Challenge
In modern facade design, structural components, such as cantilevers and thin-walled plates, are necessary to absorb enormous loads while meeting minimalist aesthetic requirements. For the engineers at plan4m, the greatest challenge lies in performing precise calculations on these slender components. Conventional beam models often reach their limits when modeling complex stress distributions in thin plates, making it difficult to safely push the material to its load limit.
Solution
To manage this complexity, plan4m relies on RFEM 6 and, in particular, uses its powerful surface modeling capabilities to precisely analyze stress distributions. With the Nonlinear Material Behavior add-on, the team can perform design checks, ensuring that every millimeter of material is used efficiently. This shift to detailed FEA calculations guarantees that even complex element facades are implemented in a structurally safe, efficient, and manufacturing-optimized manner.
Benefits
- Unmatched precision: Accurate analysis of thin-walled plates and complex cantilever geometries.
- Material optimization: Significant cost savings achieved by reducing substructures without compromising safety.
- Transparent documentation: Design checks in the style of verifiable manual calculations facilitate plausibility checks.
- Flexibility in materials: Seamless design of steel and aluminum in an integrated environment.
