Steel design resources

AISC offers Night School course and updated Seismic Design Manual

The American Institute of Steel Construction’s (AISC’s) new Night School course, Steel Construction: From the Mill to Topping Out, takes an in-depth look at the entire steel construction process, from the manufacturing of steel to completion of the structure. Each session covers a distinct topic related to steel construction, presented by an expert on that particular phase of construction. Design engineers will come away with the knowledge of all phases and of the roles of all players in the steel construction process, so that they can be more efficient in their own role. This eight-session course began Oct. 15 and runs through Dec. 10.

The course opens with a look at the practical aspects of steel production and continues with an in-depth view of steel fabrication and erection, as well as the engineering aspects of both of these critical construction operations. The course finishes with sessions on field fixes, quality control, and quality assurance.

Night School is a curriculum of courses on various structural steel design and construction topics. Each course consists of eight sessions presented as 90-minute webinars. Attendees can either register for the entire eight-session package ($500 for AISC members, one attendee per connection) and earn up to 1.2 CEUs/12 PDHs upon passing a series of quizzes and a final exam; or they can register for individual webinars ($185 per session for AISC members), with an unlimited number of attendees per connection, and receive 0.15 CEUs/1.5 PDHs per session.

For more information and to register, go to www.aisc.org/nightschool.

Seismic design

AISC also released the 3rd Edition AISC Seismic Design Manual (available at www.aisc.org/publications), with additional information and design aids to help engineers navigate the design of steel and composite seismic resisting systems (SFRS). It includes discussion and practical guidance on applying the latest versions of AISC’s core standards — the 2016 Specification for Structural Steel Buildings (ANSI/AISC 360), 2016 Seismic Provisions for Structural Steel Buildings (ANSI/AISC 341), 2016 Prequalified Connections for Special and Intermediate Steel Moment Frames for Seismic Applications (ANSI/AISC 358), and the 15th Edition Steel Construction Manual. The new edition costs $100 for AISC members, $200 for non-members.

Part 1 now includes a sample set of plan and detail drawings showing how the designer can indicate the SFRS to the steel fabricator and erector. The tables in this part also incorporate the latest in larger rolled steel shapes and high-strength steel grades.

Design examples have been developed in Part 4 for special moment frame systems to reflect updates to the Seismic Provisions. These examples provide guidance for bracing a beam in a moment frame, designing a bolted flange plate connection, and designing a special truss moment frame system.

The new design examples in Part 5 address multi-tiered ordinary concentric braced frames and connection design for buckling-restrained braced frames. The Seismic Provisions updates to ordinary and special composite shear wall systems are reflected in Part 7.

Part 9 of the manual contains the AISC standards, 2016 Seismic Provisions for Structural Steel Buildings (ANSI/AISC 341-16) and Prequalified Connections for Special and Intermediate Moment Frames for Seismic Applications (ANSI/AISC 358-16). These standards represent the latest innovations in engineering research, design and construction of steel buildings in seismic regions.

The 2016 Seismic Provisions and Prequalified Connections documents, along with all other AISC standards, are available for free download at www.aisc.org/specifications.

Designers also can visit the technical resources page that is specific to seismic applications at www.aisc.org/technical-resources/seismic. A number of other useful resources that supplement the use of the Seismic Design Manual and the Steel Construction Manual are available at www.aisc.org/publications/steel-construction-manual-resources. AISC also posts archival NASCC conference proceedings, many of which are on the topic of seismic design, at www.aisc.org/educationarchives.

Information provided by the American Institute of Steel Construction (www.aisc.org).