PY-Pole
PY-Pole is a pole embedment calculator tailored to make simple yet effective pole foundation designs. Based on the P-Y method for lateral pile foundation design, PY Pole gives optimal results with minimal geotechnical investigation and is easy to use for any designer.
Video: PY-Pole Foundation Calculator Quick Start Guide
Historical pole foundation design techniques are commonly based on rule of thumb methods that are okay when poles are built in good soils with small design loads. However, experience has shown that they are inadequate for higher capacity poles and lower strength soils.
PY-Pole was developed as we were finding too many designs using methods like Brinch Hansen were unnecessarily requiring very large, expensive footings.
When we developed this for Ausgrid, the software saved them more than $50k on their first project.
Save $$$ on Construction
Developed to avoid the huge extra construction costs experienced by asset owners from the AS/NZS 7000 suggestion to use Brinch Hansen.
Avoids the use of concrete.
Effortless Results
PY-Pole uses simplified industry standard soil classification, standard pole tables, minimal inputs and does all the hard work for you to produce reliable foundation designs.
Peace of Mind
Checked against over 100 physical tests of poles and short piles, and backed by our experience of more than 500 pull-down tests. Based on the WebPEC originally developed for and used by Ausgrid.
It is becoming common place for new lines to use larger conductors, bigger spans and stronger poles. Combining this with development of weaker ground conditions, it means that the current rule of thumb methods are inadequate. Common engineering techniques like Brinch Hansen, Broms and others can produce dramatically over-designed, costly foundations whilst at the same time producing significantly under-sized foundations in other situations.
The cost of pole foundations has increased significantly since the introduction of AS/NZS 7000, and PY-Pole has been designed to leverage one of the most widely used and accurate lateral pile/pole foundation design methods in a simple-to-use interface.
Revo Group developed PY-Pole to increase designer confidence when determining the most effective pole foundation depth, meeting the requirements of the standards and the needs of individual networks. It is specifically designed for use on streetlights, power poles, sports lighting, netting poles, and any other free-standing shallow foundation pole.
More Benefits and Features
Responsive and flexible design.
The PY-Pole calculator can be accessed through our Structural Lines app, and is available on iOS, Android and Windows. The user interface is designed for intuitive use by engineers and designers. We also have a web service that we can license to others who want to incorporate it into their software.
Reduced material wastage and costs
We have seen countless utilities using more embedment depth and more concrete than is required usually thanks to the use of the Brinch Hansen method.
Reduce waste, cost and construction time with accurate, individual and relevant results.
Real-time calculations
Make judgement calls in the field and complete complex calculations with real-time feedback.
Field crews can be provided detailed information on soil assumptions in design and designs adjusted very quickly based on actual site info.
Cloud-based integrations
PY-Pole is cloud-based with enterprise level security, delivering the same high-quality calculations on any device at any location (data connection required).
Teams can share calculations and maintain records of all designs on-app or keep on your server as PDF reports.
Improve durability
Nobody should be embedding timber in concrete. We know that this can have major durability impacts. It’s not guarantee of durability for other materials either.
All it guarantees is they will be hard to inspect, maintain and remove in the future. Most PY-Pole designs will be able to eliminate concrete from their foundation backfill.
Why the P-Y method was chosen
Based on our research, the P-Y method is widely used in the design of laterally loaded piles. All other methods we investigated either required soil information that is not commonly available or expensive to get, were inaccurate (both over and under designed) or too simplified to give adequate results for the range of foundation conditions for poles, had built in rotation/deflection assumptions for buildings and were too conservative for poles, or were not well proven or used by many designers which limits confidence in long-term performance.
The P-Y method has the added benefit of producing ground line deflection and rotation values as a standard output, which can easily be selected as criteria to match with inspection and design conditions for pole lean, etc. It required some calibration against real-world performance to choose appropriate deformation levels for poles, but the ability to do this was a big positive.
Even though it is widely used in laterally loaded piles, the P-Y method is rarely used in the overhead line design field (although used commonly for road signs and wind turbines). This is due to the relative complexity of the calculations when compared to the alternatives. Our foundation calculator is designed with the goal of keeping the user interface and input requirements as simple as possible while providing a high level of efficiency in the resulting design. By automating most of the process, the complexity is reduced, and manual iteration is avoided to further improve the speed and ease of use.
We can import any range of poles that is available and can set up utility specific databases as required.