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001395
2017-01-23

Plastic Design of Cross-Sections According to EN 1993-1-1

RF-/STEEL EC3 allows you to perform plastic design checks of cross‑sections according to EN 1993‑1‑1, Sec. 6.2. You should pay attention to the interaction of loading due to the bending and axial force for I‑sections, which is regulated in Sec. 6.2.9.1.

In general, Eq. 6.31 provides the following design criterion for cross‑sections of Class 1 to Class 2:
MEd < MN,Rd

The calculation of MN,Rd is specified in Sec. 6.2.9.1 (Eq. 6.32 trough Eq. 6.40) for the following cross‑sections:

  • Solid sections (rectangular)
  • I- and H-sections (doubly symmetrical)
  • Hollow sections (circular and rectangular)

For doubly symmetrical I- and H-sections subjected to bending about the major axis, Eq. 6.36 applies:

Thus, two initial values are included in the calculation:

The standard sets a limit for α at 0.5, and the lowest value of rolled cross‑sections is about 0.2. A graphical evaluation of the interaction according to EN 1993‑1‑1 [1] and DIN 18800 shows almost the same results for the small α.

The efficiency of the plastic design of cross-sections depends mainly on the cross-section parameter α. The evaluation of the current cross-section series gives the following distribution.

This situation can be explained on a simple example. as you can see, a significantly higher load (pure cross-section design without stability analysis) can be reached when using the cross-section IPE 200 according to EN 1993‑1‑1 than according to DIN 18800.

References

[1]  EN 1993-1-1. (2012). Eurocode 3: Design of Steel Structures – Part 1-1: General Rules and Rules for Buildings, EN 1993-1-1:2010-12.
[2]  Dlubal Software. (2016). Manual RF-/STEEL EC3. Tiefenbach, February 2016. Download
[3]  Dlubal Software. (2016). Training Manual EC3. Leipzig, May 2016.

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