外文资料与翻译外文料与翻译.doc

Bridge research in Europe A brief outline is given of the development of the European Union, together with the research platform in Europe. The special case of post-tensioned bridges in the UK is discussed. In order to illustrate the type of European research being undertaken, an example is given from the University of Edinburgh portfolio: relating to the identification of voids in post-tensioned concrete bridges using digital impulse radar. Introduction The challenge in any research arena is to harness the findings of different research groups to identify a coherent mass of data, which enables research and practice to be better focused. A particular challenge exists with respect to Europe where language barriers are inevitably very significant. The European Community was formed in the 1960s based upon a political will within continental Europe to avoid the European civil wars, which developed into World War 2 from 1939 to 1945. The strong political motivation formed the original community of which Britain was not a member. Many of the continental countries saw Britain’s interest as being purely economic. The 1970s saw Britain joining what was then the European Economic Community (EEC) and the 1990s has seen the widening of the community to a European Union, EU, with certain political goals together with the objective of a common European currency. Notwithstanding these financial and political developments, civil engineering and bridge engineering in particular have found great difficulty in forming any kind of common thread. Indeed the educational systems for University training are quite different between Britain and the European continental countries. The formation of the EU funding schemes —e.g. Socrates, Brite Euram and other programs have helped significantly. The Socrates scheme is based upon the exchange of students between Universities in different member states. The Brite Euram scheme has involved technical research grants given to consortia of acad