The capacity of a member to resist tensile forces is implemented as a single design check. A number of modification factors may be entered to change the section properties used for checking tension. This includes the area of holes in the flange or web of the member and an area reduction factor to account for the distribution of forces at the ends of a member.

In addition to checking the tensile capacity of the member, a design constraint will be applied to the member enforcing the slenderness of the member to be less than 300.

When checking or designing a member for tension, you need to specify any reduction in area due to boltholes or other openings within the section. If the members contain significant areas of boltholes, which need to be taken into account when determining the cross-sectional area of the section, you will need to enter the amount of cross-sectional area to be deducted to allow for these holes.  The net area of the section is the gross area minus the combined area of boltholes in the flange and web.

The reduction in area can be specified by setting the number and diameter of holes in the web or flanges or the member. Alternative, the user may override this and directly specify the height of holes across the flanges and webs of the cross section. These heights are multiplied by the thickness of the section to determine the total reduction in area of the section. The initial value for the area of boltholes is zero.

When checking or designing a member for tension using LRFD, you need to specify the reduction coefficient for the distribution of forces at the ends of the member.  This coefficient is used to factor the net area in order to compute the effective area. The reduction coefficient U has a default value of 1.0