Often when steel framed buildings are designed, the frame member sizes are shown on the drawings, but the connection details aren't. Instead there is a list of the forces for each type of joint. With these forces we will prepare a detailed design for each joint. The number of designs needed will depend on the number of different joints. For instance with portal frames, assuming they are all the same, there is normally only one design needed for all the eaves joints, one design needed for all the ridge joints and one design needed for any internal columns of multibay frames.

We need the following information to design steel connections:

the connection forces for each joint that needs designing (axial load, shear force, torsion and bending moment)

details of the members to be connected (section sizes and mass / m)

Design information

All design work is carried out in accordance with BS5950 (The structural use of steelwork)