Safety analysis

Question

Hi, 
 I am running safety analysis on Plaxis, in some cases in the beginning of the calculation the safety factor is going below 1 for a couple of points than it is increasing to values above 1 until it settles to a final factor of safety. In this case, the safety factor is the plateau value or i should consider the values below 1 
 thank you 
 Hadi

Micha van der Sloot · Answer

Dear Hadi, 
 As Scot mentioned, as long as the factor of safety is higher than 1, this can be assumed the true failure mode and Factor of Safety. Make sure to determine the factor of safety as a stable value of &Sigma;Msf, and assess the failure mechanism for a sensible result. 
 If the value of &Sigma;Msf drops below one [1] in the first few steps in the Safety Analysis, most likely it is caused by some out of balance from the previous phase. Using a Plastic nill step to solve this local out of balance can also prevent this drop of &Sigma;Msf < 1 You can indeed also investigate the mechanism in the first steps and use your judgement there. 
 More details here in our latest SIG online class: https://event.on24.com/wcc/r/2165515/6BA8A61A920F589C3E5C23DA3B23FDD6?partnerref=SocialMedia Kind regards, 
 Micha van der Sloot

Safety analysis

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