The evaluation of story drift in a building is crucial to ensure acceptable structural performance by limiting the drift amount. Excessive drift has the potential to induce system instability and may cause damage to nonstructural components such as partitions. This article outlines the procedure for establishing interstory drift according to ASCE 7-22 and the Building Model add-on in RFEM 6.
Using an example of a steel fiber-reinforced concrete slab, this article describes how the use of different integration methods and of a different number of integration points affects the calculation result.
The National Building Code of Canada (NBC) 2020 Article 4.1.8.7 provides a clear procedure for earthquake methods of analysis. The more advanced method, the Dynamic Analysis Procedure in Article 4.1.8.12, should be used for all structure types except those that meet the criteria set forth in 4.1.8.7. The more simplistic method, the Equivalent Static Force Procedure (ESFP) in Article 4.1.8.11, can be used for all other structures.
If, for example, you want to use a pure surface model for determining the internal forces, but still want to design a structural component on the member model, you can do so using the result beam.
The fatigue design according to EN 1992-1-1 must be performed for the structural components subjected to large stress ranges and/or many load changes. In this case, the design checks for the concrete and the reinforcement are performed separately. There are two alternative design methods available.
In order to correctly design a downstand beam or a T-beam in RFEM 6 using the Concrete Design add-on, it is essential to determine the flange widths for the rib members. This article describes the input options for a two-span beam and the calculation of the flange dimensions according to EN 1992-1-1.
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.