Matt Foundation Design Program
Matt Foundation Design Program
(OP)
Can anyone suggest a very user friendly Matt Foundation design program to purchase?. Got one coming up and will need to get a program.
Does Enercalc do this?
Does Enercalc do this?
Mike McCann
MMC Engineering
http://mmcengineering.tripod.com






RE: Matt Foundation Design Program
RE: Matt Foundation Design Program
RE: Matt Foundation Design Program
Analysis and Design of arbitrary cross sections
Reinforcement design to all major codes
Moment Curvature analysis
http://www.engissol.com/cross-section-analysis-des...
RE: Matt Foundation Design Program
RE: Matt Foundation Design Program
http://www.risa.com/documents/pdfs/FiniteElementCo...
The paper was written by one of our developers in 2007. The intent of the paper was to point out that this particular flaw (thin plate formulations) existed in some of the popular Mat design software.
FWIW: I have some personal experience on this issue as well. When my old employer was building a new office, our department head was ranting about the program they used for designing the foundation (I believe that it was PCA mats). Specifically, the foundation needed to be redesigned at the last minute because the design program used a "thin plate" formulation that did not account properly for out of plane shear in thick plates. My group (which was in charge of validating structural software for the company) got some heat for not having pre-identified the flaws in the program.
RE: Matt Foundation Design Program
RE: Matt Foundation Design Program
For bending moment, I believe that would be true. But, the shear forces could be under-estimated. In that way, you might be conservative with the amount of reinforcement, but unconservative with the thickness of the slab.
We're not talking about giant, huge discrepancies here.... maybe 15% for a pretty thick mat like the example given in the paper. And, the dimensions and such for that slab were probably chosen to give a higher than normal discrepancy. So, it's not one of those "stop eveything" issues that we sometimes see. For most foundations the discrpancies are small enough that it's really not an issue of safety
It's just one of those things where true FEM guys wonder why you would use that type of element for thick mats. Elevated slabs and thinner slabs would be fine. But, thicker foundations (like you sometimes get with pile foundations) could be problematic. I know I cringed a little when I read that WWTEng said that he had used PCA for a pile supported slab.
RE: Matt Foundation Design Program
RE: Matt Foundation Design Program
regarding the price...well that is a different storey
RE: Matt Foundation Design Program
*storey - story
SAFE is by CSI
RE: Matt Foundation Design Program
I get your point. You're assuming that any flaws in the FEM analysis are minor and that they'll tend to be conservative. And, in the "real world of mud and concrete", you think a thin plate analysis is good enough. That's a valid argument. After all, how accurate can ANY analysis be if it doesn't account for soil non-linearity or interaction with the super-structure or such? There are so many simplifications and unknows in foundation design that we shouldn't pretend that we know the "true" results to 8 significant figures. I get that.
Even so, it still seems odd that some programs use a tool (thin plate FEM formulation) that has been obsolete for so long. It's not like the thick plate formulations are new. They have been around since at least 1990, probably earlier. And, for a FOUNDATION program to ignore these elements and use a thin plate formulation seems quite odd to me. Odd, not negligent or irresponsible. Just odd....
RE: Matt Foundation Design Program
RE: Matt Foundation Design Program
RE: Matt Foundation Design Program
RE: Matt Foundation Design Program
JWB
RE: Matt Foundation Design Program
chris magadia
www.chrismagadia.com
ChrisMagadia.Com - The Structural Engineers' Forum and Resources Website. Civilizations owe its existence to Structural Engineering. Do you Agree?
RE: Matt Foundation Design Program
RE: Matt Foundation Design Program
M.S. Structural Engineering
Licensed Structural Engineer and Licensed Professional Engineer (Illinois)