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Expertise

It appears that the teaching of steel structure design as was common during the 1950s has all but disappeared. Aside from in project classes where fourth year students are familiarised with the use of design codes, core texts such as Stewart’s Design of Steel Structures are conspicuous by their absence whether at IIT Delhi, IIT Kharagpur or consultants in Calcutta.

Since the 1970s, few civil engineering graduates have been exposed to international standards on steelwork design. The outdated IS800 code of practice for building construction steelwork is still in use.

Many Indian students seem unaware of the limit state theories first proposed for concrete in 1947 and steel in 1955, and it was only in 2004 that INSDAG began to organise seminars to highlight concepts such as this to practising engineers.

Thus a modern curriculum in line with international standards should be settled. This could be done in consultation with bodies such as Imperial College, London, the University of Graz in Austria and the European Convention for Constructional Steel (ECCS), plus of course SCI and INSDAG.

Since the 62 Eurocodes (modified to suit national safety standards) are expected to replace all European engineering codes, plus those of many former European-administered territories, they should be introduced to Indian universities (at least the seven IITs) as soon as possible.

In addition, some of the subjects not covered by Indian universities eg. painting technology, welding technology, fracture mechanics, industrial fasteners, erection safety rules etc. need to be introduced now.

Students need to be made familiar with more modern types of construction such as composite sections and beams as well as columns (ie. hollow sections filled with concrete) and cellular beams etc.. An introductory course (perhaps just one lecture a week) on bridge design and construction could be offered to fourth year students.