Structural Steel

For anyone who has read the epic fantasy novels in the “A Song of Fire and Ice” series  by George R.R. Martin or watched the TV series “Game of Thrones” (based on his books), they will surely know that nothing cuts like Valyrian Steel. Swords made from Valarian Steel never dulled and their edges remained as sharp as the day they were forged, unfortunately the knowledge to make the steel was lost and the swords that were made from the metal became the prized possessions of the noble families of Westeros and were passed down from father to son.

Of course the above is pure fiction but it has its basis in fact. Swords of high quality steel were much prized by the Knights of Old during the Crusades to the Holy Land (11th to 15th centuries CE). The Crusaders were introduced to this steel in battle when their own swords were sliced in half by those wielded by the Muslims. The superiority of their weaponry was only one aspect of Islam’s Golden Age, during which advances were made in astronomy, medicine and mathematics. To say that the Christians were playing catch up on the battle field is correct but catch up they did as they discovered where to lay there hands on this sword breaking steel and that was in the city of Damascus, a thriving trading centre of the day where armourers were supplying swords, daggers and body armour, at a price. Thus this strong (hard but flexible) steel...

The competition between Structural Steelwork and Reinforced Concrete in the realm of building construction can be likened to the rivalry between the Springboks and the All Blacks, in the sense that each continually attempts to better the other. The rivalries both on the construction site and on the rugby field have been going for nigh on 100 years and both have their die-hard fans. Fortunately the competition has largely been a healthy one bringing out the best in both.

Structural steelwork had a head start as it took over the design methods, connection and fabrication techniques, previously used for wrought iron, i.e. when steel was made readily available in the 1870s it was used as a one for one substitute for wrought iron. Steelwork is a dry method of construction as it is fabricated in the workshop (off-site) and transported to site, where it is erected. On the other hand reinforced concrete is a wet method of construction, as concrete is poured insitu into temporary shutters, in which steel reinforcement bars have been fixed.

At the beginning of the 20th Century reinforced concrete represented a new technology (patented in France) and was empirically based and lacked an adequate theory for the design of building frames. Plain concrete (cement, sand, stone aggregate and water) was known to the Egyptians and the Romans used it for the dome of the Pantheon in Rome (c. 123 AD), which had a span of 43.4m and still stands to this day.

Frank Lloyd Wright, the...

The development of structural steel as a building material and its attendant fabricating industry has played a major role in the growth of the industrialised world and has helped to create our modern way of life. Without structural steel the building of the railways, the building of bridges, the opening up of mines, the construction of factories for the manufacture of goods, and the production and transmission of power would never have progressed to the stage we are at today.

To imagine a world without steel (weaponry excepted), one only has to go back 200 years, to the year 1812, when Napoleon’s Grande Armee was in full retreat from Moscow. His men were no longer marching on their stomachs, but on foot in temperatures as low -30 degrees Celsius. It was to be a turning point in world affairs.

Whilst Napoleon had been spreading “Le Revolution” across continental Europe, the British (to Napoleon, a nation of shopkeepers) were busy causing their own revolution, that of an industrial kind; this was achieved by harnessing the power of steam and by increasing the output of iron.

The period between 1730 and 1830 had been one of great invention, which by the time of the coming of railways, placed Britain at the forefront of trade and industry. Three forms of ferrous metal were then known, they being Wrought Iron, Cast Iron and Steel. Wrought iron had been worked by the blacksmith for centuries and had found use in the making of gates, railings...