Paper Title
Teaching Field Connections and Shop Drawings to Construction Management Students at University of Florida, USA
Abstract
This is an informational paper for professors of structural engineering, who teach steel structures to civil engineering (CE), construction management (CM), and architecture students. It is expected that the tools and resources described in the paper will enhance understanding of structures courses by students. Hot-rolled structural steel frame buildings constitute major sector of the construction industry the world over. The end use of these buildings can be retail, hospitals, residential towers, schools, offices and industrial buildings among others. The buildings can be single story or more than hundred stories. Every undergraduate civil engineering (CE) program teaches one or two structural steel design courses. In many Asian and European countries construction of these building is done by civil engineers. However, in the USA, field supervision and construction of these buildings, is done by construction management (CM) professionals. In the USA, CM is taught by more than hundred universities and is one of the fastest growing four year undergraduate program after high school, 12th grade in the USA. Many universities also offer MS and Ph.D. in CM. The first program in CM, in the USA, was established in 1935 at University of Florida (UF), Gainesville, USA. The program can be accessed at www.bcn.ufl.edu. The author has taught structures courses at UF for the past thirty years. The UF program is a hybrid program that has about fifty percent technical and fifty percent management courses. On the technical side students take courses in structures, soils and foundations, heating, air-conditioning, plumbing and electrical systems. The course content is carefully chosen and is under continuous oversight by our Industry Advisory Council (IAC). The IAC is comprised of more than thirty CEOs’ of leading US construction companies. The course content relating to steel frame buildings emphasizes thorough understanding of architectural, structural, shop and erection drawings, construction site planning, scheduling, safety, material specifications, field shear and moment connections, basic understanding of beams, columns, trusses and footings, high-strength bolts and welding. Field connections are taught using the Steel Sculpture, available at https://www.aisc.org/education/university-programs/steel-sculptures/. This Steel Sculpture is constructed at more than hundred and fifty CE, architectural and CM programs across USA and other countries. Steel sculpture is an excellent tool to teach field connections to students. American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC) has made drawings of the Steel Sculpture freely downloadable at the web link given above. This presentation will cover teaching shop-drawings as well as field connections. The presentation will also cover freely available web-resources for instructors who want to improve their steel structures courses.
Keywords - Steel Sculpture, Shop Drawings, Shear Connections, Moment Connections