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.

Stability Design of Steel Frames provides a summary of the behavior, analysis and design of structural steel members and frames with flexibly-jointed connections. The book presents the theory and design of structural stability and includes extensions of computer-based analyses for individual members in space with imperfections. It also shows how connection flexibility influences the behavior and design of steel frames and how designers must consider this in a limit-state analysis and design procedure. The clearly written text and extensive bibliography make this a practical book for advanced students, researchers and professionals in civil and structural engineering, as well as a useful supplement to traditional books on the theory and design of structural stability.

A detailed presentation of the major role played by correctly designed and fabricated joints in the safe and reliable response of steel, composite and timber structures. The typology/morphology of connections is discussed for both conventional pinned and rigid joints and semi-rigid types. All relevant topics are comprehensively surveyed: definitions, classification, and influence of joint behaviour on overall structural response. Also presented are the application of the component method, the notion of rotational capacity, the local ductility of different types of earthquake-resistant structural joints as determined in cyclic experiments, numerical techniques for the realistic simulation of joint response, simple and moment-resistant structural connections. Readership: An incomparable resource for engineers who analyze and design steel, composite and timber structures; researchers and graduate students in the same areas.