Design of Circular Base Plates

Circular base plates are commonly used for pipe columns, such as pylons in cable-stayed bridges, lighting poles, and electric power line posts. Although the explicit solutions for rectangular base plates can be found in many textbooks and AISC design procedures for base plates, a complete design procedure for circular base plates under different loading conditions has not been documented except for a large eccentric load. In this paper, a complete allowable stress design procedure is presented for circular base plates with axial loads, small eccentric loads, and moderate eccentric loads. Several design examples are shown for different loading conditions.