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Reg. No. 56/01307/08 st 1 Floor, Block C, 43 Empire Road, Parktown West, Johannesburg. P.O. Box 291724, Melville, 2109.

Tel: (011) 726-6111 Fax (011) 482-9644

Introduction
The SAISC Beam-Column Design Aid has been produced by the Southern African Institute of Steel Construction to assist design engineers in designing structural elements subjected to combined axial compression and bending in accordance with SANS 10162-1:2005 Edition 2. The clauses noted in the spreadsheet are those applicable to the aforementioned design code. A limitation in the use of this spreadsheet relates to the compression resistance of structural members. The compression resistance of any structural member must satisfy the requirements of Clause 13.3.1 (flexural buckling) and Clause 13.3.2 (torsional or torsional-flexural buckling) of SANS10162-1:2005. However, for all available - and Hsections in lengths which are commonly encountered in structures, flexural buckling will control. As such the compression resistance of sections designed with this spreadsheet is based on flexural buckling only.

Installation
The design aid is in the form of a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet and is opened and saved in the same way as any other Excel spreadsheet. Extensive use has been made of Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) in developing this spreadsheet. As such, users must enable macros in Excel for this design aid to work. Contact your systems administrator should you have any queries on how to do this.

Using the Spreadsheet


Once the spreadsheet has been opened, it should appear similar to that shown in figure 1 below. A SAISC menu will have been added to the menu bar at the top of Excel. This is not a permanent addition to Excel and is automatically removed when the spreadsheet is closed. This menu allows the user to access three functions as described below: 1. Clear Input This allows the user to clear all information entered in the light turquoise cells together with the current section properties (see item 2 below). Where input has been restricted through the use of drop-down lists, the entries will typically default to the most conservative option. 2. Section Tables This displays a dialogue box containing the section properties for universal beams and columns. Once the user has selected a steel section from this data-base, the relevant section properties will be loaded into the spreadsheet and used in the calculations. 3. Help This displays a summarised user guide.

SAISC Menu

Project details

Member details

Figure 1: Beam-Column Design Aid screen-shot

Input
All input is entered on the Summary Sheet. Rows one to eight provide place for the user to enter project details. Rows ten and eleven provide place for the user to enter information to identify the member being designed and the design load combination. All the other input is entered in the light turquoise cells. The user needs to type information into these cells OR, where applicable, select an item from a drop-down list. Cells linked to a drop-down list only display the drop-down arrow and list when they are selected. The only valid entries for these cells are those given in the drop-down list. The user can quickly navigate between input cells by pressing the Tab key.

Conventions
All ultimate compression loads and moments must be entered as absolute values. Parameters identified with a subscript X relate to the strong axis of the section. Parameters identified with a subscript Y relate to either the weak axis of the section or the yield moment of resistance as noted.

Units
All input cells have been formatted to display the appropriate units. Users are warned that they must enter values using the units identified in each of the cells. The spreadsheet has not been designed to convert nor identify values that are unreasonable due to the incorrect use of units.

Cell Comments
Certain cells have comments that must be read by the user to fully appreciate how the spreadsheet works. These cells are identified with indicator triangles in the upper-right corner.

Output
Results
The capacity of the member is examined for a) cross-sectional strength, b) overall member strength and c) lateraltorsional buckling strength. The summarised results are presented at the bottom of the Summary Sheet. Eq 1 on the results table represents the following interaction expression:

C u U1x Mux U1y Muy + + Cr Mrx Mry


All symbols correspond to those given in SANS10162-1:2005 with the exception of alpha (). In the context of this spreadsheet, alpha takes on a value of either 0.85 or 1.0 depending on the class of section selected. Eq 2 on the results table represents the following interaction expression:

Mux Muy + Mrx Mry


If either of these expressions evaluate to greater than 1.0, the result is displayed in red as a warning to the design engineer.

Printed Output
The printed output only shows the input and the summary results viz. rows 1 to 52 of the Summary Sheet. All the detailed calculations are shown on the other three worksheets and are presented for the benefit of the design engineer while carrying out the design.

TECHNICAL SUPPORT
For technical support and queries related to this spreadsheet, please contact the Southern African Institute of Steel Construction on (011) 726-6111 Future revisions to this software will be posted on the SAISC web-site at www.saisc.co.za

Date of ReadMe file: 2007-02-14

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