Steel Design

Hang Vu h.vu@ecu.edu.au
Week 1 Week 3 Revision for Test 1 preparation
Test 1 information:
Test weight: 20%
Content: Topics covered Week 1 - Week 5
What are permitted: ECU approved calculator. AS4100-1998. OneSteel 300Plus Hot rolled and
structural steel products.
Attention:AS4100-1998 must be clean or with acceptable amount of note on it to be accepted for the
test/exam. Abuse of this is treated as plagiarism.
Week 1 Revision
1. Week 1 lecture note slides 28-46,
-

To find E and fy from a given engineering stress-strain curve:

o

For hot-rolled steel, refer to slide 18th

For cold-formed steel, refer to slide 20th

Plot engineering stress-strain curve for hot-rolled steel. Label, understand and able to explain
the terms on the graph:
o

The curve and term labelling are shown in slide 34th. Explanations are from slide 35th
onwards

Week 2 Revision
2. Define fy and fufor a nominal cross section
Tabulated tables were extracted and shown in below. Refer to the Excel spreadsheet for a better
view and to observe the data and formulae inputs.

3. Design flexural member for bending strength using compact section

Construct bending moment diagram and shear force diagram for a determinate
beam will not be assessed in this unit. Though you should ensure you know how to
construct bending moment diagram and shear force diagram for a determinate beam. This
is important skill a person must own if want to work as a structural engineer later.
- UDL load, simply supported beam: Mmax = wL2/8
- Point load a mid span, simply supported beam: Mmax = PL/4
- Point loads at and of beam length, simply supported beam: Mmax = PL/4
- Point load at of beam length, simply supported beam: Mmax = 3PL/16
wherew is uniform distributed load, P is point load, L is span length
4.

Given load value and beam length: w = 10kN/m; P = 10kN; L = 10 m.

Solution procedure: For the beam to withstand the load safely, we must have:
M * M s

M * f y Z e

Ze

M*
f y

minimum value Z e _ min

M*
f y

is the capacity reduction factor, f y is the whole section yield stress and Ze is the
effective elastic modulus of the unknown compact UB section. (Hint: start with
MPa, i.e. thinnest section as possible to save material). From found

Z e _ min

fy

= 320

value, look at

Table 14, column Zex; nominate the desirable section. If it is not C section, then in the
table move upwards to nominate the next C section.
I compute for the UDL beam as illustration. M* = Mmax = wL2/8 =10*102/8 = 125kNm
For M* = 125 kNmand 1
Z e _ min

125 10 6
390.625 103 mm3
1 320

3
3
Nominate 250 UB 31.4, which has Z ex 395 10 mm . But this is a N section, hence
use 250 UB 37.3

For M* = 125 kNm and 0.9

Z e _ min

125 10 6
434.028 10 3 mm3
0.9 320

3
3
Nominate 250 UB 37.3, which has Z ex 486 10 mm . This is a C section, hence use
250 UB 37.3

Week 3 Revision

Reduced bending strength capacity due to local buckling

5. All sections are OneSteel 300Plus hot rolled sections. Hence,
-

Use OneSteel 300Plus Hot rolled , Table 33 to extract plate element fy

Refer to category HR when looking at AS4100-1998, Table 5.2

For each case, define element slenderness and section slenderness

Case 1: Load acting on the top flange and pointing downwards

Case 2: Load acting on the top flange and pointing downwards. Section is non-symmetric.

Case 3: Load acting on the bottom flange and pointing upwards. Section geometry is the

same as in Case 1.

6. For bending members described in Case 1 and Case 3 in Question 5,

a. Compute value of Zex
b. Compute the maximum member capacity for bending strength when the capacity reduction
factor 0.9

Solution:
This is the same cross section as that for last example in Week 3 lectures. Hence values of
6
6
S and Z are 3.789 10 mm3 and 2.988 10 mm3

 S
3.789 10 6
1
.
5
Z

Z c min

sy s

Zc Z
Ze Z
sy sp

45 32.08
6
6
3
2.988 10 6
3.789 10 2.988 10 3677928mm
45 30

6
M s 0.9 Z e f y 0.9 3.678 10 300 993.04 10 6 Nmm

M s 993.04 kNm Beam member capacity for bending

Case 1: Non

compact section. AS4100-1998, Clause 5.2.4

Case 3: Slender section. AS4100-1998, Clause 5.2.5

Observe that section slenderness is defined by bottom flange, mid plate and
Hence:

Ze Z

sy
45
2.988 10 6
2319076 mm 3
s
57.98

M s 0.9 Z e f y 0.9 2.319 10 6 300 626.15 10 6 Nmm

626.15 kNm Beam member capacity for bending

s sy