Workflow for carrying out a pushover analysis on a structure
Prerequisites
Pushover analysis is a second-stage analysis. The structure must have been previously designed using the results of the linear analysis and must satisfy all the necessary checks and requirements.
When it comes to connections, they should be designed so that the failure mechanism occurs in the beams or columns rather than in the connection itself. Pre-qualified connections, for example, meet this requirement by definition.
Modelling
Once the structure has been entered and designed in accordance with the considerations mentioned above, the pushover analysis can then be modelled using the following workflow:
- Defining the non-linearities to be taken into account:
- Creating plastic joint types (from the "Plastic hinge library" in the "Project" tab).
- Assigning plastic ball joints to the bars (from "Plastic hinges" in the "Properties" tab).
- Defining loadcases for pushover analysis (under "Loadcases" in the "Pushover" section of the "Analysis" tab), including the definition of the initial load condition, the control node and the lateral load patterns.
- Performing the pushover analysis (from "Analyse", in the "Pushover" section of the "Analysis" tab).
- Reviewing pushover analysis results (from the other options in the "Pushover" section of the "Analysis" tab: "Displacements", "Reactions", "Forces", "Contour plots", "Capacity", "Plastic hinges").
