Buying a Replacement Steel Manual
Buying a Replacement Steel Manual
(OP)
Like many of you, I design steel using ASD. I am still using my green ASD manual, which is 16 years old, and is starting to fall apart.
When I heard earlier this year that a new steel manual would come out this year with both LRFD and ASD, I thought, now is a good time to replace my old steel manual.
But further reading (mostly in Modern Steel Construction) has revealed to me that the new manual is not good old fashioned ASD, but a disguised version of LRFD (where you start with LRFD and divide by factors to get ASD).
So I am thinking of buying a new 1989 ASD, instead of the new manual, and continuing to design as I always have. Any opinions?
When I heard earlier this year that a new steel manual would come out this year with both LRFD and ASD, I thought, now is a good time to replace my old steel manual.
But further reading (mostly in Modern Steel Construction) has revealed to me that the new manual is not good old fashioned ASD, but a disguised version of LRFD (where you start with LRFD and divide by factors to get ASD).
So I am thinking of buying a new 1989 ASD, instead of the new manual, and continuing to design as I always have. Any opinions?
DaveAtkins






RE: Buying a Replacement Steel Manual
RE: Buying a Replacement Steel Manual
Now there is always the comment that "I've designed under this ASD for years and never had a structural problem" - but if you ever did have a problem, and a good lawyer found out you were using an old "antiquated" ASD spec, then you would be at a significant disadvantage.
RE: Buying a Replacement Steel Manual
If the prevailing building code stipulates limit states as a design criteria, like what often occurs overseas, then you may have a valid point. However, IBC permits allowable stress for design.
engphila
RE: Buying a Replacement Steel Manual
The combined ASD/LRFD specification has many sections which are revised and updated, especially the ASD portions as the ASD spec hadn't been updated for many years.
RE: Buying a Replacement Steel Manual
RE: Buying a Replacement Steel Manual
chichuck
RE: Buying a Replacement Steel Manual
Although I'm going off the original topic of the post, does anyone know if the new manual will be the same size as the old ones, or will it grow to 8.5X11? I seem to remember filling out a survey from AISC where they asked about possible changes to the size of the manual.
Another question is, how many will buy it when it first comes out, versus waiting for a revised manual that catches the inevitable typos.
RE: Buying a Replacement Steel Manual
My guess is that the 9th edition 1989 ASD version will be typically more conserative than the upcoming combined spec,thus making it structurally impossible and legally difficult (not impossible) to find an engineer at fault for a failure using an older spec. I have seen a recent article regarding a slight increase in unbraced lenghts for beam bending moments in the new ASD. It will be interesting after 16 years to see what changes have actually taken place.
RE: Buying a Replacement Steel Manual
I've converted to LRFD anyway so I really don't care, but to just keep using the 9th edition blindly could possibly get you in trouble down the road....I was just pointing that out.
RE: Buying a Replacement Steel Manual
I did, and did some work trying to develop a Mathcad template that calculated combined stresses & interaction ratios for bending/compression in a W-shape. I did not run into any significant changes from the 1989 ASD.
regards,
chichuck
RE: Buying a Replacement Steel Manual
Just a thought.
Regards,
-Mike