Introduction to Substructure

Substructure is a module for analysis and design of reinforced concrete bridge substructures and foundations. Substructure Analysis results are presented in a variety of easy-to-view formats.

The following sections provide more detailed information on the Substructure program.

Module Capabilities

Table 1. The main features of Substructure module
Advanced design capabilities	Substructure allows you to design multi-column and hammerhead piers, straight, tapered, variable, stepped or inverted Tee caps, and circular, rectangular (tapered and non-tapered), rectangular chamfered, octagonal, and hexagonal columns. . Substructure also offers pile cap abutment, stem wall abutment, integral abutment, pile bent and wall pier designs. Footing types include isolated or combined, supported on either soil or piles. There is no limit to the number of loads, bearings and piles you may include in your design. Substructure allows you to customize the pier skew angle, cracked sections, material properties, variable surcharge, and other code-specific analysis and design parameters. A variety of libraries may be customized, including live loads, limit states, footings, and more.
Automatic generation of loads	Substructure automatically generates live, dead, wind, seismic and vessel collision loads for analysis, and alerts you if the current design does not satisfy local code criteria. In addition, the program analyzes all other load types including centrifugal forces, longitudinal shrinkage, and temperature effects on the structure.
Broad range of analysis options	You may choose from P-delta analysis, moment magnification, or analysis without slenderness considerations. Substructure allows you to design cap beams, biaxial columns, and footings through working stress methods. You can apply advanced design methodologies such as strut and tie modeling to obtain optimized structures.
User-friendly report generation and export	Substructure generates analysis results plot diagrams and other printouts. Files may also be exported to spreadsheet format.

Typographical Conventions

For your convenience, many of the commonly used terms and references throughout the manual appear in special styles. The following are examples of these typographical conventions that allow you to easily recognize key information

Button References: Add
Option and Icon References: Option
Pull-down menus, Drop-down lists, Lists, Check Boxes, Columns, Field References: Beam ID drop-down menu
Screens, Dialog Boxes, Tabs, Libraries: System Information screen
Article/Equation References: IRC 6:211.3 (a) (ii)

Measurement Units

Substructure uses Metric (SI) units