Recording story shear

juanoviedo · Post by **juanoviedo** » Sun Mar 30, 2008 4:12 pm

Hello Everybody!

I would like to ask for some help on the following issue.

I am running a nonlinear analysis of 10-story braced R/C building. My model is 3-D. I would like to monitor and record the shear at each story and at each analysis step. I am interested in knowing whether a useful script exists to monitor this story shear.

Dr. Silvia, for instance, is there any script or command to help me sum up the individual shear contributions of the columns at one floor? If so, could I also use it to sum up the constributions of braces?

Thanks for your help,

Regards

silvia · Post by **silvia** » Sun Mar 30, 2008 6:54 pm

not really, there isn't one.
i go through each element and add up the forces in each direction. for the truss, i calculate the horizontal component.
Frank should be working on getting localForce and globalForce output for the truss, just to make post=processing easier...

juanoviedo · Post by **juanoviedo** » Sun Mar 30, 2008 11:38 pm

Hello Dr. Silvia!
Thanks for your prompt reply!

I will go through each element output and sum up; to do so, I would like to ask you whether there is an extra key-word in the Record commands to define the format of the output files.

I mean, one could think of carrying out the post-processing by using an external application programmed by any language which reads the output files. However, I have found that the format of the output file sometimes changes. Can I fixed the a certaint format for the output files (for instance, the number of decimals or integer)

I hope I made myself clear.
Looking forward to hearing from you.

Regards,

juanoviedo · Post by **juanoviedo** » Tue Apr 01, 2008 5:38 am

Hello Dr. Silvia!
Thanks for your prompt reply!

I will go through each element output and sum up; to do so, I would like to ask you whether there is an extra key-word in the Record commands to define the format of the output files.

I mean, one could think of carrying out the post-processing by using an external application programmed by any language which reads the output files. However, I have found that the format of the output file sometimes changes. Can I fix a certain format for the output files (for instance, the number of decimals or integers)

I hope I made myself clear.
Looking forward to hearing from you.

Regards,

silvia · Post by **silvia** » Tue Apr 01, 2008 6:29 am

no, you can't.
the format depends on whether you are 2D or 3D, and what kind of element you have, yes.
it is a mess, you have to do some serious bookkeeping.

silvia · Post by **silvia** » Tue Apr 01, 2008 6:42 am

afterall, each type of element needs its type of recorder!

What i do is that everytime i define a recorder, i build a header file for it.
it is a good idea to do it this way, since matlab won't like a file with a header.

if you want, you may use the -xml option with the recorder, that gives you a header.

seocy · Post by **seocy** » Sat May 03, 2008 5:39 pm

For transient analysis, why don' you try unbalanceIncludingInertia at the node you want to get restoring force? I am not sure it is a correct way. But in my case, I have a 2-D bracing frame to get story shear at each floor. So I used the command at each node and compare the force in horizontal direction with the member force that is added up at the node in that direction. It seems that the command can be used to get story shear. Would you try this for your case to see any difference and please let me know whether it works or not. If it works, i will feel comfortable to use the command.

silvia · Post by **silvia** » Sat May 03, 2008 7:13 pm

yes, do let us know, and we'd love to have an example.

The OpenSees Community

Recording story shear

Recording story shear

Format

Output Format