Abstract:
This study was focused on developing a newly optimized PHP-MySQL(Private Home Pages and Structured Query Language) software that will analyse and design rigid jointed portal frames with a goal to minimizing the material use, design time, as well as the overall weight of the structure.
The portal frames were plastically analyzed using the manual method, and existing software(ProtaStructure), and the newly optimized developed PHP-MySQL program. The design was carried out in accordance with the recommendations of the British Standards: BS 5950 of 2000 on
“Structural use of steelwork in building. The newly developed PHP-MySQL computer software has the capacity to analyze rigid portal frame in details. Its output includes analyses of various members of the rigid portal frame (mainly rafters and column), selection of the various members, classification of the various sections as well as stability. The results obtained using the newly
developed software were compared with the results obtained using manual design and existing ProtaStructure software approaches for various cases. For case 1, the results obtained revealed that the developed PHP-MySQL computer program, provides a lesser member section for the rafter than that of the Manual method while having the same mass of 67.7 kg/m. Also, for case 1, the
column members selected by the newly developed software was of the same size and mass as that of the manual and ProtaStructure but the actual moment of the column obtained by PHP-MySQL software and manual method was 717.75N/mm 2 while that of ProtaStructure was 718.34 N/mm 2 . These brings out the accuracy, efficiency, and optimisation ability of the PHP- MySQL software. Likewise, for case 2, the two software and manual method gave the same
member size (305 × 102 × 33 UB) and mass of 32.8 kg/m for rafter. For column, the member sizes selected by PHP-MySQL (305 × 127 × 42 UB) was the least in term of size, and its mass output of 41.9 kg/m was also the least obtained for that same section. For case 3, the result for rafter for the three methods are the same size (406 × 140 × 46 UB) and mass (46 kg/m) but the result of the column (406 × 178 × 74 UB) with a mass 74.2 kg/m for PHP-MySQL gave the
least size. The speed of design of PHP-MySQL is high and of better efficiency when compare to either manual method or ProtaStructure.
