Stress Beam Elements

[MathiasC]

Dear all,
in steel structures design, sections are often used that differ from normal standard shapes as e.g. I-beams.
For example an I-beam is retrofitted by plates welded to the flange to increase beanding stiffness or the I-beam became a closed section by additional web plates.

These sections can be modelled by the section designer, however I do not know if the section designer automatically calculates the necessary section parameters for the calculation of the shear stresses from shear force or torsional moment.
I have found in the SAP documentation that shear factors need to be given by myself to get shear stresses and finally van Mises stresses. Is this true?

Thanks
Mathias

 

[UcfSE]

Correct. You have to calculate the shear factors yourself. In the root installation directory, under manuals / technical notes, there is a pdf titled "S-TN-FRA-001.pdf". This explains the basis of the factors you need to calculate.

If you leave them blank, SAP will only calculate normal stresses. Make sure you define stress points also. The default stress points are not always what you want.