View/Update - Longitudinal Reinforcement Tab

The Longitudinal Reinforcement tab within the View/Update page provides the engineer with a means of modifying top and bottom longitudinal bar sets that have been assigned to the beam, either during optimization, or manually by the engineer. When the Longitudinal Reinforcement tab is selected, the graphical display area will display a representation of the longitudinal bar sets in the beam line. The envelope data displayed both graphically and numerically will correspond to the longitudinal reinforcement assigned to the beam line.

Setting

Description

Dimensions

The Dimensions area in the upper left-hand corner displays detailed information about the selected span in the beam line, such as the beam number, the span length, cantilever lengths when applicable, section dimensions for the beam, and information about the start and end supports for the beam. The drop-down Span list box can be used to select any span in the beam line.

Reinforcement

The Reinforcement area displays all relevant information, in tabular form, for the final optimized flexural bars for the beam line. The drop down box at the top is used to select either the top or bottom longitudinal bars. The information in the spreadsheet area is updated to reflect the selection made in the reinforcement drop down box. For example, in the Figure above Top Reinforcement has been selected and thus the spreadsheet area and graphic below displays top bar information only. A discussion of each of the column values in the spreadsheet is presented below.

Setting	Description
No.	This is the bar set index. Bar sets are a group of bars that are the same size, have the same start and end locations, and have the same start and end conditions. Bars are grouped to make the design output easier to interpret and interact with.
Support	This is the support index to which the bar set is referenced. The centerline of the support listed here will serve as the origin for the start and end coordinates of the bar set.
Qty.	This value is the number of bars in the bar set.
Bar Size	This is the size of all bars in this bar set. The bar sizes available in this drop-down box are limited to those that the user has chosen to consider in the Beam Design Criteria - Reinforcement menu.
Start/End	These two values are the start and end locations (respectively) of the bar set relative to the centerline of the support specified in the Support column.
Reinf Layer	If the user has chosen to allow two layers of reinforcement in the Beam Design Criteria - Reinforcement menu, the value in this cell will be displayed as either "Upper" or "Lower", depending on the layer at which the bar set lies. If the user has chosen to not consider two layers of reinforcing, this value will always be displayed as "Upper".
Bar End	These values are the left and right bar end conditions. There are three types of bar end conditions considered in RAM Concrete Beam: Straight, Splice, and Hook. A Straight end condition is generally used when a bar group is terminated along the beam line span and there is no need to develop the full bar capacity at the bar cutoff point. A Straight end condition has no knowledge of adjacent bars and thus does not consider adjacent bar groups when calculating bar capacity. See Section 5.2.5 for a discussion of how the bar tensile capacity is calculated for a Straight end condition. A Splice end condition is used to lap two groups of bars that share the same endpoint. A Splice end condition is cognizant of any bar groups with which it shares an endpoint and considers these bar groups in calculating the bar capacity along its end. See Section 5.2.6 for a discussion of how the tensile bar capacity is calculate for a Splice end condition. A Hook end condition is used when the full tensile capacity of the bar is required even up to the bar endpoint. Each of these quantities can be edited directly by the user (except for No.) by clicking in the appropriate cell and entering or selecting a new value. The graphical display will then immediately be updated to reflect the new data. The design may then be rerun for the new data by selecting "Analyze". The new design may be made permanent by selecting "Update Database". For easy cross-reference between the spreadsheet area of the tab and the graphical display area, when a bar set is selected in the spreadsheet area, the corresponding bar set will be highlighted in the graphical display area. When a bar set is selected in the graphical display area, the first cell in the corresponding line in the spreadsheet will be highlighted.