Survey of deflection limits for portal frames in Australia

Abstract The design of portal frames can often be governed by deflection limits and it is therefore important that any deflection limits be realistic. Most current codes of practice do not provide mandatory deflection limits, preferring instead to leave them to the judgement of the designer. The authors, through the Australian Institute of Steel Construction, have recently conducted a survey among practising engineers of deflection limits for industrial buildings. Although the results of the survey have been reported, 1 it is thought that the results will be of interest to international readers, and so the findings are presented in this paper. The results of the survey show some diversity of opinion among designers. Nevertheless, recommendations for deflection limits are made.