The scope of Steel Column Base Plate Design checks is enhanced in this release for the Eurocode Head Code to consider minor axis shear.

• Where previously an ignored forces warning was issued when minor axis shear existed, minor & biaxial shear is now checked for column base plates on columns with the following sections: I/H, CHS & SHS*.

  • *For RHS section columns, minor shear continues to be an Ignored Force (a warning is issued in the results viewer when it exists).

• Shear force - this continues to be resisted as previously by friction alone, or the shear on bolts alone, or shear on bolts + friction, depending on the option set for “Horizontal Shear Transfer” in the base plate settings for Bolts.

  • The shear force resisted is the vector sum of the applied major and minor shear in the load combination. An example of the new checks carried out is shown in the picture below (for the “Friction and shear on bolts” option of “Horizontal Shear Transfer”).
    

• Forces on welds - where direct contact in bearing is flagged on (in the base plate properties) then axial force on welds is taken as zero, otherwise:

  • For I/H sections, the flange welds are designed for the vector sum of axial force and minor shear force, and the web welds are designed for major shear force. An example of the new checks carried out is shown in the picture below.
    

• For CHS & SHS sections, an all around full profile weld is designed for the vector sum of axial, and major and minor shear forces. Note this effectively doubles the effective weld length for axial force compared with the previous release.

• For RHS sections, flange welds (on faces A & C) continue to be designed for axial force, and web welds (on faces B & D) are designed for major shear force.