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The efficiency of steel can, therefore, bring new and renovated constructions up to higher standards and improve economic, social, and environmental performances. Steel has all of the attributes required by the 21st century construction sector, and its inherent adaptability makes it an attractive option for an unpredictable and rapidly changing future.
At Arcelor Mittal, we are proud to serve a full range of customers, including manufacturers and contractors, who develop systems and methods for using our products and solutions to facilitate reduced impact designs.
Related news and technical articles
New SiCA lecture! Welded connections
7 March 2024Our newest lecture – Generalities on welded connections - is part of the ‘Connection design: static loading’ series in our Steel in Construction Academy.Where there are favourable working conditions, welding is the most economical way to make strong connections. Types and descriptions of welds are covered in this lecture, in addition to mechanical properties of materials, edge preparation and fit-up, and weld quality.
Website newsOptimised steel structures for a low carbon future
15 February 2024The construction industry is the world’s largest consumer of raw materials and the built environment accounts for between 25 and 40% of global CO2 emissions. The sector is responsible for nearly 40% of annual raw material use and around 39% of the total primary energy use. These numbers are set to increase.The most promising construction material in terms of low emissions and increasing circularity is steel. Although the steel industry is among the highest-emitting industries (about 7% of global carbon dioxide emissions), the carbon footprint of its manufacturing process has decreased over the last 25 years and today new low-carbon alternatives are cutting emissions faster than before. The circularity of steel, enhanced by the possibility to upcycle, unlike other materials, and its low-carbon alternatives have resulted in its use in innovative projects driven by sustainability.Efficient design of steel structures is key, designing with end-of-life in mind and specifying low-carbon alternatives. With design choices playing an important role, we need to rethink the design approach from a circular, more holistic, and therefore more sustainable perspective. The research paper ‘Why optimised steel structures will help reduce embodied carbon’ provides a brief overview of the steps being taken to decarbonise steelmaking and examines the impact of the construction sector on global emissions. The main objective of this paper is to put forth easy-to-use tools to help designers reduce the embodied carbon of their projects while offering guidance on evaluating sustainable solutions.
Technical articleIntroduce yourself to connection design in our Steel in Construction Academy
14 December 2023Our newest lecture – Introduction to connection design - is part of the ‘Connection design: static loading’ series in our Steel in Construction Academy.The freedom of the designer to choose the type of connection and to choose the details for each type, leads to a great variety of connections and considerations…The reasons for connections in all forms of steel construction and the principal structural and economical requirements were presented in the previous lecture (‘Connections in buildings’). In this new lecture, structural requirements (strength, stiffness, and deformation capacity) are discussed in greater detail, and the Eurocode 3 classification for connections is introduced. This classification considers the stiffness and strength of beam-to-column connections.
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Steel in construction
The modern high-performance construction sector is under increasing pressure to reduce waste and increase recycling by choosing the best products and technologies currently available. With steel products and technologies being inherently low waste through all stages of their life cycle, steel has its ever-increasing significance in today’s construction sector, driven by market demand for sustainable materials and procedures of the 21st century.
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of interestMainly, but not limited to, the major environmental benefits of steel include:
- 100% recyclability
- Minimum on-site waste due to high quality shop prefabrication
- Life cycle energy savings due to insulation and air tightness of the envelope
- A long-lasting structure that reduces the need for future building resources (zero depletion of iron resources)
A similar review of progress made in steel buildings demonstrated that:
- Steel construction is efficient, competitive, and makes a significant contribution to society.
- Construction can be quickly assembled using high-quality, nearly defect-free steel components that are efficiently manufactured off-site.
- Steel framing and envelope systems allow, together with other materials, for building design with low overall environmental impacts.
- Steel-based construction systems provide flexible spaces that have the potential to be easily modified and adapted so that the building’s life can be extended by accommodating changes in use, layout, and size.
- At the end of a building's life, steel components can be dismantled, reused, or recycled without degradation of properties.