Structural analysis of high-rise building using ETABS and RSA software

There are numerous software applications available to analyze and design massive projects in short time. Most of the software have 2-dimensional and 3-dimen- sional tools, while various structural engineers employ the use of the 3D analysis and design tools in their day-to-day tasks because of its ease to operate and graphical user interface. These tools help in modeling, analyzing, and design of structures much more efficient. Despite the availability of numerous software products, there are confusions on the software to be used in the analysis and design of specific building structures. There is a need of studying the strength and weakness of some of these software tools to help structural engineers in the selection of the best application in their daily tasks. The aim of this study is to investigate the structural analysis of high-rise building with ETABS and RSA software and compare the influences of the structural analysis results from the two software in design. The comparison between the axial forces and moment from the results of ETABS and RSA software are presented. Case studies are considered to analyze the structure with the gravitational loads and lateral loads due to wind load by the two software applications. The case studies include a thirty-stories reinforced concrete building frame. The results of the analysis of the frame are compared and their difference is presented. From the analysis, the results show that, the moments and forces presented from RSA are bigger than that of ETABS.