IIT Hyderabad calls for Applications for Short Course and Workshop on Cold-formed Steel
Hyderabad: Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad is organising a Short Course and workshop on Cold-formed Steel (CFS) from 22nd to 23rd March 2019. The workshop is organized by the Structural Steel Research Group, Civil Engineering Department of IIT Hyderabad.
The content of the course is tailored for academicians, research students, practitioners with previous experience, consultants and for engineers on site who are interested in extending their knowledge in cold-formed steel structures. The last date to apply is 15th March 2019. Structural engineers interested to gain expertise in the current trends of Cold-formed steel, Undergraduate Students, Academicians (Lecturers and Professors), Practicing Engineers, Research Students and Consultants, can apply. The link to apply: https://sites.google.com/view/iithcfscourse
The objective of the short course and workshop is to provide a theoretical background to the behavior of thin-walled members (CFS/LGSF) and presents methods and tools that engineers use for the analysis and design of cold-formed steel. Currently, there is a dearth of the knowledge base in our country on the design and application of cold-formed steel for use in affordable housing to solve the housing need for Indian citizens. The workshop delivers concise information about buckling analysis of thin-walled structures, design strength predictions for cold-formed steel members.
Speaking about the short course and workshop, Dr. Mahendrakumar Madhavan, Associate Professor (Structural Engineering), Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Hyderabad, said, “It is important for structural engineers working towards affordable housing to have a strong fundamental knowledge in the use of sustainable and economically viable material such as CFS in construction practice. This unique course will cover the latest design methods employed and will also provide a live demonstration of the software to design the cold-formed steel structures. If someone wants to gain knowledge about the pre‑engineered building (PEB) construction that is trending in the current construction world, this will be the platform.”
Unlike India, the use of Cold-formed Steel (CFS) in residential buildings across the globe has significantly increased in the recent past due to its advantage over other construction materials. Although there are major advantages to the use of CFS for the construction practices, there are no technical design guidelines that are readily available for Indian construction engineers.
The lack of a robust design procedure prevents the growth of CFS as a material of choice in rural and urban residential housing application. Hence, the objective of this workshop is to create motivation among young engineers on steel structures and also to seed a research culture in them. Cold-Formed Steel is light-weight, easy to handle, cost effective, dimensionally constant and can be fabricated with ease to a wide range of profiles and sizes with nearly no material wastage.
Housing is one of the basic requirements of any individual next to food and clothing. However, the cost of constituents of conventional masonry and concrete structures are skyrocketing due to the non-availability of the basic raw material such as sand.
Furthermore, the lack of drinking water across the nation and especially in rural India makes construction of masonry and concrete structures more demanding since they require potable water for increased durability. This challenging situation necessitates a shift in paradigm to look for alternate materials that are eco-friendly economical and has high ductility to prevent a catastrophic collapse in extreme events.
One such solution to tackle this pressing problem is the use of prefabricated structures using sustainable material such as Cold-Formed Steel or Structural steel. An excellent alternative to traditional materials, the manufacture of cold-formed steel sections is subjected to rigorous quality control at the mill thereby reducing the risk associated with the quality of the structural material used in construction. Since the prefabricated structures using Cold-Formed Steel or Structural steel is a dry form of the construction process and the majority of the work is being done in a controlled environment (shop), it takes less than half the time to build compared to conventional materials thereby making it an ideal choice for rapid deployment during emergency situations. Moreover, steel is 100% reusable material and is environment-friendly resulting in Green construction.