Numerical procedure for the evaluation of partial safety factors for steel structural elements

A numerical method has been set up for the evaluation of the partial safety factors γm. The method is based on the Annex Z procedure and it uses the Monte Carlo method, with the statistical properties of the dominant basic variables. The geometric variables are generated assuming each dimension is uniformly distributed in the pertinent tolerance range, while, concerning the yield stress, generation is performed assuming a log-normal distribution. An extended sensitivity analysis has been carried out on γm values for steel structural elements made using hot rolled IPE200 profiles.