The Concrete Design add-on for RFEM allows you to perform the fire design of reinforced concrete walls and slabs according to the simplified table method (EN 1992‑1‑2, Section 5.4.2 and Table 5.8 and 5.9).
In the Concrete Design add-on, you have the option to define an existing vertically oriented punching shear reinforcement. This is then taken into account in the punching shear design.
In the ultimate configuration of the steel joint design, you have the option to modify the limit plastic strain for welds.
Both optimization methods have one thing in common. At the end of the process, they provide you with a list of model mutations from the stored data. Here you can find the details of the controlling optimization result and the associated value assignment of the optimization parameters. This list is organized in descending order. You can find the assumed best solution shown in the first line. For this, the optimization result with its determined value assignment is closest to the optimization criterion. All add-on results have a utilization < 1. Furthermore, once the analysis is completed, the program will adjust the value assignment to that of the optimal solution for the optimization parameters in the global parameter list.
In the material dialog boxes, you can find the additional tabs "Cost Estimation" and "Estimation of CO2 Emissions". They show you the individual estimated sums of the assigned members, surfaces, and solids per unit weight, volume, and area. Furthermore, these tabs show the total cost and emission of all assigned materials. This gives you a good overview of your project.
The "Base Plate" component allows you to design base plate connections with cast-in anchors. In this case, plates, welds, anchorages, and steel-concrete interaction are analyzed.
Do you have individual column sections and angled wall geometries, and need punching shear design for them?
No problem. In RFEM 6, you can perform punching shear design not only for rectangular and circular sections, but for any cross-section shape.
In the Construction Stages Analysis (CSA) add-on, you can use built-up cross-sections by means of what are known as phase sections. This allows you to activate and deactivate the parts of the "Parametric - Massive II" section type throughout the construction stages.
The parameters of the National Annexes (NA) to Eurocode 3 of the following countries are integrated:
-
DIN EN 1993-1-1/NA:2016-04 (Germany)
-
ÖNORM EN 1993-1-1/NA:2015-12 (Austria)
-
SN EN 1993-1-1/NA:2016-07 (Switzerland)
-
BDS EN 1993-1-1/NA:2015-10 (Bulgaria)
-
BS EN 1993-1-1/NA:2016-07 (United Kingdom)
-
CEN EN 1993-1-1/2015-06 (European Union)
-
CYS EN 1993-1-1/NA:2015-07 (Cyprus)
-
CSN EN 1993-1-1/NA:2016-06 (Czech Republic)
-
DS EN 1993-1-1/NA:2015-07 (Denmark)
-
ELOT EN 1993-1-1/NA:2017-01 (Greece)
-
EVS EN 1993-1-1/NA:2015-08 (Estonia)
-
HRN EN 1993-1-1/NA:2016-03 (Croatia)
-
I S. EN 1993-1-1/NA:2016-03 (Ireland)
-
ILNAS EN 1993-1-1/NA:2015-06 (Luxembourg)
-
IST EN 1993-1-1/NA:2015-11 (Iceland)
-
LST EN 1993-1-1/NA:2017-01 (Lithuania)
-
LVS EN 1993-1-1/NA:2015-10 (Latvia)
-
MS EN 1993-1-1/NA:2010-01 (Malaysia)
-
MSZ EN 1993-1-1/NA:2015-11 (Hungary)
-
NBN EN 1993-1-1/NA:2015-07 (Belgium)
-
NEN EN 1993-1-1/NA:2016-12 (Netherlands)
-
NF EN 1993-1-1/NA:2016-02 (France)
-
NP EN 1993-1-1/NA:2009-03 (Portugal)
-
NS EN 1993-1-1/NA:2015-09 (Norway)
-
PN EN 1993-1-1/NA:2015-08 (Poland)
-
SFS EN 1993-1-1/NA:2015-08 (Finland)
-
SIST EN 1993-1-1/NA:2016-09 (Slovenia)
-
SR EN 1993-1-1/NA:2016-04 (Romania)
-
SS EN 1993-1-1/NA:2019-05 (Singapore)
-
SS EN 1993-1-1/NA:2015-06 (Sweden)
-
STN EN 1993-1-1/NA:2015-10 (Slovakia)
-
TKP EN 1993-1-1/NA:2015-04 (Belarus)
-
UNE EN 1993-1-1/NA:2016-02 (Spain)
-
UNI EN 1993-1-1/NA:2015-08 (Italy)
You can use the "Plate Cut" component to cut plates (for example, gusset plates, fin plates, and so on). There are various cutting methods available:
- Plane: The cut is performed on the closest surface to the reference plate.
- Surface: Only the intersecting parts of plates are cut.
- Bounding Box: The outermost dimension consisting of width and height is cut out of the plate as a rectangle.
- Convex Envelope: The outer hull of the cross-section is used for the plate cut. If there are fillets at the corner nodes of the cross-section, the cut is adapted to them.
Building stone on stone has a long tradition in construction. The Masonry Design add-on for RFEM allows you to design masonry using the finite element method. It was developed as part of the research project DDMaS - Digitizing the Design of Masonry Structures. Here, the material model represents the nonlinear behavior of the brick-mortar combination in the form of macro-modeling. Do you want to find out more?
For each load case, the deformations can be displayed at the end time.
These results are also documented for you in the printout report of RFEM and RSTAB. You can select the report contents and extent specifically for the individual design checks.
- Automatic generation of FE analysis models: The add-on automatically creates a finite element model (FE) of the steel connection in the background.
- Consideration of all internal forces: The calculation and design checks include all internal forces (N, Vy, Vz, My, Mz, MT) and are not limited to planar loading.
- Automatic load transfer: All load combinations are automatically transferred to the FE analysis model of the connection. The loads are transferred directly from RFEM, so manual data input is not necessary.
- Efficient modeling: The add-on saves you time when modeling complex connection situations. You can also save the created FE analysis model and use it further for your own detailed analyses.
- Extensible library: An extensive and extensible library with predefined steel connection templates is available.
- Wide applicability: The add-on is suitable for connections of any type and shape, compatible with almost all rolled, welded, built-up, and thin-walled cross-sections.
Did you know? The structural optimization in the programs RFEM and RSTAB is a completion of the parametric input. It is a parallel process beside the actual model calculation with all its regular calculation and design definitions. The add-on assumes that your model or block is built with a parametric context and is controlled in its entirety by global control parameters of the "optimization" type. Therefore, these control parameters have a lower and upper limit and a step size to delimit the optimization range. If you want to find optimal values for the control parameters, you have to specify an optimization criterion (for example, minimum weight) with the selection of an optimization method (for example, particle swarm optimization).
You can already find the cost and CO2 emission estimation in the material definitions. You can activate both options individually in each material definition. The estimation is based on a unit for unit cost or unit emission for members, surfaces, and solids. In this case, you can select whether to specify the units by weight, volume, or area.
You can now insert a cap plate in steel joints with only a few clicks. You can enter the data using the known definition types "Offsets" or "Dimensions and Position". By specifying a reference member and the cutting plane, it is also possible to omit the Member Section component.
This component allows you to easily model cap plates on column ends, for example.
- Artificial intelligence technology (AI): Particle swarm optimization (PSO)
- Structure optimization according to the minimum weight or deformation
- Use of any number of optimization parameters
- Specification of variable ranges
- Optimization of cross-sections and materials
- Parameter definition types
- Optimization | Ascending or Optimization | Descending
- Application of parametric models and blocks
- Code-based JavaScript parametrization of blocks
- Optimization taking into account the design results
- Tabular display of the best model mutations
- Real-time display of the model mutations in the optimization process
- Model cost estimation by specifying unit prices
- Determination of the global warming potential GWP when realizing the model by estimating the CO2 equivalent
- Specification of weight-, volume-, and area-based units (price and CO2e)
There are two methods that you can use for the optimization process, with which you can find optimal parameter values according to a weight or deformation criterion.
The most efficient method with the littlest calculation time is the near-natural particle swarm optimization (PSO). Have you heard or read about it? This artificial intelligence (AI) technology has a strong analogy to the behavior of flocks of animals, looking for a resting place. In such swarms, you can find many individuals (cf. optimization solution - for example, weight) who like to stay in a group and follow the group movement. Let's assume that each individual swarm member has a need to rest at an optimal resting place (cf. best solution - for example, lowest weight). This need increases as the resting place is approached. Thus, the swarm behavior is also influenced by the properties of the space (cf. result diagram).
Why the excursion into biology? Quite simply – the PSO process in RFEM or RSTAB proceeds in a similar way. The calculation run starts with an optimization result from a random assignment of the parameters to be optimized. It repeatedly determines new optimization results with varied parameter values, which are based on the experience of the previously performed model mutations. The process continues until the specified number of possible model mutations is reached.
As an alternative to this method, the program also offers you a batch processing method. This method attempts to check all possible model mutations by randomly specifying the values for the optimization parameters until a predetermined number of possible model mutations is reached.
After calculating a model mutation, both variants also check the respective activated design results of the add-ons. Furthermore, they save the variant with the corresponding optimization result and value assignment of the optimization parameters if the utilization is < 1.
You can determine the estimated total costs and emission from the respective sums of the individual materials. The sums of the materials are composed of the weight-based, volume-based, and area-based partial sums of the member, surface, and solid elements.
Have you created the entire structure in RFEM? Very well, now you can assign the individual structural components and load cases to the corresponding construction stages. In each construction stage, you can modify release definitions of members and supports, for example.
You can thus model structural modifications, such as those that occur when bridge girders are successively grouted or when columns are settled. Then, assign the load cases created in RFEM to the construction stages as permanent or non-permanent loads.
Did you know that The combinatorics allows you to superimpose the permanent and non-permanent loads in load combinations. In this way, it is possible for you to determine the maximum internal forces of different crane positions or to consider temporary mounting loads available in one construction stage only.
- Simple definition of construction stages in the RFEM structure including visualization
- Adding, removing, modifying, and reactivating member, surface, and solid elements and their properties (for example, member and line hinges, degrees of freedom for supports, and so on)
- Automatic and manual combinatorics with load combinations in the individual construction stages (for example, to consider mounting loads, mounting cranes, and other loads)
- Consideration of nonlinear effects such as tension member failure or nonlinear supports
- Interaction with other add-ons, such as Nonlinear Material Behavior, Structure Stability, Form-Firnding, and so on.
- Display of results numerically and graphically for individual construction stages
- Detailed printout report with documentation of all structural and load data for each construction stage
If there are geometry differences arising between the ideal and the deformed structural system from the previous construction stage, they are compared in the program. The next construction stage is built on top of the stressed system from the previous construction stage. This calculation is nonlinear.
Compared to the RF‑/STAGES add-on module (RFEM 5), the following new features have been added to the Construction Stages Analysis (CSA) add-on for RFEM 6:
- Consideration of construction stages at RFEM level
- Integration of the construction stage analysis into the combinatorics in RFEM
- Additional structural elements, such as line hinges, are supported
- Analysis of alternative construction processes in a model
- Reactivation of elements