This material model allows you to consider masonry walls in an FEM model that cannot absorb any tension forces and react with the formation of cracks.
In the dialog box, you can define the limit tension stresses in the direction of the surface axes x and y; that is, parallel and perpendicular to bed joints. During the calculation, the program analyzes in several iterations which finite elements become stress-free due to the failure criterion.
There is no stress limitation in the compression area.
As a result of the calculation, RFEM displays the internal forces that can be used for further design.
If numerical problems occur during the calculation, you can try to reach convergence by increasing the hardening factor CH or by entering a low tensile strength.
By modifying the tensile strengths, you can also influence the load distribution in the transverse direction.
If there is no allowable tensile force,
there is no transverse distribution;
if there is moderate allowable tensile force,
the transverse distribution is small;
and if there is great allowable tensile force,
the transverse distribution is large.
