Hello everyone,
I hope you're doing well.
I'm currently working on modeling a glass balustrade system along with its aluminum extruded support bracket in a single integrated model using RFEM. The goal is to accurately capture the deflection behavior of the glass, including any tilting effects induced by the flexibility or deformation of the aluminum bracket.
I’m exploring the best approach to model both materials together while preserving realistic interaction and boundary conditions.
Has anyone here attempted something similar or could share any insights, reference models, or best practices for this kind of setup?
Your input would be highly appreciated for better understanding and validation.
Thank you in advance!
Hello
Welcome to the Dlubal Community. We're happy to have you here. 
I think there are different approaches to creating your model.
The simplest approach would be to generate the plate as a surface and assign a bar with the profile used for clamping at the bottom end.
This is a very quick representation, but perhaps too imprecise in some respects.
Therefore, a more detailed representation would be if you could also represent the profile as surface elements. This would allow you to precisely define the contact conditions between the plate and the profile, as well as specify the exact attachment to the floor. This way, the overall influences are represented even more accurately.
You have to decide how precise you need the results here to find the best solution for you.
Uli
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Can we model it in RFEM 5 with a license of RFEM 6?
No, RFEM 5 requires a different license than RFEM 6.
Please feel free to contact our sales team directly for more information on licensing matters.
Hi hariharan
I'm sharing with you some pictures of a similar project we've worked in the past.
In this case we´ve model the aluminium profile and the bracket as solids due to their complex geometry, for simple geometries I would prefer to model it as surfaces.
The EPDM gaskets are also modeled as solids and the glass as surface.
And a surface contact of type only compression between gasket and glass.
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