ENSOFT, INC.

engineering software
Phone: 512-244-6464
Fax: 512-244-6067
3003 West Howard Lane E-Mail: [email protected]
Austin, Texas 78728
www.ensoftinc.com

G ROU P v 20 1 6 (v 1 0 )
A Program for the Analysis of Piles in a Group
GENERAL DESCRIPTION effects) can be taken into account by introducing reduction fac-
tors for the p-y curves used for each single pile. As an option,
GROUP has been well accepted as a valuable design tool for
the user may ask the program to automatically generate sug-
analyzing the behavior of piles in a group subjected to both axial
gestions of p-multipliers for the internal reduction of the soil
and lateral loadings. The program computes the distribution
resistance in closely-spaced piles. In GROUP the user may
of loads (in six degrees of freedom) applied from any multiple
enter p-y modification factors that can vary along the length of
locations in the pile cap to piles arranged in a group. A new
each pile in the model.
feature for user-specified displacements and rotations (in 3D)
from GROUP v2014 resolves the forces that are generated with The program allows the user to select computations of the
such movements/rotations. required unit side friction at the top and bottom of each soil
layer along with a unit tip resistance. The program employs
commonly-accepted equations to compute the estimated unit
side friction and unit tip resistance based on the soil properties
that are specified by the user. Users may also input external
nonlinear curves of axial load versus settlement for each pile
in the group. Those external curves can be obtained by the
user based on load tests or from Ensoft programs APILE and/
or SHAFT.
Starting in GROUP v2014 the foundation stiffness can be
generated based on equivalent elastic stiffness (thus generating
a symmetric stiffness matrix). Users of GROUP are also able
to select to print out a text file (response file) with equivalent
nonlinear springs along the pile, which is useful for performance
of complete soil-structure interaction analyses using other
Visualizations of 3D Model in GROUP structural software.
displaying distribution of axial forces at pile cap
Other features in GROUP are: Use of multiple load cases
representing concentrated loads at the pile cap and/or distributed
Piles may be installed vertically or on a batter and their heads lateral load at the piles; Concentrated loads at the pile cap may
may be fixed, pinned, or elastically restrained by the pile cap. be defined at any position; Distributed lateral loads at the piles
The pile cap may settle, translate, and/or rotate and is assumed can be defined by local or global axes; Load combinations can
to act as a rigid body.
be specified by the user and are set by load factors applied at
The program generates internally the nonlinear response of the the defined load cases; Maximum and minimum envelopes
soil, in the form of t-z and q-w curves for axial loading, in the may be computed for both load cases and load combinations;
form of p-y curves for lateral loading, and in the form of t-r GROUP can provide flexibility and stiffness matrices (in 2D or
curves for torsional loading. A solution requires iteration to 3D models) for different levels of loading.
accommodate the nonlinear response of each pile in the group
model. Program GROUP solves the nonlinear response of
each pile under combined loadings and assures compatibility
of deformations and equilibrium of forces between the applied
external loads and the reactions of each pile head.
For closely-spaced piles, the pile-soil-pile interaction (group

Program GROUP allows the input of groups of straight or batter

piles, layered soil profiles, various cross-sections of pile sub-groups,
and several loading arrangements
 G ROU P v 20 1 6 (v 1 0 )
A Program for the Analysis of Piles in a Group
LIST OF FEATURES
• A pile cross-section dialog is included to allow the user de-
fine piles with circular, rectangular and wide-flange sections.
GROUP v2013 introduced the ability to analyze tapered pile
sections. GROUP v2016 introduces internal nonlinear flexural
stiffness computations for std reinforced concrete sections and
for complex composite sections with structural steel inserts.
• A template option is added so the program will generate ba-
sic rectangular or circular pile group layouts easily. This is
particularly useful for models with large number of piles.
• Batter and vertical piles can be included in the same group
analysis. Up to 1000 piles can be modeled in a group and
piles can have different EI values in orthogonal directions.
• Parallel-processing in GROUP v2014 allows for efficient
usage of multi-core processors and considerable reductions
in computing time on large models. Contoured graphics of total pile moments for
• Pile-head connections to the rigid cap may be selected as: foundation models in GROUP
pinned, fixed, or elastically restrained.
been increased over previous versions. The program plots
• Soil Movement can be specified as part of the loading. the force and displacement on the pile cap, such as the axial
• p-y curves may be inputted by the user or may be automati- force (tension and compression) of each pile on the pile cap,
cally generated by the program and printed for review. User- the lateral forces (shear and moment) of each pile on the pile
defined soils (user-inputted lateral, axial and/or torsional cap, and the displacement of the pile cap in different direc-
curves) can be mixed with soil layers having response curves tions. All plots can be exported to formatted Excel files.
that are automatically generated. • 3D View graphics has been enhanced extensively to include
• Points of p-y curves (that were internally generated by various new features for inquiring of results and visual pre-
GROUP) but requested as output/printout can be generated sentations for any load case/combination.
according to user-defined levels of deflections (y values). • GROUP provides a summary table of output data, which
• GROUP provides stiffness and/or flexibility matrices for includes maximum and minimum effects for pile heads and
foundations in 2D or 3D models. Users may define specific over the pile length.
points on secant stiffness and obtain off-diagonal terms. • More efficient algorithms are used to improve significantly the
• The type and number of graphs generated by GROUP have accuracy of the solution of a problem due to iterations
because of the non-linearity of soil parameters.
• GROUP can consider lateral soil resistance against
embedded pile caps and option to specify a reduction
factor on the axial capacity of each individual pile.
The output file includes the passive soil resistance that
is computed internally against embedded pile caps.
• User can select the information to be printed, for
convenience when the size of the output file becomes
very large due to large number of piles and/or number
of load cases.
• Models can be made in English or SI Units (w/
automated conversion), while GROUP v2014 in-
troduced more traditional units for inputs of various
parameters.
• New p-y curve for Modified Soft Clay w/Initial K
Sample windows used for data input improving convergence in complex group models.