Dear Support Team,
In PLAXIS Reference Manual, section 9.3.3 (i. e. PLAXIS 2D CE manual) we can find the hint:
Particularly when the soil strength has been defined by means of effective strength parameters (Undrained (A) it is useful to plot the mobilised shear strength τmob in a vertical cross section and to check this against a known shear strength profile.
So the results for Undrained A should be checked by comparing the mobilised strength, τmob.
On the other hand, in Tips and Tricks (https://communities.bentley.com/products/geotechnical1/w/wiki/46010/how-to-check-undrained-shear-strength-using-undrained-a) we can see the picture with circles that refer to the limit line, which means that it is the maximum strength, τmax, not τmob:
Could you please inform us which strength should be used for checking: maximum or minimum?
Best regards,Rushan Gizzatullin
If you want to evaluate if in an Undrained A analysis the (known) undrained shear strength is not violated, you should check the current stress state. From this stress state, you can use the principal stresses to determine Mohrs circle and its radius: (σ'_1 - σ'_3)/2
This should not be larger than the maximum allowed undrained shear strength (c_u value).
See e.g. above for a Undrained A materail :
As you can see, to evaluate if the undrained shear strength is not violated, please use the current mobilized shear stress and compare it with the undrained shear strength value.
Note that for Undrained A (effective stress and effective stiffness) the undrained shear strength in an outcome based on the stress path and stress state; it is not input.
Answer Verified By: Rushan Gizzatullin
Hi Micha van der Sloot
A follow-up question. What if the purpose is calibrating a constitutive model? i.e. checking whether the model undrained shear strength profile is comparable to in-situ/derived shear strength profile, should the comparison still be made against the mobilised shear strength? or it is the available (max) shear strength that should be used?
Thanks
Hesham