Construction and Steel Structure

Biography

Biography: Riccardo Zanon

Abstract

Long products may be rolled as tailor-made shapes in order to fit specific customer needs. For heavy sections, the concept was firstly developed in 1979 at the rolling mill of Differdan-ge, in Luxembourg. The production implies the adaptation of the rolling stands for stock sec-tions concerning the geometrical shapes, as well as the heating and cooling process concerning the mechanical properties. The first application of these heavy sections was as columns for high-rise buildings, where the connection of high strength steel with optimized cross-section thicknesses leads to sub-stantial weight and cost savings. Several skyscrapers around the world used this technology. In latest years, this concept has been successfully implemented also in some remarkable bridge applications. In particular, three high-speed railway bridges on the Contournement of Nimes and Montpellier, as well as the launching equipment for steel deck on the Saint-Petersburg ring were developed with tailor-made sections. In these cases, the intrinsic fatigue resistance as well as in-shape stability of rolled sections are major factors that make these products highly competitive. Another factor of interest, the tallest H section ever rolled in his-tory were developed as tailor made for one of these railway bridges. In this paper, in a first step the industrial process of tailor-making in connection with a clas-sic rolling mill for heavy shapes will be explained. The technical limits as well as some rolling constraints will be discussed. Furthermore, some future projections concerning developments in shape and steel grades will be given. In a second part, it will be presented an historic overview of the main heavy sections appli-cations over the last decades up to the newest relevant projects, showing when and how these products reveal to be advantageous. Recent applications for major bridge projects will be dis-cussed in detail.