New civil engineering reference books at Waldo

Waldo Library has just received the 2009 edition of the ACI Manual of Concrete Practice (6 volume set, plus index). It is located in our Science Reference collection at call number TA 439 .A358 2009, on the lower level of Waldo Library and may not be checked out.

You can read a brief description of the contents here.

In addition, we now have the AASHTO LRFD Bridge Design Specifications (2007 edition with 2008 interim revisions).  This is also located in Science Reference at call number TG 310 .A52 2007. This book is accompanied by two CD-ROMS, that may be checked for seven days from the Access Services desk on the first floor.

Concrete Canoe 2009

I would like to present the following link to an article by Paula Davis in Tuesday’s Kalamazoo Gazette entitled “Can You Float a Concrete Canoe?” This article discusses the work of a group of students in the student chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers at the College of Engineering, creating a concrete canoe out of concrete created from recycled or reused materials to enter into a regional engineering contest. You can access the article either via the link above or the URL below – you probably should access it soon as I don’t know how long MLIVE keeps stuff free.

http://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2009/03/can_you_float_a_concrete_canoe.html

PCI Design Handbook (6th edition)

We’ve just received and added to our Science/Engineering reference collection the 6th edition of the PCI Design Handbook: Precast and Prestressed Concrete (2004) – call number TA 683.7 .P44 2004 

This book covers the applications and materials involved in precast and prestressed concrete construction; concrete components; product handling and erection bracing; tolerances; and other topic areas.  This excellent and comprehensive work should be a valuable reference for faculty and students in our civil and construction engineering department.

International Building Code 2006

We just received our ICC International Building Code 2006.  This volume will be kept in the Science Reference section of Waldo Library, in call number K3538 .I58 2007.  See the table of contents at Constructionbook.com.  In addition, we now have the 2006 International Building Code Companion by R. Dodge Woodson.  This will  be kept in our General Stacks (meaning it can circulate) on the Lower Level of Waldo Library, call number TH420 .W66 2007.

Waldo now provides access to ASCE Research Library

Waldo Library now subscribes to the full ASCE Research Library, which provides full text access (in PDF) to proceedings going back to 1998 and journals going back to 1995, although I am finding that in many cases, we have access back to 1993! Journal titles included in this digital library are:

• International Journal of Geomechanics
• Journal of Aerospace Engineering
• Journal of Architectural Engineering
• Journal of Bridge Engineering
• Journal of Cold Regions Engineering
• Journal of Composites for Construction
• Journal of Computing in Civil Engineering
• Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
• Journal of Energy Engineering
• Journal of Engineering Mechanics
• Journal of Environmental Engineering
• Journal of Geotechnical & Geoenvironmental Engineering
• Journal of Hydraulic Engineering
• Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
• Journal of Infrastructure Systems
• Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering
• Journal of Management in Engineering
• Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
• Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities
• Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education & Practice
• Journal of Structural Engineering
• Journal of Surveying Engineering
• Journal of Transportation Engineering
• Journal of Urban Planning and Development
• Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management
• Journal of Waterway, Port, Coastal and Ocean Engineering
• Leadership and Management in Engineering
• Natural Hazards Review
• Practice Periodical of Hazardous, Toxic & Radioactive Waste Management
• Practice Periodical on Structural Design and Construction

These are some of the core journals in the area of civil and construction engineering. The ASCE Research Library is available at http://ascelibrary.aip.org/ Please bookmark this. (Correction: Please bookmark the link from the Civil Engineering Subject Guide, which includes the proxy information in the URL.) You can also access it via the link in the subject guide to Civil and Construction Engineering on the Waldo Library site. If you accessing this resource from off-campus or from a laptop while on-campus, you will be prompted for your BroncoNet ID and password.

Search the ICE Virtual Library

The Institution of Civil Engineers (UK) have, via JISC Collections and Thomas Telford Publishing, created a virtual library to all ICE publications (journals, proceedings, minutes, transactions, and division papers) from 1836 to 2001.  You can search the ICE Virtual Library for free; however, all full text content is only available to subscribers.  However, Waldo Library will order any of these articles for you for free via Interlibrary Loan.

This is a rich source of civil engineering history in Great Britain for a hundred and fifty years.

I’ve placed a link to this resource in our Civil Engineering Databases page.

Posting from: STLQ Blog Posting, 3/17/07

New Metal Shear Wall – from PhysOrg.com

Engineers demonstrate strength of new metal shear wall that could lower construction cost from PhysOrg.com
Engineers pushed a newly designed, metal shear wall to its limits at a Nov. 20 seismic test at the University of California, Berkeley’s Structural Engineering Research Lab. The panel proved strong enough for use in California and other earthquake-prone regions throughout the world, researchers said.

Feature articles: Civil Engineering v76n10 October 2006

Feature articles: Civil Engineering v76n10 October 2006

http://pubs.asce.org/ceonline/newce.html

Special Report: The Big Uneasy (rebuilding in the Gulf region after Hurricane Katrina). By Robert L. Reid. p.46-61, 86.

Extending the Possibilities (new Shibanpo Bridge, in China – record for length of box girder main span). By Man-Chung Tang. p.62-67.

Starting Over (completion of 7 World Trade Center). By Bart Sullivan. p.68-73.

Automated Access (automated people mover at Toronto Pearson International Airport). By W. Douglas Willoughby and Gerald K. Winters. p.74-81.

Patents in Civil Engineering

Speaking of patents, there was a great article on the value of patents in encouraging creativity in civil engineering in the June 2006 issue of Civil Engineering, the magazine of the American Society of Civil Engineers. The article is entitled “Using Patents to Advance the Civil Engineering Profession.” and is by Christopher A. Rothe, J.D. If you want to learn a little about the history of civil engineering patents in the last couple of hundred years, and how engineers have used ideas from patents to push the field forward, you should check this article out.

You will need to access this article in hard copy format in our current periodicals collection, as we don’t have it in full text online. The call number for the magazine is TA1 .C452.

Top 10 Civil Engineering Marvels

This post comes from the ThomasNet.com Industrial Market Trends Blog. Business Week magazine published a wonderful article by Jessie Scanlon in their August 24, 2006 issue detailing the ten most innovative architectural wonders of the world. Be sure to click on the link to the slideshow to see the full presentation.

You can also read the ThomasNet.com post by David R. Butcher, which nicely summarizes the Scanlon article. The photos are nice and large, so you can really see how beautiful these designs are.