Practical procedure for stress classification

Stress classification is required by design codes, but is a difficult task for designers. The aim of this contribution is to help them to classify stress into primary and secondary categories. It is shown that an elastically computed stress is characterized by its intensity S and its spring effect factor r. When r is high the stress is primary, when r is very low the stress is secondary. For other r values indications are given for the part which must be classified as primary.