Creating a Local Substructure Model for Soil-Structure Interaction from a Global Model
Once your global model is ready, you can proceed with the following steps for these purposes:
Performing Nonlinear Analysis for Substructures: This is particularly useful for analyzing/checking slender columns independently.
Running Nonlinear Analysis for Soil-Structure Interaction: Incorporate nonlinear springs to evaluate the interaction between the soil and structure.
The primary benefit of following below process is that for every change made to the global model, or any modification impacting analysis results, you can synchronize the model with a single click. This makes change management seamless and efficient.
Preparing the Global Model for Substructure and Analysis Result Transfer
First, prepare the global model for substructure and analysis result transfer. To achieve this, navigate to Organization > Cross-Project Data > Shared Substructure. Select the Support Line and set Transfer Result Extractions to Yes.
Go to Organization > Cross-Project Data > Analysis Results > Bearing Forces and select all the bearings of the substructure along with the result cases for extracting forces. For additional details about bearing forces, refer to the relevant page. Ensure that the force extraction settings are configured to meet your specific use case.
Navigate to the Extracted Forces tab and click Extract Forces. Once the results are extracted, they will appear in the spreadsheet. Your global model is now prepared to transfer the substructure model and its results.
Setting Up the Local Substructure Model Using Data from the Global Model
Navigate to the 'All-in-One Bridge Workflows' section. Click on 'New Project' located specifically within this section. Enter a name for your new project in the provided field.
Click on the 'Data' button below to view spreadsheet. On the left panel, click the gear icon 
to open the available workflows. Select 'External References' from the menu.
In the tree view, click on Project Objects. Click the cell action (three dots) and select Add Projects…Choose your global/parent project name from the list.
Click the cell action menu again and select 'Shared Object' from the global model.
After selecting the shared objects, click on 'Sync Project' to complete the process.
Click on 'Zoom Extend' 
to view the substructure. In the tree view, objects will appear in different colors based on their status: synced objects will be displayed in green instead of the default blue. In the spreadsheet, each object's name cell will display an attachment icon in the bottom-right corner, as shown in the screenshot. Each time you sync the project, the data for these objects will be overridden with updates from the global model.
If you want to disable sync for specific objects from the global model, a common scenario might be when you are designing a pier cap or pier column and want to prevent changes to its data. To do this, follow these steps: - Click the cell action menu (three dots) next to the object. - Select 'Disable Sync'. Once disabled: - The object's color in the tree view will change to purple. - The attachment icon in the spreadsheet cell will change to an unlock icon.
Now that the model has been imported from the global model, the next step is to add additional objects to prepare it for analysis. Start by creating at least two stages: Stage 1: For the construction of the substructure. Stage 2: For applying bearing loads. Next, construct the entire substructure within the first stage. (Assuming the reader is familiar with the basics of OpenBrIM for creating stages and constructing substructure elements. If not, please refer to the Steel I Girder Training Example)
Ensure that the Nonlinear Property of Stages is set to Yes to enable nonlinear analysis.
Define the bearing loads. (Assuming the reader understands the basics of OpenBrIM for creating bearing loads) To connect the loads to the extracted analysis results from the global model, follow these steps: 1. Navigate to External References > Project Analysis Results in the tree view. 2. Select all the cells in the results table. 3. Click on Copy Parameter to copy the required data. 4. Paste the copied parameters into the bearing load spreadsheet. After copying, an f(x) icon will appear in the bottom-left corner of the cell.
Next, define the Soil Set and Soil Layers (assuming the reader is familiar with the basics of OpenBrIM for creating soil sets and layers). Then, return to the Pile Layout FEA tab and set the Soil Spring Type to Nonlinear Spring from the Soil Set.
Any load transferred from the superstructure may include factors, such as those in the Strength 1 combination results. However, these factors will not automatically apply to the substructure. For example, the Strength 1 case typically includes a 1.25 factor for Dead Load (DL), so the substructure dead load should also be multiplied by the same factor since it is constructed within this model.
Additionally, wind loads applied directly to the substructure will not be transferred because only the forces at the bearing level are transferred. To account for wind loads acting on the substructure, users should define a new wind load case specifically for this model.
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