Steel and Composite Constructions

Headed by Prof. Jean-Pierre Jaspart and Prof. Jean-François Demonceau, the CMM group specialises in the characterisation of the behaviour of steel and composite constructions and is involved in various activities such as teaching (including continuing education), research, technical support to industries, standardisation, participation in international commissions, etc.

he CMM group is part of the MS2F Sector, which itself is part of the Urban and Environmental Engineering Research Unit.

Research areas

Stability of structures and structural elements: overall stability of structures, strength and classification of cross-sections, stability of structural elements (steel and steel-concrete plates, beams and columns, etc.).
Behaviour of structural joints: development of innovative joints or fasteners, characterisation of the behaviour of joints or new components, joints under accidental/exceptional loads (fire, earthquake, impact, etc.).
Structural robustness: response of structures subjected to exceptional loading, in particular resulting in the loss of a column.

Current projects

Participation in international commissions

Technical Commission TC8 of the ECMC (European Convention for Metallic Construction): structural stability
Technical Commission TC10 of the ECMC (European Convention of Metallic Construction): structural joints
Technical Commission TC11 of the ECSC (European Convention for Steel Construction): mixed steel-concrete construction
ICDSTC (International Committee for the Development and Study of Tubular Construction
SSRC (Structural Stability Reserch Council)
Structural Engineering Institute SEI of ASCE (American Society of Civil Engineers): structural robustness

Standardization

CMM is involved for many years in the drafting and monitoring of the European standards Eurocode 3 (steel constructions) and Eurocode 4 (mixed steel-concrete constructions) through various national (IBN) and international (CEN) committees. In particular, CMM is one of the drafters of part 1-8 (structural joints) of Eurocode 3.

Industrial and public collaborations

The CMM group maintains collaborations with the following companies:

ArcelorMittal
Astron
CRM Group
Drever
F+W (Feldmann + Weynand Ingenieure)
GDTech
Greisch design office
Seco

Promotion of research results

Within the framework of the promotion of research results, the CMM group regularly participates in various actions with companies, such as seminars, training courses, the elaboration of collections of sample calculations, the drafting of technical recommendations, etc.

Software

OSSA2D

This program is a software for the elastic analysis of flat structures, with a wide catalogue of profiles, load types and materials. It also takes into account semi-rigid nodes and second order effects. Data entry and visualisation of the results is carried out in a very user-friendly environment allowing easy access to the various options of the software.

Newly introduced features include the calculation of critical loads and eigenmodes of the structure and the calculation and representation of lines of influence. A demo version is available for download. For more information, please contact Jean-François Demonceau.

CoP - The Connection Program

CMM provides scientific support for the development of the CoP software developed and commercialised by the German company F+W (Feldmann + Weynand Ingenieure). More info available here http://cop.fw-ing.de/en/overview