How to Design a Beam

A beam can be designed automatically or manually by modifying the various components of the composite beam.

To use the auto design click on the 'auto design'  option on the Beam Section Dynamic Data tab. The program will attempt to size the beam, studs and mesh area for the moments and forces in the member. Note that it doesn't take account of any dimensional or stress failures on the openings when carrying out an automatic design. These opening failures will have to be modified manually.

Manual design of the composite beams can be achieved by altering some of the components which will influence the design, for example, the section size, stud size and spacing, reinforcement area and opening sizes and positions. It will depend on which component or components are showing failures in the results summary bar (highlighted in red). This method can be more useful for the experienced engineer who is familiar with composite design and knows which components are likely to give an adequate solution whilst not changing other parts of the design which he/she may wish to retain.

If there are failures shown in the results summary bar under Shear Capacity, Moment Capacity, Torsional Buckling or Capacity @ Point Loads in either the final or construction stages or under the Steel Stress, these are usually solved by increasing the beam section size or grade. You can move up through the section sizes list until a beam size passes these particular checks.