FCE 331 STRENGTH OF MATERIALS IIA

Department of Civil and Construction Engineering.

Lecturer: Eng. Hayowa 1

Structural Steel :
Review of properties of Structural steel.
Structural Sections.
Behaviour of axially loaded members.
Behaviour of flexural members.
Combined bending and compression.
Joints and connections.
Local instability.

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STEEL
Steel is composed of about 98% of iron with the main alloying
elements carbon, silicon and manganese, copper & chromium
added to produce the weather resistant steels that do not
require corrosion protection.

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STEEL
Steel is one of the strongest building materials available with excellent strength capacity in
both tension and compression.

Usage
Because of its high strength-to-weight ratio, it is ideal for structural framework of tall
buildings and large industrial facilities.

Sections
Structural steel is available in standard shapes such are angles, I beams, H columns and C-
channels.

Connection
These shapes can be welded together or connected using high-strength bolts to build
structures capable of resisting large forces and deformations.

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STEEL
Cost
Steel is a relatively expensive building material so it is the structural engineer’s
responsibility to choose economic sizes and shapes according to the actual loads on
the building to avoid overdesign.

Installation
The installation of steel is less time consuming compared to concrete and can be
installed in any type of environment.

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STEEL

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STEEL

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PROPERTIES OF STRUCTURAL STEEL
The important properties are
- Strength
- Durability
- Impact resistance
- Weldability

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Cont…
Tensile Strength
Tensile strength is the amount of stress that a substance can take before becoming
structurally deformed. The tensile strength of steel is comparatively high, making it highly
resistant to fracture or breakage, which is a key point in its use in infrastructure building.
Ductility
One of the useful mechanical properties of steel, is its ability to change shape on the
application of force to it, without resulting in a fracture. This property is known as ductility,
which enables it to be used in the making of different shapes and structures ranging from
thin wires or large automotive parts and panels.
Malleability
Malleability is closely linked with ductility, and allows steel to be deformed under
compression. It allows this alloy to be compressed into sheets of variable thicknesses,
often created by hammering or rolling.
Weldability
also known as joinability, of a material refers to its ability to be welded. Many metals and
thermoplastics can be welded, but some are easier to weld than others

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Cont…
Durability
The hardness of this alloy is high, reflecting its ability to resist strain. It is
long-lasting and greatly resistant to external wear and tear. Hence it is
considered a very durable material.
Conductivity
Steel is a good conductor of heat and electricity. These properties make it
good choice for making domestic cookware, as well as electrical wiring.
Luster
One of the physical properties of steel is its attractive outer appearance. It
is silvery in color with a shiny, lustrous outer surface.
Rust Resistance
The addition of certain elements, makes some types of steel resistant to
rust. Stainless steel for instance contains nickel, molybdenum and
chromium which improve its ability to resist rust.

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Design considerations
Special problems occur with steel work and good practice must
be followed to ensure satisfactory performance in service.
These factors are discussed briefly below.
- Fatigue
- Creep under sustained loading
- Brittle fracture
- Fire protection
- Corrossion protection

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Fatigue
It has been found that, if a material has been subjected to fluctuating stresses at
fairly high frequencies, there is a tendency for failure to occur at a stress well below
the ultimate stress value as obtained in a static test. This phenomenon is called
FATIGUE and is more likely to occur under conditions of either repeated tensile
stress or reverse stress.
Fatigue failure can occur in members of structures subjected to fluctuating loads
such as crane girders, bridges and off-shore structures. Failure occurs through
progressive growth of a crack that starts at a fault and the failure load may be well
below its static value.
In steel, it is found that there is a critical stress – called the endurance limit – below
which fluctuating stresses cannot cause fatigue failure, titanium alloys show a
similar phenomenon. No such endurance limit has been found for other non-ferrous
metals and other materials.

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Creep under sustained loading
At ordinary laboratory temperatures most metals will sustain stresses below the limit
of proportionality for long periods without showing additional measurable strains.
At these temperatures metals deform continuously when stressed above the elastic
range. This process of continuous inelastic strain is called creep.
If a tensile test is carried out over a period of several minutes at a constant room
temperature, a definite ultimate stress value can be measured. A similar test piece of
the same material however, may be made to fail at a much lower stress if the test is
prolonged over a period of days or weeks.
For most steels, there appears to be a limiting stress value corresponding to a
particular temperature, below which the amount of creep that is likely to take place
is negligible.
The higher the ambient temperature, the lower this limiting creep stress will be.
Special alloys of steel have been developed which have very low creep rates for
work at higher temperatures.

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Brittle fracture
At temperatures above 10 oC, structural steel is ductile but it becomes more brittle
as the temperatures falls and fracture can occur at low stress below 0 oC.
The charpy test is used to determine the resistance of steel to brittle fracture. In this
test a small specimen is broken by a hammer and the energy to cause failure at a
given temperature is measured.
To reduce the likelihood of brittle fracture occurring, it is necessary to take care in
the selection of the steel to be used and to pay special attention to the design detail.
Thin plates are more resistant than thick ones. Abrupt changes of section and stress
concentration should be avoided. Fillet welds should not be laid down across tension
flanges and intermittent welding should not be used.

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Fire protection
Structural steelwork performs poorly in fires with strength decreasing with increase
in temperature. At 550oC the yield stress has fallen to approximately 0.7 of its value
at normal temperature i.e. it has reached its working stress and failure occurs under
working loads.
Building regulations lay down the fire resistance period that any load-bearing
element in a given building must have, and also give the fire protection. Basically,
fire protection is provided by encasing the member in a fire-resistance material such
as concrete.
There are tables showing minimum thickness of protection required for various
protective materials used for specific durations.
Casings include;
- Solid casing - Entirely enclosing steel member
- Hollow casing - Enclosing outside profile only
- Profile casing - Enclosing along section profile

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Corrossion protection
Where there are pollutants, exposed steelwork can be severely affected by corrosion
hence the need to protect the surface in all cases. The type of protection depends on
the surface conditions and lifespan required for the structure or member.

The main types of protective coatings are:

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Structural Steel Sections
Rolled & Formed Sections
Universal beams

Universal columns

Channels

Equal and Unequal angles

Circular, Square and Rectangular Hollow Sections

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Sections…

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Sections…
Compound Sections
Formed by any of the following means:
i. Strengthening a rolled section such as a universal beam by welding on cover
plates

ii. Combining two separate rolled sections, as in the case of the crane girder below.
The two members carry loads from separate directions.

iii. Connecting two members together to form a strong combined member

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Sections…
Built-up Sections
Made by welding plates together to form I, H or box members which are termed
plate girders, built-up column box girders or columns. These members are used
where heavy loads have to be carried and in the case of plate and box girders where
long spans may be required
Cold Rolled Sections
Thin steel plates are formed into a wide range of sections by cold rolling.
Mostly used as purlins and sheeting rails. 3 common sections are;
Zed
Sigma Ʃ
Lipped channel

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Design considerations
In the eurocode series of European standards (EN) related
to construction, Eurocode 3: Design of steel structures (abbreviated EN
1993 or, informally, EC 3) describes how to design steel structures, using
the limit state design philosophy.

Eurocode 3 comprises 20 documents dealing with the different aspects of

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EC 3
•EN 1993-1-1: General rules and rules for buildings.
•EN 1993-1-2: General rules - Structural fire design.
•EN 1993-1-3: General rules - Supplementary rules for cold-formed
members and sheeting.
•EN 1993-1-4: General rules - Supplementary rules for stainless steels.
•EN 1993-1-5: General rules - Plated structural elements.
•EN 1993-1-6: General rules - Strength and stability of shell structures.
•EN 1993-1-7: General rules - Strength and stability of planar plated
structures subject to out of plane loading.

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EC 3
•EN 1993-1-8: Design of joints.
•EN 1993-1-9: Fatigue.
•EN 1993-1-10: Material toughness and through-thickness properties.
•EN 1993-1-11: Design of structures with tension components.
•EN 1993-1-12: General - High strength steels.
•EN 1993-2: Steel bridges.
•EN 1993-3-1: Towers, masts and chimneys – Towers and masts.
•EN 1993-3-2: Towers, masts and chimneys – Chimneys
•EN 1993-4-1: Silos
•EN 1993-4-2: Tanks
•EN 1993-4-3: Pipelines
•EN 1993-5: Piling
•EN 1993-6: Crane supporting structures

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THANK YOU

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