EuroBeam - Eurocode-based beam design software

Release 1.10a, 23 December 2011

User scripts allowing the production of proprietary lintel and beam calculations

Beam web opening checking now implemented

Other fixes and changes (for more see program readme file)

• Steel column and timber post printouts mistakenly printed the total line between each load.
• In the Project Summary, column moments were mistakenly labelled as Mx and My, not My and Mz
• Placement of connection drawings within bounding frame has been improved. Previously the drawing title could be clipped in certain cases.
• The Project File Catalogue option has been moved to the File Menu where it more logically belongs.
• Tiny change to calculator: if you enter a number and press [Enter] or '=', the number is copied to the register as entered. Old: Enter 2.718; with 2DP it appeared on register as 2.718=2.72, 3D, 2.718=2.718. Now it appears as 2.718 regardless of DP setting. This is useful where you want to enter a number for use as a constant in following expressions
• An additional button below the parameter list in the Page Heading Dialog toggles between the display of the parameters themselves (.e.g. %D) and their current values (e.g. 18 Dec 2011)
• The Miscellaneous, Latest Information option didn't work - it was looking for a file called EUReadMe.htm, whilst the actual file is EuroBeamReadMe.htm

Release 1.05c, 14 August 2011

Fixes one small bug that crept into releases 1.05a/b and stopped you editing text pages.

Release 1.05b, 4 August 2011

Fixes one small bug that crept into release 1.05a. If you entered a variable load with a load w1 value of 0 (0.00 etc was fine) and saved the project, the load was deleted on reloading the project.

Release 1.05a, 1 August 2011

General changes and fixes

• Further bug fix re B/F loads not being handled correctly: where a B/F load referenced a column which in turn had one or more B/F loads the load was not brought forward
• Hollow sections in exported SB/PS projects were not recognised where wall thickness was an exact number of millimetres.
• You can now add notes to beam splices. Two tabs let you select either the splice drawing or splice notes field.
• Print copies defaulted to all - fixed
• Several changes made to improve error handling on OLE pages

Connections

• The connection edit dialog is now resizeable. The notes pane has been moved to the first page, and a small drawing on the connection is now displayed on the details page. This drawing is updated each time you press 'Apply'
• Some revisions have been made to the printouts to show workings more clearly
• Following guidance from SCI, the bearing resistance of a bolt group subject to some tension (end plate and cleat connection to support) now uses the 80% reduced shear resistance in determining the appropriate bearing resistance - see forum post here for more information. In certain rare instances this will reduce the load resistance of the connection
• Angle cleat connection checking now adds checking of shear and bearing resistance of bolt group to support

Release 1.04a, 31 May 2011

Connection checking added

Checking of angle web cleat, flexible end plate and fin plate connections has been added. This is handled in an almost identical way to ProSteel. For background information refer EC3-1-8 (EN1993-1-8) + National Annexe (N.B. - see below) and to the NCCI documents referenced on the printouts. ECCS publish a good inexpensive book on connection design - see our EuroBeam site books page. If you use the new connection routines for real-life projects we would advise particularly rigorous checking as the calculation code has been largely rewritten.

Note that the UK EC3-1-8 National Annexe overrides some of the default values in EC3-1-8. Some textbooks include worked examples that were apparently compiled before the publication of the NA so (for example) use a f_u value of 430N/mm2 for S275 (410 in the NA) and a g_M2 value of 1.25 for bolt shear and bearing (1.10)

Bug fix: if you added more than 10 documents to the Help, Other Documents menu, references to documents 11- were lost if you re-edited the list - fixed.

Release 1.03a, 13 May 2011

C1 Equivalent Moment Factor

The method used to calculate the equivalent moment factor, C1, for steel beams has been changed. EuroBeam now uses the formula suggested in the paper Critical Evaluation of Equivalent Moment Factor Procedures for Laterally Unsupported Beams, (Wong & Driver, AISC Engineering Journal First Quarter 2010   view). Like other formulae this uses the moments at the quarter points of the beam segment under consideration as well as the maximum moment within the segment. The signs of the moments are ignored.

C1 = 4M_max/ (M_max² + 4M_a² +7M_b² +4M_c²)^0.5 (but <= 2.5)

where M_a, M_b and M_c are the quarter, mid-point and three-quarter moments We have adopted this formula as it is one of the easiest to follow and the paper cited above gives a clear justification for its use. It gives values that are slightly more conservative than those returned by the previous formulae. Note that the difference between the various formulae is a few percent at most. There is more information on this topic in the online help.

Other changes and fixes:

• N.B.  Deflection due to B/F loads was ignored when calculating beam deflection - fixed
• Cantilever deflection (where applicable) not shown on steel beam calculations - added
• The C1 calculation for unrestrained twin and triple section beams was wrong (too low a value=conservative) - fixed
• The penultimate column on the steel beam lateral torsional buckling table was incorrectly headed W_y instead of M_c,Rd - fixed
• When a file exported from SuperBeam was read in, if the timber grade could not be matched (e.g. HemFir) it was silently changed to C14 though the description of the grade wasn't changed until the data was next edited. This has been changed so that the grade is changed - to D30 for Oak TH1 and THB, to D40 for Oak THA, otherwise to C16 - and an explicit notification to this effect is displayed.
• Timber calculation window title bar text was blank if the member failed - fixed

Release: 1.02a, 7 April 2011

Beam splice design and checking has been added and largely follows the way this is implemented in ProSteel, though obviously is based on Eurocode 3 (EC3-1-1 and EC3-1-8). The presentation of the calculations has been improved, and ProSteel calculations will be similarly enhanced in a future release.

For M12 bolts, EuroBeam assumes UK practice of using a 14mm hole and the shear capacity is therefore reduced by 15% [EC3-1-8 3.6(5)]

Other changes and fixes:

• Where a beam had end support conditions <> 5 (1.0L) and one or more intermediate restraints, the C1 factors for the end segments could be calculated incorrectly - fixed
• B/F load expressions gave erratic results where the reaction being brought forward was of a member that had B/F loads - fixed
• B/F load for bearing additional load gave error - fixed
• Edit contents of Print Project list didn't work - fixed
• Project Summary showed unfactored reactions for beams twice instead of unfactored and factored - fixed
• Project Summary showed zero value column loads for never displayed columns (i.e. project with 20 items, tile count set to 12 in Setup, Preferences; load project and last 8 show zeros in Summary until selected and displayed

Release: 1.01b, 23 December 2010

• Any OLE page data was saved if you selected File, Save As, but not with File, Save - fixed
• Register Extensions button in User Setup dialog didn't work on some Vista/Windows 7 systems - fixed.

Release 1.01a, 8 December 2010

Key changes in this release - for a full list select the Miscellaneous, Latest Information option within EuroBeam:

• Hot finished hollow section design and checking has been added. Note that hollow section checking is now limited to S355 as per the 'Blue Book'
• Steel beam lateral torsional buckling calculations have been revised (again) so as to better accord with the new EC3 'Blue Book'. Note that the tabulated figures in the book are not arrived at by using the formula shown in the notes on page A-25
• Twin and triple beam calculations incorrectly showed the shear capacity, web capacity and LTB resistance of a single member - fixed
• The web bearing capacity calculation has been corrected for sections where the flange and web steel stresses are different - the flange steel stress governs the web capacity.
• You can now enter your own C1 factor for columns.
• Where a column is subject to bending, a check is made to ensure that NED/NRD (axial load/axial capacity) <= 0.83 and thus the simplified design method in NCCI SN048b can be used. For a column subject to a high axial load and a very small (but non-zero) moment this requirement may lead to a slightly heavier section being selected than would be the case if another checking method was used. Note that EC3/SN048b don't tell you what offset to assume for loads arising from beam reactions: Arya suggests following BS5950 and using 100mm offset.
• Where a column is subject to bending, only UB, UC, RHS or SHS sections can be selected. This is because NCCI SN048b (simplified column design) excludes the use of circular hollow sections.