Support Capacity Plots

The Support Capacity Plot option is only available if you are using the Reinforced Concrete liner type. It is not available for any other liner type (e.g. Standard Beam).

Support Capacity Plots display liner stresses and strength envelopes on a Thrust versus Moment plot or Thrust versus Shear plot. This allows the designer to easily visualize the stresses in the liner with respect to various strength envelopes, codes or safety factors, and determine overstressed elements.

To use the Support Capacity Plot option:

1. Select Support Capacity Plots from the toolbar or Graph menu. You will see the Support Capacity Plot dialog.
2. Support Element - the Support Element drop-list will list the names of all Reinforced Concrete liner types which exist in the model. Select a liner name from the Support Element drop-list.
3. Envelope Type - choose one of the following support capacity Envelope Types:
   • Carranza-Torres and Diederichs
   • CSA A23.3 Code
   • ACI 318-11 Code
   • Eurocode2 EN 1992-1
   • Unfactored

   For each Envelope Type you can customize the plot parameters as described below.

4. Stages to Plot - you can choose to plot data from one or more stages by selecting the desired checkboxes.
5. Select OK and the Support Capacity Plot will be generated.

Envelope Types

Carranza-Torres and Diederichs

For the Carranza-Torres and Diederichs method you can choose to plot one or more Factor of Safety Envelopes by entering the Number of Envelopes. For each envelope you can then enter a value of safety factor which will be used to create the envelope. Furthermore, four separate plots will be generated in one view:

• Thrust versus Moment for reinforcement
• Thrust versus Moment for concrete
• Thrust versus Shear for reinforcement
• Thrust versus Shear for concrete

The strength envelopes are based on the liner properties you have entered. The analysis results for each liner beam element are displayed as individual data points on each plot. Safety factors are calculated for each beam element, for each of the four plots, and results can be filtered according to safety factor and highlighted on the model.

CSA A23.3 Code

For the CSA code method you can customize Support Parameters and Code Parameters. A Thrust versus Moment plot is generated.

ACI 318-11 Code

For the ACI code method you can customize Support Parameters and Code Parameters. A Thrust versus Moment plot is generated.

Eurocode2 EN 1992-1

For the Eurocode2 method you can customize Support Parameters and Code Parameters. A Thrust versus Moment plot is generated.

Unfactored

For the Unfactored method, no additional input is required. A Thrust versus Moment plot is generated.

After creating a Support Capacity Plot, you can customize the display of the plots in a variety of ways. The plot display options are available from the right-click menu or the main menu, while you are viewing a Support Capacity Plot. The available options include the following:

Filter Data by FS

This allows you to display liner data within any specified range of safety factor.

Highlight Filtered Liners

If you are using the Filter Data by FS option, you can highlight the corresponding liner elements on the model by selecting the Highlight Filtered Liners option. This will display a circle at the location of each beam element in the specified factor of safety range.

View Options

By default all four plots are displayed on the Support Capacity Plot (for the Carranza-Torres and Diederichs method). You can view any individual plot (e.g. Reinforcement Moment Capacity Plot) or a pair of plots (Reinforcement or Concrete) by selecting a desired plot type from the View menu.

TIP: you can also double-click the mouse on any individual plot to maximize the plot in the view. To restore the multi-view display double-click again on the plot.

Zoom Options

You can zoom in, zoom out or pan using the options in the Zoom menu.

TIP: you can also use mouse shortcuts to zoom and pan. Zoom in or out by rotating the mouse wheel, and pan by pressing the mouse wheel and dragging the mouse.

Chart Properties

You can customize the appearance of the plots with the Chart Properties option (e.g. line width, font etc).

Copy

The Copy option will copy a bitmap image of the current plot view to the windows clipboard. You can then paste the image into another application.

Export Image

The Export Image option allows you to save an image of the current plot view to an image file. File formats supported are .jpg, .bmp, .emf, .wmf, .gif, .png.

Export Data to Excel

This will export all of the data on the support capacity plot to an excel spreadsheet.

Edit Support Capacity Plot

This will display the Support Capacity Plot dialog, and allows you to change the Support Element type, Factor of Safety Envelopes or Stage selection.

Interactive Data Point Selection

A useful interactive feature of the support capacity plots is the following:

• If you click the left mouse button on any individual data point on any of the plots, the data point will automatically be highlighted on all four of the support capacity plots (for the Carranza-Torres and Diederichs method). A circle will be drawn around the data point.
• Furthermore, when you select a data point on the plots, the corresponding liner beam element will also be highlighted on the model (a circle will be drawn around the liner element).