High-strength steel has been a success story in heavy equipment and vehicles, offering lighter weight, wear and impact resistance, and hassle-free fabrication. These same benefits apply to structural engineering applications: longer spans, weight reduction for reduced foundation loads, and greater load-carrying capability are all possible thanks to high-strength steel.
Using high-strength steel in chords is crucial for achieving weight and cost savings. Mild S355 steel can be used for brace members, because the brace members hold most of the fabrication effort, it is usually more economic to machine and weld milder steels due to often higher tooling and welding costs for SHS. This is why a hybrid truss design, especially for long-span trusses, proves to be the most cost-efficient solution.
SSAB’s Domex double-grade hollow sections, with two test certificates for S355J2H and S420MH, thus make an ideal choice in truss design. And even where high-strength steel can be challenging in longer, slender columns due to buckling behavior, our double-grade hollow sections have been tested for compressive strength and have been granted buckling curve B. The higher strength of the tube benefits shorter columns and the improved buckling curve benefits longer columns. This combination creates a highly resistant, cost-efficient column.
SSAB’s high-strength SHS steel tubes offer structural design engineers several advantages that can help solve engineering problems from the everyday to the exceptional.
Potential benefits and opportunities: