What's the best/easiest way to do a load takedown when you have a complex slab/column arrangement?

[HermanLJ]

I would think that a FEA would be the easiest? I am however hesitant to use it since I'm not that aware of the limitations of using FEA.

How do you guys go about it?

 

[Ron]

I rarely depend on a single approach to analysis. As much confidence as I have in FEA, I still do quick and dirty checks. I also do hand calcs on some things for simplicity and I sometimes do hand calcs with FEA validation.

 

[HermanLJ]

Yes that's the way we are doing it at the moment, one person does a quick model and the other does a 'manual' check at the same time to confirm.

Doing manual checks can get a bit complex though when one has funny column arrangements for example something like this:

http://imgur.com/KYwxgwt.

I think the best option would be to go on a course to educate myself and make sure my models are as accurate as possible.

 

[dik]

I tend to be a tad conservative with column load takedowns... not much redistribution <G>. Having said that, there is a price to pay for irregular framed objects... and this just falls into that category.

Dik

 

[asixth]

I do both. Perform my own tributary areas and self weight hand calc's and then have a look at the column reaction output from a design package like Ram Concept. I think that is probably the only useful application of Ram Concept but I shouldn't really go into that.

 

[slickdeals]

I do the same as asixth. Run the slab in Ram Concept with a 1 psf load. The reactions give my tributary area.