In PLAXIS Output users can decide to show stresses in non-porous materials, or to hide the stresses that are plotted in these materials. This can be activated/deactivated in the Settings’ Results tab, accessible via the View menu, or via the [F10]-key.

Alternatively, this option can be directly switched on and off via the [F9]-key when viewing the model.

This switch has been introduced because in most cases a non-porous (Linear Elastic) material set represents a structural material, e.g. concrete. The stresses in the clusters with these concrete properties will in general be much higher than the stresses in the clusters with the soil properties due to the relative high stiffness. In order to get more insight in the soil behaviour, the non-porous material’s stresses can be hidden. This will make reading the stress distribution in the soil much easier.

By default, stresses are not shown in non-porous materials.