heat treat pre-engineered building column

huangyhg

heat treat pre-engineered building column
we have a building that has been hit by an excavator. the web of the building wide flange column has been buckled, and the flange displaced out of it's plane.
anyone ever use heat straightening to fix something like this? aisc claims it's more of an art than science. i'm not sure if this is the technique to try, or just cut the column and weld one a new section.
a.
check out our whitepaper library.
there are accepted methods for heat straigtening steel members, however aisc is quite right to call it an art.  the real concerns are the speed at which the member is heated, the temperature at rebending, the rate of cooling, and also you need to be very certain that no cracking had occurred.
not something i have ever tackled, however as long as this isn't a moment resisting frame member, or another "harder" working member type (or zone of a typical   
i think it is more trouble than it is worth.  i would just prop the structure, cut out the bent part, and weld in a prefabricated replacement section.  i have seen the bottom section of columns rotated 90 degrees by impact, and always just cut out and rebuilt.  may want to consider some protection if this is a high traffic area for heavy equipment.
agree with hokie66 here. temperature treatment after heating would be really difficult to be done.
also agreeing, apart from difficulties doing the job, how could you ensure that the material had the right metallic structure and necessary strength?
agree - replace the damaged section
thanks for all the help.  replacement seems to be the only real way to go.
a
pre-eng buildings don't have a lot of redundancy... in addition, the repair will likely void any warranty... you might want to talk to the building supplier.
dik
dik is right.  try to get with the original manufacturer, or at least someone who's very familiar with how mbs are designed.  replacing it correctly might be easier said than done.
i agree. i don't recall anything from the mbna manuals discussing repairs. metal building systems are a lot trickier than one would think and the moment (pun intended) you change something you are now responsibile for the building's behavior.
dave, we now know who you have your credit card with, lol.  i've typed that before too.
i'll add that mb guys will take a look at situations like this.  i heard a while back that star looks at retrofit, etc. applications from time to time.  those guys are top notch, in my experience, when it comes to really doing things "right."
i've worked on a lot of both, and it is truly amazing how much more analysis goes into these than a typical steel bldg.