COMPUTER AIDED DESIGN OF PILE FOUNDATIONS FOR RIVER BRIDGES

Abstract

Piles are relatively long and slender members used to transmit foundation loads through soil strata of low bearing capacity to deeper soil or rock strata having a high bearing capacity. They are also used to resist heavy uplift forces or to resist horizontal loads. Piles are a convenient method of foundation construction for works over water, such as river bridges. The time involved in the analysis and design of pile foundations can be minimized by using computer packages. A user friendly interactive package for design of pile foundations for river bridges has been developed. The package can be run on any personal computer and has been developed in Turbo C++ programming language. Some salient features of the package are: Estimation of scour depth, proportioning of pile group, structural design of pile and structural design of pile cap. Relevant knowledge base derived from codal provisions and standard design practices is in-built in the package and the same can be accessed online so as to enable the user to make the right design choices.