Team Stainless is pleased to announce the publication of stainless steel design tables, which will make it much easier and faster for engineers to design with structural stainless steel, thus removing a barrier to its specification.
The tables have been developed to complement the American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC) Design Guide DG27: Structural Stainless Steel. Published in 2013, DG27 specified AISC design recommendations for hot-rolled or welded structural austenitic, duplex and precipitation hardening stainless steel sections (i.e. 0.125 inch or 3 mm in thickness or greater). It includes open sections, such as I-beams, channels and angles, and rectangular and round hollow sections made from austenitic and duplex stainless steel. It also covers tension members, fittings and fasteners made from all three alloy families.
Sponsored by Team Stainless and published by the Steel Construction Institute (SCI), the tables cover the most common structural sections available in North America, giving section properties and member capacities in accordance with DG27.
Prior to the introduction of the new design guide, there was no formal AISC design guidance for using structural stainless steel sections in this size range. These new tables are the logical next step, as they enable designers to quickly select the appropriate structural members for their project, in the familiar format used for carbon steel in the AISC Steel Construction Manual.
The problem arising from the lack of design tables was compounded by the large number of shapes and sizes, and the lack of a standardized library, hence we expect their introduction to increase the use of structural stainless steel in a wide range of load-bearing applications.
The tables cover the use of W- and S- shapes, C- and MC-shapes, equal angles, and rectangular, square and circular hollow structural sections (HSS), and are available to download from http://www.steel-stainless.org/usdesigntables. AISC Steel Design Guide No.27: Structural Stainless Steel is available to download from www.aisc.org/Design-Guide-27-Structural-Stainless-Steel. A 3-hour AISC webinar provides an introduction to the design of structural stainless steel with DG27. https://www.aisc.org/education/continuingeducation/education-archives/designing-structural-stainless-steel/