ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The author would like to thank the University of Plymouth (formerly Plymouth Polytechnic) for providing financial support and the Science and Engineering Research Council for a grant (Grant No. GR/D/02119) which was instrumental in the purchase of the actuator. My next thanks go to my supervisors Dr. Clive Williams and Mr Peter Hewson (both Principal Lecturers of the University) for their foresight in the inception of the project.

I thank my past colleagues in the Polytechnic in general, those in the Department of Civil and Structural Engineering in particular. Special thanks go to Dr. Mike Foulkes (Lecturer) and Gregory Reagan (Research Assistant) who have helped in many ways.

Thanks also go to the teams in the University of Bristol and the Building Research Establishment for their invitation to join in as an observer when they carried out tests on the Humber Bridge and the Hume Point tower block in London.

TI1anks are also due to the British Rail and the Devon Fire Brigade for granting permission for me to carry out tests on the Plymouth British Rail Building and the Camel's Head Fire Station Tower respectively.

Thanks go to the Royal Naval Engineering College for allowing me to use college facilities during off-working hours for fmalizing this work. Thanks are due to past and present colleagues in the Department of Mechanics and Power with whom I have worked.

I would also like to thank my wife and my children for bearing a lot of the emotional aggravation and long periods of desertion which are, inevitably, part-and-parcel of research work.

Space limitation does not allow me to name each individual who helped in various ways, as I am sure the list would run to several pages.