Timber Building Modeling Recommendations with StatiCAD
A practical method and procedural steps for creating grid elements (edge columns, middle columns, top header beams, band beams, bottom header beams) inside timber shear walls are provided.
A practical method and procedural steps for creating grid elements (main beams and horizontal band beams) inside timber floors are also available.
If you have defined elements from a point that is not within the element itself (with eccentricity), uncheck the following checkboxes in the project general settings to ensure that each element is created at its own center of gravity in the finite element model. Otherwise, since elements will be created at the axis intersection where they were defined, errors may occur.
The status of the above options requires that element intersections be made from center axes.
Having the main beams inside the slab in the short direction of the slab and approximately 15 cm wide and 30 cm high will reduce beam inadequacy situations after analysis.
Horizontal beams inside walls should be approximately 15 cm wide and 15 cm high to reduce beam inadequacy after analysis. The height value can be increased for wall top header beams.
It is recommended that secondary beams inside the slab be 10 cm wide and 30 cm high, oriented in the long direction.
Care should be taken when using hinges in beam elements. Defining a hinge at the supported end of a cantilever or improperly supported beam may distort the finite element model results.
In cantilever slabs, attention should be paid to the slab grid being extra strong. The strong main beams of the slab should be placed in the short/main cantilever direction.
Considering minimum dimensions of 15 cm thickness and 20 cm depth for in-wall columns reduces the number of inadequate elements after analysis.
Performance Recommendations:
Since timber structures have a large number of structural elements, the following measures can be taken for memory problems or excessively long analysis times:
Not performing modal analysis with stiffness matrices (unchecking the option) reduces analysis time and RAM usage.
Using semi-rigid diaphragm and not using rigid diaphragm for vertical loads is recommended.
Not including slabs in the system stiffness for earthquake loading reduces analysis time and RAM usage.
Setting the beam mesh distance to a large value such as 250 cm reduces RAM usage and analysis time. Since beam-beam intersections are generally made every 60 cm and beams are already meshed (finite element subdivision) at intersections, a high value does not meaningfully reduce model accuracy.
For timber beam calculations according to TS647, the "Perform Beam Reinforcement Calculation" option must be selected on the Design page in Project General Settings.