Hi Everyone,
Thanks for the help in advance!!
I understand the plastic failure point means the soil element is currently at the failure envelop and it could disappear in the next calculation step if unloading occurred. However, I figured there is a big difference between the distribution of plastic failure point and plastic history point. In my slope stability model, the plastic history points distributed widely over the model even in the initial state prior to the load. The soil model I am using is Hardening soil with small strain. Please see pics below：
The first two pics show the distribution of plastic failure point in the first and last calculation step of the load addition phase.
The second two pics show the distribution of plastic failure point history in the first and last calculation step of the load addition phase.
Could someone enlighten me the reason behind the difference?
Thank you a lot for your help!!
Francis
Dear Francis,
As the property name mentions this is the plot that shows the full history of all stress points with regard to plastic points.
Therefore, any stress point that has ever reached the Mohr-Coulomb failure envelope is marked as a plastic point in history.
The difference between the two plots is, therefore, which stress points are at failure at this calculation step vs. which stress points ever had been in failure throughout all calculation steps (incl. current step).
Thank you for your help!