Using the “Stiffening” surface stiffness type, you can easily consider the stabilizing effects of trapezoidal sheeting, purlins, and bracing in your model realistically. This stiffness type provides two options: “Surface” and “Member Support.”
The “Surface” type allows you to conveniently model trapezoidal sheeting, including its fasteners. To do this, simply define the desired surface geometry and select the trapezoidal sheeting to be used as well as the fastening. The trapezoidal sheeting is then automatically generated as an orthotropic surface and coupled to the supporting structure. The flexibility of the fasteners is taken into account during the calculation of the resulting stiffness.
The “Member Support” type allows you to create member supports that take into account the stabilizing effect of trapezoidal sheeting, purlins, or bracing via a member shear panel and a member rotational restraint. In this case as well, the surface geometry is defined first. The relevant parameters of the trapezoidal sheeting, purlin, and/or bracing are then specified. Based on this, the member supports are automatically generated with the resulting stiffness.
The generated member supports can then be directly incorporated into the design, for example, in the Steel Design or Aluminum Design add-ons.
