Walter J. Ammann - Böcker

Over the last two decades, there has been an increase in the number of natural hazards which have culminated in catastrophic consequences, severely impacting on people and livelihoods. In response to this escalation, the Swiss Natural Hazards Competence Centre (CENAT) organized a workshop entitled "RISK21" at the Centro Stefano Franscini, Monte Verità, Ascona, Switzerland from 28 November to 3 December, 2004. More than 50 risk experts from nine countries participated, drawn from research institutions, private industry, governmental agencies and non-governmental organizations. The workshop focused on different aspects of risk management, highlighted current drawbacks, and discussed possible ways of reducing disaster risk. The themes addressed included economic, technical and social issues related to disaster impact, risk analysis and assessment, risk perception and aversion, risk dialogue and sustainable risk management.

Authors: Hugo Bachmann, Walter J. Ammann, Florian Deischl, Josef Eisenmann, Ingomar Floegl, Gerhard H. Hirsch, Gunter K. Klein, Goran J. Lande, Oskar Mahrenholtz, Hans G. Natke, Hans Nussbaumer, Anthony J. Pretlove, Johann H. Rainer, Ernst-Ulrich Saemann, Lorenz Steinbeisser. Large structures such as factories, gymnasia, concert halls, bridges, towers, masts and chimneys can be detrimentally affected by vibrations. These vibrations can cause either serviceability problems, severely hampering the user's comfort, or safety problems. The aim of this book is to provide structural and civil engineers working in construction and environmental engineering with practical guidelines for counteracting vibration problems. Dynamic actions are considered from the following sources of vibration: - human body motions, - rotating, oscillating and impacting machines, - wind flow, - road traffic, railway traffic and construction work. The main section of the book presents tools that aid in decision-making and in deriving simple solutions to cases of frequently occurring "normal" vibration problems. Complexer problems and more advanced solutions are also considered.In all cases these guidelines should enable the engineer to decide on appropriate solutions expeditiously. The appendices of the book contain fundamentals essential to the main chapters.