modeling load bearing stud walls
modeling load bearing stud walls
(OP)
Looking for suggestions for how others model load bearing stud walls when creating a VA model for a whole house.
I'm thinking in particular about a model with Areas used for floor loading and where we have a load bearing stud wall such as over a basement beam. Mostly looking for gravity load results but eventually I'd like t us eat model for shear walls too. Initially, the component could be used for gravity loading only as shear wall behavior of a wood stud wall with plywood sheathing will be a little more complex.
I'm thinking in particular about a model with Areas used for floor loading and where we have a load bearing stud wall such as over a basement beam. Mostly looking for gravity load results but eventually I'd like t us eat model for shear walls too. Initially, the component could be used for gravity loading only as shear wall behavior of a wood stud wall with plywood sheathing will be a little more complex.





RE: modeling load bearing stud walls
You could try using Areas with automatic meshed plates to model the walls. Areas have the ability to set support conditions for the entire Area Side and/or apply a uniformly distributed in-plane load to an Area Side. From there, you will need to use the results for the in-plane stresses to design your wall using some other tool or procedure. (Wood wall design is currently not supported in VisualAnalysis.) Mesh refinement with plate elements is very important because results are always approximate. Generally speaking, the more plate elements you use, the better accuracy you will get.
Wood shear walls provide a great deal of difficulty in FEA because of the orthotropic materials (e.g. OSB and Plywood) and nail-slip. Modeling these kinds of systems will usually require you to make some serious assumptions. Using the techniques mentioned above, you can try and use meshed areas and plate elements to approximate the lateral stiffness of the wood shear wall, then using in-plane stress results, design your wall using some other tool or procedure.
RE: modeling load bearing stud walls
The thing I don't like about using a plate element to model the wall behavior is that it may act too much like a "spreader" for areas of concentrated load (maybe resulting from differing floor framing stiffnesses or intermediate bearing on portions of floor framing) such that loading is spread out over a larger area.
I will play with this and see.