For information on the new Consortium for Holistic Steel Systems, please visit https://r3steel.wisc.edu/.
The R3: Holistic Steel Systems initiative is a new industry-academia partnership to study steel design as a holistic system – including structural reliability and the impact of sustainability and resilience. With a strong foundation, new steel consortium at UW-Madison blends sustainability with structural integrity
Current System Reliability Projects:
All projects are part of a coordinated initiative to increase the cost effectiveness of steel joist and deck systems and cold-formed steel framing by recognizing system reliability and combat the use of competing products in the marketplace.
Project Sponsors:
Steel Joist System Reliability
This project covers a system reliability analysis on standard open-web steel joists. Validated finite element models of the joists along with collected information of the random distributions of the input variables will be utilized. Based on the output of this study, the advantages and disadvantages of considering joist system reliability will be discussed.
System Reliability of Steel Roof Deck
This project will study the reliability of multi-flange cold formed steel sections, specifically steel roof deck profiles that are commonly used on open web steel joists or steel beams on roofs. The intended result will be to develop an increased flexural strength for roof deck, similar to that currently permitted for floor joists in AISI S240-20.
Steel Joist Bay System Reliability
This project investigates the reliability of a bay of open web steel joists, Joist Girders, joist bridging, and steel deck. The goal is to obtain a more holistic understanding of the reliability driven design approach as applied to a bay of structural components, rather than isolating the structural components. The focus will be on the expected strength and deformation capacity of the joist bay system.
Proprietary Joist System Reliability
This investigation involves steel joist system reliability to help uncover potential benefits of a reliability driven design approach to a specific proprietary steel joist system. The goal is to obtain a more holistic understanding of the reliability-driven design approach for this steel joist system.
Composite Floor Joist System Reliability
This project covers a system reliability analysis on CJ-series composite steel joists including the composite slab. Based on the output of this study, the advantages and disadvantages of considering a reliability-driven design approach for composite floor joist systems with steel deck and concrete will be discussed.
System Reliability of Cold-Formed Framing Systems
This project investigates the system reliability of cold-formed steel framing systems. This could lead to code changes and potential material savings up to 10 or 15% in CFS axially load bearing wall systems.