I am checking the stability of slope due to dredging activity. I want to introduce water/ocean current (water flow rate) of water above the sea floor, in my model. Can we model such effects in Plaxis?
Hi,
PLAXIS cannot directly model water flow outside the finite element mesh, so in order to take into account water current you would have to generate a mesh there. Though I've never tried, it could probably be done by creating a soil material representing the water; it can be linear elastic with very low stiffness and very high permeability and a weight queal to the water weight and then treat the ocean current as a groundwater flow problem.In order to avoid a too strong interaction between the slope and the finite elements representing the water, you may have to put an interface along the slope with low value of R_inter so ensure that the slope can slide down without having friction with the elements representing the water. But as mentioned, I've never tried this, but this is how I would do it.
With kind regards,
Dennis Waterman