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
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.
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.
Was the calculation successful? Now you can view the results of the individual construction stages graphically and in tables in RFEM. Moreover, RFEM allows you to consider the construction stages in the combinatorics and include it in further design.
Have you activated the Time-Dependent Analysis (TDA) add-on? Very well, now you can add time data to load cases. After you have defined the start and end of the load, the influence of creep at the end of the load is taken into account. The program allows you to model creep effects for frame and truss structures made of reinforced concrete.
In this case, the calculation is performed nonlinearly according to the rheological model (Kelvin and Maxwell model).
Was the calculation successful? You can now display the determined internal forces in tables and graphics, and consider them in the design.
Stress determination using an elastic-plastic material model
Design of masonry disc structures for compression and shear on the building model or single model
Automatic determination of stiffness of a wall-slab hinge
An extensive material database for almost all stone-mortar combinations available on the Austrian market (the product range is continuously being expanded, for other countries as well)
Automatic determination of material values according to Eurocode 6 (ÖN EN 1996‑X)
You enter and model the structure directly in RFEM. You can combine the masonry material model with all common RFEM add-ons. This enables you to design the entire building models in connection with masonry.
The program automatically determines for you all parameters required for the calculation by using the material data that you have entered. Then, it finally generates the stress-strain curves for each FE element.
Was your design successful? Then just sit back and relax. You benefit from the numerous functions in RFEM also here. The program gives you the maximum stresses of the masonry surfaces, whereby you can display the results in detail at each FE mesh point.
Moreover, you can insert sections in order to carry out a detailed evaluation of the individual areas. Use the display of the yield areas to estimate the cracks in the masonry.
Once you activate the Form-Finding add-on in the Base Data, a form-finding effect is assigned to the load cases with the load case category "Prestress" in conjunction with the form-finding loads from the member, surface, and solid load catalog. This is a prestress load case. It thus mutates into a form-finding analysis for the entire model with all member, surface, and solid elements defined in it. You reach the form-finding of the relevant member and membrane elements amid the overall model by using special form-finding loads and regular load definitions. These form-finding loads describe the expected state of deformation or force after the form-finding in the elements. The regular loads describe the external loading of the entire system.
Do you know exactly how the form-finding is performed? First, the form-finding process of the load cases with the load case category "Prestress" shifts the initial mesh geometry to an optimally balanced position by means of iterative calculation loops. For this task, the program uses the Updated Reference Strategy (URS) method by Prof. Bletzinger and Prof. Ramm. This technology is characterized by equilibrium shapes that, after the calculation, comply almost exactly with the initially specified form-finding boundary conditions (sag, force, and prestress).
In addition to the pure description of the expected forces or sags on the elements to be formed, the integral approach of the URS also enables a consideration of regular forces. In the overall process, this allows, for example, for a description of the self-weight or a pneumatic pressure by means of corresponding element loads.
All these options give the calculation kernel the potential to calculate anticlastic and synclastic forms that are in an equilibrium of forces for planar or rotationally symmetric geometries. In order to be able to realistically implement both types individually or together in one environment, the calculation provide you with two ways to describe the form-finding force vectors:
Tension method - description of the form-finding force vectors in space for planar geometries
Projection method - description of the form-finding force vectors on a projection plane with fixation of the horizontal position for conical geometries