COLLEGE OF

ENGINEERING
Department of Civil & Geological Engineering

CE 463.3 – Advanced Structural Analysis

Lab 6 –SAP2000 Geometric Nonlinearity and P-Δ effect

March 27th, 2013

T.A: Ouafi Saha Professor: M. Boulfiza

1. P-Δ Effect http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6ZPNb-XIBQ

This example will illustrate how to use SAP2000 to include geometric nonlinearity in a static analysis.
In this case, the deformation due to an applied static vertical load will include second order effects
caused by the eccentricity of the axial load. P
Δ

E= 200 GPa
h=3m
h
Δ = 10 cm
E, I
P = 100 kN
Default Section

i. General Definitions
Choose (kN, m, C) as principal units and a grid system X(0, 0.1), Y(0), Z(0, 3)

ii. Material and Section Definition

Define Material (MAT) having Self-Weight = 0, E = 200 GPa and v = 0.3
Don’t define frame section, just draw the model, and then change the default section material to MAT

iii. Drawing the Model

Draw a frame from point p1(0,0,0) to p2(0,0,3) and finish it in point p3(0.1,0,3)

iv. Boundary Displacement Conditions

Assign fixed restraints to the base.

v. Loading Condition
Assign a concentrated load under the DEAD load case to joint p3 equal to -100 kN in the Global Z axis.

There are two main methods to include P-Delta effects in Sap2000, we will use only one in this
example

1
Menu Define > Load Cases …
Choose Static
Choose a name load case
for the load case

Select nonlinear
type

Select P-Delta

Add the Dead

vi. Analyse the System

Select XZ plane frame in the analysis option to reduce the problem size, then Run the analysis.

vii. Display Output

Open a second display window to see the linear and non linear results on the same screen.
(Small triangle at the top left of the main graphic interface window, see red circle below)

Difference in the Horizontal (U1) Displacement between Linear and non Nonlinear analysis

2
 Flexural Moment (M3-3),
Constant in the column for the classical linear analysis and
varying according to the deformation shape for the nonlinear analysis.

Note that those values are obtained using a scale of 10 times the actual vertical loading condition.

2. Geometric Nonlinearity http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9dDpBQbUsk

The second example will illustrate how to include large deflections in a static nonlinear analysis for a
typical case of geometric instability.
10.00

Δ
ltotal

Material E= 200 GPa, v = 0.3, ρ = 0 kN/m3

Section A = 4000 mm4
P = 10 kN
ltotal = 4 m
Run the analysis twice one with Δ1 = 10 cm and the other with Δ2 = 5 cm.
For simplicity assume all the nodes to be articulated (truss structure).

To solve this example follow the same steps as usual, the only difference is the definition of the static
nonlinear analysis case, named here NL.

You may need to specify the moment releases of the members.

3
 Static
Nonlinear
P-Delta + Large
displacements

Run the analysis twice, the first run with Δ1 = 10 cm.

For Δ1 = 10 cm, there is no inflection (members in compression)

For the second run with Δ2 = 5 cm, it is better to do a database editing instead of redrawing the whole
structure from scratch again.

Go to Menu Edit > Interactive Database Editing …

Select Model Definition > Connectivity Data > Joints Coordinates > Table: Joint Coordinates
Then change the Z coordinate of the appropriate node from 0.1 to 0.05

4
 For Δ2 = 5 cm, the nonlinear analysis leads to an inflected beam (members in tension) whereas the
linear analysis still shows a compression in the members.

As you can see from these two runs, we ended up with two completely different results for the linear
and the nonlinear analysis.

Additional Example

- Repeat example 1 for the column loaded with vertical and lateral forces.
Try different values of Py and see what happens when the vertical load gets close to the critical value
Pcr (Euler critical load for the first mode).

Px Py

h
E, I