RESEARCH General Arts

ARCHITECTURE
New beam-column design method now part of steel-construction 'bible'

Melissa Mitchell, Arts Editor
(217) 333-5491; melissa@uiuc.edu

3/1/02

Photo by Bill Wiegand UI architecture professor Abbas Aminmansour contributed a new method for designing beam-columns in the latest edition of what is considered the bible of the steel-construction field.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — It’s not like he didn't know it was coming. Still, when University of Illinois architecture professor Abbas Aminmansour found the big blue book in his campus mailbox recently, he could barely contain his excitement.

"I immediately ran off to show it to the school's director," said Aminmansour, who knew his boss would be equally thrilled to see Aminmansour's name – and his work – cited prominently in the new Third Edition LRFD Manual of Steel Construction.

The manual, published by the American Institute of Steel Construction, "is considered to be the bible in our field," Aminmansour said. "It is a book that any civil or architectural engineer working in structural steel design would have on his or her bookshelf, and it is used for teaching purposes in every university in this country, as well as abroad." In fact, it's such a de rigueur reference tool that Aminmansour has always required his students to lug the voluminous manual to every class.

Part 6 of the new edition is based on Aminmansour’s research, which yielded a new design method and aids for design of W-shape beam-columns. The work originally was published in AISC's Engineering Journal in 2000. Aminmansour said he initially pursued the research on his own, without funding, because he thought he could improve upon the pre-existing design method he had been teaching for 15 years.

"The method we were using was credible but had a number of limitations, and was much longer," he said. "When I taught it, I complained a lot about it to my students. Then one day, I thought to myself, 'Why don't I do something?' "

Whether they are designing modest-scale buildings or skyscrapers, engineers typically incorporate three basic types of structural elements into their designs: beams, columns and
beam-columns. "A beam is a structural member that is subjected to bending only," Aminmansour said. "A column is axially loaded. A beam-column resists both bending and axial stresses simultaneously."

Aminmansour’s new approach, which can be applied to all three types of structural elements, represents "a major breakthrough" in the field, said Mir Ali, chair of the structures division in the UI School of Architecture. "In the past," he said, "the standard specified some approximate formulas, and those formulas had lots of limitations and restrictions, and designers didn't have much choice. But Abbas came up with a generic method that eliminated those restrictions. He has very beautifully shown that designers can solve this complex problem in a simple way that is both accurate and quick, without going through a tedious trial-and-error procedure."

Aminmansour's new design methods will be among the topics addressed at an educator’s workshop at the North American Steel Construction Conference April 24-27 in Seattle.