CISC Funded Research
Introducing the Research Grants program, dedicated to fostering cutting-edge research in Canadian Universities and Technical Colleges, specifically focusing on topics that hold immense interest and significance for the steel construction industry. With a remarkable track record of over 100 grants awarded since 1995, this program exclusively supports full-time members of engineering faculties across Canadian universities, propelling innovative breakthroughs.
Passionate faculty from engineering and engineering technology programs at universities and colleges in Canada are encouraged to apply for a CISC Research Grant. These grants are selectively bestowed upon projects deemed pivotal in advancing the utilization of steel in construction, as determined by the esteemed CISC Research Grant Committee. Each grant is awarded for a one-year term, empowering researchers to make remarkable contributions.
To dive deeper into the comprehensive range of publications resulting from the CISC-funded research, we invite you to explore the following links to the reputable journals that have showcased these groundbreaking studies. By following these links, you can access the full publications and witness firsthand the transformative impact of CISC-supported research:
Journals Referenced
ERC/CISC Funded Research for year: 2021
Title: Lighter concrete shoes: towards lower-cost foundations for seismically designed steel | |
University: McMaster University | |
Summary or Abstract: *Journal papers are being developed but not yet published* | |
Bibliographic Reference(s):
|
Title: Next-generation green steel constructions in Canada | |
University: University of British Columbia | |
Title: Moment Connections to RHS Columns | |
University: Dalhousie University | |
Summary or Abstract: Two beam-to-column connections for limited-ductility (Type LD) steel moment resisting frames (MRFs) with rectangular hollow section (RHS) columns are investigated. The first connection is reinforced externally using T T-stiffeners. The second contains top and bottom moment plates (designed for tension and compression) that are welded to a doubler plate reinforced RHS wall. This paper presents an initial comparison of the CSA S16:19 and AISC 341-16 design requirements for Type LD MRF and ordinary moment frame connections; rational design approaches for the two connections considered based on previous research; a summary of two large-scale, monotonic tests performed on the connections at Dalhousie University; and an overall behaviour of each connection assembly. | |
Bibliographic Reference(s):
|
Title: Stress Concentration Factors for Truss-Girder-End Hollow Section Connections | ||
University: University of Victoria | ||
Summary or Abstract:
| ||
Bibliographic Reference(s):
|
ERC/CISC Funded Research for year: 2020
Title: Artificial Intelligence Applications for Advancing the Canadian Steel Construction Industry | |
University: University of Alberta | |
Title: Enhancing the Design of Connections for Fire Resiliency | |
University: Queen’s University | |
ERC/CISC Funded Research for year: 2019
Title: Design of single-sided fillet welds under transverse load | |
University: Dalhousie | |
Summary or Abstract: In North American steel design specifications, a directional strength-enhancement factor is used to increase the predicted strength of fillet welds subjected to transverse loading (i.e., loading at 90° to the weld axis). Committees have expressed concerns about this factor being unsafe for single-sided fillet welds; however, due to a lack of testing, only cautionary statements have been made in most specifications to address this. An experimental program was hence developed to test 40 transversely loaded single-sided fillet welds in cruciform connections subjected to branch axial tension. The connections varied weld size, branch-plate thickness, and loading eccentricity to investigate the effects of these parameters on fillet-weld strength. Results of this program are presented herein, and a first-order reliability method (FORM) analysis was performed. It is shown that current fillet-weld design provisions meet/exceed code-specified target safety indices (i.e., β ¼ 4.0) provided that (1) the directional strength-enhancement factor is not used, and (2) stresses that result in opening of the weld root notch are avoided. | |
Bibliographic Reference(s):
|
Title: Innovative Modular Structural System for Steel Framed Structures | |
University: Alberta | |
Summary or Abstract: This research program investigates a novel and innovative steel modular structural system that utilizes the advantages of moment-resisting frames and knee-braced frames to resist wind and seismic loads in mid- and high-rise residential, office, and hotel buildings. This encompasses a large proportion of buildings in the major cities of Canada such as Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, and Edmonton. Construction of such buildings is currently dominated by reinforced concrete structures with a very limited share of structural steel. Preliminary proof-of-concept studies of the proposed modular system suggested a promising structural response. Furthermore, it was found that modularization technology can be implemented to improve the fabrication process, and fully-steel slim floor systems can be adapted to achieve a complete 3-dimensional modular system. New research is needed to develop test-based design and fabrication guidelines for this system. | |
Bibliographic Reference(s):
|
ERC/CISC Funded Research for year: 2018
Title: HSS Joint Welding | |
University: Toronto | |
Summary or Abstract: This project will clarify options available for the fabrication of welded rectangular Hollow Structural Section (HSS) K-connections and their implications for design. The aim is to liberalize current constraints applied to member geometric parameters, the relative positions of branches (with regard to gap size, zero gap, or amount of overlap), miter cutting, and required welding. The study will focus on truss K- and N-connections with a wide range of eccentricities, gaps, and overlaps, with branch members under different loading arrangements. In particular, the requirements for welding (or not welding) the so-called “hidden toe” in overlapped K-connections will be resolved. | |
Bibliographic Reference(s):
|
Title:Assessment of Fatigue Design Provisions for Welded Shear Studs in Steel-Concrete Composite Bridges | |
University: Waterloo | |
Summary or Abstract: This paper examines the reliability of welded stud shear connectors for steel-concrete composite bridge girders. A finite element model of a simply-supported bridge was created featuring link connector elements representing the shear studs between beam and shell elements, representing a steel girder and concrete deck, respectively. The model is programmed using a program interface to build a model including studs with random strengths. Using this approach, many analyses can be run in succession, with connectors failing between each analysis. This study considers the probabilistic characteristics of the welded studs and truck loading and recognizes the interaction between ultimate limit state and fatigue limit state. The example bridge employed in this study was designed according to the CSA S6-2014 code provisions. Based on the presented reliability analysis, an increase in the CSA S6-2014 24 MPa endurance limit of at least 1.45 times is found to be acceptable. | |
Bibliographic Reference(s):
|
ERC/CISC Funded Research for year: 2017
Title: Simplified Design Methods for Steel Multi-Tiered Braced Frames in Regions of Low and Moderate Seismicity | |
University: Alberta | |
Summary or Abstract: The proposed research program targets single-storey buildings with steel multi-tiered concentrically braced frames located in low and moderate seismicity areas. This encompasses a large proportion of such buildings in Canada. Seismic design provisions for these types of buildings are not properly addressed. More importantly, the seismic responses of the systems commonly used in such areas are not well understood. We have carried out preliminary inelastic response history analysis of prototype frames designed for the current requirements. Results suggest that more relaxed seismic requirements may be adopted in low and moderate seismicity areas in Canada. Furthermore, most past seismic research on steel braced frames in Canada has focused on developing ductile elements for seismic regions. New research is needed to achieve significant performance with low ductility levels and reduced construction costs in regions of low and moderate seismicity. | |
Bibliographic Reference(s):
|
Title: Design of beams with overhanging segments against Lateral Torsional Buckling | |
University: Laval | |
Summary or Abstract: This project addresses the behavior, resistance, and design of steel beams with overhanging segments against Lateral Torsional Buckling (L.T.B.). Such structural elements are quite popular in Canada and used widely in so-called “Gerber systems” for multi-bay arrangements. This system is also widely used across Europe and with different materials (concrete, steel, timber) and for various types of girders – from purlins to bridges. It has the advantages of maintaining a seemingly indeterminate pattern of bending moment distributions, thus leading to effective and economic balance of hogging and sagging bending moments as well as to reduced deflections, while avoiding complex and costly moment connections. It is indeed possible to select carefully the regions where simple, shear-only joints are placed so that they lie close to the natural zero-moment sections of continuous beams, nearly recreating the natural continuous beam bending moment distributions. | |
Bibliographic Reference(s):
|
ERC/CISC Funded Research for year: 2016
Title: Hot-Dip Galvanized Hollow Strucutral Sections – Crack Prevention and Mechanical Behaviour | |
University: Victoria | |
Summary or Abstract: The application of hot-dip galvanized cold-formed Hollow Structural Sections (HSS) in exposed steel structures (e.g., bridges, transmission towers, and sign supporting structures) is extremely popular due to their superior strength-to-weight ratio, low initial cost, sustainability, and aesthetics. Both HSS manufacturing and hot-dip galvanizing techniques have evolved over the years. However, the use of newly developed zinc bath mixtures together with thick-walled HSS resulting in significant damage in the latter in the form of cracking during the galvanizing process, especially at comer regions of Rectangular Hollow Sections (RHS), has been reported to be a widespread problem lately. The proposed research can: (1) guide engineers, fabricators, and galvanizers to minimize the risk of cracking in RHS during hot-dip galvanizing; (2) generate supplemental rules to HSS manufacturing specifications and crack control guidelines, and (3) provide a better understanding of the characteristics and structural performance of hot-dip galvanized RHS to facilitate its application. | |
Bibliographic Reference(s):
|
Title: Promoting Steel as a Material of Choice for Bridge Infrastructure: Current and Future Innovations | |
University: TMU (formerly Ryerson) | |
Summary or Abstract: With the recent increase in prices of steel, bridge owners and design engineers became more reluctant to using steel in bridge superstructure. This project proposes few countermeasures and innovative techniques that can be considered to (i) reduce the steel material content in bridge superstructure; (ii) enhance the constructability of steel I-girder and box-girder bridge systems in both straight and curved alignments, leading to significant cost savings; and (iii) increase the awareness of bridge designers to important issues in the design of new bridges and the evaluation of old ones for rehabilitation, replacement, or retrofit; (vi) erect fully-prefabricated bridge superstructure to rapid construction, with steel as a material of choice. Specific objectives for the large project will be: (i) establishing ready-to-use design tables of steel I- and box-girder bridges based on a refined simplified method of analysis recently developed by the applicant’s research team; (ii) predicting the minimum required cross-bracing spacing to limit warping stresses in compression flanges for both I-girder and box-girder bridges at the construction stage; and (iii) developing design tables and construction procedures for cost-effective, fully-prefabricated, composite concrete-steel girder bridges for rapid bridge construction or replacement. | |
Bibliographic Reference(s):
|
ERC/CISC Funded Research for year: 2015
Title: Lateral Torsional Buckling of Welded Wide Flange Beams | |
University: Concordia | |
Summary or Abstract: Lateral torsional buckling is a limit state that can control the flexural capacity of steel beams. A reliability analysis by MacPhedran and Grondin (2010) indicated that welded I-shape beams may have a significantly lower safety index than their equivalent rolled shapes. Thus, a critical evaluation of the existing beam design formula for welded I-shape beams is required. The objective of this project is to investigate the behavior of welded steel I-shape beams and assess the safety with current code design equations for lateral torsional buckling (LTB). The following outlines the scope of the project:
| |
Bibliographic Reference(s):
|
ERC/CISC Funded Research for year: 2014
Title: Design of Partial-Length Cover Plates to Strengthen Steel Columns | |
University: Western Ontario | |
Summary or Abstract: Increased axial loading may require existing steel columns to be strengthened, particularly if they have slenderness ratios greater than 70 and were designed using Canadian steel Working Stress Design provisions from the 1950s (Shek, 2006). The problem is compounded because the yield strength of the original and new steels may be different, and the original shape may be carrying significant dead load stresses that are “locked in” when the reinforcement is added. The specific objectives of this research are:
| |
Bibliographic Reference(s):
|
ERC/CISC Funded Research for year: 2013
Title: Development of Ry, Rt factors and Probable Brace Resistance Axial Loads for the Seismic Design of Bracing Connections and Other Members | |
University: McGill | |
Summary or Abstract: In CSA S16 limit state design approach, brace connections must be designed to resist brace axial loads that correspond to the probable (expected) buckling strength and tensile yielding of the steel braces. The primary objectives of the proposed research project are summarized as follows:
| |
Bibliographic Reference(s):
|
ERC/CISC Funded Research for year: 2012
Title: Dynamic Stability of Steel Columns Subjected to Seismic Loading | |
University: McGill | |
Summary or Abstract: During an earthquake, steel columns can be subjected to high axial forces resulting from the yielding of energy dissipative components, such as steel braces and buckling restrained braces, and from the flexural demands due to the variations in inelastic story drifts developing in adjacent floors of multistory buildings. The primary objectives of the research program are summarized as follows:
| |
Bibliographic Reference(s):
|
Title: Life Cycle Assessment of Steel-Framed, Multi-Unit Residential Construction | |
University: TMU (formerly Ryerson) | |
Summary or Abstract: The objective of this project is to develop an understanding of the full environmental impact, including the climate change impact, of multi-unit residential construction using steel as the primary structural material compared to other structural materials, particularly concrete. It will also look at the benefits generated from using recycled steel and reused steel. The methodology will include the use of life cycle assessment (LCA) methodologies to calculate the environmental impact of a typical multi-unit residential building over the full life-cycle, including material extraction, processing, fabrication, construction, operation, maintenance and renovation, and end of life issues using alternative construction technologies. The embodied environmental impacts will be compared to operational environmental impacts over the life of the building. Sensitivity studies will be carried out to assess the way steel data and recycling and reuse are integrated into LCA models. The focus will be on global warming emissions (equivalent carbon emissions) and embodied energy, but air and water emissions, solid waste, and raw resource use will also be considered. The analysis will be carried out using Athena EIE software, which is the most well-established LCA software in North America. The analysis will use various methodologies to address the possible overestimation of materials that can occur using this LCA software. Some comparisons will also be carried out using alternative approaches such as Gabi or Sima-pro software. | |
Bibliographic Reference(s):
|
Title: Shear Tab to Hollow Structural Section Column Connections | |
University: Lakehead | |
Summary or Abstract: Shear tabs, also called single-plate shear connections, are fillet-welded to a supporting column and attached to the web of the supported beam through high-strength bolts. When sheartabs are used with HSS columns, the current design method, which is described in the American Institute of Steel Construction manual (AISC), includes a consideration for HSS punching shear failure (a failure mode in which the column wall develops a crack at the ends of the sheartab). The design equation (in the AISC Specifications and Codes), Fyp t p ≤Fu t, requires that the column wall must be thick enough to prohibit itself from shear punching rupture (where Fyp and tp are tab yield strength and thickness, respectively; Fu and t are columntensile strength and wall thickness, respectively). The drawback of the punching shear design method is that this requirement may dictatec olumn sectional size (the size of a column is supposed to be determined according to its own internal forces), especially when the column wall thickness is small. Thus, the objective of this project is to overcome the aforementioned drawback through an experimental study of connection specimens. | |
Bibliographic Reference(s):
|
ERC/CISC Funded Research for year: 2011
Title: Dynamic Testing of Low-Rise Steel Framed Buildings with Flexible Roof Deck Diaphragms | |
University: McGill | |
Summary or Abstract: Steel structures are commonly used for single-storey buildings with large footprints housing commercial, light industrial, and recreational applications. These structures are typically constructed with a roof diaphragm made of corrugated steel deck sheets joined to each other and connected to the supporting steel framework. When subjected to lateral wind or seismic loads, such roof diaphragms experience in-plane shear and flexural deformations that are added to storey drifts caused by the deformations of the vertical elements of the lateral load resisting system. The dynamic response of structures under seismic ground motions may also be affected by the shear and flexural deformations of roof diaphragms, but limited information is available on this aspect. A field test program was conducted on typical single-storey steel braced frame buildings located in Montreal, Canada. Numerical models of the structure accounting for the flexibility in shear and flexure of the diaphragm, as well as the vertical bracing system, will be used a priori to predict the fundamental period of the structure as would a design engineer. The results of the testing will then be used to evaluate the influence of the amplitude of excitation on the fundamental period of the structure and to assess the accuracy of current analysis prediction techniques. The objective of the proposed research is to validate, by means of measured building behavior under ambient and forced dynamic loading, the current methods used to predict the fundamental period of vibration of low-rise CBF steel buildings with flexible roof deck diaphragms and to measure the effect of the roof diaphragm on the overall building response. | |
Bibliographic Reference(s):
|
Title: Lateral torsional buckling of plate girders with flexible restraint | |
University: Dalhousie | |
Summary or Abstract: In bridge construction where steel-concrete composite design is used, the lateral and torsional stability of girders during the construction of the concrete deck and prior to its hardening needs to be checked. This is a critical check as the girders will often be most susceptible to lateral torsional buckling failure while the deck. | |
Bibliographic Reference(s):
|
Funded Research by SSEF: 1999-2010
Topic: Arc spot welds for steel deck diaphragms | |
University: École Polytechnique/McGill | |
Bibliographic Reference(s): Guenfoud, N., Tremblay, R., and Rogers, C.A. (2010). “Shear and Tension Capacity of Arc-Spot Welds for Multi-overlap Roof Deck Panels,” J. Constr. Steel Res., 66, 8-9, 1018-1029. doi:10.1016/j.jcsr.2010.01.018 Guenfoud, N., Tremblay, R., and Rogers, C.A. (2010). “Arc-Spot Welds for Multi-overlap Roof Deck Panels,” Proc. 20th International Specialty Conf. on Cold Formed Steel Design and Construction, St-Louis, MO, 535-549. |
Topic: Seismic stability of Type MD CBFs for multi-storey buildings | |
University: École Polytechnique | |
Bibliographic Reference(s):
|
Title: Seismic design of bare steel roof deck diaphragms | |
University: École Polytechnique/McGill | |
Bibliographic Reference(s):
|
Papers/Publications from the Jackson Fellowship
Recipient: Thierry Chicoine, PhD (1999) | |
University: École Polytechnique | |
Bibliographic Reference(s):
|
Recipient: Charles-Philippe Lamarche, PhD (2004) | |
University: École Polytechnique | |
Bibliographic Reference(s):
|
Recipient: Adam Korzekwa, MSc (2009) | |
University: École Polytechnique | |
Bibliographic Reference(s): Korzekwa, A. and Tremblay, R. (2009). “Numerical simulation of the cyclic inelastic behaviour of buckling restrained braces,” In Behaviour of Steel Structures in Seismic Area: Proc. of the Sixth International Conference STESSA 2009, Philadelphia, PA, 16-20 August, Edited by F. Mazzolani and J.M. Ricles. Taylor & Francis, Leiden, The Netherlands, 653-658. |
Recipient: Morteza Dehghani, PhD (2011) | |
University: École Polytechnique | |
Bibliographic Reference(s):
|
Recipient: Frédéric Brunet, MSc (2017) | |
University: École Polytechnique | |
Bibliographic Reference(s):
|
Recipient: Bashar Hariri, PhD (2022) | |
University: École Polytechnique | |
Bibliographic Reference(s):
|
Projects Related to and Extensions of G.L. Kulak Scholarship Funded Research:
Title: Artificial Intelligence Applications for Advancing the Canadian Steel Construction Industry | |
|
Title: Test-based Design Method for Steel Cantilever Beams | |
|
Title: The Increasingly Common Case of Weak-axis End Moments – Eliminating Unnecessary Joint Stiffeners | |
|
Title: Solving the Mystery of Double-coped Beams | |
|
Title: Development of Generalized Design Procedures for Steel Extended Shear Tab Connections | |
|
Title: A Holistic Approach to Evaluating and Enhancing the Progressive Collapse Resistance of Steel Structures | |
|
Title: Steel Plate Shear Walls for Economical Industrial Protective Structures | |
|
Title: Development of Canadian Progressive Collapse Mitigation Criteria for Steel Structures | |
|
Additional from R. Tremblay
University: École Polytechnique/ McGill | |
Journal Articles:
| |
Conference Proceedings:
|