Direct Design and Assessment of the Limit States of Steel Planar Frames Using CSD Advanced Analysis

This paper is entirely devoted to practical aspects of direct design and assessment of safety and serviceability of steel planar framework using advanced analysis. The development of advanced analysis has been driven by a desire for a more accurate representation of the behaviour of planar framework by considering the beam and spring numerical modelling technique together with plasticity and geometrically nonlinear effects as well as structural imperfections accounted for. The validated 2D version of CSD advanced analysis developed by the author is used in this paper for its practical application towards the resistance and serviceability assessment of existing simple construction framework. This steel braced frame was a subject of technical expertise. The same structure geometry but with different joint detailing is then considered to show how the effect of joint properties may affect the braced frame performance. Results of investigations are presented in the form of frame global response at both the ultimate limit state and the serviceability limit state, and also in the form of member local responses. Conclusions with regard to general design and assessment practice are drawn.