To design and construct a 220-kilovolt single-circuit guyed transmission tower, instead of using a self-supporting line, the user decided to employ a technique that would lower project costs by 10% to 15%. To meet their goal, they first had to calculate the weight of the tower to determine the best foundation type. They had to use a solution where they could analyze the tower in accordance with IS-802 standards, optimize the member size, and calculate the weight.

They chose to implement STAAD.Pro, which helped them realize that they needed to design a combined grillage foundation for the tower and a pile foundation for the guy cable. The application also helped the team gain in-depth knowledge in the field of design and analysis, which will enable them to take on other projects of a similar caliber. By designing in STAAD.Pro, they also reduced the amount of steel and limited their carbon footprint.

Project Playbook: STAAD

When a typhoon hit Tacloban in 2013, storm surges as high as 6 meters destroyed many structures, including public school buildings used as evacuation centers. The event sparked the revision of the National Structural Code of the Philippines to update wind codes. The government then designed a new standardized public school building, but only considered typical design loads. However, they needed to determine if the building could resist another storm event.

As part of a thesis conducted over two years, Japan’s Shibayama Laboratory at Waseda University conducted extensive research on numerical modeling of typhoons and storm surges to propose countermeasures against coastal disasters. Requiring software to analyze a school building against storm surges, they used STAAD.Pro structural analysis. Using the application’s post-processing capabilities, they determined that the building would indeed withstand these types of events. Once fully developed, the methodology will save PHP millions in structural damage and the lives of many Filipinos.

Project Playbook: STAAD

The Bhopal railway station is important to the Madhya Pradesh region of India, serving as a connection point for pilgrims from Asia visiting the Stupa of Sanchi historical monument, located 40 kilometers from the station. The plan is to build a new platform for the station that comprises a single span of 16 meters, designed using prestressed beams, with a bay spacing of approximately 5.5 meters. Since the single-span structure must accommodate a large amount of pedestrian traffic, Apoorv Dhonde Associates needed to design the platform so that it allows commuters to move freely.

After considering their options, the team turned to STAAD.Pro for modeling, loading, and its ability to easily make changes compared to other software solutions. Using the structural analysis application, they completed the design phase in just two days and delivered the results to the drafting team. The software helped Apoorv Dhonde Associates complete the design on time while reducing resource hours and costs.

Project Playbook: STAAD

A new, USD 117 million shopping plaza in Sohar, Oman features 35,853 square meters of retail space and a multiplex theater. While the main contractor had previously designed the structural steel components, the software did not meet the necessary requirements. Therefore, Design Group Engineering Consultants (DGEC) was tasked with meeting all the structural steel design standards, as well as staying in line with the proposed budget.

Although they worked with the model that was created using the previous software, DGEC found it insufficient to review individual members. Having previously used STAAD.Pro, they knew it would be the ideal software for analyzing the complex’s structural steel design. The software helped them review individual members and avoid errors. DGEC also deployed RAM Structural System for connections design and drawings output to facilitate the process and save 240 resource hours. Additionally, they optimized steel tonnage to reduce it by 140 tons and save USD 468,000.

Project Playbook: RAM, STAAD

Ezitech Engineers undertook an INR 50 million project that involved separating a residential tower from the ground to absorb the impact of an earthquake. They wanted to use an isolation system known as laminated rubber bearings that fuses multilayer rubber construction with lead plugs that bear the load and isolate vibration. The combined isolation and energy dissipation functions in a single compact unit to minimize the seismic energy flow to the superstructure and to limit the horizontal displacements of the isolators. 

Having previously used STAAD.Pro on other projects, Ezitech Engineers chose the application to perform the structural analysis and design of the tower. They converted the model to documents and submitted the project for client and third-party reviews. The software’s ease of use helped Ezitech Engineers save 5,000 resource hours, which enabled them to deliver the design three months ahead of schedule.

Project Playbook: STAAD

An indoor multipurpose stadium in Lucknow is being built with a 1,700-seating capacity. The architecture included three different-sized arches and steel square hollow sections, making it challenging to design. Zamil Steel is responsible for the design in accordance with American standards, as well as the engineering. They also faced coordination challenges, client-imposed caps on steel tonnage, and a strict tight schedule.

Zamil Steel selected STAAD.Pro to model and analyze the structure, optimizing design, maintaining the tonnage commitment, and complying with design requirements due to built-in design codes within the software. Compared to a conventional design approach, Bentley’s application saved time and resources, equivalent to 320 resource hours. Working in a connected data environment and a cloud-based platform, they optimized communication and collaboration among the team and stakeholders to meet deliverables ahead of schedule and accelerate approvals. Using the 3D model for planning, production, and procurement enabled timely delivery of all material to the construction site.

Project Playbook: RAM, STAAD

Package 2 of the Hail and Ghasha development project, a major oil and gas field in Abu Dhabi, focuses on building the Ghasha offshore and onshore gas processing plant. The EUR 100 million project is an integral part of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company’s 2030 Smart Growth Master Plan, which focuses on extracting maximum value from the country’s gas reserves. The project required 5,000 resource hours, which involved seven structural engineers working full time. BK Strutture was tasked with developing bids for civil and structural engineering activities and required an easy-to-use application that would maintain a high rate of efficiency.

Already familiar with Bentley applications, they turned to STAAD.Pro to modify the loads and confirm the modifications. The application helped design the complex structure with multiple floors and account for heavy dynamic loads in a four-month timeframe. Additionally, the software’s ability to interact with a third-party application significantly saved modeling time and enabled them to meet the schedule.

Project Playbook: STAAD

While a round-shaped design for a building in an earthquake-prone area is not ideal, the architect insisted on the scheme to accommodate the plot size of a 16-floor hostel facility for 1,500 medical students. A further challenge was the building’s 50-meter height, which made the column sizes and foundation a critical part of the design. Therefore, Vadalkar and Associates needed a solution that would accommodate the architect’s design intent while designing a safe and economical building.

Already familiar with Bentley applications, the team chose STAAD.Pro to satisfy the architectural intent and an economical design, implementing STAAD Foundation Advanced for the foundation system. The applications enabled Vadalkar and Associates to transfer data seamlessly without data loss, which helped them produce various iterations to optimize the structural solution and save time, leading to a 20% savings in costs.

Project Playbook: STAAD

The challenges presented on the design of an INR 30 million bank building included its seismic-zone location, a floor plate rotated at 20 degrees to create a split-building impression, and a beam and column arrangement that would provide wide-open interior spaces. STADD Engineers Mumbai knew that they needed a software solution to provide a suitable structural arrangement that called for columns only along the periphery of the building to achieve a 10-meter span on the ground floor.

They decided to use STAAD.Pro for the structural arrangements and to satisfy the architectural intent on the first floor by using sound engineering principles. The software enabled them to consider longer spans with additional columns at the intersection of the first floor. They carried out several variations in the software to reach a practical solution by understanding the true structural behavior of the design, which led to a cost savings of up to 20%.

Project Playbook: STAAD

RISE Structural Design was charged with designing pipe racks for an overseas liquefied national gas plant facility comprised of five main steel frames, weighing about 2,500 tons. With an expected annual output of 16.5 million tons, the plant will play a major role in producing energy delivered globally. With the project located overseas, RISE Structural Design had to deploy an application capable of modeling to many design codes. Moreover, because the project was being constructed in winter, they had an extremely short schedule. They needed an application that could save time while maintaining efficiency.  

Given these challenges, they decided that STAAD.Pro was the best option. The structural analysis application enabled them to process analyses for several standards in a single model, reducing design effort. Additionally, they reduced analysis time by 30% compared to using other software, and improved ROI. Lastly, the software’s ability to reduce the number of files being used prevented errors. 

Project Playbook: STAAD

Zamil Steel, a leading manufacturer of pre-engineered buildings, was tasked with the design, analysis, and construction of 10 buildings for an industrial park in Mumbai. The first being designed in the complex is a USD 13.5 million building that is 114 meters wide and 270 meters long, with a height of 12 meters. They were faced with a tight schedule that caused them to search for a solution to deliver the project on time and avoid liquidated damages.

Having previously used STAAD.Pro when designing complex structural steel buildings, Zamil Steel knew that it would be the best solution to meet the schedule. The software helped them model the large-spanned structural steel frames and maintain the client’s requirements, saving them time and resource hours. Additionally, modeling the building in 3D using STAAD.Pro optimized the design to help them reduce the amount of steel, thus using fewer natural resources.

Project Playbook: STAAD, RAM

C-Design Partners was tasked with developing a plan to add a roastery and expand a local coffee roasting business. The estimated JPY 200 million project required piping that could withstand the thermal stress of transitioning from room-temperature water to high-temperature steam. Also, the design had to be flexible to allow the pipe to elongate, as well as supportive enough to avoid structural deformities or shaking during the roasting process. To avoid time-consuming manual calculations, they sought analysis software.

As a long-time AutoPIPE user, C-Design Partners used its support optimization function to calculate the optimal number of support points and the shape of the piping. Using this function, they did not need to determine the initial support layout or outsource calculations, which saved time and significantly lowered design costs. They easily analyzed locations where stress was concentrated and changed support points and types to deliver an optimized model, improving work efficiency.

Project Playbook: AutoPIPE

C-Design Partners was tasked with developing a plan to establish a flagship store and roastery to expand a local coffee roasting business. The estimated JPY 100 million project required designing the store in a highly competitive area for specialty coffee shops. However, it had to be designed within a limited budget and a tight space for installing piping.

Already familiar with the application, C-Design Partners used AutoPIPE to design the piping, as well as to perform seismic and thermal stress analysis. They used the application’s piping support optimization function to make the necessary calculations, allowing them to create models with hundreds of patterns without additional engineering resource hours. It provided design proposals that were superior to conventional design methods, making it ideal for coming up with various ideas during review meetings. The application cut the design period by half, creating an optimized design while significantly reducing costs.

Project Playbook: AutoPIPE

A new, large-scale plant required analyzing several hundred cases of process and utility piping. Poporo Plant was tasked with conducting these analyses while ensuring that the design supported the plant’s severe temperature changes, large thermal load, and proximity to a highly seismic region. However, they faced a limited location space, meaning that they would have to analyze hundreds of different shapes. They realized that the traditional method of creating two analytical models, one for piping and one for supports, was too difficult for a project of this size and scope.

After considering their options, Poporo Plant chose AutoPIPE and STAAD to quickly perform the analyses. The team easily imported shapes into their third-party 3D models so that there was no need to rebuild the model. They could simultaneously design the piping and supports, speeding up the design process so that they could meet the client’s short deadline.

Project Playbook: AutoPIPE, STAAD

To help develop railway products, Zamil Steel was tasked with designing the steel structure of an 11,000-square-meter plant. The estimated USD 1.5 million design needed to accommodate complex materials and shapes, which include three mezzanine floors and roof-hanging pipe racks with 23-meter-long jack beams. However, they needed to seek approval from various independent contractors and stay within a specific total tonnage, all within a two-week schedule.

Already familiar with Bentley applications, Zamil Steel chose STAAD.Pro and RAM Structural System to develop a 3D model of the entire building, including all the steel frames. The model also included weight information, ensuring that the team was staying within the total tonnage. Team members could collaborate within the design, streamlining its creation and approval from the independent contractors. By only needing three engineers to work on the design, they saved 450 resource hours. Completing the design well ahead of schedule, Zamil Steel saved significant costs while optimizing resources.

Project Playbook: RAM, STAAD

ISGEC is developing modern metro stations and a depot in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. They tasked Zamil Steel with providing an innovative, reliable design for a 16,000-square-meter building. The estimated USD 3 million design needed to include one mezzanine floor, eight monorails, and four full-length internal catwalks. However, they needed to seek approval from various independent contractors and stay within a specific total tonnage, all within a tight schedule.

Already familiar with Bentley applications, Zamil Steel chose STAAD.Pro and RAM Structural System to develop a 3D model of all the steel frames. The model also included weight information, ensuring that the team was staying within the total tonnage. Team members could collaborate within the design, streamlining its creation and approval from the independent contractors. By only needing three engineers to work on the design, they saved 120 resource hours. Completing the design well ahead of schedule, Zamil Steel saved significant cost while optimizing resources.

Project Playbook: RAM, STAAD

During the development of a new liquid natural gas plant, RISE Structural Design was chosen to design and analyze the piping network. The client required them to meet national standards, test an array of analysis conditions, and finish the project within a tight deadline. They knew going digital would help them meet the project goals, though their software would need to help their design stand up to loads from heat, wind, snow, and earthquakes.

RISE Structural Design examined various piping analysis options and determined AutoPIPE could provide all the functions and usability that they needed. The pipe stress analysis application helped design the piping system and then evaluate it with KHK code, which complies with Japanese high-pressure gas guidelines. They also quickly simulated a variety of load conditions by changing the code used, which helped them reduce the work hours needed. Improving the efficiency of their workflows helped them complete the project on time while ensuring quality.

Project Playbook: AutoPIPE

When Sonatrach decided to develop four natural gas fields in the Gourara Basin, they wanted to take a modular approach. By prefabricating components offsite for later assembly, they could reduce construction time. Bodini and Lombardi Engineers needed to design a switchgear room, a battery room, and a rack room that could be easily assembled in the field. In addition, they had to ensure the design could handle transportation and harsh environmental conditions of the Sahara Desert.

Bodini and Lombardi Engineers selected RAM Structural System and STAAD.Pro and carefully designed each element to optimize connections between modules. Additionally, they ensured that modules could easily withstand being hoisted by cranes and transported over roads and seas, as well as that base plates and lifting lugs were strong enough to endure on-site weather conditions. Not only did they finish the design on schedule, but they also provided project data to the manufacturing team and the project owner to provide a high level of worker safety.

Project Playbook: RAM, STAAD

Stella Knowledge Storehouse, a system design and technical consulting group, wanted to improve the way that they designed and analyzed piping supports for plant manufacturers. They set out to create a program that could combine all aspects of the digital design process. However, they needed the help of an application that would allow them to easily add unusual frame shapes to accommodate all projects.

Already a user of Bentley applications, they determined that STAAD.Pro structural analysis software would allow them to create the program that they needed. By using STAAD’s framework in the program’s development, they can now centrally process modeling, analysis, and checking by simply entering the piping standard support design information into a spreadsheet. Users can rely on a library of basic piping support shapes, or customize new shapes based on their needs. Their program cuts the design time by 33%, compared to previous methods.

Project Playbook: STAAD

To help assess business continuity in buildings subjected to earthquakes, a research project was initiated to simplify and isolate evaluation of the fragility curves of the plumbing system, estimating the degree of damage to the plumbing system without directly monitoring nonstructural members like partition walls. The project team faced difficulties formulating the natural mode shape of the plumbing system for various forms under varying boundary conditions. They needed flexible, comprehensive structural modeling and analysis technology.

They selected AutoPIPE pipe stress analysis software to generate an analytical model, evaluating the natural frequency and confirming the natural mode shape of a basic plumbing system. Using Bentley’s application, they changed the combination of boundary conditions and seismic loads within the model, verifying that the proposed fragility evaluation can be derived from simplified analytical models. The solution confirmed that the bending moment of a plumbing system subjected to seismic loading is maximized at the fixed points in the piping network.

Project Playbook: AutoPIPE

Sail CET continually seeks ways to improve designs, make fabrication easier, and lower their carbon footprint. They realized that by evaluating significantly different options during the conception phase, they could deliver strong benefits. However, creating models that early in the process can be time consuming and costly, and runs the risk of interfering with analysis and creativity. Automating the design process could overcome these hurdles, but they needed an application that could create multiple new models rapidly.

Sail CET realized that they could create the automated modeling program that they wanted within STAAD.Pro. The structural analysis application enabled them to code many input parameters, giving them the flexibility to quickly create multiple models. The ability to evaluate different models during the design process provides greater project insight and helps generate ideas that can be reused in similar projects. The new process saves work hours and costs, as well as helps Sail CET reduce the amount of structural steel needed.

Project Playbook: STAAD

As the population of Valencia, California grew, the Santa Clarita Valley Sanitation District needed to upgrade the Valencia Water Reclamation Plant to keep up. They chose Carollo Engineers to design a new advanced water treatment facility, with the requirement that the three buildings be structurally mitigated for soil liquification. The organization previously used spreadsheets to analyze and design structures, but for the level of precision required for this project, they needed a specialized digital modeling and analysis solution.

Carollo Engineers determined that they could improve soil analysis and optimize the design with Bentley applications. They first created digital models, then simulated the effects of seismic stresses and horizontal displacements. The analysis helped them determine the optimal placement of foundation elements. Since they discovered soil displacement would not be extreme, they replaced deep soil densification work with less costly structures, such as stone columns and compaction grouting, while still meeting reliability targets.

Project Playbook: MicroStation, OpenBuildings Designer, ProjectWise, RAM, STAAD