Overview
FRCcalc is a software developed for the analysis of structural members in fibre reinforced concrete (FRC) with or without conventional steel reinforcements. The analysis is performed at a cross section level of a member of 2D plane frame or shell structures. The members can be submitted to bending, shear and axial force. The ultimate and serviceability limit state safety verifications (ULS and SLS, respectively) of structural members are performed by FRCcalc. The software adopts the recommendations and design guidelines of Model Code 2010 [1].
[1] – fib-federation internationale du beton, fib Model Code for Concrete Structures 2010. John Wiley & Sons, 2013.
Features
FRCcalc is guided to the analysis of rectangular cross-sections with or without conventional passive steel reinforcements, submitted to axial, bending and shear forces.
A main feature of the software is the possibility to run a comparative analysis between FRC and conventionally reinforced concrete (RC) cross-sections or even hybrid reinforcement (conventional with fibre reinforcements, herein designated by the acronym R/FRC), which was implemented to assess the improvement provided by the addition of fibre reinforcement to concrete and to assess the potentialities of replacing conventional reinforcement by fibers.
The software allows to perform the following analysis, for FRC, RC and R/FRC members:
- Ultimate flexural capacity.
- Evaluation of the moment vs. curvature relationship at Ultimate Limit States (ULS).
- Ultimate shear capacity.
- Evaluation of design crack width.
- Determination of moment vs. design crack width relationship at Serviceability Limit States (SLS).
- Evaluation of stress limitation criteria at SLS.
- Perform the safety verifications for multiple ULS and SLS load combinations.
The good predictive performance of the models implemented in FRCcalc has been demonstrated in several technical and scientific publication in this regard [2], [3].
[2] – Tiago Valente, Joaquim Barros, and Lúcio Lourenço, “FRCcalc – Software for design of fiber reinforced concrete elements according to MC2010 recommendations,” presented at the FRC2018: Fibre Reinforced Concrete: from Design to Structural Applications Joint ACI-fib-RILEM International Workshop, Desenzano del Garda, Italy, 2018.
[3] – Tiago Valente, “Advanced tools for design and analysis of fiber reinforced concrete structures,” PhD Thesis, University of Minho, Guimarães, Portugal, 2019.
Always updated
FRCcalc is being continuously updated in order to add new functionalities and improvements to the design tool.
It is guaranteed the release of new versions of FRCcalc in case of changes in the guidelines and codes the software is based. A continuous monitoring of the most recent and significant research projects and published peer-reviewed articles regarding fibre reinforced concrete structures can also lead to the release of updated versions of FRCcalc.
A new version of FRCcalc is planned to be released with the upcoming design guidelines of the new Eurocode 2 – Annex L : “Steel Fibre Reinforced Concrete Structures”.
Releases
VERSION 2.2.4 (2022/06/17)
- In the SLS safety verification for RC cross-section is always considered the concrete tensile strength.
- Improved algorithm to resolve the axial bending analysis of cross-sections.
- New interface to display detected errors during calculations.
- Bugfix of the graphical representation of the stress-strain model of concrete in compression in SLS analysis, when creep coefficient is considered.
- Reduced processing time for calculation of the analysis of multiple ULS and SLS load combinations.
VERSION 2.2.3 (2022/05/16)
- New graphical representation of the constitutive models to simulate concrete/FRC in compression and tension.
- New detailed results graphical output to present the strain and stress distribution in the cross-section.
- User interface bugfixes.
- Reduced processing time for calculation and user interface windows update.
VERSION 2.2.2 (2021/03/15)
- User interface bugfixes.
- Reduced processing time for calculation and user interface windows update.
- Improvements in the interface for performing the safety verifications for multiple ULS and SLS load combinations.
- Changes in the type of results presented in the shear resistance verification for fiber reinforced concrete members without conventional longitudinal reinforcements.
VERSION 2.2.1 (2021/05/21)
- User interface bugfixes.
VERSION 2.2.0 (2021/05/18)
- Added new functionality to perform the safety verifications for multiple ULS and SLS load combinations.
- User interface bugfixes.
VERSION 2.1.4 (2021/03/08)
- User interface bugfixes.
VERSION 2.1.3 (2021/03/04)
- Added functionalities to export results file.
- Bugfix of export results file.
VERSION 2.1.2 (2020/03/01)
- Improvement of results output.
VERSION 2.1.1 (2020/02/25)
- Bugfix of drawing longitudinal reinforcements.
- Improvement of results output.
VERSION 2.1.0 (2020/02/24)
- Added possibility to consider 2 sets of shear reinforcements for each cross-section.
- Added possibility to define specific longitudinal reinforcements at shear control section.
- Fixed minor bugs in user interface controls.
- Updated help file.
VERSION 2.0.0 (2020/02/02)
- Distribution of version for windows 32 and 64bits platform.
- Major improvement of performance, stability and reduction of time of computation.
- Major improvements in user interaction.
- Improvement of results output options.
- Added export results for .xslx file.
- Added load and save data file.
VERSION 1.0.0 (2019/06/14)
- Launch of first version of the software
Type of licenses
USB dongle: the device must be plugged in the machine in order to FRCcalc can run.
Stand-alone: the license is installed in a specific machine (hardware locked). It can not be transferred to a different machine.
Buy a license / Request trial
Minimum system requirements
Operating system: Windows 7 SP1 (32-bit, 64-bit), Windows 8.1 (32-bit, 64-bit) or Windows 10 (32-bit, 64-bit).
RAM: 512MB
CPU: 1 GHz
Disk space: 5GB