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Simple Steel Structures - Stree Analysis

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nikolastrojman

Industrial
Joined
Jul 17, 2007
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I would really like to hear someones advice on which is the best software (program) to use for stress analysis of simple steel structures.
I'm a pipe support designer and sometimes I want to (and also have to) preform stress analysis of a secondary steel construction that I design for my pipe supports (sometimes the design is simple but sometimes not).

If You want to, I can post some pictures of the secondary steel construction which I design so You can see what I'm talking about.
 
What are your typical forces applied? Do you use standard structural shapes? For the most part I would guess just about any FEA program would do what you need, and all should be similar results wise, it just comes down to user preference when it comes to how you input the data. If you have special shapes, or for some reason dynamic loading, you may need a more specialized program. It sounds like RISA, RAM, or the like would be sufficient though.
 
Well,most of the time I use standard structural shapes, and the typical forces that I have to deal with range form couple of kN to tens of kN (1-50 kN or more). I hope that there is a program, that is really easy to use, and by that I mean that it doesn't take you much time to enter input data i.e. design and define the shapes of the actual structure that you are analyzing.
 
If you have really simple structures there are a lot of free programs on the web for 2D frame analysis. If you need 3D analysis you have a lot of options. Most big software companies will give you a 30 day trial or something of the software so you can figure what you like. A few to try:


There is also RAM by bentley, but I could not find a trial page on their site - I would think you could get something if you called though.
 
it's not as easy as having a software and you just plug in the loads and member sizes. you also need to put the correct parameters and check it based on local codes.

anyone who cant design a beam or column manually shouldnt be using any structural software.

it's like a structural engineer asking how to stress a pipe using ceasar without basic understanding of how it's done.
 
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