The Program and its

Applications
Background The Netherlands

• Developed at the
Technical University of
Delft
• Initially was intended to
analyze the soft soil
river embankments of
the lowlands of Holland
• Soon after, the company
Plaxis BV was formed,
and the program was
expanded to cover a
broader range of
geotechnical issues
Getting Started

PLAXIS is comprised of four interconnected

but separate interfaces

• Input
1 Plaxis Input.lnk
• Calculations
2 Plaxis Calculations.lnk
• Output
• Curves3 Plaxis Output.lnk
4 Plaxis Curves.lnk
Tutorial 1: The Modeling the Settlement
of a Circular Footing on Sand
1. Choose new or
existing project
2. General Settings
3. Plane Strain or Axisymmetry /
15-Node or 6-Node
4. Plane Strain or Axisymmetry
4. Plane Strain or Axisymmetry Cont.

x
5. 15-Node or 6-Node
5. 15-Node or 6-Node Cont.
6. Dimensions
7. Geometry Contour
8. Loads & Boundary Conditions
• Prescribed Displacements
1. Special Conditions placed on geometry lines that control the displacement
of the lines
2. Drawn over geometry lines
3. Can be altered by double clicking on the geometry line associated with it

• Fixities
1. Prescribed displacements equal to zero
2. Can be of horizontal, vertical, or total (horizontal & vertical)
3. Fixities take priority over displacements and other loads

• Standard Fixities
1. Convenient and fast input option for many applications

• Tractions
1. Distributed loads applied to geometry lines
2. Input values given in the dimensions force per unit area
3. Can be altered by double clicking on the geometry line associated with it

• Point Forces
1. Are actually line loads in the out-of-plane direction
2. Can have vertical and horizontal components

• Fixed Rotations
1. Fixes the rotational degree of freedom of a beam
 Select
Standard
fixities
button

8. Loads & Boundary Conditions cont.

 Select
Prescribed
displacement
button

8. Loads & Boundary Conditions cont.

9. Material Properties

• Database with material data sets

1. Soil properties and material properties of structures are stored within the
database as four types of material sets
1. Soils & Interfaces
2. Beams
3. Geotextiles &
4. Anchors

• Modeling of Soil Behavior

1. There exist three types of soil models that PLAXIS supports:
1. Mohr-Coulomb model
2. Hardening-Soil model &
3. Soft-Soil-Creep model
2. Mohr-Coulomb is most often used as good soil data is not always
available to the engineer or scientist
3. Modeling with the Mohr-Coulomb default requires the following five
variables to be input:
1. Young’s modulus, (E)
2. Poisson’s ratio, (n)
3. cohesion, (c)
4. friction angle, (f) and
5. dilatancy angle, (y)
9. Material Properties cont.

• All clusters and structural elements in a given model

must be assigned a material before a mesh can be
generated
• The following soil parameters will be used for the
footing settlement example:
 Click
Materials
button

9. Material Properties cont.

 Select
“New”
material

9. Material Properties cont.

 Type “sand”
and leave
the other Select
Enter given
default “New”
data
inputs material

9. Material Properties cont.

 Enter
Select
given
data
“New”
and
material
click Ok

9. Material Properties cont.

 Drag & Drop
the “Sand”
material
into the
cluster

9. Material Properties cont.

10. Mesh Generation

• Global Coarseness
 Distinction is made between five levels of global coarseness: Very coarse,
Coarse, Medium, Fine, and Very fine. Number of mesh elements
generated ranges from about 50 elements for the coarse setting to about
1000 elements for the very fine setting

• Global Refinement
 Automatically generates a refined mesh; one step per selection

• Local Coarseness
 In areas where it may not be necessary to have a very refined mesh, the
mesh may be made more coarse by adjusting the “Local element size”
factor for a particular geometry point. This can be accessed by double
clicking on any geometry point

• Local Refinement
 Instead of adjusting the “Local element size” factor, clusters, lines, or
points can be selected and the local refinement option can be used
 Select
“Generate
mesh”

Once the mesh

window
appears select
“Update”

10. Mesh Generation cont.

11. Initial Conditions
• Once the geometry model has been created and the mesh has
been generated, the “Initial conditions” must be inputted. There
are two different modes within the initial conditions tab: Water
conditions mode and the Geometry configuration mode
• Water Conditions mode
1. Water Weight: In projects that involve pore pressures, the input of water weight in necessary to distinguish
between effective stresses and pore pressures. PLAXIS default water weight is set to 10kN/m3

2. Phreatic Lines: Pore pressures and external water pressures can be generated on the basis of phreatic lines.
With a phreatic line it is understood that water pressures above the line are zero and increase linearly with depth
below the line. The phreatic line can be a general or user defined type

3. Groundwater Flow: In addition to generating water pressures using a phreatic line, water pressures can
also be generated using groundwater flow calculations. This requires the input of groundwater head boundary
conditions

4. Water Pressure Generation: After a phreatic line or groundwater boundary conditions are specified, the
generate water pressures button is selected to complete the water conditions process

• Geometry Configuration mode

1. Deactivating Geometry Components: In projects where embankments and structures are to be
constructed the geometry model will have some elements that are initially not active. These elements must be
deactivated in this mode. By default PLAXIS activates all elements of the model outlined in the previous geometry
setup stage. Clicking on a particular element in this mode determines if it will be on or not

2. Initial Stress Generation (K0-Procedure): Initial stresses in a body are influenced by the weight of
the material and the history of its formation. The stress state is generally characterized by an initial vertical
stress, sn,0 which is related by the coefficient of lateral earth pressure K0. A default value is given based on Jaky’s
formula (1-sinf).
 1.Select “Initial
conditions”
button and
accept default
water weight

2. Water levels
will not be
generated in this
example so
proceed to
generate initial
stresses

11. Initial Conditions cont.

 Accept default
K0 parameters

11. Initial Conditions cont.

 Length of lines
note relative
magnitude of
principal
stresses

Orientation of
lines note
principal
direction

11. Initial Conditions cont.

 Finally it is time
to proceed to
the Calculation
phase of the
program

11. Initial Conditions cont.

18. Select Output File

Select phase to
be viewed
19. Deformations
Choosing
“incremental
displacements”
allows one to see the
displacement per
calculation step,
helping visualize an
eventual failure
Select orientation mechanism
of displacement

Deformed mesh
is displayed by
default upon
opening program
20. Stresses View effective stresses or
total stresses (active pore
pressure + effective stress)
21. Viewing Tabular Results

Table output can be

viewed for specific
areas of concern
22. Flexible Footing

Instead of
prescribed
displacement a load
Save as under will be imposed on
a different the soil yielding a
name displacement later
23. Modify the Geometry
Choose to
create a beam
element
24. Modify the Boundary Condition

Apply a traction
to the boundary
simulating the
applied force on
the footing
25. Assign Materials for the Footing

Beam Material Properties

Select Input material

“New…” beam properties as
material with soil layer
26. Assign Materials cont.

Drag n drop
footing material
onto the beam
element
27. Generate Mesh
28. Initial Conditions

Regenerate
initial stresses
29. Calculations

Name the
phase
30. Calculations cont. Check that points
are still selected
for curves

Apply a multiplier
of 350* to the
traction load A
Accept
default for
parameters

*note: (350) x (1kN/m2) x (p)(1)2 ≈ 1200kN

31. Output

Double click the

beam in the out put
program to view
bending moments or
displacements in the
beam
32. Curves Program

Select new
chart upon
entering the
program for the
first time
33. Generating a Load-Displacement Curve

Choose
“Multiplier”
Choose
“Displacement
”

Select point
“A” assigned in
the
calculations
phase Choose to plot
the loading
multiplier
along the y-
axis
Select Uy and check
“Invert sign” for negative
vertical displacement of
footing @ center
34. Curve Output Once generated,
curve presentation
can be altered using
chart and curve
settings
Credit to Ari Cohen