Steel is a popular building material due to its strength, durability, and versatility. Structural steel design involves calculating geometric configurations and ensuring structural integrity. The evolution of structural steel design has focused on flexibility to withstand natural disasters and terrorism. Computer-aided design has improved the design process.
Steel is the most commonly used building material in the world today. Its strength-to-weight ratio, durability, elasticity, flexibility, eco-friendliness and simple aesthetic appeal have, in the more than 100 years since its invention, established steel as the integral structural component of virtually every sizable commercial structure exists. From skyscrapers to bridges, automobiles to ships, pipelines to rocket pods, the durability and versatility of steel make these devices of modern civilization possible.
Of course, with the advent of steel came the concept of structural steel design. To be properly erected, the geometric configurations of steel structures—the various factors involved in building a steel skyscraper, for example—must be calculated and refined, often before the steel to be used is even cast. In the progression of a steel structure from concept to construction, a structural steel engineer is among the first experts to be enlisted in the construction process.
The essential of structural steel design, as opposed to architectural design, is to ensure the structural integrity of a steel building, bridge, vehicle, tower, etc. Structural steel design includes familiarity with the different types of steel and steel-based alloys, reliance on formulas describing the stress-resistance and load-bearing factors of, among other things, steel beams, columns, braces, connectors and hangers, as well as an extensive command of geometric shapes and construction mathematics. Should any of the physical or design components fail, disaster is the inevitable result. Aesthetic considerations are more directly an architect’s background and have no bearing on the proper performance of a structure’s steel skeleton.
Structural steel design has evolved from focusing solely on the stiffness that steel can and does provide a structure, to the benefits that steel offers in terms of structural flexibility, allowing a structure to better withstand the stresses of nature and of man. Interestingly, the major impetus for this evolution in structural steel design has been earthquakes. Preliminary design of multi-story, long-span steel structures is usually based on how well the structure will withstand a major earthquake. Wind resistance is also an important factor in the design and construction of tall steel structures, as well as terrorism.
In its infancy, structural steel design was accomplished through hours of painstaking physical calculations, drafts, and, very often, trial and error. As the quality of the steel itself has improved, the mechanics of structural steel design have also improved. Computer Aided Design (CAD) is perhaps the most innovative and effective tool in advancing steel structural design, relieving the structural engineer of the tedium and error inherent in physical calculation and manual drafting. CAD ensures a much faster and more accurate design process at a significantly lower cost.
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