Overview
Ruaumoko has been in development at the University
of Canterbury since
1982. Under the direction of Professor
Athol Carr, Professor Emeritus in Civil
and Natural Resources Engineering,
the suite of programs has matured from simple analysis of two dimensional
frame structures to a sophisticated collection of applications able
to accurately model three dimensional structures whilst providing ancillary
design data such as earthquake spectra.
All of the programs in the Ruaumoko suite have been written in ANSI
standard Fortran offering unsurpassed stability and excellent execution
efficiency. Initially compiled to run on a Burroughs 6700 48 bit main
frame computer, the code was adapted in the late 1980s to run on Digital
Vax/VMS computers and DOS-based personal computers. In 1990 the programs
were modified to run in a Unix environment and since 1995 Ruaumoko
has been suitable for use under the various Microsoft Windows operating
systems. A major review was undertaken in 1999 to enable Ruaumoko to
be run across all platforms with a single version of the source code.
The Ruaumoko3D program was released in January,
2001 after 20 months
of intensive testing at the University of Canterbury.
The Ruaumoko suite is under continual development. Many of the advances
that have been made in recent years are the result of cooperative efforts
with overseas universities and research groups. These include:
- modeling components to allow inelastic shear effects in beams
and columns
- hysteretic model to simulate non-linear sliding beam to
column connections in steel structures
- hysteretic models incorporating
semi-active control modeling
- new strength degradation rules for reduction
in strength of reinforced concrete beam-column joints.
- added features
to enable the analysis of a self anchoring suspension bridges
In the coming year, the manuals for the programs will be consolidated
and made available in an electronic form. In addition, a user interface
for the Microsoft Windows environment is also planned for release.
