UBAY, JOEBERTH A.

BSCE-5B

Allowable Stress Design (ASD) also known as Working Stress Design

(WSD) method is based on the principle that stresses developed in the structural
members should not exceed a certain fraction of elastic limit. This is old method of
design which only considers elastic strength of material and all loads are taken as
service loads and no factor is applied to increase these services loads. While Load
and Resistance Factor Design (LRFD) method, is based on the principle that
strength (resistance) of various materials is scaled down by some factors while the
applied loads are scaled up by some factors, and thereby the structural elements are
designed using reduced strength and increased loads. The strength of materials
considered for design is the ultimate strength, which results in utilization of elastic,
plastic and strain hardening stages of material thereby giving economical and safe
design consistently. The factor by which strength is reduced depends on the
confidence of predictability of strength of the material.