Design Parameters

The available design parameters depend on the material type.

Steel

Parameters used in the steel design such as section net:gross area ratio, and maximum plastic:elastic ratio are defined here.

Concrete

A full description of the section requires details of the reinforcement. For a column the main reinforcement is assumes to be the same along the length of the column, so only one definition of the reinforcement is required. For a beam the reinforcement is assumed to be different at the ends from the middle, so three reinforcement sets are required. The simplest way to define reinforcement is to use the reinforcement templates. These provide a straightforward way to define the reinforcement for most commonly used arrangements. In situations where this does not provide sufficient flexibility the general option can be used which allow individual bars, or various type of lines of bars to be defined, and includes the option for pre-stressed bars.

When the template option is used the cover, links (stirrups) and aggregate are required to determine the position of the bars. All bars, and positioning checks are based on the currently selected design code.

For situations where bars are spread across a large section, requiring a large number of bars to be positioned, there is an option for 'smeared' reinforcement. This assumes the reinforcement is spread evenly across the section.