Steel Educators' Tip Sheet

August - September 2008

Shanna Quinn, AISC Education Coordinator, shares some of the improvements to the student discount program.

Over 250 university professors participate in AISC Student Discount Program which sells the 13th edition Steel Construction Manual and the Seismic Manual to students at the discounted rate of $120 each. Last year AISC began accepting orders and payments online, and the response to this improvement was tremendous. The convenience of online ordering and payment was a welcomed improvement for both professors and students, so AISC continued developing the Program, and the end result is a new Student Discount Program website (www.aiscstudentmanuals.org). This online system is more user-friendly for professors and students and has added features which allow AISC to track orders and payments. For more information on the Program improvements, please contact Shanna Quinn, Education Coordinator, at quinn@aisc.org.

Some of our colleagues share how they use MASTAN2 in undergraduate and graduate courses.

With MASTAN2, one can perform first- or second-order elastic or inelastic analyses of two- or three-dimensional frames and trusses subjected to static loads. Instructors have found this educational software to be very useful for demonstrating different concepts in design and analysis courses.

Greg Deierlein, Professor at Stanford University, has been using MASTAN2 since it was first introduced about 10 to 15 years ago. He uses it to demonstrate concepts in analysis and steel design courses. "With a very quick learning curve and powerful nonlinear analysis features, MASTAN2 is a very effective tool for teaching students about structural behavior, including geometric nonlinear (stability) effects and material nonlinear (inelastic) effects. MASTAN2 has been a very convenient and simple to use analysis program in structural design classes. In advanced courses, it has been a great tool to introduce students to buckling (eigenvalue) analysis and inelastic pushover analysis methods used in seismic design. In graduate structural analysis classes I utilize the features in MASTAN2 that permit students to write their own linear and nonlinear analysis code (in Matlab), while utilizing the input/output routines of MASTAN2."

Thomas Sputo, Senior Lecturer at the University of Florida, uses MASTAN2 in Steel Design, Advanced Steel Design, and Strength and Stability of Steel Frames (graduate course). In Steel Design, he uses the software to compare 1st order and 2nd order elastic analysis results while teaching moment amplification in beam-columns. In Advanced Steel Design, the students use 2nd order elastic analysis in designing building frames.

In Strength and Stability, he will "solve all sorts of stability and bracing problems using MASTAN2, comparing theoretical solutions published in the literature against MASTAN2 output. [This is] basically a course in elastic and inelastic stability taught using computer modeling (MASTAN2) rather than hand derivations." Just a few examples are calculation of 'K' using MASTAN2 output with comparisons to alignment chart solutions, leaning columns using MASTAN2 versus published solutions, and bracing design using MASTAN2.

"The newest version of MASTAN2 with the built-in AISC shape database is a nice time saver, compared to the previous versions," says Sputo. "You can also look at our Facebook group that we have here at UF, 'MASTAN Junkies,' which will be active again this fall when I teach the course again."