Some Expected Viva Question for Design of Steel and Timber Structures (From internal

subject teacher)
Chapter 1-2 (Theory and Connection)

1. Limit State Method and Working Stress Method.

2. Drawbacks of working Stress Method.
3. Partial factor of Safety for material and partial factor of safety for load.
4. Advantages of steel structures over reinforced concrete structure.

5. Differences between shop welding and field welding.

Possible Explanation:

- Shop welding refers to all the steel connection works done in workshop/ industry/ ware-house
(controlled environment)
- Field welding refers to all steel welding connection done in filed where structure to be installed

6. Why edge/end distance important during bolted connection design?

Possible explanation:

- To prevent tearing of plate/ connected member from edge of connection

- Prevent from wearing and tearing and tension failure mechanism

7. What information do you obtain from M20 bolt of property class 4.6?

Possible explanation:

- Diameter of bolt = 20 mm
- Ultimate Strength of Bolt (fu) = 4*100 = 400 N/mm2
- Yield Strength of Bolt (fy) = 0.6*400 = 240 N/mm2

8. What would you suppose to do in case your design bolted connection is unsafe?

Possible explanation:

- Solution 1 = increase number of bolt

- Solution 2 = increase diameter of bolt
- Solution 3 = increases property class (p.c) of bolt (let’s say convert p.c 4.6 to p.c 5.6)

9. Lap joint connection and butt joint connection.

Possible Explanation:

- Lap joint = two members to be connected are overlapped and connected each other
- Butt joint = two members to be connected are placed end to end.

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10. What do you mean by service load and design load?

Possible explanation:

- Service load = maximum load that may structure encounter during service life of structure
- Design load = Partial Factor of Safety for load (γL) * service load

11. How would you determine design capacity of bolt?

Possible Explanation:

- Minimum of [ Shear Capacity of bolt (Vdsb) and Bearing capacity of bolt (Vdpb) ]

12. What is different between pitch distance and gauge distance?

Possible Explanation:

- Pitch = center to center distance betn bolts along direction of loading

- Gauge = center to center distance betn bolts along perpendicular direction of loading

13. Explain about gross and net area of bolt?

Possible Explanation:

- Gross area = generally area of shank = 𝝅*d2/4

- Net area = generally area of thread = 0.78*Area gross

14. What types of sections are selected for design of tension members, compression members and
flexural members?

Possible Explanation:

- Tension Members = Angle Sections, T sections

- Compression Members = I-section, Built-up Section (Built-up section with C-section, Built-up
section with Angle Sections)
- Flexural/ Bending Members = I-sections and Built-up beams

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Chapter 3 (Tension Members)

15. Why lug angles are provided?

Possible Explanation:

- If load is heavy, no. of bolt/ length of weld required are large, the gusset plate required is more
hence uneconomical
- Additional tension member (use of lug angle) reduces length of joint

16. What do you mean by outstanding leg and connected leg during design of tension member?

Possible Explanation:

- When single angle section designed as tension member leg connected to gusset plate or any
member is connected leg and leg unconnected to any plate or member is outstanding leg

17. What is shear lag effect?

Possible explanation:

- When single angle section is connected to gusset plate or any other members then non-uniform
stress distribution that occurs in a tension member adjacent to a connected leg
- Shear is higher in connected leg, shear is minimum along outstanding leg

18. Why long legs of unequal legs are connected to gusset plates?

Possible Explanation:

- Area of steel in outstanding leg should be small as possible since shear lag reduces due to
effective area reduces
- Lesser area of outstanding leg means lesser shear lag effect

19. When will block shear failure occurs?

Possible Explanation:

- Block Shear failure occurs in case of bolted connection in tension member

- When high strength bolts are used with in small length there is higher possibility of block shear
failure

Chapter 4 (Compression Members)

20. Compression members are more critical than tension members, why?

Possible Explanations:

- Generally, compression has to resist buckling, also design of compression governs by load acting
on columns and eccentricity
- In case certain imperfection like punched holes, excessive bolting and welding results residual
stress and design of compression becomes more critical

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21. Why built up sections are preferred than I section while designing columns?

Possible Explanation:

- I section has different MOI about major and minor axis (i.e Ixx>> Iyy), resulting moment resisting
capacity is higher in major (X direction) than minor (Y Direction)
- Built-up section results Iyy>= Ixx
- Also radius of gyration ryy>= rxx, result equal slenderness ration and same buckling phenomena

22. What is the criteria of design of built up section in column?

Possible Explanation:

- Iyy >= Ixx

- ryy >= rxx
23. Effective length of compression members.

Possible Explanation:

- Distance between two point of contra-flexure

24. Differentia between lacing system with batten system.

Possible Explanation:

- Lacing System = lacing plates are provided in diagonal pattern to connect two individual sections
to form built-up section. Less force is to be carried by lacing system and main purpose of lacing
to prevent buckling of column and transfer load through truss action.
- Batten System = Batten plates are provided in horizontal pattern to connect two individual
section. Main purpose of batten is to transfer load in accordance to frame structure behavior

25. Explain about end batten and intermediate batten.

Possible Explanation:

- End Batten = battens provided at end of column/ near to support

- Intermediate Batten = all the battens provided between end battens are intermediate batten

26. Explain about single lacing system and double lacing system.

Possible Explanation:

- Single lacing System = one individual lacing is provided in built-up section forming spiral
formation
- Double lacing System = two individual lacings are provided in built-up section forming crisscross
pattern formation

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Chapter 5 (Column Base)

27. What is column bases?

Possible Explanation:

- In general, steel columns or steel post are supported on concrete foundation or concrete blocks
- When load to be transferred from column is large, bearing pressure of concrete below the
column may be insufficient to resist the load and may fail.
- So, to distribute the load from column to concrete steel plates are providing for load transfer
safely. Such steel plates are column base plates.

28. What stresses are generated on column base plate while load transfer from steel column to
concrete block?

Possible Explanation:

- Direct Stress = Due to compressive load (Pu)

- Bending Stress = Due to eccentricity (Mu= Pu*e)

Chapter 6 (Flexural Members)

29. In which cases built up beams are designed?

Possible Explanation:

- When depth of beam is restricted/ limited

- Designed section (incase depth of section is higher) is not easily available on market
- In case, length of beam is higher result maximum bending moment, so available steel section
may not satisfied sufficient moment resistance. Hence built up beams are provided

30. What are the classifications of types of section while designing flexural members?

Possible Explanations:

- Class 1: Plastic Sections

- Class 2: Compact Sections
- Class 3: Semi-compact Sections
- Class 4: Slender Sections

31. Why plastic sections are preferred for flexural design in Limit State Method?

Possible Explanation:

- Selection of plastic section for design of flexural member allows formation of plastic hinges
according to plastic analysis theory
- Hence beam fails only after formation of plastic hinges

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32. What are the criteria must be satisfied while designing flexural beams?

Possible Explanations:

- Check for shear

- Check for web buckling
- Check for web crippling
- Check for deflection

33. What do you understand by web bucking in beams?

Possible Explanations:

- Sudden lateral deflection under compressive load is bucking

- In case of beam, increase in depth of beam results lateral deflection/ buckling of web due to
transverse loading.

34. What is web crippling phenomena?

Possible Explanation:

- Generally, it is also type of buckling, but occurs when load is concentrated more at a particular
in the member
- It usually occurs near to support
- For I-section web crippling occurs at joint section between flange and web

35. How would you check safety of beam on deflection?

Possible Explanation:

- Maximum deflection in beam ≤ Permissible deflection

- Δmax = Δpermissible
- Example:
5𝑤𝑙 4 𝑆𝑝𝑎𝑛
Δ𝑚𝑎𝑥 (384𝐸𝐼) ≤ Δ𝑝𝑒𝑟 ( 340 )

36. How would you identify low shear and high shear case in flexure/ beam member?

Possible Explanation:

- Low Shear =Factored Design SF (Vu) is 60% less than design shear strength (Vu ≤ 0.6Vd)
- High Shear = Factored Design SF (Vu) is 60% more than design shear strength (Vu > 0.6Vd)

37. What is parallel to grain and perpendicular to grain in timber structures?