The Southern African Institute of Steel Construction (Saisc) is hoping to revolutionise the steel construction industry through digital development using its new Connections eToolKit, which was launched at a media briefing, in Johannesburg, last month.

The eToolKit, which operates on a Windows platform, enables structural engineers to design appropriate steel connections efficiently.

The digital tool incorporates Saisc’s Structural Steel Connections book, also known as the Green Book, which was launched last year and aims to standardise structural steel connections.

One of the primary developers of the eToolKit, Saisc education director Spencer Erling explained the concept of the eToolKit at the media briefing.

He stated that connection designs done by hand were laborious, especially if the designer wanted to optimise the efficiency of connections.

“The net result is that too many steel structure designs, with inadequate attention paid to the connections and their details, are issued for construction. This is a serious concern for Saisc and the industry. Therefore, the Saisc team developed the eToolKit,” Erling said.

Primary developers of the eToolKit, Saisc engineer Amanuel Gebremeskel and University of the Witwatersrand School of Environmental Engineering structural engineering professor Alex Elvin, hope that the tool will further promote the standardisation of structural steel connections to allow for better efficiency in the design process.

“We had to bring together the Green Book and standards, and present them in a packaged manner. As an institution, we are in the business of standardisation, but we are branching out into innovation. As a result, the eToolKit is a new way of presenting standardised tables,” said Gebremeskel.

Users of the eToolKit are presented with a simple process to design structural steel connections by selecting the appropriate Saisc standard connection, the member sizes that need to be joined, bolt diameters, number of rows of bolts, as well as the plate thickness.

By clicking the calculate button, the capacity of the connection is displayed.

“Also, by placing the cursor on the result box, users can see what the weak link in the connection is. This allows for the refinement of the connection design and it is really a jackpot feature of the programme,” Erling enthused.

Once the weak link is identified, users can enter the load figures from the analysis, and a design check is performed.

A scale sketch of the connection, including the stiffeners, dimensions and weld-size specifications, can be viewed and transferred to the construction drawings.

Examples, discussions and commentaries pertaining to the users’ design used from the Green Book can also be viewed and a summary of the connection design can be saved or printed.

Further, a list of steel manufacturers to provide the resources for the connections are available on the eToolKit.

“The Green Book has been digitised for the eToolKit and forms a new-generation interactive digital book, which provides an economical solution for structural steel connections through efficient calculations,” Elvin stated.