Useful Information

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Technical (and other) information that may help you make steel design and construction easier, faster and better.

AISC Certification
Architecturally Exposed Structural Steel (AESS)
Availability of Steel Shapes
Blast-Resistant Design and Construction
Code, Specification and Standard Roundup
Cold-Formed Steel Design and Construction
Economy -- Know what influences the cost of steel buildings and bridges and get dozens of practical suggestions that will help you cut cost in steel design and construction without sacrificing quality.
Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)
Fire Protection and Engineering
Floor Vibrations -- Eliminate perceptible floor accelerations in your buildings.
Governmental Regulations -- Know the governmental regulations that affect steel design and construction.
Hollow Structural Sections (HSS) Reduced Design Wall Thickness -- The thickness used in design is less than the nominal thickness.
Load and Resistance Factor Design (LRFD) -- This design methodology is coming. Are you prepared to transition to its use in your daily practice?
Low Floor-to-Floor Height Framing -- Reduce the story height and still frame in steel.
Materials, Preparation and Testing -- Properly specify requirements for materials, preparation and testing in your steel projects with the help in this feature.
Metric Design and Construction -- Subject to a "foreign ruler"? Find metric and SI resources you need here.
Miscellaneous, Ornamental and Architectural Metals -- Stairs, handrails, ladders, flagpoles, etc.
OSHA Safety Regulations for Steel Erection -- Effective January 18, 2002, all steel erection must conform.
"Other" Building Types -- Not every building is an office building. Not every structure is a building.
Project Delivery Systems -- Whether you go design-bid-build, design-build or fast-track, learn how to make steel construction work for you.
Recycling -- Steel is as green as it gets. Pound for pound, steel is the most recycled material on Earth.
Rehabilitation and Retrofit of Existing Structures -- Useful information for when your work involves old buildings.
Research -- Current and needed research in steel.
Seismic Connections -- We've learned a lot since Northridge, particularly in moment frames!
Seismic Design and Construction -- Don't be shaky on this subject.
Steelmaking -- Learn how the steel you design and/or install is made.
Technical Information Directory -- Information sorted by subject.
Temporary Support of Structural Steel Frames During Erection -- Gone are the old lightning-rod terms "self-supporting" and "non-self-supporting".
Unified Specification -- No more arguments about LRFD and ASD?
Welding -- Know how to properly select, design and use welds in steel building design and construction.

Issues:

Banging Bolts -- There is no structural consequence to its occurence, but banging bolts can certainly be unnerving to building occupants.
Connection Design Responsibility -- It's been clarified and streamlined in Section 4 of the new 2000 AISC Code of Standard Practice.
Corrosion Protection -- Information about steel corrosion and how to prevent it, including with painting, galvanizing and other coating systems.
Cracking of Galvanized Coped Wide-Flange Shapes -- AISC is currently investigating the causes of cracks that have occurred sporadically during galvanizing in wide-flange beams with copes.
Design Drawing Quality -- It's all about making sure the information needed to fabricate the steel is shown.
Filler-Metal Toughness -- Since the Northridge earthquake, the importance of notch toughness in filler metals for welding has been recognized.
k-Area Cracking in Wide-Flange Shapes -- AISC is currently investigating the causes of cracks that have occurred sporadically during fabrication of wide-flange shapes.
T, k and k1 Dimensions for W-Shapes -- The fillet radii between the web and flange used in the production of W-shapes have changed.
Through-Thickness Strength of Column Flanges -- An issue that turned out to be a red herring.

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