ETABS Cap1-4 PDF

CSi Analysis Reference Manual
CSI Analysis Reference Manual

For SAP2000®, ETABS®, SAFE®
and CSiBridge®
ISO# GEN062708M1 Rev.15

Berkeley, California, USA July 2016
COPYRIGHT
Copyright © Computers & Structures, Inc., 1978-2016

All rights reserved.
The CSI Logo®, SAP2000®, ETABS®, SAFE®, CSiBridge®, and SAPFire® are
TM
registered trademarks of Computers & Structures, Inc. Model-Alive and Watch
& Learn are trademarks of Computers & Structures, Inc. Windows® is a regis-
TM
tered trademark of the Microsoft Corporation. Adobe® and Acrobat® are regis-
tered trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated.
The computer programs SAP2000®, ETABS®, SAFE®, and CSiBridge® and all
associated documentation are proprietary and copyrighted products. Worldwide
rights of ownership rest with Computers & Structures, Inc. Unlicensed use of these
programs or reproduction of documentation in any form, without prior written au-
thorization from Computers & Structures, Inc., is explicitly prohibited. No part of
this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or
stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior explicit written permis-
sion of the publisher.
Further information and copies of this documentation may be obtained from:
Computers & Structures, Inc.

www.csiamerica.com
[email protected] (for general information)

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DISCLAIMER
CONSIDERABLE TIME, EFFORT AND EXPENSE HAVE GONE

INTO THE DEVELOPMENT AND TESTING OF THIS SOFTWARE.
HOWEVER, THE USER ACCEPTS AND UNDERSTANDS THAT
NO WARRANTY IS EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED BY THE DEVEL-
OPERS OR THE DISTRIBUTORS ON THE ACCURACY OR THE
RELIABILITY OF THE PROGRAMS THESE PRODUCTS.
THESE PRODUCTS ARE PRACTICAL AND POWERFUL TOOLS
FOR STRUCTURAL DESIGN. HOWEVER, THE USER MUST EX-
PLICITLY UNDERSTAND THE BASIC ASSUMPTIONS OF THE
SOFTWARE MODELING, ANALYSIS, AND DESIGN ALGO-
RITHMS AND COMPENSATE FOR THE ASPECTS THAT ARE
NOT ADDRESSED.
THE INFORMATION PRODUCED BY THE SOFTWARE MUST BE
CHECKED BY A QUALIFIED AND EXPERIENCED ENGINEER.
THE ENGINEER MUST INDEPENDENTLY VERIFY THE RE-
SULTS AND TAKE PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE
INFORMATION THAT IS USED.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Thanks are due to all of the numerous structural engineers, who over the
years have given valuable feedback that has contributed toward the en-
hancement of this product to its current state.
Special recognition is due Dr. Edward L. Wilson, Professor Emeritus,
University of California at Berkeley, who was responsible for the con-
ception and development of the original SAP series of programs and
whose continued originality has produced many unique concepts that
have been implemented in this version.
Table of Contents
Chapter I Introduction 1
Analysis Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Structural Analysis and Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
About This Manual . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Topics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Typographical Conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Bold for Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Bold for Variable Data. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Italics for Mathematical Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Italics for Emphasis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Capitalized Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Bibliographic References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Chapter II Objects and Elements 7

Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Objects and Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Chapter III Coordinate Systems 11

Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Global Coordinate System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Upward and Horizontal Directions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Defining Coordinate Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Vector Cross Product . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Defining the Three Axes Using Two Vectors . . . . . . . . . . . 14
i
Local Coordinate Systems. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Alternate Coordinate Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Cylindrical and Spherical Coordinates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Chapter IV Joints and Degrees of Freedom 21

Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Modeling Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Local Coordinate System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Advanced Local Coordinate System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Reference Vectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Defining the Axis Reference Vector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Defining the Plane Reference Vector. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Determining the Local Axes from the Reference Vectors . . . . . 27
Joint Coordinate Angles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Degrees of Freedom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Available and Unavailable Degrees of Freedom . . . . . . . . . . 31
Restrained Degrees of Freedom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Constrained Degrees of Freedom. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Mixing Restraints and Constraints Not Recommended . . . . . . 32
Active Degrees of Freedom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Null Degrees of Freedom. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Restraint Supports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Spring Supports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Nonlinear Supports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Distributed Supports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Joint Reactions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Base Reactions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Masses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Force Load . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Ground Displacement Load . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Restraint Displacements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Spring Displacements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Link/Support Displacements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Generalized Displacements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Degree of Freedom Output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Assembled Joint Mass Output. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Displacement Output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Force Output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Element Joint Force Output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
ii
Table of Contents
Chapter V Constraints and Welds 49

Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Body Constraint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Joint Connectivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Local Coordinate System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Constraint Equations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Plane Definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Diaphragm Constraint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Plate Constraint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Axis Definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Rod Constraint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Beam Constraint. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Equal Constraint. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Selected Degrees of Freedom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Local Constraint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
No Local Coordinate System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Selected Degrees of Freedom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Welds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Automatic Master Joints. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Stiffness, Mass, and Loads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Local Coordinate Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Constraint Output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
iii
Chapter VI Material Properties 69

Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Local Coordinate System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Stresses and Strains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Isotropic Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Uniaxial Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Orthotropic Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Anisotropic Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Temperature-Dependent Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Element Material Temperature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Mass Density . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Weight Density . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Material Damping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Modal Damping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Viscous Proportional Damping. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Hysteretic Proportional Damping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Nonlinear Material Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Tension and Compression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Shear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Hysteresis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Friction and Dilitational Angles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Hysteresis Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Backbone Curve (Action vs. Deformation) . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Cyclic Behavior. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Elastic Hysteresis Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Kinematic Hysteresis Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Degrading Hysteresis Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Takeda Hysteresis Model. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Pivot Hysteresis Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Concrete Hysteresis Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
BRB Hardening Hysteresis Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Isotropic Hysteresis Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Modified Darwin-Pecknold Concrete Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Time-dependent Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Time-Integration Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Design-Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
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Table of Contents
Chapter VII The Frame Element 105

Overview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Joint Connectivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Insertion Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Degrees of Freedom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Local Coordinate System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Longitudinal Axis 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Default Orientation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Coordinate Angle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Reference Vector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Determining Transverse Axes 2 and 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Section Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Local Coordinate System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Material Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Geometric Properties and Section Stiffnesses. . . . . . . . . . . 116
Shape Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Automatic Section Property Calculation . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Section Property Database Files. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Section-Designer Sections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Additional Mass and Weight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Non-prismatic Sections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Property Modifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Named Property Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Insertion Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Local Axes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
End Offsets. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Clear Length. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Rigid-end Factor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Effect upon Non-prismatic Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Effect upon Internal Force Output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Effect upon End Releases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
End Releases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Unstable End Releases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Effect of End Offsets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Nonlinear Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Tension/Compression Limits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Plastic Hinge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Mass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Self-Weight Load . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
v
Gravity Load . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

Concentrated Span Load . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Distributed Span Load . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Loaded Length . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Load Intensity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Projected Loads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Temperature Load . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
Strain Load . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Deformation Load . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Target-Force Load . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
Internal Force Output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
Effect of End Offsets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
Stress Output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
Chapter VIII Hinge Properties 147

Overview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Hinge Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Hinge Length . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
Plastic Deformation Curve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
Scaling the Curve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Strength Loss . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
Types of P-M2-M3 Hinges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
Isotropic P-M2-M3 Hinge. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
Parametric P-M2-M3 Hinge. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
Fiber P-M2-M3 Hinge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
Hysteresis Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
Automatic, User-Defined, and Generated Properties . . . . . . . . . 158
Automatic Hinge Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
Analysis Modeling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
Computational Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
Analysis Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
Chapter IX The Cable Element 165

Overview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
Undeformed Length . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
Shape Calculator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
Cable vs. Frame Elements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
Number of Segments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
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Table of Contents

Mass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
Self-Weight Load . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
Gravity Load . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
Strain and Deformation Load . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
Nonlinear Analysis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
Element Output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
Chapter X The Shell Element 177

Overview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
Homogeneous . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
Layered . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
Shape Guidelines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
Edge Constraints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
Normal Axis 3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
Element Coordinate Angle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
Reference Vector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
Determining Tangential Axes 1 and 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
Area Section Type. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
Shell Section Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
Homogeneous Section Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
Layered Section Property . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
Property Modifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
Joint Offsets and Thickness Overwrites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
Joint Offsets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
Effect of Joint Offsets on the Local Axes . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
Thickness Overwrites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
vii
Mass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
Self-Weight Load . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
Gravity Load . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
Uniform Load . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
Surface Pressure Load . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
Strain Load . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
Internal Force and Stress Output. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
Chapter XI The Plane Element 215

Overview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216
Stresses and Strains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
Section Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218
Material Angle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
Thickness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
Incompatible Bending Modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220
Mass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220
Self-Weight Load . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
Gravity Load . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
Pore Pressure Load. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222
Stress Output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
Chapter XII The Asolid Element 225

Overview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226
Section Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
Material Angle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
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Axis of Symmetry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230

Arc and Thickness. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
Mass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232
Self-Weight Load . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232
Gravity Load . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
Rotate Load . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234
Stress Output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235
Chapter XIII The Solid Element 237

Overview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238
Degenerate Solids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
Reference Vectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
Defining the Axis Reference Vector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
Defining the Plane Reference Vector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242
Determining the Local Axes from the Reference Vectors . . . . 243
Element Coordinate Angles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
Solid Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246
Material Angles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246
Mass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248
Self-Weight Load . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248
Gravity Load . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
Stress Output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250
Chapter XIV The Link/Support Element—Basic 251

Overview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252
ix

Conversion from One-Joint Objects to Two-Joint Elements . . . 253
Zero-Length Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
Longitudinal Axis 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
Coordinate Angle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256
Axis Reference Vector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
Plane Reference Vector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258
Determining Transverse Axes 2 and 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259
Internal Deformations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260
Link/Support Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
Local Coordinate System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264
Internal Spring Hinges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264
Spring Force-Deformation Relationships . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266
Element Internal Forces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267
Uncoupled Linear Force-Deformation Relationships . . . . . . . 267
Types of Linear/Nonlinear Properties. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
Coupled Linear Property . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270
Fixed Degrees of Freedom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270
Mass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271
Self-Weight Load . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
Gravity Load . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
Internal Force and Deformation Output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273
Chapter XV The Link/Support Element—Advanced 275

Overview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276
Nonlinear Link/Support Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276
Linear Effective Stiffness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
Special Considerations for Modal Analyses . . . . . . . . . . . 277
Linear Effective Damping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278
Exponential Maxwell Damper Property . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279
Bilinear Maxwell Damper Property . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281
Friction-Spring Damper Property . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282
Gap Property . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286
Hook Property . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286
Wen Plasticity Property . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287
Multi-Linear Elastic Property . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
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Multi-Linear Plastic Property . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289

Hysteretic (Rubber) Isolator Property . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291
Friction-Pendulum Isolator Property. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292
Axial Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293
Shear Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294
Linear Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297
Double-Acting Friction-Pendulum Isolator Property . . . . . . . . . 297
Axial Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297
Shear Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298
Linear Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299
Triple-Pendulum Isolator Property. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299
Axial Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299
Shear Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300
Linear Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304
Nonlinear Deformation Loads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304
Frequency-Dependent Link/Support Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . 306
Chapter XVI The Tendon Object 309

Overview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310
Geometry. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310
Discretization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311
Tendons Modeled as Loads or Elements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311
Connectivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311
Local Coordinate Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313
Base-line Local Coordinate System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313
Natural Local Coordinate System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313
Tension/Compression Limits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315
Mass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316
Prestress Load . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316
Self-Weight Load . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317
Gravity Load . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318
Strain Load . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318
Internal Force Output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320
xi
Chapter XVII Load Patterns 321

Overview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322
Load Patterns, Load Cases, and Load Combinations . . . . . . . . . 323
Defining Load Patterns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323
Coordinate Systems and Load Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324
Effect upon Large-Displacements Analysis. . . . . . . . . . . . 324
Force Load . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325
Ground Displacement Load . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325
Self-Weight Load . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325
Gravity Load . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326
Concentrated Span Load . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327
Tendon Prestress Load . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327
Uniform Load . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328
Strain Load . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331
Rotate Load . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332
Joint Patterns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332
Mass Source . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334
Mass from Specified Load Patterns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335
Negative Mass. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336
Multiple Mass Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336
Automated Lateral Loads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338
Acceleration Loads. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338
Chapter XVIII Load Cases 341

Overview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 342
Load Cases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343
Types of Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343
Sequence of Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344
Running Load Cases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345
Linear and Nonlinear Load Cases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 346
Linear Static Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347
Multi-Step Static Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348
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Linear Buckling Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349

Functions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350
Load Combinations (Combos) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351
Contributing Cases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351
Types of Combos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352
Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353
Correspondence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354
Additional Considerations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357
Global Energy Response . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357
Equation Solvers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361
Environment Variables to Control Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362
SAPFIRE_NUM_THREADS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362
SAPFIRE_FILESIZE_MB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363
Accessing the Assembled Stiffness and Mass Matrices . . . . . . . . 363
Chapter XIX Modal Analysis 365

Overview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365
Eigenvector Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366
Number of Modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367
Frequency Range . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 368
Automatic Shifting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369
Convergence Tolerance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369
Static-Correction Modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 370
Ritz-Vector Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 372
Number of Modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373
Starting Load Vectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373
Number of Generation Cycles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375
Modal Analysis Output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375
Periods and Frequencies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 376
Participation Factors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 376
Participating Mass Ratios . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377
Static and Dynamic Load Participation Ratios . . . . . . . . . . 378
Chapter XX Response-Spectrum Analysis 383

Overview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 383
Response-Spectrum Function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385
Damping. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 386
Modal Damping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387
Modal Combination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 388
xiii
Periodic and Rigid Response . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 388

CQC Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 390
GMC Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 390
SRSS Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 390
Absolute Sum Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391
NRC Ten-Percent Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391
NRC Double-Sum Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391
Directional Combination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391
SRSS Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391
CQC3 Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 392
Absolute Sum Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393
Response-Spectrum Analysis Output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 394
Damping and Accelerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 394
Modal Amplitudes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 394
Base Reactions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 395
Chapter XXI Linear Time-History Analysis 397

Overview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 398
Loading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 398
Defining the Spatial Load Vectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 399
Defining the Time Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400
Initial Conditions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 402
Time Steps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 402
Modal Time-History Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403
Modal Damping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 404
Direct-Integration Time-History Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 405
Time Integration Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 406
Damping. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 406
Chapter XXII Geometric Nonlinearity 409

Overview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409
Nonlinear Load Cases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 411
The P-Delta Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413
P-Delta Forces in the Frame Element . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415
P-Delta Forces in the Link/Support Element . . . . . . . . . . . 418
Other Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 419
Initial P-Delta Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 419
Building Structures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 420
Cable Structures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 422
Guyed Towers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 422
Large Displacements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 422
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Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 423
Initial Large-Displacement Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 423
Chapter XXIII Nonlinear Static Analysis 425

Overview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 426
Nonlinearity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 426
Important Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 427
Loading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 428
Load Application Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 428
Load Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 429
Displacement Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 429
Output Steps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 431
Saving Multiple Steps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 431
Nonlinear Solution Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 433
Maximum Total Steps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 434
Maximum Null (Zero) Steps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 434
Event-to-Event Stepping Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 434
Nonlinear Iteration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 435
Line Search Option . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 436
Static Pushover Analysis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 437
Staged Construction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439
Stages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439
Changing Section Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 442
Output Steps. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 442
Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 443
Target-Force Iteration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 444
Chapter XXIV Nonlinear Time-History Analysis 447

Overview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 448
Nonlinearity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 448
Loading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 449
Time Steps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 450
Nonlinear Modal Time-History Analysis (FNA) . . . . . . . . . . . 451
Initial Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 451
Link/Support Effective Stiffness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 452
Mode Superposition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 452
Modal Damping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 454
Iterative Solution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 455
xv
Static Period . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 457

Nonlinear Direct-Integration Time-History Analysis . . . . . . . . . 458
Time Integration Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 458
Nonlinearity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 459
Initial Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 459
Damping. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 459
Nonlinear Solution Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 461
Chapter XXV Frequency-Domain Analyses 465

Overview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 466
Harmonic Motion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 466
Frequency Domain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 467
Damping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 468
Sources of Damping. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 468
Loading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 469
Defining the Spatial Load Vectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 470
Frequency Steps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 471
Steady-State Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 471
Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 472
Power-Spectral-Density Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 473
Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 474
Chapter XXVI Moving-Load Analysis 477

Overview for CSiBridge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 478
Moving-Load Analysis in SAP2000 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 479
Bridge Modeler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 480
Moving-Load Analysis Procedure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 481
Lanes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 482
Centerline and Direction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 482
Eccentricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 482
Centrifugal Radius . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 483
Width . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 483
Interior and Exterior Edges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 483
Discretization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 484
Influence Lines and Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 485
Vehicle Live Loads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 487
Distribution of Loads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 487
Axle Loads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 487
Uniform Loads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 487
Minimum Edge Distances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 487
xvi
Table of Contents
Directions of Loading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 488

Restricting a Vehicle to the Lane Length . . . . . . . . . . . . . 492
Application of Loads to the Influence Surface . . . . . . . . . . 492
Length Effects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 494
Application of Loads in Multi-Step Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . 495
General Vehicle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 495
Specification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 497
Moving the Vehicle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 498
Vehicle Response Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 498
Superstructure (Span) Moment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 498
Negative Superstructure (Span) Moment . . . . . . . . . . . . . 499
Reactions at Interior Supports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 500
Standard Vehicles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 500
Vehicle Classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 508
Moving-Load Load Cases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 509
Directions of Loading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 510
Example 1 — AASHTO HS Loading. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 512
Example 2 — AASHTO HL Loading. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 513
Example 3 — Caltrans Permit Loading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 514
Example 4 — Restricted Caltrans Permit Loading . . . . . . . . 516
Example 5 — Eurocode Characteristic Load Model 1 . . . . . . 518
Moving Load Response Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 519
Bridge Response Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 519
Correspondence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 520
Influence Line Tolerance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 520
Exact and Quick Response Calculation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 521
Step-By-Step Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 521
Loading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 522
Static Analysis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 522
Time-History Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 523
Enveloping and Load Combinations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 524
Computational Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 524
Chapter XXVII References 527
xvii
Chapter I
Introduction
SAP2000, ETABS, SAFE, and CSiBridge are software packages from Computers
and Structures, Inc. for structural analysis and design. Each package is a fully inte-
grated system for modeling, analyzing, designing, and optimizing structures of a
particular type:
• SAP2000 for general structures, including stadiums, towers, industrial plants,

offshore structures, piping systems, buildings, dams, soils, machine parts and
many others
• ETABS for building structures
• SAFE for floor slabs and base mats
• CSiBridge for bridge structures
At the heart of each of these software packages is a common analysis engine, re-
ferred to throughout this manual as SAPfire. This engine is the latest and most pow-
erful version of the well-known SAP series of structural analysis programs. The
purpose of this manual is to describe the features of the SAPfire analysis engine.
Throughout this manual reference may be made to the program SAP2000, although
it often applies equally to ETABS, SAFE, and CSiBridge. Not all features de-
scribed will actually be available in every level of each program.
1
Analysis Features
The SAPfire analysis engine offers the following features:
• Static and dynamic analysis

• Linear and nonlinear analysis
• Dynamic seismic analysis and static pushover analysis
• Vehicle live-load analysis for bridges
• Geometric nonlinearity, including P-delta and large-displacement effects
• Staged (incremental) construction
• Creep, shrinkage, and aging effects
• Buckling analysis
• Steady-state and power-spectral-density analysis
• Frame and shell structural elements, including beam-column, truss, membrane,
and plate behavior
• Cable and Tendon elements
• Two-dimensional plane and axisymmetric solid elements
• Three-dimensional solid elements
• Nonlinear link and support elements
• Frequency-dependent link and support properties
• Multiple coordinate systems
• Many types of constraints
• A wide variety of loading options
• Alpha-numeric labels
• Large capacity
• Highly efficient and stable solution algorithms
These features, and many more, make CSI product the state-of-the-art for structural
analysis. Note that not all of these features may be available in every level of
SAP2000, ETABS, SAFE, and CSiBridge.
2 Analysis Features
Chapter I Introduction
Structural Analysis and Design

The following general steps are required to analyze and design a structure using
SAP2000, ETABS, SAFE, and CSiBridge:
1. Create or modify a model that numerically defines the geometry, properties,

loading, and analysis parameters for the structure
2. Perform an analysis of the model
3. Review the results of the analysis
4. Check and optimize the design of the structure
This is usually an iterative process that may involve several cycles of the above se-
quence of steps. All of these steps can be performed seamlessly using the SAP2000,
ETABS, SAFE, and CSiBridge graphical user interfaces.
About This Manual

This manual describes the theoretical concepts behind the modeling and analysis
features offered by the SAPfire analysis engine that underlies the various structural
analysis and design software packages from Computers and Structures, Inc. The
graphical user interface and the design features are described in separate manuals
for each program.
It is imperative that you read this manual and understand the assumptions and pro-
cedures used by these software packages before attempting to use the analysis fea-
tures.
Throughout this manual reference may be made to the program SAP2000, although
it often applies equally to ETABS, SAFE, and CSiBridge. Not all features de-
scribed will actually be available in every level of each program.
Topics
Each Chapter of this manual is divided into topics and subtopics. All Chapters be-
gin with a list of topics covered. These are divided into two groups:
• Basic topics — recommended reading for all users
Structural Analysis and Design 3

• Advanced topics — for users with specialized needs, and for all users as they
become more familiar with the program.
Following the list of topics is an Overview which provides a summary of the Chap-
ter. Reading the Overview for every Chapter will acquaint you with the full scope
of the program.
Typographical Conventions
Throughout this manual the following typographic conventions are used.
Bold for Definitions

Bold roman type (e.g., example) is used whenever a new term or concept is de-
fined. For example:
The global coordinate system is a three-dimensional, right-handed, rectangu-

lar coordinate system.
This sentence begins the definition of the global coordinate system.
Bold for Variable Data

Bold roman type (e.g., example) is used to represent variable data items for which
you must specify values when defining a structural model and its analysis. For ex-
ample:
The Frame element coordinate angle, ang, is used to define element orienta-
tions that are different from the default orientation.
Thus you will need to supply a numeric value for the variable ang if it is different
from its default value of zero.
Italics for Mathematical Variables

Normal italic type (e.g., example) is used for scalar mathematical variables, and
bold italic type (e.g., example) is used for vectors and matrices. If a variable data
item is used in an equation, bold roman type is used as discussed above. For exam-
ple:
0 £ da < db £ L
4 Typographical Conventions
Chapter I Introduction
Here da and db are variables that you specify, and L is a length calculated by the
program.
Italics for Emphasis

Normal italic type (e.g., example) is used to emphasize an important point, or for
the title of a book, manual, or journal.
Capitalized Names
Capitalized names (e.g., Example) are used for certain parts of the model and its
analysis which have special meaning to SAP2000. Some examples:
Frame element
Diaphragm Constraint
Frame Section
Load Pattern
Common entities, such as “joint” or “element” are not capitalized.
Bibliographic References
References are indicated throughout this manual by giving the name of the
author(s) and the date of publication, using parentheses. For example:
See Wilson and Tetsuji (1983).
It has been demonstrated (Wilson, Yuan, and Dickens, 1982) that …
All bibliographic references are listed in alphabetical order in Chapter “Refer-

ences” (page 527).
Bibliographic References 5
6 Bibliographic References
C h a p t e r II
Objects and Elements
The physical structural members in a structural model are represented by objects.

Using the graphical user interface, you “draw” the geometry of an object, then “as-
sign” properties and loads to the object to completely define the model of the physi-
cal member. For analysis purposes, SAP2000 converts each object into one or more
elements.
Basic Topics for All Users

• Objects
• Objects and Elements
• Groups
Objects
The following object types are available, listed in order of geometrical dimension:
• Point objects, of two types:

– Joint objects: These are automatically created at the corners or ends of all
other types of objects below, and they can be explicitly added to represent
supports or to capture other localized behavior.
Objects 7
– Grounded (one-joint) link/support objects: Used to model special sup-

port behavior such as isolators, dampers, gaps, multi-linear springs, and
more.
• Line objects, of four types
– Frame objects: Used to model beams, columns, braces, and trusses
– Cable objects: Used to model slender cables under self weight and tension
– Tendon objects: Used to prestressing tendons within other objects
– Connecting (two-joint) link/support objects: Used to model special
member behavior such as isolators, dampers, gaps, multi-linear springs,
and more. Unlike frame, cable, and tendon objects, connecting link objects
can have zero length.
• Area objects: Shell elements (plate, membrane, and full-shell) used to model
walls, floors, and other thin-walled members; as well as two-dimensional sol-
ids (plane-stress, plane-strain, and axisymmetric solids).
• Solid objects: Used to model three-dimensional solids.
As a general rule, the geometry of the object should correspond to that of the physi-
cal member. This simplifies the visualization of the model and helps with the de-
sign process.
Objects and Elements

If you have experience using traditional finite element programs, including earlier
versions of SAP2000, ETABS, and SAFE, you are probably used to meshing phys-
ical models into smaller finite elements for analysis purposes. Object-based model-
ing largely eliminates the need for doing this.
For users who are new to finite-element modeling, the object-based concept should
seem perfectly natural.
When you run an analysis, SAP2000 automatically converts your object-based

model into an element-based model that is used for analysis. This element-based
model is called the analysis model, and it consists of traditional finite elements and
joints (nodes). Results of the analysis are reported back on the object-based model.
You have control over how the meshing is performed, such as the degree of refine-
ment, and how to handle the connections between intersecting objects. You also
have the option to manually mesh the model, resulting in a one-to-one correspon-
dence between objects and elements.
8 Objects and Elements

Chapter II Objects and Elements
In this manual, the term “element” will be used more often than “object”, since
what is described herein is the finite-element analysis portion of the program that
operates on the element-based analysis model. However, it should be clear that the
properties described here for elements are actually assigned in the interface to the
objects, and the conversion to analysis elements is automatic.
One specific case to be aware of is that both one-joint (grounded) link/support ob-
jects and two-joint (connecting) link/support objects are always converted into
two-joint link/support elements. For the two-joint objects, the conversion to ele-
ments is direct. For the one-joint objects, a new joint is created at the same location
and is fully restrained. The generated two-joint link/support element is of zero
length, with its original joint connected to the structure and the new joint connected
to ground by restraints.
Groups
A group is a named collection of objects that you define. For each group, you must
provide a unique name, then select the objects that are to be part of the group. You
can include objects of any type or types in a group. Each object may be part of one
of more groups. All objects are always part of the built-in group called “ALL”.
Groups are used for many purposes in the graphical user interface, including selec-
tion, design optimization, defining section cuts, controlling output, and more. In
this manual, we are primarily interested in the use of groups for defining staged
construction. See Topic “Staged Construction” (page 79) in Chapter “Nonlinear
Static Analysis” for more information.
Groups 9
10 Groups
C h a p t e r III
Coordinate Systems
Each structure may use many different coordinate systems to describe the location
of points and the directions of loads, displacement, internal forces, and stresses.
Understanding these different coordinate systems is crucial to being able to prop-
erly define the model and interpret the results.

• Overview
• Global Coordinate System
• Upward and Horizontal Directions
• Defining Coordinate Systems
• Local Coordinate Systems
Advanced Topics
• Alternate Coordinate Systems
• Cylindrical and Spherical Coordinates
11
Overview
Coordinate systems are used to locate different parts of the structural model and to
define the directions of loads, displacements, internal forces, and stresses.
All coordinate systems in the model are defined with respect to a single global coor-
dinate system. Each part of the model (joint, element, or constraint) has its own lo-
cal coordinate system. In addition, you may create alternate coordinate systems that
are used to define locations and directions.
All coordinate systems are three-dimensional, right-handed, rectangular (Carte-

sian) systems. Vector cross products are used to define the local and alternate coor-
dinate systems with respect to the global system.
SAP2000 always assumes that Z is the vertical axis, with +Z being upward. The up-
ward direction is used to help define local coordinate systems, although local coor-
dinate systems themselves do not have an upward direction.
The locations of points in a coordinate system may be specified using rectangular

or cylindrical coordinates. Likewise, directions in a coordinate system may be
specified using rectangular, cylindrical, or spherical coordinate directions at a
point.
Global Coordinate System

The global coordinate system is a three-dimensional, right-handed, rectangular
coordinate system. The three axes, denoted X, Y, and Z, are mutually perpendicular
and satisfy the right-hand rule.
Locations in the global coordinate system can be specified using the variables x, y,
and z. A vector in the global coordinate system can be specified by giving the loca-
tions of two points, a pair of angles, or by specifying a coordinate direction. Coor-
dinate directions are indicated using the values ±X, ±Y, and ±Z. For example, +X
defines a vector parallel to and directed along the positive X axis. The sign is re-
quired.
All other coordinate systems in the model are ultimately defined with respect to the
global coordinate system, either directly or indirectly. Likewise, all joint coordi-
nates are ultimately converted to global X, Y, and Z coordinates, regardless of how
they were specified.
12 Overview
Chapter III Coordinate Systems
Upward and Horizontal Directions

SAP2000 always assumes that Z is the vertical axis, with +Z being upward. Local
coordinate systems for joints, elements, and ground-acceleration loading are de-
fined with respect to this upward direction. Self-weight loading always acts down-
ward, in the –Z direction.
The X-Y plane is horizontal. The primary horizontal direction is +X. Angles in the
horizontal plane are measured from the positive half of the X axis, with positive an-
gles appearing counterclockwise when you are looking down at the X-Y plane.
If you prefer to work with a different upward direction, you can define an alternate
coordinate system for that purpose.
Defining Coordinate Systems

Each coordinate system to be defined must have an origin and a set of three,
mutually-perpendicular axes that satisfy the right-hand rule.
The origin is defined by simply specifying three coordinates in the global coordi-
nate system.
The axes are defined as vectors using the concepts of vector algebra. A fundamental
knowledge of the vector cross product operation is very helpful in clearly under-
standing how coordinate system axes are defined.
Vector Cross Product

A vector may be defined by two points. It has length, direction, and location in
space. For the purposes of defining coordinate axes, only the direction is important.
Hence any two vectors that are parallel and have the same sense (i.e., pointing the
same way) may be considered to be the same vector.
Any two vectors, Vi and Vj, that are not parallel to each other define a plane that is
parallel to them both. The location of this plane is not important here, only its orien-
tation. The cross product of Vi and Vj defines a third vector, Vk, that is perpendicular
to them both, and hence normal to the plane. The cross product is written as:
Vk = Vi ´ Vj
Upward and Horizontal Directions 13

The length of Vk is not important here. The side of the Vi-Vj plane to which Vk points
is determined by the right-hand rule: The vector Vk points toward you if the acute
angle (less than 180°) from Vi to Vj appears counterclockwise.
Thus the sign of the cross product depends upon the order of the operands:
Vj ´ Vi = – Vi ´ Vj
Defining the Three Axes Using Two Vectors

A right-handed coordinate system R-S-T can be represented by the three mutually-
perpendicular vectors Vr, Vs, and Vt, respectively, that satisfy the relationship:
Vt = Vr ´ Vs
This coordinate system can be defined by specifying two non-parallel vectors:
• An axis reference vector, Va, that is parallel to axis R

• A plane reference vector, Vp, that is parallel to plane R-S, and points toward the
positive-S side of the R axis
The axes are then defined as:
Vr = Va
Vt = Vr ´ Vp
Vs = Vt ´ Vr
Note that Vp can be any convenient vector parallel to the R-S plane; it does not have
to be parallel to the S axis. This is illustrated in Figure 1 (page 15).
Local Coordinate Systems

Each part (joint, element, or constraint) of the structural model has its own local co-
ordinate system used to define the properties, loads, and response for that part. The
axes of the local coordinate systems are denoted 1, 2, and 3. In general, the local co-
ordinate systems may vary from joint to joint, element to element, and constraint to
constraint.
There is no preferred upward direction for a local coordinate system. However, the
upward +Z direction is used to define the default joint and element local coordinate
systems with respect to the global or any alternate coordinate system.
14 Local Coordinate Systems

Va is parallel to R axis
Vp is parallel to R-S plane
Vr = Va
Vt = Vr x Vp
Vs = Vt x Vr Vs
Vt
Vp
Z
Plane R-S
Cube is shown for
visualization purposes
Vr
Va
Global
X Y
Figure 1
Determining an R-S-T Coordinate System from Reference Vectors Va and Vp
The joint local 1-2-3 coordinate system is normally the same as the global X-Y-Z
coordinate system. However, you may define any arbitrary orientation for a joint
local coordinate system by specifying two reference vectors and/or three angles of
rotation.
For the Frame, Area (Shell, Plane, and Asolid), and Link/Support elements, one of
the element local axes is determined by the geometry of the individual element.
You may define the orientation of the remaining two axes by specifying a single
reference vector and/or a single angle of rotation. The exception to this is one-joint
or zero-length Link/Support elements, which require that you first specify the lo-
cal-1 (axial) axis.
The Solid element local 1-2-3 coordinate system is normally the same as the global
X-Y-Z coordinate system. However, you may define any arbitrary orientation for a
solid local coordinate system by specifying two reference vectors and/or three an-
gles of rotation.
The local coordinate system for a Body, Diaphragm, Plate, Beam, or Rod Con-
straint is normally determined automatically from the geometry or mass distribu-
tion of the constraint. Optionally, you may specify one local axis for any Dia-
Local Coordinate Systems 15

phragm, Plate, Beam, or Rod Constraint (but not for the Body Constraint); the re-
maining two axes are determined automatically.
The local coordinate system for an Equal Constraint may be arbitrarily specified;
by default it is the global coordinate system. The Local Constraint does not have its
own local coordinate system.
For more information:
• See Topic “Local Coordinate System” (page 24) in Chapter “Joints and De-
grees of Freedom.”
• See Topic “Local Coordinate System” (page 108) in Chapter “The Frame Ele-
ment.”
• See Topic “Local Coordinate System” (page 185) in Chapter “The Shell Ele-
ment.”
• See Topic “Local Coordinate System” (page 217) in Chapter “The Plane Ele-
ment.”
• See Topic “Local Coordinate System” (page 227) in Chapter “The Asolid Ele-
ment.”
• See Topic “Local Coordinate System” (page 240) in Chapter “The Solid Ele-
ment.”
• See Topic “Local Coordinate System” (page 253) in Chapter “The Link/Sup-
port Element—Basic.”
• See Chapter “Constraints and Welds (page 49).”
Alternate Coordinate Systems

You may define alternate coordinate systems that can be used for locating the
joints; for defining local coordinate systems for joints, elements, and constraints;
and as a reference for defining other properties and loads. The axes of the alternate
coordinate systems are denoted X, Y, and Z.
The global coordinate system and all alternate systems are called fixed coordinate
systems, since they apply to the whole structural model, not just to individual parts
as do the local coordinate systems. Each fixed coordinate system may be used in
rectangular, cylindrical or spherical form.
Associated with each fixed coordinate system is a grid system used to locate objects
in the graphical user interface. Grids have no meaning in the analysis model.
16 Alternate Coordinate Systems

Each alternate coordinate system is defined by specifying the location of the origin
and the orientation of the axes with respect to the global coordinate system. You
need:
• The global X, Y, and Z coordinates of the new origin

• The three angles (in degrees) used to rotate from the global coordinate system
to the new system
Cylindrical and Spherical Coordinates

The location of points in the global or an alternate coordinate system may be speci-
fied using polar coordinates instead of rectangular X-Y-Z coordinates. Polar coor-
dinates include cylindrical CR-CA-CZ coordinates and spherical SB-SA-SR coor-
dinates. See Figure 2 (page 19) for the definition of the polar coordinate systems.
Polar coordinate systems are always defined with respect to a rectangular X-Y-Z
system.
The coordinates CR, CZ, and SR are lineal and are specified in length units. The co-
ordinates CA, SB, and SA are angular and are specified in degrees.
Locations are specified in cylindrical coordinates using the variables cr, ca, and cz.
These are related to the rectangular coordinates as:
2 2
cr = x + y
y
ca = tan -1
x
cz = z
Locations are specified in spherical coordinates using the variables sb, sa, and sr.
These are related to the rectangular coordinates as:
2 2
x +y
sb = tan -1
z
y
sa = tan -1
x
2 2 2
sr = x + y + z
Cylindrical and Spherical Coordinates 17

A vector in a fixed coordinate system can be specified by giving the locations of

two points or by specifying a coordinate direction at a single point P. Coordinate
directions are tangential to the coordinate curves at point P. A positive coordinate
direction indicates the direction of increasing coordinate value at that point.
Cylindrical coordinate directions are indicated using the values ±CR, ±CA, and
±CZ. Spherical coordinate directions are indicated using the values ±SB, ±SA, and
±SR. The sign is required. See Figure 2 (page 19).
The cylindrical and spherical coordinate directions are not constant but vary with
angular position. The coordinate directions do not change with the lineal coordi-
nates. For example, +SR defines a vector directed from the origin to point P.
Note that the coordinates Z and CZ are identical, as are the corresponding coordi-
nate directions. Similarly, the coordinates CA and SA and their corresponding co-
ordinate directions are identical.
18 Cylindrical and Spherical Coordinates

+CZ
Z, CZ
+CA
+CR
Cylindrical
Coordinates cz
Y
cr
ca
X
Cubes are shown for
visualization purposes
+SR
+SA
P
sb
Spherical
Coordinates sr
+SB
sa
Figure 2
Cylindrical and Spherical Coordinates and Coordinate Directions
Cylindrical and Spherical Coordinates 19

20 Cylindrical and Spherical Coordinates

C h a p t e r IV
Joints and Degrees of Freedom
The joints play a fundamental role in the analysis of any structure. Joints are the
points of connection between the elements, and they are the primary locations in
the structure at which the displacements are known or are to be determined. The
displacement components (translations and rotations) at the joints are called the de-
grees of freedom.
This Chapter describes joint properties, degrees of freedom, loads, and output. Ad-
ditional information about joints and degrees of freedom is given in Chapter “Con-
straints and Welds” (page 49).

• Overview
• Modeling Considerations
• Local Coordinate System
• Degrees of Freedom
• Restraint Supports
• Spring Supports
• Joint Reactions
• Base Reactions
21
• Masses
• Force Load
• Degree of Freedom Output
• Assembled Joint Mass Output
• Displacement Output
• Force Output
Advanced Topics
• Advanced Local Coordinate System
• Nonlinear Supports
• Distributed Supports
• Ground Displacement Load
• Generalized Displacements
• Element Joint Force Output
Overview
Joints, also known as nodal points or nodes, are a fundamental part of every struc-
tural model. Joints perform a variety of functions:
• All elements are connected to the structure (and hence to each other) at the
joints
• The structure is supported at the joints using Restraints and/or Springs
• Rigid-body behavior and symmetry conditions can be specified using Con-
straints that apply to the joints
• Concentrated loads may be applied at the joints
• Lumped (concentrated) masses and rotational inertia may be placed at the
joints
• All loads and masses applied to the elements are actually transferred to the
joints
• Joints are the primary locations in the structure at which the displacements are
known (the supports) or are to be determined
All of these functions are discussed in this Chapter except for the Constraints,
which are described in Chapter “Constraints and Welds” (page 49).
22 Overview
Chapter IV Joints and Degrees of Freedom
Joints in the analysis model correspond to point objects in the structural-object

model. Using the SAP2000, ETABS, SAFE, or CSiBridge graphical user interface,
joints (points) are automatically created at the ends of each Line object and at the
corners of each Area and Solid object. Joints may also be defined independently of
any object.
Automatic meshing of objects will create additional joints corresponding to any el-
ements that are created.
Joints may themselves be considered as elements. Each joint may have its own lo-
cal coordinate system for defining the degrees of freedom, restraints, joint proper-
ties, and loads; and for interpreting joint output. In most cases, however, the global
X-Y-Z coordinate system is used as the local coordinate system for all joints in the
model. Joints act independently of each other unless connected by other elements.
There are six displacement degrees of freedom at every joint — three translations
and three rotations. These displacement components are aligned along the local co-
ordinate system of each joint.
Joints may be loaded directly by concentrated loads or indirectly by ground dis-

placements acting though Restraints, spring supports, or one-joint (grounded)
Link/Support objects.
Displacements (translations and rotations) are produced at every joint. Reaction

forces and moments acting at each supported joint are also produced.
For more information, see Chapter “Constraints and Welds” (page 49).
Modeling Considerations
The location of the joints and elements is critical in determining the accuracy of the
structural model. Some of the factors that you need to consider when defining the
elements, and hence the joints, for the structure are:
• The number of elements should be sufficient to describe the geometry of the

structure. For straight lines and edges, one element is adequate. For curves and
curved surfaces, one element should be used for every arc of 15° or less.
• Element boundaries, and hence joints, should be located at points, lines, and
surfaces of discontinuity:
– Structural boundaries, e.g., corners and edges
– Changes in material properties
Modeling Considerations 23
– Changes in thickness and other geometric properties

– Support points (Restraints and Springs)
– Points of application of concentrated loads, except that Frame elements
may have concentrated loads applied within their spans
• In regions having large stress gradients, i.e., where the stresses are changing
rapidly, an Area- or Solid-element mesh should be refined using small ele-
ments and closely-spaced joints. This may require changing the mesh after one
or more preliminary analyses.
• More that one element should be used to model the length of any span for
which dynamic behavior is important. This is required because the mass is al-
ways lumped at the joints, even if it is contributed by the elements.
Local Coordinate System

Each joint has its own joint local coordinate system used to define the degrees of
freedom, Restraints, properties, and loads at the joint; and for interpreting joint out-
put. The axes of the joint local coordinate system are denoted 1, 2, and 3. By default
these axes are identical to the global X, Y, and Z axes, respectively. Both systems
are right-handed coordinate systems.
The default local coordinate system is adequate for most situations. However, for
certain modeling purposes it may be useful to use different local coordinate sys-
tems at some or all of the joints. This is described in the next topic.
• See Topic “Upward and Horizontal Directions” (page 13) in Chapter “Coordi-
nate Systems.”
• See Topic “Advanced Local Coordinate System” (page 24) in this Chapter.
Advanced Local Coordinate System

By default, the joint local 1-2-3 coordinate system is identical to the global X-Y-Z
coordinate system, as described in the previous topic. However, it may be neces-
sary to use different local coordinate systems at some or all joints in the following
cases:
• Skewed Restraints (supports) are present

• Constraints are used to impose rotational symmetry
24 Local Coordinate System

• Constraints are used to impose symmetry about a plane that is not parallel to a
global coordinate plane
• The principal axes for the joint mass (translational or rotational) are not aligned
with the global axes
• Joint displacement and force output is desired in another coordinate system
Joint local coordinate systems need only be defined for the affected joints. The
global system is used for all joints for which no local coordinate system is explicitly
specified.
A variety of methods are available to define a joint local coordinate system. These
may be used separately or together. Local coordinate axes may be defined to be par-
allel to arbitrary coordinate directions in an arbitrary coordinate system or to vec-
tors between pairs of joints. In addition, the joint local coordinate system may be
specified by a set of three joint coordinate angles. These methods are described in
the subtopics that follow.
• See Chapter “Coordinate Systems” (page 11).

• See Topic “Local Coordinate System” (page 24) in this Chapter.
Reference Vectors
To define a joint local coordinate system you must specify two reference vectors
that are parallel to one of the joint local coordinate planes. The axis reference vec-
tor, Va , must be parallel to one of the local axes (I = 1, 2, or 3) in this plane and
have a positive projection upon that axis. The plane reference vector, V p , must
have a positive projection upon the other local axis (j = 1, 2, or 3, but I ¹ j) in this
plane, but need not be parallel to that axis. Having a positive projection means that
the positive direction of the reference vector must make an angle of less than 90°
with the positive direction of the local axis.
Together, the two reference vectors define a local axis, I, and a local plane, i-j.
From this, the program can determine the third local axis, k, using vector algebra.
For example, you could choose the axis reference vector parallel to local axis 1 and
the plane reference vector parallel to the local 1-2 plane (I = 1, j = 2). Alternatively,
you could choose the axis reference vector parallel to local axis 3 and the plane ref-
erence vector parallel to the local 3-2 plane (I = 3, j = 2). You may choose the plane
that is most convenient to define using the parameter local, which may take on the
Advanced Local Coordinate System 25

values 12, 13, 21, 23, 31, or 32. The two digits correspond to I and j, respectively.
The default is value is 31.
Defining the Axis Reference Vector

To define the axis reference vector for joint j, you must first specify or use the de-
fault values for:
• A coordinate direction axdir (the default is +Z)

• A fixed coordinate system csys (the default is zero, indicating the global coor-
dinate system)
You may optionally specify:
• A pair of joints, axveca and axvecb (the default for each is zero, indicating
joint j itself). If both are zero, this option is not used.
For each joint, the axis reference vector is determined as follows:
1. A vector is found from joint axveca to joint axvecb. If this vector is of finite
length, it is used as the reference vector Va
2. Otherwise, the coordinate direction axdir is evaluated at joint j in fixed coordi-

nate system csys, and is used as the reference vector Va
Defining the Plane Reference Vector

To define the plane reference vector for joint j, you must first specify or use the de-
fault values for:
• A primary coordinate direction pldirp (the default is +X)

• A secondary coordinate direction pldirs (the default is +Y). Directions pldirs
and pldirp should not be parallel to each other unless you are sure that they are
not parallel to local axis 1
• A fixed coordinate system csys (the default is zero, indicating the global coor-
dinate system). This will be the same coordinate system that was used to define
the axis reference vector, as described above
You may optionally specify:
• A pair of joints, plveca and plvecb (the default for each is zero, indicating joint
j itself). If both are zero, this option is not used.
26 Advanced Local Coordinate System

For each joint, the plane reference vector is determined as follows:
1. A vector is found from joint plveca to joint plvecb. If this vector is of finite
length and is not parallel to local axis I, it is used as the reference vector V p
2. Otherwise, the primary coordinate direction pldirp is evaluated at joint j in

fixed coordinate system csys. If this direction is not parallel to local axis I, it is
used as the reference vector V p
3. Otherwise, the secondary coordinate direction pldirs is evaluated at joint j in

fixed coordinate system csys. If this direction is not parallel to local axis I, it is
used as the reference vector V p
4. Otherwise, the method fails and the analysis terminates. This will never happen
if pldirp is not parallel to pldirs
A vector is considered to be parallel to local axis I if the sine of the angle between
-3
them is less than 10 .
Determining the Local Axes from the Reference Vectors

The program uses vector cross products to determine the local axes from the refer-
ence vectors. The three axes are represented by the three unit vectors V1 , V2 and
V3 , respectively. The vectors satisfy the cross-product relationship:
V1 = V2 ´ V3
The local axis Vi is given by the vector Va after it has been normalized to unit
length.
The remaining two axes, V j and Vk , are defined as follows:
• If I and j permute in a positive sense, i.e., local = 12, 23, or 31, then:
Vk = Vi ´ V p and
V j = Vk ´ Vi
• If I and j permute in a negative sense, i.e., local = 21, 32, or 13, then:
Vk = V p ´ Vi and
V j = Vi ´ Vk
An example showing the determination of the joint local coordinate system using
reference vectors is given in Figure 3 (page 28).

Va is parallel to axveca-axvecb
Vp is parallel to plveca-plvecb
V3 = V a
V2 = V3 x Vp All vectors normalized to unit length. V1
V1 = V 2 x V3
V2
Vp
Z
plvecb j
plveca Plane 3-1
axveca V3
Va
Global
axvecb
X Y
Figure 3
Example of the Determination of the Joint Local Coordinate System
Using Reference Vectors for local=31
Joint Coordinate Angles

The joint local coordinate axes determined from the reference vectors may be fur-
ther modified by the use of three joint coordinate angles, denoted a, b, and c. In
the case where the default reference vectors are used, the joint coordinate angles de-
fine the orientation of the joint local coordinate system with respect to the global
axes.
The joint coordinate angles specify rotations of the local coordinate system about
its own current axes. The resulting orientation of the joint local coordinate system
is obtained according to the following procedure:
1. The local system is first rotated about its +3 axis by angle a
2. The local system is next rotated about its resulting +2 axis by angle b
3. The local system is lastly rotated about its resulting +1 axis by angle c
The order in which the rotations are performed is important. The use of coordinate
angles to orient the joint local coordinate system with respect to the global system is
shown in Figure 4 (page 29).
28 Advanced Local Coordinate System

Z, 3
Step 1: Rotation about

local 3 axis by angle a
2
a
a Y
X
Z
3
b
Step 2: Rotation about new

local 2 axis by angle b
b
2
X Y
b
1
Z
3
c
Step 3: Rotation about new

local 1 axis by angle c 2
c
X Y
c
Figure 4
Use of Joint Coordinate Angles to Orient the Joint Local Coordinate System

Degrees of Freedom
The deflection of the structural model is governed by the displacements of the
joints. Every joint of the structural model may have up to six displacement compo-
nents:
• The joint may translate along its three local axes. These translations are de-
noted U1, U2, and U3.
• The joint may rotate about its three local axes. These rotations are denoted R1,
R2, and R3.
These six displacement components are known as the degrees of freedom of the
joint. In the usual case where the joint local coordinate system is parallel to the
global system, the degrees of freedom may also be identified as UX, UY, UZ, RX,
RY and RZ, according to which global axes are parallel to which local axes. The
joint local degrees of freedom are illustrated in Figure 5 (page 31).
In addition to the regular joints that you explicitly define as part of your structural
model, the program automatically creates master joints that govern the behavior of
any Constraints and Welds that you may have defined. Each master joint has the
same six degrees of freedom as do the regular joints. See Chapter “Constraints and
Welds” (page 49) for more information.
Each degree of freedom in the structural model must be one of the following types:
• Active — the displacement is computed during the analysis

• Restrained — the displacement is specified, and the corresponding reaction is
computed during the analysis
• Constrained — the displacement is determined from the displacements at other
degrees of freedom
• Null — the displacement does not affect the structure and is ignored by the
analysis
• Unavailable — the displacement has been explicitly excluded from the analy-
sis
These different types of degrees of freedom are described in the following subtop-
ics.
30 Degrees of Freedom
U3
R3
R2
Joint
R1
U1 U2
Figure 5
The Six Displacement Degrees of Freedom in the Joint Local Coordinate System
Available and Unavailable Degrees of Freedom

You may explicitly specify the global degrees of freedom that are available to every
joint in the structural model. By default, all six degrees of freedom are available to
every joint. This default should generally be used for all three-dimensional struc-
tures.
For certain planar structures, however, you may wish to restrict the available de-
grees of freedom. For example, in the X-Y plane: a planar truss needs only UX and
UY; a planar frame needs only UX, UY, and RZ; and a planar grid or flat plate
needs only UZ, RX, and RY.
The degrees of freedom that are not specified as being available are called unavail-
able degrees of freedom. Any stiffness, loads, mass, Restraints, or Constraints that
are applied to the unavailable degrees of freedom are ignored by the analysis.
The available degrees of freedom are always referred to the global coordinate sys-
tem, and they are the same for every joint in the model. If any joint local coordinate
systems are used, they must not couple available degrees of freedom with the un-
available degrees of freedom at any joint. For example, if the available degrees of
freedom are UX, UY, and RZ, then all joint local coordinate systems must have one
local axis parallel to the global Z axis.
Degrees of Freedom 31
Restrained Degrees of Freedom

If the displacement of a joint along any one of its available degrees of freedom is
known, such as at a support point, that degree of freedom is restrained. The known
value of the displacement may be zero or non-zero, and may be different in differ-
ent Load Patterns. The force along the restrained degree of freedom that is required
to impose the specified restraint displacement is called the reaction, and is deter-
mined by the analysis.
Unavailable degrees of freedom are essentially restrained. However, they are ex-
cluded from the analysis and no reactions are computed, even if they are non-zero.
See Topic “Restraint Supports” (page 34) in this Chapter for more information.
Constrained Degrees of Freedom

Any joint that is part of a Constraint or Weld may have one or more of its available
degrees of freedom constrained. The program automatically creates a master joint
to govern the behavior of each Constraint, and a master joint to govern the behavior
of each set of joints that are connected together by a Weld. The displacement of a
constrained degree of freedom is then computed as a linear combination of the dis-
placements along the degrees of freedom at the corresponding master joint.
If a constrained degree of freedom is also restrained, the restraint will be applied to

the constraint as a whole.
See Chapter “Constraints and Welds” (page 49) for more information.
Mixing Restraints and Constraints Not Recommended

It is not recommended that restrained degrees of freedom also be constrained, al-
though it is permitted. Reactions computed at such degrees of freedom will not in-
clude the contributions to the reaction from joints connected by constraints.
Ground displacement loads applied at the constraint will not be applied to the joints
connected by constraint. For better results, use springs or grounded (one-joint)
link/support objects to support joints that are also constrained.
Similarly, it is not recommended, that a given degree of freedom be included in

more than one constraint, although it is permitted. The analysis will attempt to com-
bine the coupled constraints, but the results may not be as accurate as using a single
constraint for all coupled joints, especially for dynamics. For better results, include
all coupled joints in a single constraint whenever possible.
32 Degrees of Freedom
Note that using fixed degrees of freedom in a link/support property is the same as
specifying a constraint. For this reason, such link/support objects should not be
connected together or connected to constrained joints. In such cases, it is better to
use large (but not too large) stiffnesses rather that fixed degrees of freedom in the
link/support property definition.
Active Degrees of Freedom

All available degrees of freedom that are neither constrained nor restrained must be
either active or null. The program will automatically determine the active degrees
of freedom as follows:
• If any load or stiffness is applied along any translational degree of freedom at a

joint, then all available translational degrees of freedom at that joint are made
active unless they are constrained or restrained.
• If any load or stiffness is applied along any rotational degree of freedom at a
joint, then all available rotational degrees of freedom at that joint are made ac-
tive unless they are constrained or restrained.
• All degrees of freedom at a master joint that govern constrained degrees of
freedom are made active.
A joint that is connected to any element or to a translational spring will have all of
its translational degrees of freedom activated. A joint that is connected to a Frame,
Shell, or Link/Support element, or to any rotational spring will have all of its rota-
tional degrees of freedom activated. An exception is a Frame element with only
truss-type stiffness, which will not activate rotational degrees of freedom.
Every active degree of freedom has an associated equation to be solved. If there are
N active degrees of freedom in the structure, there are N equations in the system,
and the structural stiffness matrix is said to be of order N. The amount of computa-
tional effort required to perform the analysis increases with N.
The load acting along each active degree of freedom is known (it may be zero). The
corresponding displacement will be determined by the analysis.
If there are active degrees of freedom in the system at which the stiffness is known
to be zero, such as the out-of-plane translation in a planar-frame, these must either
be restrained or made unavailable. Otherwise, the structure is unstable and the solu-
tion of the static equations will fail.
• See Topic “Springs” (page 36) in this Chapter.
Degrees of Freedom 33
• See Topic “Degrees of Freedom” (page 108) in Chapter “The Frame Element.”
• See Topic “Degrees of Freedom” (page 170) in Chapter “The Cable Element.”
• See Topic “Degrees of Freedom” (page 181) in Chapter “The Shell Element.”
• See Topic “Degrees of Freedom” (page 217) in Chapter “The Plane Element.”
• See Topic “Degrees of Freedom” (page 227) in Chapter “The Asolid Element.”
• See Topic “Degrees of Freedom” (page 240) in Chapter “The Solid Element.”
• See Topic “Degrees of Freedom” (page 253) in Chapter “The Link/Support El-
ement—Basic.”
• See Topic “Degrees of Freedom” (page 312) in Chapter “The Tendon Object.”
Null Degrees of Freedom

The available degrees of freedom that are not restrained, constrained, or active, are
called the null degrees of freedom. Because they have no load or stiffness, their dis-
placements and reactions are zero, and they have no effect on the rest of the struc-
ture. The program automatically excludes them from the analysis.
Joints that have no elements connected to them typically have all six degrees of
freedom null. Joints that have only solid-type elements (Plane, Asolid, and Solid)
connected to them typically have the three rotational degrees of freedom null.
Restraint Supports
If the displacement of a joint along any of its available degrees of freedom has a
known value, either zero (e.g., at support points) or non-zero (e.g., due to support
settlement), a Restraint must be applied to that degree of freedom. The known
value of the displacement may differ from one Load Pattern to the next, but the de-
gree of freedom is restrained for all Load Patterns. In other words, it is not possible
to have the displacement known in one Load Pattern and unknown (unrestrained) in
another Load Pattern.
Restraints should also be applied to any available degrees of freedom in the system
at which the stiffness is known to be zero, such as the out-of-plane translation and
in-plane rotations of a planar-frame. Otherwise, the structure is unstable and the so-
lution of the static equations will complain.
Restraints are always applied to the joint local degrees of freedom U1, U2, U3, R1,
R2, and R3. Examples of Restraints are shown in Figure 6 (page 35).
34 Restraint Supports
8
5 Joint Restraints
1 U1, U2, U3
6 2 U3
3 U1, U2, U3, R1, R2, R3
4 None
3 Fixed
4 Z
1 Hinge
Spring
Support
2 Rollers Y
X Global
3-D Frame Structure
Notes: Joints are indicated with dots:

Solid dots indicate moment continuity
Open dots indicate hinges
All joint local 1-2-3 coordinate systems are
identical to the global X-Y-Z coordinate system
Joint Restraints
4 5 6
All U2, R1, R3
1 U3
2 U1, U3, R2
3 U1, U3
1 Roller 2 Fixed 3 Hinge Global

X
2-D Frame Structure, X-Z plane
Figure 6
Examples of Restraints
Restraint Supports 35
If a restraint is applied to an unavailable degree of freedom, it is ignored. The dis-

placement will be zero, but no reaction will be computed.
In general, you should not apply restraints to constrained degrees of freedom. How-
ever, if you do, the analysis will attempt to automatically rewrite the constraint
equations to accommodate the restraint. Reactions computed at such degrees of
freedom will not include the contributions to the reaction from joints connected by
constraints. Ground displacement loads applied at the constraint will not be applied
to the joints connected by constraint. For better results, use springs or grounded
(one-joint) Link/Supports to support joints that are also constrained.
• See Topic “Degrees of Freedom” (page 30) in this Chapter.

• See Topic “Restraint Displacement Load” (page 42) in this Chapter.
Spring Supports
Any of the six degrees of freedom at any of the joints in the structure can have trans-
lational or rotational spring support conditions. These springs elastically connect
the joint to the ground. Spring supports along restrained degrees of freedom do not
contribute to the stiffness of the structure.
Springs may be specified that couple the degrees of freedom at a joint. The spring
forces that act on a joint are related to the displacements of that joint by a 6x6 sym-
metric matrix of spring stiffness coefficients. These forces tend to oppose the dis-
placements.
Spring stiffness coefficients may be specified in the global coordinate system, an

Alternate Coordinate System, or the joint local coordinate system.
In a joint local coordinate system, the spring forces and moments F1, F2, F3, M1, M2
and M3 at a joint are given by:
ì F1 ü é u1 u1u2 u1u3 u1r1 u1r2 u1r3 ù ì u1 ü (Eqn. 1)

ïF ï ê u2 u2u3 u2r1 u2r2 u2r3 ú ï u 2 ï
ï 2 ï ê úï ï
ï F3 ï ê u3 u3r1 u3r2 u3r3 ú ï u 3 ï
í ý=-ê í ý
ï M 1 ï r1 r1r2 r1r3 ú ï r1 ï
ê ú
ïM 2 ï ê sym. r2 r2r3 ú ï r2 ï
ïM ï ê r3 úû ïî r3 ïþ
î 3þ ë
36 Spring Supports
where u1, u2, u3, r1, r2 and r3 are the joint displacements and rotations, and the terms
u1, u1u2, u2, ... are the specified spring stiffness coefficients.
In any fixed coordinate system, the spring forces and moments Fx, Fy, Fz, Mx, My and
Mz at a joint are given by:
ì Fx ü é ux uxuy uxuz uxrx uxry uxrz ù ì u x ü

ïF ï ê uy uyuz uyrx uyry uyrz ú ï u y ï
ï yï ê úï ï
ï Fz ï ê uz uzrx uzry uzrz ú ï u z ï
í ý=-ê í ý
M
ï xï rx rxry rxrz ú ï rx ï
ê ú
ïM yï ê sym. ry ryrz ú ï r y ï
ïM ï ê rz úû ïî r z ïþ
î zþ ë
where ux, uy, uz, rx, ry and rz are the joint displacements and rotations, and the terms
ux, uxuy, uy, ... are the specified spring stiffness coefficients.
For springs that do not couple the degrees of freedom in a particular coordinate sys-
tem, only the six diagonal terms need to be specified since the off-diagonal terms
are all zero. When coupling is present, all 21 coefficients in the upper triangle of the
matrix must be given; the other 15 terms are then known by symmetry.
If the springs at a joint are specified in more than one coordinate system, standard
coordinate transformation techniques are used to convert the 6x6 spring stiffness
matrices to the joint local coordinate system, and the resulting stiffness matrices are
then added together on a term-by-term basis. The final spring stiffness matrix at
each joint in the structure should have a determinant that is zero or positive. Other-
wise the springs may cause the structure to be unstable.
The displacement of the grounded end of the spring may be specified to be zero or
non-zero (e.g., due to support settlement). This spring displacement may vary
from one Load Pattern to the next.

• See Topic “Spring Displacement Load” (page 43) in this Chapter.
Nonlinear Supports
In certain versions of the program, you may define nonlinear supports at the joints
using the Link/Support element. Nonlinear support conditions that can be modeled
Nonlinear Supports 37
include gaps (compression only), multi-linear elastic or plastic springs, viscous

dampers, base isolators, and more.
This Link/Support can be used in two ways:
• You can add (draw) a one-joint object, in which case it is considered a Support
object, and it connects the joint directly to the ground.
• The object can also be drawn with two joints, in which case it is considered a
Link object. You can use a Link object as a support if you connect one end to
the structure, and fully restrain the other end.
Both methods have the same effect. During analysis, one-joint Support objects are
converted to two-joint Link elements of zero length, and connected to a generated
joint that is fully restrained.
Multiple Link/Support elements can be connected to a single joint, in which case

they act in parallel. Each Link/Support element has its own element local coordi-
nate system that is independent of the joint local coordinate system.
Restraints and springs may also exist at the joint. Of course, any degree of freedom
that is restrained will prevent deformation in the Link/Support element in that di-
rection.
See Chapters “The Link/Support Element – Basic” (page 251) and “The Link/Sup-
port Element – Advanced” (page 275) for more information.
Distributed Supports
You may assign distributed spring supports along the length of a Frame element, or
over the any face of an area object (Shell, Plane, Asolid) or Solid element. These
springs may be linear, multi-linear elastic, or multi-linear plastic. These springs are
converted to equivalent two-joint Link/Support elements acting at the joints of the
element, after accounting for the tributary length or area of the element. The gener-
ated Link/Support elements are of zero length, with one end connected to the parent
object, and the other end connected to a generated joint that is fully restrained.
Because these springs act at the joints, it may be necessary to mesh the elements to
capture localized effects of such distributed supports. The best way to do this is
usually to use the automatic internal meshing options available in the graphical user
interface. This allows you to change the meshing easily, while still being able to
work with large, simpler model objects.
38 Distributed Supports
It is not possible to assign distributed restraint supports directly. However, when

using automatic internal meshing, you may optionally specify that the meshed ele-
ments use the same restraint conditions that are present on the parent object.
For more information, see Topics “Restraint Supports” (page 34), “Spring Sup-
port” (page 36), “Nonlinear Supports” (page 37) in this Chapter, and also Chapter
“Objects and Elements” (page 7.)
Joint Reactions
The force or moment along the degree of freedom that is required to enforce any
support condition is called the reaction, and it is determined by the analysis. The
reaction includes the forces (or moments) from all supports at the joint, including
restraints, springs, and one-joint Link/Support objects. The tributary effect of any
distributed supports is included in the reaction.
If a one-joint Link/Support object is used, the reaction will be reported at the origi-
nal joint connected to the structure, not at the restrained end of the generated
two-joint Link/Support element. The reaction at the generated joint will be reported
as zero since it has been transferred to the original joint.
For more information, see Topics “Restraint Supports” (page 34), “Spring Sup-
port” (page 36), “Nonlinear Supports” (page 37), and “Distributed Supports” (page
38) in this Chapter.
Base Reactions
Base Reactions are the resultant force and moment of all the joint reactions acting
on the structure, computed at the global origin or at some other location that you
choose. This produces three force components and three moment components. The
base forces are not affected by the chosen location, but the base moments are. For
seismic analysis the horizontal forces are called the base shears, and the moments
about the horizontal axes are called the overturning moments.
Base reactions are available for all Load Cases and Combos except for Mov-
ing-Load Load Cases. The centroids (center of action) are also available for each
force component of the base reactions. Note that these are the centroids of the reac-
tions, which may not always be the same as the centroids of the applied load caus-
ing the reaction.
For more information, see Topic “Joint Reactions” (page 39) in this Chapter.
Joint Reactions 39
Masses
In a dynamic analysis, the mass of the structure is used to compute inertial forces.
Normally, the mass is obtained from the elements using the mass density of the ma-
terial and the volume of the element. This automatically produces lumped (uncou-
pled) masses at the joints. The element mass values are equal for each of the three
translational degrees of freedom. No mass moments of inertia are produced for the
rotational degrees of freedom. This approach is adequate for most analyses.
It is often necessary to place additional concentrated masses and/or mass moments

of inertia at the joints. These can be applied to any of the six degrees of freedom at
any of the joints in the structure.
For computational efficiency and solution accuracy, SAP2000 always uses lumped
masses. This means that there is no mass coupling between degrees of freedom at a
joint or between different joints. These uncoupled masses are always referred to the
local coordinate system of each joint. Mass values along restrained degrees of free-
dom are ignored.
Inertial forces acting on the joints are related to the accelerations at the joints by a
6x6 matrix of mass values. These forces tend to oppose the accelerations. In a joint
local coordinate system, the inertia forces and moments F1, F2, F3, M1, M2 and M3 at
a joint are given by:
ì F1 ü é u1 0 0 0 0 0 ù ì u&&1 ü
ïF ï ê u2 0 0 0 0 ú ï u&&2 ï
ï 2 ï ê úï ï
ï F3 ï ê u3 0 0 0 ú ï u&&3 ï
í ý=-ê í ý
M 1 r1 0 0 ú ï &&r
ï ï ê ú 1ï
ïM 2 ï ê sym. r2 0 ú ï &&
r2 ï
ïM ï ê ú ï r3 ïþ
r3 û î &&
î 3þ ë
where u&&1 , u&&2 , u&&3 , &&

r1 , &&
r2 and &&
r3 are the translational and rotational accelerations at
the joint, and the terms u1, u2, u3, r1, r2, and r3 are the specified mass values.
Uncoupled joint masses may instead be specified in the global coordinate system,
in which case they are transformed to the joint local coordinate system. Coupling
terms will be generated during this transformation in the following situation:
• The joint local coordinate system directions are not parallel to global coordi-
nate directions, and
• The three translational masses or the three rotational mass moments of inertia
are not equal at a joint.
40 Masses
Shape in Mass Moment of Inertia about vertical axis Formula

plan (normal to paper) through center of mass
b
Rectangular diaphragm: 2 2
Uniformly distributed mass per unit area MMIcm = M ( b +d )
d Total mass of diaphragm = M (or w/g) 12
c.m.
c.m. Triangular diaphragm: Use general

Uniformly distributed mass per unit area diaphragm formula
Total mass of diaphragm = M (or w/g)
X X
Circular diaphragm: 2
d Uniformly distributed mass per unit area MMIcm = Md
8
Total mass of diaphragm = M (or w/g)
c.m.
Y General diaphragm:
Uniformly distributed mass per unit area
c.m.
Total mass of diaphragm = M (or w/g) M ( IX+IY)
Area of diaphragm = A MMIcm =
X X A
Moment of inertia of area about X-X = IX
Moment of inertia of area about Y-Y = IY
Y
Line mass:
2
d
Uniformly distributed mass per unit length MMIcm = Md
Total mass of line = M (or w/g) 12
c.m.
Axis transformation for a mass: MMIcm = MMIo + MD2

D o
If mass is a point mass, MMIo = 0
c.m.
Figure 7
Formulae for Mass Moments of Inertia
Masses 41
These coupling terms will be discarded by the program, resulting in some loss of
accuracy. For this reason, it is recommended that you choose joint local coordinate
systems that are aligned with the principal directions of translational or rotational
mass at a joint, and then specify mass values in these joint local coordinates.
Mass values must be given in consistent mass units (W/g) and mass moments of in-
2
ertia must be in WL /g units. Here W is weight, L is length, and g is the acceleration
due to gravity. The net mass values at each joint in the structure should be zero or
positive.
See Figure 7 (page 41) for mass moment of inertia formulations for various planar
configurations.

• See Topic “Mass Source” (page 334) in Chapter “Load Patterns”.
• See Chapter “Static and Dynamic Analysis” (page 341).
Force Load
The Force Load is used to apply concentrated forces and moments at the joints.
Values may be specified in a fixed coordinate system (global or alternate coordi-
nates) or the joint local coordinate system. All forces and moments at a joint are
transformed to the joint local coordinate system and added together. The specified
values are shown in Figure 8 (page 43).
Forces and moments applied along restrained degrees of freedom add to the corre-
sponding reaction, but do not otherwise affect the structure.

• See Chapter “Load Patterns” (page 321).
Ground Displacement Load

The Ground Displacement Load is used to apply specified displacements (transla-
tions and rotations) at the grounded end of joint restraints, joint spring, and
one-joint Link/Support objects. Displacements may be specified in a fixed coordi-
nate system (global or alternate coordinates) or the joint local coordinate system.
42 Force Load
u2
uz
r2
Z
rz
r1
u1
Joint
ry
r3 Joint
rx
ux uy
u3 Global Coordinates
Joint Local Coordinates Global
Origin
X Y
Figure 8
Specified Values for Force Load and Ground Displacement Load
The specified values are shown in Figure 8 (page 43). All displacements at a joint
are transformed to the joint local coordinate system and added together.
Restraints may be considered as rigid connections between the joint degrees of

freedom and the ground. Springs and one-joint Link/Support objects may be con-
sidered as flexible connections between the joint degrees of freedom and the
ground.
It is very important to understand that ground displacement load applies to the

ground, and does not affect the structure unless the structure is supported by re-
straints, springs, or one-joint Link/Supports in the direction of loading!
Restraint Displacements
If a particular joint degree of freedom is restrained, the displacement of the joint is
equal to the ground displacement along that local degree of freedom. This applies
regardless of whether or not springs are present.
Ground Displacement Load 43

The vertical ground settlement, UZ = -1.000,

is specified as the restraint displacement.
Z
The actual restraint displacement that is
GLOBAL imposed on the structure is U3 = -0.866.
X 3 The unrestrained displacement, U1, will be
1 determined by the analysis.
30°
U3 = -0.866
UZ = -1.000
Figure 9
Example of Restraint Displacement Not Aligned with Local Degrees of Freedom
Components of ground displacement that are not along restrained degrees of free-
dom do not load the structure (except possibly through springs and one-joint links).
An example of this is illustrated in Figure 9 (page 44).
The ground displacement, and hence the joint displacement, may vary from one
Load Pattern to the next. If no ground displacement load is specified for a restrained
degree of freedom, the joint displacement is zero for that Load Pattern.
Spring Displacements
The ground displacements at a joint are multiplied by the spring stiffness coeffi-
cients to obtain effective forces and moments that are applied to the joint. Spring
displacements applied in a direction with no spring stiffness result in zero applied
load. The ground displacement, and hence the applied forces and moments, may
vary from one Load Pattern to the next.
In a joint local coordinate system, the applied forces and moments F1, F2, F3, M1, M2
and M3 at a joint due to ground displacements are given by:
44 Ground Displacement Load

ì F1 ü é u1 0 0 0 0 0 ù ì u g1 ü (Eqn. 2)
ïF ï ê u2 0 0 0 0 ú ïug 2 ï
ï 2 ï ê úï ï
ï F3 ï ê u3 0 0 0 ú ï u g 3 ï
í ý=-ê í ý
ï M1 ï r1 0 0 ú ï rg 1 ï
ê ú
ïM 2 ï ê sym. r2 0 ú ï rg 2 ï
ïM ï ê r3 úû ïî rg 3 ïþ
î 3þ ë
where u g1 , u g 2 , u g 3 , rg1 , rg 2 and rg 3 are the ground displacements and rotations,

and the terms u1, u2, u3, r1, r2, and r3 are the specified spring stiffness coeffi-
cients.
The net spring forces and moments acting on the joint are the sum of the forces and
moments given in Equations (1) and (2); note that these are of opposite sign. At a
restrained degree of freedom, the joint displacement is equal to the ground dis-
placement, and hence the net spring force is zero.
• See Topic “Restraints and Reactions” (page 34) in this Chapter.

• See Topic “Springs” (page 36) in this Chapter.
• See Chapter “Load Patterns” (page 321).
Link/Support Displacements
One-joint Link/Support objects are converted to zero-length, two-joint Link/Sup-
port elements. A restrained joint is generated and the ground displacement is ap-
plied as a restraint displacement at this generated joint.
The effect of the ground displacement on the structure depends upon the properties
of the Link/Support element connecting the restrained joint to the structure, similar
to how springs supports work, except the Link/Support stiffness may be nonlinear.
Generalized Displacements
A generalized displacement is a named displacement measure that you define. It is
simply a linear combination of displacement degrees of freedom from one or more
joints.
For example, you could define a generalized displacement that is the difference of
the UX displacements at two joints on different stories of a building and name it
Generalized Displacements 45
“DRIFTX”. You could define another generalized displacement that is the sum of
three rotations about the Z axis, each scaled by 1/3, and name it “AVGRZ.”
Generalized displacements are primarily used for output purposes, except that you
can also use a generalized displacement to monitor a nonlinear static analysis.
To define a generalized displacement, specify the following:
• A unique name
• The type of displacement measure
• A list of the joint degrees of freedom and their corresponding scale factors that
will be summed to created the generalized displacement
The type of displacement measure can be one of the following:
• Translational: The generalized displacement scales (with change of units) as

length. Coefficients of contributing joint translations are unitless. Coefficients
of contributing joint rotations scale as length.
• Rotational: The generalized displacement is unitless (radians). Coefficients of
joint translations scale as inverse length. Coefficients of joint rotations are
unitless.
Be sure to choose your scale factors for each contributing component to account for
the type of generalized displacement being defined.
Degree of Freedom Output

A table of the types of degrees of freedom present at every joint in the model is
printed in the analysis output (.OUT) file under the heading:
DISPLACEMENT DEGREES OF FREEDOM
The degrees of freedom are listed for all of the regular joints, as well as for the mas-
ter joints created automatically by the program. For Constraints, the master joints
are identified by the labels of their corresponding Constraints. For Welds, the mas-
ter joint for each set of joints that are welded together is identified by the label of
one of the welded joints. Joints are printed in alpha-numeric order of the labels.
The type of each of the six degrees of freedom at a joint is identified by the follow-
ing symbols:
(A) Active degree of freedom

(-) Restrained degree of freedom
46 Degree of Freedom Output

(+) Constrained degree of freedom

( ) Null or unavailable degree of freedom
The degrees of freedom are always referred to the local axes of the joint. They are
identified in the output as U1, U2, U3, R1, R2, and R3 for all joints. However, if all
regular joints use the global coordinate system as the local system (the usual situa-
tion), then the degrees of freedom for the regular joints are identified as UX, UY,
UZ, RX, RY, and RZ.
The types of degrees of freedom are a property of the structure and are independent
of the Load Cases, except when staged construction is performed.
See Topic “Degrees of Freedom” (page 30) in this Chapter for more information.
Assembled Joint Mass Output

You can request assembled joint masses as part of the analysis results. The mass at a
given joint includes the mass assigned directly to that joint as well as a portion of
the mass from each element connected to that joint. All mass assigned to the ele-
ments is apportioned to the connected joints, so that this table represents the total
mass of the structure. The masses are always referred to the local axes of the joint.
If multiple Mass Sources have been specified, the assembled joint mass output is
provided for each Mass Source that was actually used in the analysis.
• See Topic “Masses” (page 40) in this Chapter.

• See Topic “Mass Source” (page 334) in Chapter “Load Patterns”.
• See Chapter “Load Cases” (page 341).
Displacement Output
You can request joint displacements as part of the analysis results on a case by case
basis. For dynamic Load Cases, you can also request velocities and accelerations.
The output is always referred to the local axes of the joint.

Assembled Joint Mass Output 47

Force Output
You can request joint support forces as part of the analysis results on a case by case
basis. These support forces are called reactions, and are the sum of all forces from
restraints, springs, or one-joint Link/Support objects at that joint. The reactions at
joints that are not supported will be zero.
Note that reactions for one-joint Link/Support objects are not reported at the origi-
nal joint, but rather at a generated joint at the same location with an identifying
label.
The forces and moments are always referred to the local axes of the joint. The val-
ues reported are always the forces and moments that act on the joints. Thus a posi-
tive value of joint force or moment would tend to cause a positive value of joint
translation or rotation along the corresponding degree of freedom if it were not sup-
ported.

Element Joint Force Output

The element joint forces are concentrated forces and moments acting at the joints
of the element that represent the effect of the rest of the structure upon the element
and that cause the deformation of the element. The moments will always be zero for
the solid-type elements: Plane, Asolid, and Solid.
A positive value of force or moment tends to cause a positive value of translation or

rotation of the element along the corresponding joint degree of freedom.
Element joint forces must not be confused with internal forces and moments which,
like stresses, act within the volume of the element.
For a given element, the vector of element joint forces, f, is computed as:
f =K u -r
where K is the element stiffness matrix, u is the vector of element joint displace-
ments, and r is the vector of element applied loads as apportioned to the joints. The
element joint forces are always referred to the local axes of the individual joints.
They are identified in the output as F1, F2, F3, M1, M2, and M3.
48 Force Output

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CSi Analysis Reference Manual

CSI Analysis Reference Manual

ISO# GEN062708M1 Rev.15

Copyright © Computers & Structures, Inc., 1978-2016

Further information and copies of this documentation may be obtained from:

Computers & Structures, Inc.

[email protected] (for general information)

CONSIDERABLE TIME, EFFORT AND EXPENSE HAVE GONE

Chapter II Objects and Elements 7

Chapter III Coordinate Systems 11

Local Coordinate Systems. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Chapter IV Joints and Degrees of Freedom 21

Chapter V Constraints and Welds 49

Chapter VI Material Properties 69

Chapter VII The Frame Element 105

Gravity Load . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

Chapter VIII Hinge Properties 147

Chapter IX The Cable Element 165

Local Coordinate System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170

Chapter X The Shell Element 177

Chapter XI The Plane Element 215

Chapter XII The Asolid Element 225

Axis of Symmetry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230

Chapter XIII The Solid Element 237

Chapter XIV The Link/Support Element—Basic 251

Joint Connectivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253

Chapter XV The Link/Support Element—Advanced 275

Multi-Linear Plastic Property . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289

Chapter XVI The Tendon Object 309

Chapter XVII Load Patterns 321

Chapter XVIII Load Cases 341

Linear Buckling Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349

Chapter XIX Modal Analysis 365

Chapter XX Response-Spectrum Analysis 383

Periodic and Rigid Response . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 388

Chapter XXI Linear Time-History Analysis 397

Chapter XXII Geometric Nonlinearity 409

Chapter XXIII Nonlinear Static Analysis 425

Chapter XXIV Nonlinear Time-History Analysis 447

Static Period . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 457

Chapter XXV Frequency-Domain Analyses 465

Chapter XXVI Moving-Load Analysis 477

Directions of Loading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 488

Chapter XXVII References 527

• SAP2000 for general structures, including stadiums, towers, industrial plants,

• Static and dynamic analysis

Structural Analysis and Design

1. Create or modify a model that numerically defines the geometry, properties,

2. Perform an analysis of the model

3. Review the results of the analysis

4. Check and optimize the design of the structure

About This Manual

• Basic topics — recommended reading for all users

Structural Analysis and Design 3

Bold for Definitions

The global coordinate system is a three-dimensional, right-handed, rectangu-

This sentence begins the definition of the global coordinate system.

Bold for Variable Data

Italics for Mathematical Variables