Recent research and design developments in steel and composite steel–concrete structures in USA.pdfVIP

Journal of Constructional Steel Research 55 (2000) 289–303 /locate/jcsr Recent research and design developments in steel and composite steel–concrete structures in USA Theodore V. Galambos* University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, USA Abstract A brief review of the status of structural steel research in the US at the end of the Twentieth Century is presented in this paper to show that while many problems are being solved, there are new and challenging problems remaining. The chief impetus for continued research is that provided by natural disasters, such as earthquakes, tropical storms, tornadoes and floods occur- ring in densely populated urban areas. New materials and new experimental and computational technologies also give rise to new and exciting research problems.  2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Bridges; Buildings; Design; Research; Steel structures; United States of America; Seismic behavior; High-performance materials 1. Introduction The purpose of this paper is to give a brief overview of the current developments in structural steel research in the US, and of the future directions that the structural steel engineering research may take in the coming Century. The driving forces of research in this field are the following: new construction methods and construction products new materials economic considerations natural disasters * Corresponding author. Tel.: + 1-612-625-5522 fax: + 1-612-626-7750. 0143-974X/00/$ - see front matter  2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. PII: S 01 43 - 974X(99)00 09 0- 5 290 T.V. Galambos / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 55 (2000) 289–303 Three of these motivations are common to all engineering dev