MERITS AND DEMERITS OF CONSTRUCTION IN STRUCTURAL

STEEL

Construction in Structural Steel has the following important merits:

1. High strength: Structural Steel has high strength per unit weight. Due to this,
the self weight constitutes very small part of the load that can be supported by the
steel structure. Due to this, steel members are slender or small in size (in
comparison to R.C.C members), resulting in more available space in the structure.
This property is important in design of structures such as tall buildings, long-span
bridges and air-plane hangers.

2. Elasticity: steel follows Hooke’s law up to high values of stress, in both tension
and compression, and its behavior can be predicted quite accurately, in contrast to
reinforced cement concrete.

3. Ductility: because of its ductility (i.e. ability to undergo large deformations

without fracture), steel is able to resist sudden collapse. Many of the simplifying
assumptions used in structural steel design can be justified because of uncertainty
about the steel.

4. Easy transportation: because of its small size and self weight, the steel
member can be easily transported.

5. Longer life: steel structures are known to have long service life.

6. Easy inspection and maintenance: steel structures, can be easily inspected, and
hence its maintenance is easy.
However, in spite of the above merits, constructions in Structural Steel have the
following important demerits:

7. High cost of construction: steel structures have relatively higher cost of

construction in comparison to R.C.C. structures.

8. Poor fireproofing: in case of fire, the rise in temperature results in drastic

reduction in the strength of steel. Steel at 10000 F has about 65% of the strength at
normal temperature, and at 16000 F, it is about 15% only. Such a drastic reduction
results in collapse of structure.

Hence steel should be covered by insulating material.

9. Buckling: because of the slender size, compression members of steel tend to fail
due to buckling rather than to a lack of material strength. Hence additional steel is
required to stiffen the member and prevent buckling.

10. Fatigue: a structural member subject to many stress reversals or even large
changes in either tension or compression may fracture due to fatigue.