RAM SS Wall moment distributions

[Petercowan10]

Ive got a building set up using the out of plane capacity of lateral walls as a sway frame for lateral loads in the x/-x direction. These walls have openings and I need to see the stress/moment distributions to find the peak values instead of the whole wall?

 

[SteveGregory]

What is your question?

 

[SethGuthrie]

In order to see a plot of stress contours in the concrete walls using RAM Structural System, you’ll need the Shear Wall Design module (in RAM Concrete, though the primary analysis for the walls is in RAM Frame). In that mode, using the View/Update command you can get an image of the stresses in the wall. See the attached image for details.

I actually find it easier to work with cross section forces. There you can get total forces acting on any cross section which are more useful for design. The good news is that you can cut and review cross sections from within RAM Frame using Process – Results - Shear Wall Forces module even if you don’t own the Shear Wall design module.

Seth Guthrie

 

[Petercowan10]

Steve the question was is it possible to view moment/stress distributions in the wall?

Ive found that shear wall module thanks seth but the results are pretty hard to interpret. Do you know how to iterpret the different stress plots Like S11 S21 and what the scales mean? do they represent actual values? I need to find localised moments as we are introducing large openings into existing walls and I need to see if the existing reo will cope.

 

[SethGuthrie]

Take a look at the Shear Wall Manual, Section 4.1.2 Mesh Options, pages 37-39 for details. It looks like the stresses do not include an out-of-plane bending moment kind of result, however, which I assume is your primary concern.

 

[Petercowan10]

Yer Ive been through that and come to the same conclusion, and it doesnt explain the scale system at all.

 

[SethGuthrie]

The plotted wall stress contours are in kips/in^2.