Other Civil Engineering Applications
OTHER CIVIL ENGINEERING APPLICATIONS The use of iron in foundations Introduction Once cast iron had been established as a useful and practical structural material in the late eighteenth century, it was only going to be a question of time before an enterprising ironmaster, engineer or architect considered its application for substructures. Timber piles and platforms in combination with masonry were the traditional foundation materials, although other expedients such as rammed chalk and fascines had been employed, and in the early nineteenth century concrete began to be used . (Chrimes, 1996; Kerisel, 1956; 1985). Iron itself had been used for specialist applications such as rock foundations (below) and for pile shoes. The application of iron to foundations was a specialist area and even when iron was employed in superstructures, whether bridges, iron frames or roofs, its performance was generally governed by that of substructures built using traditional methods and materials. While the Leaning Tower of Pisa provides an enduring monument to the foundation problems faced by past generations, and towers in Bologna show similar signs of distress, others towers having collapsed completely, mediaeval and renaissance master builders were capable of erecting enduring structures on a scale not regularly surpassed before the twentieth century. The gothic cathedral is perhaps the most spectacular example, but in northern Italy and the Low Countries large civic buildings were erected, while military engineers designed successive generations of fortifications. More the province of the civil engineer were the hydraulic structures erected on the rivers and canals of the Netherlands and Lombardy from the fourteenth century onwards, using timber for bearing and sheet piles, lock walls, gates and floors, in combination with masonry and (pozzolanic) mortars.
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