4/5/2017 PartialFixityinETABS|WASEEMRANA

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crackingthestructures

PartialFixityinETABS

April16,2013byRanaWaseeminStiness.
There is no simple option to just release a specic percentage of moments and shear at the
supports. The only way is to provide the reduced stiness of the members. Lets have a look at
dierentoptionsinETABSforreleases.Youcanaccesstheseoptionsbyclicking:ASSIGN>FRAME
LINES>FrameReleases/PartialFixity

(hps://waseemrana8.les.wordpress.com/2013/04/839afimage001700322.png)
There are many sets of combinations possible. You can get the details in ETABS help menu. For
exampleitwillnotallowyoutoreleasetorsionatbothends.
Thevariouscheckboxesyouseeinthisformareforthereleaseofaspecicforce;letssaybending
moment by a specic percentage; one for start point of the section and the other for end point.
Important point here is when you select the option either START or END the boxes for spring
valueswillbeenabled.Bydefaultthevaluesintheseboxesiszerowhichmeansthestiness(orthe
force)isreducedtoZERO
Tomakepartialframereleases,youneedtoputFRAMEPARTIALFIXITYSPRINGSvaluesin
theSTARTandENDboxes.
FirstyouneedtocalculatethestinessofaFULLYFIXEDsupportandthisiscalculatedbasedon
thesupportconditions.Forexampleaxedxedendbeamhavinguniformlydistributedloadwill
havesupportstinessof2EI/L.

1Here an important point is that L is the member length between supports in analysis direction
(unsupportedlength).Ifthememberisdividedinletsay10parts,youwillnotputthelengthof
onepart,ratherthefullunsupportedlength.
2After calculating the actual stiness value of the connection, you need to multiply it by the
reductionfactor,bywhichyouneedtoreducethemoment,shearetc.Thereductionfactoris;

REDUCTIONFACTOR=(1n)/n
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REDUCTIONFACTOR=(1n)/n
Wherenisthepercentageyouwanttoreduce.Forexampleifyouwanttoreduceby25%youwill
getREDUCTIONFACTOR=(10.25)/0.25=3
Youneedtomultiply2EI/Lwith3togetthenalspringstinessvalueandputitinETABS.Also
seethelinksharedbySantiagoincommentsbelow.
Considerfollowingtwocases;
Simpleoneframeanalysis.
Suppose I have a xed end beam of 6m length. A load of 10kN/m is applied. The xed end
momentsarewl/12=30kN.m.E=2E+8kPa,I=4.787E3m^4
NowIwanttomaketheendspartiallyxed/pinned,reducingthemomentsby70%;
TheREDUCTIONFACTOR=(10.7)/0.7=0.43
Fullxitystiness=2EI/L=319133kN.m
Reducedstiness=0.43x319133=137227kN.m
IfIputthisvalueinframereleasesoptioninONEENDonly,Iwillget30%of30kN.mmoment
thats9kN.m.Nowtherestofthe21kN.mwillbedistributedinthebeamandatthesupportonthe
otherend.
Secondcase,whenwehaveafull3Dintegratedstructure.Wemaynotgetthemomentvalues
reducedbythatpercentagebywhichweappliedthereductionfactor,meaningtosaywewanted
50% reduction in moment values but after analysis we got only 35%. So this process is iterative.
Youhavetochangethestinessvaluesbasedonmanyiterationsuntilyougetthedesiredresults.
Thisisbecausetheremainingmomentshouldberedistributedtootherelements.

(hps://waseemrana8.les.wordpress.com/2013/04/f78a9image002701660.jpg)
StinessiterationcyclesbyusingEXCEL.

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20responsestoPartialFixityinETABS

1.PeterManthorpeApril12,2013at1:00PMReply
Twodierentexplanationsofthereductionfactorthatcontradicteachother.Iamconfused

2.RanaWaseemApril12,2013at1:22PMReply
Peter,thereisonlyonedenitaionofreductionfactorinthearticletellmewhyareyou
confused?

3.PeterManthorpeApril15,2013at1:34PMReply
Thankyousomuchforreplying,Iamdesperateforyourhelp!BasicallyIcalculatedtheKvalue
andgotasimilarresult.Nowsurelyasatest,IfIputinthefullKvalueintotheframepartial
xityspringsboxthentheresultingmomentsshouldbesimilartothatofafullyxed
connection?Ididthecheckandthemomentsattheconnectionwere120KNmandwhenI
appliedpartialxityandenteredthefullstinessvaluetheresultofbendingmomentwas
80KNm.Ihaveapproachedmylecturerswiththisproblemandtheydontknow,youaresaving
mylifethanks.Peter

4.ZeeshanApril26,2013at10:17PMReply
Nicework!!!Thanks.

5.fiasco22May13,2013at12:49PMReply
Couldyoupleasegivefewpracticalexamplesinwhichwewouldwanttoreleasemoment,
shearetc??

6.RanaWaseemMay17,2013at10:57AMReply
Apracticleexamplewouldbethedesignofbaseplateconnectionsletssay!Youwanttodesign
yourconnectionsbasedontheforcesyougetfromETABSmodelonsupportandyou
providedFIXEDsupports.(innitestiness)afterrealizingthatthestructuralreactionsare
veryhighonxedsupportstodesignareasonableconnectionyouwoulddenatelywantto
reducethesupportstinesssoitcarrylessreactionsandforces..andredistributetheremaining
forcesbacktostructuresforexampleinsteelbeamsandcolumnsinstructurewheretheyare
capabletoresisttheadditionalforcesresultingfromredistributionthiswayyousavealotin
connectiondesign.

7.MichaelLunariaSeptember3,2013at2:32AMReply

Hi,canyougivemesomeexamplestoo.thanks.sameasasco22,itwouldbeagreathelp.
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Hi,canyougivemesomeexamplestoo.thanks.sameasasco22,itwouldbeagreathelp.
Thanks.canyousendittomyemailmikelunars29@yahoo.com.phmikelunarsce29@yahoo.com

8.shahidthanviJanuary18,2014at8:50AMReply
Hi,Myquestionisrelatedtostructuralanalysisanddesignaswell.IfanendconnectionofRC
frame(beamcolumnjoint);bothbeamandcolumnrebarsendupwithconventionalACIhooks
thenwhatPartialxityshouldbeconsideredforthisjointORhowtocalculateit?

RanaWaseemJanuary19,2014at8:57AMReply
Inpractice,aconnectionbetweenaconcretecolumnandaconcretebeamwillbesomewhat
betweenafullyxedandpinnedconnection.ForexampleinETABS,youdontneedto
specifytheconnectionxityofbeamcolumnconnection.Jointorconnectionxitybetween
acolumnandbeamwilldependonstinessofjoiningmembers.Soinsoftwarethis
phenomenonisautomaticallycalculated.Youjustneedtoprovideenoughdevelopment
lengthforexamplebyACIhooksetc.

9.HaoHuOctober2,2014at7:04PMReply
HiRana,thanksforwhatyoudidintheexample.Theonlyproblemalsogetmanyofus
confusedisthereductionfactor.InthebookNonlinearstaticandcyclicanalysisofsteel
frameswithsemirigidconnections.(ChanandChui)
Chapter5,itdenesnasxityfactor,whichisequaltozeroforpinnedjointsandunityfor
rigidjoints.
Thatmighthelpsclarifyingalilebit.
hhu4@ncsu.edu

10.RanaWaseemOctober3,2014at11:19AMReply
Youaretalkingaboutnifn=0thenpin|ifn=1thenrigidright

HaoHu,thanksforfeedback,letmeupdatethisarticleagain

11.engsam777December17,2014at11:48PMReply
Rana,
Whyareuusing2EI/Linsteadof4EI/Lincalculatingthexedendmoment.

12.engsam777December17,2014at11:49PMReply
Sorrythestiness

13.bakakadaSeptember29,2015at3:31PMReply
Exquisiteexplanation.somelecturescoudnotmakeoneunderstandforawhole
semesterilikeyourapproach

HinCJanuary14,2016at6:00AMReply
inpracticle,Ifiusing4EI/Linsteadof2EI/Lincalculatingthexedendstiness,theresults
isright.CanUanswerthat?

14.ShamsUrREhmanMarch13,2016at6:41PMReply
ialwaysgethighervalueofreactionsatbasewhenianalyseitthroughETABS,howcouldi
reducethesemoments?

15.TariqZaidOctober18,2016at10:55PMReply

Thankyouverymuchforalltheseinformation.
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Thankyouverymuchforalltheseinformation.
Myquestionis:NowinETABSwhatisthevalueshouldIput?
ShouldIcalculatethestinessforallmemberswhichIwanttorelease?Orthereanotherway
calculatethevalue?

16.SantiagoVallejoNovember21,2016at3:28AMReply
Forthoseconfussed,Onstep1RanameansthestinessfactorK.Notthestinessperse.
Checkthislinkformoreinformation.
hp://classes.mst.edu/civeng217/concept/12/03/index.html

Nither2EI/LOR4EI/Liswrong,itdeppendsontheendconditionsofthebeam(orcolumn)

RanaWaseemDecember17,2016at7:24PMReply
ThanksSantiago,thelinkyousharedisreallyhelpful.

17.OmerAnwaarJanuary10,2017at6:41PMReply
Whenireleasemoment22and33onbothendsofaframe(beam)althoughigetthecorrect
moments,butiamnotabletodesigninetabs.Isitrighttoreleasemomentsonbothends?

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