Guide to the Major Amendments in BS5950


1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background

Since its introduction in 1985, BS 5950 Structural use of steelwork in building, has gradually (although not completely) replaced BS 449 in the design office and is now the established Standard for the design of steel-framed buildings in the UK and several other countries. Part 1 of BS 5950 (referred to here as BS 5950-1) is the Code of practice for design using rolled and welded sections. It gives recommendations for the safe design of general building structures, including the specification of the appropriate steel sub-grade, the classification of sections, design for stability, the design of members subject to bending, tension and compression, stiffener design and the design of column bases and connections.






BS 5950-1 has undergone a major amendment, affecting the majority of the Clauses to some extent. The revised Standard, BS 5950-1:2000

, became effective on 15 August 2001. Because this Standard is so widely used for the design of structural steelwork, it is hardly surprising that news of this amendment was greeted with some trepidation among designers, many of whom are very familiar with the recommendations of its predecessor BS 5950-1: 1990

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. The Steel Construction Institute recognised that some guidance was required during the period of transition, as designers familiarise themselves with the content and layout of the amended Standard. This publication provides a concise guide to the changes, together with advice on the implementation of the revised Clauses.


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1.2 Scope of this publication

The purpose of this publication is to guide designers through the major technical amendments to BS 5950-1, by means of a short description of each important change and simple worked examples. It is not a commentary to BS 5950-1: 2000

and does not, therefore, attempt to give the theoretical background to the Clauses or any justification for the amendments. This publication is limited to those Clauses from Sections 2 to 6 of BS 5950-1:2000

that have undergone a major or significant technical amendment. Section 7 (which deals with testing) and the Annexes are beyond the scope of this publication, as are the numerous minor changes. For convenience, guidance on the modified Clauses has been grouped together into five sections, with numbered headings matching those used in BS 5950-1:2000. The numbered sub-sections do not correspond to the Sub-sections in BS 5950-1:2000, but Clause numbers are stated in all cases.

1.3 Summary of the changes

The 2000 amendment to BS 5950-1 has affected almost every Clause in the Standard to some extent, even though many of the changes are only editorial in nature (i.e. the technical recommendations are unchanged). Users of BS 5950-1:2000 will notice immediately that the familiar two-column format has been replaced with full-width pages, giving the impression that this is a completely new document. This impression is reinforced by the renumbering of many of the Clauses and the extensive re-drafting of much of the text.


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