General
Stage: Select the stage for the construction of barriers, ensuring that this stage is after the deck has been constructed and has gained stiffness.
Superstructure Attachment Elements: Select the barriers for which the finite elements are to be constructed.
Self-Weight Factor: Typically, the unit weight of the material and the area of the barrier are the only parameters needed for self-weight computation, and a factor of 1 is used. However, if the user wishes to modify these parameters with a certain factor, it can be entered here.
Stiffness[Yes/No]: During staged construction analysis, bridge owners typically choose not to consider the stiffness of the barriers to be conservative and only take their weight into account.
However, when applying wind loads, the elements must be constructed with their stiffness. If wind load application is required for the project, the concrete material must be duplicated and assigned a small modulus of elasticity (e.g., 1) to construct the element with its stiffness. Using a small modulus of elasticity(stiffness) value will create the expected behavior.
If wind load application is not required for the project, such as in load rating models, users can utilize the concrete material without changing the modulus of elasticity(stiffness) value and construct the barrier under the superstructure attachment construction with options "stiffness=no" and "weight factor=1".
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