Civil Engineering expertise

The Construction Industry

EnginSoft is your ideal partner for specific project related consultancies and for the development of integrated tailor made design solutions.

Among the many challenges faced by the industry, the following stand out: compliance with global climate change regulations; the safety and health monitoring of aging infrastructures, which need to be brought up to modern safety standards; cost overruns due to insufficient analysis at the design stage of the project.

These issues are forcing the industry to invest time and resources in the following areas:

  • green buildings, also known as sustainable or high performance buildings; a new field that is gaining quick momentum in the discovery and implementation of processes that are environmentally responsible and resource efficient;
  • new manufacturing processes and materials, which are the main drivers for applied research in the field. Materials typical of other industrial disciplines, such as composite materials, are increasingly being used in the construction industry;
  • more detailed designs to ensure compliance with a broad range of increasingly demanding technical standards;
  • improved assessment and verification of the consequences of rare events associated with significant risk levels for the community in the form of improved fire, seismic and impact analysis of structures in the design phase of a project. The design phase is therefore becoming increasingly important in order to reduce hazards or unexpected circumstances which may have major consequences on the allocated budget.

Today, numerical simulation plays a crucial role in the construction industry. It provides indispensable design tools for the prototyping of new products and structures, resulting in their production at a fraction of the cost that would be incurred if extensive physical testing was used instead. Structural analysis, in which numerical simulation techniques have become the industry standard, provides a palpable example of this.

The complexity of the simulation software available, allows the engineer to deal with most application areas in the construction Industry, even those requiring multi-disciplinary fields such as soil-structure interaction and fluid-structure interaction. Optimization frameworks can be also exploited to drive numerical simulations and to obtain minimum cost solutions, which is of particular importance when facing budget constraints.

EnginSoft offers consultancy in a wide range of civil engineering applications with expertise ranging from the structural analysis of bridges, stadiums and roller coasters to the design of tunnels, to the assessment of offshore installations and the development of expert systems for precast components. EnginSoft is your ideal partner for specific project related consultancies and for the development of integrated tailor made design solutions.

Civil Engineering
The roller coaster - A design challenge combining excitement and rigour

The roller coaster

A design challenge combining excitement and rigour

Read the fascinating article on the origin, history, and evolution of roller coasters from their earliest prototypes in Russia in the 16th century on the banks of the Neva River of St. Petersburg, and then dives into detail on how numerical simulation of roller coasters works to ensure their success both as entertainment and from a safety perspective for users and operators.
It’s a fascinating read, just like these love-‘em or-hate-‘em features that have symbolized amusement parks for almost as long as they have existed.

Read the article

Our expertise in Civil Engineering

CASE STUDY

Lateral Buckling Analysis of a Cable-Stayed Arch

A brilliant example of how computer aided engineering can assist engineers to contrive an optimal solution to the problem of lateral buckling

The cable-stayed arch on one of the three bridges designed by Santiago Calatrava in Reggio Emilia: a brilliant example of an optimal solution

civil-engineering construction straus7

CASE STUDY

The Structural Design of Roller Coasters

An integrated CAD-CAE procedure

Engineers will normally need to evaluate a number of different designs, only one of which will result in the final construction configuration. This is why numerical simulation plays an indispensible role in roller coaster design.

ansys civil-engineering construction

CASE STUDY

Simulating fire extinguishing equipment for historical buildings with Particleworks and Granuleworks

Studies of three methods: a water discharge gun, a drencher, and a firefighting drone

This article presents simulation examples for three types of firefighting equipment for cultural heritage buildings using Particleworks, a CFD software based on the Moving Particle Simulation (MPS) method: a water discharge gun, a drencher, and a firefighting drone.

particleworks civil-engineering

CASE STUDY

Structural Analysis of the Celtic Gateway Footbridge Design

A cable stayed, stainless steel footbridge connecting the port in the Welsh island of Anglesey to the town center of Holyhead

The footbridge is supported by two cable-stayed, stainless steel arches lying on inclined planes, supporting a steel deck with concrete infill.

civil-engineering ansys construction straus7

CASE STUDY

Johannesburg 2010 World Cup Stadium Roof and Facade Design

An ambitious remodeling and expansion plan for the stadium was initiated

The study analyzed these structures for strength, service and stability conditions before construction.

civil-engineering construction ansys

CASE STUDY

ME Elecmetal harnesses power of Rocky DEM to improve crusher liner performance

ME Elecmetal — a global supplier of integrated wear solutions for mining, construction and industry — is among the first companies to benefit from Rocky DEM’s latest technology: the Tavares breakage model.

civil-engineering rocky

CASE STUDY

Cross Validation of the Final Design for the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge

The bridge designed by the world famed architect Santiago Calatrava

The bridge represents an example of a cable stayed mixed steel-concrete structure, where the stay cables are asymmetrically connected to the center of the deck and to the top of the central transverse steel arch.

construction civil-engineering ansys straus7

CASE STUDY

Earthquake evaluation of a stacker crane deployed in the Mexican Republic

The intralogistics sector uses stacker cranes to transport stacked pallets between racks

Stacker cranes handle pallet placement in the warehouse, moving longitudinally along the aisles between the warehouse shelves to deposit and retrieve loads. Stacker cranes are susceptible to earthquakes that can damage them and the racks around them.

mechanics civil-engineering

CASE STUDY

Improving the performance of shaped charges and passive ballistic protections

CAE models evaluated using two commercial solvers

In this technical article, the authors discuss the development of CAE models for simulating the behavior of shaped charges, devices used in various industrial sectors, against two types of target – a monolithic steel target and a multi-layer steel-ceramic target – in order to better understand the physics of penetration.

ansys ls-dyna civil-engineering mechanics oil-gas

CASE STUDY

Conduct fatigue checks directly in Ansys Mechanical using SDC Verifier

Template-based design automates future routine work, and automated documentation facilitates report generation

A lot of steel structures such as cranes, heavy machinery and other equipment subjected to repetitive loading is highly likely to develop cracks or failures because of the fatigue damage.

civil-engineering ansys sdc-verifier

CASE STUDY

Structural optimization of a bridge beam section subjected to instability of equilibrium

CAE and numeric simulation guides engineers to an optimal design for structural safety at the lowest cost

This technical article describes how engineers tackled a design optimization challenge to ensure the structural integrity of a section of the beam of a typical steel bridge whose web of main beams was subject to instability.

civil-engineering modefrontier optimization

CASE STUDY

Integrated Life Cycle Design for Buildings: Invest in Simulation to Increase Comfort and Environmental Sustainability at a Reasonable Cost

Sustainable building design

This article presents a business case for the use of simulation methods and technologies in the construction sector, particularly for decision-support in sustainable building design.

civil-engineering construction environmental

CASE STUDY

The roller coaster

A design challenge combining excitement and rigour

A fascinating article on the origin, history, and evolution of roller coasters from their earliest prototypes in Russia in the 16th century on the banks of the Neva River of St. Petersburg, and then dives into detail on how numerical simulation of roller coasters works to ensure their success both as entertainment and from a safety perspective for users and operators.

mechanics civil-engineering construction optimization

CASE STUDY

FEA of a Reinforced Concrete Tunnel under Fire Conditions

Fire risk verification of tunnel sections of a railway tunnel located in Florence

In this study the concrete tunnel section is discretized using longitudinal and shear truss fibers, together with stiff coupling elements where a transient heat fire analysis takes place.

construction civil-engineering rail-transport straus7

CASE STUDY

Two-step approach to numerical simulation of fire and smoke propagation

Early stage use in design aids fire protection assessment of buildings and evacuation routes faster and more cost effectively

This article explains how the simulation of a severe fire in a warehouse that had caused substantial damage was undertaken. It explores the use of the fire dynamics simulator (FDS) code, developed by the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)

civil-engineering

CASE STUDY

Evaluation of dam performance under seismic loads with DCR time history procedure

Using the DCR time-history procedure to determine the behaviour of the dam’s 10.2M m3 of roller compacted concrete

The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) is situated along the Blue Nile River. Located 500 km north west of the Ethiopian capital Addis Abeba, in the Benishangul-Gumaz region, the GERD will be the largest plant in Africa

civil-engineering construction straus7