Bridge pile substructure analysis and ship impact

The University of Florida, Department of Civil Engineering developed Florida Pier (FLPIER) in conjunction with the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT), Structures Division. A new release (NT 1.16) is now available which includes many enhancements including mixing of prestressing and mild steel reinforcement in a cross section, nonlinear pier columns and cap, tapered pier columns and cap ends, equivalent linear stiffness matrix generation and many other features. The program is capable of analyzing an entire bridge substructure (pile groups, pile cap and pier) in conjunction with its soil resulting in a nonlinear coupled foundation analysis. The program was designed to allow input to be specified graphically using "designer" variables such as pile spacing, column offsets, number of columns, batter, missing piles and more. The program is distributed freely by the FDOT. The next release will include pier design capabilities. The features of the current release are described in this paper.