Rehabilitation of Historic Buildings - Weldability of Vintage Steels

Since the development of the Bessemer and Siemens-Martin processes in middle of the 19th Century, steels have been adopted as a primary material for structural engineering. The Rand McNally Building built in Chicago in 1889 was the first steel-framed skyscraper, using riveted and bolted connections. Many of these early steel-framed buildings still exist, and modern renovation projects typically require welding of these historic structural steels. This talk will examine the requirements of the original 1902 ASTM standard for structural steels, review 30 projects where the weldability of historic structural steels was analyzed, and discuss the differences between historic and modern steels.