Description
The Gerber Girder cantilever system is a popular roof design system for steel buildings in Canada. The system generates material savings and reduces deflections and is popular for the design of roofs in many big-box retail stores. With cantilever girders, the system has stability issues that are not present in roof framing systems containing only simple span members. These stability issues have led to failures in the past, the most notable of which is the Station Square Save-On foods roof collapse of 1989. Following this failure there was a concerted effort on the part of the CISC and the steel industry to develop design procedures that would prevent similar failures in the future. Unfortunately, as the memory of the 1989 failure fades and engineers practicing at the time retire, there is a loss of the knowledge of how to design this popular system.
This talk presents simple ways of looking at and addressing the stability issues in design and how the important knowledge of this system design is now being passed on and how S16-19 will include provisions to cover Gerber framing system. Andy will also review some of the other notable updates contained in the recently-released CSA S16-19 steel standard.
Presenter: Andy Metten, P.Eng., Struct.Eng., Partner at Bush, Bohlman & Partners LLP
Date: Wednesday February 26
Time: Refreshments at 6:00 pm; Presentation at 6:30 pm
Venue: Room C300, UBC Robson Square, 800 Robson Street, Vancouver
Meet our Presenter
Andy Metten, P.Eng., Struct.Eng.
Partner at Bush, Bohlman & Partners LLP
Andy Metten is a practising structural engineer and partner in the Vancouver-based structural engineering firm of Bush, Bohlman & Partners LLP. Over the past 38 years, he has been the design engineer on several buildings and bridges, including the Vancouver International Airport and the U.S. Terminal in Nassau, Bahamas and the Skytrain Fraser River crossing at New Westminster. Andy is still closely involved in day-to-day design of structures from conceptual design through field services. Andy Metten has practised structural engineering since graduation from the University of British Columbia with a bachelor’s degrees in Civil Engineering in 1978 and a master’s degree in structural engineering in 1981. He is currently a member of the Standing Committee for Seismic Design for the National Building Code of Canada and a member of the S16 structural steel design committee for Canada. Since 2002, he has also taught an evening structural steel design course offered by the Structural Engineers Association of BC (SEABC) the notes from that course have now evolved into the textbook “Structural Steel for Canadian Buildings” which is used by both EITs and an undergraduate textbook at several universities.
