Modelling of Line load in Plaxis

Dear Sirs, 

My question relates to the modeling of line load in the Plaxis. 

Assume that  Pressure =600kPa is applied over a 7.5m long and 0.93m wide footing.  For Plaxis as the width out of the plan is 1m and line load is modeled as kN/m/m run, hence does is mean that Plaxis input will be 600 x 0.93m (width of footing) = 558kN/m/m or should I just simply use 600kN/m/m run? 

Please clarify. 

Thanks 

Nadeem  

  • Hi,
    This sounds like you are trying to apply a local (3D) surface loads into a 2D plane strain model. You have to think how to change this load into a 2D equivalent load.

    If this is the 3D case:

    And you model it as a cross-section in 2D, you get this 2D model and its 3D representation:

    So here you need to judge how to change your 3D environment into a 2D representation, by either taking your direct input load as an upperbound to get qualitative results, or lower the value to something equivalent. A single strip footing is hard to model in a 2D plane strain model