CIVE1179 Lecture 1

Introduction & Limit State Design

Dr Rick Chan
School of Civil, Envir. & Chem Engng
CIVE1179 - What you will learn in this course

•  Limit State Design - design philosophy for

modern day structures
•  Estimation of dead, imposed (live) and
wind loads
•  Design of beams, columns, steel roofs and
simple connections
•  Stability of structures
•  Design of a multistorey low-rise steel
building

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Assessment

•  Model beam testing - 20%

– Groups of 3 members
– Fabrication starts in week 4 in lab sessions
– Fabrication will take~2 hours.
– Testing will be carried out ~week 8
– Submission of a test report
•  3-storey building design project - 30%
– Same group of 3 members
– Design report due week 12
•  End of the semester examination - 50%
– Hurdle, you must get 50% from exam to pass the course
– You will get an NH grade if you fail final exam

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Learning resources

•  Course Guide on RMIT web site

– Teaching schedule
•  Prescribed text – AS4100 (the steel design code), AS1170 (the loading code)
– Download PDF from our library website, print them out.
•  OneSteel Hot rolled products catalogue (Learning Hub)
– We will only use pages of UB and UC
•  Metal roof system catalogues (Learning Hub)
•  Recommended text: The behavior and design of steel structures to AS4100,
NS Trahair and MA Bradford, Spon Press

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 Steel grades and sections

•  Different cooling rate of molten steel, chemical composition and

manufacturing process will result in different yield stress and ductility in
steel
•  Steel strength grades commonly used in structural applications in
Australia are “300PLUS”, conforming to AS/ANZ3679. They are hot rolled
sections. Chemical composition in different grades of steel is governed by
AS3679, ensures ductility permitting plastic design criteria

•  Table 2.1 of AS4100 provides yield stresses and tensile strengths of

different strength grades.
•  For 300 Plus, yield strengths of 280 - 320MPa depending on thickness
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AS4100 p21

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Examples of hot-rolled sections

I sections, UB SHS sections

I-section
SHS

Channel or RHS
H-section
H sections: C-section RHS sections
UC

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Steel section catalogue

•  available steel sections in Australia

•  List useful sectional properties e.g. moment of inertia, etc

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Steel structures
•  Structures are required to support loads / resist forces, transfer these loads
and forces to foundations
•  3D in their extent, can be reduced to 2D or 1D elements for easy analysis
•  Steel members are usually thin-walled, i.e. members are usually made up of
thin plates, such as I- and box sections
•  Steel sections are hot-rolled (most common), welded (or compound) or cold-
formed
•  Structural members are connected by pins, rivets (not used anymore), bolts
and welds

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Design of steel structures

•  Satisfy the needs for which it was created

– Design structure according to architect’s
drawing
•  Stability – ensure robustness of structure
•  Strength - will not fail in its design lifetime under
design loads (dead, imposed, wind, earthquake,
etc)
•  Serviceability of structure is not impaired by
excessive deflections, vibrations, etc
•  Economy – initial cost and maintenance
•  Ease of fabrication and construction
– (time = money in construction industry) RMIT’s Swanston
Academic Building – a
steel structure

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Fabrication off-site

Assembled on-site

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Implications to design engineers

•  Finalise design drawing months

before construction
•  Cannot change design in the last
minute
•  Very little tolerance on site
•  Some connections can be done in
workshop, others on site.
•  Design and plan connection details
very carefully to facilitate site
installation

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Real life example: A sport arena

METAL
ROOF
ABOVE

37 m
MAIN GAME ARENA

63 m
Truss layout
Transverse Section
Longitudinal Section
 Turning Up of Temporary
Half Main Truss Supporting Tower
Installation of Half Main Trusses
Construction sequence

Photo 1 Photo 2

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Loads on structures

•  Permanent loads (Dead loads): G

– Loads which remains constant (in time and space) after construction
– Self-weight of structure, finishes, and other permanent construction or
equipment
– Dead loads are usually estimated by engineers, reference can be made to
Appendix A of AS1170.1
•  Imposed loads (Live loads): Q
– Loads results from its use by occupants
– Vary both in space and time
– Loading code specifies peak loads which have 95% probability of not
being exceeded over a 50 year period
– Long / short term service loads are specified by multiplying reduction
factors
•  Wind loads: W
•  Earthquake loads: E
•  Snow: Su

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Min live loads specified in Table 3.1 of AS1170.1

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Forces of nature

Earthquake

Wind

Snow

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Limit State Design
•  Limit state - a condition that represents a boundary of structural usefulness
beyond which the structure ceases to fulfill its intended function.
•  The philosophy of limit state design is to achieve acceptable probabilities
that a structure will not become unfit for its intended use, i.e. it will not
reach a limit state during the expected life of the structure
•  Two Limit States are defined in Section 2 of AS1170.0
1.  Ultimate Limit State
i.  Stability Limit State
ii.  Strength Limit State
2.  Serviceability Limit State

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Stability Limit State Strength Limit State

Ultimate Limit State

Serviceability Limit State

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(1) Stability Limit State

– Overturning, uplift or sliding

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(2) Strength limit state

•  Safety against the extreme loads during the intended life of the structure
– Fracture of a tension member
– Buckling of a column
– Onset of yielding
– Lateral buckling of a beam
– Flexural-torsional buckling of a beam-column
– Local buckling of plates
– Frame instability
– Rupture of a connection element
– etc
•  Strength limit state is satisfied if its calculated nominal capacity, reduced by a
capacity factor φ, exceeds the sum of nominal load effects multiplied by load
factors γ.
– Factored resistance ≥ Factored load effects
– Design strength provided ≥ Required strength

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(2) Strength limit state

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(2) Strength limit state

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(3) Serviceability limit state

•  Concerned with functional requirements of the structure under normal service

conditions
•  Causes discomfort to occupants, distress to non-structural elements, reduce/
eliminate economic gain
– Deflection limitation of a beam
– Drift limitation of a column
– Rotation limitation of a connection
– Vibration of floor

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(3) Serviceability limit state

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Conclusion for today

•  Recap of steel’s mechanical properties, i.e. yield stress, Young’s modulus,

etc.
•  Dead loads, live loads and environmental loads.
– AS1170.0 – general
– AS1170.1 – dead & live loads
– AS1170.2 – wind loads
•  Limit state design philosophy
•  Ultimate limit state and serviceability limit state
•  Load combinations for ULS and SLS

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