Federation University Australia

School of Science, Engineering and Information Technology

ENGIN2203 Structural Analysis

Analysis Assignment 2

INTRODUCTION
This exercise involves the use of Space Gass to investigate several issues of a structural
nature. The objective of this exercise is to enhance your understanding of structural
behaviour, as well as develop a basic competency in the use of an industry-standard
structural analysis computer program. This assignment consists of two parts.

Please note that you need to upload 3 files in the Moodle submission link by the due date:

1) Complete report file for parts A and B (in a single Pdf file);

2) The SPACE GASS file for parts A and B(in .SG format)–for cross checking purposes.

ASSESSMENT

The following issues will be considered in arriving at the final mark:

• Neatness of presentation of the written/typed work and quality of diagrams
• Correctness of manual calculations, computer modelling and output results
• The extent to which all appropriate calculations, diagrams, etc, are shown and
the instructions given in the assignment brief are followed.
• Readability and scale of the diagrams (i.e. printed from SPACE GASS).
• All requested results from SPACE GASS should be presented in the report.

DUE

17:00, Friday 29th October 2021.

PART A: Reinforced Concrete Floor System

A reinforced concrete floor of a building comprises parallel reinforced concrete beams

supporting, and cast integrally with, a reinforced concrete slab, as shown in the diagram
below. Dimensions are given in separate tables provided along with the assignment brief.
The beams are supported by brickwork walls. The slab acts as part of the beams, such
that each beam may be regarded to be T-shaped, comprising a width of slab extending
half-way to the adjacent beam. The concrete unit weight may be taken as 24.5 kN/m3 and
the design imposed loading (i.e. live loading) on the floor is also tabulated in the given
table.

a) Use Space Gass to analyse one of these beams to determine the following maximum
design ultimate bending moments due to dead load + live load:

i) Maximum sag in the end spans;

ii) Maximum sag in the penultimate (i.e. second from the end) spans;

iii) Maximum hog over the penultimate supports;

iv) Maximum hog over the central support.

In each case, show all loading calculations, draw the loading diagram and the full B.M.D.
for the beam, labelling the values of the hogging bending moments over each support
and the maximum sagging bending moments in each span.
 Note the following important points:

• Patterned placement of the live loading needs to be considered in order to

determine the worst cases (obviously the self weight cannot be patterned as it is a
characteristic of the structure itself and is not moveable).

• To obtain the ultimate moments, you need to factor up the loads in accordance with
AS1170.0 Cl. 4.2.2.

• For the section properties to use for the beam members, see ‘Supplementary Notes:
Part A): Section Properties for Analysis of Multi-Span Beams’.

b) Clearly state the following:

i) The span in which the maximum sagging bending moment occurs; and

ii) The support over which the maximum hogging bending moment occurs.
PART B: Portal Frame Model

INTRODUCTION

This exercise continues Assignment 1 to apply the wind loading on a typical steel portal
frame building, using SPACE GASS program. You need to use the group inputs and results
of your calculations from Assignment 1. Please make sure you correct any mistakes
undertaken in the previous assignment in order to get full marks for this part and
mention a small summary of changes.

The diagram of the portal frame was given in Assignment 1. The portal frames are pinned-
base, with the usual rigid connections at the eaves and the ridge. There is no haunch in
the structure.

In a normal portal frame building design, a substantial number of wind loading scenarios
would be considered. For this exercise, however, a very small subset of load cases will be
investigated.

REQUIREMENTS

For the portal framed structure, and based on the dead load + wind load cases described
below, the following is required:

Determine the following maximum design actions, derived from Load Cases 4 and 5, for
the first internal portal frame in from the end of the building:

• Maximum uplift on the footing (kN);

• Maximum hogging moment at the ridge (kNm);

• Maximum sagging moment at the rafter-column connection (kNm).

In addition to these answers, the following is to be included in the submission

• All calculations involved in determining the loadings and any corrections (from
Assignment 1);

• A fully dimensioned diagram of the model, showing member and node

numbering and section sizes;

• Fully detailed diagrams showing the loadings used for the three load cases LC1,
LC2 and LC3;
 • The bending moment diagrams determined for the two load cases LC4 and LC5.

Note that the various diagrams should be produced by SPACE GASS.

FURTHER INFORMATION

i) Load Cases to Analyse

The following load cases should be input into SPACE GASS:

• LC 1: Un-factored DL
• LC 2: The total UDL (kN/m) from external wind pressures, due to wind
coming from direction ‘A’
• LC 3: The total UDL (kN/m) from external wind pressures, due to wind
coming from direction ‘B’
• LC4: 0.9 x LC1 + LC2
• LC5: 0.9 x LC1 + LC3
Use the information provided in Assignment 1 for the required loads.
Note that:

o The 0.9 factor applied to the dead loading in LC4 and LC5 is in accordance with
AS1170.0 Cl. 4.2.2 and applies when the dead loading and the wind loading are in
opposite directions. If they are in the same direction, then the worst case would
be given by the dead load exceeding our estimate, and hence it is factored up by
using the familiar 1.2 ultimate load factor. However, if the dead load opposes the
wind, then the worst case would be if the dead loading actually turned out to be
less than estimated, resulting in a larger nett uplift effect. To allow for this
possibility, we hence factor down the dead load by the 0.9 factor. Make sure you
make a note about the factor of DL in LC4 and LC5 and mention the reason.

o Wind loadings are not factored up because they may already be regarded as
ultimate loads. When we select the average recurrence interval R for
determination of the regional wind speed VR (AS1170.2 Cl. 3.2) and then
undertake strength limit state design of members for the actions generated by
these wind loads, an optimum design would have the structure on the point of
collapse under these wind loads. Hence, they are the ultimate loads.

ii) Creating the Model in SPACE GASS

Created the 2-D portal frame manually, by ‘constructing’ the nodes and members of the
first internal portal frame in from the end of the building and apply the relevant loads
accordingly.
 SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES

PART A)

Section Properties for Analysis of Multi-Span Beams

Since we are not interested in deflection values in this analysis, just magnitudes of B.M.’s,
it actually doesn’t matter what material or section shape you use in this analysis. The
distribution of B.M.’s is affected only by the relative stiffnesses of the spans, so as long as
you maintain a constant material type and section size for all spans, as exists in the real
structure, then it won’t matter whether you use the actual concrete members or steel U.B
sections - the B.M. values will be exactly the same. If you aren’t convinced, try it!! Note
two things, though:

➢ The approach you use will affect how you input the floor self-weight loading. If
you use the actual concrete section properties, then the floor self-weight can
be input just using the ‘Self Weight’ option in Space Gass. However, if you use,
say, steel beam sections, then of course the ‘Self Weight’ option will input the
self-weight of that steel beam, which will be substantially less than that of the
real concrete floor. Instead, you would then need to manually input the floor
self-weight as a separate loading case and combine it with each of the
patterned live load cases to get the total B.M. in each case.

➢ If true estimates of deflections were required, then you would have no option
but to use the actual concrete section and material properties.

PART B)

• All the dead and wind loads are distributed loads, so the loading data is input via
the Datasheet in the ‘Member Distributed Forces’ option from the ‘Loads’ drop-
down menu.

• The loads have to be applied to the structure member-by-member, although the

‘generate’ option may be used when a significant number of members is involved.
Say, for example, a particular load case LC4 involved three vertical members, 7, 8,
and 9 carrying UDL loading as shown below:
The part of the Member Distributed Forces datasheet relating to this load case would
appear as follows:

Note the following important points:

o Every loaded member has its own line in the datasheet, but because each line
is specified as Load Case 4 the loads are all applied simultaneously in this load
case.

o Member 9 has 2 lines in the datasheet, because for part of its length it carries
a 5 kN/m UDL and for the remainder of its length the UDL is 8 kN/m. The two
loads applied simultaneously to the one member are referred to as Sub Loads
1 and 2. If you try to apply more than one load to a particular member in a
 given load case without giving them different sub load numbers, Space Gass
will ask if you want to overwrite the load already input.

o Dead and live loads are normally most conveniently input using the Global
axis system, as these loads are normally vertical and thus aligned with the
Global Y axis (they would be –Y loads). The choice is either Global-Inclined or
Global-Projected:

▪ If Global-Inclined is used (normal case), then when you specify a UDL

of, say, 4 kN/m, the meter length is measured along the axis of the
member. For dead loadings, this would be the normal situation.

▪ If Global-Projected is used, the metre length would be taken as

measured perpendicular to the direction of the load. For example, this
would be applicable if there was a vertical UDL was being applied to a
sloping member, where the UDL was specified as 4kN/m, in which the
metre was measured horizontally.

o Wind loads are normally most conveniently input using the Local axis system,
because wind pressures are perpendicular to the building surfaces and hence
if the loads are input as either +y or –y loads in the Local axis system, they will
be perpendicular to the members.

o The location of the start and finish of a UDL on a member may be specified
either in terms of actual distances in ‘m’ from the start of the member, or in
terms of a % of the member length.

o In the above example, the Global axis system was selected for input of the
loads. If the Local system had been used, then the loads would have been input
as –y loads. Either is fine. Probably member loads are most commonly input
in the Local axis system, and concentrated loads are always input in the Global
axis system.

• The Self Weight option is accessed via the ‘Loads’ drop-down menu. Simply type 1
under ‘Case’ and -1 under ‘Y Acceleration (g’s)’. That is, for Load case 1, member weights
are calculated allowing for one ‘g’ of acceleration in the downwards direction. You
wouldn’t do this for any of the other load cases if you are going to later combine them
with Load Case 1, as to do so would result in double-counting of member self-weights.