presented cover aspects of the behaviour of compression members, columns, cold formed sections, light- weight structures, shells and pressure vessels, and plates. The preface indicates that nine of the papers are devoted to applied research, five to surveys of aspects of past research and six have design implications.

This diversity of subject matter and range of application must raise the question as to what readership the book is aimed at. Will it provide a general background for a researcher or designer new to the area, or a detailed understanding of a particular aspect for a specialist working on a limited research or design topic?

The range of paper topics combined and the high speciahzation in many of the presentations probably means that it will do neither very efficiently.

Each paper is excellent in its own right but in many ways a series of state-of-the-art or summary papers or a set of papers dealing with a more limited subject area might have appeared a more attractive purchase.

The papers presented range from background concepts such as the paper by Koiter on 'Amplitude modulation of short-wave buckling modes' to industrial state-of-the-art papers such as a paper by R. D. Homer of Metal Sections Ltd on 'The cold formed industry scene'. All are interesting in their own right and the diversity of topic covered does give the non-expert some opportunity of assessing the general state-of-the-art in buckling.

The four final papers on plate buckling relate to one of my own research areas, and are interesting and informative. They cover aspects of the biaxial loading of plates, the elastic buckling of stiffened plates in compression, a review of plate buckling research, and aluminium plates in compression.

Whether the potential reader's interest in a selection of the papers justifies the cost of the book must be

decided by the individual but it is likely that this book will largely be stocked by libraries.

The cost of such volumes these days must mean they are a luxury rather than a necessity as far as the individual reader is concerned.

J. E. Harding

Developments in thin-walled structures - 2 Ed. J. Rhodes and A. C. Walker Elsevier Applied Science, London, U K, 1984, 266 pp, £30.00

Each of the six chapters presents an up-to-date summary of design tech- niques and details, applied to a specific form of thin-walled structure for which normal codes of practice do not provide a complete guide as yet. In discussing subsea pipelines, ship struc- tures, silos, aerospace structures, beams and columns and in employing both metals and fibre-reinforced plastic, a good breadth of application is presented. Each chapter covers about 40 pages, has clear figures and finishes with an extensive set of references, thus allowing the reader to reach specific experimental results or detailed computations efficiently.

Restricting more detailed comment to one chapter, the chapter on 'Bracing requirements of thin-walled structures' presents a clear logical coverage of the topic beams and columns in the configurations and having the types of supports which actually occur in practice. Both continuous and discrete elastic bracing forms are detailed in application to single and interbraced columns and beams. Eccentric linear, torsional and rotational braces are covered. The strength requirements of the braces are developed using the concept of initial out-of-straightness, and charts for design, both in terms of critical loads and strength are presented. Sufficient theoretical justification is given to

acquaint the reader with the basis ol formulae. A brief discussion ~f a finite element method application, introduces a means of analysis for cases which do not lend themselves to solution by differential equations.

A consistent terminology binds the chapter together, and the very com- prehensive bibliography is a useful aid to the reader with a specific problem.

I. C. Medland

Seismic design of frame panel buildings and their structural members M. A. Mardzhanishvili A. A. Balkema, Rotterdam, 1984, 129 pp, £13.00

This book was ofigninally published in Russian and has been translated into English by K. S. Dhillon and edited by Dr V. S. Kothekar.

The book presents a method of designing frame panel buildings based on a three-dimensional design model. It examines the basic concepts of the statistics and dynamics of structures and uses mathematics extensively. It goes from static to dynamic in a con- tinuous manner by using similar differential equations and is there- fore likely to please academics and researchers. However, research workers may find it too basic. The book is aimed at both researchers and practising engineers but the latter may find the book too overwhelming mainly due to its heavy mathematics and is therefore unlikely to be used.

Mathematical typography is un- pleasant. Reading of the book is difficult and the translation has not made it any easier. The book can be used as a teaching aid for those students who are seeking logic in the understanding of the subject. It gives some practical examples as to the use of the method.

S. K. Sarma

216 Engng Struct., 1985, Vol. 7, July