I am working on the analysis of an existing waffle slab structure. I am using a RAM Concept model (started from RSS). I have uploaded the model as Waffle_TDL.zip
I'm not sure I've got it set up right, an am looking for some guidance on a variety of subjects. I have read the previous posts regarding waffle slabs (here and here) but am still left scratching my head.
-Analysis takes a very long time (2+ hours) even with a generous mesh size (6 feet). Looking at my resource monitor, it seems that concept never goes over about 12% of my CPU and only 1.mb RAM (out of 32 total), though I'm using the 64bit version. I'm using the Pardiso solver. Is there anything else I can do to speed up the analysis time?
-I only have design strips and assigned rebar in the portion of the building that I'm interested in - there are some one way slabs outside the scope of my current study, but in the model. I'm also only running a validation analysis (not designing new bars)
-I'm not sure I've set up my priorities right, slab and drop cap as same priority, ribs as beams. Should the ribs also have priority assigned?
-Errors with shear reinforcing/shear cores. I've modeled the shear bars as the existing shows, but have had my analysis fail with "overlapping shear bars" or something to that effect.
Any and all guidance is welcome.
Thanks,
I think the Concept analysis is limited to a single core which might account for the limited CPU resources it claims. Using the 64 bit version and he Pardiso solver are good ideas. The other things I can think of to possibly speed things up are to:
Assuming the rib beams are the thickest items, it doesn't matter if they are given a higher priority and meshed using the slab priority method or just meshed as beams. The result should be the same. You can always check the element perspective for confirmation of the final meshed structure.
User shear bars are fairly new. Using them in narrow ribs, especially where design strips encompass multiple ribs could potentially be causing your problems, but we would need to see the model to judge. Use the Secure File upload link below left to send, and let me know what it's called when done.
User defined shear bars are being saved properly for me using Concept 5.2 and RAM SS 14.06.02.00 (both 64 bit). I tested launching the Concept level a couple of times from Manager, and I even extracted the file from the working directory like this post indicates and all worked fine.
A couple of Ram Concept developers looked into your problem.
The biggest slow down is in the detailing of user bars, as we both noticed. They have logged a defect to improve the performance for this with the next release, if possible.
Regarding the 64 bit version, below is a nice explanation of what changed from 32 bit. The same applies to most other products that have 64 bit versions, like RAM Structural System:
Despite what the processor manufacturers want you to believe, not every 64 bit program will be significantly faster than its 32 bit version.
If the program moves around significantly large chunks of data, like video playback, then the wider data paths will speed that up. However, a 64 bit computation-bound program will only be 10-20% faster. That's what we have observed with Concept.
The biggest improvement to Concept x64 is a much larger address space for data. So instead of having to fit the program executable and your model data into 3Gb, 64 bit Concept has plenty of room for huge models. The "Available memory" for Concept on your machine should be in the 10's of Gb's range, limited only by the amount of physical RAM you have in your machine.
This portion of the analysis is single threaded (some parts are multi-threaded).
Answer Verified By: TLiebhold