Can this project be solved using RSA? Dimensioning pre-stressed concrete beams

[Anonymous]

Hi all, 

It's been a while since my last post here. I started working my first job for an engineering company and I'm not using Robot as much as I was hoping considering I was starting to get proficient using it. 🙂 

My company has several licenses for Robot and does use it, but I think mostly for global stability analyses and earthquake analysis. Maybe also some steel dimensioning.

For now, my job will be mostly related to design and detailing of preconcrete structures. Here, it seems like my company mostly prefers hand calculations and some simplified software for beam analysis/design.

However, I find that on the current project I'm doing and almost finished now, it's an extremely tedious process. My job has been to design the beams:

1. Get an overview over the load situation. On this project, it's a mix of distributed surface loads, line loads and a lot of point loads. The point loads are both on slabs and directly on top of the beams. A big part of the job is to calculate how these point loads are distributed to the slab ends and beams...

The beams are prestressed T-Beams in precast concrete.

2. Type all the data into the design program and design beams. The cross section is mostly given in advance, so the process is basically to find the appropriate amounts and placement of rebar.

Typically, I use worst case scenarios and thus don't design every single beam, but maybe say 4-6 different types of beams for the whole building.

I'm attaching a fast mock-up of how this project looks like. It's 3 times bigger, but this is the general principle. 3 beams in the Y-direction. Slabs spanning in the X-direction supported by the beams. The loads vary some and there's a lot of point loads. Didn't paint them all.

My question then:

Could this design job be done more efficiently in Robot? 

I know I could probably model the entire project in say 1-2 days. The geometry is simple, but there's a lot of variety in the loads.

Thanks in advance for any pointers. 🙂 

[Anonymous]

Any ideas? 🙂 

[Artur.Kosakowski]

Hi @Anonymous

Could this design job be done more efficiently in Robot? 

I'm afraid with the limited knowledge of the scope of your work it is hard for anybody to just say yes or no for your question. My statement would be: try for a small scale project yourself and post any difficulty you encountered on your way on this forum so that we could try to help for a specific issue. 

If you find your post answered press the Accept as Solution button please. This will help other users to find solutions much faster. Thank you.

[Anonymous]

Hi, Arthur,

I appreciate your comment.

I will see if I can possibly make this design over the next weekend or so just to see for the future if it's smarter to use RSA. 

With regards to RC design:

If I create the entire model with beam dimensions, concrete quality and loads. Is it possible to then have RSA automatically calculate:

Required reinforcement (pre-tensioned cables, regular rebar and shear rebar) for each single beam in one operation?

Or would I have to isolate each beam and do it one-by-one?

Will RSA automatically distribute loads to the beams?

Thanks in advance.

[Artur.Kosakowski]

Hi @Anonymous

Mind that Robot doesn't have a devoted module for pre-pensioned cables. The load distribution can be done with use of trapezoidal and triangular method. 

If you find your post answered press the Accept as Solution button please. This will help other users to find solutions much faster. Thank you.