Technical Guidance Note (Level 2, No. 2): Designing a steel column

This guidance note describes the different types of pile presently in use, the design concepts that are employed when determining their size and depth, how they are constructed and the various tests that can be carried out to assess a pile's integrity.

This Technical Guidance Note addresses the design of timber elements that are unrestrained against lateral torsional buckling. It explains how such beams are analysed and designed. The impact of notching the supports of beams is also considered with respect to the shear capacity of the beam. For clarity and brevity, this note only covers solid and glued laminated (glulam) timber elements; compound and composite beams, such as flitch beams, are not considered. The connections within timber frame assemblies will be addressed in a future note. Readers should also be aware that this note forms part of a trio of Technical Guidance Notes leading to the design of bespoke timber trusses – assemblies made from unrestrained timber beams and posts. Notes on the design of timber posts and bespoke timber trusses will follow later in the series.

The subject of this guide is the design of non-composite steel beams to BS EN 1993-1-1 – Eurocode 3: Design of Steel Structures – Part 1-1: General Rules for Buildings. It covers both restrained and unrestrained rolled steel ‘I’ and ‘H’ beam sections. This is the first in the series of Level 2 guides and as such,the reader is assumed to be familiar with the concepts explained in relevant Level 1 Technical Guidance Notes. (This article was updated in October 2016 to reflect errata issued since its original publication.)