Curved Beam in STAAD PRO !!!!!

Question

Can we design curved beam in staad pro v8i ?? i tested a 2D FRAME consisted of 2 columns and 1 curved beam , the 2 columns have been designed for reinforcement steel but the curved beam has not been designed . ??? please see attached file 
 http://www.gulfup.com/?ahXDdW

Shany · Answer

No curved beam cannot be designed in Staad Pro. There are some limitations on the use of Curved beams, instead, I would suggest you to use straight lines (straight beams ) to simulate the curved member. 
 You may use the Circular beam in Structure Wizard - is a way to generate a series of straight line members by segmenting a circular beam.

Shany · Answer

I would like to modify my above response : 
 In steel, a curved beam is designed for the forces and moments at its two ends. Intermediate sections are not designed.

DSANJU · Answer

Facilities like FLOOR LOAD cannot be used if you are using curved beams as the curved beam in STAAD does not support a non uniform load distribution on it which is what the FLOOR LOAD is going to come up with. 
 -Only a limited number of loading types such as self weight loading and a uniformly distributed member loading over the full length of the curve are available. Loads such as concentrated forces or moments at some intermediate point on the curve or trapezoidal loads are not allowed. 
 -You can get displacements and forces only at the end points of the curve. Those values are not available at intermediate section locations. Consequently, the deflection diagram, bending moment diagram, etc. are only approximate for curved members. 
 -While performing steel, aluminum or timber design, the design is performed based only on the forces at the 2 ends of the curve. This is because of the limitation explained in item 3, which is that the forces cannot be determined for intermediate section locations. 
 -Mass for dynamics will not include the effect of the member cg being off the chord line. 
 -Imperfections, Geometric stiffness, Pdelta, buckling, Pdelta KG with/without dynamics can’t be considered. 
 I would suggest that you use curved beams in your model only when the above limitation doesn’t affect your requirement. Modeling the curved beams using a series of straight segments is a better option, and there is very little that you stand to lose in terms of accuracy of results.

DSANJU · Answer

Creation of curved member can by done by assembling small linear segments. In this regard apart from circular grid some other method can be applied. Nodes in between which linear members are to be connected, can be calculated in excel if the profile of the curve is known. The calculated nodal co-ordaites can be pated in in STAAD.Pro. Even , the curve profile can be created in a CAD softwaew and it can be exploded into straint lines. The curve can be saved in >DXF format. STAAD.Pro can import a .DXF file

Sye · Answer

You can generate the X Y Z coordinates of the nodes lying along the curve in excel and then copy the data from excel into the Nodes table in STAAD.Pro to generate the nodes. You can then connect those nodes using the Add Beam option inside STAAD.Pro. Also as mentioned in earlier posts, using the radial grids inside STAAD.Pro to generate the nodes along the curve, is another option.