XTRACT

Cross Section Analysis Of

Structural Components

Beginning Level - Example 2

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Introduction
This beginning example (Example 2) outlines some of the basic features of XTRACT. Before continuing with this example, it is advised that the reader go through the Step-by-Step Example 1 file
located from either the XTRACT folder in the Start Menu, or the Help title bar in XTRACT.
In this example, two oblong reinforced concrete sections will be created and their response compared. The columns will be transversely reinforced with interlocking spirals and longitudinally
reinforced with #11 reinforcing bars.
Contents of this detailed example include:
Adding material models to the project
Step-by-step instructions on creating a cross section from a User Defined Section
How to change the dimensions of the cross section after the section has been meshed
Running multiple moment curvature analyses and moment-moment interaction analyses and
comparing results

Creating a New Project

To create a new project, click the 'New' button (

), or from the title bar drop-down menu select

New. When the New Project icon is clicked the new project wizard is opened. In this wizard,
enter the information particular to the project. Information entered here will be printed in the headers of the various output reports that are generated by XTRACT after analysis. Click the Forward
button to continue.
The next page of the wizard defines how to begin the project (Figure 1). Projects can begin from
a section created with the section template, imported from a file, or created from a blank slate (a
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Figure 1. New Project Wizard - Page 2.

user defined section). In this example, the section will be created as a user defined cross section.
In the Start From drop-down menu, select User Defined, choose the kip-in unit system, and
enter the section name as Section1. Click the Begin XTRACT button.

Add Material Models

The New Project Wizard will immediately open the first material model. For this example, because
Confined Concrete is selected, the user is taken to the Mander Confined Concrete model dialog
box. In this material parameter input dialog form, enter the values shown in Figure 2 and click the
Apply button. For this material model, a 28-Day compression strength of 4ksi was assumed with
a confined strength of 6ksi. The confined concrete strength is a function of many parameters (See
XTRACT Help files for details). To find theoretical strength of the confined concrete by entering
these many parameters, click the Equals sign next to the Confined Concrete Strength text box.
Alternatively, if the cross section meets ACI requirements for seismic detailing, the overstrength
due to confinement can be assumed at a minimum of 1.3 times the 28-Day Strength. For bridge
columns conforming to current Caltrans requirements an overstrength of 1.5 may be assumed - as
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Figure 2. Mander Confined Concrete Dialog.

is done for this example. For this example, zero concrete tension strength was assumed and the
Crushing Strain was taken as 0.015. If the section is detailed properly, a minimum confined strain
capacity of 0.015 can be assumed as is done for this example. Alternatively, clicking the Equal
sign will allow a more detailed calculation of this value. Lastly, the Elastic Modulus and the
Yield Strain were taken as default values based on the 28-Day Strength. For more information
on the reasons for a user inputted yield strain the reader is advised to consult Step-by-Step Example
1 or the XTRACT Help file.
Once the model has been applied, it becomes part of the project. To view materials in the project
open the Project Manager and expand the materials folder (Figure 3).
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Figure 3. Project Manager.

After the material dialog box is closed, the blank Section Builder is exposed. For this example,
two other material models need to be added - Unconfined Concrete and Bilinear Steel with Strain
Hardening. From the Materials drop-down menu on the title bar, select Mander Unconfined
Concrete. In this form, enter the values shown in Figure 4. For a detailed description of the concrete Yield Strain or the Failure Strain consult the Step-by-Step Example 1 or the XTRACT
Help file. After entering the parameters, click the Apply button and close the form.
From the Materials drop-down menu select Bilinear with Strain Hardening. On this form, select
A706 from the Steel Standard and Grade drop-down menu and click the Apply button to add
this material model to the project.

Creating the Cross Section

After the materials have been added to the project the sections can be created. On the Builder
Tools toolbar click the Draw Shape icon (

) to go into Draw Shape mode. On the Draw/

Import Shapes dialog click the Import Shape tab. In this form select Oblong from the Select
Shape drop-down menu and enter 0.0 for both the X Location and Y Location text boxes. Enter
0.0 for the rotation, 12.0 for Width and 36.0 for the Height as shown in Figure 5 (the project
units should be in kip-in). Use the vertical scroll bar to access text boxes that are obscured from
view. Note that the width of the oblong shape is defined from inside to inside of the semi-circular

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Figure 4. Mander Unconfined Material Model.

ends of the shape. Once the parameters have been entered, click the Import button, then the Discretize button.
Upon clicking the Discretize button, the Discretizer dialog box will be opened. In the discretizer, enter the values shown in Figure 6 and click the Discretize/Overlay button. Then, on the
Builder Tools toolbar, click the Zoom Section button (

). On the Section Builder the dis-

cretized oblong shape, in unconfined concrete, should be seen as shown in Figure 7. In the Draw/
Import Shape dialog box, select Interlocking Spiral from the Select Shape drop-down box and
enter the values shown in Figure 8. Click the Import button then the Discretize button to disXTRACT - Cross Sectional Analysis of Structural Components - 6

Figure 5. Add an Oblong Shape.

Figure 6. The Discretizer Dialog Box.

cretize the shape within the cross section. In the Discretizer dialog, select the option for No
Cover, enter 2.0 for the mesh size, and select Confined1 as the Section Material. Click the
Discretize/Overlay button to discretize the shape. On the Section Builder the cross section
shown in Figure 9 should be seen. User defined sections need to created from the outside in. For
this example, the outside was created all in unconfined concrete and the inside was created in confined concrete. A thorough explanation of the Order of Section Creation is available in the
XTRACT Help file.
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Figure 7. Discretized Oblong Section.

Figure 8. Add an Interlocking Spiral Shape.

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Figure 9. Discretized Interlocking Spiral Shape.

Copy and Resize the Cross Section

Before adding any steel to the cross section, the section is to be copied and resized. To copy the
section, click the Add/Remove Section button on the main toolbar (

). In the Add/Remove

Section dialog, select the As a copy of option in the Add Section frame, enter Section2 as the

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Section Name and click the Add Section button as shown in Figure 10. Set Section2 as the

Figure 10. Add/Remove Section Dialog Box.

active section by single clicking the section name (Section2) in the Project Manager.
To change the geometry of the cross section, click the Remesh Mode icon on the Builder Tools
toolbar (

). In the Remesh Section dialog box click the mouse icon to select specific points

in the shape as shown in Figure 11. On the Section Builder, select the four points as shown in

Figure 11. Remesh Section Dialog Box.

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Figure 12 by clicking them once with the mouse. After selecting the four points to move, click the

Figure 12. Select the Points to Move on the Section Builder.

Move Points icon on the Remesh Section dialog (

). Then, either grab any of the selected

points and move them 6 inches to the right or enter 6.0 in the Delta X text box. Use the Scroll
Shape and Scroll Point buttons until one of the selected points is highlighted with the larger
yellow circle, then click the Modify Point(s) button (Figure 13).
Repeat this procedure for the intersecting points of the inside interlocking spiral shape (Figure 14)
but move those points just 3 inches to the right. To un-select a single point, click the selected point
while the Select icon is depressed (

) in the Remesh Section dialog box. To un-select all

the points, click the Move Shape icon (

) then click back to the Select icon. Next, click

the word SNAP in the bottom left side of the builder and change the snap distance to 1.0 inch.
Then click the Move Point icon (

) on the Remesh Section dialog box, grab the top inter-

secting point and move it downward 1.0 inch to coordinates (3, 14.37). Grab the bottom intersection point and move it upwards 1.0 inch to coordinates (3, -14.37). After relocating the shape
points, click the Discretize All button to remesh the entire cross section with the new dimensions.

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Figure 13. Remesh Dialog used to Modify Existing Section Coordinates.

Figure 14. Select the Points to Move on the Section Builder.

Generating Steel Reinforcing Bars

With the two section created, the longitudinal reinforcing steel needs to be added. First, single
click Section1 in the Project Manager to set Section1 as the active section bringing it into
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view. Then, to enter into the Add Reinforcing Bars mode click the Add Reinforcing Bars mode
icon on the Builder Tools toolbar (

). In the Rebar Characteristics box, select bar size as #11,

select the Enter by Coordinates and the Generate icons, select the option to Generate by Number, and enter 8 as the number of bars (Figure 15). In the Enter Generation Points by Coordi-

Figure 15. Rebar Characteristics.

nates dialog box, click the Stop icon in the bottom right side corner of the form to prevent
interaction between the mouse and the screen. On the Builder Tools toolbar, click the Arc icon
(

) to generate the bars around an arc.

In the Enter Generation Points by Coordinates dialog input the values as shown in Figure 16, then
click the Apply button. The coordinates were found from the total width of the interior circular
shape (18in radius) less the cover (1.5in) less the assumed diameter of the transverse reinforcing
steel (0.5in) less half the diameter of a #11 reinforcing bar. To enter the reinforcing bars for the
other side of the left circular shape, change the X-Coordinate in the second bar text box to -21.31
and click the Apply button. The first and last bars that were overlapping were removed then reapplied resulting in a total of 14 longitudinal reinforcing bars as shown in Figure 17.
To add the longitudinal bars in the other transverse reinforcing spiral, repeat the above procedure
using the appropriate coordinates. After completion, the section should appear as shown in
Figure 18.
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Figure 16. Generating Longitudinal Reinforcement.

Figure 17. Cross Section with Generated Rebar.

Again, following the same procedure for bar generation around an arc performed for Section1,
add the double spiral of longitudinal reinforcing bars to Section2 (Figure 19). Save the file.

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Figure 18. Cross Section with Generated Rebar - Section1.

Figure 19. Cross Section with Generated Rebar - Section2.

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Add Moment Curvature Analyses in the Input

File
In this section, one moment curvature analysis will be added within the user interface to each section (Section1 and Section2). Then, the input file will be opened and multiple moment curvatures
will be added.
From the title bar Loading menu, select Moment Curvature. Enter the loading parameters
shown in Figure 20 and click Apply. Change the On Section drop-down menu to Section2,

Figure 20. Moment Curvature Loading for Section1

re-enter the same loading data shown in Figure 20 with the loading name of MCs1 and click the
Apply button. Save the file and close XTRACT.

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From WordPad, open the file and scroll down to the loading block for Section1, MC1
(Figure 21). Highlight this block of text, copy and paste. In the pasted loading block, change the
Begin_Loading
NAME = MC1
TYPE = Moment Curvature
# Constant loads applied at first step - negative is read as compression.
ConstAxial = -100.0
# Incrementing load parameters - Positive increments in a positive direction.
IncMyy = 1.0000
Use_Best_Fit = True
# Include Plastic Hinge length.
Calc_Moment_Rot = False
# Analysis Parameters.
Method = BiSection
N_Steps_Before_Yield = 10
N_Steps_After_Yield = 20
Multiple_On_First_Yield = 2
BS_Tol = 1.0000
BS_Max_Itter = 40
End_Loading
#--------------------------------------Figure 21. Loading Block in the Input File.

loading name to MC2 and the ConstAxial value to -2000. Repeat four times (MC3 with -3000,
MC4 with -4000). Next, highlight the loading block of text for Section2, MCs1 and repeat the
steps outlined above with:
NAME = MCs2 ConstAxial = -2000
NAME = MCs3 ConstAxial = -3000
NAME = MCs4 ConstAxial = -4000
Save the file and re-open in XTRACT. Open the Project Manager to verify that the various loadings were imported correctly.

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Capacity Orbit Analyses

To add a capacity orbit analysis, or moment-moment interaction analysis, select Capacity Orbit
from the Loading title menu. Enter the name as CO1y, enter 1000k as the applied axial load,
and select the Analyze at first material yield option (Figure 22). Repeat for the following loads

Figure 22. Capacity Orbit for Section 1.

on the following sections:

Section = Section1 Name = CO1u Axial Load = 1000k Orbit Option = Analyze at ultimate material strains
Section = Section2 Name = CO2y Axial Load = 1000k Orbit Option = Analyze at first
material yield option
Section = Section2 Name = CO2u Axial Load = 1000k Orbit Option = Analyze at ultimate material strains
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The moment-moment interaction surface analyzes the cross section at a number of points specified
by the Number of Points input parameter. Analysis is performed on the cross section at varying
angles of loading with the principal bending axis ranging from 0 to 360 degrees. For each analysis,
one of the target strains specified for each of the materials will be reached but not exceeded. By
specifying the first yield criterion this will result in a moment-moment yield surface. By specifying
the ultimate material strains, the ultimate moment-moment interaction surface can be found for the
given target axial load.
In this project there should be 2 sections each with 6 applied loadings - 4 moment curvatures and
2 capacity orbits. Click the Analyze icon (

) from the main toolbar to run the analyses.

Viewing Results
After closing the analysis display windows, click the Add Graph icon (

) to add graph to the

project. In the graph dialog box, change the name to Sec1 Moment Curv and add the Curvatures
about the Y-Axis data on the X-Axis and Moments about the Y-Axis on the Y-Axis. Repeat for
all moment curvature loadings applied on Section1 (Figure 23). This can be repeated for the
moment curvature analyses performed on Section2 allowing comparison of results from the two
sections.

The comparison of moment curvature results for varying axial loads applied on

Section1 shown in Figure 23 reveals that there is a higher moment capacity as the axial load is
increased (both at yield and ultimate limit states); however, with increasing axial load there is a
decrease in curvature capacity.
Add a graph called Capacity Orbit Curv (Figure 24) - in this graph plot the Curvatures about the
X-Axis on the Y-Axis of the chart against the Curvatures about the Y-Axis on the X-Axis of the
chart. Repeat for both ultimate analysis on both cross sections. This chart suggests that Section1
has more deformation capacity when loaded to the left (bending about the strong axis) where as
Section2 has more deformation capacity when loaded upwards (bending about the weak axis).

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Figure 23. Moment Curvatures for Section 1.

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Figure 24. Graph of X and Y axes curvatures from the Capacity Orbit analyses.

Conclusion
This step-by-step example file has demonstrated to the reader how to create a user defined cross
section. The example has also demonstrated the use of the remesher and generation of longitudinal
reinforcing bars. In addition, the input file was opened and manipulated within a text editor and
multiple analyses were performed. For more information on specific details not contained within
this example, consult the XTRACT.hlp.

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