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Norwegian Steel Day (annual conference)
13th International Symposium on Tubular Structures (ISTS 13)
NASCC  -  The Steel Conference
ASCP’11  -  2nd conference on bridge safety and maintenance
EURODYN 2011  -  8th International Conference on Structural Dynamics
XII International Conference on Metal Structures Wroclaw 2011
Footbridge 2011
ICSAS11  -  International Conference on Steel and Aluminium Structures
EUROSTEEL 2011  -  6th European Conference on Steel and Composite Structures

This spectacular covered market set in a beautifully landscaped hilltop of the famous Silk Road is composed of two buildings. The central open air courtyard of the greengrocer market is enclosed by oval shaped covered gallery. The fishmonger market is a smaller building set apart. The design of both markets maintains the idea of the grand bazaars, thus connecting the new buildings to the long-standing cultural traditions of Central Asia. But at the same time the steel spanned arched roof provide fully modern qualities such as space, comfort, light and ventilation.

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A new underground station at Střížkov in Prague has been designed and built as a special structure with a high level of aesthetics. The hall structure is 160 m long, 42 m wide and 20 m high. Two crossing hingeless main arches spanning 160 m are fixed to concrete pylons. The roof structure is suspended from the main arches using a system of prestressed rods and supported by columns around the roof. Most of the members are curved with variable cross-sections (the majority of sections are welded boxes with a plate thickness of 10 - 35 mm except the columns, which are welded I-sections). The geometry of all parts made design, fabrication and erection very difficult. The whole structure was built under the direct supervision of the architect. The underground station was opened to the public in May 2008.

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Dubai International Airport experienced an increase in passenger numbers from 4.3 million in 1990 to some 40 million in 2008, and this figure is expected to rise further. To meet the needs of this influx of travellers and airlines, the government of Dubai launched a major expansion of the airport in 2002, involving the construction of the new terminal 3 plus its concourses 2 and 3  -  a total investment of US$ 4.1 billion.
The envelope of the double-curvature concourses, 950 m and 600 m long respectively, is intersected by 142 triangular façades, the “teardrop-windows”. The prestressed tension rod system has been designed to adjust automatically to the different geometries of the individual façades with up to 475 m2 of surface area. Besides the filigree appearance, easy and reliable installation and pretensioning are the major advantages of the system. The structure of the teardrop-windows consists of two orthogonally arranged tension rods with opposing curvature. The tension rod system is connected to a perimeter edge beam and is therefore self-retaining, similar to the well-known “tennis racket” system. Thus, no reaction forces caused by pretensioning are transferred into the primary steel construction.

The Savoy is London’s landmark hotel located on the Thames Embankment between Waterloo Bridge and Westminster. It was closed in December 2007 and an auction was held  -  broadcasted worldwide on TV  -  to sell many pieces of the hotel’s original furniture and art. This marked the starting point for the complete refurbishment of the hotel which will soon come to an end.
A major part of the refurbishment was the work on the south façade. This Grade II listed façade is hung back from cantilevered existing lattice trusses which are supported by a 1000 mm thick brick wall. To open up the rooms to the river front, this wall was replaced by a six-storey moment frame. In order to achieve this, the existing lattice trusses had to be underpinned and therefore temporary steel towers had to be installed first.
These works are described in this paper. Other structural works, such as the installation of a large ornate glass dome, necessary due to alterations to existing steel trusses, will be published in Part II.

In 1839 the engineer Camille Polonceau invented the structurally efficient Polonceau truss. However, for a long time architects refused to leave iron structures exposed in public buildings for aesthetical reasons. Despite this, engineers acknowledged the ample structural opportunities of iron roofs, which urged them to experiment with curved trusses in order to avoid the bar roof trusses so reminiscent of industrial buildings. Nevertheless, today everyone knows the Polonceau truss, whereas few are familiar with its aesthetical counterpart: the Ardant truss.
This curved roof truss makes use of an inscribed arch, tangential and framed to the principal rafters of a gable roof, in order to add rigidity to the roof structure and avoid interfering tension ties. According to the spirit of those times, this solution with its high decorative potential seemed to provide a satisfying answer to both the aesthetical as well as the structural problems of iron roof trusses in public buildings. Subsequently, it was used many times in swimming pools, stock exchange buildings, schools, platform coverings, palaces, malls, etc.
In Belgium it was widely used to span the central covered courtyard of the Brussels model schools which were built between 1875 and 1920 and which were very innovative with regard to their architecture, educational policy, hygiene, heating and ventilation techniques, safety, etc.
This paper deals with the ongoing debates on the efficiency and aesthetics of iron architecture in the 19th and 20th centuries by analysing the truss designs of three Brussels model schools.

This paper discusses the ultimate compressive strength of stainless steel plates made from JIS SUS329J3L duplex stainless steel (EN 1.4462). Firstly, based on coupon test results for SUS329J3L, the applicability of the existing constitutive equation for SUS329J3L is confirmed and the validity of a numerical analysis incorporating the equation shown in comparison with the results of compression testing for a stiffened stainless steel plate. Secondly, the ultimate compressive strength of simply supported plates and outstanding plates made from SUS329J3L is examin ed by way of a numerical analysis and compared with that of JIS SM570 structural carbon steel. Finally, the ultimate compressive strength of plates made from SUS329J3L is discussed in relation to existing ultimate strength curves.

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Plane grillages and finite element models are widely used for the design of bridges. In a grillage idealization the entire superstructure of the bridge is suitably represented by different sets of bar elements. On the other hand, the finite element method makes use of plane and solid elements for the three-dimensional representation of the structure. Although these models are generally accepted as sufficiently accurate, they are associated with some drawbacks. To overcome the difficulties of plane grillage and finite element analyses, a new way of modelling steel composite bridges is presented in this paper. The proposed model is based on the simulation of steel I-girders through the use of equivalent trusses. The concrete slab is represented by a set of bar elements and the bearings by the use of appropriate springs. Diaphragms and stiffeners may also be taken into account.
This new way of modelling composite bridges using a spatial system of beam-like structural elements allows deformations and internal forces to be predicted reliably, and can be used for dynamic and stability analysis. Worked examples are also provided to illus trate the setup procedure for 3D modelling and to compare the different analysis methods. The work presented in this paper is part of a research project investigating the modelling of steel and composite bridges which is being carried out at the National Technical University of Athens.

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This article outlines the current experimental research activities of Hilti with respect to the seismic performance of sheet steel decks in shear diaphragm designs. Hilti’s vast range of products includes steel screws as well as powder-actuated nails and tools for the fastening of sheet steel decks and sandwich panels on steel structures. Common designs in North America include shear diaphragms constructed with sheet steel deck which is fastened to thin steel bar joists and structural steel framing supports. In contrast to Europe, most of the fastenings (approx. 85 %) are still made using of arc-spot puddlewelds, the rest are mechanically fastened.
The objective of this ongoing research project is to prove the suitability and performance of such mechanically fastened diaphragm systems when subjected to seismic loading. Therefore, static and dynamic testing of these assemblies are carried out in the “Fastening Systems Research Laboratory” at Hilti headquarters in Schaan, which has been awarded DAP accreditation (DAP, German Accreditation System for Testing  -  DIN EN ISO/IEC 17025). Static preliminary tests provide the calibration data for the seismic load protocol developed by Prof. Robert Tremblay (University of Montreal, Canada).
The results of multiple tests using different sheet metal thicknesses and fastening patterns confirm the ductile behaviour of such constructions.

Among the many new towns in China, Lingang New City is probably the one with the most exceptional design history and urban layout. Inspired by a drop hitting the water’s surface and causing ripples, Meinhard von Gerkan’s (gmp) design for the entire town for 800 000 people 60 km south of Shanghai is being built entirely on reclaimed land. Water plays a pivotal role in every sense in the overall urban scheme. For example, the centre of the town is marked by a huge artificial lake covering 8 km2, thus creating the paradox of what one might call an “empty” centre. It therefore does not come as a surprise to learn that China’s first National Maritime Museum (Fig. 1) is one of the first buildings to be realized in Lingang New City, a town literally built on water.

• Richard Schardt reaches 80
• Meinhard von Gerkan celebrates 75

• Annual congress “Advancements for Metal Buildings”
• GALVATECH 2011 8th International Conference on Zinc and Zinc Alloy Coated Steel Sheet
• ICTWS 2011 The 6th International Conference on Thin Walled Structures

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The new office building for the European Investment Bank in Luxembourg was built to a design by Dusseldorf-based architect Christoph Ingenhoven. The particular features of this building are its cable façades as well as the curving glass envelope spanning over the whole structure. This article provides a detailed description of the steel-and-glass structures to the façades and barrel vault, which are the main elements determining the building’s appearance. Particular attention is paid to the very high safety standards applied to all structures. Thanks to a sophisticated combination of various loadbearing elements it was possible to unite maximum transparency with remarkable robustness.

The use of innovative solutions and research into lightness demands new and more complex design skills. The traditional approach to the solution of structures has been superseded by an iterative approach where all the aspects of every element designed play an important role. For the transparent inner court canopy at the Lombardy Regional Government headquarters, the project is the result of the different aspects of the building: the supporting buildings, the dimensions of the structure, the time of construction and, above all, the use of an ETFE pneumatic membrane roof covering. It is the ETFE roofing in particular that permits the design of lighter supporting frameworks. This article describes the whole building, focusing on the design steps for the transparent canopy in particular.

This paper describes the design and construction of a high-rise steel building in Bucharest. The steel structure was designed according to the recently adopted Eurocodes and its performance was investigated using advanced techniques, including seismic performance-based methodology and wind tunnel tests. Robustness under extreme loading conditions was also investigated. The ECCS awarded the project a European Steel Design Award in 2007.

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The key to harmonizing the rules for the assessment of in-plane and out-of-plane stability of structural steel members is a common definition of equivalent geometric imperfections. The nature of these is given by the elastic-critical buckling mode and their amplitudes are obtained from the evaluation of test results for member resistance according to EN 1990  -  Annex D  -  Basis of structural design.
EN 1993  -  Part 1-1  -  Design of steel structures  -  contains a set of alternative rules for stability checks. Of these, the “general method” could potentially function as a consistent and reliable set of rules for assessing both flexural and lateral-torsional buckling for any loading and support conditions, and also cover the case of combined compression, biaxial bending and torsion. This report describes the basis of the “general method” and its extension to the treatment of any stability problems in bar structures.
The reliability of the method is verified by test evaluations. This means it can be used as reference method for checking the accuracy of the other alternative stability rules in EN 1993-1-1. A comparison shows that the other alternative rules meet the requirements on the whole, with deviations of about ±10 %, which define their modelling uncertainty.

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The susceptibility of horizontally curved steel highway bridges to seismic damage increases substantially when subjected to Level II Earthquake Ground Motions. The growing need for safer bridges has stimulated the replacement of vulnerable steel bearing supports with seismic isolation devices. The purpose of the present study is to analyse the overall performance of highway bridges, with an emphasis on the effectiveness of seismic isolation based on Lead Rubber Bearings (LRB). The analysis of the bridges was performed on three-dimensional models using a numerical method based on the dynamic response analysis, considering both geometric and material non-linearities. The non-linear bridge models were subjected to strong ground motion records from the 1995 Kobe earthquake. The efficiency of using LRB supports on curved highway viaducts is demonstrated in this study. The results show that seismic isolation improves the seismic response of curved bridges and reduces excessive seismic damage.