The two primary means for including P-Delta effect in nonlinear analysis include:

  1. For each load combination, create a nonlinear analysis case which includes the P-Delta geometric-nonlinearity parameter.
  2. For the gravity loads anticipated, create an Initial P-Delta Analysis case which includes the P-Delta geometric-nonlinearity parameter, then consider all other analyses as linear while using the stiffness matrix developed for this one set of P-Delta loads.

See Also