FEA Software

[irving2008]

Does that explain the slower than normal progress on your workshop build Irving ;-)

Lol

No, progress halted by the fact the hole is doing a poor impression of a swimming pool filled with porridge :(


But before I order the reinforcing mesh I want to check out that A142 mesh is sufficient and whether I should put 1 layer mid beam or 2, top and bottom, or fold the top one down the sides and back under the footings

The reason being thast the clay soil I am 'floating' the raft into can experience 'heave' of up to 150mm potentially so there's quite a bit of stress on the raft if thats all at one end...

[Jonathan]

I'm not sure about what free FEA software for stress analysis you can obtain, but for magnetics I use FEMM however it does also do heat flow. I remember you were calculating the heat loss from the building earlier, perhaps it could help with that?

At the very least you'll get some pretty pictures...

[Peter.]

No, progress halted by the fact the hole is doing a poor impression of a swimming pool filled with porridge :(


But before I order the reinforcing mesh I want to check out that A142 mesh is sufficient and whether I should put 1 layer mid beam or 2, top and bottom, or fold the top one down the sides and back under the footings

The reason being thast the clay soil I am 'floating' the raft into can experience 'heave' of up to 150mm potentially so there's quite a bit of stress on the raft if thats all at one end...

I've never seen weldmesh folded - don't even know if it can be!

From a dismantling point of view, I would prefer that you only put one layer of mesh in the top, that would guarantee an easy job of demolition. One layer in the mid would be next-easiest with the top layer and bottom of footing third easiest. Most robust would be top & bottom layer of steel in the slab. U-bars on the egdes fully tied into both meshes even better again, you have a strong slab then. Best of all would be a full cage in the footings with top/bottom layer in the slab with u-bar links but you're looking at a few bob for that.