Aluminum Structures: A Guide to Their Specifications and Design

Despite its unique and enormous advantages, most engineers fail to consider using aluminum, even in structural situations where its strength, light weight, and corrosion resistance should make it the metal of choice. Aluminum Structures: A Guide to Their Specifications and Design offers engineers, designers, and architects a comprehensive guide to designing aluminum structures and, consequently, a rare opportunity to expand their design capabilities quickly. This book's broad coverage includes the properties of aluminum, its structural performance in beams, columns and members, aluminum fabrication, welding and mechanical connections, and its inspection and testing. Special attention is paid to those features of aluminum that differentiate it from other structural materials, most particularly steel. Because the aim of this book is to apply aluminum design methods to real-world problems, it emphasizes total structures as examples and illustrates the use of ASD vs. LRFD methods. Thoroughly up-to-date, this book describes advanced design techniques that have been used in successful aluminum structures, including a step-by-step design process for each of several structural systems. To help professionals design with aluminum easily and confidently, this book is keyed to the latest edition of the Aluminum Association's Specifications for Aluminum Structures. Numerous design aids—tables, charts, and graphs—eliminate the need for lengthy, repetitive calculations. Engineers, designers, architects, and fabricators will find this book not only a comprehensive guide to the practice of designing aluminum structures, but a source of inspiration for designing in a whole new medium.

A state-of-the-art guide to the exciting new realm of aluminum structures

Aluminum Structures: A Guide to Their Specifications and Design

This comprehensive guide has a dual purpose: to explain the practice of designing aluminum structures, and to invite design, engineering, and architecture professionals to expand their capabilities through the use of aluminum as a structural material. Aluminum Structures: A Guide to Their Specifications and Design demonstrates, through detailed examples of total structures, how this strong, lightweight, corrosion-resistant material opens up whole new design possibilities. Topics covered include the properties of aluminum, its structural performance, aluminum fabrication, welding and mechanical connections, and inspection and testing. Support materials, in the form of tables, charts, and graphs, make using the text easy and efficient.

J. RANDOLPH KISSELL and ROBERT L. FERRY, both registered professional engineers, are the founders of The TGB Partnership, a consulting firm specializing in aluminum structural design. They were previously the engineering manager and general manager, respectively, of Conservatek Industries, Inc. During their careers they have been responsible for the design of over 1,000 aluminum structures, including many of the large clear space frames pictured in this book. Mr. Kissell is a member of the Aluminum Association's Engineering and Design Task Force and Advisory Committee, responsible for writing the Specifications for Aluminum Structures. Mr. Ferry is a member of the American Petroleum Institute's Committee on Evaporation Loss Measurement, which includes in its purview the effectiveness of aluminum roofs on the reduction of air emissions from petroleum storage tanks.