September 6, 2017

Canadian Wood Design Updates

The latest releases of RISAFloor and RISA-3D include the following updates to wood design per the Canadian codes:

Wood Wall Design

RISA-3D v16 and RISAFloor v12 now offer design of wood walls per the Canadian wood design codes (CSA O86-09 and CSA O86-14). The design methodology is very much like the Segmented method used by the NDS design codes.

Design requires chords on each side of each full height panel.
Design assumes that the areas above and below openings have zero stiffness. Only full height piers are considered to resist loading.

Additionally, the design of individual panel elements is as follows:

The sheathing panel is assumed to resist the in plane shear
The chords are assumed to resist the overturning moment
The studs are assumed to resist the axial load
The hold downs are designed for the governing tension chord force at the base elevation of the wall
Deflections, including the effects if hold-down elongation, are calculated per the code based equation

For more information on wood wall design, please see the “Wood Wall” topic in the program help file.

Structural Composite Lumber Design

RISA-3D v16 and RISAFloor v12 will also now offer design of structural composite wood members per Chapter 15 of the current Canadian wood design code (CSA O86-14).

Tags: RISA-3D, RISAFloor, New, Wood, Canadian

February 15, 2022 | Seismic, RISA-3D, Walls, New, Masonry

Seismic Design of Masonry Walls (TMS 402-16) in RISA-3D

RISA-3D is expanding its industry leading support for the analysis and design of various materials with the implementation of Seismic Design of Masonry Wall Panels according to the provisions of TMS 402-16 (as well as ACI 530-13). When creating a model in RISA-3D, users now have the ability to easily define a "seismic design rule" for masonry walls with one of three options: Ordinary Intermediate Special When the seismic design rule is established, various provisions from TMS 402-16 are evaluated including checks for: Boundary Zone Reinforcement Minimum Spacing of Horizontal Reinforcement (Out-of-Plane) Maximum In-Plane Shear Reinforcement Mortar Type When the analysis is complete, users can evaluate the design either in spreadsheet results or using the detailed reports similar to what has previously been available for concrete shear walls. For additional details on the calculations, visit the Masonry Walls – Seismic Design topic found in the RISA-3D Online Help file: RISA Help File For additional information, check out the video below:…

February 19, 2018 | RISA-3D, New, Masonry

Masonry Cover Flexibility in RISA-3D

In RISA-3D we now have the ability to: Define a cover other than the minimum from the ACI 530 code provisions Define a single reinforcing bar that is non-centered in a grouted masonry cell From the Wall Design Rules in RISA-3D: We can see here that a new option is available in the Bar Placement column called Non-Center that allows you to place a single non-centered bar in a cell. The Cover then allows you to specify the distance from the exterior of the masonry block to the extreme fiber of the reinforcement. The default cover value is defined as Min. The Min input will use whichever governs between these two sections of the specification (ACI 530-13): Section 6.1.3.5 states a minimum distance between the inside of the face shell and the reinforcement is required. RISA is conservative and always assumes this to be 1/2″. Thus, the cover calculated in this fashion = t_faceshell + 1/2″ Section 6.1.4 requires a cover dimension = 1-1/2″ or 2″ depending on bar size and whether the masonry is exposed to weather. In the program this is always assumed to be 1-1/2″. Thus, the Min term will create a cover equal to the maximum…

August 15, 2023 | RISA-3D, RISAFloor, Wood

RISA | Custom Wood Materials and Wood Schedules in RISA

In RISAFloor (and RISA-3D), the entire NDS species list is available as well as glulam materials but you may need to design a wood product that is not available in the program. In RISAFloor, you can create custom wood materials and wood schedules. Save these to your RISA databases and then your custom wood materials can be read in RISAFloor and RISA-3D. CUSTOM WOOD MATERIAL Three typical ways to create custom wood material in RISAFloor Shape Selection Tool Materials Spreadsheet Custom Wood Species Database OPTION 1: Choose the Shape Selection Tool. Navigate to the Wood tab. Create Wood Material under Material Selection by clicking the ellipsis. OPTION 2: Choose the Materials Spreadsheet from your Data Entry Spreadsheets. Click the red arrow to open the Select Custom Material window. Enter your custom material properties. OPTION 3: Enter custom wood material in the toolbar Spreadsheets. Choose Custom Wood Species Database. Enter your custom wood properties here. CUSTOM WOOD SCHEDULE Each database of wall panels is specified by an XML file in the "Shear Panels" sub-directory of the Wood Wall panels directory. This directory is located based on the information in the File Locations tab of the Application Settings dialog (By default C:…