tension only command

hello everyone

                        my question is when i am assigning & treating the element as tension only member command to beams , i am having some problem in my model while designing. you can see it while clicking the perticular beams assign as tension only members.  please check the inverted "v" in the model. thank you.

with tension .std
Parents Reply
  • SKLose,

    Can you please explain why you removed some of the perform analysis and change commands? I have a model that has several combinations that look like the one below. After 13 combinations, staad tells me the "LOAD" command is not valid on the 14th combination, even though it is identical to the 13th combination. I have repeat load, perform analysis and change after every combo. Should I only have them on certain combos?

    LOAD 118 D+0.75(LL+LR/S+W(-Z)+.1W(X))

    REPEAT LOAD

    1 1.1 2 1.0 3 1.0 4 1.0 5 1.0 6 1.0 8 0.75 9 0.75 10 0.075 13 0.75

    PERFORM ANALYSIS

    CHANGE

Children
  • Ryanasu,

    The PERFORM ANLYSIS (and CHANGE) command is required after a load case only under 2 conditions:

    1) If that load case contains a ELFP based seismic analysis command, like the IBC or UBC loads. I guess this is due to a quirk of program rather than a requirement based on engineering principles.

    2) If the structural condition changes, such as due to a change in member properties, material properties, support conditions, etc. A steel member selection is an example of change in member properties. So, if one wishes to solve some load cases with one set of structural conditions, and another with another set, then, those 2 sets of load cases must be separated by a PERFORM ANALYSIS and CHANGE.

    In the original model posted by Himmatlal Chavda, only condition (1) existed - load cases 1 and 2 of his model. So, a PERFORM ANALYSIS and CHANGE commands were needed after each of those two cases, which he did provide.

    However, load cases 3 through 19 are all associated with a single structural condition. So, the analysis instruction is needed only after case 19. But he had provided them after each of those cases, so, I removed all instances except the last. But there is no harm in leaving them there as the program is designed to handle them even if they are redundant.

    In the snippet that you have attached, I am not able to find an error. Can you post the full text of the error message? Have you ensured that all the load cases which are included in that combination - 1 thru 6, 8, 9, 10 and 13 have all been specified prior to your load case 118? What do you have prior to load case 118?

  • Thanks for your input. That helps a lot. I just wanted to clarify something. I'm using tension only members. So to my understanding, during a single load case/combo, staad will iterate and inactivate tension only members that are carrying any compression load. In the next load case, the members that were inactivated will remain inactive unless the change command is used. So I am not changing any structural conditions, but staad is automatically doing it. Unless I analyze the file and determine which load cases required iterations, it seems as though for tension only members I should have perform analysis under every load case. Does this seem correct to you?

    Also, I found my error from earlier. I wasn't using the Set NL command. Once added, it worked fine.