RFEM 6 | Geotechnical Analysis

This article discusses the results of the geotechnical analysis and their graphical and tabular display in the RFEM 6 program.

Given that realistic determination of the soil conditions significantly influences the quality of the structural analysis of buildings, the Geotechnical Analysis add-on is offered in RFEM 6 to determine the soil body to be analyzed. The way to provide data obtained from field tests in the add-on and use the properties from soil samples to determine the soil massifs of interest was discussed in Knowledge Base article “Creation of the Soil Body from Soil Samples in RFEM 6”. This article, on the other hand, will discuss the procedure to calculate settlements and soil pressures for a reinforced concrete building.

The quality of the structural analysis of buildings is significantly improved when the soil conditions are considered as realistically as possible. In RFEM 6, you can realistically determine the soil body to be analyzed with the help of the Geotechnical Analysis add-on. This add-on can be activated in the model’s Base Data as shown in Image 01.

A graphical and tabular output of the results for deformations, stresses, and strains helps you when determining the soil solids. To achieve this, use the special filter criteria for targeted selection of results.

The program doesn't leave you alone with the results. If you want to graphically evaluate the results in the soil solids, you can use the guide objects. For example, you can define clipping planes. This allows you to view the corresponding results in any plane of the soil solid.

And not just that. The utilization of result sections and clipping boxes facilitates the precise graphical analysis of the soil solid.

You already know that it is possible to model and analyze a soil and a structure in the entire model. As a result, you have explicitly taken into account the soil-structure interaction. By modifying a component, you achieve the immediate correct consideration in the analysis as well as in the results for the entire system of the soil and structure.

Are you ready for the evaluation? Use the calculation diagrams, which show the distribution of a specific result during the calculation.

You can freely define the layout of the vertical and horizontal axes of the calculation diagram. This allows you, for example, to consider the settlement distribution of a certain node, depending on the load.