Timber Design for RFEM 6 | Features

Your options in timber design are diverse. You can consider cut-to-grain angles, transverse tension stresses, and volume-dependent radii of curvature for tapered and curved members. To design the area of the grain cut, the strength is adjusted accordingly in the case of bending tension or bending pressure. In order to also allow you to perform a stability analysis with the equivalent member method, the height to determine the effective and lateral-torsional buckling lengths is set at a distance of 0.65 × h to the actual design point.

There is often no fire resistance design for the lateral supports of a structure. Would you like to handle this differently in your project? In order to consider this in the calculation, you can define other equivalent member lengths for the fire situation.

Dlubal Software just makes everything a little easier. The performed design checks of the design standard are displayed in a clear way. A design criterion is determined for each design check. Furthermore, the program deliver the design details displayed in a structured way, including the initial values, the intermediate results, and the final results. An information window in the design details shows you the calculation process with the applied formulas, standard sources, and results in great detail.

Use the member cross-section reductions to consider the start, internal, or end notches of a beam. The beam reduction is thus taken into account in the calculation of the load-bearing capacity. However, this does not apply to the stiffness.

Is there torsion? In this case, you can decide how to perform the design. You have the following options:

• Allow further design if shear stress due to torsion does not exceed limit value
• Design according to Timber Construction Manual, 4.6
• Ignoring torsion

Did you know? In the Design Supports, you can now define fully threaded screws as transversal compression stiffening elements for the "Compression Perpendicular to Grain" design. In this case, the pressing-in and buckling of the bolts is analyzed.

Moreover, the design shear resistance is checked in the plane of the screw tip. The angle of dispersal can be considered as linear under 45° or nonlinear (according to Bejtka, I. (2005). Verstärkung von Bauteilen aus holz mit vollgewindeschrauben. KIT Scientific Publishing.).

Using the "Beam Panel" thickness type, you can model timber panel elements in 3D space. Simply specify the surface geometry and the timber panel elements are automatically generated using an internal member-surface construct, including the element connection stiffness. The Beam Panel thickness type is defined using the Multilayer Surfaces add-on.

A "beam panel" provides you with the following advantages:

• Single-sided or double-sided sheathing
• Automatic calculation of a semi-rigid coupling between studs and sheathing
  • Nailed sheathing connection
  • Stapled sheathing connection
  • User-defined sheathing connection
• Representation as a complete geometric 3D object (frame, studs, surface, etc.), including eccentricity and automatically calculated stiffness between elements
• Consider openings via surface cells
• Design of the individual structural elements utilizing the Timber Design add-on (full shear wall design planned for a future release)
• Other material options available (e.g., particle board, gypsum, or fiberboard sheathing with cold-formed steel sections)

• Go to Explanatory Video