Lecture 1

CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION

AIMS OF STRUCTURAL DESIGN

FUNCTION
to satisfy the clients needs. Must fulfill its intended function. It should be
adequate, e.g. in relation to: water tightness, fire resistance, thermal
insulation, sound insulation, deflection and vibration.

SAFETY
The structure must sustain, with adequate margins of safety, all the loads and
deformation. The possibility of collapse must be avoided.

ECONOMICAL
The structure must be fabricated and constructed economically within the
constrains of FUNCTION and SAFETY. It is also economical to maintain.

AESTHETICS
When visible the structures should be of pleasing appearance and minimise
their intrusive effect.

These aims can be achieved by proper materials selection; adopting

recognised good practise in design & detailing techniques etc.

UNCERTAINTY IN STRUCTURAL DESIGN

Action (loading)
Strength of materials
Structural behaviour
A designer cannot guarantee that a structure
will be absolutely safe, but only that the risk
of failure will be extremely small. This is
achieved by introducing safety factors into the
design calculations.

STRUCTURAL RESPONSE
Structural members are subject to several
actions:
Tension
Compression
Moment
Shear
Torsion

These forces can act alone or in combination.

APPLICATIONS

Factory
Stadium
Building
Transmission tower
Warehouse
Power Plant
Discount store
Etc.

BROAD CATEGORIES OF STEEL

BUILDING CONSTRUCTION
TYPE

MAIN USE

MAIN CONSIDERATION

Bearing wall

Low rise, lightly loaded

Design of steelwork
normally straightforward

Steel frame

Wide variety of types and

size of building

Simple construction or
continuous construction,
depending on types of
joints used.

Long span

Coverage of large columnfree areas

Special form of beam may

be required

High rise

Tall buildings i.e. more than

20 storeys

Wind load

FLOWCHART FOR STEEL

CONSTRUCTION
Owner/Developer

Architect

Engineer

Main Contractor

Sub-Contractor
(others)

Sub-Contractor
(fabricator)

Stockist

Manufacturer

Quantity Surveyor

STRUCTURAL IDEALISATION
A suitable structural system must be selected before carrying out
analysis and design.
Factors might influence the choice:
The span involve requirement for long spans or large clear floor
areas.
The vertical loading presence of heavy load or need cranes?
The horizontal loading how to resist horizontal (wind) loading? Rigid
joint? Bracing? Shear wall?

The services required water, gas, electricity, necessary pipework

and ducting.
The ground condition types of foundation i.e. pad, raft, piled etc.
Others temperature effect, appearance etc.

ADVANTAGES
Advantages:
High strength/weight ratio. Thus self-weight is relatively low.
Permits heavy loads and large clear spans. Suitable for high rise,
long span bridges and structures on the soft soil.
Good ductility steel experiences large plastic deformation before
failure occurs, thus provide enough warning to fix or evacuate the
structures.
Isotropic behaviour.
Ease and speed of erection relative economy.
Quick to repair.
Repetitive use.
Relative ease of fabrication.
Modifications at a later date.
Good dimensional control.

USE OF STRUCTURAL STEEL

Definition of structural steel
Refers to steel elements of a structural frame
supporting the design loads.
Structural steelwork can be either:
A single member or
An assembly of a number of steel sections connected
together to perform a specified function.

STRUCTURAL STEEL ELEMENTS

Beam & plate girder, horizontal bracing

STRUCTURAL STEEL ELEMENTS

Column, strut & connection

STRUCTURAL STEEL ELEMENTS

Trusses, purlin, sheeting rails

STRUCTURAL STEEL ELEMENTS

Bracing & ties

STEEL PRODUCTION
Can be divided into three stages:
a) Iron production a chemical process of four raw materials
i.e. iron ore, blast furnace, coke and limestone. The final
product is cast iron with high content of carbon, sulphur,
phosphorus.
b) Steel production process to reduce carbon, sulphur and
phosphorus in cast iron. If required, chromium, nickel and
manganese are added to produce corrosion resistance
material.
c) Rolling process steel billets are rolled to produce
required steel sections.
Steel usually contains 98% iron + other chemicals.

FIVE CATEGORIES OF STEEL

a)
b)
c)
d)
e)

Carbon steel
Alloy steel
High-strength low alloy steel
Stainless steel
Tool steel

TYPICAL HOT ROLLED STEEL SECTIONS

UNIVERSAL BEAM

UNIVERSAL COLUMN

ANGLE

CHANNEL

HOLLOW

GEOMETRICAL AXES

TYPICAL HOT ROLLED CROSS-SECTIONS

1. Open sections
a) Universal beams UKB

primary function is to carry loads transverse to its

longitudinal axis.
Structural member subject to bending and shear.
Usually horizontal and supports floors in buildings.

b) Universal columns UKC

Primary function is to carry loads in compression along its

longitudinal axis.
Generally vertical and support beams.

TYPICAL HOT ROLLED CROSS-SECTIONS

c) Angles equal or unequal used for purlins,
truss members and bracing.
d) Tees produced by cutting UKB or UKC into two
parts. Normally used truss members, ties and
light beam sections.

TYPICAL HOT ROLLED CROSS-SECTIONS

2. Hollow sections - circular, square, rectangle.
Produced from flat steel profile. Very efficient
in compression. Widely used for lattice
girders, building frames, purlins, sheeting
rails.

TYPICAL STRESS-STRAIN CURVE FOR

MILD STEEL

LINKS BETWEEN THE EUROCODES

EN 1992
EN 1995

EN 1997

EN 1990

Structural safety,
serviceability and durability,
combination of actions.

EN 1991

Actions on structures

EN 1993
EN 1996

EN 1994
EN 1999

EN 1998

Design and detailing

Geotechnical and seismic

design

TERMINOLOGIES USED IN EC3

The main differences in terminologies are:
Actions

Loads, imposed displacements, thermal strains

Effects

Internal bending moments, axial forces etc.

Resistance

Capacity of a structural element to resist bending moment, axial

force, shears etc.

Verification

Check

Execution

Construction, fabrication, erection etc.

EUROCODE SYMBOLS
The Eurocode system uses the ISO convention for symbols and sub-scripts.
Where multiple sub-scripts occur, a comma is used to separate them. Four
main sub-scripts and their definitions are given below:
Eurocode subscript

Definition

Ed

Design value of an effect

Rd

Design resistance

el

Elastic property

pl

Plastic property

Med

Design bending moment

MRd

Design resistance for bending

Wel

Elastic section modulus

Wpl

Plastic section modulus

EN 1990 states that a structure shall have

adequate:
Structural resistance
Serviceability
Durability
Fire resistance
robustness

LIMIT STATE DESIGN

The principles of limit state design are set out
briefly and the relevant design situations are
classified as:
Persistent

Condition of normal use

Transient

Temporary conditions e.g. during repair

Accidental

Exceptional conditions applicable to the structure or

to its exposure e.g. fire, explosion or impact

Seismic

Condition is applicable to the structure under

seismic events

EN 1990: EUROCODE BASIS OF

STRUCTURAL DESIGN
EQU

Loss of static equilibrium of the structure or any part of it considered as

a rigid body, in which:
-minor variations in the value or the spatial distribution of actions from
a single source are significant.

STR

Internal failure of the structure or structural elements, including

footings, piles, basement walls, etc., in which the strength of
construction materials or excessive deformation of the structure
governs.

GEO

Failure or excessive deformation of the ground in which the strength of

soil or rock are significant in providing resistance.

FAT

Fatigue failure of the structure or structural elements.

TYPES OF ACTIONS
Permanent actions
Variable actions
Accidental actions

- G, g
- Q, q
-A

Main categories are permanent, variable, accidental

and wind.
Other actions include settlements, fatigue,
temperature effect, dynamic loading and impact effect.
In most circumstances considering combination of
actions is the most appropriate.

BASIS OF STRUCTURAL DESIGN

Limit State Design
Design for limit state shall be based on the use of structural
and load models for relevant limit state.
It shall be verified that no limit state is exceeded when
relevant design values for actions, material properties, or
product properties, and geometrical data are used in these
models.
The verifications shall be carried out for all relevant design
situations and load cases.
The requirements of clause 3.5(1) should be achieved by
the partial factor method described in Section 6.
As an alternative, a design directly based on probalistic
methods may be used.

LOAD COMBINATION
Fundamental combinations of actions may be
determined from EN1990 using either:
Equation 6.10
Less favourable of equation 6.10a and 6.10b.

VARIABLE ACTIONS Q

In equation 6.10, the full value of the leading

variable action is applied , 1Q , 1.5 (i.e. 1.5 x
characteristic imposed load).
The leading variable action is the one that leads
to the most unfavourable effect (i.e. the critical
combination).
To generate the various load combinations, each
variable action should be considered in turn as
the leading one, (and consideration should be
given to whether loading is favourable or
unfavourable).
Q

FAVOURABLE AND UNFAVOURABLE

LOADING
Loads may be considered as unfavourable or
favourable in any given combination, depending
on whether they increase or reduce the effects
(bending moments, axial forces, etc.) in the
structural members.

For unfavourable dead load: = 1.35

For favourable dead load: = 1.00
For unfavourable variable load: = 1.5
For favourable variable load: = 0
G