This tab covers the overall settings of the project including project information, material properties, factors and settings (analysis options).
Project Information
Project: Project name.
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Project Information
Input | Description |
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Project | Project name |
Location | Location of the project |
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Date |
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Date printed on the report (defaults to |
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current date) |
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Client |
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Name of the client |
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Designer |
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Name of the |
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designer |
Job Number |
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Job number for the project |
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Design Number | Design number for the design |
PCI Edition | Edition of the PCI Design Handbook to use |
Description | Long form description for the project. Shift+Enter adds a new line. |
Material Properties
Precast / Topping Concrete
Input | Description |
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f’c |
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Final compressive strength of the beam concrete (often referred to as the 28-day strength). | |
f’ci |
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Concrete compressive strength at time of release of the prestress in the casting yard, or at time of stripping of members without prestressing. The release strength cannot exceed the final compressive strength. This is used for all stripping and handling analysis. It may also be used for erection (user input). | |
f’ct |
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Final compressive strength of the topping concrete (often referred to as the 28-day strength). |
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wc | Density of the concrete used in the beam. |
Concrete type: Beam concrete type can be designated as normalweight, sand-lightweight, or all lightweight.
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Ec | Modulus of elasticity of the beam concrete at final. This value will be calculated and updated when f’c or the unit weight of the beam are changed. |
Eci |
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Modulus of elasticity at time of release of the prestress in the casting yard, or at time of stripping of members without prestressing. This value will be calculated and updated when f’ci or unit weight are changed. | |
Ect |
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Modulus of elasticity of the topping concrete at final. This value will be calculated and updated when f’ct or the unit weight of the topping are changed. |
Topping weight: Density of the concrete used in the topping.
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Type | Beam concrete type can be designated as normalweight, sand-lightweight, or all lightweight. |
Stress Stain Curve
The concrete stress strain curve comes from Collins, Michael P. and Mitchell, Denis, Prestressed Concrete Structures. This curve is used anytime the stress strain curve needs to be evaluated for the concrete, which can happen for flexure capacity.
Rebar / Transverse / Mesh
Input | Description |
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fy |
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Yield strength of the rebar / wire. Note that rebar can (and usually does) have a different yield than |
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wires. |
Es |
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Modulus of elasticity of the rebar / wire. |
WWR
fy: Yield strength of the welded wire reinforcement. Note that rebar can (and usually does) have a different yield than WWR.
Es: Modulus of elasticity of the welded wire reinforcement.
Strand
fpu: Stress Strain Curve
The mild stress strain curve assumes linear elastic behavior up until yield. At that point the stress always returns the yield stress. Strain hardening is not accounted for and rupture strain is not checked.
Strand
Input | Description |
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fpu | Ultimate tensile strength of prestressing steel. |
Ep |
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Modulus of elasticity of prestressed reinforcement. |
Losses: Specify whether losses are calculated or defined by user.
Humidity: Stress Strain Curve
The prestress stress strain curve uses the equations found in the PCI Design Handbook 8th Edition Design Aid 15.2.3. Note that in these equations, the coefficients found in the equation are solved for to account for the user defined material properties. The yield stress in the strand is assumed to be 90% of the ultimate stress.
Prestress Losses
Input | Description |
|---|---|
Method | Losses can be user defined, calculated using the lump sum method present in the PCI Design Handbook, or calculated using the time dependent method in the PCI Journal. |
Humidity | Relative humidity (percent). |
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Initial Loss: Initial loss of prestress immediately after release of prestress in the casting yard (percent).
Final Loss: Loss of prestress used for shipping and in-place calculations (percent).
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Include LL Regain | Indicate whether to include the effects of live load in your losses. |
Time at… | Release: Time when release happens. Used in the loss calculation for transfer. Erection |
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: Time when erection happens. Used in the loss calculation for erection and construction. |
For more information on how prestress losses are calculated, see Prestress Losses.
Load Combinations
Load combinations can be enabled and disabled by using the include check box. Auto select load combinations will turn on only the combinations which match your load input’s load types.
Strength Combinations
Import default strength and service combinations from the currently selected specification. You need at least one strength combination to run the analysis.
Service Combinations
Import default strength and service combinations from the currently selected specification. You need at least one strength combination to run the analysis.
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Input | Description | ||
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Span Options | This input determines what 'L' to use when determining the allowable deflections Main Span: Sets L to the distance between supports Current Span: Sets L to the distance between the nearest left boundary condition and nearest right. For cantilevers this will use the cantilever length. Total Length: Sets L to the length of the member. | ||
Allowable Deflection | Sets the limit for deflection multipliers for both total and live load deflections. The deflection limit is always L, as defined above, divided by the inputted value. | ||
Transform Reinforcement | Tells the program how to handle reinforcement transformation when calculating section properties for deflections. For more information see Transformed Section Properties. | ||
Use mild to reduce deflection multipliers | Tells the program to follow the PCI Design Handbook to reduce the camber and deflection multipliers based on the ratio of As to Ap. | Include Dnc for construction deflections | If checked, non composite dead load will be included in the construction stage |
Section Properties | Tells the program at what location the section properties should pull from. Varying: Tells the program to allow the section properties to vary down the length of the member. The section properties will be pulled for all locations. Midspan: Tells the program to use the midspan section properties as the section properties for all locations. |
Flexure
Input | Description | Use plain concrete strength when controls | Uses the plain concrete flexure strength as a lower bound for the flexure capacity. This reduces flexure failures at the ends of members before reinforcement has developed. Calculation is based on ACI 318-14 Section 14.4.|
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Method | Selects the method by which the program will compute the force in the concrete. | ||
Neutral Axis | Selects which neutral axis will be used for flexure capacity. Uniaxial: Will not rotate the neutral axis Biaxial: Will rotate the neutral axis so the section reaches static equilibrium Principal Axis: Uses the principal axis' angle for the neutral axis | ||
Ignore shear when checking 1.2Mcr | Ignores the limitation on 2.0 Vu < phiVn when checking Mcr | ||
Ignored Distance | How far from the members end should be ignored when checking flexure capacity |
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Ktr | Value to fine tune development length calculationsIgnore strand when calculating spacing | Instructs the program to ignore strand when locating nearest bar for spacing calculation |
Development multipliers | Multiplier to apply to the computed development lengths |
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Use Principal Axis | If turned on, the program will account for member asymmetry when computing stresses. |
Ignore Horizontal Strand Eccentricity | If turned on, the lateral eccentricity for strand will be set to 0 when calculating stresses. |
Transform Reinforcement | Tells the program how to handle reinforcement transformation when computing section properties for stresses. For more information see Transformed Section Properties. |
Ignore Topping Stresses | If enabled, the program will not check topping stresses. |
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