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I'm looking at a soil bearing capacity report, which has a column labeled "kips" and the values are followed by "kps".

A "kip" is 1000 pounds, but I'm not sure how to convert from "kps" to psf.

The data has values in the 17 to 45 kps range. If I assume that there are 1000 psf in one kps, then the soil bearing capacity would be 17,000 pounds per square foot to 45,000 pounds per square foot. This seems wrong to me, as I would expect the values to be in the 1,700 to 4,500 range.

  1. What does the abbreviation "kps" actually mean?
  2. How do I convert kps to psf?
  3. If a "kip" is 1000 pounds, why does a "kps" seem to be only 100 psf?
Nick
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    Please post a link or copy of your original document. – Carl Witthoft Jun 11 '18 at 18:54
  • If you have a report, ask to original author for clarification. "KPS" could just a easily mean "kips" and the area is assumed to be some specific foundation mentioned in the text. – hazzey Jun 13 '18 at 12:49
  • Since this is closed, the answer is: – Rhodie Jun 27 '19 at 15:40
  • 1000 000 kgf=2204622.431 lbf. Since Kps is the unitary expression of kips multiply Kps by 1×10^3 for lbf i.e, 2204.622431 Kps is 2204622.431 lbf – Rhodie Jun 27 '19 at 15:47

1 Answers1

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I've done some searching, according to this converter kps or KPS stands for Kilo Pascal, but don't use that abbreviation. The actual abbreviation for Pascal is Pa, and for kilo a small k, combined kPa.

Thus: $$ 1\hspace{1mm}\mbox{psf} = 47.88\hspace{1mm}\mbox{Pa} $$

With that assumption, are your values in a reasonable range?
I assume that kips in the column title is an error, because usually the tested values need to be in some pressure form, not force itself.

Andrew
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