Project Settings

The Project Settings dialog allows you to set the fundamental settings of the project using the following tabs:

• General
• Capacity Calculations
• Pile Analysis Type
• Groundwater
• Interaction Diagram
• Advanced Settings

General

The general settings tab allows you to determine the Units and Program Mode Selection that will be used for the RSPile analysis.

Units

RSPile supports the following Units:

• SI (Metric) = m, kN, kN/m, kPa, kN/m3
• USCS (Imperial) = ft, lbs, lbs/ft, psf, lbs/ft3

Program Mode Selection

The Program Mode Selection allows users to indicate the type of pile analysis being performed.

• Capacity Calculations - select this option for performing Individual Pile Capacity Analyses.
• Pile Analysis (Default) - select this option for performing Individual or Grouped Pile Analyses.

Capacity Calculations

The Capacity Calculations tab allows users to define the details of their pile capacity analysis. Users select one of two Capacity Calculation Types:

• Individual Pile Analysis
• Capacity Table Generator (for Bored Piles)

Individual Pile Analysis

With the Individual Pile Analysis users must select either:

• Driven
• Bored
• Helical
  • Include Shaft Adhesion/Friction - for Helical piles, the user can choose to neglect adhesion on the shaft by ticking the “Include Shaft Adhesion/Friction” checkbox. If deselected, skin friction will be ignored above the first helix.
    

Capacity Table Generator (for Bored Piles)

Calculate Allowable Capacities

• Total Capacity
• Skin Friction
• Skin Friction / End Bearing

Limit Average Stress

• If checked, then any Allowable Capacity value(s) exceeded in Zone Capacity Tables view will be coloured red in the table.

See the Capacity Table Generator Overview topic for more information.

Pile Analysis Type

The pile analysis type tab provides you with two main analysis types in RSPile:

• Individual Pile Analysis - for the analysis of single piles or of piles defined in a pattern without a cap
• Grouped Pile Analysis - for the analysis of a group of piles connected to a cap

If the Individual Pile Analysis option is selected, the three sub-options exist:

• Axially Loaded
• Laterally Loaded
• Axially/Laterally Loaded

If the Group Pile Analysis option is selected, this incorporates a pile cap with Axially/Laterally Loaded pile analysis.

Multiple Load Cases

The Multiple Load Cases option allows users to import multiple piles with different load cases from a spreadsheet into RSPile. If this option is turned ON, the user can select Piles > Multiple Load Cases to import a spreadsheet of piles assigned with different pile types, with each pile assigned with different loads.

For full details on this feature, see the Multiple Load Cases help topic.

P-Delta effect

To activate the P-Delta effect, select the Include P-Delta Effect checkbox. This setting is activated by default for new files. Files created in previous versions (v3.024 and before) prior to this feature will have this option unchecked. Please ensure to check the project settings when deciding whether to include this effect in the analysis.

Groundwater

Groundwater is defined in the Groundwater tab in the project settings dialog.

For Axial, Lateral and Bored:

The user can select the Enable Groundwater checkbox and enter the Water Table Elevation.

After setting the water level, the user will be required to enter Unsaturated and Saturated Unit Weight values for every material. The program will use the unsaturated unit weight for the soil above the water table and will use the saturated unit weight below the water table. The effective unit weight is calculated by subtracting the unit weight of water from the saturated unit weight.

For Driven:

The following water table elevations can be entered:

• Elevation at Time of Drilling - used in correcting SPT blow counts, if they are used
• Elevation for Restrike/Driving - used for determining the effective stress in the soil layers below the water table for restrike and driving
• Elevation for Ultimate - used to determine the effective stress in soil layers below the water table for the ultimate condition

Interaction Diagram

The Interaction Diagram tab enables users to make use of codes (e.g ACI) to analyze their pile section(s) and see if the section is adequate or not. This feature is for reinforced concrete sections only and can only be utilized when the Program Mode Selection (in the General tab) is set to Pile Analysis.

• Concrete Stress Strain Curve Model - Modified Hognestad or Whitney Block
• Calculate factored interaction M-P - allows users to chose if factored moments and axial loads are used to construct the interaction diagram.
  
• Design Standards:
  
  • Single Factor for M and P
  • ACI 318 Factors: 2022
    
  • Eurocode Factors EC2: 2004 - users are able to select the Eurocode Factors 2004 as the design standard and choose between the stress strain curves: EC2 Bilinear, Parabola, and Rectangular Block
• Calculate Capacity Ratio - feature enables users to visualize if their pile has failed or not by checking the pile response against the structural capacity of the pile obtained from the Interaction Diagram. (For more details see the Capacity Ratio help page.)

To learn more about plotting interaction diagrams, see the Interaction Diagrams help page or Tutorial 14: Interaction Diagrams.

Advanced Analysis Settings

The following parameters can be defined:

• Pile Depth Increment - spacing between pile tip depths where the total capacity is computed for Bored Pile Analysis. Capacities are computed starting at the defined pile head or ground surface, whichever elevation is less.
• Pile Segments - this is the number of segments that the pile length will be divided into. The default value is 100.
• Convergence Tolerance - this defines the point at which the solution is considered to have converged. The convergence criteria are based on displacement (ratio of change in displacement to total displacement). The default Tolerance is 0.0001.
• Number of Iterations - this controls the maximum number of iterations allowed. The default value is 100.
• Reinforced Concrete Slices - this is the number of slices that reinforced concrete pile cross-sections will be divided into.

Defaults

The Default button allows the user to:

• Save the current settings as the Default Advanced Settings for future projects.
• Restore the original program settings for the Advanced Settings