I noticed my live loads were larger when I auto-generated them in RC-Pier than compared to when I imported them from Conspan. Is there a reason for this? This yields a more conservative pier design, but is it accurate?
Thanks.
RC-PIER generates the LL by moving it along the pier cap. Generation of LL reactions is conservative. This is described in detail in Online Help (use F1 key). CONSPAN is running analysis for one lane and then uses distribution factors for assigning part of the lane load to the beams. This follows the distribution factors formulas from AASHTO Code.