Title: Computer Program for Reducing Foundation Design Time

Author(s): John J. Casamassa

Publication: Concrete International

Volume: 17

Issue: 12

Appears on pages(s): 40-42

Keywords:

DOI:

Date: 12/1/1995

Abstract:
The engineering staff of a producer of industrial gases used to have to spend long hours designing foundations for gas storage tanks. Each foundation involved a tedious series of hand calculations following a prescribed format that took about 40 hr. Now the process has been automated. TK Solver, a numerical problem solving software from Universal Technical Systems, Rockford, Illinois, was used to write out the entire sequence of equations involved in the design process. Then an application was written to prompt the user for all needed input and to duplicate the calculations exactly as they formerly would have been done by hand. The program reduced the time required to design each foundation from 40 hr to about 20 min. The equations, presentation view, and macro took about 160 hr to write. This included learning the program. The speed primarily can be attributed to the logical structure and compartmentalization of the software.