PISA is a Windows program using the Windows Graphical User Interface. Input is entered using the mouse and dialog boxes.

Dialog Boxes

To input the data for the analysis, dialog boxes can be selected from a menu bar. For example, the type of analysis and the number of steps can be entered through the Analysis Control dialog box.
For specifying the material model, the material dialog box can be used. Some dialog boxes, such as the Material Dialog, Time Step Dialog, Phreatic Line Dialog etc., have graphic displays to provide easy identification of locations of the domain or to show the stress strain behaviour of the material.

Graphical Construction of Finite Element Meshes

Finite element meshes are defined using element blocks. Rectangular or irregular polygon blocks can be drawn using a mouse with user specified discretization within a block. The coordinates of the block are displayed during drawing and can be changed in the Element Block dialog box.

Modelling Time

PISA can perform time dependent and time independent analysis. The analysis is carried out in numerous time steps in which different loading and geometry can be specified at each time step. For time independent analysis, the time step is used to identify different stages of loading.

Modeling Phreatic Surfaces

PISA can perform effective stress drained and undrained analysis. The phreatic surface in the soil can be specified by the user and can be varied in different time steps.

On-line Help

PISA provides on-line help explaining various commands and modelling techniques. The help facilities explain terms, modelling steps, theory etc. to provide fast and efficient support on the usage of the program.

Program Information

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