AISC honors renowned engineer in construction manual

by Christopher Brinckerhoff | October 26, 2023 12:14 pm

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The American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC) is dedicating the latest edition of its flagship publication, Steel Construction Manual, to William A. Thornton, Ph.D., former president of Cives Engineering Corp., based in Alpharetta, Ga., and a longtime chair and member of the AISC Committee on Manuals.

“[Thornton] has served our profession, our industry, and AISC so significantly and so completely that his wisdom and work changed the way steel connections are understood and designed,” the committee wrote in its dedication. “[Thornton’s] life’s work has affected every connection design in a steel building today, and every engineer who designs a steel connection today uses knowledge and understanding that [Thornton] contributed to our profession.”

He’s best known for developing the uniform force method (UFM), which is now the preferred method to determine the forces at gusset interfaces. It’s a standardized way to obtain economical, statically admissible force distributions for vertical bracing connections.

Thornton served as president of Cives Engineering where he oversaw all structural design performed by Cives Engineering and consulted on quality assurance, connection design, and fabrication practices for the seven divisions of Cives Steel Co., based in Alpharetta.

Thornton chaired the AISC Committee on Manuals from 1985 to 2011, overseeing the first Steel Construction Manual to use load and resistance factor design (LRFD) as well as the 14th edition of the manual. AISC presented him with the T.R. Higgins Lectureship Award in 1995 and a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2003.

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