Civil Engineering Association

The typical structure of a single-storey hall in most countries in Europe is the portal frame. This document provides a comparison of the calculation methods acc. to Eurocode 3 (EN 1993-1-1) and the national standard of the respective country. The calculation is performed for a typical portal frame structure in Europe. The frame uses hot rolled I-sections of steel grade S235 for the rafter and columns. Frame span is 30m and eaves height 5m, which are typical dimensions for small and medium sized industrial halls in Europe. Haunches are used for the eaves by providing additional hot-rolled sections welded onto the bottom flange of the rafter. The eaves connection as well as the apex is typically bolted and assumed rigid for this example, so that effects of rotations in the connections do not have to be taken into account. Column bases are pinned as no increased horizontal stiffness, e.g. for cranes, has to be provided.