Assessment of Failures of Steel Structures

Failures in steel structures are triggered by the actions to which the structures are subjected.
However, structures are designed to withstand these actions within a certain statistical probability.
If this goal of design is missed, the cause is attributed to faulty design, faulty manufacturing, faulty
maintenance or faulty operation. In the present paper failures with steel structures are categorized
according to different criteria. As far as possible examples are presented which illustrate the
different mechanisms.
Of course it is very valuable to look back on the failures that occurred and try to learn what
could have been done better. But on the other hand it seems to be obvious that
+ if the owner is willing to pay good money for good work
+ if the designer is knowledgeable and designs to the state of the art
+ if the manufacturer produces and assembles to good workmanship
+ if the operator uses the structure well and maintains it properly
then there would be no reason to talk about assessment of failures of steel structures.