ABSTRACT
The process of structural design usually leads to some criterion of acceptability based on comparing the maximum predicted action of loads with an assured value of structural resistance. The assessment of the loading is thus as important as the structural analysis proper, although it has tended in the past to receive much less critical attention. This lack of attention has been fostered by a tendency for design loadings to be specified by clients or by governmental authority in broad terms to a degree of rigidity that leaves little freedom of choice to the designer.
