Review Category : InSights

Throughout the construction industry, there is a movement toward sustainability that is affecting what and how we build, and a central part of this movement is the use of low-carbon materials. Although all materials are subject to scrutiny, concrete has received specific attention, and rightfully so, concrete is the most widely used material in the world. On a unit mass basis, concrete has one of the lowest carbon footprints of all manufactured materials.

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LCAs, EPDs, GWP … many engineers attempt to dive into the world of sustainability and find themselves swimming in a sea of acronyms. While a designer might wish—or need—to incorporate sustainability into projects, the lack of concise background information can leave someone new to sustainability feeling quite intimidated. Rest assured that integrating carbon reduction into designs can be as simple as adding a couple of columns to an existing design spreadsheet.

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Checking the availability of HSS sections is easy with the Steel Tube Institute’s Capability Tool.

If you have ever opened the steel manual to find section properties for a steel HSS (hollow structural section) member, you may have been surprised by how many sizes of HSS are listed. There are hundreds of options for round, rectangular, and square tubes. Some of these sections are readily available, others are produced on demand, and some may not be available in the current market. Realizing this, the Steel Tube Institute (STI), an industry organization supported by domestic steel tube producers, has created a free Capability Tool as a resource to search which HSS sections are currently domestically produced, by whom, and whether the sections are regularly produced or produced on demand. At steeltubeinstitute.org/capability-tool, there are search fields for shape, dimension range, and grade. Three ASTM (American Society for Testing and Materials) HSS material grades are included: A500, A1085, and A1065; and one for mechanical tubing, A513. Once these fields are filled, a list of producers who provide that shape, either regularly or on demand, is generated.  

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Thoroughbreds, donkeys, & dead horses.

“The Importance of Building Information Modeling (BIM) in Structural Engineering” was the title of a 2008 October article in this magazine that stated, ‘In varying ways, in less than ten years, BIM will permanently change the structural engineering profession and its universities, firms, clients, markets, design codes, digital tools, contracts, insurance policies, global recruitment of staff, work process, and many other aspects.’’

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The benefits of steel framing in curtain wall systems.

Whether used within the built environment or as an exterior façade, curtain walls made with transparent glazing can enhance the overall design of a building by improving access to daylight and helping to stabilize interior temperatures with U-values as low as 0.19. While discussion around these systems tends to focus on the glass, the framing systems are an equally important aspect to consider.

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The key is not too much of a good thing.

Designing structures that resist failure due to seismic activity safeguards occupants from injury and reduces the need to rebuild after an earthquake, which can decrease the total embodied carbon a site represents. As such, seismically resilient structures contribute to sustainable construction practices by reducing the environmental strain caused by material production, transportation, and construction.

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Seismic Code and Standard Development and NEHRP Recommended Provisions

Major earthquakes are rare compared to other natural hazards such as wind, floods, and snowstorms; however, the destructive power of major earthquakes can be devastating. Thousands of lives and billions of dollars in economic investment could be lost in poorly prepared communities. Our nation’s seismic risk can be largely reduced through earthquake-resistant buildings designed and constructed in compliance with modern building codes.

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1939 to Present

In 1939, inventor William E. Urschel created the world’s first 3-D printed building behind a small warehouse in Valparaiso, Indiana. The following year he would file a series of patents for a “Wall Building Machine” (Figure 1). This simple yet ingenious machine would be used to fabricate multistory structures with integrated reinforcement and a self-supporting dome, all printed in concrete without formwork. In the late 30s, this process might have been described as layered, horizontal slip forming. With these early prototypes, Urschel matched much of the innovation we see today in Large Scale Additive Manufacturing (LSAM) 60 years before the first modern examples of construction 3-D printing were published by Behrokh Khoshnevis in the early 2000s (Khoshnevis 2004). Urschel explored geometric design freedom, reinforcement, variable extrusion, material compaction, and, most notably, created full-scale buildings, the very first of which is a still an occupied, working structure. A look at the details of Urschel’s Wall Building Machine (Figure 1) provides a critical lens for engineers and designers to view the rapidly growing industry adoption of 3-D printing technology.

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STRUCTURE magazine