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masterSERIES

Technical Note
Title:

Reasons why Gravity Area Loading Panels are not correct and how to solve them

Date:

19/09/2005

Versions:

2005.04+

Program:

MasterFrame and 3D Model Manager

Introduction
In the frame below, Area Loading has been applied assuming the slab to be spanning right to
left. However, several areas have not been filled or completed properly, even though the
members have been placed in the correct area loading groups. This is due to a series of
problems commonly encountered when applying area loading. We will look at each of these in
turn and provide simple solutions.

Problem 1 Panels that have more than 4 sides.


These are easily solved by inserting a dummy member running parallel to the direction of span
of the floor load, dividing the 5 or 6 sided panel into two or more 4 sided panels. The dummy
member added to the panel is there only to split the panel for area loading and is subsequently
ignored during analysis of the frame. Since the dummy member is placed parallel to the span
of the floor load, no loading is taken by the dummy member.

To insert a dummy member:Go into the Multi-Storey menu and select Add/Delete
Beams, Columns and Bracing Members.
Tick the Keep as Supermember box, so that the member
that will be split when a new node is inserted will remain a
supermember.
Click on the Distance or % button to clear the % values.
This will enable easier picking of the existing and new node
positions.
Make the section a Round Bar section, and finally tick the
Dummy box. This will make the new member a dummy
member which will be ignored during analysis of the frame.
Now that the new dummy member definitions have been
set up, insert the new member, parallel to the span of the
slab, by clicking on the first node (N18) and then the
second or proposed node position (End 2) as shown
below. (Note that by hovering your mouse over a member,
a new node can be inserted at a position such that the new
member will be perpendicular to the existing member.)
Thus the original 6 sided panel has become two 4 sided
panels and the area loading problem has been solved for
this particular area, as shown below.

The front bottom corner can be solved in the same way, by inserting a new dummy member in
the position shown below, starting from node 14:-.

The front top corner requires insertion of 2 dummy members to create three 4 sided panels and
thus solve the area loading problem, with the first member starting at node 53 and the second at
node 55:-

Similarly, the panel below requires 2 dummy members, both starting at node 56 and running,
one to the back and the other to the front of the panel, to solve the area loading:-

Problem 2 Triangular Panels


The small triangular areas in the panel above, which are not complete, can now be finished.
This involves going back into the Gravity Area, Line and Patch Loading and adding M28 to the
North Elevation group and M29 to the South Elevation group, both being loaded to one side
only.

Thus, on one side, half the triangular panel spans on to M59 and half on to M28, and in the
other triangular area, half spans on to M29 and half on to M61.

Problem 3 Panels with members that have not been split properly.
The panels shown below have not been completed properly because
the central east-west beam (M23) is not split where M52 and M63
appear to join it. Thus the program cannot identify the 4 rectangular
areas which need filled.
To split the member at the right position, go to the Members menu
and select to Auto Split Members. This very useful function will
attempt to automatically pick up any members that need splitting
M23 in this case. Tick the Keep as Supermember box if the split
member needs to be a supermember and click on Proceed. M23 is
split at the midpoint and becomes M23 & M24. Now the program can
easily identify the members surrounding each of the 4 panels and
hence complete the loading on them.

Problem 4 Coincident nodes (nodes that are so close together, they are difficult to identify
as 2 separate nodes)

When a member is defined in such a way that its end node comes close to another node but
does not actually coincide with that node, a small gap can occur between members. Often this
gap is so small that it isnt easily spotted on screen. For example, there is a 30mm gap between
the node at the lower end of M57 and the node joining M11 & M12. Thus the area on both sides
of M57 is not complete, since neither panel is closed. There is a facility in the Nodes menu to
Merge Nodes which can be used to identify these close nodes. Placing a tick in the Coincident
Nodes box opens the Tolerance data entry box. You can enter a spacing in mm and the
program highlights in red any nodes that are within this tolerance, as shown below. These
nodes can then be merged, joining node 29 at the lower end of M57 to node 37 between M11 &
M12, closing the gap and thus completing the loading on these panels.

Problem 5 Bracing Members


Bracing members need to be identified in the Area Loading
Bracing Members group. This group will usually include
horizontal and vertical diagonal bracing members. When
these members have been designated as bracing members,
the program ignores them when selecting the plane which is
to be loaded.
In the example below the X bracing has been placed in the
Bracing Members group allowing the program to identify and
load the adjacent floor panel.

Having sorted out these problem areas, the area loading is now complete across the whole floor
area.

Regards

MasterSeries Team

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