Sustainable steel structures

Sustainable structures are optimally designed structures using cost effective technologies and materials. Each developmental activity has a price attached to it in terms of energy use, environmental degradation and cost – all of which are important. Last century has seen tremendous strides being made in developing new and more efficient materials. The development of high strength steels, new design methods like Limit State Design and Plastic methods have resulted in more economic structures. The technique of cold-roll forming has resulted in structural steel sections, which are more economic and aesthetic than traditional steels. Special problems associated with cold-formed steel like local buckling, torsional and flexural buckling can now be solved using FEA and laboratory testing. Natural Disasters like cyclones and earthquakes result in huge losses to the community both due to deaths and also due to damage to the built environment. Studies on the nature of wind during cyclones, development of facilities for determination of wind pressure on structures using wind tunnels have lead to innovations in design leading to safer and sustainable steel structures. Smart and intelligent materials have been developed. It is now possible to design structures to respond to specific environmental conditions as during an earthquake.