Design tools

RRPileCalc is a design program for SSAB steel piles. Eurocode design standards as well their National Annexes and national instructions are applied in the end-bearing pile design.

Wide area of design possibilities

RRPileCalc design tool covers the National Annexes of Finland, Sweden and Norway. Also other national design rules are built inside the program. For example the calculation of the buckling resistance of the pile, which is not well covered by Eurocodes, is done by these national regulations.

All SSAB’s pile sizes RR75…RR/RD1200 are included in the program. Also all steel grades available for the piles can be used in the program. The structure of the pile can be designed as a steel structure (empty steel pipe pile), a concrete filled steel pipe (without composite effect), a composite structure with or without reinforcement bars and a composite structure with an inner steel pipe.

SSAB’s design tool RRPileCalc enables dimensioning of the pile based on required design resistance. The program searches the lightest pile dimension to fulfill the given design resistance required from the pile. Search functionality can be used with micropiles and large diameter piles. In search function the structure of the pile can be designed as a steel structure (an empty pile) or it can be filled with concrete (without reinforcement and inner pipe).

 

Advanced FEM for more accurate analyzing

If the behavior of the pile needs to be analyzed more accurately, there is also an Advanced FEM feature in the RRPileCalc. In Advanced FEM the soil around the pile can be modeled in several layers. Also the type of spring models of the soil can be more advanced non-linear type (depending on the national regulations). Advanced FEM also enables different types of loads for the pile. Besides the usual vertical load, also horizontal load and bending moment are possible. Lateral displacements of the pile, bending moments and shear forces for the pile and lateral soil pressure can be printed as graphs after the Advanced FEM analysis.

Calculation of cross-section properties and bending resistances of the pile walls is easy with SSAB’s PileWallCalc design tool. The program calculates the bending resistances, normal force resistances and shear force resistances of RD pile wall, Combi wall and Zig-Zag Combi wall.

Calculations are done according to Eurocode design standards. Design tool includes pile sizes RD220…RR/RD1200, all steel grades used for SSAB’s piles and a comprehensive set of sheet pile profiles from several manufacturers. Resistance of a pile wall can be calculated in either elastic state or plastic state. Also, the structure of the pipe piles can be designed as a steel structure (empty steel pipe pile), a concrete filled steel pipe (without composite effect), a composite structure with or without reinforcement bars and a composite structure with an inner steel pipe. 

Advanced corrosion reduction possibilities

Often the corrosion rate varies in different depths and also on different sides of a pile wall. To help the optimization of design, there is a possibility to design two cross-sections simultaneously. The diameter of the pile pipe is the same for upper part and lower part of the wall, but the wall thickness and the steel grade of the pile pipe can be changed.

Different corrosion rates during design service life for the pile pipes are considered in the calculations. The corrosion rates can be set separately for the upper part and the lower part of the wall also different corrosion rates can be set for the both sides of the wall and for the inner surface of the pile pipes. Total of six different corrosion rates can be set.

If the corrosion rate has different values at different sides of the wall, the cross-section will be asymmetric. Program calculates the bending resistance of the wall to both directions to consider the effect of different corrosion values to resistance. Beside resistance values, the program calculates the stiffness, the section modulus and the center of gravity for the structural steel part of the cross-section.

 

Results

The program creates a report which contains the initial data, effective cross-section properties and several resistance graphs for combinations of normal force, shear force and bending moment. If the cross-section has different properties in upper and lower part of the wall, both resistance graphs are shown.