e Making the right connections
By Carlos de Oliveira, M.A.Sc.
ON TA R IO CEN T R E
FOR ENGINEERING
AND PUBLIC POLICY
journal
The
of Policy engagement
Vol 1 • No 3 | July 2009
The Journal of Policy Engagement is
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2 The Journal of Policy Engagement
Executive summary
This paper presents an innovative technology borne
from academic engineering research and its suc-
cessful commercialization through the formation of
a new Canadian business enterprise. The technology,
developed at the University of Toronto under the
auspices of the Natural Sciences and Engineer-
ing Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and the
Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCE), improves the
safety and simplifies the design and construction
of buildings that must resist earthquakes. The case
study is presented as a positive example of how
government and institutional support of research,
talent and commercialization efforts can result in
the development of innovative technologies and the
creation of new businesses that have the potential
to make significant contributions to the economic
and social landscapes of Canada.
Introduction
A successful marriage of academe and government
support has led to the birth of a new technology that
promises to revolutionize the steel fabrication indus-
try. Developed by University of Toronto (U of T) civil
engineering professors Jeffrey Packer, P.Eng., and
Constantin Christopoulos, P.Eng., along with gradu-
ate student-turned entrepreneur Carlos de Oliveira,
EIT, this breakthrough focuses on replacing existing
individually designed and fabricated structural steel
connections with standardized components. The
particular components the trio developed will make
buildings in earthquake-prone regions safer and easier
to design and construct.
Ontarians, particularly Ontario engineers, can
take pride in the fact that this “disruptive technol-
ogy,” one that has the potential to forever change
current industry practices, was developed in Ontario
and is gaining traction in the construction indus-
try. And although Cast ConneX Corporation, the
company de Oliveira now heads, is still very young,
the company’s early success demonstrates that the
right mix of research, talent, industry pull, financial
support and political will can lead to success in the
innovation economy of the 21st century.
Background
Over the past 50 years, an entire industry has been
built around the design and fabrication of structural
steel connections, the welded or bolted “details” that
connect any two or more structural steel elements
in the buildings we all occupy. These connections
are critical because they facilitate the transfer of
forces among structural elements (joists, beams,
columns, etc.) and are thus a part of a building’s
overall integrity system.
Although the producers of structural steel
sections–the building blocks that form the backbone
of every steel building–have moved towards the
standardization of the shapes they manufacture
(wide-flange sections, angles, channels, hollow
structural sections, etc.), the fabrication sector of
the industry has been able to remain competitive
while still being based on manual fabrication of
“one-off” connections.
This individual detailing and manual fabrication
has led regulatory authorities to develop numerous
codes, guides and standards on steel connection
design. It has also led to the evolution of weld-
ing certification procedures and qualifications that
are meant to ensure a uniform quality and safety
factor for typical welded details (some examples
include CSA [2005], CSA [2008], AISC [2005] and
AWS [2008]).
But new demands on the building construction
industry are changing past fabrication practices.
Recently, authorities around the world have been
insisting on stricter requirements for connections
that must resist earthquake-induced (seismic) load-
ing. Based on the devastation caused by recent
earthquakes around the world, it has become ap-
parent that the connections and structural systems
that were once considered the most ductile and
favourable for resisting seismic loading are not
adequate to withstand powerful quakes.
These findings have led to increasingly stringent
requirements for earthquake-resistant connections
with every reissue of design codes and standards.
As a consequence, the steel fabrication industry is
having trouble keeping up with the ever-changing re-
quirements. At the same time, responsibility, liability
and performance issues are becoming part of every
discussion on earthquake-resistant connections.
Recent research at U of T by professors Packer
and Christopoulos, along with graduate student de
Oliveira, has focused on addressing the aforemen-
tioned industry developments. Backed by the OCE
Centre for Materials and Manufacturing and NSERC,
the researchers developed a standardized cast steel
 “Pinned” structure collapses Lateral load is transferred Lateral load is transferred
with the application of to the foundation through to the foundation through
lateral load compression in the brace tension in the balance

Figure 1: How lateral loads impact traditional braced structures

connector to connect hollow section brace members to resist earthquake-
induced loading in “braced-frame” building structures.
Traditional earthquake-resistant brace connections
Up to now, most buildings have been constructed with individually
designed, detailed and fabricated connections that anchor hollow brac-
ing members to the structure’s frame. While these brace connections
can resist typical lateral forces, such as wind, they are susceptible to
fractures during earthquakes, putting a building’s structural integrity,
and the lives of those in the building, at risk.
Braced frames provide lateral stability to building structures by
transmitting lateral loads (i.e. wind or seismic loads) to the founda-
tions through tension or compression of diagonal brace members as
illustrated in Figure 1.
As hollow structural sections (HSS) are the most efficient members
for carrying compression forces, they are commonly used in braced-frame
structures. The usual way of connecting HSS bracing elements to the
steel frame involves cutting a slot in the HSS member, fitting a gusset
plate into the slot and subsequently welding the HSS element to the
plate (Figure 2).
Such a connection induces a phenomenon referred to as “shear
lag” in the HSS member. To better understand the effects of shear lag
on the capacity of a connection, it is helpful to consider an analogy to
a related localized failure in something that is more tangible–like a
sheet of paper.
If one pulls a sheet apart from both ends, localized loading causes
the paper to tear at one of the ends rather than at its centre. Extending
the analogy, think of an HSS brace member as a piece of paper that is
rolled into a tube. The welds between the tube and the plate serve as
hands, holding on to the “cross-sections” at their ends.

Figure 2: Shear lag in common slotted brace connections and an analogous failure in a sheet of paper pulled
from each end

Volume 1 • No 3 | July 2009 3

Figure 3: Typical connection failure modes in gusset plate-to-slotted HSS welded connections
[Photos: Packer, University of Toronto]
As is evident from this analogy, it is difficult to make the connection
strong enough to ensure failure does not occur if the member is overloaded.
Thus, the general essence of shear lag is that the full cross-section of
the member is not engaged at its ends. This phenomenon may cause a
localized connection failure at loads that are lower than the full cross-
sectional strength of the member.
Typical steel connections are designed only to be stronger than
the expected forces that may develop during the service life of the
building, including safety factors against overload and to account
for material variability. In most cases, providing connections that
are actually as strong as the member itself is neither necessary
nor pragmatic. Hence, in the majority of applications, shear lag in
structural connections is acceptable.
However, the structural response to earthquake-induced loading is
very different. During an earthquake, the inertia of the structure induces
cyclic tensile and compressive forces in the brace members of a braced
steel frame. In a strong earthquake, provided the connections are stronger
than the brace members themselves, the braces will actually yield in
tension and buckle in compression, thereby safely dissipating the seismic
input energy. In these extreme loading conditions, if the connections at
the ends of each brace are not stronger than the brace members, the
connections will fracture and the building may collapse. The crux of the
problem is making the brace end connections stronger than the brace
member. As described above, this is difficult with typical slotted HSS
connections because of shear lag (Figure 3).
4 The Journal of Policy Engagement
Unfortunately, as with most seismic design-related issues, the severity
of the problem went unnoticed until several high-magnitude earthquakes
struck California and Japan in the 1990s. It was during post-disaster recon-
naissance that engineers noted a disproportionately large number of brittle
failures in welded connections. With laboratory testing, the propensity
of connection failure was confirmed (AIJ; Tremblay et al.; Bonneville and
Bartoletti; Yang and Mahin; Fell et al.).
These findings led to the immediate adjustment of provisions in North
American steel design codes. Now, all seismic-resistant HSS brace con-
nections must be reinforced in the vicinity of the slot that is cut into the
member ends. This connection reinforcement is meant to reduce the
likelihood of a localized connection failure.
Not only must these earthquake-resistant connections now be re-
inforced, field welding is typically used to fasten these brace members
in place during construction. In comparison to bolting, field welding is
expensive and requires substantial on-site inspection to ensure the welds
are sufficiently sound to perform the critical function of transferring
primary structural forces.
As a result, connection designers have struggled with developing ways
to design seismic-resistant brace members that can accommodate bolted
field installation, further complicating design, detailing and fabrication of
bracing connections. Figure 4 shows one example of a particularly clever
seismic-resistant brace connection that accommodates field bolting
through the use of a “spliced” connection. The complex engineering
involved with the connection shown in the figure, in addition to the
Figure 4: The reinforced and spliced connection approach is one way to produce a seismic-resistant brace
connection. Exploded view (left); installed in field (right) [Photo: Canam Group]

complexities of fabrication and installation, led the U of T research team
to question the industry’s overall approach to the earthquake-resistant
brace connection dilemma.
The innovation
The Packer-Christopoulos-de Oliveira research team realized early on that
what the industry needed was a connection detail that would eliminate
shear lag, minimize the deformations that occur in the connection region
and, simultaneously, accommodate on-site field bolting of the brace as-
sembly. In response, the group developed a specially designed cast-steel
connector that could meet both the demanding structural, as well as the
practical, requirements (Figure 5).
Although other industries, such as rail, marine, mining, agriculture,
energy and military, make significant use of steel castings in structural
applications, the North American steel construction industry has been
slow to embrace their benefits. The use of a steel casting to address the
brace connection issues is a part of what made the U of T research both
innovative and practical.
At one end of the connector, there is a circular shape and preparation,
which allows it to be welded to a round HSS brace. The tapered prepara-
tion on the nose of the connector accommodates any brace of a given
outer diameter (shown as “D” in Figure 5), regardless of the brace’s wall
thickness. In this way, standardization of the connector is achieved (i.e.
one size of connector fits various sizes of round HSS members). Further,

Figure 5: The innovative Cast ConneX® High-Strength Connector

Volume 1 • No 3 | July 2009 5

Figure 6: How the cast steel connector works during an earthquake (top left); brace configuration in field
(bottom left); brace configuration in test (right)

Figure 7: Full-scale testing of a six-metre-long brace assembly equipped with high-strength connectors
(left to right): undeformed assembly; brace in buckled configuration; closeup of end connection; desirable
ductile rupture of the brace at its midpoint, not at an end connection [Photos: de Oliveira]

this weld detail eliminates shear lag as the full cross-section of the
brace is engaged and with a “complete joint penetration” (CJP) weld,
the connection is inherently as strong as the brace itself.
At the connector’s other end, the shape permits a “double-shear”
bolted connection to be used for attaching the shop-welded, brace-
connector assembly to the gusset plate in the field. This halves the
number of bolts that would otherwise be required in a spliced connection
(see Figure 4).
In this way, the researchers’ solution exploited the geometric free-
dom provided by steel-casting manufacturing and leveraged the same
manufacturing process’s inclination towards mass production to provide
a technologically sound and commercially viable product. Substantial
full-scale testing of brace assemblies fitted with these novel connec-
tors, carried out both at U of T and at École Polytechnique in Montreal,
proved that the connectors do indeed provide the capacity required to
withstand design-level earthquakes (de Oliveira et al.; Tremblay et al.)
(Figures 6 and 7).
By casting the connection’s complexity into the connectors, their use
vastly simplifies the design and fabrication of seismic-resistant brace
connections. Moreover, because the connectors can be standardized

6 The Journal of Policy Engagement

Figure 8: The first commercial application of the Cast ConneX® High-Strength Connectors, the Sandoz building
in the Montreal suburb of Boucherville [Photos: de Oliveira]
and subjected to testing to prove their effectiveness in an earthquake
(unlike the one-off connections currently used), buildings equipped with
these connectors should benefit from improved safety.
Commercialization
The next step was to move the research from the laboratory to the field.
Working with The Innovations Group, the U of T technology transfer
department, the researchers filed Canadian, US and international patents
for their technology. Because the connectors are produced using casting
manufacturing, the natural option would have been to license the technol-
ogy to an existing steel foundry, which would then market, produce and
sell the connectors to the steel construction industry.
Unfortunately, even the largest steel foundries in North America have
almost no exposure or experience with the structural steel construction
industry and lack the technical expertise to market such a specialized
product to structural engineers who, of course, must specify the com-
ponents prior to their use in construction.
Although steel fabricators have the requisite industry experience and
exposure, they lack the impetus to market a technology that may be seen
as disruptive to their core business. Thus, creating a new corporate entity
to market and sell the connectors was the most operable solution.
In early 2007, de Oliveira co-founded the Cast ConneX Corporation to
do just that. The business plan he developed to bring the technology to
market won him the Heffernan/Co-Steel Innovation Fellowship. Later that
same year, Cast ConneX secured seed financing, partnered with leading
steel foundry producers and, with funding provided by the Ontario Centres
of Excellence through their Market Readiness Program, developed and
tested a full line of market-ready Cast ConneX® High-Strength Connectors
based on the U of T research. Now CEO of Cast Connex Corporation, de
Oliveira received the prestigious Ontario Centres of Excellence Martin
Walmsley Fellowship for Technological Entrepreneurship in 2007.
Volume 1 • No 3 | July 2009
With a full product line of validated connectors, Cast Connex Corpo-
ration secured its first commercial sale in 2008 to the Canam Group of
Saint-Georges, QC, Canada’s largest steel contractor. The first project
to feature the innovative high-strength connectors was a four-storey
seismic-resistant office building constructed in a suburb of Montreal
that, along with much of the St. Lawrence lowlands region, is a moderate
seismic zone (Figure 8).
The project, representing years of investigation and commercialization
efforts, helped make the researchers and Cast Connex Corporation the
inaugural winners of the Canadian Society for Civil Engineering’s Excel-
lence in Innovation in Civil Engineering Award in 2009. This prestigious
award, presented by peers in the civil engineering community, recognizes
outstanding innovation in civil engineering that has the potential for
significant and far-ranging beneficial impact on the prosperity and well-
being of society.
Lessons for policy-makers
The Ontario Centres of Excellence played a critical role in the early suc-
cess of Cast Connex Corporation, from funding the initial U of T research
and supporting the company’s commercialization efforts through their
Market Readiness Program and their support via the Martin Walmsley
Fellowship. The U of T Innovations Group also played a key role in men-
toring, supporting the researchers through the process of protecting the
intellectual property they developed, and providing incubator space during
the company’s first year of operation.
Without the support of both U of T and of the Ontario Ministry of
Research and Innovation through the Ontario Centres of Excellence, the
research may only have materialized in technical publications instead of
making building structures in earthquake-prone regions safer and easier
to construct, potentially saving lives.
7
 The Cast Connex template demonstrates how public policy can stimulate
engineering innovation for the benefit of society. As a result, this Ontario
company has the potential to become a major global player in the steel
construction industry.
Job creation and wealth generation, in addition to the potential de-
velopment of peripheral technology or manufacturing businesses, are the
obvious economic benefits of new technology start-ups such as this. But
beyond that, with engineering based on the practical application of scientific
principles, research in this field has the ability to improve every aspect of
our everyday lives, whether it’s the food we eat, the water we drink, the
buildings we inhabit or even the air we breathe.
Policy-makers have the ability to stimulate the movement of important
engineering innovations into the public domain through continued and
increased funding of academic research and through the support of the
commercialization efforts of technology-based start-ups and young entre-
preneurs. The goal should be to replicate the Cast Connex story for both its
economic and social benefits, especially in this time of economic crises.
Unfortunately, governments don’t always make the right decisions,
particularly when times are tough. Recent cuts to federal funding of
programs such as the NSERCl are alarming. That said, with initiatives
like the “innovation agenda,” the Ontario government and its ministry of
research and innovation clearly understand that the province’s economic
and social prosperity is dependent on our ability to leverage the high-
quality research being carried out in our province’s universities.
References
American Institute of Steel Construction. Specification for Structural
Steel Buildings, ANSI/AISC 360-05. Chicago: American Institute of Steel
Construction. 2005.
American Welding Society. Structural Welding Code–Steel, ANSI/
AWS D1.1/D1.1M:2008. Miami: American Welding Society. 2008.
Architecture Institute of Japan. Reconnaissance Report on Damage
to Steel Building Structures Observed from the 1995 Hyogo Ken-Nanbu
(Hanshin/Awaji) Earthquake. Tokyo: Architectural Institute of Japan Steel
Committee of Kinki Branch, 1995.
Bonneville, Davice and Stacy Bartoletti. Case Study 2.3: Concentrically
Braced Frame, Lankershim Boulevard, North Hollywood. 1994 Northridge
Earthquake; Building Case Studies Project; Proposition 122: Product 3.2, SCC
94-06. Seismic Safety Commission. State of California: 305-324. 1996.
Canadian Standards Association. Limit States Design of Steel Struc-
tures. CAN/CSA-S16-01 and CAN/CSA-S16S1-05. Toronto: Canadian
Standards Association. 2005.
Canadian Standards Association. Welded Steel Construction (Metal
Arc Welding). CAN/CSA-W59-08. Toronto: Canadian Standards Associa-
tion. 2008.
de Oliveira, J.-C., J.A. Packer and Constantin Christopoulos. “Cast
steel connectors for circular hollow section braces under inelastic cyclic
loading.” Journal of Structural Engineering. March 2008: 374-383.
de Oliveira, J.-C., C. Christopoulos, J.A. Packer, R. Tremblay and M.G.
Gray. “Full-scale experimental validation of standardized seismic-resistant
cast steel brace connectors.” Proceedings, 14th annual World Conference
of Earthquake Engineering. Beijing. October 2008.
8 The Journal of Policy Engagement
Fell, Benjamin et al. Buckling and Fracture of Concentric Braces Under
Inelastic Loading. Steel Tips Technical Information and Product Service.
Moraga, CA: Structural Steel Educational Council. 2006.
Tremblay, Robert et al. Quasi-Static Cyclic Testing of Individual Full-
Scale Circular Steel Tubular Braces Equipped with Cast ConneX™ High-
Strength Connectors. Joint École Polytechnique de Montréal and University
of Toronto Publication. 2008.
Tremblay, Robert et al. “Seismic design of steel buildings: Lessons
from the 1995 Hyogo Ken-Nanbu earthquake.” Canadian Journal of Civil
Engineering. June 1996: 727-756.
Yang, Frances and Stephen Mahin. Limiting Net Section Fracture in
Slotted Tube Braces. Steel Tips Technical Information and Product Service.
Moraga CA: Structural Steel Educational Council. 2005.
Carlos de Oliveira is a co-founder and the chief executive officer of Cast
Connex Corporation. He received his B.A.Sc. in civil engineering with
a certificate in structural engineering from the University of Waterloo,
graduating on the Dean’s honours list with distinction in 2004. He
received his M.A.Sc. from the department of civil engineering from the
University of Toronto in 2006. He is the inaugural co-recipient of the
2009 CSCE Excellence in Innovation in Civil Engineering Award and the
winner of the 2008 CIDECT President’s Award for Research, the 2007
OCE Martin Walmsley Fellowship for Technological Entrepreneurship,
the Heffernan/Co-Steel Innovation Fellowship, and received honour-
able mention at the 2007 NSERC Innovation Challenge Awards. He has
authored and co-authored several articles and conference papers and is
a co-inventor on pending Canadian, US and international patents.
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