STAAD.Pro Ideas Portal
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The idea of determining the lateral load at a level using the shear at the ends of members rather than the applied load has potential, although challenges would still apply as the application would need to account for all members that have a start or end node at the given storey height, AND have their other node at a greater y ordinate (to eliminate any lower level column and horizontal beams) AND resolve both shear and axial forces in any diagonal members. The displacement and resulting value of Q might then be determined for each considered member. However I agree this might need to be done as commands for each storey. Therefore the instruction might be along the lines of IS456Q Height StoreyHt, for which it calculates and reports Q for the members who have a node with a Y ord at the given Height value (or Z ord if using Z UP) and for a storey height given. If a member does not span the full storey height, the displacement for sway is prorated. This idea will be added to the backlog.
I wanted to express my gratitude for your prompt response regarding this issue.
After further consideration, I believe that determining lateral loads in each story can indeed be approached by aggregating the shear forces acting on all columns in a particular direction. This approach is analogous to how we handle earthquake load cases, where the total shear acting on the mass source becomes the lateral load.
To summarize:
Shear Forces: Sum up the shear forces in all columns along the intended lateral direction (e.g., X or Y axis).
Total Lateral Load: The cumulative shear force represents the lateral load acting on the structure.
Story Drift: The corresponding story drift (lateral deflection) can then be calculated based on this total lateral load.
Additionally, if specific data such as story height etc is required for accurate calculations, manual input can be incorporated into the analysis.
Thank you for posting this idea. This is indeed an interesting proposal. As you know, the calculation of Q in IS456 is dependant on identifying a number of values namely sum of axial loads on all columns in the story in which the selected column resides, the lateral force applied within the storey and the height of the storey itself. Remembering that STAAD is free form, being able to determine storeys is not a trivial task. The program can infer storeys when the model includes the definitions of rigid diaphragms. So we can use that to determine storey heights. The major challenge though is to determine the lateral load at each storey. If storey 1 goes from 0.000m to 4.000 m and storey 2 goes from 4.000m to 8.000m, a lateral load at a node at 4.000m considered a lateral load on storey 1 or storey 2?