Steel Joints and Connections Using FEA

The Base Plate component connects the selected reference component with a concrete block. This component allows you to define anchors in different diameters and classes in an orthogonal pattern.

The steel connection includes a specialized detail in a submodel to simulate the interaction between the steel and concrete, and to consider the anchoring effect. The results of this submodel are used to design the concrete block (contact stress between the base plate and its nonlinear support) and the anchors (internal forces on the component elements).

The design checks are carried out as follows: Check of the steel-concrete interaction and anchor design.

Preloaded bolts increase the strength and stiffness of the connection, prevent relative deformations, and improve fatigue resistance.

In the "Steel Joints" add-on, you can consider preloaded bolts in all components during the calculation.

You can easily activate the preload using the check box in the bolt parameters. This affects the stress-strain analysis as well as the stiffness analysis.

The initial stiffness S_j,ini is a crucial parameter for evaluating whether a connection can be characterized as rigid, semi-rigid, or pinned.

In the "Steel Joints" add-on, you can calculate the initial stiffness S_j,ini according to Eurocode (EN 1993‑1‑8, Section 5.2.2) and AISC (AISC 360-16, Cl. E3.4) with regard to the internal forces N, M_y, and/or M_z.

The optional automatic transfer of initial stiffnesses allows for a directly transfer as member hinge stiffnesses in RFEM. The entire structure is then recalculated and the resulting internal forces are automatically adopted as loads in the analysis and design of the connection models.

This automated iteration process eliminates the need for manual export and import of data, reducing the amount of work and minimizing potential sources of error.