Development of Design Tool for Design of Steel Columns

Abstract

The design methodology based on Limit State Method involves numerous equations and parameters, which makes the design process a complex and tedious task. Also design being a trial and error process is very repetitive in nature. Hence use of spreadsheets can reduce the time and effort of a designer/engineer considerably. Because of the compactness and flexibility, spreadsheets have become one of the best choices for an engineer, despite the availability of number of mainstream design software packages. Even though development of spreadsheets are very common now-a-days, not many of them includes a detailed design procedure for multiple international codes. So the main aim of this project is to prepare a Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet which will entail a detailed design of Steel Columns for three different steel codes. The three steel codes being the Indian Steel Code (IS 800-2007), the British Steel Code (BS 5950-2000) and the American Steel Code (AISC 360-2010). The result of this project will be a design tool, which can be conveniently used by an engineer to check the design status of an column section and to strike a balance between safety and economy.