An Introduction to the Forum of Steel Construction And Section A2-Cable Supported and Tensioned Fabric Structures
Cable supported and tensioned fabric structures (TFS) have intrigued the interest and enthusiasm of architects, designers, engineers and ordinary people all over the world with its distinctive, elegant, unlimited variety of shapes, large space features. There is no exception in China, where a growing number of TFS have appeared exponentially in recent years across the country. Section A2 - Cable Supported and Tensioned Fabric Structures, an interactive internet forum for the exchange of knowledge, information, lessons, and experience under The Chinese Forum of Steel Construction will provide you with all you need to know about this new form of structure.
Placed under the main section of Engineering Discussion, Section A2 -Cable Supported and Tensioned Fabric Structures was one of the earliest and the largest BBS dedicated exclusively to this engineering field. There are currently nearly 2500 articles and over 50 special subjects managed by four volunteer editors.
Since TFS were introduced to China only five to six years ago, many professionals, wishing to pursue or already practicing design, construction or research in this field, have expressed a great wish to acquire more in-depth understanding and knowledge of this type of structure. This forum is being fully utilized for the sharing of information and knowledge, as well as to debate the market development. The topics in this section include cable structures, tensioned fabric structures, tensegrity and deployable structures. The discussion among the participants includes market development, overall structural control, design details, properties of fabrics, overseas project study, literature search etc. Needless to say, at anytime during the day there is always someone from TFS specialist contractors, university students, designers and researchers from research institutes using the forum. It has become an important source of help for their work, study and research. So we hope that you, the experts from overseas, can join the forum to share your expertise and to contribute to a healthy development of TFS in China.
The Forum of Steel Construction (
www.okok.org) is a non-profit professional bulletin board on civil and structural engineering. The forum pursues high professional standards with mutual respect towards all participants. There are more than 10,000 registered users, more than 90,000 posted articles with over 300 new posts added every day. It is visited by more than 2,000 users each day with an accumulated 100,000 clicks in the various sections of the forum. With the joint efforts from the participants and more than 80 volunteer editors, the forum has become one of the best engineering BBS on the Internet!
The forum currently has the following 12 main sections: Administration, Engineering Discussion, Special Topics, General Discussion, Large Structures, Engineering Data, Steel Construction Industry, Structural Engineering Software, ANSYS, Drafting and Software Development. On August 22, 2002, the forum received statutory acceptance from the Shanghai Telecommunication Administration Bureau. This is the only BBS in the construction industry to receive such status. The 80 plus volunteer editors are from Mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Japan, Germany, USA, and Canada. Their specialties cover every field of civil and structural engineering. Among them there are 20 professors and senior engineers and 23 holding PhD degrees.