ST-43AB : an optimal design tool for the design of continuous beam using microsoft excel

Abstract

The project is a continuation from a previous final year project that involved the development of a spreadsheet using Microsoft Excel to design for steel beams up to Eurocode 3 standard. In this project, the purpose is to improve the efficiency of the current design tool by implementing a system which will optimize the selection of a steel beam to design continuous beam subjected to bending only. This report serves to document the development and improvement made to the Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet program. Microsoft Excel 2010 and Visual Basics for Application (VBA) is the foundation used to create this steel beam design program.

The development of the optimal design tool is a substantial improvement to the design program as it recommends the most optimized and economical steel beam section to be used by designers in actual construction projects. Junior engineers who have relatively no experience in choosing an adequate steel beam when designing for a structure will find the spreadsheet program particularly useful as it will automatically recommend the most efficient steel beam to be used. In addition, using this spreadsheet program is more time efficient and relatively mistake free as calculations are done by the program as compared to manual calculations.

The author desires to have the functionality of the spreadsheet program used and explored by the civil industry and civil engineering students alike to create further research for the improvement of the program. By doing so, we hope that our efforts into this project will contribute beneficially to the industry in terms of usability for designing in real world applications.