Thin-Walled Structures, Ben Schafer, JHU, Cold-Formed Steel, CUFSM, Elastic Buckling, Direct Strength Method

Mario Fasano (2007), Eric Deuser (2007), Allison Reilly (2005), Liakos Ariston (2004), Sam Phillips (2004), Tim Ruth (2004), Andrew Myer (2004), Brent Bass (2004)

High School RA's alumni:

Kristine Carter (Bal Poly 2008), Dawneshia Sanders (Bal Poly 2007), Alexander Pei (Montgomery-Blair 2006), Michael Manness, Jr. (Bal Poly - 2004).

Bio-corner: Bio and Thin-walled Structures

Thin-walled structures often occur in biological applications, from the meso-scale of bone structure down to the nano-scale of cell cytoskeleton networks. The large range of active research at Johns Hokpins in "nano" and particularly "bio" applications affords a variety of interesting collaborations. See Professor Schafer's publications list for research on the stability of bones and cytoskeleton networks. Learn more about bio related institutes that Professor Schafer is affiliated:

INBT: Institute for Nano Bio Technology

IMMBI: Inst. for Multiscale Modeling in Biological Interactions

For students interested in working in these cross-disciplinary areas Professor Schafer is affiliated with NBMed, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Graduate Training Program at Hopkins. You can learn more about this training program here including funding opportunities for students. Current Hopkins students as well as prospective students may apply. Students should have significant strength and interest in computational modeling.

What are Thin-Walled Structures?

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NEWS

Three new reports released to AISI

(July 2008)

The draft final report for the Direct Strength Method for Members with Holes, a supplemental report on Analytical Modeling of Rotational Restraint in cold-formed steel framing systems, and a new report on Inelastic Bending of Cold-Formed Steel Members have all been released this month to AISI. These projects will be discussed at the forthcoming AISI-COS meetings in Denver Colorado.

Computational modeling page updated
(July 2008)

Computational modeling of cold-formed steel is a key research effort of the thin-walled structures research group. Our web page summarizing work in this area has been "under construction" for years, but has recently been updated with a new paper and presentation providing current thinking on this important topic.

New GBT Tool released in Portugal

(July 2008)

Generalized Beam Theory finally has a user friendly program for your use thanks to the hard work of the research group at the Technical University of Lisbon in Portugal. Bebiano, Pina, Silvestre and Camotim provide their program - GBTUL at their site. We look forward to many interesting comparisong between GBTUL and our own program CUFSM.

the group at lunch, November 2007

(L to R back row: Evelyn, Rachel, Zhanjie, Vahid, Dr.S, Yared, Mina
L to R front row: Luiz, Ying, Cris, Ornella)

CUFSM v3.12 Tutorials now live

(May 2008)

The complete set of tutorials for learning how to use CUFSM, our popular elastic buckling analysis software, has now been updated to the latest version of CUFSM and are available here. (Thanks to Zhanjie Li for updating the old tutorials!).

Structural Steel Cross-section Stability

(April 2008)

The second progress report focused on the cross-section stability of structural steel was just released. The report details finite strip analysis and nonlinear finite element analysis of hot-rolled steel structural shapes with locally slender cross-sections. Go here to see all of the reports or download report 2 directly.

The work was also summarized at the recent AISC Committe on Research meetings and at the SSRC conference held in conjunction with AISC's NASCC Steel Conference. Go here to see all of the presentations and materials.

5th report on DSM for holes released

(Feb 2008)

The fifth progress report detailing extension of the Direct Strength Method to cover members with holes has been posted. The report details our recent efforts on simplified methods for predicting elastic buckling of members with holes. Go here to see all of the reports or download: report 5 or presentation 5 directly.

AISI-COFS field trip to JHU on 10 Sept.

(September 2007)

Twenty-one members of the AISI-COFS attended a research field trip to JHU on 10 September 2007. The field trip focused on three research projects: rotational restraint of sheathing, direct strength method for members with holes, and the design of sheathed walls. Full details are provided here including the final annotated version of the slides from the presentations.

Help compile cold-formed steel list

(July 2007)

Your help is needed. What codes and standards govern the use of cold-formed steel in your country? To help all of us better understand the specifications governing cold-formed steel I am compiling a list of codes and standards used for cold-formed steel around the world. I have created an easy to edit web page so we can all share in the findings, but I need your help compiling the standards used around the world. To use the list, or to add information about your own country please go to http://coldformedsteel.pbwiki.com click on "edit page", the password to edit is "winter". Your help is much appreciated!

Cross-section stability of structural steel

(June 2007)

A series of educational tutorials on the cross-section stability of structural steel has recently been added here. These tutorials primarily focus on local and global buckling of a hot-rolled W-section and include: step by step instructions for using finite strip analysis to examine the cross-section stability of hot-rolled steel structural shapes, specific learning objectives for the tutorials, and a set of complementary exercises. In addition a tutorial covering more advanced topics including modal interaction and higher modes in cross-section stability analysis is also provided. (go there)

<past news stories>

Other Links of Interest

° American Iron and Steel Institute

° Cold-Formed Steel Engineers Institute

° Center for Cold-Formed Steel Structures (UMR)

° University of Sydney Research Group

° Cornell University Research Group

° University of Waterloo Research Group

° ABAQUS (nonlinear finite element analysis)

last updated 07/23/08 - Ben Schafer, schafer@jhu.edu

since 19 Oct. 2006