ETABS--modeling nonstructural masonry partition?

[hippo11]

I am modeling a steel-framed building that has some non-structural masonry partitions that will be infilled floor-to-floor (as opposed to continuous) after the steel skeleton is built.

How can I model these walls correctly? I’d like to have the mass represented correctly, but I don’t want the masonry partitions to contribute to overall lateral stiffness, or to local steel beam stiffnesses.


Would it be proper to use a membrane object but with an f12 release?

I guess I could just account for the nonstructural masonry as Line Loads but those loads could be tedious to input on all the individual beams.

Thanks!

 

[WillisV]

Just use the line loads or convert it to a reasonable uniform load - it will be less hassle in the long run.

 

[tpist]

A good idea to convert the masonry partitions to a surface load, because when an earthquake occur, the collapse of these partitions will be in the first seconds, so these elements are really don't contribute by their lateral stiffness, they contribute by their mass. I have read about this from a great scientist (to convert partitions to a surface load on the slab or deck). So if u don't want to model the slab you can use a horizontal element like slab ( i forget about the name of this element) which don't mean anything (no mass, no stiffness) after u assign you surface load on this element, then loads will be transfered to beams with the software processes.
This feature give you an accurate results after VICTOR DAVIDOCCI.

 

[ASCE07]

I'd use a line load convert from psf to plf !