AS/NZS 1170.

0:2002
(Incorporating Amendment Nos 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5)
AS/NZS 1170.0:2002

Australian/New Zealand Standard™

Structural design actions

Part 0: General principles

AS/NZS 1170.0:2002
This Joint Australian/New Zealand Standard was prepared by Joint Technical
Committee BD-006, General design requirements and loading on structures. It was
approved on behalf of the Council of Standards Australia on 29 March 2002 and on
behalf of the Council of Standards New Zealand on 28 March 2002.
This Standard was published on 4 June 2002.

The following are represented on Committee BD-006:

Association of Consulting Engineers Australia

Australian Building Codes Board
Australian Steel Institute
Building Research Association of New Zealand
Cement and Concrete Association of Australia
Concrete Masonry Association of Australia
CSIRO, Building, Construction and Engineering
Cyclone Testing Station—James Cook University
Electricity Supply Association of Australia
Housing Industry Association
Institution of Engineers Australia
Institution of Professional Engineers New Zealand
Master Builders Australia
New Zealand Heavy Engineering Research Association
Steel Reinforcement Institute of Australia
University of Canterbury New Zealand
University of Melbourne
University of Newcastle

Additional Interests:

Monash University
Curtin University of Technology

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This Standard was issued in draft form for comment as DR 00904.

 AS/NZS 1170.0:2002
(Incorporating Amendment Nos 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5)

Australian/New Zealand Standard™

Structural design actions

Part 0: General principles

Originated in Australia as part of AS CA1—1933.

Originated in New Zealand as part of NZS 1900:1964.
Previous Australian editions AS 1170.1—1989 and AS 2867—1986.
Previous New Zealand edition NZS 4203:1992.
AS 1170.1—1989, AS 2867—1986, and NZS 4203:1992 jointly revised,
amalgamated and redesignated in part as AS/NZS 1170.0:2002.
Reissued incorporating Amendment No. 1 (January 2003).
Reissued incorporating Amendment No. 2 (November 2003).
Reissued incorporating Amendment No. 4 (April 2005).
Reissued incorporating Amendment No. 3 (April 2011).
Reissued incorporating Amendment No. 5 (September 2011).

COPYRIGHT
© Standards Australia Limited/Standards New Zealand
All rights are reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or copied in any form or by
any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, without the written
permission of the publisher, unless otherwise permitted under the Copyright Act 1968
(Australia) or the Copyright Act 1994 (New Zealand).
Jointly published by SAI Global Limited under licence from Standards Australia Limited,
GPO Box 476, Sydney, NSW 2001 and by Standards New Zealand, Private Bag 2439,
Wellington 6140

ISBN 0 7337 4469 9

 AS/NZS 1170.0:2002 2

PREFACE
This Standard was prepared by the Joint Standards Australia/Standards New Zealand
Committee BD-006, General Design Requirements and Loading on Structures to supersede,
in part, AS 1170.1—1989, Minimum design loads on structures, Part 1: Dead and live
loads, and, in part, NZS 4203:1992, Code of practice for general structural design and
design loadings for buildings, Volume 1: Code of practice and, in part, AS 2867—1986,
Farm structures—General requirements for structural design.
This Standard incorporates Amendment No. 1 (January 2003), Amendment No. 2
(November 2003), Amendment No. 3 (April 2011), Amendment No. 4 (April 2005), and
Amendment No. 5 (September 2011). The changes required by the Amendments are
indicated in the text by a marginal bar and amendment number against the clause, note,
table, figure or part thereof affected.
A4 This Standard is published as a joint Standard (as are also AS/NZS 1170.1 and
AS/NZS 1170.2) and it is intended that it is suitable for use in New Zealand as well as
Australia.
For Australia, this Standard will be referenced in the Building Code of Australia by way of
BCA Amendment 11 to be published on 1 July 2002, thereby superseding in part the
previous Edition, AS 1170.1—1989, which will be withdrawn 12 months from the date of
publication of this edition. AS 1170.1—1989 may be used for structures not covered by the
Building Code of Australia, until an Appendix is developed for inclusion in this Standard
by amendment.
The objective of this Standard is to provide designers with general procedures and criteria
for the structural design of structures. It outlines a design methodology that is applied in
accordance with established engineering principles.
This Standard includes revised Clauses covering load combinations (referred to as
combinations of actions) and general design and analysis clauses. It does not include values
of actions (e.g. values of dead or live loads; referred to as permanent or imposed actions).
This Standard is Part 0 of the 1170 series, Structural design actions, which comprises the
following parts, each of which has an accompanying Commentary published as a
Supplement:
A4
AS/NZS 1170.0 General principles
AS/NZS 1170.1 Permanent, imposed and other actions
AS/NZS 1170.2 Wind actions
AS/NZS 1170.3 Snow and ice actions
A4
A5 AS 1170.4 Earthquake actions in Australia
NZS 1170.5 Earthquake actions – New Zealand
The Commentary to this Standard is AS/NZS 1170.0 Supp 1, Structural design actions—
General principles—Commentary (Supplement to AS/NZS 1170.0:2002).
This Standard is based on the philosophy and principles set out in ISO 2394:1998, General
principles on reliability for structures. ISO 2394 is written specifically as a guide for the
preparation of national Standards covering the design of structures. It includes methods for
establishing and calibrating reliability based limit states design Standards.
The terms ‘normative’ and ‘informative’ have been used in this Standard to define the
application of the appendix to which they apply. A ‘normative’ appendix is an integral part
of a Standard, whereas an ‘informative’ appendix is only for information and guidance.
 3 AS/NZS 1170.0:2002

A5 Statements expressed in mandatory terms in notes to tables are deemed to be requirements

of this Standard. Notes to the text contain information and guidance and are not considered
to be an integral part of the Standard.
AS/NZS 1170.0:2002 4

CONTENTS

Page

SECTION 1 SCOPE AND GENERAL

1.1 SCOPE ......................................................................................................................... 5
1.2 APPLICATION ........................................................................................................... 6
1.3 REFERENCED DOCUMENTS ................................................................................... 6
1.4 DEFINITIONS............................................................................................................. 6
1.5 NOTATION ................................................................................................................. 8

SECTION 2 STRUCTURAL DESIGN PROCEDURE

2.1 GENERAL ................................................................................................................. 10
2.2 ULTIMATE LIMIT STATES .................................................................................... 10
2.3 SERVICEABILITY LIMIT STATES ........................................................................ 11

SECTION 3 ANNUAL PROBABILITY OF EXCEEDANCE

(FOR STRUCTURES IN NEW ZEALAND ONLY)
3.1 GENERAL ................................................................................................................. 12
3.2 DESIGN REQUIREMENTS...................................................................................... 12
3.3 IMPORTANCE LEVELS .......................................................................................... 12
3.4 ANNUAL PROBABILITY OF EXCEEDANCE ....................................................... 13

SECTION 4 COMBINATIONS OF ACTIONS

4.1 GENERAL ................................................................................................................. 16
4.2 COMBINATIONS OF ACTIONS FOR ULTIMATE LIMIT STATES ..................... 16
4.3 COMBINATIONS OF ACTIONS FOR SERVICEABILITY LIMIT STATES ......... 18
4.4 CYCLIC ACTIONS ................................................................................................... 18

SECTION 5 METHODS OF ANALYSIS

5.1 GENERAL ................................................................................................................. 19
5.2 STRUCTURAL MODELS ........................................................................................ 19

SECTION 6 STRUCTURAL ROBUSTNESS

6.1 GENERAL ................................................................................................................. 20
6.2 LOAD PATHS ........................................................................................................... 20

SECTION 7 CONFIRMATION METHODS

7.1 GENERAL ................................................................................................................. 21
7.2 ULTIMATE LIMIT STATES .................................................................................... 21
7.3 SERVICEABILITY LIMIT STATES ........................................................................ 21

APPENDICES
A SPECIAL STUDIES .................................................................................................. 22
B USE OF TEST DATA FOR DESIGN ........................................................................ 23
C GUIDELINES FOR SERVICEABILITY LIMIT STATES ....................................... 27
D ‘Text deleted’ ............................................................................................................ 30
E ‘Text deleted’ ............................................................................................................ 31
F ANNUAL PROBABILITY OF EXCEEDANCE
(FOR AUSTRALIAN USE ONLY—STRUCTURES FOR WHICH
DESIGN EVENTS ARE NOT GIVEN ELSEWHERE) ............................................. 32
 5 AS/NZS 1170.0:2002

STANDARDS AUSTRALIA/STANDARDS NEW ZEALAND

Australian/New Zealand Standard

Structural design actions

Part 0: General principles

S E C T I O N 1 S C O P E A N D G E N E R A L

1.1 SCOPE
This Standard specifies general procedures and criteria for the structural design of a
building or structure in limit states format. It covers limit states design, actions,
combinations of actions, methods of analysis, robustness and confirmation of design.
The Standard is applicable to the structural design of whole buildings or structures and their
elements.
This Standard covers the following actions:
(a) Permanent action (dead load).
(b) Imposed action (live load).
(c) Wind.
(d) Snow.
(e) Earthquake.
A3
(f) Static liquid pressure.
(g) Ground water.
(h) Rainwater ponding.
(i) Earth pressure.
NOTES:
1 Where this Standard does not give information required for design, special studies should be
carried out. Guidance is given in Appendix A.
2 Where testing is used to determine data for design or to confirm a design, guidance on
methods is given in Appendix B.
3 Normal design practice is that all likely actions be considered. Any actions considered in
design that are not in the above list should be the subject of special studies, as they are not
covered by this Standard.
4 Additional information on other actions such as movement effects, construction loads and
accidental actions is given in the Commentary (see Preface).
5 Movement effects include actions on structures resulting from expansion or contraction of
materials of construction (such as those due to creep, temperature or moisture content
changes) and also those resulting from differential ground settlement. Serviceability may be
particularly affected by such actions.
6 Guidance on criteria for serviceability is given in Appendix C, which have been found to be
generally suitable for importance level 2 buildings. Structures of special importance or
structures where more stringent criteria are appropriate may require the stated criteria to be
tightened.

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