Specifications, Building

Codes, Factor of Safety,

and Resistance Factors

CE163-3
Specifications and
Building Codes
Specifications & Code Provisions in
Steel Design
• Buildings must be designed and constructed according to the provisions of a
building code, which is a legal document containing requirements related to
such things as structural safety, fire safety, plumbing, ventilation, and
accessibility to the physically disabled.
American Institute of Steel
Construction Inc. (AISC)
Combined

Allowable Stress
Design (ASD, 9th AISC Steel AISC Steel
AISC Steel Edition ASD Manual) Construction Construction
Construction Manual Manual
Manual Load and Resistance 13th Edition 15th Edition
Factor Design
(3rd Edition LRFD (2005) (2017)
Manual)

• Allowable Strength
Separated
Design (ASD)
(First published in 1927) into two (2) (To date)
• Load and Resistance
Factor Design (LRFD)
National Structural Code of the
Philippines (Structural Steel)
NSCP
2001, Chapter 5
•Allowable Stress Design
(ASD), AISC 9th Edition
•As an alternative, Load and
Resistance Factor Design
(LRFD) by AISC (1993 Ed.)
was permitted.
NSCP NSCP
2010, Chapter 5 2015, Chapter 5
• Allowable Strength • Allowable Strength
Design (ASD), Design (ASD)
• Load and Resistance
• Load and Resistance
Factor Design (LRFD) Factor Design (LRFD)
• Both are in reference to
AISC 14th Edition
DESIGN PHILOSOPHIES
Design Philosophies
• The fundamental requirement of structural design is that
the required strength not exceed the available strength;
that is,

Required strength ≤ Available strength

Allowable Stress Design (ASD)
• Maximum applied stress ≤ Allowable stress

• Allowable Stress will be in the elastic range of

the material.
• Design Approach is also called elastic design
or working stress design.
• Stresses are those resulting from working
loads or service loads (unfactored loads)
Allowable Strength Design (ASD)
• In allowable strength design (ASD), a member is selected that has cross-sectional properties
such as area and moment of inertia that are large enough to prevent the maximum applied
axial force, shear, or bending moment from exceeding an allowable, or permissible, value.
This allowable value is obtained by dividing the nominal, or theoretical, strength by a factor of
safety.

Required strength ≤ Allowable strength Strength:

• Axial Force Strength
(Tension/Compression)
• Flexural Strength
𝑁𝑜𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑆𝑡𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑔𝑡ℎ • Shear Strength
𝑅𝑒𝑞𝑢𝑖𝑟𝑒𝑑 𝑆𝑡𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑔𝑡ℎ =
𝑆𝑎𝑓𝑒𝑡𝑦 𝐹𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑜𝑟
Load and Resistance Factor Design
(LRFD)
o Similar to plastic design in that strength,
or the failure condition, is considered. Load
factors are applied to the service loads, and
a member is selected that will have enough
strength to resist the factored loads.
o In addition, the theoretical strength of the
member is reduced by the application of a
resistance factor. The criterion that must be
satisfied in the selection of a member is:

Factored load ≤ Factored strength

(loads x load factors) ≤ resistance x resistance factor
Load and Resistance Factor Design
(LRFD)

Factored load ≤ Factored strength

(loads x load factors) ≤ resistance x resistance factor

o The factored loads are the loads that bring the structure or member to its limit.
In terms of safety, this limit state can be fracture, yielding, or buckling, and the
factored resistance is the useful strength of the member, reduced from the
theoretical value by the resistance factor.
Limit States

• Both Load and Resistance Factor Design (LRFD) and Allowable Strength
Design (ASD) are based on limit states design principles.

• Limit State: Those conditions of structure at which it ceases to fulfill its

intended function ….Not the real failure.
• Limit States Types:
 Strength LS: Stress, buckling, fatigue, fracture, overturning and sliding
 Service LS: Deflection, Vibration, Permanent deformation and
Cracking
Plastic Design

o Plastic design is based on a consideration of

failure conditions rather than working load
conditions.

o The term plastic is used because, at failure,

parts of the member will be subjected to very
large strains—large enough to put the member
into the plastic range
Plastic Design

o When the entire cross section becomes plastic

at enough locations, “plastic hinges” will form at
those locations, creating a collapse mechanism.

o As the actual loads will be less than the failure

loads by a factor of safety known as the load
factor, members designed this way are not unsafe,
despite being designed based on what happens at
failure.
Strength factors,
safety factors, &
load combinations
LOAD FACTORS, RESISTANCE FACTORS,
AND LOAD COMBINATIONS FOR LRFD

Factored load ≤ Factored strength

(loads x load factors) ≤ resistance x resistance factor
LOAD FACTORS, RESISTANCE FACTORS,
AND LOAD COMBINATIONS FOR LRFD (NSCP 2015)
SAFETY FACTORS AND LOAD COMBINATIONS
FOR ASD
SAFETY FACTORS AND LOAD
COMBINATIONS FOR ASD (NSCP 2015)
Resistance Factors (LRFD) vs Safety Factors (ASD)
(Sample Code Presentation on LRFD and ASD)
END