General

This website presents design data in tabular formats as assistance to engineers who are designing buildings in accordance with EN 1993‑1‑1:2005[1], EN 1993‑1‑5:2006[1] and EN 1993‑1‑8:2005[1], and their respective UK National Annexes. Where these Parts do not give all the necessary expressions for the evaluation of data, reference is made to other published sources.

The symbols used are generally the same as those in these standards or the referred product standards. Where a symbol does not appear in the standards, an alternative symbol has been chosen following the designation convention as closely as possible.

1.1. Material, section dimensions and tolerances

The structural sections referred to in this design guide are of weldable structural steels conforming to the relevant European and British Standards given in the table below:

Note that EN 1993 refers to the product standards by their CEN designation, e.g. EN 10025‑2. The CEN standards are published in the UK by BSI with their prefix to the designation, e.g. BS EN 10025‑2. For full details of the British Standards, see the list of References.

Table – Structural steel products

Product Technical delivery requirements Dimensions
(See note 1)
Tolerances
Non alloy steels Fine grain steels
European sections including IPE, HE, HL, HLZ, HD and HP sections EN 10025‑2[2] EN 10025‑3[2] EN 10025‑4[2] EN 10365[3] EN 10034[4]
Universal beams, Universal columns, and Universal bearing piles EN 10365[3] EN 10034[4]
Parallel flange channels EN 10365[3] EN 10279[7]
European channels with parallel flanges (UPE) EN 10365[3] EN 10279[7]
European channels with tapered flanges (UPN) EN 10365[3] EN 10279[7]
Angles EN 10056-1[8] EN 10056‑2[8]

Notes:

1. In addition to sections rolled to EN 10365:2017[3], some sections are rolled to the manufacturer’s own specification.

1.2. Dimensional units

The dimensions of sections are given in millimetres (mm).

1.3. Property units

Generally, the centimetre (cm) is used for the calculated properties but for surface areas and for the warping constant (Iw), the metre (m) and the decimetre (dm) respectively are used.
Note: 1 dm = 0.1 m = 100 mm
  1 dm6 = 1 x 10-6 m6 = 1 x 1012 mm6

1.4. Mass and force units

The units used are the kilogram (kg), the Newton (N) and the metre per second squared (m/s2), so that 1 N = 1 kg x 1 m/s2. For convenience, a standard value of the acceleration due to gravity has been accepted as 9.80665 m/s2. Thus, the force exerted by 1 kg under the action of gravity is 9.80665 N and the force exerted by 1 tonne (1000 kg) is 9.80665 kiloNewtons (kN).

1.5. Axis convention

The axis system used in EN 1993 is:
x along the member
y major axis, or axis perpendicular to web
z minor axis, or axis parallel to web
This system is convenient for structural analysis using computer programs. However, it is different from the axis system previously used in UK standards such as BS 5950.