INTRODUCTION TO STRUCTURAL STEEL DESIGN

TORRES NIÑO PEDRO JULIAN

CADET MILITARY ACADEMY "GENERAL JOSE MARIA CORDOVA"

FACULTY OF CIVIL ENGINEERING
BOGOTA D.C
2019
 INTRODUCTION TO STRUCTURAL STEEL DESIGN

1. ADVANTAGES OF STEEL AS STRUCTURAL MATERIAL

Steel is the perfect structural material because it allows us to build bridges, buildings, towers and
other structures. The perfection of this material, possibly the most versatile of all structural materials,
is largely due to its great strength, light weight, ease of manufacture and other properties. Some of
the advantages of steel are:
• High strength: The strength of the steel per unit weight means that the weight of the
structures will be relatively low; This is very important in bridges with large clearings, tall
buildings and structures with poor foundation conditions.
• Uniformity: The properties of steel do not change appreciably over time, as is the case with
reinforced concrete structures.
• Elasticity: Steel is closer in its behavior to the design hypothesis than most materials. The
moments of inertia of a steel structure can be accurately calculated, while the values obtained
in a reinforced concrete structure are relatively imprecise.
• Durability: If the maintenance of the steel structures is adequate, they will hesitate
indefinitely. Research carried out on modern steels indicates that under certain conditions no
maintenance based on paint is required.
• Ductility: The ductility is the property that has a material to withstand large deformations
without failure under high stress efforts. The ductile nature of common structural steels
allows them to flow locally at various points, thus preventing premature failures. In addition,
these structures by overloading them produce large deflections that offer visible evidence of
an impending failure.
• Tenacity: Structural steels are tough, that is, they have resistance and ductility, so they can
absorb large amounts of energy. A loaded steel member until large deformations occur will
still be able to withstand large forces; this implies that the steel members can undergo large
deformations during their formation and assembly without fracturing, which allows them to
be bent, hammered, cut and drilled without apparent damage.
• Extensions of existing structures: Steel structures adapt very well to possible additions.
New bays and even entire wings can be added to existing steel structures, such as bridges that
can often be extended.
• Miscellaneous properties
 Great facility to join various members by means of various types of connection such as
welding, screws and rivets.
 Possibility of prefabricating members
 Quick assembly
 Great ability to laminate in a large number of sizes and shapes.
 Resistance to fatigue
 Possible reuse after dismantling a structure
 Possibility of selling it as "scrap", even if it can not be used in its existing form
 Steel is the reusable material par excellence
2. DISADVANTAGES OF STEEL AS STRUCTURAL MATERIAL
The use of steel in structures has the following disadvantages

 Cost of maintenance: Most steels are susceptible to corrosion when exposed to air and water,
so they must be painted periodically. Although the use of intemperate steels can be
implemented for certain applications, which eliminates this cost.
 Cost of fire protection: Although some structural members are incombustible, their
resistances are considerably reduced during fires. In addition, steel is an excellent conductor
of heat, so unprotected steel members can transmit enough heat from a burned section or
compartment of a building to adjacent sections and set them on fire. This implies that steel
structures must be protected with materials that have insulating characteristics or condition
the building with fire systems.
 Susceptibility to buckling: The longer and slender the compression members, the greater
the danger of buckling. Steel has a high strength per unit weight, but when used as columns
it is not very economical since enough material must be used to stiffen the columns against
possible buckling.
 Fatigue: The strength of the steel can be reduced if it is subjected to a large number of
inversions of the direction of stress, or, to a large number of changes in the magnitude of the
stress effort. These problems of fatigue only occur in tensions.
 Fragile Fracture: Under certain conditions, steel may lose its ductility and brittle failure
may occur at stress concentration sites. The loads that produce fatigue and very low
temperatures aggravate the situation.

3. STEEL SECTION
The first structural profiles were rolled iron angles. The steel I-beams were laminated in 1884 and the
first lattice structure (the Home Insurance Company building in Chicago) was assembled that same
year. The credit for inventing the skyscraper is usually given to the engineer William LeBaron Jenny,
who devised this structure. For the exterior walls of this 10-story building, Jenny used cast iron
columns covered with bricks.
The first all-steel building was the second building of the Rand-McNally completed in 1890 in
Chicago. The use of elevators for mechanically operated passengers used in the Eiffel Tower, along
with Jenny's idea of articulated structuring, allowed the construction of thousands of tall buildings
around the world in the next 100 years.
During the first years of the use of steel, the various mills made their own profiles. In 1896, the
Association of American Steel Manufacturers (now called the American Iron and Steel Institute,
AISI) made the first efforts to standardize the profiles.
Structural steel can be laminated economically in a variety of shapes and sizes without appreciable
changes in physical properties. The most convenient structural members are those with great moments
of inertia in relation to their areas such as profiles I, T, and [.
In general, steel profiles are designated by the shape of their cross sections. However, standard
American beams (called S-beams) and wide-beams (called beam W) are I-shaped. It is important to
mention that the constant or almost constant thicknesses of the beams of the W-beams facilitate the
connections.
4. STRUCTURED STEEL SHEET OF BOLTED STEEL IN COLD
In addition to the hot-rolled steel profiles previously analyzed, there are some cold-rolled steel
profiles. These are manufactured by bending thin sheets of low carbon or low alloy steel into virtually
any desired cross section. These profiles that can be used for lighter members are often used in some
types of boards, ceilings, floors and walls. Cold work reduces ductility somewhat, but also increases
resistance a bit.

5. RELATIONSHIPS EFFORT-DEFORMATION OF STRUCTURAL STEEL

To understand the behavior of metallic structures it is essential that the designer knows the properties
of steel. The stress-strain diagrams offer some of the information necessary to understand how this
material behaves in a particular situation.
The greatest effort for which Hooke's law is still valid or the highest point of the straight portion of
the stress-strain diagram is called the "proportional limit". The greatest effort that a material can resist
without permanently deforming is called the elastic limit. This value is rarely measured and for most
structural materials, including steel, is synonymous with the proportional limit, which is why the term
elastic proportional limit is sometimes used.
The stress in which there is a sudden increase in elongation or deformation without an increase in
stress, is called yield stress, and corresponds to the first point of the stress-strain diagram in which
the tangent to the curve is horizontal. Beyond the yield stress there is a range in which a considerable
increase in deformation occurs without an increase in stress called "elastic deformation". The
deformation that occurs after the yield stress without an increase in stress is called "plastic
deformation".

6. MODERN STRUCTURAL STEELS

The properties of steel can be changed to a large extent by varying the present amounts of carbon and
adding other elements such as silicon, nickel, manganese and copper. A steel that has considerable
amounts of these last elements will be called alloy steel.
The chemical composition of steel is of great importance in its effects on its properties such as
weldability, corrosion resistance, fracture resistance, etc. The ASTM specifies the exact maximum
percentages of carbon, manganese, silicon, etc., that are allowed in structural steels. Although the
physical and mechanical properties of steel profiles are mainly determined by their chemical
composition, they are also influenced, to some extent, by the rolling process, the history of their
stresses and the heat treatment applied.
Structural steels are generally grouped according to several main classifications of the ASTM.
General purpose steels (A36), structural carbon steels (A529), high strength and low alloy structural
steels (A572), high strength, low alloy structural steels and atmospheric corrosion resistant steels
(A242 and A588) ) and the hardened and tempered steel plate (A514 and A852).
The modern structural steels:

• Carbon steels:
• High strength and low alloy steels
• High strength, low alloy structural steels resistant to atmospheric corrosión
• Tempered and tempered steels

7. HIGH STRENGTH STEELS

There are ultra high strength steel groups that have fluences between 160 ksi and 300 ksi. However,
ASTM has not assigned them a classification number.Among the additional factors that can lead to
the use of high strength steels are the following:

 High resistance to corrosion.

 Possible savings in assembly, transport and foundations costs due to the lower weight.
 Use of lower beam beams, which allows to reduce the thickness of the floors.
 Possible savings in the projection against fire because smaller elements can be used.