Good morning, I have a question regarding the modeling of piles as a volume-type element in PLAXIS 3D. The axial forces that I obtain using the dummy beam and the "Structural forces in volume piles" tool give me different results, especially for the last meter of the pile, as shown in the following images. When I use the dummy beam type element, the forces at the base of the pile tend to change sign. What could be the problem?It should be noted that I divided the elastic modulus of the fictitious beam by one thousand, therefore the axial stress values for this case should be multiplied by one thousand.
Hi Edwar,
What I can observe in the attached image (dummy beam) is a development of tension at the bottom of the beam. However, since I don’t have any overview of your analysis or model, it is challenging to guess why this happens.
I suspect this may be attributed to the results being smoothed out. The results shown on the beam are extrapolated from the nearest stress integration points, so some discontinuities or spikes could be observed, especially in areas close to the boundaries with other materials and in cases where the mesh is coarse. You can also check your results with the “use result smoothing” option turned off (Output > View > Use result smoothing). This option is available for plots and tables and is used to reduce the numerical noise resulting from the extrapolation of the results obtained in stress points (e.g. stress, force) to nodes.