FRP Strengthening of RC Structure - CSA A23.3

Further to the development of the spreadsheet in CSA A23.3, I have developed the FRP strengthening of concrete structures based on the ISIS Concrete Educational Module. The resouces of ISIS are simply wonderful and fill with useful information.
The following is the screenshot of the spreadsheet and the results are compared with Example 1 and the Assignment example 1 in Appendix B of ISIS Concrete Education Module No. 4. As can be seen, the results match correctly for the neutral axis with slight difference of moment capacity of 1.96% only. This difference is inmaterial as it is due to rounding off in the manual calculation.The spreadsheet is only halfway done as I still need to include the shear portion. But this will be the easy task. I will publish the complete spreadsheet for all to download and test.


CSA A23.3 with FRP strengthening and with steel plate strengthening are almost completed and will be published in the couple of weeks time. Most of it already written in BS8110, TR55. I have not yet published them due to the limited examples for testing the spreadsheet. If anyone can direct me with websites that contain examples, I will be glad to verify the programs and publish them for testing.

Continuous Beam Analysis and Design Using OpenOffice

As mentioned in the earlier post, OpenOffice is free. My idea is to convert all my Excel spreadsheets with Macro to OpenOffice Calc programs. Remember the OpenOffice Calc is free and engineers are generally poor. If we don't have to pay for Excel, we could save quite a fair bit in our works. Well to cut it short, here it is :

This is the screenshot of the similar Excel program that now is written in OpenOffice. The conversion from Excel to OpenOffice was actually simpler than I thought. At first, there are errors. But after closer look, I realise not all the formulas can be directly converted. It was not really the problem of OpenOffice as my codes actually contain very specific way of reading some information and this cannot be directly translated to OpenOffice. After some checking, the errors were corrected and the OpenOffice program output the same results as the Excel program (as expected).

What is difficult is the macro for excel cannot be directly convert to OpenOffice macro. This is the painful part for me, as there are not many books and resources on writing Macro for OpenOffice and the process is also much more tedious than VBA. After 2 weeks of on and off writing, main part of the Macro was in shape but one crucial problem was bugging me, ie how to unload the menu after popping up. I decided to stop for a week and send the code to a friend who are familiar with OpenOffice to take a look. He is helpful but can't really give the solution. Then suddenly, I come across a website and briefly talk about the similar issue (not exactly but was along that line). I copy the idea and "hola", it solved. Now the macro works exactly like Excel program.

I am waiting for the release of OpenOffice 3.2 for testing the program further.

Beam Flexural & Shear Design to CSA A23.3-04

Beam Flexural & Shear Design (Excel & Calc) - Reinforced concrete design in accordance to Canadian Concrete Code CSA A23.3-04. By inputing the moment and shear force, reinforcement required for the section can be design.

The program is easier to use than the commercial software as the input can be altered any time and the design check is clearly printed so that check can be carried out manually, if needed. The program was cross-checked with commercial software and found to be adequate.

Composite Steel Column Design to EC4 using Excel Spreadsheet

Composite Column Design to EC4 (Excel & Calc) - The spreadsheet program can design and check the rectangular concrete column with steel I-section, Concrete filled circular section (CHS) and Concrete filled rectangular section (RHS & SHS ).

A screenshot of the rectangular concrete column with steel I-section is show below:

Reinforcement can also be added to the section. Moment capacity check and interaction ratio check according to EC4 will also be carried out.

Similarly, the program can also carried out concrete filled circular section CHS, rectangular section RHS and square section SHS.

The excel and calc spreadsheet were tested using examples and also compared with the EC4 capacity tables listed in the handbook. The results are exact and proved to be accurate.

For the same Excel and Calc spreadsheet, section capacity check for steel section subject to axial force, bending moment and shear force are also included. The section check is applicable to UB or UC section with fully restraint or non-restraint conditions. User will need to input the restraint length to calculate the buckling moment capacity.