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Castellated beams are on the rise
The AISC has conducted an independent research paper on garages with and without castellated beams. According to the report, castellated beams demonstrated 32% saving to the total structural steel package. Castellated beams also can reduce footing and support columns weight, simply because the structure is lighter.
The structural steel construction market has seen an increase of castellated beams, says Johnny Brewer, New Millennium's sales manager for castellated beams.
“Our castellated beams projects are not limited to one area of the country,” Brewer explains. “We are quoting as far away as Maui. We just finished a castellated beams project for a leading auto manufacturer in Washington State, a castellated building for the University of Michigan, and another for a U.S. Air Force base in Florida. We are at this moment collaborating with another major auto manufacturer for several showroom additions throughout the USA and they are insisting that castellated beams be used on the front facade of their buildings.”
While castellated beams are being used for either aesthetic or structural efficiency reasons, architects may leverage one attribute over another, Brewer says: “On some projects, the use of castellated beams is 90% aesthetic, with the beams left exposed to meet an architectural objective. On other projects, castellated beams are totally for structural efficiency and not exposed after the project is finished.”
The aesthetic and structural properties of a castellated beam are ideal for many projects, from 60-foot span parking garages to today's most innovative commercial building projects.
For more information, please visit our castellated beams page.
The increased use of the castellated beam is attributable to its aesthetic appeal and structural efficiency, though not always both. Many architects simply like the look.
After receiving the steel joists in the 3-D model, the structural engineer saw that a stabilizer was not planned for this joist girder. The engineer designed a special stabilizer hanger for the bottom chord extension, thus preventing a field erection problem.
The as-built steel joists design enabled the structural engineer/detailer to design the reinforcement for this door framing, including bolting details.
The 3-D model enabled the structural detailer to coordinate with the steel joist detailer to extend the bottom chords of these double joists, for added reinforcement.
3-D steel joist design is on-target
A recent article in Building Design & Construction reports how big-box retailer Target used New Millennium's digital steel joist design capabilities for BIM-based project collaboration. The collaboration prevented a range of project costs, and the shop drawing timeline was reduced from a six-to-ten week schedule to a three-and-a-half week schedule.
Here is an excerpt from the article:
New Millennium Building Systems won the steel joist fabrication package in part because of the company's BIM capabilities. MBJ created a construction BIM model using Target’s Revit model as a starting point, converting to Tekla Structures using the IFC file format. After quality control checking, this model was delivered to New Millennium in lieu of 2-D drawings. New Millennium was then able to seamlessly use the generic steel joist elements, rather than redraw them, to begin the process for exact steel joist design and modeling. New Millennium’s Dynamic Joist™ design component, a plug-in for Tekla Structures that helps automate this integrated process, enabled the company to quickly design the steel joists, insert ‘real’ fabrication-ready steel joists and bridging in the shared Tekla model, and produce 2-D shop drawings. The steel joists geometry and profiles were determined by New Millennium’s design, detailing and fabrication standards.
“The parametric Dynamic Joist™ plug-in will model a steel joist for you from user-specified points,” said Ricky Gillenwater, IT Director at New Millennium and developer of the plug-in. “What users have, initially, is a generic representation of a steel joist, consisting of generic material and geometry. The component transforms this into an as-built representation as it goes through the steel joist detailing and design process, which is what we gave MBJ.”
Dynamic Joist™ version 1.1 is available
Our Dynamic Joist™ version 1.0 digital steel joist design component has been a popular free download ever since we introduced it last April at the NASCC show. Now version 1.1 is available in support of BIM-based project collaboration. The component is an add-on to Tekla Structures version 16.0 R1. At the time this article was written, an add-on for Tekla Structures 16.1 was in development.
Dynamic Joist version 1.1 supports cost-accountable, BIM-based project collaboration.
The Dynamic Joist™ component supports BIM-based design collaboration, for a more efficient and thorough design process, enhancing design possibilities, accelerating timelines, reducing costs, and contributing to the financial success of a project. Several examples of the component at work reducing project costs and accelerating timelines have been documented in the trade media.
Building Design & Construction, January 2011
Adapting Digital Design at the Supplier End
Structural Engineering & Design, October 2010
New Millennium Building Systems is a wholly owned subsidiary of Steel Dynamics Inc.
