ACI 318 Concrete Design
AI-assisted reinforced concrete design following ACI 318 Building Code Requirements.
Definition
ACI 318 Concrete Design AI automates the design and verification of reinforced concrete structural elements according to the American Concrete Institute Building Code. It handles flexural design, shear reinforcement, development lengths, and serviceability checks for beams, columns, slabs, and foundations.
In Depth
ACI 318 is the governing standard for structural concrete design in the United States, covering everything from material properties to flexural design, shear, torsion, development length, and serviceability. AI-powered ACI 318 checking automates the verification that keeps structural engineers up at night — the hundreds of individual checks that must pass for every beam, column, slab, and footing in a building.
The value is in thoroughness. A structural engineer designing a beam will check flexure, shear, deflection, and crack control — but under schedule pressure, the development length calculation at a complex column-beam joint might get a quick manual estimate instead of a rigorous check. AI checks every provision against every element, every time, catching the edge cases that slip through manual review.
AI is also valuable when code editions change. ACI 318-19 introduced significant changes to the shear design provisions and reorganized several chapters compared to ACI 318-14. When a firm needs to verify that existing designs comply with the new edition, AI can systematically recheck every element against the updated provisions — a task that would take weeks manually but completes in hours with AI.
Examples
Designing beam flexural reinforcement
Calculating development and splice lengths
Verifying column adequacy
Nomic Use Cases
See how Nomic applies this in production AEC workflows:
Frequently Asked Questions
ACI 318 Concrete Design AI automates the design and verification of reinforced concrete structural elements according to the American Concrete Institute Building Code. It handles flexural design, shear reinforcement, development lengths, and serviceability checks for beams, columns, slabs, and foundations.
Designing beam flexural reinforcement. Calculating development and splice lengths. Verifying column adequacy.
Automated Code Compliance: Check drawings against 380+ building codes and standards with cited answers. Automated Drawing Review: Automatically review drawings against building codes, internal standards, and client requirements.