Structural Systems and Design Strategies for Industrial Facilities

By the end of this course, you will be able to:

• Calculate design loads and load combinations for industrial building structures while accounting for operational requirements.

• Analyze load paths, frame stability, structural bracing systems, and second-order effects in steel-framed buildings.

• Design and evaluate steel and composite structural systems, including joists, girders, trusses, beams, floors, and stub-girder systems.

• Assess crane-induced forces, dynamic loading, and floor vibration against applicable strength and serviceability requirements.

• Select structural systems and design details that support safety, serviceability, durability, constructability, and future expansion.

Description

Industrial facilities are expected to remain safe, reliable, and operational under demanding conditions, including heavy equipment, crane operations, vibration, future facility expansions, and complex loading scenarios. Decisions made during structural design directly influence not only safety and code compliance but also constructability, maintenance requirements, long-term performance, and a facility's ability to adapt to changing operational needs. Poorly understood load paths, serviceability issues, or stability concerns can lead to costly redesigns, operational disruptions, and increased project risk.

This course helps you develop the knowledge and engineering judgment required to address these challenges when designing industrial building structures. You will learn how structural loads interact with framing systems, how stability and serviceability considerations influence design decisions, and how to evaluate alternative structural systems for different industrial applications. Emphasis is placed on understanding the behaviour of steel and composite structures and applying design principles that support safe, efficient, and practical solutions.

Through applied examples and design-based discussions, you will examine how engineers address real-world issues such as long-span roof systems, crane-supporting structures, floor vibration, load transfer, structural stability, and future expansion requirements. By strengthening both your technical understanding and decision-making approach, this course will help you develop more reliable, economical, and defensible structural designs for industrial facilities.

Who Should Attend

This course is designed for:

• Structural engineers and structural designers

• Civil and architectural engineers involved in industrial building design

• Plant and facility engineers

• Building and structural system manufacturers

• Contractors involved in industrial construction

• Owners and managers responsible for industrial facilities

• Technical procurement professionals

• Professionals involved in the design, analysis, construction, or modification of industrial facilities

• Professionals working in oil and gas, refining, mining, chemical processing, aluminum production, pulp and paper, and manufacturing environments

Introduction

• Design loads, load combinations, and Importance factors

• Structural steel framing types and load transfer

• Pass-through/Transfer forces in multi-storey construction with braced frames

• Portal frame versus gable (end) frame

• Calculation of forces in cladding, purlins, girts, and tie rods in framing structure

• Lateral stability bracing to stabilize the compression flange of plate girders and trusses

• Fly bracing in framing structure

• Frame stability analysis (P-Δ effect)

Brief summary of steel design

• Types and properties of structural steel

• Failure modes in steel beams

• Failure modes in compression members

Open-web steel joist and Gerber Girder system

• Roof and floor loads on a steel deck and OWSJ

• Joint eccentricities and bearing seat in open-web steel joists

• Analysis, design and deflection criteria of OWSJ.

• Design of critical web members in compression

• Design of members subjected to combined moment and tensile force

• Bridging for open-web steel joists

• Design of metal deck

Roof Framing with Cantilever (Gerber) Girders

• Roof framing layout and concept of Gerber girder system

• Load transfer from OSWJs to Gerber girders and supporting columns

• Design considerations for the Gerber girder system

• Structural stability considerations for columns

• Transfer of loads to foundation through columns and bracing system

• Cladding design

• Design example

Steel trusses

• Types of steel trusses

• Transverse bracing of trusses for stability

• Design of critical web members in compression

• Design of truss members under combined moment and tensile force due to monorail loading

• Design example

Web opening in steel I-beams and composite concrete slab-over steel I-beams

• Inclusion of circular openings in steel I-beams

• Steel I-beam with unreinforced or reinforced web openings

• Steel I-beam with web openings, acting compositely with floor slab or concrete-filled steel deck

• Moment-shear interaction

• Deflection calculations

• Design examples

Prefabricated steel I-beams with corrugated steel webs for cost-effective design

• Design concepts

• Flexural capacity

• Shear capacity

• Web crippling capacity

• Design examples

Composite floors with concrete slab on steel beams for cost-effective design

• Deck slab systems in steel-framed buildings

• Headed shear studs for composite floor member design

• Loading considerations for the shored and unshored composite floor system

• Effective slab width in composite beams

• Ultimate flexural capacity of composite beams at positive and negative moment regions

• Partial- and full-shear interaction

• Ultimate shear design

• Design of shear studs and channel connectors

• Check for deflection in partial- and full-shear interaction

• Deflection due to concrete shrinkage and creep

• Design examples

Composite Trusses for cost-effective design

• Floor layout

• Strength design considerations

• Serviceability design considerations

Composite Stub-Girder floor Construction for cost-effective design

• Stub and beam layout

• Structural modelling of stub-girder for computer analysis

• Stub-girder member flexural strength

• Stud shear connection design

• Shear capacity of stubs and stub stiffener details

• Design of weldments at stub-to-girder interface

• Stub-girder deflection check

• Shoring check for stub girders

• Design example

Crane Runways

• Overview of crane systems and usage

• Forces imparted by cranes

• Load combinations involving cranes

• Design of crane supporting beam and bracket

• Mono-symmetric versus symmetric crane girder in flexural strength

• Types of supporting columns

• K - factors and end restraints of columns

• Column design under combined bending and compressive force

• Design examples

Floor Vibration Due to Human Activities

• Basic vibration terminology

• Floor vibration principles

• Acceptance criteria for human comfort

• Recommended criteria for structural design for walking and rhythmic excitation

• Natural frequencies of steel-framed floor systems

• Check for floor vibration per the National Building Code of Canada

• Special considerations for open web steel joists and girders

• Vibration design criteria for a footbridge or walkway between commercial buildings

• Coupled vibration criteria

• Design examples