Concrete Encased Steel Columns?

[ekneer]

Hello all,

I am a structural engineer who is currently handling the transition for my company from AutoCAD to Revit Structure. I have extensive CAD experience, but am getting used to REVIT terms and concepts. So please keep that in mind when wording your responses. (Families, components, etc. are all new concepts to me)

We are trying out Revit on a test project that has concrete encased steel columns, and I wanted to see if anyone had any advice on the best way to model these. I did a search on the forums, and found a thread under the Revit Building forums. But was hoping for tips specific to Revit Structure, particularly how the model will export these composite member's properties into SAP/ETABS.

Any help you can provide would be greatly appreciated. Thanks,

Erik

[Paul Andersen]

Hey Erik, I've attached an RS2 file that has 3 approaches you may want to try. Examples 1 and 2 are both structural steel and concrete columns. Example 1 has the analytical models of both columns at their respective full heights resulting in overlapping analytical lines for the height of the concrete column. Example 2 is similar except that I pulled the bottom of the steel columns analytical line up to the top of concrete column to remove the overlap. Example 3 is a structural steel column and an architectural concrete column. The architectural column doesn't have an analytical representation and cleans up nicely with walls but cannot show reinforcement like the structural columns can. I'm not sure which one (if any) will work well with ETABS but would be interested to know if you come up with something that works.

[ekneer]

Hey Paul,

Thanks for the examples. That will help a lot. Now I just have to figure out how to recreate them myself! But with them as a reference, that shouldn't be a problem. I have a feeling that example 2 will be the most appropriate. That way it will minimize the interference between the two elements and be analyzed in ETABS as a concrete column (which it is essentially, with a wide flange section instead of rebar as reinforcement)

I'll give this a shot, and let you know how it turns out. (And if anyone else has any tips or suggestions, I would gladly accept those as well.) Thanks again.

Erik