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As a basis for the establishment of its research program, the Council initially sough answers to the following questions:
- What are the structural stability problems to which structural engineers are seeking solutions?
- To what extent does existing information provide solutions to these problems?
- What is currently being done about the problems?
- What projects are needed, in light of past and current research, to give the engineer the answers he needs?
The first project of the Council in 1945 was the distribution of a questionnaire to leading design engineers and researchers requesting detailed information as to what were considered important structural problems involving stability. The questionnaire also asked for suggestions as to needed research and closed with the query "What metals do you expect to use in future structural design?" A committee chaired by E. E. Lundquist of NACA (Forerunner of NASA) reviewed returns and issued a report in March of 1946 (12). The returns indicated greatest interest in the subject of the column as part of a framed structure. Increasing use of higher strength steels was generally anticipated.
The first sponsored project of the Council was carried out by Dr. Friedrich Bleich, a leading German engineer, under support by the United States Navy Department through the David Taylor Model Basin. This included a literature survey and review of existing information with the objective of answering the second of the four basic questions previously mentioned. The work was carried out in the offices of the firm of Frankland and Lienhard, which entered into a contract with the Navy Department with joint supervision by the Council.
A second questionnaire survey of current research asked the following:
- What articles have you published since 1942?
- What research projects have you completed for which results have not yet been published?
- What programs do you have currently underway or have planned for the immediate future?
With the help of key engineers in nearly every foreign country nearly 2,000 copies of the questionnaire received world-wide distribution. L. S. Beedle and the writer reviewed the returns for the Committee on Research, issuing reports in 1948, 1950, and 1952 (2, 3, 7). Engineers from abroad who assisted in the work became the initial Corresponding Members of the Council.
A further outgrowth of the Bleich project and the first two questionnaires was the preparation of the Chart of Column Problems, showing column applications for which analytical solutions were available, problems remaining to be investigated, and means for dealing with them.
A chronology of research projects that have been undertaken by the Council is provided in a later section. After the work of the Council became established and widely known unsolicited proposals became a significant factor in the continuation of research. Such proposals were evaluated by appropriate research committees or task groups and, if approved, were in many cases initiated by small grants of "seed money."
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