Incremental Gravity Turn on

Question

Hi. 
 I read the article below: 
 Validation of computational liquefaction for tailings: Tar Island slump 
 
 Somewhere in the paper, it says: 
 "The finite-element model used incremental &lsquo;gravity turn on &rsquo; for each layer in turn to replicate the weight of the accumulation of sand during construction." 
 I am not sure what exactly this " incremental gravity turn on" means. and how I can implement this. Does it have the same application as Sigma-mstage? 
 
 Also, large strain mode was adopted for this study. to do so, do I only need to turn on the "updated mesh" setting 
 
 Thank you.

Berk Demir · Answer

Nothing fancy, just 5 different stages to put the embankment slowly. But, if you don't use the intermediate results, that never dose a make a difference in geotechnical FEM.

Dennis Waterman · Answer

Just to add .... the suggestion is made that creating the embankment in 5 stages or in 1 stage does not make a difference in FEM. However, that is not true, it does make a difference. When using the Mohr-Coulomb model for your fill material the differences are small, but when using a model with stress-dependent stiffness the differences in settlements can be significant. This is due to the different stress development and thus different stiffness development in the soil when applying it in one layer or in multiple layers. 
 With kind regards, 
 Dennis Waterman