Deflection

Can you provide me with some help on how I can include deflection check as one of the criteria in steel design? Deflection of a beam or a column can be included as one of the criteria during code checking or member selection with most steel design codes in STAAD. The ratio of length to maximum deflection of a beam (L/d ratio) will be calculated by STAAD. STAAD will then check that quantity against the allowable limit which the user specifies under the PARAMETERS option. What are the design parameters which control deflection check ?

1. DFF : This is the value which indicates the allowable limit for L/d ratio. For example, if a user wishes to instruct the program that L/d cannot be smaller than 900, the DFF value should be specified as 900. The default value for DFF is 0. In other words, if this parameter is not specified as an input, a deflection check will not be performed. 2. DJ1 and DJ2 : These 2 quantities affect the "L" as well as the "d" in the calculated L/d ratio. They represent node numbers that form the basis for determining L and d.

By default, DJ1 and DJ2 are the start and end nodes of the member for which the design is being performed, and "L" is the length of the member, namely, the distance between DJ1 and DJ2. However, if that member is a component segment of a larger beam, and the user wishes to instruct STAAD that the end nodes of the larger beam are to be used in the evaluation of L/d, then he/she may input DJ1 and DJ2 as the end nodes of the larger beam. Also, the "d" in L/d is calculated as the maximum local displacement of the member between the points DJ1 and DJ2. The definition of local displacement is available in Section 5.42 of the STAADPro Technical Reference Manual, as well as in Example problem # 13 in the STAADPro Examples Manual.

A pictorial representation of DJ1 and DJ2, as well additional information on these topics is available under the "Notes" section following Table 2.1 in Section 2.8 of the STAADPro Technical Reference Manual. What are the results one gets from STAAD for the deflection check? If the steel design parameter called TRACK is set to 2.0, the L/d ratio calculated for the member can be obtained in the STAAD output file. The value is reported against the term "dff". Notice that the expression is in lower-case letters as opposed to the uppercase "DFF" which stands for the allowable L/d. If "dff" is smaller than "DFF", that means that the displacements exceeds the allowable limit, and that leads to the unity check exceeding 1.0. This is usually a cause for failure, unless the RATIO parameter is set to a value higher than 1.0. If "DFF" divided by "dff" exceeds the value of the parameter RATIO, the member is assumed to have failed the deflection check. What are the limitations of this check? Since the "d" in L/d is the local deflection, this approach is not applicable in the case of a member which deflects like a cantilever beam. That is because, the maximum deflection in a cantilever beam is the absolute quantity at the free end, rather than the local deflection. Check whether STAAD offers a parameter called CAN for the code that you are designing to. If it is available, set CAN to 1 for a cantilever style deflection check. Since the deflection which is checked is a span deflection and not a node displacement, the check is also not useful if the user wishes to limit story drift on a structure.

In the output for steel design, what does the term "dff" represent? "dff" is the value of actual length divided by local deflection. The actual length value is the distance between the nodes DJ1 and DJ2 which default to the actual end nodes of the member. The deflection used is the maximum local deflection between the points DJ1 and DJ2. You can get the Max. Local Displacement value by looking at the output

of the PRINT SECTION DISPLACEMENT command. The definition of DFF, DJ1 and DJ2 may be found in Table 2.1 of the Technical Reference Manual for STAAD/Pro.The word PRISMATIC is meant to indicate a section of any arbitrary shape. But the AISC code does not provide guidelines for design of arbitrary shapes. Section capacities are dependent upon aspects such as the width to thickness ratio of flanges and webs, lateral torsional buckling etc. From that standpoint, using an allowable stress of 0.6Fy for PRISMATIC sections was not always conservative.

I set my deflection limit to L/360, but the maximum deflection indicated in the summary of node displacements in PostProcessing shows a deflection of 1.5 inches. Isn't this above the limit that I set? During steel design per the AISC ASD code, there are two types of deflection checks you can perform with STAAD. They are 1. Check for local deflection. This is usually applicable to members which are connected at both their ends to other members. 2. Check for the relative displacements between the nodes such as for a cantilever beam.

LOCAL DEFLECTION is defined as the maximum deflection between the 2 ends of the beam relative to a straight line connecting the 2 ends of that member in its deflected position. If you go to

Help - Contents - Technical Reference - Commands and Input Instructions - Printing Section Displacements for Members you will find a diagram indicating this is in figure 5.41. To obtain more information on the difference between the 2 methods of deflection checking, please go to Help - Contents - Technical Reference - American Steel Design - Design Parameters (which comes after Allowables per AISC code) It will bring up section "2.4 Design Parameters" At the end of the parameters table, you will see several notes. Please read Notes items 1 through 4 for the description of the two methods. As you can see there, the default condition, which is also represented by a value of zero for the CAN parameter, is to perform the LOCAL DEFLECTION check. Your question indicates that what you are looking for is a check of the nodal deflections. The cantilever style check STAAD offers is probably the solution for your problem. If so, specify the CAN parameter with a value of 1.