166 54
Engineers constantly, but more often
than not unknowingly, make decisions
which affect the safety of society at large,
the environment, and the quality and
cost of the products used or enjoyed by
society. For many reasons, these decisions are not always made with proper
and rigorous scientific analysis. However, one of the main reasons for haphazard decision making is lack of knowledge of the topic of risk and of the
available methods of analysis.
Engineering construction risks is therefore a timely and a very welcome publication which provides insight into part of
that vast topic as it deals with how risk
analysis and risk management may be
used to improve the financial success of
engineering construction projects. It is an

Engng Struct. 1993, Volume 15, Number 6

excellent and essential guide for all engineers involved in all branches of the
construction industry but with specific
implications for project clients and project managers. Supported by the Science
and Engineering Research Council
(SERC), it is written in the form of a
report which provides the results of five
years of studies with the construction
industry.
The report, which is published in an
A4 format, is edited by two distinguished
educationalists who have extensive industrial experience. This is evident from
its style of writing and its structure as
well as the standard of the illustrations
presented. It consists of an introduction
followed by main conclusions and nine
short chapters with two appendices. The
main conclusions serve as an executive
summary in 17 clear and precise statements of the state-of-the-art of the topic
of risk. Each of these statements is referenced to one or more of the nine chapters
of the report where more details are
provided to those readers who have the
time or the interest to continue reading.
The nine chapters deal with risk analysis, risk management and its role, the
application of risk analysis and management to projects, qualitative techniques,
estimating, contract strategy, dealing
with risk in contracts, and tenders. Unfortunately, however, all the chapters are
too short to be considered in themselves
as anything other than an executive summary of the available knowledge on the
subject. Chapters 8 and 9 are only one
page each.
The editors define their aim in producing the report as: 'to increase awareness
of this vital issue (risks of projects)
among the industry and its clients, in
both the public and private sectors'.
Whilst it is true that the report does
achieve that aim, it leaves the reader
hungry for more information which, as
referenced, is not easy for the nonacademic reader to obtain.
The report refers to enumerable publications (83 references were provided)
which whilst very useful for the researcher or the academic, there is no easy
direction to follow for the practicing engineer, the busy client or the overwhelmed project manager. This is
perhaps due to the lack of availability of
a single source or a small number of
comprehensive sources. For example, the
important topic of changes in project size
and design which is one of the major
financial risks in construction projects is
allocated just over one page. It is introduced with the remark that 'Ideally design should be complete and final, and a
plan for project execution should be
agreed before the decision to sanction a

project'. It is then followed by a ten-point

list of lessons learnt from successful projects. A very brief presentation indeed for
such an important topic. For a proper
understanding of the hazards and probabilities inherent in such a risk, a full
chapter would be necessary.
This example is one of many which can

be cited where the subject is dealt with in

such brevity. This is, however, not intended to be a criticism of the report as
obviously it was planned to produce a
56-page document at the very reasonable
price of 17 and not a comprehensive
reference book of many hundreds of
pages at a commensurate price.

In all circumstances, however, this report is destined and deserves to be regarded as an authoritative guideline and
a starting point on the topic of financial
risks in the field of engineering construction projects.

N. G. Bunni

Erratum
Definitions of static eccentricity for design of asymmetric shear buildings
W. Jiang, G.L. Hutchinson and A.M. Chandler
Engineering Structures Volume 15 Number 3 (1993)
N

Page 170, Equation (12a), should read: 0x= = ~ Pxj(Ey,~- ey=)/Kom

j=m
N

Equation (12b), should read: Oym = ~ Pyj(Gm - exm)/Kom

j=m

Equation (13), should read:/=~1 Qxm'Ym' ~=1 Qx" = i=1

~ Kx"Ym'

Equation (16), 1st line, should read: ~m = ~ = + Oy, = - ~

j=l

~=1 Kx='

~ Pxk('yj

eyj)/Koj

k=j

Page 175, Table 5, head of column 4, should read: Storey *

ecc. (m)

head of column 5, should read: Storey

shear (kN)
We apologise for any inconvenience.

Engng Struct. 1993, Volume 15, Number 6 467