Strut Channel and Aerials

By Steven Santos
www.facebook.com/groups/Rigging.Announce
www.facebook.com/groups/circusandaerialsafety/
www.lulu.com/spotlight/SimplyCircus/

Today’s topic is Unistrut and Aerials. This topic comes up today because of a case I turned down.

Here are the brutal facts:

1. An aerialists circus career was ended abruptly

2. The Unistrut her rigging was attached to dented in the slot face and the Unistrut nut that was
supporting her pulled free.
3. Her setup used two strut nuts for backup.
4. The second nut dud nothing to stop the failure of the slot face.
5. No one in this situation had any idea why this was wrong – they saw it done at another place for
years.
6. Her “rigger” (and I use the term loosely) was really her electrician and rock climbing husband.
7. She will never walk again. She will never have children. Her life will never be the same again.

I may not be able to help this young woman, but it is my hope that the next person learns from this, and
maybe we save a life or two.

Lets talk about the realities of channel strut.

Channel strut (such as Unistrut) is an indispensable material in the construction and yes, even in the world
of rigging. Its strong, its properties are well known and well understood, its widely available and you have
a ton of parts and accessories readily available for it. It’s a good product with many applications.

But like with everything else, its not a solution for everything. You have to know how it can and CAN NOT
be used.

Properties
In this section I am going to give some very general numbers on channel strut. These numbers are not
specific to any specific manufacturer, and the reader is warned to check with your manufacturer for the
numbers specific to the channel you are using.

That said, lets talk about the most common strut on the market, what I have seen far too many aerialists
hung from, good old P1000 or equivalent. This channel strut (as are most channel strut) is made from 12
gage steel (that’s only 7/64 inch thick, really not a lot of steel compared to, say, a carabiner) that has been
bent into the final shape.

A properly installed strut nut will pull out of a new section of strut channel at about 4,000lb of force. That
may seem like a lot, but that assumes your channel is supported within a few inches on either side of the
strut nut, that it pulls straight and evenly on the slot face - basically test bed conditions – something we
will never see in aerial loading. The best we can hope for is strut that is supported 18” on center, though
I note that I have never even seen that in the wild, its usually closer to 36” on center.

So what are the load ratings when we get past test-bed conditions? Span UDL Point Load
12” 3480lb 1740lb
First, lets understand that channel strut is rated for a uniformly 18” 2320lb 1160lb
distributed load. No manufacturer rates channel strut for point loads, so 24” 1740lb 870lb
applying a point load is an off-label use to start with. The basic 36” 1160lb 570lb
calculation for determining a point load from a uniformly distributed load
is Point Load = 0.5*UDL. The table to the right shows the span with the common UDL and a calculated
point load. However, keep in mind that further strength reductions are specified by the various
manufacturers. The following reductions are based in Unistrut brand strut channel. Other manufacturers
will be similar.

For pierced channel, multiply beam loads by the following factor:

"KO" Series .......95%

"T" Series ..........85%
"HS" Series .......90%
"SL" Series ........85%
"H3" Series ........90%
"DS" Series ........70%

Say we have a 3’ span of P1000sl and want to see what the load capacity is for a point load. Per the charts,
P1000 is good for a maximum allowable uniform load (not load per foot) of 1160lbs. We have the following
load reductions:- X .85 for the sl- X .5 for a point load in the center- X .78 load reduction per page 62 in
the Unistrut General Engineering Catalog (Edition 17A) Therefore 1160lbs x .85 x .5 x .78 = 385 lbs.

Now do you really want to be hanging off of something that is only rated to hold a 385lb static load? I
know I don’t.

Concentric Loading
If you have ever heard me talk about rigging to OWSJ, you have heard me talk about concentric vs
eccentric loading. Strut channel can ONLY be loaded concentrically. Both folds of the channel’s slot face
need to be loaded equally to achieve its full strength. Very rarely will this be the case in aerial rigging.
This is another strong argument against using this for aerial rigging.

Off Axis Loading

Channel strut is not designed for off-axis loading, as this will load the slot face unevenly (putting the whole
load on only one side). Effectively, this means you get a 5 degree cone you can apply force. That’s less
than a single step from center of most studios

Dented Faces
The application of dynamic forces to strut channel is known to cause denting of the slot face. Indeed, in
the case I turned down, a dented slot face is what led to the catastrophic failure the strut channel.
Aerialists and aerial riggers need to know and understand that once the slot face of a strut channel is
dented, the strength of the strut channel is seriously impacted. Once a strut channels slot face is dented,
the entire span between supports should be considered to be compromised and should not be used.

Using Strut Channel as an interface for a crane bar

A large number of people have used strut channel as an
interface to hanging a crane bar. This method of application
has a lot of advantages over the more common (and
problematic) eyebolt to a strut nut configuration we more
commonly see. In this scenario, a crane bar is suspended
between two or more section of strut channel using U brackets
(pictured right). Each of these U brackets are secured to the
strut channel with 2 strut nuts. While this is a far better
scenario for a great many reasons (primarily because it tends
to keep the slot face more evenly loaded), you still have the
issues of dynamic forces denting the slot face.

Conclusions
While strut channel is a great product, it should not generally be used for hanging aerials. While their may
be specific use cases for doing so, this should not be done without the involvement of an engineer, who
will need to make accurate calculations of load, deflection, and rotation of the strut channel for long term
use.

In other words, this isn’t a quick or easy solution to most aerial rigging problems, and it should never be
installed without an engineer doing the math and rechecking it regularly.