Towards a Fully Digital Modelling of Steel Joints at ULS

For aesthetics' or structural reasons, footbridges design tends to push slenderness much further than any other structure. Moreover, it usually is the opportunity for both engineer and architect to express their creativity leading to ambitious designs. The computation of the global behaviour is generally not a problem with the use of finite element software, but when it comes to structural details, particularly to the ULS behaviour, there is discomfort. Indeed, code based formulas are most of the time inapplicable and local finite element models are time-consuming, slow down design iterations and limit the creativity of the project team.

This article describes the reasons that led structural engineers to develop a software whose goal is a fast and reliable determination of steel connection ultimate resistance, and how it can help engineers to accelerate design iterations leading to a more optimal structure. The full paper gives scientific details.

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