Dear all, this is a brief one: when an interface is created between two soil clusters that have different Rinter values, which one will the interface adopt?
Is it the average of the two? The smallest? Or does it depend on the sign of the interface (i.e. the + will have the value of one side and the - will have the other)?
Here's an example that I'm currently working on:
The Backfill (in yellow) have an Rinter = 0.67, for the sand underneath the retaining wall have Rinter = 0.8 and the linear elastic concrete soil Rinter = 0.67. (a side question: what proper value for Rinter should be assigned when using volumetric structures like walls, drilled shafts etc.. ?)
Thanks in advance!
Mohamad Raad
Dear Mohamad,
It depends on which side the interface is pointed at.
In your model, I assume you refer to the one between the black material and the yellow. The activated interface is on the yellow side, so it will take the properties of that soil and interface Rinter.
The value of the Rinter depends on the two materials involved. There is a difference between steel vs. sand, steel vs. clay, concrete vs. rock, concrete vs. silty clay, etc.. That makes it difficult to give a single value, but if you do not know a value of 2/3 is usually a good start, but you may need to do a sensitivity analysis on this parameter as it should never be a critical one.
Answer Verified By: Mohamad Raad