I am struggling with some aspects of LRFD design for steel. Ballast only shows the Allowable Stress method, but NCARB states that they use LRFD for steel. I have the following questions. Can anyone please help shed some light on them?
1) Are the loads that are provided on the exam (for steel LRFD) already factored or must we calculate the factored load before we begin calculations?
2) When calculating the moment in steel do we use the figure for Z (plastic section modulus) or S (section modulus)?