COMPUTER AIDED DESIGN OF CONNECTIONS IN STEEL STRUCTURES

Abstract

Steel is widely used as a construction material 'for buildings, bridges and many other structures. The structure can be considered as an assemblage of various members connected by suitable connectors. Transmission of forces from a member to other members is through the connections. The strength and rigidity of a member are closely related to those of its connections with the other members. Irrespective of how precisely and adequately, a member is designed and fabricated, if the necessary connections are inadequate the result may be a catastrophic collapse. Design and preparation of drawings of connections require a lot of repetitive calculations. With the help of computers, this problem can be solved effectively and easily if a suitable package is available. This dissertation deals with the preparation of a package "C S S" for the design of connections in steel structures. It is a package in "C" language for personal computers and supported with TURBO "C" graphics. This is restricted to the design of bolted connections and can be used for design of the various connections as given below. (a) Lap and Butt joints, (b) Beam to beam framing connections (i) Without coping the flanges of the beam (ii) Coping the top flange of the beam only (iii) Coping both top and bottom flanges of the beam, (c) Beam to column connections, (i) Seated connections -stiffened and unstiffened (ii) Framing connections, (iii) Moment connections - using angles and tees Design is based on relevant IS codes. All these programs are stand alone and can be executed independently. A main program is used to call any of these program by selection through menu. All functions are collected in header files and these are included in each program. The package includes properties of various rolled steel sections such as beams, columns, angles and tees. This package contains ten programs for design, one main program for calling any of the design programs, three header files, four data files for rolled steel section properties. Help is available for novice user on request at two stages in the package.