Staged Construction Analysis for

Bridges in STAAD.pro 2007

By

RAM/STAAD Solution Center

6 February 2007

1
Introduction:
Staged Construction Analysis can be performed using STAAD.pro 2007 using the
member INACTIVE specification. Staged construction analysis is particularly important
in long suspension bridges where stability of the structure must be evaluated at critical
stages of construction.

The members highlighted in red are the active members. The figure at the bottom of each
page shows the effect (i.e. deflection and moment diagrams are shown) of the
construction on the column members on the left.

In this example, members are switched on or off depending on the load case. The
following STAAD.Pro command input lines show how this behaviour can be modelled:

INACTIVE MEMBER 1 TO 108 118 TO 525 535 TO 642

*These members are set as inactive.

LOAD 2 LOADTYPE Dead TITLE DEAD LOAD

……….
……….

PERFORM ANALYSIS
*The above line instructs STAAD.Pro to run the Matrix analysis.
CHANGE
*The inactive member list is going to be changed below.
INACTIVE MEMBER 56 87 88 118 TO 525 560 561 587 588

LOAD 3 LOADTYPE Dead TITLE DEAD LOAD

……….
……….

PERFORM ANALYSIS
CHANGE
INACTIVE MEMBER 118 TO 525

LOAD 4 LOADTYPE Dead TITLE DEAD LOAD

……….
……….

PERFORM ANALYSIS
CHANGE
INACTIVE MEMBER 220 TO 423

……….
……….

2
STAGE 1:

3
STAGE 2:

4
STAGE 3:

5
STAGE 4:

6
STAGE 5: