LimitState:RING 3.0 will be officially launched at events held in Sheffield and London in late January / early February 2011, and brings with it a multitude of new features and enhancements. In this article we’ll take a brief tour of some of the new features users can expect.

New solver engine

The new version incorporates the state-of-the-art MOSEK solver already used by sister product LimitState:GEO. This means that many problems can be solved very much more quickly than before, particularly complex problems involving delaminated multi-ring brickwork arch barrels.

The relative performance of LimitState:RING versions 2.0 and 3.0 is indicated on the right for two sample five span bridge problems, clearly showing the particularly marked speed-up for the more complex multi-ring problem (>6x speed-up in this case).

Effective bridge width

It is now possible to specify a limiting effective bridge width, to ensure that the auto-calculated bridge width never exceeds the true width of the bridge, or the distance between longitudinal cracks.

Managing vehicle loads

The user-interface has been enhanced to give the option of rapidly substituting a given vehicle type with another in all existing load cases. It is also now possible to quickly delete existing load cases and the vehicle library has been updated.

More useful output information

The ‘Output’ pane now includes details of the vehicles used, and effective width for each load case.

Modelling reinforced elements

Reinforcement has been incorporated in masonry arch bridges since Roman times, and it is now possible to model the effects of reinforced elements in LimitState:RING.

Moment, shear & normal force diagrams

Thrust line plots (or, strictly speaking, 'thrust zone plots') provide a valuable means of helping engineers understand how an arch bridge carries load. However, as such plots are much less useful when reinforced elements are present, LimitState:RING 3.0 also allows moment, shear force and normal force diagrams to be plotted.

Arch profiles

**LimitState:RING 3.0 - Rapidly specify a 'pointed arch shape' geometry.**

The existing ‘Segmental shape’ and ‘User-defined shape (multi-segment)’ profiles are now supplemented by ‘Spline shape’, ‘Pseudo-elliptical shape (three-centered)’ and ‘Pointed arch shape’ profiles. Users are likely to find the additional flexibility provided by the ‘Spline shape' to be particularly useful.

Revamped user interface

Smoother anti-aliased graphics and colour-coded button groups mean that the software both looks more attractive and is likely to be even easier for new users to learn how to use.

Improved documentation

To help avoid confusion about where to find specific guidance, the original ‘Program Reference Manual’ and ‘Theory and Modelling Guide’ have been merged into a single volume, with everything for the first time now also accessible via the program online help.

Other enhancements

A new installer adds auto-update functionality and the software also incorporates numerous other bugfixes and minor enhancements, details of which will be provided in the software release notes.

LimitState:RING 3.0 Preview