Cairo University

Faculty of Engineering

Department of Structural Engineering

Gen 600: Technical Writing
Spring 2014 2015

Second Assignment: Abstract and Summary

(Due: April 16th, 2015)
Problem No. 1:
a) Write one paragraph developing the message of the attached graph. Your writing
must include an at least one introductory part and one concluding part. Before you
write, pre-plan your paragraphs. Show all planning steps on a separate section.
Hint: this is a flowchart of the analysis of reinforce concrete beam.

b) Give a title for the paragraph you have just written

Problem No. 2:
Write a proposal abstract on one of the following topic (maximum 300 words). Use brain
storming for discovering ideas in a separate section.
Improving the lateral behavior of high rise buildings due to earthquake ground
motions.
Reducing the shrinkage-micro-cracks in reinforced concrete elements.
Collapse of World-Trade-Center: Terrorist versus Natural Accedents

Cairo University
Faculty of Engineering

Department of Structural Engineering

Gen 600: Technical Writing
Spring 2014 2015

Problem No. 3:
Read the following distinct paragraphs and answer all questions below
a) State in one sentence the difference between a thesis and a topic statement.
Illustrate by giving examples.
b) Extract the Topic/Thesis Statement(s). If it is missing, write a statement and
allocate its place within the paragraph.
c) Define the type of each one of these paragraph [Abstract, Introduction, Body,
Conclusion]. Justify your answer.
d) Write a descriptive summary for each paragraph.
e) Write a descriptive informative for each paragraph.
1. Concrete is a mixture of coarse (stone or brick chips) and fine (generally sand or
crushed stone) aggregates with a paste of binder material (usually Portland cement)
and water. When cement is mixed with a small amount of water, it hydrates to form
microscopic opaque crystal lattices encapsulating and locking the aggregate into a
rigid structure. The aggregates used for making concrete should be free from harmful
substances like organic impurities, silt, clay, lignite etc. Typical concrete mixes have
high resistance to compressive stresses (about 28 MPa); however, any appreciable
tension (e.g., due to bending) will break the microscopic rigid lattice, resulting in
cracking and separation of the concrete. For this reason, typical non-reinforced
concrete must be well supported to prevent the development of tension. If a material
with high strength in tension, such as steel, is placed in concrete, then the composite
material, reinforced concrete, resists not only compression but also bending and other
direct tensile actions. A reinforced concrete section where the concrete resists the
compression and steel resists the tension can be made into almost any shape and size
for the construction industry.
2. An analytical model is presented that is capable of predicting the load-deformation
response of reinforced concrete elements subjected to in-plane shear and normal
stresses. In the model, cracked concrete is treated as a new material with its own stressstrain characteristics. Equilibrium, compatibility, and stress-strain relationships are
formulated in terms of average stresses and average strains. Consideration is also
given to local stress conditions at crack locations. The stress-strain relationships for
the concrete were determined by testing 30 reinforced concrete panels under a variety
of well-defined uniform biaxial stresses including pure shear. It was found that cracked
concrete subjected to high tensile strains in the direction normal to the compression is
softer and weaker in compression than concrete in a standard cylinder test.
Additionally, significant tensile stresses were found in the concrete between the cracks
even at very high values of average tensile strain.
3. Systems thinking is a conceptual framework, a body of knowledge and tools that has
been developed over the past 50 years. It originated in the field of systems dynamics
to make the patterns clearer and to help us see how to change them effectively. Systems

Cairo University
Faculty of Engineering

Department of Structural Engineering

Gen 600: Technical Writing
Spring 2014 2015
dynamics is an offshoot of systems engineering. It was first developed by Jay
Forrester as industrial dynamics in the 1950s and 1960s and is still widely practiced
around the world today.
4. The optimum dosage rate for Stealth fiber seemed was approximately 3 lb per cubic
yard; the benefits were moderate. Grace Microfibers optimum dosage rate was 3 lb
per cubic yard, and the benefits seen were significant. The best dosage rate for Strux
90/40 was about 10 lb per cubic yard, and that dosage showed exceptionally good
plastic shrinkage benefits, greater than any other mix in this research. Finally, the HPP
fiber had its optimum dosage rate at either 3 or 5 lb per cubic yard, and had the best
strength results in this study.
5. Bridge decks have many problems with cracking. More than 100,000 bridge decks,
nearly half of the bridges in the United States, showed transverse cracking at early age
(Krauss and Rogalla, 1996). Early age cracking is the most common deck distress
reported by the State Highway Agencies. In all , 97% of state Departments of
Transportation indicated that they have problems with early age cracking (Aktan et al.,
2003).
6. The World Trade Center towers were designed and built in the mid-1960s through the
early 1970s. They represented a new approach to skyscrapers in that they were to be
very lightweight and involved modular construction methods in order to accelerate the
schedule and to reduce the costs. To a structural engineer, a skyscraper is modeled as a
large cantilever vertical column. Each tower was 64 m square, standing 411 m above
street level and 21 m below grade. This produces a height-to-width ratio of 6.8. The
total weight of the structure was roughly 500,000 t, but wind load, rather than the
gravity load, dominated the design. The building is a huge sail that must resist a 225
km/h hurricane. It was designed to resist a wind load of 2 kPaa total of lateral load
of 5,000 t.