AISC Design Guide 11 in STAAD Pro

[SteveGregory]

Has anyone used the STAAD implementation of DG11?

How did you model the floor slab to get the stiffness addition from the composite or non-composite slab in the steel framing?

My version (20.07.04.12) has a Composite Deck tool under the Geometry tab. Has anyone had much success using this tool? Will it work with the DG11?

 

[structuresguy]

I have only played a bit with this function, so I am no expert. I believe you have to use the composite deck tool, in order to check for vibration. Beyond that, you run the analysis like normal, then do the vibration check in the output pull down menu.

In the case I was trying, which was a pedestrian bridge pin supported at each end, it did not really give a good result. But neither did the FloorVibe software, that the auther of DG11 sells. Their assumption of pedestrian bridge does not match my framing layout (deep girders each side, with shallow cross beams spaced uniform along the length).

 

[JoshPlumSE]

SteveGregory -

Be very cautious about using STAAD (or any program really) for DG-11 vibration calculations. The calculations in the design guide are fairly imperical and don't lend themselves very easily to FEM analysis.

Plus, there are so many little caveats and adjustments in the calculations. You just really need to know the limitations of your programs calculations before you can trust them.

There are some companies that add in "marketing" features. By that I mean that they do a minimal implementation that is sufficient only to legally justify a marketing claim, but which has little practical value to an engineer using the feature.... I'm not necessarily saying that STAAD is one of those companies (I'll leave that to you to decide), I'm really just saying that when a company advertises that they do DG-11 calculations it may not mean much.

Josh