2.1                       Integration of CivilFEM in ANSYS

CivilFEM is a set of preprocessing, solution and post processing tools that is integrated within ANSYS to enhance the user’s evaluation of civil engineering problems.

CivilFEM commands are implemented in ANSYS as external commands through means of routines written and compiled into dynamic link libraries (DLL); these libraries are accessible through an explicit declaration in the ans_ext.tbl ANSYS file.

All of the CivilFEM tools have been integrated into the ANSYS GUI with their corresponding menus and commands. Users can therefore access them in the same manner as they would for ANSYS commands.

The integration of CivilFEM into ANSYS allows users to take advantage of the advanced capabilities of ANSYS while using CivilFEM commands: APDL Programming, File *.log, interactive Help...

The data flow between ANSYS and CivilFEM is schematized in the following figure.

 

 

2.2                       Active Units System

CivilFEM allows performing calculations in any consistent units system. However, the user must determine which units system is going to be used (see ~UNITS command), since many aspects concerning checking according to codes depend on the active units system used (for example calculation formulae using non-solid units)

The active units system must be defined at the beginning of the session and shall not be changed afterwards.

By default, the active units system is the International System of Units (N, m, s).

2.3                       Active Codes

When executing CivilFEM commands which depend on a code, the program checks which one is the active code and accomplishes calculations accordingly. CivilFEM allows having four active codes simultaneously: one for calculations concerning reinforced concrete structures, another for calculations concerning prestressed concrete structures, another for calculations concerning steel structures and another for seismic calculations (see ~CODESEL command).

Table 2.3‑1 Codes or standards for Steel Structures

Table 2.3‑2 Codes or standards for Reinforced Concrete

Table 2.3‑3 Codes or standards for Prestressed Concrete

Table 2.3‑4 Codes or standards for Seismic Analysis

 

By default the active codes are for each calculation type are the following:

 

Structural steel:               Eurocode 3 (EN 1993-1-1:2005)

Reinforced concrete:     Eurocode 2 (EN 1992-1-1:2004/AC:2008)

Prestressed concrete:    Eurocode 2 (EN 1992-1-1:2004/AC:2008)

Seismic calculations:     Eurocode 8 (EN 1998-1-1: 2004)