November 19, 2015

Battered Retaining Wall Design

By: RISA

The batter dimensions can be set from Wall Footing Definitions:

The batter will affect:

The depth of wall for shear and bending checks
The self-weight of wall
Minimum reinforcement checks will be based on the maximum thickness of wall

Tags: Concrete, RISAFoundation, New, Retaining Walls

March 22, 2018 | Seismic, RISA-3D, Concrete, New, Shear Walls

Utilizing RISA-3D for Seismic Design of Concrete Walls

In RISA-3D we now have the ability to design concrete shear walls for seismic forces. There are 3 main aspects to concrete shear wall design. We will explain them here. Pier Design: ACI 318-14 Section 18.10.8 defines the wall pier design parameters. Coupling Beam Design: ACI 318-14 Section 18.10.7 defines the coupling beam design parameters. Boundary Zone Design: ACI 318-14 Section 18.10.6 defines the boundary zone design parameters. Currently RISA-3D determines whether a boundary zone is required or not per Section 18.10.6.3. These results are then condensed into a single code spreadsheet view complete with code checks. For details on the calculations and the additional reinforcement checks, search Concrete Walls – Seismic Design topic in the RISA-3D help file. RISA Help File Additionally, check out the video below for more information concerning concrete wall design for seismic forces…

March 26, 2016 | RISA-3D, Walls, New, Spreadsheets

Improved Wall Panel Results

Wall Panel Forces Spreadsheet The power of RISA is the easy to access output. The Wall Panels have all the calculations and forces displayed in the Detail Report and now the new Wall Panel Forces gives you a quick way to get all the forces across the base of the wall. This new spreadsheet can be found in the Data Entry toolbar or the Results menu. Masonry Wall Summary Report The Masonry walls now have a Summary Report in the Detail Report. This gives you all the information on the wall, drawing of the wall with regions and openings, and results for the unity, reinforcement and lintels…

November 20, 2013 | RISA-3D, New, Torsion

Why Is My Beam Failing in Shear?

When solving a RISA-3D model you may find you have a Shear UC (unity check) much higher than expected from bending shear alone. If you open the detail report and compare the shear demand to the shear capacity you may see that the demand/capacity is less than the Max Shear Check reported. What is likely occurring is that the member has torsion in it. In RISA-3D both the bending and shear demands are affected by torsion, though it is shear that usually causes the most problems. If you look at the detail report and in the Member Torsion spreadsheet results you can see this torsion. Warping Member (Wide Flange, Channel, etc): Non-Warping Member (Tube, Pipe, etc): Generally speaking wide flanges and channels work very poorly in torsion, while tube sections are much more efficient. Eliminating torsion or using a more efficient section are common ways to eliminate this problem. Note that this torsion problem can happen for all material types…