ABSTRACT

This chapter is concerned with the philosophy of structural design. The chapter describes the overall aims of design and the many inputs into the design process. The primary aim of design is seen as the need to ensure that at no point in the structure do the design loads exceed the design strengths of the materials. This can be achieved by using the permissible stress or load factor philosophies of design. However, both suffer from drawbacks and it is more common to design according to limit state principles which involve considering all the mechanisms by which a structure could become unfit for its intended purpose during its design life.