RAM Structural System Help

Two-way Slab Deck

RAM Concrete always meshes a slab when it is designated two-way, whether it is the only type on the floor or if other one-way decks also exist on the floor. In RAM Concrete the mesh generation of a slab deck includes all the gravity and lateral members sitting on, or supported by, the slab and hence mesh generated is always conformal with the attached elements.

Openings are also considered during the mesh generation if any exist. The mesh is generated for every deck laid on the floor type and hence there is no mesh element sharing between two different deck types. The mesh is considered continuous between any two decks. The thickness and elasticity properties used for various elements in the different slab-decks are set by the user in the modeler. There are no constraints applied to the slab deck mesh for the two-way analysis and hence an almost exact analysis is performed using the assigned properties and within the assumptions/limitations of various finite elements used. It is recommended that user analyze the model with few decreasing maximum mesh sizes in order to ensure the convergence behavior of the model (i.e. results shouldn't change significantly between different mesh sizes).