It is all around us, but we mostly take it for granted. It is one of the first items exploited by man for building, weapons and so much else, yet we still find its behaviour unpredictable and mysterious.
Predictability is the essence of engineering but, where timber is concerned, we have long used a combination of special experience and general empiricism to make use of the only structural raw material available to us that regenerates itself ad infinitum. Sadly, though, that regeneration ...
“Well, sir, there's nothing on earth, Like a genuine, bona fide
Electrified, six-car monorail, What'd I say?
Monorail! What's it called? Monorail! That's right! Monorail!”
The mention of monorails today invokes the classic Simpsons’ song above and its associated imagery of expensive, useless, ‘white elephant’ infrastructure. However, the reality is that monorail systems are used extensively in the cities of some of the most technologically advanced societies in the world and have become ...
While the concept of virtual reality (VR) has been around for a long time, its application in museums, historical websites and heritage sites have yet to be fully explored. Since 2013 in particular, VR solutions have become much more affordable to the average consumer. Oculus and Google Cardboard, along with accessible technologies, software and hardware like Jump, Giroptic and the Cardboard Camera app, offer the potential to fully realise the potential of VR in the way that smartphones ...
The 18th century is frequently revered as the period when Dublin as we know it truly came into being. While our focus is habitually directed towards the iconic Georgian buildings that have survived from this period, these in reality make up only a portion of the city’s fabric and heritage. When it comes to understanding the Dublin’s evolution, there is an equal amount of history below our feet as above our heads. The founding in 1774 of the Commissioners for Paving the Streets of Dublin, ...
Authors: Vikram Pakrashi, Deirdre O’Donnell and Robert Wright (all from the Dynamical Systems and Risk Laboratory) and Denis Kelliher (Research Unit for Structures and Optimisation), Civil and Environmental Engineering, School of Engineering, University College Cork
Daly’s Bridge, known locally as the ‘Shaky Bridge’, is an 87m-long pedestrian suspension bridge built in 1926 to provide access over the river Lee, west of Cork City, between Sunday’s Well and the Mardyke. The bridge ...
Authors: Kevin Fay, BSc (Eng) Dip Eng MIEI, contracts director, Gem Purcell Ltd and Jonathan Macauley, BEng CEng MIStructE MIEI, director, Design ID
On 20 October 2014, the authors discussed the restoration of St Mel’s – one of the largest conservation projects currently under way in Western Europe – at an event jointly hosted by the Heritage Society and Structures and Construction Division, in association with the Institution of Structural Engineers, Republic of Ireland ...