Plastic Design and Second-Order Analysis of Steel Frames

Book excerpt: Plastic Design of Steel Frames assesses the current status and future direction of computer-based analyses of inelastic strength and stability for direct frame design. It shows how design rules are used in practical frame design and provides an introduction to the second-order theory of inelastic frame design. The book includes two computer programs on a diskette: one for the first-order analyses and the other for the second-order plastic hinge analysis of planar frame design. The second-order program can be used to predict realistic strengths and stabilities of planar frames, thereby eliminating the tedious task of estimating factors for individual member capacity checks. Both programs include clear input instructions. The diskette also contains the Fortran source-code listing for the second-order plastic-hinge analysis, enabling the user to customize the program. The programs will run on an IBM PC-AT or equivalent machine with 640 kB of memory and 30 MB hard drive.