Professional Documents
Culture Documents
The following example illustrates the typical process to model and design a mat founda on.
For mat founda ons the overall procedure is basically the same as that for flat slabs, with the excep on that an extra check for mat bearing pressure
is required.
The example has been broken down into the following main steps:
3. Model valida on
a. Add Patches
b. Design Mats
c. Review/Op mise Mat Design
d. Design Patches
e. Review/Op mise Patch Design
f. Add and Run Punching Checks
If using an ‘area’ method of mat crea on you will also need to specify the amount of slab overhang.
The remaining proper es are the same as those used to define a typical concrete flat slab.
The ‘Mesh 2-way slabs in 3D Analysis’ op on gets ac vated automa cally for the level in which the mat is created, enabling the 3D
analysis model to be supported on the ground springs.
In this example the minimum area method is used to create a mat with:
• Imposed loads reduced by 30%
• Default overhang
• mat thickness 600mm
• Ground springs used
• Default allowable bearing pressures
• Default linear spring proper es
Related topics
• Mat Founda on modelling
Model valida on
Once the mat has been placed it is worth running a valida on check from the Model ribbon at this stage - specifically to check for poten al
conflic ng supports.
A ‘Supports exist within area of Mat Founda on’ warning is issued if member supports conflict with ground springs. (This can be remedied by right
clicking on the warning and choosing ‘Delete Items’).
The above processes will also recheck all the member designs taking account of the effects of soil structure interac on.
In a large model, if you an cipate several analysis might be required to determine the size of mat required, you might find it more
efficient to just run the analyses that are required from the Analyse ribbon then re-run the member design at a later stage.
Similarly if an RSA design has previously been performed, but is now out of date Design All (RSA) should be re-run.
If any concrete members now fail, you can switch them back into ‘Autodesign’ mode, (ensuring the ‘Select bars star ng from’ property is set to
‘Current’ rather than ‘Minima) and then design again. This ensures that the bars that were sa sfactory for the original design are only ever increased
not reduced.
When working in a 2D View use the right click menu to design or check mats and patches: this saves me as only the mats and patches
in the current level are considered.
Running Design Mats or Design Patches from the Founda on ribbon may take longer as it considers all the mats and patches in the
model.
Add Patches
This is an interac ve process - requiring a certain amount of engineering judgement..
When placing patches under walls you can choose to place a single patch along the wall, an internal patch under the middle, or end patches at the
wall ends (as shown above).
Typically at the ini al patch crea on stage you should make the patches a reasonable size and not be concerned if they are a bit too big - as this
will be reviewed/resolved at the patch design op misa on stage.
Whilst the command to add Patches appears on both the Founda ons and Design ribbons, the former defaults to crea ng patches on
the bo om surface, the la er to the top surface. For mats the Founda ons ribbon default will generally be correct.
Design Mats
Mat design is dependent on the areas of patches (patch areas which are excluded from mat design) - hence patches should be added
before mats are designed.
1. From the Founda ons ribbon run Design Mats in order to design or check all the mats in the model (each according to their own autodesign
se ng), or,
2. If you have created mats at mul ple levels you may prefer to work on one level at a me. To do this, open a 2D View of the level to be
designed then right click and choose either Design Slabs or Check Slabs.
These right click op ons operate on the same basis as the op ons for beams and columns:
- Design Slabs will re-design slabs and mats (poten ally picking new reinforcement) regardless of the current autodesign se ng.
- Check Slabs will check the current reinforcement in slabs and mats regardless of the current autodesign se ng.
Auto-design will select the smallest allowable bars at the minimum centres necessary to provide sufficient reinforcement area. Larger
bars are only tried when the minimum permissible spacing is reached. Design op ons allow you to control the minimum acceptable
bar sizes and spacings. It is important to use these se ngs so that the reinforcement established in the slabs is sufficiently spaced to
allow introduc on of addi onal reinforcement in the patches. For example you might set a ‘minimum spacing (slab auto design)’ =
150mm.
A er using the Review View update mode to standardise reinforcement you can then run Check Slabs from the right click menu to check the revised
reinforcement.
Remember:
• Consider swapping between Status and Ra o views - if u lisa ons all < 1 but some panels failing then problems are to do with limit checks. The
Ra o view is be er for helping you focus on the cri cal panels.
• During this process it will also make sense to be adding panel patches in which the reinforcement is set to none and strip is set to average. The
purpose of this is to smooth out local peaks at the most cri cal loca ons which would otherwise dictate the background reinforcement level
needed to get a pass status.
Design Patches
Having established and ra onalised the slab panel reinforcement which sets the background levels of reinforcement, it is now logical to design the
patches which will top up the reinforcement as necessary within the strips of each patch.
To do this, either:
1. From the Founda ons ribbon run Design Patches in order to design or check all the founda on patches in the model - by default newly created
patches will all be in ‘auto-design’ mode - so reinforcement is selected automa cally, or,
2. In the 2D View of the level which you want to design right click and choose either Design Patches or Check Patches. Working in this way
restricts the design or checking to the patches in the current view.
These right click op ons operate on the same basis as the op ons for beams and columns:
- Design Patches will re-design the patches (poten ally picking new reinforcement) regardless of the current autodesign se ng.
- Check Patches will check the current reinforcement in the patches regardless of the current autodesign se ng.