Limitations (concrete members: ACI 318)
The following general exclusions apply in Tekla Structural Designer when working to ACI 318.
- The current release will not:
- redistribute moments
- design members in lightweight concrete
- design members with coated reinforcement
- design members with stainless steel
- design prestressed concrete
- Consider fire resistance [you are however given full control of the minimum cover dimension to the reinforcement and are therefore able to take due account of fire resistance requirements],
- design structures subject to very aggressive exposure
- design watertight structures
- design multi-stack reinforcement lifts for columns/walls
- design beams with reinforcement made up of bundled bars
- design beams for axial load
- design beams for minor axis bending and shear
- design beams as “deep beams” - beams classified as “deep” are designed as if
they are regular beams and a warning is displayed.Note: Deep beams according to ACI 318 are:
(a) Members with clear spans equal to or less than 4 times overall member depth
(b) Members with concentrated loads within twice the member depth from the support
- Material limitations for concrete:
- for structural concrete compressive strength of concrete fc' shall not be less than 17 MPa (2500psi)
- durability requirements are not implemented
- Material limitations for reinforcement:
- the values of specified yield strength of reinforcement; fy and fyt used in calculations shall not exceed 550 MPa (80000psi)
- specified yield strength of non-prestressed reinforcement; fy and fyt shall not exceed 420 MPa (60 000 psi) in design of shear or torsion reinforcement
- wire reinforcement design is not implemented