Hello,
My name is Tom and I am new to the Bentley Structural Analysis forum, I am currently a senior civil engineering student and I have a question regarding the behavior of my STAAD Model. I am designing a through girder railroad bridge, and I have laid out the nodes, beams, girders, and support conditions. In addition I have added all the loads to the model, including a moving railroad load using the load generation function.
Shown below is the geometry of the bridge.
The reason I am using STAAD is to determine what the maximum loads are from the different load cases I have. Unfortunately what I have found is that the reactions from the floor beams are not transferring to the main girders. Shown below is the bending moment results, the main girders are highlighted. As you can see, the floor beams are experiencing bending moment, and this should in theory be transferred to the main girders.
What I need is for the floor beams and girders to act as a system so I can accurately determine the maximum bending moment and shear. I think that this problem has to do with the nodes. The beams are not transferring the load to the girder as they should. The girder must remain a solid section, not broken into smaller sections.
How would I get the loads of the beams to transfer to the girders?
Thanks,
Tom