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econf-mod SEFI Member
Joined: 21 Apr 2008 Posts: 15
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Posted: Mon Oct 06, 2003 6:11 am Post subject: Welcome to the 4th e-Conference of SEFI |
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Dear All,
Greetings and a warm welcome to the 4th e-conference of SEFI!
For the benefit of new subscribers, we may inform you that the SEFI (Structural Engineers Forum of India) website came into existence on January 26 2003, the Republic day of India and the second anniversary of the Bhuj earthquake. This website was born as one measure to rededicate ourselves as a community to the cause of making a safer and stronger India. The website (www.sefindia.org) provides a very vibrant discussion group and excellent links to a whole range of structural engineering websites and information centers worldwide
We are pleased now to begin the 4th e-conference on "The draft revisions of IS:800"
The IS:800-1984, the current Indian code of practice governing the design of steel structures did not reflect even the state of the art prevailing at the time of its release. Considerable progress in research, development and practice has taken place since the code was released. Further, with globalization of engineering practice, many practicing engineers have faced difficulty in designing steel structures based on the outdated code. Realizing these difficulties the Bureau of Indian Standards, New Delhi requested faculty members in the Structural Engineering Laboratory, Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Madras to help a draft the next version of IS:800.
This work was carried out in a project mode with the financial support from the Institute for Steel Development and Growth (INSDAG), Calcutta. In order to help with the review of the draft code provision, a small committee was constituted by the faculty members involved, consisting of members drawn from academic and research institutions, practicing engineers and consultants, as well contractors, mostly from in and around Chennai. The list of the committee members is presented at the end.
It was decided by the Committee that the new draft code will be based on the Limit States Method of Design, due to its many inherent merits. Further, it would be in consonance IS:456-2002, the Indian Code of Practice for the Design of R C Structures as well as most other international codes of practice for the design of steel structures. The Committee reviewed and approved the outline of the new draft code after a few iterations, keeping in view the new draft should be easy for engineers to understand and use. In India the research and development activity in the area of steel structures is very limited and hence the new draft code had to be based on the international experience. Never the less the draft code takes into consideration Indian practice to the extent possible. In a few areas, where even the International design provisions were inadequate, R&D activities were completed to develop appropriate provisions.
IITM produced a background report for each major section. These reports consisted of review of the state of the art as well as design provisions of various international codes, comparison of the theory and experimental results and recommendations for IS:800 draft provisions on the topic. The background reports were presented and discussed in the committee meetings held at IITM and the design provisions were evolved for the draft code. After this, a complete first draft report was prepared and reviewed by the committee. Nearly 15 meetings were held for these reviews. The first version of the draft report was finalized based on this review. Nearly one hundred copies of the first draft code cleared by the committee was circulated by IITM and INSDAG among practicing professionals all over the country, in order to obtain their feedback on the draft code. Review of these comments by the committee led to a few changes in the draft provisions in the first draft before the draft code was submitted to BIS. The BIS has now sent the draft code for wide circulation to the members in its mailing list. A review meeting of the sub-committee has been scheduled on October 16, 2003 at BIS to look into the comments received from wide circulation.
It is appropriate that the e-conference is being hosted at this juncture by IIT Kanpur and SEFI to obtain a very wide review of the draft code using electronic media. We are thankful to IIT Kanpur and SEFI for this initiative.
A full text of the draft code has been put on SEFI to provide access to the draft code to all the members. It should be noted that the draft code is a vast improvement over the previous code (IS:800-1984), with new provisions on Partial Safety Factor based Limit States Method of design, analysis methods, Friction type bolted and welded connections, Design against Fatigue, Design for Fire Load, Design for Durability, Design by Testing, etc. Design provisions for different types of members have been improved to reflect the state of the art.
We request all SEFI members to kindly go through the draft of the IS:800 code on the web page and give your well thought out feedback for further improvements. We will take into consideration all such comments for the improvement of the final version of the code while the draft and comments from the wide circulation are reviewed by the national sub-committee of the BIS during its meeting on October 16, 2003. With all the feedback we receive from all of you, we hope to improve on the draft. When this draft code is adopted and used effectively, our practice in the design of steel structures will be comparable with the best of international practices.
We thank in advance SEFI for the support in conducting the e-conference and all SEFI members for their time and valuable comments.
With regards,
V. Kalyanaraman econf-mod@sefindia.org
Members of the Committee, which helped in preparation of the first draft of the code
Mr. Arul Jayachandran, SERC Dr. T. K. Bandyopadhyay, INSDAG Mr. H. G. Chandra Shekhar, Kirby Steel Mr. G. S. S. Chellakumar, MN Dastur Dr. S. Divakaran, Retd. Prof. Prof. V. Kalyanaraman, IIT Madras Dr. R. N. Krishna, Consultant Dr. N Pandian, SERC Mr. R. Ramanathan, L&T ECC Prof. L. N. Ramamurthy, Retd. Prof. Prof. G. M. Samuel Knight, Anna Univ. Prof. A. R. Santhakumar, Anna Univ. Dr. S. R. Satish Kumar, IIT Madras Dr. S. Seetharaman, SERC Mr. R. Senthil, Anna Univ. Dr. C. N. Srinivasan, CR Narayanarao Architects & Engineers Dr. N. Subramanian, Computer Design Consultants Mr. T. Venkatesh Rao, L&T ECC
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mishramk at hotmail.com Guest
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Posted: Mon Oct 06, 2003 7:08 am Post subject: Welcome to the 4th e-Conference of SEFI |
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Firstly I must congratulate SEFI, IIT-Kanpur & IIT-Madras for initiating a path breaking trend of holding an e-conference on draft revisions of an important day-to-day use code. This speaks well for the future of the code development in India wherein a large number of people from all across the country will be able to air their views. I also hope this is the harbinger for future code revision processes since a mechanism such as this will help to get a wider feedback from the users of the revised codes. I think it is very important for all of us to take the time out and participate in the e-conference.
On going through the draft revisions, my first reaction was that the changes are so drastic that all the other reference materials which structural engineers use for designing steel structures has become redundant in one stroke. We do not have any fallback to look up any other reference material like books, commentaries etc, if things are not very clear in the code. All the other existing reference material are on a Working Stress Method, while the new code is entirely on the Limit State Method. Even the chapter on WSM is very different from what we are used to as per the earlier code.
On this note I would request the code developers to provide a list of some reference materials like books etc, so we have other sources also to make our understanding of the code more coherent & firm. I would also request that such a drastic revision in a widely used code be coupled with an explanatory handbook, which I feel is absolutely imperative for the proper understanding and thus the implementation of the code.
I hope I have not sounded very negative, since I realize the need for drastic revisions for coming at par with the latest technologies, research & methodologies. All I have tried to do is to be candid in airing my concerns as an end user, since I have an opportunity to do so.
Regards
M.K.Mishra New Delhi
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