Tall shear walls

With the prevalence for more window and door openings in home design, the amount of wall space is shrinking. Meeting the required design loads has meant moving to prefabricated, narrow shear walls. Simpson Strong-Tie introduces its two-story stacked Steel Strong-Wall solution for narrow walls.

Simpson’s Steel Strong-Wall is an engineered, pre-manufactured shear wall made from steel and wood with an allowable load capacity between two and three times higher than the Wood Strong-Wall. The two-story stacked wall application offers some of the highest loads in the industry and is easy to install. It has the same anchor bolt template as a single-story application, bearing plates are not needed for installation, and it can be placed flush against a corner. More importantly, the stacked wall design transfers the compression load through the nut and rod, reducing deflection under seismic load.

Simpson Strong-Tie
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New manual published

The Metal Building Manufacturers Association (MBMA) recently released the new 2006 edition of the Metal Building Systems Manual. Since the manual’s first publication in 1959, building owners, manufacturers, general contractors, erectors, engineers, architects, specifiers, inspectors, and other building professionals have used this primary resource for the metal building industry. The previous edition, published in 2002, was MBMA’s best-selling publication ever.

After reviewing the 2002 edition word for word, MBMA’s technical committee created the new 2006 manual. They filled more than 600 pages with new and updated code information, and expanded data and details regarding emerging technologies and processes influencing the changing industry. Of special note are the revisions pertinent to the International Building Code updates for 2006.

The Common Industry Practices section of the manual is fundamental for everyone who works with metal buildings—it describes the typical terminology and transactions in the industry.

Metal Building Manufacturers Association
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Narrow-profile steel curtainwall system

Architects and designers now have a better way to incorporate large expanses of glass in building designs. Used for wall facades and roofs, the steel curtainwall system from Technical Glass Products (TGP) is strong and slim, allowing larger spans of glazing than traditional aluminum framing. The result is greater expanses of exposed glass and increased ability to bring natural light indoors.

The high strength of the European-designed steel curtainwall system means that a narrower-frame profile can be used than with aluminum framing. The steel framing members have substantially lower deflection than aluminum, providing three times the wind load capacity. In addition, the lower thermal expansion of steel allows greater design flexibility with fewer or no extension profiles.

The steel curtainwall system uses a "plug and screw" connection system for the framing components, which provides for crisp corner joints without a visible weld bead. The system is watertight and the low heat-transfer coefficient of steel helps ensure less interior condensation (sweating) on frames.

Technical Glass Products
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New joist evaluation and modification guide

The new Technical Digest #12 from the Steel Joist Institute, authored by James M. Fisher, Ph.D., P.E., is the most comprehensive technical guide ever published by the institute. It contains 95 pages about the evaluation of existing steel joists and joist girders to carry additional loads not accounted for in their original design. It also addresses situations in which the configuration and/or the original geometry of the steel joists or the joist girders need to be modified in the field.

This is a valuable guide for architects, building inspectors, designers, engineers, erectors, students, and others. It includes a detailed glossary of the most frequently used terms, information about evaluation of existing joist strength, methods of supporting additional load, and design approaches for modifying joists-shortening and lengthening.

Other considerations such as deflections, camber, effects of added loads on bridging, and creating two joists from one are also discussed. A Steel Joist Investigative Form to help identify older joists found in the field is featured, along with a review of the common properties of equal leg angles with leg sizes of 2 inches or less.

Steel Joist Institute
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