CADD for Export

by James C. Hays, Staff Engr.; Civil Engrg. Dept., Davy Dravo-Comstock Division of Davy, Pittsburgh, PA,


Serial Information: Civil Engineering—ASCE, 1991, Vol. 61, Issue 6, Pg. 52-54


Document Type: Feature article

Abstract:

By using sophisticated structural design software and high-speed PCs, engineers in Pittsburgh overcame myriad problems when designing a highrise industrial tower in India. First, they had to conform to many of the 12,000 building codes and standards. Most of the heavy structural members had to be fabricated from plates in the field, and only nine standard Indian beam shapes were available, with the largest just 24 in. deep. Also, all the steel used on the project had to be produced in India. Seismic and environmental factors also influenced design. The area is one of the most seismically volatile in the world, and the site was vulnerable to monsoons, salty sea air, and cyclonic winds of more than 100 mph. Another problem was to lay out and design a 350 ft tall structure that could support a 1,700 ton reactor vessel and 1,200 ton furnace resting about two-thirds of the way up. Finally, engineers had to design on fast-tracked schedule. Ordinary manual structural design woul have taken years to complete. Instead, engineers quickly built a sophisticated, three-dimensional computer model of the space frame.

Subject Headings: Structural design | Computer aided design | Three-dimensional models | Standards and codes | Space frames | Seismic tests | Seismic design

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