The add-on automatically detects when a story wall is continuous from the topmost to the bottommost point of the story. In this case, a horizontal Result Section with the designation 'Shear Wall' is created. For non-continuous walls, vertical sections are created. They are given the designation 'Deep Beam'. Results are output for all generated sections.
The concept of result sections is described in the chapter Result Sections of the RFEM manual. As usual, you can activate and deactivate the result sections in the 'Navigator - Display'. The options for evaluating the result sections for the individual building stories are tailored to the properties of the add-on.
The following image shows the result diagrams of the surface internal forces nx, ny, and nxy present at shear wall 13 of the example Building Model Result Sections on the third floor. In the navigator of the 'Result Diagrams' window, you can also select other result types for the display.
The diagrams and values of a result section can also be displayed on the model. The following image again shows shear wall 13 with the axial force in ny. By switching between the categories 'Global Deformations', 'Surfaces', and 'Load Distribution', you can switch between the different results. For the 'Surfaces' category selected for the image, the result type determines whether an internal force or a stress is displayed.
The example Building presents further results that are possible with result sections. This building consists of four stories with the basic dimensions 8 m x 8 m. Each story is 3 m high. The building is symmetrical. The individual shear walls of the stiffening building core are located exactly in the center of the building. They are not connected to each other. The shear walls are fixed in place on the ground floor.
The materials and dimensions of the components are as follows:
- Slabs made of reinforced concrete C20/25, d = 20 cm
- Columns made of reinforced concrete C20/25, 24/24 cm
- Stiffening building core made of cross-laminated timber with five layers C24, d = 20 cm, length 1 m
The cross-laminated timber wall is connected to the slabs via line hinges with a release of rotation (φx = 0). At the outer four corner nodes of the building, there are reinforced concrete columns as hinged columns with moment end releases. The model does not include floor slab stiffnesses of the 'Rigid Coupling' type.
The building is analyzed for two load cases. In Load Case 1, a surface load of 1 kN/m2 is applied on each story. In Load Case 2, a nodal load of 5 kN, 10 kN, 20 kN, and 40 kN – increasing from the ground floor to the topmost story – is applied in the global X-direction to two outer nodes of each story.
The FE mesh size is chosen as 14 cm to minimize distortion effects while still having the calculated masses and displacements quickly available.
The center of gravity is exactly at the center with X and Y directions equal to 4 m. For a targeted evaluation of the deformations, an additional node is defined there on each story.
In the 'Navigator - Results', there is the option to choose between three basic result types (see image Result Section on Model):
- Global Deformations
- Surfaces
- Load Distribution
You can select the global deformations as usual in the Navigator - Results in the top category.
For the building, the displacement of the individual stories in Load Case 2 is of interest. The following image shows the deformations in the Y- and X-directions.
You can also evaluate the deformations of a story in the 'Interstory Drifts' table, which is available in the 'Structural Analysis' category and the 'Results by Story' subcategory.
