Resumen de Composite and Steel Construction compendium: Part 12: Portal frames

SCI Steel Construction Institute

• Portal frames were fi rst shown to be commercially viable by Conder in the 1950s. The building form was noted in the introduction to the fourth edition (revised) of the Steel Designers’ Manual1, published in 1983, as “the most usual single-storey structure”. In British Steel’s booklet entitled Portal Frames2, published in 1996, portal frames were identifi ed as the preferred structural solution for about 80% of the fl oor area covered by single-storey buildings in the UK for industrial, retail and leisure use. In 2013, these buildings represented approximately 45% of the UK consumption of constructional steelwork.

  Portal frame buildings (Figure 1) are thus very common, but are a structural form with features that present particular challenges; this has led to specialisation by some designers and manufacturers in this type of structural frame. The purpose of this article is to identify and discuss these features, which are not usually found in buildings of more than one storey.