Hey,
I am trying to calculate pullout capacity of a suction caisson for my thesis at the end of Aug.
I am new at using Plaxis (less than a month) and I've found a tutorial on plaxis website. I have followed it through and got results. However, the plaxis tutorial did not consider the thickness of the pile so I added an inner surface with a smaller radius (3.92 m).
Tried to generate mesh and this error came up
Meshing failed with the following error:
Fatal: Could not generate mesh.Fatal: Invalid element(s) found. Related geometries: BoreholeVolume_1_1. Inspect the geometry locally.Warning: 591 EMR warnings have been detected. The 12 most severe are listed, the remaining 579 are not shown.Warning: # 1/517 of small 3D proximity: detected size 7.97e-02; this is 1.47e+01 times smaller than minimum targeted element size. Related geometries: Surface_1_1, Surface_4_1. Inspect the geometry locally.Warning: # 2/517 of small 3D proximity: detected size 7.97e-02; this is 1.47e+01 times smaller than minimum targeted element size. Related geometries: Surface_1_1, Surface_4_1. Inspect the geometry locally.Warning: # 3/517 of small 3D proximity: detected size 7.97e-02; this is 1.47e+01 times smaller than minimum targeted element size. Related geometries: Surface_1_1, Surface_4_1. Inspect the geometry locally.Warning: # 4/517 of small 3D proximity: detected size 7.97e-02; this is 1.47e+01 times smaller than minimum targeted element size. Related geometries: Surface_1_1, Surface_4_1. Inspect the geometry locally.Warning: # 5/517 of small 3D proximity: detected size 7.97e-02; this is 1.47e+01 times smaller than minimum targeted element size. Related geometries: Surface_1_1, Surface_4_1. Inspect the geometry locally.Warning: # 1/72 of small in-surface proximity: detected size 8.00e-02; this is 1.47e+01 times smaller than minimum targeted element size. Related geometries: Surface_3_1. Inspect the geometry locally.Warning: # 2/72 of small in-surface proximity: detected size 8.00e-02; this is 1.47e+01 times smaller than minimum targeted element size. Related geometries: Surface_3_1. Inspect the geometry locally.Warning: # 3/72 of small in-surface proximity: detected size 8.00e-02; this is 1.47e+01 times smaller than minimum targeted element size. Related geometries: Surface_3_1. Inspect the geometry locally.Warning: # 4/72 of small in-surface proximity: detected size 8.00e-02; this is 1.47e+01 times smaller than minimum targeted element size. Related geometries: Surface_3_1. Inspect the geometry locally.Warning: # 5/72 of small in-surface proximity: detected size 8.00e-02; this is 1.47e+01 times smaller than minimum targeted element size. Related geometries: Surface_2_2. Inspect the geometry locally.Warning: # 1/2 of small edges: detected size 8.00e-02; this is 1.47e+01 times smaller than minimum targeted element size. Related geometries: Surface_2_2, Surface_3_1. Inspect the geometry locally.Warning: # 2/2 of small edges: detected size 8.00e-02; this is 1.47e+01 times smaller than minimum targeted element size. Related geometries: Surface_2_2, Surface_3_1. Inspect the geometry locally.0322> _save "\\adf\storage\j\f\jsf622\Documents\MSc Project\Plaxis 3D\1st try\winged_thick.p3d"
I have also tried to add wings to the caisson and a similar error came up.
In addition, how do I add load to the structure at different angles (0, 30, 45, 60, 80, and 90) ?
I look forward for the feedback
Dear Jozanga,
Welcome to the PLAXIS community!
A similar post was added yesterday, so the information is relevant to you, too. In principle, it is a matter of creating accurate geometry and having no overlap or gaps unless it is necessary.
I would suggest reading the error message carefully and trying to identify the individual objects involved and investigating what is happening.
You can find the post here: https://communities.bentley.com/products/geotech-analysis/f/plaxis-soilvision-forum/232702/plaxis-3d-mesh-warning
About the loading, in the tutorial, it is done via a Rigid body object. You can also add a line load to the plate element.
Does the gap between the inner circle and the outer circle filled automatically or I have to create a top surface for it? also, it is quite impossible to create a continuous structure to avoid gaps
It depends. But if the object is annular, you need to create a surface between the inner and outer circle to fill up the gap between them.
thanks
Hello again,
No, you would need to create a surface as Piyush mentions.
Note that my comment was not for actual gaps that exist in reality but for inaccuracies in geometry, e.g., something that should have been snapped but by drawing by hand it is not properly snapped.