In today’s engineering practice, there is no such thing as a “normal” or “standard” structural analysis: Advanced analysis methods that were regarded as research tools a few years ago have entered some design offices while other practices are still using the same (except bigger and faster) analysis tools they had a generation ago. This is especially true in the area of stability: Direct, rigorous second-order analysis is regarded as routine in some practices but not in others. As will be apparent from this brief outline of its stability-related provision, the 2005 AISC Specification for Structural Steel Buildings recognizes the wide range of analyses in common use. It spells out the general safety- and reliability-based requirements that must be satisfied in all structural designs and then gives designers the freedom to select or devise their own methods of analysis and design within these constraints. The Specification also offers designers specific, simple analysis and design procedures applicable to typical structures.
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