Structural Design of Beams to BS 5950

Introduction
Beams span between supports to carry vertical or lateral loads.
The structural actions in a beam are bending, shear, bearing, and buckling.
Beams may be cantilevered, simply supported, fixed-ended, or continuous.

The main uses of beams are to support floors and columns, carry roof sheeting as purlins, and
side cladding as sheeting rails.

Sections of beams

1. The universal beam where the material is concentrated in the flanges is the most efficient
section to resist uniaxial bending.
2. The universal column may be used where the depth is limited, but it is less efficient.
3. The compound beam consisting of a universal beam and flange plates is used where the
depth is limited and the universal beam itself is not strong enough to carry the load.
4. The crane beam consists of a universal beam and channel. This is because the beam needs
to resist bending in both horizontal and vertical directions.
5. Hot rolled angle and channel section are used for lightly loaded and small spans such as
roof purlins and side sheeting rails.
Beams may be of uniform or a non-uniform section. Sections may be strengthened in regions of
the maximum moment by adding cover plates or haunches.

Non-uniform beam
Beam loads
Types of beam loads are:
• Concentrated loads from secondary beams and columns;
• Distributed loads from self-weight and floor slabs.
The loads are further classified into:
• Dead loads from self-weight, slabs, finishes, etc.
• Imposed loads from people, fittings, snow on roofs, etc.
• Wind loads, mainly on purlins and sheeting rails.
Loads on floor beams in a steel frame building are shown below.

The figure shows loads from a two-way spanning slab which gives trapezoidal and triangular
loads on the beams. One-way spanning floor slabs give uniform loads.
An actual beam with the floor slab and the members it supports is shown below.
The load diagram, shear force, and bending moment diagrams constructed from it are also
shown.

Mode of failures in the beam

1. Bending.
The vertical loading gives rise to the bending of the beam. Due to bending action, stresses
develop in the beam, compressive stress in one half, and tensile stress in another half. As the
bending moment increases, more and more steel reaches yield stress. All the steel yields either
compression or tension across the entire cross-section of the beam. At this point the beam cross
section becomes plastic and it fails by the formation of the plastic hinge at the point of maximum
bending moment induced by loading.
Bending failure of a beam.

2. Local buckling
During the bending process, the compression flange or part of the web subjected to compression
may fail by buckling if the plates are too thin.

3. Web buckling and web crippling

At the points of application of heavy concentrated loads and supports, localized compressive
stresses of high magnitude act in the web.
These localized stresses may cause the web to buckle or cripple as shown
Web crippling or web buckling.

Web buckling and web crippling may be prevented by ensuring that the factored support reaction
or the factored concentrated load is less than or equal to the web buckling strength and the web
crippling strength.

4. Lateral torsional buckling

Steel beams tend to buckle along their length. This phenomenon is known as lateral torsional
buckling. In the case of simply supported beams, this is prevented by restraining its
compression flange.

Lateral torsional buckling in a simply supported beam.

Fully Laterally restrained beam

5. Shear
Due to excessive shear force usually adjacent to supports, the beam may fail in shear. From the
figure, it is clear that the web carries shear.

shear failure in the beam.

shear buckling.
 6. Deflection:
Deflection should be checked for unfactored imposed loads. Excessive deflection will result in
cracking in finishes which will render the building unserviceable.

Design of laterally restrained beams.

❖ Initial section selection

To avoid bending failure, the design moment (M) should not exceed the moment
capacity (Mc) of the section.
M˂ Mc
Mc = py S (cl. 4.2.5.2)
Where py = design strength of the material
S = plastic modulus of section.

❖ Section classification (Table 11)

As per cl 3.5.2, the section should be classified as plastic, compact, semi-compact, or slender.

❖ Shear
According to clause 4.2.3 of BS 5950, the shear force, Fv, should not exceed the shear capacity
of the section, Pv, i.e.
Fv ≤ Pv (cl.4.2.3)
Where Pv = 0.6pyAv
in which Av is the shear area (= tD for rolled I-, H- and channel sections).
The equation above assumes that the web carries the shear force alone. Clause 4.2.3 also states
that when the buckling ratio (d/t) of the web exceeds 70ε, for rolled sections and 62 ε for welded
sections, then the web should be additionally checked for shear buckling resistance as per cl
4.4.5 of BS 5950-1, 2000
a) Low shear and moment capacity
As stated in clause 4.2.1.1 of BS 5950, at critical points the combination of maximum moment
and co-existent shear and maximum shear and co-existent moment should be checked.
If Fv ˂ 0.6Pv then, the beam is having a low shear load.
When the shear load is low, the moment capacity of the section is calculated according to clause
4.2.5.2 of BS 5950 as follows:
For class 1 plastic or class 2 compact sections, the moment capacity
Mc = pyS ≤ 1.2pyZ
where
the py design strength of the steel
S- plastic modulus of the section
Z -elastic modulus of the section
The additional check (Mc ≤ 1.2pyZ) is to guard against plastic deformations under serviceability
loads and is applicable to simply supported and cantilever beams.
For other beam types, this limit is 1.5pyZ.
For class 3 semi-compact sections
Mc = pyZ
or alternatively Mc = pySeff ≤ 1.2pyZ
where Seff is the effective plastic modulus (cl. 3.5.6 )
For class 4 slender sections
Mc = pyZeff
where Zeff is the effective elastic modulus (cl 3.6.2 )
b) High shear and moment capacity (Cl. 4.2.5.3)
If 0.6Pv < Fv < Pv, then it is a high shear load.
When the shear load is high, i.e. Fv > 0.6Pv, the moment-carrying capacity of the
section is reduced. This is because the web cannot take the full tensile or compressive stress
associated with the bending moment as well as a sustained substantial shear
stress due to the shear force.
Thus, according to clause 4.2.5.3 of BS 5950, the moment capacity of UB and UC sections, Mc,
should be calculated as follows:
For class 1 plastic and class 2 compact sections
Mc = py(S − ρSv)
For class 3 semi-compact sections
Mc = py(S − ρSv/1.5) or alternatively
Mc = py(Seff − ρSv)
For class 4 slender sections
Mc = py(Zeff − ρSv/1.5)
where ρ = [2(Fv /Pv) − 1]2 and Sv for sections with equal flanges, is the plastic modulus of the
shear area of the section equal to tD2/4.
Note the effect of the ρ factor is to reduce the moment-carrying capacity of the web as the shear
load rises from 50 to 100% of the web’s shear capacity. But, the reduction in moment capacity is
negligible when Fv < 0.6Pv.

❖ Deflection check
A deflection check should be made for unfactored imposed loads. (Refer to Section 2.5.1 of BS
5950-1: 2000). The following table gives the maximum deflection limits for various support
conditions of the beam (based on Table 8, BS 5950).

Deflections for some common load cases for simply supported beams and cantilever beams are
given below.
Design procedure for laterally restrained beam
1. Select section and steel grade
2. Determine the design strength py Table 9
3. Check the compression flange is laterally restrained Cl. 4.2.2
4. Determine the section classification Table 11
5. For Class 1 and Class 2 sections use the gross section properties
6. For Class 3 semi-compact sections calculate the effective plastic modulus Cl. 3.6
7. For Class 4 slender sections calculate the effective elastic modulus Cl. 3.6
8. Calculate the shear capacity and determine whether the section is subject to low shear or high
shear Cl. 4.2
9. Calculate the moment capacity for low shear or high shear as appropriate and verify adequacy
Cl. 4.2.5
10. If appropriate check web bearing and buckling Cl. 4.5
11. Calculate the deflections and check against the appropriate limit. Cl. 2.5.2.