Initial P-Delta Analysis The initial P-Delta analysis option accounts for the effect of a large compressive or tensile

load upon the transverse stiffness of members in the structure. Compression reduces lateral stiffness, and tension increases it. This is a type of geometric nonlinearity known as the P-Delta effect. This option is particularly useful for considering the effect of gravity loads upon the lateral stiffness of building structures, as required by certain design codes. Initial P-Delta analysis in ETABS considers the P-Delta effect of a single loaded state upon the structure. This load can be specified in two ways: As a specified combination of static load cases, this is called the P-Delta load combination. For example, this may be the sun of a dead load case plus a fraction of a live load case. This approach requires an iterative solution to determine the P-Delta effect upon the structure. As a story-by-story load upon the structure computed automatically from the mass at each level. This approach is approximate, but does not require an iterative solution.

When you request initial P-Delta analysis it is performed before all linear-static, modal, responsespectrum, and time-history analyses in the same analysis run-initial P-Delta has no effect on nonlinearstatic analyses. The initial P-Delta analysis essentially modifies the characteristics of the structure, affecting the results of all subsequent analyses performed. Because the load causing the P-Delta effect is the same for all linear analysis cases, their results may be superposed in load combinations. Initial P-Delta analysis may also be used to estimate buckling loads in a building by performing a series of analyses, each time increasing the magnitude of the P-Delta load combination, until buckling is detected (if the program detects that buckling has occurred, the analysis is terminated and no results are produced). The relative contributions from each static load case to the P-Delta load combination must be kept the same, increasing all load case scale factors by the same percentage between runs. Finally, building codes typically recognize two types of P-Delta effects: the first due to the overall sway of the structure and the second due to the deformation of the members between its ends. ETABS can model both of those behaviors. It is recommended that the former effect be accounted for in the analysis by using the initial P-Delta option, and that the latter moment-magnification factors, The design postprocessors in ETABS operate in this manner.