Moment Magnification and Minimum Moments Page 1 of 7

General Information – Design Moments (Slenderness,

Imperfection, and Minimum Moments)

Slenderness effects can be applied for sectional loading only where the bending moment can be
magnified. For walls, the program assumes that the bending moments entered for panel loading are
already magnifiied.

Moment magnification only applies to non-sway frames (moment between the member ends). For
moment magnification in sway frames (moments at the ends of the member), S-CONCRETE assumes
that you will use a second-order frame analysis program (or better like S-FRAME) to compute the end
moments. It is also possible to let a program like S-FRAME determine the magnified moments between
the member ends as well by sub-dividing the member into 3 or more segments and extract the moments
directly at the stations along the length of the member. If, for some reason, you want the program to
apply slenderness effects anyway (see Edit Section for columns or walls), it will do so in the manner
described below for non-sway frames.

Adjusting or creating new load cases for minimum moments may be performed in S-CONCRETE for
columns only. If minimum moments are to be evaluated (i.e. "yes" to apply minimum moments in Edit
Section), the program will compute the minimum moments for each principal direction and compare
them to the applied moments. For uniaxial bending, if the applied moment is less than the minimum for
bending in that direction, the minimum moment becomes the applied moment. For biaxial bending
where one moment is greater than the minimum moment for that direction, minimum moments are not
applied (in neither direction). For biaxial bending, if both moments are less than the minimum in each
respective direction (e.g. My < Mymin and Mz < Mzmin), two load cases will be auto generated -
namely (Mymin, Mz) and (My, Mzmin). One of these load cases will replace the original load case and
the other will be a a new load case which is added to the end of the load case spreadsheet. S-
CONCRETE will add a "comment" to that new load case which references the original load case from
which the minimum moments were computed. You will be able to see those comments in the "Factored
Input Loads" section of Results Report.

American Standards (ACI 318 and UBC 1997)

(Clause 10.10.6 of ACI 318-11|08 or Clause 10.12.3 of ACI 318-05 and earlier)

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British & Singapore Standards (BS8110 & CP65)

Clauses 3.8.3.1 and 3.8.3.2 of BS 8110: Part 1 for columns only. For walls, see CSA-A23.3 below. S-
CONCRETE has adopted the provisions of CSA-A23.3 for slenderness effects calculations for walls.

According to Clause 3.8.3.3 of BS 8110: Part 1, these provisions which are applied to columns only may
be unconservative and may not be appropriate if the ratio of length of the longer side to that of the
shorter side is greater than or equal to 3 or Le/h or Le/b is greater than 20.

= Factor specified in Edit Loads

= Smaller Initial End Moment
= Larger Initial End Moment (moment specified in Edit Loads)

Note: The following equations indicated below assume bending in the direction of "h" or bending about
the y-axis as defined in the program. The dimension, b', indicated below refers to the smaller
dimension of the column for uniaxial bending. However, for biaxial bending, b' should be taken
as "h", the dimension of the column in the plane of bending (Clause 3.8.3.6 of BS 8110: Part 1).

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Note: If you specify an applied moment of zero (i.e. M = 0), S-CONCRETE will not assign a minimum
moment nor will it attempt to magnify the moment. The program will only apply slenderness
effects and assign minimum moments to load cases with an applied moment greater than zero
(i.e. |M| > 0). Minimum moments are not applied to walls.

Canadian Standards (CSA-A23.3)

Note: If you specify an applied moment of zero (i.e. Mf = 0), S-CONCRETE will not assign a
minimum moment nor will it attempt to magnify the moment. The program will only apply
slenderness effects and assign minimum moments to load cases with an applied moment greater
than zero (i.e. |Mf| > 0). Minimum moments are not applied to walls.

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European Standard (Eurocode 2 - EN 1992-1-1:2004 )

Design Moments

Design moments are calculated from consideration of imperfection effects, slenderness effects, and
minimum moments. The following cases are taken into account, whichever produces the worst effect:

1. First order moments, i.e. unmodified input loads.

2. Consideration of imperfection effects only.
3. Consideration of slenderness effects only.
4. Consideration of imperfection and slenderness effects.
5. Consideration of minimum moments.

Minimum moments:

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h = Depth of section in direction of bending

Ned = Applied factored axial load

Minimum moments must be satisfied in at least one of the two perpendicular directions. If not, minimum
moments are applied to each direction separately, i.e. the minimum moments are not applied about Y
and Z axes simultaneously. To account for the possible combinations, S-CONCRETE automatically
generates the necessary alternate load cases and adds them to the list of existing load cases.

In S-CONCRETE, minimum moments are considered regardless of the type of axial force being
compression or tension. Minimum moments are not considered for moments of zero value.

Imperfection effects

lu = Unsupported length
k = Effective length factor

Imperfection moments are considered as first order effects and are added to the effects of external loads:

Moed,imp = Moed + Mimp

Imperfection is assumed in one direction at a time only. Therefore, imperfection moments are applied to
each of the two perpendicular directions separately, i.e. they are not applied about Y and Z axes
simultaneously. Different combinations of direction and sense of the imperfection moments are taken
into account. S-CONCRETE automatically generates the necessary alternate load cases and adds them to
the list of existing load cases.

In S-CONCRETE, imperfection effects are considered regardless of the type of axial force being
compression or tension. Imperfection effects are not considered for moments of zero value.

Slenderness effects:

Slenderness effects can be calculated by either one of two methods:

1. Nominal Stiffness Method, Clause 5.8.7 of EN 1992-1-1:2004

2. Nominal Curvature Method, Clause 5.8.8 of EN 1992-1-1:2004

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Slenderness effects are applied to both directions simultaneously, i.e. both My and Mz are
increased/magnified according to the slenderness in the respective direction. Slenderness effects are
considered only for members under compressive axial load in addition to moments. They are not applied
to moments of zero value.

Slenderness effects for a certain direction are ignored if the slenderness λ is less than a slenderness limit
λlim.

lu = Unsupported length
k = Effective length factor
lo = Effective length
i = Radius of gyration of the uncracked section

The equivalent first order moment used for slenderness effect calculations is taken as:

When imperfection effects are to be considered, the moments to be used for slenderness effect
calculations are first modified to account for the imperfection effects as follows:

Nominal Stiffness Method:

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Nominal Curvature Method:

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