INTRODUCTION TO NUMERICAL

MODELLING

Workshop II

By Dr. Mehdi Mirzababaei

m.mirzababaei@cqu.edu.au

ENEC20003 CQUniversity
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Geometry objects (constituents of the model)

o Regions, circular openings, line objects, surface
regions, and point objects
o Material or boundary conditions objects, mesh
element type, size and integration order will be
assigned to geometry objects.
Regions and lines (constituents of the model)
We draw the different soil types as individual
regions and divide a large domain into smaller
pieces and then connect the smaller pieces together
to obtain the behaviour of the whole domain
o When a region is defined, it is restricted to
having:
a) One type of material
b) One type of element meshing pattern (or no
mesh)
c) One order of elements; either first- or second-
order
d) One integration order.
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Free line
o A line object that does not make up any part of
a region.
o Applying anchors to a model or for specifying a
geo-fabric or insulation layer.
o Structural components that are partially in the
soil and partially outside the soil.
o Example: The scalar equation of a spring or a
long rod where the elongation is determined as
a function of the tension force.
Interface elements on lines
o In SIGMA/W, the material model may describe
the friction properties between soils, or a soil
and a structure such as a cut-off wall.
o In SEEP/W an interface model may be used to
represent a geo-fabric or a null material to
represent a barrier to flow. Interface elements on geometry lines
o In TEMP/W it may be a thin insulation layer.
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Mesh density
Specify mesh density as:
o Real length unit
o Ratio of the global mesh size
o Number of divisions along a line edge

Notes for meshing:

⌘ Use as few elements as possible at the start of an
analysis. Seldom is it necessary to use more than
1000 elements to verify concepts and get a first
approximate solution.
⌘ All elements should be visible to the naked eye when
the mesh is printed at a zoom factor of 100 % and
when the horizontal and vertical scales are the same.
The exception to this guideline is the elements found
in a surface layer.
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Example: Seepage through the clay core of a

zoned dam with rock shells

⌘ There is nothing to be gained by including the highly

permeable materials in the analysis.
⌘ Sometimes a mesh may be required to include the
shells in the analysis for other reasons, such as a
stress-deformation analysis. In such a case, the mesh
can exist but does not need to be included in the
analysis. This is accomplished using null elements.
⌘ Elements in GeoStudio can be null (not active) by
leaving a key material property undefined.
⌘ In SEEP/W the elements are null if there is no
specified conductivity function for the material.
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Surface layers
⌘ To numerically deal with rapid and dramatic
boundary changes it is necessary to have fine
discretization near the ground surface.
⌘ Examples of rapid changes at the soil surface:

Wetting and drying over a short period of time.

Penetration of frost from the ground surface.
Usage example: Soil cover on waste

⌘ The ability to construct a surface layer is available in

VADOSE/W, SEEP/W and TEMP/W.
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Selecting the most appropriate material
model
⌘ Consider the construction of an embankment
⌘ Consider the case of a heavy industrial
structure founded on highly over-
consolidated soil:
Settlement is often the main design criterion,
and the settlement must be fairly small.
⌘ Placing fill for an embankment on soft soil
The load-displacement response therefore is
likely linear elastic along the lower initial
portion of the stress-strain curve.
A simple linear elastic analysis is adequate,
and little would be gained by using a nonlinear
analysis.
Selecting the most appropriate material model
Considerable yielding and deformation can perhaps be tolerated
without affecting the serviceability of the structure.
A nonlinear analysis is required to obtain a realistic estimate of
the potential displacements; thus, a simple linear-elastic analysis
could considerably underestimate the displacements.
It can generate excess pore pressures to unstable the
embankment.
Use one of the more sophisticated effective stress models, such as
the Cam-clay model, together with a coupled or uncoupled
consolidation analysis.
It is important to remember that each soil model is not necessarily
applicable to all soil conditions. For example, the soft clay
(Modified Cam-clay) model is best suited for use with slightly
over-consolidated soils, not heavily over-consolidated soils.
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Selecting the most appropriate material model
⌘ Consider the case of a heavy industrial
structure founded on highly over-consolidated
soil:
Settlement is often the main design criterion, and
the settlement must be fairly small.
The load-displacement response therefore is
likely linear elastic along the lower initial portion
of the stress-strain curve.
A simple linear elastic analysis is adequate, and
little would be gained by using a nonlinear
analysis.
Selecting the most appropriate material model
⌘ Consider the construction of an embankment
Considerable yielding and deformation can perhaps be tolerated
without affecting the serviceability of the structure.
A nonlinear analysis is required to obtain a realistic estimate of
the potential displacements; thus, a simple linear-elastic analysis
could considerably underestimate the displacements.
⌘ Placing fill for an embankment on soft soil
It can generate excess pore pressures to unstable the
embankment.
Use one of the more sophisticated effective stress models, such as
the Cam-clay model, together with a coupled or uncoupled
consolidation analysis.
It is important to remember that each soil model is not necessarily
applicable to all soil conditions. For example, the soft clay
(Modified Cam-clay) model is best suited for use with slightly
over-consolidated soils, not heavily over-consolidated soils.
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Linear Elastic model (LE)

 The Linear Elastic model is based on Hooke's
law of isotropic elasticity.
 It involves two basic elastic parameters, i.e.
Young's modulus (E) and Poisson's ratio (ν).
 Although the Linear Elastic model is not
suitable to model soil, it may be used to
model stiff volumes in the soil, like concrete
walls, or intact rock formations.
Anisotropic elastic model
 Natural ground deposits are often stratified
and inclined. Therefore, it is desirable to
consider the possibility of having different
stiffness values in two orthogonal directions.
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Nonlinear elastic hyperbolic  Duncan and Chang’s non-linear

model stress-strain curve is a hyperbola in
 The stress-strain behaviour of soil the shear stress, (σ1-σ3), versus
becomes nonlinear, particularly as axial strain space.
failure conditions are approached.  Depending on the stress state and
 Hyperbolic model is based on the stress path, three soil moduli are
formulation presented by Duncan required; namely, the initial
and Chang (1970) to compute the modulus, Ei the tangential modulus,
soil modulus. Et, and the unloading-reloading
modulus, Eur soil modulus.
 The stress-strain curve is hyperbolic,
and the soil modulus is a function of
the confining stress and the shear
stress that a soil is experiencing.
 This nonlinear material model is
attractive since it requires soil
properties can be obtained quite
readily from triaxial tests.
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Negative pore-water pressure and

Volumetric water content in unsaturated soil
 Volumetric Water Content curve (Soil water
characteristic curve) explains the relationship
between the soil volumetric water content and
the suction (negative pore-water pressure).
 Unsaturated hydraulic conductivity decreases
as volumetric water content decreases.
 The first data point at the lowest suction is
taken to be the water content at saturation θs.
 A water content equal to 5% of θs is taken to
be the residual water content θr.
 The soil cohesion is then computed as

(ua – uw) is the soil suction

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Elastic-Plastic model
 The Elastic-Plastic model describes an
elastic, perfectly-plastic relationship.
 Stresses are directly proportional to strains
until the yield point is reached.
 Beyond the yield point, the stress-strain
curve is perfectly horizontal.
 The linear elastic perfectly-plastic Mohr-
Coulomb model involves five input
parameters
 A function which describes the locus of the
yield point is called the yield function
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Mohr Coulomb model

 We may use the Mohr Coulomb yield criterion as
the yield function for the Elastic-Plastic model.
 The Mohr-Coulomb criterion can also be written in
terms of the stress invariants I1, J2 and θ. (Chen
and Zhang, 1991).
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Cam-clay model
 The Cam-clay model developed by Atkinson in
the Cambridge University in 1978 and is a
critical state model as well as a hardening
elastic-plastic Model.
 An increase in applied stress will cause the stress
state to move along the over-consolidation line
towards the normal consolidation line.
 Once past the intersection of the two lines, any
further stress increase will cause the stress state to
move down the normal consolidation line.
 The overconsolidation line is analogous to the
initial linear elastic portion.
 The Normal consolidation line is analogous to the
hardening plastic portion of the stress-strain
relationship.
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Cam-clay model
 The Cam-clay model is an effective stress model
which requires the following soil properties.