Reinforced brick vault. The development of a construction system

The aim of this paper is to study the way in which Eduardo Torroja used the reinforced brick vault, and to show that it is a system widely used for decades in Spain when Torroja begun to employ it. The principal characteristic of this construction system is the use of the brick wall as formwork to buildup a reinforced concrete shell, where the masonry resists ~he compression stress as well. The main advantage of the system is it reduces cost by eliminating the need for formworks and scaffold

The grandstand roof of the Zarzuela Hippodrome in Madrid: The constructive talent of Eduardo Torroja

The old royal race track of Madrid, located in the north end of the Paseo de la Castellana, was demolished in 1933. To build a new one, the Gabinete Tecnico de Accesos y Extrarradio de Madrid summoned, on July 6 1934, a design competition. The new constmction would be located in the mount of «El Pardo», property of Patrimonio de la Republica, where they were being carried out the tracks of careers. The proposals should be adjusted to this layout. I Nine projects of architects or engineer/architect teams were presented, and the verdict of the jury became public December 18 1934

Eduardo Torroja and Cerámica Armada

The Spanish engineer Eduardo Torroja Miret (1889-1961) was one of the leading structural designers of the 20th century. Torroja's extraordinary work includes two of the most significant thin shells in reinforced concrete: the market hall of Algeciras (1933) and the roof of the Zarzuela Hippodrome in Madrid (1935). (Fernandez and Navarro 1999; Billington 1985) Though Torroja is better known for his work in thin shells of reinforced concrete, he pioneered numerous ideas in construction during his long career. One of his most significant ideas, construction in reinforced brick, or ceramica armada, has not received significant attention from historians of construction

Gran mercado de Algeciras

El proyecto para la construcción del Gran Mercado de Algeciras se presentó en diciembre de 1933, en los meses siguientes se modificó ligeramente la estructura, pero en junio de 1934 los pianos definitivos estaban preparados; la construcción se prolongó hasta finales de 1935. Unos anos antes se habían publicado en España los proyectos recién terminados de los mercados de Leipzig y Basilea', ambos cubiertos con cúpulas nervadas de 65 y 60 metros de luz respectivamente, que mostraban las posibilidades de una planta central cubierta con una cúpula para realizar un mercado

Manuel Sánchez Arcas (1897-1970) y Eduardo Torroja Miret (1899-1961)

En el proyecto de la Ciudad Universitaria (C.U.) de Madrid~ Modesto López Otero fue el arquitecto director de las obras y formó un equipo heterogéneo de jóvenes arquitectos encargados de proyectar los diferentes edificios. Con ellos colaboró el ingeniero Eduardo Torroja. Éste se incorporó a dicho grupo en 1929, apenas año y medio después de haber establecido su propia Oficina Técnica de proyectos. Desde 1923, había trabajado en la empresa Hidrocivil, dirigida por el ingeniero José Eugenio Ribera. Contaba, por tanto, con varios años de experiencia profesional, proyectando y dirigiendo obras de diverso tipo como cimentaciones de pilas de puentes, puentes, acueductos, y obras de saneamiento, acometida y urbanización en diversas poblacion

Prestressed masonry for reservoirs: a project of the engineer Eduardo Torroja

The project of prestressed reinforced concrete structures meant, in general, the use of one of the systems protected by the patents available. Now, the use of prestressing is very common but fifty-five years ago this technique was quite expensive, due to the fees that had to be paid for the use of a system protected by a patent. In the 50 's Eduardo Torroja started some research dedicated to finding a way to build prestressed structures without using a patented system. One of his solutions consisted in building a masonry brick wall reinforced with the usual steel bars and, as a result of a special method used for its construction, he achieved a compressed concrete layer that makes it possible .to have a waterproof wall for building a water reservoir. Following his system. Torroja designed a reservoir built in Madrid that still exists but is not in us

The Evolution of the work of Eduardo Torroja : shell roofs with and without reinforcement rings

At the beginning of the twentieth century, the construction of thin reinforced shell concrete roofs was widespread in Europe. This roof is of the type where a cylindrical shell with a span of between 3.00 and 5.00 m span is built among arches that give the shape of the roof. These arches have a tie beam to resist thrusts and there is therefore only a vertical reaction on the piers. Arches are placed at the bottom side of the shell. At this period concrete was considered to be an elastic and lineal material that obeyed Hooke's law and the arches were therefore analysed in these terms

¿Existen problemas estructurales irresolubles? Una cuestión abierta

Galileo is the first Western author who pointed out the impossibility of that a similar figure grows indefinitely, by defining the concept of an insuperable size for any structure subject to the mechanical action of self-weight. If such insuperable size exists for a structural problem, such a problem would be unsolvable for greater sizes. The matter has not been answered until date, despite multiple researches along two conflicting lines: firstly, the determination of forms of constant stress whit no limit in size, and secondly, the determination of insuperable sizes for well defined structural problems. Here two related hypotheses are presented which could guide the search for a definitive answer

Behavioural patterns in allergic rhinitis medication in Europe: A study using MASK-air® real-world data

Artículo escrito por un elevado número de autores, solo se referencian el que aparece en primer lugar, el nombre del grupo de colaboración, si le hubiere, y los autores pertenecientes a la UAMBackground: Co-medication is common among patients with allergic rhinitis (AR), but its dimension and patterns are unknown. This is particularly relevant since AR is understood differently across European countries, as reflected by rhinitis-related search patterns in Google Trends. This study aims to assess AR co-medication and its regional patterns in Europe, using real-world data. Methods: We analysed 2015–2020 MASK-air® European data. We compared days under no medication, monotherapy and co-medication using the visual analogue scale (VAS) levels for overall allergic symptoms (‘VAS Global Symptoms’) and impact of AR on work. We assessed the monthly use of different medication schemes, performing separate analyses by region (defined geographically or by Google Trends patterns). We estimated the average number of different drugs reported per patient within 1 year. Results: We analysed 222,024 days (13,122 users), including 63,887 days (28.8%) under monotherapy and 38,315 (17.3%) under co-medication. The median ‘VAS Global Symptoms’ was 7 for no medication days, 14 for monotherapy and 21 for co-medication (p <.001). Medication use peaked during the spring, with similar patterns across different European regions (defined geographically or by Google Trends). Oral H1-antihistamines were the most common medication in single and co-medication. Each patient reported using an annual average of 2.7 drugs, with 80% reporting two or more. Conclusions: Allergic rhinitis medication patterns are similar across European regions. One third of treatment days involved co-medication. These findings suggest that patients treat themselves according to their symptoms (irrespective of how they understand AR) and that co-medication use is driven by symptom severityThis study was funded by ARIA. MASK-air® has been supported by EU grants (EU Structural and Development grant, POLLAR: EIT Health and Structural and Development Funds) and educational grants from Mylan-Viatris, ALK, GSK, Novartis and Uriach. Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEA

An academic exercise on layout optimization of pin-jointed frames

This article describes an academic exercise recently carried out in the Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Madrid, within the course La Estructura en el Proyecto Arquitectónico (Structure in Architectural Project). The goal was to work on the layout optimization of pin-jointed frames. The students had to design the layout of a structure with a set system of forces in equilibrium and within geometrical bounds. The students were helped by a script implemented in MATALB® in order to compute the volume of material (the primary objective function) and other derived parameters. This allowed students to focus their attention in the topic of learning, while at the same time the results of the exercise were more reliable. Different solutions were analyzed as the basis of further discussion in the classroom. Theoretical concepts then arise naturally and are linked with their previous work, which make it easier to address abstract concepts and reinforce the learning process. The exercise shows that the key parameter is slenderness (defined as the ratio between the span and the maximum depth of the framework). The scheme is less sensitive. Once the chords of the structure are designed with an adequate slenderness, it only remains to place the web elements with angles of around 45 degrees. For slenderness higher than approx. 8 to 10, the best design is a truss with parallel chords and diagonals between 30 and 60 degrees (better from 45 to 60 degrees). For slenderness lower than approx. 8 the arch is more efficient than a truss. This means that for typical frameworks, the skills of the designer are almost restricted to the election of the slenderness. Built examples are finally reviewed in order to see how managing the different variables of an actual structure is a subtle question, one that cannot be detected in the previous theoretical exercise. Simplicity is crucial. Techniques such as prestressing notably increase efficiency. The article also presents architectural masterpieces built in short and medium spans, sometimes made with low efficiency structural schemes. Any real problem is complex, and good solutions must manage all of the variables. Although structural efficiency does not guarantee architectural success, both of these are compatible