Concrete Bridge Reinforcement

Tekla Structures

Not version-specific

Tekla Structures

bridge

CIP

reinforcement

rebar

CIP Reinforcement Plugins

cast-in-place

cast in place

paikallavalu

raudoitus

Environment

Not environment-specific

Demo

1. Purpose and description

In cast-in-place (CIP) modeling, a designer usually faces complex geometries. To make reinforcement modeling task more comfortable and less time consuming Concrete Bridge Reinforcement plugin components for Tekla Structures have been developed. Plugins recognize geometry of extruded structure to be reinforced and then utilize normal Tekla Structures functionality for inserting reinforcement objects into the model.

The plugins can be used with consecutive beams created by the Beam Extruder extension. Since version 9, the plugins can be used to reinforce single beams, polybeams and certain concrete items, wether they are curved or not. For the plugins to work reliably with items they need to have been modeled in a certain way, i.e. they need to consist of consecutive (potentially varying) cross sections that the deck has been swept through so that parallell vertexes can be found along the item edges.

2. Installation and launch

The application Concrete Bridge Reinforcement can be downloaded from Tekla Warehouse. After download run the installer from the plugin folder. Follow the instructions of the setup program. The setup copies files to the following locations:
• Plugin dll:s: [Tekla Structures installation folder]\[Version]\nt\bin\plugins\tekla\Model\CIPReinforcement
• Tranlations: [Tekla Structures installation folder]\[Version]\messages\DotAppsStrings
• Standard presets: [Tekla Structures data folder]\[Version]\Environments\common\system
• Plugin icons: [Tekla Structures data folder]\[Version]\Bitmaps

3. Basic Usage

On the Component Catalog, plugins category:

Picture 1. Component catalog view

3.1. MainBars

Picture 2. Main bars - Reinforcing bar tab page

On the Reinforcing bar tab page, basic attributes, splice and cutting information are given. User can also define to use splice object and weather the rebars should clash in splices or are the rebars created parallel in splices. Same length for parallel bars can also be used and in that case the last rebar is adjusted to fit the geometry.

Picture 3. Main bars - Group tab page

On the Groups tab, the spacing information is given. Spacing can be adjusted “Equally by number of bars” or “By exact spacing values” according to the creation method. in “By exact spacing value” every spacing value has to be set individually and number of rebars are created according to the spacing values for example: 150 100 2*150 10*200.

The basic idea of the tool is that reinforcement object definition points are generated in relation to a given concrete beam face. The same face is queried for each consequent beam that have been selected in the model. Start the tool by clicking it on the Component Catalog. Pick a beam in the model. Then pick two points in the beginning face of the beam you picked:

Picture 4. Selecting the bottom face to be reinforced

Picture 5. Selecting the consecutive beams to be reinforced

Press the middle mouse button (scroll) to finish the command. As the result, bar polygons are generated according to concrete cover and spacing settings. Bars are inserted into model according to polygons and the attribute data given on the tool dialog:

Picture 6. Created rebars according to input data

A good way to distribute splices in the cross section is to create two parallel components with different length of the starting bar. This way every other bar is cut and spliced in each cross-section:

Picture 7. Splice distribution

3.2. CrossBars

Picture 8. Cross bars - General tab page

Picture 9. Cross bars - Group tab page

The tool creates crossing bars with the given shape. Start the tool by clicking it on the Component Catalog. In the model, pick a beam and then pick the shape of the bar using the corner points of the part you picked. Terminate the command with the middle mouse button:

Picture 10. Picking the polygon for cross bar shape

Select the beams in the model and press the middle mouse button to finish the input. As the result, bar groups are created according to selected beam faces:

Picture 11. Created reinforcement

On the Group tab of the tool dialog, there is the option Merge groups. If the option is not checked, a reinforcement group is created for each segment of the
beam structure. With the option checked, the groups are merged.

3.3. Stirrups

Picture 12. Stirrups - Reinforcing bar tab page

Picture 13. Stirrups - Bar shape tab page

Picture 14. Stirrups - Group tab page

The tool generates parallel stirrups according to the spacing settings. Transverse spacing values define the parallel spacing.

In this example, two stirrups of width 400 mm are created with 700 mm parallel distance. There are fields for height and angle of the legs. The tool takes care that none of the legs goes through the top surface. The user input is similar as for the longitudinal bar tool. Start the tool, pick the bottom line, select the beams to be reinforced and press the middle mouse button.

Picture 15. Created stirrups