wood armer is an equivalent moment method - it basically takes the Mxy (twisting) moment and lumps this value

to the principal direction moments Mx & My.to use the Wood-Armer equations for reinforcement calculations, as follows: a) Mx, My, and Mxy are fetched or calculated, as described above. They are used to compute the values of design moments, Mxd and Myd. b) For top reinforcement, the program computes: Mx1 = Mx + abs(Mxy) My1 = My + abs(Mxy) Mx2 = Mx + abs(Mxy2 / My) My2 = My + abs(Mxy2 / Mx) If both Mx1 and My1 are positive, Mxd = Mx1 and Myd = My1. If both Mx1 and My1 are negative, Mxd = 0 and Myd = 0. If Mx1 is negative and My1 positive, Mxd = 0 and Myd = My2. If My1 is negative and Mx1 positive, Mxd = Mx2 and Myd = 0. c) For bottom reinforcement: Mx1 = Mx - abs(Mxy) My1 = My - abs(Mxy) Mx2 = Mx - abs(Mxy2 / My) My2 = My - abs(Mxy2 / Mx) If both Mx1 and My1 are positive, Mxd = 0 and Myd = 0. If both Mx1 and My1 are negative, Mxd = Mx1 and Myd = My1. If Mx1 is negative and My1 positive, Mxd = Mx2 and Myd = 0. If My1 is negative and Mx1 positive, Mxd = 0 and Myd = My2. Mxd and Myd are then used in lieu of Mx and My for calculations of the required reinforcing

The manual design involves rigid base assumption and the reaction of the soil is due to the loads /area of footing and manual calculation is an approximation to the nearest theoretical values. 2. In STAADPRO the plate is meshed into smaller size since the FEA reuired to yield better results and the soil reaction is replaced by the Modulus of Subgrade reaction. This makes the raft as BEAM ON ELASTIC support i.e continuous support. 3. Since the analysis through a engineering software -STAADPRO which calculates and yields best results results. 4. You can compare with the results using another software like STAAD FOUNDATION or SAFE. This is my view and if some one has different can post it.