shape of pile cap

[kkr90]

hi,
I have seen many times the shape of pile cap is always curved in the end i.e..facing the water side.is it releated to the structural load transferring mechanism or it is for making the water 2 flow freely..

 

[DDBPE]

kkr90

I have been on several marine bridge projects, typically a curved end was to prevent floating debris from building up on the ends and it does not allow for a blunt impact if a vessel hits it. I've seen some that use a rectangular shape, and the pile caps at the navigation channel will have fender systems to prevent impact on the structure.

 

[jayrod12]

And if you talk to hydraulics engineers, rounded ends offer the best drag coefficients for the water flow while still retaining some erosion resistance in the concrete. To them all of the piers would be pointed facing upstream however that generally encourages erosion of the pier/pilecap and no forgiveness to vessel impact.

 

[kkr90]

thanks for yur valuable reply....

 

[kkr90]

hi,
i Want 2 know is there any softwares available for geo technical engineering..........like staad pro and sap for structural engineers

 

[jayrod12]

There are lots,

Off the top of my head, GeoStudio is a whole package that deals with settlement (Sigma /w), Freeze thaw (Temp /w), seepage and seismic.

There's also more general FEA programs that many geotech engineers use such as Abacus.

RISA has put out RisaFoot and RisaFoundation.

And many more, you need to determine what you are looking to design and what you want out of the program and then go from there.