Road roughness is a broad term that incorporates everything from potholes and cracks to the random deviations that exist in a profile. To build a roughness index, road irregularities need to be measured first. Existing methods of gauging the roughness are based either on visual inspections or using one of a limited number of instrumented vehicles that can take physical measurements of the road irregularities. This paper proposes the collection of data from accelerometers fixed in a specific vehicle type and the use of this data to estimate the road condition. Although the estimate is approximate, accelerometers are being increasingly used by car manufacturers to improve suspension performance and the proposed method is relatively inexpensive to implement and provide road managers with constantly updated measurements of roughness. This approach is possible due to the relationship between the power spectral densities of road surface and vehicle accelerations via a transfer function. This paper shows how road profiles can be accurately classified using axle and body accelerations from a range of simulated vehicle–road dynamic scenarios.

Corrosion of carbon steel reinforcing bar can lead to deterioration of concrete structures, especially in regions where road salt is heavily used or in areas close to sea water. Although stainless steel reinforcing bar costs more than carbon steel, its selective use for high risk elements is cost-effective when the whole life costs of the structure are taken into account. Considerations for specifying stainless steel reinforcing bars and a review of applications are presented herein. Attention is then given to the elevated temperature properties of stainless steel reinforcing bars, which are needed for structural fire design, but have been unexplored to date. A programme of isothermal and anisothermal tensile tests on four types of stainless steel reinforcing bar is described: 1.4307 (304L), 1.4311 (304LN), 1.4162 (LDX 2101®) and 1.4362 (2304). Bars of diameter 12 mm and 16 mm were studied, plain round and ribbed. Reduction factors were calculated for the key strength, stiffness and ductility properties and compared to equivalent factors for stainless steel plate and strip, as well as those for carbon steel reinforcement. The test results demonstrate that the reduction factors for 0.2% proof strength, strength at 2% strain and ultimate strength derived for stainless steel plate and strip can also be applied to stainless steel reinforcing bar. Revised reduction factors for ultimate strain and fracture strain at elevated temperatures have been proposed. The ability of two-stage Ramberg-Osgood expressions to capture accurately the stress-strain response of stainless steel reinforcement at both room temperature and elevated temperatures is also demonstrated

This paper presents an experimental investigation into the behaviour of high-strength steel (HSS) structures (i.e. yield strength between 460 and 700 N/mm²) in fire conditions. The paper proceeds with a description of the experimental programme that includes two different grades of HSS with the aim of assessing (a) the mechanical properties at elevated temperature through tensile testing and (b) the effect of chemical composition and processing route on the microstructure through a detailed metallurgical investigation. The investigation takes a holistic view of the analysis whereby the effect of processing route and composition on the microstructure and hence mechanical properties are assessed. In this paper, following a detailed description of the tests under isothermal conditions, the results are analysed to determine strength and stiffness reduction factors at elevated temperatures and these values are compared with the literature and design standards.