PLAXIS v. 8.

2
FEM computations in practice

Slide 1
 Programme
 Mesh generation
 Soil–structure coupling
 Initial stresses
 Ground water flow
 Types of analysis
 Integration algorithms

Slide 2
 Programme
 Mesh generation
 Element types in PLAXIS
 Mesh refinement
 Soil–structure coupling
 Initial stresses
 Ground water flow
 Types of analysis
 Integration algorithms

Slide 3
 Mesh generation: Element types in PLAXIS
 Two types of triangular elements (isoparametric)
 Plane strain
 Axial symmetry

Nodes

Gauss points

6-noded element 15-noded element

Slide 4
 Mesh generation: Element types in PLAXIS
 Shape/weight functions for 6-noded triangle
 Quadratic interpolation in two (three) directions

Slide 5
 Mesh generation: Element types in PLAXIS
 Shape/weight functions for 6-noded triangle
 Quadratic interpolation in two (three) directions

Slide 6
 Mesh generation: Element types in PLAXIS
 Shape/weight functions for 15-noded triangle
 4th order interpolation in two (three) directions

Slide 7
 Mesh generation: Element types in PLAXIS
 Shape/weight functions for 15-noded triangle
 4th order interpolation in two (three) directions

Slide 8
 Mesh generation: Element types in PLAXIS
 Advantages of higher order elements
 Good for the description of continuous strain and
stress variations, e.g. failure in a zone
 Good description of a continuous displacement field
with relatively few elements
 Disadvantages of higher order elements
 Failure loads may be dependent on the mesh
 Poor description of discontinuous stress and strain,
e.g. failure along a line

 Note: According to the manual, the 15-noded

element is superior. However, you should test
whether two grids provide the same result.
Slide 9
 Mesh generation: Element types in PLAXIS
 Failure along a line modelled with CST-elements

Slide 10
 Mesh generation: Element types in PLAXIS
 Failure along a line modelled with higher-order
elements

Slide 11
 Mesh generation: Mesh Refinement
 PLAXIS: automatic unstructured mesh generation
 No possibility of making a so-called structured mesh
 The mesh size cannot be set explicitly
 The mesh is generated based on random seeds
 The mesh size may be changed implicitly
 Globally by means of global coarseness
 Locally by means of local coarseness

Slide 12
 Mesh generation: Mesh Refinement
 Global coarseness
 Average “element length” in the entire model

Coarseness

 Very coarse: nc = 25 approx. 50 elements

 Coarse: nc = 50 approx. 100 elements
 Medium: nc = 100 approx. 250 elements
 Fine: nc = 200 approx. 500 elements
 Very fine: nc = 400 approx. 1000 elements

 Note: The number of elements is independent of type

Slide 13
 Mesh generation: Mesh Refinement
 Definition of Local coarseness
 At a point
 Along a line

Slide 14
 Mesh generation: Mesh Refinement
 Definition of Local coarseness
 At a point
 Along a line

 Note: A line = two points

Slide 15
 Program
 Mesh generation
 Soil–structure coupling
 Initial stresses
 Ground water flow
 Types of analysis
 Integration algorithms

Slide 16
 Soil–Structure Coupling
 Interface strength defined by Mohr-Coulomb
 Elastic behaviour at an interface:
 Plastic behaviour at an interface:
 Reduced parameters
 Adhesion:
 Friction:
 Dilatation: for else

 Rigid interface (Rinter = 1.0)

 Applied at interfaces between soil and soil

Slide 17
 Soil–Structure Coupling

Slide 18
 Soil–Structure Coupling
 In manual settings for interfaces, overlap and
slip between soil and structure can be allowed

 Id the slip/overlap becomes too big, the system of

equations becomes ill-conditioned (inaccurate)
 The fictive thickness ti of the interface can be set, so
that the problem is avoided

Slide 19
 Soil–Structure Coupling
 Permeability
 Interfaces in PLAXIS are always fully impermeable
 Inactive interfaces are fully permeable
 Interfaces can be turned off in the flow phase

 Note: Plates are fully permeable!

 Real thickness of interface, δinter

 Only used in the Hardening Soil model
 Typical thickness: δinter = a few grain diameters
 Used in the computation of changes of the void ratio
related to dilatation cut-off
 Significant impact on the capacity of tension piles
Slide 20
 Soil–Structure Coupling
 Real thickness of interface, δinter
 Significant impact on the capacity of tension piles

Slide 21
 Programme
 Mesh generation
 Soil–structure coupling
 Initial stresses
 Effective stresses
 Pore pressure
 Ground water flow
 Types of analysis
 Integration algorithms

Slide 22
 Initial stresses: Effective Stresses
 Over-Consolidation Ratio (OCR)
 Pre-Overburden Pressure (POP)

Slide 23
 Initial stresses: Effective Stresses
 Pre-consolidation pressure

 Jaky’s equation: (used in HS)

is applied in order
to determine which
provides the position
of the cap in the
Hardening Soil
model

Slide 24
 Initial stresses: Effective Stresses
 Ratio between horizontal and vertical stress:

Slide 25
 Initial stresses: Effective Stresses
 Procedures for determination of initial stresses
 The K0-procedure for (nearly) horizontally layered soil
 Gravity loading for all other situations

Slide 26
 Note: No strength of cohesion-less soil w/o load
 Initial stresses: Effective Stresses
 The K0-procedure for horizontally layered soil
 Initial stresses defined in “Initial Conditions”

 For full gravity, in addition to K0 one must define

 To avoid points with plastic behaviour, the at-rest

earth pressure coefficient must lie within a given
interval, here given for the case of cohesion-less soil

Slide 27
 Initial stresses: Effective Stresses
 The K0-procedure for horizontally layered soil

 If the state of stress found by the K0-procedure does

not provide static equilibrium, a plastic nil-step is
included, i.e. a step with no additional load

 If the K0-procedure provides completely misleading

results, the solution of the plastic nil-step may diverge

 At the end of the plastic nil-step, it is recommended to

“Reset displacements to zero” (check this option)

Slide 28
 Initial stresses: Effective Stresses
 Gravity loading
 Initial stresses are equal to zero (in the computation)
 The weight of soil is introduced as a body force
 Often plastic behaviour is observed at a number of
integration points in the finite element model
 This happens in cohesion-less soil, unless

 A number of plastic points can be accepted

 Poisson’s ratio should be set so that a realistic value
of the at-rest earth pressure is obtained
 All displacements are reset after the gravitation step
Slide 29
 Initial stresses: Pore Pressure
 Total pore pressure in PLAXIS
 pactive = psteady + pexcess
 Excess pore pressure can only be determined in
undrained conditions: “Cluster is Undrained”
 Two different approaches
 Phreatic level ~ simple definition
 Ground water flow ~ (anisotropic) Laplace equation

Slide 30
 Initial stresses: Pore Pressure
 Ground water table (phreatic levels)
 Generally
 In a cluster

Inaccurate Accurate

 Note: Phreatic level is defined at geometry lines

Slide 31
 Initial stresses: Pore Pressure
 Ground water table (phreatic levels)
 Generally
 In a cluster

Slide 32
 Initial stresses: Pore Pressure
 Ground water flow
 Steady state
• Solution of Laplace (or Poisson) equation
 Boundary conditions
• Dirichlet: potential = position of ground water table
• Neumann: flux = flow through a boundary
• Seepage: mixture of Dirichlet and Neumann conditions

Slide 33
 Initial stresses: Pore Pressure
 Computation
 Phreatic level
• Approximate solution
• All clusters turned on, whether they are active or not
• This is avoided by the setting “Cluster is dry”
 Ground water flow
• Better, but more “expensive”
• Only active clusters are included

 Note: Time dependent flow can be analysed

with the PLAXIS Groundwater Flow module

Slide 34
 Programme
 Mesh generation
 Soil–structure coupling
 Initial stresses
 Ground water flow
 Steady state solution
 Consolidation
 Types of analysis
 Integration algorithms

Slide 35
 Ground water flow: Steady State Solution
 Darcy’s law Seepage velocity [m/s]

 ,

Permeability [m/s]

 Flow in the direction of decreasing potential

 Potential (groundwater head [m])
Pore pressure [Pa]

Vertical position [m]

Slide 36
 Ground water flow: Steady State Solution
 Equation of continuity for incompressible fluid

 Note: kx = ky → Laplace
equation in the potential
Slide 37
 Ground water flow: Steady State Solution
 Permeability in partially saturated soil
Reduction factor

VS

Slide 38
 Ground water flow: Steady State Solution
 Discretization
Gradient of shape functions


Potential in the element nodes

 ,

 Local: ,

 Global: , p = w ( y -  )
Inflow at nodes [m3/s]
Slide 39
 Ground water flow: Steady State Solution
 Example: Flow under a dam

 NB: Interface instead of a plate

Slide 40
 Ground water flow: Steady State Solution
 Example: Flow under a dam

 Note: Interface instead of a plate

Slide 41
 Ground water flow: Consolidation
 Effective stresses and pore pressure

 Effective stress rate and strain rate

 ,

 Interpolation

 , ,
Slide 42
 Ground water flow: Consolidation
 FE formulation of the equations of equilibrium
Internal forces (weight)

Surface traction

Residual

 Note: The residual leads to a self-correcting solution

Slide 43
 Ground water flow: Consolidation
 FE formulation of the equations of equilibrium

 Incremental equilibrium:

Constitutive matrix

 Stiffness of grain skeleton:

 Coupling matrix:

 External forces:

Slide 44
 Ground water flow: Consolidation
 Equation of continuity for an incompressible fluid
Porosity (pore volume/grain volume)

Bulk modulus for pore fluid

 Steady state part of the solution


Slide 45
 Ground water flow: Consolidation
 FE formulation of the equations of continuity
Flux through the boundary


 Note: q = 0 in PLAXIS 8.2

Slide 46
 Ground water flow: Consolidation
 Combined system of equations

 Incremental form (elastic material)

 ,
Slide 47
 Program
 Mesh generation
 Soil–structure coupling
 Initial stresses
 Ground water flow
 Types of analysis
 Plastic calculation
 c-φ-reduction
 Integration algorithms

Slide 48
 Types of analysis: Plastic Calculation
 Primary loading to ultimate failure
 Material behaviour
 Elastic
 Plastic
 Pore pressure
 Geometry
 Normal computation: linear (small strain)
 Updated Mesh: Updated Lagrange formulation
• Strengthening of anchors during deformation
• Large deformations ~ soft soil deposits
• May follow a “normal” (i.e. geometrically linear) computation
by use of the option “Reset displacements to zero”
• A “normal” computation cannot follow an UM computation

Slide 49
 Types of analysis: c-φ-reduction
 Determination of factors of safety

 Sf =

 Same reduction of cohesion and friction terms

 Initial value: ΣMsf = 0.1

 Subsequent values are found automatically

Slide 50
 Programme
 Mesh generation
 Soil–structure coupling
 Initial stresses
 Ground water flow
 Types of analysis
 Integration algorithms
 Tolerated error
 Over relaxation
 Maximum iterations
 Desired minimum and maximum
 Arc-length control

Slide 51
 Integration Algorithms

Slide 52
 Integration Algorithms: Tolerated Error
 Set by the parameter tolerated error
 The default is 0.03 ( total external load)

Slide 53
 Integration Algorithms: Over Relaxation
 Applied in order to speed up the process
 Upper limit
 Theoretical: 2.0
 In practice: 1.5

Slide 54
 Integration Algorithms: Maximum Iterations
 Permitted number of iterations in a load step
 The default value of Maximum iterations is 50
 Values of 1 to 100 are possible
 If more iterations are needed, a warning is given in
the Log info box on the General page

Slide 55
 Integration Algorithms: Desired Min. & Max.
 Desired minimum and maximum number of
iterations in a single load increment
 Can be set to values in the interval 1 to 100
 Default settings
 Desired minimum = 4 ; Desired maximum = 10
 Soil with a low angle of friction
 Desired minimum = 3 ; Desired maximum = 7
 Soil with a high angle of friction (and HS model)
 Desired minimum = 7 ; Desired maximum = 15
 Maximum iterations = 75

Slide 56
 Integration Algorithms: Arc-length Control
 Increased stability of numerical solution
 Default for c-φ-reduction
 Computation of collapse load

 Note: Arc-length control may lead to unintended

unloading → restart without arc-length control
Slide 57