The questions you have asked is pretty basic, I believe. Therefore, if you check the user manual of SAP2000 you may find your answer.

Cheers!

dear Jay Malviya

basically, SAP2000 doesn't powerful tool to solve nonlinear problems especially for material nonlinearity problems.. I suggest you use other programs such as Perform 3D, ANSYS, ABAQUS AND LS-DYNA

SAP2000 has nonlinear springs only, no nonlinear material models available.

Thank you all for your suggestions.

I'll be using ANSYS for in-depth component-wise nonlinear analysis, however, I also wish to approximately model the entire structure in a computationally simpler model.

From my reading, SAP2000 allows non-linear modeling using hinges (multiple DOFs with hysteresis for static pushover), links/springs (multiple DOFs with hysteresis for static and dynamic analysis), and shell-layered elements (for static analysis).

But I was wondering if the latest version of the software added some other possibilities.

Thanks again!

Dear Jay,

One way to define the nonlinearity of materials is to use plastic hinges.