- Define the isotropic linear elastic "facade material" with the average stiffness of the adjacent elements of the main structure without the weight, thermal expansion property, or stiffness modification.
- In the facade areas, describe the surfaces made of the facade material with the "Orthotropic" stiffness type. To ensure that no opposing load is transferred to the main structure at the surface corners, the thickness and torsional stiffness must be defined near zero. We recommend applying the average thickness of the adjacent elements of the main structure / 1,000 as the thickness, and dividing the related torsional stiffness k33 by the factor of 1,000 as well.
- Define a line release between the facade surfaces and the main structure elements so that only forces perpendicular to the main structure elements can be transferred. All other directions must be specified without any force.
- To prevent the surfaces that have been detached with the line releases from slipping in the wall plane, a surface support in the planar degrees of freedom x and y must be placed on the facade surfaces.
Using Facade Surfaces in RFEM for Transmission of Wind Loads to Main Structure
Are there any facade surfaces in RFEM to transmit wind loads to the main structure?
Mr. Niemeier is responsible for the development of RFEM, RSTAB, RWIND Simulation, and in the area of membrane structures. He is also responsible for quality assurance and customer support.
In RFEM and RSTAB, you can visualize the flow field quantities of pressure, velocity, turbulence kinetic energy, and turbulence dissipation rate for the wind simulation.
The clipping planes are aligned with the respective wind direction.
If you have experimentally determined surface pressures available for a model, you can apply them to a structural model in RFEM 6, process them in RWIND 2, and use them as wind loads in the structural analysis of RFEM 6.
You can find out how to apply the experimentally determined values in this Knowledge Base article: Static Analysis with Wind Loads from Experimentally Measured Pressures Using RWIND 2 and RFEM 6
You can display the RWIND results directly in the main program. In the Navigator - Results, select the Wind Simulation Analysis result type from the list above.
Currently, the following results are available, which refer to the RWIND computational mesh:
- Surface pressure
- Surface cp coefficient
- Wall distance y+ (steady flow)
Use RWIND 2 Pro to easily apply a permeability to a surface. All you need is the definition of
- the Darcy coefficient D,
- the inertial coefficient I, and
- the length of the porous medium in the direction of flow L,
to define a pressure boundary condition between the front and back of a porous zone. Due to this setting, you obtain the flow through this zone with a two-part result display on both sides of the zone area.
But that's not all. Furthermore, the generation of a simplified model recognizes permeable zones and takes into account the corresponding openings in the model coating. Can you waive an elaborate geometric modeling of the porous element? Understandable – we have good news for you then! With a pure definition of the permeability parameters, you can avoid complex geometric modeling of the porous element. Use this feature to simulate permeable scaffolding, dust curtains, mesh structures, and so on.
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