A Web-Based Architecture for Interactive Finite Element Program

In the recent decade, the use of Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) and smart phones had incredible growth and they can be used as a small computer in business, communication and education. Most of the current civil engineering software are created for desktop computers in specific operating systems and platforms without any portability and flexibility feature. This paper proposed a web-based architecture for an interactive Finite Element (FE) program. The architecture supports linear and nonlinear analysis of reinforced concrete buildings subjected to static and dynamic loading. Structure modeling is performed on the client-side via any internet browser. Data is sent to the server and analyzed by FE program which has been installed on the server. Then, the result of the analysis (which is the response of structure under imposed load) is sent back to the client-side to show and plot output of analysis. The developed software, which is named Analysis of Reinforced Concrete Structure (ARCS), is implemented in a secure and user-friendly interface. Running software in offline mode is possible for modeling, but internet connection is needed to transfer input data to the server and transfer output of analysis from server to the client-side. The most important advantage of the proposed model is the operating system and platform independency. Backup capability of all data and authority access control are other features of ARCS. Therefore, the developed software is able to be used extensively by engineers to carry out modeling and analysis of structures by any PDAs or smart phones through any operating systems and platforms.