International Journal of Aquatic Science
ISSN: 2008-8019
Vol 12, Issue 02, 2021
Analysis of Pre-Engineered Buildings with
different types of bracings – Using STAAD Pro
Connect
Sowmya. C. B1, Manivannan. M2
1
Post Graduate student, M.E. Structural Engineering, PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore,
India.
2
Associate Professor,Department of Civil Engineering, PSG College of Technology,
Coimbatore, India.
Email: [email protected]
Abstract: Every year 1.86 billion metric tons of steel produced and the construction industry
accounts to half of its consumption. Steel is an extremely versatile material that is not only
easily available, cheap and easy to work with but also 100 % recyclable. This property of steel
makes it a very viable solution to the ongoing environmental problems and even a better
alternative to the conventional building materials. There are various types of steel available in
the industry. It includes hot rolled steel sections that are already manufactured at certain pre-
determined sizes. The properties of the hot rolled sections are already studied and readily
available as tables. The other type of steel section is cold form steel which is differentiated by
the process of production. The last and most commonly used type of steel section is the
structural steel. Structural steel is prefabricated according to the design requirements of the
project.
Pre-Engineered Steel Building System is broadly accepted across the world as a competent
alternative to conventional steel buildings. Pre-Engineered Buildings (PEB) are a type of steel
structures that can be constructed easily and quickly. Pre-Engineered Buildings are nothing
but steel buildings in which surplus steel is evaded by tapering the sections as per the necessity
of bending moment. Though it has many advantages, it is not widely used in India due to the
lack of awareness. In Conventional steel structures, both the time and cost will be more, thus
making it uneconomical. Thus, in pre-engineered buildings, the complete design is done and
the detailed drawings are sent to the factories, and where the elements and members are pre-
fabricated and then transported to the construction site. As they are already pre-fabricated
according to the design the erection process will only take 2 to 6 weeks depending on the
immensity of the project. Pre-Engineered Buildings have bolted connections and later can also
be reused after dismantling. It is the most affordable and flexible building system ideal for any
low or high rise industrial, institutional or commercial applications. The other advantages
include low cost, environment friendly, easy erection, aesthetic appeal, flexibility and high
durability. All these advantages make it the most suited after construction practice in the world.
In India, Pre-Engineered & Pre-Fabricated building industry is growing swiftly. The paper
involves analysis of the Pre-Engineered Building with different types of bracing and finding
the most economical bracing. It also includes achieving economy by tapering the sections based
on the bending moments.
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Keywords: Steel, Structural Steel, Pre-Engineered Buildings, Bracing systems, Bending
moments, STAAD Pro Connect
1. INTRODUCTION
Steel is one of the widely used building materials. It is versatile, cheap, easily available, easy to
work with and also recyclable up to 100 percent (Mehendale et al. (2016)). This property of steel
makes it one of the most sought out building materials. With many types of steel being
manufactured, structural steel and hot rolled steel are the widely used materials for construction
(Mehendale et al. (2016)).
Traditionally, the Conventional Steel Buildings are constructed using standard hot rolled sections
from product manufacturers. They may be of I, Angle, Channel or Pipe sections that are available
as standard sections in the market (Mehendale et al. (2016)). The structural detailing design is
carried out according to the available sections in the market. This not only reduces efficiency, but
also increases the cost of the project. The
“Pre-Engineered Steel Buildings” are first designed and based on the bending moments on the
element, they are tapered to achieve efficiency. Based on the design detailing, the elements are
manufactured in the factories. Every project is unique and therefore the fabrication of the elements
varies from one project to another. The comparison below is intended to introduce and inform
engineering design groups of the pre-engineered steel building concept, its high versatility and
practicality, and its disadvantages to Designers and Contractors pre-engineered steel building
concept is widely used in the United States, as well as in many of the industrialized countries Sub-
Systems include anchor bolts, structural framing, insulation, roof and wall cladding, mezzanines
or floor including steel floor decking, windows, doors, ventilation systems, canopies, overhangs
and facias. Pre-engineered steel buildings can be used for permanent installations from around
400 square feet (36 square meters) upwards, for one story and two storey construction.
The power tool for computerized structural engineering STAAD Pro is the most popular
structural engineering software product for 3D model generation, analysis and multi-material
design. It has an intuitive, userfriendly, visualization tools, powerful analysis and design facilities
and seamless integration to several other modeling and design software products. The software is
fully compatible with all Windows operating systems.(Zende et al. (2013))
The objective of this project is to optimize the PreEngineering Building according to the bending
moments and to find the most economical bracing system. Two types of bracing systems such as
Cross bracings and Chevron Bracings are compared in this paper. The most economical bracing
system was found based on the steel take off taken from the STAAD Output data.
Atwal et al. used the Indian and ASTM and Euro codes to compare the weight of a Pre-
Engineered Building and found that Pre-Engineered Buildings vastly designed using American
codes had a significantly lesser weight of 23.97% as compared to IS 800:2007. This conclusion
was arrived purely on the weight of the steel used in the building. The Euro Code also had a lesser
weight of 27.08% concluding that American Code is the economical of all.
Patil et al. (2017) compared a PEB with a conventional steel building and concluded that PEB
weighs lighter than CSB and the PEB can be designed and executed rapidly. Since it is pre-
engineered, the connection details and design are also lesser and the construction is rapid. Support
reaction is much lesser in PEB when compared to the CSB. The cost of the structure was also
lesser in PEB than CSB because of the lighted sections. Kumar et al. studied an industrial structure
and analyzed it according to the Indian standards, and also referring Euro codes and ASTM codes.
In this study, a structure with various length and height is considered to carry out analysis & design
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for in two dimensions and found that American Code yielded a lighter section out of Indian and
Euro codes.
Chavan et al. (2014) studied to determine the economic significance of hollow structural sections
(HSS) in comparison to open sections. To better appreciate the relevance of cost effectiveness,
this study was carried out to establish the percentage economy attained using hollow structural
sections (HSS). The method utilised to attain the goal comprised a comparison of different profiles
for various combinations.
STAAD PRO CONNECT
STAAD Pro CONNECT Edition includes a new Ribbon-Based Graphical User Interface. All
the STAAD Pro V8i tools commands are available in STAAD Pro CONNECT Edition, but
through the Ribbon, the tools are organized in a very logical, workflowbased layout.
STAAD Pro CONNECT Edition includes a new Physical Modeling Workflow. Through the
Physical Modeler, structural elements can be modelled as they will be physically constructed,
allowing the user to model elements such as girders, multi-story columns, and slabs/walls quickly
and accurately. (STAAD Pro V8i includes an Analytical Modeling Workflow only.)
Through the STAAD Pro CONNECT Edition Physical Modeler, we can transfer data between
STAAD Pro, ISM (Integrated Structural Modeler), and a BIM application to increase the
productivity in creating accurate construction documents. Structural members, such as
beams/columns/braces, concrete walls, and concrete slabs can be transferred into the STAAD Pro
Physical Modeler from ISM and from ISM into the STAAD Pro
Physical Modeler.
2. MODELLING
2.1. Introduction
The span of the Pre-Engineered Building, bay spacing, eave height and total height of the Pre-
Engineered Building is finalized and modelled in STAAD Pro connect. Two types of bracings
namely the chevron bracings and the Cross bracings were provided in separate
Figure 1: 1Dimensions of the Pre-Engineered Building
STAAD Pro files. Structural steel such as Tapered I sections were provided for the rafters and
columns. Hot rolled sections were provided for beams and bracing systems. The span of the
structure is 48 m. The eave height and total height of the building is 10 m and 12 m respectively.
The total length of the building is 66 m with 11 bays and each bay being 6 m long. All the
dimensions can be found in Fig. 1.
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2.2. Rafters and columns
The Rafters are the important element in a PreEngineered building. The load from the roofing
sheet is transferred onto the rafters through the purlins. Each rafter is connected in the transverse
direction by several beam members that have moment releases at the end. This moment release
will ensure that the load acting onto the beams are directed to the rafters and thus maintain less
amount of load on the beams. This mechanism helps to optimize the structure effectively, because
of the control that is established due to the isolation of the forces. The rafters can be broadly
distinguished as main rafters and gable rafters. The gable rafters are constituted of lighter sections
due to the relatively less amount of load acting on the bay. The main rafters are usually heavy
sections that act as the main skeleton of the building.
The columns can also be broadly distinguished as main column, corner column, wind column
and middle column. The main columns are connected to the main rafters and they transmit the
load from the main rafters to the foundation. The corner columns are usually the heaviest of the
columns due to various types of load acting on it. The wind columns are the columns that are
placed against the wind direction in the longitudinal direction. The wind columns transfer the wind
load to the bracing system adjacent to it
2.3. Bracing system
Two types of bracing systems namely the cross bracings and chevron bracings are compared in
this paper.
Figure 2: Types of bracings in the Pre-Engineered Building
The bracing system is provided at three locations in the Pre-Engineered Building. They are
provided at the end bays and at the middle bay. The bracing system ensures that the wind load
acting on the building in the transverse direction is transferred effectively to the rafter members.
The two types of Bracing systems used in the PEB are demonstrated in Fig.2.
2.4. Beams
Beams are modelled in STAAD pro as transverse members running longitudinally throughout
the structure. They are modeled in such a way that the loads are transferred to the columns
effectively. Only beams are modelled in STAAD Pro and they are provided with moment releases
at the start and end. This process of releasing the moment at the ends and the start reduced the net
load acting on the beams. The beams also transfer the load in the particular bay directly to the
rafters and to the columns. This behavior ensures that lesser amount of section is sufficient for the
beams as most of the loads are transferred to the columns
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2.5. Purlins, girts and Eave Gutters
The purlins, girts and Eave gutters are the transverse members running longitudinally along the
structure. The purlins and girt members transfer the load from the roof sheeting to the beams
below. They are provided at equal spacing to ensure uniform distribution of load. The dead load
due to the purlins, girts and eave gutters are calculated separately and uploaded to STAAD Pro.
This approach not only simplifies the modelling of the structure but also reduces the time taken to
run analysis. Apart from dead load, the live load due to the presence of water in the eave gutter is
also taken into account during calculation of loads. The purlin loads are calculated.
3. LOAD APPLICATIONS
3.1. Dead load
Dead load comprises of self-weight of the structure, weights of roofing, purlins, girt members,
sag rods, bracings and eave gutters. Dead load varies from structure to structure based on the
roofing materials, purlins and the self-weight. This load is applied as a uniformly distributed load
over the rafter while designing the structure by PEB concept. The weight of the roofing sheet,
flange braces, sag rod, purlins along with the collateral loads are calculated and applied as UDL
on the rafters. The self-weight of the girt members is applied as UDL onto the column members.
Half of the total load is assigned to the gable end columns and rafters. The self-weight of the eave
gutter and eave strut are applied as point loads on the columns.
3.2. Live load
According to IS: 875 (Part 2) – 1987, the live load for a roof with no access is 0.75 kN/m2, with
a drop of 0.02 kN/m2 for every one degree of roof slope over 10 degrees. The total evenly live load
operating on the PEB structure’s main rafter was determined to be 4.5 kN/m2. This load is applied
as a uniformly distributed load over the rafter while designing the structure by PEB concept. Apart
from the live load on the roof, the live load due to water on the Eave gutter should also be taken
into account. This is calculated by taking into account the surface area of the gutter, density of
water and by spacing.
3.3. Wind load
Wind load is calculated as per IS: 875 (Part 3) – 2016. For the Present work, the basic wind
speed (Vb) is assumed as 39m/s. The wind load over the roof can be provided as uniformly
distributed load. Wind load is calculated after taking into account the probability factor, terrain
factor, topography factor, importance factor, wind directionality factor, Area averaging factor and
combination factor.
Based on the dimensions of the PEB, the internal and external wind pressure co efficient were
calculated and the consolidated pressure factors that will be acting on the structure based on the
internal and external coefficients is found out. The wind load is calculated for four air flow
conditions for rafters and columns.
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Figure 3: Types of load Combinations
3.4. Seismic load
The earthquake load was calculated as per IS 1893: 2016 Part I. The location of the project, zone
factor, response reduction factor, importance factor, damping ratio and soil category were assigned
to the STAAD Pro loading panel and the seismic force generated by the model was applied on the
structure. Apart from seismic loads, the member weight and joint weights produced by the dead
weight of the members were also added to the structure. Both wind load and seismic loads are
calculated in STAAD Pro through load combinations.
3.5. Load combination
Load combinations were provided as per Indian standards for both strength and serviceability
criteria of Limit state of design. A total of 19 load combinations were provided for Strength criteria
and a total of 13 load combinations were provided for serviceability criteria. The Fig.3 shows the
types of load combinations provided for the structure.
4. ANALYSIS AND DESIGN
4.1. Analysis
Analysis of the structure was done after enveloping the strength load combinations and
serviceability load combinations together. After the analysis of the structure, the shear force,
deflection, bending moments and the displacement reactions studied with high degree of precision
and accuracy. It was found that the bending moment of the section in the columns increased
gradually towards the eaves. This paved way to reduce the section at the bottom and thus reduce
the cost. The other sections such as beams, rafters, bracing systems etc., were also studied in detail
before proceeding to designing.
Figure 4: Bending moments of the Pre-Engineered Building
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4.2. Design
Various parameters were included for the design of the Pre-engineered Buildings. The PEB was
designed based on Limit State Method (LSM) using IS 800:
2007. The effective length factor for torsional buckling was provided separately in X,Y and Z
directions based on the support conditions. The effective length itself was calculated according to
the Purlin spacing and the estimated bending of the members between the purlins. The spacing of
the purlins were 3 m. This led to the effective length to be calculated as 1.5 m. The effective length
was calculated for every type of member such as middle columns, corner columns, wind columns,
rafters and beams in X, Y and Z directions.
5. TAPERING OF THE SECTION
5.1. Introduction
One of the biggest advantages of Pre-Engineered Buildings is the ability to customize the section
for every project. This allows the designer to observe and study the bending moment diagram after
the analysis of the structure. The bending moment diagram as shown in Fig.4 can be used to taper
the section. At the points of contra-flexure where there is zero bending moments, the section can
be tapered down without compromising on the deflection or strength criteria. This process gives
ability to cut off the excess section that may add up to the cost of the dead weight of the structure
and thereby increasing the project cost.
5.2. Tapering of the section
The bending moment diagram is studied for all the sections and it was found that middle
columns, gable end rafters and gable end columns had very less bending moments acting on them
as shown in Fig 5 and thus they were provided with uniform cross section. The other
Figure 5: Tapering of rafters of the Pre-Engineered Building
columns had gradually increasing bending moments towards the eaves and thus the sections
were provided accordingly.
The Main Rafters had prominent points of contraflexure which enabled the tapering of the
section at various points and thus reducing the total amount of steel being used.
6. OPTIMIZATION OF THE SECTION
6.1. Introduction
One of the objectives of the project is to economize the section based on the bending moments.
On top of tapering the section, STAAD Pro Connect provides the option to reduce the total amount
of section used by a concept called utility ratio. Utility ratio is the ratio of Actual Load on member
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to the capacity of member, if it exceeds unity, then load on member will be greater than its capacity
and member gets collapsed. With the help of utility ratio and the behavior of the structure, the
optimization was done.
6.2. Utility ratio
The post processing mode of STAAD Pro connect allows the user to check the utility ratio of a
member. It is the ratio of how much section has been used for the critical load case. The ratio of
0.5 means only half of the section has been used due to the given loading conditions. Usually, a
utility ratio greater than 0.5 is desirable in order to achieve economy. Any ratio lesser than 0.5
will be uneconomical as more than half of the section is not being utilized by the structure.
The section properties were changed until at least 75 percent of the section members had a utility
ratio greater than 0.5 to ensure both safety and economy. About 92
7. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
1. The Steel Take off for Cross Bracings and cross bracings were found to be 1186 kN and 1413 kN
respectively as indicated in Fig 6
2.
Figure 6: Steel take off of the Bracing system
3. Chevron Bracings demand almost 20 percent more material than Cross Bracings
4. Cross bracings can take more lateral load than the Chevron bracings for the same amount of
section
8. CONCLUSIONS
From the analysis and results, the following conclusions can be made.
• Tapering of the rafters according to the Bending moment diagram does not affect the load carrying
capacity of the structure.
• Cross bracings are more economical than chevron bracings
• Tapering of the rafters according to the bending moment diagram does not affect the load carrying
capacity of the structure.
• The tapering of the sections according to the bending moment diagram does not affect the
serviceability criteria of deflection.
•
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Acknowledgements
The authors wish to record their sincere and heartfelt thanks to Principal in Charge, Head of the
Department, Former Head of the Department, Department of Civil Engineering, PSG College of
Technology, Coimbatore.
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