Structural analysis of a buidling using Robot Structural Analysis
1) What are HVAC systems? Why are they essential in the modeling of buildings
Ans. HVAC stands for heating,ventilation and air conditioning.This system provides heating and cooling to residential and commercial buildings.You can find HVAC systems anywhere from single-family homes to submarines where they provide the means for environmental comfort.Becoming more and more popular in new construction,these systems use fresh air from outdoors to provide high indoor air quality.The V in HVAC is the process of replacing or exchanging air within a space.This provides a better quality of air indoors and invloves the removal of moisture,smoke,odours as well as temperature control.
HVAC systems are responsible for the regulation of heat,ventilation and air conditioning of an entire building.You wont see the machines when you enter the building but you most certainly feel the effects of a comfortable and well-ventilated workplace.
HVAC are essential for the following reasons:
- HVAC systems control the overall climate in the building.They also make the proper adjustments whenever we experience changes in outdoor temperature.
- Having a comfortable office climate increases the level of productivity and increases morale amongst the workers and employees.Having a proper HVAC installed is guaranteed to make your employess happy and in return giving better results.
- HVAC systems not only regulate the temperature inside the building,they also improve the quality of air.The quality of air pertains to humidity and a typical HVAC system will reduce the amount of humidity in tha air.
- Proper HVAC systems are a worthy investment for any business or building owner because it gives you energy savings.HVAC are automated which means you no longer have to manually adjust the temperature settings.This makes your energy consumption more efficient as it gets rid of energy wasted on improper settings.
2) From week 7 assignment, based on the building designed use the same Revit file to design a HVAC system for each floor to cover the topics included in the class.
a. Typical HVAC unit includes Distribution center
b. Collector
c. Ducts
d. Blower
Based on the layout choose appropriate ducts and elevation using property browser and assign the components to appropriate groups to complete modeling of the HVAC unit
Aim: to design a HVAC system for the residential building including distribution centre,collector,ducts and blower.
Commands used: collaborate,manage links,systems,air terminal,select the types of supplier,exhaust,diffuser,duct. and layout connect.
Procedure:
- Open the mechanical template and link the architectural model which is done before.
- Architectural model is linked with the mechanical template.
- Click on systems tab.
- Select air terminal from the ribbon and put it in required locations.
- Now select supply diffuser and return diffuser and place it accordingly.
- Now click on mechanical equipment and select the air handling unit.
- Place the air handling unit in the required place so that no clashes with wall takes place.
- Now select the air terminal,diffuser and air handling unit and create a duct system.
- Now click on generate layout and a layout of the HVAC system will be created.
- Click on finish and the HVAC system is setup.
Result: HVAC system for each has been designed using the mehanical template.
3) Use the add-ins tab to load plug-ins for robot structural analysis to your Revit software
Ans. The steps are as follows:
- Open the Structural template.
- Add the structural analysis tool kit using the cart.
- Click on the search tab and type structural analysis tool kit and select the appropriate version and install the file.
- Robot structural analysis will be added in revit.
Result: plugin for the robot structural analysis has been added.
4) Why do we need to assess buildings/analyze while modeling elements? Does design affect modeling in anyways?
Ans. Structural analysis is the determination of the effects of loads on physical structures and their component.Structures subject to this type of analysis include all that must withstand loads such as buildings,bridges,aircraft and ships.Structural analysis employs the field of apllied mechanics,material science and apllied mathematics to compute a structure's deformations,internal forces and stability.The results of the analysis are used to verify a structure's fitness for use,often precluding physical tests.Structural analysis is thus a key part of the engineering design structures.
It is a method by which we find out how a structure behaves when subjected to different loads.The results of the analysis are udes to verify the structure's strength for its uses.Structural analysis is thus a key part of structural engineering.
The process to determine the response or behaviour of a structure under some specified loads is known as structural analysis.Response means to find out support reactions,bending moment,rotation,strains,shear force and deflection that the particular member would undergo due to application of different types of load.For a structural engineer to start a structural design,he/she must the loads or forces and moments that a particular member and the structure as a whole have to resist.Unless there are determined the design cannot start.Hence structure analysis is condition precedent to structure analysis.
Design affects the modelling as it invloves many important load factors which are important for a building to withstand and suppose we have done a modelling of a building and there are some design change at any particular portion of he building we have to do the modelling as per the design.
5) From the structural model developed in week 6 and 7, export the complete analytical model to robot structural analysis.
a. List your assumptions on what boundary conditions will be realistic for the analysis approach
b. Use the design standards to decide what loads must be applied to floorings based on the type of structure decided
c. List the load combinations and include them in the analysis model
d. Analyze the building and report the following results
i. Maximum Moment in each floor for all Load Combinations
ii. Maximum Displacement in each floor for all Load combinations
iii. Lateral Displacement in building for all Lateral Load combinations
e. After analysis, do you think you have a better approach or idea in modeling structural members?
Ans.
a) A boundary condition is a place on a structure where either the external force or the displacement are known at the start of the analysis.In this way,boundary conditions are where the structure interacts with the environment either through the application of an external force or through some restraint that is imposing a displacement.For a structural analysis problem to be solvable,every location on the boundary of our structure must have a known boundary condition,either a known force or a known displacement.The known force or displacement may have some magnitude or it may be zero.For example,we may know that there are locations on our structure that have no external force.This would be a zero boundary condition.A displacement boundary condition that is zero is equivalent to the structure being held in place at that location.
- Degress of freedom
- Restraints and support
b) Loads to be applied on the floorings are:
- Dead load
- Live load
- Earthquake load
c) Load combination applied in the residential buidings are:
- 1.5(DL+LL)
- 0.9DL+/-1.5EL
Analytical model from revit:
Exported model to Robot Structure Analysis.
d) Results for the moments and displacement and lateral displacement in the building.
e) Yes certainly now i have better clarity in analysing structures.Robot structure analysis was a new tool for me which is great tool for analysing structures.
6) What is energy analysis and why do we need to consider it while modeling in Revit?
How does the factor of sustainability improve the quality of your design?
Ans. Energy analysis is the traditional method of assessing the way energy is used in an operation involving the physical or chemical processing of material and the transfer and conversion of energy.It is a thermodynamic tool to investigate a system's performnace and canbe used to evaluate energy use and energy efficiency.Thermodynamic-based indicators in sustainability are novel and the concept is slowly growing within he scientific community.
To perform whole building energy simulation for your revit models,use Energy analysis for autodesk revit.This add-in connects the design power of revit to the analysis power of autodesk green building studio.
Factor of sustainability:
It inlcudes factors like energy efficiency,external benefits of the building,material efficiency and so on helps to sustain the building and also helps to improve the design and also makes the building stronger.It seeks to reduce the negative impacts on the environment and the health comfort of building occupants,thereby improving building performance.The basic objective of sustainability are to reduce consumption of non-renewable resources,minimize waste and create a healthy environment.