Latest Trends and Technological Innovations in Steel Structure Design in Hohhot

2025-04-19 08:46:19

Driven by the national ‘dual-carbon’ strategy and new urbanisation construction, steel structure design in Hohhot (hereinafter referred to as ‘Hohhot’) is witnessing a double breakthrough in technological upgrading and conceptual innovation. As the core carrier of the transformation and upgrading of the construction industry in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Hohhot steel structure design enterprises have formed a unique technical system in the field of industrial plants, public buildings and assembled houses through the integration of digital tools, green construction concepts and advanced technology.

Green Integrated Design Leads Low-Carbon Transformation

Hohhot steel structure design takes the lead in incorporating full life cycle carbon footprint analysis into design standards. For example, the ‘climate-responsive steel structure optimisation algorithm’ developed by a design institute in Inner Mongolia, through the simulation of grassland climate characteristics, parametric adjustments to the building form and node structure, a logistics centre project reduces the amount of steel by 15% compared with the traditional design, and reduces the overall carbon emissions of the building by 22%. Another breakthrough in steel structure design in Hohhot lies in the application of recycled materials - some enterprises have reconstructed the composition of retired wind turbine tower steel to develop shaped cross-section members with 30% higher wind pressure resistance, which have been successfully applied in the project of science and technology creation base of Heringer New District to achieve a win-win situation of resource recycling and structural innovation.

BIM collaborative design reshapes workflow

Hohhot steel structure design enterprises comprehensively implemented BIM forward design mode. In Jinshan Hi-tech Zone Intelligent Manufacturing Industrial Park project, the design team used BIM+GIS technology to establish a 3D geological model, accurately simulate the impact of permafrost layer on foundation settlement, optimize the piling arrangement scheme, and save about 8 million RMB in project cost. More cutting-edge is that a design organisation in Hohhot has developed a ‘steel structure intelligent checking system’, which automatically detects stress concentration areas in the model through machine learning algorithms, increasing the efficiency of design review by 4 times, and controlling the error rate to below 0.3‰. This digital collaboration mode shortens the average steel structure design cycle in Hohhot by 30%, and the rate of drawing change drops by 65%.

Assembly structure system innovation breakthrough

Hohhot steel structure design has made significant progress in the field of modular construction. In response to the demand for living in grassland and pastoral areas, the enterprise has developed ‘expandable box-type steel structure housing system’, which adopts plug-in nodes and folding wall technology to achieve rapid assembly in 48 hours, and its seismic performance has reached 8-degree defence standard. In the field of large-scale public construction, the Hohhot Stadium renovation project is the first ‘space grid + tensile beam’ composite structure, which controls the steel consumption at 98kg/㎡ through topology optimisation algorithm, reducing 25% compared with similar venues, and at the same time, creates a column-free space with a span of 156m. These innovations make the steel structure design of Hohhot set the industry benchmark in assembly rate and cost control.

Intelligent design empowers fine management

Hohhot steel structure design is accelerating towards the intelligent stage. The ‘digital twin operation and maintenance platform’ developed by a design institute collects stress and deformation data in real time through embedded sensors, providing dynamic safety assessment for the dome structure of Hohhot East Station. On the manufacturing side, the enterprise applies laser scanning reverse modelling technology to improve the processing accuracy of components to ±1.5mm, and the weld qualification rate reaches 99.97%. What's more forward-looking is that some enterprises explore autonomous optimisation algorithms for steel structure, for example, in a data centre project, the AI system automatically generates a truss scheme that is 18% lighter than the manual design through 300,000 iterations of calculation.

Industry-University-Research Cooperation Drives Standard Upgrade

Hohhot Steel Structure Design Institute and universities jointly built the ‘Cold Zone Steel Structure Engineering Technology Centre’ and developed special weather-resistant steel connection technology for -30℃ low-temperature environment, which reduced the loss rate of preloading force of high-strength bolts from 12% to 3%. The enterprise-led preparation of the ‘Grassland Ecological Zone Steel Structure Technical Regulations’, for the first time, the wind and sand erosion protection, temperature difference deformation compensation and other regional elements into the design standards. 2023 inauguration of the Inner Mongolia Steel Structure Inspection and Certification Centre, through the X-ray diffraction, fatigue test and other 20 cutting-edge testing methods, for the Hohhot City, the quality of the design of steel structure to provide an authoritative endorsement.

Driven by industrial policy and market demand, steel structure design in Hohhot has developed from a single structural calculation to ‘greening, digitalisation and productisation’. Through continuous technology iteration and mode innovation, Hohhot has not only cultivated several national steel structure demonstration projects, but also formed differentiated competitiveness in the fields of cold region construction and assembly technology. In the future, with the deep integration of intelligent construction and new material technology, steel structure design in Hohhot is expected to play a more important leading role in the process of new building industrialisation.