AMERICAN SOCIETY OF CIVIL ENGINEERS
STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING INSTITUTE
THE TECHNICAL ACTIVITIES DIVISION COMMITTEE MEETING ON
COMPOSITE CONSTRUCTION
Thursday, April 21, 2005
6:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.
Hilton New York, New York, NY
Members Attending:
1. Sherif El-Tawil – Chair (University of Michigan)
2. Judy Liu (Purdue University)
3. Dennis Lam (University of Leeds, UK)
4. Brain Uy (University of Wollongong, Australia)
5. Kent Harries (University of Pittsburgh)
6. Bahram Shahrooz (University of Cincinnati)
7. Xiangdong Tong (Walter P. Moore)
8. Dale Buckner (Virginia Military Institute)
9. Sam Easterling (Virginia Tech)
10. Roberto Leon (Georgia Tech)
11. M.U. Hosain (University of Saskatchewan)
12. Ed Alsamsam (PCA)
13. Amit Varma (Purdue University)
14. Yan Xiao (USC)
15. Gustavo Parra (University of Michigan)
16. Gian Rassati (University of Cincinnati)
17. Iraj Mamaghani (University of North Dakota)
18. Greg Deierlein (Stanford University)
19. Jerome Hajjar (University of Minnesota)
20. Ricardo Medina (University of Maryland)
Visitors:
1. Yahya Kurama (Notre Dame)
2. Cenk Tort (University of Minnesota)
1 Call to order and introductions
Sherif El-Tawil called the meeting to order at 6:00 p.m. and welcomed attendees. Members and visitors introduced themselves. A sign-up list was passed around for contact information.
2 Approval of Minutes from the 2004 Nashville Meeting
The minutes were unanimously approved as distributed.
3 Approval of Agenda and Additions
The agenda was introduced and approved. Gustavo Parra introduced a new item regarding ACI/AISC coordination.
4 Review of Publications
Sherif El-Tawil provided a review of publications. He summarized the number of papers submitted to the Committee on Metals over the past several years (43 papers in 2000, 65 papers in 2001, 102 papers in 2002, 97 papers in 2004). He noted a 54% acceptance rate. Since this rate included revised papers, he also noted that the acceptance rate for 1st time submittals was approximately 30%. Also, the numbers for 2004 were influenced somewhat by the special issue on composite construction, with 27 papers submitted and 22 accepted. He also noted that, based on records up to April 2005, the number of papers appears to be dropping, perhaps due to the fact that the work from the U.S.-Japan program has been completed.
Sherif also reviewed the median time-to-publication (19 months in 2001, 21 months in 2003, and 19 months in 2004). He noted that a number of papers were declined in an initial screening, were not sent out for review, and were not counted in all of these statistics.
Sam Easterling suggested that the acceptance rate from previous year(s) be prominently printed somewhere in the journal. This would assist faculty members with regards to the Promotions and Tenure process. There was some discussion of impact factors for journals. Sherif noted that the Journal of Structural Engineering currently has an impact factor of 0.65, based on 173 papers having been cited last year (#cited / #published).
5 Conference Participation / Session Organization
The committee organized two sessions in the 2005 Structures Congress on Fire Behavior of Steel and Concrete Composite Structures. Amit Varma reported good attendance (30-40 people in each session), response, and audience participation. A separate session included papers by members in this committee. This session was apparently compiled from unsolicited papers.
Roberto Leon commented on the benefit of submitting sessions through the committee. He noted that, of the 34 sessions proposed by committees, 32 were accepted.
Session ideas were proposed for the 2006 and 2007 Structures Congresses.
A proposed session for the 2006 Structures Congress is one on Fire Protection, jointly with the Committee on Compression and Flexural Members. Amit Varma reported that he has collected 5 papers so far. Gian Rassati suggested a session on buckling-restrained braces, while Dale Buckner suggested a session related to rapid deck replacement for bridges.
For the 2007 Congress, Kent Harries is considering a session on steel-FRP composite structures. Iraj Mamaghani is considering a session related to CFT and partially-filled tubes for bridge piers. Greg Deierlein will organize a session on tall buildings (with composite systems), perhaps jointly with the Tall Building committee.
6 Updated on RCS Connections Report
Gustavo Parra, with Greg Deierlein, reported on the progress of the RCS Connections report. He stated that the document is essentially complete, and that it will be submitted as a paper, by an ad hoc committee, to the Journal of Structural Engineering. The team plans to also simultaneously send the paper for review by this committee and by the ACI committee on composite construction. This would give the document more legitimacy. There were authorship issues with regards to including this information in the manual of standard practice.
There was a comment that this information would eventually make it into the AISC Seismic Provisions. This led to a discussion on coordination between ACI and AISC. Gustavo Parra reported that there is a coordination committee working on identifying gaps and inconsistencies related to the composite construction. The committee had met on Sunday, and will have a conference call in 6 weeks. A question regarding ASCE’s role led to the statement that ASCE should work on knowledge transfer and any other non-specification-related tasks.
7 JBE Special Issue
Ken Harries reported on a special issue of the Journal of Bridge Engineering featuring the use of composites (FRP) in bridges. He has 5 or 6 papers right now and is hoping for about 15. Topics included: FRP bridge decks, stay-in-place FRP forms, and FRP-concrete composite piers.
8 Summary of Ongoing Research Projects
Discussed under 9 “New Directions for Composite Construction Research”.
9 New Directions for Composite Construction Research
Ongoing research projects and new directions for research were discussed jointly. Sherif El-Tawil took an informal survey and noted that a number of committee members currently have funding for research in composite construction. Some suggestions for new directions in research included hardening (against blast, progressive collapse), fire protection, and steel-FRP composite construction. Of these topics, the steel-FRP generated the most interest. Kent Harries will chair a sub-committee to look at this topic. Other sub-committee members are Amit Varma, Sherif El-Tawil, Yan Xiao, and Judy Liu. First, a synthesis study will be conducted. A number of current studies on this topic by committee members were noted, as well as work outside of the U.S. Results from the synthesis study will be presented in a report to the committee at the 2006 Structures Congress, to be followed by a session in 2007. The work could lead to a special project.
10 Membership
The current committee has 26 members. Sherif El-Tawil noted the low participation of practitioners as compared to academics. Since Mel Hosain is retiring, he suggested a couple of names including Robert Tremblay to serve on the committee as liaisons to the Canadian community working on composite construction. Sherif will invite Robert to join the committee.
11 Open Discussion
Roberto Leon reported on the 2008 Composite Construction conference. Roberto and Sam Easterling are currently deciding on a venue and are welcoming suggestions. Roberto welcomed e-mails from anyone interested in being a part of the 2008 organizing committee. Roberto also noted that the proceedings from the last conference (in South Africa) should be available soon. It was suggested that a thank you note be sent to Alan Kemp on behalf of the committee.
13 Hybrid Wall Special Project
Sherif El-Tawil introduced the hybrid wall special project. This project will essentially result in a pre-code document, and perhaps a paper on the synthesis study of RC walls with steel coupling beams. The project team met for a half hour after the committee meeting adjourned.
14 Adjournment
The general meeting was adjourned at 8:25 p.m, while the Hybrid Wall team met for an additional half hour.