Continuing Education


Basic Steel Design

Five-Part Webinar Series

Are you looking for an introduction to or review of the basic principles of structural steel design?

This course, which consists of five 1.5-hour-long sessions, is best suited for those who have not designed in structural steel for some time or those who feel a basic review will improve their overall capabilities.

The first session (R1) is a recorded session from the Night School version of this course. It will include an introduction to structural safety and the principles of LRFD and ASD design, loads and load combinations, the AISC Specification for Structural Steel Buildings, and structural analysis.

Subsequent live sessions will cover tension member design, compression members, bending members, and combined axial forces and bending.

All completed examples will be presented in both ASD and LRFD in the handout material, although the presentation may only discuss only one approach. The AISC Steel Construction Manual, 15th edition, is a highly recommended text for this class. The presentations will make frequent reference to specific sections of the 2016 AISC Specification. Examples will use data taken from the Manuals and illustrate the use of design tables.

The author's textbook, Unified Design of Steel Structures, 3rd Edition, 2017, written with co-authors Judy Liu and AISC's very own Charles Carter, will form the basis of this course and may be a useful resource for building on the course.

This webinar series is an abridged encore presentation of the popular Night School course of the same name.

  • Date: 2/25/2021 to 3/18/2021
  • Duration: 1.5 hours per session
  • Location: Live Webinar Series
  • PDH Credits: 1.5 PDH per Session (Up to 7.5 PDH)
  • Registration Deadline: 2/25/2021 10:00 a.m.

  • Connection Instructions: Upon registration, you will receive a confirmation email containing your receipt, a link to access the webinar, dial-in audio instructions, and a link to a PDF handout of slides.

Sessions

This lecture is a recorded session, immediately available upon registration for the course for 5-session package registrants.

A brief history of the Specification and Manual will be provided as well as an overview of the organization of the current Specification and Manual. The lecture will then discuss the elements of structural safety with an emphasis on the principles of LRFD, variability of load effect and variability of strength. Resistance factors for LRFD and safety factors for ASD will be discussed as well as calibrating ASD to LRFD. The session will discuss steel as a material, various steel shapes, and will introduce 1st and 2nd order structural analysis.

Note that this video recording was made during the first session of the Night School course of the same name.

**Attention to those registering as a group:  This recorded presentation is not available for groups participating under the Invidual Live Session registration.  However, the recording can be viewed in the Education Archives here.  The quiz can be purchased on a per person basis to obtain PDH credits. **

February 25, 2021, 1:30 p.m. EST

This lecture will focus on the design of structural steel tension members and the associated provisions in the AISC Specification.  The session will begin with a discussion of strength, calculating area and available strength of tension members.  Emphasis will then be placed on designing tension members before discussing the concept of block shear.  The session concludes with an overview of eyebars, pin connected members, truss members and braces.  Several design examples will be presented.

March 4, 2021, 1:30 p.m. EST

The design of columns – compression members, is the focus of this session. The session will review the strength of compression members as defined by the Specification. The session will review steel shapes and their behavior in compression. The session will discuss the limit states of flexural buckling, local buckling, torsional buckling, and flexural-torsional buckling. Members with and without slender elements are reviewed. Design examples will be presented.

March 11, 2021, 1:30 p.m. EST

This session will discuss the design of structural steel beams and application of Chapter F of the AISC Specification. The session will review plastic vs. elastic moment strength and the various limit states of bending members. The lecture will address Cb, the lateral-torsional buckling modification factor for non-uniform moments diagrams and its effect on beam designs. The session will also review the design of single angles and WT shapes. Design examples will be presented.

March 18, 2021, 1:30 p.m. EDT

This lecture will discuss the behavior and design of beam-columns. The session will review elastic and plastic interaction principles, AISC interaction equations and design rules of thumb. The session will explore the design of members in single axis bending as well as the design of single angles for bending plus compression.

Speakers

Louis Geschwindner

Louis F. Geschwindner, PE, PhD

Louis F. Geschwindner is a former Vice President of Engineering and Research at AISC, Professor Emeritus of Architectural Engineering at Penn State University, and Senior Consultant at Providence Engineering Corporation.

Registration

Price Info

5-Session Package

$300  Member
$550  Non-member
$235  Student/Faculty
$300  Government Employee

Only registrant is eligible for a PDH certificate.  Work From Home accomodations are NOT available for this registration option.

  Register
Individual Live Sessions

$185  Member
$285  Non-member
$155 Student/Faculty
$185 Government Employee

Prices are per webinar.  Registration includes certificates for an unlimited number of people at one connection site. Work From Home accomodations are available for this registration option

  Register
Accommodations for Stay-at-home and Safer-at-home orders

For Individual Live Sessions Registration Only - In light of the recent changes to daily work life, we understand that many people are working from home at this time. If the individual registration option is not feasible for your company, we will accommodate each attendee who would typically gather in your office conference room. Once you've registered as a group registration, contact registration@aisc.org for further details on how to connect your employees and receive certificates.