Clearly subject to any changes in the national situation, like many other organisations we will move to a 'mixed' flexible working arrangement in September, with an increased presence of staff in the office. Although working from home has proven to be effective in terms of pure delivery of work, it will be good to get a buzz around the office again with increased interaction. As well as launching a number of new initiatives, during the final half of the financial year we will be present at Offsite Expo, chairing sessions and presenting papers at EuroSteel 2020 (virtually), and running our own Annual Event (virtually). As usual for this time of year, we will also restart our courses and member webinar programme.

Having been forced to test running our courses virtually over the past 18 months, we have decided to continue in this way, at least for now, given the benefits that anyone anywhere can attend courses without needing to travel to a venue and be out of the office for a day. Our courses are structured to be run in two hour sessions over a set number of days, so that concentration levels remain high whilst learning. This approach also means attendees have time to digest material and come back with questions at the next session.

We also remain committed to running our monthly technical webinars for Members. These are run as one hour events, with a focused agenda. We endeavour to run the live webinars at a time that is convenient to the majority of viewers, however, for those less able to view the live lunchtime (BST) events, or for those that want to re-watch the webinar, a recording is available for a number of weeks after the live event.

We are also finding that there is a renewed interest in In-house training, either with us in physical attendance or by providing virtual training on specific subjects relevant to business requirements. Hopefully all this means there is renewed confidence for such things going forward into the Autumn and Winter.

For information on our courses, events and webinars view our calendar of events here. Or contact education@steel-sci.com

Leviat, formerly known as Ancon, has recently been granted SCI Assessed status for the design of their new stainless steel thermal windposts. The windposts are used in cavity walls to connect the outer leaf of brickwork to the internal blockwork wall, and also provide lateral resistance and stiffness to withstand reversible wind loads. The Leviat windpost cross-section resembles a lipped angle section, with a continuous array of perforations along the web which is intended to reduce the thermal transmittance through the post. The windpost also has discrete perforations along the web and flange which are used for attaching tie devices (see Figure 1). The free edge of the windpost web is hemmed in order to provide increased resistance to the web against out-of-plane distortional deformations.

The complex geometry of the windpost cross-section and the type of connection details to the blockwork, meant that design of the windpost was not possible by simply using the Eurocode provisions. Instead, a limited number of tests in combination with numerical simulations run by the SCI permitted the development of tailored design equations to accurately predict the resistance and deflection of the windpost. A reliability analysis carried out by SCI ensured that all the equations developed for the design of the windpost meet the safety requirements stipulated in the Eurocode.

Based on this design methodology, Leviat has been able to produce competitive load and deflection tables for their new product which was launched in May 2021.

Explosions are a persistent and significant threat to people and infrastructure worldwide. Recent examples, such as the 2020 Beirut explosion, highlight the need for engineers to understand explosions and their effects in order to provide better protective solutions. As part of this, we must be able to accurately and rapidly predict key blast loading parameters for a wide range of potential scenarios.

Currently in the UK, software used for calculating the blast loading caused by energetic materials is either general-purpose computational fluid dynamics codes or dated software that has originated from the US military. The former is expensive, complex and computationally very demanding whereas the latter is dated, often restricted, and generally not compatible with modern operating systems.

The Steel Construction Institute and the University of Sheffield have won a two-year Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP). This is a national scheme which helps businesses to innovate and grow, by linking them with a university with particular expertise. Under the scheme, Innovate UK will provide 67% funding to cover the costs of the university and the partnership will also benefit from industrial funding. The objective of this collaboration is to generate data and new predictive approaches using computational software tools (e.g. CFD/FEM) coupled with cutting-edge data-driven machine learning techniques to develop new algorithms for prediction of blast load parameters. These will be directly implemented in bespoke software to calculate blast loading on structures caused by energetic materials.

The new Advisory Desk service emails sent this month included;

Advisory Desk Note - AD 404
Artificially reducing the effective width of slab to satisfy shear connection requirements

Advisory Desk Note - AD 470
Moments due to eccentricity at a column splice

If you are an SCI Sole Trader or Corporate Member and not receiving these email alerts go to the SCI Information Portal and in your Profile click on notifications/alerts and select the notifications you require.

All the Advisory Desk Notes and Questions and Answers together with other technical resources are all available at all times on the SCI Information Portal.

For SCI Sole Trader and Corporate members, SCI offers support through our Advisory Desk Service. For questions asked which we feel are pertinent to the wider member audience we publish anonymously the questions and answers.

Where some questions relate to SCI Publications we publish the question and answers in Connect.

This month our published question is about;
Simply supported beam end rotations

Question: The Green Book for simple connections P358 includes standard fin plate details. For beams of nominal depth greater than 610 mm, the span to depth ratio is limited to 20, as one control on the anticipated rotation at the end of the beam. What slopes might be expected at the ends of 610 serial size beams spanning 15 m, as the ratio exceeds 20?

Please see the answer to this Advisory Question/Answer - Ref No AD_QA_7161-21 and all Advisory questions on the SCI Information Portal.

The Advisory Desk Service is for SCI Corporate and Sole Trader Members advisory@steel-sci.com | +44 (0) 1344 636525

SCI Online Training Courses

Our public courses and webinars keep engineers updated with the latest developments within steel design and equip them to design competently, efficiently and safely.

Our next course in September is:

Steel Building Design to EC3 - Online Course
Delivered in 4 sessions:
Part 1: 09 September 21
Part 2: 10 September 21
Part 3: 15 September 21
Part 4: 16 September 21

Each session will run from 10:00-12:00 (BST)

As the experts in steel design, the SCI have prepared this course as an overview of the Eurocode provisions for steel building design. The course focuses on orthodox construction, covering the primary design issues for practicing engineers. The course follows the process of determining actions, considering combinations of actions, frame analysis and the assessment of second order effects. The course will then demonstrate how the resistance of members are calculated, but also how they can be extracted immediately from resources such as the 'Blue Book'.

This course will equip any engineer with:

• An overview of the Eurocode suite of design documents, and the critical importance of the National Annexes
• How the appropriate steel sub-grade is determined
• A good understanding of the important ULS and SLS load combinations from EN 1990
• A good understanding of the key parts of BS EN 1993-1-1
• A set of numerical examples covering frame stability, axial resistance, LTB and combined axial load and bending
• A good understanding of connection design to
  BS EN 1993-1-8

Member Rate - £250.00
SCI Non-Member - £330.00

Register for this event here.

SCI Annual Event - Free Online Event
09 November 21
Time: 10:30-14:00

Our key focus will be on 'net zero' solutions and we will report on the various decarbonisation initiatives that the sector, in particular the steel producers, have embarked upon.

Presentations will be made by: Severfield Plc, ArcelorMittal, Trimble and The Institution of Structural Engineers.

In recent months we have also identified a number of areas where we believe we can help the UK steel construction sector meet its needs through the provision of new services and products. These include Trimble TEDDs modules aimed at designers, the first three of which will be launched by the end of 2021.

Less well developed is a service for assessing the thermal performance of details for light steel framing - we will present case studies of assessing performance in fire (as reported previously in Connect), and outline our plans to provide thermal modelling consultancy to assess condensation risk etc.

To attend this free event register here.

Next SCI Member webinar is;

Fire resistant design of steel structures
Webinar - 14 September 21
Time: 12:30-13:30

Often, designers simply design for resistance at normal temperatures and expect the structure to be fire protected. But a little engineering can be used to calculate more realistic behaviour and to demonstrate the adequacy of the structure under fire conditions. Complex calculations can be avoided by the use of freely available design tools.

Register here to view this webinar

For a list of webinars and on-line public courses visit the
SCI Information Portal

Or contact education@steel-sci.com to discuss your requirements.

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