CSA S157-17 (R2022) Aluminum Design in RFEM 6
A full walkthrough of aluminum member design to the CSA S157 standard in RFEM 6, built around an aluminum carport. The session opens in RSECTION, where a custom extrusion drawn in CAD becomes a cross section the design add-on can check for local buckling. It then moves into RFEM 6 to build the frame, add the details aluminum design actually depends on — transverse stiffeners, eccentricities, unbraced lengths, and design supports — generate the wind loading from a CFD simulation, and finally read every code check back to the clause it came from.
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Webinar language
English (US)Recommended skill level
Skills you will gain
- Turn a CAD drawing of a custom aluminum extrusion into a cross section RFEM 6 can design
- Choose between the thin-walled and FEA calculation methods in RSECTION, and know why the elements matter later
- Model a frame so that member sets, eccentricities, and rotations survive later changes to the geometry
- Set unbraced lengths through intermediate supports that follow the geometry instead of fixed values
- Apply transverse stiffeners and aluminum design supports to unlock the stiffened shear and web crippling checks
- Generate wind loading from a CFD simulation and bring it back into the load combinations as static loads
- Trace any CSA S157 design ratio down to the formulas, variables, and clause references behind it
This webinar includes
Webinar content
Amy Heilig lays out the agenda and names the thread that runs through the whole session: the places where RFEM 6 goes further than the CSA S157 standard strictly asks for. The webinar is built around one aluminum carport, followed from a CAD drawing of the extrusion all the way to the finished code checks.
Aluminum rarely comes in catalog shapes, so the session starts in RSECTION with a DXF drawing of a custom extrusion. The two calculation methods are compared — the thin-walled approach and the FEA approach — and the segment then walks the whole sequence: turning imported lines into a part, generating the elements that the design add-on later reads for local buckling, and calculating and saving the section properties ready for RFEM.
Back in RFEM 6, the base data dialog is where the add-ons, the load combination standard, and the design standard are chosen — the aluminum design add-on and CSA S157 among them. The section then covers the cross section library: a standard shape defined by its dimensions, and next to it the custom extrusion linked in from RSECTION, carrying its element subdivision with it.
The frame is built from scratch: columns drawn perpendicular to the work plane with moment releases, a continuous beam divided into segments and then tied back together as a member set so it can be designed as one piece, and inclined columns added. Copying the frame generates the purlins automatically between the copied nodes. A load transfer surface is added for the roof, and the purlins are given an eccentricity and a rotation so they follow the roof slope.
A short return to the slides explains why this matters: CSA S157 treats flat webs with and without stiffeners under separate clauses, with different shear capacity equations. RFEM 6 can design to the stiffened case directly, using member transverse stiffeners placed along the beam. They are defined here at the points where the purlins frame in, and they change the design without touching the analysis.
Everything the code checks depend on is set up member by member: the stability failure modes and the choice between an eigenvalue calculation and the code equations for lateral-torsional buckling, intermediate supports that track the geometry so unbraced lengths update themselves, cross section reductions for holes, deflection limits, and the aluminum design supports that unlock web crippling checks — a check most design software does not carry out at all.
The load cases behind the model are reviewed, and wind is handed to a CFD simulation in RWIND rather than taken from a table, so the effect of the car parked underneath is actually captured. The load combinations are generated automatically, and the clauses on second-order effects and on stiffness reduction are satisfied through the analysis settings and a structure modification — set up once for the strength combinations and deliberately switched off for the deflection ones.
The wind simulation is opened directly: pressures on the structure and on the car, pressure coefficients, slices through the flow, streamlines, and an animation that can be saved into the report. Back in RFEM the wind becomes ordinary static loads that combine with the rest, and the section closes on deformations, internal forces, result diagrams, support reactions, and the result tables.
The aluminum design add-on delivers a design ratio for every member set, filtered down to the governing check, with failures called out plainly. Each check opens into a line-by-line view of the code formulas and references behind it — including the stiffened shear check and web crippling. Results by cross section show the custom extrusion with its elements classified and its effective section, which is how local buckling reaches the design.
Who this webinar is for
- Engineers designing aluminum structures who cannot find their extrusion in any cross section library
- RFEM 6 users who want the design checks to update themselves when the geometry changes
- Engineers on a Canadian project who need CSA S157 member design and NBC load combinations in one model
- Anyone who has had to accept a design ratio from software without seeing the equation behind it
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Webinars review
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Instructors
Amy Heilig, PE
CEO – USA Subsidiary
Amy is the CEO of the U.S. subsidiary and is responsible for sales and continued program development for the North American market.
Alex Bacon, EIT
Support Engineer
Alex handles customer training and technical support for the North American market and works on continued program development.
Cisca Tjoa, PE
Senior Support Engineer
Cisca is the senior support engineer for the North American market, covering customer training, technical support, and program development.
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