U.S. Imposes Tariffs on Fabricated Structural Steel Imports from China
Last week, the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) released its list of approximately $16 billion worth of imports from China that will be subject to a 25% tariff as part of the U.S. response to China’s unfair trade practices related to the forced transfer of American technology and intellectual property. The list contains 279 of the original 284 tariff lines proposed, including those AISC requested for inclusion in its two separate testimonies in front of the USTR Section 30...
Video: MIT Mass Timber Design -- Longhouse
MIT Mass Timber Design | Longhouse from Parallel Project on Vimeo. With increasing demands placed on the planet through population growth and urbanization, energy remains one of the biggest challenges of the 21st century. Buildings are one of the largest consumers of global resources and all energy produced, and are primary contributors to greenhouse gases and solid wastes. At moment when the built environment is faced with dramatic shifts, the need for energy-intelligent building prototypes is...
Bull Moose Tube Assists ASTM International to Create New Standards for Steel Structural Tubes
ST. LOUIS – Bull Moose Tube, a leading manufacturer of steel pipe and tube, has received permission by global standards developer ASTM International to announce the organization’s development of new standards for steel structural tubes. These new standards, covering cold-formed welded high-strength carbon steel, low-alloy steel hollow structural sections (HSS) among others, will be put in place before the end of 2018. For more than a year, Bull Moose Tube Manager of Field Applications Ma...
Newtecnic and Cambridge University Construction Research Partnership Delivers Concrete Facade Innovation
International building design engineering firm. Newtecnic, and the Engineering Department at the University of Cambridge (UK), have completed a 3-year knowledge transfer partnership (KTP) to develop a new generation of components, load bearing connections and associated design methods for composite concrete building facades. Following this initial project, Newtecnic is continuing and expanding the work in its recently formed Cambridge R&D office and in the US through partnerships with the Uni...
AISI Publishes Report on LRFD and LSD Resistance Factors for CFS Compression Members
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) has published a new research report on the recalibration of the Load and Resistance Factor Design (LRFD) and the Limit States Design (LSD) resistance factors for cold-formed steel compression members when the strength is predicted using the Direct Strength Method. Since the Direct Strength Method statistically provides a better strength prediction, higher resistance factors are realized. A summary of the project, findings and analys...
Cementless Fly Ash Binder Makes Concrete 'Green'
HOUSTON – (June 18, 2018) – Rice University engineers have developed a composite binder made primarily of fly ash, a byproduct of coal-fired power plants, that can replace Portland cement in concrete. The material is cementless and environmentally friendly, according to Rice materials scientist Rouzbeh Shahsavari, who developed it with graduate student Sung Hoon Hwang. Fly ash binder does not require the high-temperature processing of Portland cement, yet tests showed it has the same compr...
USG Structural Panel Concrete Roof Deck Earns Approval from Factory Mutual (FM)
CHICAGO — USG Corporation (NYSE:USG), an industry-leading manufacturer of building products and innovative solutions, has received Factory Mutual (FM) Approval for its USG Structural Panel Concrete Roof Deck. Factory Mutual (FM) Global is widely accepted as the leading organization that sets the industry standard with a rigorous testing process for select commercial building products. An approval from FM assures contractors and building owners that the product performs to the highest sta...
AISI Publishes CFS Design Manual, 2017 Edition
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) has published the Cold-Formed Steel Design Manual, 2017 Edition, which is to be used in conjunction with AISI S100-16, North American Specification for the Design of Cold-Formed Steel Structural Members, 2016 Edition and the Commentary. The design manual consists of two volumes and is available for purchase as a set at AISI’s online Steel Store at https://shop.steel.org/c/41/manuals-and-design-guides. The Cold-Formed Steel D...
A New Brick Could Eliminate Insulation
Most homeowners looking to lower heating or cooling costs know the drill. First thing to do is ensure the house is properly insulated, typically by rolling down a layer of the pink fiberglass stuff or having a fluffy version blown into their home’s walls. But here’s a relatively new idea: Instead of adding insulation, build the structure from bricks already stuffed with a material known for its thermal conductivity. The bricks do-away with extra layers of insulation and decrease the thickness...
Cement Technology Roadmap Shows How the Path to Achieve CO2 Reductions up to 24% by 2050
Paris and Geneva: A combination of technology and policy solutions could provide a pathway to reduce direct carbon dioxide emissions from the cement industry by 24% below current levels by 2050, according to a new report by the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the Cement Sustainability Initiative (CSI). As a flagship sectoral project of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), the CSI is a global effort currently gathering 24 major cement producers having operation...