Quick Guide to Beam Analysis using Strand7
•Getting Started •Create a Node •Extrude by Increments •Number Nodes •Node Restraints •Beam Property •3D View of Beam •Views•Applying Loads Page
•Analysis Start Up
Launch the program and the menu bar appears at the top of the screen, below
Click on the New Page icon, extreme left to launch. A window as below appears:
Ensure that the radio buttons are select as above; meters, Mega Pascal and Kilo Newton are the important ones.
To create the beam, or any model in Strand7 we create nodes and join them together with beam elements. Beam Elements are joined together to become plates, and plates can be joined together to become bricks. There are two methods of creating the nodes / beams to create this simple model. One would be to create each node, one by one, then join the dots with beams to create the beam. the other, slightly more complex, but much quicker is to extrude the nodes to create beams. Next we will create the initial node, then extrude it to create two six meter long beams that will be simply supported.
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Create Node
Either click on Create > Node from the main menu or use Ctrl + W on the keyboard.
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Quick Guide to Strand 7
I prefer Ctrl + W, but it's a personal thing. Either way we now have a yellow dot near the bottom left of the screen.
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Extrude by Increments
Next select the Tools > Extrude > By Increments option and the menu below appears.
Enter the increment of 6.0m in the X direction and Repeat 2 as above. Select the node by clicking on the node select icon, on the right of the toolbar, and the select icon. Finally select the node. Once selected it will change from yellow to magenta/pink.
This produces an additional two nodes, to the right of the existing with beams connecting the two of them.
To make life a little easier, and clearer, we will number the nodes. On a job of this size it seems unnecessary but if we get into the habit now, it will make life easier later on.
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Number Nodes
Right click anywhere in a blank area of the screen and select the Entity Display option from the pop up menu. Click the Node Numbers tick box, and then OK. We will be back here again, but looking at the beam section later on!
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Node Restraints
Nodes are free to move in any direction, X, Y or Z and similarly can rotate about any of theses axis as below.
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Quick Guide to Strand 7
To restrain a node use Attributes > Node > Restraint
To restrain a node as required by a simply supported beam to cope with a UDL and/or Point Load it requires restraint against lateral movement in the x, y and z direction's and against rotation in the x and y.
Tick all the boxes and select the nodes (remember if a cantilever is included in the beam to leave it un restrained in the y direction. To verify that a node is restrained ensure that the node selection tool is selected, hold down the shift button on the keyboard and move the mouse over the node.
You can see that the node above is restrained against lateral movement in the X, Y and Z as well as rotation in the X and Y directions. Now that we have a beam modeled we need to give the beam some properties, such as a material and section profile.
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Beam Property
To do this we will use the key board shortcut Ctrl + Alt + B. The alternative is to select Property > Beam from the tool bar at the top of the screen.
As can be seen the material has been set as Steel and the section has been set as P145/155 under the geometry tab. The material is set by clicking on the Materials ... button, and selecting the material from the list.
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Quick Guide to Strand 7
To select the user defined profile of a P145/155 use the Edit ... button, then select the BXS button from the next screen. The Strand sections are located on the 'Q' drive under Q:\Strand Sections. Standard sections such as hot rolled channels are available under the Library... button for other uses. Whichever library is used remember to Assign the section, then close the window.
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3D View of Beam
When the window closes nothing appears to have happened! Remember when we displayed the node numbers, and I said we'd be back. Well here we are. Right click anywhere in a blank area of the screen and select the Entity Display option from the pop up menu.
This time we are in the Beam properties. Select the Solid radio button, and click on OK. The beam now looks like a P145/155. It doesn't? We need to zoom in so that you can see it properly. Use the Zoom Icon as to the left, located just below the Tools and Tables menus. Now drag a window / box around the end of the beam to get a picture like the one of those below.
The one on the right is an Isometric view, the one on the right is the standard view.
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Views
To change the view of the model, right click anywhere in the screen and select the Angles menu. We have selected the Isometric option on screen, but play around and see what the rest look like.
Ok so now we have a double spanning, simply supported beam, a P145/155, locked in position in free space with no loads and no where to go. In the next step we will apply a UDL and a Point Load.
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That's enough for one session. Follow the link to the Applying Loads section, on the next page.
Applying Loads
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Quick Guide to Strand 7
Quick Guide to Beam Analysis using Strand7
Applying Loads
•Create a model
•Global Load and Freedom Cases
•UDL Loads
•Point Load
•Solve the Model
•Load Case Combinations
•Open Results File
•Analysis
Ok, so now we have a double spanning beam, 12.0m overall. It's restrained at all three nodes in the X, Y and Z against lateral movement and is restrained against rotation in the X and Y directions. We have applied the beam properties of steel for the material and the section properties of a P145/155. Now lets apply some loads!
When we have applied the loads it might be nice combine them, and we can only apply one load to the beam per load case. First we need to create enough cases then. We will be applying an uplift pressure (Uplift), a downward pressure (Pressure), and a point load (PL).
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Global Load and Freedom Cases
Click on the New button twice to add two new load cases. Double click on all three - one at a time and type over the existing name as above.
The screen shot above shows the drop down box displaying all the loads. Select the Uplift Load Case, then we'll start applying the load.
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UDL
The Uplift load is a UDL and is applied by clicking on :
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Strand7 - Applying Loads to a simply supported beam
This brings up the following menu
Select the beam(s) and click on Apply. In this case - applying the load to all the beams - the simplest method will be to use the global select method. That is
select the 'select', 'beam' and 'select all' buttons. The beam now looks like this
Next select and apply the Pressure load by selecting the Pressure Load Case, and following the instructions above. This time apply a pressure of -0.2kN/m. REMEMBER TO MAKE THE LOAD NEGATIVE!
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Point Load
This time we use the Attributes > Beam > Point Force > Global menu. (Point Force is just below Distributed Load)
We have applied a 2.3 kN point Load in a negative direction, i.e. downward, at a distance of 0.75/span on the right hand beam. Note that the diagram shows a and the beam as 1.0.
0.75 of a 6.0m beam is 4.5m (6.0m * 0.75 = 4.5m)
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Strand7 - Applying Loads to a simply supported beam
The right hand side of the beam should like look like this when we look at the PL Load and Freedom Case.
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Solve the Model
Click on the Solver > Linear Static menu. (At this stage you will be asked to Save the file. Choose an appropriate location and save the file) Ensure that the Load cases to solve are all ticked as above, then click on Solve. (If asked to overwrite results file, click Yes).
After a few seconds a screen appears as below:
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Load Case Combinations
Close this window, and click on Results > Linear Load Case Combinations
Apply the ratio of 1 to each Combination Case. Note that other load combinations can be added, and that the load factors can be changed multiplied by different factors. The output displays the analysis for each individual case, i.e. Uplift, Pressure and PL, but also the combined effects.
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Strand7 - Applying Loads to a simply supported beam
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Open Results File
Click on the yellow folder on the right hand side of the menu bar top open the results file, and select the highlighted file. Following this the following window will appear:
Click on Yes. We are now in the analysis phase of the program, and for that we need to goto the analysis page.