When steel meets concrete: Designing a hybrid industrial park in Riga
About the project
The project comprises a contemporary industrial park in Riga, Latvia, including 3,000 m² of office space and 20,000 m² of warehouse and production facilities. The office buildings were designed as three-storey precast reinforced concrete structures, while the warehouse utilised a hybrid system of precast concrete columns and beams combined with steel roof trusses.
The structure spans 145 × 140 metres in plan, with column heights of 10 metres and spans of 6, 12, and 24 metres. All structural elements were designed in accordance with Eurocodes, ensuring compliance across both steel and reinforced concrete components.
Engineering Challenges
The engineering scope required the design of non-standard anchoring systems, complex steel connections, and precast reinforced concrete elements within a unified structural concept. These conditions demanded advanced analysis beyond conventional methods, particularly where steel-to-concrete interaction governed the behaviour of the structure.
A critical requirement was achieving fire resistance of R120. This was especially demanding as beams and most columns were integrated into fire-separating walls, requiring accurate assessment of both structural and thermal performance under fire conditions.
In parallel, the team required a solution capable of combining finite element analysis with direct code-checking, while ensuring uninterrupted transfer of internal forces, load combinations, and geometry between global analysis models and detailed connection design tools. Without such integration, traditional workflows, particularly those relying on spreadsheets, introduced significant time demands and inefficiencies in preparing calculation models for multiple connection types.
Solutions and Results
To address these challenges, a synchronised digital workflow was implemented:
Dlubal RFEM → IDEA StatiCa → Tekla Structures
Using IDEA StatiCa Checkbot, internal forces and load combinations were imported directly from RFEM into IDEA StatiCa Connection and Detail 3D. This enabled detailed verification of steel members, bolts, welds, and anchoring systems in accordance with Eurocodes, while maintaining full consistency with the global analysis model.
IDEA StatiCa Detail 3D was used to verify concrete elements and design additional reinforcement in anchoring zones, ensuring the integrity of steel-to-concrete connections. For selected nodes, connection geometry was transferred directly from Tekla Structures, eliminating the need for manual remodelling.
For precast reinforced concrete elements, IDEA StatiCa Member and Beam were used to perform advanced nonlinear analysis. Thermal analysis (TA) played a critical role in designing slender sections, including ledge beams required to meet R120 fire resistance.
Columns were verified using geometrically and materially nonlinear analysis with imperfections (GMNIA) combined with thermal effects, while beams were assessed using GMNA. This allowed the team to capture realistic structural behaviour under combined loading and fire exposure conditions, ensuring compliance without unnecessary conservatism.
To support efficient collaboration, IDEA Viewer and IFC export were used to transfer detailed connection data to the detailing team. This approach eliminated the need for manual sketches and enabled direct access to full 3D information, including plate thicknesses, bolt diameters, weld sizes, and section properties.
As a result, the team reported saving many hours of work and significantly optimising the detailing workflow, while improving coordination and reducing the time required to deliver project documentation.
Conclusion
By implementing a continuous and integrated workflow across analysis, connection design, and detailing, the engineering team established a highly efficient process for delivering complex hybrid structures. IDEA StatiCa enabled seamless data transfer, advanced nonlinear verification, and unified design of both steel and reinforced concrete elements within a single environment.
This approach reduced manual effort, improved coordination across teams, and shortened project delivery timelines, demonstrating how digital continuity directly enhances both engineering quality and project efficiency.
The project confirms that for hybrid industrial structures with demanding performance requirements, an integrated design workflow is not just beneficial, it is essential for achieving both speed and reliability in modern structural engineering.
About DYCHAKIVSKIY Engineering
DYCHAKIVSKIY Engineering, founded in 2016 and based in Dnipro, Ukraine, specialises in the design of steel and reinforced concrete structures. The company provides comprehensive engineering services, including global structural analysis, element design, detailing, and preparation of technical documentation. Its project portfolio spans international markets across the Baltic region, Northern Europe, and the Middle East, with a strong focus on delivering efficient, high-quality construction solutions.
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