Concrete pole parameters can be found in the Concrete pole tab of the Poles library.
General
The general section contains both read only and writable fields.
Field Name | Description |
Name | User entered name of the pole. |
Length | Length of the concrete pole |
Material | Read only - automatically set to |
Default Sink Depth | Default embedment depth pole will be installed at |
Mass | Mass of the concrete pole |
Density | Read only - calculated based on the Mass and geometry of the material |
Drag Coefficient | Drag coefficient used in wind calculations used to account for pole resistance to wind |
Price | Price field used for cost estimates |
Tags | Tags used for different strength reduction factors |
Pole Shape
This section defines the shape of the concrete pole which can be modeled as either ring (round) or rectangular. The properties shown in the Pole Shape section will change depending on the selected shape.
Ring
The ring shape is used to model hollow round concrete poles. To define the ring use Diameter Tip, Diameter Butt, Thickness Tip and Thickness Butt fields.
The thickness defines how thick the concrete is as shown in the diagram below.
Poles with thickness set to half the diameter of the pole will be treated as solid.
Cross sections between the tip and butt are linearly interpolated.
Below are the properties when the shape is set to Ring.
Field Name | Description |
Diameter Butt | Diameter of the butt (bottom) of the pole |
Thickness Butt | Thickness at the butt of the pole |
Diameter Tip | Diameter at the tip of the pole |
Thickness Tip | Thickness at the tip of the pole |
Rectangular
Rectangular poles are assumed solid and defined by six independent variables: Diameter Butt X, Diameter Butt Y, Diameter Ground X, Diameter Ground Y, Diameter Tip X and Diameter Tip Y.
Note, the Diameter Ground X and Diameter Ground Y are defined at the distance Default Sink Depth from the butt of the pole.
The X parameters are for the transverse face and the Y parameters are for the longitudinal face as shown in the diagram below.
Cross sections between tip and ground, and between ground and butt are linearly interpolated.
Below are the properties when the shape is set to Rectangular.
Field Name | Description |
Diameter Butt X | Length of the transverse face for the Butt |
Diameter Butt Y | Length of the longitudinal face for the Butt |
Diameter Ground X | Length of the transverse face at the Default Embedment Depth |
Diameter Ground Y | Length of the longitudinal face at the Default Embedment Depth |
Diameter Tip X | Length of the transverse face for the tip |
Diameter Tip Y | Length of the longitudinal face for the tip |
Pole Strength
The pole strength parameters are slightly different for Ring and Rectangular poles.
Ring
Ring poles allow Breaking Tip Load can be set and a Moment Capacity and Shear Force Capacity are able to also be added.
The Breaking Tip Load will be used to back calculate an equivalent Modulus of Rupture which will be used in the engineering calculations.
Rectangular
Rectangular poles allow Breaking Tip Load X and Breaking Tip Load Y for the transverse and longitudinal face respectively. Moment Capacity and Shear Force Capacity are able to also be added.
Pole Elasticity
This section defines the flexibility of the pole which controls how much it will deflect when a load is applied. The pole elasticity is slightly different depending on pole shape
Ring
Ring poles have fields for Elasticity, Cracked Elasticity, Poisson's Ratio and Shear Modulus. For more information, see Pole Elasticity, Shear Modulus and Poisson's Ratio.
Note, Elasticity will be used for any Environments that have Elasticity set to Primary and Cracked Elasticity will be used for any Environments that have the Elasticity set to Secondary.
When a pole experiences high loads the concrete becomes cracked which in turn reduces its effective modulus of elasticity. Once the stress is removed, the cracks will generally heal over time and the effective modulus of elasticity will return to its original value. Contact your concrete pole supplier for more details.
Rectangular
Rectangular poles have fields for Elasticity, Cracked Elasticity, Poisson's Ratio and Shear Modulus. They also allow Stiffness Multiplier X and Stiffness Multiplier Y to be applied. For more information see The pole stiffness multiplier widget.