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Using COMBIN39 for modeling piles

Jos Ramn Rodrguez ANSYS Iberia


1 2012 ANSYS, Inc. February 26, 2013

- There are a number of methods that can be used to analyze piled foundations in ANSYS Mechanical:

SPLINTER (a standalone nonlinear solver that was originally


developed as part of the ASAS suite) Matrix definition Spring definition (COMBIN39) Direct Definition of P-Y and T-Z curves

The Spring Definition method will be described in this lecture

2012 ANSYS, Inc.

February 26, 2013

COMBIN39
COMBIN39 is a unidirectional element with nonlinear generalized forcedeflection capability that can be used in any analysis.

To use COMBIN39 with a Mechanical model, the process required on a jacket model is:
Create soil properties file Change element formulation Define named selections for each Pile cap node named Pile1, Pile2 etc.

Insert a command object to define the piles


2012 ANSYS, Inc. February 26, 2013

COMBIN39 Notes
Important if running for the first time! Copy P14.MAC and P12.MAC to either C:\Program Files\ANSYS Inc\v140\ansys\apdl

or
C:\Program Files\ANSYS Inc\v145\ansys\apdl

dependant on whether you are using ANSYS v14 or v14.5

2012 ANSYS, Inc.

February 26, 2013

Soil Properties file creation


Create a file with the soil properties (P-Y and T-Z curves) similar to the soil_properties.txt file attached Note there are a number of assumptions made in these macros, primarily that the soil_properties.txt format file should have only 11 or 15 pairs of spring data, and that only the positive data is used. There should always be P-Y, T-Z and ENDB (endbearing) data available.

Example of definition of this file:


Pile diameter

Path Start

Path end

Soil Properties

2012 ANSYS, Inc.

February 26, 2013

Change the element formulation


Expand Part [+] under Geometry branch. You will see all line bodies created. Ctrl-select all line bodies and from the Details View of Multiple Selection window change the Model Type to Pipe

This action changes the BEAM188/9 to PIPE288/9

element

type

from

2012 ANSYS, Inc.

February 26, 2013

Create named selections


Click on Model(B4) and from the Menu Toolbar click on Named Selection icon

A new Branch appears in the Outline Tree. Click on the highlighted cell in the Details of Selection window and then click on the vertex selection tool
Create as many named selections as piles there are, one for each vertex (pile cap), and rename them to PILE1, PILE2, PILE3,

2012 ANSYS, Inc.

February 26, 2013

Insert Pile Definition snippet


Import Pile_definition.txt

Soil properties file location (change the path if needed) Macro invoked for generating the spring elements. Sintax: Pile Diameter (1.2 m) Pile Thickness (0.03 m) Pile Lenght (25 m) Number of elements in pile (25) Depth multiplier (1)

2012 ANSYS, Inc.

February 26, 2013

Case studies. Model 1

Elapsed Time: 204 s

Elapsed Time: 170 s

Files size: 746 MB

Files size: 340 MB

2012 ANSYS, Inc.

February 26, 2013

Case studies. Model 1

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2012 ANSYS, Inc.

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Case studies. Model 2

11

2012 ANSYS, Inc.

February 26, 2013

Case studies. Model 2

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2012 ANSYS, Inc.

February 26, 2013

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