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Hi. Is it possible to analyza base isolation in etabs?

And what
might be the prerequisite information i need to perform that.
Also if somebody could shine some light on which more preferable, time history
analysis or response spectrum? Pro's and con's?
P.s: This is my introduction into structures field. Thankyou in advance. :)
Mehedi Rashid, P.E., S.E. Yes, it is possible to analyze base isolated structures in
etabs.
Asce 7-10 has a complete chapter on base isolation. This chapter will give you
complete guidance on design and analysis approach including conditions for use
of non linear time history analysis using base isolation. Base isolation is highly
non linear so time history analysis is most often required when relatively large
earthquake is under consideration.
Response spectrum analysis is linear analysis. This analysis can be considered
for preliminary analysis for large earthquake. You will need isolator damping,
maximum and minimum stiffness for analysis. Maximum stiffness is targeted to
determine design forces for the structure. Where as, minimum stiffness is to
determine maximum deflection under design earthquake

Muqtadir Ghani Excellent words placement and usage. i think I understand now and might
just be able to take my first step in structural Engineering. Thank you.

Auto mesh with auto line constraint or Manual mesh ?


in ETABS
Hi every one .which is the best method to mesh a slab in an irregular story with
columns,beams and shear wall distributed in an irregular manner, to transfer the load in a
proper way in order to get an accurate analysis (auto mesh with auto line constraint or manual
mesh) ? Can any one help me ?

Ibrahem Nasreldin i use auto mesh options in ETABS eventually i realized it is the best to
mesh regular or irregular slabs using the auto mesh options in ETABS for some reasons
you are not enforced to manually mesh the slabs into very small pieces just manually divide
the slabs according to the different values of distributed loads then draw null lined to enforce

auto mesh at the lines


in case of columns in an irregular manner you can overcome this issue using the option of
frame joint offset from the cardinal point to finally get columns at the same lines
the best thing in auto mesh is that at any time you can change the maximum size of mesh in
one second also you can remove the slab and draw it again keeping the mesh saved

SCALE FACTOR IN ETABS IN RESPONSE SPECTRA METHOD


If you are scaling your response spectrum to match some static analysis results (e.g., base
shear), you may want to include that in the scale factor specified for the response spectrum
function in the input response spectra area. In that case you would input a scale factor equal
to the product of the scale factor to convert the spectrum to the appropriate units and the scale
factor to scale the response spectrum base shear to the appropriate level
Jamal Qadamani the sale factor is an important parameter to to scale the dynamic base shear
to be equal to the static base shear, in this case the engineer will use a dynamic analysis and
satisfy the code requirements in limiting the base shear to its static value

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