I think Nutte’s 17:27 post gives a darn good explanation of the code situation and SteelPE and JAE also give good added explanations of the problem. It seems to me that we have become such slaves to these overly complex codes, which should (which we want to) spell out every nut and bolt or detail, that we’ve lost all engineering perspective and the ability to apply any engineering judgement.
My understanding of the original intent of these types of allowable overloads, over stresses, or allowances for minor changes in loads, or structural configuration, etc. was the following: we are usually conservative in our code required design loads, we design to a min. Fy (whatever other criteria) which is almost always exceeded in the actual materials supplied, our design approach and formulas are generally conservative to account for typical expected variations, etc. etc.; So we’ll give you 5 or 10% without forcing you to redesign and reinforce the entire structure, that’s a small percentage of the safety factors we still have in our back pocket. Obviously, you can’t take 5% of the total uniform load on a beam, then apply it as a concentrated load right near one of the end connections, and say that’s o.k. That certainly violates the spirit or intent of the allowance, as well as any common sense or engineering judgement. You can take some new concentrated load, plus the current uniform loads on a beam, and be o.k. if that doesn’t change the stresses by more than 5%, or I dare say, overstress the beam by a few percent. All it says or does is... we’ll allow you to use a few percent of the safety factor for this change without a lot of extra rework effort; and sets some limits on these so people don’t go crazy. But, it is still your responsibility as the engineer to be sure that this change isn’t a killer someplace else, down the load path. If everything else checked out and was conservative, I might exceed those limits a little to save a bunch of rework for my client, but that is becoming more dangerous in our litigious society. I’m actually getting afraid to design anything to code any more, because I may have missed a new word or phrase on page 4278, in an appendix which was referred to in a new tabulation footnote associated with a sub-section which was referred to by that other chapter. I don’t have enough fingers to hold the page locations for the various sub-sections which a code paragraph refers to these days. And, while holding those page locations, I also need to reach for three different standards, and the AISC and ACI codes too.
One solution to the b/t problem might be to stitch weld a ½" sq. bar to the tips of the angles as a stiffener. You might also look at how you structure or support your new platform to lessen its impact on any one member.