 I attended a 4 hour long AISC seminar on 2016 AISC

specification and 15th Edition Steel Construction

Manual back in December 2017.
 With this presentation today, I am going to identify
some of the main changes. And for in-depth
analysis or the research behind the revisions or
changes, you should refer to the commentary to
the specifications.
 I will share with you the Scanned PDF of the
original Presentation.
 With 2005 specification, the conflict between ASD
and LRFD was removed and both design
philosophies were presented side-by-side, which is
still the case for 2016 specification.
 Also 2016 Specification is adopted by and
referenced in IBC 2018.
 In Seminar, AISC’s goal for 2016 Specification was
mentioned to be to again produce a specification
that reflects minimal and essential changes from
previous editions.
 A lot of changes were to broaden scope or correct
omissions, simply design, improve usability and
transparency, and improve editorial content. Some
changes were to improve accuracy, economy and
safety.
 Not a lot of changes in Table of contents for
Specifications
 Some of the subject matter within these chapters
have been revised.
 The title of Chapter K has been revised.
 The reason for this change is that the HSS and Box
Section connections are now addressed in Chapter J
that addresses the connections in a more generic
fashion.
 The connection requirements in addition to those
in Chapter J are addressed in Chapter K.
 Appendix 1 now includes other advanced analysis
methods such as Second Order Elastic Analysis in
addition to Inelastic Analysis.
 The phrase “Design for” was dropped in Title for
Appendix 3 because there are other issues related
to Fatigue than design alone. For example,
fabrication & erection requirements and non-
destructive examination is addressed in this
Appendix.
 Appendix 6 title is revised to make it more general
as it addresses members other than beam and
columns as well.

 There is another approved standard that is
referenced in this specification which is SDI QA/QC
-2011.
 New HSS Standards ASTM 1065 and ASTM 1085
with 50ksi material are added.
 In addition to that, ASTM 1085 has a Charpy
requirement which makes it more suitable for
seismic applications.
 For both of these materials, you will be able to use
full wall thickness and full strength of 50ksi for the
section as opposed to ASTM A500 where only 93%
thickness is allowed to be used in design.
 There were issues with the manufacturing
processes that were specified in all of those old
ASTM bolt standards and now they all have been
unified under one Umbrella Bolt Standard F3125.
 Now those bolts are called Grade A325, Grade
A490, Grade F1852 and Grade F2280.
 ASTM F3043 and ASTM F3111 are also added. Both
are 200 ksi bolts and have some limitations. Please
read those standards before using them.
 AWS A5.36 “flux cored and metal cored electrodes”
has also been added.

 2016 Specification now addressed unequal
longitudinal weld lengths as compared to equal
length longitudinal welds in 2010 Specification.
 The formula for shear lag factor is revised.
 Case 4 no longer applies to only to plates welded
with only longitudinal welds but now also applies
to other shapes welded with only longitudinal
welds.
 Case 2 no longer applies to welded connections
unless they use transverse welds in combination
with longitudinal welds.

 U2010 is calculated based on Case 2 of 2010
Specification.
 Major changes in Chapter E “Design of members for
compression” included:
o The effective length KL has been replaced by
Lc.
o Section E7 “Member with Slender Elements”
has been completely revised and made it
similar to AISI approach. Q factor used in the
design of slender element members is replaced
by a revised procedure. And the Q is no longer
there in the properties Table.
o
 K-factor was first introduced in 1963 Specification.
 Direct Analysis method is the main preferred
method in Chapter C and K-factor is set equal to 1.0
for use with this Direct Analysis Method.
 KL is replaced with Lc throughout the 2016
specification that is in formulas and Design-aid
Tables.
 The effective length, Lc, can be determined through
methods other than those using the effective
length factor, K such as Direct Analysis Method,
which is outlined in Chapter C of the Specification.
 The effective length method is provided as a
possible design option in Appendix 7.
 This chart is still available in commentary to
Appendix 7 for use in accordance with Appendix 7
requirements.

 Section J1.8 of 2010 Specification is completely
revised and expanded into J1.8 and J1.9 in 2016
Specification. You will have to read it to understand
that new revised requirements.
 In relation to “ Welded alterations to structures
with existing Rivets or Bolts” an Example of New
Requirement in Section J1.8 is that:

“The weld available strength shall provide the

additional required strength, but not less than 25%
of the required strength of the connection.”
 We have already gone through New Bolt Standard
F3125. Group C is added in the specification with
F3043 and F3111 high strength bolts of 200ksi
material.
 Even though Group A listing doesn’t show A449
bolts, but specification allow to use ASTM A449
bolts.

 Minimum bolt pretention, for F3125 bolts with diameters
greater than 1 1/8 inches, has increased. This increase was
because it was discovered that manufacturers were using 120ksi
material for A325 and F1852 bolts, for bolt diameters 1 1/8
inches and greater, instead of 105ksi material as required by the
2010 specification. So, the pretention for a stronger 120ksi bolt
material will be more and so the Table 2-6 for “Applicable ASTM
Specifications for Various Types of Structural Fasteners” was
updated to reflect 120 ksi for Gr. A325 and Gr. F1852 bolts.
 There were fitting issues, for the Bolts greater than 1 inch
diameter, in bolt holes, due to manufacturing standards. Based
on research from 1950s, it was found that for the Bolts greater
than 1 inch diameter, the 1/8 inch oversize hole does not
adversely affect the bolt strength. 1/16 inch oversize hole can
still be used.
 Some other changes are
o Minimum bolt hole clear spacing
o And Revised presentation of bearing and
tearout equations.
 As discussed in an earlier slide, HSS connection
details were brought from Chapter K to Section J10.
 Previously the washer requirements were within
AISC specifications, but now they are referenced
from RCSC Specification.


 The Code of Standard Practice became an ANSI
Standard

 Appendix A “Digital Building Product Models” has
been deleted and all the Model Language is now
incorporated into main chapters of this Code of
Standard Practice.
 Since 2010 Specification, the use of digital models
have increased significantly on many projects.
 For Example, The Design Models from design
softwares are being seamlessly transferred into
their detailing software model and it is helping to
reduce the cost & schedule of the project.
 This term “Approval Documents” was developed
because model are being developed and exchanged
more commonly. For Example, a design model is
being sent to a detailer and the detailer produces
fabrication & erection model and sent back for EOR
approval and sent back for corrections and then
being used in the shop to produce steel.
 So it seems that, all these changes regarding
Design/Fabrication/Erection/Approval Documents
which includes both drawings and models, provides
more flexibility contractually.

 So, the stiffening elements such as continuity and
doubler plates, were often missed in connection
design when bidding.
 Section 3.1.2 in 2016 Specification clarifies the
responsibility of connection stiffening.
 For Options 1 or 2 or 3A, ODRD “Owner Designated
Representative for Design” design stiffening and
shows on structural design bid documents.
 For Option 3B, ODRD provides an estimate of
bidding quantity of items for stiffening and incase
incorrect or no estimate is provided, that may
result into additional costs.

 Few years ago the Canadian Institute of Steel
Construction developed this document “Guide for
Specifying Architecturally Exposed Structural Steel”.
 Code Committee reviewed this document and
found a lot of good information and tried to
incorporate in 2016 version of the Code.
 Basic elements in AESS-1 are those that have
workmanship requirements that exceed what
would be done in non-AESS construction.
 Feature elements in AESS-2 and -3 exceed basic
requirements, but the intent is to allow the viewer
to see the art of metalworking.
o AESS-2 is Feature Elements when viewed at a
distance greater than 20ft
o AESS-3 is Feature Elements when viewed at a
distance less than or equal to 20ft
 Showcase elements AESS-4 are Custom elements
that have real fine finish.
 Don’t specify more that what you/owner really
needs as that will result into cost increase for the
owner.

 There were cases where no tolerance requirements
were assumed when none were mentioned in
Sections 5, 6, 7, and 10.
 The second sentence as highlighted that was added
clarifies that.
 It’s a newly added section.
 The protected zones now need to be permanently
marked for the life of the building per AISC 341
Section A4.1.
 This requirement was absent in 2010 Code of
Standard Practice.
 There have been changes but the titles of the Table
of Contents have not changed.
 Notice that Part 16 now includes the latest versions
of the standards.
 Some very large and heavy Wide Flange shapes
have been added.
 We have to make sure to check availability of these
shapes on AISC website and with local fabricator
before we use them on our projects.

 Based on input from mills, k_detailing along with T
dimension have changed due to change in the
rolling tolerances. This has changed for many
shapes.
 For the larger angles and double angles, thicker
gusset plate will be need and will require bigger
separation distance.

 For A500 HSS Shapes, Gr C is the preferred steel
grade which means you can take advantage of 50ksi
material strength for rectangular HSS shapes and
46ksi for round HSS shapes..
 50ksi plates can be used for plates upto 4 inch
thick.

 Check availability of shapes in these material
strengths.
 Strength does not increase for Elastic Flexural
Buckling.
 Greatest strength increase will be seen for the least
slender column (inelastic flexural buckling).
 A lot of design information is presented in this table
and that’s why its being called Super Table.
 Information such as Available Strengths for
Members Subject to:
o Axial
o Shear
o Flexure about Major and Minor Axes
o Combined Forces
 Also miscellaneous other design information in one
place.
 Table 10-1 in 2010 Specification had a section at the
bottom dealing with “Beam Web Available
Strength”. The bottom portion of the table is now
removed because it was causing lot of confusion for
many people. The design checks in that part of the
table still have to be made.
 For the Extended single-plate shear connection
design, based on latest research in 2016 by
Thornton, the requirement of Stabilizer plates is
removed.
 A method to design a double row extended Single-
Plate Shear connection is included in 15th edition.
 Weld details for Skewed Single-plate connections
have been revised and have some additions.
 Anchor Hole and Washer sizes are increased to
address field requirements and to correlate with
ACI117.
 F844 washers will be less expensive than plate
washers.