5.

2 Side rails
Side rails may consist of angles, hollow sections or cold-formed sections.

5.2.1 Cold-formed sections

The section sizes for cold-formed side rails can be determined from the safe load tables in the
technical literature provided by the manufacturers of cold-formed members for use as side rails.
Anti-sag rods tied to an eaves beam should be provided as recommended by the manufacturers.

5.2.2 Angles and hollow sections

Angle and hollow-section side rails may be designed in accordance with the empirical method
provided that they comply with the following rules:
• claddings and fixing thereof to be capable of providing lateral restraint to the side rails
• grade of steel to be a minimum of S275
• unfactored loads to be considered and the loading to consist generally of wind and
selfweight of cladding. Not more than 10% of the total load on the side rail should be due
to other types of load or to loads that are not uniformly distributed
• span not to exceed 6.5m, and the slope of the cladding not to exceed 15º
• single span side rails to be connected at each end by at least two bolts. If the side rails are
generally continuous over two or more bays, with staggered joints in adjacent lines of side
rails, single bay members should have at least one end connected by two or more bolts.

If these rules cannot be complied with then the side rails should be designed as beams. If they
are complied with then the elastic modulii Z1 and Z2 of the axes parallel and perpendicular to the
plane of the cladding, respectively, and the dimensions D and B perpendicular and parallel to the
plane of the cladding should not be less than those given in Table 11.

Table 11 Limiting values for side rail design

Section Z1 (cm3) Z2 D B
(Wind load from BS 6399-2:19979) (cm3) (mm) (mm)
Angles W1 L W2 L L L
2250 1200 45 60
CHS W1 L W2 L L -
2500 1350 65
RHS W1 L W2 L L L
2250 1200 70 100
Nomenclature
W1 and W2 are the total unfactored loads, in kN, on one span of the side rail, acting
perpendicular to the plane of the cladding and acting parallel to the
plane of the cladding respectively
L is the span of the side rail, in mm, taken as follows:
for Z1 and D the span is centre to centre of the vertical supports
for Z2 and B the span centre to centre of vertical supports, except that where
properly supported sag rods are used L may be as the sag rod spacing

30 IStructE/ICE Manual for the design of steelwork building structures 3rd edition