Historic Structural Steelwork

Name: Historic Steel Section Properties (Australia)
Brand: Community
SKU: 20463367-e439-4919-aaa5-ad305a4c3dc6

This listing brings together the data an engineer needs to assess steelwork in existing Australian buildings and structures built from the early 1900s to the 1970s.

Community

Historic steel section properties

Dimensions and section properties of hot rolled steel sections found in existing Australian structures: the British Standard sections of 1903 and 1904 and of 1921, the Australian Standard sections of 1928 and 1940, and the sections BHP rolled before and after AS A1:1965.

Set the year the steelwork was made or erected on the timeline: drag the red line, click the timeline, or use the left and right arrow keys (with Shift for ten years). Only the series in use in that year are offered in the Series list.
Select the series. Size and weight alone do not identify a section: the same size and weight can have different properties in different series.
Select the section type and the units.
Select the designation. Its row is highlighted in each table; expand a table to compare it with the other sections of the same type.

See also: Historic Steel Mechanical Properties and Design Stresses, for the steel specification and design basis in force by year of construction.

Values marked * are corrected values or uncertain readings: see the source, flags and notes table for that section.

Historical data: verify by measurement. These values are transcribed from historical handbooks. Rolled sections varied between mills, editions and years, and the handbooks themselves contain misprints. Identify the section by measuring it on site and confirm that the measured dimensions match the listed section before relying on any value. The engineer assessing the structure is responsible for the values used.

How to read the tables

Imperial values are those printed in the source named under "Values from". Where a property comes from another source, the notes say so.
Corrected (marked *): the source prints a figure that arithmetic and other sources show to be a misprint. The corrected value is listed and the notes give the printed figure.
Uncertain reading (marked *): the figure could not be read with certainty in the scan held. The best reading is listed and the notes give the alternative.
Single source: no other source held lists this section.
Where another source prints a different figure, the notes give it. Differences of one unit in the last printed figure between the British handbooks, Bates 1984, AS A1-1965 and the later BHP edition are treated as rounding and not noted. Every difference from the Lysaght Referee and between BHP editions is noted.
SI values are converted from the listed imperial values (1 in = 25.4 mm, 1 lb/ft = 1.48816 kg/m) and rounded to three significant figures. They are not values from a metric handbook.
Property check: the area, weight, I, r, Z, S, centroid and principal axis values were recomputed independently from the listed dimensions (root and toe radii included). Confirmed: every value agrees within the printed rounding, or within 1%. Where a value differs by more than 1%, the column names it, gives the listed value against the recomputed one as a percentage, and gives the likely reason. The dimensions themselves are as printed in the sources.
Timeline: the bars give the likely period of rolling of each series, as in the companion listing Historic Steel Mechanical Properties and Design Stresses; a bar fades where the end of the period is approximate. A series is offered from its first year to the end of its faded part. The periods are guidance only: sections were reused and held in stock, so if no listed section fits, try a nearby year.
A blank cell means the source does not give that property for that section.
The designation carries the reference mark printed in the lead source. Earlier or later marks for the same section are listed as other marks.
AS A1-1940 was reissued as AS A1-1956 (the 1940 edition with the 1955 amendment to the steel); its section list, Part II, is the list BHP printed in 1952 and 1961 (with a few BHP additions), so the series is named for 1940. AS A1-1965 revised that list.

Sources

Dorman, Long & Co, pocket handbook, 1906 (printed pages 34 to 41) and 1924 (new British Standard sections, printed pages 58 to 68; old British Standard sections, pink pages 210D to 210K).
Redpath, Brown & Co, handbook, 1928 (British Standard sections revised 1920, printed pages 250 to 271).
Australian Commonwealth Engineering Standards Association, Australian Standard Specification No. A.1-1928, Structural Steel and Australian Standard Rolled Steel Sections for Structural Purposes, with the 1931 amendment notice (Part 2, printed pages 18 to 27).
Standards Association of Australia, Australian Standard No. A.1-1940, Structural Steel (Excluding Plates) and Australian Standard Rolled Steel Sections for Structural Purposes (Part II, printed pages 12 to 27).
Standards Association of Australia, AS A1-1965, Dimensions of Hot-Rolled Steel Shapes and Sections for Structural Purposes, with Amendment No. 1 (April 1967) and the corrigenda of March 1966 (Tables 1 to 5 and 7, printed pages 4 to 19, 24 and 25).
W. Bates, Historical Structural Steelwork Handbook, British Constructional Steelwork Association, 1984 (Tables 3.7, 3.8, 3.21, 3.22, 3.24, 3.26 and 3.27).
The Broken Hill Proprietary Co Ltd, Shapes and Sections, 1952 (printed pages 88 to 93).
The Broken Hill Proprietary Co Ltd, Steel Shapes and Sections, 1961 (printed pages 70, 71 and 214 to 221; the joist and channel pages from a copied extract with the title page missing).
The Broken Hill Proprietary Co Ltd and Australian Iron & Steel Pty Ltd, Hot Rolled Carbon Steel Sections and Plates, 1969.
A later BHP edition of the 1969 tables, edition not identified (probably 1972), used as a check only.
John Lysaght (Australia), The Lysaght Referee, 18th to 24th editions (1950 to 1972): Australian "I" beam and angle tables.

The section properties are facts compiled from these publications. The publications remain the work of their publishers.

Not covered in this release

BHP tee pages before 1965 (not held). The 1928 and 1940 Australian Standard tees are listed.
AS A1-1940 sections that BHP did not list in 1952 or 1961: the beam 3 x 1 1/2 @ 4 lb (ASB 101, listed under AS A1-1928 as ASB 1) and the channel 1 5/8 x 1 1/4 (ASC 101, listed under AS A1-1928 as ASC 1).
AS A1-1965 T-bars cut from universal sections (Table 6), sheet piles and hollow piles (Tables 8 and 9).
Metric sections (AS 1131-1973 and later; BHP metric tables from 1974), hollow sections, the British Standard sections of 1932 and 1962 listed only by Bates, and the Dorman Long sections of 1887 and 1895.
Safe load tables, allowable stresses, detailing dimensions (rivet and bolt gauges) and the net Ixx of Redpath Brown.
The ratio columns of BHP 1969 ((D-2T)/t, (B-t)/2T and D/T), which can be derived from the dimensions.
Capacity of members. This listing gives section properties only.

When an existing steel structure is assessed, altered or reused, two questions come first: what are the members, and what steel and design rules were they made to? For Australian steelwork from the early 1900s to the 1970s, neither answer is easy to find. The section lists changed several times, a section of the same nominal size and weight can have different properties from one list to the next, and the steel specifications and design codes changed independently of the sections. The information sits in handbooks and standards that have long been out of print, and those handbooks contain misprints. The two listings in this collection answer those questions. Both start from the year the steelwork was made or erected. Historic Steel Section Properties (Australia) The dimensions and section properties of more than 900 hot rolled sections in five imperial series: the British Standard sections of 1903 and 1904, the revised British list of 1921, the first Australian Standard list (AS A1-1928), its 1940 revision as rolled by BHP, and the AS A1:1965 range that brought in universal beams and columns. It covers beams, channels, equal and unequal angles, tees, zed bars, taper flange beams, universal beams, universal columns and bearing piles. 1. Set the year on the timeline (drag the red line, click it, or use the arrow keys). Only the section series in use in that year are offered. 2. Choose the series, the section type and the units (imperial as printed, or SI converted). 3. Choose the designation. Its row is highlighted in each table and the section is drawn to scale. Expand a table to compare sections. The Source, flags and notes table shows where each value comes from, the other sources that list the section, any differences between them, and the result of the property check. Historic Steel Mechanical Properties and Design Stresses The steel specification and the design basis in force in Australia for a given year of construction, from the iron and imported British steel of the 1800s to limit states design to AS 4100 in 1990. Set the year on the timeline and the page gives a summary for that year and highlights the row in force in each table: the specified tensile strength and, from July 1955, the minimum yield; the code or handbook practice in force; and the working stresses of the period. The timeline shows the steel specifications, the design codes, the section series and the strength values on one time scale. Where a specification or code changed during the year, the summary says so, so that both can be checked. A separate table covers the other steels that could be ordered between 1965 and 1971. Where the data comes from All values are transcribed from the original publications. The section data comes from Dorman Long (1906 and 1924), Redpath Brown (1928), the Australian Standards AS A1-1928, AS A1-1940 and AS A1-1965, BHP handbooks of 1952, 1961 and 1969, the Lysaght Referee (1950 to 1972) and Bates, Historical Structural Steelwork Handbook (1984). The steel and design data comes from the Australian Standards for structural steel and steel design from 1928 to 1990 (including AS A1, AS A149, AS A186, AS 3679, AS CA1, SAA Int 351, AS 1250 and AS 4100), the British Standard values printed in the period handbooks, and those handbooks themselves. Every table was read twice, independently, from images of the printed pages, and the two readings were compared cell by cell. Each source was checked against the others. Where a source prints a figure that arithmetic and other sources show to be a misprint, the corrected value is listed, marked *, and the printed figure is given in the notes. The section properties were also recalculated from the listed dimensions, and the result is shown for each section. SI values are converted from the imperial values and rounded to three significant figures. Limits These are historical values for review and assessment. Rolled sections varied between mills, editions and years, and steel was often imported, reused or held in stock. Identify each section by measuring it on site, and confirm the steel by testing where the assessment depends on it. The listings give section properties, specified material properties and period design stresses. They do not give member capacities, and the engineer assessing the structure is responsible for the values used. Not yet covered: metric sections (from 1974), hollow sections, AS A1-1965 T-bars and piling sections, plates, and safe load tables.