About

  PEYSANJ

PEYSANJ is a bundle of powerful geotechnical tools for bearing capacity and settlement estimation, pressure meter and plate loading test analysis, lateral earth pressure analysis, etc. For more information please visit our website.

Although all efforts have been undertaken to ensure that this software is of the highest possible quality and that the results obtained are correct, the authors do not warrant the functions contained in the program will meet your requirements or that the operation of the program will be uninterrupted or error-free. The authors are not responsible and assume no liability for any results or any use made thereof, nor for any damages or litigation that may result from the use of the software for any purpose. All results to be verified independently by user.

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Vancouver, Canada

License Agreement

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Licensing Help

View our online Licensing Help

Getting Started ...

 We recommend minimum 1024*768 screen resolution for using PEYSANJ.

 If you are using the dongle key version, please make sure that it is plugged in before you run the program.

 To invoke the help, please press  button on top-right corner of each page.

 Make sure you prepare backup from your data periodically. Your database is PEYSANJ4.MDB file (see more).

 After each installation, please open the "Options" page and set the default parameters and choose your favorite analyses methods. This is a very important step in PEYSANJ installation and setup, otherwise you may end up with incorrect results.

 You can print, zoom, set the scales and do more with charts. To activate a chart, simply double-click on it. A new dialog will appear which allows you to configure the look of the chart as well as saving the chart as image files, printing the graph, etc.

 Please contact us at support@novotechsoftware.com if you had any questions or suggestions.

Units System

This version of PEYSANJ supports the following unit systems:

Metric Asia (kg, cm)

Metric US (kN, m)

US Customary / Imperial (lb, ft, in)

You can set the unit system on the Options page.

Projects List

This page lists all the projects saved in the PEYSANJ database. This page can be accessed from the Project → Load from the top toolbar:

In order to load a project, first select the type of analysis (Bearing Capacity, Plate Load Test, etc) from the top toolbar. Then simply select the project on the list and click on Load Project button. You can also edit project information such as client name or address, etc.; Please click on Save button to save the data before loading the project or closing this page.

Deleting a Project 

In order to delete a specific project, click on Delete Project link at the bottom-left of the page. Please notice that this can not be reversed.

Print the Project List

In order to print the list of all projects, click on Print the Project List link at the bottom-left of the page. This will show the print preview page.

Main Screen

This is the main page of PEYSANJ and provides so many features through the top menu-bar / toolbar. Each part of this page is illustrated below:

Top Toolbar

The toolbar provides you the access to load/save projects, performing the calculations, accessing the help file, etc. Different tabs are illustrated in the following sections:

Project tab

Engineering Analysis tab

Tools / Options tab

Help tab

Body

Most of the PEYSANJ analyses are opened in this part of the page. Multiple pages can be opened in this part of the screen.

Status-bar

This is located at the bottom of the screen and provides you more information about the program version, license holder information and selected units system.

Engineering Analysis

Various types of engineering analysis are available via Engineering Analysis tab of the top toolbar:

Bearing Capacity & Settlement

This module is used to calculate allowable bearing capacity of shallow foundations with simultaneously checking both shear failure and settlement. Each part of this page is explained below.

Note: Please read this article to see how PEYSANJ carries out bearing capacity analysis.

Project Information

From the top toolbar, select the Project tab, then click on Project button.

On this page, please enter project title, client name, project code, etc. This data will be shown on the reports.

Soil Layers Table

Your stratigraphy model may contain unlimited soil layers. Please specify the following parameters for each layer:

Soil Layer: simple description for layer. This field is only for user's information and does not have any effect on bearing capacity analysis

C: Coefficient of cohesion.

Φ (deg): Internal angle of friction (between zero and 45 degrees).

Es: Modulus of elasticity.

v: Poisson ratio (between zero and 0.5).

γ: Total unit weight.

Z1: top depth of the layer.

Z2: bottom depth of the layer. There should be no gap between layers, so Z1 for this layer should be same as Z2 for layer above. For the last layer use a very large number like 1000m to assure that stress bulb would not pass the bottom of your model.

Su: Undrained shear strength. This parameter should only be entered when Φ=0; based on Hanson bearing capacity theory, when Φ=0 then Su will be considered for shear failure analysis.

Cc , Cs: Consolidation compression and re-compression indexes. They should only be entered when you want the consolidation settlement to be calculated for this layer. If these parameters are entered but water level is below this layer, unsaturated consolidation settlement will be calculated for this layer (Suunsaturated=Susaturated*a where a is a factor less than one). You may specify 'a' in the "Analysis Parameters" frame.

Pc: Pre-consolidation stress for consolidation settlement.

eo: Void ratio.

Pre-consolidated: Select this checkbox if the clay layer is pre-consolidated.

 To delete a soil layer, select the corresponding row and press SHIFT + DELETE on your keyboard.

 If there is bedrock in your subsurface model, enter only the soil layers; When program computes the stress bulb, no settlement will be calculated below the model.

 We recommended you save the data periodically to avoid data loss.

In this section, ground water level and wet unit weight for soil above the foundation level should be specified. Please notice that ground water level is measured from underneath the footing (always positive number).

Analysis Settings

This section contains the main parameters that are used for bearing capacity analysis:

Allowable Settlement: this is usually one inch (25.4mm) for pad/strip footings.

Er/Es: is the ratio of modulus of elasticity of re-loading (Er) to loading (Es) part. The best way to estimate the Er is to conduct a Plate Loading Test; at the beginning of the second cycle of a Plate Loading Test, the slope of the stress-deformation curve (Er) is much sharper than the normal slope of the curve (Es). PEYSANJ uses this Er/Es ratio to apply the stress history effect on the elastic settlement. For example, if your footing Df = 3 ft and γ=115 pcf then γ.Df=345 psf; So during elastic settlement analysis, PEYSANJ will use Er for stress range 0 to 345 psf and thereafter, Es will be used for estimation of settlement.

Rigidity Factor (Ir): This factor is less than zero and depends on rigidity of the footing (usually 0.9 to 1). PEYSANJ applies this factor to the total settlement of the footing S=(Se+Sc)*Ir where Se and Sc are elastic and consolidation settlements, respectively.

α Factor: this factor is used for calculation of un-saturated consolidation settlement. If a fine-grained layer is unsaturated (e.g. S=80%), then the actual consolidation settlement is a fraction of calculated saturated consolidation settlement.

Safety Factor: this parameter is applied to the estimated ultimate shear failure of the soil present below the footing.

Foundation Size

Shape: you may choose among "Pad/Strip", "Raft/Spread/Mat" and "Circular" foundations.

Size Ratio (L/B): is used to specify the length to width ratio of the footing.

Df : is the height of the soil around and above the footing (affects the shear failure).

D : depth of placement of the foundation (usually depth of excavation).

MB, ML: The bending moment applied on the footing.

HB, HL: The horizontal forces applied to the footing.

V : The vertical force applied on the footing.

 Note : For raft foundations, consider Df and D same as the excavation depth.

Calculating

Please press Calculate button on the top toolbar (Project tab) once the input parameters are entered.

Pad/Strip Footings Outputs

For this type of footings, two charts are presented:

Bearing Capacity Graph: Includes 3 curves; for all of them vertical axis is the allowable stress and horizontal axis is the foundation width (B); please note that, you have already entered L/B ratio so as B increases, the chart covers various foundation sizes:

Shear Failure Curve (blue): Only encompasses the shear failure criteria for the model.

Allowable Settlement Curve (purple): This curve shows the allowable stress, provided that the total settlement is around the allowable settlement already introduced by the user.

Allowable Bearing Capacity Curve (green): This curve is the lower intersection of two above-mentioned curves and assures that on each point along the curve, both settlement and shear failures are within the allowable limits.

Settlement Graph: This includes 3 curves representing Immediate (elastic), Consolidation and Total settlements. Please be advised that these settlement values are calculated based on the resulting allowable bearing capacity calculated for each specific footing size. See how PEYSANJ conducts bearing capacity analysis.

Raft Foundation's Output

For raft foundations since the footing size is considerable, shear failure is typically not governing the design, and restricting the settlement to allowable settlement will control the bearing capacity. Based on user-defined allowable settlement for the footing, the corresponding allowable stress is picked from the settlement plot and is shown on a box.

Exporting the Results to Microsoft Excel

Click on the Excel tab in the bearing capacity page. This will generate an Excel file containing all Allowable bearing capacity and settlement values for various L/B ratios and different foundation widths (B). The width range and L/B ratios can be specified in the Option page.

To generate the Excel file, please click on "Export to Excel" button on Excel tab. This will take few minutes to prepare the file. Please be patient.

When you prompt to open the Excel file, please select Yes. When Excel opens the file click on the tabs below the page to view the charts or calculation summary.

You can easily copy and past all charts into your other Windows applications (such as Word). please click on top-left corner of charts and right-click. Then choose Copy from the popup menu. Now you just need to paste the chart into your destination program (such as Word).

Printing the Results 

Press Print button from the toolbar to see the calculation details and the report.

Theory (Bearing Capacity)

For strip and pad footings, PEYSANJ calculates both shear failure and settlement criteria for a range of footing widths (i.e. B1 to B2). At each footing size:

1- Shear Failure: The allowable bearing pressure based on shear failure (σ1) is calculated.

2- Settlement: For settlement control, stress is increased from zero to σ1 (calculated above) with Δσ increments. At each step, settlement is calculated and compared with the allowable settlement specified by user. Once the settlement has met the user's criterion, this stress (σ2) is recorded as the allowable stress based on settlement.

3- Allowable Stress: Then σ1 and σ2 are compared at each footing size, and minimum of these two values is introduced as the allowable bearing capacity.

For spread (mat) foundations, however, due to relatively larger footing size, shear failure will not be a limiting criterion. Therefore settlement of the footing is calculated and plotted versus stress. This stress can be set by user to vary from σ1 to σ2 with Δσ increment specified by user. This procedure can be configured by user through Options page.

Shear Failure Analysis

PEYSANJ performs bearing capacity analysis of the footings based on Hansen equations, which is a modified version of original Terzaghi bearing capacity. The effect of water level in bearing capacity is taken into account using the method recommended by Braja M. Das in the book "Principles of Foundation Engineering" (6th Edition), Section 3.5 titled "Modification of Bearing Capacity Equations for Water Table".

Settlement Analysis

Three methods can be chosen for elastic (immediate) settlement calculation of footings. For further reference and detailed description of each methodology please refer to reference books. For the purpose of calculating 1-D Terzaghi consolidation settlement, stress increase dP is calculated at the top, middle and the bottom of the layer and an average is calculated δPave=(δpt+4δPm+δPb)/6

If "Goodier and Timoshenko" method is used for elastic settlement calculation, then stress influence depth H should be calculated first. In this section user can choose how H is calculated. Usually H is taken as the depth in which δP is reached a certain percentage of the stress below footing, where this percentage can be defined by user in Options page.

In general, the total settlement is defined as below in PEYSANJ software:

S = Ir (Se+α.Sc)

where:

Ir : Rigidity factor (between zero and one; usually more than 0.9). The idea is to allow a rigid foundation to decrease the total settlement due to its ability to uniformly spread the stress.

Se : Elastic settlement

Sc: Consolidation settlement

α: User can specify what percentage of consolidation settlement should be considered in the total settlement calculation. The default value is 1. However, user can choose a lower value if the layer is not saturated to account for lower moisture contents in clay/silt layer:

Plate Loading Test

This page is designed for calculating plate loading test. Please enter all 3 settlement gauge readings and press Calculate button from the top toolbar. Modulus of subgrade reaction for each cycle of loading-unloading will be calculated separately and will be presented in the table.  

Printing the Results 

Press Print button from the toolbar to see the calculation details and the report.

Pressure-meter Test

This page is designed for calculating pressure meter test. Please enter calibration data and test data (including pressure and volume pairs); then press Calculate button from the top toolbar. Menard modulus (Em) and limit pressure (PL) will be calculated and presented in the table.  

Printing the Results 

Press Print button from the toolbar to see the calculation details and the report.

Simplified Slope Analysis

Using this page user can roughly estimate the stable slope based on the design chart proposed by Fang et al. This chart is prepared based on a series of limit equilibrium analyses, and should be only used as a rough estimate since it does not take many parameters such as groundwater level, surcharge, etc. into consideration. 

Soil and Slope Parameters

Enter friction angle, unit weight and cohesion of soil along with slope height and backslope angle. Please notice that safety factor will be applied on Tan(Φ). Press Calculate button when you entered all data.

Stability Factor and β

Ns or stability factor is calculated based on slope height (H), soil unit weight (γ) and soil cohesion (C) as shown below:

This parameter is a key factor for estimating the angle of slope stability. Ns is interpolated from the results of a series of limit equilibrium slope stability analyses carried out by Fang et al. (see below).

Lateral Earth Pressure Coefficients

You can calculate lateral earth pressure coefficients in static and earthquake conditions using this page.

Wall Geometry and Soil Data

Please enter the soil parameters and geometry as specified in the legend and press Calculate button.

Static Conditions (Rankine Method)

Ka=Tan(45 - Φ/2)2

Ko=1-Sin(Φ)

Kp=Tan(45 + Φ/2)2

Earthquake Conditions (Mononobe/Okabe Method)

Horizontal and vertical acceleration ratios of the earthquake:

Kh=ah/g, Kv=av/g

Kae : Active earthquake pressure coefficient

Kpe : Passive earthquake pressure coefficient

Earthquake Conditions (Mononobe & Okabe)

To use this charts please choose the curve corresponding your Kv. Then find the desired Kh from horizontal axis and follow the curve to get the K values from the vertical axis.

Stress Distribution

Using this feature to calculate distribution of the stress below the footing, according to 'Westergaard' or '2:1 Slope' methods. The input data comprises footing size and load (bearing pressure):

Printing the Results 

Press Print button from the toolbar to see the calculation details and the report.

Retaining Wall Pressure

Use this feature to calculate the distribution of the lateral earth pressure behind a retaining wall, due to a surcharge load. This surcharge can be 'line load' or 'strip load'. The input data comprises retaining wall information, backfill information and the load type:

Printing the Results 

Press Print button from the toolbar to see the calculation details and the report.

Ks Conversion

This page is used for conversion and correction of Ks30 resulted from the plate load test:

Ks Correction

Due to thickness/stiffness of the steel plate used in the plate loading test, the resulted Ks30 is recommended to be corrected for the stiffness of the plate. The chart shown on the left portion of the page is used for correction of Ks30. Please enter your test Ks30 in the box below the chart and press Calculate button to get the corrected Ks30.

Ks Conversion

This part of the page uses the common formulas for converting Ks30 to your desired footing's size. Different equations are used based on the subgrade soil type.

Calculation Details

All calculations in PEYSANJ come with step-by-step calculation details. Please press Calculation Details button on the top toolbar after performing the calculations. This will open another page containing the calculation details. If you want to print a report, click on Print button on the top toolbar; This will open the Print Preview page. A report comprises:

Cover page

Assumptions: including all input data and other applicable assumptions

Details: including step-by-step details of the calculations

Graphs: including all graphs

The report may be saved and exported to various formats such as Microsoft Excel, PDF, etc.

Print Preview

This page will be shown when you click on Print button from the toolbar. Different parts of the page are described below:

Thumbnail Preview

Shows a set of thumbnails for all pages of the report. Click on each thumbnail to open that page of the report in the Body part of the page.

Body

Is used to show the full preview of the specific page of the report. Please use the toolbar buttons to zoom in/out, save, print, etc 

Toolbar

This toolbar located on top of the page and its buttons are described below:

[picture] | Opens a report file which is already saved under c1d format
[picture] | Is used to save the current report with XLS, PDF, HTML, or even image formats such as JPG, BMP, TIFF, PNG, etc. Some limitations apply to this feature.
[picture] | Used to adjust the page setup such as margins, etc.
[picture] | Click on this button to print the report
[picture] | This will redraw the whole report again
[picture] | Sets the view of report by showing 1, 2 and 4 pages of the report within the Body part of the viewer.
[picture] | Used to navigate among the report pages. Enter the exact page number in the box to jump to that page.
[picture] | Used for zoom
[picture] | Used for pan (moving the preview page). Hold your left mouse button and move the page.
[picture] | If you click on this button, you will be able to select a text within the report. This feature can be used to copy a text from the report for use in another Windows application such as Microsoft Word.
[picture] | Use this button to find a phrase in the report.

Search Panel

Enter the searching phrase in this panel and click the Search button. A list will be populated with all pages containing your search criteria. Click on each item to browse to that page.

Options and Settings

The Options page provides access to analysis settings and default values used during the calculations and analyses. As shown in the following screenshot, settings are grouped into three tabs:

Bearing Capacity tab

This tab allows user defining the analysis methods used for the calculation of bearing and settlement. For strip and pad footings, PEYSANJ calculates both shear failure and settlement criteria for a range of footing width. For each footing size, the allowable bearing pressure is calculated based on shear failure (σ1).

For settlement check, the program starts checking settlement for stress values starting from zero to σ1, with a Δσ increment. The stress  corresponding to the tolerable settlement (defined by user) will be recorded as σ2.

Then σ1 and σ2 are compared for each footing size, and the minimum of these two values is introduced as the final allowable bearing capacity.

For spread (mat/raft) foundations, due to relatively larger footing size, shear failure will not be a limiting criterion. Therefore settlement of the footing is calculated and plotted versus stress. This stress can be set to vary from σ1 to σ2 with δσ increment. The following sections describe how this procedure can be configured by user:

Shear Failure

PEYSANJ calculates bearing capacity of the footings based on Hansen (modified Terzaghi) equations.

Strip / Pad Footing

From: the minimum footing width (B1) used for bearing capacity and settlement calculation

To: the maximum footing width (B2) used for bearing capacity and settlement calculation

Δ: the width step used for calculation

Δσ: the stress increment used for calculation

Excel L/B: a list of L/B ratios is entered. PEYSANJ will calculate and export to Excel, the bearing capacity for all these L/B values. Please enter maximum five L/B values, separated by comma.

Spread (raft) Footing

σ1: the minimum stress for which settlement of foundation is calculated

σ2: the maximum stress for which settlement of foundation is calculated

Δσ: the stress increment used for calculation

Apply Rb in the 3rd Term

If this option is selected selected Rb = 1 - 0.25 Log(0.5B) will be applied to the 3rd term of Hansen bearing capacity formula.

Settlement tab

On this tab of the Options page, you can specify the methods used for calculation of settlement:

Settings

If "Goodier and Timoshenko" method is chosen for elastic settlement calculation, then stress influence depth H should be calculated first. In this section user can choose how H is calculated. Usually H is taken as the depth in which δP is reached X percent of the stress below footing, where X can be set by user on this page.

Stress Distribution Methods

User can set the stress distribution methods for calculation of elastic and consolidation settlements.

Settlement Calculation Methods

Elastic: Three methods can be chosen for elastic (immediate) settlement calculation of footings. For further reference and detailed description of each methodology please refer to reference books.

Consolidation: for the purpose of calculating 1-D Terzaghi consolidation settlement, stress increase dP is calculated at the top, middle and the bottom of the layer and an average is calculated δPave=(δpt+4δPm+δPb)/6

Ignore Elastic Settlement : If this options is selected by user, during the calculation of total settlement of the footing, if consolidation settlement is calculated for a layer, the elastic settlement will be ignored in calculation of total settlement. In general, the total settlement is defined as below:

S = Ir (Se+α.Sc)

where:

Ir : Rigidity factor (between zero and one; usually more than 0.9). The idea is to allow a rigid foundation to decrease the total settlement due to its ability to uniformly spread the stress.

Se : Elastic settlement

Sc: Consolidation settlement

α: User can specify what percentage of consolidation settlement should be considered in the total settlement calculation. The default value is 1. However, user can choose a lower value if the layer is not saturated to account for lower moisture contents in clay/silt layer.

Pressure-Meter tab

This tab allows user defining the analysis methods used for the calculation of liquefaction and pressure-meter test. Here is a list of default probes used for pressure-meter test. User can expand this list by adding more probes to the list.

Advanced tab

This tab allows user to configure and prepare backup from PEYSANJ database file, as well as choosing the user-interface language and units.

Database

Please see this article for help on Database Settings.

Custom Settings

Although not every user may use this feature, it is possible to edit custom.txt file (copied in the PEYSANJ installation folder) and change the value of these two parameters:

ignore_depth_factors : If set to True, all depth factors will be considered =1 during bearing capacity analysis.

ignore_fox_index_if : If set to True, the Fox factor (If) used for reduction of settlement in Goodier & Timoshenko method, will be assumed =1 during settlement analysis.

Company Information

This allows user to select company logo, enter address and company name. This information is used in the reports.

View Activity Log

This will show a list of user activities such as Save, Delete, Print, etc. during working with the program.

Language

Currently, user interface is only available in English language.

Units

Three unit systems are available in PEYSANJ. Select your units and re-start the program for this setting to take effect.

Working with Charts

Please read the most up-to-date article from our website.

Export to Graphic Format

Please read the most up-to-date article from our website.

Database Settings

PEYSANJ database is a Microsoft Access file stored in the path shown by "Access database path" in the Advanced tab of the Options page. Your project data for bearing capacity analysis, plate loading test analysis, and pressure-meter test analysis is saved in a database file. It is very important to prepare periodic backups of your database file.

Preparing a Backup of Your PEYSANJ Database

Click on Backup Database button and specify the location on your hard drive where you want the backup file (PEYSANJ4.MDB) to be copied. When the backup file is prepared, simply copy it to your flash drive, burn on CD, etc. and keep in a safe place.

Restoring PEYSANJ Database

If you are transferring PEYSANJ to another computer, or recovering from a computer crash, you may want to restore your PEYSANJ database to be able to load the old projects. If you want to restore a database, click on Restore Database! button, and select the database file (this is the file already backed up by you). This will replace the existing database file.

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