DESIGN OF PILECAP

The new project will be created as indicated before in case of isolated, octagonal or combined footings. While creating the new job, the job type will be Pile Cap.

Figure 1 For pile cap jobs a unique tab called Pile Data will be created in the leftmost splitter window. If we click on the tab two icons appear for input of pile arrangement data and pile design parameters.

Figure 2 A click on the pile arrangement data invokes the following dialog box

Figure 3 The combo box for selecting the support number for the pile arrangement lists the support numbers in the pile cap job. We select the support number and input the vertical, lateral and uplift pile capacities. The pile diameter, spacing and distance of the edge from the corner piles are also input. The total loading on the support are shown if we click on Show loading on support.

Figure 4 We may either chose the Auto-arrangement or we may go for a manual input of the coordinates of the piles. If we chose auto-arrangement and click on Calculate all possible pile arrangements corresponding to the pile loads in all the load cases are shown according to the BOCA standard.

Figure 5 We go through the tree controls and chose the arrangement suitable to us. As we click on OK the diagram showing the pile arrangements is transferred to the splitter window showing the input for pile arrangements. Please notice that the pile co-ordinates have come up in the corresponding table.

Figure 6 If we click on the button for Show Pile Reactions the reaction on each pile shows up.

Figure 7 Depending on the pile arrangement diagram we may decide whether to go on with this arrangement or not. If we decide not to go on with the arrangement we would again click on Calculate. Otherwise we click on the button Select Arrangement to select the arrangement. After the pile arrangement is selected the design for pile cap is started. The form for input of design parameters is invoked by clicking the icon for Design Parameters.

Figure 8

After the design parameters are input click on the Design tab and the icon for design to perform the design. A click on the design summary tab will show the pile cap dimensions and the bar size and spacing in the longitudinal and transverse directions for all the supports designed.

Figure 9

The icons for layout and detailed design have been discussed about previously. The layout of the pile cap job will show the different supports along with the pile arrangements and number of piles pertaining to them.

Figure 10 If we click on the tab for Detailed Drawing the following screen appears showing the plan of the pile cap, the details of the reinforcement bar for the pile cap and the front view of the pile cap along with the column for the support selected.

Figure 11

Figure 12

Each part (eg, PileCap Elevation)of the detailed drawing can be re-sized and repositioned in the drawing sheet by selecting the part ,extending or reducing it and taking it by dragging the mouse to another part of the drawing.

These drawings can also be exported to a CAD software for further processing. In the Detailed Drawing option if we click on the tab called DXF Export the drawing is exported to the dxf format from which we can export it to the CAD software.

Figure 13 As we may have noticed we have used the same values of the design parameters for the pile-caps corresponding to all the supports in the job. The user may, however, like to have different values of the parameters (e.g., different values of the maximum and minimum bar sizes) for different supports. We have introduced the concept of local dialog boxes to provide this flexibility to the user. If we double click on any pilecap the local dialog box will appear .If we change the values in that dialog box and click on OK the parameter values corresponding to that support will change.

Figure 14