R&D news
ECCS Publications
Conferences
Announcements
Technical Committees (TC) activities

Keine Kurzfassung verfügbar.

• 35th International Symposium on Bridge and Structural Engineering
• ECCS Congress  -  Annual Meeting  -  Structural Steel Design Awards 2011  - 
• Brazil Welding Show 2011
• IABMAS 2012  -  6th International Conference on Bridge Maintenance, Safety and Management
• 18th IABSE Congress on “Innovative Infrastructures”

Keine Kurzfassung verfügbar.

This article deals with the design and construction of a bridge on Réunion Island. Its design results from a close cooperation between architect, landscape designer and engineers. It concerns a steel arch bridge with an unusual slenderness ratio of 1:7.5 guided by geotechnics, accessibility to the excavations and environmental and aesthetic considerations. Detailed studies of the wind (numerical calculation of the wind, wind tunnel studies, calculations with turbulent wind) allowed cyclone conditions to be taken into account in the design for top speeds, which can reach nearly 300 km/h. The structure was built using the cantilever method thanks to the addition of diagonals and temporary anchoring tie beams allowing a transitory lattice-type operation.

A new swing bridge for an electrified double-track railway has been proposed in Malaysia to replace an existing 40-year-old single-track swing bridge. The proposed swing bridge has two equal cantilevers each 45 m long and features a steel ”sail” on both sides as the main longitudinal structural element. The 9.1 m wide bridge deck is a composite design  -  steel structure with concrete slab. The swing span will be powered by means of an electrohydraulic drive situated in the centre pier and slews over the centre bearing located below the centre pivot shaft.

At the very end of the 1890s, the rural district of Urfahr was connected to the town of Linz, Austria, by means of a seven-span, 393.94 m long steel bridge. Serious problems regarding its durability arose from the use of the bridge for road traffic due to the application of de-icing salt, which began in the mid-1960s and caused severe corrosion damage. In 1981 the bridge was improved by restoring the anti-corrosion protection and by replacing the old deck construction with a new one. Since that time, restoration works and repairs have been carried out continuously. This paper deals with the present reliability of the main spans with a special focus on the structural behaviour under traffic and wind loads, quantified by means of modern standards.

Stations for high-speed rail travel are an important example of current trends in architecture and its relationship with structural engineering. This paper presents two Spanish examples where concept and detailed design can be highlighted as key elements of the structure. Tarragona-Reus Station is a through station situated in a rural area. Its structure creates a roof topography that constitutes a landmark for the area. Rectangular hollow sections (RHS) are used to create planar Warren trusses that make up the triangular base around which the building is formed. Valencia station is a terminus in an urban location, with a provisional design based on a modular structure concept. The main loadbearing modules, with plate box sections, go beyond their construction purpose to act as a structural coffered ceiling and the visual representation of the station.

Bridges are an important part of any country’s infrastructure. Welded stiffened plates are widely used as box girders for bridges. This article presents a design optimization problem for a single steel box with stiffeners on webs. The design is intended to be formulated based only on the current version of Eurocode 3 Part 1-5 ”Plated structural elements”. Eurocode 3 will definitely be introduced in all the Member States of the European Union. This optimization resource represents an engineering compromise, not only for society, but also for avoiding negative impacts on the environment.

Keine Kurzfassung verfügbar.

This article reports on how the steel industry in Germany can systematically improve the early phases of its cooperative pre-competitive application research in the construction sector. The aim of this work is to increase innovation success through a targeted lead-in to the innovation processes. It makes use of various models from industrial innovation management, experience in research management for a current project on the sustainability of steel in the construction sector and the results from a survey of the research institutes participating in the project. As a result, a model for the systematic management of the early innovation phases in steel application research for the construction industry is presented. The model supports the participants from industry and the academic sector in finding, formulating and implementing new innovation ideas.

Temporary covered areas in Greece are seen as an open space, and so allow a higher usage of the land. The goal during the design was to find a light roof with direct view to the blue sky. The solution is a north light roof with highly translucent membrane panels and with a transparent cladding on the north side of the parallel steel girders to allow the direct view, and the entrance of the cool northern light.

Keine Kurzfassung verfügbar.

• Fabricated steelwork can now be CE-marked, mandatory from 1 July 2012
• Special event
• Conferences
• Announcements
• ECCS Steel Design Awards 2011
• Technical Committees (TC) activities
• Erratum: ECCS News

• BCSA announces retirement of Director General, Dr Derek Tordoff
• Karlheinz Blessing nominated as new CEO of Dillinger Hütte

• worldsteel chooses new Director General
• ArcelorMittal expands towards Thailand

Keine Kurzfassung verfügbar.

Keine Kurzfassung verfügbar.

The new railway crossing over the River Sado at Alcacer do Sal in Portugal required a 2.7 km long bridge, comprising two approach viaducts and a main bridge. Steel-concrete composite decks were adopted, the approach viaducts having plate girder decks with 45 and 37.5 m spans, and the main bridge three spans of 160 m each with a box girder deck. The main bridge, with a continuous deck over 480 m, consists of three continuous bowstrings with a single plane of hangers on the bridge axis. The main aspects of the bridge concept design are described and the steel design in particular is discussed.

Keine Kurzfassung verfügbar.

This paper introduces a simplified method for calculating the dynamic response of railway bridges under train service loads. Response spectrum analysis, which has proved itself in structural dynamics, has been adopted for the given problem. If essential parameters such as the natural frequency, mass, span and damping of a bridge are known, the maximum response quantities can be looked up in a diagram. Preparation of the response spectra diagrams is computationally intensive but they do provide an easy and quick way of obtaining accurate results. This method is exemplified for single-span bridges and the load models defined in the Eurocode. However, it is possible to expand the theory to more complex bridge systems and other load models without difficulty. With the aid of this method, the maximum dynamic response of a bridge under moving loads can be calculated in an efficient and convenient way with the accuracy required by the current design codes.

Keine Kurzfassung verfügbar.

The Savoy is London’s landmark hotel located on the Thames Embankment between Waterloo Bridge and Westminster. It was closed in December 2007 for a complete refurbishment and will reopen soon.
One major part of the refurbishment  -  the underpinning of the existing cantilevering lattice trusses, from which the south façade is suspended  -  was published in ”The Savoy Hotel enhancement part I: south façade” in the 2/2010 issue of this journal. Other key parts of the refurbishment are the installation of a new lift above Savoy Way, including extending the lifts up to the 8th floor, and the installation of a large ornate glass dome above the hotel’s ”Thames Foyer”. To incorporate the dome, the existing pitched truss roof had to be temporarily supported, the tension member had to be severed and a new box structure, supporting the huge glass ornate dome, had to be inserted. The structural work undertaken is described here.

The calculation of the loadbearing capacity of thin-walled structures, including trapezoidal sheeting, normally follows the procedures of EN 1993-1-3 and similar codes. EN 1993-1-4 complements this standard for thin-walled structures made of stainless steel. Unfortunately, a buckling curve for stiffeners between the plane cross-section parts of the flanges or the webs is lacking. A finite element analysis was performed in order to obtain a buckling curve for such stiffeners. The finite element model was calibrated based on test results and by recalculating the EN 1993-1-3 buckling curve for the stiffeners in trapezoidal sheeting made of non-alloy structural steel. The results of the research into the loadbearing behaviour of thin-walled stainless steel trapezoidal sheeting presented here are closing this gap: the proposed addition to the design formulae means it is now possible to carry out a complete calculation of the loadbearing capacity of stainless steel trapezoidal sheeting.

The International Institute of Welding (IIW) has published its first comprehensive recommendation on fatigue design of welded structures in 1996. The document appeared in English, French, German and Japanese. The idea was to describe the fatigue properties of welded joints and components independently from application groups with their specific preferences and interests. So, a comprehensive code was established, which covered all current methods of verification, such as component testing, nominal stress, structural stress, notch stress method as well as fracture mechanics assessment procedures. Detailed guidance for assessment of weld imperfections was also given. The outlined safety philosophy covers the different strategies and provides a detailed choice for the designer. The document had a considerable impact on code making bodies and thus it became an important source for the Eurocode. After more than one decade, a new update of the IIW recommendations has been published. The main areas of update are firstly a new consideration of high cycle fatigue in the grid of the Woehler S-N curves, a standardized meshing for the structural hot-spot stress concept, which allows now an economic and coarser meshing in finite element analysis, further on the extension of the effective notch stress concept to welded aluminium structures, followed by a numerical assessment of post weld treatments for improving the fatigue properties, and finally a new approach to cumulative damage in connection with multi-axial stress. The update is a result of a worldwide collaboration of leading research institutions and it is expected that the new update will have the same impact on design and codes as the preceding document.