• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.277-285
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• 2017

Single-storey industrial buildings are one of the most often type of structures built among various skeletal framed steel constructions. These metallic buildings offer an exceptional opportunity to minimise the material employed, contributing to a more sustainable construction. In particular, the mansard portal frame is a typology made up of broken beams that involves different lengths and discontinuous slopes. This study aims the weight reduction of the standard mansard portal frame with design purposes by means of varying four parameters: the kink position, the eaves-apex slope, the span and the columns height. In this work, we suggest some guidelines that can improve the economical competitive capabilities of their structural design. In all the cases analysed, the joints of the portal frame are placed over the theoretical non-funicular shape to uniform loads. This allows reducing the bending moment and the shear force, but increasing the axial force. In addition, the performance of mansard and typical pitched portal frames submitted to the same boundary conditions is compared in terms of efficiency in the use of steel. In the large majority of the cases, mansard typologies are lighter than the common pitched frames and, hence, more economical.