Aluminum design software or spreadsheet

[DCStructures]

Similar to an old thread (thread507-269726), does anyone have or know of a good (inexpensive) software or spreadsheet for aluminum design? I'm trying to design a simply supported beam, but it's proprietary aluminum shape. And I am not as familiar with aluminum design as I am with steel design. also does anyone know of a website where I can see an old copy of the aluminum design manual for free? Thanks in advance!!

 

[JoshPlumSE]

What do you mean by proprietary shape? One of those funky extruded shapes that doesn't resemble any of the commonly used structural shapes?

 

[DCStructures]

Yes! Exactly. Made by Schletter.

 

[JoshPlumSE]

Sorry, I don't personally know of any programs or spreadsheets that specialize in those weird custom shapes for aluminum. There's CFS for cold formed members. But, I don't think that does the aluminum code.

For standard more common shapes you can use RISA... and probably other programs as well. But, it's the crazy extruded stuff that is the hard part. We've recently expanded out RISASection to be able to do section property calculations for crazy geometries through a DXF import. I know some people are using this for aluminum.

However, RISASection is only giving you the cross section properties (A, I, J, Z, centroid and such). And, it sounds like you are looking for more advance information geared towards stress checks and such. The program doesn't go that far... maybe someday, but not now.

 

[thaidavid40]

You need a copy of the Aluminum Manual, and if the shape is irregular and/or has many unsupported projections, then you'll need to follow the various limiting stress calculations related to each specific condition, regarding the b/t ratios. It's a royal pain to check these. I really wish that there were a spreadsheet for that too!
Good luck,
Dave

Thaidavid

 

[Ron]

DC...unfortunately, if you are going to design aluminum structures, you will need a current copy of the ADM. Cost of doing business.

As JoshPlum noted, RISA 3D doesn't do the whole thing, but is certainly valuable for the analytical side. I have done hundreds of aluminum structure designs using proprietary extrusions. In some cases, I could get close with the mechanical properties and use RISA or other structural analysis programs....in others, I had to use spreadsheets. I'm still not comfortable with programs doing the design, so I use them up to a point for analysis and then take the info and continue with a manual design process.

 

[PSEPK]

You may try following links in this connection, although both of them appear to deal with members having regular cross-sections only:
1. Digital Canal Software

2. Engineering-International Spreadsheets

HTH

A good structural engineer is often a blessing for others.

 

[DCStructures]

Thank you all for your help. I got a copy of the aluminum design manual and I'm working through the design. One quick question – where can I find the value of the constant Kt? This is for the tensile rupture limit state of the member's elements in section F.8. I seem to recall that it's just equal to 1.0 but I can't find it anywhere in the manual.

 

[SW13]

DC,

Kt can be found in Table A.3.3 in both the 2010 and 2015 Aluminum Design Manual. In the 2010 version, it has a table all its own, but in 2015 it is combined in the table for nominal strengths for each alloy, in the right-most column. Another thing to note--kt is not always 1.0. One fairly common heat-treatable alloy is 6005, which has a kt of 1.25. There are other alloys that have kt values greater than 1.0, but the table should reveal those.

 

[DCStructures]

Found it! Thank you, SW13!!