I have a two-span underhung crane beam that i wanted to design using Staad. I wanted to use the Moving load command to model the load as it moves across the frames. I've been able to model the downward force of the crane, however i have been unable to model the 20% lateral load on these memebers .
Is there a way to change the direction of load in the moving load command?
Thank you.
Currently, moving loads are assumed to act vertically and there is no way to specify a lateral moving load. Determine what loading produces the maximum positive/negative strong axis bending and maximum weak axis moment. Then, create separate cases for each of these conditions.
Currently there are two options available in STAAD to assign lateral moving load. The first option is to use the notional load option where you can select the vertical load, specify the percentage and direction of the lateral load. Program will multiply the vertical load with that percentage and apply a lateral load in the specified direction.
The second option is to create a macro using the OpenSTAAD function Load.AddMemberConcForce BeamNo, Direction, ForceValue, D1Value, D2Value where you can specify the load value and direction (for example, load in FY and FX direction) which will be added to your model. You can create several loops in your code to assign the same load in a fixed interval.