NONLINEAR STATIC (OR PUSHOVER) ANALYSIS

A pushover analysis is a nonlinear static procedure wherein monotonically increasing lateral loads are applied to
the structure till a target displacement is achieved or the structure is unable to resist further loads.

You can conduct a pushover analysis in SAP2000 as follows:

• Define the properties of the plastic hinges. A plastic hinge forms when a section reaches it moment
capacity. While a “hinge” implies that the section cannot carry additional moments, it is possible to specify
some amount of post-yield stiffness. It is advisable to specify some post-yield stiffness so that sudden
system instability (when a mechanism is formed) is avoided.

• To specify hinge properties, select: DEFINE Æ SECTION PROP Æ HINGE PROP

• Then select ADD NEW PROPERTY Æ Select Steel/Concrete or User Defined

If you have calculated the yield moments yourself for beam sections, and generated P-M interaction curves for
column sections, you can choose “User Defined” and input the hinge properties yourself.

To begin with, I suggest using the program generated properties. Hence, if you select STEEL
1. Enter a Hinge Property Name (to identify the hinge type), example “beam”
2. Choose M3 (this is a pure moment hinge)
3. This will bring up a new menu where you can specify the hinge property
4. Input values for C, D and E so that you get a bilinear curve with a constant slope; for example:
a. Moment/SF Rotation/SF
1. 0.
1.1 5
1.2 10
b. 1.5 25
c. Will generate a hinge with 2% post-yield slope
5. Also “check” the box “IS EXTRAPOLATED”
6. Click “OK” to complete the hinge definition

Repeat the above steps for COLUMN hinges – but this time you will select a “P-M3” hinge and accept the
default properties. You cannot specify moment rotation properties for columns, since they are dependent on the
axial loads.

NOTE: When you are back in the menu item titled “Define Frame Hinge Properties” you can check the box
that states “Show Generated Props” This will enable you to come back to this menu (after assigning hinges to
elements) to actually check the assigned properties.

Next, you need to ASSIGN these hinge properties to the elements.

• Select all the beam elements
• Select “ASSIGN” Æ “FRAME” Æ “HINGES”
• From the drop-down menu select “beam” (defined in Step 1), choose “Relative Distance” as “0” and
“Add” Æ then change relative distance to “1” and “Add” again. Now you should see the “beam” hinge
property defined at 2 relative distances (0 and 1). This means you are assigning the beam hinge defined
in Steps 1 – 6 to the 2 ends of the beam.
• Click “OK” – you should see the hinges assigned to the beam
• Repeat the above process to assign the column hinges
A pushover analysis is associated with a load pattern. In this case, use the same later load pattern that was used
for the seismic design.

It is necessary to apply dead and live loads before doing a pushover analysis. Since the pushover procedure is
nonlinear, it is necessary to setup a new load case for dead and live which is also nonlinear.

Start by defining a new D+L case

• “DEFINE” Æ “LOAD CASES” Æ “ADD NEW LOAD CASE”
• Specify a new load case (example D&L)
• Select the correct Load Names and Scale Factors (example 1.2 D + 0.5 L)
• Check the option for “Nonlinear” analysis
• Click OK

The following steps outline the definition of a pushover analysis case:

• “DEFINE” Æ “LOAD CASES” Æ “ADD NEW LOAD CASE”

• Specify a Load Case Name
• Check box “Continue from State at End of Nonlinear Case” and pick “D&L” (defined in previous step)
• Click the box “Nonlinear”
• Choose the correct Load Pattern (in this case, you will select the Lateral Load Case)
• Specify a small scale factor (<1.0), since we want the load to be applied in small steps
• Under “Other Parameters”
o Click “Modify/Show” for “Load Application” and choose “Displacement Control” and
“Conjugate Displacement” (Note that SAP will automatically select a node and displacement –
this is usually a reasonable estimate, so you don’t need to change it)
o Click “Modify/Show” for “Results Saved” and select “Multiple States”
o Click “Modify/Show” for “Nonlinear Parameters” and selected “Apply Local Redistribution”

Run the analysis

Review results by first checking the pushover curve (DISPLAY Æ Show Static Pushover Curve)

If the pushover curve is linear, then none of the members have yielded under the specified lateral load. If you
used the full lateral load as the load pattern for the pushover, this is unlikely – something else is wrong and you
need to check your hinge specifications again. To make sure that the nonlinear analysis parameters are
correctly specified, try running it again by scaling the lateral load with a factor greater than 1.0.

If the pushover curve shows a sudden drop with limited inelastic behavior, you probably need to reduce the
scale factor for the lateral load.

Once you are satisfied with the pushover curve, you can examine the detailed results in the usual manner by
viewing results step by step graphically or by outputting the results into a Table (all options are in the
DISPLAY menu).