An embedded beam is a structural object, such as a pile, rock bolt or grout body, composed of beam elements, which can be placed in an arbitrary direction in the sub-soil and that interacts with the sub-soil by means of special interface elements. By default, when creating an embedded beam in Structures mode its behaviour will be set to Pile with a Rigid connection at the Top point, as illustrated below.
Figure 1. Embedded beam overview of properties in Structures mode
It is possible to select other properties that might be more suitable to represent the overall behaviour and connectivity of the structural object either at the Selection Explorer or at the Model explorer, as shown below.
Figure 2. Embedded beam behaviour options in Structure mode
However, when switching to the green modes, e.g., Mesh or Staged construction mode, the embedded beam behaviour and connectivity will be displayed with the default properties: Pile, Top, Rigid, regardless of the properties that were previously set in Structures mode.
Figure 3. Exposed embedded beam properties greyed-out in Staged construction
This is now solved in PLAXIS 2D CONNECT Edition V22 Update 1 and PLAXIS 3D CONNECT Edition V22 Update 1 (released May 2022).
For older versions, when in doubt, please check the properties that were set in Structures mode.
Embedded pile row: A case study in PLAXIS 2D [Publications]
Pile modelling in a 2D plane strain model [Tips and Tricks]