There are three calculation options for a consolidation analysis in PLAXIS:
However, in PLAXIS 2D AE, this stop criteria for the degree of consolidation does not work properly: the calculation does not stop when the degree of consolidation criteria is met. The calculation will continue until the number of steps has been reached or that the maximum absolute excess pore pressure in the model is very small (<10-40).This can give a much longer time interval for this phase than would be necessary to reach the specified degree of consolidation.
This issue is now solved since PLAXIS 2D 2015.00.
In PLAXIS 2D AE, since this automatic stop criteria does not stop the calculation, we cannot use the Degree of consolidation type for the Consolidation analysis to see how long it will take to reach that level of consolidation directly. To still perform a similar calculation, you can do this:
Example We want to calculate a degree of consolidation U of 90% for a model in which the start-from-phase has a Pmax of 98 kN/m2. Now we need to fill in a minimum excess pore pressure of : (100 - 90)% * 98 kN/m2 = 9.8 kN/m2