The gap between theory, practice and regulations in design criteria for iron and steel structures in 19th century France: the example of train sheds

Hannah Franz (1) , Mario Rinke (2) , Emilie Lepretre (1) , Lamine Dieng (1)

1 MAST-SMC - Structures Métalliques et à Cables
2 Faculty of Design Sciences [University of Antwerp]

In the 19th century, the concept for designing metallic structures was to compare the stresses resulting from the loads with a working stress, a fraction of the ultimate strength of the material. The choice of the working stress depended mainly on the experience and theoretical knowledge of designers as early regulations left a lot of discretion to engineers. This paper traces the evolution of French design criteria used in practice for elements made of wrought iron or mild steel, working in tension or compression, based on an extensive survey of the French literature of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. These design criteria are compared with original design reports of train sheds, which show that designers used working stresses higher than recommended in the literature and ensured buckling safety through constructive measures instead of calculations.

Mots clés: old steel structures; wrought iron structures; design criteria; history; train sheds; buckling; Truss lattice structures

Mots clés: structures métalliques anciennes; fer puddlé; critères de dimensionnement; histoire; halles de gare; flambement; poutres treillis

Domaines: Structures

Hannah Franz, Mario Rinke, Emilie Lepretre, Lamine Dieng. The gap between theory, practice and regulations in design criteria for iron and steel structures in 19th century France: the example of train sheds. Timber and Construction: Proceedings of the Ninth Conference of the Construction History Society, Construction History Society, Apr 2022, Cambridge, United Kingdom. pp.287-300. ⟨hal-03767415⟩