RHS 220×120×5 - Section Properties

RHS 220×120×5 has a mass of 25.7 kg/m, tabulated to BS EN 10210-2:2006. A 12 m length therefore weighs about 308 kg, which is the figure to use for a steel take-off or when checking a lift.

RHS 220×120×5 has a depth of 220 mm, a width of 120 mm, a wall thickness of 5 mm, with a cross-sectional area of 32.7 cm². These are the nominal dimensions from BS EN 10210-2:2006; rolling tolerances apply to the delivered section.

The plastic section modulus about the major axis, Wpl,y, is 236 cm³, and the elastic modulus Wel,y is 193 cm³. Wpl,y is what sets the moment capacity of a Class 1 or 2 section: M_pl,Rd = Wpl,y x f_y / gamma_M0, so at S355 with gamma_M0 = 1.0 this section reaches about 84 kNm before any stability check.

The second moment of area about the major axis, Iy, is 2,130 cm⁴, and about the minor axis Iz is 829 cm⁴. Iy is the value deflection depends on - for a simply supported beam under a uniform load, the midspan deflection is 5wL⁴/384EIy - so on spans where a deflection limit governs rather than strength, this is the number that decides the section.

Its local-buckling ratios are cf/tf = 21 for the flange and cw/tw = 41 for the web. EN 1993-1-1 Table 5.2 compares these against limits scaled by epsilon = sqrt(235/f_y), so the class depends on the steel grade as well as the geometry - the same section can be Class 1 in S275 and Class 3 in S355. Use the Capacity tab on this page for the classification at a specific grade.

iy is 8.06 cm about the major axis and iz is 5.03 cm about the minor axis. Column buckling is governed by the SMALLER value: the slenderness is lambda = L_cr / i, so with iz = 5.03 cm a 0.5 m effective length already gives lambda = 100. Minor-axis buckling almost always controls unless the weak axis is restrained.

The St Venant torsion constant It is 1,880 cm⁴. Closed sections carry torsion in a shear flow around the perimeter, which makes them far stiffer in torsion than an open section of the same weight and is usually why one is specified.