ABSTRACT
Members of a Vierendeel girder are predominantly loaded in bending. The unknown dimensions can be calculated using constraints on stress, chord side wall failure, local buckling and effective width based on CIDECT design rules. When the truss height is fixed, then the deflection constraint can also be active for the design of verticals. The optimal number of bays can be determined by calculating the cost of various possible structural versions. In the costs the material and fabrication costs are considered. The optimization procedure is illustrated by a numerical example.
