PLAXIS SOFTWARE

Tutorial 1

Getting started

1
In this class

Create the model

Place the loads and boundary conditions

Assign
A i material
t i l properties
ti

Mesh the model

Define initial stress conditions

Calculate

Analyse the result

2
Bearing capacity of a rigid strip footing on clay
Because of the symmetry, only a half of
the geometry will be simulated.
Mohr-Coulomb
M h C l bM Model
d l 5m

undrained
sat = 20kN/m
20kN/ 3
dry = 18kN/m3
Eref = 5000kPa
5000kP

50m
K0 = 1.0
= 0.35
0 35
c = 10.0 kPa
==0
0
50m 3
There are 4 parts of Plaxis.
Generally we start from the first part: Input.
We can switch to each p
part inside.

4
We are asked whether to define a new problem or to retrieve a
previously defined project.
Today we are going to create a new project. Click New project
and press OK.

5
In the first tab sheet, we can enter a brief description of the problem as
the title of the project.
project Input footingonclay
footingonclay as the title.
title
In addition, the type of analysis and the type of elements must be
specified. Plane
Plane Strain
Strain model and 6-Node
6 Node elements are OK.
Optionally, a separate acceleration in addition to gravity can be specified
for dynamic analysis. Do not modify them since this is not a dynamic
analysis.
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 1 2

1. These are the basic units

2. The minimum dimensions of draw area, the geometry model
will fit the draw area. Make sure the range the draw area can
containi all
ll the
h geometry.
3. Spacing means the space between the grids, input 5 metres
for this problem.
7
This is the window in which well draw the geometry.
1. Toolbar to switch between the four part of Plaxis.
2. There are rulers for x and y-axis
3. These are icons for drawing geometry, applying
boundary conditions and loads, etc. Generally, we click
these icons from left to right.
right
4. We can check the position of the cursor here:

8
Draw/Modify
/ y a line

Click Geometry
Geometry lineline, move the cursor close to point
(0, 0), it will snap to the grid point. We can check
the position of the cursor by the rulers, there are
dashed lines go across the rulers, or, by the
coordinates values showed near the left bottom of
the input window.
window At point (0 (0, 0)
0), click left mouse
button, move the cursor to point (50, 0), click left
mouse button again, a line is drawn. Click right
mouse button to finish drawing.

9
 If you made some mistakes when drawing, you can
modified the position of the line.
First, click select button, then select the point you
want to modify and drag it to the desired position.
To delete point or line, select it and press <Del>
button on the keyboard.

Create the region

10
 Place b
Pl boundary
d
conditions

A fully fixity at the base of the geometry should be applied. And

roller conditions at the vertical side should also be applied.
applied
This can be done easily by click standard fixities icon.
The standard fixities option is suitable for most geotechnical
problems.

11
 Place prescribed displacements

In this problem, the settlement of the rigid footing can be simulated

by prescribed displacement at the footing position.
Press prescribed displacement button, move the cursor to point (0,
50) and click the left mouse button
button. Move along the top geometry
line to point (5, 50). Click the right button of the mouse to stop
drawing.
Prescribed displacements appear as a series of arrows starting from
the footing position, and pointing in the direction of movement.

12
After that, well define the material of the
clay.
y
Click the Material sets button on the
toolbar,
b , we can see the Material sets
window.
Select soil
soil & interface
interface as the set type.
type
To create a new material, click the New
button near the lower side of the window.
window

13
There will appear a dialog box with three tab sheets.
sheets
1. Write clay in the identification box; select Mohr-Coulomb
and undrained type.
type
2. Enter the value of unit weight, 18 and 20 respectively.
Click next or click parameters to proceed with the input of 14
model parameters.
If poisons
i ratio
i is
i entered,
d we can onlyl input
i the
h stiffness
iff modules
d l into
i
one of these there boxes. The other two will be calculated automatically

Since this problem does not include interfaces, the third tab sheet can be
skipped. Click ok button to confirm the input of the current material
data set.
set
15
Drag the data set clay form the material sets window to the
soil domain and drop it. The colour of the soil domain will
change if we assign the material successfully.
Click the ok button to close the material database.

16
 When the geometry model is complete, the finite
element
l t th
the mesh
h can b
be generated.
t d Pl
Plaxis
i allows
ll
for a fully automatic mesh generation procedure

17
By default, the Global coarseness of the mesh is set to Coarse.
It can be changed in the Mesh menu. Additional options are
available to refine the mesh globally or locally.
We choose the default Global coarseness firstly, and then
refine the mesh globally and refine on the line on which
prescribed displacements was applied.

18
We must click update button to return to the geometry input.
Click Mesh-refine global to refine the total geometry.
For footing bearing capacity problem, the mesh close to the
footing should be denser. So, we will refine the line of the
footing We must select the line first.
footing. first The colour of the applied
displacement will become red if it is selected successfully. After
tthat,
at, cclick
c Mesh-refine
es e e line.
e Wee cacan a
also
so refine
e e itt aga
again.
19
 Once the mesh has been generated, the finite
element
l t model
d l iis complete.
l t B
Before
f starting
t ti th the
calculations, the initial conditions must be
generated.
generated
Click the initial conditions button on the toolbar.

20
First a window appears, showing the default value of the unit weight of
water. Click ok to accept the default value.
The mode of groundwater conditions appears. Note that the toolbar and
the background of the geometry have changed.
The initial conditions option consists of two different modes: the water
pressures mode and the geometry configuration mode. Click the green
circular button to switch between these two modes.
modes
First we click the left green button.

21
 Assign
A i th the phreatic
h ti llevell att th
the ttop liline off th
the geometry.
t
Then generate the water pressures

22
The window of viewing pore pressures will appear. The deeper the
position is, the larger the water pressure is. The length of the cross
line shows the value of the water pressure.
pressure Click update
update
23
 Then click the right green icon to switch to the mode
of initial stresses
stresses.
Click the red cross icon, the K0 procedure dialog
box appears.
appears
Keep K0 equals to 1, then click ok, the output
window is opened
opened, in which the effective stresses
are presented as principal stresses.
Click the update
update button to return to the input
program mode.

24
Click the calculate button, click yes to save the input
data,, the input
p program
p g is closed and the Calculations
program is started.

25
When the
Wh h calculations
l l i program iis started d di
directly
l after
f
the input of a new project, a first calculation phase is
automatically inserted.
Keep all the default values in the General tab sheet, and
Click the parameters button or click the parameters
tab In this sheet we input the parameters to control the
tab.
calculation. 26
 Select Staged construction and then click Define.
It shows the current active geometry configuration.
Select the prescribed displacement by double-
clicking
g the top
p line,, a dialog
g box will appear.
pp

27
 In this dialog box the magnitude and direction of the
prescribed displacement can be specified. In this case keep
the default value of Y-value
Y value = -1
1.0
0 in both input fields
fields. This
means a downward displacement of 1.0m will be applied on
the footing.
All x-values
l should
h ld remain
i 00. then
h click
li k ok
k
Be careful that the footing line must be selected, which can be
shown by a colour of blue
blue. If the colour is not blue
blue, we have to
click to that line again.
Now click the update button to return to the parameters tab
sheet.
h
28
 Before starting the first calculation we should select
nodes for a later generation of load-displacement
curves.
Click the select points for curves button,
Select the node at the top left corner. If the nodes
near the point are too close to each other for
clicking, you can use zoom in button to have a
detailed view in this region. Click it and drag a small
box contain this region.
The selected node will be indicated byy A.
Click update to return.

29
 Preview

Cli
Click
k th
the preview
i sheet,
h t we can h have a generall
view of the domain. We can check whether the
prescribed displacements have been appliedapplied. If the
colour is blue, it is applied. If not, we have to apply
the prescribed displacement again.

30
 Calculation phase that is selected for calculation is
i di t d b
indicated by a bl
blue arrow.
Then we click the Calculate icon to start the
calculation.

31
 During the execution of a calculation a window
appears which gives information about the progress
of the actual calculation phase.

32
A successful calculation is indicated in the list with a green
check mark whereas an unsuccessful calculation is indicated
with a red cross.

33
 Once the calculation has been completed, the
results can be evaluated in the Output program
program.
Click output button, the Output program is started,
showing the deformed mesh.
34
Select
S l t D
Deformation-total
f ti t t l di
displacements,
l t it shows
h th
the ttotal
t l
displacements of all nodes as arrows.

35
Select
S l t St
Stresses-plastic
l ti points,
i t it shows
h th
the di
distribution
t ib ti off
yielded points.

36
 Click Go to curves program, select new chart and
select
l t the
th file
fil name we hhave calculated.
l l t d It shows
h
the curve generation dialog.
T
To get the
h lload-displacement
d di l curves, x-axisi should
h ld
be the displacement of point A, y-axis should be
the force.
force . Because it is negative for pressure in
Plaxis, click invert sign. 37
 Theoretical result:
q = cN c B = 10kPa (2 + ) 5m = 257.1kN / m

The load-displacement curve is shown. It can be seen that the

limit value of the bearing force is a little larger than the value
given by the equation
equation.
Your mesh density might be different from mine, so your result
may
ay be not
ot the
t e same
sa e with
t mine.
e Butut the
t e difference
d e e ce sshouldnt
ou d t be
very large.
38
 Thus, this analysis, bearing capacity of rigid strip
f ti on clay,
footing l has
h b been fifinished.
i h d

39