British Steel Construction Handbook Required

[pch1]

Would anyone be able to help me select a helpful structural handbook.

When I was employed in South Africa I had a very useful handbook (Southern African Steel Construction Handbook - the 'Red Book') which included ladder design, base plate design and several other useful sections.

Now that I have relocated to the UK I am looking for a similar handbook: I have seen the following publication (Steelwork design guide to BS 5950 1: 2000 Volume 1: Section - the 'Blue book'), would this book contain details for ladders etc as my old book did.

Regards
Paul H

 

[Ussuri]

The 'Blue Book' primarily contains section tables for all the typical UK sections, along with capacity tables for axial, bending, buckling etc calculated in accordance with BS5950. It is a very useful book to have.

There is also a cutdown version called the Handbook of Structural Steelwork, which contains more or less the same (except LTB tables which i find annoying). You can access the bluebook online for free here:

http://www.corusconstruction.com/en/design_and_innovation/structural_design/the_blue_book/

A very common reference book in the UK is The Steel Designers Manual, 6th Edition published by the Steel Construction Institute. It cover base plates and a lot more being 1300 pages long and about 100 quid to buy, but I dont think it has anything for ladders. That said nearly everyone has a copy so it is easily borrowed.

There is a series of books called Joints in Steel Construction which are also quite good for connection design.

The SCI does publish quite a lot of stuff. A good chunk off you can view here:

http://www.steelbiz.org/

BS5395 is the British Standard for the design of stairs, ladders and Walkways.

EEMUA 105 Factory Stairways, Ladders and Handrails is also a useful publication.

Another particulary useful book is Roarks Forumals for Stress and Strain.

 

[tonyuk]

You can find a selection of UK code based books on our website at

http://www.sda.co.uk/booklist.htm

. This list is of books that I have personally bought and think worth recommending to users of our software.