Due to the expected snowstorm, campus will be closing at 3:00pm on Wednesday 02/12/25.  Students should log into Canvas for specific class information from their instructors. Please contact event organizers for information on specific activities.

Grant Study: Better Steel Reinforcement

Engineering
Civil + Architectural Engineering
Student Project

Associate Professor Keith J. Kowalkowski received a $120,000 grant from the American Institute of Steel Construction to study the influence of eccentricity on stiffeners designed to resist concentrated forces applied to structural steel columns.

The co-primary investigator on the grant is Xin Xie, assistant professor of Mechanical Engineering at LTU. Xie is an expert in optical stress and strain analysis and will assist in interpreting experimental results. Another key contributor to the project is Javier Rodilla, an undergraduate student in civil engineering working on the project, who transitioned in the summer of 2018 to a graduate research assistant.

Steel structures are made of vertical columns and horizontal beams. Column stiffeners are used to reinforce the columns, which are subjected to concentrated forces from beam flanges or flange plates, often as part of a moment connection – defined as a connection that limits relative rotation between the beam and the column. Stiffeners are required when the column alone fails one of the various failure mechanisms associated with concentrated forces. Ideally, the stiffeners are placed in-line, or “concentric,” with beam flanges or flange plates, welded adjacent to the column flanges.

Kowalkowski’s project consists of experimental and analytical research. LTU undergraduate and graduate students will perform various tasks associated with both sides of the research. The project will consist of a full-time graduate research assistant and undergraduate research assistants as well. They will be conducting experiments on steel wide flange members in LTU’s Structural Testing Center, using a hydraulic actuator with a capacity up to 220,000 lbs. and using digital image correlation to capture and display results.

Under the study, three different experimental test methods will capture various column failure modes. Ten tests will be performed on columns without stiffeners, 10 equivalent tests will be performed on columns with concentric stiffeners, and 20 tests will be performed on columns with eccentric stiffeners, in which the eccentricity will be up to six inches.

The end result of the study will be final recommendations for steel construction practice, and suggested revisions to the AISC design guides and specifications. The results will also be published in the AISC Engineering Journal.

» Involved Faculty

» Involved Students

» View More

» Document Viewer

Use Your Cell Phone as a Document Camera in Zoom

  • What you will need to have and do
  • Download the mobile Zoom app (either App Store or Google Play)
  • Have your phone plugged in
  • Set up video stand phone holder

From Computer

Log in and start your Zoom session with participants

From Phone

  • Start the Zoom session on your phone app (suggest setting your phone to “Do not disturb” since your phone screen will be seen in Zoom)
  • Type in the Meeting ID and Join
  • Do not use phone audio option to avoid feedback
  • Select “share content” and “screen” to share your cell phone’s screen in your Zoom session
  • Select “start broadcast” from Zoom app. The home screen of your cell phone is now being shared with your participants.

To use your cell phone as a makeshift document camera

  • Open (swipe to switch apps) and select the camera app on your phone
  • Start in photo mode and aim the camera at whatever materials you would like to share
  • This is where you will have to position what you want to share to get the best view – but you will see ‘how you are doing’ in the main Zoom session.