Structural
Engineering
INTEGRATED ANALYSIS, DESIGN AND DRAFTING OF BUILDING SYSTEMS
For nearly 30 years, ETABS has been recognized as the industry standard for Building Analysis and Design Software. Today, continuing in the same tradition, ETABS has evolved into a completely Integrated Building Analysis and Design Environment. The System built around a physical object based graphical user interface, powered by targeted new special purpose algorithms for analysis and design, with interfaces for drafting and manufacturing, is redefining standards of integration, productivity and technical innovation.
The integrated model can include Moment Resisting Frames, Braced Frames, Staggered Truss Systems, Frames with Reduced Beam Sections or Side Plates, Rigid and Flexible Floors, Sloped Roofs, Ramps and Parking Structures, Mezzanine Floors, Multiple Tower Buildings and Stepped Diaphragm Systems with Complex Concrete, Composite or Steel Joist Floor Framing Systems. Solutions to complex problems such as Panel Zone Deformations, Diaphragm Shear Stresses, and Construction Sequence Loading are now at your fingertips.
ETABS is the solution, whether you are designing a simple 2D frame or performing a dynamic analysis of a complex high-rise that utilizes non-linear dampers for inter-story drift control.
Elastic Shortening
Elastic shortening is accurately computed in ETABS. Based on the shear/core walls and columns modelled, ETABS will compute their respective displacements based on their actual stiffness. Engineers will be able to strategize the locations of these walls and columns to obtain a more efficient building in terms of vertical resistance. The figure on the right shows a building with poorly positioned walls and columns making the building lean to one side under dead load alone! Accurate elastic shortening results indicate proper reaction loads for the columns as would be experienced by the real structure.
Modified Wall Panels and Meshing
ETABS has long been the industry leader for shear wall analysis and design. It ensures the precision in its analysis by using modified wall panels which have similar performance regardless of the mesh size specified by the user. Advanced meshing options such as the auto line constraint which is unique to CSI software also ensures the quality of the result by enforcing displacement compatibility at mis-matched mesh locations. For more information, Click here
Section Designer
The section designer in ETABS allows the user to specify a section of any geometry using concrete, steel sections or rebar. The section designer will then generate the P-M-M interaction surface as well as the moment curvature relationship for that section to be used as a frame element in the analysis.
Relative Virtual Work/Unit Volume
ETABS determines the energy per unit volume associated with each element in the structure. For any plane selected by the user, the values are normalised with the largest one which has a value of 100. In this way, the designer is able to see which elements are "working" the hardest and is able to make calculated choices on which elements to strengthen to meet a certain criterion.
To control lateral displacements in your structure, the energy diagrams are helpful as an aid to determine which elements should be stiffened.
Earthquake Loading: Static Equivalent, Response Spectrum and Time History
You can seismic loading in ETABS by using:
-Equivalent Lateral Force Method
-Response Spectrum Analysis Method
-Time-History(Response-History)
For the Equivalent Lateral Force, the user can specify the design code. Options such as the orthogonal directions with/without eccentricity, Soil Profile Type, Seismic Zone Factor and Importance Factor of the building can be inputted into the software.
A full dynamic analysis, which ETABS excels at, is possible though Response Spectrum and Time History analysis.
Modal Analysis
Modal analysis which is critical to building analysis is a default option in ETABS.
Nonlinear Sequential Construction
ETABS is able to perform a nonlinear sequential construction analysis on your building. The figure on the right shows bending moments under the dead loads of a building with and without the effect of sequential construction. The sequential construction is automated such that each floor is built one floor at a time and with the sequential non linear effects captured.Output results can be shown for each step of the construction sequence loading. This type of analysis is very useful if you wish to capture the right forces for your transfer beams and transfer columns.
Below is a quick summary of the various types of advanced analysis options that is available to ETABS.
Steel Frame Design
British BS5950-1990 BS5950-2000, Eurocode EC3-2005 , AISC-ASD & LRFD, UBC UBC97-ASD UBC97-LRFD , Canadian and Italian codes.
Concrete Frame Design
British BS8110-89 BS8110-97, Eurocode EC2-1992 EC2-2004, ACI, UBC UBC97, Canadian, New Zealand, Indian and Mexican codes.
Concrete Shear Wall Design
British BS8110-89 BS8110-97, American, Canadian and Indian codes.
Composite Beam Design
British, AISC-ASD & LRFD, Canadian and Indian codes.
CSiXRevit is now available which is a very powerful tool to integrate with Autodesk Revit easily and effectively. You can easily import/export models from ETABS Or Revit and updates of the changes are done automatically.
ETABS has been awarded the Top Seismic Product of the 20th Century by the Applied Technology Council (ATC) and the Engineering News Record(ENR), again re-iterating its position as the leading building software on the market
Computers and Structures, Inc. is also the proud recipient of the Charles S. Whitney Medal from the American Concrete Institute (ACI) in 2011. Ashraf Habibullah, the President and CEO also received a H.J. Brunnier Life Time Achievement Award for Excellence in Structural Engineering in the same year, a feat not achieved by any other structural software company.
Otte is the Sole Singapore ETABS distributor as well as the Sole Malaysia ETABS distributor. Other Computers and Structures Products such as SAP2000, CSiBridge, and SAFE are also distributed by Otte.