Contributions to codes and standards
Our research has had a substantial impact on a number of European structural steel design standards - EN 1993-1-1 for general structural steel design, EN 1993-1-4 for structural stainless steel design and EN 1993-1-14 for steel design for finite element analysis.
Guidance and training courses on the application of Eurocode 3 are available, as detailed below.
Designers' Guide to Eurocode 3
Designers' Guide to EN 1993-1-1 Eurocode 3: Design of Steel Structures - General Rules and Rules for Buildings
L. Gardner and D.A. Nethercot
Throughout, this book concentrates on the most commonly encountered aspects of structural steel design, with an emphasis on the situation in buildings. Much of its content is therefore devoted to the provisions of the Part 1-1: General rules and rules for buildings of EN 1993. This is, however, supplemented by material on loading, joints and cold-formed design. For each of the principal aspects covered, the book provides background to the structural behaviour, explanation of the codified treatment including departure from existing practice (BS 5950), and numerous worked examples. This Guide should serve as the primary point of reference for designing steel structures to Eurocode 3.
Available at Thomas Telford Bookshop
Behaviour and design of steel structures to EC3
Trahair, Bradford, Nethercot and Gardner (2008)
The fully revised fourth edition of this successful textbook fills a void which will arise when British designers start using the European steel code EC3 instead of the current steel code BS5950. The principal feature of the forth edition is the discussion of the behaviour of steel structures and the criteria used in design according to the British version of EC3. Thus it serves to bridge the gap which too often occurs when attention is concentrated on methods of analysis and the sizing of structural components.
Because emphasis is placed on the development of an understanding of behaviour, many analytical details are either omitted in favour of more descriptive explanations, or are relegated to appendices. The many worked examples both illustrate the behaviour of steel structures and exemplify details of the design process.
Training courses for Eurocode 3
Training courses for the design of steel structures to Eurocode 3 are offered by the Institution of Civil Engineers through Thomas Telford Training. Training courses for many of the other structural Eurocodes also offered.
The steel design course covers, as an outline:
- Introduction and setting of course objectives
- Overview of basis of design (EN 1990) and actions (EN 1991)
- Overview of Eurocode 3
- Structural analysis
- Design of cross-sections
- Design of columns
- Design of beams
- Design of beam-columns
- Design of joints
1 day course: http://www.tttrain.co.uk/courses/CourseDetails.aspx?ProductCode=D9302
2 day course: http://www.tttrain.co.uk/courses/CourseDetails.aspx?ProductCode=D9303
Our research has had a substantial impact on two US structural stainless steel design specifications - AISC 370 for hot-rolled and welded stainless steel sections and ASCE 8 for cold-formed stainless steel sections.
Members of the Group were part of the European Project PUREST, aimed at disseminating new design guidance for structural stainless steel which has been developed over the last 10-15 years. This included publication of the Fourth Edition of the Design Manual for Structural Stainless Steel as well as the accompanying Commentary. The Commentary serves as a database of work that has been conducted and explains how the design expressions in the Recommendations were derived. The group were responsible for preparing the new text for the Commentary relating to structural response as well as overseeing the overall update of the document.
Opportunities
Within the general area of steel structures, there are numerous ongoing research projects and opportunities for collaboration. Applications are welcome at any time of year.
Enquiries may be made to leroy.gardner@imperial.ac.uk