Hi,
Is there a way of restrict the failure slope that PLAXIS 2D give me? For example in an earth dam I want that my slip mass for a pseudostatic analysis starts in the crest, is there a way to do that?
Thanks
One of the main advantages of strength reduction method is that the safety factor emerges naturally from the analysis without the user having to commit to any particular form of the mechanism a priori. Having said that, PLAXIS offers an option to exclude part of the model using the Apply strength reduction option. Therefore, you can partition your geometry in such a way such that you can exclude all the zones below and above the slip surface from strength reduction. This way you will only allow a thin zone along the slip surface in which you want strength reduction to be applied.
In strength reduction method we can assign different regions where we don’t want the program to analyze safety factor in that region.
In the safety phase, in the selection explorer window you can see the option to Use strength reduction or not (screen shot attached). If you uncheck this option for all the soil polygons that will be below or above the slip surface, then the critical slip surface will be shifted to another critical location and hopefully it passes through the desired location.
It can also happen that the critical slip surface passes through zones where "Apply strength reduction" option is unchecked. This is because this option simply instructs the cluster not to "participate" in the strength reduction. However, if the failure mechanism already develops before, or the strength reduction on the clusters below has an effect on the new cluster, this would still develop shear strains in those zones too.
Answer Verified By: Xaviera Valenzuela
Thanks!