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Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2007. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 172-179).

Thesis (M. Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 1997. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 133-136).

It is vital that Turkey keep abreast of developments in the world and build up its technology to become a developed country. Steel construction is one of these areas. In this context, the main purpose of this study was to define, analyze and evaluate the general characteristics of structural steel and steel construction with the purpose of throwing new light on its advantages and disadvantages. Within this framework, a literature survey was conducted on structural steel components and structures / and on steel construction in Turkey. Additionally, a case study was carried out on a steel office building in Ankara. In this, the T&uuml / rkiye Esnaf ve Sanatkar Kredi Kefalet Kooperatifleri Merkez Birligi (TESKOMB) Building was investigated in terms of the design and production criteria for steel structures and to determine problems faced during these processes. As a result of this study, the existing condition of the construction sector and the means to improve use of structural steel in Turkey were discussed more realistically.

The purpose of this study has been to examine selected issues involved in the growth and development of the steel industry with particular reference to the part played by government. A secondary purpose is a study of the steel industry, itself - its founders, type of organization, and some of its problems.

Stainless steel profiled walls have increasingly been used in the process and other industries to protect people and personnel against hydrocarbon or chemical explosions. The existence of various uncertainties, in particular the ones associated with explosion loading and parameters, make the current design and assessment which are based on single degree of freedom (SDOF) and deterministic approach, very complicated and in many cases leading to unreliable design assessment. Therefore, developing an appropriate reliability approach for assessing and designing blast wall structures would greatly assist in improving the safety of personnel and plant facilities. The objective of this research study is to develop a practical framework for performance based design of stainless steel profiled barrier blast walls, with specific focus on reliability assessment by implementing stochastic finite element analysis (SFEA). Initially, the current traditional SDOF method is reviewed to identify the related issues and weaknesses and accordingly an appropriate method for structural assessments of the blast walls is proposed. Furthermore, a comprehensive investigation on various available methods is carried out to identify a suitable probabilistic approach for the reliability assessments. The corresponding reliability of these structures is evaluated with a MCS method, implementing the Latin Hypercube Sampling (LHS) approach. A programming package is developed using Ansys Parametric Design Language (APDL), to generate parametric finite element models and to perform automated reliability assessments. The significant uncertainties are combined with an advanced analysis model to investigate the influence of loading, material and geometric uncertainties on the response of these structures under realistic boundary conditions and connection configuration. Effective implementation of the framework is achieved by the development of a combined programming package to deal with both finite element and reliability analyses. A further development for this research study is associated with the development of performance based design approach, using the results of the probabilistic and finite element assessments. This can be utilised for optimum and appropriate design of the blast wall structures, based on the defined performance levels. Application and practicality of the developed approach and associated programming package is demonstrated through a number of case studies of realistic stainless steel profiled barriers subject to explosion loading. The results of the preliminary probabilistic case studies confirm that the explosion loading is the main influential input parameter and also nonlinearities are more critical than dynamic effects for unstiffened profiled barrier blast walls. An appropriate dynamic load factor (DLF) is proposed for the preliminary stage of the design and assessments. It is observed that using the probabilistic approach can help identify the important variables and parameters to optimize the design of profiled blast walls, and to perform risk assessments for these structures. The study is expanded to develop a performance based design methodology, linking the probabilistic results with various performance levels and associated parameters (e.g., damage levels). The results and discussions of the case studies associated with performance based design assessments confirm the suitability of the proposed framework, and also highlight the complications in defining intermediate levels, without preliminary investigations. This shows that QRA approach and involvement of professionals can play an important role to develop performance levels and the associated objectives. The developed programming package and associated framework are expected to provide valuable guidance to professional design engineers and researchers, by obviating the need for complex computational requirements.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering, 1979. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND SCIENCE. / Vita. / Includes bibliographical references. / by Jose Antonio Rescalvo Santiago. / Ph.D.