Project soil profiles
Describe a project's ground once, apply it to every analysis, and see which analyses need review when it changes.
A soil profile describes the ground at one location in a project, for example one profile per boring. You enter it once on the project page and apply it to any analysis in the project. When the profile is edited, every analysis that uses it is flagged so you can review and update it.
What a profile holds
Layers from the ground surface down, each with a bottom depth, a soil class (clay, sand or rock), the total unit weight γ and the strengths you have:
- Clay: undrained strength Su (required), and optionally ε50 for the clay p-y models.
- Sand: friction angle φ′ and/or SPT N (at least one), and optionally the p-y subgrade modulus k.
- Rock: unconfined compressive strength qu (required).
A layer can also name the lateral p-y model it should use, and the profile can carry a water table with its water unit weight. Values are checked only for physical validity (positive, φ′ below 90°, depths increasing); each analysis applies its own limits when it runs.
Applying a profile to an analysis
Open a saved analysis in the project and choose Apply soil profile above the soil layers. The dialog shows the layers the tool will receive before anything changes. Applying replaces the analysis's soil layers (and, where the tool has one, its water table); save a version afterwards to keep them.
Nothing is invented
How each tool reads the profile
| Tools | Clay | Sand | Rock |
|---|---|---|---|
| Axial capacity, capacity vs length, downdrag, pile groups (axial), foundation stiffness (t-z) | Su | φ′ | qu |
| Drilled shafts | Su | SPT N | qu |
| Helical piles | Su | φ′ | Not supported |
| Torsion | Su | φ′ | Not supported (no released FHWA-OR-RD-16-14 method) |
| Lateral p-y, lateral pile groups, foundation stiffness (p-y) | Su (+ ε50, k) for the chosen clay model | φ′ (+ k) | qu (weak rock) |
Lateral tools never pick a p-y model from the soil class: choose one per layer in the profile or in the apply dialog. Profile layers offer the models whose strength inputs come straight from the profile — soft clay, stiff clay above or below water, ISO clay, API or Reese sand, and weak rock. For ISO clay a single Su gives a constant-strength layer.
Slope stabilization, buckling and the tools without layered soil (footings, uplift, global slope stability, moment–curvature, pile caps and pile punching) don't take a profile yet; enter their soil directly.
Groundwater and γ′
Axial-family tools take the total γ and the profile's water table directly. Lateral p-y tools work in effective unit weight, so a layer that crosses the water table is split there and receives γ′ = γ − γw below it (the total γ above). With no water table, every layer keeps its total γ. Tools with a groundwater switch turn it on or off to match the profile; tools that always model a water table keep their current one when the profile has none, and the dialog tells you to review it. See also the water-unit-weight trap.
When a profile changes
Every save of a profile creates a new revision. An analysis remembers the revision it applied, so after an edit it shows a warning above its soil layers and on the project page. Choose Review update to see the newly mapped layers and replace them, or Unlink to keep the current layers and stop tracking the profile. Results never change on their own: an analysis only uses new soil after you apply it and run.
Deleting a profile unlinks the analyses that used it; their layers stay as they were.
Who can see and edit profiles
Profiles belong to their project. Anyone who can open the project can view, edit and apply its profiles — on a project shared with a Business team, that is the whole team. Creating, editing and deleting a profile is recorded in the project's audit log.