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3. New Hardware Key Device for Nonlinear Version

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SAP2000 Nonlinear version 7.xx uses a hardware key device that is different
from previous versions. If you are upgrading SAP2000 Nonlinear from a
version prior to 7.00, please return the old hardware key device to us as
soon as you receive this package.
The Standard and PLUS version of SAP2000 do not require a new hardware key
device.

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4. Tutorial files on the Web
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Tutorial files are available on our Web site in Adobe Acrobat Reader format.
You may download these files and follow the tutorials to learn more about the
use of SAP2000 and the new Static Pushover Analysis features of the program.
Please check our Web site occasionally for the presence of newer files. They
may be updated from time to time. Our Web address is: www.csiberkeley.com

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5. Significant Changes from Previous Versions
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Listed in order, starting with the latest version:
Significant Changes from Version 7.21 to 7.40
--------------------------------------------Improvements have been made to the "MS Access Database export" capability that
was added in version 7.21. This feature is still an early release and is being
tested and documented before final release.
The Ritz-vector algorithm has been modified so that purely static (massless)
modes can be calculated. These will be reported in the .OUT file as having a
period of 1.0E-101. Thus it is no longer strictly required that mass be
present at all degrees of freedom that are loaded by the Ritz starting load
vectors. However, including mass at loaded degrees of freedom is still
recommended whenever practical, and the Ritz-vector algorithm will still warn
you if it detects loads acting on massless degrees of freedom. These massless
modes are used in time-history analysis but have no significant effect in
response-spectrum analysis. Also, the orthogonalization procedure in the
Ritz-vector algorithm has been improved.
P-delta analysis now includes P-delta effects in all element types, not just
in Frame elements. For all elements except the Frame, P-delta effects are
based on the rigid-body rotations of the element and do not consider the
internal deformation of the element. The Nllink element balances the P-delta
moment with a shear couple for finite-length elements, and two equal moments

for zero-length elements. The Frame element considers internal deformation as

documented in the SAP2000 Analysis Reference manual. Note that P-delta effects
are not included in any constraints.
Several changes have been made to nonlinear static pushover analysis:
- P-delta effects are now included for all element types, not just for Frame
elements, when requested in a nonlinear static pushover case. For all
elements, P-delta effects are based on the rigid-body rotations of the
element and do not consider the internal deformation of the element. The
Nllink element balances the P-delta moment with a shear couple for
finite-length elements, and two equal moments for zero-length elements. The
Frame element does not consider internal deformation as it does for initial
P-delta analysis. For Shell, Plane, Asolid and Solid elements, the P-delta
effect for each step is based on the stress state at the beginning of the
step and is not iteratively corrected at the end of the step as it is for
Frame and Nllink elements. This means that you should specify a minimum of
several steps for each pushover case to assure reasonable accuracy if
P-delta effects are significant in these element types. Note that P-delta
effects are not included in any constraints.
- Large-displacement effects are now included for all element types, not just
for Frame elements, when requested in a nonlinear static pushover case.
Large-displacement effects include large translations and rotations of the
elements, but the strains within elements are still assumed to be small.
Elements that undergo significant deformation should be divided into smaller
elements. Note that large-displacement effects are not included in any
constraints.
- The artificial stiffness that was being used to prevent instability when
the stiffness of an element became zero or negative has now been reduced.
The new procedure is more consistent, requires less iteration, is more
likely to converge, and produces better results.
- Nonlinear static pushover analysis has been improved to reduce the
occasional occurrence of non-convergence due to flip-flop behavior of
yielding elements subject to P-delta effects.
- A new option is available for displacement-controlled nonlinear static
pushover analysis. You may use the "conjugate displacement" to control the
analysis instead of using the monitored displacement; the monitored
displacement is still used to determine how far to push the structure and
for plotting the pushover curve. The conjugate displacement is a weighted
sum of all displacement degrees of freedom in the structure: each
displacement component is multiplied by the load applied at that degree of
freedom, and the results are summed. The conjugate displacement is usually
the most sensitive measure of displacement in the structure under a given
specified load. When you use the conjugate displacement to control the
analysis, the load increments are adjusted in an attempt to reach the
specified monitored displacement. However, the analysis will usually only
approximately satisfy the targeted displacement, particularly if the
monitored displacement is in a different direction than the conjugate
displacement. The use of conjugate-displacement control is generally
recommended.
- When using displacement control for nonlinear static pushover analyses,
only the absolute value of the monitored displacement is used to determine
when the analysis is complete, whether control is by the conjugate
displacement or by the monitored displacement itself. The direction of
loading now is determined by the specified load pattern. For example,

positive acceleration loads will cause displacements in the negative

direction (this is consistent with time-history analysis), regardless of
the sign of the monitored displacement.
Several changes have been made to the Pushover Frame hinge properties:
- Separate scale factors may now be specified for the positive and negative
axes of the stress-strain (moment-rotation or force-deformation) curves. In
addition, the rigid-plastic nature of the hinge is shown in the plot of the
stress-strain curves where the strains at +B and -B are subtracted out from
the values at C, D, and E. Neither of these changes affects the results of
previous analyses.
- For P-M-M hinges the moment-rotation curve is now interpreted as a
relative curve, whereas in previous versions it was an absolute curve after
scaling by the yield scale factor given for the interaction surface. Now
when the hinge state first reaches the yield (interaction) surface, the
moment-rotation curve is scaled by the resultant moment divided by the yield
moment you specified at point B, i.e., it is scaled by the factor:
(sqrt(M2*M2+M3*M3))/MB.
Previously it was scaled by
(sqrt(M2*M2+M3*M3))/M3max
where M3max is the maximum value of M3 that you specified for the P-M curve
at angle=90 deg before scaling by the yield moment. This change has no
impact on default hinges or on hinges you defined where both the
moment-rotation curve and interaction surface were normalized to unity at
M3 yield. It will affect hinges where you used different scaling for the
moment-rotation curve and the interaction surface.