RFEM 6 | Students | Introduction to FEM

The Construction Stages Analysis (CSA) add-on allows for considering the construction process of structures (member, surface, and solid structures) in RFEM.

In RFEM, the Geotechnical Analysis add-on uses properties from soil samples to determine the soil body to be analyzed. The accurate determination of soil conditions significantly affects the quality of the structural analysis of buildings.

The Modal Analysis add-on allows for the calculation of eigenvalues, natural frequencies, and natural periods for member, surface, and solid models.

The Response Spectrum Analysis add-on performs seismic analysis using multi-modal response spectrum analysis. The spectra required for this can be created in compliance with the standards or can be user-defined. The equivalent static forces are generated from them. The add-on includes an extensive library of accelerograms from seismic zones that can be used to generate the response spectra.

Using the Pushover Analysis add-on, you can analyze the seismic actions on a particular building, and thus assess whether the building can withstand an earthquake.

The Building Model add-on for RFEM allows you to define and manipulate a building using stories. The stories can be adjusted in many ways afterwards. The information about stories and the entire model (center of gravity) is displayed in tables and graphics.

With the Concrete Foundations add-on, you can design square and rectangular individual foundations. In addition to the reinforced concrete design, geotechnical verifications are also carried out. You also determine automatic reinforcement suggestions and receive detailed reinforcement plans and 3D renderings of the foundation structures.

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 titled DDMaS – Digitizing the Design of Masonry Structures. The material model represents the nonlinear behavior of the brick-mortar combination in the form of macro-modeling.