STEEL STRUCTURES

REFERENCES

1) Structural Steel Design (Fifth Edition), Jack C. McCormac, Stephen F. Csernak

2) Steel Structures: Design and Behavior, Charles G. Salmon, John E. Johnson, Faris A. Malhas
3) Structural Steel Design, Abi Aghayere, Jason Vigil
4) Steel Structures: Behavior and LRFD, Sriramulu Vinnakota
5) Aydın R., Günaydın A., Çelik Yapılar-Tasarım Kuralları ve Uygulama Örnekleri,
Güncelleştirilmiş 3.Baskı, Birsen Yayınevi, 2017.

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EARLY USES OF IRON AND STEEL

• The first use of metal for a sizable structure occurred in England in Shropshire (about 140 miles
northwest of London) in 1779, when cast iron was used for the construction of the 100-ft (30m)
Coalbrookdale Arch Bridge over the River Severn. A number of other cast-iron bridges were constructed
in the following decades, but soon after 1840 the more malleable wrought iron began to replace cast iron.

• Steel is defined as a combination of iron and a small amount of carbon, usually less than 1 percent. It also
contains small percentages of some other elements. Since 1890, steel has replaced wrought iron as the
principal metallic building material.

ADVANTAGES OF STEEL AS A STRUCTURAL MATERIAL

1) High Strength

• The high strength of steel per unit of weight means that the weight of structures will be small. This
fact is of great importance for long-span bridges, tall buildings, and structures situated on poor
foundations.
2) Uniformity
• The properties of structural steel are uniform and homogeneous, and highly predictable. The
properties of steel do not change appreciably with time. 2
3) Elasticity
• Steel behaves closer to design assumptions than most materials because it follows Hooke’s law up to
fairly high stresses. The moments of inertia of a steel structure can be accurately calculated, while the
values obtained for a reinforced-concrete structure are rather indefinite.
4) Permanence
• Steel frames that are properly maintained will last indefinitely. Research on some of the newer steels
indicates that under certain conditions no painting maintenance whatsoever will be required.

5) Ductility
• The property of a material by which it can withstand extensive deformation without failure under high
stresses is its ductility.
• When a mild or low-carbon structural steel member is being tested in tension, a large amount of
elongation will occur at the point of failure before the actual fracture occurs.

• In structural members under normal loads, high stress concentrations develop at various points. The
ductile nature of the usual structural steels enables them to yield locally at those points, thus preventing
premature failures.
• A further advantage of ductile structures is that when overloaded, their large deflections give visible
evidence of impending failure.
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6) Toughness
• The ability of a material to absorb energy in large amounts is called toughness. Structural steels are
tough—that is, they have both strength and ductility. A steel member loaded until it has large
deformations will still be able to withstand large forces.

7) Additions to Existing Structures

• Steel structures are quite well suited to having additions made to them. New bays or even entire
new wings can be added to existing steel frame buildings, and steel bridges may often be widened.

8) Miscellaneous
Several other important advantages of structural steel are as follows:
(a) ability to be fastened together by several simple connection devices, including welds and bolts;
(b) adaptation to prefabrication;
(c) speed of erection;
(d) ability to be rolled into a wide variety of sizes and shapes,;
(e) possible reuse after a structure is disassembled;
(f) Steel is the ultimate recycable material.

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DISADVANTAGES OF STEEL AS A STRUCTURAL MATERIAL

1) Corrosion
• Most steels are susceptible to corrosion when freely exposed to air and water. In some of situations,
corrosion may be a real problem. For instance, corrosion-fatigue failures can occur where steel
members are subject to cyclic stresses and corrosive environments.
• Steels can be protected against to corrossion by painting them periodically.

• Copper can be used as an anti-corrosion component. The copper is usually absorbed during the
steelmaking process.
2) Fireproofing Costs

• Although structural members are incombustible, their strength is tremendously reduced at

temperatures commonly reached in fires when the other materials in a building burn.
• Steel is an excellent heat conductor. Nonfireproofed steel members may transmit enough heat from a
burning section or compartment of a building to ignite materials with which they are in contact in
adjoining sections of the building.
• As a result, the steel frame of a building may have to be protected by materials with certain
insulating characteristics, and the building may have to include a sprinkler system.
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3) Susceptibility to Buckling
• As the length and slenderness of a compression member is increased, its danger of buckling increases.
For most structures, the use of steel columns is very economical because of their high strength-to-
weight ratios. Occasionally, however, some additional steel is needed to stiffen them so they will not
buckle. This tends to reduce their economy.
4) Fatigue
• Strength of steel may be reduced if it is subjected to a large number of stress reversals or even to a large
number of variations of tensile stress.

5) Brittle Fracture
• Under certain conditions steel may lose its ductility, and brittle fracture may occur at places of stress
concentration. Fatigue-type loadings and very low temperatures aggravate the situation. Triaxial stress
conditions can also lead to brittle fracture.

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STRUCTURAL STEEL PRODUCTS
I-shaped Sections:
• I-shaped sections are named by writing section heights next to the letters indicating their types. For
example: “ IPE 500 ” expresses the I-shaped section having 500 mm section height.

U-shaped (channel) Sections:

• U-shaped sections are named by writing section heights next to the letters indicating their types. For
example: “ UPN 200 ” expresses the U-shaped section having 200 mm section height.

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Angles (L-shaped Sections):
• There are two types of angles : 1) Equal leg angle, 2) Unequal leg angle. Angles are named by writing
the lengths of legs and the thickness next to the letter “L”, respectively. For example: “ L100x100x10 ”
refers to the equal legged angle having leg with a length of 100 mm and a thickness of 10 mm.

Box Sections, Tubes:

Bars:
Width and thickness values are written near the symbol of rectangle. 250x60 8
 Plates:
• Plates are expressed by writing their all sizes or only their thickness.
For example: 10x1500x6500 or Plate 10
STRESS–STRAIN RELATIONSHIPS IN STRUCTURAL STEEL
• The stress–strain curve of Fig. 1.1 is typical of the
usual ductile structural steel and is assumed to be the
same for members in tension or compression. The
shape of the diagram varies with the speed of loading,
the type of steel, and the temperature.

• The largest stress for which Hooke’s law applies, or the

highest point on the linear portion of the stress–strain
diagram, is called the proportional limit. The largest
stress that a material can withstand without being
Elastic Plastic permanently deformed is called the elastic limit. This
strain strain
value is seldom actually measured and for most
engineering materials, including structural steel, is
Fig.1-1.Typical stress–strain diagram for a mild or low- synonymous with the proportional limit. For this reason,
carbon structural steel at room temperature (Mechanics of
Materials, R.C. Hibbeler)
the term proportional elastic limit is sometimes used.
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• The stress at which there is a significant increase in the elongation, or strain, without a corresponding increase in
stress is said to be the yield stress. The strain that occurs before the yield stress is referred to as the elastic strain;
the strain that occurs after the yield stress, with no increase in stress, is referred to as the plastic strain. Plastic
strains are usually from 10 to 15 times as large as the elastic strains.

• Following the plastic strain, there is a range in which

additional stress is necessary to produce additional strain.
This is called strain-hardening. At failure in the mild steels,
the total strains are from 150 to 200 times the elastic strains.
The curve will actually continue up to its maximum stress
value and then “tail off” before failure. A sharp reduction in
the cross section of the member (called necking) takes place
just before the member fractures.

• True Stress–Strain Diagram: Instead of always using the

original cross-sectional area and specimen length to calculate
the (engineering) stress and strain, we could have used the
actual cross-sectional area and specimen length at the instant
the load is measured. The values of stress and strain found
from these measurements are called true stress and true
strain, and a plot of their values is called the true stress–
strain diagram (Fig. 1-1).
Fig.1-2.Typical stress–strain diagram (Steel Structures, C. G. Salmon,
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J.E. Johnson)
• Stress–strain diagrams prepared for steels with temperatures above 200°F (93°C) will be more rounded and
nonlinear and will not exhibit well-defined yield points. Temperatures of the magnitudes shown in Fig-1.3
can easily be reached in steel members during fires, in localized areas of members when welding is being
performed, in members in foundries over open flame, and so on.

• When steel sections are cooled

below 32°F (0°C), their strengths
will increase a little, but they will
have substantial reductions in
ductility and toughness.

Figure 1.3. Effect of temperature on yield strengths.

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• Steel is an alloy consisting almost entirely of iron (usually over 98 percent). It also contains small
quantities of carbon, silicon, manganese, sulfur, phosphorus, and other elements.
• Carbon is the material that has the greatest effect on the properties of steel. The hardness and strength of
steel increase as the carbon content is increased. A 0.01 percent increase in carbon content will cause steel’s
yield strength to go up about 3.5 MPa. Unfortunately, however, more carbon will cause steel to be more
brittle and will adversely affect its weldability. If the carbon content is reduced, the steel will be softer and
more ductile, but also weaker.
• The addition of such elements as chromium, silicon, and nickel produces steels with considerably higher
strengths. Though frequently quite useful, these steels are appreciably more expensive and often are not as
easy to fabricate.
• Low ductility, or brittleness, is a property
usually associated with high strengths in
steels (although not entirely confined to
high-strength steels). A brittle steel may fail
suddenly and without warning when over-
stressed, and during erection could possibly
fail due to the shock of erection procedures.

Fig.1-4.Typical stress–strain diagram for a brittle steel (Structural Steel 12

Design, J.C. McCormac, S. F. Csernac)
• Brittle steels have a considerable range in which stress is proportional to strain, but do not have clearly
defined yield stresses. Yet, to apply many of the formulas given in structural steel design specifications, it is
necessary to have definite yield stress values, regardless of whether the steels are ductile or brittle.
• The line representing the stress–strain ratio for quenched and tempered steels gradually varies from a
straight line so that a distinct yield point is not available. For such steels the yield stress is usually defined
as the stress at the point of unloading, which corresponds to some arbitrarily defined residual strain (0.002
being the common value).

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