How to Model, Analyze & Design a Concrete Structure

The next step will be to replicate these members, we can select the structure using Ctrl + A and then hit Ctrl + C, select node id:2, and hit Ctrl + V we will repeat this process 2 times. The result should look like this:

To avoid the creation of more nodes and members we will duplicate the frame that we created in the previous steps in the Z axis. To achieve this we need to select the whole structure by doing right click on the canvas > Select all or hit Ctrl + A on your keyboard. After we select the whole frame we can go to Edit > Operations > Repeat or hit Ctrl + D.

A form will appear on the screen, we will use the information shown in the following image:

We will use one repetition with an angle of 90 degrees. The result should look as shown in the following image:

We can proceed and copy all the members to complete our structure.

However, we want to use different sections for our beams in this case, we will repeat the same process creating a 500×700 concrete section in Section Builder. When we finish the creation, we need to select all the beams, next step will be to modify the section of these members to the one created for our beams and click on Apply.

The result of our sections should look like this:

We can also, create holes in our slabs, in this case, we can select a plate > right-click> Plate hole > insert the nodes that we want to use in our hole and submit. We can do the same process for all of our slabs to create the elevator hole.

To create our meshed plates, we can select all of our plates > right click > Mesh Plate, then we can use the following information in the form, finally we can click on Mesh.

We will apply some area loads to our structure, we will use live loads on all the floors and self weight on our members. To apply live loads you can go to Area Loads and put the following data (Put the 4 nodes where you want to apply your area load):

We will repeat the same process with the remaining floors. The final result should look like this:

We will activate the self-weight of our members so when we solve our structure the load of the elements will be considered, to do this we just need to click on Self Weight > Click on On > Apply. We need to verify that the value in our vertical axis is equal to -1.

To add supports to our structure we have to select all the ground nodes, then go to Supports > Double Click on the Node ID field (If you have your nodes selected) > Select 3D Pin Support > Apply. After you create all your supports they should appear on your model.

We can define know our load combinations, we need to click on Load Combos > Design Codes, and a window containing the design codes from the database should appear, we will use the ACI318-2011 code for this example and we will click on Display.

When the load combinations appear, we need to ensure that the names that we use to define our area loads and self-weight correspond to loads of the code. When you have your loads defined you can click on Import and all the load combinations should appear on the datasheet.

After we finished the modeling of the structure, we can proceed to solve our Structure, we can do this by clicking on Solve > Linear Static, and it will take us to a new window where we will be able to see all the results of the members.

We can also check the results of our slabs and walls by clicking on the Plates section:

We can also create reports from the analysis, we can click on Report, customize the report as needed, specify what load combinations to include, etc. We can click on Create Report when we finish the configuration.

We can now run the design checks of our structure, we can click on Design Check > Start New Code > RC Member Design > Select ACI 318-19 > Start. Once, everything is correct, you can modify member parameters, Reinforcement layouts, etc. In this example, we will use the optimize option, which will optimize our designs in our columns and beams.

We can check the report for each of our sections to see all of the calculations done in the design checks.

We can now run the design checks of our slabs, we can click on Design Check > Start New Code > RC Plate Design > Select ACI 318-19 > Start. Once, everything is correct, you can modify slab parameters, materials/factors, etc. We need to define Strength and Serviceability combinations to make the calculations. In this example, we will define a portion of our slab to show the process of design.

Now that we have our slab selected, we will use the Assign Reinforcement Data Based on Optimization Result option, to assign reinforcement to our plate, we can see all of the results for any direction, and the program will tell us how much reinforcement we need to design our slab. After we define reinforcement in any direction, we will be able to see the checks after clicking on PERFORM check.