Dept. of Civil & Urban Eng., iOTec-HU.

Hawassa
University

CHAPTER 2- APPROXIMATE ANALYSIS OF INDITERMINATE FRAMES FOR

Multi -storey building frames subjected to lateral loads are statically indeterminate and exact
analysis by hand calculation takes much time and effort. Once the design lateral loads are
known on the two-dimensional frames, one could analyze the frame for the member forces by
using an accurate computer analysis or an approximate analysis as per requirement. Using
simplifying assumptions, approximate analyses of these frames yield good estimate of member
forces in the frame, which can be used for checking the member sizes at the preliminary design
stage and to assess the computer analysis. The following methods can be employed for lateral
load analysis of rigidly jointed frames.

 The Portal method

2.1.1 PORTAL METHOD

The portal method is an approximate analysis used for analyzing building frames subjected to
lateral loading such as the one shown in figure 1(a). This method is more appropriate for low rise
building frames with uniform framing. In the analysis, the following assumptions are made:

1. An inflection point is located at mid-height of each column.

2. An inflection point is located at the centre of each beam, and

3. The total horizontal shear at each storey is distributed between the columns of that story
in such a way that each interior column carries twice the shear carried by each exterior
column.

The basis for the third assumption comes from the reasoning that the frame is composed of
individual portals as shown in figure 1 below. Obviously the interior columns would represent
the effect of two portal columns and would therefore carry twice the shear V as the two exterior
columns .

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Dept. of Civil & Urban Eng., iOTec-HU. Hawassa
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Figure 1

The above assumptions convert the indeterminate multi -storey frame to a determinate structure.

Fi
g 2. Assumptions of the Portal method of analysis

2.1.2 CANTILEVER METHOD:

The cantilever method is based on the same action as a long cantilevered beam subjected to a
transverse load. It may be recalled from mechanics of materials that such a loading causes a
bending stress in the beam that varies linearly from the beam’s neutral axis, Fig. 6 (a). In a
similar manner, the lateral loads on a frame tend to tip the frame over, or cause a rotation of the
frame about a “neutral axis” lying in a horizontal plane that passes through the columns at each

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Dept. of Civil & Urban Eng., iOTec-HU. Hawassa
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floor level. To counteract this tipping, the axial forces (or stress) in the columns will be tensile
on one side of the neutral axis and compressive on the other side as in Fig below.

Like the cantilevered beam, it therefore seems reasonable to assume this axial stress has a linear
variation from the centroid of the column areas or neutral axis. The cantilever method is
therefore appropriate if the frame is tall and slender, or has columns with different cross-section
areas.

In this method also, 3 assumptions are to be made to make the frame statically determinate.
Simplifying assumptions made in the cantilever method are:

1. A point of contra flexure occurs at the centre of each beam

2. A point of contra flexure occurs at the centre of each column.

3. By assuming that the frame behaves as a cantilever beam, the axial stress in each column of a
storey is proportional to the horizontal distance of the column from the centre of gravity of all
the columns of the storey under consideration. That is axial stress in the column is assumed to
vary linearly from this neutral axis. Since stress equals force per area, then in the special case
of the columns having equal cross-sectional areas, the force in a column is also proportional
to its distance from the centroid of the column areas.

Fig 3. Column acting like cantilever subjected to transverse loading

The steps involved in the application of this method are:

1. The centre of gravity of columns is located by taking moment of areas of all the

columns and dividing by sum of the areas of columns.

2. A lateral force P acting at the top storey of building frame is shown in Fig. 4(a). The

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Dept. of Civil & Urban Eng., iOTec-HU. Hawassa
University

axial forces in the columns are represented by F1, F2, F3 and F4 and the columns are

at a distance of X1, X2 , X3 and X4 from the centroidal axis respectively as shown in Fig.

4(b).

Fig 4. Typical frame and Top story above the contra flexure point

By taking the moments about the centre of gravity of columns of the storey,

P h - F1x1 - F2x2 - F3x3 - F4x4 = 0----------------

The axial force in one column may be assumed as F and the axial forces of remaining columns
can be expressed in terms of F using assumption (3). Then from equation above one can solve for
the axial force F and finally axial force in each columns.

3. The beam shears can be determined joint by joint from the column axial forces.

4. The beam moments are determined by multiplying the shear in the beam by half the span of
beam according to assumption (1).

5. The column moments are found joint by joint from the beam moments or after finding the
shear at each column, column moments are determined by multiplying the shear in the
column by half the height of the column according to assumption (2).

2.1.3 THE FACTOR METHOD

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The factor method is more accurate than either the portal method or the cantilever method. The
portal method and cantilever method depend on assumed location of hinges and column shears
whereas the factor method is based on assumptions regarding the elastic action of the structure.
For the application of Factor method, the relative stiffness (k = I/L), for each beam and column
should be known or assumed, where, I is the moment of inertia of cross section and L is the
length of the member.

The application of the factor method involves the following steps:

1. the girder factor g, is determined for each joint from the following expression.

Where, Skc - Sum of relative stiff nesses of the column members meeting at that joint.

Sk - Sum of relative stiff nesses of all the members meeting at that joint.

Each value of girder factor is written at the near end of the girder meeting at the joint.

2. the column factor c, is found for each joint from the following expression

c = 1-g

Each value of column factor c is written at the near end of each column meeting at the joint.
The column factor for the column fixed at the base is one.

At each end of every member, there will be factors from step 1 or step 2. To these factors,
half the values of those at the other end of the same member are added.

3. The sum obtained as per step 2 is multiplied by the relative stiffness of the respective
members. This product is termed as column moment factor C, for the columns and the girder
moment factor G, for girders.

4. Calculation of column end moments for a typical member ij - The column moment factors [C
values] give approximate relative values of column end moments. The sum of column end
moments is equal to horizontal shear of the storey multiplied by storey height. Column end
moments are evaluated by using the following equation,

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Dept. of Civil & Urban Eng., iOTec-HU. Hawassa
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where, Mij - moment at end i of the ij column

Cij - column moment factor at end i of column ij

A - Story constant given by

5. Calculation of beam end moments - The girder moment factors [G values] give the
approximate relative beam end moments. The sum of beam end moments at a joint is equal
to the sum of column end moments at that joint. Beam end moments can be worked out by
using following equation,

Mij = Gij B

where, Mij - moment at end i of the ij beam

Gij - girder moment factor at end i of beam ij

B - Joint constant given by

Illustration of calculation of G values:

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Dept. of Civil & Urban Eng., iOTec-HU. Hawassa
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Fig. 5. Factor method

Consider the joints B and C in the frame shown in Fig. 5.

Joint B:

cB = 1 - gB

Joint C:

cC = 1 - gC

As shown in Fig. 5, we should obtain values like x and y at each end of the beam and column.
Thereafter we multiply them with respective k values to get the column or girder moment
factors. Here, GBC = x k2 and GCB = y k2. Similarly we calculate all other moment factors.

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