Beam Section Design - Beam Tab

General

Beam Section Design allows user to access beam reinforcement data, beam report and etc.

To access Beam Section Design, user can either:

1. Select a beam, then click on "Section Design" under Beam tab, or
   
2. Select a beam, right click to access shortcut menu and click on "Section Design.
   
   

  Beam Section Design  consists of two tabs: 

1. "Beams” tab
   
2. "Rebars” tab
   

Beams Tab

In  “Beams” tab,  geometric data and 3D views of the continuous beams will be displayed here. The beam clear span length and center to center length are contained in this table editor.

Here we may find 3 sections:

1. Toolbars :
   
1. Beam Design Parameters :  To view/edit the forces (moment, shear, torsion) in the selected beam from the analysis results. More explanation can be found below this section.
   (Alternatively, double left click on the beam in the Axis and Beam Data Editor to access Interactive Design dialogue.)
   
2. Side View and 3D View : To reset the display view of the beam(s) to either side view or default 3D view angle.
   
3. Ok and Cancel : Ok to apply change, cancel to exit without preserve any changes made.
2. Axis and Beam Data Editor : geometric data of the beam(s) will be presented here including beam support information, beam concrete and steel grade, span length and beam section dimension. User may edit beam section here as well.
3. 3D View : To display the selected beam. If it is a continuous beam, full continuous beams will be presented together with the columns in this view.
   

Amending beam dimension here is for a rough/quick check only : 

1. It is useful if the current design fails due to insufficient section, changing the size, followed by re-design is preliminary way to find out what size of beam passes.  
   
2. Since amending the size will change the weight and stiffness of the model, it will invalidate the current analysis result. 
   
3. Hence, Building Analysis must be re-run to get updated analysis forces. Then re-check the beam design again to ensure the beam passes with updated design forces. 
   
4. Alternatively, you may also adjust beam dimension via the Beam Properties dialog. 
   

Beam Design Parameters

The forces for each of the six regions can be displayed here.

All the design forces is calculated from the load combination envelope force diagrams, which is maximum values of superimposition of all the load combination force diagrams.

Values for K, K’, x, As, and As’ are then all calculated for each region and are also shown in the same table.

Where the ratio of K/K’ is less than 1.0 no compression steel is required.

The effective depth  " h’ " to the centre of the bars is worked out separately at each location. This is automatically reduced if the steel doesn’t fit in a single layer.

There a 2 methods to calculate effective depth as controlled in the Beam Design Settings > Design tab, as shown below:

The tension steel area (As) and compression steel area (As’) are calculated for all moment values while links are calculated for shear and torsion as provided in the corresponding fields.

By checking the "Edit Manually" option at the right bottom corner, these values are editable :

1. In other words, these fields can be used for calculating the steel for any given design moment.
   
2. Editing moments fields will dynamically re-calculate and update the required steel areas, thus redesign of beam steel design is required.
   
3. Redesign can done by clicking on "Select Bars" in the Beam Section Design - Rebar Tab. 
   
4. Note, if this option is ticked, the "Analysis Result Diagram" of the beam will be invalid, i.e. can't be shown since design is no longer based on building analysis result).
   

Only the shear force value at the supported end of the cantilever beams will be taken into account during the shear design. Links based on this shear force value (Vd) will be used throughout the span of the cantilever beam.

The dialog will be closed and any modifications will be saved if the “OK” button is pressed. The “Cancel” button will also close the Reinforcement Design Dialog, and the changes will be discarded.

The contribution of the bent-up bars (if they exist) in the shear resistance of the beams are ignored.

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