Interactive Online Figures for Demonstrating

Structural Steel Design

Instructor Guide
(April 1, 2024)

Prepared by: Joel Lanning (Associate Professor of Teaching)

Julia Badrya (Graduate Student)
University of California, Irvine

Funded by: AISC Teaching Aid Development Program

Please direct any questions to:

AISC University Programs
[email protected]

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Interactive Online Figures for Demonstrating Structural Steel Design INSTRUCTOR GUIDE

Table of Contents

Overview...........................................................................................................................3
How it works...........................................................................................................................................3
How to use these interactive figures...................................................................................................... 3
Key Highlights........................................................................................................................................ 3
Quick Use Guide.............................................................................................................. 4
Table Footnotes......................................................................................................................................5
Activity Overview and Suggestions for Use..................................................................... 6
Steel Framing......................................................................................................................................... 6
Steel Material Behavior.......................................................................................................................... 6
Tension Members and Simple Connections........................................................................................... 7
Compression Members.......................................................................................................................... 8
Flexural Members...................................................................................................................................9
Combined Loading.............................................................................................................................. 10

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Interactive Online Figures for Demonstrating Structural Steel Design INSTRUCTOR GUIDE

Overview
These interactive figures cover the core concepts and topics in a typical undergraduate structural steel
design course. Specifically, they are aimed at allowing students to develop rich connections between
AISC Specification equations and the related engineering and physical concepts. A primary intention is
to combat the “plug-and-chug” mentality students can sometimes develop in design courses by
emphasizing the physical meaning and physical concepts to drive engagement and promote
understanding. These interactive depictions can be unique study aids for students or demonstration
tools for instructors.

How it works
The two general kinds of activities are conceptual overviews and more detailed summaries of AISC
Specification equations or design related calculations. Each activity has a (i) brief primer on the topic
being presented, (ii) prompt, and (iii) set of learning objectives.

● Sliders and dropdown menus change parameters like member dimensions, loads, steel shapes,
materials, and boundary conditions that affect the presented equations or design scenario.
Graphics, plots, equations, and other results update in real time offering instant feedback..
● Equations, results, plots, references, and more can be hidden, allowing students to practice
many customizable scenarios rather than being restricted to just a few static pre-solved
examples. This makes the applets powerful study tools to encourage students and to drive their
understanding of concepts rather than "plugging and chugging."

Just playing with the figures can convey a sense for the structural behavior and quickly provide students
exposure to a wide range of scenarios, quickly building their experience and “feeling” for structural
design.

How to use these interactive figures

In practice, students are expected to skip right to playing with the figures, selecting various parameter
settings and playing with the sliders to see how the figures and calculations change. The hope is that this
playful nature of the activities will spur curiosity about the relationships being shown or that the user will
find them enlightening (e.g, “oh, that’s how that works”). Students may read the description in search of
an answer to a question, or just to see the concept at hand described in a way that may differ from their
instructor or textbook.

Keep in mind that these activities are for teaching the fundamentals and are not meant to be practical
design tools. They are not comprehensive of pragmatic design situations - it’s just the basics.

Key Highlights
The topics include those typically covered in a first undergraduate course in structural steel design:
gravity framing; basic design of tension, compression, and flexural members; basic design of bolted and
fillet welded tension-transfering connections; and combined loading with the approximate second order
analysis method.

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 Interactive Online Figures for Demonstrating Structural Steel Design INSTRUCTOR GUIDE

Students Instructors
Practice Understand Lecture Aids
Quick Use Guide Calculations Core Demonstrate
Homework
[4] Assignments [5]
[1]
Concepts [2] [3] Examples
Concepts
Steel Framing
Floor Framing and Tributary Area ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
Live Load Reduction ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
Irregular Floor Plan and Tributary Area ✔ ✔ ✔
Flow of Gravity Forces ✔ ✔
Lateral Framing Basics ✔ ✔
Steel Material Behavior
Tensile Behavior ✔ ✔
Expected vs. Nominal Material Strengths ✔ ✔
Tension Members and Simple Connections
Overview of Tension Limit States ✔ ✔
Welded Tension Members ✔ ✔ ✔
Bolted Tension Members ✔ ✔ ✔
Block Shear ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
Compression Members
Introduction to Residual Stress ✔ ✔
Flexural Buckling of W-Shapes ✔ ✔ ✔
Local Buckling ✔ ✔ ✔
Flexural Members
Overview of Flexural Limit States ✔ ✔
Beam Yielding (Plastic Moment) ✔ ✔ ✔
Lateral Torsional Buckling (LTB) ✔ ✔ ✔
Flange Local Buckling ✔ ✔ ✔
Introduction to Beam Design ✔ ✔ ✔
Combined Loading
Introduction to Second-Order Effects ✔ ✔
Combined Loading ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
Introduction to the Approximate
✔ ✔
Second-Order Analysis Method

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Interactive Online Figures for Demonstrating Structural Steel Design INSTRUCTOR GUIDE

Quick Use Guide Footnotes

Students
[1] Practice Calculations
Most similar to traditional practice problems. Hide the answers, select a scenario, and carry out the
calculations yourself. Then, reveal the answers to check your work. If you get stuck along the way, many
of these will have intermediate steps you can work through progressively.

[2] Understand core concepts

These activities are meant to qualitatively explain some ideas, processes, or structural behavior(s) that are
sometimes difficult to visualize or relate to, especially as a student.

Instructors
[3] Lecture aids to demonstrate concepts
These activities could be used in lecture as a qualitative demonstration to explain some ideas, processes,
or structural behavior(s) that are sometimes difficult for students to visualize or are hard to describe with
words or static pictures.

[4] Examples in lecture

These could be used to quickly and efficiently show the calculation steps in lecture, saving you time in
coming up with custom problems and/or giving you the ability to effortlessly change a variable in class to
make a point (e.g., Use the applet to carry out a column example in class then change the boundary
conditions for this column and demonstrate how drastically the capacity changes.)

[5] Homework Assignments

Most similar to traditional practice problems. You could use these to design unique assignments focused
on parameter investigations or reverse engineering various results (e.g., “Find a column design that has
x- and y-axis braces but results in the x-axis controlling the flexural buckling capacity.”)

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Interactive Online Figures for Demonstrating Structural Steel Design INSTRUCTOR GUIDE

Activity Overview and Suggestions for Use

Steel Framing
This activity demonstrates the fundamental concepts for understanding how gravity forces
Floor Framing flow through a common concrete slab-on-metal-deck floor system. The user can generate
and Tributary several simple gravity framing scenarios to practice the calculations. Free-body diagrams
Area are provided to illustrate and further support the understanding of load path for gravity
forces.
This activity introduces the concept of live load reduction (LLR) and provides an example for
practicing the calculations. The user can generate several LLR scenarios for use during
Live Load
teaching or for practice outside of class. The activity also helps visually illustrate how the
Reduction LLR changes with tributary area, as well as how tributary areas and LLR vary between
components and how they change with a change in floor plan.
With this irregular floor plan, users can generate gravity loading scenarios and practice
Irregular Floor different ways to estimate the total loads on the columns. The main point to reinforce is that
Plan and tributary areas can get tricky when floor plans are irregular. Therefore, the designer needs to
Tributary Area fully consider the load path for gravity forces and understand how steel members are
framed together.
This qualitative activity demonstrates the flow of gravity forces in a multistory building.. It
Flow of Gravity can be used to help students visualize the load path, as it points out each “step” along the
Forces way -- from load application to the transfer of forces through the structure and down to the
foundation.
This qualitative activity demonstrates the flow of lateral forces to promote student
visualization. It highlights the difference between wind and seismic lateral force application
Lateral Framing (i.e., pressure applied externally versus inertial force, respectively). It can be used to point
Basics out each “step” along the way – from load application to the transfer of forces through the
structure and down to the foundation, as well as the effect of loads on lateral force resisting
components.

Steel Material Behavior

This graphical animation of tensile coupon tests illustrates steel’s stress-strain behavior. It
can help reinforce students’ understanding of the true scale of steel’s ductility (in uniaxial
Tensile Behavior
tension), as well as the difference in behavior for different steels. It also shows the idealized
behavior that is used so much within the AISC Specification.
This activity demonstrates the concept of expected yield stress through graphical
animations of steel coupon tests. Users can “run” the (randomly generated) tests and then
practice calculating Ry and Rt. .

Expected vs. Even in a course that does not cover seismic design, this applet can be used to illustrate the
Nominal Material concept of minimum yield stress and expected yield stress. It may also be illustrative to ask
Strengths students to compare Ry for A36 and A992, which provides an opportunity to discuss their
different ASTM requirements.

Note that the applet only uses three coupons for illustrative purposes; instructors should
make it clear that Ry is determined from more than three samples.

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Interactive Online Figures for Demonstrating Structural Steel Design INSTRUCTOR GUIDE

Tension Members and Simple Connections

This applet provides a compilation of all* basic limit states for tension members and simple
tensile connections. Having them together in one place allows students to visually compare
Overview of the limit states and also see the larger structural implication of failure for the provided
Tension Limit example. Instructors can use this applet to introduce tension limit states graphically in order
States to give students a broader context before jumping into calculations.

* “all” meaning those commonly taught in an undergraduate course

The user can generate many basic fillet weld connection scenarios for practicing
calculations and/or for use during teaching. This is a customizable example, as one might
see in a textbook, that allows for several different configurations. Steps of the provided
Welded Tension solution are hideable for extra practice.
Members
Some combinations of available design parameters do not dimensionally work. This
provides instructors with a simple visual aid for explaining why certain combinations may
not work and to point out where to find the limits in the AISC Specification.
The user can generate many bolted scenarios for practicing calculations and/or for use
during teaching. This is a customizable example, as one might see in a textbook with many
different possible configurations. Steps of the provided solution are hideable for extra
Bolted Tension practice.Some combinations of available design parameters do not dimensionally work.
Members This provides instructors with a simple visual aid for explaining why certain combinations
may not work and to point out where to find the limits in the AISC Specification. Bolt thread
conditions are also illustrated to demonstrate the implication on the strength.

The user can generate many bolted scenarios for practicing calculations and/or for use
during teaching. This is a customizable example, as one might see in a textbook, with many
different possible configurations. Steps of the provided solution are hideable for extra
practice.
Block Shear
Students may find the color coding for tensile and shear planes useful. There are
configurations that do not satisfy dimensional requirements, providing a visual illustration
and opportunity for discussion. The user can also switch between block shear cases that
must be checked, and see the two calculations side by side.

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Interactive Online Figures for Demonstrating Structural Steel Design INSTRUCTOR GUIDE

Compression Members
This conceptual model explains, step-by-step, how and why residual stress forms in
Introduction to hot-rolled structural steel shapes. The animation and graphics show the heating, rolling,
Residual Stress and cooling process, along with the stress plots for the flanges and web. This should
provide a good visual/physical conceptual connection for students.
This applet can generate many scenarios for calculating flexural buckling of compression
members. It is a customizable example, as one might see in a textbook, with all the solution
steps provided (hideable), but with many different possible configurations.
It aims to connect the column configurations with the flexural buckling curve, further
Flexural Buckling
connecting to the AISC Specification equations and helping students put it all together to
of W-Shapes form a strong understanding. Adding bracing to each axis allows the user to (i) explore the
effect and (ii) to clearly demonstrate which buckling axis is being braced and the
implications on the calculations. Selecting high-strength steel highlights the effect of yield
strength on the limiting slenderness ratio (i.e., as Fy increases, the limiting ratio decreases).

Similar to the applet for flexural buckling, this applet allows the user to explore
compression local buckling scenarios. Users can vary the cross section, member length,
boundary conditions, and steel types to see the effects (for example, selecting
high-strength steel highlights the effect of yield strength on the limiting slenderness ratios).
They can also use the applet to practice computing the governing compressive strength.
Local Buckling
It also conceptually illustrates how slender elements affect the controlling compressive
strength (i.e., the relation between local buckling stress of the element and the resulting
effective area used in the flexural buckling equation), as this may not be abundantly evident
to students when reading AISC 360-22 Chapter E7.

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Interactive Online Figures for Demonstrating Structural Steel Design INSTRUCTOR GUIDE

Flexural Members
This applet provides a compilation of all* flexural limit states for a wide-flange beam in one
place where they can be easily compared. In addition to a visual representation of each
failure mode, the bending stress distribution is also shown to illustrate that LTB and FLB can
occur in plastic, inelastic, and elastic cross sectional stress conditions.
Overview of
Flexural Limit Instructors might use this applet to introduce all* flexural limit states with this broader
States context before jumping into calculations, allowing students to relate and distinguish the
limit states from one another while considering the bending stress and resulting moment
carried by the member.

* “all” meaning those commonly taught in an undergraduate course

This activity connects the familiar elastic bending theory to inelastic and plastic bending
limit states in a number of ways, while allowing the user to increase and decrease the
applied moment on the section. Additionally, plastic section modulus, Zx, calculations are
shown for a few W and WT sections.
Beam Yielding
(Plastic Moment) Instructors can use this applet to convey this fundamental topic to students in class, by
illustrating how the stress along the cross section transitions from elastic to plastic as well as
how a plastic hinge is formed. It also can be used to visually demonstrate the meaning of Zx
is and how it can be calculated together with Mp.
This activity provides a unique dynamic view of LTB and Cb, and how beams with various
loadings and Lb fall on the “LTB curve.” It is intended to help students connect the design
equations with the Mn-Lb relationship and to emphasize how to find the Cb factor and avoid
Lateral Torsional common errors.
Buckling (LTB)
Note, force magnitudes are intentionally omitted on the beam diagram so that instructors
can (i) encourage students to compute a desired moment diagram themselves and/or (ii)
use this applet for homework assignments for strength check problems.
Users can explore flange local buckling by considering a custom (fictitious) cross section.
While varying the flange width and thickness, users can see how the cross section changes
as well as the flexural strengths with respect to bending stress and flange slenderness ratio.
Flange Local
Buckling The custom cross section allows instructors and students to not only conceptually explore
flange local buckling but also to generate examples of how to calculate the flexural
strength. In addition to the custom cross section, several wide-flange shapes are available
for selection.
This activity introduces the design of a non-composite beam ((with full lateral support) while
considering both strength and serviceability limits. Several beam load configurations are
included along with customizable dead and live loads.
Introduction to
Through a controlled sequence of steps, the user can see the necessary calculations for
Beam Design moment and shear demands, maximum deflection, minimum required moment of inertia ,
minimum required plastic modulus, and shear capacity. Then, a design summary is provided
with selection of a beam size from a predetermined list of cross sections. Each step in the
process can be hidden; completing the steps in order will help facilitate student practice.

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Interactive Online Figures for Demonstrating Structural Steel Design INSTRUCTOR GUIDE

Combined Loading
Students likely have very little, if any, experience with the concept of second-order
analyses. This activity provides two examples demonstrating the concepts by building upon
simple, familiar first-order analyses. The magnitude of the moment amplification can be
Introduction to controlled with an axial force slider, and the simple illustrations update accordingly.
Second-Order
Effects Instructors can use this in class as an animated visual aid. Students can use it to reinforce
their understanding of a second-order analysis and why it is so important to consider in
design. This activity can help students develop a conceptual understanding before the
instructor dives into the methodical details.
By exploring custom combinations of the forces applied to various W-shapes, students can
use this activity to gain a feeling for the importance of checking combined moment and
Combined
axial forces. Instructors can use this to generate examples in class. Students can use it as a
Loading studying tool for additional calculation practice. Note that the B1 calculations from the
approximate second-order method are included.
The goal of this applet is to convey the "physical" meaning of the two analyses required in
Introduction to the approximate second-order analysis method, the lateral translation (lt) and no lateral
the Approximate translation (nt) analyses. The activity builds the approximate method equations
Second-Order step-by-step, showing a representative structure and corresponding moment diagrams,
Analysis Method which are amplified by the B1 or B2 factors accordingly. This can help students develop a
conceptual understanding before diving into the details of the method.

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