BRACING DESIGN

Ref: Unified Design of Steel Structures by L.F. Geschwindner 1

 Bracing Design
BRACING DESIGN

• Braces in steel structures are used to reduce the effective length

of columns, reduce the un-braced length of beams, and provide
overall stability.
• Discussion on columns showed how braces could be effective in
reducing effective length and thereby increasing column strength.
• Discussion on beam design demonstrated how the un-braced
length of a beam influenced its strength.
• While designing beam-column, the influence of sway on the
stability of a structure was discussed.

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 Bracing Design

Types of Braces
• Nodal Braces
• Relative Braces
• Nodal Braces control the
movement of a point on the
member without interaction
with any adjacent braced
points. These braces would
be attached to the member
and then to a fixed support,
such as the abutment as
shown in Figure 1. Figure 1

• Relative Braces rely on other brace points of the structure to

provide support. A diagonal brace within a frame would be a
relative brace as shown in Figure 1. In this case, the diagonal
brace and the horizontal strut together compose the relative
brace. 3
 Bracing Design
BRACING DESIGN

• The brace requirements of the specification are intended to

enable the members being designed to reach their
maximum strength based on the length between the bracing
points and an effective length factor, K=1.0.

• A brace has two requirements: Strength and stiffness.

• A brace that is inadequate in either of these respects is not

sufficient to enable the member it is bracing to perform as it
was designed.

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 Bracing Design
BRACING DESIGN
COLUMN BRACING
• For a Column Relative Brace, the required brace strength is

𝑃𝑏𝑟 = 0.004𝑃𝑟

• The required brace stiffness is

Where, Lb = distance between brace

Pr = required strength for ASD or LRFD

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 Bracing Design
BRACING DESIGN
COLUMN BRACING
• For a Column Nodal Brace, the required brace strength is

• The required brace stiffness is

Where, Lb = distance between brace

Pr = required strength for ASD or LRFD

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 Bracing Design
BRACING DESIGN
BEAM BRACING
• For a Beam Relative Brace, the required brace strength is

• The required brace stiffness is

Where, ho = distance between flange centroids

Cd = 1.0 for single curvature and 2.0 for double curvature
Lb = Laterally un-braced length
Mr = Required flexural strength
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 Bracing Design
BRACING DESIGN
BEAM BRACING
• For a Beam Nodal Brace, the required brace strength is

• The required brace stiffness is

Where, ho = distance between flange centroids

Cd = 1.0 for single curvature and 2.0 for double curvature
Lb = Laterally un-braced length
Mr = Required flexural strength
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 Bracing Design
BRACING DESIGN
FRAME BRACING
• Frame bracing and column bracing are accomplished by
the same relative and nodal braces and the use the same
stiffness and strength equations

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 Bracing Design
BRACING DESIGN
Design Example
• Using the LRFD requirements, select a rod to provide the nodal
bracing shown in Figure 2 to resist a wind load of 18 kN and
provide stability for a gravity dead load of 500 kN and live load of
200 kN.

(4.87m)

(15.24m)

(3 @ 9.14m = 27.44m)
Figure 2 10
 Bracing Design
BRACING DESIGN
Design Example
• Step 1: Determine the required brace stiffness for gravity load.
Pr = 1.2D+1.6L = 920 kN

1 8 × 920
𝛽𝑏𝑟 = = 2015 𝑘𝑁/𝑚
0.75 4.87

• Step 2: Determine the required brace area accounting for the angle
of the brace.

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 Bracing Design
BRACING DESIGN
Design Example
• Step 2: Determine the required brace area accounting for the angle
of the brace. 

• When cross bracing is used, it is generally

assumed to be effective in tension.  Cos 

• The diagonal that is in compression, due to its

longer length, buckles a little and becomes h
ineffective.

• For the horizontal movement of  shown in Figure
3, the elongation in the brace is  (cos ) and the L
strain produced is  (cos )/Lbr.
Diagonal
Figure 10.6. Frame With aBrace
Diagonal Brace.
• The force in the brace becomes (Abr Ebr/Lbr)   Figure 3
(cos ) and the component of this force acting as
resisting shear in the horizontal direction evaluates
as (Abr Ebr/Lbr)   (cos )2. The corresponding
spring constant then becomes (Abr Ebr/Lbr) cos2 . 12
 Bracing Design
BRACING DESIGN
Design Example
• Step 2: Determine the required brace area accounting for the angle
of the brace.
Based on the geometry of the brace from the figure, where θ is the
angle of the brace with horizontal.
βbr = (Abr Ebr/Lbr) cos2  = 2015 kN/m

This results in a required brace area

Abr = (2015 x Lbr) / (Ebr x cos2 )
Lbr = 10.35 m, θ = 28°, cosθ = 0.883

Abr = (2015 x 10.35 x 1000) / (200000 x 0.8832) = 133.74 mm2

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 Bracing Design
BRACING DESIGN
Design Example
• Step 3: Determine the required force for gravity load. The required
horizontal brace force for a nodal brace is

Pbr = 0.01Pr = 0.01 x 920 = 9.2kN

Which gives a force in the member (bracing) = 9.2/cosθ = 10.42 kN
and a required area, assuming A36 steel for a rod, of
Abr = (10.42x1000) / (0.9x250) = 46.31 mm2

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 Bracing Design
BRACING DESIGN
Design Example
• Step 4: For gravity plus wind, determine the stiffness and strength
requirements. The stiffness requirement will be the same.
The strength must be sufficient to resist the 18kN wind load,
thus for the wind portion
Abr = [(1.3x18x1000)/cos28] / (0.9x250) = 117.78 mm2

• Step 5: Determine the required area for the combined wind and
gravity loading.
Combining the required area for the gravity force and that from the
wind force yields,
Areq = (46.31+117.78) = 164.09 mm2

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 Bracing Design
BRACING DESIGN
Design Example
• Step 6: Select a rod to meet the required area for stiffness and
strength

d req= 14.45 mm = 16 mm

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