Zabala, F. & Alonso, E. E. (2011). Geotechnique 61, No. 9, 795808 [doi: 10.1680/geot.9.P.
134]
Progressive failure of Aznalcollar dam using the material point method
F. Z A BA L A
a n d E . E . A L O N S O
The material point method, which combines features of
finite-element and particle discretisation methods, has
been extended to solve coupled flow-deformation pro-
blems in granular media. The method is applied to
simulate the construction and failure of the Aznalcollar
dam. The brittle foundation clay is characterised by
means of a strain-softening MohrCoulomb elasto-plastic
model. The rupture process of the foundation is asso-
ciated with a progressive failure mechanism. The model
predicts the development of a localised shearing band
that initiates at the toe of the dam at some intermediate
stage of construction, and propagates downstream and
upstream. The shape and position of the failure surface
reproduce actual field observations.
KEYWORDS: case history; dams; numerical models; pore
pressures; strain localisation
INTRODUCTION
This paper presents a simulation of the Aznalcollar dam
failure using the material point method (MPM; Sulsky et al.,
1994, 1995; Sulsky & Schreyer, 1996). MPM combines the
advantages of the finite-element method (FEM) and particle
methods. A mesh fixed in space is used to solve the
governing equations, and the continuum is represented by
material points or Lagrangian particles with fixed mass. The
information that is carried by the particles (momentum,
stress, strains and pore pressures) is projected onto the
mesh at every step of the solution. The mesh covers the full
domain of the problem, and is used to impose boundary
conditions. After solving the discrete governing equations on
the mesh, the particle positions are updated. At the end of
every step of the solution the background mesh can be
discarded, because the particles transport all the necessary
information. This avoids mesh distortion for large displace-
ments and convection errors. The method is well suited for
dynamic problems with large displacements, and incorpo-
rates in a natural way a non-slip contact algorithm. MPM is
similar to the FEM, because the weighting functions that are
used in the mesh are of the same type as those used in
FEM, and the particles could be considered, in some cases,
as integration points that are not necessarily located at the
coordinates of the Gaussian integration points used in FEM.
MPM is now being used in geotechnical engineering, and
some interesting applications have been developed. It has
been applied to the modelling of anchors placed in soil
(Coetzee et al., 2005), to excavator bucket filling (Coetzee
et al., 2007), to problems of granular flow in a silo (Wieck-
owski et al., 1999) and a retaining wall failure (Wieckowski,
2004), to the simulation of experiments related to fault-
Manuscript received 9 November 2009; revised manuscript accepted
23 July 2010. Published online ahead of print 25 January 2011.
Discussion on this paper closes on 1 February 2012, for further
details see p. ii.

Instituto de Investigaciones Antissmicas, Universidad de San
Juan, Argentina.
Department of Geotechnical Engineering and Geosciences,
Universitat Polite`cnica de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain.
795
On a developpe la methode du point materiel, compre-
nant des proprietes aux elements et de discretisation des
particules pour resoudre des proble`mes accouples de flux
/deformation dans des matie`res granulaires. On appliquer
la methode pour simuler la construction et la rupture du
barrage Aznalcollar. On effectue la caracterisation de
largile friable des fondations avec un mode`le elastoplas-
tique de radoucissement de MohrCoulomb. On associe
le processus de rupture des fondations avec un meca-
nisme de rupture progressive. Le mode`le permet de
predire la formation dune bande de cisaillement locali-
see, qui part du pied aval du barrage, a` un stade
intermediaire de la construction, et se propage ensuite en
aval et en amont. La forme et lemplacement de la sur-
face de la faille reproduit des releves effectifs sur le
champ.
induced ground deformations (Johansson & Konagai, 2007),
to run-out analysis of earthquake-induced soil flows (Kona-
gai et al., 2004) and to geomembrane response to settlement
in landfills (Zhou et al., 1999). Also, a quasi-static version
of MPM has been developed for large deformations in
geomechanics (Vermeer et al., 2008).
The Aznalcollar dam failed suddenly and catastrophically
in April 1998 (Alonso & Gens, 2006a). It was built on a
continuous basis from 1978 until its collapse. Fig. 1 shows a
cross-section of the slide, interpreted from borehole data and
surface topography. The dam failed through an almost
horizontal sliding surface in the foundation, and moved
forward approximately 50 m. The collapse resulted in the
release of pyritic acid tailings contained in the southern
lagoon to the Agrio River, and caused serious environmental
damage. The foundation materials are described in Table 1.
Based on field studies and analysis (Alonso & Gens,
2006a, and Gens & Alonso, 2006, which are taken as
reference background information for the remaining of this
paper), it was concluded that the dam failed due to the
combined effect of the following circumstances.
(a) Very low clay permeability, and therefore a persistence
of high pore pressures in the foundation during dam
construction and pond filling.
(b) Quasi-brittle clay behaviour. The foundation clay shows
two different softening mechanisms. First, there is a
sharp strength reduction, associated with loss of
cementation and possibly some microstructural break-
down, which was observed in direct shear box tests for
a relative displacement of about 1 mm. At increasing
shearing, the strength reduction is more gradual. This
behaviour has been interpreted as a loss of effective
cohesion of the fracture surface, which occurs at
virtually no relative movement, considering the scale
of the problem, and a progressive reduction of effective
friction angle that ends in a residual friction angle.
(c) The downstream construction method, which generated
high shear stresses at the slope toe as the dam was being
built, without increasing the foundation strength by the
same amount by the associated consolidation process.
796
ES30e ES30a
ES30l ES30d ES30
60
ES30h
ES30b
Level: m
40
20
60
Level: m
40
20
Blue clay Terrace T3
Tailings Fill placed after failure
Fig. 1. Cross-section of slide: (a) geometry after slide, as interpreted from borehole data and surface topography; (b) reconstruction
of position of sliding surface before failure (Alonso & Gens, 2006a)
Table 1. Aznalcollar dam foundation materials
Description
Alluvial gravels and sands. Terraces of Agrio river
Carbonate marine high-plasticity clay
(Guadalquivir blue marl)
Gravels, sands and sandstones
Shales
An appropriate numerical model to simulate these features
should reproduce the coupled hydro-mechanical behaviour
during dam construction and the quasi-brittle behaviour of
the clay foundation. Moreover, the solution should not
depend on the discretisation mesh, and the development of
failure surfaces should be appropriately captured.
The foundation marine clay was very homogeneous, and
sedimentation layers, dipping 248 in the direction of the
failure motion, could only just be discerned. It was con-
cluded that most of the failure surface followed a sedimenta-
tion plane. It was reckoned, on the basis of the conventional
FE analysis performed, that some strength loss along sedi-
mentation planes (if compared with the intact matrix peak
strength) was necessary to initiate yielding. The development
of the failure surface was attributed to a progressive failure
mechanism, which started at an early stage of dam construc-
tion and ended in a sudden rupture that was not preceded by
observable warning signals. This interpretation was essen-
tially based on a consolidation/elastic analysis of the stress
conditions under the advancing dam, and on some indirect
ZABALA AND ALONSO
WE NWSE
S4-1
Trench 1
GS2P2
S4-2 GS2P3
S4-3
(a)
WE NWSE
(b)
Compacted red clay
Terrace T10 Rockfill dam (upstream blanket)
0 50 m
Sliding surface
evidence derived from limit equilibrium results. The FE
analysis reported in Gens & Alonso (2006) was not able to
Depth: m simulate the location of the failure surface in its actual
position, which was well identified by field observations.
04 The main reason is that the constitutive model used could
475 not reproduce the brittle, strain-softening nature of the
foundation clay. Therefore the analysis was unable to follow
7582
the development of progressive failure. In fact, in order to
.82
reproduce the failure, a weak layer had to be artificially
introduced in the position of the failure surface. Without
this, the FE analysis predicts a deep, circular-like failure
surface.
At the time of the analysis reported in the reference
papers, it was felt that the presence of a sedimentation
surface with reduced or damaged strength could be a reason
for the actual location of the failure surface, and for the
initiation of the progressive failure mechanism. However, the
simple elastic-consolidation analysis performed provided
some support for an alternative explanation, namely that the
location of the failure surface was a consequence of the
evolving geometry of the problem, the consolidation process,
and the constitutive behaviour of the clay foundation.
Therefore two important aspects of the Aznalcollar failure
the reason underlying the location and shape of the failure
surface, and the process of progressive failure did not
receive a proper answer. This paper addresses these two
issues. Since MPM handles large displacements in a natural
way, it may also provide information on the finite motion of
the slide once the instability has started. This aspect, which
was described in Alonso & Gens (2006b), will not be
covered in detail in this paper.
 PROGRESSIVE FAILURE OF AZNALCOLLAR DAM
MPM is described briefly in the Appendix. Compared
with previous developments, a novel formulation for coupled
flow-deformation problems was developed.
LLAR DAM AND ITS
MODEL OF AZNALCO
FOUNDATION
Figure 2 shows the domain considered for simulation of
the dam failure. A background mesh with 1 m 3 1 m square
elements covers the entire domain of the problem. The
mesh, with a size of 300 3 102 elements, spreads in the
two-dimensional space, even to areas without material
points. The foundation, dam and tailings materials are
discretised by means of particles. Two models were used to
obtain the results shown below: one that considers one initial
particle per cell, totalling an amount of 26 915 particles; and
a second one with four particles per cell in the zone of
significant displacements, which results in 50 540 particles.
There are no differences in the accuracy of the results
between the two models, because the mesh used for both is
the same. The greater number of particles per cell avoids the
generation of holes in the discretisation, and the loss of
connections among particles during the solution. The nodes
of the foundation boundary were considered fixed.
To simulate the construction process, 15 stages have been
defined. The geometry of these stages is shown in Fig. 3.
Table 2 describes the evolution of this geometry in time.
1 m 1 m mesh
4m
797
The numerical stability of the solution in the explicit
version of MPM developed requires that the integration
interval t meets the CourantFriedrichsLevy condition
(CFL), t , tcrit .
The critical time interval is
l
tcrit (1)
cp
where l is the mesh size, and cp is the pressure wave
velocity of the soilfluid mixture, given by
s
Q 43 G
cp (2)
r
where Q is the combined compressibility modulus of the
fluid and solid phase (see Appendix), G is the shear modulus
of the solid phase and r is the density of the soilfluid
mixture
The CFL condition imposes a very small time step for
saturated materials. In this case the critical interval is totally
incompatible with the timescale of construction and consoli-
dation. Since the problem is quasi-static during construction,
and therefore the inertia forces are not relevant, because the
accelerations are very small, the materials density can be
scaled if the saturated specific weights are preserved by
reducing the gravity acceleration proportionally. This tech-
nique is completed with the addition of artificial damping to
the discrete equations system in order to suppress dynamic
response. (See Appendix: Dynamic relaxation.) A time inter-

Tailings Dam Alluvial 27 m val of t 14 day was used in the model for the construction
process.
75 m

Clay

Constitutive relationships
Tailings stored in the lagoon and the alluvial materials of
300 m the foundation were modelled using a non-associated Mohr
Coulomb constitutive equation. The rockfill dam was consid-
Fig. 2. Aznalcollar dam: domain considered in the model ered elastic, because the failure occurred without observable

15
14
12
10
8 13
11
6 9
4 7
2 3 5

Fig. 3. Construction stages

Table 2. Dam construction stages

Stage Dam height: m Tailings height: m Crest width: m Time: days

1 0 0 0 0
2 6 6 16 100
3 6 6 29 600
4 9 9 14 1125
5 9 9 25.5 1525
6 13 13 14 2005
7 13 13 29.4 2280
8 18 18 14 2430
9 18 18 22.1 3025
10 21 21 14 3525
11 21 21 37 3835
12 24 24 27.7 3985
13 24 24 37.5 4135
14 25 25 34.2 6600
15 27 26 29 7300
798
dam plastic strains. The dam travelled downstream essen-
tially as a rigid body.
A modification of a non-associated MohrCoulomb con-
stitutive equation was used for the clay foundation material.
The sharp strength decrease that follows the peak strength
observed in direct shear box tests (Fig. 4) (Alonso & Gens,
2006a) was simulated by reducing the cohesion to zero when
the stress state reaches the MohrCoulomb plastic surface.
The progressive decrease in friction angle, from the peak
value (248) to the residual value (118), is represented by a
negative exponential function of the equivalent plastic shear
strain,
peq ,
  : p
9 9res 9peak  9res e
eq (3)
where 9peak and 9res are the peak and residual effective
friction angles, and  is a constant parameter. The equivalent
plastic shear strain is defined as
2  PROCESS
p 1=2

peq 3e
p
:e
where e p is the deviatoric plastic strain tensor.
The coefficient of consolidation of the clay foundation
and the derived permeability were given in the reference
papers (cv 0.001 cm2 /s; k 2 3 1011 m/s). The alluvial
upper layer provides a free-draining boundary for the clay.
The lower aquifer in direct contact with the Guadalquivir
blue clay is also a free-draining boundary.
The modelling parameters are collected in Table 3. Note
the high saturated unit weight of the tailings, caused by the
presence of pyrite as the main mineral constituent. A zero
dilatancy angle was adopted in calculations.
In order to regularise the solution, the concept of a
smeared crack or sliding surface in a mesh element (Rots et
al., 1985) has been used. The plastic work dissipated by a
300
p
b
ZABALA AND ALONSO
mesh element must be equal to the fracture energy dissi-
pated at the crack or sliding surface. Therefore the plastic
softening modulus is dependent on the mesh size. The
strength of this smeared or sliding surface is assumed to be
a function of the relative displacement at the discontinuity.
The exponential function parameter, , is calibrated
( 100) to obtain a relation between shear stress and
relative displacement for the fixed size of the mesh element
(1 m 3 1 m), which corresponds to the shear stressdisplace-
ment results of the shear box tests. This is shown in Fig. 5,
which indicates the actual shear stressdisplacement rela-
tionship for the foundation clay effectively taken in the
analysis. This relationship can be compared with one of the
tests reported in Alonso & Gens (2006a) and reproduced in
Fig. 4.
SIMULATION OF THE CONSTRUCTION AND FAILURE
(4) Two different cases were analysed, maintaining the same
strength parameters but varying the coefficient of pressure at
rest, K0 , of the clay foundation. It was found that K0 had a
significant influence on the results. Horizontal stresses were
not measured in the foundation clay. The Miocene origin of
the clay foundation and the known tectonic activity, sum-
marised in Alonso & Gens (2006a), favour K0 coefficients in
the vicinity of 1. The two cases analysed correspond to
K0 0.5 and K0 1.0.
Consider first the results for K0 0.5. The sequence of
Figs 6(a) to 6(g) shows contours of equivalent plastic shear
strain. Two levels of equivalent plastic strain are plotted (1%
and 5%), in order to distinguish the localised areas of
highest strain intensity. The 1% contour is first established.
As strain accumulates, a thinner 5% contour develops inside
the areas bounded by the 1% contour. Fig. 6(a) shows the
plastic strains (1% contour) at the end of stage 12, when the
250
24 yc 65 kPa

200 200
Shear stress: kPa

p 400 kPa
Shear stress: kPa

150
f
17
100
res 100
11
4 mm

50
0
0 2 4 6 8 10
Horizontal displacement: mm 0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
dp Displacement: mm

Fig. 4. Direct shear test on specimen of foundation clay; normal Fig. 5. Shear stressrelative displacements function for clay
effective stress 400 kPa (Alonso & Gens, 2006a) particle in 1 m 3 1 m cell

Table 3. Model parameters

Material sat : kN/m3 c9: kPa 9peak : degrees 9res : degrees  k: m/s cv : cm2 /s

Clay 20 65 24 11 100 2 3 1011 0.001

Alluvium 20 0 35 35 2 3 106
Dam 20 Elastic
Tailings 31 0 37 37
 PROGRESSIVE FAILURE OF AZNALCOLLAR DAM 799
90 90
80 80
70 70
60 60
y 50 y 50
40 40
30 30
20 20
10 10
0 0
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 0 50 100 150 200 250 300
x x
(a) (b)

90 90
80 80
70 70
60 60
y 50 y 50
40 40
30 30
20 20
10 10
0 0
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 0 50 100 150 200 250 300
x x
(c) (d)

90
80 90
70 80
60 70
60
y 50 y 50
40 40
30 30
20 20
10 10
0 0
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 0 50 100 150 200 250 300
x x
(e) (f)

90
80
70
60
y 50
40
30
20
10
0
0 50 100 150 200 250 300
x
(g)

Fig. 6. Sequence of contours of equal equivalent plastic strain, 1% and 5%: cv 0.001 cm2 /s, K0 0.5

dam had reached a height of 24 m and the crest width was
27.7 m.
The localisation band shown is a diagonal surface or
crack, and it is associated with the tailings load on the
foundation. This is already a high uniform total stress
applied by the pond (750 kPa). It is a long shear band,
which ends in the proximity of the underlying stiff boundary
of the clay. Immediately afterwards a second diagonal and
long shear band develops, in a direction approximately
perpendicular to the initial one. It extends under the dam,
and also reaches a position close to the lower boundary (Fig.
6(b))
When stage 14 is finished (the dam height is already
25 m; see Fig. 6(c)) a surface shear band appears for the
first time at the slope toe. This band propagates from down-
stream to upstream as time increases towards the end of
stage 15. This is indicated in the series of plots in Figs 6(c),
6(d) and 6(e). This shear band becomes a horizontal failure
surface at a depth of 18 m from the original ground surface
(Fig. 6(e)). The two initial diagonal bands have now
evolved upwards, and are defining an active wedge up-
stream of the dam. It is interesting to note the development
of a shearing zone at the contact between dam and tailings.
This sheared contact was responsible for the upstream failure
of the tailings, directly over the upstream slope of the dam
when the dam slid forwards (see Alonso & Gens, 2006b).
The upstream evolution of the shear zone under the dam
eventually connects the horizontal failure surface with the
previously developed diagonal cracks at the end of stage 14
(Figs 6(e) and 6(f)). This connection takes 1300 days to
develop. At this time a kinematically admissible mechanism
is fully developed. At the end of stage 15 additional strain
localisation zones develop and a more complex rupture
pattern evolves. The model also predicts a deeper circular
failure mechanism connected to the initial diagonal shearing
surfaces developed initially. The passive exit zone is highly
sheared, and several subparallel localisation bands develop.
Note also that in this model the lower boundary has some
effect on the overall behaviour. The long diagonal shear
band, dipping under the dam towards the underlying rigid
boundary, eventually reaches it and bends to follow this
contact. Secondary shear bands originated at the main ones
have also developed.
Effective stress paths of some representative points under
the dam are shown later, but it is interesting at this point to
examine the attained friction angle at points of the founda-
tion.
Figure 7 shows the contours of friction angle at the end
of the analysis. The plotted curves correspond to an inter-
mediate value of 178 and a residual value of 118. As a
reference, an equivalent effective friction angle close to 178
was identified in Gens & Alonso (2006) as the average
friction angle that results in a safety factor of 1 in a
conventional limit equilibrium analysis (MorgensternPrice
method of slices) when the actual failure surface derived
from field observations is imposed. It can be seen in Fig. 7
800
90
80
70
60
y 50
40
30
20
10
0
0 50 100 150 200 250
x observed in situ.
Fig. 7. Contours of equal angle of friction
that the contours of 9 178 (or less) follow, as expected,
the pattern indicated by the contours of equivalent plastic
strain of Figs 6(a)6(g). The curves corresponding to
9 118 have a similar distribution, but are less extended in
the strain localisation zones. This result confirms that a full
sliding mechanism could be developed with an average
friction angle greater than 9 118. The horizontal failure
surface predicted by the analysis for K0 0.5 is 18 m below
the original ground surface, as against field observations that
located it at a depth of 14 m under the axis of the dam.
Consider, however, the analysis for K0 1, a value that
may be acceptable in view of the geological history of the
marine clay. Under this hypothesis the clay foundation is
initially free of deviatoric stresses.
Figures 8(a)8(e) show calculated contours of equal
equivalent plastic shear strain. Fig. 8(a) corresponds to the
end of stage 12. Figs 8(b) and 8(c) correspond to intermedi-
ate states during stages 13 and 14. In this case the localisa-
tion bands crossing the clay foundation in a diagonal pattern
did not develop. This is a direct consequence of the initial
state of stress. The initial shear band develops at the end of
stage 12 (Fig. 8(a)). It starts in the vicinity of the down-
stream slope and progresses upstream, describing a circular
ZABALA AND ALONSO
shape. However, it soon becomes horizontal. The progression
upstream may be seen in Figs 8(a), 8(b) and 8(c). At some
intermediate time during stage 13 (Fig. 8(b)) a new circular
band connects the initial one to a surface point downstream
from the dam toe. The most striking result, however, is that
the position of the horizontal shear band is now almost
300 exactly located in the position of the actual sliding surface
The horizontal shear band bends upwards at some time
during stage 14, at the position of the dam upstream toe. It
then crosses the tailings deposit at an angle of approximately
608 with the horizontal. The remaining construction period,
covered by stage 15, results only in an accumulation of
plastic shearing strains in the already developed band (Figs
8(d) and 8(e)). An active wedge within the tailings deposit is
suggested at the end of the simulation period. The failure
mechanism develops in a clear and straightforward manner
in this case. No indication of boundary effects is now found.
The mechanism is remarkably similar to the actual one.
Even the passive zone at the toe of the dam is composed of
a number of subparallel rupture surfaces, a feature also
observed in trenches excavated after the failure (Fig. 1).
PORE PRESSURE DISTRIBUTION
Pore pressures were not recorded during the lifespan of
the dam. However, vibrating-wire piezometers were installed
soon after the failure in cross-sections of the dam that
remained stable, and also under the failed and displaced
dam. The measurements could be reproduced fairly accu-
rately by estimating the excess pore pressures associated
with dam and pond construction and dissipating them
through a vertical one-dimensional theory. It was also found
that a more detailed two-dimensional FE coupled analysis
provided essentially the same results (Gens & Alonso,

100 100
90 90
80 80
70 70
60 60
y 50 y 50
40 40
30 30
20 20
10 10
0 0
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 0 50 100 150 200 250 300
x x
(a) (b)

100 100
90 90
80 80
70 70
60 60
y 50 y 50
40 40
30 30
20 20
10 10
0 0
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 0 50 100 150 200 250 300
x x
(c) (d)

100
90
80
70
60
y 50
40
30
20
10
0
0 50 100 150 200 250 300
x
(e)

Fig. 8. Sequence of contours of equal equivalent plastic strain, 1% and 5%; cv 0.001 cm2 /s, K0 1
 PROGRESSIVE FAILURE OF AZNALCOLLAR DAM 801
800
2006). Matching the pore pressures measured after failure
was therefore a good validation for any modelling of the 700

Pore pressure: kPa

conditions leading to failure.
A hydrostatic pressure, fixed during construction, was
imposed at the bottom boundary of the foundation model.
This water pressure assumption is based on field data on the
lower aquifer. A deep piezometer installed in the lower sands
measured a pore pressure equivalent to the height of the clay
layer. At the upper boundary of the clay layer the pressure
condition was controlled by the presence of the dam. Up-
stream of the cut-off wall, water pressure was given by the
height of stored tailings (tailings always remained covered
by a shallow water level). Downstream from the cut-off, a
free water surface was present on the thin granular alluvium
covering the clay.
Figure 9 shows the vertical distribution of pore pressures
in the foundation clay, under the tailings away from the
dam, at the end of stages 9, 13 and 15. The pressures
calculated through the one-dimensional consolidation theory
of Terzaghi are plotted for comparison. Also, a point is
plotted for stage 15 that represents the measured pressure in
a piezometer located at the approximate position of the
sliding surface in a non-failed section, north of the slide.
The agreement is good. The one-dimensional dissipation
should overestimate the actual pore pressures somewhat,
because it does not include two-dimensional effects. This is
reflected in the plots. The calculated pore pressures increase
in depth owing to the combined effect of the hydrostatic
initial distributions and the tailings and dam loading. The
plot shows also the effect of the under-drainage of the lower
aquifer, although it did not affect the pore pressures devel-
oped on the critical failure surface.
Figure 10 shows the pore pressure response as a function
of time for a particle located under the waste pond, away
from the dam, at the depth of the actual sliding surface
(14 m from the original ground surface). The pore pressure
dissipation over the years is very limited, because of the low
clay permeability. The calculated pressure increments have
almost no dynamic oscillations.
PROGRESSIVE FAILURE
The contours of plastic shear strain plotted in Fig. 8 for
K0 1 provided a clear picture of the development of the
shear band leading eventually to the failure. The process
600
500
400
300
200
100
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 8000
Time: days
Fig. 10. Pore pressure evolution for particle under tailings at
depth of 14 m from ground level
takes place in a markedly brittle material, and therefore
strong progressive failure phenomena should develop. They
will be analysed here by examining the evolution of the
stress state, as the dam and pond are built, at the position of
the failure surface. The calculations correspond now to the
condition K0 1 for the clay deposit.
Consider first the series of plots in Fig. 11. They refer to
particular times during the construction of the dam: the end
of stages 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 and 15 (see Table 2). The figure
shows also the current shape of the advancing dam for each
one of these stages, and the level of the pond. Numbers
located in the cross-section identify the construction stages.
The plot shows the points in the foundation that have
reached a ratio of shear stress to shear strength in the range
0.98 to 1. In fact, the points represented show the contours
where this condition is fulfilled. They mark the position of
failed areas within the foundation. The strength may corre-
spond to peak, residual or intermediate conditions after
peak.
The first plot (end of stage 9; Fig. 11(a)) provides the
position of a band of failed clay. This band is at a depth of
15 m below the ground surface, in a position very close to
that of the actual failure surface developed afterwards. As
construction advances, this initial zone spreads upstream and
downstream. The downstream branch eventually bends up-
wards, and daylights in the vicinity of the toe of the dam
downstream slope (Fig. 11(c)). At the end of stage 12 (Fig.
11(d)) the failed zone extends essentially from the dam toe
to approximately half distance of the dam base, in an

Pressure: kPa Pressure: kPa Pressure: kPa

0 500 1000 1500 0 500 1000 1500 0 500 1000 1500
0 0 0

10 10 10

20 20 20

30 30 30
Depth: m

Depth: m

Depth: m

Terzaghi Terzaghi
40 Terzaghi 40 40 Stage 9
Stage 9
Stage 9 Measured

50 50 50

60 60 60

70 70
70

Fig. 9. Vertical distribution of pressure in clay layer at end of stages 9, 14 and 15

802 ZABALA AND ALONSO
15 15
14 14
10 12 12
8 13 8 10 13
6 11 6 11
4 7 9 4 7 9
2 3 5 2 3 5
5 5
y 15 y 15
25 25
35 35
(a) (b)

15 15
12 14 14
10 10 12
8 11 13 8 13
6 9 6 9 11
4 5 7 4 5 7
2 3 2 3
5 5
15
y 15 y
25 25
35 35
(c) (d)

15 15
14 14
10 12 12
8 13 10 13
11 8
6 9 6 9 11
4 5 7 4 7
2 3 2 3 5
5 5
y 15 y 15
25 25
35 35
(e) (f)

Fig. 11. Zones where clay strength is reached at different stages of construction

upstream direction. At this time the band developed is
shown in terms of accumulated plastic shear strain in Fig.
8(a). The two shapes are similar, as could be expected. The
plot in Fig. 11(d) shows, however, the existence of a planar
stressed zone in the upstream direction, which will be
enhanced in the remaining stages (Figs 11(e) and 11(f)). In
parallel, the shear band will progress in the upstream direc-
tion, and eventually it bends upwards.
The sequence of clay failure at representative points of
the sliding surface is shown in Fig. 12. Only five points are
shown, to simplify the representation of stress paths in the
foundation. The clay failed in the sequence 12345.
Total horizontal shear strains are shown in Fig. 13 as a
27 m
function of time for these five points at a depth of 15 m.
The figure also shows the time when a given point reaches
its shear strength. Fig. 12 shows the location of points 15
on the horizontal failure surface. Before reaching peak
conditions, shear deformations are very low. The calculated
shear strains are high afterwards (616%) as the dam in-
creased its height.
The stressstrain history of the selected five points under
the dam is given in Fig. 14. The left column shows the
deviator stress q against horizontal strain xy , and the right
column the stress path plotted in p9q space, where
p9 ( 19 2 39 )=3 and q  19   39 . Also indicated in the
stress space are the failure envelopes for triaxial compres-
sion and extension, for peak (c9 65 kPa; 9peak 26:48 )
and residual conditions (c9 0 kPa; 9res 118 ).

Tailings Dam The deviatoric stress q reaches a sharp peak value for
very small strains (approx. 0.15%). The rapid loss of effec-
15 m

5 3 2 1 4 tive cohesion also implies a rapid reduction of q. The points

75 m

Clay evolve towards residual conditions in a rather complex way.

At point 2 the peak strength is reached at an early stage,
and the subsequent stress points follow the degradation of
300 m strength as the dam is being built in a relatively straightfor-
ward manner. Consider, however, point 5, closer to the
Fig. 12. Failure sequence for points at depth of 15 m from tailings pond. The point experiences a succession of devia-
original surface of ground toric stress peaks, as a consequence of the stress redistribu-
tions associated with the yielding and stress-softening of
018
neighbouring areas. The peak strength is reached under
extension conditions when the progression of the shear band
016 reaches position 5; then the rapid strength degradation
014 moves down the stress path. The actual details of each one
of the represented stress paths are a consequence of the
012
1 2900 days strength degradation, the details of the dam geometrical
010
2 2950 days
evolution, the consolidation process, and the stress transfer
associated with progressive failure and strain localisation in
xy

008 3 3000 days

the shear band.
5 4000 days
006
4 3950 days
004
SIMULATION OF LARGE DISPLACEMENTS
002
MPM offers the possibility of analysing large displace-
0 ments in a natural manner, thanks to its conception as a
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000
002
particle method. The dynamics of the motion of the dam
Time: days
were analysed by means of a block model type of analysis
Fig. 13. Horizontal shear strain as a function of construction in Alonso & Gens (2006b).
time The Aznalcollar dam moved forwards a distance of
 PROGRESSIVE FAILURE OF AZNALCOLLAR DAM 803

450 450
400 400
350 350
q: kPa 300 300

q: kPa
250 250
200 200
150 150
100 100
50 50
0 0
0 002 004 006 008 010 0 50 100 150 200 250 300
xy p: kPa
(a)

300 300

250 250

200 200
q: kPa

q: kPa
150 150

100 100

50 50

0 0
0 002 004 006 008 010 0 50 100 150 200 250 300
xy p: kPa
(b)
300 300

250 250

200 200
q: kPa

q: kPa

150 150

100 100

50 50

0 0
0 002 004 006 008 010 0 50 100 150 200 250 300
xy p: kPa
(c)
300 300

250 250

200 200
q: kPa

q: kPa

150 150

100 100

50 50

0 0
0 002 004 006 008 0 50 100 150 200 250 300
xy p: kPa
(d)
300
300
250
250
200
200
q: kPa

q: kPa

150
150
100 100

50 50

0 0
0 002 004 006 008 010 012 0 50 100 150 200 250 300
xy p: kPa
(e)

Fig. 14. Horizontal shear strain xy against deviatoric stress q, and effective pressure p9 against q, at
points of horizontal failure surface: (a) point 1; (b) point 2; (c) point 3; (d) point 4; (e) point 5
804 ZABALA AND ALONSO
90
approximately 50 m after the initial failure. This motion will
not be analysed in this paper, which concentrates on the 85
conditions leading to the initiation of the failure, but it is
interesting to show the modelling capabilities by examining 80
the changes that take place at the initiation of the motion,
when the dam displaces by a few metres. The transition 75
from a stable state to an accelerated motion was attributed
to a combination of two effects: the final stage in the 70
process of progressive failure, when the friction was reduced
65
to its final residual value, and the increase in tailings thrust
against the dam due to the liquefaction of tailings. The 60
liquefaction of tailings, moments after the beginning of the
dam forward motion, is supported by direct observations, 55
and by the calculation given in Alonso & Gens (2006b). The
former include the presence of small volcanoes, scattered 50
on the surface of the tailings deposit, immediately upstream
of the displaced dam. 45
175 180 185 190 195 200 205 210 215 220 225 230
The liquefaction process of the tailings is not modelled
here. It will be assumed that, at the end of construction, the Fig. 16. Particle displacements: passive wedge
tailings liquefied and behaved as a heavy liquid. At this time
the scaling of the mass and gravity acceleration is turned to
1, and the added damping is reduced to a small value of 100
2%. From this moment onwards the model becomes dy- 95
namic, with virtually no dissipation of pore pressures. The
90
model then simulates the failure using many small time
steps. 85
Figure 15 shows the particle model a few seconds after 80
the tailings liquefaction, without any amplification of the
75
particle displacements. The dam moved horizontally by
approximately 4 m. The darker zone has initially four parti- 70
cles per cell, and the rest of the figure only one. In this 65
figure it is possible to see the failure surface as an optical
effect. Interestingly, in addition to the well-developed hori- 60
zontal failure surface, a deeper circular failure pattern begins 55
60 70 80 90 100 110 120 130
to develop at this stage of the solution, which contributes to
the development of passive wedges downstream of the dam. Fig. 17. Pattern of particle displacements: tailings movement
The accumulation of these wedges was observed in the field,
and is represented in Fig. 1. Fig. 16 provides a detail of the
passive wedge that is pushed upwards as the movement has been applied to describe the performance and final
progresses. The formation of localised shearing bands is collapse of the Aznalcollar dam.
clearly apparent. Fig. 17 shows a detail of the tailings The collapse mechanism of the Aznalcollar dam was
movement during the initial few seconds. A shearing zone simulated quite accurately. In the analysis performed, no
develops at the tailingsupstream dam slope. A wedge of prior assumptions were made about the location, shape or
tailings is mobilised, and initiates a subsidence type of depth of the failure surface; these features were derived
motion as the dam accelerates forwards. The upstream limit naturally from the calculation procedure. It was found that
of this wedge is still diffuse at this point of the motion, and the geometry of the localisation bands depends markedly on
a few shearing bands begin to form. However, particles tend the initial stress state. For K0 1, an acceptable hypothesis
to separate in these zones, showing the initial stage of a for a Miocene overconsolidated clay, the predicted collapse
tensile fracture. The dam upstream toe is a critical point: all mechanism is similar to the observed one. The interaction
shearing bands converge towards this point in a natural way. between the clay brittleness, slow dissipation of pore pres-
sures and the construction process generated progressive
failure in a horizontal area under the dam. Foundation clay
CONCLUSIONS failure began under the downstream foot of the dam under
An explicit version of the material point method, extended construction at an early stage (when the dam had reached a
to deal with pore-fluid hydro-mechanical coupling, was height of approximately 15 m). The points where the clay
developed. A computer code has also been developed, and strength were reached concentrated in a narrow band at
approximately 15 m below the ground surface, at the loca-
tion of the sliding surface identified later, after the failure.
120
At these points peak shear strength was reached, and there-
100 fore a process of stress transfer was started. As the dam
80 reached increased heights, cracked zones eventually coa-
60 lesced into a localised rupture band, which was well estab-
40 lished 11 years after the initiation of dam construction,
when the dam had reached a height of 24 m. This band
20
evolved towards the downstream toe of the dam and simulta-
0 neously in the upstream direction, towards the tailings
20 deposit. In the final stages of the failure the rupture band
0 50 100 150 200 250 300
bent upwards at the position of the upstream toe of the dam,
Fig. 15. Particle model, a few seconds after tailing liquefaction and crossed the tailings with a steeply inclined slope. This
 PROGRESSIVE FAILURE OF AZNALCOLLAR DAM 805
failure geometry is remarkably similar to the observed one, discarded, taking care to preserve the boundary conditions
shown in Fig. 1. These results indicate that the clay stratifi- that may have been established.
cation and the possible existence of a weaker layer or It is possible to discretise the momentum conservation
naturally sheared layer did not play a major role in the equation through the application of a standard Galerkin
initiation of failure. It should be stressed that the strain- weighted residual method (Sulsky et al., 1995; Sulsky &
softening model used was calibrated against the shear re- Schreyer, 1996). The derived mass matrix varies in time,
sponse of the clay matrix. Stratification did not play a major and must be calculated for each step of the analysis. To
role, but it did play some role. In fact, the main sliding reduce the computational cost of the procedure, a diagonal
surface seemed to follow a sedimentation plane, which dips mass matrix can be used: therefore the movement equations
gently (28) in the direction of the motion. This observation are decoupled, and can be written for a node and for the kth
suggests that, once shearing started and the mechanism of time step as
progressive failure was initiated, it was easier to follow a
stratification plane. Some (small) reduction of the shear m ik a ik f int,
i
k
f ext,
i
k
(5)
strength of sedimentation planes is therefore suspected.
However, these planes were difficult to identify in most of where f int ext
i and f i are the vectors of internal and external
the samples and cores recovered, and they could never be forces at node i respectively, m i is the mass of node i, and
isolated for laboratory shear testing. a i is the node acceleration.
MPM is also well adapted to simulate large displacements
and the dynamic motion after failure. This part of the failure
is not covered in this paper. However, it was interesting to Extension to model coupled hydro-mechanical problems
present the initiation of the forward motion of the dam, once This section extends the explicit version of MPM in order
the tailings are assumed to liquefy. New shear bands seem to model coupled hydro-mechanical saturated problems. The
to develop, which contribute to reproduce better the complex continuum is considered as a saturated soilfluid mixture. It
geometry of the passive wedge developing downstream is assumed that particles carry all the variables needed to
under the dam thrust. Upstream, a wedge of tailings is represent the state of the continuum, including the pore
isolated. It slides on the upstream slope of the dam, and pressure as a variable associated with each particle.
separates in a combined phenomenon of shearing and tensile The formulation of the equations that describe the behav-
rupture from the remaining body of tailings. Then the iour of a saturated porous medium was first developed by
tailings wedge initiates a downward motion, captured by the Biot (1941), and then extended by Zienkiewicz et al. (1980)
model. and Zienkiewicz & Shiomi (1984). The governing equations
can be simplified if the fluid relative acceleration with
respect to the soil skeleton is considered to be small. The
equations are simplified as follows.
The balance of momentum is written for the mixture as
APPENDIX: MATERIAL POINT METHOD
The method was initially described by Sulsky et al. (1994, =   rb ra (6)
1995) and by Sulsky & Schreyer (1996). The material point where is the total stress tensor, b are the body forces, a is
method discretises the continuum, dividing it into particles. the acceleration and r is the density of the mixture, given
A mass is assigned to each particle, which remains fixed by
during all the calculation process, thus ensuring mass con-
servation. Other initial values, such as velocities, strains and r 1  nrs nrf (7)
stresses, are also assigned to the material points. where n is the porosity, rs is the solid density and rf is the
The discrete movement equations are not solved at the fluid density.
material points. Instead a support mesh, built to cover the The balance of fluid mass is written as
domain of the problem, is used. This mesh is composed of
elements of the same type as those used in the finite-element p_

_ v =  w 0 (8)
method (Fig. 18). For simplicity, it is common to use four- Q
node, bi-linear quadrilateral elements. The boundary condi- where w is the Darcy velocity, =  w is the divergence of
tions are imposed at the mesh nodes, and the movement velocity,
_ v is the volumetric strain variation of the soil
equations are solved incrementally. Then the quantities car- skeleton, and p_ is the fluid pressure variation. Q provides a
ried by the material points are updated through the inter- combined compressibility modulus of the fluid and solid
polation of the mesh results, using the same shape functions. phase, given by
The information associated with the mesh is not necessary
in the following step of the analysis: therefore it can be n 1
(1  n) 1=Q (9)
Kf Ks
Material point or where Kf is the fluid bulk modulus, and Ks is the bulk
particle modulus of the grains material.
The Darcy equation is written as
3 4 k
w (= p  rf b rf a) (10)
f
J L

where k is the permeability tensor, f is the specific weight

1 2 of fluid and =p is the pressure gradient.
L The relationship between effective stress and total stress is
Background mesh
Node

9  pm (11)
where
9 is the effective stress, p is the pore pressure
Fig. 18. MPM discretisation components (positive for compression), m ij  ij ,  ij is the Kronecker
806 ZABALA AND ALONSO
delta, 1  Kt /Ks , and Kt is the bulk modulus of the soil Replacing the integrals in equation (16) by sums of
skeleton. For soils, Kt ,, Ks and 1. quantities at the material points, the mesh nodes pressure
These equations, together with the boundary conditions, increments at time k can be computed. In these integrals the
can be discretised and solved numerically using the displace- material points or particles correspond to the integration
ments and the pore pressure as unknowns. points in the finite-element method. The first of the integrals
is equal to
XNp  
MPM discretisation of equations related to fluid N i pd
N i x kp p kp V p
The pore pressure increment in a particle is calculated
t p1
explicitly using the equation of mass balance, from the (18a)
particle volumetric deformation and the divergence of the Np
X  X
Nn  
fluid velocity relative to the soil skeleton, at the particle N i x kp p kj N j x kp V p
location. p1 j1
From equation (8), Np    
X
Nn X X
Nn
p Q(_
v =  w)t p Q(
v =  wt) p kj N i x kp N j x kp V p p kj V ik j (18b)
(12) j1 p1 j1
0
where V p is the particle volume. The element volume matrix
where
v is the volumetric strain increment at a point in Vij can be lumped at the nodes to give a diagonal matrix Vi,
the continuum, and p is the pore pressure increment at the Np    
X
end of time interval t. V ik j N i x kp N j x kp V p (19)
The boundary conditions imposed on the mesh are p1
In p : Np
X  
pp0 (13a) V ik N i x kp V p (20)
p1

where p is the pressure imposed on the boundary p Np

X   X
Nn

In w : N i x kp p kp V p p kj V ij
p1 j1 (21)
@p
k  w wn  w 0 (13b) p ik V ik
@n

where w is the fluid velocity enforced in w , and wn is the Thus the pressure increments at the nodes can be calculated
velocity normal to boundary w . explicitly, as
The standard Galerkin method is applied to equation (12) 8
using weighting functions for the pressures equal to those 1 <XNp h i
used for the interpolation of displacements, to give p ik1 Q N i (x kp )
vk p  =N i (x kp )  wpk t V p
V i : p1

N i p Q
v =  wtd
9
=

t
(14) N i wtd
q ;
 N i wn  wtd 0
w
(22)

where Ni is the shape function for node i. The Darcy equation is used to calculate the flow velocities
Integrating by parts at each particle,

k
N i =  wtd
Ni w  ntd  =N i  wtd
w kp  [= p(x kp )  rf b rf a kp ] (23)

t t
t f
(15)
The pressure gradient is evaluated using the field inter-
results in polated from the nodes pressures at instant k. This pressure
field can be approximated in the same way as the pressure
N i pd
N i Q
v d
 =N i  wtd
increment, to give

t
t
t
(16) X
Nn  
p kp p kj N j x kp (24)
N i wtd 0 j1
w
where p ik
is the node i pressure at instant k, and p kp is the
The particle pressure increment is approximated using the particle pressure at instant k. Then
pressure increments at the nodes using the same interpola- Np  
X X
Nn
tion functions as used for displacements, to give N i x kp p kp V p p kj V ij
X
Nn   p1 j1 (25)
p kp p kj N j x kp (17)
j1 p ik V i
where p jk is the node pressure increment at time k, p kp the 1 X  k k
Np

particle pressure increment at time k and x kp is the particle p ik Ni x p p p V p (26)

V i p1
position.
 PROGRESSIVE FAILURE OF AZNALCOLLAR DAM 807
Thus the pressure gradient can be calculated with the ex- pressure increments at the nodes are calculated using the
pression gradients calculated at the cell centre.
The procedure is completely explicit, and has proved to
  X Nn   be stable for the low values of permeability used to model
= p x kp p ik =N i x kp (27) the foundation of the Aznalcollar dam. Unfortunately it is
i1 not stable if it is applied to the problem of a rigid footing
on an undrained elastic foundation. For completely un-
Finally, the particle pressures are updated using the equation
drained conditions special stabilising procedures should be
  used, such as the fractional step algorithm (Pastor et al.,
X
Nn
p k1 p kp p ik1 N i x kp (28) 2000; Li et al., 2003).
p
i1

Dynamic relaxation
Dynamic relaxation techniques can be used if an explicit
Algorithm MPM algorithm is applied to quasi-static problems. Since
The nodal pressures are calculated with equation (26) the inertial and damping forces decay to zero as equilibrium
using the pressures carried by the material points, which is approached, the mass and damping matrices can be chosen
were obtained in the previous step k of the solution. The arbitrarily (Oakley & Knight, 1995; Metzger, 2003). In this
calculation scheme of these nodal pressures is similar to the paper the mass is scaled in order to enlarge the time step,
procedure used in MPM to obtain the momentum at the and the addition of artificial damping to the discrete equa-
mesh nodes. The pressure gradient is obtained through tions system is adopted to suppress oscillations in the
equation (27) from the mesh pressure field. The fluid flow dynamic response.
velocity, at the coordinates of particles, is calculated using A proportional Rayleigh damping is used (Metzger, 2003).
the Darcy equation (23). The pressure increment at the The damping matrix is:
nodes is calculated using equation (22). The terms in this C M R (29)
equation (volumetric strain increment, velocity divergence
and external flow) are accumulated at the nodes by adding where M is the mass matrix, R is the tangent stiffness
the contribution of the particles. Boundary conditions are matrix, and 6 0,  0 are constants.
imposed on the mesh. The particles pressures are updated An estimate of the coefficient is obtained from the first
through equation (28) for use in the next step. At the end of mode of vibration, considering the system tangent stiffness
the time interval, the pressures at the nodes are not useful matrix,
and can be discarded, because the particles carry the infor- 21 1 (30)
mation on pore pressures.
where 1 is the damping of the first mode of vibration, and
1 is the frequency of the first mode of vibration.
Stability of the solution The Rayleigh quotient is used to obtain an automatic and
The shape functions used for the mesh elements are adaptive estimation of the first natural frequency of the
typically the same bi-linear functions as used in the finite- system during the solution (Metzger, 2003),
element method, and therefore the background mesh ele-
uT Ku
ments suffer the same drawbacks. These drawbacks include: 1 (31)
volumetric locking for quasi-incompressible materials when uT Mu
four particles per cell are used, which is equivalent to four where u is the incremental displacement vector.
integration points in the finite-element method; pressure As in the explicit version of MPM, the tangent stiffness is
instability for quasi-incompressible and low-permeability not assembled, and
materials; and the generation of zero-energy modes when k k1
one particle per cell is used, which corresponds to reduced Ku Fint  Fint (32)
integration in the finite-element method.
k
Mixed displacementpressure approximations are known where Fint is the internal force vector at instant k.
to suffer pressure instability if the BabuskaBrezzi condition Using the velocity increment instead of the incremental
is not fulfilled (Brezzi & Bathe, 1990). In the framework of displacements,
the finite-element method, an element is stable without using  k 
vT F int k1
 F int =t
special procedures if the number of degrees of freedom used 1 (33)
to interpolate the pressure is lower than the number used to vT Mv
interpolate the displacements.
The original MPM version has also the disadvantage of where v is the incremental velocity vector.
generating noise in the solution (Zhou et al., 1999; This completes the determination of .
Bardenhagen & Kober, 2004) when a particle passes from
one cell to another. This noise is due to the discontinuity of
the interpolation function gradient that is involved in the NOTATION
calculation of internal forces (Bardenhagen & Kober, 2004). a acceleration
A simple procedure that can be used to reduce this type of ai node acceleration
instability is to consider a constant stress at each cell equal ap particle acceleration
to the stress average of the particles that are in the cell at b body forces
c9 effective cohesion
instant k. In this case the internal forces are obtained in the
cp pressure wave velocity of soilfluid mixture
same way as in the finite-element method when one point of cv coefficient of consolidation
integration is used, using the gradient of the shape functions ep deviatoric plastic strain tensor
calculated in the cell centre. k
F int internal force vector at instant k
In this work, to avoid volumetric locking and simulta- f int
i , f ext
i vectors of internal and external forces at node i
neously achieve a stable behaviour, internal forces and G shear modulus of solid phase
808 ZABALA AND ALONSO
Kf fluid bulk modulus
Ks bulk modulus of grains material
Kt bulk modulus of soil skeleton
K0 coefficient of pressure at rest
kpermeability
k permeability tensor
lmesh size
M mass matrix
mi mass of node i
m ij  ij , the Kronecker delta
Ni shape function for node i
n porosity
p pore pressure
=p pressure gradient
p pore pressure increment at end of time interval t
p iknode i pressure at instant k
p iknode pressure increment at time k
p kpparticle pressure at instant k
p kpparticle pressure increment at time k
p9 effective pressure
p_fluid pressure variation
p pressure imposed on boundary p
Q combined compressibility modulus of fluid and solid
phase
q deviator stress
R tangent stiffness matrix
u incremental displacement vector
Vij element volume matrix
V p particle volume
v incremental velocity vector
w Darcy velocity
w fluid velocity enforced in boundary w
wn velocity normal to boundary w
=  w divergence of velocity
x kp particle position
,  constants
f specific weight of fluid
xy horizontal strain

peq equivalent plastic shear strain

_ v volumetric strain variation

v volumetric strain increment at a point in the continuum
 constant
1 damping of first mode of vibration
r density of soilfluid mixture
rf fluid density
rs solid density
total stress tensor

9 effective stress
 19 major principal effective stress
 39 minor principal effective stress
9peak peak effective friction angle
9res residual effective friction angle
1 frequency of first mode of vibration
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