Questions regarding construction stages and prestressing for existing bridge model

SOFiSTiK SOFiPLUS
1

Hello SOFiSTiK Team,

As part of my thesis, I am currently modeling an existing bridge in SOFiSTiK. The structural system consists of several individual beams that are connected to each other through connection elements. In addition, each beam includes a prestressing system with 7 tendons.

While setting up the model, I have some questions regarding the construction stages and prestressing:

  1. Construction stages and prestressing
    When I create the construction stages, I continuously receive warning messages and errors related to prestressing. The software seems to require a separate construction stage assignment for each prestressing tendon, which becomes quite difficult to manage.
    Could you please advise how this should be handled correctly in SOFiSTiK? Is there a recommended workflow for assigning prestressing tendons in such a case?

  2. Existing bridge – need for construction stages
    Since the bridge already exists and I am not modeling a new construction process, I would like to ask whether it is necessary to define detailed construction stages at all.
    Or would it be sufficient to model the bridge directly in its final structural state, including the existing prestressing?

I would appreciate your guidance on the recommended approach for this type of bridge model.

Thank you very much for your support.

Best regards,

Amir

2

Hi,

If your bridge already exists, there is no need to define construction stages for the bridge itself. Nevertheless, it is important to define construction stages for the tendons, as the program needs to know whether the tendons are bonded or unbonded.

I would recommend defining the construction stages in SOFiPLUS to eliminate the warnings. In the subsequent ASE run, you can then use the GRP command with the CS option, where the bonding settings can be specified accordingly.