建筑材料的应用 毕业论文外文文献翻译.docVIP

The application of constructional material 建筑材料的应用 　　 The availability of suitable structural materials is one of the principal limitations on the accomplishment of an experienced structural engineer. Early builders depended almost exclusively on wood, stone, brick, and concrete. Although iron had been used by humans at least since the building of the Egyptian pyramids, use of it as a structural material was limited because of the difficulties of smelting it in large quantities. With the industrial revolution, however, came both the need for iron as a structural material and the capability of smelting it in quantity. 　　John Smeaton, an English civil engineer, was the first to use cast iron extensively as a structural material in the mid-eighteenth century. After 1841, malleable iron was developed as a more reliable material and was widely used. Whereas malleable iron was superior to cast iron, there were still too many structural failures and there was a need for a more reliable material. 　　Steel was the answer to this demand. The invention of the Bessemer converter in 1856 and the subsequent development of the Siemens-Martin open-hearth process for making steel made it possible to produce structural steel at competitive prices and triggered the tremendous developments and accomplishments in the use of structural steel over the next hundred 　　years. 　　The most serious disadvantage of steel is that it oxidizes easily and must be protected by paint or some other suitable coating. When steel is used in an enclosure where a fire could 　occur, the steel members must be encased in a suitable fire-resistant enclosure such as masonry, concrete. Normally, steel members will not fail in a brittle manner unless an unfortunate combination of metallurgical composition, low temperature, and bi-or triaxial stress exists. 　　Structural aluminum is still not widely used in civil engineering structures, though its use 　is steadily increasing. By a proper selection of the aluminum allo