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THRUST BLOCK is a program to design and analyze concrete thrust blocks. The basis for THRUST BLOCK can be found in CIRIA report 128: 'Guide to the design of thrust blocks for buried pressure pipelines'.

Based on the type of fitting, pressure, soil and concrete properties the suitability of the thrust block design is assessed.

The geometry of the block is described by 5 dimensional parameters. The program is able to generate a first estimate for these dimensions after which the block design can be optimized by the user by modifying any of the parameters.

The design procedure requires that the total thrust force on the block, Fd does not exceed the ultimate resistance of the block, Ru reduced by a suitable reduction factor (the thrust reduction factor, Tr). The thrust reduction factor depends on the soil properties and is normally between 2 an 5.

The thrust block design is assessed in three steps:

1) The ultimate resistance of the face area of the block is checked against the active and passive soil pressure exerted on the block.

2) The ultimate shear capacity of the base of the block is checked against the soil shear stress.

3) The bearing pressure at the base of the block is checked against the safe bearing pressure of the soil.

In order for a design to pass, all of the above-mentioned criteria need to be satisfied.

 

Download the file Thrust_Block.zip, unpack it and run the thrustblock110.msi file to install the program. Along with the program, a user guide (Acrobat file) and a help system can be accessed via the THRUSTBLOCK program entry in your Windows 'All programs' menu.

THRUST BLOCK is designed to work on personal computers running the Windows 2000, Windows XP or Windows Vista operating system.