huangyhg

weight of structures for seismic analysis
does anyone know of a rule of thumb or perhaps tables that give good weight estimates for each story of a multi story building? right now i am concerned with wood residential structures but info for other types of buildings would also be handy.
thanks
the only accurate way i know of is to make a tabulation of the weights of all the structural elements. i don't know of any short cuts for this one.
thanks jheidt2543,
i kind of figured that. it shouldn't be too hard just time comsuming. i'll bet this has been done thousands of times. i was just hoping someone had put it down somewhere. i guess when i get done tabulating i'll try to keep it organized in case someone else needs it.
dpa
dpa,
i use the lateral engineering program called latpro for wood framed structures which allows a fairly concise way to keep track of loads, diaphragms and shear walls. it has saved me a lot of time. you may want to take a look at lateralpro.com web site.
if you have a 3d model:
(1) make a copy with another name, i.e. "firstlevel".
(2) use the selection tools from the features of your program and erase all other structural elements that you do not need.
(3) final ask for "material take off" (in staad iii is "steel take off"). notes that in some software, including staad, you need to introduce some dummy supports in order to be able to access these command.
(4) repeat step 1-3 for each level.
for complex structures these method is the shortcut.
i hope that will help.
will help.

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