
April 15, 2015
How Do I Detach a Wall Panel From a Diaphragm?
The ability to detach a wall panel from a diaphragm was a feature added in RISA-3D V13.
If you've ever wondered what it’s like to be an industrial structural engineer, let me paint you a picture: Imagine juggling a dozen problems at once—steel frames, conveyor supports, pipe racks, tank foundations—all while trying to decipher a set of drawings that look like they were faxed from 1997. And, of course, every single solution is needed yesterday. But don’t worry! With the right tools (cough RISA and ADAPT cough), navigating this daily chaos becomes a lot more manageable. So, grab your coffee (black, obviously), and let’s walk through a typical day. 6:30 AM: Morning Coffee & Evaluating Additional Loads The first email of the day: “Can we add another 10,000 lbs of equipment to the mezzanine? What about seismic drift and vibration?” Instead of a lengthy hand calculation, you fire up RISAFloor and check gravity load distribution. Exporting to RISA-3D, you analyze modal frequencies and check if the additional weight will push the structure into an uncomfortable range for human occupancy. Seismic drift is next. A quick response spectrum analysis in RISA-3D confirms that the drift is still within acceptable limits. You send your report with confidence—no major framing changes required. 9:00 AM: Field Issue - Pipe Rack Base…
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The ability to detach a wall panel from a diaphragm was a feature added in RISA-3D V13.
The ability of RISAFloor ES to design rebar for two way concrete slabs is powerful. Such designs are made much more powerful when they can easily be conveyed on construction drawings.
In a RISAFloor model the columns and beams can be assigned unbraced lengths, or the program may calculate them automatically. This unbraced length information can then be used in RISA-3D. A great example is the frame below:
A common question we get in tech support is “how can I verify my moving load results?” We now have a feature that will allow you to quickly generate a static loading condition equivalent to the moving loads at any given step along their path so you can investigate the detailed results at this...
Cold Formed Steel channels are often built-up as back-to-back sections to help strengthen them. RISA-3D can design the Cold Formed Steel back-to-back channel and track sections. The Shape Selection dialog will allow you to model the built –up sections by selecting “Back to Back” shown below.
You may be familiar with the Internal Force Summation Tool (IFST) that is currently present in RISA-3D. However, a new tool has been added which allows you to click point to point within a wall and will only sum forces between these two points. Previously when using the IFST, forces were summed...
RISAFloor Concrete Floor Slabs can design be transferred into RISA-3D for lateral design using either a Rigid Diaphragm or Semi-Rigid diaphragm. In RISA-3D, the wind and seismic loads are calculated and then applied into the diaphragm level to distribute the forces to the Lateral Resisting System.
New in RISAFoundation V7 is a Stem Wall element. This element would be drawn on a slab element for the purpose of transferring wall loads into the slab. You can add stem walls either from the Draw Stem Walls dialog.
Timber design per the Canadian CSA 086-2009 design code is now available. Canadian wood member design is very similar to the US NDS member design. There are slightly different load factors, material properties, shape tables, and capacity equations, but the overall modeling procedure in RISA is the...
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