Soil interface parameters

Hello,

You can check the interface result in the output by dragging the adjacent structural model. To see the influence of new material set for interface, you can observe the shear stress, max shear stress, etc.

Actually, I am not really sure which parameter that you want to observe in the output results. Perhaps you can clarify it.

I think the interface has also specific soil parameters when the "use adjacent soil" is selected. I can see the theoretical background of that in the reference manual, but I would also like to "see" which parameters are actually used in the soil interface. I am mostly interested in the young's modulus.

Supposedly, when using "adjacent soil", the Rinter (related to strength reduction factor for adhesion) that we input at the adjacent cluster will be used as interface material. Thus, another parameter in the interface except for the strength parameter will be the same as the adjacent soil material.

Each interface has assigned to it a 'virtual thickness' which is an imaginary dimension used to define the material properties of the interface. The higher the virtual thickness is, the more elastic deformations are generated. In general, interface elements are supposed to generate very little elastic deformations and therefore the virtual thickness should be small (Plaxis reference). 

According to the explanation above, Young's modulus of interface does not have a big influence on deformation since the virtual thickness is very small. Previously, I also tried using different young modulus in the interface, and the results are similar, which indicates that the main important thing in interface material is the strength parameter.

Supposedly, when using "adjacent soil", the Rinter (related to strength reduction factor for adhesion) that we input at the adjacent cluster will be used as interface material. Thus, another parameter in the interface except for the strength parameter will be the same as the adjacent soil material.

Each interface has assigned to it a 'virtual thickness' which is an imaginary dimension used to define the material properties of the interface. The higher the virtual thickness is, the more elastic deformations are generated. In general, interface elements are supposed to generate very little elastic deformations and therefore the virtual thickness should be small (Plaxis reference). 

According to the explanation above, Young's modulus of interface does not have a big influence on deformation since the virtual thickness is very small. Previously, I also tried using different young modulus in the interface, and the results are similar, which indicates that the main important thing in interface material is the strength parameter.

Hey Ari,

Thanks for the speedy response. The interface elements might have little influence on the soil displacements, but I expect that they would have a big influence in the response of structural elements( moments etc). That is why I am interested in knowing the exact values rather than back calculating them from the reference manual. I am using section 6.1.7 to backcalculate them. But it would be really handy to see these parameters in the UI or in the command line of the UI.