For the determination of a Factor of Safety the strength reduction method is a very powerful tool to obtain the most critical slip surface, a slip surface that may be circular but can also have any other form. However, there may be circumstances in which more information is required than just the most critical slip surface or when the critical slip surface is of minor importance from engineering point of view. For instance:
In these cases, determining a Factor of Safety using the Limit Equilibrium Method would be the solution. With Limit Equilibrium it is possible to specify exactly of what part of the model the Factor of Safety must be determined while the method would still have the benefit of determining the most critical, possible non-circular, slip surface in that area. It would also allow within one model to determine different factors of safety for different parts of the model.
With the PLAXIS 2D to PLAXIS 2D LE phase converter you will be able to quickly open the same model with the same geometry, the same staged construction configuration, the same loading conditions and the same material assignments in PLAXIS LE to run your Limit Equilibrium Method analysis.
Figure 1. PLAXIS 2D to PLAXIS LE phase converter tool user interface directly after launching
If you do not have write access to add files to the PLAXIS 2D installation folder, you can use this alternative approach:
In the video below, a slope has been modeled in PLAXIS 2D, and the safety analysis predicts one global factor of safety. With the PLAXIS 2D to PLAXIS LE phase converter, we can investigate multiple parts of the analysis to run an analysis for.
The phase configuration of a PLAXIS 2D model can be converted into a PLAXIS LE model. By default, the geometry, material assignments and available parameters, distributed loads and the water table will be converted. The PLAXIS LE model starts, by default, with a Circular Slope Search using the GLE (Fredlund) calculation method for a first, fast, robust approximation of the slope stability.
In the current version the following limitations/restrictions apply:
Note that the PLAXIS 2D to PLAXIS 2D LE phase converter will indicate this in the conversion log. Make sure to read it before continuing in PLAXIS LE.
The PLAXIS 2D to PLAXIS 2D LE phase converter requires:
This tool requires access to the PLAXIS Python Remote scripting library using Python 3.7.x.
This tool is released as a Technology Preview and available as a separate download version only. Any updates will be added to this page, so check this page regularly.
Importing PLAXIS LE into PLAXIS 2D [Videos]
Tutorial case Slope stability FEM and LEM [Tutorials]
PLAXIS 2D LE [main page]
Using PLAXIS (FEM) to determine a Factor of Safety - SIG webinar [Webinar]
Using PLAXIS LE (formerly known as SVSlope) to determine a Factor of Safety - SIG webinar [Webinar]
Non-linear finite element analysis of safety factors [Publications]
Safety analysis and displacements [Tips and Tricks]
Safety analysis and undrained behaviour [Tips and Tricks]
Safety analysis and Updated Mesh [Tips and Tricks]
Safety calculation with a Target Value [Tips and Tricks]
Using PLAXIS Remote scripting with the Python wrapper [Tips and Tricks]