Chapter Two

Tension Members

Instructor Daniel.H 1
 Introduction
• Tension members are structural members that
carry pure tension loads.
• Since stability is of minor concern with tension
members, the process of designing such
structural members is reduced to:
– selecting a section with sufficient cross-sectional area
to carry the design load without exceeding the design
tensile stress as stipulated in relevant codes of
practice
– proportioning connections so that all relevant design
specifications are met with regard to arrangement as
well as stress limitations.

Instructor Daniel.H 2
 Types of Tension Members
• Tension members may consist
of a single structural shape or
they may be built up from a
member of structural shapes

• Cross-sections of Typical Tension

Members
Instructor Daniel.H 3
 Cont…
• If a member at the end is to be connected by bolts or
rivets, the angle, channel, or I section, single or built-
up, will be better suited.
• On the contrary, plates and angles are mostly used in
welded structures.
• For light trusses and for bracing systems, single angle
sections are commonly used.
• Tension rods may be used as suspenders for suspension
bridges and for smalls-pan roof trusses.
• For carrying greater tension the members have to
provide larger net area and therefore built up sections
might be the only effective choice.
• For long-span light structures, tubular sections are
ideally suited.
Instructor Daniel.H 4
 Cont…
• In general, the use of single structural shapes is more
economical than built up sections. However, the latter
may be required under any of the following situations:
– the tensile capacity of a single rolled section is not
sufficient.
– the L/r ratio (the ratio of the unbraced length to the
minimum radius of gyration) does not provide sufficient
rigidity.
– the effect of bending combined with the tensile behavior
requires a large lateral stiffness
– usual connection details require a particular cross section
– esthetic control

Instructor Daniel.H 5
 Design Consideration
• A member subject to axial tension is supposed to develop a uniform tensile
stress across the entire cross-sectional area. The preconditions for such
assumption are as follow:
– Axial force is acting along the centroid of the cross section
– No bending moment exists on the section
– Inter-connections of members or joints are such that the center of gravity
of the member is collinear; i.e. it has no eccentricity with the joint.
• Strength as a Design Criterion
• The problem of designing a tension member is basically one of providing a
member with sufficient cross-sectional area to resist the applied loads with an
adequate margin of safety against tensile failure. The controlling strength limit
state for tension member will be either:
– yielding of gross cross-sectional area of the member away from the joints,
or
– Fracture of the effective net sectional area through the holes at the joints.

Instructor Daniel.H 6
 Net Area:
• For tension members having holes for rivets and bolts,
the reduced cross section is referred to as the net area.
• The net area of a cross-section or element section shall
be taken as its gross area less appropriate deductions
for all holes and other openings.
• Accordingly, the net area Aeff for the determination of
section capacity will be given by:

• Where: Ag = gross cross sectional area

do,i = hole diameter at section I
tj = thickness of the section at I
Instructor Daniel.H 7
 Cont…
• If the holes are not disposed symmetrically about
the centerline of the section, an effective net
area, obtained by multiplying the net area by a
reduction factor kA, should be used.
• For a single hole, the reduction factor is given by:

where: do = is the hole diameter,

e = is edge distance ( from hole center to edge )
b = is width of the section.

Instructor Daniel.H 8
 Cont…
• When the holes are staggered, the consecutive holes in the chain
stress distribution is more measured parallel to the member
complicated and an approximation axis.
is allowed (see Fig.) – g is the gauge, the spacing of the
centers of the same two holes
• The net sectional area Aeff can be measured perpendicularly to the
determined from: member axis.

• Where
– Ag is gross cross-sectional area
– Do is nominal diameter of the
ho1e (bolt cutout)
– t is thickness of the component
element (note that elements
within cross section may have
different thickness, such as the
webs and flanges in rolled
sections)
– S is the staggered pitch, the
spacing of the centers of two

Instructor Daniel.H 9
 Effective Net area
• Then net area computed in the previous section may not correctly reflect the
strength specially:
– when the tension member has a profile consisting elements not in a common
plane.
– where the tensile load is transmitted at the end of the member by to some
but not all of the elements. Angle section having connection to one leg only is
an example of such a situation.
– due to shear lag effect (non uniformity of stresses in wide plates i.e. the shear
transfer lags or inefficient)
• For such cases the tensile force is not uniformly distributed over the net area. To
account for this, LRFD provides for an effective area Aeff to be computed as:
Aeff = U An Sym

where: U is a reduction coefficient

An is net area
• The reduction coefficient is given by: gusset plate
C.G. angle
Gusset plates

x- x-
x-
• where: l is the length of the connection
is the connection eccentricity (distance from centroid of element being
connected eccentrically to plane of load transfer as shown in Fig; )
U should be calculated using the maximum value of.

Instructor Daniel.H 10
 Limit State Design of Tension Members
• Limit state design of tension members calls for verification of the member to
withstand various kinds of failures related to tensile strength both in gross cross
section and in effective net section as well as block shear with respect to tension
fracture and shear fracture
• Ethiopian Building Code Standard EBCS 3, 1995
– According to the EBCS 3 Specification, axially loaded tension members
designed to resist a factored axial force of Nt,Sd, calculated using appropriate
load combinations, must satisfy the condition:

where: Nt, Rd = design tension resistance capacity of the cross-section, taken as a

smaller of either the design plastic resistance Npl,RD of the gross section or the
design ultimate resistance Nu,Rd of the net section at the bolt hole
where, again, Npl,Rd and [Link] are determined as in the follawing expressions:

– The partial safety factor γMO = 1.1 and while γM2 = 1.25 represents resistance
of the net section at bolt holes.
11
Instructor Daniel.H
 Cont..
• AISC-LRFD Specification t = 0.9 = resistance factor for tension
• According to the AISC-LRFD Specification, fy = specified minimum yield stress of steel
tension members designed to resist a factored Pn = nominal axial strength
axial force of Pu, calculated using the
• Fracture in effective net section or fracture of
appropriate load combinations, and must the net section at the joint should be avoided.
satisfy the condition: The design strength for this limit state is
t Pn  Pu evaluated from the equation:
Where: t Pn  t x fu x Ae
Pn = the design tensile strength of the cross where:
section and it is evaluated based on three t = 0.75 = resistance factor for fracture in tension
limit states: yielding in gross section, fracture
in effective net section, and block shear. Fu = specified minimum tensile strength of the
material
t = 0.9 is the appropriate resistance factor in
tension. Ae= effective net cross-sectional area of the
member
• Yielding in the cross section away from the
joint should be avoided. The design strength Pn = nominal axial strength
for this limit state is evaluated from the • For members without holes, fu11y connected
equation: by welds, both Aeff in EBCS 3 and Ae in AISC-
t Pn = t x fy x Ag
LRDF specifications are the smal1er of the
gross area of the member and the effective
where area of the welds.
Instructor Daniel.H 12
 Block Shear
• Block shear must be checked if the load is • T = thickness of the web or bracket
transmitted by some but not all of the
component elements of the cross section.
• Ethiopian Building Code Standard EBCS
3, 1995
• The design value of the effective resistance
Veff,Rd for rupture along a block shear failure
path shall be determined from:

• Where  MO = 1.1 = partial safety factor

• f = specified minimum yield stress of steel
• Av,eff = effective shear area subject to block
shear
• The effective shear area Av,eff for block
shear is
Av,eff = t (Lv + L1 + L2 – ndo)
in which L1 and L2 are given by:
• L1 = 5.0d0  a1
• L2 = 2.5d0  a2
• n = the number of fastener holes in the
block shear failure path
• do = hole diameter

Instructor Daniel.H 13
 Cont..
• AISC-LRFD Specification
• According to the AISC-LRFD Specification, the design strength for
block shear is determined from the following two conditions:
• Tension Fracture – Shear Yield = t Pn = 0.75 x (0.60 x fy Agv + fuAnt)
• Shear Fracture – Tension Yield = t Pn = 0.75 x (0.60 x fu Anv + fyAgv)
Where
– 0.75 = resistance factor for block shear
– fy, fu = specified minimum yield stress and tensile strengths,
respectively
– Agv = gross area of the torn-out segment under shear
– Ant = net area of the torn-out segment under tension
– Anv = net area of the torn-out segment under shear
– Agt = gross area of the torn-out segment under tension
• Normally, it is necessary to investigate both the tension fracture -
shear yield and the shear fracture-tension yield criteria. The larger
of the two values calculated is to be used for tPn.

Instructor Daniel.H 14
 Slenderness Ratio
• In all tension members, minimum amount of member stiffness or
rigidity is required with the view of preventing undue sagging,
deflection and vibration.
• This is accomplished by limiting the slenderness ratio given by L/r
• where L is the length of the member and r is the list radius of
gyration.
• AISC specifies an upper limit of 300 on L/r
• Adequacy of the Connection Connections must also be carefully
designed and detailed. This topic will be discussed in detail in
Structural Connections and Design of Joints.
• Longitudinal Spacing of Connectors The spacing of connectors in
built-up tension members consist of elements in continuous
contact shall conform to the spacing requirements for fasteners.
Details of this will be presented in Structural Connections and
Design of Joints.
Instructor Daniel.H 15
 Examples
• Example 1
– Determine the net area An for the following angle
• Do = 24mm
• L150*90*12

Instructor Daniel.H 16
 Solution
• Let us flatten the angle to plate
1
• Computation of net area
2
• For path 1-2-3-4
– Ag=27.6cm2 = 2760mm2
5
– Anett=Ag-sum(doi*ti)
– =2760 – 2*24*12 3
– =2184.0mm2
• For path 1-2-5-3-4 4
• Anett=Ag-sum(doi*ti) + sum(s2/4g)*tg
– = 2760-3*24*12+(752/(4*62)+ 752/(4*62))
– =2304.95mm2

Instructor Daniel.H 17
 Example 2
• For member AB of roof truss shown in the fig. below
a) Design a suitable single angle member
b) Design a suitable double angle member connected back to back
by 8mm gusset plate.
A

• Loading DL=144KN(tension)
LL=240KN(tension)
• Material Fe=510 grade steel
Fy=355N/mm2 and Fu=510N/mm2
• Bolts M22(single gauge line of at least three bolts should be used)
• Factors gm1=1.1
• Connections a) welded b) bolted

Instructor Daniel.H 18
 solution
• Design load II. Bolted connection
– Pd=1.3xDL + 1.6xLL • Try L 125x75x10
– =1.3x144 + 1.6x240 – With Ag = 19.2 cm2
– =571.2KN • Net area
a)Using single angle member – An=Ag-sum(doixtg)
I. Welded connection – =1920-1x24x10
– =1680 mm2
Ag x f y
N  • Verification
Pi , RD
 M1 [Link] failure
– 571.2x103= (Agx355)/1.1 Ag x f y
N 
– >> Ag = 17.7 cm2
Pi , RD
 M1
• Try L 100x65x12 angle =(1920x355)/1.1 = 619.63 (safe)
– With Ag = 18.4 cm2 ii. fracture failure at line of bolts
• Verification 0.9 x Aeff x fU

– Trd = 18.4x355 NU , RD
 M2
– =593.82KN > Tsd … safe =(0.9x1680x510)/1.1
– Use L 100x65x12 angle Fe510 grde =701.0KN > Nsd (safe)
• Final comment
• Use L 125x75x10 Fe510 grade steel

Instructor Daniel.H 19
Thanks
Instructor Daniel.H 20