A pile class is simply a beam class with a soil defined and some extra options available. The extra options for ~CLASS PILE classes are:

     -REFINE, NUM_REFINE

     -PYMULT, PMUL, YMUL

     -TZMULT, TMUL, ZMUL

     -QWMULT, QMUL, WMUL

     -SOIL, SOIL_NAME

The -REFINE option defines the number of segments into which the pile segment will be broken to solve the nonlinear pile/soil interaction problem. If it is omitted, a single element will be used. The options -PYMULT, -TZMULT, and -QWMULT define multipliers for the basic soil properties. If they are omitted, values of 1 will be used.

The option -SOIL defines the name of the soil in which the pile will be embedded. Here, SOIL_NAME is the name of a soil which has been previously defined in the &DATA Menu. This is accomplished by first entering the menu with the command:

     &DATA SOIL, SOIL_NAME

and when the definition is complete, exit the menu with END_&DATA. In the menu, one uses the following:

     DEPTH,  ZDIS

     PY, P(1), Y(1), ......, P(n), Y(n)

     QW, Q(1), W(1), ......, Q(n), W(n)

     TZ, T(1), Z(1), ......, T(n), Z(n)

     MPY,  MULP, MULY

     MQW,  MULQ, MULW

     MTZ,  MULT, MULZ

The basic rule here is that one first defines a depth. All of the properties then defined, until a new depth is encountered, apply to the specified depth. Here, ZDIS is the positive distance from the mudline to point of interest (feet or meters). For points between two depths, a linear interpolation is performed, and for points outside the table, the last closest point is used. The PY, QW, and TZ commands define the force deformation behavior of the soil. Here,

• PY- defines the lateral behavior. P is the lateral force per unit length of pile (bforce/llength) which is required to produce a lateral deflection of Y (inches or mm),
• TZ- defines the skin friction. T is the skin friction per unit length of pile (bforce/llength) which is required to produce a deflection on the pile surface of Z (inches or mm),
• QW- defines the end bearing. Q is the force (bforce) at the end of the pile resulting from a vertical deflection of W (inches or mm).

The commands MPY, MQW and MTZ can be used to establish multipliers for the curves. This is particularly important since all of the basic curves depend on pile size. With these commands, the ith set of values will be multiplied by MULi before the data is stored in the database. As an example, if your PY data is given in tonnes and meters and your current units are kilo-newtons and meters, you could issue:

     MPY, 1./1000, 1000.

and input the data as given.

Consider the following example:

     ~PILE TUBE 1066.80 25.4 -DENSITY 77008.5  -SOIL DIRT  \
     -REFINE 20 -FYIELD 360 -PYMULT 0.001
     CONNECTOR PILE1 ~PILE  *J6110 *P110

Here, a tubular class is defined, the density is modified, the soil name is specified, and the pile is divided into 20 segments for a structural solution. The yield strength and PY multiplier is also modified. This class definition is then used to describe a connector, where *J6110 belongs to the part jacket, and *P110 belongs to the part ground.