Bahir Dar University

Bahir Dar Institute of Technology

Faculty of Civil and Water Resources Engineering

Design of Steel and Timber Structures

Chapter II: Tension Members

February, 2026
Tatek Y. Lemlem
 Contents
✓ Introduction
✓ X-sectional types of tension members
✓ Design considerations
✓ Design of tension members
✓ Design of tension members according to ES-EN
1993
Introduction
✓ A tension member transmits a direct tensile force between
two points in a structure and is, theoretically, the simplest
and most efficient structural element.
✓ The efficiency of tension members are seriously affected by:
▪ The end connections.
▪ The member may be subject to reversal of load
▪ Many tension members must also resist moment as well
as axial load.
Introduction
✓ Typical uses of tension members are:
▪ Tension chords and internal ties in trusses and lattice
girders
▪ Bracing members in building
▪ Main cables and deck suspension cable in cable-stayed
and suspension bridges
▪ Hangers in suspended structures.
Introduction
X-sectional types
✓ The main x-section types of tension members are:
▪ Open and Closed single-rolled sections such as angles,
tees, channels and structural hollow sections.
▪ Compound sections consisting of double angles or
channels.
▪ Heavy rolled sections and heavy compound sections of
built up H- and Box sections.
▪ Bars and flat plates
▪ Ropes and Cables
X-sectional types
Design considerations
✓ Concentrically loaded tension members:
▪ Members without holes
o For straight concentrically loaded steel tension members
of length L and constant cross-section area A, which has
no holes,
• Axial extension:

• Yield load (load capacity of the members):

• Ultimate load:
Design considerations
✓ Concentrically loaded tension members:
▪ Members with small and significant holes
Design considerations
✓ Concentrically loaded tension members:
▪ Members with small holes
• The presence of local holes in tension members cause
early yielding around holes, so that the load-deflection
behavior become non-linear.
• When the holes are small, the member may reach the
gross yield load calculated on gross area A, because of
strain-hardening effects around the holes.
Design considerations
✓ Concentrically loaded tension members:
▪ Members with significant holes
• When the holes are large, the member may fail before
the gross yield load Npl is reached by fracturing at a
hole.
• The local fracture load:
where: do – the diameter of a hole

t – the thickness of the member at

the hole and the summation is
carried out for all holes in the
cross-section under consideration.
Design considerations

T T
Gross Net
Area (Ag) Area (An)
Design considerations
✓ Concentrically loaded tension members:
▪ Members with significant holes
• For tension members with more than one row of holes,
the reduction in the cross-sectional area may be reduced
by staggering the rows of holes.
• The minimum amount of stagger sm for which a hole no
longer reduces the area of the member depends on the
diameter do of the hole and the inclination p/s of the
failure path.
Design considerations
✓ Concentrically loaded tension members:
▪ Members with significant holes
• The minimum stagger is:
• When the actual stagger s is less than sm , some
reduced part of the hole area Ah must be deducted from
the gross area A,

• Where the summations are made for all holes on the zig-zag path considered, and for all
the staggers in the path.
Design considerations
✓ Eccentrically and Locally connected tension members
• The effect of eccentric connections is to induce bending
moments in the member, while the effect of connecting to
some but not all elements in the cross section is to cause
those regions most remote from the connection points to
carry less load. The latter is essentially shear lag effect.
• These effects can be approximated by reducing the cross-
sectional area of the member to an effective net area,
and design it as if concentrically loaded.
Design considerations
✓ Eccentrically and Locally connected tension members
• For a single angle in tension connected by a single row of
bolts in one leg:
Design considerations
✓ Eccentrically and Locally connected tension members
• For an unequal angle connected by its smaller leg, Anet is
taken as the net section area of an equivalent equal angle
of leg length equal to the smaller of the unequal leg.
Design considerations
✓ Eccentrically and Locally connected tension members
• For angles and other members with holes in more than
one plane, the spacing p should be measured along the
center of thickness of the material.
Design considerations
✓ Eccentrically and Locally connected tension members
• For an equal or unequal angle connected by the larger leg
by welding rather than bolting, the eccentricity may be
neglected, Anet maybe taken as equal the gross area A.
• For an unequal angle connected by the smaller leg by
welding, the effective cross-sectional area taken as the
relative equal angle uses the smaller leg.
Design considerations
✓ Block tearing
▪ Block tearing is a failure mode in which one or more
blocks of plate material tear out from the end of a tension
member or a gusset plate.
Design considerations
✓ Block tearing
▪ The tensile failure occurs along the horizontal limit of the
block, and shear plastic yielding occurs along the vertical
limit of the block.
Design considerations
✓ Block tearing
▪ block tearing resistance may be defined as the sum of the
shear resistance provided by the shear area parallel to the
tensile force and the tensile resistance provided by the
tension area perpendicular to the load.
▪ For symmetric bolt groups subject to concentric loading

( )
Veff ,1,Rd = f u Ant  M 2 + 1 3 f y Anv  M 0
Design considerations
✓ Block tearing
▪ For member end with a shear force acting eccentric
relative to the bolt group

( )
Veff ,1, Rd = f u Ant  M 2 + 1 3 f y Anv  M 0
▪ Ant is the net area subjected to tension
▪ Anv is the net area subjected to shear.
▪ Block tearing failure occurs when high tensile forces are
transmitted through relatively thin material and a short
connection length.
Design considerations
✓ Block tearing
▪ Thus, to prevent block tearing
✓ Using relatively few large diameter bolts
✓ Minimum values specified for bolt pitch p1, end
distance e1 and spacing p should be checked.
▪ Block tearing failure can also occur in welded connections
Design of Tension members
• In order to design or check a tension member, the design
tensile force Nt,Ed at each cross-section must be calculated,
using the appropriate loads and partial load factors.
• According to EC, strength design is usually carried out for the
most severe combination of actions for normal (persistent) or
temporal (transient) conditions using:
Design of Tension members
Design of Tension members
✓ Flow chart for the design of tension members
Design of Tension members
✓ Flow chart for the design of tension members
Design of Tension members
✓ Concentrically loaded tension members

• where Nt,Rd – design tension resistance, which is taken as the

lesser of the yield (or plastic) resistance of the cross-section
NPl,Rd and ultimate (or fracture) resistance of the cross-
section containing holes Nu,Rd.
Design of Tension members
✓ Eccentrically connected tension members
• Similar to concentrically loaded tension members with
‘0.9Anet’ is replaced by ‘Anet,eff’ in determining ultimate
resistance of the cross section containing holes Nu,Rd.

Af y 0.9 Anet f u
N u , Rd =
N pl,Rd = M2
γM 0
Design of Tension members according to
ES-EN 1993
✓ According to EN 1993-1-1: section 6.2.3
Design of Tension members according to
ES-EN 1993
✓ According to EN 1993-1-1: section 6.2.3
A flat bar, 200mm wide and 25mm thick, is to be used as a
tie. Erection conditions require that the bar to be
constructed from two lengths connected together with a lap
splice using six M20 bolts, as shown in the figure. Calculate
the tensile strength of the bar, assuming grade S275 steel.

33
For S275 steel grade take the yield and ultimate strength
form table 3.1 Es EN 1993:2015
Values are taken based on nominal steel thickness

Standard Nominal thickness of the element t[mm]

and steel t ≤ 40mm 40 mm < t ≤ 80 mm
grade fy [N/mm2] fu [N/mm2] fy [N/mm2] fu [N/mm2]
EN 10025-2
S 235 235 360 215 360
S 275 275 430 255 410
S 355 355 490 335 470
S 450 440 550 410 550

34
 Example 1 cont’d
• Calculate the Gross and net area

• In determining the net area, Anet, the total area to be

deducted is taken as the larger of:
The deduction for non-staggered holes or staggered

Therefore, the net area of the cross-section

35
 Example 1 cont’d
Determine resistance of section
The design plastic resistance of the gross cross-section
Af y 5000 * 275
N pl,Rd = = = 1375 KN
γM 0 1 .0
The design ultimate resistance of the net cross-section
0.9 Anet f u 0.9 * 4406 * 430
N u , Rd = = = 1364.1 KN
M2 1.25
The tensile resistance, Nt,Rd, is taken as the smaller of
Npl,Rd (1375 kN) and Nu,Rd (1364.1 kN).

Therefore, the tensile resistance, Nt,Rd=1364.1KN

M2 = 1.25; M0 = 1.0 M1 = 1.0 36

Design of Tension members
Example 2
Verify, according to the ES EN 1993, the strength of a single
equal leg angle L 120 × 10mm in tension connected on one side
via one line of two M16 bolts in standard holes. The angle is
subjected to a design axial load NEd of 350 kN. Use S235 steel
grade.
Design of Tension members
Sol:
Step 1: Select the yield and ultimate stress value
For steel grade S235, fy = 235 Mpa and fu = 360 Mpa

Step 2: Find the gross and net area

The gross area Ag, 𝐴𝑔 = 2318 𝑚𝑚2
Design considerations
✓ Eccentrically and Locally connected tension members
• For a single angle in tension connected by a single row of
bolts in one leg:
Design of Tension members
Sol:
Step 2: calculate the gross and net area
• For a single angle in tension connected by a single row of
bolts in one leg: 𝑨𝒏𝒆𝒕,𝒆𝒇𝒇 = 𝜷𝟐 𝑨𝒏𝒆𝒕 for two bolts in a row.
▪ 𝑑𝑜 = 17 𝑚𝑚, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑃1 = 70 𝑚𝑚
▪ 2.5𝑑𝑜 = 42.5 𝑎𝑛𝑑 5𝑑𝑜 = 85
▪ Interpolate 𝜷𝟐 b/n 0.4 and 0.7
▪ 𝜷𝟐 = 𝟎. 𝟓𝟗𝟒
▪ 𝑨𝒏𝒆𝒕,𝒆𝒇𝒇 = 𝟎. 𝟓𝟗𝟒 ∗ 𝟐𝟑𝟏𝟖 − 𝟏𝟎 ∗ 𝟏𝟕

▪ 𝑨𝒏𝒆𝒕,𝒆𝒇𝒇 = 𝟏𝟐𝟕𝟓. 𝟗 𝒎𝒎𝟐

Design of Tension members
Sol:
Step 3: calculate the design resistance of the section
The design resistance will be the minimum of Npl,Rd and Nu,Rd
𝐴𝑔 𝑓𝑦 2318∗235
𝑁𝑃𝑙,𝑅𝑑 = = = 544.73 𝑘𝑁
𝛾𝑚0 1

𝐴𝑛𝑒𝑡,𝑒𝑓𝑓 𝑓𝑢 1275.9∗360
𝑁𝑢,𝑅𝑑 = = = 367.5 𝑘𝑁
𝛾𝑚2 1.25

Thus, Nt,Rd = 367.5 kN > 350 kN----------ok

Design of Tension members
Example 3
Verify, in accordance with ES EN 1993, the splice connection,
which connects the end of two members of the chord of a
trussed beam and transfers a design axial tension load NEd of
2250 kN. Assume S235 steel grade and 26 mm bolt hole seize.

a) Top view b) Side view

Design of Tension members
Sol:
Step 1: Select the yield and ultimate stress value
For steel grade S235, fy = 235 Mpa and fu = 360 Mpa

Step 2: Find the gross and net area

Chord gross area Agc, 𝐴𝑔𝑐 = 2 ∗ 𝑏𝑓 . 𝑡𝑓 + 𝑏𝑤 . 𝑡𝑓 = 14000 𝑚𝑚2

Cover plate gross area Agp, 𝐴𝑔𝑝 = 2 ∗ 𝑏𝑝 . 𝑡𝑝 = 𝟏𝟎𝟖𝟖𝟎 𝒎𝒎𝟐

Design of Tension members
Sol:
Step 2: calculate the gross and net area
Verification should be done for the cover plates since they have
smaller tension area, thus, 𝑨𝒈 = 𝟏𝟎𝟖𝟖𝟎 𝒎𝒎𝟐
The net area Anet should be evaluated along line 1 and 2

𝐴𝑛𝑒𝑡,1 = 𝐴𝑔 − σ 𝑡𝑑𝑜 = 10880 − 2 ∗ 16 ∗ 26 =

10048 𝑚𝑚2
2
1 2
𝐴𝑛𝑒𝑡,2 = 𝐴𝑔 − 𝑛𝑡𝑑𝑜 + σ 𝑡𝑠 ൗ4𝑝 = 10880 − 2 ∗ (4 ∗ 16 ∗
2
26 + 2 ∗ 16 ∗ 80 ൗ 4∗80 ) = 8832 𝑚𝑚2

Thus, Anet = 8832 mm2

Design of Tension members
Sol:
Step 3: calculate the design resistance of the section
The design resistance will be the minimum of Npl,Rd and Nu,Rd
𝐴𝑔 𝑓𝑦 10880∗235
𝑁𝑃𝑙,𝑅𝑑 = = = 2556. 8𝑘𝑁
𝛾𝑚0 1

0.9𝐴𝑛𝑒𝑡 𝑓𝑢 0.9∗8832∗360
𝑁𝑢,𝑅𝑑 = = = 2289.3 𝑘𝑁
𝛾𝑚2 1.25

Thus, Nt,Rd = 2289.3 kN > 2250 kN----------ok

Chapter-III