UmarMakhzumi

I think diaphragm assignments can be done to null areas and this should work well where assignment is that for rigid diaphragm. What do you think about this? Where there is a municipal requirement, it should be followed though I have other ideas too on that but no ETABS to check them. Thanks

Yes, there could be some limitations but that's my suggestion as it creates a very clean model. Thanks.

I used to use Perimeter/180 formula for 2 ways slabs with additional factor for Grade 60 reinforcement (I can't remember, sorry it been 8 years now). You can use what Rana has suggested. Looks more conservative. Whatever you use, you can always go back and check deflection and reinforcement and if both are within acceptable range, your design should be good. That is the only hard and fast rule you need to meet. A slab thick enough that doesn't deflect much, and where design reinforcement placement is not an issue. Rest all formula's are empirical. Thanks.

Add/ remove structural members (like shear walls) such that eccentricity between center of mass and rigidity is minimized. Thanks.

Hamza, Your question is not clear? Where does 12" come from and why do you want it to reduce it to 8" or 6"? Whats your reasoning? Thanks.

Waqar, Thanks so much for posting this. I was thinking to post this video but couldn't really get anytime this week. I was reading the comments on facebook and someone wrote that there was a water pipe leakage in the adjacent excavation as well. It is interesting to see how the building falls towards the plot where excavation is being done. I think its about time to move away from shallow foundations for plazas. I have seen people designing 10 story plus building on Rafts without even giving due thought that the adjacent building is also 10 plus stories and the ground below is subjected to load of 2 buildings not one. I think we need guidelines over this. Thanks.

You need to use steel in concrete foundations all the time based on actual loads and temp and shrinkage criteria, which ever governs. Thanks.

You can start by selecting a design code that would help you establish the definition of soft story. After that you would need to proportion your structure so that you end up with a soft story (using thinner columns on lower floor which you want to behave as soft story etc). So, for example you want to use UBC97 as your design code, the first thing to do would be look up in that design code what qualifies as a soft story and then you go from there. If you are new to seismic, going through the following might help. Thanks.

Load should be calculated based on actual capacity/ size of water tank. The higher the walls, the more water it can contain and more load /sqft. Thanks.

Could be. I generally recommend everyone avoiding modelling slabs at all. The loads can be applied manually to beams. What I have seen is that using auto line constraint with auto-meshing causes a lot of problems. Thanks.

Please see this: Thanks

What kind of foundation system is there. you can consult a geotechnical engineer as well to get some option interms of soil improvement etc. From a structural point of view, you can always introduce more columns and reduce load per existing column to reduce settlement. Thanks.

MBMA guidelines might be used in PEB structures. I know @BAZ used to have a MBMA design document. http://www.mbma.com/

Hi Krishneel, Please see this: Thanks.

I am not aware of this feature but in SAP2000 there is also joint assignments feature in SAP2000, I think its called Body Constraints. I don't have ETABS but you can try to see if the version of ETABS you have offers this feature. It might be one potential way to achieve what you are trying to do. Thanks.

shivan, It depends on the kind of structure. For some structures, using equivalent static procedure would result in a conservative design of structure. For other structures (with a vertical irregularity) using equivalent static would give you totally wrong results. So, depends from case to case. Thanks.

Well said @EngrUzair Sahab!

Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/florida-bridge-collapse-fiu-florida-state-university-project-behind-schedule-over-budget-updates-2018-03-20/

Hasnain, Welcome to the forum. Thanks.

You can check your service deflection through software too. We have a got a few threads on this forum for long and short term deflection. You can find them by searching the forum.

You can model it in SAFE, SAP2000 or even ETABS to get stresses against applied loads. Are you looking for a design example? If yes, check this: Thanks.

Here is what I would have done. I would do analysis with a prismatic beam section with HCB properties and pick the most critical beam and model it as shell elements and check the stresses. What do you think about this? Thanks.

So there could be times when the culvert is dry and you only have soil pressure acting on your walls. The net soil pressure would equal out (as applied on both exterior faces) assuming that the construction sequence is to backfill both walls at same time. That would help you with sliding and overturning. But you will still need to reinforce your wall for the case of when culvert is dry and earth pressure is on the wall. Thanks.

Dear All, The forum has been updated today with a lot new features. You can find the list of all the new improvements by visiting this website. Some highlights are: 1) Improved Search Features 2) Emoji Emoji support is now available in all editors. 3) Member profile cover photos are now clickable and can be viewed as a full image. Do check out mine as it is a very beautiful waterfall snap taken by yours truly. 😃 Do check out the link posted above for the complete list. One additional announcement that I would like to make is that with reference to last forum update post (read below), @Rana and @BAZ are forum Admins now. I think it was important to do as it brings more transparency for the forum and also helps spread the responsibility. The forum belongs to the members so it never made sense for one person to be Admin, As always, feedback is much appreciated. Thanks for taking the time out to read this update. Cheers!

Here is what I was thinking. If your culvert is a buried box with a top slab then the lateral pressure from both sides would cancel each other out. Is this the case? Thanks.