Structures Department

Background information and current designation

The Centre for Civil Engineering Studies (1941-46), created by the engineer Manuel Rocha and financially supported by the Institute for Higher Culture, operated in IST facilities, having developed in those facilities an important series of studies and tests in the area of Structural Engineering. Subsequently, this Centre, together with the Laboratory for Tests and Studies on Materials (1898-1946), formed the early origins of the Laboratório de Engenharia Civil – LEC (Laboratory for Civil Engineering), which was established by Decree-Law 35957, dated 19 November 1946. LEC was initially divided into three Services, one of which, the Service II, also supervised by the engineer Manuel Rocha, was designated as Structural Studies Service. The latter Service included various Sections, the Sections referring to Structures, Timber, Materials and Dams forming the group designated as Strength of Constructions.

Even though LEC was afterwards designated as LNEC, still in 1952, year of the inauguration of the main building located at the present campus in Avenida do Brasil, Lisbon, its organisation structure remained unchanged until 1961. That year, the Service II was then replaced by, among others, the new Buildings and Bridges Service (Serviço de Edifícios e Pontes – SEP), supervised by the engineer Júlio Ferry Borges. The 1971 Statutes replaced the designation of Buildings and Bridges Service by Structures Service (Serviço de Estruturas – SE), having simultaneously created the Buildings Service. The Structures Service continued to be under Ferry Borges’ supervision until 1973. The present designation, Structures Department (Departamento de Estruturas – DE), was only adopted in the 1979 Statutes.

Main activities

The main research activities initiated at the Structures Sections and developed by the subsequent services (SEP, SE and DE), had already been well defined at an early stage. In fact, in 1954, the engineer Ferry Borges submitted his thesis titled “O Dimensionamento de Estruturas” (Structural Design), for obtaining the Principal Research Officer level of LNEC. That thesis addressed namely the statistical theory of structures and the processing of the random character of actions and the structural performance. Indeed, that thesis was not only a pioneer work at an international level but also an essential reference framework, in which the main lines of the scientific and technical activity, developed in the subsequent decades, can be integrated. From among these lines, special reference is made to those related with reinforced and pre-stressed concrete, earthquake engineering and structural safety.

Of note is the fact that the development achieved in the field of structural engineering has made it possible to renew the whole Portuguese technical regulations applicable to structures and has largely influenced the reformulation of the corresponding European regulations, still under way, tasks in which the Structures Department continues to be deeply involved.

Reference must also be made to the fact that, since 1978, the magazine titled “Revista Portuguesa de Engenharia de Estruturas” (Portuguese Magazine on Structural Engineering), has been printed at LNEC and has been published by the Structures Department.

Organisation Structure

In 1979, the Structures Department consisted of five Divisions: Structural Behaviour Division; Timber Division; Structural Analysis Division; Observation of Structures Division and Applied Dynamics Division.

The activities developed by the five Divisions above, which, in accordance with former LNEC Statutes, were designated as Sections or Divisions, represent in general, the main activities developed by LNEC in the area of Structural Engineering, many of them having already been initiated by the pioneer Centre for Civil Engineering Studies (1941-46), which operated at IST.

Of note is the fact that with the 1999 Statutes, the Structural Analysis Division was discontinued, and its assignments were redistributed over the other Divisions of the Structures Department, many of them having had slight alterations in their designations.

João Carlos Chaves de Almeida Fernandes (Head of the Structures Department)

Laboratório Nacional de Engenharia Civil, I.P. Departamento de Estruturas AV DO BRASIL 101 1700-066 LISBOA PORTUGAL phone: +351 218 443 260 fax: +351 218 443 025 e-mail: de@lnec.pt

Presently, with the recent publication of the latest LNEC Statutes (2007), the Structures Department of LNEC consists of four Divisions: