ArcelorMittal R&D contributed to a research and development project related to Standardization of Safety Assessment Procedures across Brittle to Ductile Failure Modes. The objective for this research and development project, called SAFEBRICTILE, was to develop a procedure for the safety assessment of the various failure modes that are relevant for steel structures.

Several objectives to fulfil

The following objectives have been fulfilled within SAFEBRICTILE:

1. Development of an objective and consistent assessment procedure for the safety assessment of the various failure modes that are relevant for steel structures. The unified procedure will cover: modes driven by plasticity + modes driven by stability + modes driven by fracture.
2. Development of a more complex procedure in which newly developed design rules are defined by a pre-established safety factor.
3. Reassessment of several rules in Eurocode 3 covering the failure modes treated in the project by applying the developed safety assessment procedures in order to check their compliance with the target failure probability.
4. Proposal of new or improved design rules for cases where deviations from the target failure probability were observed.
5. Conceptual development and further maintenance of a European database of steel properties resulting from experimental tests.

Conclusions

The report gives an overview of the reliability assessment of the Eurocode 3 design rules carried out within the project related to cross-sectional resistance; buckling resistance of columns, beams, and beam-columns; and weld resistance. It presents adjustments to these design rules proposed whenever it was necessary. It also establishes recommendations on the statistical distributions of the relevant basic variables for steel structures compiled in a European Database of Steel Properties that was also developed within the project.

Text: Constructalia
Photos: ©European Union

ArcelorMittal has taken a leading role in forming and committing to ResponsibleSteel™, the steel industry's first multi-stakeholder global certification initiative.

First global certification programme

ResponsibleSteel™ was set up in 2015 as a non-profit organisation to drive a more responsible future for the steel industry. It will achieve this by building the first global certification programme and standard for the entire steel value chain from mining, to production processes, to final stage sales, and distribution. Certification standards will include the following areas:

• Climate Change & Greenhouse Gas Emissions
• Water Responsibility & Biodiversity
• Human Rights & Labour Law
• Local Communities & Business Integrity

ArcelorMittal’s commitment

Explaining ArcelorMittal’s commitment to ResponsibleSteel™, Alan Knight, Global Head of Sustainable Development, said that "responsible production techniques and high ethical and business standards are becoming increasingly important to our customers, and ultimately to their customers and consumers. We want to get to a point where steel users and purchasers have total confidence in their choices. ResponsibleSteel™ provides us with a fantastic opportunity to do this and to create the world’s first certification programme for the industry.”

About ResponsibleSteel™

ResponsibleSteel™ is a membership-based organisation currently comprising 22 members including steel producers, car manufacturers (BMW Group and Daimler), finance providers such as HSBC, industry organisations and NGOs. The scheme will formally launch its certification standards following a rigorous accreditation process which is expected to conclude towards the end of 2019. Once launched, ResponsibleSteel™ expects to rapidly grow its membership base with the aim of becoming the industry-recognised standard around the world.

On 14 November, ArcelorMittal participated in the first Polish Steel Day, organised as part of the Build With Steel initiative managed by the Polish Chamber of Steelwork and partners at the Warsaw Sheraton hotel – an event dedicated to investors, architects, designers, and general contractors to promote steel in the construction market.

About 130 people from the business and academic world gathered at the Warsaw Sheraton hotel for this first Steel Day in Poland. The event consisted of talks by specialists from production, galvanising, and design companies, and lectures given by well-known architects and representatives of industry associations. Different topics were discussed such as: new technologies in the galvanising industry, modern steel and composite bridges, and construction of the world’s largest mobile structure – the Chernobyl sarcophagus (made of ArcelorMittal steel).

Representing ArcelorMittal

ArcelorMittal was represented on the Technical Committee by Marta Dziarnowska, International Steel Promotion Director at ArcelorMittal Europe – Flat Products, and Wojciech Ochojski, Technical Advisor at ArcelorMittal Commercial Long Poland sp. z o.o.

Two ArcelorMittal speeches were given by:

•    Tomasz Plaskura, CMO Region East at ArcelorMittal Europe – Flat Products, who focused on 'Innovation in steel for the architecture of tomorrow'
•    Dr Renata Obiała, ArcelorMittal Global R&D on the topic 'Engineering fire safety of construction and creativity of designers'

Steligence® in the spotlight

As construction was the focus of the event, Steligence® was also in the spotlight with a mini stand, including a video display, as an introduction to this concept.

Steligence® is ArcelorMittal’s radical new concept for the use of steel in construction, which will facilitate the next generation of high performance buildings and construction techniques and create a more sustainable life-cycle for buildings.

As explained by Tomasz Plaskura during his speech: “We already know that steel is an ideal material to create functional and aesthetic constructions, but it is also important to make others as passionate about steel constructions as we are because steel is beautiful…The Steligence® concept has the potential to drive significant architectural and sustainability benefits. It will also impact the cost, which will be reduced…ArcelorMittal’s new headquarters, which will be built in Luxembourg, is an excellent example of this concept”.

The Steligence® concept is enabled by the latest development in steel solutions such as building columns, castellated beams, composite slim-floor beams, additive floors, architectural panels, profile claddings, cassette systems, and many others. You can view more details at steligence.arcelormittal.com/products.

Polish Steel Day was a great networking opportunity for people from different areas: architects, engineers, students, and academics and we look forward for the next edition.

More about Steligence®

Steligence® proposes a new approach to construction which considers buildings holistically, almost as ‘living entities’. As such, this new science-based methodology proposes the need for more dialogue between various specialist architectural and engineering disciplines recognising not only specialist expertise, but also the positive impact of enhanced co-operation between experts.

The concept has the potential to resolve the competing demands of creativity, flexibility, sustainability, and economics. Built into the Steligence® approach is a broad range of steel products for construction which individually add value, but together represent a compelling portfolio.

About Build With Steel (Buduj ze stali)

The Build With Steel initiative was developed in cooperation with some of the most important steel companies in Poland. Build With Steel is the answer to the industry’s expectations for increasing the use of steel in the building industry. Steel as a material characterised by great flexibility and durability deserves proper promotion.

The Build With Steel initiative is addressed to all key players in the construction market including students and graduates of technical universities, designers, architects, as well as investors and general contractors.

Good news for astronomy enthusiasts: the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST), which will be located in Chile, is currently being built with ArcelorMittal Europe – Flat Products’ steel plates produced in Gijón, Spain. Once in service, this powerful telescope, equipped with a 3.2-billion-pixel camera, will make a survey of the universe in 3D.

10 years studying the universe

Thanks to its dry atmosphere, Chile has become the site of choice for many astronomy observatories with 70% of the world’s astronomical infrastructure planned to be in the country by the 2020s.

This is where the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST), developed by AURA (Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy), is currently under construction. The project has been funded by the US National Science Foundation (NSF) and aims to produce the deepest, widest image of the universe night after night for 10 years.

The LSST uses a three-mirror design, which offers a wide field of view and is able to survey the entire sky in only three nights. It will deliver sharp images taken by a 3.2-billion-pixel camera, the largest digital camera ever constructed.

A robust structure made with our steel

In 2014, a Spanish consortium formed by Asturfeito and GHESA won the offer for the design, construction, and testing of the Telescope Mount Assembly.

ArcelorMittal Europe – Flat Products’ mill in Gijón supplied customer Asturfeito with steel plates for the construction of the telescope’s structure. Our plates in grade S355J2 + N provide the necessary toughness for an application such as this one.

The competitiveness of our offer in terms of price and technical requirements convinced Asturfeito to opt for our steel solutions. Regarding logistics, the location of our mill was an added benefit due to its proximity with the customer’s facility (also in the region of Asturias).

Coming in 2020

Asturfeito fully assembled the LSST in its production site and carried out control and performance tests in collaboration with GHESA. The telescope will be disassembled and the parts will be transported from the port of Avilés to Chile this autumn before being installed at 2600 metres of altitude in Cerro Pachón. LSST will see “first light” with a commissioning camera in August of 2020 and begin the ten-year full science survey in October of 2022.

About Asturfeito

Our client, Asturfeito, is a leading company in the engineering, manufacturing, and commissioning of capital goods with more than 20 years of experience in the scientific, nuclear, petrochemical, renewable energy, industrial, and steel industries. The company currently employs 220 people and has three production sites in Asturias: in Tabaza; in the Principality of Asturias Business Park (PEPA), very close to the port of Avilés (facilities where the skeleton of the telescope has been built); and in Silvota.

Fact & figures about the LSST

•    16 metre-diameter
•    375 tonnes
•    8.4-m mirror - the width of a singles tennis court
•    3200-megapixel camera
•    Each image the size of 40 full moons
•    37 billion stars and galaxies
•    10-year survey of the sky
•    10 million alerts, 1000 pairs of exposures
•    15 terabytes of data...every night

ArcelorMittal Europe – Tubular Products, part of ArcelorMittal Downstream Solutions, is the most diversified producer of pipes and tubes in Europe.

Present in the energy, construction, engineering, and automotive sectors, ArcelorMittal Europe – Tubular Products provides high quality steel tube and pipe solutions and serves all major markets.

For instance, did you know that you can find our tubes in your car or in your sprinkler system? They are also present in large-scale projects such as the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg and in the Yas Marina Circuit, the official venue for the Abu Dhabi F1 Grand Prix.

Watch the video to learn more about ArcelorMittal Europe – Tubular Products.

Text: © ArcelorMittal Europe
Photos: © ArcelorMittal Europe – Tubular Products, © Laurentiu Nica, © ArcelorMittal Iasi

These best practice design manuals consist of a series of technical guides for engineering offices, steel fabricators, and architects that aim at facilitating the application of the Eurocodes in the design of single-storey and multi-storey steel buildings.

The presented design manuals consist of a series of technical guides facilitating the application of the Eurocodes in the design of single-storey and multi-storey steel buildings.

These design manuals are helpful for steel fabricators and engineering offices, but the presentation of the advantages and possibilities of the use of steel also applies to architects. They provide a useful source of knowledge for designers in accordance with the Eurocodes and include topics such as numerous design details, fire engineering issues, member and connection resistance calculators, etc.

The design guides 'Single-Storey Steel Buildings' and 'Multi-Storey Steel Buildings' were produced in the framework of the European project 'Facilitating the market development for sections in industrial halls and low rise buildings (SECHALO) RFS2-CT-2008-0030', which was carried out with a financial grant from the European Union's Research Fund for Coal and Steel.

The design guides were prepared under the direction of ArcelorMittal, Peiner Träger, and Corus. The technical content was prepared by CTICM and SCI, collaborating as the Steel Alliance.

LCA - Life cycle analysis or assessment, now a common method for all resources and products, is of course also important for steel in construction. ArcelorMittal is fully committed to promoting the sustainability of steel. LCAs in the construction industry will now include the so called "Module D" which considers the end of life recycling possibilities of construction materials in general and metals and steel products  in particular.

What is LCA?

The procedures of LCA are part of the International Standards Organisation (ISO) 14040 series of standards. LCA provides a methodology to take into account the environmental impacts of the manufacturing processes of a product, the extraction of the raw materials used by these processes, the use and maintenance of the product by the consumer, its end–of-life (recycling, reuse or disposal) as well as the various methods of transport occurring between every link of the chain. Below pic. 1

LCA for steel products

Correct modelling of the recycling potential of steel products at the end-of-life phase is critical for our sector to compete with other materials and demonstrate the performance of steels solutions to meet  the demand for “best in class” sustainable buildings.

At  ArcelorMittal, safe, sustainable steel has long been our tagline. A life-cycle approach translates the relatively high input of energy and associated emissions of the transformation process from units of mass into units of functionality (i.e. “functional equivalence”,  e.g. the same load bearing capacity over certain length for different beam solutions).

Our advanced high strength steels showcase their premium structural performance over conventional steels or competitive materials in Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) benchmarks measured over unit of functionality.

In Europe, an environmental product declaration (EPD) is a standardized way of quantifying the environmental impact of a product or system following Life Cycle Analysis.

For us as a steelmaker, it is also strategically important to demonstrate this life-style approach - in terms of governments and policies – so that the long service-life, re-use and multi-recycling characteristics of steel are adequately appreciated and measured.

However, a recurring point of contention in the tools used to define these government policies is how to quantify the environmental benefits of recycling.

Typically steel products made over the integrated route have a scrap content limited to a value between 10-20% where as the product at end-of-life will be recycled at rates between 85-95%. The ‘recycled content’ method only incorporates the environmental benefits realised today, in contrast with the ‘end-of-life’ method that additionally accounts  for the future environmental benefits emerging from scrap that will be generated at end-of-life.

Metal industries like ours are advocating the “end-of-life recycling rate” as the most appropriate indicator for metals while available volumes of scrap are insufficient to match demand.

Steel and construction

The construction and infrastructure industry is our biggest client; a large percentage of the steel we produce ends up in buildings across the world – from the new One World Trade Centre in New York City to low-cost housing communities in South Africa.

Government environmental regulators’ studies indicate that the construction industry is responsible for a huge part of the CO2 emissions and energy consumption and up to 70% of all waste. This has brought the construction industry to the top of the regulators’ list of priorities.

To enable the adequate assessment of the sustainability of buildings and public or civil-works, products used in construction of buildings are increasingly required to provide EPDs for all products used listing clearly the major environmental impacts over different stages of its life-cycle. (Picture 2)

CEN/TC 350 and the importance of Module D

In Europe, to avoid the creation of trade barriers in the common market, the European Commission gave a mandate to its normalisation body, CEN/ TC 350, to develop a harmonised standard to define the methodology to implement and calculate EPDs and assess sustainable performances at building level.

Knowing that the EPDs of products are the basis of their competitive strength in the environmental assessment of a building, all the relevant material sectors took an interest in guiding the calculation method developed under CEN/TC 350 to reflect the specific competitive strengths of the material they represented.

The result was the publication of the final standard, called EN 15804 at the end of 2012. This standard includes a “Module D” which provides the opportunity to account for the benefits of end-of-life recycling of steel in an EPD.

The inclusion of Module D is a major accomplishment which extends the reporting of environmental benefits of recycling from recycled content percentages only to equally include the end-of-life recycling possibilities. This method and inclusion is especially significant for steel products made predominantly from iron ore, for example flat steel products made via the integrated route. Being net generators of scrap, these products can now claim the environmental credits of future recycling in Module D.

This also has other repercussions. If Module D were not included, it would have caused a significant negative impact on the competitive position in environmental assessments for all of ArcelorMittal’s products.

Entrenching Module D into all assessments

Currently Module D - with the end of life recycling benefits -  is an optional module for assessments of buildings and constructions.

The added value of making Module D reporting mandatory is already recognised in Germany (IBU system) and Belgium (Royal Decree on building products) and in France at the beginning of 2014.

Recently, AISI in the United States has shown  interest in  the European methodology to implement EPDs, including our “Module D” approach and the new version of LEED building assessment is also considering EPDs as part of the environmental performance of buildings.