Why steel in construction?
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ckground Steel is vital to infrastructure in most economies and represents a key construction material. Its use in infrastructure applications ranges from buildings to mass transit to utility and energy systems. From the 1800s, technological advances and economic forces brought steel into construction, replacing cast and wrought iron, and today, these forces challenge and push forward the use of steel in construction. Bessemer patented his steelmaking process in 1856, enabling the mass production of steel.1 By 1879, Gilchrist Thomas overcame the problems associated with using phosphoric iron ores, improving the ductility of steel and widening its application beyond rails to structural uses.2 Further developments, such as the SiemensMartin process of open-hearth furnace steel production using a large, shallow, brick-lined furnace to retain and reutilize the heat of the reactions,3 as well as fundamental understanding of thermochemical reactions,4 increased the production of steel, leading to its part in industrialization and urbanization across the globe. As steel construction developed, buildings became larger and more complex. Although post-World War II shortages favored reinforced concrete in construction, since the mid-1980s, steel’s market share of the buildings sector has grown. More than 95% of single-story industrial and 70% of multi-story nonresidential buildings use hot-rolled steel as the primary framing material,
and there is significant use in infrastructure applications, including rail tracks, road barriers, and bridges. In Europe, the UK is set to lead the growth rate of steel use in construction at 2.8% per annum compared to a European average of 1.8%, with one-half of the demand coming from the residential sector by 2030.1 The World Steel Association reports that the sector with the largest consumption of steel, using around 50% of all steel produced, is the construction and housing sector.1 Predictions indicate the use of steel will be 50% greater by 2050 in response to the demands of the growing population.1 Current demographic trends toward increased urbanization will play a key role in driving greater use of steel in infrastructure applications as well as large construction and housing developments. The versatility and adaptability of steel opens new opportunities, providing massive potential for novel steel-based solutions to address the challenges faced by future cities.
Overview of steel construction Approaches to steel construction vary depending on application. Bridges normally use hot-rolled plate, typically with a yield strength between 355 and 460 MPa, which is fabricated into girders or boxes where the element thickness may exceed 50 mm. Buildings normally use hot-rolled sections connected by a combination of bolts and welds to form frames suitable
Barbara Shollock, Warwick Manufacturing Group, University of Warwick, UK; [email protected] Digvijay Thakur, Tata Steel Research and Development, UK; [email protected] Graham Couchman, Steel Construction Institute, UK; g.co
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