A steel structure is designed to meet strength criteria, aesthetic requirements, morphological complexity, and sustainable design indicators, while simultaneously being an economical, functional, and recoverable solution within the framework of optimal design.

An essential prerequisite for such design is the accurate assessment of the static function of the structure, adherence to design specifications established for each project, and the analysis of the steel structure with the assistance of the regulatory framework of Eurocodes. In this light, this book aspires to be a useful aid for learning, deepening, and analyzing the process of designing steel structures, through simple, yet real and simultaneously common design examples, such as those encountered by students in learning and by engineers in practice.

Today, as the ability to analyze structures with the aid of computer software has advanced dramatically, this is particularly useful for engineers to describe and size the construction more accurately, as well as to correctly assess the results of the calculations. The examples used for this purpose are not design standards for structures, but rather represent typical and, in most cases, applied design cases, so that the process and stages of calculating steel structures can be understood, depending on the type of structure.

The structure of the chapters and the thematic units of the examples in the book are the result of fruitful research into needs as shaped by the application of the Eurocodes, both in the field of study and construction of steel structures and in the related education of students. The development and completion of this effort were made possible with the support and collegial cooperation of all scientific members of the Laboratory of Metal Structures of the Department of Civil Engineering at A.U.Th.

Special thanks are expressed to Professor Mr. Ch. Bismbos, Assistant Professor Mr. Eft. Koltsakis, and Lecturer Mr. E. Efthymiou for their fruitful discussions and useful comments. Additionally, thanks are given to the member of the consulting firm DELCO LLC, civil engineer Mr. Th. Deligianidis, for the technical assistance in presenting certain elements from examples of steel structures that he studied in collaboration with the second author.

[Excerpt from the publisher's or edition's presentation text]