High-rise Construction

New AISC Guide for Stability Design of Steel Buildings Now Available

Nov. 13, 2013
3 min read

Design professionals now have a valuable new resource on practical applications for stability design in AISC Steel Design Guide No. 28, Stability Design of Steel Buildings, authored by Lawrence Griffis, P.E., senior principal and president of the Structures Division at Walter P Moore, Austin, Texas, and Donald White, professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology School of Civil and Environmental Engineering. This latest addition to the AISC Design Guide series provides innovative methods for stability design, including the introduction of the direct analysis method, aligned with the design provisions in the 2005 AISC Specification for Structural Steel Buildings.

"There's been a great need for this Design Guide," said AISC Specification Committee Chair Shankar Nair, Ph.D., S.E., principal and senior vice president at Teng & Associates, Inc., Chicago. "The introduction of the direct analysis method of design for stability in the 2005 AISC Specification was a big step forward, on the way toward greater transparency in the rules governing the design of steel structures. But many practicing engineers found the change confusing. Larry Griffis and Don White participated in the development of the new method and are ideally placed to explain it, along with all other aspects of design for stability." 

With the 2005 AISC Specification, the state-of-the-art in structural steel design was advanced to include three methods for stability design: the direct analysis method, the effective length method and the first-order analysis method. The primary purpose of this Design Guide is to discuss the application of each of the three methods and introduce the direct analysis method to practicing engineers.

This Design Guide illustrates the application of the overall stability design requirements of the AISC Specification using representative examples taken from routine design office practice. Emphasis is placed on practical applications as opposed to theoretical derivations.

Design Guide No. 28 is available as a free PDF download to AISC members and at a price of $60 for non-members by visiting www.aisc.org/dg. The printed copy is also available for purchase at this link or by calling 800.644.2400 (product code: AISC 828-13); the cost for the printed copy is $40 for members and $80 for non-members.

About the American Institute of Steel Construction
The American Institute of Steel Construction, headquartered in Chicago, is a not-for-profit technical institute and trade association established in 1921 to serve the structural steel design community and construction industry. AISC's mission is to make structural steel the material of choice by being the leader in structural steel-related technical and market-building activities, including: specification and code development, research, education, technical assistance, quality certification, standardization, and market development. AISC has a long tradition of service to the steel construction industry of providing timely and reliable information.

Sign up for Building Design+Construction Newsletters