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01 Introduction to Plaxis 2D 4/20/2020
Introduction to PLAXIS 2D
Part 1
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Program structure
1.PLAXIS Input
• Definition of the problem (physical representation)
• Definition of the building process:
• Initial situation
• Construction stages
2.PLAXIS Output
• View results of:
• the entire model at a specific moment during construction
• one specific point during the whole construction process (history)
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Online Introduction course - May 2020 1

PLAXIS 2D Input
General toolbar
Mode switches
Selection explorer
Model explorer
Mode toolbar Drawing area
Command line
PLAXIS 2D Input : Modes
Definition of soil stratigraphy Definition of structural

elements, loads
and boundary conditions
SOIL STRUCTURES
Creation of the FE mesh Definition of water and Definition of construction stages

thermal flow conditions
MESH FLOW CONDITIONS STAGED CONSTRUCTION

Model and Selection explorer
• Model Explorer
• Graphical overview of the complete model and the objects that it contains.
• Selection Explorer
• As Model explorer, but only for the current selection of objects
• For managing any objects created in the model:
– shows number of materials, loads
– Showing, hiding or deleting model items
– Renaming model items
– Changing properties of model items
(load values, water height, material sets, …)
Command line
• Commands
– All actions using the mouse or the explorers are translated into commands.
– Direct input of commands possible using command line:
• Session tab: commands executed in the current session
• Model history tab: all the commands executed in the project
– Help → Command reference for all available commands and syntax

Soil Mode
Soil mode
• Definition of subsoil
– Using boreholes
– Import of soil volumes
• Boreholes ( )
– Soil layering + water table at specific location
– Multiple boreholes: interpolation of soil layers between boreholes
– Each soil layer is used in every borehole (but may have zero thickness).
Borehole 1 Borehole 2 Borehole 3 Borehole 4

Soil mode - Borehole definition
• Soil layers tabsheet

– Thickness of all soil layers
• Water tabsheet
– Initial water conditions per soil layer
• Specific Head
• Hydrostatic distribution,
• Interpolate from adjacent layers
• Dry
• User-defined pore pressures
• Initial conditions tabsheet
– Review OCR, POP, K0x and K0y for the K0 procedure
Soil mode - Materials

Open material sets data base window to show Create / Edit material set
Available material sets in this project
Material type
• Soil & interfaces
• Plates
• Geotextiles
• Anchors
• Embedded beam
rows
Define the material

• Constitutive model
• Drained/Undrained
• Weight, permeability
• Stiffness(es), strength
10

Soil mode - Materials
• Material data sets can be stored in a global database for use in other projects
Show global
Copy material sets between

project database and global database
11
Soil mode - Assign materials
• Drag-and-drop to subsoil model or borehole to assign materials
12

Structures Mode
13
Defining structures
• Points
– Generated by clicking the Create point button.
– Used for Point loads, Point prescribed displacements and Fixed-end anchors.
• Lines
– Generated by clicking the Create line button.
– Used to define Beams, Line loads, Line prescribed displacements, Node-to-node anchors
and Embedded piles.
14

Structures mode toolbar
Select
Select multiple objects
Move objects
Create array
Create point
Create line
Create soil polygon
Create tunnel
Create load
Create prescribed displacement
Create structure
Create hydraulic condition
Create thermal flow boundary conditions
Create connection
15
Default Boundary Conditions
• Default boundary conditions are

– All displacements fixed for the bottom surface of the soil contour
– Perpendicular displacement fixed for lateral surfaces of the soil contour
• Default boundary conditions can be overwritten by specifying Prescribed displacements on the soil contour
16

Structures - types
• Generated by clicking the Structure button

• Can also be created by right-clicking on selected:
– points
(fixed-end anchor)
Fixed-end anchor
– lines
(plate, geogrid, interfaces, node-to-node anchor Plate
or embedded beam row)
Geogrid
Embedded beam row
Interface
Node-to-node anchor
17
Importing Geometry
• Possibility to import from external sources in different formats like

– Interchange (*.DXF)
– OpenCascade (*.BREP)
– Standard for the Exchange of Product model data (*.STEP, *.STP)
– Comma Seperated Tekst (*.CSV)
18

The Mesh Mode
19
Mesh generation PLAXIS 2D
• Global coarseness:
– Defines an average element size based on model dimensions
• Local refinement (Coarseness factor):
– Element size can be locally refined or coarsened
– Element size factor = (Coarseness factor) * (Global coarseness)
• Color code
– Different color in the Draw area refined
Not refined
to represent refinement.
• Green = refined, lighter = finer
• Yellow = coarsened, lighter = coarser
coarsened
20

First Exercise
21
First Exercise - Start PLAXIS 2D
2. Specify project dimensions
1. Fill in project title
22

First Exercise - Soil mode
3. Create borehole
23
First Exercise - Soil mode
4. Material properties
- Create material sets for subsoil and footing

- Assign material sets
24

First Exercise - Structures mode
5. Create point load
4. Create footing
25
First Exercise - Mesh mode

5. Full automatic mesh generator
6. Inspect mesh
26

First Exercise – Flow conditions mode
7. Global water level according to

Head defined in borehole
27
First Exercise - Staged construction mode
8. Add
calculation
phases
9. Define
calculation
phases
28

See demo / handouts
29

Elastoplastic analysis of a footing
ELASTOPLASTIC ANALYSIS OF A
FOOTING
This exercise is based on PLAXIS 2D 2020
Computational Geotechnics 1
2 Computational Geotechnics
INTRODUCTION
One of the simplest forms of a foundation is the shallow foundation. In this exercise we will
model such a shallow foundation with a width of 2 meters and a length that is sufficiently long
in order to assume the model to be a plane strain model. The foundation is put on top of a 4m
thick clay layer. The clay layer has a saturated weight of 18 kN/m3 and an angle of internal
friction of 200 .
Figure 1: Geometry of the shallow foundation.
The foundation carries a small building that is being modelled with a vertical point force.
Additionally a horizontal point force is introduced in order to simulate any horizontal loads
acting on the building, for instance wind loads. Taking into account that in future additional
floors may be added to the building the maximum vertical load (failure load) is assessed. For
the determination of the failure load of a strip footing analytical solutions are available from for
instance Vesic, Brinch Hansen and Meyerhof:
Qf
B
= c ∗ Nc + 12 γ 0 B ∗ Nγ
0
Nq = eπ tan ϕ tan2 (45 + 12 ϕ0 )
0
 q − 1) cot ϕ
Nc = (N
0
2(Nq + 1) tan ϕ
 (V esic)
Nγ = 1.5(Nq − 1) tan ϕ0 (Brinch Hansen)

(Nq − 1) tan(1.4 ϕ0 ) (M eyerhof )

This leads to a failure load of 117 kN/m2 (Vesic), 98 kN/m2 (Brinch Hansen) or 97 kN/m2
(Meyerhof) respectively.
SCHEME OF OPERATIONS
This exercise illustrates the basic idea of a finite element deformation analysis. In order to
keep the problem as simple as possible, only elastic perfectly-plastic behaviour is considered.
Besides the procedure to generate the finite element mesh, attention is paid to the input of
boundary conditions, material properties, the actual calculation and inspection of some output
results.
Aims
• Input
– Start new project

– Soil mode
* Create soil layers

* Create and assign soil material sets
– Structures mode
* Create footing
* Create load
– Mesh mode
* Generate mesh
– Staged construction mode
* Determine initial situation

* Calculation of vertical load representing the building weight
* Calculation of vertical and horizontal load representing building weight and wind
force
* Calculation of vertical failure load.
• Output
– Inspect deformations
– Inspect failure mechanism
– Inspect load-displacement curve
INPUT
Introduction
Start PLAXIS 2D by double-clicking the icon of the PLAXIS 2D Input program. The Quick
select dialog box will appear in which you can select to start an new project or open an
existing one. Choose Start a new project (see Figure 2). Now the Project properties window
appears, consisting of the two tabsheets Project and Model (see Figure 3 and Figure 4).
Figure 2: Quick select dialog
Project properties
The first step in every analysis is to set the basic parameters of the finite element model.
This is done in the Project properties window. These settings include the description of the
problem, the type of analysis, the basic type of elements, the basic units and the size of the
drawing area.
Project tabsheet
In the Project tabsheet, enter “Exercise 1” in the Title box and type “Elasto-plastic analysis of
a drained footing” or any other text in the Comments box.
Model tabsheet
In the Model tabsheet several model specific parameters can be specified
• In the Type box the type of the analysis (Model) and the basic element type (Elements)
are specified. As this exercise concerns a strip footing, choose Plane strain from the
Model combo box. Select 15-node from the Elements combo box.
Figure 3: Project tabsheet of the Project Properties window
• The Units box defines the units for length, force and time that have to be used in this
project. There is a choice for several units, both metric and emperial.
For this project use the default units (Length = m; Force = kN; Time = day). The other
units (Temperature, Energy, Power and Mass) are not used in this exercise.
• In the Contour box the size of the considered geometry must be entered. The values
entered here determine the size of subsoil input window. PLAXIS will automatically add
a small margin so that the geometry will fit well within the draw area. Enter xmin =0.00,
xmax =14.00, ymin =0.00 and ymax =4.25, see figure 4
• Click on the OK button below the tabsheets to close the Project properties window.
Hint: In the case of a mistake or for any other reason that the project properties
should be changed, you can access the Project properties window by
selecting the Project properties option from the File menu.
Soil Mode
The program is now in Soil mode in which the subsoil should be created. As shown in figure
1 the subsoil consist of a single 4m thick clay layer and creating this layer is done in 2 steps:
first the soil layer is defined through the definition of a borehole, after which the material set
representing the clay is defined and assigned to the appropriate layer.
Create soil layer
• Select the button Create borehole ( ) and click in the drawing area on the origin to
indicate a borehole should be created there. The Modify soil layers window opens, see
Figure 4: Model tabsheet of the Project properties window
figure 5. Intially this window is empty as no boreholes have been defined yet for this
project.
Figure 5: The initial Modify soil layers window
• Now click the Add button in order to add a layer to the borehole.
• On the Soil layers tabsheet the different soil layers present in the borehole must be
defined. In this exercise there is only 1 soil layer with the Top at 4.0m and the Bottom at
0.0m, see figure 6.
• On the left side of the Modify soil layers window there is a graphical representation of
the borehole. Note that the soil layer does not have a soil material assigned yet.
• Above the borehole the Head option specifies the position of the global water level in
this borehole. In this exercise it is assumed that the phreatic level is at groundlevel, so
the Head must be set equal to 4.0 to indicate that the phreatic level is at ground level.
Figure 6: The Modify soil layers window with 1 borehole containing 1 soil layer
• Now press the <OK> button to close the Modify soil layers window. The drawing area
now shows a grey rectangular subsoil.
Create and assign material sets

In this exercise 2 material sets will be used: one material set for the clay layer, and the second
material set will be used to model the concrete footing. To create the material sets, follow
these steps:
• Select the Show materials button ( ) - the Material sets window will open. The list of
material sets available for this project is still empty.
• Click on the New button at the lower side of the Material Sets window. A new dialog box
will appear with five tabsheets: General, Parameters, Flow parameters, Interfaces and
Initial (see figure 7).
• In the Material Set box of the General tabsheet, write “Clay” in the Identification box.
• Select Mohr-Coulomb from the Material model combo box and Drained from the Material
type combo box.
• Enter the proper values for the weights in the General properties box according to the
material properties listed in table 1
Figure 7: General tabsheet of the soil and interface data set window for Clay
• Click on either the Next button or click on the Parameters tabsheet to proceed with
the input of model parameters. The parameters appearing on the Parameters tabsheet
depend on the selected material model (in this case the Mohr-Coulomb model).
• Enter the model parameters of table 1 in the corresponding edit boxes of the Parameters
tabsheet. The parameters in the Alternatives and Velocities group are automatically
calculated from the parameters entered earlier.
• See also figure 8. In this figure the Advanced parameters part has been collapsed.
• Since the geometry model does not include groundwater flow or interfaces, the third and
fourth tabsheet can be skipped. Click on the OK button to confirm the input of the current
material data set.
• Now the created data set will appear in the tree view of the Material Sets window.
For the concrete of the footing repeat the procedure, but choose a Linear Elastic material
behaviour and enter the properties for concrete as shown in table 1 (see also figures 9 and
10).
Table 1: Material properties of the clay layer and the concrete footing.
Parameter Symbol Clay Concrete Unit

Material model Model Mohr-Coulomb Linear elastic —
Type of behaviour Type Drained Non-porous —
Weight above phreatic level γunsat 16.0 24.0 kN/m3
Weight below phreatic level γsat 18.0 — kN/m3
Young’s modulus E0 5.0·103 2.0·107 kN/m2
Poisson’s ratio ν0 0.35 0.15 —
Cohesion c0ref 5.0 — kN/m2
Friction angle ϕ0 20 — °
Dilatancy angle ψ 0 — °
Figure 9: General tabsheet of the soil and interface data set window for Concrete
Figure 8: Parameters tabsheet of the soil and interface data set window for Clay
Figure 10: Parameters tabsheet of the soil and interface data set window for Concrete
• Now from the Material sets window drag the Clay material set with the mouse over the
grey subsoil and drop it. The subsoil should now get the colour of the material set, see
figure 11.
Figure 11: Subsoil before (left) and after (right) assigning the Clay material set
This ends the creation of the subsoil in Soil mode. By clicking on the Structures tabsheet now
move to Structures mode.
Structures mode
Introduction
In Structures mode the footing as well as the point load acting on the footing will be created.
However, first an adjustment to the snapping interval must be made in order to be able to draw
the 0.25m thick footing. By default, the snapping interval is set to 1m.
• From the grid options below the drawing area, make sure the option Snap to grid is
activated.
• Now select the Snapping options button ( ) from the grid option. The Snapping window
now opens.
• Leave the Spacing to 1 m
• Set the Number of snap intervals to 4. This means that every spacing of 1 meter is
divided in 4, hence the snapping distance will be 0.25m.
• Click the <OK> button to confirm the new settings and close the window.
Create footing
1. Select the Create soil polygon button ( ) and from the drop-down list that opens now
select the Create soil rectangle button ( ).
2. Move the mouse cursor to the coordinates (x y) = (6 4) and single-click the left mouse
button
3. Now move the mouse cursor to the coordinates (x y) = (8 4.25) and single-click the left
mouse button again. We have now created the footing.
4. Select the Show materials button ( ), the Material sets window will open.
5. Drag-and-drop the Concrete material set onto the footing.
Create load
1. Select the Create point button ( ) and from the drop-down list that opens select the
Create point load option.
2. Move the mouse cursor to the coordinates (x y) = (7 4.25) and single-click the left mouse
button to insert the point load.
This concludes the creation of the footing and loads. By clicking on the Mesh tabsheet now
move to Mesh mode.
Mesh mode
In Mesh mode the user can specify necessary mesh refinements and generate the mesh. In
this exercises no additional mesh refinement will be used.
• Select the Generate mesh button ( ). The Mesh options window will open.
• Leave the Element distribution to Medium and press <OK> to start mesh generation
• If mesh generation finished succesfully this will be confirmed in the Command explorer
with the message "Generated XX elements, YY nodes" where XX and YY stand for the
amount of elements and nodes respectively.
• Select the View mesh button ( ) in order to view the generated mesh, see figure ??.
Close the mesh window by selecting the green <Close> button. This ends the Mesh mode.
As no water levels will be used in this exercise, the Water levels mode can be skipped and we
can move directly to Staged construction mode to define the calculation phases.
Staged construction mode

In Staged construction mode all calculation phases will be defined. In this exercise we will use
5 calculation phases, which includes the initial phase.
Figure 12: Generated Mesh
Initial phase
The initial phase represents the field conditions that exist at the moment our project starts.
This means that only the subsoil exists in the initial conditions whereas the footing should be
deactivated, which is the default situation.
Phase 1: Construction of the footing
• In the Phase explorer select the Add phase button ( ) so that a new phase will be
added.
• Right-click on the footing and from the drop-down menu that appears select the option
Activate to activate the footing, see figure 13.
Figure 13: Geometry configuration for the initial phase (left) and phase 1 (right)
Phase 2: Apply vertical load
added.
• Click on the point on which the load acts so that it becomes red. On the left side the data
of the load now appears in the Selection explorer.
• Activate the point load and set the value of the vertical component, Fy,ref = -50 kN (=
downwards), see figure 14.
Figure 14: Activating and changing the point load through the Selection explorer in phase 2
(left) and phase 3 (right)
Phase 3: Add horizontal load

added.
of the load again appears in the Selection explorer.
• Set the value of the horizontal component of the point load, Fx,ref = 20 kN, see figure 14.
The load is now inclined.
Phase 4: Vertical failure load

In this phase we will calculate the vertical failure load as if no horizontal load has been applied.
This means that phase 4 must be a continuation of applying the vertical load in phase 2.
• In the Phase explorer select phase 2 so that it will show in bold letter type
• Now select the Add phase button ( ) so that a new phase will be added that follows on
phase 2 rather than on phase 3.
of the load again appears in the Selection explorer.
• Set the value of the vertical component of the point load, Fy,ref = -500 kN. Note that
Fx,ref should remain 0 (zero).
This finishes the definition of the calculation phases for this project.
Calculation
Load-displacement curves
As a calculation result we would like to draw a load-settlement curve for the footing. In order
to do so, the user must select one or more points for which Plaxis has to gather data during
the calculation:
• Select the Select points for curves button ( ). The output program now opens, showing
the mesh with all nodes.
• Select the node in the middle underneath the footing, hence at or very close to (x y) = (7
4). The node will appear in the Select points list, see figure 15.
• Close Plaxis Output by clicking the green <Update> button at the top left.
Figure 15: Selecting points for node displacement curves
Calculate
Press the Calculate button ( ) to start the calculation.

Note that the last calculation phase fails: the intended vertical load of 500 kN cannot be fully
applied due to failure of the subsoil underneath the footing.
RESULTS
Output
After the calculation finishes, click the View calculation results button ( ). Plaxis Output
will open, showing the calculation results of the last calculation phase.
By default Plaxis Output will show the Defomed mesh, see figure 16. If this is not the case the
Deformed mesh can be shown by choosing the menu Deformations → Deformed mesh |u|.
Figure 16: Deformed mesh after phase 4
Now choose the menu option Deformations→ Incremental displacements→|∆u|, see figure
17.
The incremental displacements is the change in displacements in the current calculation
step (here that is the last calculation step of the phase 4). Under working conditions the
change of displacement per calculation step is quite small, but in case of failure, the change of
displacements can be large inside the failure zone. Therefore the Incremental displacements
graph can be very suitable for detecting whether failure occurs and what the failure zone may
look like. Figure 17 shows the typical Prandtl-like failure zone.
Finally, we will inspect the load-settlement curve and determine the failure load. To do so,
follow these steps:
• From the button bar select the Curves manager button ( ). The Curves manager will
open.
• In the Curves manager select the <New> button in order to generate a new curve. Now
the Curve generation window opens.
• In the Curve generation window, select for the x-axis data the node chosen prior to the
calculation (instead of Project data) from the drop down list.
Figure 17: Incremental displacements for the final calculation step of phase 4
• Now in the tree below, select Deformations → Total displacements→ |u|
• For the y-axis we will plot a Project value, and that is the Multiplier ΣM stage.
• Press <OK>. A curve as can be seen in figure 18 will show.
Figure 18: Load-settlement curve
In a Plaxis calculation any change made in a construction phase leads to a so-called unbalance,
that is a disturbance between the total of the internal stresses and the external load. This
unbalance is gradually solved using the ΣM stage multiplier. The ΣM stage multiplier indicates
how much of the unbalance has been solved, where ΣM stage = 0 indicates that no unbalance
was solved and ΣM stage = 1 that the full unbalance has been solved.
In the curve shown in figure 18 the lines at the left indicate the variation of ΣM stage for the first
3 calculation phases, where as the long curved line shows the variation of ΣM stage during
the final phase.
It shows that at failure occurs when ΣM stage = 0.38, hence 38% of the unbalance was solved.
In this case the unbalance applied was the increase of the vertical load from 50 kN/m to 500
kN/m. Hence, at failure the total load applied is the load at the beginning of the phase (50
kN/m) plus 38% of the change of load that could be applied: Fmax = 50 + 0.38 · (500 − 50) = 221
kPa
The exact value of the ΣM stage multiplier can be inspected by moving the mouse cursor over
the plotted line. A tooltip box will show up with the data of the current location.
Comparison
In addition to the mesh used in this exercise calculations were performed using a very coarse
mesh with a local refinement at the bottom of the footing and a very fine mesh. Fine meshes
will normally give more accurate results than coarse meshes. Instead of refining the whole
mesh, it is generally better to refine the most important parts of the mesh, in order to reduce
computing time. Here we see that the differences are small (when considering 15-noded
elements), which means that we are close to the exact solution. The accuracy of the 15-
noded element is superior to the 6-noded element, especially for the calculation of failure
loads.
Hint: In plane strain calculations, but even more significant in axi-symmetric
calculations, for failure loads, the use of 15-noded elements is recommended.
The 6-noded elements are known to overestimate the failure load, but are ok
for deformations at serviceability states.
Table 2: Results for the maximum load reached on a strip footing on the drained sub-soil for
different 2D meshes
Mesh size Element Nr. of Max. Failure

type elements load load
[kN/m] [kN/m2 ]
Medium mesh 15-noded 212 221 117
Very coarse mesh 6-noded 84 281 147
Medium mesh 6-noded 212 246 129
Very fine mesh 6-noded 626 245 129
Very coarse mesh 15-noded 84 224 118
Very fine mesh 15-noded 626 221 117
Analytical solutions of:
- Vesic 117
- Brinch Hansen 98
- Meyerhof 97
In this table the failure load has been calculated as:
Qu M aximum f orce M aximum f orce

B
= B
+ γconcrete ∗ d = 2
+6
From the above results it is clear that fine FE meshes give more accurate results. On the other
hand the performance of the 15-noded elements is superior over the performance of the lower
order 6-noded elements. Needless to say that computation times are also influenced by the
number and type of elements.
ADDITIONAL EXERCISE:
UNDRAINED FOOTING
INTRODUCTION
When saturated soils are loaded rapidly, the soil body will behave in an undrained manner, i.e.
excess pore pressures are being generated. In this exercise the special PLAXIS feature for
the treatment of undrained soils is demonstrated.
SCHEME OF OPERATIONS
In PLAXIS, one generally enters effective soil properties and this is retained in an undrained
analysis. In order to make the behaviour undrained one has to select ‘undrained A’ as the type
of drainage. Please note that this is a special PLAXIS option as most other FE-codes require
the input of undrained parameters e.g. Eu and νu .
Aims
• The understanding and application of undrained soil behaviour
• How to deal with excess pore pressures.
• Use previous input file and ave as new data file
• Soil mode
– Change material properties, undrained behaviour for clay
• Mesh mode
– Mesh generation, global mesh refinement B)
• Staged construction mode
– Re-run existing calculation phases
• Output
– Inspect excess pore pressures
Soil mode
INPUT
Use previous input file
If PLAXIS Input is no longer open, start PLAXIS by clicking on the icon of the Input program
and select the existing project file from the last exercise (drained footing). From the File menu
select Save As and save the existing project under a new file name (e.g. ‘exercise 1b’).
Change material properties
• Change material properties by selecting the Show materials button ( ). Please note
that this button is only available in Soil mode, Structures mode and Staged construction
mode.
• From the Material sets window, select the ’Clay’ and click on the <Edit> button.
• In the Soil window that opened on the first tab sheet (General) change the Drainage
type to "Undrained A" and close the data set.
Mesh generation
The mesh generator in PLAXIS allows for several degrees of refinement. In this example
we will globally refine the mesh, resulting in an increased number of finite elements to be
distributed along the geometry lines:
• Go to the Mesh mode
• Select the Generate mesh button ( ) and in the Mesh settings window choose Fine
for the Elements distribution.
Calculation
• Go to the Staged construction mode. All phases are indicated by (blue arrows)
After mesh (re)generation, staged construction settings remain and phase information is rewritten
automatically for the newly generated mesh. However, this is not the case for points for load
displacement curves due to the new numbering of the mesh nodes.
• Click on the Select points for curves button ( ) in the toolbar. Reselect the node
located in the centre directly underneath the footing
• Click on the Calculate button ( ) to recalculate the analysis. Due to undrained

behaviour of the soil there will be failure in the 3rd and 4th calculation phase.
OUTPUT
As mentioned in the introduction of this example, the compressibility of water is taken into
account by assigning ’undrained’ behaviour to the clay layer. This normally results, after
loading, in excess pore pressures. The excess pore pressures may be viewed in the output
window by selecting:
• Select in the Phases explorer the phase for which you would like to see output results.
• Start the output program by clicking the View calculation results button ( ).
• In PLAXIS Output, select from the Stresses menu the option Pore pressures and then
pexcess , this results in figure 19.
The excess pore pressures may be viewed as contour lines ( ), shadings ( ), stress
crosses ( ) or as tabulated output ( ). If, in general, stresses are tensile stresses the
principal directions are drawn with arrow points. It can be seen that after phase 3 on the
left side of the footing there are excess pore tensions due to the horizontal movement of the
footing. The total pore pressures are visualised using the option of active pore pressures.
These are the sum of the steady state pore pressures as generated from the phreatic level
and the excess pore pressures as generated from undrained loading.
Figure 19: Excess pore pressures at the end of the 3rd phase
• Select from the Stresses menu the option Pore pressures and then pactive . The results
are given in figure 20.
From the load displacement curve it can be seen that the failure load in the last phase is
considerably lower for this undrained case compared to the drained situation, as expected.
For the undrained case the maximum load is just under 70 kN/m, which means the failure load
is about 40 kPa.
Figure 20: Active pore pressures at the end of the 3rd phase
APPENDIX A: BEARING CAPACITY

CALCULATION
Given the formula for bearing capacity of a strip footing:
Qf
B
= c · Nc + 12 γ 0 B · Nγ
0
Nq = eπ tan ϕ tan2 (45 + 12 ϕ0 )
0
 q − 1) cot ϕ
Nc = (N
0
2(Nq + 1) tan ϕ
 (V esic)
Nγ = 1.5(Nq − 1) tan ϕ0 (Brinch Hansen)

(Nq − 1) tan(1.4 ϕ0 ) (M eyerhof )

Filling in given soil data:
Nq = eπ tan(20) tan2 (55) = 6.4

 − 1) cot(20) = 14.84
Nc = (6.4
2(6.4 + 1) tan(20) = 5.39
 (V esic)
Nγ = 1.5(6.4 − 1) tan(20) = 2.95 (Brinch Hansen)

(6.4 − 1) tan(28) = 2.97 (M eyerhof )

The effective weight of the soil:
γ 0 = γw − 10 kN/m3 = 18 − 10 = 8 kN/m3
For a strip foundation this gives:


1 2
5 ∗ 14.83 + 2 ∗ 8 ∗ 2 ∗ 5.39 ≈ 117 kN/m
 (V esic)
Qf
B
= c · Nc + 12 γ 0 B · Nγ = 5 ∗ 14.83 + 12 ∗ 8 ∗ 2 ∗ 2.95 ≈ 98 kN/m2 (Brinch Hansen)

5 ∗ 14.83 + 12 ∗ 8 ∗ 2 ∗ 2.87 ≈ 97 kN/m2 (M eyerhof )

03 Introduction to Plaxis 2D (part 2) 4/20/2020
Introduction to PLAXIS 2D
Part 2
Program structure
1.PLAXIS Input
• Definition of the problem (physical representation)
• Definition of the building process:
• Initial situation
• Construction stages
2.PLAXIS Output
• View results of:
• the entire model at a specific moment during construction
• one specific point during the whole construction process (history)
Online Introduction Course Plaxis - May 2020 1

PLAXIS 2D Input : Modes
Definition of soil stratigraphy Definition of structural

elements, loads
and boundary conditions
SOIL STRUCTURES
Creation of the FE mesh Definition of water and Definition of construction stages

thermal flow conditions
MESH FLOW CONDITIONS STAGED CONSTRUCTION
Flow Conditions Mode

Water Levels
• Borehole water levels

– Automatically generated from the water information in the boreholes
(Head, User-defined pore pressure…)
• Single borehole: horizontal water level that extends to the model boundaries.
• Multiple boreholes: non-horizontal water level possible
• User water levels
– Manually created by the user
• Global water level

– Default water level for all clusters
– Can be a Borehole water level or a User water level
Water conditions in soil clusters
• Water levels can be specified for each individual volume
• Available options are:

– Global level (default)
– Custom level
– Head
– User-defined
– Interpolate
– Dry
• Changes can be made through

– Right-clicking the mouse
– The WaterConditions feature in the Selection explorer.

Staged Construction Mode
Calculation types – Initial pore pressures and initial stresses
• K0 procedure
Initial stresses based on soil weight
• Gravity loading
Initial stresses based on equilibrium
• Field stress
Direct input of (constant) , , , and ,
• Flow only
Initial phase and all other phase are only groundwater flow calculation phases – no deformation,
stability etc.

Calculation types – Construction phases
• Plastic calculation
General deformation analysis, perfectly drained or perfectly undrained
• Consolidation
Time-dependent pore pressure dissipation.
• Fully-coupled flow-deformation analysis
Time-dependent analysis including deformation, consolidation and transient flow
• Dynamic analysis
Application of dynamics loads, for instance harmonic loads or earthquake loads.
• Safety
Determination of the factor of safety at a certain stage in the construction process
• Steady-state groundwater flow (Flow only)

Generate groundwater flow field that is constant in time
• Transient groundwater flow (Flow only)
Generate groundwater flow field that varies in time
Calculation definition - Initial conditions
Generation of the initial situation before construction
Initial water conditions / initial pore pressures

• Hydrostatic pore pressure distribution based on phreatic level(s)
• Non-hydrostatic pore pressure distribution based on groundwater flow calculation
Initial geometry configuration / initial stresses

• Activate / deactivate soil and structural elements according to the initial situations (e.g. embankments
switched off)
• Initial stress generation using to K0-procedure or Gravity loading
10

Calculation definition - Construction phases
• Changes that can be made in a construction phase

– Activating / deactivating soil
– Activating / deactivating structural elements
– Prestressing anchors
– Change materials for soils and/or structural elements
– Applying loads (static or dynamic)
– Applying prescribed displacements
– Applying volume strains
– Applying tunnel contractions
– Changes in groundwater levels
– Changes in ground temperature
11
Calculation definition - Phase definition
Changes per phase by means of

• Model explorer
• Selection explorer
• Directly in the Draw area
Phase explorer
(phase list)
Make changes
12

Calculation definition - Phase explorer
• For creating and editing the calculation phases
Insert phase Delete phase Define phase settings

Add phase
Calculation type indicator
K0 procedure (initial phase)
Calculation status gravity loading (initial phase)
to be calculated plastic
not to be calculated dynamic
calculation successful consolidation
calculation failed fully-coupled flow-deformation
safety
13
Calculation definition - Phase settings
• Calculation phase settings can be edited:

– Calculation type, phase parameters, iterative procedure settings
14

Phase settings – additional functionality
• Start from phase:

Change order (sequence) of calculation phases
• Reset displacements to zero:

resets all displacements at the start of the phase
• Ignore undrained behaviour:

no generation of excess pore pressures in this calculation phase.
• Time interval:
specify a construction time
(for dynamics, consolidation and time-dependent soil behaviour – creep)
15
PLAXIS Output
16

PLAXIS Output – possibilities
• Graphical and tabulated output of

– Displacements
• Total, phase and incremental
• Absolute, horizontal and vertical
• Plots with arrows, contour lines or contour shadings
– Stresses
• Effective and total
• Total (active) and excess pore pressures
• Cartesian, mean and deviatoric
• Plots with principal stresses, contour lines or contour shadings
– Strains
• Total, phase and incremental
• Cartesian, volume and shear
• Plots with principal strains, contour lines or contour shadings
17
PLAXIS Output – possibilities
– Groundwater flow results

• Flow field (flow arrows, contour lines and contour shadings)
• Groundwater head (contour lines and contour shadings)
– Thermal flow results
• Flow field and temperature distribution
– Dynamics analysis results
• Velocities
(horizontal, vertical, total - arrows, contour lines / shadings)
• Accelerations
(horizontal, vertical, total - arrows, contour lines / shadings)
– Structural forces
• Axial forces (plates, geotextiles, anchors)
• Shear forces and bending moments (plates)
• Hoop forces (plates and geotextiles in axisymmetry)
– Cross sections
• Report generator
• Animations
18

PLAXIS Output – structural forces
• Select structural elements

1. Select individual structural element
Use Shift/Control/Alt keys to select single elements or groups
or
Drag window to select all structural elements in an area
2. Double-click selected elements

or
Right-click selected elements → choose Structures from the menu
3. New window opens showing results of the selected structural elements
19
PLAXIS Output – structural forces

Choose structural force
Choose between
- forces in this phases
- force envelope
Change scale factor

Structural
Forces
Current scale for
structural forces
Minimum/maximum value
20

PLAXIS Output – cross section
• Define cross section

1. Directly draw cross section
or
Enter coordinates of start/end point
in the Cross section points window
2. A new window will open showing

the cross section with results.
21
PLAXIS Output – cross section

Choose cross section value
Change scale factor
Cross section Current scale

data
Minimum/maximum value
22

Questions?
23

05 - Structural Element in Plaxis 4/20/2020
Structural elements in PLAXIS
• Plates and shells
• Anchors
wall
• Geogrids (geotextiles)
• Embedded beam rows
• Interfaces
strip footing
tunnel
Online Introduction course PLAXIS - May 2020 1

geotextile wall anchored wall cofferdam
strut ground anchor Pile foundations
Plates / shells
• 3 or 5 noded line elements

(for 6-noded or 15-noded element mesh)
• 3 degrees of freedom per node
(horizontal and vertical displacement and rotation)
• Plates have:
– Axial forces
– Shear forces
– Bending moments
– Hoop forces (axisymmetry)
• Elastic or elastoplastic behaviour
• Used for modelling walls, floors, tunnels

Plates / shells - material parameters
• Flexural rigidity = ⋅ ℎ (b=1m)
• Axial stiffness = ⋅ ℎ (b=1 m)
• Element thickness = 12 (control)
h h
b
b = 1 m in plane strain
b = 1 meter in axisymmetry
b
Plates / shells – elasto-plastic behaviour

Linear elastic-perfectly plastic
Np
M
Mp
Mp = full plastic bending moment

under uniform bending
Np = full plastic axial force
under uniform compression/tension

M-Kappa diagram
3
2
1
1
3 2
M- : loading/unloading
M-Kappa diagram
3
2
1
1
3 2
M- : loading/unloading

Plates / shells – additional material parameters
• Prevent punching
Creates small elastic zone around the
end of the plate
(do NOT use to model bearing capacity)
• Rayleigh and
Numerical damping parameters
• Thermal parameters
Heat storage and conductivity
parameters for thermal analysis
Elastic zone
d
Plates / shells – weight, in soil

real model
For correct weight in the model :
=
= ∗
= ∗ +
dreal Hence,
= − ∗
• Notes:
– If structural forces are important and self-weight is a significant part of the total load of the plate using
= ∗ may be the better choice to obtain correct structural forces.
– The soil weight can be or depending on whether the plate is below of above the phreatic
level. It may even change during the calculation, but often that influence is quite small.
10

Plates / shells – weight, excavation

real model
For correct weight in the model :
=
= ∗
dreal = ∗ +
Hence,
= − ∗
• Additional Notes:
– If during a calculation the soil is being excavated or filled, generally the plate weight is determined
based on the final situation rather than changing it according to the actual situation during the
calculation
11
Plates / shells - boundary conditions and connections

Free rotation
Connection
Define how the end of plate A (the custom part)
is connected to plate B (the reference plate)
• Fixed
• Free
Fixed rotation • Elastic spring (requires rotation stiffness)
• Elasto-plastic spring
(requires rotation stiffness and plastic moment)
reference custom
custom
ref 1
custom reference custom 1 reference 2

reference
custom 2
12

Anchors
• To model supports, anchors and struts

• Elasto-plastic spring element
• Pre-stressing option
• Two different types
– Fixed-end
• One end fixed to point in the geometry, other end is fully fixed for displacement
• Positioning at any angle
– Node-to-node
• Connects two geometry points in the geometry
• No interaction with the mesh along the anchor rod
13
Anchors - material properties
Material type
• Elastic
• Elastoplastic
• Elastoplastic with residual strength
Axial stiffness, EA (per anchor) [kN]

Out-of-plane distance between anchors, Lspacing [m]
Ls
14

Anchors - material properties
Residual strength
• Max strength is reached:

strength reduces to residual
• Model anchor failure:

Set residual strength to zero
15
Anchors - pre-stressing
• Defined in Staged construction phase

• Both tension (grout anchor) or compression (strut) possible
16

Geogrids
• 3 or 5 noded line element

• No flexural rigidity (EI), only axial stiffness (EA)
• Only allows for tension, not for compression
• Elastic or elasto-plastic behaviour
• Elastic-perfectly plastic (Np)
• N- diagram
• Visco-elastic
N N ε
Np ε
ε
ε ε t t
Creep Relaxation
Elastic-perfectly N-
plastic diagram Visco-elastic
17
Embedded beam row
• 3 or 5 noded line element
• Interaction with soil through an interface allowing for skin friction
• User-defined axial and lateral skin resistance distribution
• Linear distribution Tskin,start,max ,Tskin,end,max
• Multi-linear distribution (di,Tskin,i,max) i=0,1,2….n
• Layer-dependent (only axial) , = ( + )
• End-bearing capacity through spring connection
• Soil can “flow” in between beams
18

Embedded beam row - parameters
Material data
Pile shape
Rayleigh damping (dynamics)
Axial skin resistance

Lateral skin resistance
Base resistance
Interface stiffness factors
19
Interfaces – soil structure interaction
• Doubling of nodes to (partially) uncouple soil and structural element

• Spring connection between soil nodes and structural nodes
– Normal spring
– Shear spring
• Allows for modelling of slip, gapping and closing between soil and structure
• Can also be used between two soil materials
Output:
• Normal stresses
• Shear stresses
• Displacements
20

Interfaces – material properties
• Soil material properties

– Taken from soil using reduction factor Rinter
Cinter = Rinter * Csoil
tan(φinter) = Rinter * tan(φsoil)
ψinter = 0 for Rinter < 1
= ψsoil Rinter = 1
σt,inter = Rinter * σt,soil
Ginter = (Rinter)2 * Gsoil
– Residual reduction factor Rinter,res only affects strength, not stiffness
– Individual material set for interface possible for more control over interface parameters
21
Interfaces – reduction factor
Suggestions for Rinter:

– Interaction sand/steel = Rinter ≈ 0.6 – 0.7
– Interaction clay/steel = Rinter ≈ 0.5
– Interaction sand/concrete = Rinter ≈ 1.0 – 0.8
– Interaction clay/concrete = Rinter ≈ 1.0 – 0.7
– Interaction soil/geogrid = Rinter≈ 1.0
(interface may not be required)
– Interaction soil/geotextile = Rinter≈ 0.9 – 0.5 (foil, textile)
Rinter is a very arbitrary factor.

Hence, this factor should never be critical for your project !
22

Interfaces
• Try to omit stress oscillations at corners of stiff structures
Inflexible
corner points,
may cause bad
stress results
Flexible corner
points with
improved stress
results
23
Questions?
24

Warehouse foundation
WAREHOUSE FOUNDATION
INTRODUCTION
This exercise is based on a practical situation, the excavation and loading of a real foundation.
In addition to soil, structural elements are included in the model. The possibility of staged
excavation and construction is shown by switching elements on and off. Attention is focused
on output options for structural elements.
Project
The geometry given in figure 1 allows for some schematisation:
• As the problem is fully symmetric, it will be sufficient to model only one symmetric half of
the entire geometry. In this example we choose to model the right hand side. This right
hand boundary is allowed to displace only in vertical direction.
• At a depth of 7.5 meter a stiff gravel layer is present. It can be assumed that no significant
deformations occur in this material. To this end the gravel is excluded from the FE model.
Hence we choose the bottom of the geometry at the level of -7.5 m. As no deformations
are assumed to occur, the displacements along this boundary are fully fixed (default
option Standard fixities).
• The line loads, indicated as P2 are transferred to the basement bottom by a rigid wall.
Hence the point loads can also be positioned directly on the basement bottom.
Figure 1: Dimensions of the warehouse foundation
Aims
• Using structural (plate) elements.
• Enter geometry, plates and interfaces
• Staged excavation and construction of basement.
• Output data on structural elements.
Scheme of operations
• Start a new project
• Input
– Enter project properties

– Enter soil layers
– Structures
* Enter construction phases, plates and interfaces
* Enter material properties for and plates

– Mesh
* Mesh generation
– Staged construction
* Initial geometry configuration (switch off plates)
* Excavate basement
* Switch on plate elements

* Apply vertical forces
* Select points for load-displacement curves
* Calculate
• Output
– Axial forces in plates
– Shear forces in plates
– Bending moments in plates
INPUT
Project properties
• Start a new project by re-starting PLAXIS, or when PLAXIS Input is already active, select
New from the File menu.
• In Project properties window on the Model tab sheet, enter the geometry dimensions as
presented in figure 2.
Figure 2: Project properties: model tabsheet
• Click OK to continue. This will present an empty drawing area in Soil mode.
• For easy drawing of the geometry, the Number of snap intervals should be set to 2. Click
on the Snapping options button ( ) located below the drawing area and change the
Number of snap intervals to 2.
Soil mode
Define soil layers
• Select the Create borehole button ( ) and then click on the coordinates (x y) = (0 0) in
the drawing area in order to insert a borehole at the origin.
• In the Modify soil layers window that opens, add 1 layer to the borehole with Top = 0m
and Bottom = -7.5m
• In this exercise the whole project is located above the phreatic level. Therefore, set the
Head of the borehole at -7.5m. This means the phreatic level is a the bottom of the
borehole.
• Close the Modify soil layers window.

• Select the Show materials button to open the Material sets window.
• Press the <New> button to create a new material set according to the parameters given
in table 1.
Table 1: Material properties of the loam layer.

Parameter Symbol Loam Unit
Material model Model Mohr-Coulomb —
Type of behaviour Type Drained —
Weight above phreatic level γunsat 18.0 kN/m3
Weight below phreatic level γsat 18.0 kN/m3
0
Young’s modulus E 3640 kN/m2
Poisson’s ratio ν0 0.4 —
0
Cohesion cref 5.0 kN/m2
0
Friction angle ϕ 20 °
Dilatancy angle ψ 0 °
Interface reduction factor Rinter Manual: 0.7 –
Coefficient of initial lateral stress K0 Manual: 0.75 –
Figure 3: Parameters tabsheet for loam material
• Assign the material set to the soil layer by dragging it with the mouse from the Material
sets onto the soil layer in the drawing area.
This finalizes the definition of the subsoil. From the mode buttons above the drawing area
select Structures to move to Structures mode.
Structures mode
In Structures mode the wall and floors that are part of the final construction will be defined.
Additionally, lines must be drawn to be able to model the inclined excavation during construction
stage.
Basement
The basement floor has a thickness of 0.40 m, the ‘bottom’ of the floor lies at 2.70 m below the
surface and the ‘top’ of the floor lies 2.30 m below the surface. Plate elements do not occupy
any volume, hence, the plate representing the basement floor is drawn at 2.50 m below the
surface at the ‘centre line’ of the basement floor.
• From the Create line button menu ( ) select the Create plate button .
• Draw a Plate line from coordinate (x y) = (0, -2.5) to (4.0, -2.5) and (4.0 0). Then end the
plate line by clicking the right mouse button.
• Select the Show materials button ( ) to open the Materials sets window.
• In the Material sets window changet the Set type to Plates in order to enter the plate
material sets for the floor and the wall.
• Define 2 new material sets according to the parameters give in table 2.
Table 2: Material properties for the floor and the wall

Parameter Symbol Floor Wall Units
Material behaviour Material type Elastic Elastic -
Isotropic - Yes Yes
6
Axial stiffness EA1 , EA2 8*10 4*106 kN/m
Flexural stiffness EI 1.07*105 1.33*104 kN m2 /m
Weight w 6.0 3.0 kN/m/m
Poisson’s ratio ν 0.2 0.2 -
Prevent punching - No No
• Assign the material sets to the wall and the floor. This can be done in 2 different ways:
1. By drag-and-drop: drag the material sets from the Material sets window onto the
wall and the floor respectively, similar to assigning soil
2. Thourgh the Selection explorer:

– Close the Material sets window.
– Select the floor in the drawing area. The line that forms the floor now appears
in the Selection explorer left from the drawing area
– In the Selection explorer it can be seen under Plate_1 →Material that the
material is still unassigned.
– Click on <Unassigned>. A dropdown list will appear from which the floor material
set can be chosen.
– Follow similar steps to assign the material to the wall (hence, select the wall
and change the material set in the Selection explorer )
Excavation slope
• From the Create line button menu (that is still set to drawing plates) select the Create
line button ( ).
• Draw a line from coordinate (x y) = (4.0 -2.5) to (9.0, 0.0). This is the slope that is used
for the excavation.
Soil-structure interaction
In order to model the interaction between structural elements like the floor and the wall and the
surrounding soil a special element is need: the interface element. Interface elements allow for
differential displacements and friction between structural elements and soil whereas without
interface elements the structural element would be tightly connected to the soil.
• From the Create line button menu select the Create interface option .
• Draw an interface line from coordinate (x y) = (0, -2.5) to (4.0, -2.5) to (4.0, 0.0) and end
the interface line by clicking the right mouse button. The interface appears as a green
solid line below the basement floor and right from the wall.
Point forces
• Select the Create point button ( ) and then the Create point load option ( ). Click on
coordinates (1.0, -2.5) and (4.0, 0.0) to add the two point forces.
• In the model explorer the input values can be defined by expanding the Point loads
submenu, or in the selection explorer by multiple clicking on the different point loads in
the drawing area.
• For the point force located on the bottom of the basement, enter a value for the vertical
component Fy = −300 kN/m.
Figure 4: Geometry of the model
• For the point force located on the top of the wall, enter a value for the vertical component
Fy = −200 kN/m, see figure 5.
Figure 5: Changing the point loads in the Selection explorer
After changing the point forces, continue by going to Mesh mode.
Mesh mode
PLAXIS automatically refines the mesh around structural elements. As can be seen in figure
the structural elements and the points with point loads acting are coloured green in Mesh
mode whereas the rest of the project is dark grey. PLAXIS uses a colour coding to indicate
mesh refinement relative to the default element distribution. Elements with a mesh refinement
are green, where lighter green means a more refined mesh. On the other hand a more yellow
colour indicates a coarser mesh than the default element distribution. The factor with which
the mesh is refined can be seen in the Selection explorer when selecting for instance the floor:
the coarseness factor is 0.25, indicating that elements generated on the floor will be 25% of
the size determined by the default element distribution. See also figure 6.
• Click on the Generate mesh button ( ) in the toolbar or select the Generate option from
the Mesh menu. The Mesh options window pops up. In this exercise the default settings,
which is a Medium element distribution, will do. So click <OK> to generate the mesh.
• After generating the mesh, press the view mesh button ( ) . A new window is opened
(Output window) in which the generated mesh is presented, see figure 7
Figure 6: Mesh mode
• Click the Close button to return to the geometry input.
After generating the mesh, change to Staged construction mode.
Initial phase
In the intial phase no changes have to be made. The default settings (all soil activated and all
plates and forces deactivated) gives the proper initial situation.
Phase 1: Excavation
• In the Phases explorer press on the Add phase button ( ) to create the first calculation
phase.
• In the drawing area, right-click on both material clusters of the excavation and select
Deactivate from the popup menu to deactivate the soil. Note that active clusters have
the colour of the material data set, while non-active clusters are blank. See figure 8.
Phase 2: Construction
In the second phase the wall and floor of the basement are constructed
Figure 7: Generated mesh
• In the Phases explorer press on the Add phase button ( ) to create the second
calculation phase.
• In the drawing area, click on the wall in order to select it (it will become red) and
then right-click. Select the option Activate in order to activate te wall and the interface
together. Do the same for the floor, note that the floor exists of two parts on either side
of the point force.
Active plates are indicated in blue whereas inactive plates are indicated in grey. When activating
the plates, the adjacent interfaces are also automatically activated.
Phase 3: Backfill
In the third phase the excavated slope is filled up to the wall.
• In the Phases explorer add the third calculation phase

• In the drawing area, right-click on the excavated slope (right from the wall) and reactivate
it. As the reactivated slope is selected it becomes red. By pressing the <Esc> key on
the keyboard it will be deselected and appear in the colour of the soil material set.
Phase 4: Apply loads

In the last calculation phase the loads (from the building) are activated and applied.
Figure 8: Staged construction definition of phase 1
• In the Phases explorer add the fourth calculation phase
• Click on the point force located on the top of the wall in order to select it. Now right-click
on the point force and select Activate from the popup menu.
• Click on the point force located on the basement floor to select it. Now right-click on the
point force and select Activate from the popup menu.
Both point forces should now be active. Active point forces are indicated in blue.
Load-displacement curves
One of the results we would like to investigate is the vertical movement of the floor during the
excavation and backfill process.
• Select the Select point for curves button ( ) and select a point on the floor in the
centre. Note that the centre of the model is the far left boundary, as our model only
calculates half of the actual problem.
In order to make a graph of the vertical movement of the floor during the calculation we need
some method to measure the calculation process. This is done by giving all calculation phases
a construction time of 1 day, so that we can after the calculation plot the vertical movement in
time:
• Select the Edit phase button ( ) to open the Phases window. In this window addtional
calculation parameters can be set, including contruction time. See figure 9.
• Select in the phases list on the left side Phase 1 and then in the box in the middle under
the option General the input field for Time interval.
• Fill in a Time interval of 1 day
• Now select the second phase from the phase list and set the time interval for the second
phase to 1 day as well
• Do the same for the 3rd and the 4th phase.
Figure 9: Phases window
• Close the Phases window by clicking the <OK> button.
Now start the calculation by selecting the Calculate button ( ).
OUTPUT
• Make sure in the Phases explorer the last calculation phase is selected and press on
the View results button ( ).
Figure 10: Deformed mesh at the end of phase 4
• Double click on the basement floor (plate element). This will open a new window,
showing displacements of the plate.
• Select Axial forces N from the Forces menu. This will result in a plot of the axial forces
in the basement floor.
It is possible to see the results of both the floor and the wall in the same structural element
plot:
• Now close the structural element plot by clicking on the lower of the the two crosses in
the top right corner of the window.
• Click on the Select structures button .
• While keeping the Shift key pressed on the keyboard, click on the wall and then click
on the floor (they are both red now) and then double-click on either wall or floor to open
both in a new structural element window.
• With the buttons Distribution ( ) and Wireframe distribution ( ) the look of the plot
can be changed.
Figure 11: Axial forces in floor and wall at the end of phase 4(Nmax u200 kN/m)
Figure 12: Shear forces in floor and wall at the end of phase 4(Qmax u190 kN/m)
Curves
Finally, create a curve to see the change of vertical displacement of the basement floor during
the calculation:
• From the Tools menu open the Curves manager or select the Curves manager button
( ) from the button bar.
• In the Curves manager press the <New> button to start a new chart. The Curve
generation window will open.
• On the x-axis we would like to plot the global variable "time", hence choose for the x-axis
Project and then Time.
• Choose for the y-axis point A and Deformations -> Total displacements -> u y .
It can be seen from figure 13 that the basement first heaves when the soil is excavated. During
construction of the floor and wall and backfill the settlements of the floor hardly changes until
the load is applied.
Figure 13: Settlement of the basement floor during construction
Tied-back excavation
TIED-BACK EXCAVATION
INTRODUCTION
A building pit was constructed in the south of the Netherlands. The pit is 15 m deep and 30 m
wide. A diaphragm wall is constructed using 100 cm diameter bored piles; the wall is anchored
by two rows of pre-stressed ground anchors. In this exercise the construction of this building
pit is simulated and the deformation and bending moments of the wall are evaluated.
The upper 40 m of the subsoil consists of a more or less homogeneous layer of medium dense
fine sand with a unit weight of 18 kN/m3 . Triaxial test data of a representative soil sample is
given in figure 2. Underneath this layer there is very stiff layer of gravel, which is not to be
included in the model. The groundwater table is very deep and does not play a role in this
analysis.
Aims
• Using interface elements
• Using ground anchors
• Pre-stressing of anchors
• Combination of structural elements
Figure 1: Geometry for tied-back excavation
Material parameters
Determination of stiffness & strength (sand)

In this exercise the Mohr-Coulomb model is used and the model parameters for the sand layer
have been extracted from the triaxial test data (see figure 2). Concerning stiffness behaviour,
it must be taken into account that the excavation involves unloading rather than primary
loading. It is preferred to divide the sub-soil into several regions, this allows for the input
of an average stiffness in each individual region. As the simple Mohr-Coulomb model cannot
take into account the stress-dependency of the stiffness, the input of an average stiffness
per region, by the user, is the next best option to enhance the model. Please note there are
other models (HS, HSsmall and SS model) available in PLAXIS that take into account the
stress-dependency of the soil stiffness. In this exercise we will use 4 regions:: Top Sand (0m
to -15m), Middle Sand (-15m to -25m), Lower Sand (-25m to -45m) and Deep Sand (-45m
to -60m). The soil parameters can be found in table 1, while the determination of the soil
parameters can be found in appendix A.
Figure 2: Triaxial test data for the sand layer
Secant wall
The secant wall consists of 100cm diameter bored piles with an intermediate distance of 80cm,
hence there is a 20cm overlap of the piles. This configuration is taken this into account for
the determination of the cross sectional area (A) and moment of inertia (I) per meter out-of-
plane (see Appendix B). The concrete stiffness is Ec = 2.7 · 107 kN/m2 with a specific weight
Table 1: Soil parameters for the Mohr-Coulomb model

Parameter Symbol Top Middle Lower Deep Unit
Sand Sand Sand Sand
Material model Model Mohr- Mohr- Mohr- Mohr- –
Coulomb Coulomb Coulomb Coulomb
Type of behaviour Type Drained Drained Drained Drained –
Unsaturated γunsat 18.0 18.0 18.0 18.0 kN/m3
weight
Saturated weight γsat 18.0 18.0 18.0 18.0 kN/m3
Young’s modulus E0 6.0*104 1.0*105 1.3*105 4.8*105 kN/m2
Poisson’s ratio ν0 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 –
Cohesion c0ref 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 kN/m2
Friction angle ϕ0 35 35 35 35 º
Dilatancy angle ψ 5 5 5 5 º
Interface strength Rinter 0.6 0.6 rigid rigid –
reduction
Coefficient for K0 automatic automatic automatic automatic –
lateral initial stress
γ = 16 kN/m3 , which leads to the material parameters as given in table 2. The determination
of the stiffness parameters can be found in Appendix A.
Table 2: Properties of the secant wall (plate)

Parameter Symbol Secant wall Unit
Material behaviour Material type Elastic –
Isotropic Yes –
7
Axial stiffness EA1 , EA2 2*10 kN/m
6
Flexural stiffness EI 1.67*10 kN/m2 /m
Weight w 15.0 kN/m/m
Poisson’s ratio ν 0.15 –
Prevent punching - No
Ground anchors
The anchors are made of 32mm diameter steel bars at an intermediate distance of 1m. The
steel bars have a stiffness of Es = 2.1 · 108 kN/m2 . The anchors have an representative
capacity of 605 kN per anchor. In combination with a secant wall the anchors may be prestressed
to a maximum level of 80% of the design capacity, which is the representative capacity divided
by a partial safety factor that has been determined at 1.5 This leads to a maximum prestress
force of 322 kN per anchor. The maximum compression force of the anchor is not important
as the anchors will not be loaded under compression. The grout body that forms the bonded
length of the anchor behaves relatively weak under tension compared to the steel bar inside.
Therefore it is assumed that both stiffness and strength of the bonded part of the anchor are
fully determined by the steel bar. This leads to the material properties for both the anchor rod
(free length) and grout body (bonded length) as given in tables 3 and 4. Note that it is chosen
to use the representative capacity of the anchors as maximum anchor force.
It is assumed that the anchor rod is present inside the full length of the grout body, hence the
properties of the embedded beam row are based on the composite properties of anchor rod
and grout, which are considered to be mainly determine the stiffness and strength properties
of the anchor rod.
Furthermore, it is assumed that the shear resistance between grout body and soil is sufficient
and so the skin resistance of the grout body is set to a very high value.
Table 3: Properties of the anchor rods (node-to-node anchors)

Parameter Symbol Anchor rod Unit
Material behaviour Material type Elastoplastic –
5
Axial stiffness EA 1.7*10 kN
Spacing Lspacing 1.0 m
Max. tension force |Fmax,tens | 605 kN
Max. compression force |Fmax,comp | 605 kN
Table 4: Properties of the grout bodies (embedded beam rows)

Parameter Symbol Grout body Unit
Material type Material type Elastic -
Modulus of elasticity E 2.1*108 kN/m2
Material weight γ 60 kN/m3
Pile type Pile type Predefined -
Predefined pile type Predefined pile type Massive circular pile -
Diameter Diameter 0.032 m
Spacing Lspacing 1.0 m
Axial skin resistance Axial skin resistance Linear kN/m
Skin resistance at start, end Tskin,start,max , Tskin,end,max 1000 kN/m
Lateral skin resistance Lateral skin resistance Unlimited -
Base resistance Fmax 0 kN
Interface stiffness factor Default values -
INPUT
Introduction
Start PLAXIS Input and start a new project.
Project properties
• For the dimensions of the project, enter xmin = 0, xmax = 100, ymin = −60 and ymax = 0
in the Model tabsheet of the Project properties window, see figure 3.
• Accept all other settings as their defaults and press the <OK> button.
Figure 3: Project properties, Model tabsheet
Soil mode
• Select the Create borehole button ( ) and insert a borehole at (x y) = (0 0)
• In the Modifiy soil layers window define a first layer in the borehole with Top = 0m and
Bottom = -15m.
• Additionally, define 3 more layers with Bottom = -25m, -45m and -60m
• The phreatic level in the project area is very deep and so the excavation is done completely
above the phreatic line. Set the Head of the borehole to -60m to indicate that the phreatic
levels is at the far bottom of the borehole.
• Close the Modify soil layers window.
The drawing area now shows the subsoil of 100m wide and 60m deep in grey colour.
• Select the Show materials button ( ) so that the Materials window opens.
• Create 4 soil material sets according to the parameters given in table 1. Any parameter
not specified in this table should be left at its default value.
• Assign the material sets to the soil layer where Top Sand is the topmost layer, followed
by Middle Sand, Lower Sand and finally Deep Sand is the deepest layer.
• This will lead to the subsoil as given in figure 4.
Figure 4: Subsoil of the model
Structures mode
In Structures mode we will now define the structural elements such as the wall and the anchors
as well as the levels of excavation.
First we will draw the wall:
• Select the Create line button ( ) and from the menu that opens select the Create plate
button
• Draw the wall as a plate element from (x y) = (15 0) to (15 -25).
Soil-structure interaction is modelled with an interface element. Since there will be interaction
between soil and wall on both sides of the wall, an interface is required on both sides of the
wall:
• From the Create line button menu now select the Create interface button ( ).
• Draw the interface for soil-structure interaction from (x y) = (15 0) to (15 -25) and back to
(15 0) in order to get soil-structure interaction on both sides of the wall.
Now the anchors are added. The anchors are made out of two parts: a free length formed by
just the anchor rod and modelled with a node-to-node anchor, and a bonded length which is
the grout body with the anchor rod inside, modelled by an embedded beam row element:
• To draw the anchor rods of the grout anchors (hence, the free length sections) select
again the Create line button, now followed by the Create node-to-node anchor button
( ).
• Draw the upper anchor from (x y) = (15 -5) to (30 - 15) and right-click to end the drawing.
• Now draw the lower anchors from (x y) = (15 -10) to (30 -20) and again right-click to end
the drawing.
• Finally, insert the grout bodies (hence, the bonded length sections) using embedded
beam rows. To do so, select the Create embedded beam row button from the Create
line button menu.
• Draw the upper grout body from (x y) = (30 -15) to (37.5 -20) and right-click to end
drawing.
• Draw the lower grout body from (x y) = (30 -20) to (37.5 -25) and again right-click to end
drawing.
Now we have to specifiy that the embedded beam rows are used as grout bodies. By defining
them as grout bodies, they will be connected to the anchors and only to the anchors.
• With the <Ctrl> key pressed on the keyboard, select both embedded beam rows in the
drawing area.
• In the Selection explorer change the Behaviour for both embedded beam rows from Pile
to Grout body, see figure 5.
Figure 5: Selected embedded beam rows in Selection explorer
Hint: As interfaces can be introduced on both sides of a geometry line, one

should pay attention to the arrows on the cursor. These arrows indicate
where the program will locate the interfaces.
Hint: It is not necessary to create a geometry line before creating plates,

geogrids, embedded beam rows or anchors. When drawing a plate,
geogrid or embedded beam row, a geometry line is automatically added.
Anchors do not create corresponding geometry lines. This is not
necessary since anchors do not interact with the underlying soil.
Finally, the levels of excavation must be defined:
• From the Create lines menu select the Create line option
• Draw a line from (x y) = (0 -5) to (15 -5) to define the first level of excavation and right-click
to stop drawing.
• Now draw the second level of excavation from (x y) = (0 -10) to (15 -10).
Material sets
• Open the Material sets window by selecting the Show materials button ( ).
• In the Material sets window change the Set type to Plates and create a new plate
material set according to the parameters given in table 2.
• Assign the material set to the wall.
• In a similar way, create material sets for the anchors and embedded beam rows according
to the parameters given in tables 3 and 4 and assign them.
Mesh mode
• Press the Generate Mesh button. In the appearing window Mesh options set the Element
distribution to Medium and press the OK button.
• Press View mesh to inspect the resulting mesh as shown in figure 6.
Figure 6: Medium finite element mesh
The mesh is automatically refined around the wall and anchors and needs no further refinement.

Change to the Staged construction mode to define the construction phases for this project.
The entire construction process consists of five phases. Define the phases, as shown graphically
below.
Initial phase
For the initial phase make sure that:
• all the the soil layers are activated (coloured)
• all stuctures are deactivated (grey)
Phase 1: First excavation
In the first calculation phase, the diaphragm wall is activated and the first excavation takes
place. See figure7.
• Click on the Add phase button ( ) in the Phases explorer to add the first calculation
phase.
• Select the Activate button ( ) and click on the 4 parts of the wall to activate the complete
wall. Note that this will automatically also activate the interfaces on both sides of the wall.
• Also click on the soil representing the first excavation to deactivate the soil.
Figure 7: Phase 1: activation of the wall Figure 8: Phase 2: activation and

and 1st excavation presstressing of the 1st anchor
Phase 2: Install first anchor

In the second phase a new option is used: the prestressing of anchors.
• Add a new calculation phase in the Phases explorer.
• Select the Activate button ( ) and click on the grout body (the embedded beam row) of
the upper anchor to activate it.
• Then click on the anchor rod (node-to-node anchor) to also activate the anchor rod.
Now that the grout anchor is active, it needs to be prestressed:
• Select the Select button ( ) and select the anchor rod of the upper anchor, hence the
node-to-node anchor.
• In the Selection explorer click on the option Adjust prestress that can be found as part
of the node-to-node anchor. A checkbox now appears.
• Select the checkbox (so that it’s checked). An extra input field Fprestress now appears. Fill
in a presstress of 300 kN, see figure9.
In the geometry a black node-to-node anchor indicates that the anchor is activated. The letter
"p" indicates that a prestress force will be active in the anchor.
Figure 9: Adjusting the prestress force of a node-to-node anchor
Phase 3, 4 and 5
Now define the remaining phases according to figures 10, 11 and 12.
• In phase 3 excavate the second part of the excavation
• In phase 4 activate the lower anchor and prestress it to 300 kN/m
• In phase 5 excavate the remaining 3rd part.
Hint: When processing an anchor in a certain calculation phase the anchor

force will exactly match the prestress force at the end of that phase. In
following calculation phases without prestressing, the anchor force will be
influenced by the excavation process.
Figure 10: Phase 3: Second excavation Figure 11: Phase 4: Activation and
prestressing of 2nd anchor
Figure 12: Phase 5: Final excavation
Calculate
When all phases are defined, press the Calculate ( ) button. Ignore the warning to select
nodes for curves.
OUTPUT
After calculation, press the View calculation results button ( ) to inspect the results.
The results of phase 5 are presented in figure 13. After this final stage the calculated excavation
bottom heave is 5-6 cm.
Figure 13: Deformed mesh (phase 5)
• Select the button Select structures ( ) and double click on a node-to-node anchor.
Plaxis will present a table in which the stress of the anchor can be inspected. Anchor
forces are approximately 330 kN where the lower anchor has a slightly higher anchor
force than the upper anchor.
• When double-clicking on one of the embedded beam rows the change of axial forces
within the grout body can be investigated. For both grout bodies the axial forces equals
the anchor force where it’s connected to the node-to-node anchors. The axial decreases
almost linearly over the length of the grout body.
• By double-clicking on the wall the structural forces in the wall can be inspected. The
maximum bending moment should be in the order of 350 kNm/m (figure 14)
• When double-clicking on an interface only the results of part of the interface can be seen.
In order to see the results for the whole interface chain without the extension below the
wall, keep <Shift> pressed on the keyboard while selecting the parts of the interface that
are next to the wall on both sides. After selecting all parts, double-click on the interface
while keeping the <Shift> key pressed. In figure 15the left side are the passive earth
pressures and the right side are the active earth pressures. It can be seen that only a
small part of the maximum passive earth pressures has been mobilized at this stage.
Figure 14: Bending moments in the Figure 15: Effective normal stresses in the
secant wall interface
APPENDIX A: DETERMINATION OF SOIL

PARAMETERS FROM TRIAXIAL TEST
Figure 16: Triaxial test for sand layer
Strength parameters
Fill in σ1 and σ3 in the Mohr-Coulomb criteria:
σ1 − σ3 = (σ1 + σ3 ) sin ϕ + 2c cos ϕ
Since the cohesion will be small, assume c = 0:
σ1 −σ3
σ1 +σ3
= sin ϕ
370−100
370+100
= sin ϕ
ϕ = 35o
ψ =ϕ − 30 = 5o
For reasons of numerical stability, use c = 1 kPa
Stiffness parameters
Since excavation is considered in this exercise, the input of Young’s modulus E should be
based on unloading, rather than on primary loading. For the same reason, Poisson’s ratio
should also be based on unloading, which results in a somewhat lower value.

The triaxial test has a cell pressure σ 3 = 100 kPa. This corresponds with reference pressure,
ref
so E50 = E50 .
∆σv 135
E50 = ∆v = 0.675% = 2.0 ∗ 104
Assume that Eur ≈ 4 ∗ E50

For improved modelling, four regions are distinguished, for each individual layer an average
stiffness is determined by using:
ref q σ
E50 = E50 3
pref
We distinguish:
• Top layer (from top to - 15 m)
• Middle layer (from -15 m to -25 m)
• Lower layer (from -25 m to -45 m)
• Deep layer (from -45 m to -60 m)
Top layer
• σ3 = depth · γsoil · K0
σ3 =average horizontal stress (reference point at -7.5 m)
σ3 = 7.5 · 18 · (1 − sin ϕ) = 58 kPa
top
q
4 58
E50 = 2.0 · 10 100 ≈ 1.5 · 104 kP a
top
E 0 = Eur
top
≈ 4 · E50 = 6.0 · 104 kPa
Middle layer
• σ3 = 20 · 18 · (1 −qsin ϕ) = 153 kPa

middle 153
E50 = 2.0 · 104 4
100 ≈ 2.5 · 10 kP a
E 0 = Eur
middle
≈4· bottom
E50 = 1.0 · 105 kPa
Lower layer
• σ3 = 35 · 18 · (1 −qsin ϕ) = 269 kPa

middle
E50 = 2.0 · 104 269 4
100 ≈ 3.3 · 10 kP a
E 0 = Eurmiddle bottom
≈ 4 · E50 = 1.31 · 105 kPa
Deep layer
• σ3 = 52.5 · 18 · (1 − sin ϕ) = 403 kPa

deep
q
403
E50 = 2.0 · 104 100 ≈ 4.0 · 104 kP a
The deep layer is supposed to be at such a distance from the excavation that it has very
small deformations resulting in a very stiff behaviour.
E 0 = E0deep ≈ 12 · E50
deep
= 4.8 · 105 kPa
Assume for all layers ν = 0.2 based on unloading.
APPENDIX B: MATERIAL PROPERTIES

SECANT WALL
For a plane strain model material properties for the secant wall have to specified per meter
length of the wall. In order to do so we first recognize the secant wall as consisting of repetitive
parts at a certain intermediate distance, as shown in Figure 17.
Figure 17: Secant wall as repetitive equal sections
Compared to the original bored piles the repetitive sections have a reduced cross sectional
area. Though it can be analytically derived how much the reduction is, the fastest way to
determine this is to draw the repetitive section on paper with a fine grid based on the original
bored piles with a diameter of 1000mm and an overlap of 200mm and count squares. Using
this method the cross sectional area of the repetitive section is determined as As = 0.74 m2 .
Since the sections are at a distance D apart where D is given as 800mm, the cross sectional
area of the wall per meter is given as:Awall = ADs = 0.74
0.8 = 0.93 m /m
2
For the moment of inertia is assumed that the influence of the reduced cross sectional area
is negligble as the reduction is close to the axis of bending and symmetric. Therefore the
moment of inertia per meter wall is determined as:
Ipile 4 π·(0.5)4
Iwall = D = πr
4D = 4·0.8 = 61.3 · 10−3 m4 /m
With Econcrete = 2.7 · 107 kN/m2 this gives
EA = (2.7·107 )(0.93) = 2.5·107 kN/m

EI = (2.7·107 )(61.3·10−3 ) = 1.67·106 kNm2 /m
And for the weight:
w = γ·A = 16 · 0.93 = 15 kN/m/m


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01 Introduction to Plaxis 2D 4/20/2020

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Online Introduction course - May 2020 1

Mode toolbar Drawing area

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PLAXIS 2D Input : Modes

Definition of soil stratigraphy Definition of structural

Creation of the FE mesh Definition of water and Definition of construction stages

MESH FLOW CONDITIONS STAGED CONSTRUCTION

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Online Introduction course - May 2020 2

Model and Selection explorer

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Online Introduction course - May 2020 3

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Borehole 1 Borehole 2 Borehole 3 Borehole 4

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Online Introduction course - May 2020 4

Soil mode - Borehole definition

• Soil layers tabsheet

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Soil mode - Materials

Define the material

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Online Introduction course - May 2020 5

Soil mode - Materials

Copy material sets between

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Soil mode - Assign materials

• Drag-and-drop to subsoil model or borehole to assign materials

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Online Introduction course - May 2020 6

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Structures mode toolbar

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Default Boundary Conditions

• Default boundary conditions are

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Online Introduction course - May 2020 8

• Generated by clicking the Structure button

Embedded beam row

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• Possibility to import from external sources in different formats like

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Online Introduction course - May 2020 9

The Mesh Mode

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Mesh generation PLAXIS 2D

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Online Introduction course - May 2020 10

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First Exercise - Start PLAXIS 2D

2. Specify project dimensions

1. Fill in project title

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Online Introduction course - May 2020 11

First Exercise - Soil mode

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First Exercise - Soil mode