Turbulence modeling in CFD, using URANS and DDES models, is essential for accurately simulating wind-structure interactions. URANS balances cost and unsteady flow capture, while DDES provides greater accuracy in complex flows at a higher computational cost.
Creating a validation example for Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is a critical step in ensuring the accuracy and reliability of simulation results. This process involves comparing the outcomes of CFD simulations with experimental or analytical data from real-world scenarios. The objective is to establish that the CFD model can faithfully replicate the physical phenomena it is intended to simulate.
Wind direction plays a crucial role in shaping the outcomes of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations and the structural design of buildings and infrastructures. It is a determining factor in assessing how wind forces interact with structures, influencing the distribution of wind pressures, and consequently, the structural responses.
Both the determination of natural vibrations and the response spectrum analysis are always performed on a linear system. If nonlinearities exist in the system, they are linearized and thus not taken into account. They are caused by, for example, tension members, nonlinear supports, or nonlinear hinges. This article shows how you can handle them in a dynamic analysis.
Compliance with building codes, such as Eurocode, is essential to ensure the safety, structural integrity, and sustainability of buildings and structures. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) plays a vital role in this process by simulating fluid behavior, optimizing designs, and helping architects and engineers meet Eurocode requirements related to wind load analysis, natural ventilation, fire safety, and energy efficiency. By integrating CFD into the design process, professionals can create safer, more efficient, and compliant buildings that meet the highest standards of construction and design in Europe.
The size of the computational domain (wind tunnel size) is an important aspect of wind simulation that has a significant impact on the accuracy as well as the cost of CFD simulations.
Windbreak structures are special types of fabric structures which protect the environment from harmful chemical particles, abate wind erosion, and help to maintain valuable sources. RFEM and RWIND are used for wind-structure analysis as one-way fluid-structure interaction (FSI).
This article demonstrates how to structural design windbreak structures using RFEM and RWIND.
Designing rigid end plate connections is difficult for four-row connection geometries and multi-axis bending stresses, because there are no official design methods.
The elastic deformations of a structural component due to a load are based on Hooke's law, which describes a linear stress-strain relation. They are reversible: After the relief, the component returns to its original shape. However, plastic deformations lead to irreversible deformations. The plastic strains are usually considerably larger than the elastic deformations. For plastic stresses of ductile materials such as steel, yielding effects occur where the increase in deformation is accompanied by hardening. They lead to permanent deformations - and in extreme cases to the destruction of the structural component.
Describing the procedure for the serviceability limit state design of a floor slab made of steel fiber reinforced concrete. This article shows how to perform the corresponding design for the SLS by means of the iteratively determined FEA results.
Steel-fiber-reinforced concrete is mainly used nowadays for industrial floors or hall floors, foundation plates with low loads, basement walls, and basement floors. Since the publication in 2010 of the first guideline about steel-fiber-reinforced concrete by the German Committee for Reinforced Concrete (DAfStb), a structural engineer can use standards for the design of the steel fiber-reinforced concrete composite material, which makes the use of fiber-reinforced concrete increasingly popular in construction. This article describes the nonlinear calculation of a foundation plate made of steel fiber-reinforced concrete in the ultimate limit state with the FEA software RFEM.
When modeling a reinforced concrete rib with a masonry wall above, there is the risk that the rib is underdesigned if the structural behavior of the masonry is not correctly considered and the connection between the masonry wall and downstand beam is not modeled sufficiently accurately. This article deals with this issue and shows the possible modeling options of such a structure. In this example, the reinforcement is determined only from the internal forces and without secondary minimum reinforcement.
Steel-fiber-reinforced concrete is mainly used nowadays for industrial floors or hall floors, foundation plates with low loads, basement walls, and basement floors. Since the publication in 2010 of the first guideline about steel-fiber-reinforced concrete by the German Committee for Reinforced Concrete (DAfStb), a structural engineer can use standards for the design of the steel fiber-reinforced concrete composite material, which makes the use of fiber-reinforced concrete increasingly popular in construction. This article explains the individual material parameters of steel-fiber-reinforced concrete and how to deal with these material parameters in the FEM program RFEM.
Different methods are available for calculating the deformation in the cracked state. RFEM provides an analytical method according to DIN EN 1992-1-1 7.4.3 and a physical-nonlinear analysis. Both methods have different features and can be more or less suitable depending on the circumstances. This article will give an overview of the two calculation methods.
Shell buckling is considered to be the most recent and least explored stability issue of structural engineering. This is due less to a lack of research activities than to the complexity of the theory. With the introduction and further development of the finite element method in structural engineering practice, some engineers no longer have to deal with the complicated theory of shell buckling. Evidence of the problems and errors to which this gives rise is very well summarized in [1].
When designing reinforced concrete components according to EN 1992‑1‑1 [1], nonlinear methods of determining internal forces for the ultimate and serviceability limit states are possible. In this case, the internal forces and deformations are determined with respect to their nonlinear behavior. The analysis of stresses and strains in cracked state usually provides the deflections, which clearly exceed the linearly determined values.