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Preface

The use of ferrous metal for structural framing began with cast-iron columns and wrought-iron beams. Early uses of cast iron in England in the 1770s included a small arch bridge over the river Severn at Coalbrookdale, and interior structural members in St. Anne's Church in Liverpool. In the United States, cast-iron columns were introduced as balcony supports in the Chestnut Street Theater in Philadelphia in 1820. An early use of wrought iron was in the Menai Bridge in Wales in 1826. In the United States, a wrought iron frame was used in 1853 to construct the sixstory Cooper Union Building. Wrought iron appears to have flourished in the U.S. between 1870 and 1900. Structural steel shapes became available in 1880s and rapidly displaced cast iron and wrought iron. The ten-story Home Insurance Co. building erected in 1884 was the first to use steel framing. In this transitional structure, steel was used for the top four floors, wrought iron was used for the lower floors, and cast iron columns were used in the exterior walls. The advantages structural steel offered in strength, stiffness, and economy, greatly accelerated the development of tall buildings and other structures.

Chapter 1 provides a historical review of the material standards published by the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) for structural steel shapes and plates, steel pipe and hollow structural sections, rivets, and bolts, beginning in 1900. A review is also provided of the basic design stresses for structural steel, rivets, bolts, and welds, based on AISC specifications from 1923 forward.

Chapter 2 includes reference data (crosssectional dimensions and properties) for steel shapes (wide-flange or I-shaped cross-sections) that have been discontinued over the past 125 years or so. Similar data is included for wrought iron cross-sections, which were phased out in about 1900.

Chapter 3 outlines considerations in the evaluation of existing structures for gravity loads, wind loads or seismic loads. Chapter 4 describes how existing structural systems can be enhanced for increased strength and stiffness. An extensive list of references on rehabilitation and retrofit is given in Chapter 5 along with a summary of their contents.

This design guide is concluded with a set of appendices that provide a detailed review of AISC Specification changes beginning in 1923, a tabulation of AISC Manuals published beginning in 1927, a summary of changes in specifications for high-strength bolted joints beginning in 1951 (as developed by the Research Council on Structural Connections (RCSC) and its forerunner), and a summary of design specifications for structural welding from 1934 forward.