Applied Mechanics and Materials Online: 2013-08-08

ISSN: 1662-7482, Vols. 353-356, pp 3555-3558

doi:10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMM.353-356.3555
© 2013 Trans Tech Publications, Switzerland

The Application of ABAQUS in a Spiral Staircase Analysis

Liu Dewen1,2,a Liu Juan1 Li Xiangxiu3 Zhang Zhanting4 Liu Liangkun1

Fang Chuangjie1 Pan Zhaodong1
1
Key Laboratory of Earthquake Resistance and Absorption Engineering& Structure Safety of Ministry
of Education, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou 510405;
2
College of Civil Engineering, Southwest Forestry University, Kunming 650224;
3
Architecture and Civil Engineering College of Beijing University of Technology, Beijing 100022;
4
Architectural Design and Research Institute of Guangdong Province, Guangzhou 510000;
a
civil_liudewen@sina.com

Key words: The spiral staircase, ABAQUS, The damage factors

Abstract. This paper first introduces the units which are used in general-purpose finite element
analysis software ABAQUS simulation of steel and concrete as well as their material constitutive
models, and then taking the simulation analysis of a spiral staircase for instance to draw displacement
of a spiral staircase along the outer edge lines, the inner edge lines, and the axes of the stair treads
under static loadings. By comparison, we find the rationality and insufficient points of the
simplification of the spiral staircase to the calculation assumption which makes the axle wires as rod
pieces. According o the displacement and stress of the spiral staircase, we give some suggestions to
provide some useful references to the designers of the spiral staircase.

1. Introduction
Beautiful and novel spiral staircases rich architectural modeling, which gives a beautiful visual
enjoyment to individuals as well as meets architectural functions. Therefore, most public and
recreational buildings make use of the spiral staircase. As the spiral staircase is repeated and statically
indeterminate space structure, the calculation of internal force is extremely complex. Therefore,
mostly we use the trussing structures to make calculation simpler. As for the spiral staircase, due to
the larger width of the plates, there is larger difference between the inner radius and outer ones.
However, it does not take structural behaviors into consideration, which make some difference to the
actual situations. Based on this, it was suggested that we can analyze the shell theory [1,2]. With the
continuous development of computer technology in the engineering application field and the
gradually mature of the finite element analysis software, this article will adopt common
internationally large-scale nonlinear finite element analysis software ABAQUS to simulated analysis.

2.Constitutive relation of models

2.1The constitutive relation of reinforcement [3] . The constitutive relation of Reinforcement
adopts classically metal elastic-plastic theory and makes use of Mises yield surface to define isotropic
yield. Its elasto-plastic behavior can be described as follows. When there are small deformations, the
nature of the material is substantially linear elastic and the elastic modulus E0 is a constant. While the
material stress is less than the yield stress and the external force is removed, the material restores to its
original state. Meanwhile, there is no residual deformation; When the stress exceeds the yield stress,
the stiffness will significantly decrease after the remove of the external force. The material can not be
completely restored to the original state, leaving a residual deformation. The deformation of the
material is composed of elastic deformation and plastic deformation, whose strains are elastic strains
and plastic strains.

All rights reserved. No part of contents of this paper may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the written permission of Trans
Tech Publications, www.ttp.net. (#69687156, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, USA-12/09/16,02:52:02)
3556 Advances in Civil and Industrial Engineering

The data that is provided in ABAQUS must be true stress and true strain. Therefore, the nominal
stress and the nominal strain in the material testing can not be directly used for ABAQUS calculation.
They need to be converted.
2.2The constitutive relationship of concrete [4,5].In ABAQUS, there are three kinds of
constitutive models of concrete. They are Concrete smeared cracking model only applies to
ABAQUS / Standard module, Cracking model for concrete model only applies to ABAQUS/Explicit
module and Concrete damaged plasticity only applies to ABAQUS/Explicit module.
In this paper, we use the third model i.e. concrete damaged plasticity. As for the concrete, it is
assumed that the two main failure mechanisms, i.e., tensile and cracking destruction as well as
constringent and crushing destruction. There are two hardening variables in yield (or
pl
destruction).They are the tensile equivalent plastic strain ε t and the compression of equivalent
pl
plastic strain ε c . Before the concrete material accesses the plasticity, it is a linear elasticity, whose
elasticity modulus is shown in Figure1.
σ
σ
σt0
σ cu
σ c0

E0
E0

(1− dt )E0 (1 − d c ) E 0
0
0
εtpl εtpl ε ε cpl ε cpl
ε

(a) (b)
Figure1: (a)The stress-strain relationship of uniaxial and tensile concrete; (b) The stress-strain
relations of uniaxial and compressive concrete
When the material is over a certain stress (see Figure1)or the concrete passes into the plastic
deformation, it is accompanied by a decline in the stiffness. We express in tension damage factors d t
and compression damage factors d c .In addition, under cyclic loading, the stiffness recovery of
concrete is an important aspect of its mechanical behavior. Such cases reflect in the ABAQUS are
defined stiffness recovery coefficients Wt and Wc .Most test results of the quasi-brittle materials,
including concrete, show that when the load becomes compressed by stretching, the crack closure can
make recovery of the compression stiffness, i.e. Wc = 1; When the load turns from compression to
stretching, the crushing of material will have the material stiffness unrestored,then Wt = 0.

2.3The analog of reinforced concrete [4,5] . Reinforcing ribs of concrete in ABAQUS can be
achieved by the definition of REBAR. REBAR itself is not a unit .It does not have scale, which acts as
a one-dimensional strain of the lever unit and may be defined individually or in batches in a plane.
When the reinforcing ribs are defined in this way, the behavior between the concrete and REBAR is
considered to be mutually independent. The interaction of them approximates by the introduction of
"Tension Stiffening" in concrete.
The reinforced unit will be embedded in a unit of "subject" (concrete) to simulate reinforced
concrete. In calculation, ABAQUS will search for the geometric relationship of the nodes of the
embedded units and the body units. If a node of the embedded units is located within a main body
unit, the degree of freedom of this node will be constrained. Thus, this node becomes the embedded
point of the main body units, and the degree of freedom of the embedded point will be obtained by the
D-value of the degree of freedom of the main node.
 Applied Mechanics and Materials Vols. 353-356 3557

3.Case Study
3.1physical dimensions and models. The inside diameter the spiral staircase is 1.15m, the outer
diameter is 2.65m, the rotation angle is 360°, and the storey is 3.6m. It is hollow, whose ends are fixed
and connected. The sectional dimensions and reinforcement are shown in figure 2(a), and the instance
is taken from the literature [2], which has been modified.
The staircase board uses solid elements (Solid) to simulate. No.① and No.② longitudinal
reinforcements take the surface element of Rebar layers to be simulated. No.③ and No.④ stirrups
take the truss to be simulated.Material parameters are modified and given in reference [4,5]. The final
model is shown in Figure 2(b). The load is average cloth load: 6.25 KN / m 2 + 3.5 KN / m 2 .

(a) (b)
Figure2: (a)The reinforcement section diagram; (b) The finite element model of the spiral staircase

3.2Results. Figure 3 is about the displacement of the outer edge line, the inner edge line and the
centerline along the riser. From the results of calculation, we can see that displacement along the
outer edge line is maximal, along the inner edge line is minimal, and along the centerline is
in-between, which has little difference with the former two. Thus, it is reasonable that we regard the
axis of the stairs in the rod axis as single-span spatial curved beams and make it as a calculation
diagram of the spiral stairs. But we can also find that the maximum point and the minimum point of
the displacement of these three paths are not in the same position, therefore, this assumption has
certain drawbacks. See Figure 3.We can find that the maximum displacement does not occur in the
middle parts, but it appears at the outer edge of the two seats that is roughly 1/4 arc strengths. When
we do the structural design, we should pay attention to take effective measures to prevent large
displacements that result in partial failure.

Figure 3: The displacement on different paths

3558 Advances in Civil and Industrial Engineering

Figure 4:The overall stress moiré Figure5:The stirrups stress moiré

The rebar which buries the truss elements in the "main" unit simulation can see the displacement of
the reinforcing steel bar, stress and strain, and other results in the Visualization module. The
simulative rebar with surface element of Rebar layers are buried in the "main" unit, which cannot be
displaced in Visualization module. The stress moirés of the whole and stirrups are shown in Figure4,
5, respectively. From figure 4, 5, we can see that the larger parts of stress mainly appear at the fixed
support; Therefore, the design of the hollow spiral staircase which is fixed at both ends needs to be
taken effective measures to increase the stiffness and ductility of the support.

4.Conclusions
There are more convenient pretreatment CAE modeling in ABAQUS finite element analysis
software, which can easily construct the complex graphics components. It is easy to assemble various
parts together in the Assembly modules. The material properties of the constitutive model, which are
based on materials in ABAQUS, can be used to customize the user material subroutine. Therefore, it
is convenient to pay the value of the real material properties to the material. As for the results of
Visualization module, the stress and displacement of some components can easily be displayed
separately, and it is also convenient to query the value of each sub-block. Moreover, post-processing
can be carried out by the script language python to extract the required results.
We can find that the maximum displacement does not occur in the middle parts, but it appears at
the outer edge of the two seats that is roughly 1/4 arc strengths. When we do the structural design, we
should pay attention to take effective measures to prevent large displacements that result in partial
failure.
The larger parts of stress mainly appear at the fixed support; Therefore, the design of the hollow
spiral staircase which is fixed at both ends needs to be taken effective measures to increase the
stiffness and ductility of the support.

References
[1] Qi Zhicheng. Stress Analysis and Structural Design of Alien Stairs. Beijing: China Building
Industry Press, 1992.（in Chinese)
[2] Zhu Baoliang. The arc rotation stairs Design and Construction Manual. Beijing: Machinery
Industry Press, May 2004 1st edition.
[3] Zhou Yiping, Zhou Yurong. Instance Detailed Solution to ABAQUS Finite Element. Beijing:
China Machine Press, 1st edition in July 2006.
[4] Zhuang Zhuo. ABAQUS Nonlinear Finite Element Analysis and Examples. Beijing: China
Building Industry Press,1st edition,2005
[5] ABAQUS Analysis User’s Manual,ABAQUS Inc., USA, 2004.