Structural elements in Plaxis

Dennis Waterman
Plaxis BV

PLAXIS FINITE ELEMENT CODE FOR SOIL AND ROCK ANALYSES

Structural elements in Plaxis

• Plates and shells
(walls, floors, beams, tunnels)

• Anchors

• Geogrids (geotextiles)

• Interfaces

PLAXIS FINITE ELEMENT CODE FOR SOIL AND ROCK ANALYSES

CG1 Chile May 15-18, 2006: Structural elements and excavations 1

 Plates and shells

• 3 or 5 noded line elements

• 3 degrees of freedom per node
• Elastic or elastoplastic behaviour
• To model walls, floors, tunnels

PLAXIS FINITE ELEMENT CODE FOR SOIL AND ROCK ANALYSES

Input parameters for plates

h3 ⋅ b
• Flexural rigidity EI = E ⋅
12 (b=1 m)

• Normal stiffness EA = E ⋅ h ⋅ b (b=1 m)

• Element thickness d = h = 12
EI
EA

h h
b

b = 1 m in plane strain
b = 1 meter in axisymmetry
b

PLAXIS FINITE ELEMENT CODE FOR SOIL AND ROCK ANALYSES

CG1 Chile May 15-18, 2006: Structural elements and excavations 2

 Plate weights
• Compensate for overlap:
w = (γ concrete − γ soil ) ⋅ d real

• For soil weight use:

γunsat above phreatic level
γsat below phreatic level

PLAXIS FINITE ELEMENT CODE FOR SOIL AND ROCK ANALYSES

Plate weights for tunnels

d real
rinside
r
routside
lining soil

• Overlap is only for half the lining thickness

(
w = (γ concrete ⋅ d real ) − γ soil ⋅ 1 d real
2
)
r = 1 (rinside + routside )
2

PLAXIS FINITE ELEMENT CODE FOR SOIL AND ROCK ANALYSES

CG1 Chile May 15-18, 2006: Structural elements and excavations 3

 Fixed-end anchors
• To model supports, anchors and struts
• Elasto-plastic spring element
• One end fixed to point in the geometry,
other end is fully fixed for displacement
• Positioning at any angle
• Pre-stressing option

strut
PLAXIS FINITE ELEMENT CODE FOR SOIL AND ROCK ANALYSES

Node-to-node anchors
• To model anchors, columns and rods
• Elasto-plastic spring element
• Connects two geometry points in
the geometry
• Pre-stressing option

anchored wall cofferdam

PLAXIS FINITE ELEMENT CODE FOR SOIL AND ROCK ANALYSES

CG1 Chile May 15-18, 2006: Structural elements and excavations 4

 Anchor material properties
Normal stiffness, EA (for one anchor) [kN]
Spacing, Ls (distance between anchors) [m]
Maximum anchor force for compression
and tension, |Fmax,comp| and |Fmax,tens| [kN]

PLAXIS FINITE ELEMENT CODE FOR SOIL AND ROCK ANALYSES

Pre-stressing of anchors
• Defined in Staged construction phase
• Both tension (grout anchor) or
compression (strut) possible

PLAXIS FINITE ELEMENT CODE FOR SOIL AND ROCK ANALYSES

CG1 Chile May 15-18, 2006: Structural elements and excavations 5

 Geogrids
• 3 or 5 noded line element
• Linear elastic behaviour
• No flexural rigidity (EI), only normal stiffness
(EA)
• Only allows for tension, not for compression
• Soil/Geogrid interaction may be modelled using
interfaces

geotextile wall ground anchor

PLAXIS FINITE ELEMENT CODE FOR SOIL AND ROCK ANALYSES

Ground anchors
• Combination of node-to-node anchor and
geogrid
• Node-to-node anchor represents anchor rod (no
interaction with surrounding soil)
• Geogrid represents grout body (full interaction
with grid
• No interface around grout body; interface would
create unrealistic failure surface

PLAXIS FINITE ELEMENT CODE FOR SOIL AND ROCK ANALYSES

CG1 Chile May 15-18, 2006: Structural elements and excavations 6

 Ground anchors

Input geometry real distribution of axial forces in ground anchor

axial forces in geotextile element

Axial forces in ground anchors

Generated mesh
PLAXIS FINITE ELEMENT CODE FOR SOIL AND ROCK ANALYSES

Interfaces
• Soil-structure interaction
• Wall friction
• Slip and gapping between soil and structure
• Soil material properties
• Taken from soil using reduction factor Rinter
Cinter = Rinter * Csoil
tan(φ)inter = Rinter * tan(φ)soil
• Individual material set for interface

PLAXIS FINITE ELEMENT CODE FOR SOIL AND ROCK ANALYSES

CG1 Chile May 15-18, 2006: Structural elements and excavations 7

 Interfaces
Suggestions for Rinter:
• Interaction sand/steel
• Interaction clay/steel
• Interaction sand/concrete
• Interaction clay/concrete
• Interaction soil/geogrid
(interface may not be required)
• Interaction soil/geotextile
(foil, textile)
= Rinter ≈ 0.6 – 0.7
= Rinter ≈ 0.5
= Rinter ≈ 1.0 – 0.8
= Rinter ≈ 1.0 – 0.7
= Rinter≈ 1.0
= Rinter≈ 0.9 – 0.5

PLAXIS FINITE ELEMENT CODE FOR SOIL AND ROCK ANALYSES

Interfaces
• Try to omit stress oscillations at corners
of stiff structures

Inflexible corner
points, causing bad
stress results

Flexible corner
points with
improved stress
results

PLAXIS FINITE ELEMENT CODE FOR SOIL AND ROCK ANALYSES

CG1 Chile May 15-18, 2006: Structural elements and excavations 8

 Excavations in Plaxis

Dennis Waterman
Plaxis BV

PLAXIS FINITE ELEMENT CODE FOR SOIL AND ROCK ANALYSES

Material behaviour
• Unloading due to excavation
• Primary loading due to pre-stressing
• Hardening Soil model is preferred
• Non-linear elastic unloading/reloading behaviour
• Sometimes better to use Mohr-Coulomb with
known parameters than HS with unverified
parameters.
• When using MC: Eur should be used rather than E50

PLAXIS FINITE ELEMENT CODE FOR SOIL AND ROCK ANALYSES

CG1 Chile May 15-18, 2006: Structural elements and excavations 9

 Material behaviour: Stress paths
Construction phases:
• I 1st excavation
• II Pre-stressing anchor
•III Final excavation
Kactive K0
Œv K=1
Point A Point A
II III
I

K
Point B Point B passive

Œh

PLAXIS FINITE ELEMENT CODE FOR SOIL AND ROCK ANALYSES

Dewatering
• Wet excavation
• Impermeable (concrete) excavation floor
• Dry excavation
• Undisturbed water table outside excavation
• Drawdown outside excavation

PLAXIS FINITE ELEMENT CODE FOR SOIL AND ROCK ANALYSES

CG1 Chile May 15-18, 2006: Structural elements and excavations 10

 Dewatering: options
• General phreatic level
Applies to all clusters that have not been separately defined.
• Cluster phreatic level
Applies to one specific cluster.
• Cluster dry
Makes a specific cluster dry.
• Interpolate
Interpolate pore pressures between clusters above and below.
• User-defined pore pressure
Specify pressure pref at level yref and increase pinc per meter in y-
direction.

PLAXIS FINITE ELEMENT CODE FOR SOIL AND ROCK ANALYSES

Dewatering: wet excavation

• Excavate without changing water
conditions (in stages or at once)
• Apply stabilising weight at the bottom
• Set excavated area dry
• Use “cluster dry” option or
• Use “cluster phreatic line”
• Pore pressures outside excavated area
remain unchanged

PLAXIS FINITE ELEMENT CODE FOR SOIL AND ROCK ANALYSES

CG1 Chile May 15-18, 2006: Structural elements and excavations 11

 Dewatering: dry excavation
Undisturbed water table outside excavation
• For every excavation phase do
• Excavate soil
• Set excavated area dry
• Define area just below excavation floor as
interpolate between lines or clusters

Suitable for short- term excavations in low

permeability soils

PLAXIS FINITE ELEMENT CODE FOR SOIL AND ROCK ANALYSES

Dewatering: dry excavation

Undisturbed water table outside excavation

dry
interpolate

GPL

PLAXIS FINITE ELEMENT CODE FOR SOIL AND ROCK ANALYSES

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 Dewatering: dry excavation
Drawdown outside excavation
• For every excavation phase do
• Excavate soil
• Define boundary conditions (heads)
• Perform groundwater flow analysis.

Suitable for long-term excavations or excavations in

high permeability soils

Simplified alternative:
• Draw GPL according to expected groundwater level and
generate pore pressures based on GPL.

PLAXIS FINITE ELEMENT CODE FOR SOIL AND ROCK ANALYSES

Dewatering: dry excavation

Drawdown outside excavation

Groundwater flow calculation gives steady-state solution,

so for time is infinite!

PLAXIS FINITE ELEMENT CODE FOR SOIL AND ROCK ANALYSES

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