Tutorial 9 Steel Floor System

Project Description:
In this example we will analyze a steel floor system to see if vibrations are going to be a problem. It is necessary to know the different fundamental frequencies of vibration. The floor system carries a mechanical unit, modeled as point loads. FEATURES: Generate Standard Nodal Loads Nodal Mass

Setting Up the Project:

When you start up VisualAnalysis, you are presented with the VisualAnalysis Startup Wizard. The wizard presents you with a number of options. We want to start fresh with a new project, so choose the Start a New project radio button and click Finish.

VisualAnalysis Startup Wizard

After finishing the startup wizard, you are brought to the Structure Type dialog. Choose Space Frame from the list of available structure types and click Next. Note: The floor itself all lies within a single plane. We need to apply the machinery loads perpendicular to this plane, so we nust use the three dimensional Space Frame model type.

VisualAnalysis Tutorial 9: Steel Floor System

Tutorial Examples 1

You are brought to the Structure Title Information dialog. Enter Steel Floor System for the title. Choose U.S. ft-k from the Units drop down box and click Next to move on to the next dialog. In the Automatic Generation dialog choose the No, Id prefer to create my model from scratch radio button and click Finish. An empty 3D frame model is created for you.

Modeling the Structure:

Select Model | Generate Standard and under Floors, select Girders(XZ).

Leave the origin point at the default location (0,0,0) and choose Next. Specify the X Bay Length as 30 ft, the Z Bay Length 5 ft, and leave the Elevation Height equal to 0 ft. Choose Next to move to the next dialog. Enter 1 for Bays, M, 5 for Perpendicular Bays, O, and leave the Stories, L equal to zero. After clicking Finish, your model should look as follows.

On the Filter Tab of the Project Manager, type BM in the Name Filter field under Members. You should now only see the end beams. Holding the Shift key, click one of the beams. All of the beams should now be selected. Specify them as W21x68. Following the same process, filter the GRDR members and specify them as W16x36. With the girders still selected, use the split member command to split each girder into ten equal parts. Lastly, make the four corner nodes pin supported. Using the Picture View we can see that the members are oriented properly and we are ready to continue.

2 Tutorial Examples

VisualAnalysis Tutorial 9: Steel Floor System

Loading the Structure:

If one doesnt already exist, create a Dead loads service case. Be sure to include the structure self-weight in the Dead loads case. Apply 5 kip nodal loads at the locations shown to simulate the dead load of mechanical equipment.

We also need to apply extra nodal mass to all of the nodes to account for a 6 inch concrete slab.

75 NodalMass =

lb * (3 ft ) * (5 ft ) lb s 2 ft 3 = 34.94 ft ft 32.2 2 s

where 75 is the unit weight of concrete for a 6 inch slab, 3ft and 5ft are the tributary widths for each node, and 32.2 is the acceleration due to gravity. For this example we will assume that the floor section we modeled is part of a larger floor system. If the floor section ended the tributary area would be smaller for the perimeter nodes. This nodal mass can be applied by selecting all of the nodes and specifying the translational mass on the Modify tab of the Project Manager.

VisualAnalysis Tutorial 9: Steel Floor System

Tutorial Examples 3

Analysis and Results:

Now that we have our model created and loaded, we should check it for errors before setting the analysis options and actually analyzing the structure. Select Analyze | Check Model for Errors to make sure there are no problems. With a good model, we should set our analysis options. Note: The self weight of the structure and the 5k point loads are internally converted to mass for the analysis. Set the options as shown below. We must include mass from the dead load case. The dynamic response anlaysis is highlighted but will not be performed since we have not created any response cases. With the options set, select Analyze | Analyze Now or click the lightning bolt button on the toolbar.

There is an issue with including load cases as mass, waiting for this to be resolved

4 Tutorial Examples

VisualAnalysis Tutorial 9: Steel Floor System