Full Manual Research Articles

Wind-Tunnel Studies of Buildings and Structures

The ASCE Standard 7 and many other codes of practice now allow the use of wind tunnel model studies for developing wind loading information to supplement and, in some situations, replace code wind loads. As a result, it is important for the engineering community to be aware of the circumstances in which wind-tunnel model tests may be advantageous or even necessary and to become familiar with the underlying physical principles and procedures, which must be followed to ensure that meaningful information is obtained. The ASCE Manual 67 was published in 1987 to assist engineers, architects, and other users of wind-tunnel services. The wind-engineering field has been evolving rapidly, and members of the Aerospace Division have been busy in developing an update. This new manual is currently in the ASCE Blue Ribbon Review process and is scheduled to be published in 1996. The new edition of the Manual of Practice for Wind-Tunnel Studies of Buildings and Structures has two distinct parts. Part 1 is an expanded version of ASCE Manual 67, which has been updated to reflect changes in technology and which has additional information for model studies of atmospheric dispersion around buildings, quality control, and procedures for combining wind-tunnel findings with climatic wind data in order to provide statistical predictions of full-scale wind loads and wind-induced effects. Part 2 is a detailed commentary that provides explanations, supporting information on methodology, and examples of typical tests; it also includes an extensive bibliography. The material presented provides a preview of this new manual. Due to space limitations, only part 1 and the bibliography are included at this time. The full manual will be available in 1996 and interested readers can get further information from the ASCE.

Electrical features of the Rocky Mountain pumped-storage project

The Rocky Mountain Pumped Storage Project is scheduled for full commercial operation on the Georgia interconnected transmission system (ITS) in May, 1995. This paper describes the significant features of the major electrical equipment. Particular emphasis is placed on the considerations which led to the selection of static, variable-frequency starting of the units as pumps and to the use of a distributed control system (DCS) for full manual and automatic operation of the power station.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

An empirical comparison of two metalanguages

An important issue in the usability of software is the quality of the manuals that are provided with the product. Some manuals describe the rules of a programming language to the user, and the syntax notation or metalanguage used to describe these rules can take various forms. In this study, we tested a notation which uses brackets and braces (designated “Signs”) against a method which uses syntax diagrams (designated “Maps”). A two-day experimental design was used in which the subjects were trained and tested on one metalanguage the first day, and then trained and tested on the second metalanguage the next day in a Latin square design. Four phases of this experiment were conducted, with 12 subjects in each phase. The procedure remained the same in each phase, but the subject population (programmers or non-programmers) or training material (full manual or one-page instruction) was changed from one phase to the next. No performance differences were found between Maps and Signs when the subjects were given extensive training on the metalanguage. However, when training was restricted to one page of instruction, performance was consistently superior with Maps for both programmers and non-programmers.

Roadmaps versus Roadsigns: Which is the Better Metalanguage?

Metalanguages are often used in programming reference manuals to describe the syntactic features of programming languages. This experiment tested two metalanguages, the IBM conventional syntax notation which uses brackets and braces, and syntax diagrams that are similar to that used in Pascal language manuals which are sometimes referred to as railroad tracks. A two-day experimental design was used in which the subjects were trained and tested on one language the first day, and then trained and tested on the second language the next day in a counterbalanced design. Four phases of this experiment were conducted, with 12 subjects in each phase. The experimental procedure remained the same in each phase, but the subject population (programmers or nonprogrammers) or training material (full manual or one-page instruction) was changed from one phase to the next. No performance differences were found between the two metalanguages when the subjects were given extensive training. However, when training was restricted to one page of instruction, performance was consistently superior with the Pascal method.