Thank you very much for your quick response.
What procedure do you suggest for currently designing steel connections against earthquakes with RFEM 6?
Create two static load cases with horizontal acceleration in X and Y respectively, include them in the combinations, and design the connections accordingly? (So a kind of simplified response spectrum method)
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Hi @H_Hoelscher,
if corresponding equivalent horizontal accelerations can be determined, that is certainly the best option.
If the number of relevant combinations from the envelope of the earthquake response results is relatively small, you could also open the connection in a new model (use connection templates). There you can manually apply the joint loads in the connection and perform a normal load-bearing capacity analysis. The prerequisite is, of course, first to identify which load combination cases are relevant. This is not always immediately derivable for a 3D connection, which is also the reason why seismic design is currently not yet available.
Best regards
Fabian Felber