R. H. Wood's ‘The stability of tall buildings’: a contemporary view

Abstract

Randal Wood's 1958 paper on the stability of tall buildings is valuable reading for all today's designers of medium-rise steel buildings, and especially those using either BS 5950-1 or Eurocode 3, Part 1.1. The paper describes the fundamentals of stability of buildings with rigid beam-column joints, explains the origins of design methods available in current codes of practice, advises on how best to proportion frames for stability and warns about the need for stability of traditional steel frames. The main focus of the paper was on steel frames in which the beam-column connections were stiff momentresisting joints. Its effect on design can be judged from its effect on codes of practice. Its effect on construction practice can be seen by the extent that rigidly jointed frames have been used since the paper was written.