| With structural analysis
software now widely used in the design of steel frame structures, the
representation or modelling of a structure can have a marked effect on its
ultimate efficiency and cost.
Inappropriate decisions made when setting up the structural analysis can
easily lead to the requirement for costly and inefficient details, when a more
"educated" approach at the analysis stage, based on a better
appreciation both of how structures work and the principles of cost-effective
construction would have produced a better overall solution.
By drawing together the work being carried out on modelling, analysis and
design, connection design and codes, the CIMsteel project is preparing guidance
to ensure that the analyses used to determine the patter of internal forces in
a steel frame structure will recognise the most cost-effective ways of safely
transferring the various types of force through the structural components and
into the foundations.
A Guide for the Design of Structural Steel Frames by Computer will provide
specific advice and assistance on preparing the structural analysis for various
forms of steel structure.
A second document "Procedures and concepts for structural Design
Analysis and Code Check" will address ways of linking the various steps in
the life-cycle of structural steelwork, from conceptual design, through
structural analysis and into the detailed component design and the use of codes
for checking purposes.
The two documents will provide designers with guidance which was previously
only available in the form of personal experience. They will ensure that, where
computer analysis is necessary, it will recognise and encourage the effective
use of structural steelwork, to the benefit of designers, fabricators and
clients alike.
The documents are being prepared by the CIMsteel Overall Design and Analysis
Working Group which involves collaborators from Austria, Denmark and the United
Kingdom.
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