Hello Houston! I hope every one of you and your loved ones are staying safe and healthy. There has been a lot going on in our lives during the past few months. As we enter the summer, we have had over half of our scheduled meetings for the year. June is traditionally our last meeting before the summer recess, then meetings resume in September.
With everything being different in 2020, the Board is entertaining the idea of having virtual meetings for the summer. Let us know what you think about potential summer meetings by emailing seaothouston@gmail.com or commenting on our Facebook or LinkedIn pages. Stay tuned for updates on this subject. In any case, we still plan to resume our meetings in some form in September.
Last month we had a great webinar courtesy of the Steel Joist Institute (SJI), with presenters Brice Brothersen with Vulcraft and Walt Worthley with Valley Joist. They covered using steel joists and joist girders as lateral load resisting frames. We learned about the use of open web products in several different lateral load resisting systems. They also provided examples of commonly used connection details. At the end, tips on how to reduce the cost of different systems were shared.
It was mentioned that different connection detail tools are available for free on the SJI website for designing joist girder moment connections to both the wide flange and HSS columns. These design tools have been developed by the SJI to assist the SER, the connection designer, and the steel fabricator with the complex task of designing appropriate connections between joist girders and columns. The reference manual and design spreadsheets for each type are available as well.
I hope to see you all at our next webinar on Thursday, June 18, 2020, as Lori Koch, P.E., with American Wood Council, will present “DES341- The Fasteners and the Furious.”
