METALLIC CONSTRUCTIONS AND STEEL

METALLIC CONSTRUCTIONS AND STEEL

Steel in metal constructions has proved to be a material of fundamental importance due to its high strength qualities in relation to the section used, it has established itself as a substitute material for wood in numerous construction applications.

In fact, steel offered the advantage of allowing the construction of load-bearing structures of modest section, thus occupying much less space than the materials used up to then, and gave the whole construction an appearance of lightness, while allowing the use of light-bearing elements. unusual.

The progress of the steel industry in the early years of the twentieth century made available steels perfectly suited to the new needs, especially in the field of industrial plants. Until 1930, nailing and bolting were the most common procedures for connecting the components of a metal structure together.

In the following years, thanks to the evolution of the chemical qualities of steel, which improved its weldability, electric welding took hold, making significant changes in the art of building in metal.

After the end of the Second World War, the consequences of which had forced the production of steel for construction to be reduced, the quality of steel products has been improving more and more.

ADVANTAGES OF METALLIC CONSTRUCTIONS

The main advantages over other building materials are:

• the high strength / specific weight ratio, given by the fact that the metal structures are lighter than those in load-bearing masonry and reinforced concrete and this determines a lower incidence of the structural own weight on the operating loads and therefore smaller foundations. The lightness of the steel elements and their high resistance also makes it possible to create structures with large luminous spaces.
• steel is presented as an isotropic and homogeneous material and has a linear elastic behavior up to yield, quite the opposite of reinforced concrete, therefore it has a better correspondence to the calculation model of the structure.
• prefabrication in the workshop of the structure.
• quick assembly.
• a limited demolition cost.
• possibility of easily carrying out reinforcements or variations on site being a metal construction.

STEELS INTENDED FOR STRUCTURES

Among the numerous steel products, there are some particularly intended for metal carpentry. Construction steels generally include the unified types of simple carbon steels. These are used in the form of hot rolled products.

For particular applications, special steels are also used (e.g. stainless steel, Corten steel, etc.), which contain small quantities of precious metals (chromium, manganese, nickel, copper, etc.) which greatly improve the characteristics of the steel, especially against corrosion.