This article draws a parallel between generating an FE mesh for separate objects using the “Independent FE mesh preferred” option, and generating the mesh without using said option.
As you may already know, RFEM 6 offers you the possibility to consider material nonlinearities. This article explains how to determine internal forces in slabs modeled with nonlinear material.
This article will show you how to use the Torsion Warping (7 DOF) add-on in combination with the Structure Stability add-on to consider cross-section warping as an additional degree of freedom when performing the stability analysis.
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 “Creating 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 dynamic analysis in RFEM 6 and RSTAB 9 is divided into several add-ons. The Modal Analysis add-on is a prerequisite for all other dynamic add-ons, since it performs the natural vibration analysis for member, surface, and solid models.
You can model and analyze masonry structures in RFEM 6 with the Masonry Design add-on that employs the finite element method for the design. Complex masonry structures can be modeled, and static and dynamic analysis can be performed, given that a nonlinear material model is implemented in the program to display the load-bearing behavior of masonry and the different failure mechanisms. You can enter and model masonry structures directly in RFEM 6 and combine the masonry material model with all common RFEM add-ons. In other words, you can design entire building models in connection with masonry.
Webservice is a communication between machines and programs. This communication is provided via the network and can, therefore, be used by any program that can send and receive strings via the HTTP protocol. RFEM 6 and RSTAB 9 provide an interface based on these cross-platform webservices. This tutorial shows the basics using the VBA programming language.
RFEM 6 offers the Aluminum Design add-on to design aluminum members for the ultimate and serviceability limit states according to Eurocode 9. In addition to this, you can perform design according to ADM 2020 (US Standard).
In addition to the predefined models available as blocks in Dlubal Center | Blocks, it is possible to create new blocks and save them in the manner discussed in the Knowledge Base article "Saving Models as Blocks in RFEM 6".
Complex structures are assemblies of structural elements with various properties. However, certain elements can have the same properties in terms of supports, nonlinearities, end modifications, hinges, and so on, as well as design (for example, effective lengths, design supports, reinforcement, service classes, section reductions, and so on). In RFEM 6, these elements can be grouped on the basis of their shared properties and thus can be considered together for both modeling and design.
RFEM 6 includes the Form-Finding add-on to determine the equilibrium shapes of surface models subjected to tension and members subjected to axial forces. Activate this add-on in the model's Base Data and use it to find the geometric position in which the prestress of lightweight structures is in equilibrium with the existing boundary conditions.
Model and load objects can be defined graphically or in tables, or they can be created using parameters (see the manual). With this parameterized input, you can also access the cells of certain tables of the program. In this way, it is possible to link a load parameter with a model data parameter, for example. The reference is created by the $ sign.
In the world of construction engineering, the word "imperfections" has a specific meaning. In general, it describes the incompleteness of a structure or the deviation of a structural component from an ideal shape caused by the production.
When designing steel columns or steel beams, it is usually necessary to carry out cross-section design and stability analysis. While the cross-section design can usually be performed without giving further details, the stability analysis requires further user-defined entries. To a certain extent, the member is cut out of the structure; therefore, the support conditions have to be specified. This is particularly important when determining the ideal elastic critical moment Mcr. Furthermore, it is necessary to define the correct effective lengths Lcr. These are required for the internal calculation of slenderness ratios.
An interface can be used to export the RFEM/RSTAB printout report to VCmaster and continue editing there. VCmaster is a word processing program for engineers.
Printout reports created in RFEM and RSTAB can be transferred to VCmaster using a direct interface and further processed there. VCmaster (formerly BauText) is a word processing program for engineers. Calculations, drawings, photos, and documents from various sources can be easily compiled, managed and used again with VCmaster.
To obtain forces for designing surface connections, you can look at the results using the "Result diagram" function of a connection line. Among other things, there are auxiliary tools such as "Average line" and "Average region".