Creating and Using ADETS Mesh Reinforcements in RF-CONCRETE Surfaces
Technical Article
Concrete on its own is characterized by its compressive strength. An important part of reinforced concrete is reinforcing steel, which contributes to both the compressive and tension resistance of the concrete. Welded wire fabric is generally located in the tension areas of the beams or surface elements (hollow core ceiling, wall, shell) to transfer the tensile forces induced by external loading.
Reinforced concrete is often used in structures as well as in civil engineering, including slabs, walls, shells, columns, beams, ribs or even foundations.
Nowadays, the time to carry out works and for commissioning of goods is very short. The best solution to save time is to use a ready-to-install reinforcement which is the welded wire mesh.
What is a reinforcing steel mesh and how can it be used in RFEM?
A mesh reinforcement is a concrete reinforcement consisting of crossing steel bars that are assembled by welding. Each steel mesh is determined by the dimensions of the sheet or roll (length, width, area), the size of holes (length and width), the diameter of the fibers, but also by the steel section (cm2/m), the nominal mass and the number of fibers per sheet. RFEM, the calculation and design software for concrete structures, offers several types of reinforcement meshes in the library of the RF-CONCRETE Surfaces add-on module. With the library you can quickly define the area of the provided or additional reinforcement, as the mesh reinforcements are clearly arranged by countries, product series and descriptions. Conventional reinforcement meshes are available for some countries by default, for example: wire meshes from Germany, Austria, Netherlands, USA, ... In France, the ADETS meshes are widely used.
Which mesh reinforcements does ADETS offer?
ADETS (Association technique pour le Développement de l'Emploi du Treillis Soudé), the technical association for the development of welded wire meshes in France, distinguishes two types of mesh reinforcements:
- Structural reinforcing steel meshes marked with the letters "ST" (treillis structurel). They are important for the load-bearing capacity within the structure and comply with the NF A 35-080-2 standard.
- Panel reinforcing steel mesh with the designation "PAF" (panneau antifissuration) or "RAF" (rouleau antifissuration): These panels are very light grids that do not play any structural role in the structure. This type of reinforcement helps to limit surface crack formation and to prevent subsequent failure in the event of a cracking (anti-fracture function). The welded wire meshes meet the requirements of the NF A 35-024 standard for steel grade B600A or the NF A 35-080-2 standard for B500A.
Which mesh reinforcement is the right one for your projects?
Choosing the appropriate reinforcement mesh depends on the type of structure and the loads acting on it. Some technical recommendations specify which mesh types must be installed as a minimum. These are, for example, DTU 13.3.3 for floor slabs of detached houses, DTU 13.3.1 for concrete slabs in the industry, DTU 23.5 for hollow-core slabs, DTU 26.2 for attached slabs or non-load-bearing floating floors.
The following table shows the recommended minimum welded wire meshes sorted by their use and application area according to the requirements of the European standards for reinforced concrete design (Eurocodes 2 and 8).
Usage | Products | Application | Mesh |
---|---|---|---|
Concrete slabs for detached houses | ST 25 CS ST 25 C | B500A (if secondary seismic element) or B500B (if primary seismic element) | |
Concrete slabs for industrial use or similar | ST 15 C | concrete slab without reinforcement with thickness of 15 to 23 cm | B500A (if secondary seismic element) or B500B (if primary seismic element) |
all structural welded wire meshes (ST) | concrete slab without reinforcement with thickness > 23 cm and reinforced concrete slab | B500A (if secondary seismic element) or B500B (if primary seismic element) | |
Concrete slabs for other use than in industry or similar | PAF 10 PAF C | concrete slab without reinforcement | B500A |
ST 50 C | concrete slab reinforced to at least % | B500A (if secondary seismic element) or B500B (if primary seismic element) | |
all structural welded wire meshes (ST) | reinforced concrete slab | ||
Walls made of exposed concrete | PAF V PAF 10 | Concrete coverings of external walls | B500A |
Hollow-core slab (effective widths) | PAF 10 | earthquake-proof | B500A |
PAF C PAF R | according to dimension between axes of beams | B500A | |
Tanks and containers made of concrete | ST 50 ST 50 C ST60 ST 65 C | according to wall thickness D and d ≥ 8 mm | B500B |
Other applications | all structural welded wire meshes (ST) | B500A (if secondary seismic element) or B500B (if primary seismic element) |
All designs of reinforced concrete structures must be carried out by a structural engineer, stress analyst or any other specialist manually or using calculation software such as RFEM according to normative calculation methods.
How to use ADETS mesh reinforcements in RFEM?
ADETS mesh reinforcements are not available in the library and must therefore be created. With the tools in the dialog box "Import Reinforcement Area from Reinforcement Mesh Library" you can easily create or import new types of welded wire meshes. If you want to try, you can use the product range of ADETS meshes prepared in the .db3 file available for downloaded at the end of this article.
How to import a mesh reinforcement database from the .db3 file?
At the bottom of the dialog box "Import Reinforcement Area from Reinforcement Mesh Library" you can click the "Import user-defined database" button. Then, you have to close the dialog box with [OK] to confirm the added data. As soon as this dialog box is opened again, the new mesh reinforcements are accessible.
Author

M.Eng. Cosme Asseya
CEO of Dlubal Software SARL, Technical Support Engineer, Sales & Marketing
Cosme Asseya is the CEO of the Dlubal Software branch office in Paris, France. He is responsible for the coordination of the sales, marketing and technical support activities for French-speaking countries.
Keywords
Mesh reinforcement Adets Concrete Reinforced concrete Reinforcement Reinforcing steel
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RF-CONCRETE Members for RFEM or CONCRETE for RSTAB propose an automatically created reinforcement to the user, if the ‘Design the provided reinforcement’ option is selected in Window 1.6 ‘Reinforcement’.
Material Model Orthotropic Masonry 2D
The material model Orthotropic Masonry 2D is an elastoplastic model that additionally allows softening of the material, which can be different in the local x- and y-direction of a surface. The material model is suitable for (unreinforced) masonry walls with in-plane loads.
- When calculating deformations in RF‑CONCRETE Members, I get jumps in the deformation diagram. Why?
- When determining internal forces in RFEM, I obtain compression axial forces that do not arise in the design internal forces in the design in RF‑CONCRETE Surfaces. Why, what is the reason?
- In connection with the analytical SLS calculation, I get implausibly large values for the crack width and deformation in the RF‑CONCRETE add-on modules. What is the cause and how can I fix the problem?
- Is it possible to export the results from RF‑CONCRETE Surfaces to Excel? For example, I would need the steel stress of serviceability design.
- Is it possible to take a user-defined national annex as a basis for concrete design?
- Is it possible to adjust the initial values of the temperature courses entered for the fire resistance design? For example, I would like to adjust the initial value of the moisture content.
- When designing a plate, I get different reinforcements in different load situations with the same bending stress. Why?
- Regarding a nonlinear analysis of reinforced concrete, is there any feature in the program that increases the load until failure? Or is there any way how to describe the load increment until failure?
- In RF‑CONCRETE Surfaces, I get non-designable situations with a note saying that the shear resistance cannot be checked (cross-section entirely cracked). What is the reason for this message?
- What is the effect of the settings "Approach of pure tension restraint," "Approach of bending restraint," or "Depending on the defined load" for the determination of the minimum reinforcement As,min due to restraint?
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