NUMERICAL METHODS IN GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEERING

PROCEEDINGS OF THE SEVENTH EUROPEAN CONFERENCE ON NUMERICAL METHODS IN

GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEERING, TRONDHEIM, NORWAY, 24 JUNE 2010

Numerical Methods in Geotechnical

Engineering
Edited by
Thomas Benz & Steinar Nordal
Department of Civil and Transport Engineering, Norwegian University of
Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, Norway
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 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Table of Contents

Preface XIII
Scientific Committee (ERTC 7) XV

Constitutive modelling

A non-associated creep model for structured anisotropic clay (n-SAC) 3

G. Grimstad & S.A. Degago
A state dependent constitutive model for sand-structure interfaces 9
A. Lashkari
Adaptive integration of hypoplasticity 15
W. Fellin, M. Mittendorfer & A. Ostermann
An anisotropic bubble model for soft clays 21
N. Sivasithamparam, D. Kamrat-Pietraszewska & M. Karstunen
An anisotropic model for structured soils 27
G. Belokas & M. Kavvadas
An examination of strain space versus stress space for the formulation of
elastoplastic constitutive models 33
K.C. Ellison, K. Soga & B. Simpson
Anisotropic small strain stiffness within the multilaminate framework 39
B. Schdlich & H.F. Schweiger
Application of discontinuity layout optimization to problems involving non-associative friction 45
A.F. Babiker, C.C. Smith & M. Gilbert
Associated plasticity for nonassociated frictional materials 51
K. Krabbenhoft, A.V. Lyamin & S.W. Sloan
Comparison of methods for calculation of settlements of soft clay 57
H.P. Jostad & S.A. Degago
Effect of yield surface shape on the simulated elasto-plastic response of cohesive soils 63
A.G. Papadimitriou, A.D. Vranna, Y.F. Dafalias & M.T. Manzari
Impact of input data on soil model calibration using Genetic Algorithms 69
D. Taborda, A. Pedro, P.A.L.F. Coelho & D. Antunes
Influence of destructuration of soft clay on time-dependant settlements 75
D.F.T. Nash
Modeling liquefaction behavior of sands by means of hypoplastic model 81
A.B. Tsegaye, F. Molenkamp, R.B.J. Brinkgreve, P.G. Bonnier, R. de Jager & V. Galavi
Modeling of creep mechanism and damage of rock salt 89
B. Leuger, K. Staudtmeister, S. Yldrm & D. Zapf
Modeling static liquefaction within multilaminate framework 95
A.B. Tsegaye, V. Galavi, R.B.J. Brinkgreve, R. de Jager, F. Molenkamp & P.G. Bonnier
On the differences between the Drucker-Prager criterion and exact implementation of
the Mohr-Coulomb criterion in FEM calculations 101
J. Clausen, L. Andersen & L. Damkilde

V
Simulation of mechanical behaviour of Toyoura sand using Severn Trent constitutive model 107
S. Miliziano, G.M. Rotisciani & F.M. Soccodato
Soil parameter identification for cyclic loading 113
A. Papon, Z.-Y. Yin, K. Moreau, Y. Riou & P.-Y. Hicher
Study of tensorial damage in a porous geomaterial 119
M. Mozayan Kharazi, C. Arson & B. Gatmiri
Time- and stress-compressibility of clays during primary consolidation 125
S.A. Degago, H.P. Jostad, M. Olsson, G. Grimstad & S. Nordal
Uncertainty and sensitivity analysis of laboratory test simulations using an elastoplastic model 131
F. Lopez-Caballero & A. Modaressi-Farahmand-Razavi
Validation of empirical formulas to derive model parameters for sands 137
R.B.J. Brinkgreve, E. Engin & H.K. Engin

Computer codes and algorithms

3D parallel computing FEA in offshore foundation design 145
L. Andresen, H. Sturm, M. Vge & K. Skau
70-line 3D finite deformation elastoplastic finite-element code 151
W.M. Coombs, R.S. Crouch & C.E. Augarde
A simple time stepping algorithm for material point method 157
W.T. Soowski & D. Sheng
Analysis of the stability of sheet pile walls using Discontinuity Layout Optimization 163
S.D. Clarke, C.C. Smith & M. Gilbert
Application of Discontinuity Layout Optimization to geotechnical limit analysis problems 169
M. Gilbert, C.C. Smith, I.W. Haslam & T.J. Pritchard
Enhancing solution procedures of a new numerical scheme for dynamic analysis
of soil-structure interaction problems 175
M.H. Bazyar & Ch. Song
Numerical bearing capacity computation and load-displacement behavior of shallow
foundations by stress level based ZEL method 181
M. Jahanandish, M. Veiskarami & A. Ghahramani
Simple quality indicators for FE analysis based on stress maps for Gauss points 187
C. Vulpe, N. Droniuc, E. Bourgeois & Ph. Mestat
The upper bound limit analysis of bearing capacity problems using the finite element method 193
A.I.M. AL-Janabi, A.A.R. Orabi & A.Y.A. Baqir

Discontinuum and particulate modelling

A numerical simulation on centrifuge liquefaction model using microscopic fluid
coupling scheme with Discrete Element Method 201
Y. Shimizu & Y. Inagawa
Discrete element modeling of low strength rock 207
N.B. Yenigl & M. Alvarez Grima
Effect of drying on a granular slope physical model analysed by Discrete Element Method (DEM) 213
F. Gabrieli, S. Cola, P. Simonini & F. Calvetti
Isotropic compression of cohesive-frictional particles with rolling resistance 219
S. Luding
Size effects on a virtual calibration chamber 225
J. Butlanska, M. Arroyo & A. Gens

VI
Large deformation large strain analysis

A Coupled Eulerian-Lagrangian approach to solve geotechnical problems involving

large deformations 233
S. Henke, G. Qiu & J. Grabe
Advances in meshless methods with application to geotechnics 239
C.E. Heaney, C.E. Augarde, A.J. Deeks, W.M. Coombs & R.S. Crouch
An ALE Finite Element Method for cohesionless soil at large strains:
Computational aspects and applications 245
D. Aubram, F. Rackwitz & S.A. Savidis
Analysis of dynamic penetration of objects into soil layers 251
J.P. Carter & M. Nazem
Large deformation analysis of the installation of Dynamic Anchor 255
H. Sturm & L. Andresen
Modelling of installation effects of driven piles using hypoplasticity 261
H.D. Pham, H.K. Engin, R.B.J. Brinkgreve, & A.F. van Tol

Flow and consolidation

A multiscale approach for the consideration of spatial groundwater flow in the stability
analysis of a large excavation pit 269
H. Montenegro & R. Kauther
A numerical model for the electrokinetic treatment of natural soils with calcite 275
F. Cattaneo, C. Jommi & G. Musso
Analysis of artificial ground freezing in the Pari-Duomo platform tunnel of the Naples metro 281
S. Papakonstantinou, E. Pimentel & G. Anagnostou
Large scale hydraulic conductivity of the soil deposits of the Venezia Lagoon from
numerical back-analysis 285
E. Giacomini, F. Colleselli, F. Cattaneo, C. Jommi & G. Mayerle
Numerical analyses of granulometric stability of moraine dam cores 291
F. Federico & A. Montanaro
Numerical prediction of time-dependent rock swelling based on an example of
a major tunnel project in Ontario/Canada 297
A. Kirsch & T. Marcher
Some features of the coupled consolidation models used for the evaluation of the dissipation test 303
E. Imre & P. Rzsa
Steady state seepage flow through zoned earth structures affected by permeability defects 311
F. Federico, F. Calzoletti & A. Montanaro

Unsaturated soil mechanics

A comparison between numerical integration algorithms for unsaturated soils constitutive models 319
F. Cattaneo, G. Della Vecchia, C. Jommi & G. Maffioli
Comparison of stress update algorithms for partially saturated soil models 325
M. Hofmann, G. Hofstetter & A. Ostermann
Modelling of the hysteretic soilwater retention curve for unsaturated soils 331
A. Tsiampousi, L. Zdravkovic & D.M. Potts
Numerical integration and analysis of equilibrium in unsaturated multiphase media 337
R. Tamagnini, M. Mavroulidou & M.J. Gunn

VII
Artificial intelligence

A genetic algorithm for solving slope stability problems: From Bishop to a free slip plane 345
R. van der Meij & J.B. Sellmeijer
Simulation of the mechanical behavior of railway ballast by intelligent computing 351
M.A. Shahin
Three dimensional site characterization model of Suurpelto (Finland) using support vector machine 355
A. Pijush Samui & T. Lnsivaara

Reliability and probability analysis

Evaluation of soil variability and its consequences 363
M. Huber, P.A. Vermeer & A. Brdossy
Inverse modelling including spatial variability applied to the construction of a road embankment 369
A. Hommels, F. Molenkamp, M. Huber & P.A. Vermeer
Reliability analysis of piping in embankment dam 375
A. Noorzad & M. Rohaninejad
Spatial variability of soil parameters in an analysis of a strip footing using hypoplastic model 383
R. Suchomel & D. Man
Validating models against experience in foundation engineering, using the ROC curve 389
A.M.J. Mens & A.F. van Tol

Dynamic problems and Geohazards

A 2.5D finite element model for simulation of unbounded domains under dynamic loading 397
P. Alves Costa, R. Calada, J. Couto Marques & A. Silva Cardoso
A comparison of different approaches for the modelling of shallow foundations in
seismic soil-structure interaction problems 405
S. Grange, D. Salciarini, P. Kotronis & C. Tamagnini
A finite element approach for dynamic seepage flows 411
R. Stucchi, A. Cividini & G. Gioda
A method to solve Biots u-U formulation for soil dynamics applications using
the ABAQUS/explicit platform 417
F.J. Ye, S.H. Goh & F.H. Lee
Alternative formulations for cyclic nonlinear elastic models: Parametric study and
comparative analyses 423
D. Taborda, L. Zdravkovic, S. Kontoe & D.M. Potts
Analysis of the effect of pile length in a pile group on the transfer and impedance functions
in soil-pile interaction models 429
A. Mahboubi & K. Panaghi
Dynamic fragmentation in rock avalanches: A numerical model of micromechanical behaviour 435
K.L. Rait & E.T. Bowman
Evaluation of the efficiency of a model of rockfall protection structures based
on real-scale experiments 441
F. Bourrier, Ph. Gotteland, A. Heymann & S. Lambert
Evaluation of viscous damping due to solid-fluid interaction in a poroelastic layer subjected
to shear dynamic actions 447
J. Grazina, P.L. Pinto & D. Taborda
Non linear numerical modeling of slopes stability under seismic loading reinforcement effect 453
F. Hage Chehade, M. Sadek & I. Shahrour

VIII
Numerical analysis of blast impact on sealings of neighbouring structures 459
W. Krajewski, O. Reul & L. te Kamp
Numerical analysis of the seismic behavior of vertical shaft 465
S. Jeong, Y. Kim, S. Lee, J. Jang & Y. Lee
Numerical and experimental study of the detection of underground heterogeneities 471
P. Alfonsi, E. Bourgeois, F. Rocher-Lacoste, L. Lenti, & M. Froumentin
Numerical modelling of impacts on granular materials with a combined
discrete continuum approach 477
A. Breugnot, Ph. Gotteland & P. Villard
Numerical simulations of the dynamic impact force of fluidized debris flows onto structures 483
F. Federico & A. Amoruso
Three dimensional analysis of seismic performance of an earthfill dam in Ethiopia 489
B.G. Tensay & W. Wu

Slopes and cuts

Effect of updated geometry in analyses of progressive failure 497

A.S. Gylland & H.P. Jostad
Evaluation of the effective width method for strip footings on slopes under undrained loading 503
K. Georgiadis & E. Skoufaki
Failure induced pore pressure by simple procedure in LEM 509
T. Lnsivaara
Investigation of soil property sensitivity in progressive failure 515
A.S. Gylland, M.S. Sayd, H.P. Jostad & S. Bernander
Short-term slope stability calculation according to Eurocode 7 521
V. Thakur, S. Nordal & S. Hove

Embankments, shallow foundations, and settlements

3D settlement analysis using GIS and FEM: A case study in Sliedrecht area, the Netherlands 529
N.B. Yenigl & A.S. Elkadi
A comparison of 1D, 2D, and 3D settlement analyses of the Tower of Pisa 535
A.J. Klettke & L. Edgers
Analysis of a full scale failure test on old railway embankment 541
J. Mansikkamki & T. Lnsivaara
Analysis of ground movements induced by diaphragm wall installation 547
B. Garitte, M. Arroyo & A. Gens
Bearing capacity of a surface footing founded on a layered clay subsoil 553
Z. Bournta & L. Zdravkovic
Finite element analysis of the main embankment at Empingham dam 557
A. Grammatikopoulou, N. Kovacevic, L. Zdravkovic & D.M. Potts
Forecasting of the stability of the tailing dam in permafrost region on the basis
of numerical methods 563
A.B. Lolaev, A.P. Akopov, A.Kh. Oganesian, M.N. Sumin & V.V. Butygin
Numerical modeling of the mechanical response of recycled materials in embankments 569
M.M. Villani, X. Liu, A. Scarpas & A. DAndrea
Rail track structural analysis using three-dimensional numerical models 575
A. Paixo & E. Fortunato

IX
Three dimensional analyses of ring foundations 581
M. Laman, A. Yildiz, M. Ornek & A. Demir

Piles

A back analysis of vertical load tests on bored piles in granular soil 589
L. Tosini, A. Cividini & G.Gioda
A numerical study on the effects of time on the axial load capacity of piles in soft clays 595
K.P. Giannopoulos, L. Zdravkovic & D.M. Potts
Analysis of foundation solution of new building in built-up area 601
. Arbanas, V. Jagodnik & S. Dugonjic
Collapse of thin-walled model piles during hard driving 607
J. Bergan, S. ren Holo & S. Nordal
Dynamic analysis of large diameter piles Statnamic load test 613
K.J. Bakker, F.J.M. Hoefsloot & E. de Jong
Finite difference analysis of pile on sloping ground under passive loading 619
K. Muthukkumaran & M. Gokul Khrishnan
Ground displacements due to pile driving in Gothenburg clay 625
T. Edstam & A. Kullingsj
Lateral loading of pile foundations due to embankment construction 631
A. Feddema, J. Breedeveld & A.F. van Tol
Modelling of piled rafts with different pile models 637
S.W. Lee, W.W.L. Cheang, W.M. Swolfs & R.B.J. Brinkgreve
Modelling performance of jack-in piles 643
S. Jie & S.-A. Tan
Numerical analyses of axial load capacity of rock socketed piles in Turkey 649
M. Kirkit, H. Kl & C. Akgner
Numerical simulation of low-strain integrity tests on model piles 655
J. Fischer, C. Missal, M. Breustedt & J. Stahlmann
Response of pile groups in clays under lateral loading based on 3-D numerical experiments 661
E.M. Comodromos, M.C. Papadopoulou & I.K. Rentzeperis
Selection of the proper hammer in pile driving and estimation of the total driving time 667
A. Afshani, A. Fakher & M. Palassi
Settlement analysis of a large piled raft foundation 673
M. Wehnert, T. Benz, P. Gollub & T. Cubaleski
Study of a complex deep foundation system using 3D Finite Element analysis 679
F. Tschuchnigg & H.F. Schweiger
The influence of pile displacement on soil plug capacity of open-ended pipe pile in sand 685
L. Sa, L. Grande, H. Jianchuan & L. Guohui

Deep excavations and retaining walls

3D modelling of a deep excavation in a sloping site for the assessment of induced
ground movements 693
O.J. Gastebled & S. Baghery
Analysis of an excavation in asymmetrical soil conditions: The Marqus station 699
A. Pedro, J. Almeida e Sousa, D. Taborda & P. Frana
Comparison of finite element predictions with results from a centrifuge test representing
a double anchor wall in sand 705
P.J. Bourne-Webb, D.M. Potts & D. Knig

X
Crane monopile foundation analysis 711
A. Mar
Influence of excavation and wall geometry on the base stability of excavations in soft clays 717
T. Akhlaghi, H. Norouzi & P. Hamidi
Numerical modelling of a steel sheet-pile quay wall for the harbour of Ravenna, Italy 723
D. Segato, V.M.E. Fruzzetti, P. Ruggeri, E. Sakellariadi & G. Scarpelli
Numerical modelling of spatial passive earth pressure in sand 729
M. Achmus, S. Ghassoun & K. Abdel-Rahman
Practical numerical modelling for very high reinforced earth walls 735
A. Mar, D.M. Tonks & D.A. Gorman
Short term three dimensional back-analysis of the One New Change basement in London 741
R. Fuentes, A. Pillai & M. Devriendt

Tunnels and caverns

3D analysis of a micropile umbrella for stabilizing the tunnel face of a NATM tunnel 749
F. Schmidt, C. Sagaseta & H. Konietzky
Analysis and design of a two span arch cut & cover structure 755
S. Kumar, T. Suckling, L. Macdonald & H.C. Yeow
Analysis of a bolt-reinforced tunnel face using a homogenized model 761
E. Bourgeois & E. Seyedi Hosseininia
Class A prediction of the effects induced by the Metro C construction on a preexisting
building, in Rome 767
F. Buselli, A. Logarzo, S. Miliziano & A. Zechini
Estimated settlements during the Brescia Metrobus tunnel excavation 773
A. Sanzeni, L. Zinelli & F. Colleselli
Numerical investigation of the face stability of shallow tunnels in sand 779
A. Kirsch
Numerical modeling of a bolt-reinforced tunnel in a fractured ground 785
E. Seyedi Hosseininia, E. Bourgeois & A. Pouya
On the effects of modelling gap closure and assumed soil behavior on the FE predictions of
ground movements induced by tunneling in soft clay 789
C. Miriano & C. Tamagnini
Role of numerical modelling in the current practice of tunnel and cavern design
for hydroelectric projects 795
C. Vibert, G. Colombet & O.J. Gastebled
Some modeling techniques for deep tunnels in rock with FE-continuum models 801
T. Marcher
Stress-strain behaviour of a soft-rock pillar acted upon vertical loads 807
F. Federico, S. Screpanti & G. Rastiello
Tunnel face stability with groundwater flow 813
P.M. Strhle & P.A. Vermeer
Viscoplastic models for the analysis of tunnel reinforcement in squeezing rock conditions 819
G. Barla, D. Debernardi & D. Sterpi

Ground improvement modelling

3D FEM analysis of soil improving resin injections underneath a mediaeval tower in Italy 827
M. Gabassi, A. Pasquetto, G. Vinco & F. Mansueto

XI
A numerical study of factors governing the performance of stone columns supporting rigid
footings on soft clay 833
M.M. Killeen & B.A. McCabe
Calibration and verification of numerical model of ground improved by dynamic replacement 839
S. Kwiecien
Identification and quantification of the mechanical response of soil-wall structures
in soft ground improvement 845
X. Liu, Y. Zhao, A. Scarpas & A. de Bondt
Modelling embankments on floating stone columns 851
D. Kamrat-Pietraszewska & M. Karstunen
Numerical investigation of the mechanical behaviour of Vibro Replacement stone columns
in soft soils 857
T. Meier, E. Nacke, I. Herle & W. Wehr
Numerical modelling of consolidation around stone columns 863
J. Castro & C. Sagaseta
Numerical modeling of inertial soil-inclusion interaction 869
X. Zhang, Ph. Gotteland, P. Foray, S. Lambert & A. Hatem
Performance of geogrid-encased stone columns as a reinforcement of soft ground 875
M. Elsawy, K. Lesny & W. Richwien

Offshore geotechnical engineering

A new elasto-plastic spring element for cyclic loading of piles using the p-y-curve concept 883
O. Hededal & R. Klinkvort
Behaviour of cyclic laterally loaded large diameter monopiles in saturated sand 889
H. Ercan Tasan, F. Rackwitz & S.A. Savidis
Caisson movement caused by wave slamminga comparison of ABAQUS and FLAC analyses 895
L. Andersen, H.F. Burcharth, T. Lykke Andersen & A.H. Augustesen
Comparison of calculation approaches for monopiles for offshore wind turbines 901
A.H. Augustesen, S.P.H. Srensen, L.B. Ibsen, L. Andersen, M. Mller & K.T. Brdbk
Effects of diameter on initial stiffness of p-y curves for large-diameter piles in sand 907
S.P.H. Srensen, L.B. Ibsen & A.H. Augustesen
Numerical investigations for the pile foundation of an offshore wind turbine under
transient lateral load 913
P. Cullar, M. Pastor, P. Mira, J.A. Fernndez-Merodo, M. Baeler & W. Rcker
Numerical study of piping limits for installation of large diameter buckets in layered sand 921
L.B. Ibsen & C.L. Thilsted
Shallow circular foundations under undrained general combined loading in three-dimensional space 927
B. Bienen
Undrained ultimate capacity of suction anchors using an advanced constitutive model 933
S. Panayides & M. Rouainia

Numerical methods and Eurocode

Embedded cantilever retaining wall ULS design by FEA in accordance with EN 1997-1 941
A.S. Lees & S. Perdikou
Ultimate Limit State Design to Eurocode 7 using numerical methods 947
C.C. Smith & M. Gilbert

Author index 953

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 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Preface

These proceedings present 154 scientific papers written for the 7th European Conference on Numerical Methods
in Geotechnical Engineering, NUMGE 2010, held at Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)
in Trondheim, Norway from 2nd to 4th June 2010.
NUMGE 2010 is the seventh conference in a series of conferences organized by the ERTC7 (Numerical
Methods in Geotechnical Engineering) under the auspices of the International Society for Soil Mechanics
and Geotechnical Engineering (ISSMGE). The first conference in this series was held in Germany in 1986 in
Stuttgart and was followed by conferences every fourth year, every time in a new country in Europe: Spain in
1990 (Santander), United Kingdom in 1994 (Manchester), Italy in 1998 (Udine); France in 2002 (Paris) and
Austria in 2006 (Graz).
Following the traditions of the preceding conferences, NUMGE 2010 provides a forum for exchange of
ideas and discussion on topics related to geotechnical numerical modeling. Both senior and young researchers,
scientists and engineers from Europe and overseas countries have met at NUMGE 2010 to share and exchange
their knowledge.
The papers for NUMGE 2010 cover topics from emerging research to engineering practice. For the proceed-
ings the contributions are organized into the following sections:

Constitutive modelling
Computer codes and algorithms
Discontinuum and particulate modelling
Large deformation large strain analysis
Flow and consolidation
Unsaturated soil mechanics
Artificial intelligence
Reliability and probability analysis
Dynamic problems and Geohazards
Slopes and cuts
Embankments, shallow foundations, and settlements
Piles
Deep excavations and retaining walls
Tunnels and caverns
Ground improvement modelling
Offshore geotechnical engineering
Numerical methods and Eurocode

The editors would like to thank all authors for their contributions, for their cooperation during the review
process and for participating in the conference. Each paper has been reviewed by a minimum of two reviewers and
the editors are grateful for help from the reviewers in achieving quality. The national representatives in ERTC7
are thanked for promoting the conference in their respective home countries. Special thanks go to Professor
Cesar Sagaseta for keeping up the work within ERTC7.
This conference is jointly organized by NTNU, NGI/ICG, and SINTEF. These institutions and all conference
sponsors are gratefully acknowledged for their generous support. Sincere thanks go to the staff at the Geotech-
nical Division at NTNU and at the Conference Secretariat, NTNU Videre for all help in organizing NUMGE 2010.

Thomas Benz and Steinar Nordal

XIII
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Scientific Committee (ERTC 7)

Chairman
C. Sagaseta, Spain

Core Members
I. Vanicek ISSMGE Vice President Europe
P. Mestat, France
S. Nordal, Norway
M. Pastor, Spain
J. Pestana, U.S.A.
D. Potts, U.K.
H. Schweiger, Austria
S. Sloan, Australia

National Representatives
S. Aleynikov, Russia
K. Bagi, Hungary
R. Brinkgreve, The Netherlands
I. Bojtr, Hungary
A. Bolle, Belgium
H. Burd, U.K.
A. Cividini, Italy
G. Dounias, Greece
T. Edstam, Sweden
P. Fritz, Switzerland
M. Gryczmanski, Poland
O. Hededal, Denmark
I. Herle, Czech Republic
F. Kopf, Austria
T. Lnsivaara, Finland
J.C. Marques, Portugal
T. Schanz, Germany
H. Walter, Austria

Local Organizing Committee at Geotechnical Division NTNU, Norway

S. Nordal, Conference chairman
T. Benz, Editor in chief conference proceedings
A. Bihs
A. Emdal
L. Grande
M. Skjk Brk
P. Paniagua Lopez

Reviewers not being member of ERTC 7 or the local organizing committee

L. Andresen
C. Athanasiu
M.G. Bverfjord
B. Bostrm
S. Degago
G. Eiksund

XV
G. Grimstad
A. Gylland
F. Hage Chehade
H.P. Jostad
S. Kirkebo
M. Leoni
R. van der Meij
R. Schwab
C. Tamagnini
V. Thakur
D. Unteregger
B.V. Vangelsten
M. de Vries
M. Wehnert

Conference secretariat NTNU Videre

A. Bye, Coordinator

XVI
Constitutive modelling
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

A non-associated creep model for structured anisotropic clay (n-SAC)

G. Grimstad
Norwegian Geotechnical Institute, NGI, Oslo, Norway

S.A. Degago
Norwegian University of Science and Technology, NTNU, Trondheim, Norway

ABSTRACT: Elastoplastic models, based on experiments on reconstituted clays, tend to adapt an associated
flow rule. This assumption is then included in models for natural clay. However, laboratory experiments indicate
that the idea of associated flow in natural clay is insufficient. Therefore a new model, abbreviated as n-SAC,
is proposed in this paper. The model incorporates creep, using the time resistance concept, with a single creep
parameter determined from oedometer tests. Two different cap surfaces are defined in the model, i.e. the refer-
ence surface (or alternatively surface of equivalent stress measure, peq ) and the potential surface, Q. Different
(kinematic) rotational hardening rules for the two surfaces are defined along with two hardening rules for the
size of the reference surface. The two size hardening rules consists of one for the decrease in compressibility
for equivalent reconstituted material and one for loss of unstable structure. A fully implicit backward Euler
implementation scheme for the n-SAC model is used for the simulations shown in this paper.

1 BACKGROUND big consequence of wrongly predicting the horizontal

to vertical compression ratio is bad predictions of
Grimstad et. al. (2008) proposed a model based on settlements close to fillings.
the S-CLAY1S model (Karstunen et. al. 2005). The
model proposed in this paper has some of the elements
found in this extended S-CLAY1S model. However, 2 MODEL FORMULATION
the model differs considerably in the formulation for
flow direction. In S-CLAY1 the yield surface rota- 2.1 The reference and plastic potential surface
tion is determined from the earth pressure coefficient
Grimstad et. al. (2008) presented rate of the plastic
under virgin loading, K0NC , and the friction angle,
multiplier as a function of an equivalent stress ratio,
, (Wheeler et. al. 2003). However, Grimstad (2009)
as given by equation (1). This expression is derived
showed that this imposes unnatural limitations on the
from the time resistance concept (Janbu, 1969). The
input parameters, i.e. a narrow band of good com-
full derivation can be found in Grimstad (2009).
binations of and K0NC . The n-SAC model proposed
in this paper allows a wider range of input parameters.
Prediction of the strain behavior under various stress
paths, based on experimental evidence from e.g. Feng
(1991), indicates that the non-associated flow rule
to be reasonable. Feng conducted a series of experi- where i = intrinsic viscoplastic compressibility coef-
ments, on natural anisotropic clays, where both volume ficient; rsi = intrinsic time resistance number; peq
and axial deformation were measured in isotropic equivalent effective stress; pmi = intrinsic reference
compression. A decrease in both volume and height stress; = reference time; x = amount of unstable
were measured when considerably permanent defor- structure; and
mations were experienced. This leads to a positive
ratio between the permanent vertical and horizontal
strain increments in isotropic compression test. How-
ever, for friction angles less than about 40 and K0NC
from Jakys formula (suggested used in Wheeler et. al. where K0NC = rotation of the potential surface in K0NC
2003) the potential surface used in S-CLAY1 gives loading (virgin oedometer loading); K0NC = mobi-
a negative ratio. The conclusion is that the rotational lization in K0NC loading; and MfC = critical state line
hardening rule for the potential surface of S-CLAY1 in compression loading.
and/or the shape of the potential surface needs to be The equivalent stress, peq , is calculated from the
adjusted in order to describe general soil behavior. One shape of the reference surface, which in Grimstad et. al.

3
(2008) is assumed to be associated to the potential
surface, Q. The shapes of these surfaces are identical
to that of the elastoplastic Anisotropic Modified Cam
Clay Model (Dafalias, 1986), later used in S-CLAY1S
(Karstunen et. al. 2005) and SANICLAY (Dafalias
et. al. 2006). However, unlike Dafalias (1986) and
Karstunen et. al. (2005), the n-SAC model takes a
similar approach as Dafalias et. al. (2006) where
non-associated yield and potential surfaces are used.
This non-association allows simulation of softening
response in undrained shearing without including
deviatoric strain dependent destructuration or spe-
cial features in the rotational hardening rule of the
yield surface. The equivalent stress is calculated from
equation (3) while the plastic potential is given in
equation (4).
where p = mean stress; d = deviatoric stress vec-
tor; d = deviatoric rotational vector; M = Lode angle
dependent peak of the reference surface of in p -q
space
where Mf = Lode angle dependent critical state line
in p -q space; d = deviatoric rotational vector. Note
that the precise definitions of the deviatoric vectors
are given in the appendix of this paper together with
the Mohr-Coulomb criterion.
In addition to introducing the non-associated flow
rule, a creep limit is introduced by setting the param-
eter tmax or alternatively OCRmax below which creep
should not occur. Equation (1) is then modified to that
of equation (5).
where < > is the Macaulay brackets
Alternatively tmax could be expressed in term of
a maximum creep induced over-consolidation ratio,
OCRmax , as:
where OCR is defined according to the reference
time .
2.2 The various hardening rules
The precise form of the rotational hardening rules has
widely been discussed by e.g. Karstunen and Wheeler
4
(2002), Dafalias et. al. (2006) etc.. Wheeler et. al.
(2003) argues that the rotation is dependent on the
deviatoric part of the plastic strain and not only the vol-
umetric part as suggested by Dafalias (1986). Dafalias
et. al. (2006) states three requirements for the rota-
tional rules. The rotational rule proposed by Wheeler
et. al. (2003), unlike Dafalias (1986), fulfills all three
requirements for certain limits of input parameters
(Grimstad 2009). In the n-SAC model, the rotation
(rotational vector d ) of the potential surface is depen-
dent solely on the volumetric strain, while the rotation
of the reference surface (d ) depends generally both
on volumetric and deviatoric strain. The two rotational
hardening rules are given in equation (7) and (8).
i , MC , K0NC and K0NC are internal model param-
eters determined via the user input parameters given
later in this paper.
Note that peq is used rather than Q for the rotation
of the reference surface. This is introduced along with
the Macaulay brackets to fulfill the three requirements
posted by Dafalias et. al. (2006). The dependency on
the deviatoric strain in the rotational rule of the refer-
ence surface is included to ensure a unique rotation at
critical state.This quality has previously been argued
for by e.g. Wheeler et. al. (2003) and it is also used by
e.g. Pestana and Whittle (1999).
Modeling loss of unstable structure (destructura-
tion) was in a general form proposed by Gens and
Nova (1993). The same formulation was later used
in a simpler form, in e.g. Karstunen et. al. (2005)
and Grimstad et. al. (2008), in which loss of attrac-
tion was not included. In the multilaminate framework,
Cudny and Vermeer (2004) limited destructuration to
be dependent on solely normal strain. The equivalent
approach, in standard continuum models, is visco-
plastic volume strain dependent destructuration. In
such formulations, volumetric softening can be pro-
hibited by selecting a destructuration parameter under
a certain limit. In n-SAC such requirement is auto-
matically obtained when = 0 in equation (9) and
rsmin > 0. However, among others Grimstad et. al.
(2008) argues that the destructuration should also be
dependent on the visco-plastic deviatoric strain, such
that the true softening response in undrained shear-
ing of natural clays can be modeled. Hence equation
(9) is proposed as a destructuration rule for the n-SAC
model.
Isotropic hardening of the intrinsic reference stress,
pmi , is given by equation (10).
where i = a hardening parameter determined via
ref
{Eoed }i , Eref , and pref as given in equation (11).
where i and are alternative input parameters to
the model, which is in accordance with the notation
commonly used for the modified cam clay model
(MCCM), Roscoe & Burland (1968)
The value for the internal parameters K0NC and
K0NC , determined from steady state rotation under
K0NC loading, are given by equation (12) and (13).
Equation (14)(16) gives more details on the calcula-
tion of some of the other internal parameters.
where cs is the critical state friction angle
where p is the friction angle at the peak of the
reference curve.
5
Figure 1. concept of destructuration effect on time resis-
tance number.
The mobilization under virgin loading in oedome-
ter, K0NC is given by:
Table 1 gives a summary of the user input parameters
to the model. In addition to these parameters the initial
state variables must be given. This includes the stress
vector,  , the initial value of the intrinsic reference
stress, pmi0 and the initial rotation vectors 0 and 0 .
Note that pmi0 can be found from the OCR and 0
and 0 from K0NC and K0NC . The initial structure is
defined in equation (17).
where rsi = the intrinsic time resistance number and
rsmin = the minimum measured time resistance num-
ber, see sketch in Figure 1.
In practice 11 external parameters are then left to
be determined. This can be accomplished from only
two laboratory tests. First an incremental oedometer
tests to determine rsmin and rsi has to be executed (rsi
can also be found from an incremental oedometer test
on a remolded sample). The normalized oedometer
stiffness in the NC region for a remolded sample,
ref
{E oed }i /pref , and the normalized stress dependent
isotropic Youngs modulus, Eref /pref , should also be
established from this test.
The second test is one undrained triaxial compres-
sions test at a OCR in the interval of 1.0-OCRmax to
determine (deviatoric destructuration parameter), p
(friction angle at peak of the reference curve) and cs
(the critical state friction angle). Note that the normal-
ized stiffness, Eref /pref , could also be found from this
undrained test.
The Poisson ratio, , is set by default to 0.15. How-
ever, if one for instance has radial stress measurement
in the oedometer test it can be determined from the
stress path in the OC region. The reference time, , is
usually 1 day, since it is common to determine OCR Table 1. Model input parameters.
for the 24 h load duration in the incremental oedometer
ref
test. K0NC Eref /pref {E oed }i /pref rsmin rsi

0.15 0.55 160 16 100 800

3 IMPLEMENTATION SCHEME
p cs tmax
The n-SAC model is implemented in an implicit back-
ward Euler integration scheme. Procedures for implicit
0.3 25 33 1 day 1e3yr
backward Euler implementation of general viscoplac-
tic models may be found in for instance de Borst and
Heeres (2002). In this particular case the following
residuals are defined (equation (18) to (23)):

where Dn+1 is the mean stress dependent isotropic

elasticity matrix under the assumption of a constant
Poisson ratio at the end of the calculation step

Figure 2. Result of test 1 in p q space.

Typically the scheme will converge in a few iterations.

However, to improve performance sub-stepping will
be initiated if the number of iteration becomes higher
than 50 or if the estimated reciprocal condition number
of rin+1 /vin+1 becomes less than 1E-12.

The 21 state variables, including the effective stresses,

are stored in a vector v:

4 NUMERICAL PERFORMANCE

In order to speed up the implementation process the
number of state variables could be reduced by making
use of the dependencies, i.e. d,xx + d,yy + d,zz = 0,
d,xx + d,yy + d,zz = 0.
To find the new state, a standard iterative Newton-
Raphson scheme is used as given in equation (25)
to (27). The iteration is ran until rn+1 T rn+1 < TOL2 .
Where rn+1 is a normalized version of the residual vec-
tors, rn+1 . The normalization is done in such a way that
the tolerance check is irrespective of the magnitude
and dimension of the state variables. TOL = 1E-6 is
used in the particular simulations shown in this paper.
In order to test the performance of the model and
implementation three different tests where ran with
the input parameters found in Table 1. The initial state
variables were generated from an initial vertical stress
of 72.3 kPa and an OCR of 1.383.
Test 1 contained 181 radial strain paths of 30 steps
with time increments of 0.1 day for each step given
in v q space under the condition that d2v + d2q =
1e-6. The result of test 1 is given in p q space in
Figure 2.
Test 2 and test 3 are both undrained tests, consist-
ing of 91 paths of 100 steps with time increments

6

Figure 3. Result of test 2 in d1 d2 d3 space.
Figure 4. Result of test 3 in plane strain deviatoric space.
of 0.001 day for each step under the condition that
d1 d3 = 6e-4. Test 2 involves only z , y and z ,
while test 3 were ran under plane strain condition (i.e.
involving z , y and xy ). Results are shown in Figure 3
and Figure 4 in the deviatoric stress space correspond-
ing to the respective strain space in which increments
were applied.
In order to compare accuracy in the integration
method, the three tests were then repeated with 1/10
of the number of steps used for previous simulations.
Result of one such comparison, for undrained triax-
ial compression) is shown in 5. This particular case is
showing satisfactory results.
5 DISCUSSION
The particular input shown in Table 1 gives an ini-
tial value of NC
K0 of 0.1122 (equation (12)). This value
for gives a maximum ratio of horizontal to verti-
vp vp
cal visco-plastic strain (h /v ) of 6.7 in an isotropic
consolidation test. This is close to that measured in
for instance Batiscan clay by Feng (1991). Associated
anisotropic critical state models for clays do not nec-
essary guarantee a positive ratio for this case, or they
fail to reproduce the measured K0NC combination.
The suP /suA and the suDSS /suA ratios (found in Figure 4 at
Figure 5. Comparing 100 and 10 steps for a simulation of
an undrained triaxial compression test.
peak or at 6% shear strain) are 0.51 and 0.70 respec-
tively. This is in the range reported by Bjerrum (1973)
and by Whittle (1993).
6 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
This paper describes a constitutive model which
includes a variety of effects observed in clay behav-
ior. It has relatively few additional input parameters,
to that of for instance the Anisotropic Creep model,
ACM (Leoni et. al. 2008). The few extra input can
easily be calibrated from standard laboratory tests.
The paper presents the implementation scheme and
a variety of model simulations, i.e. constant rate of
strain tests under various strain paths. The implemen-
tation is under these test conditions is illustrated to be
sufficiently robust.
The model and the implementation will go through
further testing, specifically trying to reproduce actual
measured behavior in laboratory and in the field. Such
cases will involve both settlement predictions of actual
or hypothetical cases, compared to that of measure-
ments and along with the response predicted by other
similar models.
The model will hopefully be a candidate for fur-
ther studies on the modeling of clay behavior. Further
development to the n-SAC model could be to improve
the behavior at small strains by incorporating non-
linear response at small strain and elastic anisotropy.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The work presented was partly carried out as a part
of project 5, Geomechanical modeling, at the Inter-
national Centre of Geohazards, ICG, a Centre of
Excellence (CoE) with funding from The Research
Council of Norway. Most of the work was finished
when both the authors were PhD students at NTNU
under the supervision of Professor Steinar Nordal.
Nordal is acknowledged for his contributions in dis-
cussing the content of this paper. The Marie Curie
Research Training Network Advanced Modeling of
7
Ground Improvement on Soft Soils (AMGISS) (Con- APPENDIX
tract No MRTN-CT-2004-512120) supported by the
European Community through the program Human Definition of the deviatoric stress and rotational vec-
Resource and Mobility is also acknowledged. tors:

REFERENCES
Bjerrum, L., 1973. Problems of Soil Mechanics and Con-
struction on Soft Clays, State of the Art Report to Session
IV, 8th International Conference on Soil Mechanics and
Foundation Engineering, Moscow, also in NGI report 100
(1974).
Cudny, M. and Vermeer, P. A. 2004. On the modelling of
anisotropy and destructuration of soft clays within the
multi-laminate framework, Computers and Geotechnics
31: 122.
Dafalias, Y. F. 1986. An anisotropic critical state soil plas-
ticity model, Mechanics research communications 13(6):
341347.
Dafalias,Y. F., Manzari, M. T. and Papadimitriou, A. G. 2006.
SANICLAY: simple anisotropic clay plasticity model, Int.
J. Numer. Anal. Meth. Geomech. 30: 12311257.
de Borst, R. and Heeres, O. M. 2002,A unified approach to the
implicit integration of standard, non-standard and viscous
plasticity models, Int. J. Numer. Anal. Meth. Geomech. 26:
10591070.
Feng, T.W. 1991. Compressibility and permeability of natu-
ral soft clays and surcharging to reduce settlements. PhD
diss., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana
Illinois.
Gens, A. and Nova, R. 1993. Conceptual bases for a constitu-
tive model for bonded soils and weak rocks, Geotechnical
Engineering of Hard Soils - Soft Rocks, Anagnostopoulos
et. al. (eds) Balkema, Rotterdam.
Grimstad, G. 2009. Development of effective stress based
anisotropic models for soft clays, PhD diss., Norwegian
University of Science andTechnology, NTNU,Trondheim.
Grimstad, G., Degago, S., Nordal, S. and Karstunen, M. 2008. The two Mohr Coulomb criteria in p q space are
Modelling creep and rate effects using the time resis-
tance concept in a model for anisotropy and destructura-
given for the critical state (potential surface):
tion, Nordic Geotechnical Meeting, Sandefjord, Norway,
195202.
Janbu, N. 1969. The resistance concept applied to deforma-
tions of soils. Proc. 7th Int. Conf. on Soil Mech. & Found.
Eng, Mexico city 1: 191196.
and for the peak of the reference surface:
Karstunen, M. and Wheeler, S. 2002. Discussion of Finite
Strain, Anisotropic Modified Cam Clay Model with Plas-
tic Spin. I: Theory by George Z. Voyiadjis and Chung R.
Song. Journal of Engineering Mechanics, ASCE 128:
497498.
Karstunen, M., Krenn, H., Wheeler, S. J., Koskinen, M. and
Zentar, R . 2005. The effect of anisotropy and destructura- where = Modified lode angle (function of d and
tion on the behaviour of Murro test embankment. ASCE d ) and = Modified lode angle (function of d and
International Journal of Geomechanics 5(2): 8797. d )
Leoni, M., Karstunen, M. & Vermeer, P. A. 2008. Anisotropic The two modified Lode angles are calculated from
creep model for soft soils, Gotechnique 58(3): 215226. the middle eigenvalues S and S of the tensors, s2 and
Pestana, J. M. and Whittle, A. J. 1999. Formulation of a uni-
fied constitutive model for clays and sands, Int. J. Numer. s2 , such that: sin ( ) = 3/2 S2 /q and sin ( ) = 3/2

Anal. Meth. Geomech. 23: 12151243. S2 /q , where:
Roscoe, K. H. and Burland, J. B. 1968. On the generalized
stress-strain behavior of wet clay, Engineering plasticity,
535609, Cambridge university press.
Wheeler, S. J., Ntnen, A., Karstunen, M. and Lojander, M.
2003. An anisotropic elastoplastic model for natural soft
clays, Canadian Geotechnical Journal 40: 403418.
Whittle, A. J. 1993. Evaluation of a constitutive model for
overconsolidated clays, Gotechnique 43(2): 289313.

8
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

A state dependent constitutive model for sand-structure interfaces

A. Lashkari
School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Shiraz University of Technology, Shiraz, Iran

ABSTRACT: Numerical simulations of geotechnical engineering problems depend strongly on predictive

capacity of constitutive models used for modeling of soil-structure interface behavior. It has been shown that the
mechanical behavior of sand-structure interfaces is significantly influenced by the combined effect of density
and normal stress which is called the effect of interface state. In this paper, a two-surface interface model within
the context of bounding surface plasticity is presented. Several ingredients of the model are defined as direct
functions of interface state. It is shown that the model is capable of distinguishing interfaces in dense state from
loose ones and providing reasonable predictions.

1 INTRODUCTION later introduced by Gajo & Wood (1999). Hereto-

The mechanical behavior of soil-structure interfaces
is an influential factor in the load-deformation and the
bearing capacity of almost all of geotechnical engi-
neering problems such as retaining structures, rein-
forced soils, piles, under ground and offshore gravity
structures. A number of experimental techniques have
been suggested in the literature to study the mechani-
cal behavior of soil-structure interfaces under different
stress paths and stiffness boundary conditions. Among
them, Ghionna & Mortara (2002) and Hu & Pu
(2004) used direct shear tests, Zeghal & Edil (2002)
employed ring shear apparatus, and Evgin & Fakhar-
ian (1996) used simple shear apparatus. On the other
hand, considerable developments have been achieved
in the field of constitutive modeling of interfaces. In
this regard, Clough & Duncan (1971) suggested an
interface model based on hyperbolic elasticity theory.
Ghaboussi et al. (1973) suggested an elasto-plastic
cap model for soil-structure interfaces. De Gennaro &
Frank (2002) considered phase transformation and
ultimate state in their elasto-plastic interface model.
Ghionna & Mortara (2002) introduced a Cam-Clay
type model for sand-structure interfaces. Recently,
Liu et al. (2006) suggested that the Critical State
Soil Mechanics concepts can be extended to include
the mechanical behavior of interfaces. They also pro-
posed a state dependent generalized plasticity inter-
face model using the state parameter of Been and
Jefferies (1985). More recently, Lashakari (2010) sug-
gested a generalized plasticity interface model for
sand-structure interfaces subjected to rotational shear.
Following the impressive suggestion of Wood et al.
(1994), Manzari & Dafalias (1997) introduced a
two-surface critical state compatible bounding sur-
face model for state dependent behavior of sands.
A similar constitutive model, Severn-Trent, has been
fore, the constitutive model of Manzari & Dafalias
(1997) has been widely developed and applied to var-
ious problems in sands constitutive modeling includ-
ing liquefaction under cyclic loadings (Dafalias and
Manzari, 2004), inherent anisotropy (Dafalias et al.,
2004), Non-coaxiality and liquefaction under rota-
tional shear (Li & Dafalias, 2004; Lashkari &
Latifi, 2007; Lashkari, 2009a), and unsaturated sands
(Chiu & Ng, 2003). In the following lines, an interface
model based on the Manzari & Dafalias (1997) plat-
form is suggested. Comparisons between the model
predictions and experimental results are presented to
demonstrate the predictive capability of the model
for simulation of the state dependent behavior of
interfaces.
2 GENERAL FORMULATION OF THE MODEL
2.1 Definitions of spaces
In this work, stress vector is defined as
where n and are, respectively, the compressive nor-
mal and tangential components of the stress vector.
Corresponding to Equation (1), relative displacement
vector becomes
where v and u are normal and tangential displace-
ments, respectively.
Experimental studies have revealed that the thick-
ness of the interface zone is 510 times of mean grain
diameter of soil. In this study it is assumed that

9
where t is the interface thickness and d50 is mean grain
diameter of grains in contact with structure. Assuming
that strains are uniformly distributed in the interface
zone, strain vector can be defined as
3 THE MODEL SPECIAL ELEMENTS
3.1 Yield and plastic strain rate direction vectors
Similar to the original platform of Manzari & Dafalias
(1997), a narrow wedge-shape yield function is
adopted here

where n and t are normal and tangential strains with

respect to the interface plane.
2.2 Constitutive equation between stress
and relative displacement rate vectors
In the elasto-plasticity theory, the strain rate vector can
be decomposed into elastic and plastic parts
where = /n is stress ratio. In n plane, is
back stress ratio which is the slope of the bisector of
the yield criterion with respect to the positive direction
of the n -axis (Fig. 1). Finally, m indicates the yield
surface size. In practice, m = 0.01 M is a reasonable
selection, where M is the slope of critical state line in
-n plane. Based on the yield surface introduced in
Equation (10), {n} becomes

where superscripts e and p stand for the elastic where s = +1 when > , and s = 1 when < .
and plastic parts of the strain rate vector, respectively. Analogous to the work of Manzari & Dafalias (1997),
Hereafter, dot sign, . , on each parameter defines the a non-associated flow is introduced through the fol-
rate of corresponding parameter with time. In addition, lowing definition for {R}
one has the following constitutive equation between
the rates of stress and relative displacement vectors in
the elasto-plasticity theory

where Rn plays the role of dilatancy, d, in the proposed

ep
model flow rule.
where [D] is the elasto-plastic stiffness matrix which
is calculated by
3.2 State dependent peak and phase transformation
stress ratios
Liu et al. (2006) have suggested that the Critical State
Soil Mechanics concepts can also be applied to rough
interfaces. To this aim, the application of some proper
In Equation (7), [D]e is the elastic stiffness matrix

where Kn and Kt are respectively the interface normal

and tangential elastic moduli. Similar to sands, it is
assumed that these moduli are pressure dependent

Kn0 and Kt0 are model parameters and pref = 101 kPa
is the atmospheric pressure which plays the role of a
reference stress.
Kp is plastic hardening modulus. {n} and {R} are
two vectors which defines yield and plastic strain rate
directions. Particular definitions for these terms are
presented in sequel. Figure 1. Illustration of the model constitutive surfaces.

10
state parameters into the model formulation is essen- where
tial. State parameters are commonly used in order to
describe the current state of a soil or soil-structure
interface uniquely. Up-to-date reviews on a number of
state parameters can be found in Dafalias and Man-
zari (2004) and Lashkari (2009b). According to the
In above equation, A0 and A1 are model parameters,
latter work, the following constitutive equations are
where it is worthy to note that A0 is usually larger than
suggested here for state dependent peak and phase
A1 . It is observed that when a new tangential loading
transformation stress ratios
starts, the mechanical behavior of both loose and dense
interfaces is significantly contractive. Subsequently,
the mentioned contraction decreases and may turns
into dilation at moderate and large tangential displace-
ments. Considering Equation (19), = in < d at the

Table 1. Model parameters used in model predictions shown

in Figs. 27.

where nb and nd are model parameters, and Parameter M-M-G * E-F ** S-R ***

Kt 0 (MPa) 1.57 5.0 3.0

Kn 0 (MPa) 1.85 5.85 3.60
A0 2.0 8.0 5.0
A1 0.7 1.4 0.4
In the above equation, emax , emin , and e are respec- h0 0.38 0.25 0.6
tively the maximum possible, minimum, and current M 0.63 0.638 0.64
amounts of the interface void ratio. In Equations (13) e0 0.787 1.01 0.85
and (14), nc is normal stress corresponding to the cur- 0.0557 0.09 0.074
rent amount of void ratio. The location of critical state nb 0.110 0.12 0.35
line in e-nc plane is defined by nd 0.055 0.0674 0.10

*: experiments reported by Mortara et al. (2007).

**: experiments reported by Evgin & Fakharian (1996).
***: experiments reported by Shahrour & Rezaie (1997).

In equation (16), e0 and are model parameters.

3.3 Dilatancy function and plastic hardening

modulus
The model constitutive surfaces are demonstrated in
Fig. 1. Similar to the yield surface, one can define back
stress ratios corresponding to bounding and dilatancy
surfaces

where b and d are respectively the bounding and

dilatancy back stress ratios.
Now, the model plastic hardening modulus is

where h0 is a model parameter and in is the initial

amount of when the most recent tangential loading
has started.
Dilatancy function is defined in the following form
Figure 2. The model predictions compared with three con-
stant normal stress tests [experimental data taken from
Mortara et al. 2007].

11

Figure 3. The model predictions compared with three con-
stant normal stiffness tests [experimental data taken from
Mortara et al. 2007].
start ofa tangential loading and therefore, one has
A = A0 pref /n . As the loading proceeds, the ratio
( in )/(sb in ) approaches toward 1 and leads to
A = A0 at large tangential loading. The particular def-
inition of A given in Equation (19) enables the model
for proper prediction of volume change behavior.
4 THE MODEL EVALUATION
In experimental studies, stiffness boundary condition
in the direction normal to the interface plane is usually
defined by
In experiments, two types of stiffness conditions are
usual
1. K = 0 (constant normal stress condition) in which
n = 0 and v = 0
2. K = constant (constant normal stiffness condition)
in which n = 0 and v  = 0
Figure 4. The model predictions compared with three con-
stant normal stress tests [experimental data taken from
Evgin & Fakharian 1996].
Mortara et al. (2007) published the results of a
series of Gioia Tauro sand-steel interface tests car-
ried out with direct shear apparatus. Samples were
prepared by tamping method with initial relative den-
sity ID = 60%. The physical properties of the GT40
fraction of Gioia Tauro sand considered here are:
Gs = 2.69, emax = 0.96, and emin = 0.60.
The model of this study is calibrated versus exper-
imental data of Mortara et al. (2007). Amounts of the
model parameters are given in Table 1. The model
predictions on tangential Stress vs. horizontal dis-
placement and normal displacement vs. horizontal
displacement for three constant normal stress tests
with n = 25, 150, and 300 kPa are illustrated against
experimental data in Fig. 2. In addition, for three
constant normal stiffness tests with the same initial
stress conditions and K = 1.0 GPa/m, the model pre-
dictions for tangential stress vs. horizontal displace-
ment, tangential stress vs. normal stress, and normal
displacement vs. horizontal displacement are shown in
Fig. 3.
Evgin & Fakharian (1996) reported the results of a
series of Ottawa sand-rough steel interface tests car-
ried out using modified simple shear apparatus. The
physical properties of Ottawa sand are: Gs = 2.65,
emax = 1.024, and emin = 0.651. Grains are angular and
mainly made of quartz. The initial density of samples
is 84%. Using parameters presented in Table 1, simi-
lar comparisons are shown for evaluation of the model
versus this set of experiments. The model predictions
are compared with experimental data in Fig. 4 for
three constant normal stress tests n = 100, 300, and
500 kPa. For three other tests carried out under con-
stant normal stiffness condition K = 800 kPa/m and
12
 Figure 6. The model predictions versus experimental
results for two dense (ID = 90%) and loose (ID = 15%)
Hostun sand-steel interfaces subjected to constant normal
stress n = 100 kPa condition [experimental data taken from
Shahrour & Rezaie 1997].

Figure 5. The model predictions compared with three con-

stant normal stiffness tests [experimental data taken from
Evgin & Fakharian 1996].

n = 100, 200, and 300 kPa, the model simulations

are depicted against corresponding experiments in
Fig. 5.
Using direct shear apparatus, Shahrour & Rezaie
(1997) studied the mechanical behavior of Hos-
tun sand-steel interfaces with different initial den-
sities (ID0 = 15, and 90%). The physical properties
of the Hostun sand are: Gs = 2.65, emax = 1.00, and
emin = 0.653. In all simulations, the interface thickness
is assumed 7 mm. For two dense and loose interfaces
subjected to constant normal stress n = 100 kPa con-
dition, the model predictions are compared with exper-
imental data in Fig. 6. Similar comparisons are made
for samples with n = 300kPa in Fig. 7. For predictions
presented, the model parameters are given in Table 1. Figure 7. The model predictions versus experimental
The model has predicted a peak in tangential strength results for two dense (ID = 90%) and loose (ID = 15%)
for interfaces in dense state. In addition, the model Hostun sand-steel interfaces subjected to constant normal
is correctly predicted that the maximum tangential stress n = 300 kPa condition [experimental data taken from
strength of loose samples is attained at large horizontal Shahrour & Rezaie 1997].

13
displacements. Moreover, the volume change behav-
ior of loose interfaces is always contractive. On the
other hand, dense interfaces demonstrate contraction
initially which turns into dilation in moderate and large
horizontal displacements. From both figures, it can be
observed that the model can capture the fundamental
aspects of interfaces behaviors.
5 CONCLUSIONS
Within the frameworks of bounding surface plasticity
and Critical State Soil Mechanics, a state dependent
sand-structure interface model was presented. The
constitutive model of Manzari and Dafalias (1997) was
selected as platform.
New elements for state dependency and dilatancy
were suggested. Employing the data reported by three
independent research teams, the model predictions
were compared with experimental results under var-
ious stiffness boundary conditions. Using a unique
set of parameters for each type of soil-structure inter-
face, it has been shown that the model is capable of
providing reasonable predictions for samples of dif-
ferent initial states subjected to loading under various
stiffness boundary conditions.
REFERENCES
Been, K. & Jefferies, M. G. 1985. A state parameter for sands.
Gotechnique 35(2): 99112.
Dafalias, Y.F. & Manzari, M.T. 2004. Simple plasticity sand
model accounting for fabric change effects. ASCE Journal
of Engineering Mechanics 130(6): 622634.
Dafalias, Y.F. Papadimitriou, A.G. & Li, X.S. 2004. Sand
plasticity model accounting for inherent fabric anisotropy.
ASCE Journal of Engineering Mechanics 130(11):
13191333.
De Gennaro, V. & Frank, R. 2002. Elasto-plastic analysis
of the interface behavior between granular media and
structure. Computers and Geotechnics 29: 547572.
Chiu, C.F. & Ng, C.W.W. 2003. A state dependent elastoplas-
tic model for saturated and unsaturated soils. Gotech-
nique 53 (9): 809829.
Clough, G.W. & Duncan, J.M. 1971. Finite element analysis
of retaining wall behavior. J. Soil Mech. & Found. Div.
ASCE 97 (SM12): 16571672.
14
Evgin, E. & Fakharian, K. 1996. Effect of stress path on the
behavior of sand-steel interface. Canadian Geotechnical
Journal 33: 853865.
Gajo, A. & Wood, D.M. 1999. Severn-Trent sand: a
kinematic-hardening constitutive model: the q-p formu-
lation. Gotechnique 49(5):595614.
Ghaboussi, J. Wilson, E. L. & Isenberg, J. 1973. Finite element
for rock joints and interfaces. J. Soil Mech. & Found. Div.
ASCE 99 (SM10): 833848.
Ghionna, V.N. & Mortara, G. 2002. An elastoplastic model
for sand-structure interface behavior. Gotechnique 52(1):
4150.
Hu, L. & Pu, J. 2004. Testing and modeling of soil-structure
interface. ASCE Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenviron-
mental Engineering 130(8): 851860.
Lashkari, A. 2009a. A constitutive model for sand liquefac-
tion under rotational shear. Iranian Journal of Science &
Technology, Transaction B, Engineering 33 (B1): 3148.
Lashkari, A. 2009b. On the modeling of the state depen-
dency of granular soils. Computers and Geotechnics 36:
12371245.
Lashkari, A. 2010. Modeling sand-structure interfaces under
rotational shear. Mechanics Research Communications
37: 3237.
Lashkari, A. & Latifi, M. 2007. A constitutive model for
non-coaxial flow of sand. Mechanics Research Commu-
nications 34: 191200.
Li, X.S. & Dafalias, Y.F. 2004. A constitutive framework
for anisotropic sand including non-proportional loading.
Gotechnique 54 (1): 4155.
Liu, H., Song, E. & Ling, H. I. 2006. Constitutive modeling of
soil-structure interface through the concept of critical state
soil mechanics. Mechanics Research Communications 33:
515531.
Manzari, M.T. & Dafalias, Y.F. 1997. A critical state two
surface plasticity model for sands. Gotechnique 47(2):
255272.
Mortara, G. Mangiola,A. & Ghionna,V. N. 2007. Cyclic shear
stress degradation and post-cyclic behaviour from sand-
steel interface direct shear tests. Canadian Geotechnical
Journal 44: 739752.
Shahrour, I. & Rezaie, F. 1997. An elastoplastic constitu-
tive relation for the soil-structure interface under cyclic
loading. Computers and Geotechnics 21(1): 2139.
Wood, D.M. Belkheir, K. & Liu D. F. 1994. Strain soften-
ing and state parameter for sand modeling. Gotechnique
44(2):335339.
Zeghal, M. & Edil,T. 2002. Soil structure interaction analysis:
modeling the interface. Canadian Geotechnical Journal
39: 620628.
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Adaptive integration of hypoplasticity

W. Fellin
Division of Geotechnical and Tunnel Engineering, Department of Infrastructure,
University of Innsbruck, Austria

M. Mittendorfer & A. Ostermann

Department of Mathematics, University of Innsbruck, Austria

ABSTRACT: Evaluating the stress response of a constitutive relation of the rate type for a given strain increment
can be seen as a time integration. The question whether explicit or implicit methods should be used for this
integration is controversially discussed in the literature. In our previous paper (Fellin et al. 2009), we have
analysed two adaptive second order methods, constructed by extrapolation of the explicit and a semi-implicit
Euler method, respectively. Here, we compare their numerical behaviour on two geotechnical finite element tests.
As constitutive relation, we use hypoplasticity with the intergranular strain concept.

1 INTRODUCTION 2 ADAPTIVE INTEGRATION

The reliable computation of the stress response for a
given strain increment is an important issue in compu-
tational geotechnics. Hypoplasticity (Kolymbas 1985)
is a framework for constitutive models of the rate
type specialised for soil behaviour. For the compar-
ison of the numerical behaviour of an adaptive second
order semi-implicit method (Fellin et al. 2009) and
an adaptive second order explicit method (Fellin and
Ostermann 2002), we choose the hypoplastic model
with the intergranular strain concept (Niemunis and
Herle 1997). For single element tests the solutions
show a stiff behaviour all over the computational
domain (Mittendorfer 2010). Stiffness in the mathe-
matical sense means that certain implicit integrators
perform much more efficiently than explicit ones. For
adaptive explicit methods applied to stiff problems the
product of the time step size with the dominant eigen-
value of the linearised system lies near the border of
the stability domain (Hairer and Wanner 1996). This
can enforce very small step sizes, already observed in
the single element tests in (Fellin et al. 2009).
Motivated by these element tests, we compare here
the performance of the proposed integration schemes
for typical geotechnical problems. For this purpose,
we implement a user subroutine for the finite ele-
ment package Abaqus and we compare the numerical
behaviour on two typical finite element problems from
geotechnics: a biaxial test and a sheet pile wall exam-
ple. For these examples not only the behaviour of the
solution is important but also the structure of the spec-
imen. If the stresses in an integration point remain
roughly constant, only few time steps are required and
the implicit method cannot exploit its advantages.
The constitutive rate equations of hypoplasticity
form a system of ordinary differential equations,
see (Fellin et al. 2009) and references therein. Here, D
denotes the Eulerian stretching, T the effective Cauchy
stress and Q the additional state or internal variables.
Collecting the components of T, Q, and their deriva-
tives with respect to the stretching in a vector y, we
obtain a nonlinear initial value problem
Its efficient and reliable numerical solution is an
essential step in solving the equilibrium equations.
In our recent article (Fellin et al. 2009), we have
discussed in detail how (2) can be solved efficiently.
Here, we resume briefly two attractive second order
methods that are both endowed with an error estimate
and an adaptive step size strategy.
2.1 A second order explicit method
Starting from a numerical approximation yn y(tn ) at
time tn , the explicit Euler method
yields a numerical approximation yn+1 at time
tn+1 = tn + n . Due to its simplicity, the method is still
much in use for integrating (2). Its main drawbacks,

15
however, are its low accuracy and the lacking error
control.
A simple combination of two consecutive Euler
steps, combined with a local extrapolation procedure,
avoids both of these drawbacks without destroying the
simplicity of the method. In the following, we briefly
describe this method.
Starting from yn , we first perform an Euler step of
size n
as well as two Euler steps of size n /2
Taylor expansions show that the combination
is a second order approximation to the solution.
The resulting method (5) is called Richardson
extrapolation of the explicit Euler method. In this
paper, we will use the name ERK2 henceforth.
2.2 A second order semi-implicit method
For stiff problems, explicit methods like ERK2 become
inefficient. As a remedy, we proposed in (Fellin et al.
2009) to replace the Euler steps in the construction of
(5) by semi-implicit Euler steps of the form
In contrast to the fully implicit Euler method, this
method only requires the solution of linear systems
of equations.
To obtain a second order integration scheme, we
define the auxiliary variables v and w as before. Start-
ing from the approximation y y(tn ), we compute a
step of size
as well as two steps of size n /2
The extrapolated value
is the searched second order approximation which will
be called SIRK2 in the remainder of this paper.
16
2.3 Error estimation and step size control
Next, we will treat the problem of step size selection.
Our approach is that of (Fellin and Ostermann 2002;
Fellin et al. 2009; Hairer et al. 1993). The difference
of the auxiliary values (4) and (7), respectively,
is an asymptotically correct estimate for the local error
of w. For a user-supplied tolerance TOL, we obtain
an optimal step size opt . We use this for controlling
the step size. If the estimated error EST is below the
tolerance TOL, the step is accepted and a new larger
step size is chosen for the next step. If the estimated
error EST is larger than TOL, however, we reject the
step and redo it with a smaller step size.
In order to obtain a reliable error estimate, it is
common to use the maximum norm in (9)
with the scaling factors
The parameters ai and ri are used to fine-tune the error
estimate concerning the absolute and relative error
tolerances for each entry of y.
3 FINITE ELEMENT EXAMPLES
The performance of the proposed time integration
schemes is shown with finite element calculations car-
ried out with Abaqus. The integration schemes were
implemented together with the constitutive equations
and the calculation of the consistent tangent stiffness in
a user defined material subroutine, the so called Umat.
We use the default convergence criteria and load incre-
mentation of Abaqus. The material parameters for the
calculations are listed in Table 1.
Table 1. Parameters for the extended hypoplastic model.
Parameter Values
c [ ] 33
hs [kPa] 1 106
n 0.25
ed0 0.55
ec0 0.95
ei0 1.05
0.25
1.50
R 1 104
mR 5.0
mT 2.0
r 0.5
6.0
 The following values for the tolerances are used in
all numerical experiments: TOL = 103 and
with AERRi being the lowest resolution of the compo-
nent yi . We set this value for the state variables to: 0.1
for the stress, 0.01 for the void ratio and 106 for the
intergranular strain. The derivatives of the state vari-
ables are needed to calculate the consistent tangent
stiffness (Fellin and Ostermann 2002). These deriva-
tives are included in the error estimation and step size
control, with AERR equal to 0.1. The weighting fac-
tors ri are set to one for state variables and to 100 for
the derivatives of them.
Abaqus uses the time t as parameter throughout the
calculation. To distinguish between this time and the
time steps used in the constitutive time integration,
we shall call changes of loads or boundary conditions
load steps and increments of them load increments t.
3.1 Biaxial test
We start with a biaxial test as standard geotechnical
benchmark example (Hgel 1995). A soil specimen of
0.04 m width and 0.14 m height is laterally confined
with a constant stress of size 400 kN/m2 with plain
strain condition in the other horizontal direction. The
specimen is compressed vertically by a prescribed dis-
placement u = 0.01 m. The material in the dashed area
of Figure 1 is given an initially higher void ratio of
0.569, whereas the void ratio is 0.506 elsewhere. In
this way, an initial imperfection in the dashed area is
simulated. The dashed area is of the size 0.02 m by
0.02 m.
The biaxial test is modelled with 8 by 28 linear
plane strain elements. The calculation accounts for
Figure 1. Biaxial test.
17
large strains and large rotations, so the lateral pressure
remains perpendicular to the edge of the specimen.
The calculations were performed without gravity. In
this case, the problem is symmetric with respect to the
horizontal direction.
Figure 2 is a quilt plot for the void ratio e at the end
of the test. The void ratio increased from the initial
value 0.569 in the dashed area up to maximum 0.708
in the shear bands, which are formed during the test.
Both numerical integrations, ERK2 and SIRK2, give
the same plot.
The time steps used at the end of the test for
ERK2 and SIRK2 are shown in Figures 3 and 4.
For ERK2 small time step sizes are required in the
shear bands, whereas in other regions the time steps
are much larger. This indicates the adaptivity of our
method, which accounts for the stiff behaviour of
the constitutive equations. Due to the comparatively
large deformations in the shear bands combined with
the stiff behaviour of the hypoplastic equations the
explicit integrator requires small time steps to meet
the accuracy requirements. It is worth to note that the
constitutive equations show stiff behaviour outside the
shear band as well. As the strains are rather small in
these regions, the stress remains roughly constant, and
therefore larger steps can be accepted.
The semi-implicit method, however, shows a rather
balanced allocation of the step sizes over the whole
structure, see Figure 4. There are barely elements in
the shear bands where the step sizes are considerably
smaller than in other regions. However, they are much
larger than that used by the ERK2 method in the shear
band.
An exact solution of the load displacement curve,
which was obtained with 200 load increments, and
the behaviour of the automatic load incrementation
strategy of Abaqus are shown in Figure 5. The total
Figure 2. Biaxial compression test without gravity: void
ratio at the end of the test.

Figure 3. Biaxial compression test without gravity: time
step size of ERK2 at the end of the test.
Figure 4. Biaxial compression test without gravity: time
step size of SIRK2 at the end of the test.
loading time is t = 1. The initial and maximum load
increments are t = 0.1.
In this test Abaqus requires 20 load increments
with the same sequence for both time integration meth-
ods. There is some decreasing of the load increments
around the peak due to the inherent mechanical diffi-
culties of material softening. However, the increments
are increased by Abaqus in the softening branch due to
rapid convergence of the equilibrium iterations. This
indicates the good performance of the implemented
consistent tangent stiffness operator (Fellin and Oster-
mann 2002). Note that the mesh dependence of the
18
Figure 5. Biaxial compression test without gravity: load
displacement curve; the continuous line is an exact solu-
tion obtained with 200 load increments, the circles denote
the increments of the automatic load incrementation strategy,
which are the same for both methods ERK2 and SIRK2.
Figure 6. Biaxial compression test without gravity: total
number of time steps.
post peak behaviour is not studied here. The solu-
tion obtained by the automatic load incrementation
matches quite well with the exact solution over the
whole time window.
The mean value of the conducted time steps in the
four integration points of the plain strain per element
per increment are summed over all Abaqus load incre-
ments, see Figure 6. The minimum number of required
steps is nearly equal for both methods. The time inte-
gration with ERK2 integration needs in the shear band
much more time steps in total than the integration with
SIRK2. Switching from ERK2 to SIRK2 in those ele-
ments would make sense. However, the number of
elements where the implicit method needs consider-
ably fewer time steps than the explicit method is rather
small.
Significant deformations take part only in small
regions of the computational domain of the biaxial
test. In large regions of the specimen, the imposed load
Table 2. Comparison of computational costs in the biaxial
test without gravity. Abaqus: automatic load incrementation
with tstart = tmax = 0.1.
Int.method No. of Inc. No. of It. CPU [s]
ERK2 20 79 200.3
SIRK2 20 83 621.8
Figure 7. Biaxial compression test without gravity: relative
number of time steps per integration call.
increments are small. For such elements, the time step
size of ERK2 and SIRK2 are similar and the advan-
tages of SIRK2 for stiff equations cannot be exploited,
which is shown by a comparison of the computational
costs in Table 2. Using ERK2 in the whole domain is
about three times faster than using SIRK2.
As just mentioned, the fact that significant deforma-
tions take part in small regions of the computational
domain only has a considerable effect on the efficiency
of the integrators. Figure 7 displays the relative number
of conducted times steps, taken by Umat. For instance,
in about 10% of the Umat calls SIRK2 takes between
31 and 40 time steps. To exploit the advantages of
SIRK2, ERK2 should require considerably more time
steps. This, however, is not the case for the consid-
ered example. Nevertheless, we have shown a good
performance of 2SIRK2 for our constitutive equations
in single element tests in (Fellin et al. 2009).
3.2 Sheet pile wall example
As a further typical geotechnical application we
choose a 3.0 meter deep excavation with a 4.5 meter
cantilever sheet pile wall. The geometry of the model
is shown in Figure 8. The soil continuum is modelled
with plane strain linear triangular finite elements. The
left and right boundary are fixed in horizontal direc-
tion, the bottom boundary in vertical direction. The
initial void ratio is set to e = 0.735 and the unit weight
to = 14.99 kN/m3 . The initial stress state is geostatic
with the coefficient of earth pressure K0 = 0.5.
The sheet pile wall is modelled with 2-node
plane linear beam elements with the properties: cross
19
Figure 8. Sheet pile wall example.
Table 3. Comparison of computational costs in the sheet
pile wall test. Abaqus: automatic load incrementation with
tstart = tmax = 0.1.
Int.method No. of Inc. No. of It. CPU [s]
ERK2 21 56 28.3
SIRK2 21 52 98.3
Figure 9. Sheet pile wall example: horizontal displacement
at the end of the calculation; deformations are scaled by a
factor 5.
section area A = 1.2 102 m2 , moment of iner-
tia I = 3.84 105 m4 , Youngs modulus E = 2.1
108 kN/m2 .
After an initial static step to impose the geostatic
stress state, the second step is the excavation with fixed
bottom of the pit. The third load step is releasing the
bottom of the pit. For the second and third step the
initial and maximum load increments are t = 0.1, i.e.
a minimum of 10 load increments per step is required.
The automatic load incrementation strategy ofAbaqus
uses 10 load increments per load step for both methods
only, i.e. one increment plus two times 10 increments in
total, see Table 3. Although the calculation with ERK2
requires a little bit more iterations, its computational
effort in terms of CPU time is considerably smaller
than the calculation with SIRK2S.
Figure 9 is a filled contour plot for the horizon-
tal displacement u1 at the end of the calculation.
The resulting horizontal displacement at the top of
the wall is u1 = 3.819 102 m. Significant displace-
ments occur in the area around the sheet pile wall,

Figure 10. Sheet pile wall example: total number of time
steps in constitutive time integration.
whereas the displacements in the rest of the structure
are rather small.
Figure 10 shows the total number time steps in each
element, compare Section 3.1. The minimum number
of required steps is nearly equal for both methods. In
the elements around the sheet pile wall more steps
have to be conducted. The explicit method needs at
most twice as much steps than the semi-implicit one.
However, there are only few elements where ERK2
requires significantly more steps than SIRK2. Thus,
the explicit method is more efficient for this test.
It is worth to note that hypoplasticity cannot handle
stress states with tr T > 0. Such stress states could be
predicted if the integrator chooses too large time steps
in regions where the stresses are near to zero, which
is the case directly below the ground surfaces. Our
adaptive integrator rejects such steps into the unde-
fined area automatically, without extra checks for the
admissibility of the solution.
4 CONCLUSION
For sophisticated geotechnical problems one chooses
usually a finite element approach. Generally, one has
20
large discretisation areas around the explored problem,
i.e. the regions where considerable deformations take
part are comparatively small. Due to this fact, in most
of the elements only few time steps with an arbitrary
adaptive integration method have to be conducted. A
time step of an implicit or semi-implicit method con-
sumes more computing time than a time step of an
explicit integrator. As a consequence, implicit or semi-
implicit methods can exploit their advantages only
in regions where an explicit method needs far more
time steps. Such regions are rather small in typical
geotechnical problems as exemplified here, and adap-
tive explicit methods turn out to be the superior choice
for integrating hypoplasticity with intergranular strain
in geotechnical applications. Switching from ERK2
to SIRK2 in regions with many explicit time steps is
worth to think about. However, as these regions are typ-
ically small and any switch algorithm will take some
extra time, the effect on the overall performance is
assumed to be small.
REFERENCES
Fellin, W., M. Mittendorfer, and A. Ostermann (2009). Adap-
tive integration of constitutive rate equations. Computers
and Geotechnics 36, 698708.
Fellin, W. and A. Ostermann (2002). Consistent tangent oper-
ators for constitutive rate equations. International Journal
for Numerical and Analytical Methods in Geomechan-
ics 26, 12131233.
Hairer, E., S. Nrsett, and G. Wanner (1993). Solving Ordi-
nary Differential Equations I. Nonstiff Problems (2nd ed.).
Berlin: Springer.
Hairer, E. and G. Wanner (1996). Solving Ordinary Dif-
ferential Equations II: Stiff and Differential-Algebraic
Problems. Berlin: Springer.
Hgel, H. (1995). Prognose von Bodenverformungen, Vol-
ume 136 of Verffentlichung des Institutes fr Boden-
mechanik und Felsmechanik. Universitt Fridericiana in
Karlsruhe.
Kolymbas, D. (1985). A generalized hypoelastic constitutive
law. In Proc. XI Int. Conf. Soil Mechanics and Foundation
Engineering, San Francisco, Volume 5, Rotterdam, pp.
2626. Balkema.
Mittendorfer, M. (2010). A modular finite element setting for
nonlinear constitutive models: design and implementa-
tion. Ph. D. thesis, University of Innsbruck.
Niemunis, A. and I. Herle (1997). Hypoplastic model for
cohesionsless soils with elastic strain range. Mechanics
of Cohesive-frictional Materials 2, 279299.
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

An anisotropic bubble model for soft clays

Nallathamby Sivasithamparam
Department of Civil Engineering, University of Strathclyde, UK
Plaxis B.V, Delft, The Netherlands

Daniela Kamrat-Pietraszewska & Minna Karstunen

Department of Civil Engineering, University of Strathclyde, UK

ABSTRACT: This paper describes the principles behind a new anisotropic bubble model for natural soils. The
model is a hierarchical extension of the anisotropic S-CLAY1 model. The kinematic yield surface of S-CLAY1
model is treated as a bounding surface and a bubble surface is introduced within the bounding surface. The
bubble surface is similar in shape to the S-CLAY1 yield surface, and assumes an isotropic elastic behaviour
and an associated flow rule. A translation rule of the bubble is used to control the movement of the bubble. The
implementation of the model is first verified by simulating slow cyclic loading with constant deviator stress
on Kaolin clay, and secondly, simulations of undrained triaxial shear tests (in compression and extension) are
made to highlight the effect of evolution of anisotropy, and finally, simulations of high number of loading cycles
performed to examine ratcheting feature of the model.

1 INTRODUCTION for Bubble S-CLAY1) and its isotropic version, which

During past few decades several modifications have
been proposed to enhance elasto-plastic models devel-
oped within the framework of kinematic hardening
plasticity. One of the most successful approaches is to
introduce one or two kinematic surfaces within a con-
ventionally defined yield surface (Mroz et al. 1978,
1979). Models of this type are often termed kinematic
hardening bubble models (Al-Tabbaa et al. 1987,
1989). This paper presents a new constitutive model
that is capable of representing anisotropic and cyclic
behaviour of clay. The model implementation is first
partially verified by comparisons with the Al-Tabbaa
(1987) model simulations for Kaolin clay considering
isotropic material. Secondly, simulations of undrained
triaxial shear tests in compression and extension high-
light the effect of evolution of anisotropy on the
predicted soil response.
The proposed constitutive model is developed
within the framework of the critical state theory and
bounding surface plasticity. The model is an extension
of the S-CLAY1 model (Wheeler et al. 1999, 2003).
The kinematic yield surface of S-CLAY1 is treated
as bounding surface, and a bubble surface (kinematic
yield surface) is introduced within bounding surface
to enclose a truly elastic region. The anisotropic S-
CLAY1 bounding surface can describe the effect of
initial anisotropy caused by one-dimensional deposi-
tion and K0 -consolidation process, and the subsequent
evolution of anisotropy due to large strains is described
by a kinematic hardening law of the S-CLAY1 model.
The new model is called the BSCLAY model (in short
is very similar to the Al-Tabbaa model, is referred
as BMCC. With the introduction of the bubble, the
model allows the simulation of important features of
soil behaviour not realized by the S-CLAY1 model,
such as non-linearity and plasticity from early stages
of loading and hysteretic behaviour during cyclic load-
ing. BSCLAY model would be ideal for simulating the
behaviour of overconsolidated soils and/or the cyclic
response of soils.
2 DESCRIPTION OF THE BSCLAY MODEL
The bounding surface in the general space of model is
formulated based on S-CLAY1 yield surface, which in
the simplified case of triaxial space considering cross-
anisotropic sample simplifies as follows:
where M is the value of the stress ratio = q/p (devi-
ator stress over mean effective stress) at critical state,
pm defines the size of the bounding surface (see Fig-
ure 1) and defines the orientation of the bounding
surface analogously to the S-CLAY1 formulation. For
the finite element implementation of the model as a
user-defined model in PLAXIS, the equations have
been reformulated in terms of deviatoric stress vec-
tor, a deviatoric fabric tensor (in vector form) and
mean effective stress, as explained in detail by Wheeler
et al. (2003). The bubble (kinematic yield) surface,
based on the ideas by Al-Tabbaa (1987), encloses the

21

Figure 1. Schematic illustration of BSCLAY model.
truly elastic region, and it has the same shape as the
bounding surface, but is smaller in size (see Figure 1).
Although in the simplified form shown in this paper,
M is assumed the same in compression and extension,
in the FE implementation of the model, Lode angle
dependency has been taken into account.
2.1 Flow rule
Experimental evidence suggests that the assumption
of an associated flow rule is a reasonable approxima-
tion of natural clays when combined with an inclined
yield curve (Wheeler et al. 1999, 2003, Karstunen et al.
2005, 2008). Therefore, the plastic strain increment
vector is assumed to be normal to the kinematic yield
surface at the current stress state. Consequently, the
flow rule of the model is associated and the plastic
potential is given by Equation 1.
2.2 Hardening rules
The evolution of the bounding surface is described by
anisotropic hardening; this means the surface rotates
as a function of large plastic strains (corresponding to
stress states at the bounding surface). The evolution of
the bubble surface is described by a combination of
kinematic and isotropic hardening, in which the sur-
face translates in the stress space following the current
stress point and changes size simultaneously. When the
bubble is not in touch with the bounding surface, it is
not allowed to rotate. This combination of kinematic
and isotropic hardening forms the translation rule of
the kinematic yield surface.
2.2.1 Isotropic hardening of the bounding surface
The model adopts the volumetric hardening rule of
the Modified Cam Clay (MCC) model. The change in
22
the size of the bounding surface is controlled by the
change of plastic strain as follows:
where and are the slopes of the normal compression
line and swelling line in the e-lnp space and e is the
void ratio. When the bubble touches the bounding sur-
face the BSCLAY model becomes S-CLAY1 model,
and the bubble is dragged with the bounding surface.
Hardening rules and other details for the mathematical
formulation of the S-CLAY1 model can be found in
Wheeler et al. (1999, 2003).
2.2.2 Translation rules of the bubble surface
The translation rules are formulated based on transla-
tion rules proposed byAl-Tabbaa (1987). Two different
translations rules are needed, one for the case when the
bubble surface moves within the bounding surface, and
one for the case when the two surfaces are in contact.
The translation rule of the bubble surface is formu-
lated in a manner that guarantees that the two surfaces
(bubble & the bounding surface) can come in contact
at a common normal but never intersect, similarly to
Al-Tabbaa (1987). The centre of the kinematic yield
surface moves always along a vector, , which joins the
current stress state, C, to its conjugate point, D, on the
bounding surface, see Figure 1. When bubble moves
within the bounding surface no rotation is allowed.
The translation rule is divided into two components.
One is associated with the change in size of the bub-
ble surface due to isotropic expansion or contraction
of the bounding surface, the other is associated with
the movement of the bubble surface along the vector
. When the two surfaces are in contact at the cur-
rent stress state, the vector is equal to zero and the
translation rule reduces to:
2.2.3 Hardening modulus
The hardening modulus is defined in such a way that
when the two surfaces are in touch, and the yielding
is continuous, the model predicts the same behaviour
as the S-CLAY1 model. It is initially formulated for
special case when two surfaces are in contact, and then
modified for the general case when two surfaces are
not in contact and the stress state is within the bounding
surface.
For general case when the two surfaces are not
in contact the hardening function h0 is given by the
following equation:
In order to calculate the plastic strains whenever
they occur, whether or not the bubble surface and
the bounding surface are in contact, Al-Tabbaa (1987)
replaced h0 with more general expression:
where h0 is given by Equation 4 and H is a scalar
quantity which is function of the stress state.Al-Tabbaa
(1987) assumed, after Hashiguchi (1985), that H is a
function of a measure of the proximity of the bubble
surface to the bounding surface. The measure of the
proximity used in this model is the scalar product of
the vector and the vector n normal to the bubble
surface at the current stress state (see Fig. 1), divided
by the measure of the size of the bubble surface.
3 REQUIRED MODEL PARAMETERS
The proposed formulation of the model in general
stress space requires values for 8 soil constants and
3 state variables. These are:
Soil constants:
Initial slope of swelling/recompression line in e-
lnp -space (see Al-Tabbaa 1987)
 Poissons ratio
Slope of post yield compression line in elnp -
space
M Stress ratio at critical state (in triaxial compres-
sion)
Absolute effectiveness of rotational hardening
Relative effectiveness of rotational hardening (cal-
culated based on M , see Wheeler et al. 2003)
R Ratio of the size of the bubble surface to that of
the bounding surface
 Exponent in the hardening function H (see Al-
Tabbaa 1987)
State variables:
e0 Initial void ratio
pm Initial size of the bounding surface (calculated
based on vertical preconsolidation stress)
0 Initial inclination of the yield surface (calculated
based on M, see Wheeler et al. 2003)
The soil constants of the BSCLAY model include
four parameters from the MCC model (, , M and
Poissons ratio  ) that can be determined from conven-
tional laboratory tests. Two additional parameters (R,
) are required for introduction of the bubble surface
into the S-CLAY1 model. Al-Tabbaa (1987) explains
how these six model parameters can be obtained from
simple standard tests or multi-stage test using the triax-
ial apparatus. Two additional soil constants ( and )
and additional state variable (0 ) govern the evolution
of anisotropy and the initial anisotropy, respectively.
Wheeler et al. (1999, 2003) discussed the determina-
tion of these three parameters in detail and generally
no non-standard tests are needed to get reasonable esti-
mates for these values. The model is hierarchical, so
it is possible to reduce the model to the S-CLAY1
model, by setting R equal to one. Furthermore, if initial
anisotropy is switched off, by setting 0 and equal
23
Table 1. Model parameters for Kaolin clay.
 e0 M
0.187 0.017 0.3 1.2 0.9
0 R
0.0 0.37 60 0.2 1.5
to zero, the model simplifies to the isotropic MCC
model.
4 COMPARISON OF RESULTS
The implementation of proposed model was first ver-
ified in a case of isotropic soil by comparing against
the results of Al-Tabbaa (1987) model predictions for
slow cyclic triaxial test at constant deviator stress q.
This simulation was initially started from normally
consolidated state corresponding to one-dimensional
loading, and the deviator stress q was kept constant
when cyclic loading cycles (unloading/reloading) were
applied by changing p. Secondly, the proposed model
was used to simulate soil behaviour under undrained
triaxial shearing following isotropic and anisotropic
triaxial consolidation. Table 1 summarizes the model
parameters which obtained from Al-Tabbaa (1987),
and the additional soil constant and state variables were
determined based on the suggestions by Wheeler et al.
(1999, 2003) for and Karstunen et al. 2005, 2008 and
Zentar et al. (2002) for . Given all tests by Al-Tabbaa
were done for reconstituted Kaolin, the initial value
for anisotropy (0 ) has been assumed zero.
Figure 2 compares the simulations of the isotropic
version of the proposed model (BMCC) with the sim-
ulations of Al-Tabbaa (1987). The initial values of
p and q are 300 kPa and 80 kPa respectively, and
q is kept constant while cyclic changes of p are
applied. As mentioned above, initial anisotropy has
been switched off (0 = 0) and additionally, the evolu-
tion of anisotropy was switched off by setting equal
to zero. In reality, anisotropy would have been cre-
ated though the initial K0 consolidation, resulting in a
theoretical value of 0 = 0.35. The mach between the
two model predictions is overall very good. Although
BMCC is very similar to the Al-Tabbaa (1987) model,
she used the modified compression and swelling
indices instead of and , and hence small differ-
ences would be expected. These results suggest that
the proposed model has been implemented correctly.
A corresponding simulation with the anisotropic ver-
sion of the model (BSCLAY), which has not been
included in the paper, suggests that for this type of
cycling loading and amplitude, anisotropy does not
have significant influence in the volumetric response,
but nevertheless it has major impact on the predicted
deviatoric straining. Just like the isotropic BMCC ver-
sion of the model, the BSCLAY model seems to be
able to reproduce well the soil response under slow
cyclic loading.
Figure 2. Slow cyclic isotropic constant q triaxial simulation: a) After Al-Tabbaa (1987) model predictions b) BSCLAY
Model simulation.

Figure 3. Simulation of undrained stress path a) after an isotropic stress history b) after a one dimensional stress history.

In Figure 3, thick solid lines represent the pre- initially isotropic and during the initial isotropic con-
dictions of the anisotropic BSCLAY model and the solidation and unloading it stays isotropic according to
dashed lines represent the equivalent results by the both models, as even BCSLAY model predicts soil to
isotropic BMCC model. In both cases the soil is stay isotropic under isotropic loading. The isotropic

24
Figure 4. High number (100 cycles) of cyclic simulation of BSCLAY model a) q/p versus s and b) q/p versus v .
loading is followed by isotropic unloading, corre-
sponding to overconsolidation ratios (OCR) of 1, 1.3,
2, 4 and 8. Due to the initial isotropic compression, as
seen in Figure 3(a), both models predict similar stress
paths for undrained shearing after the isotropic com-
pression at early stages of the simulations, but once
the bounding surface is reached, the prediction devi-
ate. The anisotropic version of the model (BSCLAY)
predicts lower excess pore pressures and higher values
of deviator stresses at failure than BMCC.
Differences between the two model predictions are
very striking in Figure 3b relating to the simulations
of anisotropically consolidated undrained shearing in
compression and extension. Again, the soil is assumed
initially isotropic, but during the initial K0 consolida-
tion anisotropy evolves in the case of BSCLAY model,
resulting in an -value of 0.35 at the start of undrained
shearing. Due to the associated flow rule, K0 - load-
ing results in different predicted stress paths, both for
loading and unloading. BMCC gives just like the MCC
model a very poor K0 prediction, and consequently
in the cases of high OCR the shearing starts close
to failure. Overall, during compression the BSCLAY
model predicts higher undrained strength than BMCC,
and the predicted undrained strength in extension is
notably lower than in compression. Once Lode angle
dependency is included, the difference is even more
significant than in the case of Drucker-Prager assumed
in this paper. In contrast the isotropic BMCC model
predicts almost the same value of undrained shear
strength in compression and extension.
In order to have a unique critical state, the rotational
hardening law of the BSCLAY model is formulated
in such as way that at reaching critical state the
bounding surface keeps rotating until a unique orien-
tation is reached (see Wheeler et al. 2003 for details).
Because of this feature, the results for triaxial exten-
sion have strange looking curvature when approaching
critical state. This may require some modification
when considering finite element applications, such as
excavations.
25
A high number of cyclic loading constant q triaxial
simulation was performed with BSCLAY model after
a one dimensional stress history. The simulation was
initially one-dimensionally compressed to v = 20 kPa
then cyclically (100 cycles) loaded between stress
ratios of = 0.45 and = 0.23, see Figure 4. Shear
strain continues to accumulate with increasing num-
ber of cycles. The ratcheting feature of the model
may over-predict the shear strain after large number
of cycles. To avoid ratcheting feature of the model, the
size of the bubble, R, could be made to function of
number of cycles so that the soil will behave elasti-
cally after large number of cycles. However, this will
require further investigations.
5 CONCLUSIONS
A new constitutive model, BSCLAY, which is a hier-
archical extension of the S-CLAY1 model, has been
developed to simulate cyclic loading of anisotropic
clays. The model is based on the principles of bound-
ing surface plasticity. A bubble surface is introduced
within S-CLAY1 model to enhance the performance
of the model to describe soil behaviour in over-
consolidated region and under cyclic loading. The
comparisons of the model predictions with the Al-
Tabbaa (1987) model simulations of Kaolin clay under
different stress paths, considering slow cycling load-
ing and shearing under compression and extension,
revealed the predictive capability of the proposed
model. Ratcheting feature of the model is also verified.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The research was carried out as part of a GEO-
INSTALL (Modelling Installation Effects in Geotech-
nical Engineering), supported by the European
Community through the programme Marie Curie
Industry-Academia Partnerships and Pathways (Con-
tract No PIAP-GA-2009-230638).
REFERENCES
Al-Tabbaa, A. 1987. Permeability and stress-strain response
of Speswhite kaolin. PhD dissertation. University of
Cambridge.
Al Tabbaa & Wood, D.M. 1989 An experimentally based bub-
ble model for clay. In: Proc. 3rd Int. Conf. on Numerical
Models in Geomechanics. Niagara Falls, pp. 9199.
Hashiguchi, K. 1985. Two- and three-surface models of
plasticity. Proceedings of 5th International Confer-
ence on Numerical Methods in Geomechanics, Nagoya,
pp. 285292.
Karstunen, M & Koskinen, M. 2008. Plastic anisotropy of
soft reconstituted clays. Canadian Geotechnical Journal
45: 314328.
Karstunen, M.; Krenn, H.; Wheeler, S.J.; Koskinen, M., Zen-
tar, R. 2005. The effect of anisotropy and destructuration
on the behaviour of Murro test embankment. International
Journal of Geomechanics (ASCE); 5(2): p. 8797.
Mrz, Z., Norris, V.A. & Zienkiewicz, O. C. 1978. An
anisotropic hardening model soils and its application
to cyclic loading. International Journal for Numer-
ical and Analytical methods in Geomechanics. 2,
203221.
26
Mrz, Z., Norris, V.A. & Zienkiewicz, O. C. 1979. Applica-
tion of an anisotropic hardening model in the analysis of
elasto-plastic deformation of soils. Gotechnique 29, No.
1, 137.
Wheeler, S.J., Karstunen, M. & Ntnen, A. 1999.
Anisotropic hardening model for normally consolidated
soft clay. In G.N. Pande, S. Pietruszczak & H.F. Schweiger
(ed.), Proc. 7th Int. Symp. on Numerical Models in
Geomechanics (NUMOG VII), Graz : 3340. A.A.
Balkema.
Wheeler, S.J., Ntnen, A., Karstunen, M. & Lojander, M.
2003. An anisotropic elastoplastic model for soft clays.
Canadian Geotechnical Journal 40: 403418.
Zentar, R., Karstunen, M. & Wheeler, S.J. 2002. Influence
of anisotropy and destructuration on undrained shearing
of natural clays. In P. Mestat (ed.), Proc. 5th European
Conf. on Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering
(NUMGE 2002), Paris: 2126. Presses de lENPC.
Zentar, R., Karstunen, M., Wiltafsky, C., Schweiger, H.F. &
Koskinen, M. 2002. Comparison of two approaches for
modelling anisotropy of soft clays. In G.N. Pande &
S. Pietruszczak (ed.), Proc. 8th Int. Symp. on Numer-
ical Models in Geomechanics (NUMOG VIII), Rome:
115121. A.A. Balkema.
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

An anisotropic model for structured soils

G. Belokas & M. Kavvadas

National Technical University of Athens, Greece

ABSTRACT: The paper presents the mathematical formulation of the recently developed constitutive Model
for Structured Soils 2, which is a two surface anisotropic bounding surface plasticity model. This model is able
to reproduce the engineering effects of the structure inducing mechanisms, including the effect of anisotropy
by incorporating: a) distorted and rotated ellipsoids for the Structure Strength Envelope (bounding surface) and
the Plastic Yield Envelope (elastic region inner surface) to describe bond and stress induced anisotropy, b)
the Intrinsic Strength Envelope as a reference locus that delimits all possible unbonded states, representing a
lower bound of the bounding surface, c) the Intrinsic Compressibility Framework that describes all structureless
states, d) a damage-type mechanism to model bond degradation and e) a non-associated flow rule depending
on structure. The proposed model is modular, its features can be activated simultaneously or selectively, and the
3-D tensorial formulation facilitates direct implementation in finite elements codes.

1 INTRODUCTION the tensorial mathematical formulation of the model

Most natural soils are structured and the main structure
inducing mechanisms are stress history (e.g. preload-
ing, densification) and bonding (e.g. cementation,
aging, thixotropy). These mechanisms can have a dom-
inant role on natural soil behaviour affecting stiffness,
dilatancy and strength, as well as their anisotropic
characteristics. Bonding results in components of stiff-
ness, dilatancy, strength and anisotropy that cannot
be accounted solely from stress history. Therefore, it
is essential that modern constitutive modelling takes
into account these mechanisms and their anisotropic
characteristics. This improves greatly the predictive
capability of a constitutive model.
The proposed Model for Structured Soils 2
(MSS-2) simulates the engineering effects of these
structure inducing mechanisms. More specifically it
advances present elastoplastic constitutive modelling
practice of structured soils by incorporating: a) dis-
torted ellipsoids for the Structure Strength Envelope
(bounding surface) and the Plastic Yield Envelope
(elastic region) to describe bond and stress induced
anisotropy, b) the Intrinsic Strength Envelope as a
reference locus that delimits all possible unbonded
states, representing a lower bound of the bounding sur-
face, c) the Intrinsic Compressibility Framework that
describes all structureless states, d) a new damage-type
mechanism to model bond degradation and e) a plastic
dilatancy dependence on bonding and anisotropy.
MSS-2 has been developed starting from the
Kavvadas & Belokas (2001) model and the original
MSS model (Kavvadas & Amorosi, 2000). It is formu-
lated based on a hierarchical approach, which results
in a modular and versatile model with features than
can be used simultaneously or selectively. Moreover,
allows its direct implementation in finite elements
codes and 3D analyses.
The tensorial formulation includes the stress ten-
sor = s + I (s: deviatoric stress, : mean effective
stress) and the strain tensor = e + I (s: deviatoric
strain, : volumetric strain), with I the unit tensor. In
the following, all stress is effective. Dots over a symbol
denote incremental quantities.
2 STRUCTURELESS SOIL BEHAVIOUR
Following Roscoe et al (1963), Lewin & Burland
(1970) and Leroueil & Vaughan (1990), structure-
less materials can occur after thorough remoulding
(to eliminate all memory of original structure) and
subsequent radial consolidation, i.e., along a path of
constant stress ratio = (s:s)0.5 / . This is supported
by various experimental evidence (see Belokas & Kav-
vadas, under review). It has also been assumed that
the behaviour of structureless materials is controlled
by current effective stress state (, s) and specific vol-
ume (v = 1 + e) only (e.g. Leroueil & Vaughan 1990),
since remoulding has erased any pre-existing bonding
and stress history effects.
During a radial consolidation, structureless materi-
als move along Intrinsic Compression Curves (ICC ),
which are herein assumed to be parallel straight lines
in the lnvln plane (Fig. 1, Equation 1) with slope
described by a Modified Cam-Clay compressibility
parameter (c ). Equation 2 correlates the stress path
orientation with the ICC and is a variance of the
equation proposed by Belokas & Kavvadas (in press).
Equations 1 and 2 are used for the mathematical
description of the structureless soil states. The lower

27
Figure 1. Structureless states and Intrinsic Compressibility
Framework (from Belokas & Kavvadas, 2010).

bound of all possible ICC is the Critical State Curve

(CSC), which in Critical State Soil Mechanics sep-
arates contractant from dilatant behaviour, and the
upper bound is the Isotropic Intrinsic Comrpession
Curve.
Figure 2. Influence of structure in plastic dilatancy (based
on Belokas 2009 and Belokas & Kavvadas 2010b).

where PTC is given by Equation 4 if ICC is described

by Equation 1.

3 STRUCTURE AND DILATANCY

The ICC curves delimit all possible states under radial

compression. In Critical State Soil Mechanics, CSC
serves the purpose of a Phase Transition Curve (PTC).
To the left of PTC the behaviour is dilatant, while to
the right of PTC the behaviour is contractant (Fig. 2a).
For structured soils, PTC moves to the right, therefore
enlarging the dilatant domain (Fig. 2b). The larger the
structure. the larger the dilatant domain and the PTC
moves further to the right.
The distinction between dilatant and contractant
behaviour is controlled by the phase parameter, ,
which is defined by Equation 3 and is a variance of the
state parameter proposed by Been & Jefferies (1985).
When the current state lies: a) to the left of PTC it
is < 0 (i.e. dilatant behaviour), b) upon PTC it is
= 0 (e.g. critical state) and c) to the right of PTC it
is > 0 (i.e. contractant behaviour).
where o o (see Fig. 2) is a measure of the available
structure and defines the Structure Strength Curve in
v plane.
As loading proceeds, it generally results in a loss of
structure and bonding. Moreover, PTC shifts towards
the CSC and o tends to o .
4 FORMULATION OF MSS-2 MODEL
The formulation of the MSS-2 model is based on rate-
independent incremental bounding-surface elasto-
plasticity. It incorporates the Critical State concepts
and the behavioural framework for structured soils
(e.g. Belokas, 2008). MSS-2 encompasses the impor-
tant aspects of soil behaviour described in paragraphs
2 and 3. Moreover, it is able to model structure and

28

Figure 3. The characteristic surfaces scheme used in the
MSS-2 model.
anisotropy evolution and degradation, as well as their
effect on soil strength, dilatancy and stiffness. It has
been developed in a modular way, i.e. its various
individual features can be activated or de-activated
depending on the amount of information or the type
of the problem to be solved.
The model presented herein has been based on the
Kavvadas & Belokas (2001) model and its complete
formulation is presented in Belokas (2008).
4.1 Characteristic Surfaces
MSS-2 employs three characteristic surfaces (Fig. 3):
the Structure Strength Envelope (SSE), the Plastic
Yield Envelope (PYE) and the Intrinsic Strength Enve-
lope (ISE), each one serving a different purpose. SSE
delimits all possible states of a structured soil (it is the
bounding surface), PYE bounds the elastic states (it
is the yield surface), while ISE is a reference surface
that corresponds to an equivalent structureless state.
These surfaces are formulated in a tensorial space
consisting of the isotropic axis () and the deviatoric
hyperaxis (s).
The behaviour within the PYE has been assumed to
be hyperelastic. States on PYE represent the onset of
yielding, which correspond to limited structure degra-
dation. For loadings directing outwards of PYE, the
PYE moves together with current state (kinematic
hardening) until it comes in touch with SSE (the
structure yield of Kavvadas 1998). This is the onset
of appreciable structure degradation and evolution of
structure induced anisotropy. The ISE represents a
lower bound of the SSE, when all effects of structure
are eliminated (typically by intense straining). Thus,
in structureless soils, the SSE and ISE coincide and
the model reduces to a Cam-Clay type twin-surface
model with a rotated bounding surface (SSE ISE)
and an internal bubble (PYE).
The geometrical representation of the SSE in the
stress space (, s) is a rotated distorted ellipsoid
29
(Kavvadas 1983) and is the bounding surface:
Tensor K = K I + sK is the centre K of SSE and
the half-axes of the ellipsoid are equal to () along the
isotropic axis and (c) along the deviatoric axes.
The above mathematical formulation can use dif-
ferent values of the c-parameter along the various
deviatoric stress components to model shear strength
anisotropy. The size () of the SSE is controlled by
the magnitude of structure, while the orientation vec-
tor (bK sK / K ) of the centre of the SSE is a direct
measure of structure-induced anisotropy.
The PYE is, for mathematical simplicity, similar in
shape and has axes parallel to the SSE scaled down by
a factor (<<1):
Tensor L = L I + sL is the centre L of PYE. Since
most soils behave elastically in a very limited strain
domain (order of strain 0.001% 0.2%), the
model typically uses a very small PYE ( 0.001)
which can also provide realistic modelling of cyclic
loading.
The ISE corresponds to an equivalent structureless
state, which has the same specific volume (v) and con-
solidation stress ratio ( ) as the natural material. This
envelope is also a rotated distorted ellipsoid centred at
point K having coordinates: K = K I + sK :
The long axis of the ISE, oriented along the vec-
tor bK sK /K , describes inherent anisotropy (con-
trolled by the consolidation stress ratio ) while the
corresponding orientation of the SSE, bK sK / K ,
describes structure-induced anisotropy (which can be
different). The orientation of the ISE can vary accord-
ing to a kinematic hardening rule, modelling the
variation of inherent anisotropy with consolidation.
The size ( ) of the ISE is controlled by classical Cam-
Clay type isotropic hardening depending on the current
specific volume (v), the intrinsic compressibility (c )
and the consolidation stress ratio ( ) expressed via
the parameter N (Equation 2 and Fig. 1):
 The difference in size between the SSE and ISE
( ) is a direct measure of the magnitude of
structure.
4.2 Hardening rules
The isotropic and kinematic hardening rules control
the evolution of the characteristic surfaces during plas-
tic straining. Upon plastic straining, current stress state
() is always on the PYE.
4.2.1 Isotropic hardening rule
MSS-2 model employs a structure degradation
isotropic hardening:
where Equations 11a and 11b give respectively the
p
plastic volumetric and deviatoric strain increment, (v ,
p
q ) are the accumulated plastic volumetric and devia-
toric strains, (c , s ) are the intrinsic compressibility
parameters during virgin compression and rebound,
( v , v ) are volumetric structure degradation parame-
ters and ( q , q , q ) are deviatoric structure degradation
parameters. Parameter q is used to increase the rate of
structure degradation by shearing, since shear-induced
structure degradation is usually dominant (compared
to volumetric structure degradation).
In Equation 9 the component ( ) represents
the magnitude of structure and is given by Equa-
tion 8. Equation 9 ensures that the is constantly
decreasing down to the value of = 0, when all
structure has been lost (i.e. SSEISE), shifting to a
Cam Clay type of isotropic hardening. Moreover,
by appropriately selecting the structure degradation
parameters, various rates of destructuring can be
simulated, including collapse-type behaviour.
4.2.2 Kinematic hardening rules
The kinematic hardening rules describe the evolu-
tion of the structure-induced anisotropy during plastic
straining by controlling the position of the centres
K and L of the SSE and PYE in the stress space.
The MSS-2 model describes anisotropy by the primary
(bK sK / K ) and secondary (bL sL / L ) anisotropy
tensors and uses the kinematic hardening rules of the
original MSS model (Kavvadas & Amorosi, 2000).
Motion of the centre K of the SSE
For material states inside the SSE:
30
i.e., K moves along a radial path passing through the
origin. As the ratio bK sK /K remains constant, pri-
mary anisotropy does not change. The SSE reduces
to the Modified Cam-Clay yield surface if K lies on
the isotropic axis ( K = I), e.g. during an isotropic
consolidation path.
For material states on the SSE:
The second term in the above expression causes K to
deviate from the radial path during straining, altering
primary anisotropy (bK ), while the constant controls
the rate of its evolution.
Motion of the centre L of the PYE
For material states on the SSE, surfaces PYE and
SSE remain in contact (at the current stress state )
and the position of L is dictated by the position ( K )
of K:
For material states inside the SSE, the motion of
point L is such that the current state on the PYE (point
M on PYE in Fig. 3) moves towards a conjugate point
M  on the SSE (normal vectors at these points are paral-
lel). The geometric similarity of PYE and SSE defines
the direction vector ( L )/ ( L ). There-
fore, the translation of the centre L is given by the
formula:
This rule ensures that the characteristic surfaces do
not intersect even for finite increments of the material
state (Kavvadas & Amorosi, 2000). The factor is
determined from the consistency condition, i.e. a
requirement that during plastic deformation the stress
point remains on the PYE (f = 0).
4.3 Flow rule
The plastic strain increment is determined by a non-
associated incrementally linear plastic flow rule:
where the scalar ( f ) and the plastic potential ten-
sor (Pf ) give the magnitude and direction of the
plastic strain increment, () is the corresponding effec-
tive stress increment, (Hf ) is a plastic modulus as
described in a following section, and Qf f / is
the gradient of the PYE.
The plastic gradient (Pf ) has the following isotropic
and deviatoric components:

Figure 4. Failure envelopes (FE) and phase parameter ( ).
where 1 is a positive constant, h() is a conical fail-
ure envelope (FE) given by Equation 16 and shown in
Figure 4, and 2 is a positive constant.
where kc and are scalar and tensorial constants
respectively, related to the critical slope (M ), kd is
a positive constant and kp = kc kd is a variable
(similar to the parameter used by Wood et al 1994).
Improving the Kavvadas & Belokas (2001) model,
the MSS-2 flow rule employs the phase parameter,
(Fig. 2), to distinguish dilatant from contractant states
and introduces a dependence on primary anisotropy
for deviatoric strains.
Constants 1 and 2 control the direction of the
plastic strain increment for states on the SSE. The func-
tion hc serves the purpose of the critical state line in
terms of stresses, while the function hp allows for stress
paths that intersect this critical state line during dilatant
behaviour.
5 ELASTICITY
A hyper-elastic formulation which results from an
elastic strain potential V e has been incorporated:
31
where s , A and B are hyper-elastic constants.
6 PLASTIC MODULUS
For material states on the SSE, the plastic modulus,
Hf , is determined from the consistency condition,
which ensures that the stress point remains on the SSE
during plastic loading and results in equations 19, 20
and 21:
For material states on the PYE but inside the SSE,
the plastic modulus is determined by an interpolation
mapping rule, which ensures a smooth and continuous
transition of Hf as PYE approaches SSE:
where Hfo is the plastic modulus at point M " (where
vector OM intersects the SSE in Fig. 3), is the nor-
malized length of MM (M is the current state), o is
the value of the parameter upon yield initiation and
= 1 + 2 (/ 1) is a variable with 1 and 2
positive constants.
Equation 22 interpolates between the values:
Hfo = (upon initiation of yielding) and: Hfo = Hfo
(when the stress state reaches the SSE). Point M 
is calculated by the condition F(; K , ) = 0 and
parameter is defined by Equation 23 (see also
Kavvadas & Amorosi 2000). Parameter o is reset to
the value of current each time yielding is re-initiated.
Thus, /o = 1 upon initiation of yielding, /o < 1 at
any later stage, and = 0 when the material state lies
on the SSE.
A differentiation from previous model versions is that
variable includes the effect of structure on the plastic
hardening modulus.

Figure 5. Influence volumetric degradation parameters on
compressibility.
Figure 6. Influence of bonding on undrained shear response.
7 EXAMPLE SIMULATIONS
Figure 5 shows the structure degradation during radial
compression and Figure 6 shows structure degrada-
tion for various degrees of bonding (/ ) during and
undrained shear.
8 CONCLUSIONS
The formulation of an anisotropic bounding sur-
face plasticity constitutive Model for Structured Soils
(MSS-2) has been presented. It has been based on the
Kavvadas & Belokas (2001) the major advances being
the following: a) a hyperelastic formulation has been
employed, b) the Intrinsic Compression Curves are
linear in the lnv-ln plane, c) the phase parameter,
32
, has been employed, which controls dilatancy
contractancy and depends on the magnitude of struc-
ture, d) the deviatoric component of the plastic flow
depends on structure anisotropy and e) the plastic
hardening modulus depends on the magnitude of
bonding.
Compared to the original MSS model (Kavvadas &
Amorosi, 2000) the major advances include the incor-
poration of: a) rotated distorted ellipsoids for the
bounding and the yield surfaces, b) a different damage-
type mechanism to model structure degradation and
c) the Intrinsic Strength Envelope as a reference
envelope.
REFERENCES
Been K and Jefferies MG. 1985. A state parameter for sands.
Gotechnique. 35(2):99112.
Belokas G. 2008 Modelling of the Mechanical Behaviour
of Structured and Anisotropic Soil Materials. Ph.D The-
sis. National Technical University of Athens. pp695 (in
Greek).
Belokas G and Kavvadas M. An intrinsic compressibility
framework for clayey soils. Geotechnical and Geological
Engineering, under review.
Kavvadas M. 1983. A constitutive model for clays based
on non-associated anisotropic elasto-plasticity. Proc. of
the 2nd Int. Conf. on Constitutive Laws for Engineering
Materials, in Tucson. p. 263270.
Kavvadas M. 1998. Hard Soils Soft Rocks: Modelling the
soil behaviour Selection of soil parameters, General
Report. Proc. 2nd Int. Symp. on the Geotechnics of Hard
Soils Soft Rock, in Napoli. p. 14411482.
Kavvadas M and Amorosi A. 2000. A constitutive model for
structured soils. Gotechnique. 50(1): 263273.
Kavvadas MJ and Belokas G. 2001. An anisotropic elasto-
plastic constitutive model for natural soils. Proc. 10th Int.
Conf. on Computer Methods andAdvances in Geomechan-
ics (IACMAG), in Tucson, Arizona,. p. 335340.
Leroueil S and Vaughan PR. 1990. The general and congru-
ent effects of structure in natural soils and weak rocks.
Gotechnique. 40(3):467488.
Lewin P.I. and Burland J.B. 1970. Stress-probe experiments
on saturated normally consolidated clay. Gotechnique.
20(1):3856.
Roscoe K.H., Schofield A.N. and Thurairajah A. 1963.Yield-
ing of clays in states wetter than critical. Geotechnique.
13(3):211240.
Wood DM, Belkheir K and Liu DF. 1994. Strain softening
and state parameter for sand modelling. Technical Note.
Gotechnique. 44(2):335339.
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

An examination of strain space versus stress space for the formulation of

elastoplastic constitutive models

K.C. Ellison & K. Soga

University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

B. Simpson
Arup Geotechnics, London, UK

ABSTRACT: Several elastoplastic soil models have been proposed over the years that are formulated in
strain space rather than stress space due to certain analytical and computational advantages. One such model,
BRICK (Simpson 1992), has been continuously utilized and developed for industrial applications within Arup
Geotechnics for more than two decades. This paper aims to describe the advantages and difficulties associated
with strain space modeling. In addition, it will show how recent advances in modeling the effects of stress
history, stiffness anisotropy, strength anisotropy and time-dependence in conventional stress space models can
be transferred to the BRICK model.

1 INTRODUCTION 2 BRIEF OVERVIEW OF THE BRICK MODEL

Conventional elastoplastic critical state based con-
stitutive models for soil behavior are formulated
primarily in stress space with one or more yield
surfaces defined in terms of principal stresses. Alter-
natively, several constitutive models for geomaterials
have been proposed over the years that are formu-
lated entirely in strain space due to certain analytical
and computational advantages over the conventional
models (e.g. Yoder & Iwan (1981) and Iwan & Chel-
vakumar (1988)). While most of these have failed
to gain traction outside of academic realms, the
BRICK model (Simpson 1992) has been continu-
ously utilized and developed for industrial applica-
tions within Arup Geotechnics for more than two
decades.
Since the initial formulation of the BRICK model,
many advances have been described in the literature
to capture specific features of soil behavior in stress
space models; however, there is little in the litera-
ture to describe how these advances may be applied
in strain space. For example, recent constitutive mod-
els can explicitly consider the effects of stress history,
creep, rate-dependence, stiffness anisotropy, strength
anisotropy and other factors in ways that the original
single-surface models could not. During the ongoing
development of the BRICK model, several of these
advances have been modified for use in strain space.
This paper aims to describe the advantages and diffi-
culties of modeling in strain space as well as to outline
how recent advances can be applied to BRICK-type
models.
A simple plane-strain version of the BRICK model
was described by Simpson (1992). The key features of
this model will be reviewed briefly here.
In the original BRICK model, the current strain
state was defined in a three-dimensional coor-
dinate system with one volumetric strain axis,
vol = (x + y )/2, and two shear strain axes, x y
(pure shear) and xy (simple shear). In addition, sev-
eral bricks that represented a portion of the material
were attached to the strain point by stringsof different
lengths in this strain space. When a string became taut,
the corresponding brick would move toward the strain
point as demonstrated by the sequence in Figure 1 and
plastic strain would develop along that path. The total
plastic strain increment {p } was determined by sum-
ming the contributions of each brick while the elastic
strain increment was determined simply via the rela-
tionship {e } = {} {p }. Thus, when all the strings
were loose, the soil behavior was fully elastic and when
all the strings were taut and lined up behind the strain
point in the orientation of the strain increment, the soil
behavior was perfectly plastic.
In addition to the BRICK effect described above, it
was assumed that the soils capacity for elastic strains
increased as the mean effective stress increased. This
was achieved by discounting some of the volumetric
plastic strains indicated by brick movements so that
changes in volumetric strain followed the appropriate
normal consolidation or swelling line in vol -ln s space
(when all the bricks were aligned) where s was the
mean in-plane effective stress. Increases in volumetric

33
Figure 1. Example sequence of strain point and brick movement during 1D consolidation (ab) and undrained extension
(bd).
strain were also associated with an increase in the
capacity for shear strain. Therefore, shear plastic strain
reductions were applied such that shear failure was
achieved at a constant stress ratio t/s = f ({Lb },{Rb })
where t was the shear stress and {Lb } and {Rb } were the
string lengths and material proportions, respectively,
for each brick b.
The elastic stiffness in the BRICK model is
pressure-dependent, i.e. K e = s / where K e is the
elastic bulk modulus and is a user-defined elastic
stiffness parameter. However, it is also presumed that
the strength and stiffness of the material will increase
with overconsolidation as measured by the distance
of the current strain point from the normal consoli-
dation line in vol -ln s space. Increased stiffness was
introduced by decreasing the parameter from its user-
specified value. This would also lead to an increase
in the failure stress ratio t/s which was modified by
adjusting the string lengths {Lb }.
The three-dimensional (3D) BRICK model cur-
rently used by Arup is based on the same principles as
the plane-strain version described by Simpson (1992)
and summarized above.The major difference is that the
strain point and bricks are defined in a six-dimensional
space comprised of one volumetric strain and five
shear strains. The details of this formulation have
recently been described by Ellison (2009) and Clarke
(2009).
3 ADVANTAGES OF STRAIN SPACE
3.1 Philosophical advantages
As stated in the frontispiece of Professor John
Burlands PhD thesis (Burland 1967) and reiterated
during Brian Simpsons Rankine Lecture (Simpson
1992): Stress is a philosophical concept - deformation
is the physical reality. This quote encapsulates one of
the most compelling reasons that an examination of
strain rather than stress might be more appropriate to
describe the evolution of soil behavior. While these
two measures are inextricably linked, changes in soil
behavior are ultimately caused by micromechanical
changes in soil fabric that are reflected at the mesoscale
34
by the accumulation of strain. Thus, strain space
models may be better suited to explain the underly-
ing mechanisms that govern the constitutive behavior
of soil.
It has long been recognized that void ratio is a criti-
cal parameter to soil behavior. In stress space models,
the void ratio (or volumetric strain) is needed to iso-
late the critical state line. Moreover, plastic strains are
needed to compute the hardening of yield surfaces in
stress space models and it seems more appropriate to
derive these plastic strains directly from an increment
of strain rather than an increment of stress. Therefore,
strain space is simply a more consistent basis for a
constitutive model.
As another example, consider the phenomenon of
stiffness anisotropy which arises from the preferred
orientations of particles and particle contacts that make
up a soils fabric. The accumulation of large strains
might change this fabric and corresponding anisotropy
even if the initial and final stress states are the same.
Stress space models account for this by allowing the
yield surface to expand, translate or rotate throughout
the stress history; however, a more realistic descrip-
tion should examine strain history since this is a better
measure of the change in fabric.
Furthermore, if a specimen is subjected to an abrupt
change in stress path, plastic strains will initially con-
tinue to develop in the direction of its recent strain
history (Atkinson et. al. 1990). If the initial stress path
is small, then its recent stress history can be forgotten
after a period of creep (Clayton & Heymann 2001).
However, more significant stress histories cannot be
completely forgotten due to creep (Gasparre 2005).
This observation is best described by an examination of
strain: small strains will result in a small change to the
soil fabric that can be overcome by subsequent creep
strains whereas larger strains may result in a signifi-
cant change to the soil fabric that cannot be overcome
by creep. In contrast, the influence of stress changes
on the soil fabric will be harder to gauge since this will
vary with the current stress state.
It also makes intuitive sense to model both creep and
the related phenomenon of stress relaxation (whereby
stress decreases over time while strain remains
constant) in strain space since these phenomena are
thought to arise from the gradual rearrangement of par-
ticles due to bond failures at the molecular level. This
rearrangement would best be expressed directly by the
development of plastic strains rather than indirectly
through the propensity of a yield surface to reposition
itself in stress space.
3.2 Practical advantages
There are also some practical reasons to formulate con-
stitutive models in strain space. The primary reason
is that strain space models are naturally compatible
with the finite element method whereby an incre-
ment of strain is shuttled into the constitutive model
and an increment of stress must be produced, i.e.
{} = f({}, {k}) where {k} is comprised of the state
variables (e.g. Chelvakumar & Iwan (1988)). On the
other hand, stress space formulations must be rear-
ranged to make strain the independent variable during
a numerical time step, often at the expense of computa-
tional efficiency. This complication is apparent in the
calculation of the scalar multiplier  which is used in
conjunction with the plastic potential P/ to obtain
the plastic strain increment.
A second practical advantage of strain space model-
ing is that it eliminates the need to make assumptions
about the intersection of yield surfaces. Multi-surface
formulations in stress space with bilinear constitutive
laws require that no two surfaces intersect or else the
uniqueness of solution could be destroyed (Puzrin &
Houlsby 2001). However, Yoder (1981) demonstrated
that no such problem exists for yield surfaces in strain
space. Moreover, in multisurface stress space models,
it can be difficult to determine the proportion of a
strain increment that takes place before a new surface
is encountered. This is usually remedied via a com-
putationally expensive iteration scheme that would be
unnecessary in a strain space formulation.
Finally, Yoder (1981) asserts that stress space mod-
els can become unstable for special cases (such as
perfect plasticity) unless they are explicitly consid-
ered within a computer code. On the other hand, strain
space models can seamlessly unify the cases of hard-
ening, softening and ideally plastic behavior (Iwan &
Chelvakumar 1988).
4 DIFFICULTIES ASSOCIATED WITH THE
ORIGINAL 3D BRICK MODEL
Despite the advantages described above, strain space
models exhibit a few difficulties relative to conven-
tional models that have prevented them from gaining
widespread popularity.
Rather than defining yield surfaces and a flow rule,
a user of the BRICK model must explicitly select
the size and weight of many kinematic surfaces by
defining points along an S-shaped curve comprised of
material proportions and string lengths as shown in
Figure 2. This affords the user greater control over the
35
Figure 2. Sample discretization of the S-shaped curve.
rate of stiffness degradation compared with conven-
tional flow rules. However, a finite number of bricks
must be used and, therefore, the stiffness curve will
not necessarily be smooth. For practical purposes, 10
bricks are normally used, but in principle the number
is not limited.
The greatest challenge in working with BRICK is
the determination of the in situ state variables. At the
start of a BRICK simulation, the bricks and strain
point must be located along the volumetric strain axis
or else anisotropic strength will be predicted. There-
fore, a best estimate of the brick locations at the in
situ state is usually obtained by modeling a portion of
geological history considered to have influenced the
current state. For London clay, an arbitrary reference
state of p = 2 kPa is typically used where p is the
mean effective stress. This is inconvenient because the
geological strain history is not always well-known and
there is no guarantee that its simulation will result in
the same horizontal pressures observed in the field.
By comparison, conventional stress space models are
attractive because their simulations may begin at the in
situ state. As a result, the initial size, shape and posi-
tion of their yield surfaces may be selected to agree
with probed stress paths from laboratory tests. How-
ever, this advantage will disappear once a yield surface
is engaged.
The ability of the BRICK model to replicate
undrained deformations has been well-established
(e.g. Simpson (1992) and Pillai (1996)); however,
comparison of the measured and simulated tests of
high quality undrained triaxial tests on London Clay in
Figure 3 demonstrates that the model is less successful
at capturing the effective stress paths. The orientations
of the undrained stress paths are incorrect in this sim-
ulation partly because the model does not account for
elastic anisotropy. Moreover, the BRICK effect occa-
sionally results in unrealistic kinks or rapid changes
in the stress path direction. These kinks occur when a
complex recent strain history has changed the location
of the bricks on short strings relative to the cur-
rent strain point without significantly affecting those
attached to the longer strings. The resulting orienta-
tion of the plastic strain increment during a monotonic
loading sequence can change rapidly once the bricks
on the longer strings become engaged.
Figure 3. Simulations of undrained triaxial compression and drained triaxial extension tests on samples from a depths of
11 m in Unit B2(c) of London Clay using the original 3D BRICK model (lab data from Gasparre (2005)).
As also shown by Figure 3, the model tends to under-
predict dilation during drained simulations. It can be
seen from Figure 1d that continued shear straining will
lead to additional volumetric strain until the bricks line
up parallel to the shear strain axis. In this manner, the
model computes some plastic dilation; however, there
is no explicit flow rule.
It will be shown in a subsequent section that the
incorporation of stiffness anisotropy in the BRICK
model significantly improves the predictions of both
dilation and effective stress paths. However, this is
much more difficult to accomplish in BRICK-type
models than in conventional models. In stress space,
it is a relatively trivial task to incorporate stiffness
anisotropy by substituting the isotropic elastic stiff-
ness matrix with an anisotropic one. However, in
the BRICK model, strength and elastic stiffness are
closely intertwined. Therefore, one cannot simply
introduce an anisotropic elastic stiffness matrix with-
out inducing an equivalent and undesired anisotropy
of strength.
Lastly, unlike the conventional critical state based
models, BRICK does not necessarily approach a criti-
cal state line in vol -ln p space. As a result, its primary
applications are currently limited to stiff clays that
undergo strain localization before such a line would
ever be reached.
5 INCORPORATING SPECIFIC FEATURES IN
BRICK-TYPE MODELS
5.1 Stress history effects
Many constitutive models have employed multiple
kinematically-translating yield surfaces to describe the
influence of stress history on the anisotropic hardening
of geomaterials (e.g. Dafalias & Herrmann (1982) and
Stallebrass & Taylor (1997)). It is straightforward to
convert this type of formulation to strain space and this
is the only extraordinary feature explicitly considered
by the original BRICK model.
In conventional multi-surface models, one or more
surfaces are usually nested within an isotropically-
expanding bounding surface. The largest yield surface
engaged at any time is the active yield surface and the
translation of this surface is a function of normality
36
and the orientation of a vector connecting the current
stress point to its conjugate point on a larger surface.
This ensures that yield surfaces will only intersect
tangentially at conjugate points.
Stress history is considered by the BRICK model
in a similar manner except that there may be multi-
ple active surfaces (i.e. taut strings) at a given time.
In fact, as mentioned in a previous section, the for-
mulation is even simpler in strain space since there is
no need to force subsequent yield surfaces to intersect
tangentially.
5.2 Creep, ageing and rate effects
Many studies have highlighted the roles of creep, age-
ing and rate effects on soil behavior. It has been shown
that creep and ageing can cause the elastic region
to recenter itself about the current stress state (e.g.
Clayton & Heymann (2001) and Gasparre (2005)).
A related phenomenon known as isotach behavior
describes how changes in the strain rate applied to
some soils can cause a jump between different isotach
stress-strain curves (e.g. Suklje (1969)).
The most popular methods to capture creep and
isotach behavior due to viscoplastic time-dependent
effects in geomaterials are the nonstationary flow
surface (NSFS) and overstress theories (e.g. Perzyna
(1966) and Naghdi & Murch (1963)). The NSFS the-
ory utilizes a variant of the classical elastoplastic yield
surface that is a function of strain rate. The over-
stress theory postulates that a dynamic yield surface
exists beyond the static yield surface that depends upon
the strain rate and that these surfaces will gradually
converge as the strain rate reduces to zero.
The principles of the overstress theory readily lend
themselves for incorporation into BRICK-type mod-
els. Rather than employing rate-dependent dynamic
yield surfaces, Clarke (2009) has employed rate-
dependent string lengths that gradually converge
upon their reference values as the stress/strain rate
decreases. Clarkes strain rate dependent string lengths
are determined by the following equation:
where is a material constant and the superscripts
tar and ref refer to target and reference values,
respectively. However, to avoid a large jump in string
length due to a sudden change in strain rate, a damping
function is introduced:
where is a material constant, t is time and the
superscript n refers to the current step number.
Implications of the Clarke (2009) formulation are:
(i) Creep occurs due to the accumulation of plas-
tic strains as the strings contract, (ii) stiffer behavior
is predicted after creep since all of the strings will
initially become loose when the strain rate increases
again, and (iii) isotach behavior can be replicated.
5.3 Strength anisotropy and Lode angle effects
It has long been observed that the size of the elastic
region and the residual stress ratio achieved by labora-
tory specimens are stress path dependent. Thus, many
formulations have been proposed to alter the shape of
the yield surface in the -plane with respect to the Lode
angle (e.g. Matsuoka & Nakai (1977)). Such formu-
lations can easily be incorporated into BRICK-type
models by modifying the string lengths to be strain
path dependent.
For example, the Modified Drucker Prager surface
may be adopted, i.e.:
where is a constant that controls the shape of the
yield surface in the -plane, q* and r* are invari-
ants derived from the deviatoric stress tensor and
is related to the effective friction angle and controls
the slope of the yield surface in the meridian plane.
This criterion is readily employed within models where
the failure surface is imposed as a discrete boundary
around pre-failure behaviour. However, it is not read-
ily adapted to the BRICK model in which stiffness and
strength are interrelated.
The 3D BRICK model used by Arup employs a
revised version of Equation 3 rewritten using equiv-
alent strain terms to express the ratio of the polar
distance from the volumetric strain axis to the max-
imum polar distance (corresponding to triaxial com-
pression), therefore:
q
where br and b are invariants of the deviatoric strain
along string b. However, the full string length correc-
tion need not be applied unless the string has reached
shear failure. Therefore, the following equation is
used:
It is postulated that the same type of string length
correction could be applied to introduce strength
anisotropy; however, such a formulation has yet to be
incorporated into the model.
5.4 Stiffness anisotropy
Numerous laboratory studies have revealed that the
small strain linear elastic behavior of soil is not
isotropic and that the extent of anisotropy is relatively
constant up to intermediate strains (e.g. Gasparre
(2005) and Yimsiri et al. (2009)). The conventional
isotropic elastic stiffness matrix can easily be substi-
tuted with an anisotropic one in stress space models.
It is not so simple to incorporate stiffness anisotropy
in BRICK-type models for two reasons: 1) elastic
stiffness anisotropy would result in an equivalent
anisotropy of strength; and 2) the BRICK model must
simulate the entire geologic history over which the
anisotropy has likely developed. An appropriate treat-
ment of stiffness anisotropy should account for the
evolution of anisotropy with strain without altering the
residual strength condition.
The problem of strength anisotropy arising from
elastic stiffness anisotropy can be mitigated by pass-
ing a modified strain increment {mod } through the
constitutive model, i.e.,
where [Daniso ] and [Diso ] are the anisotropic and
isotropic stiffness matrices, respectively.
A matrix [M ] can be defined to convert between
the real strain increment and the modified strain
increment, i.e.,
In this formulation both the elastic and plastic strains
will be anisotropic. As a result, there is no guaran-
tee that the perfectly plastic behavior at critical state
will be volume-preserving. Thus, in order to achieve a
constant volume condition, the model must evolve to
become isotropic at critical state (i.e. [M ] [I ] where
[I ] is the identity matrix).
Ellison (2009) presents one possible formulation for
stiffness anisotropy in BRICK using the above frame-
work. In this model, direction-dependent anisotropy
increases with the amount of shear strain developed
since a reference value and decreases with the devel-
opment of shear stress such that the model becomes
isotropic near the residual stress ratio. This formula-
tion significantly improves the predictions of effective
37
Figure 4. Simulations of undrained triaxial compression and drained triaxial extension tests on samples from a depth of 11 m
in Unit B2(c) of London Clay using the 3D BRICK model with stiffness anisotropy (lab data from Gasparre (2005)).
stress paths during undrained tests and dilation during
drained tests as demonstrated by the simulations in
Figure 4.
6 CONCLUSIONS
In recent decades, researchers have identified several
shortcomings of conventional constitutive models to
capture certain aspects of soil behavior, such as stress
history effects, strength anisotropy, time-dependence
and stiffness anisotropy. While most methods to
address these features have been introduced to stress
space models, similar advances have been applied to
the BRICK model in strain space.
This paper has reviewed the advantages and diffi-
culties of using strain as the independent variable in
a constitutive model. Moreover, it has described how
several advances in the modeling of specific features
in stress space can be modified for implementation in
BRICK-type models.
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 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Anisotropic small strain stiffness within the multilaminate framework

B. Schdlich & H.F. Schweiger

Computational Geotechnics Group, Institute for Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering, Graz University of
Technology, Graz, Austria

ABSTRACT: Using the spectral decomposition of the global compliance matrix, a novel approach to modelling
anisotropic elasticity within the multilaminate framework is presented. The new approach is implemented into
a soil model which accounts for degradation of small strain stiffness with increasing shear strain and stress
dependency of stiffness. The model is calibrated by back-analysis of element tests on London Clay and applied
in a Finite Element calculation to evaluate the influence of anisotropic small strain stiffness on deformations
connected with tunnel excavation.

1 INTRODUCTION The transformation matrix Ti contains the derivatives

The high initial elastic stiffness of soils at very small
strains (<106 ) and its degradation with accumulation
of strain is well known since the early 1970ies. With
increasing progress in both laboratory testing and soil
modelling, taking that effect into account in geotech-
nical engineering has become more and more common
practice within the last decade.
Still, in most practical cases soil is assumed to
behave isotropically at very small strains, although
laboratory tests on natural soils indicate strongly cross-
anisotropic behaviour (Gasparre 2005, Fioravente
2000).
In the following study an approach to model inher-
ently cross-anisotropic elastic material and degrada-
tion of small strain stiffness is presented. The model
is applied to a tunnelling problem in order to evaluate
the effect of initial anisotropy on deformations within
the tunnel and at the ground surface.
2 MULTILAMINATE FRAMEWORK
Multilaminate material models are based on the con-
cept that the material behaviour can be formulated on
a distinct number of local planes with varying orien-
tation. The stress strain state varies from plane to
plane, resulting in loading induced anisotropy within
an intrinsically isotropic material. The global response
of the material to a prescribed load is obtained by
summation of the contributions of all planes.
The local stress vector i,loc is obtained by project-
ing the global stress vector gl with the transformation
matrix Ti on plane i.
of the local stress components with respect to the
global axes, represented by the direction cosine of the
unit vector nTi = (ni,1 , ni,2 , ni,3 ) normal to the plane i and
of two unit vectors within the plane, sTi = (si,1 , si,2 , si,3 )
and tTi = (ti,1 , ti,2 , ti,3 ). Vectors ni , si and ti must form
an orthogonal system of local axes, such that ni si = 0,
ni ti = 0 and ti si = 0.
The local elastic strains i,loc are calculated as
In the case of isotropic linear elastic material, Cloc is
equal for all planes. For non-linear elasticity (small
strain stiffness), Cloc depends on the strain history of
each plane and therefore differs from plane to plane,
resulting in anisotropic global behaviour.
Global strains are obtained by back-transformation
and summation of all local strains:
The factor of 3 in front of the summation can be derived
from the principle of virtual work (Baant & Prat
1988). The weight factors wi depend on the chosen
integration rule. In this study an integration rule based
on 2 33 planes (Baant & Oh 1985) is used.
While local stresses are a projection of the global
stress state (static constraint), local strains are in gen-
eral not the projection of global strains (kinematic
constraint) in multilaminate models but they are in
so-called microplane models (Baant & Prat 1988).

39
3 ANISOTROPIC SMALL STRAIN STIFFNESS Using the idempotent matrices E1 . . . E4 , which are
MODEL defined by the 4 eigenvectors of Cgl , the global stress
vector can be split up into its spectral components or
3.1 Concept stress modes gl,1 . . . gl,4 .
In previous multilaminate-type soil models it was pos-
tulated, that the local stress state could be represented
by 3 components, whose directions coincided with the
direction of the vectors n, s and t (Scharinger et al.
2008). That assumption results in a 3 3 local elas-
tic compliance matrix Cloc and a 3 6 transformation
matrix T. For elasticity it was further assumed, that on
local level normal strains are only caused by normal
stresses and tangential strains are only caused by tan-
gential stresses. Therefore, Cloc was a diagonal matrix
with elements outside the main diagonal equal to 0.
For anisotropic material, the aforementioned
assumptions can no longer be maintained. Isotropic
compression of an anisotropic material results in shear
strains on all planes which are not parallel to the global
axes, although only normal stresses are obtained on
these planes from Equation 1. Anisotropic material
behaviour can therefore not be modelled by using a
diagonal local compliance matrix.
The spectral decomposition of the global stress
vector offers the possibility to obtain local compli-
ance matrices directly. Cross-anisotropic material with
a vertical axis of symmetry is considered further
on, although the method is also applicable to fully
anisotropic material. Only the step-by-step procedure
will be demonstrated in this paper. For details on
the theoretical background see Theocaris & Sokolis
(2000) and Cusatis et al. (2008).
The global compliance matrix Cgl of a cross
anisotropic elastic material is fully defined by 5 param-
eters: two elastic moduli Ev and Eh , one independent
shear modulus Gvh , and two Poissons ratios, vh and
hh . If written in Kelvin notation, Cgl possesses four
eigenvalues, 1 . . . 4 .

Local stress modes i,loc,m on plane i are obtained by

projecting each global stress mode separately using
transformation matrices according to Equation 2.

Local strain modes i,loc,m are calculated by multiply-

ing each local stress mode i,loc,m separately with the
corresponding eigenvalue m (Equ. 11). The sum of all
local strain modes yields the local strain vector i,loc ,
and the sum of all local stress modes equals the local
stress vector i,loc (Equ. 12).

40
 For this split, the transformation matrix of plane i can
be written as

Back transformation to global level and summation

of the local strains follows the same procedure as for
isotropic material (Equ. 4).
It should be noted, that in this procedure the local
stresses depend on global material parameters, while
local strains are obtained by multiplying the local
stress modes with the scalar eigenvalues. That differs
quite substantially from multilaminate models, where
local stresses only depend on plane orientation, and all
elastic material properties are described by the local
compliance matrix Ci,loc .
However, local compliance matrices can also be Ci,loc depends on the plane orientation and con-
derived directly from the global compliance matrix. tains non-zero off-diagonal elements for general non-
Combining Equations 7 and 1012 yields. isotropic material. In the case of isotropic elastic
material, Cgl has only two unique eigenvalues (Equ.
18), yielding a diagonal local compliance matrix
(Equ. 19).

Comparing Equation 13 with Equation 1 and 3,

Equation 14 is found.

As the matrices Em are of the order 6 6, Equation

13 only has a unique solution if both Ti and Ci,loc also Both local stresses and local strains are projections of
are 6 6 matrices. In that case Equation 13 can be the corresponding global quantities. Therefore, both
transformed to the static and the kinematic constraint are fulfilled.

3.2 Stress dependency of stiffness

That means, that the local stress vector is split up into
six components. For the present study local stress and
strain components on plane i are defined as
Laboratory test data indicate, that in cross-anisotropic
natural soils Eh depends on h and Ev depends on v
(Kuwano & Jardine 2002). However, using such an
approach in boundary value problems is prone to cause
numerical problems at stress free boundaries because
high stresses in one direction and stresses close to
zero in the other numerically induce extreme ratios
of anisotropy in the material, which causes the global
stiffness matrix to become almost singular.
In order to avoid such problems, in this study global
stiffness parameters Ev , Eh , and Gvh are assumed to
depend on the mean effective stress p only.

with i,n,vol . . . volumetric normal stress, i,n,dev . . .

deviatoric normal stress, i,s1 and i,t1 . . . tangential
stresses in direction of s and t resulting from global
axial stresses, i,s2 and i,t2 . . . tangential stresses in With that approach a reference local compliance
direction of s and t resulting from global shear stresses. matrix Cloc,ref can be established, calculated from

41
 Table 1. Elastic soil properties of London Clay.

Parameter Isotropic Anisotropic Unit

Eur,ref 13000 13000 kPa

pref 100 100 kPa
m 1.0 1.0
ur 0.2 0.2
Ev0,ref 48960 30000 kPa
Eh0,ref 48960 78000 kPa
Gvh0,ref 20400 20400 kPa
hh 0.2 0.02
vh 0.2 0.16
1 0.0025 0.0025 %
2 0.03 0.03 %
Figure 1. Degradation of anisotropic small strain stiffness.

global stiffness parameters Eh,ref , Ev,ref , Gvh,ref at the

reference pressure pref . The local compliance matrix
at the current stress level is then obtained according to
Equation (21).

3.3 Degradation of stiffness

Experimental data from laboratory tests show a
S-shaped degradation of the initial stiffness with accu-
mulated shear strain (e.g. Gasparre 2005). Various
functions describing the degradation of small strain
stiffness can be found in the literature, involving
trigonometric, exponential and logarithmic functions
(e.g. Jardine et al. 1986, Benz 2007).
For the anisotropic multilaminate model, it
is assumed that the initially anisotropic material
approaches isotropy with increasing accumulated local
shear strain . Stiffness degradation of Eh follows
Equation 22, for the other anisotropic parameters
equivalent equations apply. At shear strains larger than
2 , the material at local level is isotropic, described by
the elastic modulus Eur and Poissons ratio ur .
As the development of local shear strains differs
from plane to plane, also local stiffness parameters
vary over the planes, thus resulting in a smooth transi-
tion from small to large strain behaviour on global
level. The local shear strains 1 and 2 have to be
determined by back-analysis of laboratory tests.
3.4 Plastic strains
Once the large strain region is reached locally, the
model can also account for strain hardening plastic-
ity. As this study is focused on elastic small strain
Figure 2. Degradation of equivalent shear modulus.
behaviour, the reader is referred to Schweiger et al.
(2009) for details on the plasticity part of the model.
4 ELEMENT TESTS ON LONDON CLAY
4.1 Small strain parameters
Recent experimental data on anisotropic small strain
stiffness of London Clay have been published by
Gasparre (2005). The samples were retrieved from
the site of the Heathrow Terminal 5 and tested
using bender element aided triaxial tests. For a depth
of 22.6 m, values of Ev0 = 110 Mpa, Eh0 = 285 Mpa,
Gvh0 = 75 Mpa, vh = 0.02 and hh = 0.16 are
reported. Reference values at 100 kPa are listed in
Table 1. Back analysis of the equivalent shear modu-
lus Geq in undrained triaxial compression tests yielded
local shear strains 1 = 0.0025% and 2 = 0.03% for
fitting experimental data (Fig. 2).
However, the same initial shear stiffness Geq and
degradation curve could also be obtained assuming
isotropic material behaviour (Fig. 2). In that case,
Geq would equal the isotropic shear modulus G.
Setting = 0.2, isotropic values can be derived as
G0,ref = 20.4 Mpa and E0,ref = 48.96 Mpa.

42
Figure 3. FE-model and boundary conditions.

4.2 Elastic large strain parameters

The inclination of the unloading/reloading line in Figure 4. Vertical displacement point A.
isotropic compression of natural samples is reported
as = 0.029 (Gasparre 2005). With V = 1 + e = 2.12
(specific volume at reference pressure pref ), ur = 0.2
and pref = 100 kPa, the unloading reloading stiffness
can be obtained as Eur,ref = 13000 kPa according to
Equation 24.

5 INFLUENCE OF ANISOTROPIC SMALL

STRAIN STIFFNESS

5.1 FE-model and boundary conditions

The soil model described above is utilized to investi-
gate the influence of small strain stiffness anisotropy Figure 5. Vertical displacement point B.
on tunnel induced surface settlements and displace-
ments at the tunnel cross section. The model developed
by Scharinger et al. (2008) has been extended to
account for anisotropic small strain stiffness. Although
the model can also account for plasticity in the large
strain range, only elastic strains are considered in this
study.
The tunnel centre is situated at 30.5 m depth, diam-
eter of the circular tunnel is 4.75 m. Soil layering is
simplified to only one soil layer (Fig. 3).
The calculations are performed with the Finite
Element code PLAXIS2D V9.0, using triangular
15-noded elements. Three different sets of soil prop-
erties are considered:
Set 1: no small strain stiffness
Set 2: isotropic small strain stiffness (Table 1) Figure 6. Horizontal displacement point C.
Set 3: anisotropic small strain stiffness (Table 1)
5.2 Results
The following boundary conditions are applied in
all calculations: The displacements due to tunnel excavation are com-
pared at the following points:
Ground water table 5 m below ground surface
K0 = 1.5 (constant over depth) Point A at ground surface above tunnel
Hydrostatic pore water pressure Point B at tunnel crown
Point C at tunnel bench
For simplicity drained conditions are assumed in
this study. Starting from the initial stress state, the The development of vertical and horizontal dis-
nodal forces of the tunnel boundary are subsequently placements with reduction of initial nodal forces
reduced from 100% to 0. within the tunnel is summarized in Figures 46.

43
Table 2. Displacements [mm] at 40% stress relaxation.
set 1 set 2 set 3 set 3 / set 2
Point A uv 2.1 1.2 1.4 120%
Point B uv 10.8 7.0 7.6 109%
Point C uh 16.7 10.4 8.6 83%
The curves for point B and C become parallel at
4050% excavation, indicating the complete loss of
small strain stiffness within the soil volume relevant to
these points. For point A slightly different inclinations
can be found even at full relaxation. The ratio
at 40% stress relaxation varies from 83% to 120%
(Table 2). Although fu,aniso follows the ratio of isotropic
vs. anisotropic stiffness (with uv being governed by
1/Ev and uh by 1/Eh ), the stiffness ratio is consid-
erably higher than fu,aniso (Ev0 / Eiso = 61%; Eh0 /
Eiso = 160%).
6 CONCLUSION
A new approach for modelling anisotropic, stress -
dependent small strain stiffness within the multil-
aminate framework has been developed. The stress
dependency of stiffness currently implemented in
the model does not fully agree with experimentally
observed soil behaviour and requires further investi-
gation. Regarding the influence of anisotropy in the
small strain range on practical boundary value prob-
lems, the study must be seen as preliminary. Only
one set of anisotropic parameters was used, and only
elastic deformations in a tunnelling problem were con-
sidered. However, in the case investigated isotropic
and anisotropic small strain stiffness result in simi-
lar displacements, if both sets of parameters fit the
degradation curve of the equivalent shear modulus
Geq . Whether this is a general trend or just coincidence
44
needs to be investigated with more sets of parameters
and also in different boundary value problems.
REFERENCES
Addenbrooke, T.I., Potts, D.M. & Puzrin, A.M. 1997. The
influence of pre-failure soil stiffness on the numerical
analysis of tunnel construction. Geotechnique 47 (3):
693712.
Baant, Z.P. & Oh, B.H. 1986. Efficient Numerical Integra-
tion on the Surface of a Sphere. Zeitschrift fr angewandte
Mathematik und Mechanik 66: 3749.
Baant, Z.P. & Prat, P.C. 1988. Microplane Model for
Brittle-Plastic Material: I. Theory. Journal of Engineering
Mechanics 114(10): 16721688.
Benz, T. 2007. Small Strain Stiffness of Soils and its
Numerical Consequences. Ph.D. Thesis. Mitteilung 55 des
Instituts fr Geotechnik, Universitt Stuttgart.
Cusatis, G., Beghini, A. & Baant, Z.P. 2008. Spectral Stiff-
ness Microplane Model for Quasibrittle Laminates Part
I: Theory. Journal of Applied Mechanics 75(2): (021009)
19.
Fioravante, F. 2000. Anisotropy of small strain stiffness of
Ticino and Kenya sands from seismic wave propagation
measured in triaxial testing. Soils and Foundations 40(4):
129142.
Gasparre, A. 2005. Advanced laboratory characterisation of
London Clay. PhD thesis, Imperial College, London.
Jardine, R.J., Potts, D.M., Fourie, A.B. & Burland, J.B. 1986.
Studies of the influence of non-linear stress-strain char-
acteristics in soil-structure interaction. Geotechnique 36
(3): 377396.
Kuwano, R. & Jardine, R.J. 2002. On the applicability of
cross-anisotropic elasticity to granular materials at very
small strains. Geotechnique 52 (10): 727749.
Scharinger, F., Schweiger, H.F. & Pande, G.N. 2008. On a
multilaminate model for soil incorporating small strain
stiffness. International Journal for Numerical and Ana-
lytical Methods in Geomechanics 33(2): 215243.
Schweiger, H.F., Wiltafsky, C., Scharinger, F. & Galavi, V.
2009. A multilaminate framework for modelling induced
and inherent anisotropy of soils. Geotechnique 59 (2):
87101.
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 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Application of discontinuity layout optimization to problems involving

non-associative friction

A.F. Babiker, C.C. Smith & M. Gilbert

Department of Civil and Structural Engineering, University of Sheffield, UK

ABSTRACT: According to plasticity theory, when a frictional material is sheared, dilatancy will accompany
sliding deformation, according to the associated flow rule, or saw-tooth idealization of friction. However,
although real granular soil materials will generally be observed to dilate when sheared, the amount of dilatancy
measured experimentally will generally be much less than assumed by classical plasticity theory, potentially
leading to non-conservative estimates of safety being obtained. For many types of geotechnical problems the
degree of non-conservatism involved will be small, but in the case of highly confined problems the error can be
more significant. A variety of means of addressing this issue have previously been proposed and in this paper
the scope for using an iterative procedure developed for application to masonry structures in conjunction with
the Discontinuity Layout Optimization (DLO) numerical limit analysis procedure is examined.

1 INTRODUCTION not be significant, differences can become large when

1.1 Background
Limit analysis provides a powerful means of assess-
ing the stability of a broad range of geotechnical
engineering problems. One benefit of the method is
that the bound theorems of plasticity theory can be
used to ensure that solutions have definite status, i.e.
that the solution obtained provides either an over-
or under-estimate of the true collapse load, or load
factor.
However, to enable the formal theorems of plasticity
theory to be applied, associated plastic flow has to be
assumed. i.e. flow occurs in a direction normal to the
failure surface, according to the normality rule. This
means that the angle of dilation must be taken to be
equal to the angle of shearing resistance . In practice
this assumption leads to satisfactory analysis predic-
tions in the case of purely cohesive materials, where
is effectively zero, but predictions are less realistic
in the case of frictional materials. Whilst experiments
have demonstrated that dilation does occur in frictional
soil materials, this is very much less than predicted by
the normality rule and in some cases the dilation can
be zero, i.e. involving shearing of soil at a constant vol-
ume (Cox 1963). Thus a frictional soil should ideally
be modelled assuming 0 < < . (Note that in this
paper is used in place of  for sake of simplicity.)
It has been known for many decades that severe
difficulties can arise when calculating limit loads in
the presence of non-associative friction, and that a
wide range of possible solutions to such problems
exist (Drucker 1954). Although indications are that for
many practical geotechnical problems the differences
between associative and non-associative solutions will
the degree of confinement is high.
For a given problem there is therefore a need to:
1. Identify a measure of the range of feasible non-
associative solutions.
2. For each non-associative solution, determine a real-
istic failure mechanism (which does not involve
excessive dilation).
For many problems the above may simply mean
showing that the associative solution is not signifi-
cantly affected by the flow rule used.
1.2 Previous work
In previous work by Gilbert et al. (2006), a numerical
method was proposed to allow the stability of large-
scale masonry block structures with non-associative
frictional joints to be evaluated. The iterative method
proposed involved the use of a succession of modi-
fied failure surfaces for each interface (masonry joint)
in the problem, with each failure surface ascribed
a fictitious cohesion to limit the shear force in line
with the actual Mohr Coulomb failure envelope being
used. The fictitious cohesion was calculated accord-
ing to the magnitude of the normal force computed
in previous iterations. The iterative procedure required
solution of a succession of simple linear programming
(LP) problems, and proceeded until a converged solu-
tion, not involving dilation, was obtained. The method
appears to be capable of evaluating realistic non-
associative solutions, with computed collapse loads
always lower, or equal to, those obtained assuming
associative friction.

45
 It is of interest to investigate whether the same basic
method can be applied to soil plasticity problems. One
obvious difference the problems is that whereas the
locations of potential planes of weakness are well-
defined in the case of masonry block problems (i.e.
along the joints), the continuum nature of the material
means that this is not true in the case of soil problems.
However, the recently developed discontinuity layout
optimization (DLO) procedure would appear to pro-
vide a means of addressing this issue, as will now be
described.
1.3 Discontinuity Layout Optimization (DLO)
DLO is a novel analysis procedure which is applicable
to a wide range of limit analysis problems (Smith &
Gilbert 2007). It is capable of determining the critical
layout of discontinuities in a body of soil at collapse.
Using DLO an upper-bound limit load for a cohesive-
frictional soil with an associated flow rule can be
calculated by first discretizing the soil body under
consideration using closely spaced nodes, and then
inter-connecting each node to every other node with
potential slip-lines. LP can then be used to identify the
critical subset of slip-lines that form at collapse.
The problem can be posed in a kinematic form,
where the LP variables represent the displacements
along the slip-lines, and the objective function is to
minimize the energy dissipated at collapse; alterna-
tively the dual (equilibrium) form can be posed, which
requires that constraints are imposed on the shear
(T ) and normal (N ) forces along the discontinuities.
Whichever formulation (i.e. kinematic or equilibrium)
is used, duality theory means that results from the
other, dual, formulation can also be obtained. The solu-
tion also provides a load factor which is a multiplier
on a specified live load or loads required to generate
the identified collapse mechanism.
1.4 Aim of this paper
The aim of this paper is to present results from a pre-
liminary study into the viability of using an approach
similar to that originally described by Gilbert et al.
(2006) in conjunction with DLO, and to identify the
likely future direction of the research. To achieve this,
three simple example problems which are amenable to
hand calculation are considered in the paper, in order
to allow a good understanding of the method to be
built up.
2 PROPOSED ALGORITHM
2.1 Underlying principles
For sake of simplicity a cohesive-frictional mate-
rial with strength parameters c and , and dilation
angle = 0 will be considered throughout this paper.
However, the same basic method can also applied to
problems with non-zero dilation angle.
46
Figure 1. Original and modified failure surfaces which pro-
vide the same limit on the shear stress (for constant normal
stress n ).
Referring to Figure 1, consider a point X lying
on the Mohr-Coulomb failure surface (indicated by
the solid line), where the normal stress is given by
= n , and the shear stress = c + n tan . The asso-
ciated flow rule clearly requires = (i.e. flow in the
direction of the solid arrow), whereas the requited non-
associated flow, with = 0, will be in the direction
indicated by the dashed arrow.
In order to ensure = 0, a fictitious failure sur-
face can be constructed, represented by the dashed line
(c = c + n tan ). This still correctly limits the shear
stress at X provided the normal stress remains con-
stant. In principle the failure surfaces corresponding
to all points within a soil body would be replaced in
this way and the problem solved again. There is how-
ever no guarantee that the normal stresses will remain
constant after re-solving, and hence a number of iter-
ations may be required before a converged solution is
reached.
Assuming a converged solution can be obtained, this
solution will satisfy both the original failure surface at
all points, and will ensure that flow is non-associative
as required.
Failure typically involves transformation of a soil
body into discrete blocks of soil, separated by disconti-
nuities, and hence in DLO the requisite failure criterion
is checked along potential slip-lines, rather than at spe-
cific points within a soil body. The approach described
previously therefore needs instead to be formulated
in terms of shear and normal stress resultants, T and
N respectively. The material failure criterion becomes
|T | = C + N tan , and the modified failure condition
(assuming zero dilation) becomes:
2.2 Iterative procedure for finding a
non-associative solution
The iterative solution procedure involves a number of
steps:
1. Assume initial modified shear strength parameters
c0 , and 0 of arbitrary value for all discontinuities,
 where C0 = c0 l and l is the length of a slip-line.
Solve the resulting DLO problem. The initial nor-
mal Nk,0 and shear Tk,0 forces can be extracted from
the solution for each discontinuity k, together with
the load factor 0 .
2. At the next iteration i the modified shear strength
parameter Ck,i for discontinuity k can be computed
using the normal force from the previous iteration
Nk,i1 as follows:

where is the actual material angle of friction.

(In this paper only non-associative cases with
zero-dilation are considered. Thus k,i = 0.)
3. Solve the associative DLO problem using parame-
Figure 2. Sliding block example: rigid block sliding on a
ters Ck,i and k,i , to obtain new values of Nk,i , Tk,i , single interface (c = 0, = 20 ).
and i
4. If i > 1 and | i i1 | / i < tolerance, and vio-
lation of the real failure surface is not detected at Table 1. Sliding block example: final results.
any discontinuity k, then the algorithm stops.
5. If there is no convergence the process is repeated c0 0 Iterations Computed Analytical Diff%
from step 2 until convergence is reached.
2 0 2 0.364 0.364 0.0
This algorithm was implemented using a modified 0.1 0 2 0.364 0.364 0.0
version of a MATLAB formulation of the DLO code
presented by Gilbert et al. (2009), in conjunction with
the Mosek LP solver.
The problem is statically determinate and the live
load P = .1 required to move the block can be
3 NUMERICAL EXAMPLES calculated from Equation (3) to be 0.364.

3.1 Introduction
The following simple examples are designed to provide
insights into the proposed numerical procedure. The
first two examples are statically determinate, which
should ensure that the computed load factor is not
dependent on the flow rule.
For sake of simplicity the blocks used in all exam-
ples are all weightless, square and of unit dimensions.
Where a dead or live load is applied it is applied as a
unit edge load. Since the computed solution is a mul-
tiple of 1 it can be interpreted as either a limit load
P = .1 or as a limit load factor .
For each example tabulated results are provided
for specified initial conditions. Two calculated solu-
tions are shown for each problem, one obtained using
a high starting value for the cohesion c0 and the
other obtained using a low starting value for c0 . In
all cases the solution converged to the same value
regardless of the starting values. The last column of
each table of results provides a comparison between
the known closed form solution and the computed
solution.
As is evident from Table 1, the correct solution can
be obtained using the proposed algorithm in 2 itera-
tions. While this is a trivial case, the actual kinematic
mechanism of collapse is now modelled with no dila-
tion along the sliding surface, in contrast to when the
associative friction is used.
3.3 Sliding wedge example
In the problem shown in Figure 3, a unit square block is
restrained at the base and right hand edge and subject
to a normal live load P = .1 along the left edge. The
block is only allowed to shear along the diagonal. As
failure can only occur along the diagonal, when c = 1
and = 20 the procedure would be expected to con-
verge to the associative solution of 3.145. This value
can be determined from equation (4), derived from
application of the sine rule to the polygon of forces
shown in Figures 4a and 4b.

3.2 Sliding block example

Figure 5 shows how the failure surface for the
In this example an applied unit normal load (N = 1) is diagonal slip-line is modified at each iteration until
applied to the top edge of a square block as shown in convergence is reached. (The final iterations have been
Figure 2. omitted for sake of clarity.)

47
Figure 3. Sliding wedge example (c = 1, = 20 ).

Figure 6. Sliding wedge example: progress of iterative

solution procedure (using high and low starting cohesion
values).

Table 2. Sliding wedge example: final results.

Figure 4. Sliding wedge example: equilibrium of forces.
c0 o Iterations Computed Analytical Diff%

0.2 0 11 3.145 3.145 0.0

10 0 12 3.145 3.145 0.0

is sought. Slip may occur along top and bottom inter-

Figure 5. Sliding wedge example: iterative modification of
failure envelope lines.
It is clear from Figure 6 that the solution improves
with each iteration, and converges regardless of
whether low or high starting cohesion values are used.
Table 2 shows the results from two analyses with differ-
ent starting values of initial cohesion c0 . The solution
is the same for both cases (to within the required
tolerance).
3.4 Wedged block example
In this problem a weightless block is wedged between
a fully rough rigid surface at the base and a smooth
rigid surface at its top, as shown in Figure 7. The force
P = .1 required to cause the block to slide against
a unit restraining force applied to the right hand side
faces and/or along the single diagonal slip-line shown.
Assuming associative friction, slip must occur along
the top and bottom interfaces and also the diagonal
(Figure 7a). When non-associative friction is involved,
with = 0, failure no longer has to involve slip along
the diagonal (Figure 7b).
In the latter case the mobilized angle of friction
mob on the diagonal is unknown; however it is limited
as follows: < mob < . The associative limit load
and the bounds on the non-associative limit load can
thus be calculated by examining the force polygons
shown in Figure 8. The resultant force R acting across
the diagonal is orientated at an angle = 45 mob to
the vertical (taking shear as clockwise positive).
From considerations of overall horizontal equilib-
rium (Figure 8a):
Consideration of the equilibrium of block B (Fig-
ure 8b) gives:
Finally combination of equations 5 and 6 gives:

48
Figure 7. Wedged block example: a block wedged at its base
and top (c = 0, = 30 o).
Figure 8. Wedged block example: equilibrium of forces.
Table 3. Wedged block example: final results.
c0 o Iterations Computed Analytical Diff%
0.2 0 18 1.155 1.155 0.0
10 0 18 1.155 1.155 0.0
The associative solution is given when mob = and
results in a closed form solution of 3.155. The mini-
mum non-associative solution that can be obtained for
the limit load occurs when the value of the mobilised
shear angle mob is (30) degrees, the collapse load
then being 1.155.
The same problem was solved using the proposed
algorithm and the results presented in Table 3. It can
be seen that the final converged solution is equivalent
to the lowest possible non-associative solution and the
failure mechanism involves the block sliding along its
base and upper surface only with no dilation.
The solution converges after 18 iterations, as shown
in Figure 9.
The iterative modification of the failure envelope
for the case with c0 = 0.2 is shown in Figure 10. It
can be seen that the solution spirals in on the final
minimum non-associative solution.
4 DISCUSSION
For the simple problems examined, the calculated
non-associative limit loads were in agreement with
49
Figure 9. Wedged block example: progress of iterative
solution procedure (using high and low starting cohesion
values).
Figure 10. Wedged block example: iterative modification
of failure envelopes for (a) base and (b) diagonal slip-lines.
calculated closed form analytical solutions, and the
associated predicted failure mechanisms involved no
dilation. Further tests have indicated that convergence
is achieved in the case of statically determinate prob-
lems regardless of the starting values used; however
this remains to be proved rigorously.
Further investigation of the third, statically inde-
terminate problem indicates that convergence of the
iterative procedure is sensitive to the values of T and
N on the diagonal slip-surface generated by the LP
solver at each iteration. In this problem the LP solver
is free to return a range of values for T and N .
To generate the results presented in Figures 9 and
10, the solver must return the lowest possible value of
T at each iteration. To achieve this result in all cases
it would be necessary to adopt an alternative approach
to force T to its minimum value. An approach under
consideration is to include a small additional negative
friction angle in the failure surface at each iteration,
as described in Gilbert et al. (2006).
 Future aims for this research project include:
Investigation and development of robust heuristics
to guarantee convergence for all problems involving
non-associative friction.
Modelling of more challenging and practical prob-
lems (e.g. foundation footing problems).
Development of techniques to allow the range of
non-associative collapse loads to be established for
any given problem.
Development of a simple test to allow the sensitivity
to dilation angle to be checked for a given problem.
5 CONCLUSIONS
An iterative procedure originally developed for appli-
cation to masonry structures has been used in con-
junction with the Discontinuity Layout Optimization
(DLO) numerical limit analysis procedure to gen-
erate solutions to soil plasticity problems involving
non-associative friction has been outlined.
The procedure is shown to be capable of predict-
ing the lowest non-associative collapse load for three
simple example problems. However further work is
required to demonstrate robustness of the algorithm.
Once this has been undertaken the procedure will be
applied to larger, more practical, problems of interest
to practicing geotechnical engineers.
50
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The first author acknowledges the support of EPSRC
(DTA studentship).
REFERENCES
Cox, A. D. (1963). The use of non-associated flow rule in soil
plasticity. R.A.R.D.E Report B 2/63.
Drucker, D. C. (1954). Coulomb friction, plasticity, and limit
loads. J. Appl. Mech., ASME 21(1), 7174.
Gilbert, M., H. M. Ahmed, & C. Casapulla (2006). Limit
analysis of masonry block structures with non-associative
frictional joints using linear programming. Computers and
Structures 84(3), 873887.
Gilbert, M., C. Smith, I. Haslam, & T. Pritchard (2009).
Plastic limit analysis using discontinuity layout optimiza-
tion (DLO). In 17th UK Conference on Computational
Mechanics (ACME-UK), 68 April 2009, Nottingham.
ACME-UK.
Smith, C. C. & M. Gilbert (2007). Application of discontinu-
ity layout optimization to plane plasticity problems. Pro-
ceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical
and Engineering Sciences 463(2086), 24612484.
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Associated plasticity for nonassociated frictional materials

Kristian Krabbenhoft, Andrei V. Lyamin & Scott W. Sloan

Centre for Geotechnical and Materials Modelling, University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia

ABSTRACT: A new computational plasticity scheme for nonassociated frictional materials is presented. While
general, it relies solely on well established concepts of associated plasticity. The new scheme is applied to
some common boundary value problems for which the consequences of nonassociated flow rules in terms of
localization of deformations are highlighted.

1 INTRODUCTION an associated flow rule it is here possible, by appro-

The application of plasticity theory to frictional mate-
rials such as sand, clay, rock, and concrete introduces
a number of complications, the most prominent of
which relates to the flow rule. As is well known, the
flow rule associated with a relevant yield criterion,
for example Mohr-Coulomb, predicts excessive plas-
tic dilation. Consequently, a nonassociated flow rule
must be used. Although seemingly straightforward, the
introduction of a nonassociated flow rule gives rise to a
number of complications that manifest themselves par-
ticularly in the numerical solution of boundary value
problems. These complications can be divided into two
categories.
Firstly, from a mathematical point of view, nonas-
sociated flow rules often lead to a situation where
the boundary value problem, at some characteristic
stress state, goes from being elliptic to being hyper-
bolic (Bigoni and Hueckel, 1991). Physically, this loss
of ellipticity indicates an instability where a homoge-
neous mode of deformation gives way to a localized
deformation pattern defined by one or more shear
bands (Rice, 1976). Such localized modes of defor-
mation give rise to a number of complications related
to mesh dependence, internal length scales, etc.
Secondly, and more seriously, it has frequently been
reported that numerical solutions to boundary value
problems involving nonassociated constitutive mod-
els are much more difficult to obtain than in the case
where the flow rule is associated (Manzari and Nour,
2000; Carter et al., 2005; Clausen and Krabbenhoft,
2008; Loukidis and Salgado, 2009). Even recogniz-
ing the above complications with shear banding, mesh
dependence, and so on, it is somewhat surprising that
there should be any significant problems obtaining
solutions, be they physically relevant or not.
As an alternative to elastic-perfectly plastic models
where a nonassociated flow rule usually is a neces-
sity, hardening models are often considered. Using
priate construction of the hardening law, to achieve
a response that with non-hardening models only is
attainable by means of a nonassociated flow rule. Cam
clay is an example of such a model. Although such
models appear to circumvent the need for a nonas-
sociated flow rule, many of the same problems that
plague perfectly plastic nonassociated models are in
fact encountered again. Indeed, the nonassociativity
of the flow rule is essentially transferred to the hard-
ening law, resulting in much the same complications
(Hjiaj et al., 2005a; Krabbenhoft, 2009).
These facts motivate a closer look at the physical
origins of nonassociated flow rules and the numerical
methods used to solve problems of frictional plastic-
ity. In the following, inspired by the micromechanical
origins of friction and its modeling in terms of plastic-
ity theory, a new approach to computational plasticity
for frictional (and generally nonassociated) materials
is presented. The new scheme is then applied to some
common boundary value problems that also highlight
the consequences of nonassociated flow rules in terms
of localization of deformations.
2 FRICTION AND PLASTICITY
The strength of cohesive-frictional materials can in
many cases be described via a yield criterion of the
type
where F is the yield function, p and q are appropriate
measures of mean and deviatoric stress respectively,
M is a friction parameter and k is a measure of the
cohesion of the material. In the following, compressive
stresses are taken as being positive.

51
 p p
Let v and s be the plastic volumetric and shear
strains conjugate to p and q respectively. The associ-
ated flow rule then reads:
where 0 is a plastic multiplier and a superposed dot
denotes rate quantities. The associated flow rule thus
p p
predicts a dilation given by d = v /s = M . For most
materials, this dilation is excessive. Consequently, one
defines a flow potential:
such that the plastic strain rates are given by
p p
As such, a constant dilation d = v /s = N M may
be accounted for.
The internal dissipation for a material with yield
function F and flow potential G is given by
This expression for the internal dissipation reveals sev-
eral interesting features. Firstly, for N = M , i.e. for an
associated flow rule, the internal dissipation is propor-
tional to the cohesion k. Thus, for a purely frictional
material (k = 0), the internal dissipation is zero which
clearly is physically problematic. Secondly, for N < M
the dissipation is proportional to an apparent cohe-
sion that comprises two terms: the internal cohesion
k and an contribution (M N )p that stems from the
prescribed nonassociativity. The interpretation of the
latter term as an apparent cohesion is consistent with
the viewpoint that friction results from mechanical
interaction of microscopic asperities on the surfaces
of the solids in contact (Bowden and Tabor, 1973).
With the stresses at the scale of the asperities being
much greater than the elastic limit of the material,
it is primarily plastic deformations at the microscale
that govern the macroscopically observed frictional
resistance (see Figure 1). This interpretation motivates
rewriting the yield function (1) as
where
is the apparent, pressure dependent, cohesion.
Suppose now that the apparent cohesion, k, is
known. The associated flow rule then produces the
52
Figure 1. Illustration of the microscopic origins of friction
as plastic shearing of asperities. Coulomb friction implies that
the ultimate strength of the assembly is proportional to the
macroscopically applied pressure p. The plastic shearing is
assumed to be of the ductile, purely cohesive kind. For brittle
materials such as sand grains, this assumption is justified by
the very high stress level at the scale of the asperities which
effectively renders the otherwise brittle material ductile.
Figure 2. Explicit evaluation of apparent cohesion: original
and approximate yield functions. The area indicated by (a)
is non-permissible according to the original yield function
but permissible according to the approximate yield function.
Similarly, the area indicated by (b) is non-permissible accord-
ing to the approximate yield function but is within the elastic
domain according to the original yield function.
p p
desired result, namely a dilation d = v /s = N . In
the solution of boundary value problems, the apparent
cohesion is of course not known a priori as it is directly
proportional to the pressure that is to be determined
as part of the solution. However, assuming that such
problems are solved incrementally via a sequence of
pseudo-time steps, some parts of the yield function
may, in principle, be evaluated implicitly while other
parts may be evaluated explicitly. Assume that the state
at time tn is known. The yield condition imposed at tn+1
may then be approximated as
where
Again, this produces the desired result that the associ-
ated flow rule predicts that the dilation at time tn+1
is equal to N . However, the explicit evaluation of
the apparent cohesion means that the original yield
function may be exceeded for the new stress state at
tn+1 . Similarly, the approximation may imply plas-
tic yielding for stress states that would otherwise be
deemed purely elastic (see Figure 2). However, for
small enough increments, i.e. for tn+1 tn 0, it
would be expected that the error introduced by the
explicit evaluation of the apparent cohesion would tend
to vanish. Numerical experiments largely confirm this
supposition.
methods may require slight modification to cater for
initial stress states that do not satisfy F 0, but oth-
erwise all operations would be identical to those of
standard associated elastoplasticity.

2.1 Variational formulation
With the explicit evaluation of the apparent cohe-
sion detailed above, the governing equations that
define each time increment are essentially those of
standard associated plasticity. As such, a variational
formulation is straightforward.
Following Krabbenhoft et al. (2007b, 2009) and
assuming linear elasticity, the relevant time-discrete
problem can be written as:
3 EXAMPLES
In the following, the new computational scheme is
tested and the effects of nonassociativity in general
are examined. In all cases, a simple linear elastic-
perfectly plastic model is used. The yield function is
of the Drucker-Prager type:

We further consider a nonassociated flow rule defined

e e
where Cpp and Cqq are the elastic constants and by the plastic potential G:
kn = k + (M N )pn . The strain increments v and
s are assumed given.
The optimality conditions associated with this opti-
Assuming associated flow and plane strain conditions,
mization problem are given by
the parameters M and k are given in terms of the Mohr-
Coulomb friction angle, , and cohesion, c, by:

Analogously, the dilation angle, , may be related to

where n+1 is a Lagrange multiplier (the plastic the Drucker-Prager parameter N by:
multiplier).
Following Krabbenhoft et al. (2007b), the local
problem (10) may be extended to the entire domain.
After appropriate finite element discretization, the
final discrete optimization problem to be solved in Following the discussion in the previous section, the
each time step is given by flow rule is imposed by evaluating the apparent cohe-
sion, k, explicitly. In this way, only the yield potential,
F, in the form given above, is actually needed.

3.1 Biaxial test

The first problem considered is the biaxial test
where are the stresses, C e is the elastic compli- sketched in Figure 3(a). Assuming associated flow, a
ance matrix, BT is an equilibrium matrix, and Fj are homogeneous state of stress, and neglecting the imper-
yield functions to be enforced at the N stress points. fection indicated in the figure, it is straightforward to
This problem may be solved using either general show that the ultimate compressive stress is given by
interior-point solvers (Krabbenhoft and Damkilde,
2003; Krabbenhoft et al., 2007b) or by means of more
specialized formulations. For yield surfaces of the
Drucker-Prager type, second-order cone programming
is particularly suited while Mohr-Coulomb type con- Next, assuming a nonassociated flow rule but still a
straints can be handled efficiently using semidefinite homogeneous state of stress, the ultimate compressive
programming formulations (see Krabbenhoft et al., stress can be determined as
2007a, 2008, for details).
Alternatively, more conventional methods of com-
putational elastoplasticity are also applicable. These

53

Figure 3. Biaxial test: problem setup (a) and localized
deformation solution (b).
where
This solution is derived by requiring that the out-of-
p
plane plastic strain rate, 22 = G/22 , be equal to
zero at the ultimate limit state.
Finally, assuming nonassociated flow and consid-
ering a localized state of deformation where the block
is traversed by a single band of intense deformation
[see Figure 3(b)], the ultimate compressive stress can
be determined as
where
This solution is derived by observing that the two
normal strains lying in the plane of the shear band
approach zero as the thickness of the band approaches
zero (Krabbenhoft et al., 2004). The inclination of
the shear band corresponding to the above solution
is given by
The finite element analyses are carried out using
a mesh consisting of quadratic displacement trian-
gles, arranged as indicated in Figure 3(a). In all
Figure 4. Load-displacement curves for biaxial test using
200 equal size displacement increments.
cases, a mesh involving some 25,000 displacement
degrees-of-freedom was used. Further details are as
follows: friction angle = 35 (M = 0.94), dilation
angle = 5 (M = 0.15), cohesion c = 1 (k = 1.35),
bulk modulus K = 1, shear modulus G = 0.5. All
problems were solved using the second-order cone
programming solver MOSEK (Andersen et al., 2003).
Figure 4 shows the load-displacement curves for the
three cases discussed above: associated flow, nonas-
sociated flow with homogeneous deformation, and
nonassociated flow with localized deformation. The
response in the latter case is computed using the afore-
mentioned finite element mesh.To trigger localization,
an imperfection in the form of an element with a
friction angle equal to imp = 20 is introduced as indi-
cated in Figure 3(b). The deformations at incipient
collapse resulting from this computation are shown
Figure 5. As seen, the collapse mechanism is highly
localized with a single band traversing the sample,
largely following the diagonals of the mesh at an angle
of 53.1 with the horizontal.
It is interesting to compare this response with the
predictions of a bifurcation analysis. Following Leroy
and Ortiz (1989), such an analysis is carried by initially
assuming that the stresses and the deformations are
homogeneous. The vertical stress is increased incre-
mentally and the eigenvalues of the acoustic tensor
are gauged at each time instant. Assuming plane strain
conditions, the acoustic tensor (or matrix) is given by
with Dep being the usual elastoplastic tangent matrix
and
where is the shear band inclination angle shown
in Figure 3(b). A zero eigenvalue of the acoustic
tensor indicates that a switch from a homogeneous
to a localized state of deformation is possible. This
54

Figure 5. Biaxial test: deformations at incipient collapse.
first occurs as indicated in Figure 4 at an incli-
nation angle of = cr = 51.9 . As seen from the
figure, this bifurcation point is in good agreement with
the bifurcation point of the finite element analysis
(the bifurcation here occurs slightly earlier due to
the imperfection). Furthermore, the critical angle of
the bifurcation analysis is in good agreement with the
one observed in the finite element analysis, namely
Figure 6. N problem: setup and finite element mesh (1,655
elements, 6,904 displacement degrees-of-freedom).
depends on the friction angle. The determination of
this bearing capacity factor has been the subject of a
rather large number of investigations. These are sum-
marized by Hjiaj et al. (2005b) who also, based on
computational upper and lower bound limit analysis,
propose the following closed-form expression for the
bearing capacity factor for a rough footing:
 53 . This angle, however, is slightly different
from the angle loc = 45 + 12 loc = 60.0 for which
the lowest ultimate limit load is attained. Hence, the
computed ultimate limit load is slightly higher.
Regarding the post-bifurcation response, the load-
displacement curve shown in Figure 4 appears to be
somewhat oscillatory. We view these oscillations as
being the result of that there is more than one solution
after the bifurcation point, there is in fact an infi-
nite number of possible localized deformations modes,
each with different load-displacement characteristics.
Interestingly, even though they may well be numerical
artifacts, similar oscillations are frequently observed
in biaxial tests on sand (Desrues and Vigiani, 2004;
Gajo et al., 2004).
Finally, it should be noted that the violation of
the yield criterion that is possible with the new solu-
tion approach in all cases is moderate and appears
to be systematically reduced as the magnitude of the
displacement increment is reduced.
3.2 N problem
The second example concerns the load-deformation
behaviour of a centrally loaded strip footing on a purely
frictional soil (see Figure 6). The bearing capacity of
such a footing is usually expressed as
where Vc is the collapse load, B is the width of the
footing, and N is the bearing capacity factor which
55
Following the approach in the previous section of
deriving effective material parameters for problems
of nonassociated plasticity, effective bearing capacity
factors (N )hom and (N )loc can be defined. These are
computed by replacing in the above equation with
the effective friction angles, given in terms of Mhom
and Mloc by (17) and (19) respectively.
Regarding the finite element analysis, the problem
is solved using two different types of finite ele-
ments: a standard quadratic displacement triangle and
a mixed linear stress-quadratic displacement element
first proposed by Borges et al. (1996) for limit anal-
ysis and subsequently extended to elastoplasticity by
Krabbenhoft et al. (2007b). Further details are as fol-
lows: friction angle = 40 (M = 0.94), dilation angle
= 10 (M = 0.15), cohesion c = k = 0, unit weight
= 16, bulk modulus K = 50 103 , shear modulus
G = 25 103 .
The results of the analysis are shown in Figure 7. For
the associated case, the displacement finite element
overestimates the bearing capacity while the mixed
element provides a slight underestimate. Qualitatively,
the results of the nonassociated analysis follow those of
the previous example. The ultimate strength decreases,
though not to the lowest level theoretically possible.
Also, the load-displacement behaviour is slightly oscil-
latory despite the yield function being satisfied to
within a rather tight tolerance.

Figure 7. Load-displacement curves for N problem with
= 40 and = 10 using 100 equal size displacement
increments.
4 CONCLUSIONS
A new computational plasticity scheme for nonasso-
ciated frictional materials has been presented. While
general, it relies solely on well established concepts of
associated plasticity. As such, a number of equally well
established numerical methods are directly applicable.
Moreover, techniques that have proved very powerful
for limit analysis can be easily extended to general
elastoplastic problems. These include the incorpo-
ration of discontinuous stress and velocity fields
(Krabbenhoft et al., 2005; Lyamin et al., 2005a,b) as
well as application of efficient and robust methods
of nonlinear optimization such as the one used in the
present study.
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 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Comparison of methods for calculation of settlements of soft clay

H.P. Jostad
Norwegian Geotechnical Institute (NGI), Oslo, Norway
Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, Norway

S.A. Degago
Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, Norway

ABSTRACT: Calculation of long-term settlements of soft clay generally consists of many uncertainties. By
studying back-calculated field cases, from literatures, it is therefore generally very difficult to compare the
performance of different calculation tools due to varying interpretations and assumptions in the governing input
parameters. Therefore, as part of a series of creep workshops called CREBS, the participants were invited to
analyse a set of hypothetical cases using their material models and computer program. The cases involved a
30 m thick homogeneous normally consolidated soft clay layer underlying a 10 m thick sand layer subjected to a
surface stress of either 50 or 90 kPa. Six groups submitted their contributions to this exercise. This paper presents
the main results from this exercise, compare the background of the different material models and discuss the
reasons for the characteristic differences in the obtained results.

1 INTRODUCTION 2 HYPOTHETICAL CASES

The first CREBS (CREep Behaviour of Soft clay)
workshop was held in January 2006, at NGI in Oslo.
One of the conclusions from this workshop was that
even for material models based on the same frame-
work it is very difficult to compare the differences
in assumptions and input data since all models use
somewhat different expressions. Hence, it was recom-
mended to establish a common set of definitions and to
systematically compare existing calculation tools used
in long-term settlement analyses of soft soils.
The participants at the second CREBS workshop,
held in September 2007 in Pisa (Italy), were invited
to analyse a set of well defined hypothetical cases
by various calculation tools. The main purpose was
to compare variations in interpreted input data and
obtained calculation results and not a competition
in predicting the most correct results. When study-
ing published back-calculations of field cases (see
for instance Leroueil 2006) large differences may be
obtained due to uncertainties in material properties,
in situ pore pressure distribution, drainage conditions
and earlier load histories.
The results from the analyses of the hypothetical
cases were briefly presented at the third CREBS work-
shop held in July 2009, in Gothenburg (Sweden). This
paper gives a more detailed presentation and evalua-
tion of some of the most characteristic results from
this exercise.
All cases consist of a 30 m thick soft clay layer below a
10 m thick sand layer as shown in Figure 1. A surface
load of 50 kPa (light structure) or 90 kPa (heavy struc-
ture) is distributed over an area that is large compared
to the thickness of the soft clay layer (1D condition),
except for one case. Settlements below the clay layer
are neglected. The ground water table (GWT) is at the
top of the sand layer. For the bottom boundary two
extreme assumptions are considered, either a perfectly
drained or an impervious surface. The following cases
were analysed (however, only some of the results are
presented here):
1. Normally consolidated (NC) behaviour where the
pre-consolidation pressure is assumed to be equal
to the in-situ effective vertical stress.
2. Normally consolidated behaviour with an appar-
ent pre-consolidation pressure corresponding to
a constant over-consolidation ratio of OCR =
1.4.
3. A time history where the soil profile is pre-loaded
in a period of 25 years before increasing the load.
4. The clay layer is divided into two sub-layers with
significantly different permeabilities.
5. A load is applied on a strip foundation with limited
width of 20 m, that gives a decreasing excess stress
distribution with depth and induce some effect of
shear mobilisation.

57
Figure 1. The hypothetical cases.
2.1 Soil conditions
2.1.1 Sand layer
In order to make it easier to compare the results,
the main properties of the sand layer were directly
given: Constrained modulus, M = 10 MPa, submerged
unit weight of soil,  = 10 kN/m3 and permeability,
k = 1 m/year.
2.1.2 Clay layer
The soft soil layer consists of a homogeneous, nor-
mally consolidated, fully water saturated, plastic
marine clay with approximately the same age (10,000
years). This means that the characteristic mechanical
behaviour found at one depth is assumed to be valid
for the entire depth of the layer.
The constitutive behaviour of the clay is found from
a standard oedometer test with incremental loading
(IL). The results from the different load increments
are shown in Figure 2. The figure shows the verti-
cal strain increment v = v /ho , where v is the
vertical displacement at the top of the sample dur-
ing the actual load increment and ho = 20 mm is the
initial sample height. Most of the load increments
have a period of about 1440 minutes (1 day). How-
ever, for load increment (180 280 kPa) the vertical
stress of 280 kPa was kept for a period of about 5.5
days (8000 minutes). Figure 2 shows the accumulated
vertical strain (v = v /ho ) after 24 hours for all load
increments.
 Swedish Geotechnical Institute (SGI). They used
The initial effective vertical stress vo was pur-
posely not provided for the actual test. The reason
is that because the actual over-consolidation ratio
 
OCR = vc / vo was specified. The results should
therefore be representative for the given OCR and not
affected by the interpretation of the effective vertical
 (NTNU). He used the GeoSuite Settlement Pro-
pre-consolidation pressure vc .
For models based on void ratio, the initial void ratio
eo is 1.17.
58
Figure 2. Stress, strain and time relationships obtained from
a standard IL-test.
3 PARTICIPANTS
The following participants have analyzed the given
cases:
Dr. Martino Leoni and Professor Pieter Vermeer
from the University of Stuttgart. They used the com-
puter program Plaxis (www.plaxis.nl) with the Soft
Soil Creep (SSC) (Vermeer & Neher 1999) and the
user defined Anisotropic Creep model (Leoni et al.
2008)
Dr. Zhen-Yu Yin and Dr. Minna Karstunen from
Ecole Centrale de Nantes and University of Strath-
clyde. They used Plaxis with the user defined visco-
plastic EVP-SCLAY1S model (Yin & Karstunen
2008)
Dr. David Nash from the University of Bristol.
He used the computer program BRISCON with an
isotache based model (Nash & Ryde 2001)
Mats Olsson and Professor Claes Aln from
Chalmers University of Technology. They used
the GeoSuite Settlement Program (www.novapoint.
com) with the Chalmers model Claesson
(2003)
Per-Evert Bengtsson and Rolf Larsson from the
the settlement program EMBANKCO with a model
rather similar to the Chalmers model (Bengtsson &
Larsson 1997)
Professor Hans Petter Jostad from NGI and Nor-
wegian University of Science and Technology
gram with the Krykon material model (Svan et al.
1991)
4 BRIEF DESCRIPTIONS OF MODELS USED
In order to systematically compare the different mod-
els used, their behaviours in uniaxial vertical strain
condition (1D) are briefly presented.The vertical strain
rate is then decomposed into a component due to effec-
tive vertical stress changes (a reference strain) and a
component only due to time (creep):
where Mt is an effective stress dependent tangential
constrained or oedometer modulus; R = Ro + r t is
Janbus time resistance (Janbu 1969); Ro is the initial
time resistance; and r is the time resistance num-
ber. Lines with constant R-values in vertical effective
stressstrain space are called isotaches (uklje 1957).
The values for the model parameters are presented
based on the results submitted by the participants.
4.1 The Krykon model
The Krykon model, implemented in the GeoSuite Set-
tlement program, is based on Janbus time resistance
concept. A detailed description of the model can be
found in Svan et al. (1991).
The reference strain after 24 hr o due to effective
stress changes, is given by a stress dependent tangen-
tial constrained modulus: Mt = Moc for v < vc 
and
    
Mt = m (v vr ) for v > vc (where vr is reference
stress), with Moc = 5 m vc ; m = 16 and vr = 0 in
this case. The time resistance R is given as function of
the vertical strain :
where Ro = 0.8 year is the time resistance at the ref-
erence strain o , and r is an effective vertical stress
dependent time resistance number varying linearly
between r = 1125 at vo and r = 300 at vc . In the
NC-regime r is taken to be constant equal to 300.
4.2 The Chalmers model
The Chalmers model, implemented in the GeoSuite
Settlement program, is also based on Janbus time
resistance concept. A detailed description of the model
can be found in Claesson (2003).
The 24 hr reference strain, due to stress changes,
in this case is given by an initial stress depen-
dent tangential constrained modulus, Mt = 12 MPa +
0.5 MPa (z 10 m) for v < vc and Mt = 13.5
vo for v > vc . The time resistance is given as:
R = Ro + r t, where Ro = r to ; to = 24 hr and r is
varying linearly between r = 10, 000 at vo and r = 300
at vc . In the NC-regime r = 300.
4.3 The Embankco model
The Embankco material model is very similar to the
Chalmers model; however, the model is implemented
in the finite difference program Embankco (Bengts-
son & Larsson 1997).
The 24 hr reference strain, due to stress
changes, is given by the constrained modulus,
Mt = Moc for v < vc ; Mt = ML for vc < v < vL ;
and Mt = ML + m ( v vL ) for vL < v ; where
Moc = 50 vc ; ML = 3140 + m ( vc 192 kPa);
vL vc = 78 kPa; and m = 16.5. The time resistance
is given as: R = Ro + r t, where Ro = r to , to = 24 hr;
r is 261 at vc and increases asymptotically to an
infinite value at OCR = 1.25. In the NC-regime, r
increases from 261 to about 365 at 10 % vertical strain.
4.4 The Briscon model
The material model used in the finite difference pro-
gram BRISCON (Nash & Ryde 2001) is also based on
the isotache concept.
The 24 hr reference strain, due to stress changes, is
given by: Mt = mr v for v < vc , and Mt = m v
for v > vc , with m = 13.7 and mr = 8 m = 110.
The time resistance is given as R = Ro + r teq ,
where Ro = 0.95 year. The equivalent time teq is the
time required to obtain the increase in creep strain from
the reference time line (RTL) to the current strain at
the actual effective vertical stress. The RTL in a v
ln( v ) plot is a line that goes through the strain at vc
by a slope defined by the modified compression index
= 1/m. The teq is then calculated from the equivalent
creep strain eq :
In the over-consolidated (OC) regime the initial
eq,o is defined by the OCR ( vc / v ) and the modulus
numbers m and mr :
The time resistance numbers for the load steps in
the IL test were found to be: r = 4000, 3000, 2000,
1200, 700, 280, 400, 360 and 410. In addition, it is
realistic to assume that some of the creep observed in
the OC-regime is due to sample disturbance and that
the in-situ creep rate for a 10,000 year old clay is negli-
gible. The pre-consolidation pressure was found to be
vc = 152 kPa. Based on this, three different variations
of the r-value were considered: r = 343 (constant); r
as function of v / vc based on measured results; and a
case where r is gradually increased in the OC-regime
to an unlimited value at OCR = 1.4 (only constant r is
presented here).
4.5 The Soft Soil and Anisotropic Creep models
The Soft Soil Creep model (Vermeer & Neher 1999)
in Plaxis, is similar to the BRISCON model; however,
59
extended to a full 3D stress condition using the frame-
work of the modified Cam-Clay model. The time resis-
tance is defined as R = Ro + r teq , where Ro = r to ,
to = 24 hrs, r = 1/ = 333, and is the modified
creep index used as input in Plaxis.
The volumetric creep strain is then related to the
expansion of the ellipse in the effective mean stress
(p ) deviatoric stress (q) space controlled by the mod-
ified compression index, = 1/m = 1/13.7 = 0.073.
This means that the equivalent time teq and the corre-
sponding creep strain is governed by the expansions
of the ellipse compared to the ellipse given by the cur-
rent stress state (p and q). This gives the following
expression for the time resistance:
where vy is the updated apparent pre-consolidation
stress due to creep. The elastic effective stress depen-
dent constrained modulus is given as:
where ur = 0.2 is the unloading/reloading Poissons
ratio; Ko is the actual effective horizontal/vertical
stress ratio; and mr = 7.85 m = 108.
For the Anisotropic Creep Model (Leoni et al.
2008), a rotated ellipse based on a fabric tensor
(Wheeler et al. 2003) is used. However, ACM gives
the same results as the SSC model except for Case 5.
4.6 The EVP SCLAY-1S model
In differ to the other models that are based on the
isotache concept, the anisotropic elasto-viscoplastic
model EVP SCLAY-1S (Yin & Karstunen 2008) is
based on the overstress theory (Perzyna 1966) and a
rotated Cam-Clay surface as in ACM. In this case the
time resistance is give by a somewhat more complex
expression:
where is the fluidity parameter; N is the strain-rate
coefficient relating to the strain-rate effect on shear
strength and pre-consolidation stress; df 1 0.7 for 1D
condition; and OCRs is the ratio between the size of the
ellipse given by the current stress state (dynamic load-
ing surface) and the size of an inner expanding ellipse
(static yield surface).The expansion of the inner ellipse
is controlled by the accumulated creep strain as for the
SSC/ACM. From the above expression it is seen that
the time resistance Ro at the 24 hr reference strain
is controlled by OCRs value and that the creep rate
vanish when OCRs = 1.
By fitting the IL test the constants were found to
be = 5 1016 (1/year) and N = 13.77. The OCRs
60
is taken to be 3.6 at the NC reference line. The cor-
responding r-value at the NC-line is then 412. The
modulus numbers were taken equal to m = 13.7 and
mr = 13.5 13.7 = 185.
4.7 Discussions
All models may give approximately the same 24 hr ref-
erence strain and the time dependent strain. The actual
results are therefore dependent on how the participants
interpreted the IL test.
The modulus number used in the NC-regime did not
differ much since almost all participants based it on
the slope of the v versus log( v  ) plot at large effec-
tive vertical stresses. The interpreted creep strain in
the NC-regime also did not differ much. Most of the
participants found the time resistance factor r from
the last part of the 8000 minutes creep phase at an
effective vertical stress above the pre-consolidation
pressure. However, the parameters (N and ) used in
EVP-SCLAY1S were selected in order to fit the strain
for all load steps in the IL test. Consequently the model
underestimated the strain during the 8000 minutes long
creep phase at 280 kPa.
The time resistance number in the NC-regime varies
between 261 (Embankco) and 412 (EVP-SCLAY1S) at
the 24 hr reference time. Furthermore, for the N -value
used in EVP-SCLAY1S, the r-value increases with
increasing strain under a constant effective vertical
stress.
The largest differences are found in the mod-
elling of the creep in the OC-regime. In Embankco
the r-value asymptotically increases with increasing
OCR to infinitely at OCR = 1.25. In the Chalmers
modelr-value increases with increasing OCR to a very
large value (r = 10,000) at OCR = 1.4. In Krykon the
corresponding value at OCR = 1.4, is r = 1125. In
SSC/ACM and Briscon the r-value is independent of
OCR. Instead it is the equivalent time teq that increases
with OCR (see Eq. 3) which gives an increase in the ini-
tial time resistance Ro = r (to + teq ). However, based
on the IL test all the r-values used in all the analyses
may be considered as reasonable.
The modulus used in the OC-regime depends on
whether it was based on the initial loading from the
in-situ effective vertical stress to the pre-consolidation
stresses (which may underestimate the stiffness due
to sample disturbance), taken from the unloading
sequence at the end of the test (starting from a large
effective vertical stress) or based on in-house experi-
ences. For instance in-house experiences were used for
the Chalmers model to extrapolate to larger effective
stresses.
Figure 3 shows the stress dependent 24 hr refer-
ence strain and the time dependent strain at the top
and bottom (with drainage boundary) of the clay layer
(OCR = 1.4) given by the different models. The curves
are established based on the reported input parameters.
From these plots it is clear that the calculated
settlements for Case 1 to 5 will be smallest by
EVP-SCLAY1S and largest by SSC and Briscon. The

Figure 3. Effective vertical stress-strain-time relationships
derived from the different models at the top and the bottom
with open boundary of the clay layer. The time dependent
strains are for an excess load of 50 kPa.
results obtained by SSC and Briscon should be very
similar.
5 RESULTS
Only the main results that demonstrate some charac-
teristic differences are selected and presented here.
Figure 4 shows the calculated settlements versus
time for Case 1. The plot demonstrates the effect of
different time resistance numbers used, where EVP-
SCLAY1S gives the smallest settlements (0.95 m) due
to a time resistance number r of more than 400, while
Embancko gives the largest settlements (1.62 m) with
61
Figure 4. Calculated settlements versus time for Case 1 with
open bottom boundary.
Figure 5. Calculated settlements vs. time for Case 2 with
open bottom boundary and q = 50 kPa.
Figure 6. Excess pore pressure histories for Case 2 with
q = 50 kPa and open bottom boundary.
r = 261. The settlements due to creep for r = 300 is
about 1 m after 100 years.
Figure 5 also shows the calculated settlements for
Case 2 with q = 50 kPa and open bottom boundary.
The results demonstrate the effect of different assump-
tions of the constitutive behaviour in the OC-regime.
Chalmers and EVP-SCLAY1S models give the small-
est settlements (0.3 m) due to the smallest creep in
the OC-regime, while Krykon, Briscon and SSC give
roughly the same settlements (an average of 0.66 m).
Embankco gives the largest settlements (0.89 m) and it
seems that the solution has become somewhat unstable
after about 60 years.
From Figure 6, which shows the corresponding
excess pore pressure in the middle of the soft clay layer
versus time, it is seen that the primary consolidation
phase is finalized after 100 years for all cases (except
for Embankco). The differences in calculated pore

Figure 7. Calculated strain profiles after 100 years for
Case 2 with q = 50 kPa and open bottom boundary.
pressure during the first 20 years are significant, e.g.
after 10 years the excess pore pressure varies between
7 kPa or 14% (Chalmers) and 37 kPa or 74% (Krykon).
It is also seen that the excess pore pressure for SSC and
Briscon initially becomes larger than 50 kPa. This indi-
cates that the initial creep strain rate in these models
is unrealistically large at this depth. The creep rate is
also too large in Krykon, however, in GeoSuite Settle-
ment the creep strain is not allowed to reduce the initial
effective vertical stresses. The excess pore pressure for
EVP-SCLAY1S and Chalmers decreases very rapidly
due to stiffer behaviour and less creep.
Figure 7 shows the calculated total strain profiles
after 100 years, also for Case 2 with q = 50 kPa and
open bottom boundary. From this plot it is seen that
the strain at the top and bottom of the clay layer gen-
erally agree with the strains-time relationship given
in Figure 3. The differences in the obtained results
are directly results of the differences in the inter-
preted input data. However, the strain at the top of
the clay layer is slightly larger for Embankco and
slightly smaller for EVP-SCLAY1S than found from
the curves in Figure 3.
6 CONCLUSIONS
The main conclusion from this study is that the dif-
ferences in calculated settlements for the set of well
defined idealized hypothetical cases are rather large.
The main reason for the differences is uncertainties
and assumptions in the creep behaviour for stress
conditions below the initial pre-consolidation stress
(OC-regime). The differences could have been even
larger for a real case where uncertainties related to the
OCR profile are generally significant.
It is therefore recommended to continue the focus
on the constitutive behaviour in the OC-regime, to
find suitable testing procedures and interpretation
techniques that can account for sample disturbance.
62
Furthermore, it would have been of large benefit
if all creep models have used a common set of main
input parameters. It would then be easier to understand
differences in obtained results by comparison of input
parameters and to establishing a common data base for
creep behaviour of soft clays.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The participants of the exercise are greatly acknowl-
edged for their valuable contribution and allowing the
authors for publishing the results.
REFERENCES
Bengtsson, P-E. & Larsson, R. 1997. Calculation of settle-
ments for embankments on fine-grade soils. Calculation
of course of settlements with time. In Users guide for
Embankco programme version 1.02. Swedish Geotechni-
cal Institute, Linkping.
Claesson, P. 2003. Long term settlements in soft clays. Ph.D.
thesis, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden.2
Janbu, N. 1996. The resistance concept applied to defor-
mations of soils. Proc. 7th Int. Conf. Soil Mech. Found.
Engng, Mexico. 1: 191196.
Leoni M., Karstunen M. & Vermeer P.A. 2008. Anisotropic
creep model for soft soils. Gotechnique 58(3): 215226.
Leroueil, S. 2006. uklje Memorial Lecture: The isotache
approach. Where are we 50 years after its development by
Professor uklje? 13th Danube-European Conf. Geotech.
Engng, Ljubljana, Slovenia. 2: 5588.
Nash, D.F.T. & Ryde, S.J. 2001. Modelling the consolida-
tion of compressible soils subject to creep around vertical
drains. Gotechnique 51(4): 257273.
Perzyna, P. 1966. Fundamental problems in viscoplasticity.
Advanced Applied Mechanics 9: 244377.
uklje, L. 1957. The analysis of the consolidation process
by the isotaches method. Proc. 4th Int. Conf. Soil Mech.
Found. Engng., London. 1: 200206.
Svan, G., Christensen, S., and Nordal, S. 1991. A soil model
for consolidation and creep. Proc.10th Int. Conf. Soil
Mech. Found. Engng, Florence, Italy. 1:269272.
Vermeer, P. A. & Neher, H. P. 1999. A soft soil model that
accounts for creep. In R.B.J. Brinkgreve (ed.), Proc. Int.
Symp. Beyond 2000 in Comput. Geotech.: 10 Years of
Plaxis International: 249261. Rotterdam: Balkema.
Wheeler, S.J., Ntnen A., Karstunen, M. & Lojander, M.
2003. An anisotropic elastoplastic model for soft clays.
Canadian Geotechnical Journal 40(2): 403418.
Yin, Z.Y. & Karstunen, M. 2008.Influence of anisotropy,
destructuration and viscosity on the behaviour of an
embankment on soft clay. In: Singh, D. N. (ed.): Proc.
12th Int. Assoc. Comput. Methods Advances Geomech.
(IACMAG), Goa, India: 47284735.
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Effect of yield surface shape on the simulated elasto-plastic response of

cohesive soils

A.G. Papadimitriou
Department of Civil Engineering, University of Thessaly, Volos, Greece

A.D. Vranna
Department of Civil Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece

Y.F. Dafalias
University of California, Davis, USA
National Technical University of Athens, Greece

M.T. Manzari
George Washington University, USA

ABSTRACT: This paper presents a discussion on the effect of the selected yield surface shape on the simulated
drained and undrained response of cohesive soils. The discussion is made possible by sequentially implementing
two different yield surface shapes to a recently proposed elastoplastic critical state (reference) model, SANICLAY,
as alternatives to its own yield surface. The reference yield surface shape of SANICLAY is a distorted and rotated
ellipse, and the two studied alternatives have the shape of a distorted lemniscate and a distorted ellipsoid. For
each constitutive model variant, the remaining equations of SANICLAY were retained unaltered. It is shown,
that the use of the distorted lemniscate may lead to selectively more accurate simulations in comparison to the
reference, but to a less accurate overall response with the same number of model constants. On the contrary,
the use of the distorted ellipsoid provides an overall slightly enhanced simulative ability, but this at the cost of
one extra model constant.

1 INTRODUCTION 2 THE REFERENCE CONSTITUTIVE MODEL

There are many examples in the literature of com-
plicated constitutive models that do offer accurate
simulation of soil behavior. In parallel, simpler con-
stitutive models (e.g. employing elasto-plasticity with
an elastic region being defined by a convex yield sur-
face in stress space) are still being used, especially in
boundary value problems, maybe at the cost of reduced
accuracy. This is due to the fact that the popularity
of a constitutive model is governed by the balance of
offered accuracy and simplicity in the equations and
the calibration process.
To this extent, simple models are also continu-
ously being proposed in the literature. The response of
such models is governed by the shape of the adopted
yield surface and on how it evolves with loading. This
paper explores the effect of the adopted yield surface
shape on the simulated response of cohesive soils, by
sequentially implementing two different yield surface
shapes to a recently proposed simple critical state
(reference) model, SANICLAY (Dafalias et al 2006),
as alternatives to its own yield surface shape.
SANICLAY is a simple anisotropic plasticity model
proposed by Dafalias et al (2006) that provides rela-
tively satisfactory simulation of the rate-independent
behavior of both normally consolidated and over-
consolidated sensitive clays which do not exhibit
destructuration during loading. An extension to
include destructuration was recently published by
Taiebat et al. (2009). SANICLAY builds on a
modification of the associative flow rule isotropic
Modified Cam Clay (MCC) model (Burland 1965),
at the expense of merely three extra constants.
In fact, its reference model (Dafalias 1986) con-
stitutes the simplest possible energetic extension
of the MCC model from isotropic to anisotropic
response.
SANICLAY is characterized by a non associative
flow rule which is introduced by adopting a yield
surface different than the plastic potential surface.
Besides the isotropic hardening of the yield sur-
face, both surfaces evolve according to a combined
kinematic and distortional hardening rule.

63
 For simplicity, the formulation of the SANICLAY
(and its model variants) is presented here in the tri-
axial space, in terms of effective stress quantities
p = (a + 2r )/3, q = (a r ) and strain quantities
v = (a + 2r ), q = 2(a r )/3, where subscripts a
and r denote the axial and the radial directions,
respectively.
2.1 The SANICLAY model surfaces
The plastic potential surface has the shape of a rotated
and distorted ellipse and is analytically described by
(see Fig.1):
where M is the critical stress ratio, is a non-
dimensional variable which introduces anisotropy in
the plastic potential and p is the value of p at q = p,
so that Eq. (1) is satisfied for ( p, q ) values at yield.
As deduced from Figure 1, M = Mc when the
stress ratio = q/p > and M = Me when = q/p < ,
where Mc and Me are SANICLAY constants. Clearly,
one must have || < M for real-valued p, q in Eq. (1).
The SANICLAY yield surface is expressed simi-
larly to the plastic potential by:
where po , and N respectively substitute for p , and
M in Equation 1.
In particular, is the rotational hardening variable
of the yield surface that introduces anisotropy the same
way that variable does in the plastic potential. N
is a SANICLAY constant similar in nature to M , but
taken the same in compression and extension for sim-
plicity. Clearly one must have || < N for real-valued
p, q in Eq. (2). Notice that q on f = 0 at the stress-
ratio M is not the peak q stress, the latter occurring at
Figure 1. SANICLAY model surfaces in triaxial stress
space.
stress-ratio N . This is exactly the property that allows
for the undrained softening in compression to take
place after Ko consolidation, and the very reason for
introducing an f different than g.
2.2 Rate evolution equations for the internal
variables
For the po variable the classical evolution law of critical
state soil mechanics is postulated as:
where ein is the initial value of the void ratio e and
, are the slopes of the normal compression and
rebound lines, respectively, in the elnp space, while
L is the loading index (in Macauley brackets yielding
< L > = L for L > 0 and < L > = 0 for L 0), which
is related to the partial derivatives of the f = 0 function
in terms of p, q,po , and , to the loading increments p
and q and the forms of po (Eq. 3) and (see below),
based on standards methods on plasticity.
The rate evolution equation for is described as:
where C is a SANICLAY constant, that also controls
the rate evolution equation for the variable (Eq. 5):
Note that the g/p term in Eqs (3) through (5) intro-
duces the volumetric plastic strain rate and diminishes
the evolution of all surfaces at the critical state. Fur-
thermore, observe the operation of attractors b and
b in Eqs (4) and (5), that enforce the aforementioned
conditions of |a| < M and || < N for real valued p, q
in Eqs (1) and (2), respectively.
2.3 Reference model performance
Further details on the SANICLAY model may be found
in Dafalias et al (2006). Note here, that this model has
8 constants requiring calibration, i.e. the 5 constants of
the MCC model (Mc ,Me , , , ) and 3 extra constants
(N ,C,x), as listed in Table 1.
As presented in detail in Dafalias et al (2006), SAN-
ICLAY leads to rather accurate simulations for low
OCR values with a possible underprediction of the
undrained shear strength (in compression, following
Ko -consolidation). Its response for high OCR values is
similar to that produced by the MCC model, i.e. it leads
to overprediction of yield stresses and hence stiffer
overall response in the early loading stages. In concept,
these problematic simulations may be corrected by
changing the yield surface shape, namely by widen-
ing it at large p/po values (leading to higher |q| values
64
at yield) and by narrowing it at small p/po values
(leading to lower |q| values at yield). This exercise is
what that gave birth to the work hereby presented.
3 ALTERNATIVE YIELD SURFACE SHAPE:
DISTORTED LEMNISCATE
3.1 Presentation of distorted lemniscate
The first alternative yield surface shape studied herein
is the one introduced by Pestana & Whittle (1999) in
their MIT-S1 model, which has the shape of a distorted
lemniscate and is described by:
where m, n are constants of the new yield surface
shape that substitute for SANICLAY constant N. In
particular, the m defines the aperture of the yield sur-
face (in terms of = q/p values) in the vicinity of
p = 0, whereas the n controls the yield surface width
(in terms of q values) from the q = p(p/po )n curve.
Note that the higher the values of m and n the wider
the yield surface shape becomes, always located along
the q = p(p/po )n curve. Observe that solving Eq. (6)
Table 1. SANICLAY constants and their values for LCT.
Constant Description Value
Mc Value of at critical state in TC 1.18
Me Value of at critical state in TE 0.86
Compressibility of OC Clay 0.009
Compressibility of NC Clay 0.063
Elastic Poissons ratio 0.2
N Shape of yield surface 0.91
x Saturation limit of anisotropy 1.56
C Rate of evolution of anisotropy 16
Figure 2. Comparison of LCT data for undrained triaxial tests and shapes of the Distorted Lemniscate and the SANICLAY
yield surface, after: a) isotropic consolidation (CIU tests) and b) Ko-consolidation (CKo U tests).
65
for q shows that in order to retain real valued p, q the
following must hold:
In order to enforce the foregoing condition, the
absolute value of attractor b in Eq. 5 must be set
equal to the term in the right hand side of Eq. (7).
For comparison purposes, all remaining equations of
SANICLAY remain unaltered.
Figure 2 shows an example comparison of the Dis-
torted Lemniscate shape (for m = 1.4, n = 0.77) to that
of the SANICLAY (for N = 0.91), as well as data
for undrained triaxial compression and extension tests
on isotropically (CIU) and Ko -consolidated (CKo U)
samples of Lower Cromer Till (LCT, see Table 1).
Observe in Fig. 2a, that Eq. (6) qualitatively offers
the aforementioned necessary changes in yield sur-
face shape for CI tests. In parallel, Fig. 2b shows that
Eq. (6) does the same for CKo tests, with a possible
exception of extension tests.
3.2 Comparison with the reference model
In order to ascertain whether the Distorted Lemniscate
yield surface shape has the potential to offer enhanced
accuracy, pertinent simulations for LCT clay were
repeated with the new SANICLAY model variant and
compared to those of the original model. In all cases,
model constants were given the values of Table 1, with
the exception of constant N that no longer exists in
the SANICLAY variant model and is replaced by (m,
n) = (1.4, 0.77).
Figures 3 and 4 present the LCT data and the
simulations with the use of the SANICLAY and the
Distorted Lemniscate SANICLAY variant model, for
CIU and CKo U tests, respectively. Note that Figures 3
and 4 present the comparisons of simulations to data
only for OCR = 1, 2 and 7. The comparisons for the
remaining OCR values (see Fig. 2) lead to qualitatively
similar conclusions, but are not included in the forego-
ing figures for reasons of clarity of the presentation.
Figure 3. Comparison of data to simulations with the use of the SANICLAY and the Distorted Lemniscate model variant for
CIU tests on LCT and various OCR values, in terms of: a) effective stress path, b) stress-strain response.

Figure 4. Comparison of data to simulations with the use of the SANICLAY and the Distorted Lemniscate model variant for
CKo U tests on LCT and various OCR values, in terms of: a) effective stress path, b) stress-strain response.

As inferred by the comparisons of the yield surface
shapes in Figure 2, the new model offers better sim-
ulations for high OCR values. Nevertheless, for low
OCR values, although the new model offers better sim-
ulation of the peak strengths, the post-peak response
is qualitatively erroneous, since it characterized by
excessive strain softening for CIU tests and minimal
for CKo U tests, exactly opposite to what is shown by
the data and predicted by the original model. An exten-
sive parametric analysis of the simulated response
offered by the new model shows that by appropriately
choosing the set of (m, n) values one may selectively
attain ameliorated simulations for the OCR range in
question. Yet, there is no unique set of (m, n) values
that may offer ameliorated simulations as compared to
the SANICLAY model for all OCR values.
4 ALTERNATIVE YIELD SURFACE SHAPE:
DISTORTED ELLIPSOID
4.1 Presentation of distorted ellipsoid
The second alternative yield surface shape studied
herein is inspired by the work of Collins & Hilder
(2002), set on a different context. It has the shape of a
distorted ellipsoid and is described by:
where the factor X is the novel addition to Eq.(2) in
terms of the additional constants z and n, for the new
yield surface shape.
Notice that when z = 0 and/or n = 1, Eq. (8)
becomes Eq. (2), which describes the reference yield
surface. Hence, constant N for the distorted ellipsoid
plays the same role as for the SANICLAY yield sur-
face shape, i.e. it dictates the overall width of the yield
surface (in terms of = q/p values) around the =
line. This is the reason why the constant N of the
Distorted Ellipsoid behaves similarly with the SANI-
CLAY constant N . Regarding the other two constants
the following may be stated:
For values of n < 1, the ellipsoid distorts as com-
pared to the SANICLAY ellipse, and widens at
large p/po values (>0.5) and narrows at small

66
Figure 5. Comparison of LCT data for undrained triaxial tests and shapes of the Distorted Ellipsoid and the SANICLAY
yield surface, after: a) isotropic consolidation (CIU tests) and b) Ko-consolidation (CKo U tests).

p/po values (<0.5), as required for ameliorated
simulations, based on the discussion in section 2.
For any given value of n < 1, an increase in the value
of constant z (to values z > n) furthers the distortion
in this qualitatively accurate manner.
For values of n > 1, the distortion of the ellipsoid
is qualitatively opposite to what is desired, since
it widens at small p/po values (< 0.5) and nar-
rows at large p/po values (>0.5), and will not be
discussed further.
It may be easily shown, that for any given set of
and N , there is an infinite set of (z, n) values
describing practically the same distorted ellipsoid
yield surface shape (differences in terms of q of less
than 2%).
Based on all the above, the distorted ellipsoid yield
surface shape described in Eq. (8) is a potentially good
alternative to the SANICLAY ellipse, with merely two
extra constants (N , z), since n may be considered prac-
tically fixed (e.g. n = 0.8 < 1). Again, solving Eq. (8)
for q (and for n < 1) shows that in order to retain real
valued p, q the following must hold:
In order to enforce the foregoing condition, the abso-
lute value of attractor b in Eq. (5) must be set equal
to the term in the right hand side of Eq. (9). For compar-
ison purposes, all remaining equations of SANICLAY
remain unaltered.
Figure 5 shows an example comparison of the Dis-
torted Ellipsoid shape (for N = 0.88, z = 0.88, n = 0.8)
to that of the SANICLAY (for N = 0.91), as well as
data for undrained triaxial compression and extension
tests on CIU and CKo U samples of LCT. Observe in
Fig. 5, that Eq. (8) qualitatively offers the aforemen-
tioned necessary changes in yield surface shape for
both CI and CKo tests. Nevertheless, the difference
between the two sets of yield surface shapes is not
large, since the N values are approximately equal for
both sets and the value of z may not be increased too
much, since it would lead to a violation of Eq. (9) for
the CKo tests (for which = 0.77 at the end of Ko
consolidation).
4.2 Comparison with the reference model
Again, in order to ascertain whether the Distorted
Ellipsoid yield surface shape proposed here has the
potential to offer enhanced accuracy, pertinent sim-
ulations for LCT clay were repeated with the new
SANICLAY model variant and compared to those of
the original model. In all cases, model constants were
given the values of Table 1, with the exception of con-
stant N = 0.88 for the distorted ellipsoid model variant,
for which (z , n) = (0.88, 0.8) also holds.
Figures 6 and 7 present the LCT data and the simula-
tions with the use of the SANICLAY and the Distorted
Ellipsoid variant model, for CIU and CKo U tests,
respectively, and for OCR=1, 2 and 7. As inferred
by the comparisons, the use of the Distorted Ellip-
soid as a yield surface shape provides apparently
improved simulations on CIU tests for both compres-
sion and extension tests and all OCR values. After
Ko -consolidation though, the new yield surface shape
shows an enhanced response only for compression
tests and this for high OCR values. On the whole, it is
deduced that the use of the Distorted Ellipsoid model
variant leads to a slightly more accurate simulative
ability, with the cost of only one extra variable. This
benefit is also underlined by drained triaxial test sim-
ulations on the same LCT clay (not shown here due to
paper length limitations), that shows enhanced accu-
racy after both isotropic and Ko -consolidation and for
all OCR values.
5 CONCLUSIONS
Based on this study, the following may be stated:
1. Comparing yield surface shapes with undrained
test data in the stress space offers the potential for
assessing the relative benefits of each candidate
shape, at least for tests that do not induce large

67
Figure 6. Comparison of data to simulations with the use of the SANICLAY and the Distorted Ellipsoid model variant for
CIU tests on LCT and various OCR values, in terms of: a) effective stress path, b) stress-strain response.

Figure 7. Comparison of data to simulations with the use of the SANICLAY and the Distorted Ellipsoid model variant for
CKo U tests on LCT and various OCR values, in terms of: a) effective stress path, b) stress-strain response.

yield surface rotations (e.g. CKo U extension test
for OCR = 1).
2. Compared to the ellipse of the SANICLAY model,
the Distorted Lemniscate is a flexible yield surface
shape with merely one extra constant, that may lead
to selectively accurate cohesive soil response sim-
ulations. Nevertheless, it fails to provide enhanced
accuracy for all loading histories (CIU and CKo U
tests) with the same set of values of the model
constants, at least when the remaining SANICLAY
equations remain unaltered.
3. The use of the Distorted Ellipsoid hereby proposed,
provides a slightly improved response for all OCR
values, loading histories and drainage conditions,
as compared to the SANICLAY model. Never-
theless, its use requires one extra constant, and
therefore it is up to the end user to decide on its
selection over SANICLAY.
Collins, I. F., Hilder, T. 2002. A theoretical framework for
constructing elastic/plastic constitutive models of triaxial
tests. International Journal for Numerical and Analytical
Methods in Geomechanics 26: 13131347.
Dafalias, Y. F. 1986. An anisotropic critical state soil plastic-
ity model. Mechanics Research Communications 13(6):
341347.
Dafalias, Y. F., Manzari, M. T. & Papadimitriou, A. G. 2006.
SANICLAY: simple anisotropic clay plasticity model.
International Journal for Numerical and Analytical Meth-
ods in Geomechanics, 30(12): 12311257.
Pestana, J. M., Whittle, A. J. 1999. Formulation of a uni-
fied constitutive model for clays and sands. Interna-
tional Journal for Numerical and Analytical Methods in
Geomechanics, 23(12): 12151243.
Taiebat, M., Dafalias, Y. F., Peek R. 2009. A destructuration
theory and its application to SANICLAY model. Interna-
tional Journal for Numerical and Analytical Methods in
Geomechanics, DOI: 10.1002/nag.841.

REFERENCES
Burland, J. B. 1965. The yielding and dilation of clay.
Geotechnique 15 (2): 211214.

68
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Impact of input data on soil model calibration using Genetic Algorithms

D. Taborda & A. Pedro

Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Imperial College London, London, UK

P.A.L.F. Coelho
Department of Civil Engineering, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal

D. Antunes
Department of Informatics Engineering, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal

ABSTRACT: Soil model parameters can be obtained from experimental data using genetic algorithms-based
software. This paper highlights the efficiency of model calibration using this type of tool for the Modified
Cam-Clay model. The influence of the type and amount of information provided on the efficiency of the opti-
mization process and the quality of the solution obtained is also discussed. It is shown that including additional
experiments in the input may be ineffective, unless these reflect specific aspects of soil behaviour.

1 INTRODUCTION which represent mathematically the analysed problem,

Genetic Algorithms (GAs) have been used in the past
to carry out the subjective and complex task of soil
model calibration. However, it is not often clear how
many and which type of experiments are necessary to
obtain a good quality solution. These aspects are dis-
cussed herein, considering the effectiveness of genetic
algorithms-based software in obtaining the parameters
required for the Modified Cam-Clay model (MCC)
from pseudo-experimental sets of results representing
a progressively larger number of different loading con-
ditions. The results presented provide evidence about
the viability of reaching a better solution and the more
efficient way to do it.
2 GENETIC ALGORITHMS AS A
CALIBRATION TOOL
2.1 Basic concepts
The computational implementation of GAs requires
several processes to be adequately defined. Probably
the most fundamental one concerns the mathematical
representation of a solution of the analysed problem.
In the particular case where constitutive models are
employed to reproduce a certain known behaviour,
a vector containing the required parameters is the
most natural choice. Each of the values is termed
gene and the vector of genes composes a candi-
date solution (individual). The optimisation process
is initiated by randomly generating a certain number
of individuals (population) from within a previously
defined search area. Sequentially, each of the indi-
viduals is tested in a series of numerical procedures,
generating a set of solutions. In geotechnical engi-
neering, for example, these can include stress-paths
and stress-strain curves, the evaluation of settlements
due to the excavation of a tunnel, bending moments
in a particular section of a retaining wall, etc. The
obtained solutions are then compared with the refer-
ence input data (laboratory testing results, instrumen-
tation values, etc.) and their quality is measured by a
fitness function. This expression can either return
the error, in which case the lower the value, the
better the individual, or the merit, meaning that to
larger magnitudes correspond better solutions. Once
the whole population has been tested, if the best indi-
vidual satisfies certain quality criteria, then a solution
has been found.
However, the procedure described above is not very
different from an automated trial-and-error procedure
and, consequently, it only performs well when very
large populations are employed (or, alternatively, when
the search area is small). As a result, GAs employ a
set of techniques designed to improve substantially the
efficiency of the optimization algorithm. The first of
these operations is termed selection and its purpose
is to decide on which individuals are discarded and
which are transferred to the next generation. Although
many methods exist, it is generally accepted that the
best should remain in the population. The second pro-
cedure, known as crossing, consists of determining
which characteristics (i.e. genes) of the parent indi-
viduals (ancestors) are transmitted to the offspring
(descendants). Finally, the third genetic operator,
termed mutation, introduces small changes to these
genes when the offspring is being determined. Once
the individuals composing the new generation are

69
known, the previously described assessment process all of the input data given to genUC consisted of
is restarted. Naturally, due to the evolutionary aspect pseudo-experimental results. These were obtained by
of the GAs, it is expected that the best individual of simulating triaxial compression and oedometer tests
a given generation corresponds to a better solution using constitutive equations similar to those imple-
than the best individual of the previous population. mented in the code. As a result, genUC should be able
In the present case, this means that the ability of a to fit perfectly the MCC to the chosen curves while
given constitutive model to reproduce a certain mate- the proximity to the known solution (i.e. the parame-
rial behaviour increases with the number of analysed ters selected to generate the input data) can be used to
generations. evaluate the global performance of the method.
The biggest advantage of this method is probably In terms of particular aspects of the algorithm, a
the fact that many of the processes described above population of 64 individuals; a variable probability
are not, and cannot, be rigidly defined. As a result, alternate crossing process and a continuous muta-
there is considerable freedom when determining how tion scheme (with +/ 5% change) have been chosen
the crossing or mutation should be carried out, based on previous studies (Azeiteiro et al. 2009).
allowing adjustments to be made during the optimisa-
tion procedure. However, this also implies that many
3.2 Input data
conclusions drawn from research studies might be
problem dependent, thus requiring all aspects of the A total of 7 pseudo-experimental tests, which are char-
method to be separately evaluated. acterised in Table 1 in terms of loading and drainage
conditions, stress level and OCR, were generated using
2.2 Developed software and previous studies the parameters listed in Table 2. Furthermore, all of the
The computer code genUC has been developed as a triaxial compression tests were assumed to start from
general platform for the application of GAs to any an isotropic stress state (K0 = 1.0).
given problem. In its current version, however, only The undrained triaxial compression tests were
the constitutive equations of the Modified Cam-Clay defined by the stress path in p-J plane and the stress-
(MCC) model with a constant Poissons ratio (Potts & strain curve Ed -J, where p is the mean effective stress
Zdravkovic 1999) are implemented, since research so and J and Ed are the second invariants of the stress
far has focussed on the computational aspects of the and strain tensors, respectively (Potts & Zdravkovic
optimisation method, rather than on the merits of any 1999). The drained triaxial compression tests were
specific model (Azeiteiro 2008, Azeiteiro et al. 2009). characterised by the stress-strain curve Ed -J and by the
In particular, the code uses the MCC model to simulate Ed vol relation, where vol is the volumetric strain.
the behaviour of soil under three distinct types of lab- Finally, the one-dimensional consolidation tests were
oratory tests: undrained triaxial compression; drained described by the obtained e-p curve, where e is the
triaxial compression and one-dimensional consolida- void ratio. All of the curves mentioned above were
tion (oedometer).Therefore, data corresponding to any discretised into 25 points.
combination of these tests (number and type) can be In terms of search area, Azeiteiro (2008) showed
given as an input of the calibration procedure. that, for a problem with a well-defined solution, such
In terms of features related to the GAs, the current as the one being analysed, the limits chosen did not
version uses a constant-size population of individuals influence the quality of the results, only affecting
composed of real-format genes.There are several types
of crossing operators available, both deterministic Table 1. Characteristics of the pseudo-experimental tests.
and probabilistic. Similarly, discrete and continuous
mutation schemes with different maximum allowed p init. p end
changes per gene (1% up to 10%) have been imple- Test Type (kPa) OCR (kPa)
mented. These aspects have been studied and the
obtained results can be found in Taborda et al. (2008) UD.1 UTXC 100 6.0 Critical state
UD.2 UTXC 100 1.5 Critical state
and Azeiteiro et al. (2009). Other existing capabili-
UD.3 UTXC 200 1.0 Critical state
ties, such as the fitness functions and age control are UD.4 UTXC 500 1.2 Critical state
described in Azeiteiro (2008). DR.1 DTXC 100 1.5 Critical state
DR.2 DTXC 200 1.0 Critical state
OE.1 1-DC 100 1.5 1000
3 COMPUTATIONAL STUDIES
UTXC Undrained triaxial compression test
3.1 General aspects and methodology DTXC Drained triaxial compression test
This computational study aims at investigating and 1-DC one-dimensional consolidation test
characterising the effect of the input data on the effec-
Table 2. Employed Modified Cam-Clay parameters.
tiveness of GAs, when this optimisation method is
employed to estimate the parameters of the MCC 1 cs
model.
To eliminate the impact of the limitations of the 0.05 0.20 3.0 32.0 0.25
chosen model when reproducing real soil behaviour,

70
Table 3. Limits of the searched area.
Limit 1 cs
Min. 0.02 0.10 2.50 25.0 0.15
Max. 0.08 0.30 3.50 42.0 0.35
slightly the performance of the algorithm. In the
present case, the adopted limits, which are defined in
Table 3, are rather wide and are thought to influence
equally all of the studied cases.
3.3 Study based only on undrained triaxial
compression tests (UD)
For this particular study, tests UD.1; UD.2; UD.3 and
UD.4 were used as input data. The computer code was
set to stop at 4 different marks (a normalised mea-
sure of the error determined internally by genUCs
fitness function, which, in practice, evaluates the dis-
tance between the input and the calculated curves): 1,
10, 100 and 200. Naturally, the greater the mark used
as stopping condition, the larger is the expected error
when comparing the returned solution with the original
set of values. This error was first quantified for each
of the parameters:
allowing, subsequently, the determination of the global
error for each solution:
It is acknowledged that a perhaps more representa-
tive measure of the error could be obtained by dividing
the result of Equation 2 by the number of parameters
(Nparam ). However, since Nparam is constant for all the
analyses performed, this normalisation was thought to
be unnecessary and the global norm of the error (Eq. 2)
was deemed appropriate. It is apparent that the mag-
nitude of this error does not truly reflect the quality of
the solution. Furthermore, for this error to be signif-
icant for a given analysis, it is necessary to perform
each calculation various times, thus limiting the nat-
ural influence of all the random processes involved
in the generation of the initial population. Since this
number is likely to be a function of several factors,
it is difficult to determine its magnitude in advance.
Therefore, each calculation was repeated 200 times
and the average error of the best individuals was deter-
mined for samples of various sizes (limited to 200,
naturally). The results, normalised by the error (Eq. 2)
of the full sample, are shown in Figure 1, where it is
evident that above 100 calculations, a maximum devi-
ation of +/ 5% can be guaranteed. Nevertheless, as
these conclusions are likely to be problem dependent,
it was decided to conduct 200 calculations per analysis
71
Figure 1. Evolution of the normalised error with the size of
the sample.
Figure 2. Mark and error of best individuals (case UD).
(instead of the more economic 100) in order to ensure
that the average result was significant.
For each of the 4 cases, Figure 2 shows the respec-
tive mark and error of the best 200 individuals. It is
interesting to note that the envelope of the points tends
to a horizontal line at lower marks, indicating that
the adoption of a more stringent stopping criterion
might not reduce the expected error of the solution.
Furthermore, it can also be seen that the triangular
shape formed by the points corresponding to high
marks collapses into an almost rectangular shape at
lower marks. In fact, when determining the relative
frequency of the normalised errors (i.e. the error of
an individual divided by the maximum error of the
entire sample obtained using an identical stopping con-
dition), it becomes clear that the distribution tends to
have almost a uniform shape for lower marks (Fig-
ure 3). This observation is also corroborated by the
statistical measures of dispersion, which indicate that
the quartiles of the samples are very close to 25%, 50%
and 75% the values of a uniform distribution for
marks below 10. In fact, it is interesting to note that
the first quartile is close to 25% for the three analyses,
while the third quartile suffers the largest changes
from 50.3% for 200 up to 71.7% for 10 and is only
approximately 75% for the two lowest marks. This sug-
gests that the points located below a certain error level
are distributed uniformly while the same is not true for
the individuals with larger errors. If it is considered that
Figure 3. Relative frequency of the normalised error (case Figure 4. Mark and error of best individuals (case UD-DR).
UD).

Table 4. Dispersion of the normalised error (case UD). error to be below 10% as it is for it to belong to the
interval 2030%.
Case Q1 (25%) Median Q3 (75%)
3.4 Introduction of drained triaxial compression
Uniform 25.0 50.0 75.0
1 27.5 45.4 80.7 tests (UD-DR)
10 23.0 48.3 71.7 This study used as input data the tests labelled as
100 27.8 40.1 52.0 UD.1, UD.4; DR.1 and DR.2 in order to evaluate if the
200 25.9 36.5 50.3
trend verified in the previous set of analyses, which
indicated an inability to further reduce the error by
decreasing the mark used as stop condition, remained
Table 5. Dispersion of the normalised error with partial
samples (case UD). valid for this combination of tests. With that objective,
200 calculations for each of the 3 chosen marks (10,
Case N Q1 (25%) Median Q3 (75%) 100 and 200) were performed and the obtained best
individuals are presented in Figure 4 (mark 1 was dis-
Uniform 25.0 50.0 75.0 regarded since for case UD there was little difference
1 200 27.5 45.4 80.7 when compared to mark 10).
10 187 22.5 47.2 70.2 Although the maximum relative error registered for
100 179 41.7 55.9 75.1 the analysis using 200 as a stopping condition is sig-
200 144 46.5 68.0 82.6 nificantly reduced by the introduction of the drained
triaxial compression test, the results show that the
N is the new size of the sample
envelope tends to the same limit of about 30% at lower
marks. Furthermore, the corresponding relative fre-
for mark 1 the distribution is uniform, then the position quency of errors, as indicated by Figure 5, show a
of this division line must coincide with the asymptotic progression towards a uniform distribution, justify-
limit defined by the maximum relative error registered ing the approximately rectangular shape formed by
when the mark was set at this level. To test this hypoth- the points obtained when the mark is set to 10. This
esis, the quartiles were recalculated for the 4 samples observation is further confirmed by the values of the
using only the individuals with error below 28.95% quartiles of the different samples, listed in Table 6.
(the maximum error registered for mark 1). The results It is interesting to note that, as in the previous case,
are listed in Table 5 and confirm that, with the excep- the first quartile is close to 25% for the three analy-
tion of the value of the first quartile for larger marks, ses, while the third quartile suffers the largest changes
the distributions of the errors below this level are more (from 56.5% for 200 up to 71.9% for 10) and is only
uniform than those obtained when the complete sam- close to uniform for the lowest mark. Therefore, to
ples are considered. Therefore, it can be speculated further test the hypothesis raised before, the quar-
that if such a division line (i.e. a value below which a tiles were recalculated using only the individuals with
given sample is distributed uniformly) is found, then an error below 29.2% (the maximum error registered
its position may correspond to a limit error which can when the employed mark was 10). The results indicate
never be eliminated when using the current input data. more uniformly distributed errors (Table 7), agreeing
In conclusion, it can be stated that by only supply- with the previous case.
ing results of undrained triaxial compression tests the In conclusion, the analysis of the collected data indi-
error in the obtained solution tends to be defined by a cates that the introduction of the pseudo-experimental
uniform distribution, with a maximum magnitude of results of a drained test did not increase the ability of
approximately 30% (5% on average for each param- the MCC model to determine with accuracy the right
eter). Therefore, as an example, it is as likely for the parameters.

72
Figure 5. Relative frequency of the normalised error (case Figure 7. Relative frequency of the normalised error (case
UD-DR). UD-DR-OE).

Table 6. Dispersion of the normalised error (case UD-DR). Table 8. Dispersion of the normalised error (case UD-DR-
OE).
Case Q1 (25%) Median Q3 (75%)
Case Q1 (25%) Median Q3 (75%)
Uniform 25.0 50.0 75.0
10 23.2 49.3 71.9 Uniform 25.0 50.0 75.0
100 22.7 45.2 63.4 10 40.0 55.8 76.3
200 23.2 39.9 56.5 100 57.3 74.2 81.9
200 38.8 57.7 71.5

Table 7. Dispersion of the normalised error with partial the effect of the introduction of a test characterising a
samples (case UD-DR).
different type of loading condition (one-dimensional
Case N Q1 (25%) Median Q3 (75%)
compression instead of triaxial shearing). The results
of the 200 calculations performed for each of the
Uniform 25.0 50.0 75.0 values of the stopping criterion (mark 10, 100 and
10 200 23.2 49.3 71.9 200) are illustrated in Figure 6. It is clear from the
100 189 23.7 48.5 68.4 graph that there is an apparent relation between the
200 179 30.1 50.2 72.8 mark and the registered errors, while the asymptotic
limit identified for the previous cases cannot be dis-
N is the new size of the sample cerned. Consequently, with this input data, and unlike
the situations analysed so far, a more stringent stop-
ping criterion does lead to better results. Furthermore,
Figure 7, which illustrates the relative frequency of
the normalised errors, shows that the distributions
cannot be considered uniform. This observation is fur-
ther confirmed by the values of the quartiles listed
in Table 8 and agrees with the hypothesis proposed
before. In fact, if there is no value of error below which
the distribution is uniform, then it must mean that the
limit error using this input data is very close to 0 and
that the employed tests are able to uniquely define the
parameters of the MCC model. This result may seem
trivial as the constitutive equations were initially for-
mulated to reproduce the observed behaviour of clay
under these two tests. However, since for other mod-
Figure 6. Mark and error of the best individuals (case els this may not be as clear, the results of the present
UD-DR-OE). study suggest that the GAs may be used as part of a
process to identify the most adequate set of tests for
3.5 Introduction of oedometer tests the efficient calibration of a given constitutive model.
(UD-DR-OE)
3.6 Comparative analysis
For this group of analyses, the data from the tests
named UD.1; UD.4; DR.1 and OE.1 were given to The error envelopes of the three groups of analyses
genUC as input with the objective of investigating are shown in Figure 8. It is clear that results obtained

73

Figure 8. Error envelopes of the three groups of analyses.
Figure 9. Calculation times for the different groups of
analyses.
by only performing triaxial shearing tests, drained or
undrained, cannot guarantee the determination of the
correct set of parameters. In fact, adding a drained
triaxial compression test to the reference undrained
shearing data only decreased the error for large marks,
maintaining the same asymptotic value of about 30%
which cannot be eliminated. This can be justified
by the fact that triaxial shearing behaviour depends
more on a combination of parameters rather than on
their individual magnitudes. However, the introduction
of the results of a one-dimensional compression test
greatly improved the quality of the solutions, leading
to much smaller errors and indicating that, with this
combination of tests, there is a direct relation between
the mark and the error.
In terms of performance, the calculation times were
used to evaluate the effectiveness of the different cases
analysed. In Figure 9, the average error is plotted
against the calculation time, while the labels over the
points indicate the mark employed as stopping cri-
terion. It can be seen that, for the case where only
undrained triaxial compressions tests were used, there
is a large increase in computational cost without any
reduction of the error when the mark is decreased from
10 to 1. This is undoubtedly related to the existence of
the asymptotic limit on the maximum error obtained
74
in the analyses. Moreover, it is interesting to note that,
for all the cases where the mark was set at 10, the
program registered about 13.4 iterations per second.
Consequently, the fact that the average time spent per
calculation increases with the number of different tests
modelled is related to a larger number of iterations
being required, rather than to a higher computational
cost per iteration.
4 CONCLUSIONS
The effectiveness of genetic algorithms-based soft-
ware in soil model calibration is clearly demonstrated
by the results presented. It is also shown that differ-
ent types of loading conditions need to be included in
the input if a very accurate solution is pursued. For
the case studied, which considers the evaluation of
parameters for MCC model, adding experimental data
corresponding to drained triaxial compression tests
to the reference set of data including only undrained
triaxial tests merely increases the efficiency of the
optimization procedure. However, the quality of this
solution cannot be improved beyond a certain limit,
irrespective of the number of iterations performed.
A more accurate solution can only be obtained if the
results of a 1-D compression test are included in the
input.
The conclusions are consistent with the obvious fact
that some experiments provide a better representation
of particular aspects of soil behaviour than others,
which is particularly evident in the case of MCC
model. However, this conclusion is likely to retain its
validity for more complex constitutive relations, where
the materials response under certain loading condi-
tions is hard to relate to specific model parameters
which often have no clear physical meaning. Further-
more, the fact that the enlargement of the experimental
database for the calibration of soil models may not be
effective does not necessarily apply to practical prob-
lems, where the crucial issue of soil variability must
be addressed through this route.
REFERENCES
Azeiteiro, R.N. 2008. Application of genetic algorithms to the
calibration of constitutive models for soils. MSc Thesis,
University of Coimbra, Portugal (in Portuguese).
Azeiteiro, R.N., Coelho, P.A.L.F., Taborda, D., Pedro, A. &
Antunes, D. 2009. Computational study of the perfor-
mance of a genetic algorithms-based software. Proc. of
the 1st Int. Symp. on Computational Geomechanics
COMGEO I, Juan-les-Pins, 29 April 1 May 2009.
Potts, D.M. & Zdravkovic, L. 1999. Finite element analy-
sis in geotechnical engineering: theory. London: Thomas
Telford.
Taborda, D., Coelho, P.A.L.F., Antunes, D. & Pedro, A.
2008. Genetic algorithms as a calibration method for
constitutive models. Proc. of the 11th National Confer-
ence in Geotechnics XI CNG, Coimbra, Portugal (in
Portuguese).
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Influence of destructuration of soft clay on time-dependant settlements

D.F.T. Nash
Department of Civil Engineering, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK

ABSTRACT: The time-dependant settlement of soft soils following application of surface loading may be
modelled using elastic visco-plastic constitutive models to describe the soil behaviour. For applied loadings
that increase the stresses to around the in-situ yield stress, the predicted behaviour is strongly influenced by
the associated breakdown of clay structure and the way in which this is modelled. The paper describes some
predictions for a hypothetical case prediction exercise recently organised by the Norwegian Geotechnical Institute
(NGI), to compare different calculation methods used in settlement analyses of soft soil around the world. The
results presented here were made using a one-dimensional coupled consolidation analysis implemented in the
spreadsheet-based software Briscon. Parameters were obtained from an oedometer test and the results were
extrapolated over the full soil profile. Various plausible assumptions about the shape of the isotaches around
yield were explored, and it is shown that the predicted long-term settlement may vary by factors of two or more
depending on the assumptions made.

1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background
The prediction of long-term settlements of embank-
ments foundations and fills on soft clays requires a
good understanding of the time dependant behaviour
of the clay. While a complex three dimensional analy-
sis may sometimes be necessary, it will often be more
appropriate to undertake a one-dimensional analysis
of the centerline conditions. The study presented here
explores the implications of making different assump-
tions about the one-dimensional creep behaviour of the
clay as it is stressed towards and beyond the yield stress
as structure of the soft clay is gradually damaged.

1.2 Origins of isotache models

One-dimensional compression under constant effec-
tive stresses was first studied by Taylor & Mer-
chant (1940), who showed that secondary compression
movements decrease logarithmically with time. Taylor
(1948) stated that creep occurs during primary consol-
idation as well as subsequently, and following Taylors
ideas, uklje (1957) and notably Bjerrum (1967) pre-
sented diagrams showing a system of approximately Figure 1. Principles of settlement calculation for soft clays
parallel e vs. log  curves (see Figure 1) that describe (Bjerrum 1967).
secondary compression behaviour. In this widely used
diagram, the lines indicate void ratio after constant
time for delayed compression. Bjerrum introduced the labelled to indicate equal times after the application of
terms instant and delayed compression to describe the the loading, but Bjerrum (1972) noted that they also
behaviour of the soil skeleton in the absence of pore represent lines of constant creep rate or isotaches. Sub-
pressure effects, and argued that delayed compression sequently Lerouiel (2006) has shown that the isotaches
(or creep) occurs during the whole consolidation pro- in one-dimensional compression are part of strain rate
cess. The parallel e vs. log  lines in Figure 1 are dependant limit state surfaces.

75
Figure 2. Observed and predicted settlements of buildings
in Drammen, Norway. (Bjerrum 1967).

Bjerrum (1967) presented interesting observations

of settlement of buildings founded over soft clay in
Drammen (see Figure 2) and showed that the mag-
nitude and rate of settlement was strongly influenced
by the degree of loading in relation to the yield stress
or pre-consolidation pressure p/(pc p0 ). He sug-
gested that if this ratio is less than 50% then the
creep settlement within the lifetime of the buildings
would be small. Bjerrum also predicted the long- Figure 3. Isotaches observed on reloading (dashed) merging
term settlements and suggested that eventually all the with those for normal consolidation.
time-settlement curves would be parallel as shown in
Figure 2. This behaviour follows from the shape of the spacing of the isotaches as well as the initial state of
equal time lines shown in Figure 1. the clay. In practice the clay in-situ is probably under-
going creep at a very slow rate as indicated by point B*
1.3 Shape of isotaches around yield in Figure 3, but the state of the soil must be adjusted
to take account of sample disturbance.
In Figure 1 the isotaches are parallel and their position
is not affected by the development of clay structure nor
by physical over-consolidation, although the spacing 1.4 Objectives of this study
of the isotaches decreases with elapsed time. When fur-
In predicting creep settlements resulting from limited
ther load is applied and the yield stress is approached,
loading, the choice of isotache model is obviously fun-
the state path crosses the isotaches, and the increas-
damental. The two models shown diagrammatically in
ing creep rate is associated with structural breakdown.
Figure 4 were applied in a benchmark study proposed
This is illustrated in Figure 3 (developed from Bjer-
by NGI (NGI 2007, Jostad & Degago 2010), and as
rums plot), from which it may be deduced that a soil
expected the choice of model significantly influences
element that has crept from state A when it was initially
the short and long-term behaviour. Combined consoli-
deposited 10000 years ago to state B today would cur-
dation and creep analyses have been undertaken using
rently be undergoing creep at a very slow rate that
the elasto-visco-plastic procedure Briscon using these
can be evaluated assuming that the parallel isotaches
isotache models; a brief outline of the procedure is
apply.
given below. The results were first presented at an
However in laboratory IL oedometer tests on high
informal workshop on creep on soft soils (CREBS III)
quality samples that are reloaded to the in-situ state
held at Chalmers University in 2009.
B, creep is observed at rates that are initially compa-
rable with those in the normally-consolidated region
but the creep rate falls off rapidly. Thus as the clay is
2 BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF ANALYSIS
loaded towards the yield stress, the creep behaviour
is not consistent with the parallel isotaches, but rather
2.1 Brief description of BRISCON
with isotaches that are curved, as shown by the dashed
isotaches in Figure 3. This implies that creep occurs Briscon is an Excel spreadsheet-based program for
well inside the limit state surface with the gradually analysis of large strain one-dimensional consolidation
increasing isotache spacing associated with structural in multi-layered soils exhibiting creep with vertical
breakdown. and radial flow. The program was originally developed
The long-term strains resulting from a modest for use in back-analysis of the centreline settlement
increase in stress are clearly strongly influenced by the behaviour of an embankment on soft clay near Bristol,

76
(Nash & Ryde 2001, Nash 2001). It is written in Visual
Basic for Applications (VBA), and data is read from
and written to a series of spreadsheets. The ground
profile may include alternating drained sand and con-
solidating clay layers with varying hydraulic boundary
conditions. Permeability (linked to void ratio) and
geometry may be updated throughout the analysis,
with allowance made for gradual submergence of the
fill placed at the surface.
In Briscon the consolidation equation with vertical
flow only is expressed thus:

where u is the total pore pressure, is the total verti-

cal stress, kz is hydraulic conductivity, mv is the elastic
compressibility and the last term tp /t expresses the
natural strain creep rate. Thus creep is modelled con-
tinuously throughout the consolidation. The equation
is formulated in natural strain, but void ratio is an input
parameter. A standard finite difference procedure with
a graded grid is used to represent the problem.

2.2 EVP models used in this study

In the elastic visco-plastic (EVP) models that are
implemented in Briscon the plastic strain rate tp is
uniquely related to the soil state given by void ratio e
and the current vertical effective stress  . One such
model was developed from the work of Yin & Graham
(1996) who used the model from critical state
soil mechanics to define the elastic-plastic behaviour
of the soil skeleton. The normal consolidation line
(NCL) is replaced by a reference time line (RTL)
with slope on which the creep strain rate is known,
that is used to define the complete set of isotaches;
equally spaced isotaches indicate a logarithmic change
in strain rate, with the spacing controlled by parameter
. There is no lower limit to creep. The parameter ,
has a similar meaning to the coefficient of secondary
compression C except that it is independent of start-
ing time; at very large times C = . ln(10). The ratio
/ is equal to C /Cc in the normally consolidated
region (ie on the RTL). Details of this model (denoted
model 3 here) are given by Nash & Ryde (2001).
The two creep parameters that define the creep
tp
behaviour are thus and 0 on the RTL. It is conve-
nient but not essential to choose the creep strain rate
on the RTL equal to that after 24 hours in incremental
load oedometer tests. In the work of Yin and Graham
it was assumed that the isotaches are linear on a plot of
void ratio vs effective stress. Other models have been
developed (Nash 2001) that allow for a curved RTL
and associated isotaches.
Two EVP models have been used in the analyses
reported here as follows: Model 3 (see Figure 4a) with
parallel isotaches defined by , and and Model
3-d (see Figure 4b) similar to model 3 but with a bilin-
ear RTL and curved isotaches around yield to account
for the effects of gradual destructuration. In this study
Figure 4. Isotaches for a) model 3 and b) model 3-d.
the yield stress y has been taken as equal to the pre-
consolidation pressure pc determined from the 24-hour
IL oedometer test, and defines the intersection of the
elastic reloading line and the RTL on a plot of void
ratio against log  . In Figure 4 the stress is normalised
by the initial vertical effective stress. The creep rate
at the initial effective stress is determined from the
appropriate isotache.
3 BENCH MARK PROBLEM
3.1 Outline of problem
The stratigraphy proposed by NGI (NGI 2007,
Jostad & Degago 2010) is shown in Figure 5. Five
cases were proposed for analysis which differ primar-
ily in respect of the OCR assumed for the soft clay, the
magnitude of the load increment applied, and whether
the base of the clay layer is an open or closed bound-
ary. In this paper only one case will be considered in
which a uniform loading of 90 kPa is applied over a
clay deposit with OCR = 1.4 as shown in Figure 5. It
may be seen that the final stress straddles the initial
yield stress pc .

77
 Table 1. Model parameters derived from oedometer test
no. 693.

e0
Cc /(1 + e0 ), Cc ,
Cs /(1 + e0 ), Cs ,
yield stress y
C /(1 + e0 ), /(1 + e0 ),
, /
Strain rate on RTL
1.17
0.167, 0.362, 0.157
0.021, 0.045, 0.020
152 kPa
0.0067, 0.0029, 0.0063, 0.04
2 104 %/min

Figure 5. Geotechnical profile for problem analysed.

Figure 7. Observed and predicted stress strain behaviour

for oedometer test no. 693.

obtained and normalized. The chosen fit lines are

shown in Figure 6a and the parameters are given in
Table 1. The steps involved were as follows:
1. From the plot of strain vs stress (log) Plot the best
fit 24 hour NCL; determine Cc /(1 + e0 ); Choose
best fit average slope for initial reload and swelling
lines - Cs /(1 + e0 );
Calculate Cc and Cs , and values;
Determine yield stress y from intersection of
Figure 6a. 24-hour data from test no. 693 with fitted lines.
initial reload line with NCL.
2. From time-settlement increment data Assess
slope of final stages of each strain vs log(time)
plot (Figure 8a) to obtain C /(1 + e0 ) for each load
increment; calculate values of ;
Select representative value of for the RTL (24
hour-NCL) and calculate /;
Calculate strain rate on 24-hour NCL.
3. From increment data for creep parameter -;
Plot /(1 + e0 ) against normalised stress level  /y
(Figure 6b) and fit sin function.

3.3 Initial modelling of oedometer test

Figure 6b. Creep parameter from test no. 693 plotted
against normalized stress with fitted sin function.
3.2 The IL oedometer test
The significant data for the clay was a single IL
oedometer test (no. 693) from which parameters were
The data were used in a simulation of oedometer test
no. 693 using Briscon with models 3 and 3-d. The
results are shown in Figures 7 and 8; the stress strain
plot shows good agreement between the experimental
and predicted data. The small differences around yield
reflect the different shape of the isotaches agreement
appears to be satisfactory. The time settlement plots
(using model 3-d1) also show fair agreement with the
experimental data (Figure 8).

78

Figure 8. a) Observed settlement and b) settlement pre-
dicted with model 3-d1 vs time for loading increments in
test no. 693.
3.4 Model parameters for the full-scale
problem
The parameters in Table 1 were then applied directly
in the analyses of the full scale problem. Since test no.
693 was assumed to be representative of a clay stra-
tum with a specified OCR = 1.4, the most significant
additional assumption was the location of the refer-
ence time line (RTL). The experimental data from test
no. 693 showed that strains of more than 2.5% had
occurred during reloading to around 108 kPa (corre-
sponding to an OCR of 1.4). Much of this strain was
assumed to arise from recompression of the sample
after disturbance during sampling and test prepara-
tion, and in applying this data to the full scale problem
it was decided to disregard this. It was assumed that
the slope of the reload and RTL lines would remain
unchanged ( and ) and that they would intersect at
the yield stress y . The yield stress profile has been
taken equal to the initial effective stress multiplied
by the given OCR. The in-situ RTL is located at a
smaller strain than the experimental NCL as shown in
Figure 9.
With model 3 the isotaches are at constant spac-
ing (Figure 4a), and the creep rate at the initial state
is controlled by the OCR. With model 3-d the sinu-
soidal variation of creep parameter shown in Figure 6b
was used, leading to a varying spacing of isotaches
(Figure 4b). The creep rate at the initial state is con-
trolled both by OCR and by the equivalent age of the
deposit. Two ages were used: 24 hours (point B in Fig-
ure 3) and 10000 years (point B*); these models are
denoted 3-d1 and 3-d2 respectively.
79
Figure 9. Comparison between 24-hour NCL in test no. 693
and assumed RTL.
Figure 10. Predicted settlement vs time for a) no load and
b) 90 kPa.
4 ANALYSES OF FULL SCALE PROBLEM
Two cases are reported here; others are described by
Nash (2008). In the first no loading was applied to
the ground surface and the ground was allowed to set-
tle under its own weight. Secondly a surface loading
of 90 kPa was applied to the ground surface over a
period of 0.01 years and then the ground was allowed
to consolidate and settle for 500 years. Analyses were
undertaken with creep models 3, 3-d1 and 3-d2, and
for comparison without creep (model 2 using the same
NCL).
Firstly, analyses were carried out with no loading
applied, so as to examine the inherent creep of the
ground. The time-settlement behaviour is summarised
in Figure 10a. It shows that the 500 year settlements of
the unloaded ground were 0.36 and 0.15 m with creep
models 3 and 3-d1 respectively. With creep model 3-d2
settlement was negligible as expected. This illustrates
how the model used in the over-consolidated region
strongly influences the calculated creep.
When 90 kPa load was applied there were still sig-
nificant differences between the final settlements pre-
dicted by the various models as shown in Figure 10b.

Figure 11. Predicted variation of soil state under 90 kPa
load for a) model 3 and b) model 3-d2.
Without creep (model 2), the long-term settlement
was 0.26m, whereas using creep models 3, 3-d1 and
3-d2, the values increased to 1.13, 0.58 and 0.41 m
respectively. Again the choice of model has a profound
influence on the long-term settlements. Figure 11
shows how the state of the clay at the top, centre and
base of the clay stratum varies during consolidation.
The data are normalized by the initial effective stresses
and are superimposed on isotaches spaced logarithmi-
cally. The state of the soil in-situ lay below that on
the RTL at all times since even near to the top of the
clay, the rates of strain in the field did not reach those
obtained after 24 hours in the oedometer. Comparison
of the two figures shows how modelling the changing
isotache spacing around yield reduces the strains in the
lower levels of clay where the stresses never reaches
the yield stress (see Figure 5).
5 CONCLUSIONS
This study has shown the significance of modelling the
gradually changing creep behaviour as clay structure
80
is broken down around the yield stress. Without this,
using a simple isotache model can result in significant
over-prediction of creep settlements. The models used
here appear to be conceptually similar to that described
by Claesson (2003).
As is also discussed by Jostad & Degago (2010),
the main limitations of isotache models such as these
reflect our lack of knowledge of the creep behaviour
below and around the yield stress, at very large times
and after unloading. It is uncertain how the creep
behaviour of laboratory samples should be interpreted
to allow for sample disturbance.
REFERENCES
Bjerrum, L. 1967. Engineering geology of Norwegian
normally-consolidated clays. Seventh Rankine Lecture.
Geotechnique 17(2): 81118.
Bjerrum, L. 1972. Embankments on soft ground. State of
the Art report. Proc. ASCE Spec. Conf. on Performance of
Earth and Earth-supported structures, Purdue. 1: 154.
Claesson, P. 2003. Long term settlements of clays. PhD thesis,
Chalmers University of Technology. Gtheborg, Sweden.
Jostad, H.P. & Degago, S.A. 2010. Comparison of methods
for calculation of settlements of soft clay. 7th Eur. Conf.
Numerical Methods in Geotech. Eng. Trondheim, Norway.
Leroueil, S. 2006. uklje Memorial Lecture: The isotache
approach. Where are we 50 years after its development by
Professor uklje? 13th Danube-European Conf. Geotech.
Engng, Ljubljana, Slovenia. 2: 5588.
Nash, D.F.T. & Ryde, S.J. 2001. Modelling the consolida-
tion of compressible soils subject to creep around vertical
drains. Gotechnique 51(4): 257273.
Nash, D.F.T. 2001. Modelling the effects of surcharge to
reduce long term settlement of reclamations over soft
clays: a numerical case study. Soils and Foundations 41
(5): 113.
Nash, D.F.T. 2008. Comparison of methods for calculation
of long term settlements of soft clay hypothetical case
prediction exercise. Report.on predictions using Briscon.
University of Bristol (unpublished).
Norwegian Geotechnical Institute 2007. Comparison of
methods for calculation of long term settlements of soft
clay a hypothetical case prediction exercise. Report
20061075-1.
uklje, L. 1957. The analysis of the consolidation process by
the isotache method. Proc. 4th Int. Conf. on Soil Mech.
and Found. Engng., London. 1: 200206.
Taylor, D.W. & Merchant, W. 1940. A theory of clay con-
solidation accounting for secondary compression. Journ.
Math. Phys. 19(3): 167185.
Taylor, D.W. 1948. Fundamentals of Soil Mechanics. Chap-
man and Hall, London and Wiley, New York.
Yin, J-H. & Graham, J. 1996. Elastic visco-plastic modelling
of one-dimensional consolidation. Gotechnique 46(3):
515527.
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Modeling liquefaction behavior of sands by means of hypoplastic model

A.B. Tsegaye
Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands
Plaxis B.V., Delft, Netherlands

F. Molenkamp
Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands

R.B.J. Brinkgreve
Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands
Plaxis B.V., Delft, The Netherlands

P.G. Bonnier
Plaxis B.V., Delft, The Netherlands

R. de Jager
Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands

V. Galavi
Plaxis B.V., Delft, The Netherlands

ABSTRACT: In this paper the hypoplastic model by Wolffersdorff with the Intergranular Strain extension by
Niemunis and Herle has been used for modeling the undrained behavior of sand during static and cyclic loads.
The paper presents the hypoplastic equations and the Intergranular Strain concept in brief. Numerical simulations
of undrained triaxial compression and cyclic simple shear tests are performed.

1 INTRODUCTION imposing assumptions of stress homogeneity, rate

independence and incremental non-linearity, the gen-
Hypoplasticity is an incrementally non-linear path eral form of the hypoplastic equation (e.g. Kolymbas,
dependent constitutive model. The basic function in 2000, Lanier, et al., 2004, Gudehus, 1996) is written as:
hypoplasticity is of a general form:

Where L and N are literally the linear and the

Where is the Jaumanns objective stress rate, is the non-linear parts of the hypoplastic stiffness matrix
current stress state and is the current strain rate. respectively. The L and N matrices of Wolffers-
There are a number of hypoplastic models (Kolym- dorffs hypoplastic model, which uses a predefined
bas, 1977, Wu, 1992, Gudehus 1996, Niemunis & Matsuoka-Nakai yield criterion, are written as:
Herle, 1997, Wolffersdorff, 1996). In this study Wolf-
fersdorff s version of hypoplasticity (Wolffersdorf,
1996) with the so called Intergranular Strain extension
(Niemunis and Herle, 1997) has been used to simulate
the undrained behavior of sand during static and cyclic
loading.

2 GENERAL FORMULATION OF
WOLFFERSDORFFS HYPOPLASTIC
MODEL F and a define the Matsuoka-Nakais yield surface.

Elaborating the tensor valued isotropic function in

equation (1) using the representation theorem and

81
 Table 1. Boundary conditions for linear interpolation over
.

= 0 = 90 = 180

0 mR L mR L mR L
Mo M90 M180
1 L+Nh mT L mR L
Where c = the critical state friction angle, tr is the
trace of a matrix obtained by summation of the diag-
onal terms, is a second order identity tensor, and fs Table 2. Boundary conditions for linear interpolation over
and fd are scalar factors included in the early 1990s to f()
account for the effect of density and pressure.
fs is a generalized function that contains the influ- 0 (0 , 90 ) 90 (0 , 90 ) 180
ence of the void ratio on the incremental stiffness and
the influence of barotropy (pressure) and is given as: f () d hh:d 0 hh:d d
M M0 M M90 M M180

at the intergranular strain and during change of load-

The influence of density (pycnotropy) is controlled via
the scalar, fd given as:
ing direction, is calculated from the basic hypoplastic
stiffness tensors L and N.
The various assumptions are depicted in Figure 1a.
The recent deformation history is stored in Intergranu-
lar Strain tensor with a generalized objective evolution
rule (Niemunis and Herle, 1997) given as:

Where , , ei0 , ec0 , ed0 , hs and n are model parameters.

All but and are determined from the evolution
of the critical state, the upper and the lower bound
void ratio in e-logp plane following Bauers isotropic
compression law (Bauer, 1996) which is given as:
Where ei , ec and ed are the upper bound, critical and
the lower bound void ratios at mean normal pressure
p, respectively; ei0 , ec0 and ed0 are the corresponding
values at zero mean pressure; hs = granulate hardness,
n = exponent to take pressure sensitivity into account.
Where h = h/||h|| is the direction of the intergranular
strain, R is a material constant and r is a parameter
that controls the Intergranular Stain evolution rate.
The tangent stiffness is assumed to degrade linearly
over as shown in Figure 1b, where is model
parameter for non-linearity of the tangent stiffness
degradation with .
Linear interpolation over of the set of constraints
given in Table 1 gives:

A second interpolation follows based on the direc-

3 STIFNESS AT SMALL STRAINS AND
tion of the current strain rate, d = /||||, relative to
DURING CHANGE OF LOADING
DIRECTION the recent strain rate direction, h. This interpolation is
also linear with the direction parameter, f() = hh:d,
The hypoplastic model by Wolffersdorff could predict between M180 and M90 and between M90 and M0 .
the mechanical behavior of state dependent granular Linear interpolation over f() following the con-
material during monotonic deformation. The model straints in Table 2 gives:
could also differentiate unloading and reloading paths.
The model however, is said to accumulate excessive
of plastic strains at small strain and during change
of loading direction leading to excessive pore pres-
sure accumulation (Niemunis and Herle, 1997). Hence
they proposed the so called Intergranular Strain to Where denotes the dyadic product, and the colon:
account for stiff behavior of soils at small strains and denotes the scalar product between two tensors.
during change of loading direction. A tangential stiff- To the authors knowledge, this interpolation func-
ness tenor, M, which considers increased magnitude tion has not so far been compared to experimental

82
Figure 1. a) The Intergranular Stiffness dial (for N = 0) b)
tangent stiffness degradation with .

Figure 2. Effect of the parameters and r on the tangent

results. The law of inertia can be utilized to reason stiffness degradation curve (the reference curves (in bold) are
out the validity of the assumptions (Tsegaye, 2009). for mR = 5, = 6, r = 0.5).
As a consequence of modeling the small strain and
cyclic behavior, the formulation of the Intergranular
Strain levies the hypoplastic model with five more
parameters- mR , mT , r R and . The procedures to
determine these parameters have been presented by
Niemunis (Niemunis, 2003). Nevertheless, the tests
required are cumbersome and some of the parame-
ters r and may be abstract to the user. As such,
in hypoplastic simulations involving the Intergranular
Strain default values have often been used.
Using various empirical relations summarized by
Benz (2006), the parameter mR may be estimated from
a semi empirical relation given as:

Wherein A is a correlation constant f (e) is function
of the void ratio, OCR is the over consolidation ratio
ref
(which can fairly be left out for sand), vur and Eur
are the unload-reload Poissons ratio and the unload
reload reference elastic stiffness respectively at a ref-
erence mean normal pressure (usually considered at
atmospheric pressure).
Proper determination of the parameter mT requires
a test with a 90 load reversal. In this study mT = 0.4mR
has been used. The parameter R can be obtained from
cyclic shear test. To observe the effect of the other
parameters r and we shall consider a one dimen-
sional monotonic simple shearing, h > 0, where
equation (12) can be reduced to the form:
Up on integration of both sides of equation (17)
(Tsegaye, 2009) we obtain:
Figure 3. The first set of curves show the small strain stiff-
ness degradation for various values of the parameter mR
(varying mR from 2 up to 10 and holding = 6 and r = 0.5)
while the second set show the effect of the parameter and
r on the normalized limit strain, lim /R (the normalized limit
strain should be read for various values of and the values
r at the right axis).
Using linear interpolation between the maximum
small strain stiffness GR and the residual shear stiffness
G in terms of , the following relation can be derived:
Considering equations (18) and (19) the purposes
and effects of r and can be observed as shown in Fig-
ure 2. Very low values of r may not be desirable from
numerical convergence point of view and higher val-
ues increase the rate of stiffness degradation. Higher
values of tend to add to the constant (very small
strain) regime.
As shown in Figure 3, the normalized small strain
stiffness is asymptotic to G/GR = 1/mR . This marks
where the small strain stiffness is completely forgotten
and the hypoplastic model takes full charge. The cor-
responding strain level may be obtained from Figure 3.

83
Niemunis (2003) defined this strain as swept out of
memory strain, som in which the additional stiffness
is swept out (decayed out by more than a 90%).
The limit strain plotted in Figure 3 for various values
of and r is by using equations (18) and (19). A
fair estimation can be obtained by using the following
correlations.
Where lim is the limit shear strain level the Intergran-
ular Strain remains active and is the normalized limit
shear strain. A and n may be estimated according to:
The parameter R is the strain range where the model
behaves linear elastic with a shear modulus of GR .
Experimental results show this region is of a lim-
ited range to a shear strain level 106 or less (very
small strain range). However, in this formulation R
also determines the maximum shear strain level the
Intergranular Strain is active:
For example, for = 6 and r = 0.5, we obtain 8.5.
If we set lim = 103 , we require R 1.1 104 or
rather a choice of R = 1 106 will give a lim of
approximately 105 which is very small. The fact
that the Intergranular Strain decays relatively faster
requires higher value of R (than observed in experi-
ments) to stay in the game. In fact this range can also
be controlled by the choice of the parameter r (for
smaller magnitude of r , we can obtain higher value
of ). However, significantly lower values of r may
lead to numerical non convergence yet it increases the
influence zone in a similar fashion as using higher
value of R).
4 TRIAXIAL COMPRESSION STRESS STATE
From now on we can leave the Intergranular strain
complication aside as it will not affect the elaborations
qualitatively.
Elaboration of the general hypoplastic equation for
triaxial compression stress state (e.g. Niemunis, 2003,
Tsegaye, 2009) gives

Castro (Castro, 1969) in his PhD thesis investigated the
Where, = q/p, p = (1 + 23 ) 3, q = 1 3 ,

liquefaction behavior of the so called Castro Sand B
v = 1 + 23 and q = 2(1 + 23 ) 3 are considered (Been and Jefferies, 2004) during monotonic triaxial
The coupling between shear stress and volume
strain is inherent to the hypoplastic equation. Hence
the dilatancy behavior of the model can be easily inves-
tigated from equation (24) by considering dq / dp = 3
for drained triaxial compression condition.
For undrained condition, the volumetric strain rate
can fairly be assumed zero. Hence, the ratio of the
deviatoric stress rate to the isotropic stress rate can be
written as:
Considering equation (25) and instability condition at
dq / dp = 0,
Solving the quadratic equation (26), the slope of the
undrained instability line, IL , for triaxial compression
is obtained as:
Equation (27) holds true for contractive soils where
fd,IL 1. The equation further shows the most impor-
tant parameters that govern the slope of the instability
line during undrained triaxial compression simulation
are fd,IL and a. The function fd presented in equation
(10), can also be written as:
Where  = e ec is the state parameter as defined by
Been & Jefferies (1985) and e and ec are the current
material void ratio and the corresponding critical state
void ratio at the current confining pressure respec-
tively. The function fd depends not only on the state
parameter but also on ec and ed which in turn are
dependent on the mean normal pressure. Figure 3
illustrates the effect of fd,IL and IL on the slope of
the instability line during undrained triaxial compres-
sion simulation. However, instead of equation (28),
fd = (1 + a) has been used, where a is considered a
material constant which is held 1 in the figure dis-
regarding the pressure dependence. Similar curves
have been experimentally investigated (e.g. Chu, et al.,
2003, Wanatowuski, 2007).
5 APPLICATION: MODELLING OF TRIAXIAL
COMPRESSION AND CYCLIC SIMPLE
SHEAR
84
Table 3. Model parameters for Castro Sand B.

Basic parameters Intergranular Strain Parameters*

Symbol unit values symbol unit values

ed0 0.5 R 1E-4

ec0 0.8 mR 5
ei0 0.97 mT 2
c [0 ] 30.5 r 0.5
hs [MPa] 1107 6
n 0.26
0.2
2

*The usual Intergranular Strain parameters

Figure 5. Evolution of the critical state, and the maximum
and the minimum void ratios (following Bauers exponential
isotropic compression rule) and various Castro sand drained
triaxial compression test results.

void ratio lie above the critical state line in e-logp

Figure 4. Slope of the Instability line for a triaxial com-
pression test in hypoplastic constitutive model, M = 6sin c /
(3-sin c ). Parameters and functions with the subscript-IL are
at the point of instability.
compression test. The hypoplastic parameters deter-
mined for this sand are shown in Table 3 (Tsegaye,
2009). Due to absence of cyclic shear data, the Inter-
granular Strain parameters used are which we found
common in literatures.
Figure 4 shows the evolution of the critical state
and the bounding void ratios.The evolution parameters
(hs and n) have been determined based on the grada-
tion curve following the empirical relations given by
Gudehus & Herle (Herle, I. & Gudehus, G. 1999).
Where Cu = coefficient of uniformity, d50 = mean
grain diameter and d0 = 1 mm
Results shown in Figure 5 are drained simulations
of triaxial compression test on Castro sand samples
under different initial state. The numerical results
show remarkably close trend to experimental results.
Drained softening is well predicted for dense samples.
The dilatancy behavior has been captured. The model
however seems to accumulate more volumetric strain
than seen in the experimental results.
Model runs for undrained triaxial compression
test, as shown in Figure 6, could show liquefaction
behavior. While contractive samples (whose initial
plane) show liquefaction (stress path directing to
zero effective stress), dense samples (with an initial
void ratio below the critical state void ratio) could
show increase in undrained strength climbing up after
the phase transformation line. Moreover, undrained
cyclic simple shear simulations show cyclic mobil-
ity and liquefaction. However, the hypoplastic model
without application of the Intergranular Strain accu-
mulates excessive pore pressure underestimating the
undrained shear strength of the samples. Applica-
tion of the Intergranular Strain helped to reduce this
excessive accumulation of pore pressure around the
hydrostatic axis in the undrained triaxial compression
simulations. During undrained cyclic shear simula-
tions, the number of cycles leading to liquefaction is
very much underestimated if the Intergranular Strain
is not considered.
6 CONCLUSION
In modeling the mechanical behavior of granular mate-
rials, soil mechanics offers two strong theoretical
concepts: the theory of presence of a critical state and
the stress dilatancy theory. The attempt of modeling of
deformation behavior of granular soil under the critical
state theory involves at a minimum the initial state and
an experimentally well defined critical state. Interme-
diate states can be considered as interpolation between
these known boundaries, similar to boundary value
problem (Tsegaye, 2009). The stress dilatancy theory
offers a mathematical tool that captures the experi-
mentally proved shear volume coupling. In modeling
the liquefaction behavior both frameworks are essen-
tial. The reference hypoplastic model has a strong
grip on both frameworks which makes it an inter-
esting tool for modeling the deformation behavior in
general and liquefaction behavior in particular of gran-
ular soils. While the model appears appealing due its
firm theoretical and experimental base, the question
of uncertainty and fuzziness of the initial state and the

85

Figure 6. Drained triaxial compression test and simulation
on various Castro sand samples at different initial states.
critical state poses a challenge on the predicted results.
The measurement of the initial state is prone to distur-
bance. Determination of the initial state is also liable to
the assumption of homogeneity. The determination of
the critical state requires performing a number of tests
at various confining pressures. Various samples are
likely to show scatter in reaching the critical state. For
relatively dense samples, reaching the critical state is
difficult because of stress localization. The limitation
86
Figure 7. Undrained triaxial compression and undrained
cyclic shear simulations on various samples of Castro
Sand (Exp. = Experiment, W = With Intergranular Strain,
Wo = with out Intergranular Strain).
also lays on the test apparatuses. Reaching the criti-
cal state requires apparently a very large deformation
which can be beyond the apparatuses allow.
The stress dilatancy formulation quantifies the vol-
ume change due to shearing (contractive or dilative).
This coupling is captured by the hypoplastic model
used in this study. However, it gives stronger con-
tractive sense than shown by experiments. This leads
to unrealistic accumulation of pore pressure during
undrained monotonic and cyclic loading. As shown in
various undrained simulations, application of the Inter-
granular Strain reduces the strong contractive sense of
the hypoplastic model during monotonic loading and
the excessive ratcheting behavior during cyclic load-
ing leading to better prediction of the pore pressure
generation during undrained simulations. In spite of
its importance, the Intergranular Strain formulation
suffers from parameters that require complicated test
procedures and perhaps some parameters which are
too abstract. In this regard, we feel the need for exper-
imental investigation and appropriation of the various
parameters.
REFERENCES
Bauer, E. 1996. Calibration of a comprehensive hypoplastic-
ity model for granular materials. Soils and Foundations.
36(1): 112.
Been, K. & Jefferies, M. 1985. A state parameter for sands.
Geotechnique, 1985. 35(2): 99112.
Been, K. & Jefferies, M. 2004. Stress-Dilatancy in very loose
sand. Can. Geotech. J. 41: 972989.
Benz, T. 2007. Small Strain Stiffness of Soils and its Numer-
ical Consequences. PhD Thesis. Stuttgart University
Chu, J. & Wanatowski, D. 2008. Instability Conditions of
Loose sand in plane strain. Journal of Geotechnical and
Geoenvironmental Engineering 134: 136142
Gudehus, G. 1996. A comprehensive equation for granular
materials. Soils and Foundations. 36(1): 112.
Herle, I. & Gudehus, G. 1999. Determination of parameters of
a hypoplastic constitutive model from properties of grain
assemblies. Mechanics of cohesive-Frictional Materials.
4: 461486.
87
Kolymbas, D. 1997. A rate dependent constitutive equation
for soils. Mech. Res. Comm. 4: 367372.
Kolymbas, D. & Herle, I. 2005. Hypoplasticity as a Consti-
tutive Framework for Granular soils, in Soil Constitutive
Models: Evaluation, Selection and Calibration, J.A.Yama-
muro and V. N.Kaliakin (eds). American Society of Civil
Engineers.
Lanier, J., et al. 2004. A general formulation of hypoplas-
ticity. International Journal for Numerical and Analytical
Methods in Geomechanics 28: 14611478.
Niemunis, A. 2003. Extended hypoplastic models for soils.
Bochum University Soil Mechanics and Geotechnics
Niemunis, A. & Herle, I. 1997. Hypoplastic model for cohe-
sionless soils with elastic strain range. Mech. Res. Comm.
2(4): 279299.
Tsegaye, A.B. 2009. Evaluation of material models for
liquefaction. MSc. Thesis. Department of Geotechnical
Engineering. Delft University of Technology, Netherlands
Wu, W. & Bauer, E. 1993. A hypoplastic Model for barotropy
and pyknotropy of granular soils, in Modern approaches
to plasticity, D. Kolymbas (eds). Soil Constitutive Models.
Elsevier. 225245.
Wolffersdorff, P.A. 1996. A hypoplastic relation for Gran-
ular Materials with a Predefined Limit State Surface.
Mechanics of Cohesive-Frictional Soils, 1(3): p. 251271.
Wanatowski, D. 2007. Undrained instability of loose sand
under plane strain conditions and its engineering applica-
tion. Foundations of civil and environmental engineering
10: 131141.
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Modeling of creep mechanism and damage of rock salt

B. Leuger, K. Staudtmeister, S. Yldrm & D. Zapf

Institut fr Unterirdisches Bauen, Leibniz Universitt Hannover, Hannover, Germany

ABSTRACT: The paper describes the mathematical formulation of the different creep mechanisms of rock
salt and the validation by analytical and numerical calculations. Two different sets of constitutive equations
including damage are introduced. Common characteristics and differences are described. The sensitivity of
important parameters as well as the definition of an appropriate dilatancy limit are discussed.

1 INTRODUCTION 2.1 The inelastic strain rate

The formulation for the inelastic strain rate is consist-
The engineering design of complex underground
ing of different differential equations. Following parts
structures in rock salt mass like caverns for stor-
have to be distinguished:
age of crude oil or natural gas requires constitutive
models which take into account all significant mech- creep rate of dislocation mechanism cr
eq (damage-
anisms contributing to the time-dependent and spatial free creep)
evolution of stress and strain in the host rock. damage-induced creep rate of shear stress _sh
eq
The modelling of the dominant processes which tensile stress respectively _te
eq and
are responsible for the occurrence of transient creep
creep rate by healing _h
eq .
including recovery, steady-state creep, evolution of
dilatancy and propagation of damage is important in Where the subscribes denoting creep (cr), damage (),
order to quantify predictions of deformations as well as shear (sh), tensile (te) and healing (h).
safety margins against failure. (Cristescu, 1998) Only The individual parts consist of kinetic equations of
with appropriate models the long-term evolution of inelastic strain rates and the potential flow in form of
mechanical behavior can be predicted reliably. the derivation for any equivalent effective stress eqcr
,
There are two material laws developed at the IUB _sh| _h|
(Institut fr Unterirdisches Bauen) to describe the eq f , eq
_te
, and eq f differentiated with respect to
material behaviour of rock salt. The first material the stress vector.
law named IUB_MDCF is based on the material law The outcome of this is the following formulation of
MDCF, developed by Mundson et al (DeVries, 2002). the inelastic strain rate:
The second law, named LUBBY_MDCF, is an exten-
sion of the material law LUBBY 2 (Staudtmeister,
1994). This material law describes the transient and
steady state creep of rock salt and was developed 30
years ago. The name LUBBY was generated from
LUB (Lehrgebiet fr Unterirdisches Bauen) the for- 2.2 Kinetic equation for dislocation flow
mer name of the institute. In this paper the similarities
and different terms of both creep laws are going to be The kinetic equation for the dislocation mechanism is:
discussed.
Within the scope of this work healing and damage
due to tensile stress conditions were not considered.

In this formula F is the transient function represent-

2 MATERIAL LAW IUB-MDCF
The material law IUB_MDCF (Multimechanism
Deformation Coupled Fracture, modified at the Insti-
tut fr Unterirdisches Bauen) (Hauck, 2001) com-
prises the material behavior of rock salt mass in
all phases of time dependent deformation behavior
including tertiary creep.
ing transient creep behavior and cr
i is the steady-state
strain rate.
The steady-state creep of salt is the sum of
three dominant mechanisms: a high-temperature,
low stress regime controlled by dislocation climb
(3), a low-temperature, low stress regime controlled
by an undefined mechanism (4) and a high-stress
regime controlled by various possible dislocation glide

89
mechanisms (5). All mechanisms are thermally acti-
vated processes.
where the As and Bs are constants. Qs are activa-
tion energies, T is the absolute temperature, R is the
universal gas constants, G is the shear modulus, ns
are the stress exponents, q is the stress constant, o is
the initial value of the damage variable and o is the
stress limit of the dislocation slip mechanism. |H|is a
Heaviside step function.
The transient strain portion specifies the changing
of the internal defect structure. The function of the
transient creep F is composed of a work-hardening
part, an equilibrium part and a recovery part.
In equation (6)  and are presenting the work-
hardening and recovery parameters, respectively
tr_max is the transient strain limit and is an internal
variable which expresses the transient strain. These are
growing with increasing deformation till the transient
strain limit tr_max is achieved. The transient strain limit
is a function of temperature and stress and represented
by:
where Ko , c, and m are constants.
2.3 Kinetic equation for damage-induced flow
The kinetic equation for damage-induced flow due to
shear (8) is similar in nature to dislocation flow. The
damage-induced transient creep is accommodated in
90
the model by a factor on the kinetic equations for
damage-induced flow during steady-state creep (De
Vries, 2002).
The kinetic equation for damage-induced flow during
steady-state creep is given by:
where cs and n3 are material constants and is
the fraction of insoluble materials. By means of the
Heaviside step function H the occurrence of damage-
induced flow is activated when the power-conjugated
_sh
equivalent stress measure eq exceeds zero.
The damage-induced creep due to shear stress in
the transient region is given by the function F _sh . This
contains the transient function F from dislocation flow
and consequently incorporates the dependency of it.
3 MATERIAL LAW LUBBY-MDCF
The material law LUBBY_MDCF is a symbiosis
between the transient and steady-state creep formu-
lation from LUBBY 2 and the dilatancy and damage
process from IUB_MDCF. The basic formulation of
the LUBBY_MDCF is similar to the formulation of
the IUB_MDCF:
3.1 Kinetic equation for non damage induced flow
The kinetic equation of LUBBY_MDCF is:
The first term of equation (12) describes the steady-
state creep rate. The function M depends on the
cr
equivalent stress eq .
Figure 1. Comparison of the steady-state creep rate LUBBY_MDCF and IUB_MDCF.

M , m and l are material parameters. These are The transient creep function F for equation (10) is
determined from lab tests by a regression calculation. described as follows:
T is the rock mass temperature.
The steady state creep rate of LUBBY_MDCF is
similar to the steady-state creep rate of IUB_MDCF.
Figure 1 shows the steady-state creep rates as function
of the equivalent stress for both material laws for an
example parameter set. For IUB_MDCF the first and Taking into account equation (16) the transient strain
the second mechanism were valuated. It appears that due to damage becomes:
for an interval of 1 MPa to 50 MPa of equivalent stress
similar results are obtained.
The second term of equation (12) describes the tran-
sient creep. The shear modulus G K and the viscosity
K are dependent from the equivalent stress

4 DILATANCY LIMIT AND DAMAGE

PARAMETER

In both material laws the damage of rock salt is

G K , k1 , K and k2 are material parameters, which
have to be determined from laboratory tests by a
regression calculation.
Because of the different formulations differ-
ences arise in the course of the transient strain.
With IUB_MDCF the strain rises quickly and
approaches slowly to the transient strain limit. With
LUBBY_MDCF, however, the increase of the strain is
smoother.
described by the dilatancy limit D and the damage
parameter .
4.1 Dilatancy inducing strain
The dilatancy inducing strain is described by the square
root of the second invariant J2D of the stress deviator.
The stress intensity index IUB is a relative measure of
stressing with respect to the short term strength .

3.2 Kinetic equation for damage-induced flow

The kinetic equation for damage-induced flow of
LUBBY_MDCF follows the same formulation as The basis for the description of the characteristic of
IUB_MDCF (equations (8), (9) and (10)). the short term strength in the principal stress space

91
is the failure envelope, which is determined by short
term tests under triaxial compression and extension
states of stress. As the failure envelopes have been
obtained be short term strength, the evaluation of the
strength under long term load has to be reduced. By
experience this value is approximately 30% of the short
term strength. Exceeding this value onset of dilatancy
has to be expected.
4.2 Damage rate
The damage rate consists of three parts: a shear
stress-induced part as well as in this scope not con-
sidered tensile stress-induced part and a part due to
healing mechanisms.
The evaluation of the damage rate does not consider
the absolute value of exceeding the dilatancy limit but
a relative value according to (Hauck, 2001), which is
composed of the equivalent stress with respect to the
short term strength:
x is the value D divided by the short term strength.
The result is the following formulation of the evolution
for creep damage:
where s are material constants. Evolution of dam-
age does not occur not until the power-conjugated
equivalent stress measure is positive.
4.3 Definition of the creep fracture criterion
Applying the MDCF- model the accumulated amount
of damage is calculated. But with respect to the
evaluation of the calculation results a limiting value
to define the beginning of tertiary phase and the
boundary for creep rupture is adopted. From back
calculations of laboratory experiments (Chan, 1997)
suggested values are = 0.015 and = 0.15 respec-
tively.
4.4 Definition of the dilatancy limit D
The dilatancy limit D is defined as a percentage
rate of the short term strength . The mathematical
formulation of D is:
s are adapted by curve fitting. The variable J1_neu
represents a transformation of the first invariant of
92
the stress tensor. The function of the transformation
is shown in equation (21). Function k (22) serves for
the description of the linear course from D in the
deviator space.
In equation (23) 9 is a material parameter and 
the load angle. The load angle for triaxial compression
conditions of /6 leads to a value of 1 as the result of
equation (23) for the parameter k.
When the equivalent stress cr eq is larger than the
value of D at the same path of stress, the rock salt
_sh
accumulates damage. The value eq expresses this
fact. It is defined as eq = eq D . Figure 2 shows
_sh cr
a curve of short term strength. It is equal to a _IUB
value of 100%. The lower curve in diagram 2 shows the
dilatancy boundary which is equal to a value of _ IUB
of 30%. Two of the lab tests are located in the dilatancy
region, that is to say _ IUB is higher than 30%. The
third lab test shows no damage because _ IUB is less
than 30%.
5 EXAMPLES
The following diagrams show exemplarily the effi-
ciency of the material laws. All following calculations
were made with a triaxial compression stress situation
(TC).
The first calculation carried out with IUB_MDCF
applies an axial stress by 15.0 MPa, and a lateral
stress by 3.0 MPa. The value of _ IUB is 29.94%.
There is no damage occurring.The effective strain after
300 days is 1.05% (Figure 3).
The second calculation carried out with LUBBY_
MDCF includes an axial stress with 30.0 MPa and
a lateral stress with 3.0 MPa. The value of _ IUB
is 67.38%. The damage parameter grows up to 0.15
after about 244 days (Figure 4). This implicates that
rock salt is totally damaged.The effective strain for that
time adds up to approximately 34.5 % (Figure 5). After
106 days the damage value is 0.015. This defines the
point where tertiary creep starts. When the rock salt
is totally damaged, LUBBY_MDCF calculates with
a constant strain rate. IUB_MDCF reduces the strain
rate.
The third calculation applies 40.0 MPa of axial
stress and 4.0 MPa of lateral stress. The _ IUB is
81.32%. The rock salt is totally damaged after 25 days.
The effective strain after 25 days adds up to approx-
imately 70.0 % (Figure 6) by using LUBBY_MDCF.
Figure 2. Classification of the creep experiments with respect to the dilatancy limit.

Figure 3. Development of strain in calculation 1 (3 / 3 / Figure 5. Development of strain in calculation 2 (3 / 3 /

15). 30).

Figure 4. Development of in calculation 2 (3 / 3 /

30). Figure 6. Development of strain in calculation 3 (4 / 4 /
40).

93
The strain by transient and steady-state creep amounts
to roughly 40%, so that the induced damage strain is
30%.
6 CONCLUSIONS
Both material laws are able to describe transient creep,
steady-state creep and tertiary creep. In three dimen-
sional use case the experience shows that the material
law IUB_MDCF has to use very small time steps
and therefore much calculation times. This can be
explained by the mathematical formulation of the
F-function. The material law LUBBY_MDCF does
not show this phenomenon. With a suitable parameter
set both material laws are confirmed sufficiently. The
applications in the cavern dimensioning are subject of
current research.
94
REFERENCES
Chan, K.S., Bodener, S.R., 1997: A Damage Mechanics
Treatment of Creep Failure in Rock Salt. International
Journal of Damage Mechanics, Vol. 6: 121152
Cristescu, N.D., Hunsche, U., 1998: Time Effects in Rock
Mechanics, John Wiley and Sons Ltd., Chichester
De Vries, K.L., Mellegard K.D., Callahan, G.D., 2002:
Salt Damage Criterion. Proof-of-concept Research. Rapid
City:RESPEC
Hauck, R., 2001: Tragverhalten tiefliegender Salzkavernen
bei atmosphrischem Innendruck, Universitt Hannover
Staudtmeister, K., Rokahr, R.B., 1994: Labory Test within the
Scope of Rock Mechanical Investigation for the Design
of Solution Mined Caverns in Rock Salt Mass, Solution
Mining Research Institut Meeting, Hannover 25 Sept 01
Oct 1994
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Modeling static liquefaction within multilaminate framework

A.B. Tsegaye
TU Delft, Delft, The Netherlands
Plaxis B.V., Delft, The Netherlands

V. Galavi
Plaxis B.V., Delft, The Netherlands

R.B.J. Brinkgreve
TU Delft, Delft, The Netherlands
Plaxis B.V., Delft, The Netherlands

R. de Jager & F. Molenkamp

TU Delft, Delft, The Netherlands

P.G. Bonnier
Plaxis B.V., Delft, The Netherlands

ABSTRACT: In this paper an elastoplastic model within a multilaminate framework has been used to simulate
static liquefaction under triaxial compression conditions. The paper presents concise theoretical aspects of
the multilaminate framework and generalized elastoplastic formulation within the multilaminate framework.
A relation between local stress state and triaxial compression stress state is derived which has been used to
visualize global yield curve under triaxial compression state. This relation has also been used to formulate the
elastic stiffness at integration planes. Finally, drained and undrained triaxial compression tests are simulated and
compared to experimental results.

1 INTRODUCTION 2 THEORETICAL ASPECTS OF THE

MULTILAMINATE FRAMEWORK
Liquefaction results from the mechanics of grains
upon undrained loading. For liquefaction to occur, 2.1 Transformation of stresses and strains
constrained (undrained) flow boundary condition, suf-
Consider an arbitrary plane and a reference triad as
ficient contraction upon loading and sufficient driv-
shown in Figure 1. The traction and the normal stress
ing stress that exceeds the undrained shear strength
component on an arbitrary plane k, which has a nor-
are required. In this paper an elastoplastic consti-
mal vector nk = {n1,k , n2,k , n3,k } with respect to the
tutive model based on a multilaminate framework
reference triad, are obtained as:
(Galavi, 2007) has been considered for modeling
liquefaction behavior of sand under monotonic
deformation.
In the multilaminate framework, a number of planes
called integration planes or sampling planes form
the bases of stress-strain relationships (Pande and
Sharma, 1983). The global response at the integra-
Where is the global stress vector, i.e. = [11 , 22,
tion point level is obtained by numerical integration
33 , 12 , 23 , 33 ,]T and n,k/ ij is given by:
of the responses over all integration planes. The con-
cept enables to include directional variation of various
parameters at a material point without mathematical
complexity.

95

Figure 1. Global stress components in a Cartesian
co-ordinate system and depiction of the traction vector, the
normal and shear stresses of an arbitrary plane (Tsegaye,
2009).
Similarly, the shear component, k , on the plane is
given by:
In which k/ ij is elaborated as:
Therefore, the stress on k th plane can be found by
transformation of the global stress tensor as:
Transformation of strains from planes to the global
system can be done by considering the total work done
on a plane by a stress increment (Tsegaye, 2009).
Wherein dn,k and d,k are the normal and shear com-
(k)
ponents of the strain increment of the kth plane. dij
is the equivalent contribution of strain increment of the
kth plane to the global strain space and wk is weighting
coefficient of the integration plane k .
The total strain is the overall contribution of all planes
and can be written as:
Where n is the total number of integration planes in
the integration rule.
96
Figure 2. Various stress paths and elements of elastoplastic
constitutive modeling in a plane (cohesion neglected, 1, 2 and
3 indicate the various stress paths).
2.2 Integration of Elastoplastic Models into
the Multilaminate Framework
For integrating elastoplastic models in the multilam-
inate framework, a general approach can be devised
without referring to particular elastoplastic functions.
Consider a plane, where the stress state of the plane
is defined by the shear and the normal stress compo-
nents. Following the elastoplasticity theory, a set of
elastoplastic functions such as yield functions f , plas-
tic potential function g and governing rules such as
hardening and flow rules can be defined at a plane
level.
As shown in Figure 2, two types of yield curves are
considered in n plane named cone and cap that
enclose the accessible stress space defined by func-
tions fk,1 and fk,2 , respectively. The strain on a single
plane is given as:
ep
Where Ck is the elastoplastic compliance matrix on
a plane. Having defined plastic potential functions,
gk,1 and gk,2 , and applying theory of elastoplasticity,
the elastoplastic compliance matrix is obtained from
(Tsegaye, 2009):
Where Cek is the elastic compliance matrix on a plane,
  is the Macaulay bracket, Hk,i , is the micro harden-
ing modulus of the ith yield function derived from the
consistency condition and is given as:
p
Where k is plastic strain matrix of the kth plane
related to the yield function through the hardening law.
From equation (6), (9) and (10), the total strain at the
integration point level is obtained as:
3 TRIAXIAL COMPRESSION STRESS STATE

In this section relationships between local stress state

and global triaxial stress states are derived which can
be used to visualize yield curves in the global p-q
plane. The stress and the strain invariants in the p-q
plane are defined as:

The transformation matrix for the p-q plane can be

derived from the general transformation matrix given Figure 3. Stress paths for selected planes during undrained
in equations (3) and (5) (Tsegaye, 2009). triaxial compression simulation (Tsegaye, 2009).

Inverting the transformation matrix in equation (16)

and solving for the global stress (triaxial compression
and p-q plane (n1,k = 0, 1), (Tsegaye, 2009), we obtain:

Figure 4. Global stress path for undrained triaxial compres-

The global yield functions can be obtained using a
stress state, n,k and k , which satisfies local yield
function of plane k(n1,k = 0, 1).
sion condition (Tsegaye, 2009).
Elaborating undrained instability following equa-
tions (11), (13), (16), (19) and (20) for triaxial stress
state (assuming both fk,1 and fk,2 are active), we obtain:

4 COMPOSITION OF ELASTIC STIFFNESS

MATRIX AT INTEGRATION PLANE LEVEL

It was attempted to compose a simple elastic stiff-

ness matrix on planes (Tsegaye, 2009). Elaboration
of transformation of elastic strains to the p-q plane
following equations (14), (15), (16) and further elab-
oration for various integration rules (Bazant and Oh,
1986) leads to:
Wherein E is Youngs modulus and v is the Poissons
ratio.
 
Where Tp,k = 3n21,k 1 3 and K = E/3(1 2v)
Undrained instability is contributed from individ-
ual planes. Hence effect of induced and inherent
anisotropy on undrained strength can be easily inves-
tigated by introducing the multilaminate framework.
Figures 3 and 4 depict undrained path on selected
planes and at integration point respectively for elasto-
plastic laws given in section 6 and a 33-plane integra-
tion rule.

5 UNDRAINED INSTABILITY 6 ELEMENTS OF THE ELASTOPLASTIC

According to Hill (Hill, 1958) material stability is
achieved as long as the second order work (d 2 W ) is
non-negative.
CONSTITUTIVE LAW IN PLANES
The constitutive model on planes is formulated using
the normal and the shear components of the stress on
the plane.
A set of elastoplastic rules used in the multilam-
inate framework (Wiltafsky, 2003, Galavi, 2007) are

97

Figure 5. Yield curves and direction of plastic flow on an
integration plane (Galavi, 2007).
considered in this study. The various parts of the con-
stitutive model on the plane are shown in Figure 5, in
which the yield functions are defined as:
Wherein M = tanp ; = 1 sin (0.67p ) (Wiltafsky, 7 APPLICATION: TRIAXIAL COMPRESSION
2003), p is the peak friction angle and m is the
mobilized friction angle.
The friction hardening law is defined by (Pietruszczak Numerical element tests of drained and undrained
& Niu, 1992):
Where Rf is a failure ratio to limit the hyperbolic curve,
Amat is a fitting parameter 0 is an initial mobilized
p
friction angle is the accumulated plastic shear strain
in the plane considered.
The volumetric hardening follows a logarithmic law
according to:
Where and are the slope of the isotropic compres-
sion line and the slope of the unloading reloading line
in the e-lnp respectively. e is the void ratio at the current increases at a constant rate while the experimental
p
state and n is the accumulated plastic normal strain in
the plane considered.
The plastic potential functions are defined as:
m is the mobilized dilatancy angle, which is cal-
culated according to stress dilatancy formulation of
Rowe (1962) modified by Soreide (2003):
Table 1. Parameters for selected samples of Castro sand B.
ID
Parameters unit B14 LIQB14 B101 LIQ B102
p [0 ] 40.6 31.5 30.5 30.5
c [kPa] 0 0 0 0
e0 0.518 0.727 0.785 0.699
[0 ] 13 0.5 0.0 0.0
vur 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2
* 0.0021 0.01 0.02 0.02
* 0.0017 0.0085 0.016 0.016
*Crude estimation from drained triaxial compression tests,
-estimated value.
cv is the constant volume friction angle, and is
a scaling factor for reducing the strong contractive
nature of Rowes stress dilatancy formulation. For
= 0, Rowes stress dilatancy formulation can be
obtained.
STRESS STATE
compression tests have been performed on selected
Castro sand B samples (Castro, 1969). The model
parameters are given in Table 1.
Test results are shown in Figures 69. In each
figure, the influence of the fitting parameters Amat
and is shown. Generally, the parameter Amat con-
trols the rate of stiffness degradation due to plasticity
and the parameter controls the plastic volumetric
strain induced by shearing. Hence has a significant
influence on the pore pressure generation of the model.
Figures 6a and 6b show drained triaxial compres-
sion test (experiment and simulation) at a confining
pressure of 98 kPa. The simulated results show a rea-
sonable agreement with the experimental result in the
hardening regime. B14 is a dense sample hence shows
softening after the peak. Drained softening is not con-
sidered in this study. In Figure 6b, the volumetric strain
data shows a cut-off which is not considered in the
constitutive model.
Figure 7a and 7b show the undrained triaxial com-
pression test of a medium dense sample (simulation
and experiment at a confining pressure of 98 kPa) for
various values of the parameter . = 0, over predicts
the pore pressure consequently under predicting the
shear strength of the sample.
Figure 8a and 8b show drained triaxial test (exper-
iment and simulation at a confining pressure of
980 kPa) of contractive Castro sand sample (ID B101).
The smaller the value of Amat , the stiffer is the simu-
lated result. However, it is difficult to fit the lower and
the upper regime of the deviatoric stress-axial strain
curve of loose sample just by changing Amat .
98
Figure 6. Numerical and experimental results of drained
triaxial compression test of Castro sand B14 at a confining
stress of 98 kPa.
Figure 7. Numerical and experimental results of undrained
triaxial compression test of Castro sand LIQB14 at a confin-
The undrained triaxial compression (simulation ing stress of 98 kPa.
and experiment) of a contractive sample (LIQB102)
respectively are plotted in Figure 9a and 9b. Figure 9a
shows the effective mean stress versus deviatoric stress
and Figure 9b shows the axial strain versus the devi-
atoric stress. As seen in the figures, by using Rowes
stress-dilatancy relation ( = 0), the shear strength is
highly underestimated due to over prediction of excess
pore pressure as mentioned before. To obtain a good
fit, relatively higher value of is required.

8 CONCLUSION

In this study, the elastoplastic model based on the

multilaminate framework (Galavi, 2007) has been
investigated as applied for numerical modeling of
the undrained (liquefaction) behavior of sand. Simpli-
fied formulations are derived for triaxial compression
condition. The simplification for triaxial compression
state helped to formulate the elastic stiffness on planes
and visualize the global yield curve in p-q plane.
For a given sand type, a different set of parameters
is required for various samples under different initial
conditions. In this regard, the model lacks parameters
which can be considered universal to a given sand type.
As shown, the model is capable of simulating liq-
uefaction behavior of sand under monotonic loading. Figure 8. Numerical and experimental results of drained
With Rowes stress dilatancy formulation, the gener- triaxial compression test of Castro sand B101 at a confining
ation of the pore pressure is relatively higher than stress of 980 kPa.

99

Figure 9. Numerical and experimental results of undrained
tri-axial compression test of Castro sand LIQB102 at a
confining stress of 980 kPa.
experimental results. In addition, as shown in Fig-
ures 3 and 4, the cap contributes to the pore pressure
generation around the hydrostatic axis.
Using a scaling factor according to Soreide (2003)
helps to improve the model prediction of the undrained
behavior of sand. Further more, the fitting parameters,
Amat , and are inversely related to the relative density
of the sample.
100
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The work presented was sponsored by the European
Community through the programme People as part
of the Industry-Academia Pathways and Partnerships
project GEO-INSTALL (PIAP-GA-2009-230638).
REFERENCES
Bazant, Z.P.& Oh, B.H.. 1986. Numerical Integration on
the Surface of Sphere. ZAMM.Z. angew. Math.u. Mech,.
66(1): 3749.
Castro, G. 1969. Liquefaction of sands. Harvard Soil
mechanics Series 81.
Galavi, V. 2007. A multilaminate Model for Structured Clay
Incorporating Inherent Anisotropy and Strain Softening.
PhD Thesis. Gruppe Geotechnik Graz, Graz University of
Technology, Austria, Heft 32.
Hill, R. 1958. A general theory of uniqueness and stabil-
ity in elastic-plastic solids. Journal of the Mechanics and
Physics of Solids, 6:, 236249.
Pande, G.N. & Sharma, K.G. 1983. Multilaminate model for
clays a numerical evaluation of the influence of prin-
cipal stress axes. International Journal of Numerical and
Analytical Methods in Geomechanics.
Pietruszczak, S. & Niu, X. 1992. Numerical evaluation of
bearing capacity of a foundation in strain softening soil.
Computers and Geotechnics 13: 187198.
Rowe, P.W. 1962. The stress dilatancy relation for static
equilibrium of an assembly of particles in contact. Math-
ematical and Physical Sciences: 269(Series A.) 500527.
Soreide, O.K. 2003. Mixed hardening soils for frictional
materials. PhD. Thesis. Department of Civil and Trans-
port Engineering., Norwegian University of Science and
Technology.
Tsegaye, A.B. 2009. Evaluation of material models for
liquefaction. MSc. Thesis. Department of Geotechnical
Engineering. Delft University of Technology, Netherlands
Wiltafsky Ch. 2003.A multilaminate model for normally con-
solidated clay. PhDThesis, Gruppe Geotechnik Graz, Graz
University of Technology, Austria, Heft 18.
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

On the differences between the Drucker-Prager criterion and exact

implementation of the Mohr-Coulomb criterion in FEM calculations

Johan Clausen, Lars Andersen & Lars Damkilde

Department of Civil Engineering, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark

ABSTRACT: This paper compares calculation results obtained with the Mohr-Coulomb and Drucker-Prager
material models. The models are implemented in a finite element code and the exact models are used, i.e. no
rounding of yield surface corners or apices is performed. Results for both 2D and 3D calculations are compared
both with respect to bearing capacities and displacements. It is found that results from the two models have large
differences.

1 INTRODUCTION
In soil mechanics the most frequently used material
model, by far, is the Mohr-Coulomb model where
the soil strength is represented via the friction angle
and the cohesion. The model describes the ultimate
strength of soil bodies to a satisfactory degree for
design purposes and combined with a linearly elastic
model and a non-associated flow rule the deformation
behaviour can be estimated reasonably well. Before
the use of computers in civil engineering became the
norm, a large number of solutions to practical prob-
lems was constructed analytically or semianalytically
via limit state or limit equilibrium methods.
Since the introduction of the finite element method
(FEM), more and more geotechnical analyses are car-
ried out with this method. In the finite element method
no assumptions are made regarding the failure mode
and therefore it is very versatile. In standard elasto-
plastic FEM the material model is implemented in the
stress update step where the stress increment is cal-
culated on the basis of a strain increment found from
solution of the global system of equations. This stress
update can be performed either in a forward Euler
fashion, see e.g. (Sloan et al. 2001) or with a back-
ward Euler method, see. e.g. (de Souza Neto et al.
2008). The Mohr-Coulomb material model, however,
possesses corners and an apex where the needed gra-
dients of the yield surface and plastic potential are not
defined. For this reason the Drucker-Prager criterion
has been used in place of the Mohr-Coulomb crite-
rion in many numerical calculations, see e.g. (Srensen
et al. 1993). The advantage of the Drucker-Prager cri-
terion from a implementational point is that it does
not possess the corners of the Mohr-Coulomb crite-
rion, although it does possess the apex. This makes it
much simpler to implement the criterion in numerical
codes. The numerical implementation of the Drucker-
Prager criterion can, among others, be found in (Hjiaj
et al. 2003), (Crisfield 1997) and (de Souza Neto et al.
2008).
Several papers address the problems of the Mohr-
Coulomb corners in numerical implementations. In
e.g. (Abbo & Sloan 1995) the non-differentiable cor-
ners and apex are replaced by a smooth rounding,
whereas Borst (1987), Larsson & Runesson (1996),
Huang & Griffiths (2008) and Clausen et al. (2006)
treat the non-differentiabilities explicitly. The latter
reference forms the basis for the implementation used
in this paper. The often used finite element software
Abaqus (2009) does not introduce a rounding in the
criterion, but uses a rounded version of the plastic
potential. This means that Abaqus solutions, in gen-
eral, will not converge towards the exact solutions as
the mesh is refined. It also means that the Abaqus
model can never be associated, as the yield surface
and the plastic potential have fundamentally different
shapes. In this paper only associated plasticity is used,
which means that the plastic potential also possesses
corner and apex discontinuities.
For earth pressure problems comparisons between
the Drucker-Prager criterion and the Mohr-Coulomb
criterion have previously been carried out by
Schweiger (1994). Here it was found that the results
obtained by use of the Drucker-Prager criterion may
vary significantly from those of the Mohr-Coulomb
criterion. In the present paper the responses of two dif-
ferent surface footings resting on Mohr-Coulomb and
different Drucker-Prager soils are examined. The first
footing is a strip footing which means that the prob-
lem is a plane strain one. Here the load-displacement
curves for the different models are compared. The
second footing is a rectangular surface footing sub-
jected to three different load scenarios comprising
vertical loads, overturning and twisting moments, i.e.
the problem calls for full three-dimensional modelling.
Here the bearing capacities of the different models are
compared. Only associated plastic flow is considered.

101
 An inherently difficult computational problem in
the elasto-plastic finite element method is the calcu-
lation of the bearing capacity of a rigid footing. This
is even more true under three-dimensional conditions
compared to simple two-dimensional (plain strain)
conditions. The difficulties mainly stem from the dis-
continuities at the footing edge. The in-house code
used in this paper does not experience these problems.
2 YIELD CRITERIA AND PLASTIC
POTENTIALS
Using stress invariants the Mohr-Coulomb yield func-
tion is written as
where I1 is the first stress invariant, J2 is the second
deviatoric stress invariant, is the Lode angle, is
the friction angle and c is the cohesion. The stress
invariants are defined by
In the above the summation convention applies and sij
denotes the deviator stress, ij the Kronecker delta and
J3 is the third deviatoric stress invariant. In this paper
tension is taken as positive. The expression for the
plastic potential, g is identical to Equation (1) with the
exception that the friction angle, , should be replaced
with the dilation angle, . In this paper we have = .
As can be seen from Equation (1) the expression
for the Mohr-Coulomb yield function is very bulky
when expressed in stress invariants, and therefore it
is more often expressed in principal stresses, where it
simplifies into
where k and c are a friction parameter and the uniaxial
compressive strength, respectively, given by
Due to the simple form in principal stress space
the most efficient numerical implementations of stress
update algorithms are carried out in principal stress
space (cf. the References in the Introduction), which
is also the case in this paper.
The Drucker-Prager yield function is defined by
102
Figure 1. Mohr-Coulomb and Drucker-Prager criteria on
the octahedral plane. The Drucker-Prager circles are marked
1: Inscribed (plane strain), 2: Triaxial tension fit and 3: Triax-
ial compression fit. The geometrical interpretations of and
J2 are also shown.
where is a coefficient related to the soil friction
and to the cohesion. Again associated plasticity is
assumed. The parameters and can be calibrated to
make the Drucker-Prager criterion fit different parts
of the Mohr-Coulomb criterion. The Mohr-Coulomb
criterion and three different Drucker-Prager fits are
shown in Figure l. The three different fits are
1. Inscribed Drucker-Prager. This corresponds to a
plane strain fit. The Mohr-Coulomb criterion forms
tangents to the Drucker-Prager criterion.
2. Triaxial extension fit. The triaxial extension corners
of the Mohr-Coulomb criterion coincide with the
Drucker-Prager criterion.
3. Triaxial compression fit. The triaxial compression
corners of the Mohr-Coulomb criterion coincide
with the Drucker-Prager criterion.
The Drucker-Prager parameters for the three fits are
given by: Inscribed:
Triaxial extension fit:
Triaxial Compression fit:
where k and c are given by Equation (6).
It should be stressed that the true yield criteria and
plastic potentials are used in this paper, i.e. no rounding
of any kind is introduced, as opposed to e.g. the Abaqus
implementation, as was explained earlier.

Figure 2. Geometry, boundary conditions, mesh and con-
stant material parameters for the 2D analysis.
3 DISPLACEMENT OF A RIGID STRIP
FOOTING
To quantify the difference in load-displacement curves
for the two models an analysis is carried out with a
rough strip footing resting on a homogeneous linearly-
elastic, perfectly plastic soil. The footing is forced
downwards into the soil, which is modelled as a rectan-
gular domain with the dimensions seen in Figure 2.The
prescribed vertical displacement is denoted u. As the
problem is symmetric only half of the footing is mod-
elled. The element mesh is also shown in the figure and
consists of 2448 six-noded triangular elements adding
up to 10106 degrees of freedom. The average footing
pressure is p = P/A, where P is found by summing the
reaction at the footing nodes and A is the footing area.
The material parameters are also shown in Figure 2.
Two analyses are carried out. One where the Poissons
ratio, , is varied and one where the earth pressure coef-
ficient at rest, k0 is varied. As the problem is in plane
strain only the inscribed Drucker-Prager model is used
in the comparison with the Mohr-Coulomb model.
3.1 The influence of the Poissons ratio
In this analysis the initial earth pressure coefficient
is set to k0 = 1. The problem is now analyzed with
Poissons ratio varying between 0.01 and 0.49. The
resulting load-displacement curves are seen in Fig-
ure 3. As expected the ultimate load is the same for
all the calculation runs. The soil stiffness increases
significantly for increasing values of . For the low
103
Figure 3. Load-displacement curves for the footing for dif-
ferent values of . The different values of are 0.01, 0.1, 0.2,
0.3, 0.4 and 0.49.
Figure 4. Load-displacement curves for the footing for dif-
ferent values of k0 . The different values of k0 are 2/3, 1
and 2.
values of there is a large difference in the response
between the Mohr-Coulomb and the Drucker-Prager
soils, with the Drucker-Prager soil being much softer.
It is also seen the footing response differs from the
beginning of the analysis. This is due to the fact that
plastic strains will occur at very small footing loads
due to the discontinuity at the footing edge.
3.2 The influence of the initial stress state
In this analysis the Poissons ratio is held constant at
= 0.3. Instead three different values of the earth pres-
sure coefficient at rest, k0 , are used, namely k0 = 2/3, 1
and 2. These approximately correspond to a normally
consolidated, a lightly overconsolidated and a heavily
overconsolidated soil. As usual the definition of k0 is
where x,0 , y,0 are the horizontal and z,0 the vertical
stresses before the footing is loaded.
The load displacement curves from these analyses
are shown in Figure 4. In the figure it is seen that
the response is stiffer for the more overconsolidated
soils. As in the previous analysis the Drucker-Prager
response is softer than the Mohr-Coulomb one.

Figure 5. One quarter of the 3D footing model with exam-
ple mesh and dimensions. The direction of displacements,
rotations, resulting force and moments are also shown.
Prescribed quantities are shown with an overbar.
4 DISPLACEMENT OF A RIGID
RECTANGULAR FOOTING
In the following the displacement history and bearing
capacity of a rough, rigid rectangular footing subjected
to a non-trivial load history is analyzed. Three loading
scenarios are considered:
1. A prescribed vertical displacement, uz , see Figure 5,
is applied. Only a quarter of the footing is modelled
due to symmetry. The corresponding normalized
vertical load pz = Pz /A is recorded.
2. First a vertical displacement is applied correspond-
ing to half the ultimate load in load scenario 1.
Next a prescribed overturning rotation, x , is
applied, see Figure 5. Only half of the footing
is modelled due to symmetry. The corresponding
normalized overturning moment mx = Mx /wx is
recorded, where wx = Ix /ry , with ry being the foot-
ing halfwidth. The area moment Ix is defined by
Ix = 2rx (2ry )3 /12.
3. First a prescribed vertical displacement is applied,
same as in load scenario 2. Next, the x cor-
responding to half the ultimate moment, mx is
prescribed. Finally a twisting rotation, z is
applied. The corresponding normalized twist-
ing moment m z = Mz /wrot is recorded, where
wrot = (Ix + Iy )/ rx2 + ry2 .
Common for all the analyses are that they are
displacement controlled.
In this section the Poissons ratio and the initial earth
pressure coefficient are fixed at = 0.3 and k0 = 1.
Other material parameters are as shown in Figure 2.
Calculations are carried out with the Mohr-Coulomb
model and the three Drucker-Prager fits shown in
Figure 6. Vertical loaddisplacement relations for the ver-
tical, forced displacement, uz . The final load for the DP
comp. curve is noted.
Figure 7. Detail from Figure 6. Vertical loaddisplacement
relations for the vertical, forced displacement, uz . The final
load is noted at each curve, except in the DP comp. case.
Figure 1. Tetrahedral elements with quadratic shape
functions are used. An example of the element mesh,
the geometry of the problem an the footing displace-
ments and loads are shown in Figure 5. In (Clausen et
al. 2009) it is shown that for a circular footing loaded
vertically, solutions found with the in-house software
used in this paper converge towards the analytical
solution.
4.1 Load scenario 1: vertical load
The load-displacement relations from load scenario
1 can be seen in Figures 6 and 7. It is seen that
the Drucker-Prager compression fit results in a much
stiffer structure with a very high bearing capacity,
7 times larger than for the Mohr-Coulomb material.
The Mohr-Coulomb model, in turn, has a significantly
higher bearing capacity compared to the inscribed
and the triaxial tension Drucker-Prager fit. This is
partly due to the fact that more than 45% of the stress
points are located at the triaxial compression meridian
where the difference between the yield criteria is most
outspoken, see Figure 1.
4.2 Load scenario 2 and 3: Overturning
and twisting moments
The loaddisplacement curves for these load scenarios
are shown in Figures 8 and 9. The overall picture is the
same as with load scenario 1, i.e. the ratios between
the different ultimate loads are almost identical.
104

Figure 8. Loaddisplacement relations for the forced over-
turning rotation, x . The final load is noted at each curve.
Figure 9. Loaddisplacement relations for the forced
twisting rotation, z . The final load is noted at each curve.
5 CONCLUSIONS
In this paper it was demonstrated that both the stiffness
and the ultimate bearing capacity is significantly dif-
ferent for the Mohr-Coulomb and the Drucker-Prager
material models. Both models are implemented in the
finite element code without any rounding of the cor-
ners and apices, with respect to both the yield surfaces
and the plastic potentials, i.e. analytical results can be
approached when the mesh is refined.
The paper also demonstrates that it is possible to
reach the ultimate limit state in a three-dimensional
elasto-plastic finite element calculation on a footing
with complex loading, without experiencing numeri-
cal difficulties.
The inscribed Drucker-Prager cone results in the
same ultimate capacity as the Mohr-Coulomb model
in plane strain. But the footing stiffness can vary a
great deal between the two models, depending on the
initial stress state and the Poissons ratio.
A three-dimensional footing calculation was also
carried out. Here the results showed large differences
105
between the different models. Especially the results
from the Drucker-Prager triaxial compression fit dif-
fered by a factor 7 from the Mohr-Coulomb results.
This is to be expected based on Figure 1, as it is
seen that the elastic part of stress space is much
larger for the compression fit compared to that of the
Mohr-Coulomb criterion.
The overall conclusion is that no matter which of
the standard fits shown in this paper is used, the cal-
culations yield very different results with respect to
stiffness and bearing capacity.
With the present day efficient implementations of
the Mohr-Coulomb model the Drucker-Prager model
seems to be justified as an educational model only
within soil mechanics.
REFERENCES
Abbo, A. J. & S. W. Sloan 1995. A smooth hyperbolic approx-
imation to the Mohr-Coulomb yield criterion. Computers
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 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Simulation of mechanical behaviour of Toyoura sand using Severn Trent

constitutive model

S. Miliziano & G.M. Rotisciani

Department of Structural and Geotechnical Engineering, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy

F.M. Soccodato
Department of GeoEngineering and Environmental Technologies,University of Cagliari, Italy

ABSTRACT: In the numerical analyses of boundary value problems of geotechnical engineering it is often
necessary to obtain realistic and accurate displacement fields. To this aim, constitutive models which reproduce
accurately stress-strain behaviour of soils should be adopted. Severn-Trent (Gajo & Muir Wood, 1999a) is
an advanced constitutive model for granular materials based on bounding surface and kinematic hardening
plasticity. It is able to reproduce the main features of the mechanical behaviour of sands using a relatively simple
mathematical formulation. In this paper, the capability of Severn-Trent model in reproducing the experimental
data obtained in compression triaxial tests on Toyoura sand samples is presented and discussed. In order to obtain
satisfactory model predictions also in undrained extension triaxial tests, the model was modified introducing
two additional constitutive parameters which account for the inherent fabric anisotropy of the material.

1 INTRODUCTION calibrated using triaxial tests on Toyoura sand and

A reliable analysis of the behaviour of geotechnical
engineering structures often requires the use of consti-
tutive soil models capable to reproduce the non linear
mechanical response of the soil from small to relatively
high levels of strain.
In most commercial finite element or finite differ-
ence codes, only relatively simple (elasticperfectly
plastic) soil models are available; especially for sands,
these models give rise to reasonable results only when
near-failure conditions are approaching.
This research is aimed to the study of bound-
ary value problems of geotechnical engineering using
Severn-Trent constitutive model (Gajo & Muir Wood,
1999a, b) in order to obtain accurate numerical predic-
tions under working and ultimate loading conditions.
Severn-Trent is an advanced constitutive model which
captures the main features of the mechanical behaviour
of sands; furthermore, its mathematical formulation is
relatively simple and all model parameters have a clear
physical meaning.
The model has been implemented in FLAC finite
difference code (Itasca, 2005) and in Matlab code (The
Math Works, 2003).
To verify the correctness of the implementation, sin-
gle element model predictions, associated to a number
of loading paths typical of laboratory tests, were cross-
checked by comparing the results obtained from the
two codes with those reported by Gajo & Muir Wood
(1999a, b).
In the paper, the main features of the model
are briefly introduced; successively, the model is
the model predictions are compared with experimen-
tal results published in the literature, with specific
reference to triaxial compression and extension tests
data.
Some changes were introduced in the mathemati-
cal formulation of the model in order to improve its
predictions in triaxial extension tests.
2 SEVERN-TRENT
Severn-Trent is an elastic-plastic soil model based on
bounding surface plasticity and kinematic hardening
concepts. The characteristics, the formulation and the
prediction capabilities of the model with reference
to experimental data obtained on Hostun sand and
Leighton Buzzard sand are described in detail in Gajo
& Muir Wood (1999a,b); model predictions for triax-
ial tests carried out on Fuji sand and on Fountainebleu
sand are also reported by Abate et al (2008). Thus, in
the following, only the main features of the model will
be depicted.
In the model, two conical surfaces, which are
opened along the isotropic stress axis, are defined in
the stress space (Fig. 1). The apex of the surfaces is
located at the origin of the stress space.
The inner surface is the yielding surface, which
encloses the elastic domain, while the outer surface
is the bounding surface, which restricts the admissible
stress states of the material. The relative dimension of
the two surfaces is controlled by the model parameter
R < 1.

107
Figure 1. Yielding and bounding surface in Severn-Trent (after Gajo & Muir-Wood, 1999a).
Gajo & Muir Wood (1999b) considered different
formulations for the yielding and bounding surfaces in
the deviatoric plane (Drucker & Prager, Matsuoka &
Nakai, Lade and Argyris) in order to evaluate the
effects induced by these different shapes on model
response. In this study, it has been adopted for both
surfaces the expression proposed by Argyris (1973).
This seems a reasonable choice because the depen-
dence on the mechanical response from the Lode angle
is preserved, the mathematical formulation is relatively
simple, and, finally, experimental data appear to be
satisfactory fitted.
The expression for the bounding surface is:
where I , J and are the invariants of the stress tensor;
is a function of the critical state friction angle; and g is a
function of the Lode angle and of a model parameter
m that defines, in the deviatoric plane, the ratio of
the dimensions of surface in triaxial compression and
extension:
During plastic loading, both surfaces isotropically
expand or contract themselves according to the vol-
umetric hardening parameter r:
where: is the state parameter introduced by Been &
Jefferies (1985); and k is a model constant. Fur-
thermore, during plastic loading, the yielding surface
moves towards the bounding surface; the current posi-
tion of the axis of the yielding surface is directly
derived from consistency condition.
Thus, the model is characterized by two hardening
parameters: the state parameter controls volumet-
ric hardening, while the unit vector , which defines
the position of the axis of the yielding surface, rules
kinematic hardening.
108
The state parameter is defined on the compress-
ibility plane as the difference between current specific
volume, v, and critical state specific volume, vcs , at the
current mean effective stress:
In Severn-Trent, the projection of the critical state
surface on the compressibility plane is linear in a
v:log(p ) plot, and it is defined by the slope, and
the specific volume at p = 1 kPa, v . A linear expres-
sion for the projection of the critical state surface on
q:p plot is also assumed: the model parameter cs
defines the critical state friction angle obtained in
triaxial compression loading paths.
The elastic behaviour is assumed to be hypoelastic:
Poisson ratio is constant and the shear modulus G is
a constant fraction C of the maximum (small strain)
shear modulus G0 . The latter varies with mean effec-
tive stress and specific volume, following one of the
different expressions available in the literature.
When plastic loading occurs, the modulus of the
plastic strain increment vector dp depends on the dis-
tance between current, , and image, c , stress state.
The latter is defined, in the deviatoric plane, as the
stress state on bounding surface for which the unit
normal has the same direction of that one relative to
the current stress. Thus, it is:
where: B is a model constant; is the distance between
image and current stress; max is the distance between
image stress and the stress state located at the opposite
diameter of the bounding surface; n is the unit vector
normal to the yielding surface; d is the stress incre-
ment; and m is the unit vector that defines the direction
of the plastic strain increment.
Flow rule is non-associated; however, plastic strain
increment and unit normal vectors are assumed to
have the same direction on the deviatoric plane. The
isotropic component of m depends on the dilatancy d:
where: A and kd are two model constants; and Gm and Table 1. Model parameters from best fitting procedure
Gcs are the current and the critical state triaxial stress
ratios, respectively. A B k kd C m R

0.5 0.0025 2.0 2.7 0.4 0.8 0.1

3 IMPLEMENTATION OF THE CONSTITUTIVE

EQUATIONS

The constitutive equations above described were

implemented in Matlab code and solved, at the single
element level, adopting a simple forward Euler integra-
tion method and the linearization technique of loading
constraints proposed by Bardet & Couchair (1991).
The model has been also implemented in FLAC
(2D and 3D) by means of a routine written in C++
language, compiled as DLL (dynamic link library)
file. The DLL file is loaded into FLAC and it returns
updated stresses for each given strain increment.
Also in this case, the stress integration algorithm is
based on Euler integration scheme; it is a first order
explicit scheme but it guarantees an accurate and stable
solution.
Numerical simulations of laboratory tests charac-
terized by stress paths lying inside and outside the
triaxial plane (triaxial, radial and biaxial tests) were
carried out with both codes. These predictions were
compared with those obtained from Gajo & Muir
Wood (1999a, b); the good agreement between numer-
ical results in all tests guaranteed the correctness of the
two different implementations.

4 SELECTION OF MODEL PARAMETERS

Critical state conditions obtained from drained and

undrained triaxial compression tests carried out by
Ishihara (1993) and Verdugo & Ishihara (1996) on Toy-
oura sand are shown in Figure 2. The results clearly
indicate that the projection of the critical state sur-
face on the compressibility plane (in a semi-log scale)
is non-linear (Fig. 2a). In the numerical simulations
which will be presented in the next section, differ-
ent values of v and were adopted, depending on
the range of mean effective stresses under considera-
tion. Critical state stress ratio is equal to 1.24 (Fig.
2b), corresponding to a critical state friction angle

cs = 31 .
As for the maximum (elastic) shear modulus G0 is
concerned, as a first approximation, the same relation-
ship used by Gajo & Muir Wood (1999a) for Hostun
sand was adopted:
Figure 2. Critical state conditions from triaxial compres-
sion tests: a) v:log(p ) plot; b) q:p plot (after Ishihara,
1993).
Values of the other model parameters were iden-
tified following trial and error and best-fitting proce-
dures.Table 1 shows the set of parameters calibrated on
the experimental data obtained from undrained triaxial
compression tests.
The adopted value for m is linked to the critical state
friction angles observed in triaxial extension tests; it
is worth noting that this value of m guarantees the
convexity of Argyris surface.

5 NUMERICAL SIMULATIONS

5.1 Triaxial compression tests

where p is the mean effective stress.
A Poisson ratio equal to 0.333 was derived from the
interpretation of the experimental results obtained on
isotropically consolidated samples reported by Pallara
et al (1998).
The undrained and drained triaxial compression tests
reported by Ishihara (1993) and Verdugo & Ishihara
(1996) were carried out on Toyoura sand samples
prepared using a moist tamping technique.

109
Figure 3. Undrained triaxial compression tests: experimental results (after Ishihara, 1993) and model predictions.
Figure 4. Drained triaxial compression tests: experimental results (after Ishihara, 1993) and model predictions.
Undrained triaxial compression tests were per-
formed on three samples characterized by an initial rel-
ative density, DR , equal to 38% (void ratio e = 0.833),
isotropically consolidated to a mean effective stress,
c , equal to 1000, 2000 and 3000 kPa, respectively.
Experimental data and model predictions are shown
in Figure 3. It may be noted a fair agreement between
experimental data and model predictions for sam-
ples #2 and #3, consolidated at the higher stresses.
For sample #1 the model predicts excess pore pres-
sure developments higher than those measured (Fig.
3a) and, consequently, a slight different evolution of
the increase of the deviator stress with axial strain
(Fig. 3b).
Drained triaxial compression tests were carried out
on three samples characterized by different initial void
ratios (e=0.810, 0.886 and 0.960, which correspond to
DR = 44, 24 and 4%), isotropically consolidated to the
same value of c = 500 kPa. Experimental data and
model predictions are shown in Figure 4. Also for
these tests, on the whole, model predictions, obtained
110
using the same set of model parameters adopted for
the simulation of the undrained triaxial compression
tests shown in Figure 3, appear to be sufficiently accu-
rate. In fact, major differences are apparent only for
the loosest sample.
Furthermore, it was found that, generally, the set
of model parameters derived from a best-fitting pro-
cedure applied on undrained tests furnishes nice pre-
dictions also for drained tests, as previously shown;
on the contrary, a calibration of the model parameters
only based on drained tests gives rise to unsatisfactory
predictions of undrained responses.
5.2 Undrained triaxial extension tests
Undrained triaxial extension tests reported by
Yoshimine (1996) were carried out on three sam-
ples characterized by DR approximately equal to
30% (e = 0.8600.876), isotropically consolidated to
a mean effective stress, c , equal to 100, 200 and
300 kPa, respectively. The experimental data reported
Figure 5. Undrained triaxial extension tests: experimental results (after Yoshimine, 1996) and model predictions.
in Figure 5 show that liquefaction occurs in all sam-
ples for axial strain in the range 24%; in fact, during
loading, the increase of positive excess pore pressure
is so high that the mean effective stress approaches
zero.
Model predictions are qualitatively very different
from measures. For all samples, the initial reduc-
tion of mean effective stress is, for a given deviator
stress, lesser than that observed experimentally. When
approaching the critical stress ratio, the reduction of
deviator stress is very small; successively, excess pore
water pressure start to diminish and deviator stress
increases significantly.
A number of experimental results (Riemer & Seed,
1997; Mooney et al, 1998) show that the position of
the projection of the critical state surface on the com-
pressibility plane depends on loading direction and
Lode angle. Micromechanical studies carried out by
Oda (1999) also show that the critical state void ratio
is influenced by the preferential orientation of grains
in the structural arrangement (fabric) of the sand.
Dafalias et al (2004) proposed to take into account
the effects of the inherent fabric anisotropy on loading
direction introducing the anisotropic state parameter:
where F is the structure tensor (Oda, 1999) and n is
unit normal tensor to the yield surface at the current
stress state.
F is a symmetric tensor which describes in a syn-
thetic form the sand structure by means of a single
constant a. This parameter can vary between 0 and 1,
but it is generally in the range 00.33. When a = 0
all grains are located with their major axis along the
horizontal direction; when a = 0.33 the arrangement
of grains is randomic; when a = 1 the major axis of
grains is aligned along the vertical direction.
The position of the critical state line in the com-
pressibility plane is related to the parameter A by
111
means of the following relationship (Dafalias et al.
2004):
where: eA = void ratio for p = 1 kPa if the arrangement
of grains is randomic; and e0 = void ratio for p = 1 kPa
when grains are oriented along a preferential direction.
With increasing values of A, the projection of
the critical state line on the compressibility plane
moves towards lower values of specific volume. As
the distance between current state and critical state
changes so does the value of plastic modulus. How-
ever, Dafalias et al. (2004) showed that, in order to
match experimental data, it is also necessary to directly
relate the plastic modulus to the anisotropy parameter.
Thus, together with Eq. 9, the following relationship
was introduced in the model:
where B is the original model parameter obtained from
triaxial compression tests; Ae and Ac are the values
of the anisotropy parameter for triaxial extension and
compression loading paths, respectively; kh is an addi-
tional model parameter representing the ratio between
B values in triaxial compression and extension; in this
study, it was assumed equal to 0.2.
With the introduction of the constitutive parame-
ters a and kh , Severn Trent model takes into account
the effects of inherent anisotropy of soil fabric, even
though this initial (inherent) anisotropy does not
change with applied stress-strain paths.
The numerical simulations were carried out adopt-
ing a = 0.29, according to Yang et al. (2008). This
value, obtained for tamped samples, is only slightly
higher than that obtained for samples prepared by plu-
viation in air (a = 0.24). However, these values are
related to low anisotropy levels, in which all grains
lay with their major axes preferably aligned in the
horizontal direction.
 The predictions of the model change significantly
and a very good agreement with experimental data
was obtained (Fig. 5). In fact, due to the introduction
of the inherent fabric anisotropy parameters, critical
state conditions in compressibility plane for triaxial
extension tests are shifted toward values of specific
volume lower than those associated to triaxial com-
pression tests. For a given value of the initial specific
volume, the material is thus characterized by higher
values of the state parameter . This occurrence,
together with the effects of the enhanced expres-
sion adopted for the plastic modulus (Eq. 10), allows
to obtain static liquefaction conditions, according to
experimental data.
6 CONCLUSIONS
In the paper the capabilities of Severn-Trent model
in reproducing the mechanical behaviour of Toyoura
sand have been presented and discussed.
Model predictions were compared with experimen-
tal data obtained from a number of laboratory test
results published in the literature; model parameters
were selected according to experimental evidences and
by means of a best fitting procedure on undrained
triaxial compression test results.
The numerical simulations were found to be in
nice agreement with undrained and drained triaxial
compression test results. However, to reproduce the
mechanical behaviour of Toyoura sand subjected to
undrained triaxial extension tests, it was necessary to
modify the constitutive equations in order to account
for the inherent fabric anisotropy of sand structure.
Future developments of the research may be aimed
to study the model capabilities for simulating experi-
mental data obtained under cyclic loading conditions.
In this case, it seems appropriate to modify the for-
mulation of the hypoelastic part of the stress-strain
relationships, in order to avoid hysteretic phenomena
under fully elastic loading-unloading cycles.
In a latter stage of the research, the model, imple-
mented in FLAC finite difference code, will be used
to study boundary value problems in which, espe-
cially when working load conditions have to be ana-
lyzed, the use of advanced constitutive soil models is
appropriate.
112
REFERENCES
Abate, G., Caruso C., Massimino M.R. & Maugeri M. 2008.
Evaluation of shallow foundation settlements by an elasto-
plastic kinematic-isotropic hardening numerical model for
granular soil. Int. J. Geomechanics and Geoengineering,
3(1):2740.
Argyris, J.H. 1973. Recent development in finite element
analysis of PCRV. Prod. 2nd Int. Conf., SMIRT : Berlin.
Bardet, J.P. & Choucair, W. 1991. Linearization Techniques
for Integration of Rate-Type Constitutive Equations. Int.
J. Numer. Anal. Meth. Geom., 15: 119.
Been, K. & Jefferies, M.G. 1985. A state parameter for sands.
Geotechnique, 35(2): 99112.
Dafalias, Y.F., Papadimitriou, A.G. & Li, X.S. 2004. Sand
plasticity model accounting for inherent fabric anisotropy.
J. Eng. Mech. ASCE, 130(11): 13191333.
Gajo, A. & Muir Wood, D. 1999a. A kinematic hardening
constitutive model for sands: the multiaxial formulation.
Int. J. Numer. Anal. Meth. Geomech., 23: 925965.
Gajo, A. & Muir Wood, D. 1999b. Severn Trent: a
kinematic-hardening constitutive model: the q-p formu-
lation. Geotechnique, 49(5): 595614.
Ishihara, K. 1993. Liquefaction and flow failure during
earthquakes. Geotechnique, 43(3): 351415.
Itasca 2005. FLAC 5.0 User Manual. Itasca Consulting
Group: Minneapolis.
The Math Works 2003 Matlab 6.5.1. Users Guide. The Math
Works: Natick.
Mooney, M.A., Finno, R.J. & Viggiani, G. 1998. A unique
critical state for sand? J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng.,
124(11): 11001108.
Oda, M. 1999. Fabric tensor and its geometrical meaning. In
M. Oda & K. Iwashita (eds.), Introduction to mechanics
of granular materials: 2735, Rotterdam: Balkema.
Pallara, O., Lo Presti, D.C.F., Jamiolkowski, M. & Pedroni,
S. 1998. Caratteristiche di deformabilit di due sabbie in
prove monotone e cicliche. Rivista Italiana di Geotecnica,
XXXII(1): 6383.
Riemer M.F. & Seed, R.B. 1997. Factors affecting appar-
ent position of steady-state line. J. Geotech. Geoenviron.
Eng., 123(3): 281288.
Verdugo, R. & Ishihara, K. 1996. The steady state of sandy
soils. Soils and Foundations, 36(2): 8191.
Yang, Z.X., Li, X.S. &Yang, J. 2008. Quantifying and
modelling fabric anisotropy of granular soils. Geotech-
nique, 58(4): 237248.
Yoshimine, M. 1996. Undrained flow deformation of satu-
rated sand under monotonic loading conditions. Ph.D.
Thesis, University of Tokyo, Japan.
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Soil parameter identification for cyclic loading

A. Papon, Z.-Y. Yin, K. Moreau, Y. Riou & P.-Y. Hicher

Research Institute in Civil and Mechanical Engineering, UMR CNRS 6183, Ecole Centrale de Nantes, France

ABSTRACT: An identification of soil parameters is performed by inverse analysis of two undrained triaxial
cyclic tests on normally consolidated clay (kaolinite). A two-surface plasticity model is used for simulations and
genetic algorithms are selected for the optimization procedure. First the problem of inverse analysis is formulated
as a mono-objective problem, so that each test is considered separately and both sets of solutions are analyzed.
Secondly, in order to take into account simultaneously the results of both tests, a multi-objective problem is
considered and solved with a multi-objective genetic algorithm, which provides a set of equivalent solutions
in terms of Pareto. Considering this set, a tradeoff is determined in order to fit at best the experimental and
numerical curves for both tests and the relevance of the selected constitutive model is discussed.

1 INTRODUCTION Hermann (1982), generates plastic strains within the

Fatigue in soils is a relevant phenomenon for many
structures such as wind power plants, offshore instal-
lations, embankment, railway and tunnel (Andersen
2009). To obtain reliable results for the design of struc-
tures, the constitutive model has to be able to reproduce
with good accuracy the cyclic behavior of soil. An
accumulation of permanent strains during cyclic load-
ings with a possible stabilization depending on the
applied stress level is often observed. For this purpose,
models based on extension of the classical theory of
elastoplasticity have been developed.
At the same time, the development of sophisti-
cated constitutive models with increasing number of
parameters leads to complex identification process for
soil parameters. Satisfactory parameter identification
from laboratory or in-situ tests is needed for engineer-
ing practice. Therefore, new techniques of resolution
accounting for the characteristics of inverse analysis
have been performed.
In this paper, a modification is made on the
two-surface model of Al-Tabbaa (1987) to describe
undrained cyclic behavior of clay with high number of
cycles. A new method of soil parameter identification
by inverse analysis is proposed. Then, these princi-
ples are applied to undrained triaxial cyclic tests on
normally consolidated clay (kaolinite). Finally conclu-
sions on the identification of the parameters and on the
relevance of the model are drawn.
2 CONSTITUTIVE MODEL
2.1 Choice of the model
bounding surface depending on the variation of the
hardening modulus. This modulus varies from a high
value when the stress point is far from the bound-
ing surface, to a lower value when the stress point
is on the bounding surface. Therefore, the model
guarantees a smooth transition between elasticity
and elasto-plasticity. However bounding surface plas-
ticity assumes a purely elastic behavior, whereas
experiments show a limited elastic domain, during
unloading.
Kinematic hardening models consider kinematic
yield surfaces within the bounding surface. Mroz
(1967) propose a set of kinematic nesting surfaces with
constant hardening moduli. As long as the stress point
is within the smallest kinematic surface, the behavior
is assumed to be elastic. As soon as the stress point
reaches the smallest kinematic surface, the behavior
becomes elasto-plastic with respect of the correspond-
ing hardening modulus and the surface follows the
stress path. If the stress point reaches the next nest-
ing surface, the hardening modulus associated with it
becomes relevant and both surfaces are dragged along
the stress path. This strategy makes the storage of load-
ing history possible and a stepwise decrease of the
hardening modulus.
A two-surface model has been proposed by
Al-Tabbaa (1987) and described by Muir Wood (1991)
as an intermediate solution between a bounding sur-
face model and a multi-surface model. This model
provides a smooth decrease of the hardening modu-
lus and a memory of the previous stress path. Because
of its simplicity and its interesting properties, a model
of this type is selected for this study.

As aforementioned, the classical theory of elastoplas-

2.2 Principles of the model
ticity has been extended for a better representation of
plastic strains during cyclic loading. Bounding surface The two-surface model, developed by Al-Tabbaa
plasticity for soil models, described by Dafalias & (1987), is an extension of the modified Cam Clay

113
model, where a kinematic yield surface is introduced
within the bounding surface. The behavior is assumed
to be elastic within the kinematic yield surface. The
bounding surface corresponds to the modified Cam
Clay yield surface:

where p = mean effective stress; pc = value of the
mean effective stress at the intersection of the cur-
rent swelling line with the isotropic compression line;
s = deviatoric stress tensor; and M = slope of the criti-
cal state line in q-p space. The kinematic yield surface
has the same shape as the bounding surface:
where pa = mean effective stress at the center of the
kinematic yield surface; sa = deviatoric stress tensor at
the center of the kinematic yield surface; and R = ratio
between the sizes of the kinematic surface and of the
bounding surface. The ratio R is assumed to be a model
parameter.
The bounding surface evolves according the same
isotropic hardening rule as in the modified Cam Clay
model:
Figure 1. Representation of bounding and kinematic yield
surfaces in (p , q) plan.
(1985), Al-Tabbaa (1987) proposed a hardening mod-
ulus A1 depending on the measure of the distance
between the kinematic yield surface and the bounding
surface. Therefore when the two surfaces are in con-
tact, the value A1 is equal to 0 and only the hardening
modulus A0 is mobilized. In this study, the hardening
modulus A1 is given by:
where e0 = void ratio; = material constant with
c under triaxial compression and e under triaxial
extension (R = e /c ); = material constant; and
bmax = maximal value of b equal to:

p According to Al-Tabbaa (1987), b is the scalar product

where v = volumetric plastic strain; e0 = initial void
of the outward normal n to the kinematic surface at
ratio; = slope of the isotropic normal compression
the current stress state and the vector which links
line; and = slope of the swelling line.
the current stress state (point A in Fig. 1) to the stress
The kinematic yield surface evolves according to
state on the bounding surface with the same outward
a combination of isotropic and kinematic hardening
normal (point A in Fig. 1).
rules, as follows:
Model parameters can be separated into two cate-
gories: the parameters related to the monotonic behav-
ior (, , , e0 , M , pc0 ) and those related to the cyclic
behavior (R, c , R , ).
We note that, in this paper, the slope of the critical
state line is expressed as (Sheng et al. 2000):

where the scalar quantity S is obtained by the consis-

tency condition for the kinematic yield surface.
The plastic flow rule is assumed to be associated
and thus the plastic strain is given by:
where is the Lodes angle ( = /6 under triaxial
compression); Mc represents the slope of the critical
state line under triaxial compression; and c is defined
as follows according to Mohr-Coulomb:

where p = plastic strain tensor; A0 = hardening mod-

ulus given by the modified Cam Clay model; and
A1 = hardening modulus given by an interpolation
rule. Al-Tabbaa (1987) specifies that the interpolation where c = friction angle at critical state under triaxial
rule is not unique. Based on the works of Hashiguchi compression.

114
 To introduce the anisotropy of the hardening mod-
ulus, we made the material constant function of
Lodes angle. Similar to M , is expressed as:
Therefore, R can be used to control the magnitude of
plastic strains under loading and unloading conditions.
3 PARAMETER IDENTIFICATION
3.1 Principle and choice of the identification
method
Inverse analysis consists in determining the set of
parameters, which minimizes the difference between
experimental and numerical data. In this study, the
difference between experimental and numerical data,
called the error function Ferr , corresponds to the
surface between the experimental and the numerical
curves, i.e. the integral of the absolute value of the error
(in permanent strain) during the test. Therefore, some
possible isolated measurement points do not have an
influence as important as by the method of square root.
Inverse analysis is generally a mathematical ill-posed
problem, for which the existence and uniqueness of
solution are not guaranteed.
Traditionally, inverse analysis for geotechnical
problems is carried out with gradient methods (Dano
et al. 2006). However other optimization algorithms
have been applied to geotechnical problems, as sim-
plex method (Gioda 1985), neural network technique
(Obrzud et al. 2009) or genetic algorithms (Levasseur
et al. 2008). Genetic algorithms work simultaneously
with a group of parameter sets. This special strat-
egy gives to genetic methods two main advantages
over other methods. Firstly, they determine a set of
satisfactory solutions rather than the exact mathe-
matical one and they propose, therefore, an alternative
to the non-uniqueness of the solution. Secondly, by
means of some modifications, genetic algorithms for
mono-objective problems can be adapted for multi-
objective problems. In terms of inverse analysis, a
multi-objective problem makes possible the use of sev-
eral experimental curves simultaneously. Because of
these two interesting aspects, genetic algorithms are
selected in this study.
3.2 Genetic algorithms in case of mono-objective
problem
Genetic algorithms, originally introduced by Holland
(1975), are derived from Darwins evolution theory.
Their principles were set and developed by Goldberg
(1989). They belong to the family of stochastic algo-
rithms and reproduce the biological process: the prob-
ability of survival of the best adapted individuals,
represented here by the best set of parameters, and
115
the probability of the multiplication of competitive
ones are improved by the transmission of a favorable
gene pool.
Genetic algorithms work from an initial population,
i.e. a set of individuals, randomly generated among the
search space. This population is modified according
to a process based on the value of the error function
through the following operations: selection, cross-
over and mutation. Selection and cross-over improve
mainly the performance of individuals, whereas muta-
tion makes possible to continue the exploration of a
given search domain and to avoid to converge pre-
maturely towards a secondary minimum. Generation
after generation, i.e. iteration after iteration, the perfor-
mance of the overall population is improved. Finally
the solution corresponds to an entire population of
individuals with different gene pools and the result
gives a global view of this set of gene pools. Con-
trary to deterministic algorithms, the aim of genetic
algorithms is to detect individuals with low error func-
tions, using a reduced number of iterations compared
to a systematic search, rather than to guarantee the
detection of an optimal set of parameters.
3.3 Multi-objective problem
A multi-objective formulation can be useful in two
cases. The user wants to enrich the experimental data
so that the parameter identification is more reliable.
To do so, inverse analysis for several curves has to
be simultaneously performed. Another reason of using
multi-objective formulation is connected to the valida-
tion of constitutive model. A model can be considered
as validated, if, from parameter identification using
a given set of experiments, the model can reproduce
other independent experiments. Therefore, if it can-
not be found parameters which reproduce two or more
different experiments, then the model is not relevant
and cannot be validated. Mertens et al. (2006) used
multi-objective formulation for two reasons: Parame-
ter identification and model verification. In this study,
multi-objective formulation is adopted to give some
information about the relevance of the model and about
the trade-off, which has to be done for identification.
To solve a multi-objective problem, different res-
olution methods have been developed. Deb (2001)
distinguishes the methods which need to make pref-
erences before the optimization (a priori methods)
and the ones which need to make preferences after
the optimization (a posteriori methods). For geotech-
nical problems it seems difficult to decide a priori
which test is the most reliable and especially to set the
weight applied to each test. A posteriori methods aim
at determining a so-called Pareto frontier.
If we consider five sets of parameters and the cor-
responding values of the error functions in case of
a two-objective problem, as shown by Figure 2, we
can say that the set of parameters x(1) fits better the
first experimental curve than the set of parametersx(2) ,
whereas the set of parameters x(2) fits better the sec-
ond experimental curve than the set of parametersx(1) .

Figure 2. Solutions of a two-objective optimization.
(1)
Without a priori preferences, we cannot say that x is
better than x(2) and vice versa. Originally introduced
by Pareto (1897), Pareto dominance is used in order to
overcome this problem. By definition, a solution x(i)
dominates a solution x(j) in terms of Pareto, if both
conditions of Equation 11 are fulfilled.
where M = the number of objectives.
Considering Figure 2, x(1) dominates x(4) and x(2)
dominates x(3) , x(4) and x(5) . x(3) and x(5) are not
comparable in terms of Pareto. The solutions of a
multi-objective problem correspond to the Pareto opti-
mal solutions, which are not dominated by any others
sets of parameters. In the example of Figure 2, x(1) and
x(2) are equivalent solutions of the two-objective prob-
lems and Ferr (x(1) ) and Ferr (x(2) ) belong to the Pareto
frontier. When the Pareto frontier is determined, the
user can select the best set of parameters considering
the Pareto frontier and others criteria related to the
specific application.
Mertens et al. (2006) used the scalarization tech-
nique, which consists in building a global error
function from the initial error functions, which are
weighed. To determine the Pareto frontier, mono-
objective optimizations are carried out with different
weights. However this method cannot detect non con-
vex parts of the Pareto frontier. Moreover a continuous
variation of the weights does not imply necessarily
a continuous variation along the Pareto frontier. For
these reasons, the authors propose to deal with a multi-
objective resolution technique and select the Multi-
Objective Genetic Algorithm called MOGA because
of its simplicity and its close relationship with genetic
algorithms in case of classical mono-objective algo-
rithms. MOGA has been introduced by Fonseca et al
(1993). They modified the operation of selection in a
classical mono-objective genetic algorithm in order to
deal with a multi-objective problem. A new method of
selection based on the dominance in terms of Pareto
is performed. In MOGA, the performance of an indi-
vidual decreases with the number of times for which
the individual is dominated by another individual.
116
Table 1. Soil parameters for kaolinite clay.
e0 Mc pc0 kPa
0.3 0.08 0.23 1.15 1.0 200
Table 2. Studied domain.
Parameters c R
Minimal value 103 1 0.1
Maximal value 1016 8 10
4 APPLICATION
4.1 Undrained triaxial tests
The study considers two undrained triaxial tests on
normally consolidated clay under one-way loading
performed by Hicher (1979). Soil parameters directly
determined from monotonic tests are summarized in
Table 1. The ratio R can be determined from an
isotropic compression test with unloading stage. In this
study we assume R = 0.1, a typical value for R.
In this study, inverse analysis is used to determine
the parameters which can not be deduced directly from
experimental tests. Therefore the inverse analysis is
performed on three parameters: c , R and . To do
so, the curve which gives the evolution of the perma-
nent axial strain as function of the number of cycles
is considered. Permanent strains are defined as the
remaining strains after a cycle. Two loading levels are
considered q = 65 kPa and q = 84 kPa. The maximal
deviator stress obtained during an undrained triaxial
monotonic test is equal to 124 kPa. Since a multi-
objective problem is formulated, both error functions
are divided by the number of cycles of the test, so
that the error functions correspond to the mean error
per cycle.
4.2 Computational program
The identification is carried out by using two differ-
ent codes: the constitutive model is implemented in
a FORTRAN routine and the optimization process is
run by ModeFrontier, developed by ESTECO, (Mode-
Frontier 4). For all the optimizations the same domain
is explored (Table 2).
The initial populations contain 200 individuals.
They are generated with the deterministic algorithm
Sobol which is used to fill uniformly the studied
domain (Sobol 1967, ModeFrontier 4). Calculations
are performed during 15 generations.
4.3 Results
4.3.1 Case of mono-objective problem
Since genetic algorithms provide a set of solutions,
only a limited set of the best solutions for q = 65 kPa
is taken into account and summarized in Table 3. We
Table 3. Satisfactory individuals obtained with genetic Table 4. Satisfactory individuals obtained with genetic
method for the test q = 65 kPa. method for the test q = 84 kPa.

c R Ferr (%) c R Ferr (%)

1.0e5 4 0.159 0.034 1e9 8 2.512 0.2177

1.0e9 8 0.1 0.055 1e9 8 3.981 0.2177
3.2e6 5 0.1 0.055 1e9 8 1.585 0.2177
1.0e9 8 0.159 0.056 1e9 8 1 0.2180
1.0e9 8 0.251 0.057 1e9 8 0.631 0.2181
1.0e9 8 0.398 0.057 1e9 8 0.398 0.2185

Figure 4. Comparison of the experimental and numerical

Figure 3. Comparison of the experimental and numerical
cyclic curves for the best set of parameters for q = 84 kPa.
cyclic curves for the best set of parameters for q = 65 kPa.

can notice that the parameters c and are closely

related, whereas R seems to be independent. Small
values of the parameter R are more satisfactory.
The set of parameters, which provides the best fit-
ting between the experimental and numerical curves
for q = 65 kPa, is selected and the corresponding
curves for both tests are plotted in Figure 3. The fitting
for q = 65 kPa is satisfactory, whereas the shapes of the
experimental and numerical curves for q = 84 kPa are
totally different. A question remains open: Is the model
or the parameter identification unsuitable?
In the same way as for the test q = 65 kPa,
Table 4 showed a limited set of the best solutions for Figure 5. Distribution of solutions of the multi-objective
q = 84 kPa. The same comments as for q = 65 kPa can optimization in the criterion space.
be done except that higher values of R seem slightly Table 5. Non-dominated solutions obtained with multi-
more satisfactory. objective genetic method.
Figure 4 represents the experimental and numerical
curves for the best set of parameters. The fitting for c R F1err (%) F2err (%)
both tests is better that for the previous inverse analy-
sis. However the shape of the numerical curve for both I1 1.0e5 4 0.159 0.0339 3.3312
tests is not well captured. The (quasi-) stabilization I2 1.0e9 8 0.1 0.0550 0.2196
occurring during both tests does not appear contrary I3 1.0e9 8 0.159 0.0564 0.2193
to the previous inverse analysis. I4 1.0e9 8 0.251 0.0573 0.2186
I5 1.0e9 8 0.398 0.0577 0.2185
I6 1.0e9 8 0.631 0.0582 0.2181
4.3.2 Case of multi-objective problem I7 1.0e9 8 1.000 0.0582 0.2180
The question remained open in the previous section can I8 1.0e9 8 1.585 0.0583 0.2177
be answered thanks to a multi-objective formulation. I9 1.0e9 8 2.512 0.0584 0.2177
If no satisfactory tradeoff can be determined by the
multi-objective problem, then the relevance of model
can be discussed. Otherwise, the uncertainty of the are summarized in Table 5. The best sets of parameters
identification can be removed. Figure 5 shows the solu- obtained with both mono-objective inverse analyses
tions of the multi-objective problem in the criterion can be found again (I1 and I9) and the comments about
space. The non-dominated solutions are encircled and the sensitivity of R can also be noticed.

117
 The difference between the numerical curves of the
sets of parameters from I2 to I9 is so small that I9
can be used as reference and the best set of parame-
ters obtained with the mono-objective inverse analysis
for q = 84 kPa can be considered as a good tradeoff
between both experiments.
5 CONCLUSIONS
A modification was made on the two-surface model of
Al-Tabbaa (1987) to describe undrained cyclic behav-
ior of clay with high number of cycles. A method
of soil parameter identification accounting for the
characteristics of inverse analysis was proposed.
The method of parameter identification shows the
multiple assets of genetic algorithms. Contrary to tra-
ditional algorithms, genetic algorithms provide a set
of solutions, which seem to be consistent with the
non-uniqueness of the solution of inverse analysis.
The analysis of this set of solutions gives informa-
tion about the sensitivity of the model parameters and
their coupling effects. The formulation of problem as
multi-objective makes possible the use of several tests
simultaneously. As a result, model parameters can be
more efficiently identified. If no tradeoff concerning
the model parameters can be determined from different
tests, then the relevance of the model can be discussed.
The proposed method of identification was applied
to identify model parameters from two undrained
triaxial tests on clay under one-way loadings. Satis-
factory identification of a tradeoff from both tests was
obtained. However the (quasi-) stabilization of perma-
nent strain observed during the experiments cannot
be very well captured. The perspectives of the study
concern the application of the new method to tests on
natural clays.
REFERENCES
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of speswhite kaolin. PhD thesis, University of Cambridge,
Cambridge, UK.
Andersen, K.H. 2009. Bearing capacity under cyclic loading
offshore, along the coast, and on land. Can. Geotech. J.
46:513535.
Dafalias, Y.F. & Hermann, L.R. 1982. Bounding surface
formulation of soil plasticity. In G.N. Pande & O.C.
Zienkiewicz (eds), Soil Mechanics Transient and Cyclic
Loads: 253282. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.
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Dano, C., Hicher, P.-Y., Rangeard D. & Marchina P. 2006.
Interpretation of dilatometer tests in a heavy oil reservoir.
Int. J. Numer. Anal. Methods Geomech. 31:11971215.
Deb, K. 2001. Multi-Objective Optimization using Evolu-
tionary Algorithms. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.
Fonseca, C.M. & Fleming, P.J. 1993. Genetic algorithms for
multi-objective optimization: Formulation, discussion and
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ceedings of the Fifth International Conference, Urbana-
Champaign, IL, USA, 722 July 1993. San Mateo: Morgan
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Goldberg, D.E. 1989. Genetic algorithms in search, opti-
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Hicher, P.-Y. 1979. Contribution ltude de la fatigue
des argiles. PhD Thesis, Ecole Centrale des Arts et
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Holland, J.H. 1975. Adaptation in Natural and Artificial
Systems. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.
Levasseur, S., Malcot, Y., Boulon, M. & Flavigny, E. 2008.
Soil parameter identification using a genetic algorithm.
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tive Inverse Modeling for Soil Parameter Estimation and
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to design: 1869. London: Blackie and Son.
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 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Study of tensorial damage in a porous geomaterial

M. Mozayan Kharazi & C. Arson

U.R. Navier (CERMES, ENPC), University of Paris-Est, France

B. Gatmiri
Direction Scientifique Mcanique des Fluides et des Solides, ANDRA, France

ABSTRACT: This paper presents the frame of the THHMD damage model, designed for unsaturated porous
media and formulated in independent state variables. The damage variable is a second-order tensor. The behaviour
law stems from both micromechanical and phenomenological concepts. A crack related intrinsic water perme-
ability is introduced. The THHMD model has been programmed in -Stock Finite Element code (Gatmiri
& Arson, 2008). The Excavation Damaged Zone (EDZ) of a tunnel is studied by simulating the mechanical
unloading of a rock massif. The stress variations are in full agreement with the theoretical predictions in the
elastic domain. A parametric study performed for clay rock, sandstone and granite has been performed under
several mechanical unloadings. Damage evolutions follow good trends.

1 INTRODUCTION base (Kachanov 1992):

This study is motivated by the necessity to pre-

dict the behaviour of the Excavation Damaged Zone
surrounding nuclear waste disposals. The geologi-
cal barriers, often made of quasi-brittle material like
The Representative Elementary Volume is dam-
granite or clay-rock, undergo damage during the exca-
aged by multiple micro-cracks, which are conceptually
vation phase. Most of the damage models dedicated to
gathered into three main families of approximately
unsaturated porous media are based on the concept
parallel planar fissures. Each meso-crack is charac-
of Bishops effective stress, which is not satisfac-
terized by a direction nk (normal to the crack plane)
tory to represent all the aspects of the behaviour of
and a volumetric fraction dk .
unsaturated geomaterials (Arson & Gatmiri 2008).
Following the modelling approach of Gatmiri (Gat-
Alternatively, the THHMD model is formulated in
miri & Arson 2008), it is assumed that thermal and
independent stress state variables (net stress, suction
capillary phenomena are isotropic. These latter are
and thermal stress).The formulation of the THHMD
thus controlled by scalar stress state variables (suc-
damage model proposed here has been exposed in
tion s and thermal stress pT, respectively). Net stress
detail in (Arson & Gatmiri 2009a) in the isothermal
and suction are respectively defined as ij = ij pa ij
case. An extension to non-isothermal conditions is
and s = pa pw . ij is the total stress tensor, ij is the
briefly presented in (Arson & Gatmiri 2009b). After
second-order identity tensor, pw is the water pore pres-
a recall of the theoretical frame, the present paper
sure, and pa is the air pore pressure. Net stress, suction
provides the results of the numerical simulation of
and thermal stress being independent, the strain ten-
the mechanical unloading of a rock massif. First, the
sor may be split into three components, each of which
model is validated in the elastic domain. Then, damage
being thermodynamically conjugated to one of the pre-
is taken into account and a parametric study is done in
ceding stress state variable. Here, net stress, suction
order to study the evolution of the damage in various
and thermal stress are thermodynamically conjugated
materials (granite, clay rock and sandstone).
with mechanical strains (M ), suction-related strains
(Sv ) and thermal-related strains (Tv ) respectively
(Arson & Gatmiri 2009a,b). All of these components
2 FORMULATION OF THE THHMD
are split in a reversible (e) and an irreversible (d) part:
DAMAGE MODEL

2.1 A Formulation in Independent State Variables

In the following, the damage variable will be defined
as the crack density tensor expressed in a principal

119
2.2 Behaviour Laws
The following expression of the free energy is postu-
lated, on the basis of the approach introduced by Halm
and Dragon (Halm & Dragon 1998):
The Helmholtz free energy S (Mij , Sv , Tv , ij ) is
written as the sum of damaged elastic energies and
residual strain potentials (Arson & Gatmiri 2009a).
g g
gM ji Mji , 3S ij ji SV and 3T ij ji TV are residual
strain potentials, which quantify the remaining open-
ings due to cracks after unloading. gM , gS and gT are
rigidity-like scalar material parameters.
The derivation of the free energy S (Mij , Sv , Tv ,
ij ), provides the whole stress/strain relations. The
incremental inelastic strains ddM , ddSv and ddTv are
deduced from the increment of damage. This latter is
computed by an associative flow rule. The Principle of
Equivalent Elastic Energy is used with the operator of
Cordebois and Sidoroff (Cordebois & Sidoroff 1982),
in order to define damaged stress variables and to
compute the damaged mechanical, capillary and ther-
mal rigidities (Arson and Gatmiri 2009a). The final
expressions of the damaged rigidities are:
In which De0 , S0 and Tw
0
are the mechanical,
capillary and thermal rigidities in the intact state,
respectively.
2.3 Transfer Rules
The details of the modeling of isothermal transfers in
porous media may be found in (Gatmiri & Arson 2008)
2.3.1 Moisture (liquid water and vapour)
Liquid water and vapour transfers are assumed to be
diffusive:
Vw and Vvap refer to liquid water and vapour
relative velocities, respectively. R , which depends
120
on the water content, is computed at the reference
temperature as follows:
(T) is the superficial energy of pore water (in
J.m-2). DTvap and DPvap are the thermal and capillary
vapour conductivities, respectively. Hydraulic conduc-
tivity is modeled by a second-order permeability tensor
Kwij :
Only the intrinsic water permeability K intij
(n, pq ), depending on porosity n, and thus on the
behavior of the solid skeleton, may be influenced by
damage. A specific crack related component k2ij is
introduced in order to model the influence of damage
on liquid water transfer:
The liquid flow in the fracture network is assumed
to be laminar, and is homogenized at the scale of the
meso-cracks damaging the REV. The meso-cracks are
assumed to be penny-shaped.
Their thicknesses ek are related to their radii rk by a
linear dilatancy law, ek = rk (Shao et al. 2005). The
intrinsic permeability related to fracturing is thus a
function of the crack densities, dk :
w and w are the volumetric weight and the
dynamic viscosity of liquid water respectively. b is the
characteristic dimension of the REV and plays the role
of an internal length parameter. It may be computed
by giving the value of permeability for a given dam-
age state. If Kmax
wdg is the mean crack-related intrinsic
permeability for an isotropic damage state of 95%:
DPvap and DTvap both depend on an intrinsic vapour
conductivity, which is split in the same manner as the
intrinsic water permeability, as:
1.024 D0 nrev is the vapour conductivity of the intact
material, as modeled by Gatmiri (Gatmiri & Arson
2008). A second internal length parameter is intro-
duced in the crack-related term Dint,vap2 (nfrac , rs), in
order to compute the damage-related intrinsic vapour
conductivity
2.3.2 Air and heat
As air flows faster than water, the acceleration of fluid
exchanges with damage growth is modelled in water
permeability only. Air permeability and heat conduc-
tivity are kept unchanged from the intact material
(Gatmiri & Arson 2008):
Heat flux is controlled by diffusive, evaporation and
convective contributions:
The influence of damage in air and heat flows is
quantified by the total porosity, which depends on total
volumetric strains, and thus, on inelastic strain com-
ponents. As a result, the effect of damage is taken into
account, but indirectly and isotropically.
3 NUMERICAL RESULTS
The proposed damage model encompasses complex
couplings. The first step of its validation consists
in performing uncoupled numerical simulations. This
paper focuses on mechanical tests only. Here we are
interested in the effect of the digging of a tunnel
on its surrounding soil massif (Figure 1). The model
is axisymmetric and unidimensional. The mesh of
the problem consists of 40 elements and 63 nodes
(Figure 2). The studied zone has a 10 meters length
and a 0.01 meters thickness. The analysis is carried
out for four materials. (Table 1).
gM , C0 and C1 are the damage parameters. C0 is the
initial damage-stress rate that is necessary to trigger
damage. C1 controls the damage increase rate. gM is
the residual mechanical stiffness which characterizes
the extent of the residual deformations which remain
after unloading of a damaged material.
On the inferior and superior edges of the model, ver-
tical displacements are blocked. The sample is dry and
isothermal; therefore all the nodal degrees of freedom
in temperature and pore water pressure (water and air)
are blocked.
In the initial state, a stress 0 is applied to all the
elements.
On the left limit of the model which is the wall
of the tunnel,  = 0 (unloading) is incrementally
applied. On the right limit (in the far field), the exca-
vation is supposed to have no influence on the stress
field:  = 0.
3.1 Validation of the model in the elastic domain
The analytical solution is computed for stress, as (F.
Martin and A. Satta, 2005):

Figure 1. Axisymmetric modeling of the tunnel.

Figure 3. Stress evolution (elastic domain, with 0 =

Figure 2. Geometry and mesh. 60 MPa) for granite and clay rock.

Table 1. Material parameters in four geo materials.

Material E(Pa) 0 s(Pa) gM(Pa) C0(Pa) C1(Pa)

Clay Rock 1.22e10 0.16 5.98e10 1.41 2.3e-4 5.2e-3

Fontainebleau Sand stone 4.55e10 0.30 2.04e10 1.10e8 1e+3 5.5e5
Vosges Sand stone 1.17e10 0.20 1.12e10 3.10e7 2e4 2.7e5
Granite 3.51e10 0.30 6.07e11 3.3e8 1.1e5 2.2e6

121
 Figure 5. Strain evolution in clay rocks with gM =
Figure 4. Damage evolution in clay rocks with gM = 1.414 Pa
1.414 Pa.

With 0 the initial stress, R tunnel radius, and r the

distance from the center of the tunnel. According to the
analysis of the results in the elastic domain (gM = 0)
(Figure 3), the predictions of -Stock turn to be consis-
tent with the theory of tunnels. The excavation causes
a mechanical unloading of the rock around the tun-
nel, which leads to a radial stress reduction in (which
corresponds to a traction with the soil mechanics con-
vention). The reduction in the radial stress is equal
to the increase of ortho-radial stress  = rr.
After a distance of 5 meters of the wall of the tunnel,
the effect of unloading is almost negligible.

3.2 Study of the damage trends

Here the damage effects are taken into account in the
geo material surrounding the tunnel. The Results will Figure 6. Damage evolution in Fontainebleau sandstone
be taken from the computations done on element n 40 with gM = 110 MPa.
(Figure 2) which is one of the most damaged elements
during unloading.

3.2.1 Effects of unloading intensity in clay rock
and sandstones
The studied medium considered is first dry and isother-
mal clay rock. In order to undertake a parametric study,
gM (the mechanical damage-related rigidity) is fixed at
the value found in the bibliography (Arson & Gatmiri
2009b, 1.414 Pa for clay rock). The initial mechan-
ical stress applied on the ground is varied and we
completely discharge the wall of the tunnel. As shown
in the figure 4, by increasing the initial stress, unload-
ing under the effect of digging increases. The increase
in unloading results in the application of a tension
which increased on the left edge of the model. Dam-
age develops in the radial direction (rr). There is no
tension in the orthoradial and vertical directions, there-
fore  = zz = 0. By increasing the initial pressure
applied on the soil, the unloading caused by the digging
increases, and clay rock thus undergoes a higher dam-
age and a higher radial deformation (Figures 4 and 5).
For an unloading of 33,75 MPa, maximum damage
observed is 28% which is accompanied by a maxi-
mum deformation of 0.17% in clay rocks (Figures 4
and 5)
The same study is done for Fontainebleau sandstone
and Vosges sandstone (Tab. 1). As figures 6 and 7
show it, the shape of the curves of stress/damage in
the sandstones is not different from the shape of the
curves of clay rocks.
An increase in unloading causes an increase of
damage in sandstones. In the case of Fontainebleau
sandstone, damage appears at of the beginning of
the unloading whereas Vosges sandstone supports an
unloading of 7 MPa before being damaged. Mechani-
cal rigidities of the two sandstones are close (table 1) so
these differences can only be explained by the choice of
the damage parameters (C0, C1 and gM) and of the ini-
tial boundary conditions (which control the intensity
of unloading).

122

Figure 7. Damage evolution in Vosges sandstone with
gM = 32 MPa.
Figure 8. Damage evolution in granite with 0 = 60 Mpa
3.2.2 Effects of damage rigidity gM in granite
For a fixed unloading intensity (60 MPa), the brittle
behaviour of a massif of granite (Tab. 1) is studied
for various values of gM parameter (figure 8 ). The
maximum damage obtained for granite is of 9% for
gM = 263 MPa, reached at a total unloading of 30 MPa.
If we continue to increase gM (right-handside curve
on figure 8), the simulation stops before the end of the
loading program, which corresponds to a total collapse
at least on one element of the model. It is impossible
to unload more than 15 MPa.
4 CONCLUSION
The THHMD damage model is dedicated to non-
isothermal unsaturated porous media, and is for-
mulated in independent state variables (net stress,
123
suction and thermal stress). Damage is a second-
order orthotropic tensor. The behaviour law is deduced
from a postulated expression of the free energy, which
is written as the sum of degraded elastic potentials
and residual strain-related potentials. The damaged
rigidities are computed by applying the Principle of
Equivalent Elastic Energy. The additional liquid flow
occurring in the crack network is supposed to be
laminar. It is homogenized in order to compute a frac-
ture related intrinsic permeability, reflecting the effect
of damage on fluid transfers. The same approach is
adopted for vapour. The effects of damage are mod-
elled in air and heat transfers, through a damaged
porosity. The THHMD model has been implemented
in -Stock Finite Element code. In this paper, a verifi-
cation of the theory of tunnels has been done in elas-
ticity. The mechanical damage tendencies observed in
parametric studies follows the expected trends, with
satisfactory orders of magnitude. This is the first step
to justify the use of the THHMD model for the repre-
sentation of Excavation Damage Zones in unsaturated
massifs, in order to design storage galleries.
REFERENCES
Arson, C. & Gatmiri, B. 2008. On damage modelling in
unsaturated clay rocks. Physics and Chemistry of the
Earth, 33:S407S415.
Arson, C. & Gatmiri, B. 2009a. A mixed damage model
for unsaturated porous media, Comptes-Rendus de
lAcadmie des Sciences de Paris, section Mcanique, vol.
337, pp.6874.
Arson, C. & Gatmiri, B. 2009b. Parametric study on the per-
formance of a THM damage model for unsaturated porous
media, 1st International Symposium on Computational
Geomechanics, Juan-les-Pins, France, 29 April 1st May
2009, pp. 553562.
Cordebois, J.P. & Sidoroff, F. 1982. Endommagement
anisotrope en lasticit et plasticit. Journal de
Mcanique thorique et applique. Special issue, pp.
4560.
Gatmiri, B. & Arson, C. 2008. -STOCK, a powerful
tool of thermohydromechanical behaviour and damage
modeling of unsaturated porous media. Computers and
Geotechnics, 35(6): 890915.
Halm, D. & Dragon, A. 1998. An anisotropic model of dam-
age and frictional sliding for brittle materials. Eur. J. Mech.
A/ Solids, 17(3): 439460.
Kachanov, M. 1992. Effective elastic properties of cracked
solids: critical review of some basic concepts. Appl.
Mech. Rev., 45(8): 304335.
Martin, F. & Satta, A. 2005. Mcanique des roches et
travaux souterrains Concepts de base, Technical book,
Centre dEtude des Tunnels.
Shao, J.F., Zhou, H. & Chau, K.T. 2005. Coupling between
anisotropic damage and permeability variation in brittle
rocks. International Journal for Numerical and Analyti-
cal Methods in Geomechanics, 29: 12311247.
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Time- and stress-compressibility of clays during primary consolidation

S.A. Degago
Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, Norway

H.P. Jostad
Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, Norway
Norwegian Geotechnical Institute (NGI), Oslo, Norway

M. Olsson
Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden

G. Grimstad
Norwegian Geotechnical Institute (NGI), Oslo, Norway

S. Nordal
Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, Norway

ABSTRACT: The existence of creep deformation during primary consolidation has been widely accepted;
however, there are still contradicting opinions on the mechanisms that govern creep during the primary consol-
idation phase. This study aims to assess creep effects during primary consolidation such that it is possible to
critically evaluate and challenge some of these opinions. A special type of interconnected oedometer tests were
designed and conducted. The tests were numerically studied using a soil model based on the isotache concept.
These analyses show that the isotache concept can capture the important features of the tests well and thereby
describe the time- and stress-compressibility of a soil during the entire soil compression phase.

1 INTRODUCTION extreme alternative answers and termed them hypoth-

Compression of a saturated soil layer is considered
to consist of two successive phases, namely primary
and secondary consolidation. During primary con-
solidation phase, soil compression is accompanied
by significant excess pore pressure and changes in
effective stresses. Whereas during secondary consoli-
dation, the soil continues to deform due to time effects
under approximately constant effective stresses. Time-
and stress-compressibility refer to the tendency of
a soil to undergo compression in response to the
action of change in time and effective stress, respec-
tively. Hence, primary consolidation involves time-
and stress-compressibility whereas secondary consol-
idation consists of only time-compressibility.
The time required to complete the primary consol-
idation is one of the significant differences between
the consolidation behaviour of thin laboratory spec-
imen and a soil element within a thick in-situ soil
layer. With this in mind, Ladd et al. (1977) raised
an important question whether or not creep acts as a
separate phenomenon, during primary consolidation,
while excess pore pressure dissipates. The answer to
such a question might be obtained by studying the
strain observed at the end-of-primary (EOP) consol-
idation. Ladd et al. (1977) considered two possible
esis A and B. Hypothesis A is a case where the EOP
strain is the same irrespective of the duration of the
consolidation period. Whereas, hypothesis B predicts
an increase in the EOP strain with increasing duration
of the consolidation period.
In response to Ladd et al. 1977, several researchers
have made important contribution to address the issue
raised regarding the creep hypotheses. An interesting
summary of most of these contributions can be found
in Mesri (2003) and Leroueil (2006). Advocates of the
two hypotheses present voluminous data to support
their opinion. There are little differences between the
two hypotheses in interpretation of standard laboratory
oedometer tests but they could give very significant
practical differences when predicting settlements of
in-situ soil layers (Ladd & DeGroot 2003). The dis-
cussions regarding the creep hypotheses still continues
and remains an issue that needs to be resolved.
2 CREEP DURING PRIMARY
CONSOLIDATION
The existence of creep during primary consolida-
tion was early recognized by several researchers (e.g.
uklje 1957, Bjerrum 1967, Janbu 1969, Mesri &

125
Rokhsar 1974, Mesri & Choi 1985, Leroueil et al.
1985 and many more). However, there are different
views on how creep deformations occur during pri-
mary consolidation. One approach is based on the early
works by e.g., uklje (1957), Bjerrum (1967), Janbu
(1969), where creep rate is given by the current effec-
tive stress and void ratio (or strain).These formulations
can be classified as isotache models and imply hypoth-
esis B. In isotache models, the longer the duration of
consolidation the larger the EOP strain.
Another approach is based on an empirical relation-
ship deduced from experimental observations where
the EOP strain seemed to be unique independent of the
consolidation period. This approach supports hypothe-
sisA (Mesri & Choi 1985b). The advocates of this view
argue that there exists an interrelationship between
time- and stress-compressibility, controlled by the total
strain rate, such that the EOP strain is unique inde-
pendent of consolidation duration (Mesri 1990, Mesri
et al. 1995).
In all the isotache models, if creep is disregarded
during consolidation, a single void ratio-effective
stress relation applies irrespective of consolidation
periods. Hence one may consider hypothesis A to be
a special case of hypothesis B when creep is disre-
garded during primary consolidation. Such arguments
have been used explicitly by some researchers to dis-
tinguish the two hypotheses (Leroueil et al. 1985,
Yin & Graham 1990, Hawlader et al. 2003, Ladd &
DeGroot 2003, Leroueil 2006 and others). However,
in this paper, hypothesis A is referred as a creep
hypothesis where creep during primary consolidation
is described based on the interrelationship of time-
and stress-compressibility, i.e. as stated in the previous
paragraph.
Figure 1. The interconnected tests.
Let us consider two identical soil elements close to
draining face of a soil layer. Assume that one soil ele-
ment is part of a homogeneous clay layer but the other
soil element rests on a clay layer of different soil prop-
erties. This idealization consists of some assumptions.
Two soil materials are considered, namely a natural
clay and a natural clay mixed with a bentonite. The
second material is referred as bentonite mix for short.
A thick soil layer can be emulated by a thin soil layer
but with an equivalent lower permeability. Hence, the
bentonite mix is assumed to have a lower permeability
as compared to the natural clay. Two experimental set
ups of soil layering are considered for this study and
each set up can be considered to constitute a system.
The two systems can be constructed in the laboratory
by interconnection of two oedometer cells, Figure 1.
In the first set up, a uniform layer of clay is consid-
ered. This combination is abbreviated as C-C. In the
second set up a clay layer on top of a bentonite mix is
considered. This combination is abbreviated as C-B.
Similar drainage condition is assumed in both set ups.

4 EXPECTED RESULTS
3 MOTIVATION OF THIS STUDY
This section aims to present basic features related to
the sketched experimental set ups and further dis-
For a draining homogeneous soil layer, soil elements
cuss results that one might expect in the test as a
close to the drainage boundary sustain a constant effec-
consequence of either hypothesis A or B.
tive stress for longer duration than soil elements far
Both set up, C-C and C-B, are subjected to an
from the drainage boundary. An implication of the
incremental stress, q, that exceeds the initial vertical
uniqueness concept (hypothesis A) is that the EOP
preconsolidation stress, pc , of the two soil materials.
strain is the same for all soil elements within a drain-
The two soil materials are assumed to be weightless.
ing soil layer. Thus the advocates of this concept
From the set ups and the description of the idealiza-
argues that in one-dimensional consolidation, no sub
tions, it is expected that the total consolidation phase
layer, including the drainage face, experiences any
takes longer time for C-B compared to C-C. How-
secondary compression until the simultaneous com-
ever, the top clay in the two systems is identical and
pletion of primary consolidation of all sub layers
its response with respect to system consolidation is
(Mesri & Vardhanabhuti 2006).
first to be studied based on expected results following
This paper aims to evaluate, experimentally and
hypothesis A and B.
numerically, the statements made by Mesri & Vardhan-
abhuti (2006) with respect to soil element compress-
ibility. The motivation of the work can be summarized
4.1 Excess pore pressure isochrone
in the following two key questions. Will a soil element
at the drainage face wait for the end of primary con- The expected excess pore pressure isochrone of
solidation of all the sub layers below in order to start the interconnected system are presented in 4.2. An
its secondary consolidation?, and/or how does a soil isochrone is a line connecting particular values of a
element know and adjust its EOP strain based on a soil quantity occurring at the same time. The time rep-
element at some arbitrary distance? resenting a specific isochrone is selected based on a

126
Figure 2. Excess pore pressure isochrones of the intercon-
nected system at system EOP.

system EOP state which is defined by 95 % dissipa- Figure 3. Estimated incremental nominal strain-time rela-
tion of the excess pore pressure at the bottom of the tionship of the top clay according to hypothesis A.
system.
The degree of excess pore pressure dissipation is
defined by normalizing the excess pore pressure at a
particular time and depth, u, by the applied load incre-
ment, q. The time for 95% dissipation is believed to
be considerably larger for C-B than for C-C. Further
C-C is expected to have a much smoother isochrone
as compared to the C-B combination where a higher
excess pore pressure gradient is visible at the boundary
of the two materials, Figure 2. This is just the conse-
quence of satisfying the fully coupled consolidation
equations.

4.2 Strain-time relationship of the top clay

In response to the resulting excess pore pressure distri-
bution, Figure 2, the nominal strain-time relationship
of the top clay is discussed in the following two sec-
tions. When an axial deformation at the top of a
specimen is normalized by the initial height of the Figure 4. Predicted incremental nominal strain-time rela-
specimen, it gives a strain measure referred in this tionship of the top clay according to hypothesis B.
paper as nominal strain.

4.2.1 Expected results following hypothesis A
Hypothesis A is based on unique EOP void ratio (e)-
effective stress (v ) relationship independent of the
duration of the primary consolidation. The unique-
ness concept uses the EOP e v relationship as a
unique parameter of a particular clay type and interac-
tively back-calculates the parameters for the time- and
stress-compressibility. This concept has been imple-
mented in a finite difference code ILLICON (Mesri &
Choi 1985a).Among other input soil parameters, ILLI-
CON requires the EOP e-v relationship as a key input.
Afterwards, ILLICON utilizes a special procedure
to iteratively find the so called time- and stress-
compressibility parameters and reach at the already
specified final EOP strain, , (void ratio) when the
system EOP state is reached. The expected nominal
strain-time relationship is shown in Figure 3.
Due to the high gradient of excess pore pressure at
the interface of the clay and the bentonite mix in C-B,
the top clay is expected to initially experience higher
strain rates. However, the system EOP consolidation
of the C-B takes much longer time compared to the
C-C and the top clay in C-B converges at a slower rate
to the same EOP as the top clay in C-C. Once the
EOP state is reached, both the top clays in C-C and C-B
have identical (unique) nominal strain and according to
hypothesis A the secondary consolidation phase starts
afterwards.
4.2.2 Expected results following hypothesis B
Hypothesis B is based on stress-strain-strain rate rela-
tionships and does not enforce a special requirement
on the strain at EOP state. The expected prediction of
hypothesis B is shown in Figure 4.

127
Figure 5. Predicted vertical strain isochrones of the top clay
according to hypothesis A.
Hypothesis B satisfies the consolidation conditions
shown in Figure 2 and predicts a higher EOP strain for
the clay in C-B compared to the top clay in C-C. This is
because the EOP state of the top clay, in C-C and C-B,
is defined by the consolidation period of the system.
According to an isotache concept, the compressibility
of the clay specimen at the top of the interconnection is
not directly controlled by what is happening at the bot-
tom specimen. In other words, the compressibility of
the top clay is governed by the prevailing conditions in
that particular clay element and not on what is happen-
ing elsewhere. Hence, the top clay reaches its primary
consolidation state and continues to its secondary con-
solidation phase without waiting for the system EOP
state. At EOP the nominal strain is different for the
two systems.
4.3 Vertical strain isochrone
The vertical strain isochrone at the system EOP
state are discussed. Emphasis is given to the vertical
isochrone of the top clay in C-C and C-B.
4.3.1 Expected results following hypothesis A
Hypothesis A implies that the strain of the top clay
layer is uniform at the system EOP state (Mesri &
Vardhanabhuti 2006). Hence, the strain isochrone will
be vertical at the system EOP state (Fig. 5).
4.3.2 Expected results following hypothesis B
The fact that hypothesis B deals independently with
time- and stress-compressibility, means that the result-
ing strain is a function of the duration of the sustained
effective stress. Soil elements close to the draining
layer sustain an effective stress for longer duration
than the soil elements located farther from the drainage
boundary. The consequence of this is that hypothesis B
yields a non-uniform strain isochrone with the maxi-
mum strain being close to the drainage face as shown in
Figure 6. Interconnected EOP experiments conducted
by Feng (1991), on high quality samples, also indicate
such trend.
In hypothesis B, the soil elements are assumed to
continue to respond under the action of stress and time
and while doing so EOP strain accumulates as shown
in Figure 4 and Figure 6. Hence, unlike hypothesis
A, the strain at the EOP states is just an output of the
128
Figure 6. Predicted vertical strain isochrones of the top
clay according to hypothesis B.
calculation and depends on the time of consolidation.
More time imply more strain at EOP.
5 EXPERIMENT CONDUCTED DURING
THIS STUDY
To study the discussed idealized cases in laboratory,
two sets of tests were constructed where two standard
oedometer cells were coupled in series, see Figure 1.
Each interconnection was made possible by a saturated
drainage tube in between the two oedometer cells. One
way drainage condition was allowed in both sets of
tests with the bottom of the interconnection being a
closed boundary.
Two types of material have been used for the test.
The first material used is natural clay from Ndinge,
western Sweden. The clay samples for the test were
extracted from a similar depth of about 5 m and had an
initial average water content of 97 %.The second mate-
rial used consisted of an 8% bentonite mixed with the
natural clay. The bentonite mix resulted in a material
that has 10 to 20 times lower permeability compared
to that of the natural clay. In addition the bentonite
mix was preloaded to ensure that its initial vertical
preconsolidation stress, pc , is close to that of the natu-
ral clay. Supplementary constant rate of strain (CRS)
tests were conducted to determine the initial precon-
solidation stress of the natural clay. The CRS tests
indicated a pc of around 50 kPa. The loading sequences
adopted for both test set ups are 10, 20, 30 and 80 kPa.
Secondary consolidation was not allowed in the first
three load increments and the loads were applied until
95% dissipation of excess pore pressure at the bottom
boundary of the interconnection. The last load incre-
ment was selected to ensure that the initial vertical
pc of the soil materials is exceeded. Test results are
shown in Figs 7 and 8 and compared to simulations
which are described in the next section. The results
will be discussed later by comparison to the numerical
simulations.
6 NUMERICAL ANALYSES
For the numerical study, the finite element code
PLAXIS was used with the Soft Soil Creep (SSC)
model (Vermeer & Neher 1999).The SSC model incor-
porates creep during primary consolidation based on
Table 1. SSC parameters adopted for the simulations.

Clay-Clay Clay-Bentonite mix

(C-C) (C-B)

Parameter Clay Clay Clay Bent. mix

[units] (top) (bottom) (top) (bottom)

kv [m/s] 7 1010 7 1010 7 1010 5 1011

Konc [] 0.55 0.55 0.55 0.55
[] 0.025 0.025 0.025 0.01
[] 0.25 0.25 0.25 0.1
[] 0.0075 0.0075 0.0075 0.003
pc [kPa] 53 53 49 47

the isotache concept (uklje 1957). An axisymmet-

ric model with 490 of 15-noded triangular elements is
used. The mesh is kept the same for C-C and C-B test
simulations.
The load increments and load durations were Figure 7. Incremental nominal strain of the top clay versus
decided from the test conditions. The soil parameters time and the corresponding EOP strains.
adopted for SSC model are based on the interconnected
tests along with supplementary CRS tests. The initial
vertical preconsolidation stress, pc , is as determined
from an incremental oedometer test with one day load
durations. The back-calculated pc used for the clay in
C-B test simulation is 4 kPa lower than the one used
for the clay samples in C-C test (which is 53 kPa). This
is however considered to be reasonable as the speci-
mens are taken from different locations within a single
borehole tube. Apart from pc , it can be seen in Table 1
that identical set of parameters are used to represent the
clay samples in C-C and C-B test simulation. The sym-
bols shown in Table 1 represent SSC parameters where
kv is permeability, Konc is coefficient of earth pressure
at rest, is modified swelling index, is modified
compression index, is modified creep index and pc
is the initial vertical preconsolidation stress.

7 EXPERIMENT AND ANALYSES RESULTS

Experimental results and numerical simulation of the
last load increment (3080 kPa) are presented. The
deformations for the first three load increments were
significantly lower than the last increment and essen-
tially the same for the top clay in C-C and C-B. The
nominal strain of the top clay (Fig. 7) and the excess
pore pressure at the closed boundary (Fig. 8) versus
time are presented. The EOP points (Fig. 7) correspond
to the 95% dissipation of excess pore pressure mea-
sured at the closed boundary. The system EOP state
for the C-C and C-B were reached after 28.4 hr and
87.5 hr, respectively.
It can be seen (Fig. 7) that the experiments indi-
cated a non-unique EOP nominal strain even though
two similar clay samples with the same thickness were
considered. This is simply because the EOP state was
determined based on the system EOP state which led
to different EOP nominal strains. In addition, it can be
seen (Fig. 7 & 8) that the SSC, hypothesis B model,
Figure 8. Excess pore pressure at the closed boundary (at
the bottom boundary) versus time.
yields reasonable predictions of the important features
of the test observations.
8 DISCUSSIONS
If the uniqueness concept for settlements at EOP holds
true, there are two implications. The first one is that
the soil element close to the drainage face waits for
system EOP state before starting secondary consoli-
dation phase and the second one implies that the EOP
strain is unique for a thin and thick specimen. In this
paper, interconnected tests have been conducted to
show that soil elements close to the draining face do
not wait for the system EOP to start secondary con-
solidation. These test results were back-calculated by

129
an isotache model that basically yields a non-uniform
strain profile over the height of a soil layer. In a related
work, Degago et al. (2009) have previously shown
that the EOP strain is also not unique for soil speci-
mens of different thickness. Degago et al. (2009) used
the interconnected tests conducted by the advocates
of hypothesis A (Feng 1991, Mesri et al. 1995) and
showed that re-interpretation of the tests, for consis-
tent EOP criteria, yield results that support hypothesis
B. In addition, these tests results were shown to be
numerically predicted by an isotache model that yields
a non-unique EOP strain for specimen of different
thickness (Degago et al. 2009).
Generally, the uniqueness concept, as used in ILLI-
CON, can not qualify as a constitutive equation in
continuum mechanics as it violates basic axioms such
as axiom of material invariance and axiom of objec-
tivity. Description of these axioms can be found in
e.g. Eringen (1967, 2002). In addition, the ILLI-
CON methodology is not suitable for implementation
in commercial finite element method packages. This
is because the material point under consideration
demands a global iteration to decide the onset of its
secondary consolidation phase.
9 CONCLUSION
Tests conducted during this study indicated that, if the
EOP state is determined by anything other than the soil
element under consideration, then the EOP strain (void
ratio) will not be unique. This is due to the fact that
the compressibility of a soil element is governed by the
prevailing conditions on that particular element rather
than what is happening elsewhere. This means that a
soil element also creeps during primary consolidation
and starts its secondary consolidation phase right after
its consolidation phase rather than wait until the com-
pletion of the primary consolidation of all the other
soil elements.
Simulation results using the SSC model showed that
the isotache concept, which yields a non unique EOP
strain and non uniform strain isochrone, can reason-
ably capture important feature of the tests conducted
during this study.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The work described in this paper is supported by
the Research Council of Norway through the Inter-
national Centre for Geohazards (ICG). Their support
is gratefully acknowledged. This is ICG contribution
No. 285.
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Mesri, G. & Choi, Y. K. 1985b. The uniqueness of the
end-of-primary (EOP) void ratio-effective stress relation-
ship. Proc. 11th Int. Conf. Soil Mech. Found. Engng, San
Francisco. 2:587590.
Mesri, G., Feng, T. W. & Shahien, M. 1995. Compress-
ibility Parameters During Primary Consolidation. Int.
Symp. Compression and Consolidation of Clayey Soils,
Hiroshima: 201217.
Mesri, G. & Rokhsar, A. 1974. Theory of consolidation
for clays. ASCE, Journal of the Soil Mechanics and
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uklje, L. 1957. The analysis of the consolidation process
by the isotaches method. Proc. 4th Int. Conf. Soil Mech.
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accounts for creep. In R.B.J. Brinkgreve (ed.), Proc. Int.
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 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Uncertainty and sensitivity analysis of laboratory test simulations

using an elastoplastic model

Fernando Lopez-Caballero & Arezou Modaressi-Farahmand-Razavi

Laboratoire MSS-Mat CNRS UMR 8579, Ecole Centrale Paris, France

ABSTRACT: The focus of the present paper is on Monte Carlo approaches to uncertainty and sensitivity
analysis of laboratory test simulations. The soil behaviour is simulated using an elastoplastic multi-mechanism
model. The Fourier Amplitude Sensitivity Test (FAST) method is performed in order to assess the influence
of input parameters on the response of the model following several loading paths. According to the sensitivity
indices derived by FAST method, each parameter has an important role following both the loading path and the
strain range.

1 INTRODUCTION The elastoplastic multi-mechanism model devel-

The role played by the soil behaviour is fundamental
in geotechnical analyses. The factors that constitute
the essential elements of a well modelling besides a
powerful method to solve the boundary value problem
are: necessary data, an appropriate constitutive model
and adequate model parameters. The necessary data
are obtained by laboratory tests or/and in-situ mea-
surements. In the case where they are not available,
correlations can be used.
In some geotechnical problems, the use of mod-
els based on the elastoplasticity theory to represent
the complex behaviour of soils is always suitable as
they represent a rational mechanical process (Pande &
Pietruszczak 1986). Unfortunately, one of the obsta-
cles in using such kind of models is the difficulty
in identifying their parameters added to the lack of
knowledge of soil properties. Thus, the uncertainty
associated with their parameter determination should
be considered simultaneously to the variability of
geotechnical data.
A good understanding of the simulation of soil
behaviour could be addressed through local or global
sensitivity analyses, that is, the assessment of the
impact of individual input parameters or sets of input
parameters on the response of the model.
In this paper, a probabilistic analysis is performed
in order to illustrate the effect of uncertainty in both
soil properties and model parameters on the responses
of simulated soil laboratory tests. These analyses are
performed for modelling both monotonic and cyclic
tests. A number of sensitivity indices based on Monte
Carlo simulation techniques (e.g. Fourier amplitude
sensitivity test, FAST) will be presented.
oped at cole Centrale Paris, know as ECP model,
(Aubry et al. 1982, Hujeux 1985) is used to represent
the soil behaviour. This model can take into account
the soil behaviour in a large range of deformations.
Thus, the impact of several parameters concerning
both the elastic and plastic behaviour of the soil will be
studied.
2 CONSTITUTIVE MODEL
The ECPs elastoplastic multi-mechanism model is
written in terms of effective stress. The representa-
tion of all irreversible phenomena is made by four
coupled elementary plastic mechanisms: three plane-
strain deviatoric plastic deformation mechanisms in
three orthogonal planes and an isotropic one.
The model uses a Coulomb type failure criterion
and the critical state concept. The evolution of hard-
ening is based on the plastic strain (deviatoric and
volumetric strain for the deviatoric mechanisms and
volumetric strain for the isotropic one). To take into
account the cyclic behaviour a kinematical hardening
based on the state variables at the last load reversal
is used.
The model is written in the framework of the incre-
mental plasticity, which assumes the decomposition
of the total strain increment in two, elastic and plastic,
parts. In what follows, a brief overview of the essential
aspects of the constitutive model for primary loading
paths is given.
The elastic part is supposed to obey a non-linear
elasticity behaviour, where the bulk (K) and the

131
shear (G) moduli are functions of the mean effective Table 1. Classification of the Elastoplastic model
stress (p ): parameters.

Directly Not-Directly
measured measured

Elastic Kref , Gref

ne , pref
where Kref and Gref are the bulk and shear moduli 
measured at the mean reference pressure (pref ) and ne Critical State pp , b
and Plasticity pco , d
is the degree of non-linearity.
Adopting the soil mechanics sign convention (com- Flow Rule and a1 , a2 , ,
pression positive), the deviatoric primary yield surface Isotropic hardening m, cmon
of the k plane is given by: Threshold r ela , r hys
ela
domains r mob , riso

with: with:

where d is a model parameter representing the distance


where, pp is the friction angle at the critical state. The
parameter b controls the form of the yield surface in the
(p , q) plane and varies from b = 0 to 1 passing from a
Coulomb type surface to a Cam-Clay type one. is the
plasticity compression modulus and pco represents the
critical state stress corresponding to the initial voids
ratio.
The internal variable rk , called degree of mobilized
friction, is associated with the plastic deviatoric strain.
This variable introduces the effect of shear harden-
ing of the soil and permits the decomposition of the
behaviour domain into pseudo-elastic, hysteretic and
mobilized domains, its evolution law is given by:
p
where k is the plastic multiplier of k mechanism.
between the isotropic consolidation line and the critical
state line in the (e ln p ) plane and cmon controls the
volumetric hardening.
In the model, an associated flow rule in the devia-
toric plane (k) is assumed, and the Roscoes dilatancy
rule (Roscoe et al. 1958) is used to obtain the incre-
ment of the volumetric plastic strain of each deviatoric
mechanism so that:
is the characteristic angle and a constant
parameter.
The parameters of the model concern both the elas-
tic and plastic behaviour of the soil. We propose to
classify the model parameters with respect to their esti-
mation method. In this scope, the parameters used in
the elastoplastic model are separated in two categories:
those that can be directly measured from either in-situ
or laboratory test results and those which, cannot be
directly measured (Table 1).

where:
3 FAST METHOD

The global sensitivity analysis is a method used in

where a1 , a2 and m are model parameters and r hys and
r mob designate the extend of the domain where hys-
teresis degradation occurs. The isotropic yield surface
is assumed to be:
order to decompose the uncertainty in the output of a
computational model according to the input sources of
uncertainty (Gatelli et al. 2009). In this kind of sensi-
tivity analysis, the space of the input factors is explored
within an infinite region (Saltelli et al. 1999).
Fourier amplitude sensitivity test (FAST), (Cukier
et al. 1973, Saltelli et al. 1999) is one the most robust
global sensitivity analysis techniques (Jacques 2005,
Helton et al. 2006, Xu & Gertner 2008, Mara 2009).
In this technique, all input parameters are sampled

132
from a periodic function with a different characteristic Table 2. ECP models parameters for simulated sand.
frequency. Thus, the output model becomes a peri-
odic function. The Fourier spectrum is then calculated Elasticity
on the model output at specific frequencies so as to Kref [MPa] 628 ne 0.5
obtain the first-order sensitivity index (Si ) of each xi Gref [MPa] 290 pref [MPa] 1.0
parameter. Critical State and Plasticity
Let us consider a computer model Y = f (x1 , . . . , xp ), 
pp [ ] 30 d 2.0
where p is the number of independent input param-
33 b 0.2
eters. The parametric curve assigned to each input pco [kPa] 40
parameter is defined as:
Flow Rule and Isotropic Hardening
[ ] 30 1.0
a1 0.0001 a2 0.005
cmon 0.004 m 1.5
with xi (s) [0, 1]p and s = 2 j1
N
; j = 1, . . . , N . The Threshold Domains
Y model is then evaluated N times over the sample
of size N . If the model output Y is expanded with r ela 0.03 r hys 0.04
ela
r mob 0.8 riso 0.02
a Fourier series, the marginal variance (V ) can be
obtained as:

The behaviour of the sand is studied by simulating

where Aj and Bj are the Fourier coefficients
defined as:
The marginal partial variance of an individual input
parameter (Vi ) is obtained from the Fourier coef-
ficients Apwi and Bpwi at the harmonics of wi as
follows:
combining equations 12 and 15, the first-order
sensitivity index (Si ) of each xi parameter is
defined as:
Refer to (Saltelli et al 1999) and Xu & Gertner
(2008) among others for further details about the FAST
method.
4 PROBABILISTIC MODELLING OF
MATERIAL PROPERTIES
The sensitivity analysis method is illustrated through
its application to a loose sand (i.e. a relative density
Dr < 50%) model parameters. The parameters of the
model concern both the elastic and plastic behaviour of
the soil and they were determined with the methodol-
ogy explained in Lopez-Caballero et al (2003, 2007).
drained triaxial tests, drained cyclic shear tests and
undrained stress controlled cyclic shear tests. All tests
are simulated with the same set of parameters. They
are summarized in Table 2.
In our elastoplastic model, the variability on these
laboratory test results is obtained assuming that the fol-

lowing parameters: Kref , Gref , pco , , pp , , r hys , cmon
and a2 have a random character, while the other model
parameters are held constant. This set of parameters
has been chosen because, as recalled before (Section
2), they concern both physical and numerical param-
eters and both the elastic and plastic behaviour of the
soil (Table 1).
It is necessary to remark that in order to keep a
Poissons ratio () value constant, the model param-
eter Kref is assumed perfectly correlated with Gref
and computed using the following relation from the
elasticity: Kref = (2 Gref (1 + ))/(3 (1 2 )).
Regarding parameter, it represents the limit between
contracting and dilating behaviours in sands, which
is known as the phase transformation state (Ishi-
hara 1993). The value of this parameter may be equal

or less than pp . In this work, it is assumed that

= pp .
The mean values of random parameters used in the
computations are given in Table 2. For the sake of
brevity, all random parameters have a coefficient of
variation (VC ) equal to 20% and it is assumed that
all of them are characterized statistically by an uni-
form distribution. Other studies such as the effects of
probability distribution type and other variation coef-
ficient values on the model response are not deemed
in this paper. They will be considered in further
works.
Using the Monte Carlo approach (MCS) and the
FAST method described before, it is possible to take
into account the variability of random model param-
eters and thus to generate the uncertainty laboratory
test curves.

133

Figure 1. Simulated probabilistic drained triaxial tests
a) q 1 , b) v 1 .
In the following figures, the mean, the one stan-
dard deviation and the range of several test curves
determined by MCS are showed. These summarized
curves involve 1000 sample computations. An initial
confinement pressure po = 50 kPa is used in all simu-
lated tests. Figure 1 shows the response obtained by the
model in simulated drained triaxial tests. The response
is showed in the q 1 and v 1 planes. a peak for
The uncertainty G/Gmax curves generated by
the simulations are shown in Figure 2a. Finally, for the
purpose of assessing the influence of random model
parameters on the pore water pressure buildup, a strain
controlled cyclic triaxial test has been simulated. Fig-
ure 2b presents the results for the excess pore water
pressure ratio (U = pw /p0 ) as a function of after
ten loading cycles during the strain-controlled cyclic
triaxial test.
Figure 3 illustrates the evolution of coefficient of
variation (VC ) as a function of deformation for each
simulated test. It is interesting to note that in the case
of triaxial test (Fig. 3a), even if all random input
parameters have the same VC value, the variation
coefficient obtained for v varies from 35% to 20%
Figure 2. Simulated probabilistic a) G/Gmax and
b) pw /po curves.
when 1 increases. This is in contrast with the VC
value for q, which remains approximatively constant
(i.e. 20%).
A similar response is obtained in the case of cyclic
tests (Fig. 3). The VC value for Gmax increases (from
12% to 18%) when increases (Fig. 3b). On the other
hand, concerning the VC value for pw , it presents
1 104 . According to Figure 2b, this
deformation corresponds to the beginning of pore
pressure build-up in the test.
5 GLOBAL SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS
In this section, so as to assess the influence of the indi-
vidual input parameters on the output, the first-order
indices (Si ) obtained for all simulated laboratory tests
are plotted in Figures 4 and 5. Figure 4a provides the 1
dependent sensitivity analysis results for uncertain q
curves. Accordingly, only the Si of the parameters pco ,

pp and a2 seem to be nonzero. The outcome shows
that among those parameters, for small strains (i.e.
1 102 % < 1 < 1 101 %) the one with the biggest
134
Figure 3. Variation coefficient VC versus deformation
(1 or ) for a) q and v , b) Gmax and pw .

influence is a2 , followed by pp and pco . However, as
expected, for large strains (i.e. 1 > 1 100 %) the most

influential parameter is pp .
Concerning the volumetric strain (v ), it is noted
that there is a strong relationship between v and pco
parameter (Fig. 4b) for 1 < 5 101 %. This is to be
expected, because the parameter pco represents the ini-
tial state of the soil. From the same figure, it can be
also seen, that for large strains the most influential

parameters are pp and a2 .
Regarding the effect on the shear modulus reduction
G/Gmax values, Figure 5a illustrates the evolution of
Si index as a function of shear strain (). This shows
that pco parameter has a far smaller role in the G/Gmax
values. In fact, the model response is controlled by Gref

at small shear strains and both a2 and pp for largest
values.
Finally, the resulting Si index values between model
parameters and the pore water pressure buildup (pw )
variable can be seen in Figure 5b. It is interesting to
note that for values between 1 105 and 1 104 the
most influential parameters are Gref and r hys . Beyond
135
Figure 4. First-order indices (Si ) as a function of 1 for
uncertain: a) q and b) v values. Drained triaxial test.
this deformation value, parameters Gref and a2 have
the biggest influence.
6 CONCLUSIONS
A series of soil mechanics laboratory tests were sim-
ulated with the ECPs elastoplastic multi-mechanism
model in order to understand the behaviour of
the model and to assess how different parameters of
the model interplay. In this work a technique for global
sensitivity analysis is used to illustrate the effect of
each parameter following a particular loading path.
The main conclusions drawn from this study are as
follows:
1. According to the responses obtained with the model
and for the particular case considered in this work
(i.e. model parameters and initial state), it can be
concluded that the parameters with the biggest
influence on the model response are Gref , pp 
and a2 .

Figure 5. First-order indices (Si ) as a function of for
uncertain: a) G/Gmax and b) pw values. Cyclic shear tests.
2. As expected, the analyses showed that each parame-
ter has an important role following both the loading
path and the strain range. However, it is necessary to
simulate other loading paths such as consolidation
test, so as to show the role played by the parameters
and cmon among others.
3. Further works are needed in order to assess the
influence of several probability distribution types
for each input parameter on the model response.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This study has been done in the framework of
the French project ANR-06-CATT-003-01, Belle-
Plaine.
136
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Aubry, D., J.-C. Hujeux, F. Lassoudire, & Y. Meimon 1982.
A double memory model with multiple mechanisms for
cyclic soil behaviour. In Int. Symp. Num. Mod. Geomech,
pp. 313. Balkema.
Cukier, R., C. Fortuin, K. Shuler, A. Petschek, & J. Schaibly
1973. Study of the sensitivity of coupled reaction systems
to uncertainties in rate coefficients, I. Theory. Journal
Chemical Physics 59: 38733878.
Gatelli, D., S. Kucherenko, M. Ratto, & S. Tarantola 2009.
Calculating first-order sensitivity measures: A benchmark
of some recent methodologies. Reliability Engineering
and System Safety 94(7): 12121219.
Helton, J. C., J. D. Johnson, C. J. Sallaberry, & C. B. Stor-
lie 2006. Survey of sampling-based methods for uncer-
tainty and sensitivity analysis. Reliability Engineering and
System Safety 91(910): 11751209.
Hujeux, J.-C. 1985. Une loi de comportement pour le
chargement cyclique des sols. In Gnie Parasismique, pp.
278302. V. Davidovici, Presses ENPC, France.
Ishihara, K. 1993. Liquefaction and flow failure during
earthquakes. 33rd Rankine lecture. Gotechnique 43(3):
351415.
Jacques, J. 2005. Contributions lanalyse de sensibilit et
lanalyse discriminante gnralise. Thse de doctorat,
Universit Joseph Fourier, France.
Lopez-Caballero, F., A. Modaressi, & F. Elmi 2003. Iden-
tification of an elastoplastic model parameters using
laboratory and in-situ tests. In Deformation Character-
istics of Geomaterials, pp. 11831190. Eds. Di Benedetto
et al., A.A. Balkema, ISBN 9058096041.
Lopez-Caballero, F., A. Modaressi-Farahmand-Razavi, &
H. Modaressi 2007. Nonlinear numerical method for
earthquake site response analysis I- elastoplastic cyclic
model & parameter identification strategy. Bulletin of
Earthquake Engineering 5(3): 303323.
Mara, T. 2009. Extension of the RBD-FAST method to
the computation of global sensitivity indices. Reliability
Engineering and System Safety 94(8): 12741281.
Pande, G. N. & S. Pietruszczak 1986. A critical look at con-
stitutive models for soils. In Geomechanical modelling in
engineering practice, pp. 369395. Eds. R. Dungar and
J.A. Studer, A.A. Balkema, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Roscoe, K. H., A. N. Schofield, & C. P. Wroth 1958. On the
yielding of soils. Gotechnique 8(1): 2252.
Saltelli, A., S. Tarantola, & K.-S. Chan 1999. A quantitative
model-independent method for global sensitivity analysis
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 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Validation of empirical formulas to derive model parameters for sands

R.B.J. Brinkgreve
Geo-Engineering Section, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands
Plaxis B.V., Delft, The Netherlands

E. Engin
Plaxis B.V., Delft, The Netherlands

H.K. Engin
Geo-Engineering Section, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands

ABSTRACT: The right selection of soil model parameters is essential to make good predictions in geo-
engineering projects where the Finite Element Method (FEM) is used. In order to support geotechnical engineers
with soil model parameter selection, empirical formulas have been developed to derive the model parameters of
the Plaxis Hardening Soil model with small-strain stiffness (HSsmall), on the basis of a characteristic property
(relative density for sands and plasticity index for clays). This paper shows a validation of formulas for sands
which have been derived from published soil testing data. The main goal of the empirical formulas is to give
a reasonable first order approximation of soil behaviour in FEM calculations, covering a wide range of sands.
In a case study it is demonstrated that the empirical formulas work reasonably well to get a first estimate of
deformations and stress developments for a real project.

1 INTRODUCTION selected on the basis of soil investigation data. The

In the last decades, many researchers have investi-
gated the properties of sands and clays, and they have
published formulas, charts and tables as a general
reference to support the design of geotechnical struc-
tures (e.g. Kulhawy & Mayne (1990)). Most general
data refers to soil strength properties, such as a fric-
tion angle for sand or undrained shear strength for
clay, which can be primarily used for stability anal-
ysis and ultimate limit state design (ULS). In contrast
to ULS, serviceability state design (SLS) requires
stiffness properties to be known. Several researchers
have published correlations between stiffness and
strength, index properties and/or state parameters. For
sands, many correlations exist with the relative den-
sity, whereas for clay many correlations exist with the
plasticity index.
Over the last twenty years, the Finite Element
Method (FEM) has gained much popularity for geo-
engineering and design. In FEM, the mechanical
behaviour of soils is simulated by means of consti-
tutive models, in which model parameters are used to
quantify particular features of soil behaviour. Consti-
tutive models may range from simple to very advanced
models. In general, simple models require only a lim-
ited number of parameters to be selected, but they may
also lack some essential features of soil behaviour.
More advanced models may include more features of
soil behaviour, but also require more parameters to be
latter often discourages FEM users to use advanced
models for daily geo-engineering projects.
Some authors have published data sets with pre-
defined model parameters for particular types of soils
(e.g. Duncan et al. (1980) containing data sets for the
Duncan-Chang model). It is challenging but probably
unrealistic to extend this idea and cover all existing
soil types on a world-wide scale. As an alternative,
the authors of this paper are developing empirical for-
mulas to derive all parameters of the Plaxis HSsmall
model on the basis of very limited geotechnical data
in an attempt to stimulate the use of advanced models
for soil in general. This seems contradictive, but since
most soil properties are sort of correlated, it is believed
that a first approximation could be obtained with rea-
sonable accuracy. The authors are convinced that such
a first approximation using an advanced model gives
better results than a first approximation with a sim-
ple model. It is definitely not the idea to abandon
detailed site-specific soil investigation, but the use of
the formulas can be very helpful, especially in the early
design stage of a project when very limited soil data
from the site are available.
In the next chapter formulas are presented for sand
to derive the model parameters of the HSsmall model
on the basis of the relative density. Even if the relative
density is not precisely known, it could be estimated
on the basis of very preliminary soil data. The for-
mulas have been derived by regression analysis on a

137
collection of soil data (general soil data, triaxial test for the reference stiffness parameters, considering
data, oedometer test data, etc.) from Jeffries & Been pref = 100 kN/m2 :
(2006) and others. The third chapter describes a valida-
tion of the formulas by comparing the results of model
simulations with real lab test data for different types of
sands. Chapter four describes a benchmark example
(Schweiger, 2000 and 2002), in which the formulas
have been applied to Berlin sand to predict defor-
mations and structural forces due to the excavation.
Finally, some conclusions are drawn.

2 FORMULAS FOR SAND ref

Figure 1 shows the variation of G0 with RD for
different sands, in comparison with Equation 6.
The relative density (RD) is defined as (emax e)/(emax
The actual stiffness is stress-dependent. The rate
emin ), where e is the current void ratio, emax is the
of stress dependency, m, is observed to be negatively
maximum void ratio (loosest packing) and emin is the
correlated with the density. The following formula is
minimum void ratio (densest packing). The relative
proposed for m:
density is usually presented as a percentage, as also
used in this paper.
Before considering the parameters of the HSsmall
model, the relative density can already be used to esti-
mate the unit weights of sand for practical applications Poissons ratio for unloading and reloading, ur , is
by means of the following formulas: taken 0.2. The parameter relating the modulus reduc-
tion curve to the cyclic shear strain level is 0.7 , for
which the following formula is proposed:

The HSsmall model contains four different stiffness The following formulas are proposed for the
parameters, each of them quantifying the reference strength-related properties:
stiffness in a particular stress path for a given refer-
ence stress level, pref . For a detailed description of the
HSsmall model and the meaning of its parameters, ref-
erence is made to Benz (2007) and Brinkgreve et al.
(2008).
For (quartz) sand, stiffness is supposed to vary lin-
early with RD. The following formulas are proposed

Figure 1. Comparison of formula for small-strain stiffness for different sands at different densities.

138
 These values should be used for drained conditions.
Table 1 gives an example of parameter values for
loose, medium, dense and very dense sand using the
above formulas.
from real drained triaxial tests on different types of
sand with the results from numerical simulations with
the HSsmall model. Figure 3 shows the results for tri-
axial tests on Karlsruhe sand of different densities at
100 kN/m2 cell pressure, based on data by Wu (1990).

3 VALIDATION OF FORMULAS

The formulas for unit weight have been validated for

different sands at different densities with data from
Jeffries & Been (2006). Both the saturated unit weight
sat and the dry unit weight dry were reported. Figure 2
shows the variation of sat with RD for different sands,
in comparison with Equation 2. The unsaturated unit
weight unsat , as proposed in formula 1, is a realistic
practical value in between dry and sat .
To validate the formulas for the HSsmall stiffness
parameters, a comparison has been made between data

Table 1. Examples of model parameters for sands with

different relative densities.
ref ref ref ref
RD unsat sat E50 Eoed Eur G0 m
kN/m3 kN/m2 kN/m2 kN/m2 kN/m2

25 16.0 19.4 15000 15000 45000 77000 0.622

50 17.0 19.8 30000 30000 90000 94000 0.544
80 18.2 20.3 48000 48000 144000 114000 0.450
100 19.0 20.6 60000 60000 180000 128000 0.388

RD 0.7  Rf

25 1.8104 31.1 1.1 0.969

50 1.5104 34.3 4.3 0.938
80 1.2104 38.0 8.0 0.900 Figure 3. Comparison of drained triaxial tests on Karl-
100 1.0104 40.5 10.5 0.875 sruhe sand with HSsmall model for different relative densities
(* indicates experimental data, after Wu, 1990).

Figure 2. Comparison of formula for saturated unit weight for different sands at different densities.

139
 Figure 5. Comparison of drained triaxial test on dense
Hokksund sand with HSsmall model.

Figure 4. Comparison of drained triaxial tests on loose

Sacramento river sand (RD = 38%) with HSsmall model for
different cell pressures (* indicates experimental data, after
Lee, 1965).

Another series of drained triaxial tests have been

analysed for loose and very dense Sacramento River
sand at different cell pressures, based on data by Lee
(1965). Some of these results are shown in Figure 4.
Another comparison has been made for dense
Hokksund sand, based on a drained triaxial test and an
oedometer test as reported by Yang (2004). The results
are shown in Figures 5 and 6.
From the different test results the following can be
concluded:
In most cases, the formulas show a (small) over-
estimation of the stiffness in triaxial loading.
Strength and dilatancy are generally under-
estimated. High friction and dilatancy may reduce in
reality as a result of shearing and softening, which is
not included in the HSsmall model. Hence, a small
under-estimation of the peak strength might even be
desirable.
The stiffness in oedometer loading is difficult to
match with soil testing data. The data presented in
Figure 6 seems reasonable, but other tests were less
successful. Reason for this is that in oedometer tests
the stress range is usually quite large and the density
changes significantly, so one RD-value cannot cover
the full test.
Hostun sand seems to be rather soft. The formulas
tend to significantly over-estimate the stiffness of
Hostun sand (not presented herein).
Figure 6. Comparison of oedometer loading and unloading
test on dense Hokksund sand with HSsmall model.
It should be noted that these tests primarily validate
the formulas for loading stiffnesses, friction and dila-
tancy (Equations 3, 4, 9 and 10) and to a lesser extend
the formulas for the other model parameters, but some
of these will be considered in the next chapter.
4 CASE STUDY
In this chapter a case study is presented, based on
the benchmark example as described by Schweiger
(2002). It concerns an excavation in Berlin sand,
supported by a triple anchored retaining wall. The
excavation is 16.8 m deep and the wall is 32 m long.
Three rows of anchors are used, starting just above
the intermediate excavation levels of 4.8 m, 9.3 m and
14.4 m depth. The wall has been modelled by Mindlin
beam elements; the wall-soil interaction by interface
elements; the anchors by a combination of membrane
elements (grouted body) and two-node spring ele-
ments (anchor rod). Figure 7 shows the used 2D finite

140
Figure 7. Geometry and mesh of triple anchored excavation in Berlin sand (with details from Schweiger, 2002).

element mesh composed of 15-node (cubic strain)

elements, and some model details.
The soil was reported to be medium dense Berlin
sand (from an undisturbed sample at 8 m depth).
Although more soil data was provided, only the infor-
mation medium dense was used here and interpreted
as RD = 50%, at least for the upper 20 m of sand.
The next 20 m was considered to be denser, with an
assumed RD of 80%, whereas the lower 60 m was
assumed to be very dense with an assumed RD of
100%. The formulas presented in Chapter 2 were used
to estimate the model parameters (see Table 1 for
RD = 50%, 80% and 100% respectively). In this case
study the unloading stiffness and small-strain stiff-
ness parameters are more relevant than the loading
stiffnesses.
The interface strength was related to the strength
in the surrounding soil, and reduced by a factor
0.8, as in the original benchmark. The structural
properties were taken from Schweiger (2002), i.e. Figure 8. Comparison of horizontal displacement profile of
Esteel = 2.1108 kN/m2 and Econcrete = 3.0107 kN/m2 . the wall (after Schweiger, 2000).
The excavation process was simulated in 8 differ-
ent stages, starting with the installation of the wall,
followed by the four excavation stages (including low- Considering that the reference solution is based on
ering of the water table), and in between separate stages more detailed soil data, the results presented herein are
to install and pre-stress the next anchor row. quite reasonable for a first approximation.
Figure 7 shows the horizontal displacements of the
wall after full excavation, and a comparison with the
reference solution by Schweiger (2000). The calcu- 5 CONCLUSIONS
lated maximum displacement of the wall is 51 mm.
This is about 1.5 times higher than the (corrected) Empirical formulas have been presented for sands to
measurements. The overall deformation shape is quite select all model parameters of the Plaxis Hardening
similar, but shows a 15 mm shift compared to the Soil model with small-strain stiffness, on the basis of
reference solution. This indicates that the soil is not the relative density. The formulas have been validated
stiff enough, which could indicate that the small-strain against lab test data for different sands at different den-
stiffness is too low. sities and different pressures. Moreover, the formulas
The distribution of bending moments is quite sim- have been used in a benchmark example involving a
ilar to the reference solution; the maximum value triple anchored excavation in Berlin sand.
(735 kNm/m) is almost equal. Anchor forces are in Although not all formulas or model parameters
the right order, but show more variations in the phases have been validated in sufficient detail, it can be
after installation than in the reference solution, due to concluded from the current results that the formu-
the lower soil stiffness. las may give a reasonable first approximation of the

141

Figure 9. Comparison of bending moment diagrams of the
wall with triple anchors (after Schweiger, 2000).
drained behaviour of (quartz) sands in geo-engineering
applications. Some formulas may be reconsidered or
improved, but it should be realized that a high accuracy
can never be achieved unless additional information
(such as grain size distribution, grain shape, etc.) is
taken into account. Nevertheless, the formulas can be
quite useful in the beginning of a project when only
limited soil data is available.
By using general formulas for model parameter
selection it is not the idea to abandon detailed soil
investigation. Since the formulas cannot provide suf-
ficient accuracy for a final design, more detailed soil
investigation remains definitely required. A first anal-
ysis based on these formulas may actually help to
define a detailed soil investigation plan, because it
can give insight in dominant stress paths and critical
locations in the project.
142
REFERENCES
Benz, T. (2007), Small strain stiffness of soils and its numer-
ical consequences, PhD thesis, University of Stuttgart,
Germany.
Brinkgreve, R.B.J., Broere, W., Waterman, D. (2008), Plaxis
2D version 9.0, Material Models Manual. Plaxis BV,
Delft.
Duncan, J.M., Byrne, P., Wong, K.S. Mabry, P. (1980),
Geotechnical Engineering Strength, stress-strain and
bulk modulus parameters for finite element analyses of
stresses and movements in soil masses. Virginia Tech,
Dept. of Civil Engineering, Blacksburg.
Jefferies, M., Been, K. (2006). Soil Liquefaction: A Critical
State Approach. Taylor & Francis, Abingdon, UK.
Kulhawy, F.H., Mayne, P.W. (1990), Manual on estimat-
ing soil properties for foundation design, Electric Power
Research Institute, California.
Lee, K.L. (1965), Triaxial compressive strength on satu-
rated sands under cyclic loading conditions, PhD thesis,
University of California at Berkeley.
Schweiger, H.F. (2000), Ergebnisse des Berechnungs-
beispieles Nr. 3 3-fach verankerte Baugrube. Tagungs-
band Workshop Verfor-mungsprognose fr tiefe
Baugruben, Stuttgart, 767 (in German).
Schweiger, H.F. (2002), Results from numerical bench-
mark exercises in geotechnics, Proceedings of 5th Euro-
pean Conference on Numerical Methods in Geotechnical
Engineering, Paris.
Wu, W. (1990), The behaviour of very loose sand in
the triaxial compression test: Discussion. Canadian
Geotechnical Journal, Vol. 27, 159162.
Yang, S.L. (2004) Characterization of the properties of sand-
silt mixtures, PhD thesis, Norwegian University of Science
and Technology, Norway.
Computer codes and algorithms
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

3D parallel computing FEA in offshore foundation design

Lars Andresen, Hendrik Sturm, Malte Vge & Kristoffer Skau

Norwegian Geotechnical Institute, NGI

ABSTRACT: Several large scale 3d finite element analyses for the design of offshore foundations have recently
been carried out at NGI. The commercial software code Abaqus was used for parallel computation on an in-house
computer cluster in order to obtain a reduction of required calculation time (speedup). This paper describes the
computer environment, key data of the finite element models and obtained speedup for two design problems.
In addition results from a systematic benchmark study on two typical use cases of geotechnical engineering are
presented.

1 INTRODUCTION

Parallel computing is a technique that allows for the

computation of complex boundary value problems
with large numbers of degree of freedoms (DOF).
Recently, several 3d finite element analyses have been
performed at NGI mainly for the design of founda-
tions for offshore structures. Thereto the commercial
FE-program Abaqus/Standard Version 6.9 has been
employed. It incorporates message passing interface
(MPI) and thread based parallelisation techniques.
The boundary value problems presented are char-
acterised by having complex 3d geometries which
require detailed meshes to minimise discretization
(mesh) errors. Accounting also for soil-structure-
interaction (SSI) and highly non-linear soil response
we have to deal with large scale problems with up to
2.5 million DOFs, computer memory requirements up Figure 1. Schematic hardware system overview. The cluster
to 40 GB and computer run times of several days. The master provides all necessary services to the diskless nodes,
i.e., system image, user disk area and job queue.
calculations are run on an in-house computer cluster
consisting of several multi-core computers run with a
Linux operating system.
The objective of this paper is to present experiences compute nodes. Each of these nodes contains 2 Intel
gained on parallel computation of typical geotechnical Xeon QuadCore 3 GHz processors (CPU) with 4 cores
problems. The results are supplemented by a system- each. Thus, the cluster provides a total of 32 (proces-
atic benchmark test based on two representative use sor) cores for parallel computations. Three of the nodes
cases. Aim of this study is to proof feasibility and provide 16 GB memory, shared by the respective cores.
usability of present available software tools for paral- One node provides 40 GB memory for exceptionally
lel computation of geotechnical problems. Theoretical large models. An additional HP-ProLiant DL360 G5
and mathematical background of parallel computa- Base server with an Intel Xeon DualCore 2.3 GHz pro-
tion are not presented. For details on programming cessor serves as master to the cluster nodes. The master
aspects, we refer to the relevant literature (e.g. Smith is not involved in any computation, but merely pro-
and Griffiths 2004). vides the cluster nodes with essential services, e.g.
system image provisioning, user disk space and the
cluster job queue. Master and nodes are connected
via 1 GBit Ethernet and form a local cluster network.
2 COMPUTATIONAL ENVIRONMENT Only the master server is connected to NGIs internal
network, see Figure 1.
The hardware setup that is used for parallel com- The cluster is operated by the Linux operating sys-
putations is a cluster of 4 HP ProLiant BL460c G1 tem (Fedora Core 10). The master server provides a

145
graphical user interface for remote login, so every
user of the cluster can submit and monitor jobs from
their desktop computer. The cluster nodes boot via
the network and load a slim Linux system from the
master onto a RAM disk. This task is performed
by the provisioning system Perceus (The official
Perceus/warewulf cluster portal 2009). Abaqus and the
user directories on the master node are mounted onto
the compute nodes via the network. In addition, each
node contains a 250 GB hard drive for local storage,
e.g. for out of core computations.
The job queue on the master is a Torque/PBS sys-
tem (Cluster Resources, Inc. 2009). When a modelling
job is performed on multiple cores of a single com-
pute node, Abaqus accomplishes the parallelisation
of the calculation by shared memory communica-
tion, so-called thread based parallelisation. When a
job is submitted to multiple nodes, the parallelisation
is accomplished by the MPI communication. The par-
ticular implementation that Abaqus uses is HP-MPI,
which ships with ABAQUS. In case a cluster system
makes use of special network communication hard-
ware, Abaqus can be configured to use a different MPI
implementation. However, since the present cluster
system uses standard 1 GBit Ethernet network commu- Figure 2. Abaqus FE-model in deformed shape and con-
nication, we have used the HP-MPI for the calculations tours of deformation during maximum wave loading.
presented in this article.

3 FINITE ELEMENT MODELS

Recently several large scale 3d finite element analyses

for the design work of offshore foundations have been
carried out at NGI. The problems have been solved on
the computational environment described in Section 2
by utilising parallel computation. Two such analyses
are briefly presented.

3.1 Rotational stiffness of Troll A

Troll A is a concrete gravity base platform installed
in 1995 in the Norwegian trench at a water depth of
305 m. The foundation design is described in Hansen
et al. (1992).
Recently, NGI has performed re-calculations of the
platform in order predict the serviceability, i.e. the
updated rotational stiffness and the cyclic displace-
ment during a design storm. The FE-model of the
foundation subjected to the design load is shown in
Figure 2. It was discretisized with 266576 C3D10H1
elements which resulted in 1.33 million DOFs. The
soil was described with an in-house non-linear elastic
user material while the structure was modelled linear
elastic.
The non-linear curve for the rotation versus the
applied overturning moment was established by the
incremental, iterative automatic step size procedure
1
10-noded quadratic tetrahedron element with hybrid
formulation.
Figure 3. Achieved speedup for running the Troll FE-model
on 1, 4, 6 and 8 cores.
of Abaqus using a direct sparse solver and linear
extrapolation.
The achieved normalised speedup Sp for differ-
ent number of employed cores is shown in Figure 3.
Although Sp is smaller than the theoretical possible lin-
ear speedup, the computation time of one simulations
could be reduced to one fifth when employing 8 cores.
3.2 Capacity of shallow skirted foundations
NGI has been responsible for the foundation design
of the Adriatic Sea LNG terminal and the Sakhalin 1
Arkutun-Dagi platform. Both are founded on flat
grouted concrete bases of 100 m width and 100
200 m length equipped with a system of short (1 m)

146
Figure 4. Different mesh refinements around the skirts.

Figure 5. Normalised capacity versus no. of elements for

different mesh refinements for the models shown in Figure 4.
Table 1. Normalised computation time t for one iteration
for the different meshes shown in Figure 4.

No. of No. of No. of Normalised

Mesh elements DOFs cores/nodes time t

A 34 818 187 021 16/2 1.19

B 75 982 400 153 16/2 4.03
C 190 906 999 521 16/2 7.85
D 368 914 1 907 922 16/2 17.63
E 506 566 2 619 917 14/4 21.77

corrugated steel skirts that penetrate into the seabed

to provide additional horizontal capacity. Large defor-
mation FEA has been used to calculate the ultimate
bearing capacity under combined vertical, horizontal
and overturning moment loading. The term ultimate
capacity, respectively failure, is understood as a zero
stiffness full plastic failure mode. The soil behaviour
has been described by a linear-elastic, perfectly plastic
material incorporating a Tresca failure criterion.
Since the capacity Fult predicted with the finite
element method is generally mesh depend, a mesh
refinement study has been carried out. The refinement
increases from Mesh A to Mesh E and was concen-
trated around the skirts, since the developed failure
mechanism was close to the base of the foundation.
The element type used for the discretisation was again
the C3D10H element. Detailed views of the corre-
sponding meshes are shown in Figure 4(a) to 4(e);
corresponding key data are listed in Table 1.
The asymptotic convergence of Fult towards a con-
stant value with increasing refinement, i.e. number of
elements, is shown in Figure 5. The computed capac-
ity has been normalized with the design wave load Fd .
The predicted capacity of Mesh E seems to repre-
sent the converged value, hence one can conclude
that e.g. the coarsest Mesh A predicts an overshoot of
almost 4% while the medium coarse Mesh C predicts
only a small overshoot for the production runs.
From Table 1 can be seen that mesh refinement is
accompanied by a significant increase of required cal-
culation time, which is the normalised value of the wall
Figure 6. Computation time versus no. of DOFs.
clocktime tuser with the number of iterations niterations
and number of employed cores ncores defined viz.
The time t = tMesh x /tMesh A versus normalised DOF =
DOFMesh x /DOFMesh A is plotted in Figure 6. In can
be seen that t increases faster than the number of
DOFs, which indicates decreasing efficiency for par-
allel computation with increasing number of employed
cores.
4 SPEEDUP
There are mainly two different use cases, in which one
may wish and expect a significant performance
increase, i.e. a speedup of the calculation time, when
performing parallel computation. The first case are
complex 3d soil-structure interactions (SSI), like the
examples presented in Section 3. The amount of DOFs
is generally large and a single force equilibrium iter-
ation may take several minutes. The second case are

147
boundary value problems consisting of rather simple
geometries but highly non-linear loading conditions.
If in addition non-linear constitutive models are used
for the description of the stress-strain behaviour of the
soils, the calculation time increases significantly due
to the mandatory small time stepping. Both use cases
are discussed in the following in detail with respect to
their performance with parallel computation.
The achievable performance increase depends on
several different factors:
model discretisation: geometry, no. of DOFs, bound-
ary conditions and output request;
software: FE-program (mainly the solver), the MPI
and the operating system (OS);
hardware: CPU speed (govern mainly by the clock
rate, system bus bandwidth and cache size), RAM
(random-access memory) size, read/write speed of
the hard disk drive or the RAID (redundant array of
independent disks), employed chipset (responsible
for the communication between the different hard-
ware components such as CPU, RAM, harddrive,
network, . . .) and the network system (e.g. Ethernet,
FDDI).
In order to judge the efficiency of a parallel compu-
tation over a computation on a single core for a specific
use case, the so called speedup factor Sp is employed, Figure 7. The plain strain FE-model of a penetration prob-
which is defined viz. lem used for the benchmark tests.

with tuser being the total calculation time and niterations

the no. of iterations. The simulation on one core serves
as reference.
Throughout all simulations the Direct Sparse Solver
has been used, although the Iterative Solver based on
a Domain Decomposition method is supposed to be
more suitable for geotechnical problems, since the
models are generally very compacted. However, the
Iterative Solver in Abaqus has some restrictions which
can often be not fulfilled for typical geotechnical
problems, e.g. symmetric matrices.

4.1 2d FE-model Figure 8. Achievable speedup depending on the no. of cores

The boundary value problem shown in Figure 7 shows
a 2d plane strain FE-model of an embedded foun-
dation with a flat tip. Undrained soil behaviour was
assumed in the simulations, which was approximated
by means of a simple linear elastic, perfectly plastic
model incorporating a von Mises failure criterion with
a normalised shear modulus of G/su = 150.
The model has 183009 DOFs and was discre-
tised with 25981 CPE6H elements, which is a 6
noded quadratic plane strain triangular element with
a hybrid formulation. The loading history consists of
two load-steps; after establishing an initial force equi-
librium state, the foundation is pushed downwards for
25 cm, which corresponds 5 times the thickness of the
foundation.
and nodes of the 2d model.
This model has been chosen for the benchmark test,
because it requires very small time stepping due the
large deformation. Hence it represents the second use
case described above.
Figure 8 shows the achieved speedup Sp depending
on the no. of used cores and nodes. In addition, the
ideal speedup curve is plotted in the figure. It repre-
sents an idealised linear proportional increase of Sp
with no. of employed cores ncores .
The most obvious observation shown in Figure 8 is,
that the maximum achieved speedup is only Sp = 3.5
for the simulation of the plane strain model on 8
cores and 1 node. This indicates the communication
between the cores is significant compared to the actual

148

Figure 9. Average core load depending on the no. of cores
and nodes of the 2d model.
Figure 10. Achievable speedup depending on the no. of
cores and iterations of the 2d model. Simulations were
performed on 1 node.
calculation time. Since the communication within a
node is generally faster than between the nodes, a
simulation distributed over several nodes is slower.
However, a simulation on 4 nodes is somewhat faster
than on 2 nodes. This is obvious when the connection
between the nodes is considered. While 2 nodes are
connected via 1 cable, are 4 nodes connected via 3
cables, which allows theoretical more communication
processes simultaneously.
The increase of communication time with increas-
ing no. of employed cores and nodes, respectively,
becomes also apparent from Figure 9. Therein is shown
the average core load for the different simulations.
The simulation on 4 nodes causes even somewhat
less load than its corresponding simulation on 2
nodes, which indicates a more efficient node internal
communication if less cores per node are employed.
Figure 10 presents the achieved speedup for the
same simulations but different extrapolation meth-
ods. The influence of the no. of performed itera-
tions within one increment is likewise small on the
overall speedup, although the no. of iterations was
almost 40 times higher without extrapolation com-
pared to linear extrapolation. Similar observations can
149
Figure 11. A 3d FE-model of a cavity expansion problem
problem.
Figure 12. Achievable speedup depending on the no. of
cores and nodes of the 3d model.
be made for the iterative solver. The effective speedup
is almost identical compared to the direct solver, which
contradicts the recommendation given by Abaqus.
4.2 3d FE-model
The second example used for the benchmark test is
shown in Figure 11. It is a 3d model of a cavity expan-
sion problem. It was discretised with 177600 C3D8RH
elements, which is a linear 8 noded brick element with
reduced integration points and hybrid integration. The
model has 647136 DOFs. The material definition used
was the same as for the 2d model.
This model was chosen, due to the homogenous and
isotropic material behaviour as well as due to the axi-
symmetrical loading and boundary conditions which
is assumed to perform well in parallel computation.
This assumption seems to be confirmed by achieved
speedup, as shown in Figure 12. The no. of employed
nodes does not effect the speedup. However, the cor-
responding core load presented in Figure 13, shows
a similar decreasing efficiency with increasing no. of
cores and nodes, respectively. The explanation is the
same as stated for the 2d model; the average speed
lost caused by the network traffic is compensated by
several positive effects, such as the available RAM per
core with increasing no. of nodes.

Figure 13. Average core load depending on the no. of cores
and nodes of the 3d model.
5 CONCLUDING REMARKS
The parallel computation functionality of the commer-
cial FE-program Abaqus/Standard executed on an in-
house cluster at NGI has been used over the last years
for several simulation of large scale 3d geotechnical
problems. This paper presents the employed computa-
tional environment and the achieved speedup in both
simulations for the design of offshore foundations and
in a benchmark test.
In all examples shown here, parallel computing has
given a reduction of the required calculation time. This
is in accordance with the benchmark tests provided by
Abaqus2 and has been confirmed earlier by e.g. Henke
and Hgel (2007) for Abaqus/Explicit. A decrease of
the speedup Sp with further increase of employed cores
as shown by Smith (2000) could not be observed.
2
http://www.simulia.com/support/v69/v69_
performance.php
150
However, the speedup increase is less distinct than
generally reported. The highest speedup ratio Sp /ncores
achieved was Sp = 5 for the 3d models run on 8 cores.
A further increase of ncores did not show considerably
larger speedup values. The 2d-model performed even
worth. This can be explained with increasing commu-
nication processes as well as with the restrictions of
the used software with respect to the solver. Gener-
ally the iterative solver is recommended for parallel
computation of very compacted geometries. But they
can often not be used for geotechnical problems; e.g.
if constitutive models with non-associative flow rules
are used. The influence of communication processes
cannot be assessed directly, but estimated from the
average core load, which decreased significantly with
increasing number of used cores.
REFERENCES
Cluster Resources, Inc. (2009). Torque resource manager.
www.clusterresources.com.
Hansen, B., F. Nowacki, E. Skomedal, and J. Hermstad
(1992). Foundation design, Troll platform. In BOSS 92,
6th International Conference on the Behaviour of Offshore
Structures, Volume 2, London, pp. 921936.
Henke, S. and H. Hgel (2007). Rumliche Analysen
zur quasi-statischen und dynamischen Penetration von
Bauteilen in den Untergrund. In Tagungsband zur 19.
Deutsche Abaqus-Benutzerkonferenz in Baden-Baden,
Number 2.13.
Smith, I. (2000). A general purpose system for finite element
analyses in parallel. Engineering Computations 17(1),
7591.
Smith, I. and V. Griffiths (2004). Programming the Finite
Element Method (4th ed.). John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
The official Perceus/warewulf cluster portal (2009). Perceus
Cluster provisioning toolkit. www.perceus.org.
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

70-line 3D finite deformation elastoplastic finite-element code

William M. Coombs, Roger S. Crouch & Charles E. Augarde

School of Engineering and Computing Sciences, Durham University, Durham, UK

ABSTRACT: Few freeware FE programs offer the capabilities to include 3D finite deformation inelastic
continuum analysis; those that do are typically expressed in tens of thousands of lines. This paper offers for the
first time compact MATLAB scripts forming a complete finite deformation elastoplastic FE program. The key
modifications required to an infinitesimal FE program in order to include geometric nonlinearity are described
and the entire code given.

1 INTRODUCTION alternative isotropic constitutive models (such as those

The FiniteElement (FE) method has transformed
geomechanical analysis. A number of open source
codes now encourage researchers to extend or modify
the basic algorithms, yet most 3D codes are expressed
in tens of thousands of lines of C, C++ or fortran,
requiring a significant time investment from poten-
tial new developers. Few freeware FE programs offer
the capability to include 3D finite deformation anal-
ysis. Researchers are faced with writing their own
algorithms from scratch or mastering very lengthy
codes which are typically understandable only by those
close to the original development. However, high level
computational environments, such as MATLAB, allow
engineers, scientists and mathematicians to produce
powerful numerical analysis scripts rapidly. By using
lean, efficient algorithms and subfunctions, it is possi-
ble to write the main routine of an elasto-plastic finite
deformation FE program within a single page. Once
a program spills onto multiple pages the ability to
easily visualise the program structure is lost and the
opportunity for error detection is reduced. Transparent
programs facilitate re-analysis, adjustment, improve-
ment and experimentation, resulting in polished robust
algorithms. These programming gems should be
clear, easy to read, check, edit and modify.This strat-
egy is inspired by Trefethens cry for cleaner, shorter
code, within the philosophy of one page, ten digit,
five second algorithms (Trefethen 2005).
A three dimensional MATLAB finite deformation
FE code has been developed by the first author at
Durham University, with the intention of analysing
geotechnical problems subject to large deformations
and strains. The program given here uses fully inte-
grated 8noded isoparametric hexahedral elements
and a Prandtl-Reuss constitutive model, including the
appropriate consistent tangent to ensure asymptotic
quadratic convergence of the global Newton-Raphson
iterations. The compact, modular algorithm allows
based on a critical state) to be easily incorporated
without modification to the overall program.
2 CONCEPTUAL MODEL
The following sections present the modifications to
and equations required for an infinitesimal FE pro-
gram in order to include geometric nonlinearity. Sec-
tion 2.2 describes the implemented combined force
displacement control FE program and should be read in
conjunction with Algorithms I and II. All program seg-
ments are given, except the simple setup file (line 3
of Algorithm I, highlighted in grey) which has been
omitted for the sake of brevity. The overall program
structure is summarised in Figure 11 .
2.1 Modifications to infinitesimal theory
The following modifications are required when imple-
menting an updated Lagrangian large strain FE code,
compared with the equivalent infinitesimal linear
elastic program
The primary internal variable is the deformation
gradient, [F].
The derivatives of the shape functions are calculated
with respect to the updated nodal coordinates.
The nonsymmetric material spatial tangent mod-
ulus, [a], and the full strain(9component)
displacement matrix, [G], are used to form the
element stiffness matrix.
An inelastic constitutive model is included.
The global equilibrium equation is solved using the
NewtonRaphson scheme.
1
The numbers in Figure 1 refer to the MATLAB code lines
in Algorithm I.

151
 Unlike infinitesimal theory, within a finite defor-
mation framework there exists a choice for the stress
and strain measures. However, certain combinations
provide advantages when moving between infinites-
imal and large strain theories. The implemented FE
code uses a logarithmic strainKirchhoff stress rela-
tionship along with an exponential map for the plastic
flow equation to allow the implementation of stan-
dard small strain constitutive algorithms within a finite
deformation framework without modification2 . This
implementation preserves the isochoric property of
traceless strains and satisfies the incompressibility of
J2 plastic flow theory exactly.
2.2 Nonlinear FE code
The deformation gradient provides the fundamen-
tal link between the current and the reference
configurations
where {x} and {X } are the coordinates of the same
point in the current and reference configurations,
respectively, {u} is the displacement between the con-
figurations and [1] is the rank three identity matrix.
Taking the polar decomposition of (1) we obtain
where [R] is an orthogonal rotation matrix and [v] is
the left stretch matrix, given by
where [b] is the left CauchyGreen strain matrix. Note
the square root of [b] is obtained using spectral decom-
position into principal values [see Spencer (1980) for
details] and using the inverse decomposition to recover
the full six component symmetric matrix. We define
the logarithmic strain measure as
where the logarithm of [b] is obtained using spectral
decomposition in a way analogous to the square root.
Using the multiplicative decomposition of the defor-
mation gradient, initially proposed by Lee (1969), into
elastic and plastic components we can equivalently
define the elastic logarithmic strain as
2
See de Souza Neto, Peric, and Owen (2008), amongst others,
for more details on the recovery of the infinitesimal format
of the stress return algorithms.
152
where [be ] is the elastic left strain matrix. As the defor-
mation proceeds within a boundary value problem, we
update the deformation gradient via
where [Fn ] is the deformation gradient from the
previous converged load step. The increment in the
deformation gradient, for a given element nodal dis-
placement increment, is given by
where [ui ] are the nodal displacement increments
and [Ni ,x ] are the derivatives of the shape functions
with respect to the updated nodal coordinates. From
this deformation gradient increment, we can obtain
the trial elastic left Cauchy-Green strain matrix
where [ben ] is the left Cauchy-Green strain matrix from
the previous converged load step. The trial elastic
strain, {etr }, is obtained from combining (8) with (5)
and is subsequently used as the input into the small
strain isotropic constitutive model (along with any
internal variables). The constitutive model will return
the update elastic logarithmic strain {e }, internal
variables and the Kirchhoff stress, defined as
where J is the determinant of the deformation gra-
dient and {} is the true, or Cauchy, stress. The
constitutive model should also return the small
strain consistent (algorithmic) tangent stiffness matrix
[Dalg ] = [/etr ].
The above steps can be summarised into
1. Calculate the increment in the deformation gradient
[F] using (7), lines 4850
2. Form the trial elastic left Cauchy-Green strain
matrix [betr ] using (8) and calculate the trial elastic
logarithmic strain {etr } from (5), lines 5258
3. Use the standard small strain constitutive model
(line 52) to return the updated elastic logarithmic
strain {e }, Kirchhoff stress {}, internal variables
and the consistent elasto-plastic tangent modulus
[Dalg ] = [/etr ]
4. Calculate the updated true Cauchy stress {} via the
rearrangement of (9) using formDsig.m, line 53.
Once the Cauchy stress is updated, the element
stiffness matrix (lines 23 and 61) is obtained from
where ngp is the number of Gauss points, [G] is the
strain(9component)displacement matrix

[J ] is the Jacobian matrix obtained from the derivatives

of the shape functions and the updated nodal coordi-
nates and w is the weight function. [a] is the consistent
spatial tangent modulus, given by

where

[Dalg ] is the consistent tangent from the unmodified

small strain constitutive model. [L] is determined as
a particular case of the derivative of a general sym-
metric second order tensor function with respect to its
argument3 . formDsig.m, line 60, returns the spatial
tangent [a] and [L] is implemented in parDerGen.m.
The element internal forces (line 64) are then Figure 1. Main program structure.
calculated using

FE program. The main code is only 70 lines in

where [B] is the standard strain(6component)
displacement matrix.
The preceding operations are performed for all
Gauss points within each element over lines 4166
in Algorithm I. The remaining FE implementation
is summarised in Figure 1. The subfunctions are
explained in Section 4.
3 CONCLUSION
This paper offers for the first time the compact MAT-
LAB scripts for a 3D finite deformation elastoplastic
3
Traditionally the derivative of a tensor function with respect
to its argument has been solved by considering the spectral
decomposition of the tensor function and using the prod-
uct rule to obtain the derivative. However, calculation of the
derivative in the case of repeated eigenvalues requires the use
of eigenprojections to overcome the non-unqiueness of the
eigenvalues. Refer to parDerGen.m and see Miehe (1998),
amongst others, for more details.
length, comfortably fitting on one page. The associ-
ated subfunctions are contained within an additional
page4 .
Through the use of an updated Lagrangian loga-
rithmic strainKirchhoff stress formulation (with an
exponential map for the plastic flow equation) the code
allows for the incorporation existing isotropic small
strain constitutive models without modification.
The extension of this code to include anisotropic
constitutive models, based on the notion of a back
stress, is possible within 10 additional lines in the main
program and making small extensions to the existing
subfunctions.
4 PROGRAM NOTES
The main program and associated subfunctions are
given in Algorithms I and II, respectively. Input param-
eters from setupcube.m are described in Table 1.
4
The complete MATLAB .m files are available from the first
author on request, email w.m.coombs@durham.ac.uk.

153
Table 1. setupcube.m input parameters.
dershapefunc.m, line 4, returns the derivatives
of the shape functions with respect to the element
local coordinate system (dNr), the local coordinates
(xsi, eta, zet) and the weights (wp) associated
with the Gauss points for a fully integrated 8noded
isoparametric hexahedral element.
Xsplt.m, lines 14, 38 and 39, splits nodal coor-
dinates (or displacements) into element contributions
154
(ex, ey, ez), given the element degrees of freedom
(edof), the nodal coordinates (coord), the degrees
of freedom (DoF), the number of nodes per element
(nen) and the number of elements (nels).
VMconst.m, lines 15 and 59, contains the consti-
tutive model; in this case a Prandtl-Reuss (von Mises
perfect plasticity) model that returns updated Kirch-
hoff stress (kirSig), the consistent tangent modulus
(D) and elastic strain (epsE) for a given trial elastic
strain (epsEtr).
formBG.m, lines 22 and 47, forms the strain(6 and
9component)displacement matrices, B and G, from
the derivatives of the shape functions with respect to
the updated nodal coordinates (dNx).
assem.m, lines 25 and 65, directs the contribu-
tions from the element stiffness matrices (ke) into the
global stiffness matrix (Ktan).
solveq.m, lines 34 and 35, solves the
global equilibrium equation [K]{d} = {f } for the
unknown incremental displacements and reactions
(dduvw and dreact).
formDsig.m, line 60, forms the spatial tangent
operator (a) and the updated Cauchy stress (sig).
parDerGen.m returns the partial derivative of a
general symmetric second order tensor function with
respect to its argument, L.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors are most grateful for the support obtained
from the UK EPSRC grant EP/D07711/01.
REFERENCES
de Souza Neto, E., D. Peric, and D. Owen (2008). Compu-
tational methods for plasticity: Theory and applications.
John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Lee, E. (1969). Elastic-plastic deformation at finite strains.
Journal of Applied Mechanics, 36, 16.
Miehe, C. (1998). Comparison of two algorithms for the
computation of fourth-order isotropic tensor functions.
Computers & Structures, 66, 3743.
Spencer, A. (1980). Continuum Mechanics. Dover Publica-
tions.
Trefethen, L. (2005). Ten digit algorithms. In Conference on
Numerical Analysis, Dundee.
Algorithm I. Main 3D finite deformation elastoplastic FE code.

155
Algorithm II. Subfunctions: dershapefunc.m, assem.m, solveq.m, Xsplt.m, formDsig.m, VMconst.m,
formBG.m and parDerGen.m.

156
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

A simple time stepping algorithm for material point method

Wojciech T. Soowski & Daichao Sheng

The University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia

ABSTRACT: The Material Point Method (MPM) is an emerging numerical method that provides a natural
solution to dynamic problems involving large deformation and contact/impact. However, the method can be
prohibitively time consuming because extremely small time steps often have to be used to obtain a reliable
solution. The paper presents an adaptive time stepping algorithm with error control for the material point method.
The proposed approach is based on an error estimate derived from the global energy. This error estimate is then
used to control the time step size. The proposed algorithm is validated for a 1D dynamic problem involving
impact of two elastic bars. The proposed time stepping algorithm seems to be able to recover the correct solution
with arbitrary step sizes specified by the user. As such, it is hoped that the proposed algorithm may offer a way
to overcome some of the shortcomings of the MPM. A conceptually similar algorithm may be used for 2D &
3D problems with more advanced boundary conditions and material models.

1 INTRODUCTION algorithm involves only the elastic energy. However,

Material point method is one of the numerical meth-
ods that have seen rapid development in recent years.
The method can be used for a wide range of engineer-
ing problems. Its application is especially convenient
to dynamic problems involving large deformations
and for impact problems (e.g. Sulsky et al. 1995,
Wieckowski
2004, Steffen et al. 2009).
One of the advantages of the material point method
is that contact between solid bodies is detected
automatically and without any additional numerical
burden. Therefore contact analysis is less complex
compared to the finite element method. Another
advantage of the method is that the mesh is usually sim-
ple and may be fixed during whole analysis, avoiding
the mesh distortion problem in large deformations.
Unfortunately, the analysis with the material point
method can be prohibitively expensive in terms of CPU
time. The standard material point method uses a con-
stant time step of the user specified size throughout
the whole analysis. The choice of this time step is not
simple too small step will considerably slow down
the analysis whereas a large step may cause instabil-
ity and convergence problems. When the time step is
relatively large, the solution can be very sensitive to
the step size, as a slight change in the step size can
result in drastic changes in the solution. Therefore,
an algorithm with automatic time stepping, where the
time step is automatically chosen to suit the required
accuracy and the particular needs of the analysis, is
highly desirable. This paper presents the implemen-
tation of an automatic time stepping algorithm with
error control for the standard material point method
(Sulsky et al. 1994, Chen et al. 2002, Chen & Brannon
2002). The current implementation of the proposed
generalisation of the method to cases where dissipa-
tion occurs is straightforward. The presented concept
may also be applied for other variations of material
point method, such as the generalised material point
method (see Bardenhagen & Kober 2004).
2 ERROR UPON INITIATION OF CONTACT
The proposed automatic time stepping algorithm is
based on the deviation in total energy balance of the
system. The global energy conservation law may be
additionally coupled with the total momentum bal-
ance or any global conservation law or combination
of them. As the material point method is an approxi-
mate method, the conservation laws are generally not
rigorously satisfied after each time step. It is assumed
that most often the deviation from energy conserva-
tion in each time step can be linked to the error due
to time discretisation. Therefore, it seems that control-
ling this deviation may be an effective way of ensuring
the convergence of the method.
Unfortunately, the deviation in total energy does not
always occur when method is inaccurate due to too
large time step. One of such cases is when contact is
involved. Contact is detected only after two points are
either in the same grid element or in the neighbouring
grid elements (Fig. 1, step 3). When two material points
just enter the neighbouring grid elements, the distance
travelled by the material points within the preceding
time step is not taken into account (Fig. 1, step 2). This
distance contributes to the error which is not caught by
the general conservation law. In other words, the par-
ticles should already interact with each other in step 2
in Fig. 1, but the method proceeds as if there was no

157
Figure 1. Source of error upon contact in material point method. Points P1 and P2 are moving towards each other with
velocities v1 and v2 respectively and colliding in step 2. Reducing dT2 in Step 3 does not eliminate error made in Step 2.
contact. The particles will then start to interact only
in the next time step (Fig. 1 step 3), and only then the
deviation from the conservation laws can be detected.
The distance in the cells the particles already travelled
without any interaction in the preceding time step con-
tributes to the error of the method and is undetected
by any imbalance in the conservation law.
Such error may be significant when the time step
is large. Therefore, an additional check for such a sit-
uation is required, as otherwise the above error may
lead to significantly incorrect results. Similar situ-
ation occurs when the particles separate. However,
due to significantly smaller time steps required when
the particles are in contact, this error may not be as
significant as when the particles come into contact.
Additionally, it seems that in the problem analysed
here, the time step size after contact is more dependent
on the induced vibration of the bars than on the con-
tact between them and hence no significant increase
in time step size can be seen after separation (also see
Figs 14 & 15). This error is to some degree responsible
for reported issues when material points cross the grid
elements boundary (also referred to as cell crossing
noise, e.g. Bardenhagen & Kober 2004, Wallstedt &
Guilkey 2008). It is most likely to remain significant in
the generalised material point method or in variations
that rigorously conserve the energy when the time step
is relatively large (see e.g. Bardenhagen 2002, Love &
Sulsky 2006).
3 AUTOMATIC TIME-STEPPING ALGORITHM
The automatic time stepping algorithm used here is
very simple and similar to those used for automatic
substepping and error control in Runge-Kutta methods
(see e.g. Sloan 1987, Sloan et al. 2001, Soowski &
158
Gallipoli 2009). The relative error estimate E is taken
as the absolute value of difference between the total
initial energy before the time increment (i.e. at time
T ) and after the time increment (i.e. at time T +dT )
divided by the total initial energy.
In the problem considered in the paper, no mechanical
dissipation is involved, and hence no dissipated energy
needs to be included in the energy balance and relative
error estimate E. However, it would be necessary to
include the dissipated energy for, e.g., elasto-plasticity
and frictional contact. When the calculated error esti-
mate E is below the user specified maximum error
estimate allowed Emax , the result at T +dT is accepted
and calculations proceed to the next time step. Other-
wise, the step is discarded and a smaller time step is
used. Regardless of the acceptance or rejection of the
current time step, the size of the next time step (dTnew )
is computed as
where is an empirical reduction factor (equal to 0.8
in the analysis presented). The prediction of the new
time step size is based on the assumption that the algo-
rithm is second-order accurate in time (compare e.g.
Steffen et al. 2009, Wallstedt & Guilkey 2008). As
the prediction is not precise, the reduction factor is
introduced. It is also required that the new time step
dTnew is not larger than 10dT or smaller than 0.1dT , to
avoid overshot of the step size and unnecessarily slow
analysis, an approach similar to those in the Runge
Kutta algorithms (Sloan 1987, Sloan et al. 2001).
 The algorithm described above is unable to detect
the error of mechanism shown in the Fig. 1 (i.e. error
which may occur when two bodies not previously in
contact start interacting with each other). As such this
algorithm alone is not sufficient to ensure error con-
trol and must be coupled with some sort of algorithm
detecting and minimising errors occurring upon first
contact of bodies.
It has been observed that if the error due to contact
initiation is significant, an unchanged size of the next
time step will lead to a drastic violation of the energy
balance of the system. Therefore, a check has been
introduced for such a violation. If the given time step
is not accepted and the corrected size of the time step is
below 0.1 of the current time step, a good chance that
an error described above may have occurred. Therefore
instead of just rejecting one time step, two time steps
are rejected and the analysis is continued with a smaller
time step equal to 0.1 dT . It is required that the time
step size is not growing for at least two subsequent
time steps. In the analyses presented below, the time
step was not allow to grow for 5 subsequent time steps
after such a violation of energy norm was observed.
Note that such procedure does not eliminate the error
upon contact completely in fact the total energy error
in the penultimate step in the analysis presented can
reach 64 times the value accepted otherwise; This may
be reduced by increasing the threshold from 0.1 to
some larger value but in such case more often the
algorithm will reject two steps when the contact error
does not occur which will result in a slow-down in the
calculations.
The proposed solution is relatively easy to imple-
ment. With proper coding the additional check does not
increase the computation burden significantly as com-
pared to the classic substepping method where the step
size is allowed to increase immediately after a failed
step. The only additional cost is that one more copy of
the state of the particles must be stored.
4 VALIDATION OF AUTOMATIC TIME
STEPPING METHOD
The problem solved here involves the impact of two
elastic bars (E = 10000 Pa, v = 0) as described by
Chen & Brannon (2002) and Chen et al. (2002). The
Figure 2. Setup of the bars at t = 0. Grid elements location and initial position and velocity of material points.
159
bars of length 0.5 m are modelled with 50 material
points each, where points are initially located in the
middle of grid elements (each grid element was 1 cm
long). The initial distance between the bars (i.e. clos-
est material points in each bar) is 5 cm; bars velocity is
1 m/s; the mass of every material point is 0.01 kg (see
Fig 2.
The solution shows the behaviour of the bars for
the first 0.4 s. Initially the total energy of the system
is equal to its kinetic energy. The bars start to interact
at T = 0.15 s and since this moment the total energy
is a sum of elastic and potential energy. In this partic-
ular case the total energy at any given time T can be
computed as
where the velocities vi and strains i are the velocities
and strains of i-th material point at time T and the mass
of i-th point is denoted as mi .
4.1 Stability of the material point method with
constant time step
It is difficult to choose the optimal time step which
guarantee stability during the whole analysis. Addi-
tionally, the maximum step size which ensures the
stability may be much smaller than an actual step
size which can give good results. For example, the
described problem could be solved with 1000 and
1001 equally sized time increments (see Figs. 3 and
4), whereas solution with 1003 increments (Fig. 5)
gives qualitatively incorrect solution with two mate-
rial points left vibrating around the initial contact
point. The wrong result obtained for 1003 increments
is believed to be a result of the error described in Fig. 1.
It also seems that the qualitative difference in the
energy norm depends on the time step size. The total
energy deviation is much more significant in the case
of 1001 increments (Fig. 7), as compared to the analy-
sis with 1000 increments (Fig. 6). On the other hand, in
the case of 1003 time steps (Fig. 8), the deviation from
total energy is small, yet the solution is qualitatively
wrong. This shows that controlling the energy norm
alone does not ensure a correct solution. Of course, a
significant increase of the number of time steps will

Figure 3. Displacements of all material points, constant
time step size, 1000 time steps (dT = 0.0004 s).
Figure 4. Displacements of all material points, constant
time step size, 1001 time steps (dT 0.0003996 s).
Figure 5. Displacements of all material points, constant
time step size, 1003 time steps (dT 0.0003988 s). Solution
is qualitatively incorrect as bars separated in wrong place and
two points remained stationary.
ensure the solution convergence to the right solution.
However, it is not clear whether it is possible to find
the time step that leads to the correct solution by other
methods than trial and error.
4.2 Material point method with automatic time
stepping and error control
As discussed in section 3, the automatic time step-
ping algorithm that allows the step size to increase
immediately after a failed step is not sufficient and is
160
Figure 6. Total energy, constant time step size, 1000 time
steps (dT = 0.0004 s).
Figure 7. Total energy, constant time step size, 1001 time
steps (dT 0.0003996 s).
Figure 8. Total energy, constant time steps size, 1003 time
steps (dT 0.0003988 s).
likely to lead to wrong results for the problem studied
here.
The reason is that the error shown in Fig. 1 is not
captured. This is confirmed in Fig. 9, where the results
obtained by the automatic time stepping algorithm
led to qualitatively wrong results. However, a simple
modification of the algorithm described in section 3
improves the results drastically. If the predicted next
time step size is at or below minimum (0.1dT ), both
the current and the immediately previous time step is
recomputed. The time step size is not allowed to grow
Figure 9. Displacements of all material points, automatic Figure 12. Total Energy, automatic time stepping, initial
time stepping without catering for the initial error when time step 0.0004 s, energy tolerance Emax = 1E-5.
contact is initiated, energy tolerance Emax = 1E-5. Several
points at the end of both bars remain stationary and bars
are separated incorrectly.

Figure 13. Total Energy, automatic time stepping, initial

time step 0.04 s, energy tolerance Emax = 1E-5.

Figure 10. Displacements of all material points, automatic

time stepping, initial time step 0.0004 s, energy tolerance
Emax = 1E-5.

Figure 14. Accepted time increment size in analysis, auto-

matic time stepping, initial time step 0.0004 s (the initial time
step increases soon after the beginning of the analysis), energy
tolerance Emax = 1E-5.

Figure 11. Displacements of all material points, automatic

time stepping, initial time step 0.4 s, energy tolerance 1E-5.
within the next five time steps.The modified algorithm
is then relatively insensitive to the initial step size and
predicts the results correctly (Figs 1013).
The distribution of the step size over time in
the automatic time stepping schemes is presented in
Figs 14 & 15. Due to the elastic nature of the prob-
lem, even after the separation of the bars, the time
step must be kept small due to the vibrations of the
bars. Introducing viscosity to the material (see e.g.
Bardenhagen & Kober 2004, Wickowski 2004) may
allow for some increase of the step size after bar sep-
aration, therefore to further enhance the benefits of
automatic time stepping.
5 CONCLUSIONS
The stability of the material point method depends on
the time step size; however the choice of an optimal

161

Figure 15. Accepted time increment size in analysis, auto-
matic time stepping, initial time step 0.04 s (which is reduced
until the error is below the required value by the algorithm and
then kept constant for 5 subsequent subincrements), energy
tolerance Emax = 1E-5.
time step size is difficult. The paper presents an algo-
rithm for automatic time stepping and error control
based on the total energy of the system. The material
point method combined with the new time stepping
algorithm appears to be able to provide quality and
stable solution without significant input from the user.
Most importantly, the need of a priori estimation of
the time step size is eliminated.
The initial results presented in this paper suggest
that the total energy norm, when coupled with addi-
tional algorithm checking for error upon collision of
material points, is sufficient for ensuring the quality of
the numerical solution. It may be that other conserva-
tion laws (like conservation of momentum or angular
momentum conservation) would have to be used addi-
tionally for the global energy conservation in other
cases.
The proposed algorithm needs to be validated using
more extensive tests and generalised to cases where
energy dissipates, such as in cases of frictional contact
and elastoplasticity.
162
REFERENCES
Bardenhagen, S.G. 2002. Energy Conservation Error in the
Material Point Method for Solid Mechanics. Journal of
Computational Physics, 180:383403.
Bardenhagen, S.G. & Kober, E.M. 2004. The Generalized
Interpolation Material Point Method. Computer Modeling
in Engineering & Sciences, 5(6):477495.
Chen, Z., Hu W., Shen, L., Xin X. & Brannon, R. 2002. An
evaluation of the MPM for simulating dynamic failure
with damage diffusion. Engineering Fracture Mechanics
69:18731890.
Chen, Z. & Brannon, R. 2002. An evaluation of the Material
Point Method. Sand Report Sand2002-0482, Feb 2002,
Sandia National Laboratories.
Love, E. & Sulsky, D.L. 2006. An unconditionally sta-
ble, energy-momentum consistent implementation of the
material point method. Computer methods in applied
mechanics and engineering, 195:39293925.
Sloan, S.W. 1987. Substepping schemes for the numerical
integration of elastoplastic stress-strain relations. Inter-
national Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering.
24: 893911.
Sloan, S.W., Abbo, A.J. & Sheng, D. 2001. Refined
explicit integration of elastoplastic models with automatic
error control. Engineering Computations, 18(1/2):121
54. Erratum: Engineering Computations, 19(5/6), 594
594, 2002
Sulsky, D., Zhou, S.-J. & Schreyer, H.L. 1995. Application
of a particle-in-cell method to soil mechanics. Computer
Physics Communication, 87:236252.
Sulsky, D., Chen, Z. & Schreyer, H.L. 1994.A particle method
for history-dependent materials. Computer methods in
applied mechanics and engineering, 118:179196.
Steffen, M., Kirby, R.M. & Berzins, M. 2009. Decoupling and
balancing of space and time errors in the material point
mathod (MPM). International Journal for Numerical
Methods in Engineering DOI:10.1002/nme.2787.
Wallstedt, P.C. & Guilkey, J.E. 2008. An evaluation of
explicit time integration schemes for use with the gen-
eralized interpolation material point method. Journal of
Computational Physics, 227:96289642.
Wieckowski, Z. 2004 The material point method in large
strain engineering problems. Computer methods in
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 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Analysis of the stability of sheet pile walls using Discontinuity Layout

Optimization

S.D. Clarke, C.C. Smith & M. Gilbert

The University of Sheffield, UK

ABSTRACT: In this paper it is demonstrated that one-dimensional rigid-plastic elements can be used in
conjunction with the recently developed Discontinuity Layout Optimization (DLO) procedure Smith & Gilbert
(2007a) to permit the modelling of sheet pile walls. The resulting procedure allows identification of a wide
variety of failure modes, including those involving wall translation and / or rigid body rotation, and also rigid-
plastic bending of the wall due to the formation of one or more plastic hinges. Results from the procedure
are compared with those obtained (i) using classical retaining wall theory, and (ii) from other numerical limit
analysis procedures described in the literature, demonstrating its efficacy. A series of increasingly complex
example problems are then studied, showing the ability of the procedure to treat problems involving water and
a variety of wall support arrangements.

1 INTRODUCTION however this paper is concerned only with direct

Sheet pile wall design requires knowledge of how the
ground and structure can be made to work together
in order to produce a safe design. Sheet pile walls
are most often designed to resist the effects of active
earth pressures. The Rankine or Coulomb methods of
analysis are normally used to estimate these pressures
once the mechanical characteristics of the soil to be
retained have been suitably approximated. These pres-
sures allow a factor of safety against collapse to be
determined for any given wall embedment depth.
This paper aims to demonstrate that the Discontinu-
ity Layout Optimization (DLO) procedure can be used
to model sheet pile walls. In the paper computed col-
lapse loads are compared with those calculated using
established methods, and subsequently with results
obtained using a lower bound finite element limit anal-
ysis method (Krabbenhoft et al. 2005). In the latter
case, more complex problems, which include a water
table and ground anchors, are considered.
limit analysis approaches. With both FELA and DLO
the collapse state can be identified directly using
optimization techniques.
A numerical limit analysis problem can be formu-
lated as an upper or lower bound problem. Using an
upper bound kinematic formulation, the DLO proce-
dure defines a discontinuous velocity field covering
the entire problem domain, utilising a set of problem
variables which represent deformations along poten-
tial discontinuities (of which there may be many mil-
lions).A rigorous mathematical optimization approach
(e.g. linear programming) is then used to select the set
of variables that minimises the energy dissipated in
order to find the critical collapse mechanism.
The DLO method has been implemented into
the geotechnical stability software package, Limit-
State:GEO (LimitState 2009), which has been used to
analyse all example wall problems considered in this
paper.

3 CANTILEVER WALL ANALYSIS

2 DISCONTINUITY LAYOUT OPTIMIZATION
At the present time, there are two main numerical limit
analysis methods available for geotechnical applica-
tions, Finite Element Limit Analysis (FELA) (Lysmer
1970, Sloan 1988, Makrodimopoulos & Martin 2006)
and Discontinuity Layout Optimization (DLO) and
Discontinuity Layout Optimization (DLO) (Smith &
Gilbert 2007a, 2007b, 2008). Limit analysis can also
be carried out using conventional elasto-plastic finite
element analysis, by iterating towards a collapse state;
3.1 Sliding failure
Sliding failure may be analysed using a classical Rank-
ine approach assuming a rigid retaining wall and
ignoring moment equilibrium (covered in Section 3.2).
In this example a smooth interface is assumed between
the soil and the retaining wall. The geometry for the
basic analysis is shown in Figure 1 and the soil param-
eters given in Table 1 have been used. A sliding only
failure can be modelled in LimitState:GEO by setting
Model rotations to be false.

163
Figure 1. Rankine analysis geometry.
Table 1. Soil parameters.
Unit weight, 18 kN/m3
Cohesion intercept, c 0 kPa
Angle of friction,  30
Using the Rankine earth pressure coefficients
(Eqs. 1, 2) the pressures acting on the active (Ka ) and
passive (Kp ) sides of the wall can be calculated.
The active force is given by Pa = 0.5 H 2 Ka where
H is the total height of the retaining wall from
crest to tip. The passive force is similarly given by
Pp = 0.5dw 2 Kp . By examining horizontal equilib-
rium, the required depth below the base of the wall
to the tip (dw ) can be calculated, which for the geome-
try in Figure 1 is 4.0 m. To show that the DLO method
can calculate the same mechanism and critical depth,
the problem was set up in LimitState:GEO with the
geometry as specified in Figure 1. In LimitState:GEO
the sheet pile wall is defined as an engineered element
(LimitState 2009) with an infinite moment resistance
to match the rigid sheet pile modelled in the Rankine
analysis. The wall must also have an infinite lateral
capacity, N , so that the DLO method treats the wall as
an impenetrable barrier as far as the soil is concerned.
The interface between the retaining wall and the soil
can be defined within LimitState:GEO by adding a
second material to the wall. In this case, as a smooth
interface is assumed, the second material is set with
 = 0 to remove frictional effects.
Figure 2 shows the failure mechanism obtained
using LimitState:GEO. To find a collapse mechanism
an adequacy factor must be applied to a force or self
weight in the system to precipitate failure. For this sce-
nario, adequacy was applied to the retained soil weight,
and was found to be 1.001162663 for a Fine nodal
density. The adequacy factor is dependent on the nodal
Figure 2. DLO failure mechanism.
Table 2. Variation of adequacy factor with nodal density.
Nodal density No. of nodes Adequacy factor
Course 250 1.012072156
Medium 500 1.003030377
Fine 1000 1.001162663
Custom 3000* 1.000544063
*User defined
density of the analysis, and for an increasing number
of nodes (which provide the end-points of potential
lines of discontinuity) the adequacy factor will con-
verge towards the analytical solution of 1.0. This is
shown in Table 2.
By modelling the sheet pile wall as a rigid material
the stress distribution around the wall can be plotted. In
a conventional sliding analysis active and passive earth
pressures are assumed to vary linearly with depth.
However this is not a strict requirement in plastic limit
analysis. Only the resultant of the stress distributions
must be the same. The DLO method without model
rotations only examines horizontal and vertical equi-
librium and generates a mechanism involving a single
wedge either side of the wall. This does not necessar-
ily require a linear variation of pressure with depth.
However if the wall is allowed to rotate, and fail in the
expected mode for a cantilever wall, then the soil must
also yield throughout the adjacent wedges and the
pressure distribution becomes well-defined. A linear
variation with depth above the point of rotation is then
predicted, as shown in Figure 3.
3.2 Rotational and bending failure
The previous section has shown that the DLO method
is capable of accurately analysing a sheet pile retain-
ing wall for failure against sliding. In this section more
complex modelling is undertaken with the inclusion
of both rotational failure mechanisms, a water table
164

Figure 3. Stress distribution for Rankine DLO analysis
(simple rotational mechanism).
Figure 4. Problem geometry, Krabbenhoft et al. (2005).
Figure 5. FELA vector plot for a smooth cantilever wall,
Krabbenhoft et al. (2005).
and yielding of the sheet pile wall. The DLO solutions
have then been compared with results obtained using
a lower bound finite element limit analysis (FELA)
method (Krabbenhoft et al. 2005). The problem geom-
etry is defined in Figure 4, with the depth to the wall
tip varying depending upon the support conditions and
friction on the soil-wall interface.
Figure 5 shows soil displacement vectors generated
by the FELA method (Krabbenhoft et al. 2005) for the
165
Table 3. Cantilever pile wall parameters.
Plastic moment resistance, Mp 982 kNm/m
Tip level, dw 9.6 m
Angle of wall friction,  0
Figure 6. DLO failure mechanism for a smooth cantilever
wall.
cantilevered sheet pile wall with no anchor. The soil
and wall parameters are given in Tables 1 & 3. Specify-
ing this problem in LimitState:GEO was done as for the
sliding analysis but with the addition of vertices being
placed on the sheet pile wall around the expected point
of yield (from Figure 5). LimitState:GEO 2.0 is able to
model rotations at vertices. By manually adding ver-
tices the sheet pile wall is allowed to yield and bend
at these locations. Figure 6 shows the failure mecha-
nism predicted by the DLO method, indicating that the
sheet pile wall yields at the same depth as predicted
by the FELA analysis (Krabbenhoft et al. 2005). As
the DLO method computes upper bound solutions, it
would be expected to give a higher predicted factor of
safety than a lower bound limit analysis method. Fac-
tor of safety is normally defined on soil strength rather
than self weight for retaining walls, thus partial factors
are applied to tan  until the adequacy factor on the
retained soil self weight becomes 1. For the cantilever
wall analysis the required factor was 1.035, meaning
that the DLO method gave a result 3.5% higher than the
lower bound FELA analysis result given in Krabben-
hoft et al. (2005). The true solution will lie somewhere
between the two results.
4 ANCHORED WALL ANALYSIS
The previous examples have looked at embedded can-
tilever sheet pile walls where the failure mechanism
involves a combined failure of the sheet pile and sur-
rounding soil. To reduce the required embedded depth
and required moment resistance of the pile, ground
anchors can be used to help stabilize the retaining wall.
The location of the anchor is given in Figure 4, being
1 m down from the crest of the wall. Generally ground
anchors can be modelled in two distinct ways:
by an equivalent prop force acting on the face of the
wall or,
as a discrete soil reinforcement element.

Both approaches can be specified within LimitState:

GEO but to correctly assess the interaction between the
ground anchor and the failure mechanism the anchor
should be modelled as a discrete soil reinforcement
element.

Figure 7. Specifying an ultimate anchor capacity in Limit-

4.1 Anchor capacity
State:GEO.
If the anchor is located too close to the wall, then the
failure mechanism directly affects the pull-out resis-
tance of the soil reinforcement element as the slip
surface may cut through the position of the anchor.
In this situation the capacity of the anchor is reduced
to that equal to only the embedded end, thus giving a
realistic failure mechanism. The pull-out capacity of
the anchor T can be assumed to vary proportionally
with the vertical effective stress:

where = interaction coefficient; c = drained cohe-

sion intercept; v = vertical effective stress; and

mob = mobilized angle of friction between the anchor Figure 8. FELA vector plot for a rough anchored wall,
and soil mass. For essentially 1D reinforcement such Krabbenhoft et al. (2005).
as soil nails, a = nD where D is the diameter of
the soil nail, and n is the number of soil nails per unit
width.
Figure 7 shows that the point at which the linking
In certain situations the capacity of the anchor per
engineered element attaches to the sheet pile wall is not
metre length is unknown, but an ultimate pull-out
located directly on the wall. If the LEE (with a bend-
resistance for a given anchor is known. This hap-
ing moment resistance of zero) is attached directly to
pens most frequently when benchmarking the DLO
the sheet pile wall then this results in LimitState:GEO
method against work done by other authors, where the
modelling a zero-bending moment also at this point in
exact location of the generated slip surface is unknown
the sheet pile wall. By attaching the LEE to an extended
(Krabbenhoft et al. 2005). Modelling a single, ulti-
section of sheet pile wall this problem is eliminated.
mate, pull-out resistance in LimitState:GEO which is
Finally the capacity of the tie-back system is
independent of the failure mechanism can be achieved
defined by the pull-out resistance of the anchor ele-
in several ways. Here it will be implemented by using
ment within the rigid zone on the boundary, as seen
an engineered element to tie the sheet pile to an anchor
at the right of Figure 7. This anchor element is mod-
at the boundary of the model, as shown in Figure 7.
elled as a distinct engineered element with a specified
There are three key components to this implemen-
pull-out capacity T . The anchor capacity is thus 1 T .
tation in LimitState:GEO, which are:
the requirements of the linking engineered element,
the interface between the sheet pile wall and linking 4.2 Failure mechanism independent analysis
engineered element and
The above method of specifying the ground anchor
the specification of the anchor element.
has been tested by comparing the results obtained with
The linking engineered element (LEE) is required those from Krabbenhoft et al. (2005), where a constant
to attach the sheet pile wall to the anchor that provides anchor yield force, T , of 112 kN was used to stabilize
the pull-out resistance. To have no impact on the failure the retaining wall in Figure 4, reducing the embedded
mechanism the LEE must have zero bending moment, depth to 2 m and the required moment resistance to
lateral and pull-out resistances, thus solely acting as 115 kNm/m. This analysis was done to mobilize full
a inextensible tie (or debonded tendon) between the soil friction on the pile. The problem was set up in
sheet pile wall and the anchor. LimitState:GEO using the geometry given in Figure 4

166
Table 4. Anchored wall parameters.
Plastic moment resistance, Mp 115 kNm/m
Tip level, dw 2.0 m
Angle of wall friction,  30
Anchor force, T 112 kN
Figure 9. DLO failure mechanism for a rough anchored
wall.
and the soil and wall parameters given in Table 4. As
was the case for the cantilevered wall, the factor of
safety is defined in terms of a partial factor on soil
strength. For an adequacy factor of 1, a partial fac-
tor of 1.032 was required, showing that the difference
between the lower and upper bound methods is 3.2%.
From a comparsion between the vector plot and failure
mechanism, it can be seen that the mode of failure is
the very similar in both models.
4.3 Failure mechanism dependent analysis
One of the main strengths of the DLO method is its
ability to evaluate the stability of geotechnical prob-
lems of any geometry, always finding the lowest energy
solution. The anchored retaining wall analysis in the
last section showed that DLO method is capable of
closely matching the failure mechanism and factor of
safety obtained using a lower bound FELA analysis
of a problem involving an anchor whose capacity is
independent of the failure mechanism. As discussed
earlier, the DLO method can also model discrete rein-
forcement, modelling the interaction of an anchor with
the surrounding soil. An example of this is shown in
Figure 10 where the LEE was replaced by an engi-
neered element with a capacity T of 20 kN/m along
its full length, and the single anchor adjacent to the
boundary was removed. Now the factor of safety
becomes a function of the length of the anchor and
its influence on the failure mechanism. The param-
eters for the sheet pile wall remain unchanged from
those given in Table 4. The analysis indicated that an
anchor length of 11.45 m was required to ensure wall
stability.
167
Figure 10. DLO failure mechanism for a rough anchored
wall with a discrete anchor.
By comparing Figures 9 & 10 the effect of the dis-
crete anchor on the failure mechanism can clearly
be seen, with the failure mechanism in Figure 10
attempting to circumnavigate the anchor.
5 CONCLUSIONS
This paper has demonstrated that the discontinuity
layout optimization (DLO) procedure can be used to
model sheet pile walls, and also, using a variety of
methods, connected ground anchors.
A classical Rankine analysis was first used to
demonstrate that the DLO procedure is capable of
making accurate predictions when only sliding failures
are involved. More complex sheet pile wall systems
were then modelled, and the results were benchmarked
against those presented by Krabbenhoft et al. (2005).
It was found that the upper bound DLO results were
within 3.23.5% of the results obtained using a lower
bound FELA method. It was also found that the DLO
method is capable of correctly identifying the fail-
ure mechanisms for a variety of sheet pile retaining
wall problems. The problems are easily specified in
the LimitState:GEO software, allowing rapid analysis
of retaining wall problems (run times were dependent
on the nodal density specified, ranging from seconds
to minutes on a modern desktop PC).
REFERENCES
Krabbenhoft, K., Damkilde, L. & Krabbenhoft, S. (2005).
Ultimate limit state design of sheet pile walls by finite
elements and nonlinear programming, Computers and
Structures 83 pp. 383393.
LimitState (2009). LimitState:GEO Manual VERSION 2.0,
sept 3 edn, LimitState Ltd.
Lysmer, J. (1970). Limit analysis of plane problems in soil
mechanics, Journal of the Soil Mechanics and Founda-
tions Division ASCE 96, 4: 13111334.
Makrodimopoulos, A. & Martin, C. (2006). Lower bound
limit analysis of cohesive-frictional materials using sec-
ond order cone programming, Int. J. Num. Meth. in Eng.
6, 4: 604634.
Sloan, S. (1988). Lower bound limit analysis using finite ele-
ments and linear programming, Int. J. Num. Anal. Meth.
in Geomech. 12, 4: 6177.
Smith, C. & Gilbert, M. (2008). Limit analysis of the stability
of foundations on inclined ground, 2nd BGA International
Conference on Foundations, Dundee, pp. 16831692.
Smith, C. C. & Gilbert, M. (2007a). Application of
discontinuity layout optimization to plane plasticity
168
problems, Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathe-
matical, Physical and Engineering Sciences 463, 2086
pp. 24612484.
Smith, C. C. & Gilbert, M. (2007b). New upper bound solu-
tions for layered soil bearing capacity problems using
discontinuity layout optimization, 10th Australia New
Zealand Conference on Geomechanics, Brisbane, pp.
250255.
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Application of Discontinuity Layout Optimization to geotechnical limit

analysis problems

M. Gilbert & C.C. Smith

Department of Civil and Structural Engineering, University of Sheffield, UK

I.W. Haslam & T.J. Pritchard

LimitState Ltd, Sheffield, UK

ABSTRACT: Limit analysis provides a long-established and powerful means of assessing the stability of
geotechnical features such as foundation footings and retaining walls. However, various difficulties have meant
that numerical limit analysis procedures have generally not found widespread use in practice. Discontinuity Lay-
out Optimization (DLO) is a recently developed numerical limit analysis procedure which appears to overcome
many of the difficulties associated with other methods (e.g. results from traditional finite element limit analysis
can be sensitive to the geometry of the mesh around stress or displacement singularities). In the DLO procedure
the critical arrangement of discontinuities which inter-link nodes distributed across the soil layer under consid-
eration are identified directly, using efficient linear optimization techniques. In this paper details of the DLO
procedure are briefly outlined and output from a simple MATLAB implementation are presented. Finally, the
capabilities of the MATLAB script are briefly compared with that of the DLO-based LimitState:GEO software
(both programs are freely available for use by academic users).

1 INTRODUCTION admissible throughout each solid element (or that the

Limit analysis provides a long established and
extremely useful means of assessing the stability of
geotechnical features such as retaining walls, founda-
tion footings and slopes. By applying the formal the-
orems of plasticity, rigorous lower and upper bounds
on the exact collapse load (or load factor) can be
obtained.
However, although analytical limit analysis solu-
tions already exist for many simple problems, deriving
new solutions is difficult since it relies on insight from
the engineer (e.g. to identify the geometrical form of
the solution). Solutions may also be generated using
series representations and matrix approaches (e.g.
Dewhurst & Collins 1973) and analytical-numerical
approaches, for example using the method of charac-
teristics (e.g. Sokolovski 1965, Martin 2003, Smith
2005). However, such methods are currently not suit-
able for routine use by practicing engineers.
Consequently many attempts to develop more gen-
eral numerical limit analysis procedures have been
made over the course of the last four decades. One
method which has been investigated by academic
researchers over a period of several decades is finite
element limit analysis (e.g. Lysmer 1970, Sloan 1988,
Makrodimopoulos & Martin 2006). Here suitable ele-
ment shape and stress (or displacement) interpolation
functions are used together with the desired yield cri-
teria to ensure that the internal stresses are statically
flow rule is everywhere satisfied). Efficient mathe-
matical programming techniques can then be used to
directly obtain a collapse load factor. Unfortunately
many workers have found that the solutions obtained
are highly sensitive to the geometry of the original
finite element mesh, particularly in the region of stress
or displacement singularities. Although meshes may
be tailored to suit the problem in hand, this is not very
satisfactory since advance knowledge of the mode of
response is then required. The use of higher order ele-
ments (e.g.Yu et al. 1994) or adaptive mesh refinement
(e.g. Lyamin et al. 2005) can potentially help overcome
this problem, though at the expense of considerable
complexity.
However, whereas finite element limit analysis
involves the formulation and solution of a variational
continuum mechanics problem, it is possible to alter-
natively formulate and solve a simpler discontinuum
problem. For example, Alwis (2000) has proposed
a model which uses rigid triangular elements sepa-
rated by potential discontinuities. Unfortunately the
restriction that discontinuities can lie only at the edges
of elements positioned in a fixed mesh leads to a
very restricted search space, and hence often to poor
computed collapse load predictions. To overcome this
a new computational limit analysis procedure has
recently been proposed by Smith & Gilbert (2007).
With this new procedure, termed discontinuity lay-
out optimisation (DLO), the problem is formulated

169
Figure 1. Stages in DLO procedure: (a) starting problem (surcharge applied to block of soil close to a vertical cut); (b)
discretization of soil using nodes; (c) interconnection of nodes with potential discontinuities; (d) identification of critical
subset of potential discontinuities using optimization (giving the layout of slip-lines in the critical failure mechanism).
entirely in terms of lines of discontinuity (e.g. slip or
yield-lines), rather than in terms of elements, and the
procedure directly generates upper bound mechanisms
without the need for operator input. Brief details of the
DLO procedure will now be outlined.
2 THE DLO PROBLEM FORMULATION
Stages in the DLO procedure are outlined diagram-
matically in Figure 1. In the procedure the plastic
limit analysis problem is couched in terms of the
potential discontinuities which inter-link nodes used to
discretize the region under consideration. In the kine-
matic formulation compatibility at nodes is explicitly
enforced. However a key feature of the procedure
is that discontinuities will normally crossover one
another (as each node is typically linked to every other
node), with compatibility at crossover points being
enforced implicitly. The critical arrangement of dis-
continuities can then be identified using optimization,
with an adaptive refinement procedure reducing the
number of potential discontinuities which need to be
represented in the problem constraint matrix at any
given time.
The kinematic problem formulation can be stated
as follows (Smith & Gilbert 2007):
subject to:
where is the unknown load factor at collapse, fD and
fL are vectors containing respectively specified dead
and live loads at discontinuities, d contains displace-
ments along the discontinuities, p is a vector of plastic
multipliers and g contains the corresponding dissipa-
tion coefficients. B is a suitable compatibility matrix
containing direction cosines and N is a suitable flow
matrix.
170
For a typical translational cohesive-frictional plane-
strain plastic analysis problem: dT = {dT1 ,dT2 . . . dTm } =
{s1 , n1 , s2 , n2 . . . nm }, where si and ni are the rela-
tive shear and normal displacements at discontinuity
i; gT = {c1 l1 , c1 l1 , c2 l2 , . . . cm lm }, where li and ci are
respectively the length and cohesive shear strength of
discontinuity i. A key feature of the formulation is
that compatibility is enforced at the nodes. Thus the
contribution of a given discontinuity i to the global
compatibility constraint equation (2) can be written as:
where i and i are respectively x-axis and y-axis
direction cosines for discontinuity i.
Similarly, when the Mohr Coulomb failure enve-
lope is used the local plastic flow constraint for
discontinuity i can be written as:
where Ni is a local plastic flow matrix, pi is a vector
containing plastic multipliers p1i , p2i , where p1i , p2i 0,
and where i is the angle of friction of the material.
The discontinuity displacements in d and the plastic
multipliers in p are the variables in the optimization
problem, which can be solved using linear program-
ming (LP) when the Tresca or Mohr Coulomb failure
criteria are used. Solution accuracy is controlled by the
number of nodes used to discretize the problem.
3 IMPLEMENTATION IN MATLAB
The basic DLO procedure has been implemented in
a relatively short (<150 line) MATLAB script which
can be used to analyse cohesive-frictional plane strain
problems involving rectangular domains. The script
described here extends the functionality of a script
developed for simple metal forming problems (Gilbert
et al. 2009) by: (i) allowing up to two different bound-
ary conditions to be defined along any of the four
Figure 2. DLO script written in MATLAB: sample usage and main function code listing.
edges of the rectangular domain (allowing foundation
footing, anchor and various other common geotechni-
cal problems to be tackled, e.g. the problem shown in
Figure 1); (ii) allowing problems involving self weight
be analysed, using the formulation described in the
next section (which expands on the very brief descrip-
tion provided in Smith & Gilbert 2007).
The main body of the MATLAB script is shown
in Figure 2, together with header comment lines
which explain how the script can be used. For
conciseness secondary functions are not listed (the
full script can be viewed or downloaded from
http://cmd.shef.ac.uk/dlo).
3.1 Including body forces
Body forces may readily be included in the problem
formulation. For example, the self weight contribution
made by discontinuity (slip-line) i to the fD term in
equation (1) can be written as follows:
where Wi is the total weight of material lying
vertically above slip-line i.
The action of this equation is illustrated in Figure 3:
consider any vertical strip of a problem domain that
does not contain any nodes or cross-overs such as aijb,
and further consider that only slip line cd is active. It
can be seen that the vertical component of any move-
ment on slip-line cd will result in work done against
gravity equal to the mass of area cijd multiplied by
171
the vertical movement. Now if slip-line ef is now also
considered to be active, then area eijf will now have an
additional vertical movement relative to that computed
previously for area cijd. This may simply be accounted
for by adding an additional work term equal to the mass
of area eijf multiplied by the relative vertical move-
ment across discontinuity ef. Moving upwards through
discontinuities gf and gh, the same arguments may be
used. These work terms are easily described in terms of
the relative shear and normal displacements si and ni .
Now while this has been argued for one vertical strip
of material, it will be seen that it is straightforward to
divide the entire domain into adjacent strips, none of
which contain any nodes or cross-overs. i.e. all nodes
and crossovers occur on the edge of strips (e.g. g in
Figure 3(a)). Since the same argument applies for any
given slip-line passing through each strip, it may be
readily seen that the net contribution to work done by
that discontinuity is simply the mass of material verti-
cally above that line multiplied by the relative vertical
displacement across that line.
3.2 MATLAB examples
In this section various example problems are anal-
ysed using the MATLAB script, initially considering
problems for which known solutions are available. The
arguments used to call the script in the case of exam-
ples 1, 2 and 3 are provided in the header comment
lines presented in Figure 2.
3.2.1 Example 1: Undrained retaining wall
In this example the maximum (passive) pressure
exerted on a wall retaining a weightless cohesive soil
 Figure 4. MATLAB output for example 1 (undrained retain-
ing wall).

Figure 5. MATLAB output for example 2 (undrained foot-

ing).
Figure 3. Inclusion of self weight in a plane-strain DLO
formulation using only relative displacements: (a) strip of
material intersected by potential slip-lines; (b) deformed
vertical strip.

(of unit strength) is sought. Sample output for the full

wall adhesion case is shown in Figure 4. A solution of
2.6026 was obtained when using 70 nodes, which is
just 1.2% greater than the exact solution of 12 (2 + ).
A key feature of the failure mechanism is the singular-
ity in the displacement field at the top of the wall; it is
clear that the DLO procedure allows such singularities
to be modelled without difficulty.

3.2.2 Example 2: Undrained footing (Prandtl
problem)
In this example the bearing capacity of a footing on
a weightless cohesive soil (of unit strength) is sought
(i.e. the well known Prandtl problem). Symmetry is
used and sample output is shown in Figure 5. The solu-
tion of 5.2051 was obtained when using 112 nodes,
which is just 1.2% greater than the exact solution of
2 + .
3.2.3 Example 3: Drained anchor
In this example the maximum load that can be applied
to an anchor of breadth B embedded to a depth D in
a granular material of unit weight = 1 and angle of
friction of 20 degrees is sought. Sample output for the
case D/B = 4/2 = 2 is shown in Figure 6 (using a line
Figure 6. MATLAB output for example 3 (drained anchor).
of symmetry along the left edge). A solution of 6.952
was obtained when using 25 nodes, which is just 0.6%
greater than the analytical solution of 6.912 reported
by Smith (1998).
3.2.4 Example 4: Surcharge near a vertical cut
Consider the problem of a surcharge applied close to
a vertical cut in a weightless cohesive soil, as shown
in Figure 1. Although still relatively simple, this is the
kind of non-standard problem which has in the past
been time-consuming to solve by hand. The following
MATLAB call sets up and solves a problem identical
to that shown in Figure 1 (using a weightless cohesive

172

Figure 7. MATLAB output for example 4 (surcharge near a
vertical cut): (a) coarse nodal discretization; (b) finer nodal
discretization.
soil of unit strength, and with 3 2 nodes distributed
across the soil mass):
A solution of 3.0 was obtained for this problem.
Alternatively consider a more refined analysis, now
containing 18 12 nodes distributed across the soil
mass; this problem can be set up using the following
call:
In this case a slightly different mechanism is identified,
but, despite the much finer numerical discretiztion,
the numerical solution of 2.9506 is only 1.7% lower
than before (this is typical of problems involving cohe-
sive soil, where accurate results can be obtained using
coarse numerical discretizations; in contrast frictional
soil problems are often considerably more challenging,
and require finer numerical discretizations to obtain
high accuracy).
3.3 Discussion
As the simple MATLAB script presented here has been
designed with readability rather than computational
173
Figure 8. Sample LimitState:GEO output (foundation
behind a retaining wall).
efficiency in mind, it is only suitable for relatively
small, simple, problems. (For larger problems, partic-
ularly those involving frictional soils, the built-in LP
solver in MATLAB will be found to be quite limiting).
Such problems can however be solved using the Lim-
itState:GEO software, which will be briefly described
in the next section.
4 IMPLEMENTATION OF DLO IN A
PRACTICAL SOFTWARE APPLICATION
A DLO-based software application has recently been
developed by University of Sheffield spin-out com-
pany LimitState Ltd to provide geotechnical engi-
neers with a practical limit analysis tool. Whilst
the software developed, LimitState:GEO, has to date
been applied to well over 100 benchmark prob-
lems of the sort considered in section 3 (see:
http://www.limitstate.com/geo), the real ben-
efit of the software is its ability to treat problems
with real world geometry (e.g. sample output from
the software for a relatively complex retaining wall
problem is provided in Figure 8). Other differences
compared to the simple MATLAB script include:
Use of an efficient interior point LP solver and
incorporation of an efficient adaptive refinement
algorithm, which means that not all connections
between nodes need to be made from the outset.
This allows much larger problems to be tackled.
Ability to model rotational as well as translational
mechanisms.
Ability to model seismic body forces and water
pressures.
Ability to model soil reinforcement.
Improved visualization of the mode of failure.
In addition to its primary purpose as a tool for use
in industry, the highly visual nature of the output also
makes the software useful in teaching (N.B. the latest
version of the software is licensed automatically when
run on a University network).
5 CONCLUSIONS
Discontinuity layout optimization (DLO) provides a
new and highly efficient tool for geotechnical engi-
neers, effectively automating the traditional upper
boundhand analysis method for the first time.A MAT-
LAB script which allows geotechnical problems to
be solved has been prepared to accompany this
paper (see: http://cmd.shef.ac.uk/dlo).
The script demonstrates that the basic procedure can
be implemented relatively easily. Additionally, for
larger and/or more complex problems, the DLO-based
LimitState:GEO software application is now available
for use by both practitioners and academics.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors acknowledge the assistance and support
provided by Computational Mechanics and Design
(CMD) group members past and present, in particular:
Andy Tyas, Wael Darwich, Dong Nguyen and Le Van
Canh. The first author also acknowledges the support
of EPSRC under grant reference GR/S53329/01.
REFERENCES
Alwis, W. A. M. (2000). Discrete element slip model of
plasticity. Engineering Structures 22, 14941504.
Dewhurst, P. & I. F. Collins (1973). A matrix technique for
constructing slip-line field solutions to a class of plane-
strain plasticity problems. Int. J. Num. Meth. Eng. 7(3),
357378.
174
Gilbert, M., C. C. Smith, I.W. Haslam, & T. J. Pritchard
(2009). Plastic limit analysis using discontinuity layout
optimization. In Proc. 17th ACME conference, Notting-
ham, UK.
Lyamin, A. V., S.W. Sloan, K. Krabbenhoft, & M. Hjiaj
(2005). Lower bound limit analysis with adaptive remesh-
ing. Int. J. Numer. Meth. Engng. 63, 19611974.
Lysmer, J. (1970). Limit analysis of plane problems in soil
mechanics. Journal of the Soil Mechanics and Founda-
tions Division ASCE 96(4), 13111334.
Makrodimopoulos, A. & C. M. Martin (2006). Lower
bound limit analysis of cohesive-frictional materials using
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 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Enhancing solution procedures of a new numerical scheme for dynamic

analysis of soil-structure interaction problems

M.H. Bazyar
Yasouj University, Yasouj, Iran

Ch. Song
University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia

ABSTRACT: The scaled boundary finite-element method has been recently attracted the attention of many
researchers in the field of numerical methods for modeling engineering problems all around the world. The
method was originally developed for dynamic stiffness of unbounded domains. The method not only combines
some advantages of the finite-element method and the boundary element method but also possess its own espe-
cial properties. Only the boundary needs to be discretized, approximation in the circumferential direction leads
to analytical solutions in the radial direction, singular problems can be modeled rigorously, non-homogeneous
problems satisfying similarity and anisotropic media can be modeled without additional efforts and no funda-
mental solution is required. In this paper, the recent developments for the solution procedures of the method
carried out by the authors are presented.

1 INTRODUCTION However, the solution procedures of the scaled

The scaled boundary finite-element method (SBFEM)
a novel semi-analytical method of computational
mechanics combining advantage of finite-element
method with advantages of the boundary element
method, was originally developed by Wolf and Song
(1996) for dynamic analysis of unbounded domains.
Only the boundary is discretized as in the boundary
element method. No fundamental solution is necessary
as in the finite-element method. General anisotropic
materials can be analyzed without additional efforts.
The method proved far more versatile than initially
envisaged and was extended successfully to static
and bounded domains (Wolf & Song, 1996). It is
extended to dynamic the analysis of non-homogeneous
unbounded domains with the elasticity modulus and
mass density varying as power functions of spatial
coordinates (Bazyar & Song 2006). In this method,
the analytical nature of the solution in the radial
direction allows accurate stress intensity factors in
fracture mechanics to be determined directly from
the definition. In statics, an eigen-value problem is
solved leading to displacement and stress amplitudes.
In the frequency domain, the scaled boundary finite-
element equation is expressed in terms of dynamic-
stiffness matrix being a system of nonlinear first order
ordinary differential equations in the independent
excitation frequency. In the time domain, the scaled
boundary finite-element equation in acceleration unit-
impulse response including convolution integrals is
obtained.
boundary finite-element equation are global in both
space and time leading in expensive computations
especially for long time calculations and large-scale
problems. In the frequency domain, a numerical inte-
gration of the dynamic-stiffness matrix is needed and
in the time domain a unit-impulse response matrix has
to be evaluated.
To increase computational efficiency of the method,
a reduced set of base functions is constructed by
excluding the higher order modes determined from the
eigen-value problem used in the static analysis (Song
2004, 2006). It results in significant reduction in the
computational effort without significant loss of accu-
racy. The sparsity and the lumping of the coefficient
matrices of the scaled boundary finite-element equa-
tion are exploited to further reduce the computational
costs (Song & Bazyar 2008).
A Pad series solution for the SBFE equation in
dynamic stiffness is developed for frequency domain
analyses (Song & Bazyar 2007). It converges over the
whole frequency range as the order of the approxima-
tion increases. The computationally expensive task of
numerically integrating the SBFE equation is circum-
vented.
A high-order local transmitting boundary con-
structed from a continued-fraction solution of the
dynamic-stiffness matrix is developed (Bazyar & Song
2008). An equation of motion as occurring in standard
structural dynamics with symmetric and frequency-
independent coefficient matrices is obtained. This
transmitting boundary condition can be coupled

175
seamlessly with standard finite elements. Transient finite-element method. Isoperimetric displacement
responses are evaluated by using a standard time elements are used in the circumferential directions.
integration scheme. The expensive task of evaluating The displacements at a point (, , ) are interpolated
convolution integrals is circumvented. piece-wisely from the displacement functions {u()}
The paper commences with an overview of the
scaled boundary method for elastodynamics followed
by recently developed techniques to improve the
efficiency and robustness of the method. To demon-
strate the elegant performance of the method in mod- where [I ] is a 3 3 identity matrix. Once the govern-
eling geotechnical problems, examples incorporating ing differential equations were expressed in the scaled
unbounded soils are addressed. boundary coordinates the Galerkins weighted residual
technique or the virtual work method is applied in the
circumferential directions , . After assembling the
2 SUMMARY OF THE SCALED BOUNDARY element equations the scaled boundary finite-element
FINITE-ELEMENT METHOD (SBFE) equation in displacement is formulated in
the frequency domain for two- and three-dimensional
In the scaled boundary finite-element method, a so- problems as
called scaling centre O is chosen in a zone from which
the whole boundary is visible (Figure 1(a)). Only the
boundary S directly visible from the scaling centre
is discretized (See Figure 1(b) for typical line ele-
ment to be used for two-dimensional problems and
Figure 1(c) for a typical surface element to be used for
three-dimensional problems). The nodal coordinates
of an element in the Cartesian coordinate system are
where s (=2 or 3) denotes the spatial dimension of
arranged in {x}, {y}, {z}. The geometry of the element
the domain. [E 0 ], [E 1 ], [E 2 ] and [M 0 ] are coeffi-
is interpolated using the shape functions [N (, )] for-
cient matrices obtained by assembling the element
mulated in the local coordinates , . The geometry of
coefficient matrices as in the finite-element method
the domain is defined by scaling the boundary with
the dimensionless radial coordinate pointing from
the scaling centre O to a point on the boundary (Fig-
ure 1(a)). At the scaling centre and on the boundary,
is chosen equal to 0 and 1, respectively. A point (x, y, z)
inside the domain is expressed as (Figure 1(a))

, , are called the scaled boundary coordinates. The

change of coordinates from x, y, z to , , is called
the scaled boundary transformation.
Along the radial lines passing through the scal-
ing centre O and a node on the boundary the nodal
displacement functions {u()} are introduced. The
directions of the displacement components are defined
in the original Cartesian coordinates as in the standard
in which [B1 (, )] and [B2 (, )] are the nodal
displacement-strain relationship matrices. Integra-
tions are performed over the elements on boundary (at
= 1) only. [E 0 ] and [M 0 ] are positive-definite and
symmetric and [E 2 ] is symmetric. The amplitude of
nodal forces {R()} on a surface is calculated as in
the finite-element method by integrating the surface
tractions over the circumferential directions ,

The dynamic-stiffness matrix [S ()] relates the

amplitudes of the nodal forces {R()} to those of the
displacements {u()}({R()} = [S ()]{u()}). Elimi-
nating {R()} and {u()} from Equations. (3) and (5)
leads to an equation for the dynamic-stiffness matrix
[S ()] on the boundary = 1
Figure 1. (a) Representation of an unbounded domain in the
scaled boundary finite-element method; (b) three-node line
element on boundary; and (c) eight-node surface element on
boundary.

176
It is a system of nonlinear first-order ordinary differ-
ential equations in the independent variable .
The dynamic-stiffness matrix [S ()] is expanded
at high frequency as a power series of i
A general eigen-value problem constructed of positive-
definite coefficient matrices [E 0 ] and [M 0 ] is used
to determine coefficient matrices of the asymptotic
expansion ([C ], [K ] and [A(i) ]). The asymptotic
expansion can be applied at a specified high frequency
to provide an initial value to the scaled boundary finite-
element equation in dynamic stiffness (Equation 6).
The equation can then be integrated for decreasing
to obtain dynamic-stiffness matrix over the complete
frequency range.
The SBFE equation in time domain is derived
by performing the inverse Fourier transformation of
Equation 6 (Wolf & Son 1996). The scaled bound-
ary finite-element equation in time domain includes
convolution integrals being computationally expen-
sive especially for long-time calculations. In Wolf &
Song (1996) the original solution procedures for both
frequency- and time-domain analyses are detailed.
In the following sections, new advances improving
efficiency and robustness of the method are addressed.
3 TECHNIQUE OF THE REDUCED SET OF
BASE FUNCTIONS
In order to increase the computational efficiency by
reducing the number of displacement functions, the
technique of reduced set of base functions has been
developed by Song (2004). Utilizing the weighted
block-orthogonal eigenvectors calculated from the
static analysis a reduced set of base functions includ-
ing eigenvectors with small real parts of eigen-values
is constructed for the dynamic analysis of unbounded
domains (Song 2006). A summary is presented in this
section. The displacement functions are expressed in
a reduced set of base functions [ (u) ] and generalized
coordinates {W ()}
After defining the generalized nodal forces {q()} =
[ (u) ]T {q()}, the generalized dynamic-stiffness matrix
[S ()] and transformed coefficient matrices are
derived as
Equation 6 is equally valid for the generalized coordi-
nates with the corresponding transformed coefficient
177
matrices. The solution procedure remains the same but
the size of the problem is reduced significantly.
4 SPARSITY OF THE COEFFICIENT
MATRICES, LUMPED COEFFICIENT
MATRICES [E 0 ] AND [M 0 ]
In statics ( = 0), by introducing the variable
the scaled boundary finite-element equation in dis-
placement (Equation 3) with n unknown displace-
ment functions {u()} is transformed into a system
of first-order ordinary differential equations with 2n
unknowns
with the coefficient matrix [Z] defined as
To solve Equation 11, the matrix [Z] is transformed to
a real Schur form matrix [S]
where [S] and [] are quasi-upper triangular matrix
and orthogonal Schur vectors, respectively. It is proven
in (Song 2004) that Equation 11 can be decoupled by
weighted orthogonal base functions obtained as lin-
ear combinations of the Schur vectors []. Applying
the technique of the reduced set of base functions
described in Section 3, only a partial Schur decom-
position of the low order terms with small real parts
of the eigen-values is required. Only the modes with
the amplitude of eigen-values less than about 10 are
required to achieve engineering accuracy.
The partial Schur decomposition using the routines
DNAUPD and DNEUPD of ARPACK in the shift-
inverse mode requires (Song & Bazyar 2008)
for a given vector {b} and a shift value . Although
the coefficient matrix [E 0 ] is sparse, its inverse is
fully populated leading to fully populated matrix [Z].
It is highly desirable to exploit the sparsity of the
coefficient matrices to reduce the computer memory
and time required for solving large-scale problems.
Partitioning the unknown {x} into sub-vectors {x1 }
and {x2 }, and {b} into {b1 } and {b2 } conformably
to the partition of [Z], introducing values 1 and
2 (1 = 0.5(s 2) + and 2 = 0.5(s 2) ) and
rearranging the equation leads to

The coefficient matrix of Equation 16 is sparse. Sub-
stituting the solution for {x1 } into Equation 15 yields
the solution for {x2 }.
Several techniques have been developed in the
finite-element method to lump mass matrix. Anal-
ogously lumped coefficient matrices [E 0 ] and [M 0 ]
can be constructed. Technique of mass lumping by
nodal quadrature offers excellent performance in
SBFEM (Song & Bazyar 2008). An order p parent
element has p + 1 nodes, in which two end-nodes are
located at the extremity of the element. p 1 inter-
nal nodes are located at the Gauss-Lobatto-Legendre
points. The Gauss-Lobatto-Legendre shape functions
are Lagrange polynomials. When the Gauss-Lobatto-
Legendre quadrature is used for the numerical inte-
gration, the integration points coincide with the nodes
leading to lumped coefficient matrices [E 0 ] and [M 0 ].
Coefficient matrix [M 0 ] is thus a diagonal matrix while
the coefficient matrix [E 0 ] consists of positive definite
diagonal blocks.
An additional benefit of the nodal quadrature lump-
ing procedure is that a high-order element with Gauss-
Lobatto-Legendre shape functions is formulated.
5 PAD APPROXIMATION OF
DYNAMIC-STIFFNESS MATRIX
Generally Pad expansion converges more rapidly and
very often has a much larger range of convergence than
the corresponding power series expansion does. Here,
a Pad approximation of the dynamic-stiffness matrix
is constructed directly from the high-frequency expan-
sion obtained from the SBFE equation (Song & Bazyar
2007). It does not require the explicitly evaluation of
the dynamic-stiffness matrix.
The construction of a Pad approximation of the
dynamic stiffness matrix starts from the asymptotic
expansion of [S ()] at high frequency as shown
in Equation 7. The Pad expansion of the dynamic-
stiffness matrix [S ()] in i is expressed
where [P()] and [Q()] are polynomials in (i)1
with [q(0) ] = [I ]. The 2M coefficient matrices of
[P()] and [Q()] follow from matching term-by-term
178
the coefficients of the power series in Equation 7 with
those in Equation 17
Following system of equations are obtained to deter-
mine the coefficient matrices [q(i) ] in Equation 19 and
[p(i) ] in Equation 18
The Pad series in Equation 17 with the matrix poly-
nomials [P()] and [Q()] in Equations 18 and 19
is thus determined. The dynamic-stiffness matrix at
a specified accuracy can be evaluated directly from
Equation 17. Note that only the high-frequency asymp-
totic expansion in power series (Equation 7) is used in
constructing the Pad approximation. The dynamic-
stiffness matrix is not calculated a prior.
6 CONTINUED-FRACTION SOLUTION FOR
DYNAMIC-STIFFNESS MATRIX
To develop a time-domain solution for unbounded
domains to be used in combination with the
well-established methods in structural dynamics, a
continued-fraction solution for the dynamic-stiffness
matrix is obtained from the SBFE equation (Equa-
tion 6). It leads to a high-order transmitting boundary
condition. The dynamic-stiffness matrix [S ()] is
decomposed as (Bazyar & Song 2008)
[Y (1) ()]1 is the residual of the two-term asymptotic
expansion at high frequency. The interaction forces on
the boundary {R()} = [S ()]{u()} are expressed
as
where {u(1) ()} is an auxiliary variable defined in
{u()} = [Y (1) ()]{u(1) ()}. Substituting Eq. (23) into
Eq. (6) leads to three terms in descending order of
the power of (i), i.e., (i)2 , (i) and remaining lower
order terms. The resulting equation is satisfied when
all the three terms are equal to zero. The equations
for (i)2 and (i) terms result in equations for [C ]
and [K ] to be solved using a general eigen-value
problem (Bazyar & Song, 2008). The remaining lower
order term results in an equation for [Y (1) ()] which
is written as the case i = 1 of the following equation
[Y (i) ()] can be decomposed in a continued-fraction
form
Post-multiplying Equation 26 with {u(i) ()} and intro-
ducing the auxiliary variable {u(i+1) ()}
lead to
where {u(0) ()} = {u()} applies. Using Equation 26,
Equation 25 is again expanded to (i)2 , (i) and
(i)
remaining lower order terms to be determined [Y1 ],
(i)
[Y0 ] and an equation for [Y (i+1) ()] with the same
form as Equation 25 but for the case i + 1 and with
coefficient matrices defined recursively.
An order M continued fraction terminates with the
approximation [Y (i+1) ()]1 = 0 and {u(M +1) ()} = 0.
Writing Equations 24 and 28 in a matrix form for an
order M continued fraction followed by inverse Fourier
transform of the resulting equation yields
with the coefficient matrices [A], [B], function {Z(t)}
and external excitation {F(t)}
The coefficient matrices [A] and [B] are symmetric.
Equation 30 is a system of linear first order ordi-
nary differential equations in the same form as the
equation of motion in structural dynamics. It can be
coupled with finite elements and solved using the
standard time-stepping techniques. The formulation is
temporally local and the expensive task of evaluating
convolution integrals is circumvented.
7 NUMERICAL EXAMPLES
7.1 Frequency-domain analysis of a rigid strip
footing with prolated cross section embedded in
a transversely isotropic half-plane
A rigid mass-less strip footing embedded in a trans-
versely isotropic half-plane shown in Figure 2 with
179
Figure 2. A rigid strip footing embedded in a transversely
isotropic half-plane.
Figure 3. Vertical dynamic-stiffness coefficient of a rigid
strip footing with prolated cross-section.
material constants Ehh = 3.864Ghv , Ehv = 2.863Ghv ,
hh = 0.301, hv = 0.185 and mass density is
addressed. The interface between the footing and the
soil is discretized with 11-node elements. Coefficient
matrices [E 0 ] and [M 0 ] are lumped. A mesh of two ele-
ments on each arc segment and four elements on the
straight segment of the interface is used. This mesh
has 162 degrees of freedom. The dynamic-stiffness
matrix is calculated by numerical integration of the
SBFE equation in dynamic stiffness (Equation 6).
The resulting vertical dynamic-stiffness coefficient is
non-dimensionalized with Ghv and is presented as a
function of the dimensionless frequency a0 = r0 /cs
in Figure 3. The results of the full-set analysis are
plotted as dotted lines. In the reduced set analysis,
the first 24 base functions are selected. The vertical
dynamic-stiffness coefficient is plotted in Figure 3 as
dashed lines. A Pade approximation of order M = 9 is
constructed from the SBFE equation for the reduced
set analysis. The normalized dynamic-stiffness coef-
ficient is shown in Figure 3 as solid lines. The results
agree very well with those obtained by numerical
integration.
7.2 Time-domain analysis of a rigid strip footing
embedded in a transversely isotropic half-plane
The rigid massless strip footing shown in Figure 2 but
with the length of straight segment equals to 2r0 is
considered here. The same material constants as in the
previous example are used. The impulse force shown
in Figure 4 is applied in the vertical direction at the
centre of the footing. Taking advantage of symmetry,
only half of the half-plane is modeled. A mesh con-
sisting of 9 three-node elements on the arc segment

Figure 4. Time history of external force.
Figure 5. Displacement response to a force impulse.
and 6 three-node elements on the straight segment is
generated. This mesh has 61 degrees of freedom. Dis-
placement response of the footing to the impulse force
is obtained and is non-dimensionalized with P/Ghv .
It is plotted as a function of the dimensionless time
tcs /r0 . For the rigorous procedure with full set of base
functions, the time step is chosen as t = 0.025r0 /cs .
The normalized displacement response is portrayed in
Figure 5 as dashed lines. An order M = 7 transmit-
ting boundary condition is constructed using the first
8 base functions. Applying the transmitting boundary
directly on the footing-soil interface, the displacement
response is obtained by solving equation of motion
with the Newmarks method. The time step is cho-
sen as t = 0.08r0 /cs . The normalized displacement
response is illustrated in Figure 5 as solid lines. Result
of an extended finite-element mesh is also plotted for
180
comparison. An excellent agreement is observed up to
about t = 9r0 /cs . Afterwards, the extended mesh result
is contaminated by the waves reflected at the outer
boundary of the extended mesh.
8 CONCLUSIONS
Recent advances for the solution procedures of the
scaled boundary finite-element method are reviewed.
The efficiency and robustness of the scaled bound-
ary finite-element method are improved significantly.
Compatible formulations with the finite-element
method are obtained.
REFERENCES
Bazyar, M.H. & Song, Ch. 2006. Time-harmonic response
of non-homogeneous elastic unbounded domains using
the scaled boundary-finite-element method. Earthquake
Engineering and Structural Dynamics 35: 357383.
Bazyar, M.H. & Song, Ch. 2008. A continued-fraction-based
high-order transmitting boundary for wave propagation in
unbounded domains of arbitrary geometry. International
Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering 74: 209
237.
Song, Ch. 2004. Weighted block-orthogonal base functions
for static analysis of unbounded domains. The 6th World
Congress on Computational Mechanics. Beijing, 510
September 2004.
Song, Ch. 2006. Dynamic analysis of unbounded domains
by a reduced set of base functions. Computer Methods in
Applied Mechanics and Engineering 195: 40754094.
Song, Ch. & Bazyar, M.H. 2007. A boundary condition in
Pade series for frequency-domain solution of wave prop-
agation in unbounded domains. International Journal for
Numerical Methods in Engineering 69: 23302358.
Song, Ch. & Bazyar, M.H. 2008. Development of a fun-
damental solution-less boundary element method for
exterior wave problems. Communications in Numerical
Methods for Engineering 24: 257279.
Wolf, J.P. & Song, Ch. 1996. Finite-Element modeling of
unbounded media, Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Numerical bearing capacity computation and load-displacement behavior

of shallow foundations by stress level based ZEL method

M. Jahanandish, M. Veiskarami & A. Ghahramani

Department of Civil Engineering, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran

ABSTRACT: Theory of the Zero Extension Lines (ZEL), based on the solution of soil plasticity equations
along the ZEL directions, has wide applications in determination of the bearing capacity and load-displacements
behavior of foundations and retaining walls. It has been known that soil behavior and shear strength parameters
are stress level dependent. In fact, a dense soil presenting a dilative behavior under low stress levels may show
a contractive behavior under higher levels of stress. On the other hand, foundation size has a significant effect
on the level of imposed stress on subsoil elements. In this work, the ZEL method is employed to consider the
stress level dependency of soil strength in the bearing capacity computation of foundations. A computer code is
developed to solve the ZEL equations in MATLAB. This numerical model is then compared with experimental
tests and with other methods.

1 INTRODUCTION On the other hand, among some researchers, Fel-

lenius and Altaee (1994) showed that for settlements
1.1 Shallow foundations behavior even beyond 10% of footing width (or diameter) the
foundation behavior is not that of approaching or
Among several different approaches in determina-
reaching an ultimate failure mode. This effect is called
tion of the bearing capacity of shallow foundations,
scale effect which is related to stress level experienced
the famous triple-N formula of Terzaghi (1943) has
by soil which has also been investigated by Cerato and
been generally employed in the past decades, which is
Lutenegger (2007).
written as follow:

1.2 Zero Extension Lines Method

In this equation, qult is the ultimate bearing capacity,
c is cohesion, q is surcharge pressure, B is founda-
tion width, is the soil density and Ni coefficients are
the bearing capacity factors, as the functions of soil
friction angle. The third term has been known as the
main contributor in the bearing capacity of shallow
foundations, however, unlike the first two factors, i.e.,
Nc and Nq , the third factor is the most challenging.
There are several suggested values for the third factor
by different authors (Terzaghi, 1943; Meyerhof, 1963;
Hansen, 1970; Vesic, 1973; Bolton and Lau, 1993).
Although all of these methods are generally based
upon a limit analysis solution, there are differences
between their assumptions for the boundary conditions
and consideration of soil weight effect.
Considering the bearing capacity equation, the third
term suggests an increasing tendency in the bearing
capacity with increasing foundation width. However,
data from De Beer (1965), Bolton and Lau (1989) and
Clark (1998) show that the bearing capacity of shal-
low foundations does not increase with size without
bound. Recently, other investigations have shown simi-
lar results (Cerato, 2005; Cerato and Lutenegger, 2007;
Kumar and Khatri, 2008; Yamamoto et al., 2009).
The Zero Extension Lines (ZEL) theory which was
introduced by Roscoe (1970) has been widely devel-
oped in the past decades. This is a powerful numer-
ical method with applications to a wide range of
problems in soil mechanics dealing with stress and
strain analyses. James and Bransby (1971) applied
this theory for prediction of strain and velocity field
behind retaining walls. Habibagahi and Ghahramani
(1979) and Ghahramani and Clemence (1980) applied
this method to static and dynamic earth pressures
computations. Jahanandish (1988) and Jahanandish
et al. (1989) extended this method for retaining walls
load-displacement characteristics. Anvar and Ghahra-
mani (1997) presented the plasticity equations along
the ZEL directions for plane strain problems. Later,
Jahanandish (2003) extended the ZEL method and
derived the ZEL equations for axially symmetric
problems. Jahanandish and Eslami Haghighat (2004)
derived the ZEL equations for non-coaxial problems.
In the ZEL method both stress and deformation fields
can be computed.
The basic concept of this method is that for any state
of strain, two perpendicular directions of compressive
and tensile strains exist and therefore, there are two

181

Figure 1. ZEL directions: a) Minor and major principal
strains and b) Directions of stress characteristics and ZEL.
directions along which, linear axial strain increments
are zero, making two families of the Zero Extension
Lines, namely, the negative ( ) and the positive (+ )
directions. These lines make an angle of 2 = /2
with each others at any intersecting point. In soil
mechanics, is known to be the angle of soil dilation.
If the co-axiality (similarity between the directions of
major principal stresses and strains) is assumed, and
if the major principal stress makes an angle of with
horizontal direction, the state of stresses, strains and
the ZEL directions can be considered according to
Figure 1.
According to Jahanandish (2003) the equations of
the ZEL method can be written as follow:
Plasticity (Equilibrium-Yield) Equations:
Equations for the ZEL Directions:
In these equations, stands for the angle that the
direction of principal normal stress (or strain) makes
with the horizontal, S is the mean stress defined as
(1 + 3 )/2, c and are the soil shear strength param-
eters, is the soil dilation angle, + and are positive
and negative ZEL directions, X and Z are body and/or
inertial forces in horizontal and vertical directions and
n is an integer which is equal to 1 for axi-symmetric
problems and 0 for plane strain problems. Therefore,
there exists four equations for four unknowns, i.e.,
S, , r and z.
Therefore, variations of soil shear strength param-
eters can be considered in this method. Variations can
be resulted from different facts, among them, stress
level dependency of soil shear strength parameter.
This property of the ZEL method is employed in this
research. In the following parts, the stress level depen-
dency of soil shear strength is first investigated. Then,
the stress level dependent values of the bearing capac-
ity of shallow foundations is computed and compared
with existing experimental data. It is worth mentioning
that this work is limited to cohesionless soils.
2 STRESS LEVEL DEPENDENCY OF SOIL
SHEAR STRENGTH
Variations of maximum friction angle obtained in stan-
dard laboratory shear tests with normal or confining
pressure have been widely observed. It has been rec-
ognized that the peak friction angle of soils decreases
with stress level (Meyerhof, 1950; DeBeer, 1965;
Bolton, 1986; Clark, 1998) and the Mohr failure enve-
lope is a curve rather than a straight line. However,
there are many evidences showing that the critical
state friction angle is constant. There are relation-
ships between normal or confining pressure and soil
angle of dilation from laboratory tests. Bolton (1986)
proposed to correlate maximum friction angle to soil
relative density, Dr , and applied effective stress, as
the following simplified forms:
In these equations, max is maximum mobilized fric-
tion angle, c.s. is critical state friction angle, max is
maximum dilation angle, IR is dilatancy index, Dr is
soil relative density (in decimal), is effective stress
(in kPa), Q and R are constants. Bolton (1986) rec-
ommended to use Q = 10 and R = 1. Kumar et al.,
(2007), performed a number of shear tests on Banga-
lore sand and utilized these equations to express stress
level dependency of tested specimens.
Clark (1998), performed a series of triaxial tests on
a dense silica sand with density index of 88%, mean
grain size (d50 ) equal to 0.2 mm, and the coefficient
of uniformity, Cu = 1.69 and density of 15 kN/m3 at
different confining pressures. Based on these results,
he suggested a power-law relationship between soil
friction angle and confining pressure.
3 NUMERICAL SOLUTION PROCEDURE
3.1 Boundary Conditions
It is necessary to consider an appropriate boundary
condition in particular for a rough base foundation.
In this research, the boundary condition of Bolton
and Lau (1993) is assumed. They supposed that a
a rigid triangular wedge (or cone, in axi-symmetric
problems) is formed beneath the foundation and fol-
lowing Meyerhof (1963), it is inclined at angle equal
to /4 + /2.
182
Figure 2. A ZEL net before and after deformation.

3.2 Stress Field

The ZEL equations can be solved by numerical tech-
niques. To do this, according to Jahanandish (2003),
starting form a boundary on which, all necessary infor-
mation, i.e., values of r, z, S and , are readily known,
the equations are written in finite difference form and
the unknowns are determined in the next points of the
domain. For example, considering Figure 2, assume
the boundary A1 A3 to be a boundary with predefined
values of r, z, S and . The ZEL equations can be
numerically solved to find unknowns in point B1 based
on A1 and A2 . Similar procedure can be used for points
B2 and C1 .

3.3 Strain and Deformation Field

Another ability of the ZEL method can be used to find
the velocity field. Since the Zero Extension Lines are
lines of zero axial strains, the ZEL would be used
as rigid links that can move or rotate without axial
deformation. As a consequence, for a given deforma-
tion boundary condition, the generated displacements
in the ZEL net can be computed by the following Figure 3. A flowchart presenting the computational
progress.
equation:

4 BEARING CAPACITY PROBLEM

In this equation, u and v are horizontal and vertical dis-
placements. The finite difference form of this equation
can be used to find the deformed ZEL net for further
computations (Jahanandish, 2003). Having known the
velocity field, the strains can be determined if the rela-
tionship between the maximum shear strain, max and
sin mob. is predefined from standard laboratory shear
tests.
3.4 Numerical Solution and Developed Code
Simultaneous solution of the ZEL equations requires
a system of four equations and four unknowns to
be solved. As it was stated before, it is done by a
triple point strategy. A computer code in MATLAB
was developed to solve the ZEL equations consid-
ering stress level dependency of soil friction angles.
This code is capable to solve the ZEL equations for
both axi-symmetric and plane strain problems and
comprises of three different computational blocks and
some supplementary functions. Major parts of the code
are shown in the flowchart of Figure 3.
As it was stated earlier, the third bearing capac-
ity factor, N , which is the main contributor in the
bearing capacity of shallow foundations, is the most
challenging factor having the widest suggested range
by the authors. All conventional methods assume a
constant field of soil friction angle to compute the
bearing capacity of factors. In this research, the bear-
ing capacity is investigated with consideration of stress
level effect. The bearing capacity factors have been
computed by assuming an associative flow rule.
4.1 Bearing Capacity Considering Stress Level
At this point, the advantage of the ZEL method is
employed to predict actual bearing capacity of shal-
low foundations with consideration of the stress level
dependent nature of subsoil elements. To do this, a
practical case is investigated. Since the large scale
foundations are beyond the capacities of common
testing equipments, the centrifuge tests have been
developed for modeling large foundations in the labo-
ratory. In 1985, Kimura and his coworkers performed

183
Table 1. Summary of Toyoura sand properties. Table 2. Bearing capacity factor, N , obtained from exper-
imental tests and theoretical methods.
Parameter Value Remarks
ZEL Meyerhof (1963)
eexp. 0.67 Not Needed for this Work
Dr (%) 84% B N Eq. N for N for Eq.
d (kN/m3 ) 15.9 (m) (Experiment) N (Deg.) c.s. peak (Deg.)
c.s. (Deg.) 35
peak (Deg.) 4450 Approximate Value 0.3 450 510 47.5 33 211873 48
0.6 350 410 46.5 33 211873 47
0.8 300 370 46.0 33 211873 46
1.2 270 320 45.5 33 211873 45.5
1.6 250 300 45.0 33 211873 45

Table 2, shows the obtained data from calculations

Figure 4. Strip foundation with rough base, B = 0.3 m; a)
ZEL net and b) variation of soil friction angle.
and average values of experimental tests. In this table,
another comparison was made with suggested formula
of Meyerhof (1963) for critical state and peak friction
angles.
By performing a number of analyses and employing
the relationships for soil friction angle variations at
different stress levels, some design charts have been
suggested to relate the actual bearing capacity factor,
N , to foundation size by the ZEL method. Figure 6
shows some of these charts for circular foundations.

5 LOAD-DISPLACEMENT BEHAVIOR

As it was stated before, strain and velocity fields

Figure 5. Strip foundation with rough base, B = 1.6 m; a)
ZEL net and b) variation of soil friction angle.
a series of centrifuge tests on compacted layers of Toy-
oura sand in a dense state to explain the scale effect of
shallow foundations on the bearing capacity. Toyoura
sand has been used in many experimental programs
and its properties have been reported by several authors
(e.g., Kimura et al, 1985; Yamamoto et al. 2009). For
the purpose of this work, a summary of Toyoura sand
properties is represented in Table 1 which was assumed
in analyses.
To take the effect of stress level into account, it is
necessary to define a relationship between soil max-
imum friction angle and confining pressure. Stress
level dependency of soil friction angle has been
expressed by Bolton (1986) suggested relationship
which was presented earlier. It relates the state of a
dense sand (its relative density) to its maximum mobi-
lized friction angle as a function of stress level in
different laboratory shear tests.
By incorporating this relationship, a number of
analyses were performed to calculate the bearing
capacity factor, N , for different size foundations
tested by Kimura et al. (1985) in a centrifuge facility.
Figures 4 and 5 show the results of analyses for two
different size strip foundations by the ZEL method.
Comparison between these two cases shows that mobi-
lized maximum soil friction angle is generally higher
for smaller foundations resulting in higher bearing
capacity factors, N .
can be found by the ZEL for any arbitrary displace-
ment boundary condition, i.e. foundation translation or
rotation. There are several problems involved in test-
ing large scale foundations. Many of foundation load
tests have been conducted on small scale model foot-
ings. Therefore, numerical techniques can be a good
alternative to predict load-displacement behavior of
foundations instead of costly and difficult foundation
load tests. To show the capability of the ZEL method in
prediction of load-displacement behavior of shallow
foundations, it has been employed to perform some
predictions for existing data in the literature.
5.1 Experimental Tests of Clark (1998)
An experimental program was performed by Clark
(1998) to study the effect of foundation size on the
bearing capacity and load-displacement behavior of
foundations on strong soils. Small to large scale circu-
lar foundations were tested in the program.As stated by
Clark (1998), a model test footing 43.7 mm in diame-
ter, was tested in a centrifuge apparatus at accelerations
of 1, 10, 40, 100 and 160 g. The resulting diameters
of the prototype foundations were 0.044 m, 0.437 m,
1.75 m, 4.37 m and 6.99 m respectively. A dry dense
sand was used for tests with d = 15.04 kN/m3 . Peak
friction angle was determined to be ranged between
49 and 39 . An average critical state soil friction angle
of 36 was assumed for the analyses regarding tri-
axial test results. Complete test data on this soil is
describe by Clark (1998) and for the purpose of this

184

Figure 6. Variations of the bearing capacity factor, N , for
circular foundations (Dr = 50%).
Figure 7. Analysis results for a circular foundation, 0.44 m
in diameter, a) ZEL net and b) velocity field.
work, the relationship between sin mob and maximum
shear strain, max was developed according to labo-
ratory tests results. Soil maximum dilation angle was
estimated to vary between 5 to 20 considering tri-
axial test results. To prevent difficulties in numerical
solution, a dilation angle of 16 was assumed for all
analyzed cases.
Figure 7 shows the ZEL net and velocity field for
a 0.44 m diameter foundation. Figure 8 shows the
deformed ZEL net after 7.5% relative settlement for
the 6.99 m diameter foundation.
Figure 9 shows the load-displacement curves for
different size foundations. It is obvious that the results
of the analyses are in good agreement with exper-
imental data. Therefore, the stress level based ZEL
method is capable of predicting the load-displacement
behavior of shallow foundations.
The results show that for small foundations there
is an apparent peak bearing pressure which gradually
disappears by increasing the foundation size. There-
fore, smaller foundations over a certain soil type show
a general shear failure mechanism whereas this mode
185
Figure 8. Analysis results for a circular foundation, 6.99 m
in diameter, a) ZEL net and b) deformed ZEL net for 7.5%
relative settlement.
Figure 9. Results of load-displacement analyses in compar-
ison with experimental data of Clark (1998).
of failure is getting more localized for larger ones over
the same soil. This transition in foundations behavior
can be captured by the stress level based ZEL method
described in this paper. This phenomenon suggests that
for relatively large foundations, lower values of soil
friction angle are mobilized and it tends to a transi-
tion between the modes of failure. When the major
part of the soil undergoes very high levels of stress,
maximum mobilized friction angles cannot exceed the
critical state value and as a consequence, a local shear
failure without a peak pressure could be observed.
6 CONCLUSIONS
The ZEL method which had been developed for many
problems in soil mechanics was employed in this paper
for investigation of shallow foundations behavior con-
sidering stress level effect. Since the variations of soil
shear strength parameters are included in the ZEL
equations, it is possible to use these equations to con-
sider stress level dependency of soil friction angle.This
property of the ZEL method was utilized through a
developed numerical computer code and the bearing
capacity and load-displacement behavior of founda-
tions have been studied. The stress level dependency
of soil friction angle was investigated by relating soil
maximum friction angle to the level of stress and soil
relative density. Then, the bearing capacity of shallow
foundations affected by stress level was investigated.
The results were checked with existing experimental
data and showed good agreement.
Later, the developed computer code was utilized to
predict load-displacement behavior of shallow founda-
tions considering the effect of stress level. Comparison
of the results with experimental data showed a good
consistency and as a consequence, revealed that the
stress level based ZEL method can be reasonably
applied for prediction of load-displacement behavior
of shallow foundations, and, to find the stress level
dependent bearing capacity from a load-displacement
analysis in which, both stresses and deformations are
considered together and hence seems to be a suitable
approach for determination of actual ultimate load
on foundations. Further study on the results showed
a transition between a general shear failure and a
local shear failure modes when the foundation size
increases. This phenomenon can be considered as a
direct result of stress level dependency of soil shear
strength parameters which is predictable by the stress
level based ZEL method and developed computer
code.
REFERENCES
Anvar, S.A., and Ghahramani, A., 1997, Equilibrium Equa-
tions on Zero Extension Lines and Their Application
to Soil Engineering, Iranian Journal of Science and
Technology (IJST), Shiraz University Press., 21 (B1):
1134.
Bolton, M. D. and Lau, C. K., 1989, Scale Effect in the Bear-
ing Capacity of Granular Soils, In Proc. Of the 12th Intl
Conf. on Soil Mech. Found. Eng., Rio De Janeiro, Brazil,
Vol. 2, pp. 895898.
Bolton, M. D. and Lau, C. K., 1993, Vertical Bearing Capacity
Factors for Circular and Strip Footings on Mohr-Coulomb
Soil, Can. Geotech. J. 30: 10241033.
Bolton, M. D., 1986, The Strength and Dilatancy of Sands,
Gotechnique, 36: 6578.
Cerato, A. B. and Lutenegger, A. J., 2007, Scale Effects
of Shallow Foundation Bearing Capacity on Granular
Material, J. Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Eng.,
ASCE, 133 (10): 11921202.
Cerato, A. B., 2005, Scale Effect of Shallow Foundation Bear-
ing Capacity on Granular Material, Ph.D. Dissertation,
University of Massachusetts Amherst, 461p.
Clark, J. I., 1998, The Settlement and Bearing Capacity of
Very Large Foundations on Strong Soils: 1996 R.M. Hardy
Keynote Address, Can. Geotech. J., 35: 131145.
De Beer, E. E., 1965, Bearing Capacity and Settlement
of Shallow Foundations on Sand, In Proc. of the Bear-
ing Capacity and Settlement of Foundations Symposium,
Duke University, Durham, N.C., pp. 1534.
186
Fellenius, B. H. and Altaee, A., 1994, Stress and Settlement of
Footings in Sand, In Proc. of the ASCE, Conf. on Ver. and
Hor. Deform. for Found. and Embank., Geotech. Spec.
Pub., GSP, 40, College Station, TX, June 1618, 1994,
Vol. 2, pp. 17601773.
Ghahramani, A. and Clemence, S. P., 1980, Zero Extension
Line Theory of Dynamic Passive Pressure, Journal of
the Geotechnical Engineering Division, ASCE, Vol.106,
No.6, June 1980, pp. 631644.
Habibagahi, K. and Ghahramani, A., 1979, Zero Extension
Line Theory of Earth Pressure, Journal of the Geotechni-
cal Engineering Division, ASCE, 105 (GT7) 881896.
Jahanandish, M., 1988, Zero Extension Line Net and Its
Application in Soil Mechanics. M.Sc. Thesis, Shiraz
University, Shiraz, Iran.
Jahanandish, M., 2003, Development of a Zero Extension
Line Method for Axially Symmetric Problems in Soil
Mechanics, Scientia Iranica Journal, Sharif University of
Technology Press., 10 (2): 18.
Jahanandish, M., Behpoor, L. and Ghahramani, A., 1989,
Load-Displacement Characteristics of Retaining Walls, In
Proc. Of the 12th Intl Conf. on Soil Mech. Found. Eng.,
Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, Vol. 1, pp. 243246.
Jahanandish, M. and Eslami Haghighat, A., 2004. Analysis
of Boundary Value Problems in Soil Plasticity Assuming
Non-Coaxiality. Iranian Journal of Science and Technol-
ogy (IJST), Shiraz University Press., 28 (B5): 583594.
James, R. G., and Bransby, P. L., 1971, A Velocity Field for
Some Passive Earth Pressure Problems, Gotechnique, 21
(1): 6183.
Kimura, T., Kusakabe, O. and Saitoh, K., 1985, Geotechnical
ModelTests of Bearing Capacity Problems in a Centrifuge,
Gotechnique, 35 (1): 3345.
Kumar, J. and Khatri, V. N., 2008, Effect of Footing Width
on Bearing Capacity Factor N, J. Geotechnical and
Geoenvironmental Eng., ASCE, 134 (9): 12991310.
Kumar, J., Raju, K.V.S.B. and Kumar, A., 2007, Relationships
between Rate of Dilation, Peak and Critical State Friction
Angles, Indian Geotech. Journal, 37 (1): 5363.
Meyerhof, G. G., 1950, The Bearing Capacity of Sand, Ph.D.
Thesis, University of London, London, England.
Meyerhof, G. G., 1963, Some Recent Research on the Bearing
Capacity of Foundations, Can. Geotech. J. 1: 1626.
Roscoe, K. H., 1970, The Influence of Strains in Soil
Mechanics, 10th Rankine Lecture, Gotechnique, 20 (2):
129170.
Terzaghi, K., 1943, Theoretical Soil Mechanics, John-Wiley
and Sons Inc., NY.
Vesic, A. S., 1973, Analysis of Ultimate Loads of Shal-
low Foundations, Journal of the Soil Mechanics and
Foundations Division, ASCE 99: 4573.
Yamamoto, N., Randolph, M.F. and Einav, I., 2009, Numerical
Study of the Effect of Foundation Size for a Wide Range
of Sands, J. Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Eng.,
ASCE, 135 (1): 3745.
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Simple quality indicators for FE analysis based on stress maps

for Gauss points

C. Vulpe, N. Droniuc, E. Bourgeois & Ph. Mestat

Laboratoire Central des Ponts et Chausses, Paris, France

ABSTRACT: Computations by means of FEM computer codes prove to be an uneasy task for many geotechnical
engineers due to a large number of aspects that must be taken into account: complex geometrical configuration
of the real problem, constitutive law used for soil, data interpretation. The current paper presents one aspect of a
series of numerical quality indicators to be developed for improving the use of FEM analyses. The current paper
deals with numerical quality indicators for 2D problems. The accuracy of the analyses is dealt with by creating
and comparing a series of stress distribution maps for Gauss points. For meshes with different number of linear
and quadratic elements, using both reduced and composed number of Gauss points, among other considerations,
stress distribution maps are plotted and analyzed. The process is repeated for a number of different problems,
for which the numerical solutions for vertical and horizontal stresses are compared to the analytical solutions.
Advantages and disadvantages of different types of meshing are deduced. The numerical quality indicators
are not independent of one another; a good result is achieved by taking all into account.

1 INTRODUCTION expansion problem, the exact solution can be found

Using a suitable mesh is an essential condition for
obtaining accurate results in FEM. Information for a
consistent modeling is scarce and appropriate meshing
can generally be achieved by experience. The present
article provides a guideline regarding certain aspects
that appear in 2D FEM modeling problems: number
of finite elements, type of finite elements to be used,
procedure of numerical integration, model dimension.
A number of numerical quality indicators have been
deduced and information has been provided to ease
FEM modeling. The problems analyzed are: strip load
on elastic half space (problem in plane deformations),
circular cavity expansion (handled both as an axisym-
metric problem in plane deformations and as a problem
in axisymmetric deformations). Numerical solutions
have been validated by the analytical solutions, con-
sidered as exact solutions. Errors have been computed
for the Gauss points.
in Mestat (1994). For each computation were plotted
stress distribution maps in the Gauss points. The stress
distribution maps represent the maps of stress errors
computed according to:
where represents the stress at each Gauss point;
load represents the imposed load for which we have
obtained the current stresses.
For the development of each numerical quality
indicator, a various number of stress distribution maps
have been plotted against each other and conclusions
were drawn regarding the kind of mesh that seems
more adapted to each problem.

2 METHOD DESCRIPTION 3 NUMERICAL QUALITY INDICATORS

The FEM analyses have been performed with com-
puter code CESAR-LCPC, MCNL. Both plane defor-
mation and axisymmetric deformation problems have
been analyzed. Due to the restricted number of analyt-
ical solutions available, the computations have been
performed in the elastic range. The exact solution for
the load strip on elastic half space problem is given by
Gray (1936) and Holl (1941), as for the circular cavity
The quality indicators give a measure of the accuracy
of the computations in FEM. The indicators are devel-
oped for practicing engineers for whom the idea of
quality of the results is easier to comprehend.
Four types of numerical quality indicators will
be described below. The types of elements to be con-
sidered in the computations are T3, T6 and Q8 type
elements.

187
Figure 1. Circular cavity expansion problem in plane defor-
mations, rr error along the mesh.
Figure 2a. Circular cavity expansion problem in axisym-
metric deformations, rr error along the mesh.
3.1 Reduced/complete integration related
quality indicator
The number of integration points per element may
play an important role in the accuracy of the results.
The results for both reduced and complete integration
points per element analyses are plotted and compared
to the analytical solution.
In the case of axisymmetric problems in plane or
axisymmetric deformations, the reduced integration
element mesh is providing slightly better results than
the complete integration element mesh, see Figure 1,
2a and 2b. Taking into account that the latter would
take longer to be computed, it is advisable to use the
former for this type of problems.
It can be seen from Figure 1, 2a and 2b that
the numerical solutions are quasi equivalent to the
analytical ones.
For the strip load problem the complete integration
element mesh gives slightly better results: 0.27 max-
imum error for the reduced integration T6 element
188
Figure 2b. Circular cavity expansion problem in axisym-
metric deformations, rr error along the mesh.
Figure 3. Strip load on elastic half plane problem, zz error
along the mesh.
mesh, 0.25 maximum error for reduced integration
Q8 element mesh and 0.23 maximum error for com-
plete integration Q8 element mesh, as can be seen in
Figure 3.
Just as for the problems in axisymmetric deforma-
tion, it is recommended to use the reduced integration
element mesh for time consuming computation pur-
poses. Note however that the order of magnitude of
the error is much larger.
3.2 Type of element related quality indicator
The types of elements used in the analyses are trian-
gular elements T3 and T6 and quadrangular element
Q8. The analyses with triangular elements give large
error results in the case of problems in axisymmetric
Figure 4. Circular cavity expansion problem. Radial dis-
placements at points A and B for all load steps.

Figure 5b. Strip load on elastic half space problem, zz error

along the mesh.

Figure 5a. Circular cavity expansion problem in axisym-

metric deformations, error along the mesh.

deformations as noticed by Mestat (1997). The trian-

gular elements do not account well for change in stress
along the element, the error being propagated along the
mesh for stresses and deformations as can be seen in
Figure 4. In turn, the quadratic element mesh offers
very good results, shown in Figure 5a.
While T3 and T6 give reasonable results for prob-
lems in plane deformation, the quadrangular elements
provide the most accurate solutions, as shown in Figure 6. Strip load on elastic half space problem, xx error
Figure 6. The maximum differences between the anal- along the mesh.
yses are encountered around the strip load area, the
stress distribution maps reaching the same form along
problems in plane deformations are very large, see Fig-
the mesh, the errors narrowing towards 0 at the bound-
ure 5b. In the case of load strip on elastic half space
aries. For time consuming computations, it may be
problem, a number of over 100 element mesh for a
preferred to use triangular elements.
10 10 m model gives accurate results, see Figure 7a,
Figure 7b and Figure 7c. For a farther increase in the
number of elements per mesh, the results are stabilized.
3.3 Mesh fineness related quality indicator
The mesh fineness is a prime factor in total duration
Depending on the type of problem, the number of of computation, so it should be chosen with care.
elements may play an essential role in the solution A finer mesh is recommended in the vicinity of sin-
accuracy. For the problems in axisymmetric defor- gular points, at the interface strip-soil in our case, to
mations, a coarse mesh provides very good results, better take into account the load or change in geome-
see Figure 5a. The errors due to coarse mesh for the try as observed by Reddy (1985) and Mestat (1997).

189
Figure 7a. Strip load on elastic half space, xx error along
the 10 Q8 element mesh.
Figure 7b. Strip load on elastic half space, xx error along
the 100 Q8 element mesh.
Also the refining of the mesh applies in the vicinity
of the load application, for a better approximation of
the development of strong stresses on a region of less
than 2B around the strip, B = strip width, see Mestat
(1997). Furthermore, inside the 2B perimeter, the ele-
ments should be small enough to register accurately
the change of stresses.
190
Figure 7c. Strip load on elastic half space, xx error along
the 1000 Q8 element mesh.
Figure 8a. Strip load on elastic half space, xz error along
the meshed original model.
3.4 Mesh dimension related quality indicator
The influence of the mesh dimension has been studied
for the strip load problem only. The model should be
large enough in order for the boundary conditions not
to interfere with the stresses developed in the model.
For the results presented in Figure 8a and Figure 8b,
the dimensions of the original model are 10 10 m,

Figure 8b. Strip load on elastic half space, xz error along
the meshed reduced model.
Figure 9b. Description of original and reduced model for
the strip load problem.
for the reduced model 3 3 m. A description of both
models is given in Figure 9. The results for the original
model are given for the same 3 3 m portion as for the
reduced model. The maximum errors for both models
are located under the edge of the loaded strip. While
the maximum error is similar for the two cases, it can
be seen that there is a difference in the error pattern
along the model. For the original model, the errors are
generally decreasing towards 0 at the boundaries; for
191
the reduced model some areas show higher errors. At
the limits of the reduced model, the errors are larger
than the ones in the same points for the original model.
As recommended by Mestat (1997), the lateral lim-
its of the model should be at least 10 times the length
of the loaded strip and the horizontal limit should be
at least 6 times the length of the loaded strip.
4 CONCLUSIONS
The numerical quality indicators are described only
for elastic problems due to lack of analytical solutions
in the plastic domain for a number of the analyzed
problems.
While the use of reduced or complete integration
does not significantly influence the results, the number
and type of elements used are essential for a good
analysis. Great attention should be given to the type of
problem studied: plane deformations or axisymmetric
deformations problems, as the requirement for type or
number of elements differs as has been seen above.
The dimensions of the model should be chosen with
care to avoid any influence of the selection of the
boundary conditions.
Choice of mesh fineness around the points of
singularity is an essential aspect of correct modeling.
The numerical quality indicators are not indepen-
dent of one another; a good result is achieved by taken
all into account.
It can also be recalled that the definition of a rep-
resentative quantity of the error committed is not a
simple task because some problems involve stress con-
centrations, others do not. It is also pointless to reach
a very good accuracy in areas where the applied load
does not significantly modify the stress state.
Errors due to integration of the chosen constitutive
law will be discussed later.
REFERENCES
Gray, H. 1936. Stress distribution in elastic soils. Proc. of
First Int. Cong. Soil Mech., Cambridge, Mass., Volume 2:
157168.
Holl, D.L. 1941. Plain-strain distribution of stress in elastic
media. Iowa Engg. Expts. Station Bull: 148163.
Mestat, Ph. 1994. Validation du progiciel CESAR-LCPC
en comportement mcanique non linaire. Volume 1:
Fondations superficielles et tunnels. GT58. Paris: LCPC.
Mestat, Ph. 1997. Maillages dlments finis pour les
ouvrages de gotechnique. Conseils et recommandations.
Bulletin des laboratoires des Ponts et Chausses: 3965.
Paris: Jouve.
Reddy, J.N. 1985. An introduction to the finite element
method. Singapore: McGraw-Hill Book Co.
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

The upper bound limit analysis of bearing capacity problems using the finite
element method

A.I.M. AL-Janabi & A.A.R. Orabi

Civil Engineering Department, Al-Tahadi University, Sirt, Libya

A.Y.A. Baqir
University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Nebraska, USA

ABSTRACT: In the present study, the upper bound limit analysis theorem of plasticity is applied to plane
strain bearing capacity problems for soils under external load with or without self-weight loads. In deriving the
upper bound formulation, a continuous velocity field is assumed and the soil is idealized as a rigid-perfectly-
plastic material obeying the nonlinear Mohr-Coulomb yield criterion with the associated flow rule. As a powerful
solution technique, the finite element method is used to discretize the problem domain and a suitable optimization
algorithm is used to solve the resulting constrained nonlinear optimization problem to obtain the limit load and
the corresponding collapse mechanisms. Numerical solutions for selected case studies showed that the proposed
method of analysis which combines the upper bound limit analysis with the finite element method can be
efficiently used for predicting the limit load for various bearing capacity problems.

1 INTRODUCTION
The study of bearing capacity problems is one of the
important fields of soil mechanics and in many cases,
civil engineers are expected to make calculations to
check the critical strength of soil structures against
external loading and to predict the limit load caus-
ing failure or collapse. For analyzing this problem
many methods have been developed, most of which
are based on studying the plastic behavior at collapse.
Among these methods are the slip-line method, limit
equilibrium, elasto-plastic analysis and the conven-
tional upper bound limit analysis. The slip-line method
has been used by earlier investigators. On the other
hand, the finite element method with the elasto-plastic
constitutive relations, which is essentially to pursue
the loading-displacement curve, has been used to pre-
dict the behavior of soil structures at the limit state,
although this analysis appears more general, suffers
from numerical instability at the range of the stress-
strain relations close to the limit state. On the other
hand, Chen and Davidson (1987) showed that the con-
ventional upper bound limit analysis could provide
an efficient tool for solving various bearing capacity
problems for isotropic and homogeneous soils. How-
ever, in such conventional upper bound solution, a
discontinuous velocity field and predefined shape for
failure surface should be assumed which results in cer-
tain approximations especially in the case of cohesive
ponderable soil (C soil), (Tamura, 1987). field can be represented as:
In more promising studies attempts are made to
apply the finite element method to limit analysis field
(Tamura et. al., 1987, Bottero et. al., 1980, Arai &
Tagyo, 1985, Zheng et. al. 2000, Bandini, 2003, Hjiaj
et. al. 2004), however for upper bound limit analysis
only the linearized form of the Mohr-Coulomb yield
criterion has been used and discontinuous velocity
field has been assumed.
In the present work, a continuous velocity field is
assumed and the nonlinear Mohr-Coulomb yield crite-
rion with the associated flow rule is used to investigate
bearing capacity problems with the finite element
discretization process. Hence, results for rigid and
flexible footings for both rough and smooth bases also
for surface and subsurface footings are obtained in
this study and compared with analytical and numerical
solutions.
2 DEVELOPMENT OF THE UPPER BOUND
FORMULATION
The upper bound formulation for plane strain condition
using the Mohr-Coulomb yield criterion, consists of
the following steps:
2.1 Assuming a kinematically admissible velocity
field
The velocity field must be compatible with the kine-
matic boundary conditions and in this study it is
assumed continuous within the domain of the prob-
lem. For plane strain condition the displacement rate

193

Figure 1. Mohr-Circle Representation of the Mohr-
Coulomb Yield Criterion (Chen 1975).
Where u the horizontal component of displacement is
rate field and v is the vertical component of displace-
ment rate field. Then for a compatible mechanism of
plastic deformation ij , ui , the plastic strain rates are
computed from the strain displacement relationship
in tensor notation as follows:
2.2 The rate of internal energy dissipation
The Mohr Coulomb yield condition using the prin-
cipal stresses when 1 > 2 > 3 as shown in Figure 1.
can be written in the following form (Chen, 1975):
Where 1 , 2 are the principal normal stresses, C is the
cohesion and is the angle of internal friction. From
the plastic flow rule and the Mohr Coulomb yield
criterion, the internal energy dissipation Di in terms
of strain rates is obtained as (Baqir, 1996):
or in terms of Cartesian coordinates of strain
components:
2.3 The rate of external work
The rate of external work done by the applied forces
p = due to self-weight and corresponding to the
assumed velocity field at collapse is found by the
relation:
Where, De is the rate of external work, Dex is the rate
of external forces on the surface and Dws is the rate of
194
work done by body forces. Dex can be obtained by the
integral:
Where + is the dimensionless upper bound load mul-
tiplier and vi is the velocity field component in the
vertical direction. For evaluating Dws it can be obtained
by the integral (Chen, 1975):
Where is the unit weight of the soil. Thus, for
plain strain conditions, the total rate of external work
for cohesive ponderable soils (C soil) under
applied forces and due to its self-weight is obtained as:
2.4 Determination of the limit load
Equating the rate of internal energy dissipation to the
rate of external work under applied loads, the limit
load multiplier can be determined as:
2.5 Volume expansion of Coulomb material
For the more general case of (C ) soils, the plastic
flow will be accompanied by an increase in volume,
(i. e. volume is not conserved in the plastic deforma-
tion). For the particular case of plane strain condition,
it can be shown for Coulomb material; the plastic
flow is controlled by the following volume expansion
relationship (Chen, 1975):
Where t and c denote the principal tensile and
compressive components of the plastic strain rates
respectively.
3 FINITE ELEMENT FORMULATIONS AND
METHOD OF SOLUTION
The general steps in applying the finite element
method in the upper bound limit analysis of a soil mass
are as follows:
3.1 Discretization of the domain problem:
The first step is to approximate the problem by dis-
cretizing the problem domain into sub-domains or
finite elements with finite degrees of freedom. These

Figure 2. Dividing the Soil Mass into Finite Element
Connected at Their Nodes.
elements are jointed at a discrete number of nodal
points existing on element boundaries, Figure 2.
The displacement rates (velocities) of these nodal
points will be the basic unknown parameters of the
problem.Thus, the displacement field for each element
can be obtained as:
Where Ni is the shape function and i is the nodal dis-
placement field rate. In this study linear quadrilateral
isoparametric elements and quadratic isoparametric
finite elements are used.
3.2 Calculation of plastic strain rates
The plastic strain rate components {} are related to
displacement rate components {} using the two
dimensional strain displacement relationships [B] as:
3.3 Calculation of the internal energy dissipation
rate:
The internal energy dissipation rate for the soil mass is
obtained by the summation of each element as follows:
Where Die is the rate of internal energy dissipation for
an element.
195
3.4 Calculation of the total external work rate
The total rate of the external work on an element Dee ,
is composed into two parts as given by Equation 5 as
follows:
3.4.1 The rate of work due to applied loads on the
surface
The rate of applied loads on the surface done by a
distributed force for the whole soil mass is obtained
by summation as follows:
e
Where Dex is the external rate of forces on the surface
for a finite element and nL is the number of loaded ele-
ments. The velocity field chosen should always ensure
a positive nonzero value for Dex value.
3.4.2 The rate of work done by body forces
The rate of work done by body forces for the whole
soil mass is obtained by summation as follows:
e
Where Dws is the rate of work done by body forces for
an element.
3.4.3 Calculation of volume expansion for cohesive
frictional soils
Principal strain rates related through the volume
expansion relationship given by Equation 10 repre-
sents an equality constraint on the determination of
the upper bound limit load. However, a more conve-
nient way for ensuring the satisfaction of this equation
needed in the finite element formulation. Defining
as the volume expansion function given by:
The volume expansion index in cohesive frictional
(C ) soils for Coulomb material over an element
Dve , can be defined by the integral of 2 over the area
of the element as follows:
Then, the total volume expansion index for the soil
mass within the problem domain is obtained by the
summation as follows:
Then, the satisfaction of the constraint given by
Equation19 will indirectly mean the satisfaction of
constraints given by Equation 10. The upper bound
or kinematic load multiplier can be obtained from
Equations 1416 as:
Thus, the load multiplier + will be a function of
the nodal displacement rates of the soil mass and the
problem is reduced to obtain the nodal displacement
rates that will minimize the load multiplier and sat-
isfy the boundary conditions. In the present problem,
the integrals for Di and Dv formulations contain the
first derivatives of the displacement rates, hence the
continuity of the displacement rates are only required
and Co continuity finite elements are needed for
these formulations. Linear and quadratic quadrilateral
isoparametric elements are used this work which sat-
isfies the Co continuity and convergence requirements
(Segerlind, 1976).
4 SOLUTION OF THE NONLINEAR
OPTIMIZATION PROBLEM
The problem can be restated as a nonlinear program-
ming problem subjected to equality and inequality
constraints.
Find 1 , 2 , . . . . . . .., m that minimizes the follow-
ing objective function as:
Subjected to the inequality constraint given by:
and to the equality constraint given by:
The condition 22 can be satisfied by assigning the
vertical displacement rate v at the node expected to
have maximum v to unity (i.e., having a fixed value).
The resulting values then are automatically normalized
with respect to this value. Thus, the problem is trans-
formed to unconstrained optimization one. To deal
with the condition 23, the objective function + is
modified to the function +/ to include the condition
23 through the use of penalty term as (Kirsch, 1980):
where is the Lagrange multiplier. By numerical test-
ing and solving various problems within the frame of
the present study, it is found that the use of = 300 is
Figure 3. Soil Mass Subjected to the load q.
quite enough to ensure that Dv is less than 0.001 with
a reasonable number of iterations in the optimization
process. To solve the resulting nonlinear optimiza-
tion problem, the Variable Metric Method, known as
Davidon-Flecther Powell method was used. This
method is stable, powerful and converges quadratically
(Rao, 1979 & Bunday, 1984). Based on the above upper
bound and finite element formulation, a general com-
puter program is developed and used in the following
case studies.
5 CASE STUDIES IN BEARING CAPACITY
PROBLEMS
The problems of bearing capacity are considered in
this study where the upper bound limit analysis and
the finite element method are used to determine
the ultimate limit load of cohesive ponderable soils
(C soil) when subjected to a uniform strip load
of intensity q. Due to symmetry about the center line,
only half the problem is needed to be considered in
this analysis as shown in Figure 3. This portion will
be taken as a rectangular with height H, width W and
width of footing B with sides ab and cd modeled as
rigid smooth surfaces and side bc is modeled as rough
rigid surface as shown in Figure 4. Results for rigid and
flexible surface footings for both rough and smooth
bases and also for subsurface footings are discussed
by Baqir (1995). Because of space limitation, only the
following case study is discussed.
5.1 Rigid surface footing with rough and smooth
bases
In this example, a soil mass is considered with
W/B = 9.5 and H/B = 9.5 (a larger discretized region
is required because of larger plasticity zone expected
to occur due to the rigidity of the footing) as shown
in Figure 5. The footing is assumed with rough or
smooth base. For modeling the rigid footing condition,
the footing and the supporting soil surface will have
the same vertical displacement. Graded isoparamet-
ric quadratic twelve elements are used in this case as
shown in Figure 6. Results obtained in this work (for
which no exact solution is available) with G = 0.25
196
 Figure 6. Finite Element Graded Mesh Used for Rigid
Footing.

Figure 4. Flexible or rigid Strip Footing.

Figure 7. Ultimate Bearing Capacity of Rough Rigid Foot-

ing for G = 0.25.

Figure 5. Rigid Strip Footing.

and ranges (0 30 ) for rough base are compared

with results obtained by Davidson (Chen, 1975) using
the elastic plastic & finite element analysis with the
extended Von Mises material as shown in Figure 7.
Figure 8 shows, G = 0.25 and ranges (0 30 ), the
base roughness has negligible effect on the ultimate
bearing capacity with = 0 . However, as increases,
the ultimate bearing capacity for rigid surface footing
with rough base is greater than with smooth base. So it
can be concluded as G and increases, the base rough-
ness increases the bearing capacity of both rigid and
flexible surface footings. Figure 9 shows a compari-
son between results obtained in this work for smooth
surface rigid footing with results obtained by Chen
(1975) using the conventional limit analysis method Figure 8. Ultimate Bearing Capacity of Rough and Smooth
for smooth surface flexible footing. From this figure, Rigid Footing for G = 0.25.

197

Figure 9. Ultimate Bearing Capacity of Smooth Rigid and
Flexible Footing for G = 0.25.
it can be noticed that for = 0 (i. e. purely cohesive
soils) the rigidity of the footing has negligible effect
on the ultimate bearing capacity. However, with the
increase of , the ultimate bearing capacity for rigid
footing is greater than for flexible one.
6 CONCLUSIONS
The following conclusions can be drawn from this
study:-
1. Although, many previous upper bound limit anal-
ysis formulations are based on assuming discon-
tinuous velocity fields for solving various bearing
capacity problems, the present study of upper
bound formulation is based on assuming contin-
uous velocity field.
2. The upper bound limit analysis of plane strain
bearing capacity problems showed that in general,
good prediction of upper bound limit loads can be
obtained using the Co continuity finite elements.
The results obtained are in close agreement with
results of previous numerical or exact solutions.
198
3. The combined upper bound limit analysis and the
finite element method represents an efficient tool
for determining upper bound limit loads and cor-
responding collapse mechanisms for plane strain
bearing capacity problems.
REFERENCES
Arai, K. & Tagyo, K. 1985. Limit Analysis of Geotechnical
Problems by Applying lower Bound Theorem, J. Soils &
Foundations, Vol. 25, No. 4:3748.
Aseel, Y. A. Baqir, 1996. The Upper Bound Limit Analysis of
Geotechnical Engineering Problems Using the Finite Ele-
ment Method, M. Sc. Thesis, College of Eng., University
of Basrah, Iraq.
Bandini, P. 2003. Numerical Limit Analysis for Slope Stability
and Bearing Capacity Calculations, Ph. D. Thesis, Purdue
University, USA.
Bottero A., Negre R., Pastor J. & Turgeman S. 1980.
Finite Element Method and Limit Analysis theory for Soil
Mechanics Problems, Computer Methods in Appl. Mech.
and Eng., Vol. 22:131149.
Bunday, B. D. 1984. Basic Optimization Methods, Edward
Arnold.
Chen, W. F. 1975. Limit Analysis and Soil Plasticity, Elsevier
Scientific Publishing Company, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Chen, W. F. & Davidson 1987. Stability Analysis of Slopes
with General Nonlinear Failure Criterion, Int. J. Numer.
Analytical Meths. in Geomech., Vol. 11:3350.
Hjiaj, M., Lyamin, A. V. & Sloan, S. W. 2005, Numerical
limit analysis solutions for the bearing capacity factor
N , International Journal of Solids and Structures Vol. 42:
16811704
Kirsch, U. 1980. Optimum Structural Design, McGraw Hill.
Rao, S. S. 1979. OptimizationTheory andApplications, Wiley
Eastern Limited, India.
Segerlind, L. J. 1976, Applied Finite Element Analysis, John
Wiley, & Sons.
Tamura T. 1987, Kobayashi S. & Sumi T. , Rigid Plastic
Finite Element Method for Frictional Materials, J. Soils
and Foundations, Vol. 27, No. 3:112.
Zheng, X., Booker, J.R. & Carter J.P. 2000, Limit analysis of
the bearing capacity of fissured materials, International
Journal of Solids and Structures, Vol. 37:12111243.
Discontinuum and particulate modelling
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

A numerical simulation on centrifuge liquefaction model using

microscopic fluid coupling scheme with Discrete Element Method

Y. Shimizu
Department Marine Mineral Resources, Faculty of Marine Science & Technology, Tokai University, Shizuoka, Japan

Y. Inagawa
Department Geotechnical Engineering, Technical Research Institute of Obayashi Co., Tokyo, Japan

ABSTRACT: A numerical study is conducted to simulate liquefaction using a microscopic fluid coupling
scheme with the two-dimensional Discrete Element Method.The scheme creates triangular fluid grids in a particle
assembly by connecting each particle volumetric center between the nearest three particles. They represent void
spaces in the particle assembly under saturated condition. The scheme solves pore pressure in each void space and
fluid flow across them by considering compressibility of fluid caused by particle movement. On the other hand,
pore pressure is applied to particles involved in each fluid grid as a form of body force in proportional to occupied
area of each particle in void space. Numerical simulations modeling a centrifuge experiment are conducted. In
the centrifuge model experiment, the sand assembly in a rectangular box is excited by sinusoidal acceleration
under loading centrifugal force, which is thirty times larger than the gravity acceleration. The numerical results
are compared with those of the experiment. As a result, it was clarified that the scheme represents transient of
localized pore pressure and effective stress under dynamic acceleration in saturated particle assemblies, also the
results are in good agreement with those of the centrifuge model experiment.

1 INTRODUCTION creation and deletion of fluid grids automatically

The Discrete Element Method (DEM) is a numerical
tool to simulate large deformation including fracture
and dynamics of geo-materials, such as rock, soil and
granular materials (Cundall and Strack 1979). Fur-
ther, several coupling schemes with the DEM, such
as thermal-fluid coupling, have been applied for many
engineering problems along with recent progress of
computer performance (Tsuji and Kawaguchi 1993,
Kawaguchi 2003, Shimizu 2006, El Shamy and Zegal
2007).
One of the coupling schemes utilizes a fluid net-
work to solve fluid flow inside the particle assembly
(Hakuno and Tarumi 1988, Kishino 1990, Li 2002,
Shimizu 2008). Shimizu (2008) developed a micro-
scopic fluid-coupling scheme using triangular fluid
grids in the two-dimensional case and represented the
localization of pore pressure in particle assemblies in
a simple seepage problem. The scheme solves pore
pressure in each void space and fluid flow across
them by considering compressibility of fluid caused
by particle movement. On the other hand, pore pres-
sure is applied to particles involved in each fluid grid
as a form of body force in proportional to occupied
area of each particle in void space. The scheme cal-
culates volume of void space rigorously to consider
the compressibility of fluid. Further, a logic is devised
to update configuration of fluid grids including
during calculation.
In this paper, a numerical simulation, which models
a centrifuge experiment for liquefaction is conducted
using the scheme. In the centrifuge model experi-
ment, the sand assembly in a rectangular box is excited
by sinusoidal acceleration under loading centrifugal
force, which is thirty times larger than the gravity
acceleration. The numerical results are compared with
those of the experiment.
2 SCHEME AND CENTRIFUGE MODEL
EXPERIMENT
2.1 Numerical scheme
The fluid coupling scheme is briefly described relat-
ing to this paper (Shimizu, 2008). Figure 1 shows fluid
grids created inside a particle assembly. The particle
assembly is divided into triangular fluid grids created
by connecting centroid of the neighboring nearest three
particles. A void space in each triangular fluid grid
characterized by its configuration represents a reser-
voir of fluid. Pressure and porosity are defined at the
volumetric center. The continuity of fluid is satisfied in
each triangular fluid grid. The fluid flows between the
void spaces according to pressure differences based on
Darcys law. The fluid pressure is applied to particles

201
 Figure 2. Definition in eq.(1).

Figure 1. Fluid grids in particle assembly (after Shimizu

2008).

involved in the fluid grid as a body force proportional

to the areas of particles occupied in the void space.
The fluid pressure in each fluid grid is updated by
eq.(1). In eq. (1), the second term of the right-hand
side is related to diffusion by a pressure difference.
The third term is related to the compressibility of fluid
by a volume change in the particle assembly invoked
by particle motion.

Figure 3. Flowchart of particle-fluid coupling scheme (after

Shimizu 2008).

where, p = pore pressure, Kf = fluid bulk modulus,

t = time, t = timestep, Vvoid = volume of void
space in the fluid cell, nface = number of face com-
posed of fluid grid (3: two-dimensional case), Bni
(i = 1,nface ) = flow resistance, li (i = 1, nface ) = distance
between the centroid of the current fluid grid and
the centroid of the neighboring fluid grid i, mi
(i = 1, nface ) = normal vector in direction between the
centroid of the current fluid grid and the centroid of
the neighboring fluid grid i, ni (i = 1, nface ) = normal
vector of a face i to outside from the fluid grid,
pneighbori (i = 1, nface ) = pressure of fluid in the neigh- Figure 4. Overall flowchart of calculation (after Shimizu
boring fluid grid i, Ai (i = 1, nface ) = surface area of 2008).
the fluid grid, referred to figure 2.
Figure 3 shows the flowchart of the fluid coupling fluid grid is applied to each particle within it as an
scheme. The fluid grids are updated each timestep as extra body force by multiplying the pressure by the
the configuration changes by particle motion. The vol- area occupied by fluid.
ume of the void space is calculated and updated in each Figure 4 shows the entire calculation of the scheme.
cycle. The overlap between particles within the fluid The scheme is invoked at each cycle between the law
grid must be considered, as the DEM scheme in this of motion and the force-displacement law in the DEM
paper uses the soft contact approach. If a fluid grid scheme. The translational and rotational motion of
deform largely by particle motion, the involved parti- each particles are updated explicitly by forces applied
cles are at a distant each other, and then fluid pressure to particles including forces calculated from the fluid
no longer affects dynamics of particles. Thus, if strain coupling scheme.
of line elements, which compose a triangle is over 1%,
the fluid grid is deleted. Also, a logic is devised to
2.2 Centrifuge model experiment
create a new fluid grid automatically during calcula-
tion when a particle approaches an existing fluid grid. A photograph of OTRIs Centrifuge is shown in fig-
The newly calculated pressure from eq. (1) of in each ure 5, and its major specifications are shown in Table 1.

202
 Table 2. Properties of sands (#7 Silica Sand).

Property Value

Specific Gravity 2.64

Maximum Void Ratio emax : 1.219
Minimum Void Ratio emin : 0.675
Relative Density Dr: 55% 80%
Permeability (cm/sec) kv: 8.37 103 5.00 103
Angle of internal friction 34.8 37.4
Figure 5. Centrifuge experimental apparatus (after Matsuda Cohesion (kN/m2) 2.5 21.3
and Higuchi 2002).

Table 1. Specifications of OTRIs Centrifuge.

Table 3. Properties of silicone oil.
Radius to the platform 7.0 m
Maximum payload 700 g-t Property Value
Payload weigh (static experiment) 7t
Payload weigh (dynamic experiment) 3t Kinematic viscosity at 25 C 30 mm2 /s
Platform space 2.2 1.7 m Specific gravity at 25 C 0.955
Maximum acceleration 50.000 cm/s2 (50G) Viscosity temp. coef. 0.58 cs/Kevin
Maximum drive force 1.176 MN (120tf) Volumetric expansion coef. 0.099%/ C
Boiling point at 1 mmHg 220 C

The OTRIs Centrifuge is the beam and double bas-

ket type centrifuge and may be classified into one of
the major large centrifuges in the world. The radius
to the platform is 7.01 m and the maximum centrifu-
gal acceleration is 120G. The one platform (Shaking
table platform) is a swinging type, which has an area
of 2.2 m 1.7 m for a soil container and loading appa-
ratus. The maximum payload capacity and weight are
700g-ton and 3ton, respectively.
A 80 cm long, 20 cm wide, 40 cm deep saturated
soil sample were accommodated in a rigid container
as shown by figure 6. Accelerometers and pore pres-
sure transducers were set throughout model each about
8 cm thick. In addition, a displacement transducer was
used to measure settlement at the surface of the soil.
The accelerometer (ac-TN) set on the shaking table
were used to measure input waveform. Figure 6. Sand assembly and measurement area.
The #7 Silica sand was used as the soil sample. The
properties of soil material are shown by Table 2. Two respectively. The lowest figure shows acceleration
model were made in different consolidation, Dr = 55% applied to the walls. Pore pressure at each depth
and Dr = 80%. Silicone oil was used as the pore increases when excitation begins. The rate of increas-
water. The properties of silicone oil material are shown ing is fast at the upper area. On the other hand, the
Table 3. The models were tested at 30G, coefficient rate is slow at the lower area. The excess pore pressure
of permeability of pore fluid is 30 times at experi- reaches steady state after increasing.
ment time axis. Therefore, silicone 30cs which have Figure 8 shows excess pore pressure until 3000 s
30 times viscosity of water, were used. The sand was (100 s in the model scale). The excess pore pressure,
fallen through air into the box, and was set to density which occur by the excitation decreases gradually, and
of target. The models were then moved in a large vac- then disappears around 2000 s.
uum box. They were then saturated from the base of
the model with 30 cs. Shaking table tests on the two
models were conducted subjected to a 1-Hz sinusoidal
3 SIMULATIONS
wave excitation with 20 cycles and maximum target
acceleration of 200 gal in a 30 G centrifugal accelera-
3.1 Model
tion field. Note that all time scales shown in figures are
full time scale, i.e., 30 times of the model time scale. Figure 9 shows a simulation model; (a) particle assem-
Figure 7 shows time histories of excess pore pres- bly and measurement area in the assembly, (b) fluid
sure. Four graphs from the top in the figure show grids. Table 4 shows material properties. The dimen-
excess pore pressures at 2.4, 4.8, 7.2 and 9.6 m sion of the particle assembly is 0.8 m in width, 0.4 m
depth, (0.08, 0.16, 0.24 and 0.32 m in model scale) in height and 0.2 m in length in a rectangular box. The

203
 Figure 8. Time history of excess pore pressure in the case
of case I (Dr = 55%, 0-3000s (full time scale)).

Figure 7. Time history of excess pore pressure in the case Figure 9. Model, (a): particle assembly and measurement
of case I (Dr = 55%, full time scale). area, (b): fluid grids.

Table 4. Material properties.

average particle diameter is 20 mm with uniform size
distributions in the range of 20%. The particle density Particles
is adjusted to 2.3 g/cm3 such that the total mass of par- Number 805
ticle assembly is equal to that of sum of the particle Av. diameter 20 mm with 20 % uniform size dist.
and fluid mass in the experiment because the scheme is Density 2.3 g/cm3
unable to take account of fluid mass in the void spaces. Normal stiffness 1.0 108 N/m
The particle and wall stiffness in the normal and shear Shear stiffness 1.0 108 N/m
Friction coefficient 0.6 (particle-particle contact)
direction are 1.0 108 N/m. The friction coefficient
between particle-particle and particle-wall are 0.6 and Walls
0.5, respectively. Also, the viscous damping with 0.8 of Normal stiffness 1.0 108 N/m
the critical damping ratio is added in the normal direc- Shear stiffness 1.0 108 N/m
tion. The properties of silicon oil used in the centrifuge Friction coefficient 0.5 (particle-wall contact)
experiment are adopted for those of the fluid. The den- Fluid
sity is 0.955 g/cm3 , the bulk modulus is 1.0 107 Pa. Density 0.955 g/cm3
In order to set up a model scaling with dynamic exci- Bulk modulus 1.0 107 Pa
tation and fluid flow through particle assembly, it is Av. permeability 2.3 102 cm/s
necessary to use a fluid, whose viscosity is N time
larger than that of water, such that the permeability of
fluid is reduced to 1/N from that of water. In the sim-
ulation, the permeability is set to 2.3 102 cm/s by Initial stages are created as follows. Firstly, par-
a pre-test since specifying the permeability into 1/N ticles with specified size distribution are created at
caused unstable condition. random coordinates within the rectangular area of
The measurement areas are shown in figure 9(a). 0.8 m 0.8 m. Then the particles fall down under
The effective stress is recorded at circular measure- thirty times gravity acceleration until reaching equi-
ment area with 0.06 m diameter in the depth of 0.08, librium condition. Secondly, the fluid grids are created
0.16, 0.24 and 0.32 m at center of the width (Itasca into the particle assembly, and cycle until reaching
2004). The arithmetic average of effective stresses equilibrium. The porosity in the initial stage is 0.20.
calculated for each particle is taken in each circular Thirdly, the particle assembly is excited in the same
measurement area. Also, the pore pressure is recorded condition as that of experiment. The pore pressure
at rectangular area of 0.6 m 0.6 m in the same area, and effective stress are recorded. A sinusoidal sig-
where the effective stress is recorded. nal with the magnitude of 200 gal, the frequency of

204
1 Hz is applied to the particle assembly in the hori-
zontal direction during 20 seconds, i.e., 20 pulses. The
magnitude is linearly increased in the first two pulses
and the final two pulses to prevent the inertia effect
by sudden excitation. The static pressure is added to
consider buoyancy force. It is noted that if negative
force is evaluated, the value is set to zero, since no
tensile force generally occurs by fluid pressure under
this simulation. The specification of PC used is Intel
Xeon, 3.3 GHz. The timestep is around 5 106 s.

3.2 Results
Figure 10 shows general view; contour plot of excess
pore pressure (range 0 to 100 kPa) during 5.027.0 s
in particle assembly. Pore pressure gradually increases
in particle assembly with localization after beginning
excitation. The time transient of pressure distribution
is not uniform in the horizontal direction.
Figure 11 shows time histories of excess pore pres-
sure. Four graphs from the top in the figure show
excess pore pressures at 2.4, 4.8, 7.2 and 9.6 m depth, Figure 10. General view: transient of pore pressure (full
(0.08, 0.16, 0.24 and 0.32 m in model scale) respec- time scale).
tively. The lowest figure shows acceleration applied
to the walls. Pore pressure at each depth increases
when excitation begins. The rate of increasing is fast
at the upper area. On the other hand, the rate is slow
at the lower area. The excess pore pressure reaches
steady state after increasing except for at 9.6 m depth.
The pore pressure at 9.6 m depth increases gradually
even though after stopping excitation, the magnitude
is similar to that at the depth of 7.2 m.
Figure 12 show general views; particles and con-
tact forces during 5.027.0 s. A contact force is shown
by a line, whose center is at a contact point between
particle-particle or particle-wall. The direction is that
of contact force, and the width is proportional to the
magnitude of the contact force. The contact forces are
proportional to the depth of particle assembly, which
is related to weight of particles under saturated con-
dition before excitation. They become small over the
whole area, especially at the surface when excitation
begins.
Figure 13 shows effective stress, stress component
of 22 : vertical stress in the vertical direction. Four
graphs in each figure show excess pore pressures at
2.4, 4.8, 7.2 and 9.6 m depth, (0.08, 0.16, 0.24 and
0.32 m in model scale) from the surface. The lowest
figure shows acceleration. The initial effective stress
at 9.6 m depth is close to 150 kPa. The effective stress
decreases when excitation begins. The rate of decreas- Figure 11. Time history of excess pore pressure (full time
ing is faster at upper area. On the other hand, it is slower scale).
at lower area. The tendency is similar to that shown in
the increasing rate of excess pore pressure, figure 10. 4 CONCLUSIONS
The effective stress disappears at 2.4 and 4.8 m depth,
it still exists after excitation at 7.2 and 9.6 m depth. A microscopic fluid coupling scheme developed by
Figure 14 shows excess pore pressure until 3000 s one of the authors (Shimizu 2008) is implemented
(100 s in the model scale). The excess pore pressure, in the two-dimensional Discrete Element Method. In
which occurs by the excitation decreases gradually and order to verify the validity and explore the application,
then disappears around 2000s. The result is similar the scheme is applied to a simulation of liquefac-
to that observed in the centrifuge model experiment, tion. The simulation is modeled by a centrifuge model
shown by figure 8. experiment, in which a saturated sand assembly under

205

Figure 12. General view: transient of contact force (full time
scale).
Figure 13. Time history of effective stress (full time scale).
30G centrifuge acceleration is excited by sinusoidal
acceleration in the horizontal direction. The results are
compared with those of the experiment.As a result, it is
clarified that the scheme is able to represent the change
of pore pressure and effective stress with localization
by the sinusoidal excitation. Also the results show sim-
ilar tendency those observed in the centrifuge model
206
Figure 14. Time history of excess pore pressure (03000 s
(full time scale)).
experiment, which occurs liquefaction in the particle
assembly.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
We sincerely thank Dr. Peter Cundall, ITASCA Con-
sulting Group, Inc. Minneapolis, USA for valuable
discussions and suggestions during development of
the scheme. Also, we thank to Mr. Makoto Toriihara,
Mr. Akira Yamamoto and staffs in the Technical
Research Institute of the Obayashi Corporation for
help of the centrifuge model experiment.
REFERENCES
Cundall, P. A. and Strack, O. D. L. 1979. A discrete numerical
model for granular assemblies, Geotechnique, London,
Vol.29, No.1, pp.4765.
El Shamy, U. and Zegal, M. 2007. A micro-mechanical
investigation of the dynamic response and liquefaction of
saturated granular soils, Soil Dynamics and Earthquake
Engineering, Vol. 27, pp.712729.
Hakuno, M and Tarumi, Y. 1988. A granular assembly simu-
lation for the seismic liquefaction of sand, Proc. of JSCE,
No.398/I-10, pp.129138.
Itasca Consulting Group, Inc. 2004. PFC2D Particle Flow
code in 2 Dimensions, Version 3.1. Minneapolis, Itasca.
Kawaguchi, T. 2003. PhD thesis, Osaka University.
Kishino,Y. 1990. Quasi-static simulation of liquefaction phe-
nomena in granular materials, Proc. of 2nd Int. Symp. For
Sience on Form, pp. 157174.
Li, Liming. 2002. Particle scale reservoir mechanics. PhD
thesis, Department of Petroleum Engineering and Applied
Geophysics, Norwegian University of Science and Tech-
nology, Trondheim.
Matsuda, T. and Higuchi, S. 2002. Development of the large
geotechnical centrifuge and shaking table of obayashi,
Proc. of ICPMG 02, pp.6368.
Tsuji, Y., Kawaguchi, T. and Tanata, T. 1993. Direct parti-
cle simulation of two-dimensional fluidized bed, Powder
Technology, 77, pp.7987.
Shimizu, Y. 2006. Three-dimensional simulation using fixed
coarse-grid thermal-fluid scheme and conduction heat
transfer scheme in distinct element method, Powder Tech-
nology, vol.165, pp.140152.
Shimizu,Y. 2008. Microscopic numerical model of fluid flow
in granular material, Geotechnique, reviewing process.
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Discrete element modeling of low strength rock

N.B. Yenigl & M. Alvarez Grima

MTI Holland b.v., Kinderdijk, The Netherlands

ABSTRACT: A numerical model, using discrete element method, for low strength rock behavior is presented.
Numerical analysis are performed with discrete element code (PFC2D) in which the rock is represented by a
random assembly from disk shaped particles that interact with each other through a contact model. The micro
properties consist of stiffness and strength parameters for particles and the bonds. Elasticity, fracturing pattern
and, strength are the examined features of the rock behavior.The sensitivity of results regarding the apparent macro
properties (i.e., Elastic Moduli, strength) to the micro-properties, including particle and geometry size, bond
strength, and stiffness are investigated to determine scaling effect between the micro properties and mechanical
behavior of the rock. The analyses results show that particle and geometry size, bond strength are significant
parameters that affect elasticity and strength values and crack pattern. The simulations represent reasonably the
experimental observations.

1 INTRODUCTION and determining the micro-scale parameters required

The mechanical behavior of rock is governed by the
formation, growth and eventual interaction of micro
cracks. Therefore knowledge of the amount, size, and
geometry of cracks and how they affect the mechani-
cal behavior of rock such as peak strength, stiffness is
extremely important in engineering endeavors and in
understanding of geotechnical problems. For instance,
the ways in which cracks form and coalesce have great
influence on the specific energy required for rock
cutting during various mining and tunneling activities.
Numerical models of rock micro-structure are being
used to simulate the macroscopic behavior of rock. In
this study, discrete element code (PFC2D) is used to
model the mechanical behavior of low strength sand-
stone. The model consists of a random assembly from
disk shaped particles that interact with each other
through a contact model. Damage is represented as
broken bonds which form macroscopic fractures when
load is applied.
The relation between micro properties at particle
level (i.e. particle and geometry size, bond strength,
stiffness) and apparent macro properties (i.e. uniax-
ial compressive strength [UCS], Youngs Modulus,
Brazilian tensile strength [BTS] and Poissons ratio
[]) is investigated since (1) it is a prerequisite to rep-
resent realistically the low strength rock material by a
particle assembly and (2) quality of modeling of rock
behavior is the key issue for both operational and eco-
nomical aspects of mining projects as it defines design,
selection and use of cutting tools.
Laboratory data from uniaxial and biaxial compres-
sion, and Brazilian tests are used for model calibration
to describe bulk behavior of the low strength sand-
stone. The analyses results show that particle and
geometry size, bond strength are significant param-
eters that affect UCS and BTS values and crack
pattern. The simulations correspond comparatively to
the experimental observations in terms of stress-strain
response and cracking and failure patterns.
2 MODELING PROCEDURE
2.1 General information about PFC2D
PFC2D simulates the static and dynamic behavior of
a system of circular/spherical rigid particles that may
be bonded together. Distinct particle displace indepen-
dently one from another, and interact only at contacts
or interface between the particles. Motion of particles
obeys Newtons law of motion, whereas the interaction
between them is defined through constitutive models
associated with each contact. At a particular contact
the constitutive model consist of a contact-stiffness
model, a slip and separation model and a bonding
model (contact bond and/or parallel bond). Particles
and their interaction at contact level are characterized
by two groups of parameters: (1) geometrical and phys-
ical parameters (Average particle radius, R; particle
density, ; porosity of assembly, ), and 2) parame-
ters for constitutive contact models (Normal stiffness,
kn ; shear stiffness, ks ; stiffness ratio, kn /ks ; normal
strength Tn ; shear strength Ts ; Friction coefficient ).
In this study, as a constitutive model the linear
contact law and the point contact bonds approach is

207
considered. For each contact, the force-displacement
is expressed as:
where Fni and Fsi are the normal and shear component
of the contact force, Uni and Usi are the relative displace-
ments between the contacting bodies in normal and
shear directions, respectively. The force-displacement
law operates at a contact and can be described in terms
of a contact point lying on a contact plane that is
defined by a unit normal vector, ni .
Bond breakage occurs when either the normal or
shear component of the contact force exceeds its cor-
responding bond strength. The calculation cycle in
PFC2D consists of the repeated application of the
law of motion to each particle, a force-displacement
law to each contact with a constant updating of wall
positions. At the start of time step, the set of con-
tacts are updated from the known particle and wall
positions. Then the force-displacement law is applied
to each contact to update the contact forces based
on the relative motion of the two contacting bod-
ies (particle-particle or particle-wall) and the applied
contact constitutive model. Next, the law of motion
is applied to each particle to update its position and
velocity according to the contact forces and/or any
body forces. The reader is referred to Itasca Consulting
Group (2004) for further information on PFC2D.
2.2 Preparation of model specimen
A random particle generator is used to generate a spec-
ified number of non-overlapping particles at random
coordinate locations in a given space. The particles are
placed at smaller particle radii than their final values to
facilitate their packing. They are expanded afterwards
by trial and error till the desired porosity of 17% is
reached. The number of particles is determined using
the prescribed porosity and particle size distribution.
After the generation and packing of initial assembly
hydrostatic compaction using controlled boundaries is
employed to obtain a densely packed sample. Then a
friction coefficient is applied to all particle contacts
and the assembly is equilibrated under a specified
isotropic stress. To ensure a well-connected assem-
bly floater algorithm within the PFC2D is applied to
expand and to move the floaters (particles with fewer
or zero contacts) until every particle has a specified
minimum number of contacts. The minimum number
of contacts set during the simulations in this study
is three. Finally, the assembly is ready to perform
simulations.
2.3 Calibration of synthetic material model
Numerical calibration is required to create a synthetic
material model that simulates the mechanical behavior
of a low strength rock. Calibration is actually refers
to an iterative procedure of determining and modi-
fying the micro mechanical parameters for a PFC2D
208
model. These parameters govern the particle contact
and bond properties and cannot be determined directly
from laboratory tests. Moreover, despite the several
attempts of researchers (i.e. Potyondy and Cundall,
2004; Bathurst and Rothenburg, 1992, Huang et al,
1999) there is no complete theory to predict macro
properties from micro parameters. Therefore numer-
ical simulations are performed to determine scaling
effect between macro and micro properties.
During calibration responses of model are com-
pared to those laboratory test results for low strength
sandstone presented in Elkadi (2005) and micro
parameters are iteratively modified by a trial and error
method to attain reasonable agreement with corre-
sponding macro parameters of low strength rock. UCS,
E, and are the macro parameters in the calibra-
tion regarding uniaxial compression test while fracture
pattern and crack are incorporated from Brazilian
splitting test.
A rectangular disk assembly of width W , and height,
H with a ratio of H /W equal to 2 is used in uniax-
ial compression simulations. The particle radius range
from 0.2 mm to 0.4 mm following a normal particle
size distribution hence W /R ratio of 105.6 is used for
calibration. The irregular assembly contained about
2587 particles.
The Brazilian splitting test simulations are per-
formed using a cylindrical specimen trimmed from the
same rectangular particle assembly used in UCS test
simulations. The diameter of the Brazilian specimen
is equal to the width of the UCS specimen. These sim-
ulations are used to confirm the calibration process in
terms of crack pattern and fracture behavior since the
crack pattern is relatively better understood and more
predictable compared to the fracture process in UCS
test. After several trial simulations using micro param-
eters mention in section 2.1 a best-fit PFC2D material
model in terms of mechanical behavior similar to a low
strength sandstone was created regarding both uniax-
ial compression and Brazilian splitting simulations.
Figure 1 shows the axial stress-strain response from
PFC2D simulations. As seen from the figure, numer-
ical simulation provides a good representation for a
low strength sandstone when it is compared to the lab-
oratory results from Elkadi (2005). Figure 2 shows the
Figure 1. Axial stress-strain response of PFC2D simulation.
crack pattern of simulation and fracture specimen from
Brazilian laboratory test (Elkadi, 2005). The fracture
pattern obtained from simulations is also seemed to be
comparable.
3 NUMERICAL ANALYSIS
3.1 Effect of particle and geometry size on macro
properties
The particle size is seen as a discretization length indi-
cating the model resolution in PFC2D. According to
Itasca consulting Group (2004) the particle size could
in principle chosen freely as long as the model contains
a sufficient number of particles for being representa-
tive (at least 20 particles along width of the assembly
is required to achieve calibration process). However,
the analysis results presented here show that PFC2D
model is particle size dependent regarding the macro
properties and fracture behavior. In order to investigate
the influence of particle size and consequently number
of particle two types of simulations are performed.
In one of the simulation set same geometry size
with varying values of R are used (named as particle
size scaling) while in the other set of simulations R is
kept constant and geometry size is varied (named as
geometry size scaling). In all simulations H/W ratio
is set to 2. In particle size scaling simulations 0.15,
0.3, 0.6 and 1.2 mm are the R values used.
The different sizes of the assemblies used in geom-
etry size scaling are chosen such that the ratio W /R
are equal to that of in the particle size scaling simula-
tions.The ratio of W /R are: 211.3, 105.6, 52.8, 26.4 and
they correspond to 10305, 2587, 632 and 156 particles,
respectively. From each assembly, six different sam-
ples are generated using a different seed number for
the random number generator in the material genesis
procedure in order to attain different packing arrange-
ments. Table 1 presents the results of all simulations for
both particle and geometry scaling in terms of mean
and coefficient of variation (ratio of standard devia-
tion to mean) of each macro parameter. The scatter in
the measured properties decreases as the number of
particles increases.
Figure 3 and Figure 4 show that for the same W /R
ratio the scaling effect are alike regardless of the pro-
cedure applied. The slight discrepancy between the
determined values is due to the heterogeneity and
Figure 3. Variation of unconfined compressive strength,
UCS and Youngs modulus, E with particle and geometry
size scaling.

Figure 2. Crack pattern from (a) Brazilian test by PFC2D

simulations and (b) fractured laboratory specimen (Elkadi, Figure 4. Variation of Brazilian tensile strength, BTS and
2005). UCS/BTS ratio with particle and geometry size scaling.

Table 1. Particle and geometry scaling on macro properties.

Particle Scaling Geometry Scaling

UCS E BTS UCS E BTS

cov cov cov cov cov cov cov cov

W /R (MPa) (%) (GPa) (%) () (%) (MPa) (%) (MPa) (%) (GPa) (%) (-) (%) (MPa) (%)

26.4 9.12 9.8 6.95 4.7 0.282 4.4 4.28 98.1 8.26 9.1 6.90 4.4 0.283 4.5 4.7 96.9
52.8 9.65 6.5 7.38 2.3 0.273 3.0 3.35 97.3 8.67 8.9 7.35 1.6 0.273 3.2 3.0 96.7
105.6 10.41 4.3 7.67 1.5 0.269 1.7 1.77 4.1 10.46 4.0 7.67 1.4 0.269 1.7 1.8 4.1
211.33 11.26 2.9 7.69 1.5 0.266 1.3 1.26 3.9 13.66 1.2 8.37 3.6 0.255 1.1 1.6 3.8

209
Figure 5. Crack pattern in Brazilian splitting test simula-
tions for different W /R ratio.

packing effects. On the other hand, scaling effect is

more pronounced on strength (UCS and BTS) value Figure 6. Influence of strength ratio, Ts /Tn on unconfined
than the macro scale elastic constant of the material compressive strength, UCS and Youngs Modulus, E for the
(E and ). As W /R ratio or in other words the number bonded assembly used in the calibration simulations.
of particles in the assembly increases the ratio between
the UCS/BTS is approaching the theoretically expected
range of 410 as well.
Potyondy and Cundall (2004) observed similar
effect of particle size on BTS while reporting no obvi-
ous trend for UCS and E. They suggest involving an
additional parameter such as fracture toughness in case
the failure mechanisms involve processes similar to
those in a Brazilian test. Their results also suggest no
particle size dependence for the elastic constants. Fur-
thermore, the results of analysis for BTS and failure
pattern (Figure 5) are also in agreement with Rocco
et al. (1999) and Elkadi (2005) (See Fig. 2). The
crack pattern in the simulations is represented better Figure 7. Influence of strength ratio, Ts /Tn on Brazilian ten-
for the specimens with W /R ratio greater than 52.8. sile strength, BTS and UCS/BTS for the bonded assembly
When the particle size is larger the crack propaga- used in the calibration simulations.
tion is detained and formation of a continuous failure
plane is hindered. On the other hand, smaller particles
have more chance to position in the crack path and
hence crack propagation is more favorable. However,
the computational time increases considerably as the
number of particles increases. Therefore, in the rest of
the study, specimen with W /R ratio equals to 105.6 is
considered to have realistic results in terms of strength
and crack pattern at a reasonable computational cost
simultaneously.

3.2 Effect of bond strength on macro properties
Huang (1999) indicated bond strength and stiffness
are the dominant micro parameters in PFC2D model-
ing procedure. Simulations are performed using Ts /Tn
ratio of 0.25, 0.5, 1, 2, 4, and 6 respectively to deter-
mine the effect of bond strength on UCS, E, BTS values
as well as the crack pattern.
As seen in Figure 6 both E and UCS show an initial
dependence on strength ratio up to a certain thresh-
old, i.e. Ts /Tn = 1 and 2 for E and UCS, respectively.
Figure 7 shows that the same trend is also valid for
BTS. Moreover, as seen in Figure 8 the strength ratio
has a clear influence on the failure mode and crack
pattern. The failure mode is dominantly shear for the
strength ratio less than 1, while tensile failure is pre-
vailed for the values greater than 2. In between a mixed
tensile and shear failures is observed. For a reasonable
Figure 8. Crack pattern in unconfined compressive and
Brazilian splitting test simulations for different strength ratio
Ts /Tn .
fracture behavior Ts /Tn ratio greater than 2 is rec-
ommended and furthermore the expected UCS/BTS
range for rock material (410) is attained. One has
to consider that when Ts is smaller than Tn then the
constitutive behavior, namely UCS/BTS ratio and the
fracture behavior change to attain exact match in cal-
ibration process. No obvious prevailing relationship
was observed between and bond strength.
3.3 Effect of bond stiffness on macro properties
The influence of stiffness ratio on UCS, E, BTS, and
are presented in Figure 9, 10 and 11, respectively.

210
Figure 9. Influence of stiffness ratio, kn /ks on unconfined
compressive strength, UCS and Youngs Modulus, E for the
bonded assembly used in the calibration simulations.
Figure 10. Influence of stiffness ratio, kn /ks on Brazilian
tensile strength, BTS and UCS/BTS values for the bonded
assembly used in the calibration simulations.
Figure 11. Influence of stiffness ratio kn /ks on Poissons
ratio, for the bonded assembly used in the calibration
simulations.
Approximately a linear relation for UCS and BTS, a
descending power relation for E and an exponential
relation for is observed in the calibration curves.
Conversely to the strength ratio increase in stiffness
ratio does not affect or change the fracture behavior
but as the stiffness ratio increases the crack density
increases as well (Figure 12).
3.4 Effect of initial isotropic stress on macro
properties
Initial isotropic stress is another important parameter
during calibration process particularly in preparation
is partly inherited from generation and compaction
211
Figure 12. Crack pattern in unconfined compressive and
Brazilian splitting test simulations for different stiffness ratio,
kn /ks .
Figure 13. Axial stress versus axial strain curves for biaxial
test simulations.
phases. A specified isotropic stress is typically set at
a low value relative to the material strength. The radii
of all particles are changed uniformly to achieve the
specified isotropic stress defined.
The simulations are performed on the calibrated
particle assembly using initial stresses of 0.1, 0.5,
1 and 5 MPa. The results suggest a minor influence
of initial isotropic stress on UCS and E values as
the initial stress is less or equal to 10% of the com-
pressive strength of the material. For the initial stress
values greater than 10% of the compressive strength a
decreasing trend is observed in the UCS and E values
with an increase initial stress of the specimen.
3.5 Biaxial behavior
A series of biaxial compression simulations are per-
formed in order to analyze the biaxial behavior, par-
ticularly brittle/ductile behavior of low strength rock
under pressure. During the simulations lateral con-
finement is kept constant. Confining pressures of 0.1,
0.2, 0.5, 1, 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25 MPa are applied during
simulations. Figure 13 represents the biaxial failure of
the low strength rock assembly and Figure 14 show the
fracture behavior of assembly under various confining
pressure. At confinement pressure larger than 5 MPa

Figure 14. Crack pattern in biaxial test simulations under
different confining pressure, Pc values.
Figure 15. Biaxial strength envelope from PFC2D simula-
tions using Linear Mohr-Coulomb failure criteria.
the shear cracks become dominant which is also indi-
cated rather ductile behavior in Fig. 13 since the peak is
almost concealed leaving a smooth elastic-plastic tran-
sition. Although the brittle-ductile transition coincide
the experimental findings of Elkadi (2005) the dif-
ferences between the biaxial strength values between
experimental and simulation results are tangible par-
ticularly, when the confining pressure increases. In
general biaxial strength values obtained from simula-
tions are lower than the experimental values. Therefore
one can expect ductile behavior of material in reality to
be more pronounced at a given confinement compared
to the simulations. In order to determine the internal
friction angle, and cohesion, c of material a linear
Mohr-Coulomb failure criterion is fitted to the failure
envelop from biaxial simulations on 1 -3 (Figure 15)
as well. The values evaluated for internal friction angle
and cohesion are 28 degrees and 3.3 MPa, respectively.
As expected the value of friction angle is lower and
cohesion is higher experimental findings of Elkadi
(2005) of 45 degrees and 1.9 MPa respectively. The
values stated in Potyondy and Cundall (2004) for both
PFC2D and PFC3D are also evident for the differ-
ence between experimental and simulation findings in
terms of biaxial behavior of material. Hence it can be
concluded that numerical tests carried by PFC2D mod-
eling can rather represent the brittle-ductile transition.
Nevertheless, a possible under prediction of the biaxial
strength by the simulations should not be disregarded.
4 CONCLUSIONS
In this study, discrete element code (PFC2D) is used
to model the mechanical behavior of low strength
212
sandstone. Numerical simulations have shown that
PFC2D has ability to reproduce comparable macro-
scopic material behavior of low strength rock. Particle
and geometry size has a tangible influence on the anal-
ysis results. As particle or geometry size increase UCS,
BTS and E values decrease. Therefore, particle size is
not a free parameter that only controls discretization
resolution. Model depends on the ratio between the
specimen dimension (i.e. width of the assembly) and
the average particle radius in the assembly. Decreasing
size effect trend obtained for Brazilian test simula-
tions are comparable to experimental results reported
in literature (Rocco et al. (1999).
The brittle ductile transition is represented quite
well by the biaxial simulations. However the difference
between the internal friction angle from experiments
and simulations indicates a possible under prediction
of the biaxial strength by the simulations.
Initial isotropic stress shows a minor effect for stress
level below 10% of the UCS of specimen. On the
other hand the influence of particle stiffness ratio has
a descending power relation for E and a linear relation
for UCS and BTS. Particle strength ratio initially influ-
ences UCS, BTS and E values up to a threshold value.
For a reasonable fracture behavior Ts /Tn ratio greater
than 2 is recommended. Unlike the stiffness ratio the
strength ratio has a clear influence on failure mode
and crack pattern. When Ts is smaller than Tn then
the constitutive behavior, namely UCS/BTS ratio and
the fracture behavior change to attain exact match in
calibration process. For a realistic calibration, fracture
behaviour should be considered alongside material
properties.
REFERENCES
Bathurst, R.J., and Rothenburg, L., 1992, Investigation
of Micromechanical Features of idealized granular
assemblies using DEM, Engineering computations, 9,
pp.199210.
Elkadi, A.S.K., 2005, Fracture scaling of concrete under mul-
tiaxial compression, PhD. Dissertation, Delft University
press, The Netherlands, p.179.
Huang, H., Detournay, E., and Bellier, B., 1999 Discrete
Element of rock cutting.
Rock Mechanics for Industry, Scott & Smeallie (eds)
Balkema, Rotterdam pp. 123131.
Itasca Consulting Group Inc, 2004, PFC 2d Particle flow
code in 2 Dimensions, Itasca, Minneapolis.
Potyondy, D.A., and Cundall, P., 2004 , A bonded-
particle model for rock, International Journal of Rock
mechanics & Mining sciences, 41, pp.13291364.
Rocco C., Ginea, G.V., Planas, J., and Elices, M.,(1999) Size
effect and boundary conditions in the brazilian test: Exper-
imental verification, Materials and Structures (RILEM),
32, pp.210217.
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Effect of drying on a granular slope physical model analysed by Discrete

Element Method (DEM)

F. Gabrieli, S. Cola & P. Simonini

Department IMAGE, University of Padova, Italy

F. Calvetti
Structural Engineering Department, Politecnico di Milano, Italy

ABSTRACT: The paper analyses the mechanical behaviour of granular soils in pendular state, using the
Discrete Element Method (DEM) with a contact model which takes into account the interparticle capillary
forces. The role of water content at different confinement stresses is investigated by using some numerical
triaxial tests. The capability of the improved DEM is tested simulating the evaporation process occurred in a
slope constituted by glass spheres.

1 INTRODUCTION In the following the analysis focuses on the soils

The stability of shallow layers on a natural slope is
affected by a complex thermo-hydro-mechanical pro-
cess in which the initial soil water content has a
fundamental role since the slope masses are never
completely dry.
Traditionally, soil saturation conditions can be
classified into 5 states (Table 1): completely dry,
pendular state, funicular state, capillary state and com-
pletely wet (Newitt & Conway-Jones 1958). Since a
clear quantitative categorization in terms of saturation
degree is impossible because it depends upon parti-
cle size and liquid properties, the values of saturation
degree reported inTable 1 must be considered as purely
indicative.
Table 1. Soil saturation states (adapted and revised from
Newitt & Conway-Jones, 1958).
in the pendular state supposing a soil moisture range
between 0 and 5%. In this condition fluid is shared
only by couples of grains, forming the so-called cap-
illary bridges (or pendular ring, meniscus). Liquid
surface tension and adhesion solid-liquid generate
strong attractive forces that depend on capillary liquid
volume and interparticle distance.
Since the soil water content (i.e. capillary bridge
volume) changes because of moisture exchanges with
atmosphere, great variations of effective stresses and
shear strength occur in granular slopes, especially in
very shallow layers. This dynamic effect was inves-
tigated preparing a small-scale physical model con-
stituted by monosized glass spheres mixed with a
little amount of water. Afterwards the model was dried
recording the erosion process and the evolution of the
soil mass.
The experimental test is simulated using Discrete
Element Method (DEM) that allows the reproduction
of every single spherical particle and of the whole
packing starting from the calibration of the consti-
tutive model at the contact. The contact model was
properly modified to take into account water content
and capillary forces. Starting from some experimen-
tal evidences a depth-dependent evaporation rate was
adopted.

2 CAPILLARY BRIDGE

In the absence of gravitational force, the capillary

bridge between two spherical particles assumes an
axi-symmetric shape (Fig. 1) that mainly depends on:
the liquid bridge volume V ;
the interparticle distance s;

213
Figure 1. Typical geometry of the capillary bridge.
the contact angle , which essentially depends on
materials in contact (solid particle, fluid and gas).
To simplify, it was considered as constant.
On the other hand, if the interparticle distance and
the embracing angle (also called filling angle) are
known, the liquid bridge volume V may be easily deter-
mined by the approximated relationship suggested by
Israelachvili (1992):
To investigate the attractive force Fcap existing
between two solid grains several solutions have been
proposed (Fisher 1926, Lian et al. 1993, Rabinovich
et al. 2005, Souli et al. 2008), based on two main
approaches: one derived from the solution of Young-
Laplace differential equation, and the other from
the adoption of the minimum total energy princi-
ple. Recently Lambert et al. (2008) demonstrated
the theoretical equality of two methods for simple
geometries.
On the base of the minimum total energy approach,
Rabinovich et al. (2005) proposed a straightforward
relationship for the capillary attraction force between
two spheres with the same radius R. The same function
was then revised and modified by Lambert et al. (2008)
subtracting a term and leading to:
where is the liquid surface tension and d represents
the wet spherical segment on the grain surface (Fig. 1),
calculated as:
At the contact (s = 0) the capillary attraction force
reaches its maximum value, equal to 2Rcos.
Its absolute value decreases when the interparticle
214
Figure 2. Force-distance relationships for a capillary bridge
according to different numerical solutions (V = 1010 m3 ;
R = 1 mm; = 0 ).
distance increases (Fig. 2) or when the capillary
volume shrinks.
Furthermore, experimental evidences show that
when the grain distance exceeds a certain value srupt ,
the capillary bridge breaks. According to Lian et al.
(1993) the rupture distance may be determined by:
In order to give a quantitative idea of the inten-
sity of capillary force and its trend, Figure 2 depicts
the relationships between the capillary force and the
interparticle distance obtained with some different
solutions. More specifically, the approximate solution
proposed by Souli et al. (2008) for theYoung-Laplace
equation and that obtained by Lambert et al. (2008) on
the base of the minimum energy principle are plotted
for a typical case i.e. a capillary liquid volume V
equal to 1010 m3 , a particle radius R = 1 mm and a
contact angle = 0 . According to eq. (4), the max-
imum distance before the capillary bridge rupture is
4.6 104 m. Moreover in the same graph are also
plotted some numerical values obtained by applying a
finite element method to solve the minimum energy
principle (Brakke, 2008).
The differences between solutions are due to sev-
eral aspects: the FEM solution takes into account the
gravitational force and then it also depends on the
position of the particles compared to the vertical;
Young-Laplace and minimum energy approaches dif-
fer in the type of approximation employed (Souli et al.
2006, Lambert et al. 2008).
Theoretically the Young-Laplace approach requires
the highest computational cost because a nontrivial
Partial Differential Equation must be solved. On the
contrary the Lambert solution provides a very simple
equation to be inserted in an explicit time-stepping
code.
Figure 3. Normal contact model in the presence of capillary
bridge (adapted from Souli et al, 2006).
Figure 4. Calibration of contact parameters for glass ballo-
tini (R = 1 mm) by triaxial test.
3 TRIAXIAL TESTS
In order to investigate the mechanical response of a
partially wet granular soil, the previous relationships
(eq. 14) were integrated in a discrete element com-
mercial code PFC3D (Itasca 2003).
The scheme of Figure 3 depicts the contact consti-
tutive model for normal direction in the presence of
a capillary bridge: eq. (2) was used to compute the
normal force for srupt > s > 0.
A linear spring constitutive relation was applied
when two particles are in contact i.e. for s 0.
Moreover, in contact condition, if the capillary bridge
is established, the capillary force Fcap is assumed
independent from s and equal to its maximum value.
In tangential direction the effect of capillary force
can be assumed negligible as capillary bridge is axi-
symmetric.
The effectiveness of the model was firstly veri-
fied by simulating some triaxial tests performed with
monosized glass ballotini (R = 1 mm, Gs = 2.532).
The numerical specimens and the micromechanical
contact parameters for the dry material (i.e. the normal
stiffness kn , the tangential stiffness ks and the inter-
granular friction angle ) were obtained following
215
Figure 5. Stress-strain response for dry and partially wet
glass ballotini (R = 1 mm) at different confinement stresses.
the same procedure described in Gabrieli et al. (2009).
The Figure 4 shows the comparison between the results
of a drained triaxial test performed on 1 mm-radius
glass ballottini (GB2) at a confinement stress equal
to 100 kPa and the DEM simulation obtained with the
following micromechanical parameters:
kn = 400 KN/m;
ks = 100 KN/m;
tan = 0.17.
As already remarked by Gabrieli et al. (2009) some
differences in volumetric response between experi-
mental and numerical results are due to the impos-
sibility of simulating the localization of shear strain at
a high strain level.
In order to highlight the effect of capillarity on the
mechanical response of glass ballotini, four couples of
isotropically consolidated drained triaxial tests were
numerically performed at very low confining pres-
sures (3 = 0.5, 1, 3 and 5 kPa) in completely dry
(w = 0%) and partially wet (w = 5%) conditions. In
the numerical sample, the water volume was homo-
geneously subdivided among every potential contact
according to the eq. (4). Moreover, in order to min-
imize size-boundary effects, wall-sphere capillary
bridges were avoided.
In Figure 5 the shear stress ratio = q/p is depicted
for two different confinement stresses and water con-
tents. A general increase of shear strength with water
addition can be noted, effect that decreases with the
stress level.
This feature can be explained considering that at a
microscale level the attractive normal contact forces
due to the presence of capillary bridges increase the
resisting shear forces depending on the interparti-
cle friction. Moreover, the capillary bridges allow
the creation of groups constituted of some weak-
bonded particles that contribute to gently increase the
macro-strength of material.
4 EVAPORATION TESTS
Several granular slopes of glass ballotini were pre-
pared in a glass box using different water content
homogeneously distributed in the slope (Fig. 6a). The
slope angle is controlled by the water content and the
maximum angle of repose, equal to 53 , was identified
in correspondence to a water content equal to 2.4%.
The evaporation test was performed by placing the
physical model on an electronic precision balance and
determining the model weight while the soil surface
had been warmed through lamp irradiation. At the
same time, the evolution of slope displacements was
monitored by a digital camera set on the side of the
model and activated at a constant time-step.
During the water evaporation a progressive erosion
of the very shallow layer was observed. It was due
to the capillary bridge rupture among two-three par-
ticles. In Figure 6b it is shown the configuration of
the slope after an 8-hour-long warming process. The
final shape of the slope is characterized by two dif-
ferent angles ranging from 19 to 37 : it seems that a
sort of stabilization effect at the toe of the slope was
caused by mechanical confinement contribution and
by a local decrease of evaporation (and erosion) due
to overlaying.
5 NUMERICAL SIMULATION
The evaporation process was numerically simulated
by imposing shrinkage of capillary bridge volume
according to the simple expression:
Figure 6. Physical model with glass ballotini (R = 1 mm)
(a) at the beginning and (b) at the end of evaporation test.
216
where Vi and Ai are the volume and external surface
of capillary bridge at the iesimo time-step, r is the
specific evaporation rate and t is the time-step for
the numerical integration. For simplicity the external
area of capillary bridge was assumed cylindrical.
The evaporation rate r was assumed a depth-
dependent variable using the empirical relation:
where rmax is the evaporation rate at the surface, z is the
distance of capillary bridge from the irradiated surface
and c2 is an empirical constant. This expression tries
to merely describe the effect of evaporation reduction
with depth as observed by Wilson (1990) and Blight
(2009) for the water content profile of a soil during
some laboratory tests.
In order to estimate the two constant rmax and c2 ,
some evaporation tests were performed using small
cylindrical samples with different height. After filling
them with the same material and the initial water con-
tent of the slope model, they were warmed with the
lamp, monitoring their weight variation in time.
The evaporation rate determined at various instants
for each sample was summarized in Figure 7 and the
best fit obtained using eq. (6) provided a maximum
rate rmax equal to 1.2x108 m/s (at the surface) and a
value of 160 m1 for the exponent c2 .
The evaporation test was simulated using a 1:1
Discrete Element slope constituted by about 12000
spherical particles packed with the same density and
water content of the physical slope.
A huge computational time is required to simulate
the laboratory experiment, because of the large number
of particles and the short time-step (3x106 s): in fact,
in order to complete a single test of 8 hours about 1010
cycles are needed. To overcome this computational
issue two fictitious time-amplification factors c1 equal
to 105 and 108 were introduced in eq. (6) multiplying
rmax . In this way the 8-hour-long warming process was
reproduced in a reasonable time. It should be noted
that this apparently artificial coefficient doesnt affect
the time-step of Discrete Element code but only the
dynamic of the evaporation process. They can be con-
sidered as a sort of quick-heating action produced by
a flame.
Figure 7. Experimental values of evaporation rate at differ-
ent depth and warming time for glass ballotini (R = 1 mm).
 Moreover, in order to reduce the number of particles
composing the numerical model with a consequent
speeding up of the simulation, only the upper part of
the slope was reproduced, cutting it along a inclined
plane set in correspondence of the stable deep layers.
In Figure 8 the slope profiles obtained at the end
of DEM simulation are compared. As it is clearly
shown the final slope profile seems to be independent
Figure 8. Simulated final profile using (a) very rapid evap-
oration rate (c1 = 108 ); (b) moderately rapid evaporation rate
(c1 = 105 ).
Figure 9. Simulated suction distribution (a) at the beginning and (b) after 1.6 105 cycles of evaporation test for moderately
rapid depth-dependent evaporation rate (c1 = 105 ). Suction values in Pa.
217
on the adopted amplification factor. The erosion pro-
cess progressively interested very shallow layer as in
the laboratory tests. The typical talus-shape with two
distinct slope angles was reached, even if they have dif-
ferent values from the real profile. However from some
preliminary observations of the displacement field it
seems to be due to a sort of push-mechanism of the
slope toe.
The Figure 9 shows the evolution of suction distri-
bution in the mass predicted by the numerical analysis
for large time-amplification factor. It can be noted the
increase of suction in capillary bridges due to evapo-
ration especially in very shallow layer: they pass from
2002000 to 200015000 Pa until they vanish for zero
capillary volumes.
6 CONCLUSIONS
In this paper the effect of strength increase in granular
material due to the presence of water in pendular state
was integrated in a discrete element model. Mechan-
ical behaviour of capillary bridge at grain contact
was simulated by computing capillary attraction force
derived from minimum total energy approach. Firstly
the capillary model was employed to investigate the
mechanical effect by using triaxial tests at different
confinement stresses. These simulations permitted to
highlight that strength fluctuation of material due to
water content variation is very important at a low con-
finement stress (i.e. in the very shallow layer in a
slope).
Finally the capability of the numerical model was
verified by testing an erosion experiment carried out
on a small-scale slope model. The model seems to well
qualitatively reproduce the detachment of shallow lay-
ers and the creation of the typical talus shape with
two different final slope angles. Other studies will be
carried out in the future in order to analyze the dis-
placement field of the slope mass and identify the main
mechanisms of erosion.
 It must be noted that the improved model allows
calculating the evolution of suction distribution in the
partially saturated granular material starting from the
knowledge of particle positions and capillary bridge
volumes.
This model could be of interest to the micromechan-
ical comprehension of erosion phenomena occurring
in granular slope during thermo-hydro-mechanical
processes.
REFERENCES
Blight, G. 2009. Solar heating of the soil and evaporation
from a soil surface. Gotechnique 59(4): 355363.
Brakke, K.A. 1992. The Surface Evolver. Experimental
Mathematics 1(2): 141155.
Fisher, R.A. 1926. On the capillary forces in an ideal soil;
correction of formulae given by W.B. Haines. J. Agricult.
Sci. 16: 492505.
Gabrieli, F., Cola, S. & Calvetti, F. 2009. Use of an up-
scaled DEM model for analysing the behaviour of a
shallow foundation on a model slope. Geomechanics and
Geoengineering 4(2): 109122.
218
Israelachvili, J.N. 1992. Intermolecular and Surface Forces,
Academic Press.
Itasca Consulting Group, 2003. PFC3D Particle Flow Code
in three dimensions, Version 3.0, Users guide, Fish in
PFC, Theory and background. Minneapolis.
Lambert, P., Chau, A., Delchambre, A. & Rgnier, S. 2008.
Comparison between Two Capillary Forces Models. Lang-
muir 24(7), 31573163.
Lian, G., Thornton, C. & Adams, M.J. 1993. A theoretical
study of the liquid bridge force between rigid spherical
bodies. J. Colloid and Interf. Sci. 161(1): 138147.
Newitt, D.M & Conway-Jones, J.M. 1958. A contribution to
the theory and practice of granulation. Trans. Inst. Chem.
Engrs., 36: 422442.
Rabinovich, Y.I., Esayanur, M.S. & Moudgil, B.M. 2005.
Capillary forces between two spheres with fixed volume
liquid bridge: theory and experiment. Langmuir 21(24):
1099210997.
Souli, F., Cherblanc, F., El Youssoufi, M.S. & Saix, C. 2006.
Influence of liquid bridges on the mechanical behaviour
of polydisperse granular materials. Int. J. Numer. Analyt.
Meth. Geomech. 30: 213228.
Wilson, G.W. 1990. Soil evaporative fluxes for geotech-
nical engineering problems. PhD Thesis, Univeristy of
Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada.
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Isotropic compression of cohesive-frictional particles with rolling resistance

S. Luding
Multi Scale Mechanics, CTW, UTwente, Enschede, The Netherlands

ABSTRACT: Cohesive-frictional and rough powders are the subject of this study. The behavior under isotropic
compression is examined for different material properties involving Coulomb friction, rolling-resistance and
contact-adhesion. Under isotropic compression, the density continuously increases according to Bauers expo-
nential law, see Ref. (Bauer 1999). However, at a certain pressure/density, the behavior qualitatively changes and
the system enters a second branch again acoording to Bauers law, but with different parameters. In conclusion,
the material behavior changes between two states that are both, separately, described by a simple exponential
function. The phenomenology and origin of the transition between the two states is discussed.

1 INTRODUCTION type constitutive models (Bauer 1999; Oquendo et al.

Cohesive-frictional and rough powders show pecu-
liar flow behavior due to the fact that several contact
forces/torques are equally important. Friction, rolling-
resistance, and contact-adhesion are active at the same
time and lead to macroscopic cohesion and macro-
scopic friction that is not proportional to the micro-
scopic contact parameters. Besides many experiments,
Molecular Dynamics (MD) or Discrete Element Mod-
els (DEM), which solve the equations of motion for
all particles in a system, are used to understand these
granular media. While experiments and continuum
theory deal with macroscopic material parameters,
for the particle simulations, the (microscopic) con-
tact forces are the only physical laws that have to be
defined beforehand (Luding 1998; Bartels et al. 2005;
Dintwa et al. 2005; Luding 2006). The present simula-
tion results are based on the contact model in the paper
by Luding (Luding 2006; Luding 2008).
For powders, as an example, the particle properties
and interaction laws are inserted into a discrete particle
molecular dynamics and lead to the collective behavior
of the dissipative, frictional, adhesive many-particle
system. From the particle simulation, one can extract,
e.g., the coordination number or the pressure of the
system as a function of density (Bauer 1999; Brendel
et al. 2003; Morgeneyer et al. 2006; Oquendo et al.
2009), but also velocity gradient, viscosity and other
macroscopic material properties.
In the following, normal interactions, like adhe-
sion and elasto-plastic contact deformations are used
as well as friction, rolling- and torsion resistance in
tangential direction. Examples of an isotropic com-
pression test are given for which the previously defined
contact model parameters are varied so that the com-
paction process is affected. Especially of interest is
the pore-number plotted against the applied pres-
sure, which is an important ingredient for hypoplastic
2009).
2 SOFT PARTICLE SIMULATIONS
Particle simulations are referred to as discrete ele-
ment models (DEM). For details see Refs. (Cundall
and Strack 1979; Bashir and Goddard 1991; Her-
rmann et al. 1998;Thornton 2000;Thornton and Zhang
2001; Vermeer et al. 2001; Ltzel et al. 2003; Luding
2006; Luding 2008). The elementary units of gran-
ular materials are mesoscopic grains, which deform
under stress. Since the realistic modeling of the defor-
mations of the particles is much too complicated, we
relate the interaction force to the overlap of two parti-
cles. In tangential direction, the forces also depend on
the tangential displacement since the beginning of the
contact. If all forces and torques acting on a particle,
either from other particles, from boundaries or from
external forces, are known, the problem is reduced to
the integration of Newtons equations of motion for
the translational and rotational degrees of freedom.
2.1 Normal contact force laws
Two spherical particles i and j, with radii ai and aj ,
respectively, interact only if they are in contact so that
their overlap
is positive, > 0, with the unit vector n = nij = (r i r j )/
|r i r j | pointing from j to i. The force on particle i,
from particle j, at contact c, can be decomposed into a
normal and a tangential part as f c : = f ci = f n n + f t t,
where n t = 0. The tangential force leads to a torque
as well as rolling and torsion, as discussed below.

219
 The simplest normal contact force model, which
takes into account excluded volume and dissipation,
involves a linear repulsive and a linear dissipative force
with a spring stiffness k, a viscous damping
0 , and the relative velocity in normal direction
vn = vij n = (vi vj ) n = . while the rolling and torsion resistance then only have
This so-called linear spring dashpot (LSD) model
allows to view the particle contact as a damped
harmonic oscillator, for which the half-period of a
vibration around an equilibrium position with a cer-
tain contact force, can be computed (Luding 1998).
The typical response time on the contact level is
the eigenfrequency of the contact, the rescaled damp-
ing coefficient 0 = 0 /(2mij ), and the reduced mass
mij = mi mj /(mi + mj ). From the solution of the equa-
tion of a half period of the oscillation, one also obtains
the coefficient of restitution
which quantifies the ratio of normal relative veloci-
ties after (primed) and before (unprimed) the collision.
For a more detailed discussion of this and other, more
realistic, non-linear contact models, see Ref. (Luding
1998).
The contact duration in Eq. (3) is also of practi-
cal technical importance, since the integration of the
equations of motion is stable only if the integration
time-step tMD is much smaller than tc . Note that
tc depends on the magnitude of dissipation: In the
extreme case of an overdamped spring, tc can become
very large (which would render the contact behav-
ior artificial (Luding et al. 1994a)). Therefore, the
use of neither too weak nor too strong dissipation is
recommended.
Here we apply a variant of the linear hysteretic
spring model (Walton and Braun 1986; Luding 1998;
Tomas 2000; Luding 2006; Luding 2008), as an alter-
native to the frequently applied spring-dashpot mod-
els. This model is the simplest version of some more
complicated nonlinear-hysteretic force laws (Walton
and Braun 1986; Zhu et al. 1991; Sadd et al. 1993;
Tomas 2000), which reflect the fact that at the con-
tact point, plastic deformations may take place and
attractive (adhesive) forces exist.
The adhesive, plastic (hysteretic) force-law was
introduced and described in detail in Ref. (Luding
2008), so that we do not repeat it here. Its parame-
ters are k1 , k2 , kc and the range of plastic deformation
relative to the particle diameter, f .
2.2 Tangential contact force laws
For the tangential degrees of freedom, there are three
different force- and torque-laws to be implemented:
220
(i) friction, (ii) rolling resistance, and (iii) torsion resis-
tance, as described in Ref. (Luding 2008). The unique
feature of this tangential contact model is the fact
that a single procedure (subroutine) can be used to
compute either sliding, rolling, or torsion resistance.
The subroutine needs a velocity as input and returns
the respective force or quasi-force. Below, the slid-
ing/sticking friction model will be introduced in detail,
to be discussed where different from the sliding model,
i.e., with respect to the material parameters and the
action of forces and torques.
The material parameters for friction involve a static
and a dynamic friction coefficient s and d , a tan-
gential elasticity kt , and a tangential viscous damping
t . For rolling and torsion resistance, the prefactors r ,
and o are used, similar to the friction coefficient and
also a dynamic and a static coefficient with the same
ratio as for friction is defined. Furthermore, there is a
rolling- and torsion-mode elasticity kr and ko , as well
as the rolling- and torsion-viscous-damping r and o ,
as specified below in table 2.
2.3 Background friction
Note that the viscous dissipation takes place in a two-
particle contact. In the bulk material, where many
particles are in contact with each other, this dissipation
mode is very inefficient for long-wavelength cooper-
ative modes of motion (Luding et al. 1994; Luding et
al. 1994a). Therefore, an additional damping with the
background can be introduced, so that the total force
on particle i is
and the total torque
with the damping artificially enhanced in the spirit of
a rapid relaxation and equilibration. The sum in Eqs.
(5) and (6) takes into account all contact partners j
of particle i, but the background dissipation can be
attributed to the medium between the particles. Note
that the effect of b and br should be checked for each
simulation in order to exclude artificial over-damping.
3 COMPACTION SIMULATION RESULTS
In this section, a compression test is presented,
where the particles are initially positioned on a square-
lattice in a cubic system with periodic boundary
conditions, in order to avoid wall effects. The sys-
tem is first allowed to evolve to a disordered state,
by attributing random velocities to all particles. The
density is then increased by slowly increasing the
particle size while the system volume V = L3 , with
L = 0.025 m, is kept constant. During the simulation, Table 1. The units and the microscopic particle and contact
the particles are growing and quantities like density model parameters.
(or pore-number), coordination number, energies and
pressure are reported. We tested for a few cases (with Property Symbol
low friction) that this leads to similar behavior as keep-
Time Unit tu
ing particles at constant size and reducing the volume,
Length Unit xu
however, this need more detailed study, especially for Mass Unit mu
the larger values of and r .
Initial particle radius a0
Growth rate gr
3.1 Model system Particle radius a
Material density
The systems examined in the following contain Elastic stiffness k = k2
N = 1728 particles with equal radii a. In the simu- Plastic stiffness k1 /k
lations, the radii change according to the relation Adhesion stiffness kc /k
Friction stiffness kt /k
Rolling stiffness kr /k
Torsion stiffness ko /k
Plasticity depth f
with the relative growth rate gr = 0.2, if not explicitly Coulomb friction coefficient = d = s
specified. The growth is stopped when a target volume Rolling friction coefficient r
fraction max , is reached, where the volume fraction Torsion friction coefficient o
is defined as = NV (a)/V , with the particle volume Normal viscosity = n
V (a) = (4/3)a3 . The particle mass m(a) = V (a), Friction viscosity t /
with the fixed material density , changes with the Rolling viscosity r /
radius during the growth period. The volume fraction Torsion viscosity o /
changes with time according to the relation Background viscosity b /
Background viscous torque br /

which leads to the evolution of the volume fraction Table 2. The microscopic material parameters used (Values
in units of time tu , length xu , and mass mu ) if not explicitly
= 0 exp (3gr t) as function of time t. specified. The third column contains the values in SI units.

Symbol Values SI units

3.2 Particle and contact properties
The particle and material parameters are summarized tu 1 1 s
in table 1 and a typical set of material parameters is xu 1 10 mm
given in table 2. The choice of numbers and units is mu 1 1 mg
such that the particles correspond to spheres with ini- a0 5.104 5.106 m
tial radius a0 = 5 m, growing up to a maximum radius a(t) = a0 e gr t
at volume fraction max = 0.75 of amax = 11.7 m. 2000 2000 kg/m3
The stiffness magnitude (this is not the material bulk k = k2 100 108 kg/s2
modulus, but a contact property) used thus appears k1 /k 0.2
small, but for small fragile materials it is not unrea- kc /k 1.0
sonable. Note that due to the contact model the kt /k 0.2
effective stiffness and cohesion depend on the volume kr /k = ko /k 0.2
fraction and the external pressure. The material defor- f 0.05
mation (overlap) behavior can only be realistic if the = d = s 1
simulations are performed so slow that rate effects are r = o 0.1
small and overlaps are not becoming too large. = n 2104 2104 kg/s
Using the parameter k = k2 in Eq. (3) leads to t / 0.25
a typical contact duration (half-period) of, initially, r / = o / 0.25
tc 2.27 104 tu = 2.27 1010 s, and at maximum size, b / 0.10
tc 8.18 104 tu = 8.18 1010 s, for a normal collision br / 0.05
with = 0. Accordingly, an integration time-step of
tMD = 2 1012 s is used, in order to allow for a safe
integration of contacts. Note that not only the normal
eigenfrequency but also the eigenfrequencies in tan- than tMD , whereas the viscous response times should
gential and rotation direction have to be considered be even larger, so that t > tc > tMD . The discussion of
as well as the viscous response times t m/. All all the effects due to the interplay between the model
of the eigenfrequencies should be considerably larger parameters is far from the scope of this paper, however.

221
Figure 1. Dimensionless pressure pd/k, with d = 2a, plot-
ted as function of the density for simulations with (Left)
= 0.01, r = 0.1, and (Right) = 1.0, r = 0.01, and the
other parameters as in 2. The growth rate is given in the inset,
where the negative gr = 0.2 corresponds to unloading after
the maximal density was reached.

3.3 Compression simulations

When compressing the system (by growing the parti-
cles) the first quantity of interest is the density (volume
fraction) or equivalently the pore-number

The second quantity is the pressure that is reached dur-

ing compression, plotted as a function of the density
in Fig. 1 for two different combinations of friction
and rolling-resistance parameters. Note that we plot
the dimensionless pressure that is approximately the
average overlap relative to the particle size, i.e., a
dimensionless pressure of 0.1 corresponds to an aver-
age contact deformation of order of 10%. Thus, at the
Figure 2. Pore number e plotted against pressure for data
highest pressure, due to the wide distribution of contact with gr = 0.2 and Ek /Ep < 0.1. The particle and contact
overlaps and forces, some particles are considerably parameters are given in table 2, only the values of the friction
deformed and feel accordingly extremely high forces. coefficient are varied at constant r = 0.1 (Top), and the val-
During compression, the pressure remains at a very ues of rolling- and torsion-coefficients are varied at constant
small level, until it starts to increase strongly and non- = 1 (Bottom).
linearly from a certain volume fraction on. There are
two regimes: (i) an initial, nonlinear regime for small
pressures, and (ii) an almost linear regime for large
friction coefficients, however, are not always suffi-
pressures. The slow simulations (red, solid lines) lead
cient to guarantee a lower and lower packing density,
to a somewhat smaller pressure than the fast simu-
i.e., higher and higher pore number. The simulations
lations (green, dashed lines), showing the dynamic
collapse for 1.
effect of the rather fast compression rate with gr = 0.2.
From the bottom panel, one observes similarly that
However, since the difference between fast and slow
larger and larger rolling- and torsion-resistance leads
compression is only a few percent for low pressures,
to smaller densities, i.e., larger pore-numbers. On
and much smaller for high pressures, in this study, we
the other hand, extremely high rolling- and torsion-
will present the fast compression results only.
coefficients do not necessarily lead to lower densities.
The simulations do not change anymore for r 0.5.
The reason for this is a different reorganization
3.4 Parameter study
dynamics. Increasing the friction (rolling resistance)
In the following, the friction coefficient and the coefficients, allows for higher pore numbers, however,
rolling- and torsion-resistance coefficients r = o above a certain value, the packing is not stabilized and
are varied. The pore-number e is plotted against the finds other deformation modes to collapse. For exam-
pressure in Fig. 2 for various simulations. ple, when sliding is avoided (large ), the packing
From the top panel one can conclude that small still can roll into denser positions, and similarly, when
friction coefficients are always related to rather high rolling is avoided (large r ), the packing can slide into
densities, i.e., small pore numbers. Larger and larger denser configurations.

222

Figure 3. Pore number e plotted against pressure (in units
N/m2 ) for data with gr = 0.02, = 0.01, and r = 0.1. The
two lines represent the fits to the low and high pressure
regimes.
3.5 Analytical form of the porosity
In this subsection we fit the data from the simula-
tion with gr = 0.02, r = 0.1, and = 0.01 using the
analytical form
with the hardness hs , the maximal pore-number e0 , and
a power law with exponent ns .
Remarkably, the data are not fitted by one law only,
but by two. Specifically, by fitting in the pressure
ranges p [20 : 200], p [500 : 2000], we obtain the
parameters e0 = 0.605, 0.505, hs = 1620, 4750 N/m2 ,
and ns = 0.766, and 0.823, respectively, see Fig. 3.
We exclude the possibility that the two regimes
come from crystallization of the structure due to the
monodisperse particle size distribution, by studying
the pair-correlation function (Luding 2007) at dif-
ferent densities/pressures during compression (data
not shown). The short range order (up to 45 parti-
cle diameters) occurs at a pressure level well below
p = 100 N/m2 , in Fig. 3. For higher pressures, includ-
ing the transition regime, there is no significant change
anymore of the established structure and thus, the tran-
sition cannot be related to a transition in structure. We
rather relate the transition between the two regimes to
the elasto-plastic contact model, as will be discussed
in more detail elsewhere. (Luding 2007).
Given the good quality of the fit using two Bauer
exponential-laws, finally, we note that the power law
form proposed recently for more dynamic uni-axial
compression (Brendel 2003; Morgeneyer et al. 2006),
does not agree that well with our data.
223
4 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
The present study contains compression tests of adhe-
sive, frictional, rough powder particles. While adhe-
sion is not varied here, both friction and rolling-
resistance coefficients are changed systematically. All
other parameters are chosen with exemplary values,
since the full set of contact models presented involves
a too large number of parameters. The most relevant
parameters still have to be identified and their interplay
has to be better understood.
The compression behavior is well fitted by two
exponential laws with different parameters, indicat-
ing two different contact mechanisms active dur-
ing compression. Using friction and rolling-/torsion-
resistance, stable static packings could be reached
with rather low densities (volume fractions) at small
pressure, somewhat above min 0.4.
Eventually, the quantitative validation of the simu-
lation contact models and the corresponding param-
eters the issue. The measurement of low packing
fractions in adhesive, frictional fine powders is one
of the possible experiments to be examined in more
detail a challenge for particle contact modeling.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Valuable discussions with E. Bauer, H.-J. Butt,
M. Kappl, S. McNamara, J. Tomas, and R. Tykhoniuk
are acknowledged. Furthermore, we acknowledge the
financial support of the Deutsche Forschungsgemein-
schaft (DFG) and the Stichting voor Fundamenteel
Onderzoek der Materie (FOM), financially supported
by the Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk
Onderzoek (NWO).
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(2005). The effect of contact torques on porosity of
cohesive powders. Granular Matter 7, 139.
Bashir, Y. M. and J. D. Goddard (1991). A novel simula-
tion method for the quasi-static mechanics of granular
assemblages. J. Rheol. 35(5), 849885.
Bauer, E. (1999). Analysis of shear band bifurcation with
a hypoplastic model for a pressure and density sensitive
granular material. Mechanics of Materials 31, 597.
Brendel, L., D. Kadau, D. E. Wolf, M. Morgeneyer, and
J. Schwedes (2003). Compaction of cohesive powders: A
novel description. AIDIC Conference Series 6, 5565.
Cundall, P. A. and O. D. L. Strack (1979). A discrete numer-
ical model for granular assemblies. Gotechnique 29(1),
4765.
Dintwa, E., M. van Zeebroeck, E. Tijskens, and H. Ramon
(2005). Torsion of viscoelastic spheres in contact. Granu-
lar Matter 7, 169.
Herrmann, H. J., J.-P. Hovi, and S. Luding (Eds.) (1998).
Physics of dry granular media NATO ASI Series E 350,
Dordrecht. Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Ltzel, M., S. Luding, H. J. Herrmann, D. W. Howell, and
R. P. Behringer (2003). Comparing simulation and
 experiment of a 2d granular couette shear device. Eur.
Phys. J. E 11(4), 325333.
Luding, S. (1998). Collisions & contacts between two parti-
cles. In H. J. Herrmann, J.-P. Hovi, and S. Luding (Eds.),
Physics of dry granular media - NATO ASI Series E350,
Dordrecht, pp. 285. Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Luding, S. (2006). About contact force-laws for cohe-
sive frictional materials in 2d and 3d. In P. Walzel,
S. Linz, C. Krlle, and R. Grochowski (Eds.), Behavior
of Granular Media, pp. 137147. Shaker Verlag. Band
9, Schriftenreihe Mechanische Verfahrenstechnik, ISBN
3-8322-5524-9.
Luding, S. (2007). Contact models for very loose granu-
lar materials. In P. Eberhard (Ed.), IUTAM bookseries:
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Contacts, Berlin, pp. 135150. Springer.
Luding, S. (2008). Cohesive frictional powders: Contact
models for tension. Granular Matter 10, 235246.
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J. Duran (1994a). Anomalous energy dissipation in molec-
ular dynamics simulations of grains: The detachment
effect. Phys. Rev. E 50, 4113.
Luding, S., E. Clment, A. Blumen, J. Rajchenbach, and
J. Duran (1994b). The onset of convection in molecular
dynamics simulations of grains. Phys. Rev. E 50, R1762.
Morgeneyer, M., M. Rck, J. Schwedes, L. Brendel, K. John-
son, D. Kadau, D. E. Wolf, and L.-O. Heim (2006). Com-
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 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Size effects on a virtual calibration chamber

J. Butlanska, M. Arroyo & A. Gens

Department of Geotechnical Engineering, UPC, Barcelona, Spain

ABSTRACT: Virtual Calibration Chambers (VCC) are 3D-DEM models where cone penetration is simulated.
They offer the possibility of substituting for the rather more expensive physical calibration chambers. One
important issue in calibration chamber interpretation is the possibility of chamber size effect under different
boundary conditions. The aim of this study was to explore chamber size effects under BC1 and BC3 conditions
on the VCC. The chamber and cone diameters and boundary conditions were varied to investigate their effects
on cone tip resistance. The scaling laws that are obtained from the VCC results are then compared with those
previously obtained with physical calibration chambers.

1 INTRODUCTION Table 1. Types of boundary conditions.

Calibration Chamber tests (CC) provide an effective Top & Bottom Boundary Lateral Boundary
way to study Cone Penetration Test (CPT) in sands BC Stress strain stress strain
under strictly controlled conditions (material, density,
BC1 constant constant
stress state and boundary). Results from CC tests are
BC2 0 0
used to establish relationships between the observed BC3 constant 0
outcomes like cone resistance (qc ), and the material BC4 0 constant
descriptors like relative density (DR ) and effective
stress state (). Typical boundary conditions applied
in CC differ on whether stresses are kept constant or remarked that also CC CPTs on loose sands were
displacements are zero on the lateral and top/bottom affected by size effects, but up to a lower limit of
sample boundaries (Table 1). only Rd > 30 35. They noted that for the same Rd , qc
depends on the applied boundary conditions, but did
not quantify that effect.
1.1 Chamber size effect Schnaid & Houlsby (1991), using only BC1 tests,
confirmed that for all sand densities the chamber
The use of calibration chamber results to predict field size can affect the results and that the effect is more
performance needs to take into account the size effect significant for dense sand. They also showed that
due to limited chamber dimensions. Size effects are cone resistance and pressuremeter limit pressure were
observed when the test outcomes vary for constant similarly affected. Mayne & Kulhawy (1991) after
sand properties and conditions as a function of equip- examining six data sets from CC CPTs for differ-
ment dimensions. Size effect is usually explored using ent ranges of Rd proposed a correction factor for size
the parameter Rd , a chamber to cone diameter ratio. effects:
A related aspect is the influence of variable testing
boundary conditions and how these may result in
different size effects.
Since the early 80s, these issues have been exam-
ined by various researchers. Parkin & Lunne (1982) where qc,corrected = corrected cone tip resistance;
summarized work performed in two different calibra- qc,measured = measured cone tip resistance; Rd = chamber
tion chambers with two differently sized penetrom- to - cone diameter ratio and DR = relative density.
eters. They did not observe a significant size effect Equation 1 assumes that a free field condition is
for loose sand, whereas for dense sand there was a achieved for Rd > 70 and was meant to apply equally
clear influence of chamber size up to Rd > 50. Cone for both BC1 and BC3 conditions.
tip resistance (qc ) increased with Rd for both BC1 A different empirical correction for size effect was
and BC3 conditions, although somewhat faster in the proposed by Tanizawa (1992) while analyzing CC CPT
former case. In later work, Parkin (1988) suggested results on Toyoura sand:
that the Rd value required to eliminate chamber size
effects might be greater then 70. Ghionna et al. (1991)

225
where a & b = f (Rd ) and DR = relative density. The
proposed correction factor does only apply for BC1
conditions (Garizio, 1997).
Salgado et al. (1998) applied a mixture of cavity
expansion and slip line theory to quantify chamber
size effect. The theory predicts that the difference
between free field and chamber qc values increases
for decreasing Rd and that qc measured under BC1 or
BC4 conditions is always smaller than the correspond-
ing free field values. The difference (or correction
factor) is not only dependent on density, but also on
ambient stress and material parameters. The opposite
held for qc measured under BC3 or BC2 conditions; the
qc value predicted decreased with increasing Rd , and
thus CC results should lie above free field values. Figure 1. Grain size distribution of Ticino sand and DEM
That result was contrary to some available experimen- models.
tal evidence, but the discrepancy was attributed to
experimental imperfections in the enforcement of the
no lateral strain condition.

1.2 Particle size effect

Several researchers (Parkin, 1988; Ghionna et al. 1991;
Schnaid & Houlsby, 1991) have pointed out that, in
principle, the cone to particle size ratio might also
affect the results of CPT tests. However, observations
of this particle size effect are scarce. Peterson (1988) is
one of the clearest examples, reporting that when the
ratio of probe diameter to particle diameter reduced
below 40, scrapping noises and erratic load cell read-
ings appeared, something he attributed to the cone
feeling individual particles.
2 NUMERICAL MODEL
2.1 Numerical method
The PFC3D code developed by ITASCA was used
to perform all simulations mentioned in this paper.
The code follows closely the discrete element method
introduced by Cundall & Strack (1979). The model
is composed of distinct particles that displace inde-
pendently of one another, and interact only at the
contact or interfaces between particles. The particles
are assumed rigid with no ability to rotate. The con-
tact law employed is lineal elasto plastic. The normal
and tangential stiffness at any contact, kn and ks , are
described by the following scaling rule:
where Keff , = parameters to be calibrated. The plas-
tic part of the contact law is given by the interparticle
friction angle,  . No cohesion was included in the
contact model. Our simulations also employed non
viscous damping, , to achieve rapid convergence.
2.2 Model calibration
A numerical model representing small cubical sam-
ple of 8 mm side was used to calibrate the material
Figure 2. Calibration of DEM material parameters with a
triaxial test on Ticino sand (DR = 75%, p0 = 100 kPa).
parameters. The model contained 4700 particles with
a grain size distribution closely following that of
Ticino sand (Figure 1DEM curve-fitted gsd).The spec-
imen was built to specified porosity using the radius
expansion method (REM, Itasca 2005).
The material parameters that require calibration are
only interparticle friction ( ), those related to stiff-
ness (Keff , ) and damping (). These parameters were
determined by trial and error in order to provide a best
fit to a single isotropically compressed drained triax-
ial test (TEST M09) confined at 100 kPa and formed
with DR = 75%. The best fit (Figure 2) was found
for: Keff = 300 MN, = 0.25, = 0.05 and = 0.35
( = 19.3 ). Adequacy of the calibration parameters
was verified by simulating a variety of triaxial tests at
differing confinements and initial densities.
2.3 VCC CPT
The VCC CPT model can be seen in Figure 3. The
cone is modelled by perfectly rigid walls. Some are
cylindrical with a diameter dc and the tip is conical
with apex angle of 60 . The tip and the sleeve walls
close to it retain the friction coefficient of the granular
material, the rest are frictionless. The geometry of the
numerical calibration chamber (VCC) is cylindrical,
given by its height H and diameter Dcc (Table 2).
Dimensional analysis of the problem (Arroyo et al.,
2009) quickly reveals that an unmanageably large
number of particles are needed if the original dimen-
sions of the problem are maintained. The most

226
Figure 3. View of the DEM model components with indi-
cation of the main relevant dimensions (left) calibration
chamber (right) cone device.

Table 2. Summary of geometrical characteristics of DEM

VCC.

Dcc H dc
Test Series m m mm

Series I 1.2 0.7 71.2; 106.8;

142.4; 213.6 Figure 4. Tip resistance profiles for different confining
Series II 0.4; 0.6; 0.8 0.7 71.2 pressures and DR = 75%.
1.2; 1.58; 2.4
Series III 1.2 0.7 71.2 cone resistance is extracted from the raw penetration
curves by fitting them to the following expression:

effective way to reduce the computational size is by

scaling up the grain size of the discrete material filling
the VCC. The material filling the virtual chamber was
therefore a scaled Ticino Sand where the original grain
size was multiplied by 50 (Figure 1 (DEM scaled gsd
(after REM))). A somewhat shorter chamber height
was also helpful. This resulted in 65,000 elements in
the densest specimens, almost an order of magnitude
more than those employed in previous 2D studies (Ma
1994, Calvetti & Nova 2005, Jiang et al. 2006).
2.4 Testing program
Results from three tests series are described in the
following. The first test series (Series I) explored the
effect of cone diameter to mean grain size ratio (np )
on the results. Series II used quarter chamber mod-
els with different diameters to investigate calibration
chamber size effects (Rd ) under BC1 conditions. The
third series did the same, but after anisotropic consol-
idation (K0 -conditions) and under BC3 conditions.
3 RESULTS
3.1 Steady state cone tip resistance
Typical DEM VCC results showing CPT tip resistance,
qc , vs. penetration depth, h, for different confining
isotropic stresses are shown in Figure 4. As seen in
the figure, the response of the DEM model is correct:
qc increases with confining pressure (and relative den-
sity). However, the graphs are quite noisy, with large
oscillations. Such noise masks the steady state usually
observed in physical CC CPT tests. This noise, how-
ever, can be filtered out easily. To do that, a steady state
where qc,lim = cone tip resistance; h = penetration
depth and a & b = fitting parameters.
3.2 Particle size effect Series I
The main suspect for the noise appearing in the pene-
tration curves is particle size effect. Because of scaling
the VCC material has a very low value (2.7) of the
ratio (np ) between cone diameter and average particles
(D50 ).
A numerical simulation exercise (Series I) was spe-
cially performed to confirm that the main reason of
noise was the reduced np ratio. Four different cone
tip sizes were used (diameters of 72.1; 106.8, 142.4
and 213.6 mm) while the VCC diameter was kept
constant. The results are shown in Figure 5. As the
ratio np increases (dc increase) the penetration curves
smoothes visibly and the oscillatory noise all but
disappears.
In this series a reduction in the cone tip resistance
with cone diameter was also observed (Figure 5). This
result can be explained by chamber size effect, because
the increased cone tip diameter results in a decrease
in chamber to cone diameter ratio (Rd ). These results
can be viewed on Figure 6. The trend of increasing
limit cone resistance with Rd is clear and in accor-
dance with previous results from physical tests (Parkin
1998). This chamber size effect is further explored in
the next section.
3.3 Chamber size effect under BC1 Series II
To explore chamber size effect a test series was per-
formed keeping constant particle size, D50 , and cone

227
Figure 5. Tip resistance profiles for different cone tip sizes
for p0 = 100 kPa and DR = 75%.
Figure 6. Evolution of qc,lim with diameter ratio Rd for
different cone sizes and two relative densities (75 & 90%).
diameter, dc , (and hence having a constant np ratio) and
increasing the VCC diameter, (Dc = 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, 1.2,
1.58 and 2.4 m) to achieve a variable Rd . In this series
the initial confining pressure was always isotropic and
equal to 100 kPa and the initial relative density was
either 75% or 90%. Boundary conditions were stress
controlled, that is of the type BC1.
The simulations were made less costly by using
only models with a quarter of VCC taking profit of
axial symmetry. For the same initial conditions of
stress and density, the difference in the qc,lim from full
and quarter chambers lies within 0.2 MPa. Butlanska
et al. (2009) explore in more detail, by means of local
representative element volume statistics, the effect of
sample inhomogeneity and enforced axial symmetry
on VCC CPT results.
The results of Series II (for Dcc = 0.4 & 1.58 m) are
shown in Figure 7. Because of the noise caused by
228
Figure 7. Tip resistance profiles for different chamber sizes
for p0 = 100 kPa and DR = 90%.
Figure 8. Evolution of qc,lim with diameter ratio Rd for
different chamber sizes (quarter of VCC) and two relative
densities (75 & 90%).
particle size effect, the reduction of qc with decreas-
ing Rd is difficult to observe. After filtering them out
using the exponential function defined by Eq. 4, a
steady state value of cone tip resistance is obtained.
The steady state values (Figure 8) show a much clearer
size effect.
3.4 Chamber size effect under BC3 Series III
The third simulation exercise was performed under
BC3 conditions (no lateral deformation is allowed).All
tests were performed in quarter chambers with fixed
cone size and variable chamber diameter so that Rd was
variable between 5.6 and 22.1. All the tests were per-
formed after anisotropic (oedometric) consolidation.
The conditions before starting the CPT were relative
density of 94%, vertical stress of 122 kPa and hori-
zontal stress slightly variable between 42 and 46 kPa.
Results from this simulation series are presented in the
next section.

4 COMPARISON WITH PREVIOUS STUDIES

4.1 BC1 conditions

For Ticino sand, Garizio (1997) and Jamiolkowski et al
(2003) tabulate the coefficients a & b that enter the
Tanizawa expression for the chamber correction fac-
tor (CF, Eq. 2). In general, the coefficients a & b are
functions of relative density, DR , and relative chamber Figure 9. Approximation of the parameters a & b.
size, Rd . However, for relative densities above 60%,
the influence of relative chamber size explains almost
exclusively the observed size effect, and the coeffi-
cients a & b can be expressed with good approximation
as functions only of Rd (Figure 9). These functions can
be expressed as

It follows then that, for this restricted set of conditions,

the correction factor based on the physical CC tests
can be represented as a unique function of DR and Rd ,
Figure 10.
Using the relative density and mean stress of the
DEM simulations a free field limit value might be
deduced from the relation proposed by Jamiolkowski
et al. 2003 to summarise physical CC results on
Figure 10. The graphical interpretation of correction fac-
Ticino sand. tor CF.

Once this limit value is obtained it is divided by

the numerical steady state value to obtain the neces-
sary correction factor (CF*) for each VCC test. Figure
11 shows how these values compare with the empirical
correction factors applied to the physical test database.
It should be noted that the empirical relation (2) was
established only with tests where Rd > 20. Despite
the important extrapolation implied, the comparison
is generally good and even better for low Rd ratios
than for the higher ones (22.1 & 33.3). This surprising
result might be related to stress inhomogeneity (see
below).
Figure 11. Comparison of Series II with CF trends.
4.2 BC3 conditions
The fact that Series II was isotropically stressed pre- density range (92 to 95%) and horizontal stress range
cluded a direct comparison with particular physical CC (42 to 50 kPa) that the results reported by Bellotti
tests on Ticino sand on the ISMES ENEL database. (1985). Therefore a direct comparison is possible (Fig-
This is not the case with results of Series III, where the ure 12). A remarkable quantitative coincidence in the
CPT is performed under anisotropic stress conditions, limit value of tip resistance is evident in the figure.
directly analogous to some physical tests reported by It is interesting that, in this case, both physical and
Bellotti (1985). Indeed, after normal consolidation to numerical experiments seem to indicate no size effect
the same vertical stress as the physical tests, the numer- for BC3 conditions, contrary to what Salgado et al.
ical tests in series III share the same initial relative (1998) predicted.

229

Figure 12. Experimental and DEM results for CPT in a CC
with no radial strain boundary condition. All samples with
DR 9295% and initial horizontal stress 4250 kPa.
Figure 13. Horizontal section of normalized mean stress
intensity at the chamber top after anisotropic consolidation
of a VCC model with Rd = 33.
The numerical tests are all in Rd range below that
of the physical tests. Increasing Rd in the numerical
tests to overlap the physical range it is both numer-
ically costly and prone to mistakes. For instance we
have noticed that the usual procedure of numerical cal-
ibration chamber preparation results in strong stress
inhomogeneity during 1D compression in large cham-
bers. Figure 13 illustrates this issue for a chamber
with Rd = 33. Circumferential arching between the
two radial walls leaves understressed the near axis
zone, where the CPT penetration takes place.
5 CONCLUSIONS
The use of 3D-DEM models offers an interesting
avenue to explore large-deformation problems in gran-
ular materials, such as CPT in virtual calibration
chambers. Due to necessary scaling of mean particle
size another size effect, due to high particle size to
cone diameter ratio, appears in the virtual calibration
chamber. This effect is shown to be easily dealt with by
filtering the penetration resistance curve. Remarkable
quantitative agreement with physical tests is obtained
230
despite the major simplifications in particle size dis-
tribution, particle behavior and model construction
required to obtain practical results using only desktop
computers.
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Jamiolkowski, M. 2009. Cone penetration tests in a virtual
calibration chamber (under review).
Bellotti, R. (1985) Chamber size effects and boundary con-
ditions effects, Seminar of cone penetration testing in the
laboratory, University of Southampton, pp 2629.
Butlanska, J., Arroyo, M. & Gens, A. 2009. Homogeneity and
symmetry in DEM models of cone penetration. Powders &
Grains, vol 1145: 425428.
Calvetti, F. & Nova, R. 2005. Micro macro relationships
from DEM simulated element and in situ test. Powders &
Grains, vol. II: 245250.
Cundall, P.A. & Strack, O.D.L. 1979. A discrete numeri-
cal model for granula assemblies. Geotechnique 29(1):
4765.
Garizio, G.M. (1997) Determinazione dei parametri geotec-
nicie in particolare di K0 da prove penetrometriche, Tesi
di Laurea, Politecnico di Torino.
Ghionna, V.N. & Jamiolkowski, M. 1991. Acritical appraisal
of calibration chamber testing of sands, Calibration cham-
ber testing, A. B. Huang Editor.
Jamiolkowski, M., Lo Presti, D.C.F. & Manassero, M. 2003.
Evaluation of relative density and shear strength of sands
from CPT and DMT, in Germaine, Sheahan & Whit-
man, Soil behavior and soft ground construction, ASCE
Geotechnical Special Publication 119: 201238
Jiang, M.J., Yu, H.-S. & Harris, D. 2006. Discrete element
modeling of deep penetration in granular soils, Interna-
tional Journal for Numerical and Analytical Methods in
Geomechanics, 30, 335336.
Ma, M.Y. 2004. A numerical study of cone penetration test
in granular assemblies. PhD Thesis, Clarkson University.
Mayne, P.W. & Kulhawy, H. 1991. Calibration chamber
database and boundary effects correction for CPT data.
Calibration chamber testing, A. B. Huang Editor.
Parkin, A.K. & Lunne, T. 1982. Boundary effects in labora-
tory calibration of a cone penetrometer for sand, Proceed-
ings of the Second European Symposium on Penetration
Testing, Amsterdam.
Parkin, A.K. 1998, Calibration of cone penetrometers, Pro-
ceedings of the First International Symposium on Pene-
tration Testing, Orlando.
Peterson, R.W. 1988. Laboratory investigation of the pene-
tration resistance of fine cohesionless materials. Proceed-
ings of the First International Symposium on Penetration
Testing, Orlando: 895901.
Salgado, R., Mitchell, J.K. & Jamiolkowski, M. 1998.
Calibration chamber size effecs on penetration resistance
in sand. Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental-
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Large deformation large strain analysis
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

A Coupled Eulerian-Lagrangian approach to solve geotechnical problems

involving large deformations

Sascha Henke, Gang Qiu & Jrgen Grabe

Institute for Geotechnical and Construction Management, Hamburg University of Technology, Hamburg, Germany

ABSTRACT: Geotechnical boundary value problems involving large deformations are often difficult to solve
using classical finite element method. Large mesh distortions and contact problems can occur due to the large
deformations such that a convergent solution cannot be achieved.
Since Abaqus Version 6.8 a new Coupled Eulerian-Lagrangian (CEL) approach has been developed to over-
come the difficulties with regard to the use of the finite element method for large deformation analyses. This new
method is investigated regarding its capabilities. First, a strip footing problem is studied as a classical benchmark
test and compared to an analytical solution and results of classical finite element analyses. This benchmark test
shows that CEL is well suited to deal with problems which cannot be fully solved using FEM.
In a further case study the CEL approach is applied to a more complex geotechnical boundary value problem:
the simulation of a pile installation. The results received from these analyses are compared to results of classical
finite element simulations.

1 INTRODUCTION solution often cannot be found. In this paper, a bench-

In recent years, the finite element method has been
considered the main tool for solving geotechnical
problems. It is evident that many of the investigated
problems in geotechnical engineering involve large
deformations of the soil and the structure. Problems
with large deformations of the soil and the structure are
for example: vibratory compaction, failure of dams,
grounding of ships or installation of piles. The main
focus of this contribution lies on the use of a new Cou-
pled Eulerian-Lagrangian approach for the simulation
of pile penetration processes.
In the past years, several researchers have inves-
tigated the pile penetration process using the finite
element method. First investigations have been car-
ried out by Mabsout and Tassoulas (1994) using a
special zipper-type-technique to allow the simulation
of discrete hammer blows on a prebored pile. This
technique has been extended by Cudmani (2001) to
simulate a cone penetration test using an axisymmetric
model. A comparison of various pile installation meth-
ods (pile jacking, vibratory pile driving, impact pile
driving) has been done by Mahutka et al. (2006). These
investigations are also constrained to axisymmetric
calculations. In Henke (2008) this modeling technique
is extended to allow three-dimensional analyses of pile
installation processes such that the installation of piles
with open cross-sections is also possible.
It is evident that the finite element method has many
problems solving geotechnical problems with large
deformations. Especially, contact problems and large
mesh distortions may occur such that a convergent
mark test is shortly described to show the capabilities
of the CEL approach for large deformation analyses
in geomechanics. The main focus lies on the sim-
ulation of pile jacking into soil with various soil
densities using CEL. The received results are com-
pared to results of comparable classical finite element
simulations.
2 NUMERICAL METHOD
2.1 Coupled Eulerian-Lagrangian method
If a continuum deforms or flows, the position of the
small volumetric elements changes with time. These
positions can be described as functions of time in two
ways:
Lagrangian description: the movement of the con-
tinuum is specified as a function of its initial
coordinates and time.
Eulerian description: the movement of the contin-
uum is specified as a function of its instantaneous
position and time.
In simulations with Lagrangian formulation the
interface between two parts of the model is precisely
defined and tracked. In these simulations large defor-
mations of a part often leads to hopeless mesh and
element distortions. In Eulerian analyses a Eulerian
reference mesh, which remains undistorted and does
not move, is used, to trace the motion of the parti-
cles. The main advantage of a Eulerian formulation

233

Figure 1. Geometry of the investigated strip footing prob-
lem.
is that no element distortions occur. Unfortunately,
the interface between two parts cannot be described
as precisely as if a Lagrangian formulation is used.
Numerical diffusion can happen during the simulation.
A Coupled Eulerian-Lagrangian (CEL) method,
which attempts to capture the strength of both the
Lagrangian and the Eulerian method, is implemented
in Abaqus/Explicit. For general geotechnical prob-
lems, a Lagrangian mesh is used to discretize struc-
tures, while a Eulerian mesh is used to discretize
the subsoil. The interface between structure and sub-
soil can be represented using the boundary of the
Lagrangian domain. The Eulerian mesh, which repre-
sents the soil that may experience large deformations,
has no problems with regard to mesh and element
distortions.
3 BENCHMARK TESTS
In this section, the strip footing problem, an often cited
benchmark test, is described, see Fig. 1.
In the context of the benchmark test, three different
numerical solution algorithms (implicit, explicit and
Coupled Eulerian-Lagrangian Method) are compared.
This plane strain problem has been analytically solved
by Hill (1950) using the slip line theory. According
to Hill (1950) the maximum punch pressure for this
problem with a ratio d/D = 0.5 (see Fig. 1) can be
calculated with
where c is the shear strength of the soil which is
described using a von Mises material. The material
parameters used in these simulations are shown in
Tab. 1. The sides of the footing are modeled smooth,
whereas the base is rough. The footing penetrates
into a cohesive but weightless soil with dimension
234
Table 1. Material parameters for the strip footing problem.
Property G [kPa] [] c [kPa]
value 1000 0,49 10
Figure 2. Load displacement curves for penetration of a
strip footing into a cohesive soil.
4 m 4 m. It has a width of 2 m and a height of 1 m.The
strip footing is discretized as a rigid body. The plane
strain problem is modeled two-dimensionally using
the implicit- and the explicit-solution algorithm. The
subsoil is meshed with 4-noded linear brick elements
with reduced integration. Using the Coupled Eulerian-
Lagrangian approach the penetration process must
be simulated three-dimensionally. Three-dimensional
Eulerian elements are used to discretize the soil body.
The load-displacement curves that are obtained
from these comparative analyses are depicted in Fig. 2.
The maximum reaction force is reached at a punch
indentation of less than 0.1 m in all analyses. The
agreement between numerical solutions and the ana-
lytical solution is very satisfactory. The difference
remains within 8%. After reaching a maximum reac-
tion force the solution of the CEL-analysis remains
nearly constant, whereas the solution of the implicit-
and the explicit simulation increases continuously. The
increasing reaction force in the implicit and explicit
analyses can be explained by stress peaks at the edge
of the footing as explained in Qiu et al. (2009). As
shown in Fig. 3, the velocity gradient near the edge
of the footing is very high. The soil is pushed down,
slips sideways and then moves upwards. The velocity
field is not uniquely defined. The point at the edge of
the footing is well known as singular plasticity point.
The velocity gradient is too high to be simulated using
the implicit method. The soil nearby the corner can
only move down and then sideways. With regard to the
explicit analysis the element at the edge of the foot-
ing is extremely distorted. An upward motion cannot
be found in both implicit and explicit analysis. Due to
the observed distorted elements no stress concentra-
tion at the edge of the footing occurs. The CEL-method
can overcome the restrictions of the purely Lagrangian
analyses. The soil body can be deformed freely. This
benchmark test shows that CEL is well suited to solve
Figure 3. Velocity field of the strip footing problem after
a punch indentation of 0.5 m for the three investigated
numerical methods.
geotechnical problems involving large deformations
which cannot be fully solved using the classical finite
element method. In Qiu et al. (2009) another example
of pulling out an anchor plate is examined which shows
the capabilities of the Coupled Eulerian-Lagrangian
approach.
4 PILE INSTALLATION
In this section jacking of a circular pile with a diam-
eter d = 30 cm into dry granular soil is investigated
using CEL. Especially, the influence of pile jacking on
the surrounding soil (e.g. void ratio and stress state)
is analysed and compared with results from classical
finite element calculations Mahutka et al. (2006) or
Henke (2008). In these finite element calculations, the
pile is modeled approximately 40 cm pre-installed to
avoid large mesh distortions at the beginning of the
simulation. In the axis of penetration a rigid tube is
discretized which is in frictionless contact with the
surrounding soil. During penetration the pile slides
over the tube and separates the soil from the tube
such that contact can be established between pile and
surrounding soil.
4.1 Coupled Eulerian-Lagrangian model
The pile with a diameter d = 30 cm is discretized as a
discrete rigid body such that the pile does not expe-
rience any deformations during penetration. The soil
body consists of 112,064 three-dimensional Eulerian
elements with 120,695 nodes. The main dimensions
and the Eulerian mesh are depicted in Fig. 4.
The first two meters of the continuum are mod-
eled material-free at the beginning of the simulation.
This is necessary to allow material flow into this
region during installation. The pile is located above
the soil surface such that the whole penetration pro-
cess including the first penetration into the subsoil
235
Figure 4. Geometry and Eulerian mesh of the model used
for analysing jacking of a circular pile with a diameter of
d = 30 cm into dry granular soil.
can be simulated. The penetration process is modeled
displacement-controlled prescribing the final penetra-
tion depth. Contact between pile and soil is modeled
using the Abaqus built-in general contact algorithm
which is well suited for large deformation analyses.
Throughout all analyses Coulomb friction law is
used.
The soil is discretized using the hypoplastic con-
stitutive law after von Wolffersdorff (1996) with the
enhancement of intergranular strains after Niemunis
and Herle (1997). Hypoplasticity is well suited to
model the nonlinear and anelastic behaviour of dry
granular soils. Typical soil characteristics like dila-
tancy, contractancy, different stiffnesses for loading
and unloading and the dependency of stiffness on pres-
sure and void ratio can be simulated Gudehus (1996). It
has already been successfully used in numerous inves-
tigations concerning pile installation Henke (2008),
Mahutka et al. (2006). Calculations in Qiu et al. (2009)
show that calculations using a more simple constitutive
law (e.g. Drucker-Prager cap model) lead to unrealistic
results.
4.2 Results
In Fig. 5 the contour plots of void ratio and radial
stresses in the soil body after 5 m of pile jacking

Figure 5. Contour plots of void ratio distribution (left) and
radial stress state (right) after 5 m of pile jacking into medium
dense Mai-Liao sand ( = 1/3).
into medium dense Mai-Liao sand Herle (1997) are
depicted.
With regard to these results it can be stated that the
soil is compacted in the near field around the pen-
etrating pile. Directly at the pile shaft the void ratio
increases due to dilatancy. This result is in good corre-
lation with finite element results in Henke (2008) and
Mahutka et al. (2006).
An interesting phenomenon which cannot be simu-
lated using classical finite element method is that the
soil directly at the surface is loosened. During the first
centimeters of penetration the soil around the pene-
trating pile is pushed aside and towards the surface
such that an uplift can be noticed. Due to the displace-
ment the soil is loosened. It is not possible to simulate
this phenomenon using classical finite element sim-
ulations because of the necessary pre-installation of
the pile to avoid large mesh distortions. Using the
new CEL approach it is now possible to simulate
the complete penetration process including the first
penetration into the subsoil.
Furthermore, regarding the radial stress state
around the pile (see Fig. 5, right) it can be said that high
stresses occur at the pile toe. Around the pile shaft the
radial stresses are increased significantly compared to
the K0 -stress state due to the jacking process. These
results are also in good accordance with results in
Henke (2008) and Mahutka et al. (2006). It has to be
mentioned that the stress state in an Eulerian analysis
is an averagered state which is received by averaging
over the Eulerian elements. A more detailed compari-
son between finite element and CEL solutions will be
described in the following section 4.3.
4.3 Comparison with finite element results
In this section the results of three-dimensional finite
element calculations in Henke (2008) are compared to
those presented in this contribution. The finite element
calculations are carried out using a zipper-type tech-
nique to allow penetration of a rigid pile with a diame-
ter of d = 30 cm into medium dense Mai-Liao sand.
As an installation method quasi-static pile jacking
236
Figure 6. Comparison of finite element and CEL results for
the void ratio distribution along horizontal paths in 1 m (left)
and 3 m depth (right) after 4 m of pile jacking into medium
dense Mai-Liao sand.
Figure 7. Comparison of finite element and CEL results
for the radial stress distribution along horizontal paths in
2 m (left) and 3 m depth (right) after 4 m of pile jacking into
medium dense Mai-Liao sand.
is chosen which is modeled displacement controlled.
This configuration resembles the Coupled Eulerian-
Lagrangian analysis of pile jacking into medium dense
Mai-Liao sand. The friction in both analyses is set to
= 1/3.
To evaluate the Coupled Eulerian-Lagrangian anal-
yses the void ratio distribution and radial stress state
around the pile are compared to the results shown in
Henke (2008).
In Fig. 6 the void ratio distribution along two hor-
izontal paths in 1.0 m and 3.0 m depth is depicted for
the finite element and the CEL-analyses.
Regarding these results it can be stated that there
is good agreement between the finite element and the
CEL results. Directly at the pile shaft the void ratio
increases due to dilatancy. In further distance from
the pile the soil experiences compaction. The area of
influence with respect to the void ratio distribution is
five to ten times the pile diameter.
In Fig. 7 the radial stress distribution at various
dephts received from the CEL calculation is compared
to finite element results from Henke (2008).
It can be stated that beside the void ratio distribu-
tion the radial stress distribution also shows very good
agreement between finite element and CEL results.
The radial stresses increase significantly around the
penetrating pile. This increase is caused by the dis-
placement of the surrounding soil. Even quantitatively
the results are in very good agreement.
Evaluating these results it can be said that the Cou-
pled Eulerian-Lagrangian simulation of pile jacking

Figure 8. Void ratio (left) and radial stress distribution
(right) along a horizontal path in 3 m depth after 5 m of
pile jacking into Mai-Liao sand with different initial soil
densities.
leads to similar results as finite element calcula-
tions which can be found in literature Henke (2008)
or Mahutka et al. (2006). These finite element cal-
culations are validated by comparison with in-situ
measurement data, such that it can be concluded that
the CEL approach is also well suited to investigate the
influence of pile installation on the surrounding soil
or adjacent structures for example.
4.4 Influence of soil density
It is evident that the density of the soil influences the
changes in void ratio and stress state due to the pile
jacking process. In this section frictionless pile jacking
into soil with different soil densities (loose, medium
dense and dense) is simulated to investigate the influ-
ence of soil density on the mentioned state variables.
In Fig. 8 the void ratio and radial stress distribution
along a horizontal path in 3 m depth after 5 m of pile
jacking is depicted for Mai-Liao sand with different
initial soil densities.
Regarding the void ratio distribution it can be stated
that the soil is compacted in the vicinity of the pile. The
rate of compaction is higher in loose soil compared to
the dense packing. Especially after 5 m of jacking into
dense sand an increase in void ratio is evident at the
pile shaft. This is caused by dilatancy. In comparison
the loose soil does not show this zone of dilation.
Furthermore, with a view to the radial stresses it
becomes clear that the increase in radial stresses grows
with increasing soil density. For example, the maxi-
mum stresses in dense soil are about three times higher
compared to the stresses in loose soil.
These results are in good agreement with finite
element results in Henke (2008) or Mahutka et al.
(2006).
4.5 Influence of friction coefficient
In this section the effect of the friction coefficient
between pile and soil on the results for void ratio
and radial stresses around the pile is investigated.
In Fig. 9 the void ratio and radial stress distribution
along a horizontal path in 3.0 m depth after 5 m of
penetration into medium dense Mai-Liao sand are
237
Figure 9. Void ratio (left) and radial stress distribution
(right) after 5 m of pile jacking into medium dense Mai-Liao
sand along a horizontal path in 3 m depth.
depicted. The friction coefficient varies between
= 0 and = 1/2.
It can be seen that with increasing friction coef-
ficient the dilatancy at the pile shaft increases. For
= 0 loosening of the soil at the pile shaft is not
noteworthy. Regarding the rate of compaction the
results are quite similar for both investigated friction
coefficients. The area of influence increases slightly
with increasing friction angle. In contrast to the dif-
ferences in void ratio, the differences regarding the
radial stress state received using different friction
coefficients are much higher. Especially the area of
influence increases significantly when comparing the
results with a coefficient = 1/2 to the frictionless
calculation.
4.6 Evaluation of the new method
The results regarding the influence of pile jacking
into the subsoil show qualitatively and quantitatively
good agreement with results of classical finite ele-
ment simulations using a zipper-type technique to
allow penetration into the continuum. It can be stated
that the CEL method is well suited to solve complex
geomechanical boundary value problems such as pile
installation processes. The main advantage compared
to the zipper-type modeling technique is that the rigid
tube which is necessary to allow penetration into a
finite element continuum can be omitted using CEL.
This allows the pile to penetrate without horizontal
restrictions into the soil such that effects like pile drift
during the installation process could be investigated
in future. In finite element solutions the friction coef-
ficient was restricted to 1/3 to avoid high mesh
distortions. In this contribution it is shown that it is pos-
sible to simulate pile jacking with a friction coefficient
much higher than = 1/3 without any problems.
It has to be stated that CEL provides a well suited
tool to solve complex geomechanical boundary value
problems involving large deformations which cannot
be completely solved using finite element method.
5 CONCLUSIONS
Regarding the results of a benchmark test it can
be concluded that the Coupled Eulerian-Lagrangian
approach is well suited to solve geotechnical boundary
value problems involving large deformations. Many
advantages compared to finite element solutions are
evident. In soil-structure-interaction problems singu-
lar plasticity points often occur when using finite
element method. Using CEL calculations this prob-
lem is solved. Furthermore, CEL calculations allow
free material flow such that emerging voids can be
refilled. This is not possible using a purely lagrangian
approach.
In further calculations pile jacking into the sub-
soil is simulated using the CEL method. It appears
to be well suited to solve this complex geomechan-
ical problem which can be verified by comparison
with classical finite element results. The main advan-
tages of the penetration simulation using CEL is that
the pile can penetrate freely into the subsoil such that
phenomenons like pile drift during installation can be
simulated.
In future research work the new method will be
verified by comparison with other simulation results
and in-situ measurement data. Furthermore, dynamic
installation methods like vibrodriving and impact driv-
ing will be simulated. Other aspects which can be
investigated using CEL are soil plugging effects in
open-ended piles like tubes, sheet piles or double-T-
profiles.
REFERENCES
Cudmani, R. O. (2001). Statische, alternierende und
dynamische Penetration in nichtbindigen Bden. PhD
Thesis, Institut fr Bodenmechanik und Felsmechanik der
Universitt Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe. 152.
238
Gudehus, G. (1996). A comprehensive constitutive equa-
tion for granular materials. Soils and Foundations 36(11),
112.
Henke, S. (2008). Herstellungseinflsse aus Pfahlrammung
im Kaimauerbau. Ph. D. thesis, Verffentlichungen des
Instituts fr Geotechnik und Baubetrieb der TU Hamburg-
Harburg. 18.
Herle, I. (1997). Hypoplastizitt und Granulometrie ein-
facher Korngerste. PhD Thesis, Institut fr Boden-
mechanik und Felsmechanik der Universitt Karlsruhe,
Karlsruhe. 142.
Hill, R. (1950). The mathematical theory of plasticity. Tech-
nical report, Oxford.
Mabsout, M. and J. Tassoulas (1994). A finite element model
for the simulation of pile driving. International Journal
for Numerical and Analytical Methods in Geomechanics
37, 257278.
Mahutka, K.-P., F. Knig, and J. Grabe (2006). Numerical
modelling of pile jacking, driving and vibratory pile driv-
ing. pp. 235246. Proceedings of International Confer-
ence on Numerical Simulation of Construction Processes
in Geotechnical Engineering for Urban Environment
(NSC06), Bochum.
Niemunis, A. and I. Herle (1997). Hypoplastic model for
cohesionless soils with elastic strain range. Mechanics of
frictional and cohesive materials 2(4), 279299.
Qiu, G., S. Henke, and J. Grabe (2009). Applications of
coupled eulerian-lagrangian method to geotechnical prob-
lems with large deformations. pp. 420435. Proceeding of
SIMULIA Customer Conference 2009, London, UK.
von Wolffersdorff, P.-A. (1996). A hypoplastic relation for
granular material with a predefined limit state surface.
Mechanics of cohesive-fractional materials 1, 251271.
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Advances in meshless methods with application to geotechnics

C.E. Heaney, C.E. Augarde, A.J. Deeks, W.M. Coombs & R.S. Crouch
School of Engineering and Computing Sciences, Durham University, Durham, UK

ABSTRACT: Finite element methods are well-established for modelling problems in geotechnics involving
elasto-plastic constitutive models. However, meshless methods could offer some advantages for problems involv-
ing finite deformations as the mesh entanglement problem is then removed. In addition, major savings could be
made in the pre-processing stage for 3D problems. Both of these features are of interest to geotechnical mod-
ellers. In this paper we review the use of meshless methods for modelling plasticity, highlighting some potential
problems particular to the methods formulations. We then demonstrate the use of a recently developed hybrid
method based on the meshless local Petrov-Galerkin method for some simple examples in elasto-plasticity and
show that there are important issues to be considered. Finally we comment briefly on the amendments required for
modelling finite deformation, which are underway.

1 INTRODUCTION post-processing unlike in conventional FE approaches.

Geotechnical engineering problems regularly require
modelling of elasto-plastic behaviour, perhaps more so
than most other areas of engineering. Robust finite ele-
ment (FE) modelling is now well-tested and available
in a number of commercial packages. Where finite
elements currently struggle, however, are with chal-
lenging problems that are beginning to be of interest to
practising geotechnical engineers. There is an increas-
ing desire to model in 3D, which leads to a large
overhead in meshing with FEMs. There are also prob-
lems for which finite deformation must be modelled,
and where remeshing is required during an analy-
sis to ensure accuracy. An example of the latter is
the modelling of penetration problems found in site
investigation (Sheng et al. 2009). To avoid these dif-
ficulties, interest has turned to alternatives to FEMs
with a considerable focus on meshless or mesh- (2006).A search of the published literature reveals only
free methods. As the name suggests, these methods
discretise a problem without requiring a mesh of ele-
ments. Adaptive refinement of a meshless domain is
then a matter of adding nodes, a far simpler opera-
tion than remeshing with elements, especially for 3D.
While there are currently drawbacks to their use, which
will be discussed below, it remains possible that in the
future these methods will challenge finite elements for
demanding problems of the types mentioned above.
The meshless methods most widely used in solid
mechanics today are the Element-Free Galerkin (EFG)
method (Belytschko et al. 1994) and the Meshless
Local Petrov-Galerkin (MLPG) method (Atluri and
Zhu 1998) (which is the method to be used later in this
paper). The displacement fields (and their derivatives)
obtained from meshless methods are smooth, mak-
ing it possible to obtain smooth stress fields with no
The difference between the EFG and MLPG methods is
that the former requires the generation of background
integration cells. In the latter, integrations (to provide
terms in the stiffness matrix for instance) are carried
out over local domains around each node. This feature
has prompted some to state that the MLPG method is
truly meshless (Atluri and Zhu 1998). Over the last
decade a wide array of variations on EFG and MLPG,
as well as other meshless methods, have been proposed
for use in solid mechanics. General surveys of methods
can be found in Fries and Matthies (2004) and Nguyen
et al. (2008). However, their use for problems with
material nonlinearity has to date been limited. Barry
and Saigal (1999) describes the EFG formulation for
incremental elasto-plasticity as do Kargarnovin et al.
(2004), and Hazama et al. (2001), and the use of EFG
for elasto-plastic plates is given in Belinha and Dinis
three papers that discuss modelling elasto-plasticity
with the MLPG method. Xiong et al. (2006) give
results for a cantilever beam with a uniform nodal
arrangement while Long et al. (2008) model elasto-
plastic fracture problems and compare their results
with predictions of linear elastic fracture mechanics
and with ANSYS for the elasto-plastic simulations.
The final reference is one of the rare instances of the
use of meshless methods in geotechnics. Ferronato
et al. (2007) describes the modelling of axisymmetric
poroelasticity in problems of subsidence over com-
pacting reservoirs.This group are also active in the area
of integration for meshless methods, a topic we will
revisit later in this paper. The material point method
(MPM) is of wider interest in geotechnics, it seems,
with papers in recent conferences, e.g. (Vermeer et al.
2008; Andersen and Andersen 2009) although it is

239
not a meshless method as it requires a surrounding
mesh.
The purpose of this paper is to highlight some issues
that arise with the MLPG method when modelling
infinitesimal strain elasto-plasticity relating mainly
to nodal distributions and choice of support rules,
which will help those wishing to employ this method
for elasto-plastic modelling in geotechnics. We then
indicate the amendments necessary to model finite
deformation problems with the MLPG method.
2 MLPG FORMULATION
2.1 Shape functions
The MLPG method is meshless in the sense that no
elements are needed. However elements are replaced
in these methods by the concept of zones of support
around each node. As with FE methods, shape func-
tions can be derived for each node in the domain and, in
these methods, are arrived at via a moving least squares
(MLS) approach which is now described. Each nodes
support is the subdomain in which that node influ-
ences the approximation (usually in a symmetrically
weighted sense). Typical weight functions used are
truncated splines and exponentials, which are smooth
and continuous, meaning that the MLS-based shape
functions are also smooth and continuous to a higher
order than standard FE functions.
As in the FE method if u(x) is approximated as a
polynomial then
where m is the number of monomials in the basis
matrix p(x), and a(x) is a vector of coefficients. In
the MLS approximation, the coefficients a(x) are
determined by minimizing the weighted residual J ,
given by
where wI (x) w(x xI ) is the weight function for
node I evaluated at point x. If the expression for a(x)
is substituted into (1) then we can write the approx-
imation in terms of shape functions I and fictitious
nodal values uI as
The MLS procedure leads to an approximation uh
rather than an interpolation. The shape functions there-
fore do not possess the Kronecker delta property of
conventional finite element functions.
2.2 Formation of the stiffness matrix
Having obtained the shape functions, the procedure
is as follows. For a domain  with boundary ,
240
we impose surface tractions t and assume zero body
forces. Since the shape functions do not possess the
Kronecker delta property, essential boundary con-
ditions cannot be imposed directly. Instead indirect
imposition is necessary by penalty approach, Lagrange
multipliers, Nitsches method or via coupling to finite
elements on the boundary (Fernndez-Mndez and
Huerta 2004). In this study we use the first of these
methods, and accordingly, in Eqns (5) and (6), the
penalty parameter is represented by .
Discretisation of the weak form leads to the linear
system
in which Bv and B are matrices of derivatives of the test
and shape functions respectively, D is the constitutive
matrix and f is the force vector formed from the penalty
terms at essential boundaries (u ) and the tractions t
at natural boundaries (t ). The test function is differ-
ent to the shape function yielding the MLPG method,
i.e. Bv  = B (Atluri and Zhu 1998) in which the inte-
grations in Eqn (5) are carried out over test domains
and their boundaries local to each node. Plasticity can
be implemented with an incremental-iterative scheme
as for the FEM, and as described in many texts. For
simplicity, throughout this study we use the von Mises
yield function with perfect plasticity and associated
flow (the Prandtl-Reuss constitutive model).
3 MODELLING ELASTO-PLASTICITY
Issues associated with MLS-based meshless methods
for elasto-plastic problems will be investigated using
a hybrid method which combines the MLPG method
with a meshless scaled boundary method, described in
detail elsewhere (Deeks and Augarde 2007). The latter
allows the correct modelling of an infinite elastic far-
field thus removing the need to decide on location of
boundaries. An MLPG subdomain is used adjacent to
the loaded region to allow modelling of nonlinearity
there. Figure 1 explains the arrangement of the subdo-
mains for the 2D plane strain footing problem which
will be used to obtain the results discussed below.
3.1 The flexible footing problem
To study the effect of nodal arrangements a large num-
ber of analyses of the footing problem were carried
out. One half of the problem was modelled due to
symmetry (see Figure 1(b)) and load-control was used
throughout. The material properties adopted for were
Youngs modulus E = 1000, Poissons ratio = 0.25
and undrained shear strength cu = 0.3 in compatible

Figure 1. The hybrid meshless scaled boundary method for
the footing problem.
units, where the radius of the von Mises cylinder was
2cu . The size of the MLPG domain in all cases was
3 3 units. The results are compared to the analyti-
cal solution of a limit load of ( + 2)cu for the related
problem of a rigid footing1 .
3.2 Nodal arrangement and support zones
The rule for determining the support zones and test
zones around each node is strongly linked to the nodal
arrangement. In this study the zones are circular and
defined by two parameters, the support radius, rsupp
and the test radius rtest . The support radius affects the
ability of the solution to reflect local behaviour: too
large a support radius will smooth outthe local detail.
There is also a minimum value for rsupp based on the
requirement that there must be at least m nodes in sup-
port of each (integration) point. The value of rsupp has
to be chosen to balance these two requirements.
Integration of the weak form occurs locally over
test domains centred on nodes. The test radius must be
large enough so that the domain is completely covered
by the union of all the test domains in order to ensure
that the weak form is satisfied. The authors have found
that setting rtest to be larger than the minimum value
gives better results.
The weight function used in calculating the MLS
shape functions, which depends on the support radius,
is chosen in this study to be a quartic spline. For
0
dI < rsupp :
where dI |x xI | is the distance of the point x to
node I . For dI  rsupp , wI (x) = 0. Typically, the test
1
Referring to the work of Prandtl and Hencky, Hill (1950)
develops this solution in regard to an indentation problem for
a perfectly plastic-rigid material. This solution therefore acts
only as a guide, since, in our examples, we model a flexible
footing impinging on an elasto-perfectly-plastic material.
241
function used here is identical to wI above with rsupp
replaced by a smaller test radius rtest . In Atluri and
Shen (2002b) both are set to be proportional to the dis-
tance from the node in question to its nearest neighbour
(dmin ):
where a and b are chosen by the user and are usually
within the range [0.5, 5.0]. The choice of a is governed
by the nodal arrangement, the dimension of the prob-
lem and the order of the monomial basis, whereas the
choice of b depends only on the nodal arrangement.
There is little firm guidance in the literature on suit-
able values since they depend on the given problem
and the nodal distribution. Therefore it is necessary to
experiment with a range of values for each problem
(in the same way that a range of meshes should be
used in the FEM). We take this approach to determine
rsupp and rtest , although there are other possibilities,
such as determining the radius of support for each
node from a pre-defined, ideal number of support-
ing nodes for each point in the domain. This can be
seen in Barry and Saigal (1999), and Sterk and Trobec
(2008).
3.3 Hierarchical nodal arrangement
The authors have found that uniform nodal arrange-
ments can give unsatisfactory results. The errors seen
can be explained with reference to the manner in which
the nodal supports combine. Points near the domain
boundaries will have fewer nodes in support than
points in the centre of the domain, and consequently
the approximation in the centre will be richer than that
near the boundaries. This mismatch then leads to errors
in stress updates at the boundaries which accumulate
until the problem cannot converge.
A set rule is often used for the nodal support
throughout the domain. Here we show that varying
the rule for support radius depending on proximity
to a boundary has a major effect on the performance
of this meshless method for elasto-plasticity, whilst
still allowing a degree of structure to the nodal layout.
We term this arrangement hierarchical" and it is con-
structed in a manner reminiscent of h-adaptivity in the
FEM. A uniform nodal arrangement is first generated
with a spacing h. Extra nodes are then added around
the boundaries with spacings h/2 and h/4 (see Fig-
ure 2). Adding extra nodes would ordinarily decrease
the support radius for some of the h-spaced nodes by
a straightforward application of the rule in Eqn (7).
Instead these nodes retain the support radius associ-
ated with the larger spacing. For example, in Figure 2,
without the extra nodes, node A would have a support
radius of ah. Due to the extra nodes, node B in par-
ticular, the support radius of node A would be given
by ah/2 according to Eqn (7). We ignore this, and leave
node A with a support radius of ah. Therefore a struc-
tured nodal arrangement is combined with a variable
rule for nodal support.
Figure 2. The hierarchical nodal arrangement, for 233 nodes
(266 nodes in total). For a spacing of h in the centre of the
domain, the support radius for nodes is ah, for x nodes
is ah/2 , and for nodes is ah/4, where a is the factor in
Eqn (7). The support domain () and test domain ( )
are shown for one node.

3.4 Integration
For Petrov-Galerkin methods integration is carried
out locally, over subdomains which are usually either
rectangular or circular. The test functions are of a much
simpler form than for Galerkin methods which can lead
to advantages when integrating the weak form. The
shape functions used in the MLPG method (and other
meshless methods) are smooth and of a higher order
of continuity than usually possible in the FEM. How-
ever this leads to problems when deriving the stiffness
matrix since the integrands arising from these shape
functions are complicated rational functions. Atluri
and Shen (2002a) and Atluri et al. (1999) comprehen-
sively discuss integration for the MLPG method. In
the results presented above a simple integration rule Figure 3. Load-displacement curves for the hierarchical
has been used which involves sampling the integrand arrangement using 485 meshless nodes with the simple
at a large number of (roughly equally-spaced) points integration rule, showing a range of support radii.
within the test region and using an area associated with
each point as a weight.

3.5 Results
The performance of this scheme is demonstrated using
the flexible footing problem. Results for two sizes
of test domain are given, corresponding to b = 1 and
b = 1.5 (see Eqn. (7)). For b = 1 Figure 3(a) shows that
on varying the support radius, the load-displacement
curve varies significantly. However, for the larger test
domain determined by b = 1.5, Figure 3(b) shows that
we have much better results, whereupon changing the
support radius has almost no impact on the profile of
the load-displacement curve. The results suggest that
with the nodal arrangement specified (i.e. subdivisions Figure 4. Plots of surface vertical displacement for several
load steps (485 meshless nodes, a = 2.5 and b = 1.5).
by one-half and one quarter at the domain corners),
the optimum value for the nodal support parameter is
a = 2.25 2.75. This is in contrast to the much larger
range on this parameter suggested by other authors and modelled accurately by this method as demonstrated
mentioned above. in Figure 5. Points that have just reached the yield sur-
Figure 4 shows the surface displacement for an face are shown in grey, while those that reached it in a
example analysis for a sequence of load steps. The previous load step are shown in black. The plot shows
ability to model the movements of a flexible footing the development of the usual bulb of yielded mate-
at the surface is clear in this plot. The progressive rial beneath the footing and its expansion as the load
expansion of the plastic region under the footing is increases.

242

Figure 5. Plastic zone at several load steps. (Integration
points that have become plastic at the current load step are
in grey, those points that were already plastic are marked in
black, nodes are represented by x (485 nodes, a = 2)).
Figure 6. Load-displacement curves comparing FEM
results from a truncated domain with meshless results from
a truncated domain and a semi-infinite domain (for 485
meshless nodes and b = 1.5).
To illustrate the effect of truncating the domain, the
meshless code was used to solve the governing equa-
tions on the finite region alone (the MLPG zone
in Figure 1(b)). In Figure 6 results from the MLPG
zone are compared with those from the hybrid code
on a semi-infinite domain (MLPG zone with the scaled
boundary zone). For comparison on this plot we also
show the load-displacement response using finite ele-
ments on a truncated domain. It can be seen that the
meshless results from the finite domain have a steeper
elastic response than the results from the hybrid code
on the semi-infinite domain. The results are still not
as stiff as the FE results however. This is due to the
coarseness of the FE mesh used here.
These results provide sufficient evidence that
elasto-plasticity can be accurately modelled using the
MLPG method but also demonstrate the need for
a careful choice of nodal arrangement and support
radius rules. The hierarchical approach is necessary
here due to the proximity of the boundaries; at a cor-
ner there are two boundaries and therefore the nodal
arrangement needs to be more refined but also the
nodal support rules have to be changed. If we were
to refine the mesh based on some measure of error
estimation, this would be an additional consideration
243
and it will be interesting to see if the two requirements
compete or are complementary.
3.6 Finite deformation
When moving to an updated Lagrangian formulation
for modelling large strain, the infinitesimal theory
is no longer valid and an appropriate nonlinear the-
ory should be used. The derivatives of shape and test
functions must now be calculated with respect to the
updated coordinates. Work-conjugate stress and strain
measures must also be decided upon. The expedi-
ent choice of logarithmic strain and Kirchhoff stress
allows use of the infinitesimal constitutive model
within a large strain framework. However the consis-
tent spatial tangent for large strain differs from that of
infinitesimal theory.
As previously described, the integration points are
equally spaced in circular test domains centred at each
node. For integration purposes, the weight given to
each point is based on its associated area. If the inte-
gration points were to be embedded in the material
the test domains would deform and the area associ-
ated with each point would have to be recalculated.
Instead, the integration points are generated anew for
each iteration. The histories of strain and internal
variables are stored at the nodes. This information is
mapped from the nodes to the integration points by the
shape functions. Test domains that intersect the bound-
ary comprise triangular regions and circular sectors.
As the surface boundary deforms the size and shape
of these test domains changes. The surface is mod-
elled as piecewise linear and its position is tracked so
that all the integration points are generated inside the
deformed domain. This approach has yielded promis-
ing results which will be reported in a forthcoming
paper.
4 CONCLUSIONS
Meshless methods remove the need for a mesh to
be generated in order to solve problems in elasto-
plasticity, thereby having strong potential for their
future use in very large 3D simulations and in problems
for which successive remeshing would be necessary,
as in those involving large deformations. Before we
can get to that point however, these methods need to
be proved on problems that are well-within the capa-
bilities of the conventional finite element method. In
this study we have shown that the MLPG method
is sensitive to a number of user-defined features of
a simulation. Firstly the distribution of nodes has been
shown to be very important for the accurate determi-
nation of stresses and for the success of an incremental
scheme. Secondly the choice of nodal support rule
has a major effect both on accuracy and robustness
using elasto-plasticity. Finally the complexity of the
integrations required to calculate terms in the stiffness
matrix is itself computationally expensive and results
are sensitive to the choice of the rule. All of these
points should not unnecessarily deter modellers from
using these methods, for the potential future advan-
tages mentioned above. However, the results of this
study indicate that care is necessary at all stages.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The research is funded by the UK EPSRC grant
EP/D07711/01. The authors thank Dr M.E. Honnor
(Bradford University) for the use of FE footing results.
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 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

An ALE Finite Element Method for cohesionless soil at large strains:

Computational aspects and applications

Daniel Aubram, Frank Rackwitz & Stavros A. Savidis

Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering Division, Berlin Institute of Technology, Germany

ABSTRACT: The paper presents an Arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian (ALE) finite element method for cohe-
sionless soil to solve initial boundary value problems at large strains properly. It is based on an operator-split
to simplify the needed algorithms, and to facilitate the upgrade of an existing finite element code. The solution
then consists of a Lagrangian step, in which the mechanical behavior of the soil is modelled by a hypoplas-
tic constitutive equation that describes the material state in terms of the stress, the void ratio, and a so-called
intergranular strain. The following step applies an efficient optimization procedure to smooth the finite element
mesh, and the final Eulerian step conservatively remaps the solution variables onto the updated mesh. Some
numerical examples highlight the applicability of the ALE method, including benchmark tests for the algorithms,
and simulation of pile penetration in sand.

1 INTRODUCTION appropriate language to formulate this correspondence

In soil mechanics and geotechnical engineering large
strains may occur, for example, during pile installa-
tion, penetration of sounding tools, and slope failure.
For these problems the classical Lagrangian and Eule-
rian finite element methods are often inapplicable. In
the total and updated Lagrangian approaches generally
applied to solid mechanics, the element mesh follows
the material deformations so that solution may fail
to proceed due to severe element distortion. Remesh-
ing plus projection of the solution, also referred to
as rezoning, is computationally expensive, and sim-
ple non-conservative projection methods based on
interpolation introduce errors. Eulerian finite element
approaches, which are generally applied by the com-
putational fluid dynamics (CFD) community, keep the
mesh fixed in space. This, however, makes the treat-
ment of path dependent constitutive equations, free
surfaces, and moving boundaries cumbersome.
The arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian (ALE) formu-
lation (Hirt et al. 1974; Donea et al. 2004) has been
developed to overcome the difficulties arising from the
Lagrangian and Eulerian viewpoints, and to combine
their advantages. ALE methods are nowadays stan-
dard for solving problems that involve large material
deformations, e.g. industrial forming processes, sim-
ulation of crashworthiness, fluid-structure interaction,
and free surface flow. Applications in computational
soil mechanics are proposed quite recently (Di et al.
2007). The ALE finite element mesh is understood
as an arbitrary moving reference domain that has a
one-to-one correspondence with the initial configu-
ration and the current configuration of the material
body; differential geometry has been found to be the
(Aubram 2009; Savidis et al. 2008). The physical
motion of the body is described by a composition of
two maps involving the reference domain. Instead of
a complete remeshing applied in rezoned Lagrangian
calculations, the ALE mesh is smoothed so that ele-
ment distortion is reduced. The mesh topology is kept
unchanged, and all elements have the same neighbors
during the whole calculation. Therefore, CFD advec-
tion algorithms can be applied to project the solution
onto the modified mesh in a conservative manner.
This paper presents an ALE method that we have
implemented into a commercial finite element code in
order to perform numerical simulations of pile instal-
lation in sand. An operator-split according to Benson
(1989) has been applied to the basic ALE equations,
so that a complex hypoplastic constitutive equation
for sand (Niemunis and Herle 1997) can be incor-
porated in a pure Lagrangian step. The mechanical
behavior of sand depends on the stress state and stress
history, as well as on the density state. Therefore, den-
sity changes must be explicitly accounted for to satisfy
conservation of mass with respect to the moving ALE
mesh. To reduce element distortion, which plays a cru-
cial role in the simulation of pile installation, mesh
smoothing is carried out after the Lagrangian step.
Because the explicit smoothing algorithms applied
in several ALE methods are inapplicable to the non-
convex mesh regions around the penetrated pile tip, we
implemented an implicit optimization procedure that
works quite well on structured and unstructured trian-
gle meshes over arbitrarily shaped two-dimensional
domains. After mesh smoothing, the solution vari-
ables are conservatively remapped onto the modified
mesh along with the final Eulerian or advection step.

245
A simple first-order accurate Godunov-like scheme
(Rodrguez-Ferran et al. 1998) advects the element
Jacobian, the stress, the void ratio of the sand, and
the remaining history variables.
The structure of the paper is as follows. Section 2
derives the basic ALE equations, and section 3 briefly
motivates the incorporation of a complex hypoplas-
tic model for sand. Section 4 concerns computational
aspects and the implementation into an existing finite
element code. Applications of the ALE method are
being presented in section 5, including benchmark
tests for the algorithms, and recent simulation of
pile penetration in sand. The paper closes with some
concluding remarks.
2 BASIC ALE EQUATIONS
The section that follows should summarize the basic
equations of the ALE framework. We apply a notation
that is closely related to that of Marsden and Hughes
(1994). For more details about the ALE formulation
in continuum mechanics, see (Aubram 2009; Savidis
et al. 2008), and the references already cited.
Let I R+ be a time interval and t I, and let
t : B S, where t () = (, t), be a motion of a
material body B in the ambient space S; usually one
sets S = R3 , but this is an unnecessary limitation at
the outset. We denote particles by X B, and spatial
points by x S. Let the spatial (or Eulerian) velocity
field of be v(x, t), with x = (X , t), then the material
(or Lagrangian) velocity is defined through the com-
position Vt (X ) = (vt t )(X ) at t fixed. More general,
if a time-dependent tensor-valued field has the spatial
resp. Eulerian description f (x, t), then Ft = ft t is
called its material resp. Lagrangian description, with
Ft (X ) = F(X , t). The material time derivative of a field
f (x, t) on S is defined through


where x = (X , t). The term ft  is the local or spa-
x resp. sand is very complex and has many influencing
tial time derivative, and v f is called the covariant
derivative of f along v.
The tangent T = F of the motion is called the
deformation gradient. The spatial velocity gradient
v = d + w consists of the symmetric part d, and the
antisymmetric part w, which are referred to as spa-
tial rate of deformation and the spin, respectively. The
volume elements dV on B, and dv on S are related
through  dv = J dV , where  is the pullback oper-
ator concerning , and the evolution of the Jacobian J
is specified by the equation
tr is the trace operator for second order tensors.
Within the ALE formulation, an arbitrary moving sub-
set R S is called a reference domain provided that
246
there are diffeomorphisms t : R B and t :
R t (B) such that
1
The chain rule yields Ft = Ft Ft , where F = T ,
F = T , and denotes the contraction of tensors.
Moreover, let v(x, t) be the spatial velocity of t , and
(, t) the velocity of t1 at every reference point
R, then
The pushforward operator t concerning t has the
explicit form t () = (Ft ()) 1 t for vector
fields, and ct = t t is called the convective veloc-
ity on S, so ct (x) = c(x, t) is a spatial vector field.
If one defines the referential description f (, t) of a
time-dependent field through its spatial description
ft = ft 1 1
t resp. its material description Ft = ft t ,
then (4) yields the fundamental ALE operator
The arguments (x, t) have been suppressed. In order to
obtain an ALE formulation of initial boundary value
problems, one has to substitute the ALE operator for
every material time derivative in the balance laws and
the other basic equations that govern the problem. For
example, (2) becomes
by dropping the point maps and arguments.
3 HYPOPLASTIC MODEL FOR SAND
The mechanical response of cohesionless soil
factors. One important characteristic that distinguishes
sand from other materials is dilatancy, i.e. the vol-
ume changes due to shear loading. Under monotonic
shear loading, sand with a sufficiently low initial den-
sity contracts monotonically. If the initial density is
sufficient high, sand shows little contraction at small
shear strains, and then passes a transformation state at
which the response changes from contractive to dila-
tive. A similar behavior can be observed by varying
the confining pressure instead of the initial density.
Irrespective of the initial conditions, sand exhibits an
isochoric response (zero dilatancy) at constant stress
if shear deformation exceeds a specific value.
Dilatancy and the mechanical response of sand do
not depend on the stress state and density state alone.
Stress history due to monotonic or cyclic loading
also plays a crucial role, as well as fabric anisotropy,
saturation, and drainage conditions. Under cyclic load-
ing and undrained conditions, the dilatancy of sand
may lead to liquefaction because of a loss of shear
resistance, or to cyclic mobility with limited shear
deformation, dependent on the confining pressure, the
loading amplitude, and the initial density.To reduce the
amount of necessary concepts, however, in this paper
we focus on dry sand, and assume isotropic response.
Although users can choose from a large amount
of constitutive equations for soil, only a few simu-
late the mechanical behavior of sand at finite strains
and under complex loading paths over a wide range
of densities and stress states, by using only a sin-
gle set of parameters. Aside fundamental discussion
about the applicability of this approach, models based
on the multiplicative split of the deformation gradient
(Simo and Meschke 1993; Borja and Tamagnini 1995)
require knowledge of the material deformation as a
whole, which is due to the non-Lagrangian view
usually unavailable in ALE regimes and thus would
require additional data to be stored.
Nowadays standard for ALE computations are mod-
els of the rate-type, such as ad-hoc extensions of
classical models of small-strain elasto-plasticity that
generally apply a hypoelastic rate formulation of the
stress response. While hypoelasticity assumes the rela-
tionship between an objective stress rate and the
elastic rate of deformation d el = d d pl to be linear
(Truesdell and Noll 2004), the class of hypoplas-
tic models developed by the Karlsruher Schule
(Gudehus and Kolymbas 1979; Kolymbas 1991; von
Wolffersdorff 1996; Niemunis and Herle 1997) include
constitutive response functions that are non-linear
in d and do not split deformation into elastic and
plastic parts.
Into our ALE finite element method, we imple-
mented the hypoplastic constitutive equation proposed
by Niemunis and Herle (1997), which can be written
in the form
The state of sand is described by the Cauchy
stress , the void ratio e, and a so-called inter-
granular strain tensor that covers low-cyclic load-
ing effects (say Ncycl < 10). To obtain objective
response, the Zaremba-Jaumann stress rate, ZJ =
+ w w , has been chosen. The rate of e is
obtained from the purely kinematic relation
and the evolution of intergranular strain is described
by a generally discontinuous response function for its
objective rate ZJ (Niemunis and Herle 1997).
4 IMPLEMENTATION
In ALE finite element methods the mesh serves as
the arbitrary moving reference domain introduced in
247
section 2. We implemented a two-dimensional sim-
ple arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian (SALE) method
according to (Benson 1989), which is restricted to a
single material in each element, and material bound-
aries are resolved explicitly by element edges. An
operator-split is applied to (5), yielding
by omitting the point maps and arguments from now
on. Here denotes a corresponding response function,
e.g. a constitutive equation, and f is to be replaced by
J , , e, and , respectively. The Jacobian is included to
update the element mass density consistent with mass
conservation in every step according to = J 1 0 ,
where 0 is the initial density. Note that in quasistatic
analysis, balance of momentum remains unaffected by
the ALE formulation (Donea et al. 2004).
Through the operator-split (Benson 1989), the
needed algorithms are simpler and more robust than
algorithms for the fully coupled problem. Another
advantage growth from the facility to upgrade exist-
ing Lagrangian finite element codes; we have used
ANSYS as the background code. The solution pro-
ceeds in three steps. In the first step, (9)1 is solved
by means of standard updated Lagrangian methods for
solid mechanics. To fulfill the objectivity requirement,
recent ANSYS versions apply a co-rotated formula-
tion to rate-type constitutive equations (Hughes 1984).
The hypoplastic model is integrated by a substepping
algorithm with automatic error control. In the second
step, mesh distortion is reduced by a smoothing pro-
cedure that does not change the topology of the mesh.
The third step, called the Eulerian or advection step,
is performed to solve (9)2 , i.e. to remap the solution
onto the modified mesh with advection schemes pro-
posed by the CFD community. Time proceeds in the
Lagrangian step, but it is fixed in the mesh smoothing
and transport steps.
In a high quality mesh, no element becomes too
large, and each element has low distortion. Mesh
smoothing, therefore, plays a crucial role especially
when non-convex regions are present, e.g. during
pile penetration. The explicit smoothing algorithms
applied in several ALE methods are often inappli-
cable. We implemented a robust implicit optimiza-
tion scheme that works quite well on structured and
unstructured triangle meshes over convex and non-
convex domains. The objective function
has been chosen according to (Braess and Wriggers
2000). rout denotes the circumcircle, and rin the incircle
of a triangle. r0 = 1.0 is a reference radius. The sum is
over the number of elements in the patch that enclose a
single vertex node with position vector x v . Therefore,
the minimum of (10) is local. A global minimum is
approximated by looping all the flagged vertex nodes
intended for mesh smoothing.
To minimize the objective function W properly, we
implemented a damped Newtons method with back-
tracking line search. Exact formulas for the gradient
and Hessian of W are available. Armijo-Goldsteins
rule is applied to decrease the step length if necessary,
and the Goldstein-Price method is used to deal with
non-positive definite Hessians (Sun and Yuan 2006).
Boundaries can be smoothed easily by averaging
procedures in order to improve the quality of the
complete mesh considerably (Aymone 2004). Corner
nodes of the domain are not moved, because they shape
the domain.
In the final advection step, the variables f calcu-
lated in the Lagrangian step are remapped onto the
smoothed mesh, according to equation (9)2 . In R3 , the
convective velocity is given by

where xL and xn+1 are the nodal locations after the

Lagrangian step and after the smoothing step, respec-
tively. The convective velocity normal to the material
boundaries is zero in SALE methods, because the same
set of elements is associated with only one material
during the whole calculation. For the solution of (9)2 ,
explicit advection algorithms are preferred. These are
conditional stable provided that the material does not
pass an element within one step (Courant-Friedrichs-
Lewy condition), that is, if the load increments are not
too large.
To avoid the evaluation of the gradient in (9)2 , a
first-order accurate Godunov-like advection scheme
(Rodrguez-Ferran et al. 1998) has been implemented.
This technique assumes a piecewise constant field f ,
which is given directly when using constant strain tri-
angles with a single Gauss point. For each triangle in
plane conditions, the equation
has to be solved, in which fL and fn+1 denote the values
of f after the Lagrangian step and at the end of the
load step, respectively, and fSci is the value of f in the
contiguous element owning the shared element edge
Si . Moreover, A is the
 element area, sgn is the sign
function, and FS i = S i (n c) dS is the volume flux
across the element edge Si with unit normal n .
5 APPLICATIONS
A few numerical examples should highlight the
applicability of our ALE algorithms to finite strain
problems, particularly with regard to penetration of
cohesionless soil.
The performance of the optimization scheme to
smooth the two-dimensional triangle meshes used for
Figure 1. Comparison of Giulianis method (left) and the
current mesh optimization scheme (right) applied to back
extrusion at different indentations.
the applications has been tested in several applica-
tions, including unstructured and structured meshes,
as well as convex and non-convex regions. We have
also implemented Guilianis method (Giuliani 1982),
and a simple averaging procedure (Aymone 2004) to
compare different approaches.
Back extrusion is a common problem that involves
large material strains and non-convex mesh regions. A
rigid rough die is punched into a cylindrical workpiece
with the vertical boundaries fixed in horizontal direc-
tion. The lower boundary is fixed in vertical direction.
Figure 1 shows the edges of the undeformed work-
piece, and the deformed mesh at different indentations.
At 50% indentation, elements around the corner of the
die are heavily squeezed when using Giulianis method,
which is shown on the left. The area of one element
even vanishes (see detail in Fig. 1), which inhibits
the convergence of the solution at higher indentations.
The current mesh optimization scheme shown on the
right keeps a good mesh quality. At 50% indentation,
the squeeze and distortion of elements is moderate,
even directly below the die. Calculation terminates not
until indentation reaches a value of more than 71%.
Only complete remeshing would eliminate element
degeneration in order to ensure a convergent solution.
Figure 2 shows the results of a Molenkamp test
(Molenkamp 1968) that has been carried out to test the

248

Figure 2. Molenkamp test of the advection algorithm. Initial
distribution of the color function (above), distribution after a
full clockwise rotation (720 steps) of the material about the
domain center (below).
advection algorithm. It is based on a purely Eulerian
set up of the ALE method, which is obtained by fix-
ing the mesh, i.e. c = v. The initial state of the virtual
material is given by a distribution of a color function
shown in Figure 2 above. The initial state is assumed
to be the solution obtained during the Lagrangian step
of the operator-split ALE method, and the color func-
tion represents a variable that should be advected, that
is, J , , e, and in our case. A spatial velocity field
v is prescribed so that the material does a full 360
rigid clockwise rotation about the center of the square
domain in 720 advection steps. The mesh used con-
sists of 5516 triangle elements about the same size.
The final state is shown in Figure 2 below.
It can be seen from Figure 2 that the implemented
advection algorithm does transport material through
the mesh in a Eulerian fashion. However, the initially
circled area bounded by large gradients of the color
function disperses, and the peak values are getting
smeared as material rotation proceeds. This indicates
the occurrence of high numerical diffusion, which
results from the simplicity of the implemented first-
order accurate Godunov-like algorithm. It has to be
noted, however, that the Molenkamp test reflects an
extreme example. The solution variables of realis-
tic initial boundary value problems in soil mechanics
often have smaller gradients, leading to less numerical
diffusion. Moreover, in the operator-split ALE method,
every advection step is followed by a Lagrangian step
that brings back the solution variables to an admissible
state. Therefore, the detail resolution of the material
249
Figure 3. Penetration of a smooth rigid pile into sand
(initial void ratio e0 = 0.678 (Dr = 0.34)). Edges of the unde-
formed configuration, and void ratio distribution at a relative
penetration depth of d/Dpile = 5.0.
state variables, e.g. of the discontinuous intergranular
strain, is predominantly determined by the coarseness
of the mesh resp. the order of interpolation, and not by
the advection algorithm.
Recent results of a quasistatic ALE pile penetration
in sand are shown in Figure 3. The pile is assumed
smooth and rigid, and the initial void ratio of the
sand is set to e0 = 0.678 (Dr0 = 0.34). As penetration
starts from the soil surface, the initial configuration
has a simple geometry. Contact elements are attached
to the pile and soil surfaces, and a Lagrange multi-
plier contact algorithm enforces zero penetration of
the pile elements when contact is closed. The number
of axisymmetric solid elements used for the simula-
tion is 35980, with the centerline of the pile serving as
the axis of radial symmetry.
The deformed configuration and the void ratio
distribution at a relative penetration depth of
d/Dpile = 5.0 shown in Figure 3 are reasonable. Since
the pile displaces the soil, soil heaving occurs lateral to
the pile. Along with the pile shaft the initially medium-
dense sand loosens, while densification arises below
the pile tip. It is worth mentioning that numerical sim-
ulation of pile penetration in sand is hard to challenge.
Loading has to be increased very slowly, and adjust-
ing the contact parameters at the beginning of the
simulation only is a science of its own.
6 CONCLUSIONS
An ALE finite element method for sand at large strains
has been presented. The split of the ALE operator
simplifies the incorporation of a complex hypoplastic
model for sand in a pure Lagrangian step, and facili-
tates the upgrade of existing FE codes. For the mesh
smoothing step, an efficient and robust optimization
scheme has been proposed, and the final advection
step applies a simple Godunov-like algorithm. Numer-
ical examples demonstrate the applicability of theALE
method, particularly to pile penetration in sand.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We would like to acknowledge the financial support to
carry out our presented research work, which has been
provided by the DFG (German Research Foundation),
grant SA 310/21-2.
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Gudehus, G. and D. Kolymbas (1979). A constitutive law
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Hughes, T. J. R. (1984). Numerical implementation of consti-
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Nemat-Nasser, R. J. Asaro, and G. A. Hegemier (Eds.),
Theoretical Foundation for Large-Scale Computations
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Kolymbas, D. (1991). An outline of hypoplasticity. Archive
of Applied Mechanics 61(3), 143151.
Marsden, J. E. and T. J. R. Hughes (1994). Mathematical
Foundations of Elasticity. Dover Publications, New York.
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ods applied to the advection equation. Journal of Applied
Meteorology 7, 160167.
Niemunis, A. and I. Herle (1997). Hypoplastic model for
cohesionless soils with elastic strain range. Mechanics of
Cohesive-Frictional Materials 2, 279299.
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Simo, J. C. and G. Meschke (1993). A new class of algo-
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Sun, W. and Y. Yuan (2006). Optimization Theory and
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 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Analysis of dynamic penetration of objects into soil layers

J.P. Carter & M. Nazem

Centre for Geotechnical and Materials Modelling, The University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia

ABSTRACT: Finite element analysis of the penetration of a solid object into a soil layer is probably one of
the most sophisticated and challenging problems in numerical analysis. In this study the Arbitrary Lagrangian-
Eulerian method is employed to study numerically the penetration of a free falling penetrometer into a layer of
soil. It is shown that this method can simulate deep penetration of objects into layers of soil accurately. Good
agreement has been found between the numerical predictions and experimental results.

1 INTRODUCTION penetration of objects into layers of soil. The main

The static Cone Penetration Test (CPT) is now a
standard in situ technique to explore geotechnical
properties of soil layers. However, this test cannot be
used easily in situations where sites are relatively inac-
cessible, such as the seabed. In these cases a Free
Falling Penetrometer (FFP) is often employed to pro-
vide information on the strength of seabed sediments.
Such tests can provide useful data such as the total
depth and time of penetration and the deceleration
characteristic of the penetrometer. Potentially at least,
these data can then be used to deduce fundamental
strength parameters for the soil in situ.
To date, no analytical solution exists in the literature
for the problem of a free-falling penetrometer in soil.
However, simulation of dynamic cone penetration by
the finite element method can provide useful informa-
tion to correlate the strength parameters of the soil to
the penetrometer travel information.
The analysis of FFP is one of the most sophisti-
cated and difficult problems in geomechanics because
of its highly nonlinear nature. The soil at the seabed is
incompressible, its strength usually varies with depth
as well as with strain rate. The penetration of a FFP into
a soil layer has the potential to cause severe mesh dis-
tortion and entanglement of elements when modelled
using more conventional finite element approaches.
The boundary conditions of the problem change con-
tinuously as the FFP penetrates deeper into the soil
layer. Due to the usually very short time of penetration,
the analyst should not normally neglect the effects of
inertia forces.
For the reasons mentioned above, the analysis
of FFP motivates the application of the Arbitrary
Lagrangian-Eulerian method, which is now becoming
well established for numerical computations in geome-
chanics (Nazem et al. 2006, 2008 and 2009a). This
paper briefly explains an ALE method based upon the
operator-split technique for simulation of the dynamic
aspects and challenges of the ALE method will be
addressed. This method is then used to simulate the
dynamic penetration of penetrometers into undrained
layers of soil existing at a seabed and the results are
discussed.
2 FINITE ELEMENT FORMULATION
2.1 ALE operator split-technique
The ALE method has been developed to eliminate
mesh distortion in Lagrangian methods. In a fully cou-
pled ALE formulation, the global equations are written
in terms of material displacements and mesh displace-
ments. This normally doubles the number of unknown
parameters, leading to significantly more expensive
analyses. Alternatively, the decoupled ALE method, or
the operator-split technique, performs the analysis in
two steps; an Updated Lagrangian (UL) step followed
by an Eulerian step.
In the UL step the incremental displacements,
velocities and accelerations are calculated for a given
load increment by solving the equilibrium equation.
The matrix form of equilibrium is usually derived
from the principle of virtual work. This principle states
that for any virtual displacement u, equilibrium is
achieved provided:
where k is the total number of bodies in contact,
denotes the Cauchy stress tensor, is the variation of
strain due to virtual displacement, u, u and u represent

251
material displacements, velocities and accelerations,
respectively, and c are the material density and damp-
ing, b is the body force, q is the surface load acting on
area S of volume V , gN and gT are the virtual normal
and tangential gap displacements, tN and tT denote the
normal and tangential forces at the contact surface Sc .
After solving equation (1), the UL step is usually final-
ized by updating the spatial coordinates of the nodal
points according to incremental displacements.
However, the continuous updating of nodal coordi-
nates at the end of each increment alone may cause
mesh distortion in regions with relatively high defor-
mation gradients. Hence, in the next step, the distorted
mesh is refined using a suitable mesh refinement
technique. In this refinement process all variables at
nodal points as well as at integration points are trans-
ferred from the old (distorted) mesh into the new
(refined) mesh. This remapping is usually done using
the convection equation:
where df r and df denote the derivatives of an arbi-
trary function f with respect to the mesh and material
coordinates respectively, and ur represents the mesh
displacements.
2.2 Mesh refinement
As previously indicated, refining the mesh at the begin-
ning of each Euler step is very important since a
distorted mesh can lead to inaccurate results. Most
mesh refinement techniques are based on special
mesh-generation algorithms, which must consider var-
ious parameters such as the dimensions of the problem,
the type of elements to be generated and the regu-
larity of the domain. Developing such algorithms for
any arbitrary domain is usually difficult and costly.
Moreover, these algorithms do not necessary preserve
the number of nodes and number of the elements in
a mesh and they may cause significant changes in the
topology. A general method for determining the mesh
displacements based on the use of an elastic analysis
was presented by Nazem et al. (2006). The method has
been implemented for two-dimensional plane strain
problems as well as axi-symmetric problems. To obtain
the mesh displacements, we first re-discretise all the
boundaries of the problem which include the bound-
aries of each body, the material interfaces and the
loading boundaries, resulting in prescribed values of
the mesh displacements for the nodes on the bound-
aries. The nodes on the boundaries are then relocated
along the boundary as necessary. With the known total
displacements of these nodes on the boundaries, we
then perform an elastic analysis using the prescribed
displacements to obtain the optimal mesh and hence
the mesh displacements for all the internal nodes. An
important advantage of this mesh optimisation method
is its independence of element topology and problem
dimensions. The method does not require any mesh
generation algorithm, does not change the topology
252
of the problem, and hence can be easily implemented
in existing finite element codes. For more details see
Nazem et al. (2006 & 2008).
2.3 Stress integration
In a large deformation analysis, the stress-strain rela-
tions must be frame independent to guarantee that
possible rigid body motions do not induce extra strains
within the material. This requirement, known as the
principle of objectivity, is usually satisfied by intro-
ducing an objective stress-rate into the constitutive
equations. An important feature of an objective stress-
rate is that it does not change the values of stress
invariants. This guarantees that a previously yielded
point remains on the yield surface after being updated
due to rigid body motion. Introducing, for instance,
the Jaumann stress rate into the constitutive equations
provides:
where C ep is the constitutive matrix, denotes a set of
hardening parameters and is the spin tensor. Nazem
et al. (2009b) proposed alternative algorithms for inte-
grating equation (3) and showed that it is slightly more
efficient to apply rigid body corrections while integrat-
ing the constitutive equations. This strategy is adopted
in this study.
2.4 Strain rate effects
The undrained shear strength of cohesive soils often
depends on the rate of straining (Graham et al. 1983).
This effect can be expressed typically by the following
equation:
where su represents the undrained shear strength of
soil, su,ref is a reference undrained shear strength mea-
sured at a reference strain rate of ref , denotes the
strain rate and is the rate of increase per log cycle of
time. A typical value ref = 0.01 per hour was adopted
in the numerical computations reported in the current
study.
2.5 ALE algorithm
The ALE method explained in previous sections has
been implemented in the finite element code, SNAC,
developed at the University of Newcastle, Australia. A
summary of the ALE algorithm is as follows.
I. Phase 1- UL step
1. Assemble the global stiffness matrix and load
vector and solve the momentum equation.
2. Compute the strain increments and integrate the
constitutive equations to update the stresses and
hardening parameters.
3. Iterate until the unbalanced forces are smaller than
a prescribed tolerance.
4. Update the material coordinates according to the
incremental displacements.
II. Phase 2- Eulerian step
1. Check the boundaries and relocate the nodes on the
boundaries wherever necessary.
2. Compute the new mesh coordinates by performing
an elastic analysis.
3. Remap the state variables at integration points as
well as at nodal points using equation (1).
4. Update the total displacements vector according to
the new mesh displacements and previous material
displacements.
5. Set the material coordinates equal to the mesh
coordinates for the next time step.
6. Compute internal forces, check equilibrium as
well as plasticity consistency and conduct further
iterations if necessary.

3 NUMERICAL ANALYSIS

3.1 Problem description

We consider a rigid penetrometer falling freely into
an undrained soil layer in the vertical direction. Due
to axial symmetry, only one-half of the problem cross
section is discretised by the finite element mesh shown
in Figure 1. The mesh consists of 10252 nodes and
4988 6-noded triangular elements each containing 6
integration points. Note that vo , m, and d shown in
Figure 1 represent the initial velocity, mass and diam-
eter of the penetrometer, respectively. In all problems
a smooth contact surface between the soil and the pen-
etrometer is assumed. The soil layer is represented by
an associatedTresca material model. Due to the incom-
pressibility of most seabed soil deposits in the short
term, Poissons ratio, u , was set equal to 0.49 (as an
approximation of 0.5). The undrained Youngs mod-
ulus of the soil was assumed to be Eu . No material
damping was assumed in the model. The energy dis-
sipation was due entirely to a combination of plastic
deformation of the soil and radiation damping. The
former was achieved by assuming a Tresca yield cri-
terion with associated plastic flow and the latter was
achieved using energy absorbing boundaries for the Figure 1. Finite element mesh of free falling penetrometer.
finite element mesh.
Given the values of v0 , m, d, and mechanical prop- Table 1 shows that the results obtained by the finite
erties of the soil, the finite element method is able element method agree well with the experimental tests
to predict the soil response and provide the total results. Note that in all finite element analyses the ratio
penetration, p, and total time of penetration, tp . Eu /su,ref was assumed to be 200 and the value of was
set equal to 0.2.
3.2 Validation
Experimental validation of the ALE method described
3.3 Typical results
here has been reported previously by Carter et al.
(2010) and the experimental tests were undertaken at The total penetration depth and travel time of the object
the University of Sydney, Australia. depend on several parameters such as its initial kinetic

253
Table 1. Experimental validation of ALE predictions. ALE method can be used to analyse the problem accu-
rately. The accuracy of the method was verified by
su,ref d m v0 p/d p/d comparing numerical results with those obtained from
No kPa mm g m/s tests ALE the experimental tests.
The results obtained also indicate that the total pen-
1 5.15 20 262 4.77 4.33 3.99
etration depth depends on the strain rates developed
2 5.15 20 353 4.77 4.80 5.22
3 5.15 20 446 4.75 5.20 6.50 in the soil. Larger values of the rate parameter will
4 5.15 20 539 4.74 7.05 7.80 result generally in smaller values of the total depth of
5 5.15 20 631 4.76 7.94 9.36 penetration.
6 7.46 40 714 4.77 1.14 1.39 It is also noted that the analyses conducted in this
7 6.91 40 713 4.75 1.39 1.44 study assumed zero friction between the penetrometer
8 6.91 30 736 4.75 2.75 2.71 and soil. The effect of friction will be investigated in
9 4.45 20 257 4.75 4.45 4.38 future work, but it is noted that previous studies have
indicated that its influence on penetrometers and other
objects moving through soil is not usually dominant,
at least in clay-like soils. Examples can be seen in
static CPT tests where the magnitude of the side fric-
tion force is usually much small than the overall end
bearing resistance, and in the theoretical solution for
the T-bar test, where the non-dimensional resistance
factors vary from about 9 to 11, i.e., about 20% differ-
ence at most, depending on the assumption made about
the level of adhesive resistance (Randolph & Houlsby
1986). However, it is also noted that this outcome is
likely to depend on the shape of the object penetrating
the soil.

Figure 2. Normalised kinetic energy versus normalised
penetration, assuming Eu /su,ref = 200, su,ref = 25 kPa and
d = 4 cm.
energy and soil properties. Among these parameters,
we show the effect of rate parameter, , on penetra-
tion values. For brevity, attention is confined to cases
where Eu /su,ref = 200, d = 4 cm and su,ref = 25 kPa.
Normalised kinetic energy versus normalised pene-
tration is plotted in Figure 2 for different values of
, including 0.0, 0.1 and 0.2. Figure 2 shows that
increasing the value of the rate parameter decreases
the final penetration depth significantly and this is
because large values of correspond to soils that are
effectively stronger during rapid undrained shearing.
4 CONCLUSIONS
A robust finite element procedure based upon the
Arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian (ALE) operator split
technique has been presented and the method has been
used to predict the penetration of a free falling pen-
etrometer (FFP) into the seabed. It was shown that the
REFERENCES
Carter, J.P., Nazem, M., Airey, D.W. & Chow, S.W. 2010.
Dynamic analysis of free-falling penetrometers in soil
deposits. Plenary paper accepted for presentation at
GeoFlorida 2010, ASCE, Feb. 2010.
Graham, J., Crooks, J.H.A. & Bell, A.L. 1983. Time effects on
the stressstrain behaviour of natural soft clays. Gotech-
nique, 33, 327340.
Nazem, M., Sheng, D., & Carter, J.P. 2006. Stress integra-
tion and mesh refinement in numerical solutions to large
deformations in geomechanics. International Journal for
Numerical Methods in Engineering, 65, 10021027.
Nazem, M., Sheng, D., Carter, J.P., & Sloan, S.W. 2008. Arbi-
trary Lagrangian-Eulerian method for large-deformation
consolidation problems in geomechanics. International
Journal for Analytical and Numerical Methods in Geome-
chanics, 32, 10231050.
Nazem, M., Carter, J.P., & Airey, D.W. 2009a. Arbitrary
Lagrangian-Eulerian Method for dynamic analysis of
Geotechnical Problems. Computers and Geotechnics, 36
(4), 549557.
Nazem, M., Sheng, D., Carter, J.P., & Sloan, S.W. 2009b.
Alternative stress-integration schemes for large defor-
mation problems of solid mechanics. Finite Elements in
Analysis and Design, 45, 934943.
Randolph, M.F & Houlsby, G.T. 1986. The limiting pres-
sure on a circular pile loaded laterally in cohesive soil,
Gotechnique, 34 (4), 613623.

254
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Large deformation analysis of the installation of Dynamic Anchor

Hendrik Sturm & Lars Andresen

Norwegian Geotechnical Institute, NGI

ABSTRACT: This paper presents a finite element study on the installation of a torpedo shaped anchor in clay.
The penetration from seabed to target depth is modelled in a simplified manner by means of quasi-static, implicit
and updated Lagrangian analysis employing a finite-slip contact formulation along the soil-anchor interface. The
aim of this study is to provide a procedure for the calculation of stress and excess pore pressure distributions that
can be used in subsequent re-consolidation analyses in order to assess shear strength setup and pullout capacity.
It is found that there is an increase in the normalised mean stress and radial stress at mid height of the anchor
after installation, which is about half the value given by cavity expansion theory for this clay. Furthermore, it is
shown that considerable zone of remoulded clay forms all along the anchor after installation.

1 INTRODUCTION

Deep penetrating torpedo shaped anchors have been

introduced to the offshore oil and gas industry as a
cost effective deepwater anchoring solution for clay
conditions. These anchors, Figure 1(a), are lowered
by an installation line to a designated drop height
above seabed and penetrate to their target depth in the
seabed by kinetic energy obtained during the free-fall;
Figure 1(b). Two such systems have been proposed:
Torpedo Anchors (Medeiros 2001) and Deep Penetrat-
ing Anchors (DPA by Lieng et al. 1999). Reduced
scale (1:3) field tests have been performed in at the
Troll field on DPAs with 4.4 m length and 2ra = 0.4 m
shank diameter (Deep Sea Anchors AS 2010). The
anchor was equipped with 4 flukes of 2.0 m length and
0.475 m width; Figure 1(a). Steel anchors are gener-
ally filled with scrap metal or concrete to increase the
weight. Typically the loads from the offshore structure
are applied through a mooring line which is attached Figure 1. Deep Penetrating Torpedo Anchor.
to a padeye at the top of the anchor.
The pullout resistance is mainly provided by the The accompanied setup, or recovery of shear strength,
shear strength along the soil-anchor interface and is in the vicinity of the anchor due to increased effec-
typically governed by undrained conditions, because tive stresses from post-installation dissipation of the
of the short duration of wave loading. The undrained excess pore pressures and thixotropy is not considered
shear strength will be affected by the dynamic instal- in this paper.
lation and the available setup time for re-consolidation The penetration problem is both a geometrical and
after installation. material non-linear problem, hence a large deforma-
This paper reports results from large deforma- tion formulation has been used in this study. There
tion finite element analyses of the installation of 1:3 are many other approaches which have been employed
scale DPA anchor. The installation process from the recently in order to cope with the numerical difficulty
anchor entering the seabed and down to the final depth of penetration problems such as ALE (e.g. Liyanap-
is modelled using the finite element program Abaqus athirana 2009, Walker and Yu 2006), CFD (e.g. Raie
with a user defined contact algorithm and an updated and Tassoulas 2009), CEL (e.g. Qiu et al. 2009) and
Lagrangian formulation. The objective is to compute MPM (e.g. Beuth et al. 2007). In addition also a small
the increased stresses, the extent of remoulding and the displacement approach has been successfully applied
excess pore pressures developing during installation. by Andersen et al. (2004). In order to employ this

255

Figure 2. Geometry and dimensions of the FE-model.
zipper-technique some assumption had to be met by
the authors, which could be confirmed with the results
of the presented generalised simulations.
2 FINITE ELEMENT MODEL
The penetration problem was discretized with an
axi-symmetrical finite element mesh using the com-
mercial FE-program Abaqus and an implicit time-
integration scheme. The anchor was modelled as a
rigid surface with the dimensions similar to the DPA
at Troll field as shown in Figure 2. The bullet shaped tip
of the anchor has been somewhat sharpened in order
to improve numerical stability of the contact computa-
tion. In accordance to Cudmani and Sturm (2006) an
initial gap under the tip of r0 = 0.02 m was allowed.
This assures numerical convergence for large pile pen-
etration as excessive distortions of the elements near
the tip are avoided.
In the simulations a hard contact was assumed; i.e.
the stress transmission from the anchor to the soil is
transferred immediately when both get in contact. In
addition, frictional contact behaviour along tip and
shaft was allowed, which was described by a simple
hypoplastic-type formulation (Niemunis 2003), viz.
(1d representation)
with the rate of shear stress being a function of the
rate of shear strain1 , the current shear stress and
the critical (i.e. maximum) shear stress crit . The elas-
tic shear stiffness G and the exponent n = 0.6 describe
the initial shear stiffness, respectively, the curvature of
the non-linear stress-strain curve. The soil-anchor con-
tact strength was taken equal to the remoulded shear
strength using a sensitivity of St = 5.4 on the intact
strength given in Table 1.
1
actually the relative tangential slip.
256
Table 1. Average soil parameter of the Troll-clay.
suav G/su
3.68 + 1.54 z 150 0.495
The Troll field soil behaviour was modelled as a
linear-elastic perfectly plastic material with a Tresca
failure criterion; the corresponding parameter are
listed in Table 1. An isotropic undrained shear strength
suav representing the average of the compression suc ,
DSS
direct simple shear  su and extension suext strength is
used viz. suav = 13 suc + suDSS + suext . The strength pro-
file and sensitivity of Troll clay were taken from By
and Skomedal (1992). Viscous, i.e. time-dependent,
effects of the soil and inertia were not considered in
the presented simulations since the anchor was for rea-
son of simplicity pushed down quasi-statically into the
soil with a constant penetration rate.
Following a proposal by Burd and Houlsby (1990),
the soil body was divided into two regions; an inner
(near field) and and outer (compensating) region. To
the outer region has been assigned a reduced stiffness
with = 0.25 and E = 12 5
E in order to account for
the flexibility of the real infinite boundary.
3 RESULTS
During installation the soil develops a considerable
mean stress since it is heavily squeezed due to the
volume displaced by the penetrating anchor. In addi-
tion the soil is also sheared and might get totally
remoulded. The increased mean stress gives a poten-
tial for a net strength increase during re-consolidation.
But the large excess pore pressure generated during
remoulding do also affect the re-consolidation and
the strength setup. In order to assess the state of the
soil after installation, an anchor was pushed approxi-
mately twice its length down into the seabed to a depth
of 8m. In the simulations the interface-friction c
(100 % sur , 200 % sur and no friction), the poison ratio
(0.495 and 0.25) and normalised shear stiffness G/su
(150 and 300) have been varied. Since undrained con-
ditions prevail the soil weight and initial stresses are
not included and only the stress changes caused by the
installation are reported.
3.1 Penetration resistance
The computed penetration resistance N , which is the
sum of the tip resistance and the mobilised interface
friction, is shown in Figure 3.
From the result for the smooth wall (i.e. zero shaft
friction) it is seen that the tip resistance is about 67 %
of the total resistance for the base case and about 44 %
for the case where the anchor-soil shear strength crit
is twice the remoulded shear strength.
Figure 3. Penetration resistance during installation.
Figure 4. Normalised deviatoric stress q/su ; dark regions
are highly plastified, bright regions are not or only lightly
plastified.
A variation of the compressibility , respectively,
elastic stiffness E = 2G(1 + ) has only a negligible
influence on the penetration resistance N .
3.2 Stress setup
Resulting stress distributions after installation are plot-
ted in Figures 4 to 9. Stress measures have been
257
Figure 5. Normalised radial stress r /su ; dark regions
denote high compression stresses, bright regions denote no
or low stresses.
normalised with the original undrained shear strength
su given in Table 1. The deviatoric stress q = 1 3
and mean stress p = 1/3 (z + + r ) therein are of
particular interest.
The excess pore pressure following from instal-
lation might be assessed from the distribution of
mean stress and shear strain, respectively, stress,
by uex = p + uex (q). The relationship of shear
induced excess pore pressure is typically found from
undrained laboratory testing. This approach has been
used for suction anchors by e.g. Andersen and Jostad
(2002).
Figure 4 shows the normalised shear stress distri-
bution of the reference model after installation. The
soil under the torpedo anchor plastifies completely, i.e
q/su = 2 during penetration, but relaxes again when
the tip passes by. Above the anchor, the soil close to
the open gap plastifies again due to the loss of radial
support.
Figure 5 presents the normalised radial stress dis-
tribution of the reference model after installation. The
radial stress in the tip area is about 8 su which is in
between the bearing capacity factor 9 su for a deep
embedded circular foundation and the limit pressure
6 su from cavity expansion theory. However when
the tip passes the radial stress rapidly decreases and
reaches values in the range of 2 to 3 times su along
the anchor which is significantly lower than the limit
pressure pca from the analytical solution of the cavity
expansion problem for a cohesive frictionless material
Figure 6. Normalised radial stress r /su plotted over the
distance to anchor for z = 5.8 m in the mid height of the
torpedo anchor after installation.
presented by Burd and Houlsby (1990). The limit
pressure for large deformation is given by
with
The normalised radial stress r /su over the dis-
tance to the anchor in a depth of z = 5.8 m in the mid
height of the anchor is shown in Figure 6. Thereof
becomes apparent that the observed increased resid-
ual radial stress holds for all simulations and is almost
independent of the interface behaviour. While the
stresses decreases monotonically with increasing dis-
tance to the anchor wall for both the very stiff model
(E = 2Eref ) and the reference model with varying fric-
tion conditions, the stresses also decreases slightly
towards the anchor in case of compressible material
( = 0.25).
The increased radial stress is accompanied by a sig-
nificant increase of the tangential stresses . Actually
becomes in the range of 2ra = 0.4 m r 1.5 ra =
0.3 m larger than r . This can be seen in Figure 7 at the
mid height of the anchor after installation in a depth
of z = 5.8 m. The stress-state suggests a kind of arch-
ing around the anchor. Similar observations have been
reported by Andersen and Jostad (2002) for suction
anchors in clay.
Figure 8 presents the development of mean stress
p, shear stress q and the cylindrical stress components
r , z and during the penetration process for a soil
element at 5.8 m depth in a distance of 0.1 m from the
outside wall. Initially the penetration has almost no
influence on the element while under continued pene-
tration at first the vertical stress increases and the radial
Figure 7. Normalised stress components of the reference
model plotted over the distance to anchor, for z = 5.8 m in
the mid height of the torpedo anchor after installation. The
soil is completely plastified for q/su = 2.
Figure 8. Chronological sequence of the normalised stress
components of an element in z = 5.8 m and r = 0.3 m during
penetration. The soil is completely plastified for q/su = 2.
and tangential stresses decrease equally. The element
is compressed vertically and stretched horizontally
due to the large horizontal displacement of overlaying
elements (cavity expansion) and the enforced con-
stant volume. Worth mentioning is that the element is
at this stage already completely plastified (q/su = 2)
while the mean stress p is almost zero, although the
tip is still 1.75 m afar from the element. When the
tip approaches the element, the stress state changes
because it it is highly squeezed due to the large radial
displacement. The peak stress is reached when half of
the tip has passed the element. In the course of con-
tinued penetration, the stress state changes again since
the deformation of the element is influenced by the
deformation of the underlying elements, which cause
a heave of the soil column parallel to the anchor. Hence
the considered element gets vertically compressed, i.e.
z becomes the largest stress component and the ele-
ment reaches a kind of triaxial compression state viz.
|z | > |r | = | |.
258

Figure 9. Normalised radial stress r /su plotted over the
distance to anchor for z = 1.8 m in the mid height of the open
gap above the anchor after installation.
Figure 10. Engineering strain plotted over the distance to
anchor for z = 5.8 m in the mid height of the torpedo anchor
after installation.
As long as the radial support of the gap remains,
the difference between radial and tangential stiffness
is small. However, when the torpedo anchor penetrates
further, the radial support gets lost and r becomes
zero. This is shown in Figure 9 in which the nor-
malised horizontal stress at a depth of z = 1.8 m in
the mid height of the free open gap above the anchor
is plotted. However, in a distance of r 0.5 m from the
outside wall the increased radial stresses are partially
conserved, which emphasis again the arching stated
above. The stress conservation is even more distinct
for the compressible material, but cannot be observed
for the stiffer material.
3.3 Extend of remoulding
The extent of remoulding may be assessed by look-
ing at the residual shear strain = |max min | after
installation as presented in Figure 10. The installa-
tion causes large displacement when the tip penetrates
through the clay which are accompanied by large shear
strains. If one defines full remoulding as excess of
= 50%, we can see that the width of the remoulded
zone is about 3/2 of the anchor radius. The amount of
shearing as well as the extend of shear zone is govern
only by the tip penetration, since the frictional contact
has only negligible influence on the result.
4 FINAL REMARKS
This paper presents axi-symmetric implicit large
deformation finite element analysis of the quasi-static
installation process of a torpedo shaped anchors in
clay. It is demonstrated that for this problem the
Updated Lagrangian (UL) method together with a
finite slip contact formulation for the soil-anchor
interface works well, without suffering from mesh
distortion problems usually associated with the UL
method.
The change in stress distribution from the in situ
stresses caused by the anchor installation is calculated.
It is found that mean and radial stress during penetra-
tion in the soil around the tip are about 8 su which is
close to the bearing capacity value for a circular deep
embedded foundation (9 su ; Skempton 1951). When
the tip passes, the stresses relax and mean and radial
stress along the anchor after installation become 2 to
3 times su .
Also the extent of the remoulded is assessed to
be about 2/3 of the anchor radius. This forms the
basis for a subsequent re-consolidation analysis for
the assessment of the strength setup or recovery.
Important aspects of dynamic anchor installation
such as the effect of stress distribution due to strain-
softening, (strain-) rate dependency and inertia have
yet not been considered and the present work should
be viewed as a first step towards a more comprehensive
numerical modelling of this problem.
In order to improve the current design method
of deep penetrating torpedo anchors, further studies
have to be performed. Besides of dynamic simulations
and consolidation analysis incorporating a viscous
description of the soil behaviour, also more advanced
studies are necessary to reveal if both irregular cyclic
loading and creep, respectively, relaxation, on the
anisotropic stress state which remains after consoli-
dation as reported by e.g. Andersen and Jostad (2002)
may cause a considerable stress redistribution. This
could also lead to an additional increase of the capacity
of the anchor.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This work has partly been funded by the Norwegian
Research Council their support is appreciated. The
research leading to these results has also received fund-
ing from the 7th Framework Program (FP7/2007-2013
under grant agreement PIAG-GA-2009-230638). The
findings reflect only the authors views and the EC
is not liable for any use that may be made of the
information contained therein.
259
REFERENCES
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June). Effect of Skirt-Tip Geometry on the Set-up outside
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ference on Offshore Mechanics and Arctic Engineering
OMAE 2004, Vancouver, Canada.
Andersen, K. and H. Jostad (2002). Shear strength along out-
side wall of suction anchors in clay after installation. In
ISOPE International Offshore and Polar Engineering
Conference & Exhibition.
Beuth, L., T. Benz, P. Vermeer, C. Coetzee, P. Bonnier,
and P. v. d. Berg (2007). Formulation and validation of
a quasi-static Material Point Method. In G. Pande and
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NUMOG X , Rhodos, Greece, pp. 189195.
Burd, H. and G. Houlsby (1990). Finite Element Analy-
sis of two Cylindrical Expansion Problems involving
nearly Incompressible Material Behaviour. International
Journal for Numerical and Analytical Methods in Geome-
chanics 14(5), 351366.
By, T. and E. Skomedal (1992). Soil Parameter for Founda-
tion Design, Troll Platform. In BOSS 92, 6th International
Conference on the Behaviour of Offshore Structures, pp.
909920.
Cudmani, R. and H. Sturm (2006). An investigation of the tip
resistance in granular and soft soils during static, alternat-
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Deep Sea Anchors AS (2010, January). DSA Deep Sea
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Lieng, J., F. Hove, and T. Tjelta (1999). Deep Penetrat-
ing Anchor: Subseabed Deepwater Anchor Concept for
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Liyanapathirana, D. (2009, June). Arbitrary lagrangian eule-
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Medeiros, C. J. (2001, October). Torpedo anchor for deep
water. In Proceedings of the Deep Offshore Technology
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Niemunis, A. (2003). Extension to the hypoplastic model
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fr Grundbau und Bodenmechanik der Ruhr-Universitt
Bochum.
Qiu, G., S. Henke, and J. Grabe (2009). Applications of
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 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Modelling of installation effects of driven piles using hypoplasticity

H.D. Pham & H.K. Engin

Geo-Engineering Section, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands

R.B.J. Brinkgreve
Geo-Engineering Section, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands
Plaxis B.V., Delft, The Netherlands

A.F. van Tol

Geo-Engineering Section, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands
Deltares, Delft, The Netherlands

ABSTRACT: It is previously shown that driven piles can be modelled using regular FEA by introducing
volumetric expansion or applying displacement or stress fields at pile shaft and tip in order to capture initial
stresses near pile. In this paper, these techniques are employed to model piles driven in sand using Plaxis 2D
software. The hypoplastic model with intergranular strain is a powerful constitutive model for granular material
as the stress-strain relationship is mainly dictated by limiting and critical void ratios that follow the same
compression law. The small strain performance of the extended hypoplasticity is improved by the intergranular
strain concept. In this study, the hypoplastic model with intergranular strain is chosen as the constitutive relation.
The results are compared with previous experimental results and FE simulations. Lastly, a simplified FE model
is used to investigate cyclic loading effects on void ratio and stresses near the shaft.

1 INTRODUCTION suitable for modelling the void ratio (and therefore

Driven piles have been commonly used as a techni-
cal solution for deep foundations. Experimental and
numerical studies have been carried out to investi-
gate pile soil interaction for driven piles (Aranov &
Gudakov, 1997; Dijkstra et al., 2006; Engin, 2009 and
Said et al., 2008). Due to driving process, there is a
continuous change in stresses and void ratio in the
vicinity of the pile. Finite Element (FE) modelling of
pile installation effects is a difficult task due to lack
of knowledge on soil behaviour during the installation
process (Dijkstra et al. 2007).
It is known that by using regular FE Analysis (FEA)
it is not possible to model the pile installation process
as the mesh distortion prevails. Besides, some simple
techniques like prescribing some boundary conditions
(BCs) at pile soil interface (Broere & van Tol, 2006).
The basic knowledge on this type of modelling tech-
nique is shown by Broere & Van Tol (2006) and Said
et al. (2008). It is shown that modelling the instal-
lation effects is possible by increasing the volume of
the pile cluster by volumetric expansion or prescribing
displacements at the pile-soil boundary. The technique
can give some reasonable results but a general trend
could not be found.
In hypoplasticity void ratio and its limiting values
are state variables, which change by varying mean
stresses. This property makes hypoplasticity quite
stiffness and stress) change, like Boundary Value
Problems (BVP) in sand.
In this study a similar technique (Broere & Van Tol,
2006 and Said et al., 2008) is employed making use of
hypoplasticity, in order to model the installation effects
of a pile jacking process. The numerical results are
validated by a series of centrifuge pile tests performed
by Dijkstra et al.(2006).
Lastly, the cyclic loading effects in the soil in the
vicinity of the shaft are investigated by a simplified
model. Hypoplasticity with intergranular strain is used
as a constitutive model. The intergranular strain option
adds a small strain stiffness and avoids excessive
strain-stress accumulation.
2 NUMERICAL MODELLING OF
CENTRIFUGE PILE TEST
2.1 Centrifuge pile test
The centrifuge test performed by Dijkstra et al. (2006)
chosen to validate the numerical simulation of the
installation effect of pile jacking. In these tests, a
model pile with a 405 mm length, 15 mm diameter
is used. An acceleration of 35 g is applied for this
model. The pile has an initial embedment length of
205 mm in the sand. It is then, hydraulically jacked
a further 200 mm into the soil body. The changes of

261
Table 1. Void ratio and effective vertical stress at final depth
of penetration (after Dijkstra et al., 2006).
Case Dense Medium Loose
Initial porosity no 0.389 0.415 0.439
Initial void ratio, eo 0.637 0.709 0.783
Void ratio at level 1 0.692 0.835 0.883
Void ratio at level 2 0.767 0.841 0.919
Void ratio at level 3 0.802 0.792 0.876
Average void ratio at 0.754 0.823 0.893
the pile shaft
Average effective 18150 6567 4244
Vertical stress (kPa)
the pile tip
densities around the model pile during the installation
were measured by three sensors attached at the pile
shaft. Furthermore, the forces on the pile head and
pile tip and the displacement of the pile head were
also continuously measured.
The soil used in the centrifuge model is Baskarp
sand. The initial porosities were varied between 0.386
and 0.439. All results showed the increase of the base
resistance and the decrease of soil density during the
installation. The results at final depth of penetration of
three samples, chosen from the centrifuge pile tests,
are given in Table 1. The average void ratio at the pile
shaft and the average effective vertical stress will be
used to evaluate the numerical results.
2.2 Numerical model
2.2.1 Mesh and boundary conditions
In this analysis, a procedure is described to simulate the
pile installation process using Plaxis 2D. The jacked
pile is modelled at its final depth of the penetration.
The geometry is modelled using an axisymmetric
mesh composed of 15-node (cubic strain) elements.
The representative pile length and diameter are 14 m
and 0.5 m, respectively (Dijkstra, 2006). For a mini-
mum boundary influence, the width and the length of
the mesh are chosen as 15 m and 30 m, respectively.
To increase the accuracy a zone near the pile is refined
(Figure 1).
Many authors (Broere & Van Tol, 2006; Wehnert
& Vermeer, 2004) suggested using interfaces at pile-
soil boundary when modelling pile installation. As the
focus is only on the soil behaviour after installation
process, no interface is used in this study. However, the
effect of the pile-soil interaction is included in the pre-
scribed displacements that are applied in the numerical
model to simulate the pile jacking.
2.2.2 Simulation of installation effects
In the centrifuge tests, the pile partly embedded into the
sand and was hydraulically jacked into the soil body.
It is obvious that in the part 1 of the numerical model
(from the surface to the level of 7 m depth) the pile
will only shear the soil next to it. Below 7 m (part 2),
where the actual installation effects are pronounced the
262
Figure 1. Finite element mesh and boundary conditions.
behaviour is much more complex. Near the pile shaft,
the soil particles move both vertically and horizontally,
subsequently creating a dilation zone (Chong 1988,
Gobunov & Posadov 1968, Robinsky & Morrison
1964). On the other hand, at further distance from
the pile densification occurs (Chong, 1988; Henke &
Grabe, 2008). Furthermore, at the pile tip (part 3) soil
is pushed outwards (Dijkstra et al., 2006a). In this
respect, these three regions are separately treated in
the FE models.
The basic principles of modelling installation
effects using regular FEA are explained by Broere &
Van Tol (2006) and Said et al. (2008). In this type
of modelling, the installation effects are somewhat
generated by applying prescribed displacements at the
pile-soil boundary. In these analyses, at the pile shaft,
only horizontal and at the pile tip only the vertical pre-
scribed displacements are applied. As the prescribed
displacements applied at the corner of the pile are in
different directions, there is actually an artificial shear
induced at the corner of the pile.
In this study, additional components of prescribed
displacements are introduced to account for shearing
of the soil due to friction at the pile surface. Further-
more, a smooth transition is created at the corner and
other zones where the prescribed displacements are
changed. To summarize modelling steps:
Along the already embedded part of the pile shaft
(part 1) only vertical prescribed displacements are
applied (y1 ).
Along the lower part of the pile shaft (part 2) both
horizontal and vertical prescribed displacements
(x2 & y2 ) are applied (the vertical part must
be much larger than those in the part 1).
Below the pile tip (part 3) both horizontal and ver-
tical prescribed displacements (x3 & y3 ) are
applied.
Transition zones are added in between different
parts for the sake of compatibility.
Table 2. Hypoplastic soil model parameters for Baskarp
sand (after Anaraki, 2008).

c hs MPa n ed0 ec0 ei0

30 4000 0.42 0.548 0.929 1.08 0.12 0.96

Table 3. Hypoplastic parameters for intergranular strain.

mT mR Rmax r

2.0 5.0 0.0001 1.0 2.0

Figure 2. Void ratio (left) and horizontal stress (right)

Table 4. Prescribed displacements and numerical results. around the jacking pile after 7 m of penetration.

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

2.2.4 Calculation procedure

y1 x2 y2 y3 e yy It is important to have a proper initial void ratio field.
Case cm cm cm cm kPa Following Bauers (1996) formula, the void ratio in the
soil body varies in accordance with the initial (mean)
1 1 2 4 50 0.738 10520 stresses generated.
2 1 6 4 50 0.761 8290
In the analysis, the stress level at middle cross-
3 1 2 6 50 0.746 10632
4* 2 18 8 74 0.821 6586 section (A-A) is chosen as a reference level to deter-
5 2 14 8 74 0.807 7863 mine the initial void ratio. In order to obtain the same
6 2 22 8 74 0.831 5447 initial void ratio states for medium sample obtained
7 2 18 4 74 0.816 6328 from centrifuge test, the initial void ratios at zero pres-
8 2 18 12 74 0.825 6818 sure, e0 is determined as 0.720 (back-calculating for
9 2 18 8 70 0.821 6210 the mean stress level using Bauers relation). To find
10 2 18 8 80 0.821 7202 the best fit of the void ratio and stress measurements,
Dense** 2 18 8 74 0.798 9015 a back-calculation scheme is applied. The some of the
Loose*** 2 18 8 74 0.845 5263
different combinations of prescribed displacements
* The case gives expected result for medium sand.
used in these analyses are summarized in Table 4.
** and *** are cases for dense and loose sand respectively,
remaining case for medium sand. 2.3 Analysis results and discussion
2.3.1 General
2.2.3 Constitutive model and soil parameters The results from the first case show that there is
All analyses are carried out on saturated Baskarp an increase of the void ratio along the pile shaft
sand having a total unit weight of 20 kN/m3 , friction (part 2) conforming previous studies (Chong, 1988;
angle of 37 and the dilatancy angle of 8 (Dijkstra Robinsky & Morrison, 1964). The compacted zone
et al., 2008). For the validation, first the medium sam- appears at a distance from the pile shaft also confirms
ple (eo = 0.709) is selected to determine appropriate with the results of Henke & Grabe (2008). The loosen-
prescribed displacements applied at pile-soil bound- ing of the zone directly below the pile tip as well as the
ary. Later, these values are verified again with dense zone near the pile shaft is in agreement with Chongs
(eo = 0.637) and loose sample (eo = 0.783). (1988) findings. Although the results are qualitatively
In the FEM, von Wolfferdorffs (1996) hypoplas- reasonable; the void ratio at the pile shaft is far too
tic (HP) model is used as the constitutive relation. small, whereas the average vertical stress at the pile
Hypoplastic soil model parameters, determined by lab- tip is much larger than the measured values.
oratory test (Anaraki 2008) are summarized in Table 4. Back calculation of the magnitudes of the horizontal
One of the most appealing parts of the hypoplastic (x2 ) and vertical (y2 ) displacements that will be
model is that soil behaviour is based on void ratio, applied on the soil boundary yields 18 cm (0.72R) and
which varies by the stress history. The drawback of 8 cm (0.32R), respectively. Furthermore, the vertical
the model due to excessive accumulation of strain displacement (y3 ) that will be applied at the pile tip
and stresses when cyclic loading is introduced is later is found to be 74 cm (0.106Ljacked ).
improved by addition of intergranular strain concept
(Niemunis & Herle 1997). Five additional parame- 2.3.2 Change of void ratio
ters for intergranular strain are determined (Table 3) Figure 2 shows the void ratio distribution around
in such a way that the results from drained triaxial the jacked pile (after 7 m of penetration) in medium
and oedometer tests for the HP model with/without Baskarp sand. As can be seen in Figure 2, along the
intergranular strain are similar. pile shaft the void ratio increases until a distance of

263
Figure 3. The void ratio distribution at cross-section AA.
Figure 4. Void ratio evolution due to imposed BCs to
simulate installation effects.
approximately 1.0 to 1.5 times the diameter of the pile.
The width of the shearing zone is larger than the pre-
vious authors findings; which is probably due to the
dilatant behavior of Baskarp sand.
At a distance from the pile shaft, the soil body is
compacted leading to a decrease of the void ratio.
The highest degree of compaction is located near the
pile tip (Figure 3). Until the distance of 1D, the void
ratio increases considerably (515%). Compaction is
observed at a distance of 2D and 10D away from the
pile.
It is found that a dilation zone is extending up to 3D
distance below the pile tip. This behavior is in good
accordance with Chongs (1988) findings.
In Figure 4, the evolution of void ratio during sim-
ulation of the installation effects for points S, T and R
(shown in Figure 2) can be seen. Both point S (near the
pile shaft) and point T (below the pile tip) display
the dilatants behavior. On the other hand, at point R,
there is compaction.
2.3.3 Stress distribution
It can be seen from Figure 5 that the horizontal stresses
are decreasing by moving away from the pile.
The increase of horizontal stress leads to an increase
of the shear stress along the pile shaft. This stress dis-
tribution is similar to the measurements by White and
Lehane (2004). There is a significant increase in the
influence zone (more than a distance 5D) of horizontal
and shear stress (Figure 5&6).
264
Figure 5. Horizontal stress distributions after 7 m of
penetration.
Figure 6. Vertical stress (left) and shear stress (right)
around the jacking pile after 7 m of penetration.
2.3.4 Influence of prescribed displacements
on void ratio and stresses
In this section, the influences of the prescribed dis-
placements on void ratio and stresses is investigated.
The case 4 (Table 4) is chosen as the reference case.
First, only the horizontal displacement at the pile shaft
(part 2) is varied while keeping others constant. Sim-
ilarly, the sensitivity of soil behavior around the pile
to variation of vertical displacement at the pile shaft
(part 2) and at the pile tip is also investigated.
As can be seen, the void ratio at the pile shaft linearly
increase accompanied by the rise of either horizontal
or vertical displacements at the pile shaft. But, the hori-
zontal component shows higher influence than vertical
one on the shearing zone in terms of the thickness and
the void ratio.
On the other hand, the effective vertical stress at the
pile tip increases as the vertical component increases.
It decreases as the horizontal component increases.
Once again, the horizontal displacement shows higher
influence than vertical displacement, which confirms
with the findings of Broere & Van Tol (2006). More-
over, the vertical stress at the pile tip also linearly
increase accompanied by the increase of vertical
displacements at the pile tip.
The dense sample (eo = 0.637) and loose sample
(eo = 0.783) are also investigated by applying same
prescribed displacements determined for medium
sample. For the dense case, the results demonstrate the
higher expected void ratio at the pile shaft but much
lower expected vertical stress at the pile tip. These
deviations from measurements can be reduced by fur-
ther tuning of the prescribed displacements. For the
loose sample, there are also differences with measure-
ments. Furthermore, no compaction zone can be found
be below the pile tip for the loose case as mentioned
by Chong (1988). Figure 7. FE model, applied BCs (left) and FE mesh (right).

3 NUMERICAL MODELLING OF CYCLIC

LOADING EFFECTS ON PILE SHAFT

3.1 Numerical model

In this part a simplified model is used to investigate
cyclic loading effects in the vicinity of the pile shaft.
The intention here is to simulate the effects of stress
and void ratio disturbance for the situation of driven
piles or piles installed by vibration. Baskarp sand is
modeled using hypoplasticity (with the parameters
defined in the previous part). To account for instal-
lation effects due to intrusion of pile, horizontal and Figure 8. Void ratio distribution at section AA after cyclic
vertical displacements similar to the previous part are loading.
applied. Afterwards, a few cycles (by reversing vertical
component partly) are applied on the soil boundary and
resulting void ratio and stress distribution is found. An
axisymmetric model used for the analyses (Figure 7).
Horizontal and vertical prescribed displacement
components of 0.25D (10 cm) and 0.125D (5 cm) are
applied on the soil boundary in order to simulate
pseudo-static penetration. Then, vertical prescribed
displacement of 0.05D (2 cm) is applied for a few
cycles to simulate vibration effects.

3.2 Results and discussions

In Figure 8 void ratio distribution at section AA is
shown for jacking and cyclic loading phases for the
analysis with hypoplasticity (HP). It can be seen that Figure 9. Reduction in horizontal stresses after each cycle.
the void ratio is higher close to the pile shaft and decays
rapidly. Each cycle causes dilation near the shaft but
decays faster than jacking phase.
In this part, it is found that the horizontal stresses
decreases after each unloading-reloading cycle (Fig-
ure 9). The reduction is more pronounced in the first
cycle.
Similarly, there is a considerable reduction in ver-
tical stresses, which actually result in a stress state
lower than the initial state. A similar trend is observed
for shear stresses.
In Figure 10, the evolutions of void ratios of three
reference points are plotted together with the limit-ing
void ratios ed0 , ec0 and ei0 . There is a similar trend Figure 10. Void ratio evolutions for each phase (loading
for jacking phases. On the other hand, cyclic phases direction is indicated by arrows).
results in different behaviour for points A, B and C at
different distances from the pile shaft. displacements, and seem to result in a more or less
During the jacking phases, the soil dilates caus- isotropic stress state.
ing the increase of the soil volume, consequently the
stresses rise significantly. Nevertheless, all stresses 4 CONCLUSIONS
degrade quickly in the cyclic phases because the soil is
compacted. Figure 11 clearly shows that the horizontal In this study, a simplified numerical technique is
and vertical stresses are reduced by cyclic prescribed investigated for the modeling of installation effects of

265

Figure 11. Stress reduction due to cyclic loading.
driven piles. For the constitutive model hypoplastic-
ity with intergranular strain is used. One advantage of
hypoplasticity model is that a unique parameter set for
all states of one type of sand is used. Furthermore,
defined as a state variable, the void ratio enables more
realistic simulations.
The results show a good agreement for the medium
dense sand. There are some differences between the
numerical simulations and centrifuge test results for
loose and dense sands. It is obvious that the term
loose sand is kind of a relative statement and also in
hypoplastic model it is not so easy to start from a loose
state. Hence, it is expected that the results of loose sand
simulations would differ from the measurements.
The effect of prescribed displacements on overall
behavior has shown that horizontal prescribed dis-
placements have more influence on void ratio and
stress change. To match with the measurements, fur-
ther tuning of prescribed displacements can be done
by considering these relations.
As a conclusion, use of prescribed boundary con-
ditions at the pile-soil interface is a simplified way of
modeling the installation effects due to driving pro-
cess. Nevertheless, by having control on the void ratio
distribution, it can be used to estimate the installation
effects reasonably well.
Lastly, using the simple model, which focuses at a
section near the pile shaft, cyclic loading effects are
investigated. It is shown that there is a reduction in
stresses due to cyclic loading. Vertical stresses seem
to decrease even below initial stress level. Likewise,
horizontal stresses decrease but more slowly. Besides,
these reductions results in somewhat like an isotropic
stress state. This part of the study shows the reduc-
tion in resistance (at least in the shaft) due to vibratory
driving process. It should be noted that this is a very
simplified model and influence of tip is ignored, which
probably not reflect the complete vibratory driving
process. Nevertheless, it gives an intuition about the
cyclic response near the pile shaft.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This research is supported by the Dutch Technol-
ogy Foundation STW, which is the applied science
division of NWO, and the Technology Programme of
the Ministry of Economic Affairs. The research lead-
ing to these results has also received funding from the
7th Framework Programme (FP7/20072013 under
266
grant agreement PIAG-GA-2009-230638). The find-
ings reflect only the authors views and the EC is not
liable for any use that may be made of the information
contained therein.
REFERENCES
Anaraki, K.E. 2008. Hypoplasticity investigated. MS Thesis,
Delft University of Technology.
Aronov, A.M. & Gudakov, Y.S. 1977. Evaluating the bearing
capacity of driven piles in sandy soils. Soil Mechanics and
Foundation Engineering 14(1): 2830.
Bauer, E. 1996. Calibration of a comprehensive hypoplas-
tic model for granular materials. Soils and Foundations
36(1): 1336.
Brinkgreve, R.B.J. and Broere, W. 2008. Plaxis 2D Manual,
Version 9.0.
Broere, W. & Van Tol, A.F. 2006. Modelling the bearing
capacity of displacement pile in sand. Proceeding of the
Institution of Civil Engineer, Geotechnical Engineering
159(3): 195206.
Chong, M. 1988. Density change of sand on cone penetration
resistance. Proceeding of first international symposium on
penetration testing: 707714.
Dijkstra, J., Broere W. & van Tol A.F., 2006: Experimental
investigation into the stress and strain development around
displacement pile. Proceeding of the Tenth International
Conference on Piling and Deep Foundations, pp 252259.
Dijkstra, J., Broere, W. & Van Tol, A.F. 2007. Numeri-
cal investigation into stress and strain development a
round a displacement piles in sand, Proceedings of the
tenth International Symposium on NumericalModels in
Geomechanics, Rhodes, 2527 April 2007.
Dijkstra, J., Broere, B., Bezuijen, A. & Van Tol, A.F. 2008.
Density changes near advancing displacement pile in
sand. 2nd British Geotechnical Association International
Conference on Foundations, Dundee, 2427 June, 2008.
Engin, H.K. 2009. 3D numerical modelling of installation
effects of driven piles, Progress report, Delft University of
Technology.
Gorbunov, M.I. & Posadov, 1968. Displacement and com-
paction of soil by driven pile. Soil Mechanics and
Foundation Engineering. 5(5):313318.
Henke, S. & Grabe, J. 2009. Simulation of pile driving by 3-
dimensional finite element analysis. International Journal
for Numerical and Analytical Methods in Geomechanics,
Early view.
Niemunis, A. & Herle, I. 1997. Hypoplastic model for cohe-
sionless soils with elastic strain range. Mechanics of
Cohesive-Frictional Materials (2): 279299.
Robinksy, E.I. & Morrison, C.F., 1964. Sand displacement
and compaction around model friction piles. Canadian
Geotechnical Journal, 1(2), pp 8896.
Said, I., De Gennaro, V. and Frank R. 2008. Axisymmetric
finite element analysis of pile loading tests. Computers
and Geotechnics, 36: 619.
Wehnert, M. & Vermeer, P.A. 2004. Numerical analyses of
load tests on bored piles. Proceedings of the 9th Interna-
tional Symposium on Numerical Methods in Geomechan-
ics, Ottawa, 505511.
White, D.J. & Lehane, B.M. 2004. Friction fatigue on
displacement piles in sand. Geotechnics, 54, No. 10,
645658.
Wolffersdorff von, P., 1996: A hypoplastic relation for gran-
ular materials with a predefined limit state surface.
Mechanics of cohesive-frictional materials, 1: 251271.
Flow and consolidation
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

A multiscale approach for the consideration of spatial groundwater flow

in the stability analysis of a large excavation pit

H. Montenegro & R. Kauther

Federal Waterways Engineering and Research Institute (BAW), Germany

ABSTRACT: Generally uncertainties in groundwater boundary conditions demand for large model domains,
so that incorrect assumptions will not affect significantly the immediate zone of an excavation. A multiscale
approach in which large scale models provide estimates for the boundary conditions of detailed models at smaller
scales was applied in the analysis of the large excavation pit for the ship lock in Minden. Groundwater flows in
a spatial fashion at certain areas of this excavation. The effect of spatial groundwater flow on slope stability was
explored. The analysis showed that the common vertical-plane flow assumptions lead to an incorrect assessment
of slope stability in domains where spatial groundwater flows prevail. Depending on the applied failure criteria
a 3D groundwater computation can be reasonable, if it comes to the worst it is mandatory due to safety reasons.

1 INTRODUCTION

In Minden, a town in north-western Germany, a new

lock is currently being planned to connect the countrys
longest waterway, the Midland Canal with the river
Weser overcoming a water level difference of around
13 m. The Department of Geotechnical Engineering at
the Federal Waterway Engineering & Research Insti-
tute in Karlsruhe (BAW) has been involved in the
planning of the new lock. In this paper the set up of a
3D groundwater-model (saturated/unsaturated) for the
analysis of the effects of the dewatering on ground-
water flow around the excavation will be presented.
Figure 1 gives an overview of the existing lock and the
future excavation pit for the new lock.

2 EXCAVATION CONCEPT

The aquifer in the construction site consists of sand-

gravel sediments of the Weser valley. Claystone
from the Lower Cretaceous is the base of the Qua-
ternary aquifer. In contrast to the overlying sediments
the claystone exhibits a hydraulic conductivity k = 1
10-7 m/s, which falls three orders of magnitude below
the conductivity of the overlaying gravel-sand layer.
The common flow direction is from west to east
towards the Weser, which represents the main receiving
water course. Figure 1. Aerial view of the existing lock in Minden an the
Between the aquifer and the river a hydraulic construction site for the new lock.
connection exists through the permeable Quaternary
sediments so that water level variations in the Weser traffic. Since any damage of the containment sys-
affect the groundwater level directly. Considering the tem by naval collision would have devastating effects,
potential inflow a containment system for the entire coffer dams at the upper and lower gates were sug-
excavation was indispensable. Further, the construc- gested as shields against collisions. The groundwater
tion of the new lock may not restrict current vessel containment system consists of the following sealing

269

Figure 2. Excavation site and groundwater containment
system.
elements which are embedded into the claystone-layer:
the existing lock, the upper and lower coffer dams
and a surrounding sheet pile wall. The excavation site
and the groundwater containment system are shown in
figure 2.
Around the upper gate monolith and along the entire
western side of the pit anchored bore pile walls were
considered. To prevent excessive pore water pressures
from groundwater flow behind the wall alternating
reinforced bore piles and permeable piles filled with
a gravel-cement mixture were designed. To the east, a
sloped ditch without any pit lining was proposed. The
slopes in the Quaternary soil layers will be excavated
at an inclination of around 1:1.5 while the claystone
can be trenched at steeper slopes angles. Results of
the soil investigation program are reported in-depth in
Kauther & Herten, 2006.
The dewatering in the pit requires a lowering
of groundwater of approx. 10 m. The groundwater
depression is expected to spread actually only within
the containment area. The groundwater flow situation
after dewatering is illustrated in a vertical cross section
of the ditch in figure 3. The distribution of potential
lines indicates that groundwater flows underneath the
existing lock through the claystone layer. The phreatic
surface bends downward in the proximity of the per-
meable bore pile wall seeping out above the pit bottom.
Similar flow conditions prevail on the opposite slope.
270
Figure 3. Exemplar representation of the phreatic surface
and the potential field in a cross-section of the excavation pit.
Figure 4. Groundwater monitoring wells (symbols),
FE-discretisation of the large scale 2D horizontal plane
(green) and of the 3D (red) groundwater model and cross
sections for mechanical analysis (lines).
3 MULTI SCALE APPROACH
A multi scale approach in which the results from a large
scale model yield estimates for the boundary condi-
tions of a more detailed model at smaller scale was
applied. Figure 4 gives an impression of the nested
2D and 3D models and the location of the cross sec-
tions for mechanical analysis. The symbols represent
the location of groundwater monitoring wells which
were used for model calibration. At first a large scale
2D horizontal-plane groundwater model was set up
in the analysis of the regional groundwater flow and
the future impact of the containment on groundwater
flow. The analysis revealed that groundwater would
flow towards some parts of the excavation pit in a spa-
tial fashion. In order to asses the effect of spatial flow
on slope stability a 3D groundwater model was set
up. The domain extent and boundary conditions were
based on the previous large scale model. The domain
of the 3D-model is bounded by the existing lock and
Figure 5. Model Structure: Quaternary sediments (dark
yellow), claystone (blue), groundwater containment system
(purple) and coffer dam (red).
the sheet pile walls of the upper pool on the west side.
To the North and East the domain is bounded by the
Weser and the harbor area on which sheet pile walls
are brought into. The southern boundary was designed
matching to a streamline from the large-scale model.
In the last stage mechanical analysis was carried out in
2D vertical-plane cross sections using the groundwater
potential field from 3D computations.
The layer structure with permeable Quaternary sed-
iments above low-permeable claystone represents an
essential feature for groundwater flow. The spatial
structure is shown in a cross section through the pit.
Impervious elements such as the existing lock, the
sheet pile wall and the impermeable foot of the inter-
secting bore pile wall were represented by zones of
low conductivity. Figure 5 gives an impression of the
complex topography and structure that had to be repro-
duced in the 3D-model. One model layer consists of
approx. 40,000 finite elements. In the vertical, the
model is subdivided into 16 layers, resulting in a total
number of about 640,000 finite elements.
4 RESULTS FROM 3D GROUNDWATER
MODELLING
Figure 6 gives an impression of the phreatic surface
after the lowering of groundwater. The containment
system restricts the spreading of the groundwater
drawdown. Next to the containment walls in the east-
ern part the groundwater levels reach NN + 38.5 m
and drop close to the slopes to the bottom level of
NN + 28 m.
After flowing beneath the existing lock and the con-
tainment walls the phreatic surface drops eventually
at the excavation. However the potential loss and the
eventual elevation of the seepage face at the excavation
depends on the specific location within the pit. In the
upstream and the downstream head ends of the pit the
seepage faces lie considerably higher than in the mid-
dle part of the pit where groundwater seeps out only a
few decimeters above bottom. This is a consequence
of the stream line concentration at the end faces of
the excavation pit. The drop of the phreatic surface in
the central part reflects the decreasing influence of the
flow concentration at the ends. Flow patterns develop
into a more planar flow in this zone. The spatial flow is
271
Figure 6. View of the groundwater lowering for loading
case LC2 (vertical exaggeration by the factor of 2).
also responsible for notable higher vertical head gradi-
ents below the pit bottom at the ends than in the central
part of the pit. Obviously the level of the seepage face
also depends on the distance from the containment
wall. The closer to the wall, the less the head drop
that can occur along the flow path and the higher the
seepage exit level respectively.
5 SLOPE FAILURE ANALYSIS
In general slope failures are three dimensional in
nature (Wei et al. 2009). In slope stability analysis two
dimensional plane strain analysis is commonly used
for simplicity. This 2D approach is also chosen here
but will be combined with data from the 3D ground-
water calculations. The impact of spatial groundwater
flow on the slope stability calculation was worked out
at selected cross sections shown in figure 7.
Cross section A-A shows the slope of the main
construction pit between the two trenches. Cross sec-
tion B-B delineates the slope at the end of one of the
trenches for the water saving basins. The slope in case
A has a maximum height of 10 m and in case B of
14 m. All numerical plane strain computations were
performed with the FE code PLAXIS V9.0 using tri-
angular 15-nodes elements. The domains of the FE
models and the soil layers of the slopes under investiga-
tion are shown in figures 8 and 10. The stratigraphy of
the soil has been simplified appropriately for the calcu-
lation model. The phi-c-reduction procedure is applied
to calculate failure and the corresponding factor of
safety. The material model chosen for the claystone
is linear elastic-perfectly plastic. Slope stabilities are
determined for the Hoek-Brown (HB) failure criteria.
The application of the HB failure criterion requires
specific parameters, which are derived from in-situ
and laboratory tests. The HB-parameters used for the
calculation are summarized in table 1. The application
of the HB - parameters are reported in detail in Benz
et al., 2006 and Benz et al., 2008.
 Figure 8. Geometry and finite element mesh used in the
slope analysis, cross section A-A.
Figure 7. Cutout of the construction pit with selected cross
sections.

Table 1. Calculation parameters for claystone layers (HB-

parameter).

Parameter Dimension Value

GSI layer 1 [] 28
GSI layer 2 [] 28 resp. 42
GSI layer 3 [] 45
GSI layer 4 [] 52
GSI layer 5 [] 65
mi (for all layers) [] 5
ci (for all layers) [MN/m2 ] 7,7
D (for all layers) [] 0,7

Based on the results of the ground investigation

two parameter sets are considered for the claystone
layer 2 which represent the range of the Geological
Strength Index (GSI). The factors of safety discussed
in this paper refer to a mean value (GSI = 35) in
the claystone layer 2. The relevant case for effects
from groundwater flow during construction is the load
case for variable actions. In this case the groundwater
design situation considers a very high river stage of
NN + 42.36 m corresponding approx. to the 100-year
flood. The excavation is calculated in seven steps in
which the dewatering is assumed to be at the actual pit
bottom while the head outside the containment system
corresponds to the 100-year flood river stage. Figure 9. Hydraulic potential distribution from 2D (top)
Impacts of groundwater flow calculation were con- and 3D (bottom) analysis in cross section A-A.
sidered using the following two approaches: Firstly, the
2D mechanical computations were performed based The transfer of the 3D-head distribution onto the
on the 100-year flood river stage (NN + 42.36 m) as 2D mechanical model was performed based on the
boundary condition outside the containment wall. The Algorithm 624 which allows an effective interpolation
potential field was then calculated by the internal 2D at arbitrarily distributed points in the Plane (Renka,
groundwater calculation module PLAXFLOW. Sec- 1984). The FORTRAN code consists of a set of sub-
ondly, in order to consider the spatial groundwater flow routines that perform a Thiessen triangulation on the
patterns an interface was tailored so that the potential 3D nodal pore pressure heads of the cross section of the
head distributions from the 3D groundwater model 3D model. The nodes and Gaussian integration points
could be interpolated onto the complete domain of (stress points) of the mechanical model are piecewise
the mechanical model at the respective cross section. linear inter- and extrapolated over the triangulation.
In this case no additional groundwater calculation is For the prismatic slope (A-A in Fig. 7) between
required for the mechanical analysis. the two trenches to the water saving basins the 2D

272

Figure 10. Geometry and finite element mesh used in the
slope analysis, Cross section B-B.
Figure 11. Hydraulic potential distribution from 2D (top)
and 3D (bottom) analysis in cross section B-B.
calculation yields a safety factor 1.3. Considering the
3D potential field a higher factor of safety of 1.4 is
calculated.
Due to groundwater diversion to the lateral trenches
the head drops sharper than 2D vertical-plane calcula-
tions would predict. In this zone the 3D model revealed
a seepage face slightly above the pit bottom while
a vertical-plane model leads to significantly higher
levels of seepage.
273
Table 2. Factors of safety for 2D and 3D groundwater flow.
Head distribution Head distribution
Cross section from 2D model from 3D model
A-A 1.3 1.4
B-B 1.4 1.3
As a result the stability analysis based on vertical-
plane flow yields lower factors of stability than an
evaluation based on spatial flow (see figure 9). In
this case the slope stability is underestimated by
assumption of vertical plane flow.
For cross section B-B 3D calculations again yielded
notable different heads distributions than a vertical-
plane model, however in the opposite direction as
shown on fig 11. The mechanical analysis based on
2D groundwater flow yields a factor of safety of 1.4.
Considering the 3D potential field a safety value of
1.3 is obtained.
Evidently a 2D approach can not consider the
almost radial flow underestimating so heads and gra-
dients at the front ends of the pit (figure 10). 2D flow
assumptions applied to an almost radial flow field
inevitably neglect stream line concentration, evaluate
a wrong head distribution and overestimate thus slope
stability. Computed slope stability factors based on
vertical plane and spatial head distributions respec-
tively clearly reflect the differences in flow patterns.
The calculated factors of safety for the generally
applied 2D and the 3D approach are summarized in
table 2. Consider that in the cross section B-B the
erroneous 2D approach did not lead to slope failure,
however this could be the case, if the assumptions of
plane flow diverge too much from actual spatial flow
conditions.
6 CONCLUSIONS
A multi scale approach in which the results from a large
scale 2D model yield reliable estimates for the bound-
ary conditions of a more detailed 3D model which
in turn provides potential distributions for mechani-
cal analysis at selected cross sections was considered
appropriate to:
a) determine the large scale effects of the containment
system on the groundwater flow,
b) to provide reliable boundary conditions in the near
field of the excavation and
c) to analyze the effect of spatial groundwater flow on
slope stability.
The comparison between 2D and 3D groundwa-
ter flow in the mechanical analysis proved that the
common vertical-plane flow assumptions lead to an
incorrect assessment of slope stability in domains
where spatial groundwater flow components prevail.
Therefore the 3D approach for the groundwater calcu-
lation is at best economically reasonable, if it comes
to the worst it is mandatory for safety reasons.
 To conclude it should be remarked that the differ-
ences of slope stability between 2D and 3D reported
here depend also from the soil stratigraphy and the
applied failure criteria. Preliminary runs based on
Mohr-Coulomb assumptions yielded larger differ-
ences for the safety factors from 2D and 3D ground-
water flow. In contrast to the HB assumptions in this
specific case a Mohr-Coulomb approach leads to shear
zones which reach considerable further into the slope,
where the differences between 2D and 3D head dis-
tributions are more salient. Basically the influence of
the flow field on safety analysis has to be examined
using both, a 3D groundwater and a 3D mechani-
cal model. Initial steps in this direction have been
taken and these yielded for the cases discussed herein
equivalent results.
REFERENCES
Benz et al., 2008: Verification an application of a modi-
fied Hoek-Brown rock failure criterion. In: GKK 08
Geomechanik Kolloquium Karlsruhe.
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Benz, T., Kauther, R., Schwab, R, 2006.: Simulation of a
Large Excavation Using a Hoek-Brown Model. Proc. of
the 6th European Conference on Numerical Methods in
Geotechnical Engineering, Graz, Austria.
Kauther R., Herten, M., 2006: Optimierte Baugrunderkun-
dung fr den Neubau der Weserschleuse Minden. In:
KATZENBACH (Hrsg.): Darmstdter Geotechnik Kollo-
quium, Universitt Darmstadt, Vortragsband, S. 161170.
Montenegro, H., Odenwald, B., 2009: Analysis of Spatial
Groundwater Flow for the Design of the Excavation Pit
for a Ship Lock in Minden Germany. 2nd International
FEFLOW User Conference. 1418 September, Potsdam,
Germany.
Renka, R.J., 1984: Algorithm 624: Triangulation and Interpo-
lation at Arbitrarily Distributed Points in the Plane. Source
ACM Transactions on Mathematical Software (TOMS)
archive. Volume 10, Issue 4.
Wei, W.B., Cheng, Y.M., Li, L., 2009: Three-dimensional
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 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

A numerical model for the electrokinetic treatment of natural soils

with calcite

F. Cattaneo
Universit degli Studi di Brescia, Brescia, Italy

C. Jommi
Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy

G. Musso
Politecnico di Torino, Torino, Italy

ABSTRACT: To the aim of verifying the feasibility of electrokinetic remediation, a laboratory investigation is
being performed on samples of natural clayey soils. The experimental data collected highlighted sharp changes
of pH, reduction of soil electrical conductivity, and fracturing close to the anode, which were interpreted as
consequences of arising severe CO2 pressures in the anode area accompanying calcite dissolution. A model for
the analysis of the coupled electro-chemo-hydraulic processes, taking place during electrokinetic treatments of
natural soils, is presented. The numerical model accounts for relevant processes, which are not adequately taken
into account by existing models, namely gas generation and transport, and chemical equilibrium of calcite at
varying pH. The implementation of the theoretical model in a FE code allows for analysing the evolution of
the local constraint conditions imposed to the chemical system, and to model the transient response of the soil
subjected to electrokinetic treatments. The results of the numerical simulation of a one-dimensional filtration
test are presented and compared with selected experimental data coming from the laboratory investigation.

1 INTRODUCTION et al. 2003, Mascia et al. 2007, Al-Hamdan & Reddy

Electrokinetic treatments have been studied in the
last twenty years as a valuable remediation technique
for contaminated clayey soils (Acar & Al-shawabkeh
1993). They rely on the capability of an electric field
to transport contaminants under the coupled action
of electro-osmosis and electro-migration. The first
mechanism promotes advective transport of acqueous
contaminants. The second one contributes to remedi-
ation by migration of charged pollutants towards the
oppositely charged electrode.
The effectiveness of the technique depends on the
complex interaction between the different electrical,
hydraulic, and chemical processes promoted in the
soil mass by the application of a DC field. Rela-
tively sharp chemical gradients can arise, that can
alter chemical equilibria, depending on the mineralog-
ical constituents of the soil, and generate chemical
reactions affecting the soil state and structure. As a
consequence, the transport and the mechanical prop-
erties of the treated soil can evolve significantly during
the process.
Numerical analysis becomes mandatory to study
the coupled evolution of the relevant electro-chemo-
hydraulic processes, in view of the field applications.
At an earlier stage, numerical models may help in
the interpretation of laboratory bench scale tests (Kim
2008), as not all the key parameters may be monitored
throughout the whole duration of the tests, but they can
only be measured at their end. Once calibrated at the
bench scale, the numerical models may effectively be
adopted to analyse the feasibility of the field design.
Most of the existing models were developed on the
basis of bench scale tests run on mono-mineral artifi-
cial clay samples They usually assume full saturation
of the soil throughout the whole duration of the tests,
and disregard the effects of pore pressure evolution.
On the contrary, electrochemical reactions developing
under the application of a DC field, starting from elec-
trolysis, tend to generate gaseous species. Therefore,
they demand for the analysis of a three-phase sys-
tem, in which pore pressure evolution may be correctly
predicted.
Besides, when natural soil samples are investigated,
new complexities emerge, due to the heterogeneous
nature of clayey minerals and of solid precipitates
(mainly salts and humic substances). Bench scale tests
run on natural clayey soils highlighted the relevant
role played by the chemistry of carbonates, which are
nearly always present in natural soils, albeit in dif-
ferent percentages (Airoldi et al. 2009). To interpret
the experimental data a geochemical model was devel-
oped with reference to the material point, in which the
transport processes could not be taken into account.

275
Table 1. Physical properties of Scanzano clay. (Appelo & Postma 2005), may be summarised as:
Index Property Value water auto ionization:

% clay 85
% silt 15
Limit liquid, wL (%) 58
equilibrium of CO2 , which is interchanged between
Plasticity Index, Ip 0.30
Specific gravity, Gs 2.78 the gas and the water phases, depending on its
Activity, A 0.88 pressure:
Calcite mass fraction, CaCO3 (%) 15.1

Here, the geochemical model previously proposed is

coupled with a simple electro-chemo-hydraulic trans- dissociation of carbonic acid in water:
port model, accounting for a full three-phase system,
constituted by the solid skeleton, the pore water and
the gas generated by chemical reactions.

2 EXPERIMENTAL EVIDENCE

Airoldi et al. (2009) discussed the results of electroki- in which the notation H2 CO3 represents the sum
netic filtration tests performed on samples (80 mm in of the carbon dioxide dissolved in the water and of
diameter by 120 mm length) of a natural clay from carbonic acid:
Scanzano (Palermo, Italy).The soil treated is a medium
active silty clay, with moderate calcite content. Its
relevant properties are summarised in Table 1.
calcite dissolution/precipitation:
A constant current density, i = 0.8 mA/cm2 , was
imposed for about 300 h or 800 h, depending on the
test. During the tests, voltage was measured by means
of silver electrodes, placed into the sample, and the
water volume outflow was continuously recorded.
A 102 M KCl solution was continuously fed at the
sample boundaries. 4 ELECTRO-CHEMO-HYDRAULIC MODEL
Systematic development of fractures close to the
anode was observed after some hours of treatment. At 4.1 Reaction of chemical species
the end of the tests, the samples were dismounted from
The reactions that take place in the aqueous phase
the cell and cut in slices, and the final values of the pH
(Eqs. 14) are assumed to be instantaneous. For a
and of the carbonate content were determined for each
fast aqueous inorganic reaction, the reaction rate may
slice.All together, the experimental data suggested that
be calculated making use of the principle of micro-
calcite dissolution is triggered by the advancing acidic
scopic reversibility or detailed balancing (Lasaga
front, in turn generating CO2 , which is partially dis-
1981). Consider a generic reaction with an equilibrium
solved in water and partially develops in the gaseous
constant Keq ,
phase. The consequent high gas pressures are thought
to be responsible of the systematic cracks observed
in the high acidic portion of the sample close to the
anode.
the forward and backward rate of which are
To justify this interpretation, Airoldi et al. (2009)
adopted a model to calculate the equilibrium values of
the chemical species contributing to the calcite geo-

chemistry, namely OH , Ca2+ , CO2 3 , HCO3 , H2 CO3 ,
The reaction rate is defined as:
pCO2 , starting from the value of the pH = log10 [H+ ]
measured after the test was dismounted. Local electro-
neutrality was imposed to close the system equation. At equilibrium,
In this way, the species transport was not taken
into account and the time evolution of the different
quantities could not be analysed.
Therefore, the reaction rate may be written in the
general form:
3 GEOCHEMICAL SYSTEM

The reactions describing the previous geochemical

system, together with their equilibrium constants,

276
 The forward kinetic velocity kf has to be chosen
sufficiently high to model an instantaneous reaction,
but not too much in order to avoid numerical problems
(Steefel & MacQuarrie 1996).
Calcite dissolution/precipitation can not be consid-
ered an instantaneous reaction in a transient analysis.
Following Plummer et al. (1978), its kinetic may be
introduced, considering the global system of equations
balance following dissolution or precipitation. The
mass balance of calcite,
was evaluated considering that its chemical compo-
nents, Ca2+ and CO2 3 , can combine, dissolve and pre-
cipitate according to the group of reactions described
by Equations 16.
If RCaCO3 denotes the calcite production/consumption
rate, the calcite mass produced/consumed per unit time
in the infinitesimal volume dV is:

If calcite is expressed as a solid mass fraction:

with the reaction rate

being,

where the coefficients ki depend on the temperature

(Appelo & Postma 2005).
where e is the void ratio, the calcite mass in the volume
dV is
4.2 Balance of mass for chemical species
The chemical species dissolved in the water phase can
be transported because of ion diffusion (Ficks law), which, substituted into the mass balance (Eq. 19),
electromigration and advection, finally gives

where ji is the flux of the i-th chemical species, ci is

its concentration, Di is its effective diffusion coeffi-
cient, zi is its ionic charge, and ui is its effective ionic
mobility, which is a function of the soil fabric and of
the degree of saturation,  is the electric potential and
vw is the water seepage velocity.
The reactive species considered in the geochemical
model are the ones that participate to the equilibrium of
the calcite system, H+ , OH , Ca2+ , CO2 3 , HCO3 , H2
CO3 . The mass balance for the i-th chemical species
reads:
where Ri is the production rate due to chemical reac-
tions, and n is the soil porosity. The rate for the i-th
chemical species is evaluated as the sum of the rates
of the reactions to which the species takes part.
4.4 Balance of mass for water
In the system considered, the seepage velocity of water,
vw , is due to hydraulic gradients and to electroosmosis
where kh is the hydraulic permeability, ke is the electro-
osmotic permeability and h is the hydraulic head.
Both permeabilities were assumed to depend on the
degree of saturation, via suitable power laws (Tam-
agnini et al. 2010). The water retention curve from
Airoldi et al. (2009) was adopted to relate the degree
of saturation to the difference between the CO2 gas
and the water pressures, s := ug uw ,
The mass balance equation for water reads:

4.3 Calcite mass balance

Differently from the other chemical species, which
are in the aqueous solution, calcite can not be trans- where Kw is the water compressibility. The porosity n
ported as a species. It participates to the solid mass is assumed to remain constant.

277
4.5 Balance of mass for gas species
The seepage velocity of the gas phase, vg , is provided
by a generalised Darcy law
Taking into account the gas solubility in water by
Henrys constant H , the mass balance for gas reads:
where Qs is the gas production. Carbon dioxide is the
only gaseous species considered, and it is produced by
the reaction described by Equation 2. Its production
rate reads:
where RCO2 is the rate of the reaction described by
Equation 2, mCO2 the carbon dioxide molecular mass
and CO2 is its density.
4.6 Balance of electric charge
Assuming that the electrical capacitance of the soil is
null, the balance of the electric charge is ensured by a
steady state condition for the electric current. Neglect-
ing the contribution of the streaming current produced
by liquid flow and by chemical diffusion, the electric
current density is provided by the Ohms law,
where is the effective electrical conductivity, that
depends on the degree of saturation and the concen-
tration of the chemical species,
where s is the superficial electrical conductivity of
the soil skeleton, and F is the Faradays constant. In
the numerical simulations, the electrical conductivity
of the clay minerals was considered to be negligible.
The species considered are those participating to the
chemical equilibria of the calcite system, together with
the K+ and Cl ions of the feeding solution. The last
two were considered non reactive.
5 NUMERICAL RESULTS
The models equations were implemented in the finite
element platform COMSOL Multiphysics v3.4.
Quadratic elements were adopted for pore pressures,
voltage and species concentrations, with a fifth order,
278
Figure 1. Outflow water volume: comparison between
experimental data and numerical results.
variable step-size, implicit backward differentiation
formula for integration in time.
The analysis models the evolution of an electroki-
netic filtration test for a duration of 300 hours. The one
dimensional model consists of 300 elements, equally
spaced, Constant water pressure of 5 kPa above the
reference gas pressure was imposed at both the anodic
and the cathodic boundaries. Constant electric current
density was imposed at the anodic boundary, while a
reference null potential was assumed at the cathode.
No inward flux was allowed for the chemical species
at the anodic boundary. At the cathode they may be
transported outwards by convection due to the liquid
phase flow. The measured value of pH was imposed
at the anodic boundary. At the cathodic boundary, an
inward flux of OH was imposed, calculated on the
basis of the current density and on the water auto-
ionization. The model parameters were assigned based
on direct experimental information where possible
(Airoldi et al. 2009, Tamagnini et al. 2010), or on
literature data (Appelo & Postma 2005).
The calculated total amount of water transported
by the electrochemical process (Fig. 1) shows good
agreement with the experimental data. The calculated
outflow is slightly greater than the inflow one, indicat-
ing that a desaturation process is taking place during
the treatment. The time evolution of water saturation
is represented in Figure 2. The numerical simulation
predicts a desaturation process reaching the cathodic
boundary after 20 hours. Afterwards, a desaturation
pattern, starting from the anodic boundary and reach-
ing a minimum in correspondence of an advancing
front, may be appreciated.
The loss in water saturation is linked to the dif-
ference between the CO2 gas pressure and the water
pressure, via the water retention curve. The time evo-
lution of the two pressures is presented in Figures 3, 4.
The water pressure initially decreases near to the
anodic boundary and increases close to the cathodic
one. After few hours, the trend is reversed, and the
Figure 2. Isochrones of degree of saturation: numerical
predictions.
Figure 3. Isochrones of water pressure: numerical predic-
tions.
sample is subjected to a negative pore water pres-
sure, with an advancing minimum correspondent to
the minimum saturation degree. The CO2 gas pressure
increases monotonically with time, starting from the
anodic region, and penetrating into the sample. The
calculated gas pressure in the acidic environment may
effectively be responsible of hydraulic fracturing close
to the anode.
The CO2 pressure arises as a result of calcite dis-
solution. The calcite mass fraction at the end of the
experimental test for the sample which was treated
for about 800 h is reported in Figure 5, together with
the numerical predictions of its time evolution. The
experimental trend is very well caught, in spite of the
differences in space, due to the time shifting.
Parallel inspection of the isochrones for calcite
mass fraction and for pH (Figs. 5, 6) suggests that
279
Figure 4. Isochrones of CO2 pressure: numerical predic-
tions.
Figure 5. Numerical isochrones for calcite mass fraction
and experimental data at test dismounting.
calcite dissolution is appreciated when the pH reaches
a value of about 3.5. Although the pH trend is caught
correctly, the experimental data both on the anodic and
on the cathodic side, are affected by a further buffering
capacity of the soil, which was not taken into account
in this model. The differences between the calculated
and the measured data are probably due to the latter
effect.
The evolution of water and gas pressures are influ-
enced not only by the chemical reactions, but also
by their mass conservation laws. The evolution of
the pressure gradients in space and time guarantees
the water mass conservation and counterbalances the
effect of non-uniform electroosmotic transport. The
electrical conductivity evolves continuously with the
ions concentrations (Fig. 7), governing the electric
potential isochrones (Fig. 8). It is worth noting that
in the experimental tests higher potential gradients
Figure 6. Numerical isochrones for pH and experimental
data at test dismounting.
Figure 7. Isochrones for the effective electrical conductiv-
ity: numerical predictions.
were recorded when fracturing occurred, suggesting
that CO2 gas could find a preferential path decreasing
temporarily the electrical conductivity.
6 CONCLUSIONS
The numerical model implemented allowed for a
detailed investigation of the transient coupled electro-
chemo-hydraulic processes taking place in natural
soils, in which calcite may be present.
The time evolution of all the relevant electrical,
chemical and hydraulic quantities could be tracked in
time and space, providing an insight into their coupled
evolution.
The numerical results seem to confirm the inter-
pretation of the experimental data of Airoldi et al.
(2009), who suggested that the penetrating acidic
280
Figure 8. Isochrones for the electric potential, referred to
the value at the cathode: numerical predictions.
front promotes calcite dissolution with a contempo-
rary development of severe CO2 pressures, which may
be responsible of soil fracturing. To evaluate this possi-
bility, a mechanical model, allowing for fracture onset,
is under development.
REFERENCES
Acar, Y. B. & Alshawabkeh, A. N. 1993. Principles of
electrokinetic remediation. Environmental Science Tech-
nology 27(13): 26382647.
Airoldi, F., Jommi, C., Musso, G. & Paglino, E. 2009.
Influence of calcite on the electrokinetic treatment of a
natural clay. Journal of Applied Electrochemistry 39(11):
22272237.
Al-Hamdan, A. Z. & Reddy, K. R. 2008. Electrokinetic reme-
diation modeling incorporating geochemical effects. Jour-
nal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
134(1): 91105.
Appelo, C. A. J. & Postma, D. 2005. Geochemistry, Ground-
water and Pollution. Leiden: Balkema.
Kim, S.-O., Kim, J.-J.,Yun, S.-T. & Kim, K.-W. 2003. Numer-
ical and experimental studies on cadmium (II) transport
in kaolinite clay under electrical fields. Water, Air, & Soil
Pollution 150(1): 135162.
Lasaga, A. C. 1981. Rate laws of chemical reactions. Reviews
in Mineralogy and Geochemistry 8(1): 166.
Mascia, M., Palmas, S., Polcaro, A. M., Vacca, A. &.
Muntoni, A. 2007. Experimental study and mathemat-
ical model on remediation of Cd spiked kaolinite by
electrokinetics. Electrochimica Acta 52(10): 33603365.
Plummer, L. N., Wigley, T. M. L. & Parkhurst, D. L. 1978.
The kinetics of calcite dissolution in CO2 water systems
at 5 to 60 C and 0.0 to 1.0 atm CO2 . Am J Sci 278(2):
179216.
Steefel, C. I. & MacQuarrie, K. T. B. 1996. Approaches to
modeling of reactive transport in porous media. Reviews
in Mineralogy and Geochemistry 34(1): 85129.
Tamagnini, C., Jommi, C. & Cattaneo, F. 2010. A model
for coupled electro-hydro-mechanical processes in fine
grained soils accounting for gas generation and transport.
Anais da Academia Brasileira de Cincias 82(1): 125.
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Analysis of artificial ground freezing in the Pari-Duomo platform tunnel

of the Naples metro

S. Papakonstantinou, E. Pimentel & G. Anagnostou

ETH Zurich, Switzerland

ABSTRACT: The method of artificial ground freezing in a horizontal direction was employed to ensure stability
and waterproofing of the platform and escalator tunnels in the Universita station of the Naples underground. The
paper presents the temperature histories monitored within the ground during the freezing process. Furthermore,
it discusses the importance of the mineralogical composition of the ground and shows that the temperatures
monitored can be numerically interpreted using the FREEZE code, a thermo-hydraulic software developed at
the ETH Zurich. The thermal conductivity of the ground a key parameter in modeling artificial ground freezing
can be estimated reasonably accurately by numerical back analysis when not known. FREEZE software is also
a powerful tool for analysing field data for cases involving non constant temperatures within the freeze pipes.

1 INTRODUCTION 2 GROUND PROPERTIES

The extension of Line 1 of the Naples underground
passes through 5 stations. Each station consists of a
rectangular central shaft, 4 platform tunnels with a
length of approximately 50 m each and 4 escalator
galleries connecting the platform level with the first
slab above the rails (Colombo et al. 2008). As the tun-
nel alignment is at a distance of only 230 m from the
coastline, the water table is close to the surface, lead-
ing to significant piezometric heads. The method of
artificial ground freezing in a horizontal direction was
employed as the most suitable method for ensuring sta-
bility and waterproofing of the platform and escalator
tunnels. Figure 1 shows part of the Pari-Duomo plat-
form tunnel in the Universita station. Its construction
was completed prior to the excavation of the tunnel for
the underground line using an EPB shield between the
Universita station and the Duomo station.
The present paper reports on the temperatures mon-
itored during the freezing process as well as on their
numerical interpretation using the FREEZE code, a
thermo-hydraulic software developed at ETH Zurich
(Sres 2009).
The ground consists mainly of tuff and occasionally, in
the upper part, pozzolana. The platform and escalator
tunnels were driven through the yellow tuff of Naples,
a material exhibiting an increased secondary perme-
ability due to the presence of an irregular pattern of
vertical cracks when met. Tuff is a cemented soft vol-
canic rock, a pyroclastic flow deposit stemming from a
multi-phase eruption occurring during the last 12,000
years in the region of Naples (De Gennaro & Langella
1996). Among the various tuff minerals, volcanic glass
was dominant. When interacting with alkaline water at
temperatures of 200300 C, volcanic glass changes
into zeolites. Zeolite has a very low thermal con-
ductivity (Jakubinek et al. 2007, Murashov & White
2002) which has been measured at 0.12 W/mK for
a ground temperature of 18 C (Murashov & White
2002). The degree of zeolitisation in the Naples yel-
low tuff is irregular and variable mainly between
5070% (De Gennaro et al. 2005) which means
there is a variable content of zeolite minerals. The
thermal conductivity of the ground depends greatly on
the thermal conductivities and fractions of its minerals
(Johansen & Frivik 1980):

where i and ni denote the thermal conductivity and

Figure 1. Plan of a part of the Parti-Duomo platform tunnel.
the volume fraction of the mineral i, respectively, while
is the thermal conductivity of the mixture.
The variable amount of the zeolite minerals results
in a variable thermal conductivity of the ground to be
frozen. The quartz content in the zeolitised cemented
tuff of Naples is small (Shuaib 1954) and was assumed
to be 0.15. Pozzolana, a loose material, predominantly

281
Table 1. Geotechnical and thermal ground properties.

Property Tuff Pozzolana

Porosity n 0.55 0.51

Mineral density s [kg/m3 ] 2718 2392
Dry density d [kg/m3 ] 1223 1172
Wet density wet [kg/m3 ] 1733 1682
Unfrozen ground (at 16 C)
Thermal conductivity unfr [W/mK] 0.492 0.273
Heat capacity cv,unfr [kJ/m3 K] 3227 3020
Permeability k [m/s] 105 106
Frozen ground (at 50 C)
Thermal conductivity unfr [W/mK] 1.106 0.578
Heat capacity cv,unfr [kJ/m3 K] 1735 1633

consisting of ash and pumice resulting from volcanic

fall-outs, is encountered occasionally. The amount of Figure 2. Initial cross section 11 with the installed freeze
pipes and the thermometer chains.
quartz (a crystalline mineral, rarely met in volcanic
pozzolana) in Naples pozzolana is assumed to be zero.
Pozzolana has also a very low thermal conductiv-
pipes were installed underneath the invert. The orien-
ity. The properties of the two materials are listed in
tation of the boreholes was controlled by the horizontal
Table 1. The given tuff values apply to a zeolite con-
directional drilling method. The growth of the frozen
tent of 0.65 and a quartz content of 0.15. As discussed
body was monitored by temperature sensors located
later in this paper, these mineral contents produce the
along chains parallel to the freeze pipes. 7 thermome-
best match between the theoretical predictions and
ter chains were installed in the area around the planned
the temperatures monitored in situ above the invert.
tunnel and above the invert and 4 thermometer chains
The permeability values are given only for the sake
underneath the invert. Each chain has 50 m length and
of completeness as there is no seepage flow in this
consists of a set of thermometers located at intervals
ground.
of 5 m. The temperatures were automatically recorded
The unfrozen water content of the ground was deter-
every 30 minutes. Figure 2 shows the location of the
mined on the basis of the power law of Tice et al.
freeze pipes and of the thermometer chains at the first
(1976) with the constants and taken equal to 0.03
cross section (section 11 in Figure 1). Despite the
and 0.574, respectively (like a silty ground).
use of the horizontal drilling method, deviations up
to 30 cm from their initial location occurred for the
freeze pipes in the other sections.
3 ARTIFICIAL GROUND FREEZING METHOD

The artificial ground freezing method was applied

with liquid nitrogen and occasionally, i.e. when main-
tenance was necessary, with brine. In the numerical
interpretation of the field measurements only the
liquid nitrogen freezing was considered because tem-
perature data were not available for the phases with
brine. The temperature data were obtained from the
company Trevi SA.
The freezing by liquid nitrogen involves the coolant
entering a freeze pipe which consists of two concen-
tric pipes at a temperature of 196 C. The outer pipe
is closed at the end, while the inner one is open. After
reaching the deepest point of the inner pipe, the coolant
returns and passes through the opening between the
inner and outer pipe. At this moment, the liquid nitro-
gen turns into gas as it extracts heat from the ground
around the pipe due to heat transfer by conduction.
At the exit of the pipe, nitrogen gas is released into
the atmosphere at a temperature between 120 and
80 C, which can be regulated.
36 freeze pipes with 50 m length and 76 mm outer
diameter were installed in a horizontal direction in
the upper part of the planned tunnel and 19 freeze
4 MODELING METHODOLOGY
Due to uncertainties over the stratigraphy of the
ground, the numerical calculations were carried out
in 2D for some cross-sections of the platform tunnel
(sections 11, 8 and 5 in Figure 1) and by assuming
homogeneous ground with the material constants of
Table 1 (tuff for the tunnel cross-sections 11 and 8,
pozzolana for the cross-section 5). The computational
domain models a rectangular region of 18.1 16.7 m2
around the tunnel and consists of 1,361,920 finite
elements. Due to the absence of temperature measure-
ments for the freeze pipes underneath the tunnel invert,
only the area above the invert was modeled. For the
section 11, the locations of the freeze pipes were taken
according to the cross section shown in Figure 2 while
for the sections 8 and 5 they were considered with the
deviations from their initial location in section 11.
The initial conditions were taken according to the
temperature of the ambient ground (16.1 C).Addition-
ally, some separate calculations for an initial ground
temperature of 8.3 C were performed on account of

282
the initial temperature of the thermometer chain 135A,
which was measured 8.3 C.
In the calculations for cross-section 11, for which
the freeze pipe temperatures are directly measured,
the hourly measured values of each freeze pipe were
taken into account as time-dependent boundary condi-
tions. The temperatures of the freeze pipes for the other
cross-sections were determined by linear interpolation
between the exit temperature and the entrance temper-
ature of 196 C. At the outer model boundaries, a no
heat flow condition was applied.
The numerical calculations were carried out by
using the finite element FREEZE code developed at
ETH Zurich for performing thermo-hydraulic simula-
tions of artificial ground freezing (Sres 2009). The
Euler backward iterative procedure was selected as
the convergence method for calculating heat transfer
along the model. Each time step simulates 1 hour of
ground freezing. A total of 960 time steps were there-
fore calculated in order to map a freezing period of 40
days. Within this time period the developing frozen
bodies connected together, thus forming a closed
ice wall.

5 NUMERICAL INTERPRETATION

5.1 Tunnel cross-section 11

The interpretation of the monitoring results is based
upon a comparison of the computed ground tempera-
tures with those obtained from the thermometer chains
B, 158A and 135A (see crown, left wall and right wall,
respectively, in the cross-section of Figure 2). Four
computations were carried out with different mineral
compositions (zeolite and quartz content) and thus
different thermal constants, in order to calibrate the
model. For the purpose of comparison, an extreme case
with unzeolitised tuff (i.e. a zeolite content of 0 in the
tuff) was also calculated.
Figure 3a shows the measured temperature history
of thermometer chain B as well as the four computed
histories. The best match with the in-situ temperature
was achieved for a high zeolite content of 0.65 and a
quartz content of 0.15. In the neighbourhood of ther-
mometer station B, a closed ice wall was formed in 4.5
days, reaching a thickness of 1 m after 11.5 days.
Figure 3b shows (for a zeolite content of 0.65 and
quartz content of 0.15 in the tuff), the temperature his-
tories of stations 158A and 135A on the left and right
tunnel sidewalls, respectively. In the neighbourhood
of these thermometer chains, the closure time was 2.5
and 4 days, respectively, and the ice wall became 1 m
thick after 11.5 and 8 days, respectively. It can be
observed that the temperature of stations 158A and
135A at the times of the ice wall closure in their vicin- Figure 3. (a) Measured temperature history of the ther-
ity are above 0 C as the ice bodies had not yet reached mometer chain B at section 11 as well as calculated histories
for different mineralogical compositions; (b) Temperature
them. The calculated temperatures at the thermometer
histories for thermometer chains 158A and 135A at sec-
chain 135A agree well with measured temperatures, tion 11; (c) Temperature histories for thermometer chain B at
while a difference of 10 C exists for the thermometer sections 8 and 5.
chain 158A.

283
5.2 Tunnel cross-sections 8 and 5
Figure 3c compares the temperature histories mea-
sured at the location of the thermometer chain B with
the calculated temperatures. It should be noted that
the constants for section 8 were then equal to those
back-calculated from the section 11 measurements.
The formation of a closed ice body in cross-section
5 (in the neighbourhood of thermometer chain B) takes
3.5 days more than in the cross-section 8. This occurs
because the ground at the section 5 consists of poz-
zolana which has a lower thermal conductivity than
the zeolitised tuff at the section 8. For the same rea-
son, the time needed for achieving an ice wall 1 m thick
in section 5 is 5 days longer than in section 8.
6 CONCLUSIONS
A numerical study of the artificial ground freezing
method employed in the Pari-Duomo platform tun-
nel of the Naples underground project was conducted
using the FREEZE code. A back analysis was neces-
sary in order to determine the thermal conductivity of
the ground. The main conclusions of this study are as
follows:
The thermal conductivity of the ground is a key
parameter in modeling the artificial ground freez-
ing and can be estimated reasonably accurately by a
numerical back analysis when not known.
FREEZE software can be used as a powerful tool
for interpreting in situ temperature monitoring data for
cases involving the use of liquid nitrogen and where
there are non constant temperatures within the freeze
pipes.
In pozzolana, ground freezing develops more
slowly than in the zeolitised tuff due to the lower
thermal conductivity of pozzolana.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors wish to extend their gratitude to the Fed-
eral Road Office (FEDRO/ASTRA) of Switzerland for
providing financial support for the research project
and to Mr. Di Salvo, TREVI SA, for providing moni-
toring data.
284
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Manassero, V. 2008. The artificial ground freezing
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De Gennaro, R., Cappelletti, P., Cerri, G., De Gennaro, M.,
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dependent thermal conductivity of powdered zeolite NaX.
Microporous and mesoporous materials 103: 108112.
Johansen, O. & Frivik, P.E. 1980. Thermal properties of soils
and rock materials. In P. E. Frivik et al. (eds), Proc. 2nd
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1980. Amsterdam: Elsevier B. V.
Murashov, V.V. & White, M.A. 2002. Thermal properties
of zeolites: effective thermal conductivity of dehydrated
powdered zeolite 4A. Materials Chemistry and Physics
75: 178180.
Shuaib, S.M. 1954. A study of minerals in a sediment core
from the gulf of Naples. Clay minerals 12(2): 170176.
Sres,A. 2009.Theoretische und experimentelle Untersuchun-
gen zur knstlichen Bodenvereisung im strmenden
Grundwasser. PhD Thesis ETH Zurich, Nr. 18378.
Tice, A.R., Anderson, D.M. & Banin, A. 1976. The predic-
tion of unfrozen water contents in frozen soils from liquid
limit determination. U.S. Army Cold Regions Research
and Engineering. Laboratory Report CRREL 768.
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Large scale hydraulic conductivity of the soil deposits of the Venezia

Lagoon from numerical back-analysis

E. Giacomini, F. Colleselli & F. Cattaneo

Universit degli Studi di Brescia, Brescia, Italy

C. Jommi
Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy

G. Mayerle
Magistrato alle Acque, Venezia, Italy

ABSTRACT: In the framework of the Mo.S.E. (Electro-mechanical Experimental Module) project for the
safeguard of the city of Venezia, an 8.7 m deep basin is being used in the provisional stage for gate caissons
precasting. The basin perimeter embankment is delimited by a cofferdam realised by sheet piling on the sea side,
and by a CSM (Cutter Soil Mixing) diaphragm wall on the land side. Dewatering operations lasted about 5 months
to reach the steady state regime, and they affected the silty foundation deposits which were partially desaturated.
The results of FEM numerical analyses of the dewatering operations are presented, focusing on the hydraulic
regime and groundwater control. A non-linear analysis was performed, accounting for desaturation of the upper
deposit layers, promoted by the dewatering operations. Parametric analyses were run to analyse the effects of
hydraulic conductivities ratios and of their absolute values on the dewatering operations. The comparison between
recorded data and numerical results allowed for the determination of the large scale hydraulic conductivities of
the Venetian deposits, and showed the role played by anisotropy and possible non homogeneous permeability of
the barriers on the performance of the cofferdam.

1 INTRODUCTION To this purpose, a widespread geological and

The historical city of Venice is one of the most known
and famous Italian site worldwide, especially for its
unique correlation between land and water. The life
of the city depends on the preservation of this deli-
cate equilibrium between the ground level and the sea
level.
Today, as in the past, high tides periodically sub-
merge the town, causing serious damages to buildings
and activities. In the last century, the frequency of
over 110 cm tides has dramatically increased from
2 to 50 events in 10 years. For this reason, in the
70s, the Italian Government initiated an experimen-
tal programme for the safeguard of Venice and of its
Lagoon. In 1989 the project proposed by the Con-
sorzio Venezia Nuova for the control of tidal flow into
the Lagoon was approved, consisting in the construc-
tion of mobile barriers at the three Venetian Lagoon
inlets of Lido, Malamocco and Chioggia. These bar-
riers, named Mo.S.E., will separate temporarily the
lagoon from the sea in case of high tides, yet guaran-
teeing the continuity of the marine traffic inward and
outward the Lagoon.
geotechnical study was carried out. Standard and
non-conventional laboratory and field tests were per-
formed, for the description of the stratigraphic profiles
and the characterisation of the Venetian soils.
The works for the Mo.S.E. started in 2003, and they
are proceeding in parallel at the inlets of Lido, Malam-
occo and Chioggia. In the framework of the Mo.S.E.
project, a harbour basin was constructed (Fig.1a).After
dewatering (Fig.1b), the basin is being used in the pro-
visional stage for gate caissons precasting at the inlet of
Lido-Treporti. During the dewatering operations water
discharge was measured at the well points, and water
pressure in different borings was recorded to verify the
variations of the piezometric level in the area affected
by pumping. Dewatering was back analysed numeri-
cally with a finite element approach. The parameters of
the model were given initially the design values. After-
wards, they were modified with the aim of reproducing
the piezometric head profiles with distance from the
basin, and the inflow into the wells measured when
stationary conditions were reached. The results of the
numerical analyses are presented and discussed in the
following.

285
Figure 1. Harbour construction: (a) before and (b) after
dewatering operations.
2 THE LIDO-TREPORTI HARBOUR
Lido is the northern and largest of the three lagoon
inlets, where the sea bed is encountered at varying
depth. Two gates at Lido inlet, namely one at Lido-
Treporti and the other at San Nicol, were designed
to overcome the different seabed depth. At the centre
of the inlet, a new artificial island is being realised,
which will act as the intermediate structure between
the two rows of mobile gates.
The coast on the north side of the inlet (Cavallino-
Treporti) has been extended and redesigned with the
construction of two small harbours, one on the sea side
and one on the lagoon side, linked by a lock to allow
crafts to shelter and transit when the gates are raised
during a high water event. Since the realisation of the
gate caissons for the barrier foundation needs a very
wide area, in the provisional stage, the 100 450 m
floor of the seaside basin is being used for precasting
the gate caissons.
To this purpose, a system of embankments was
designed and constructed along the basin perimeter.
Waterproofing was achieved by a deep cut-off barrier
realised by sheet piling on the sea side, and by a CSM
diaphragm wall on the land side, to reach a depth of
25 m under the sea level. Bentonite and cement slurry
(b/w = 0.06, w/c = 2.0) was injected during both pen-
etration and retraction. Soil was mixed with 300 kg/m3
of cement. Dewatering operations required about 5
months, and they were performed by means of a sys-
tem of wells, realised along the internal perimeter of
the embankments (Fig. 2). The phreatic surface inside
the basin was lowered down to 19. m under the sea
286
Figure 2. Harbour plan with the well points.
level in the wells. The water discharge was continu-
ously monitored, together with the piezometric level
inside and outside the basin, up to 500 m far from the
excavation.
3 GEOTECHNICAL MODEL
TheVenice Lagoon originated during the last Flandrian
transgression, about 6000 years ago, when the sea level
increased and the pre-existing lacustrine basin was
filled by the sea water. Its deposits are due to complex
alternation of fluvial and marine sediments, depending
on the current relative level of the sea with respect to
the land in the depositional time period. Nonetheless,
all the sediments of Venezia present similar miner-
alogical composition, due to their common geological
origin and similar depositional environment (Belloni
at al. 2007).
3.1 Soil profile and soil classification
The soil profile shows a complex inter-bedding of lay-
ers with a common predominant silty fraction, with
different percentages of clay and sand. The 95% of the
soils can be classified as medium-fine sands (SP-SM)
or silts (ML) and very silty clays (CL). The natural
water content ranges between 20% and 30% through-
out the depth. Liquid limit is in the range 3040%,
while plastic limit is about 2030%.
A rough scheme of the Treporti soil profile is pre-
sented in Figure 3, together with a section of the basin
excavation and of the cofferdam. Five different layers
may be identified. The upper layer (A) is essentially
Figure 3. Lido-Treporti stratigraphic profile.

composed by medium-fine sand, down to the top of the

Caranto at about 13 m depth. The Caranto, a very silty
clay layer, overconsolidated due to ageing and desic-
cation, belongs to the second depositional layer (B)
that is mostly composed by slightly overconsolidated
silty clays. The third layer (C) is characterised by a
predominant sand fraction, and it overlies a predom-
inantly cohesive formation (D), where the cofferdam
is embedded. The last stratigraphic level considered in
the model is a sandy layer (E), which is followed by
a silty clay layer, starting at 80 m under the sea level,
which was assumed as the geometric lower boundary
Figure 4. Hydraulic conductivity of the sandy layers from
of the numerical model. laboratory and in situ tests.

3.2 Hydraulic characterisation As only monotonic desaturation paths were of inter-

The hydraulic conductivity had been investigated
before the beginning of the operations by means of
both laboratory and in situ tests. Oedometer tests gave
values in the range k sat = 108 109 m/s for the silty
and clayey layers. As for the more permeable layers,
constant head permeability tests were performed in
the triaxial cell on specimens from the upper sand
layer (A). Lefranc tests were performed in the more
permeable layers at various depths. The results of the
laboratory and the in situ tests are compared in Figure
4, as a function of mean effective stress. As expected,
the values determined in situ are generally higher than
those determined in the laboratory for the same layer.
The dewatering operations at the Lido-Treporti site
involved desaturation of an extended area over the
lowered water table. To account for reduced hydraulic
conductivity of the unsaturated upper layers and to
allow accounting for the contribution of these layers to
water discharge, a model for the hydraulic unsaturated
behaviour was adopted.
In the absence of direct experimental data collected
in the specific site, the water retention curves and the
relative hydraulic conductivities of the relevant layers
were estimated, based on previous studies on similar
silty soils (Caruso & Jommi 2005, Cola et al. 2005).
est, a standard van Genuchten (1980) relationship
was adopted to model the drying branch of the water
retention curve,
relating the degree of saturation Sr to the suction, s,
identified with the difference between atmospheric
air pressure and water pressure. The parameters
P = 0.01 MPa, r = 0.11, and P = 0.05 MPa, r = 0.12
were assumed for the coarser and finer soil layers,
respectively.
The hydraulic conductivity was assumed to
decrease with saturation degree from its saturated
value, through a multiplicative relative permeabil-
ity coefficient krel , which was given the power law
krel = Sr5 .
4 NUMERICAL MODEL
Non linear, 2-D, numerical simulations were run
to back-analyse the hydraulic characteristics of the

287
 Table 1. Horizontal hydraulic conductivities kH (m/s), and anisotropy ratios (kV /kH ) for
the soil deposits: design values (T) and numerical values (sets A, B, C).
Materials T A
Coarse grain deposits 106 105
Fine grain deposits 108 108
Sheet pile 1012 1012
Diaphragm wall 109 109
Ratio kV /kH 1 1
Figure 5. Geometrical model of the problem.
lagoon soil layers at the large scale involved in the
dewatering operations. Displacements and pore pres-
sure fields were analysed, though with an uncoupled
procedure. Only the results of the hydraulic problem
will be presented in the following. The analyses were
run with the FEM code Abaqus 6.7.
Assuming constant water density, and given the
porosity, the differential equation governing the water
mass balance simply reads:
where h is the hydraulic head, k is the hydraulic con-
ductivity tensor, with reference to saturated conditions,
krel is the relative permeability coefficient, n is the
porosity, and Sr is the degree of saturation.
A standard Galerkin FE approximation was adopted
in the discretisation. The 2D model of the cross section
of the basin (between wells S3 and S8 in Fig. 2) cov-
ers the 1200 m wide and 80 m deep area represented
in Fig. 5. The mesh is composed of 19661 triangular
elements (39865 nodes), with quadratic interpolation
of hydraulic head. Notable refinement was provided
close to the wells and the cofferdam, where high
pressure gradients develop.
To assure a stable numerical solution for the tran-
sient hydraulic problem the numerical time step must
satisfy the following inequality
where w is the water specific weight, k(Sr ) is the
current value of the hydraulic conductivity, dS r /ds is
the storage coefficient, calculated from the retention
curve, and l is the characteristic dimension of a
finite element. Although a very fine mesh was adopted
where desaturation could occur, the smaller elements
288
B5 B10 C5 C10
105 105
108 108
1012 1012
1010 1010 /4 109
0.2 0.1 0.2 0.1
had a typical dimension of about 1. m. Given the soil
layers hydraulic conductivity, the minimum time step
required to guarantee the stability of the numerical
solution is t 1 month, which results comparable
to the time required to complete the dewatering oper-
ations. For this reason, it was decided to proceed with
a series of steady state analyses, instead of solving the
fully transient problem.
With reference to Figure 5, the average sea level
was imposed on the boundary AB, while the lower
boundary BC, corresponding to the top of a deep cohe-
sive layer, was assumed impermeable. On the land side
lateral border of the model, CD, located about 500 m
far from the cofferdam, the hydraulic head resulting
from piezometer readings was imposed. Preliminary
parametric analyses were performed to limit the influ-
ence of the mesh discretisation on the numerical results
(Cividini & Gioda, 2007).
On the upper boundaries DE and AF, exposed to
the atmosphere, a non-linear condition, allowing for
incoming flow only for positive water pressure, was
imposed throughout the whole analysis. On the basin
perimeter EF, the boundary conditions were progres-
sively changed throughout the dewatering stages. The
hydraulic head was lowered, consistently with the
field data, followed by the introduction of the same
non-linear condition described previously.
To simulate the dewatering process, the piezometric
heads recorded at the internal wells during dewatering
were imposed to the boundary of the numerical wells
(WPS , WPL in Fig. 5).
Hydraulic conductivities of the relevant layers
and of the cofferdam elements were given initially
the isotropic design values (T) reported in Table 1.
Afterwards, parametric analyses were performed, by
changing the hydraulic conductivity of the coarser
layers and of the diaphragm wall, and introducing dif-
ferent anisotropic ratios for the soil layers. Table 1
Figure 6. Contours of the degree of saturation: results of analysis B10.
Figure 7. Contours of the pore pressure distribution results of the analyses (a) B10, and (b) C10.
summarises the input values adopted in the analyses
(horizontal conductivities and vertical to horizontal
conductivity ratios) which will be discussed in the fol-
lowing, focusing on the final hydraulic steady state
regime at the end of dewatering operations.
5 DISCUSSION OF THE RESULTS
Typical contours of the degree of saturation are
depicted in Figure 6. Desaturation occurs in coarser
layers, while the intermediate layers remain almost
saturated, except a limited zone near to the well. The
groundwater regime is affected only close to the basin
down to a depth of about 35. m under the sea level
(Fig. 7). The measured piezometric heads recorded on
the land side at the beginning and the end of dewatering
are reported in Fig. 8, with open and filled symbols,
respectively, as a function of their radial distance, dr ,
from the basin perimeter. Scatter is mostly due to their
different alignment with respect to the cross section
examined. The data show that the piezometric head
decreases both near to the surface (Fig. 8a) and at depth
(Fig. 8b) of about 1 m with respect to its initial value.
As the piezometric profile is governed by the rel-
ative hydraulic conductivities ratios of the different
elements (soil layers, sheet-pile and diaphragm), a
parametric back-analysis allowed for determining the
289
ratios necessary to describe the data recorded. To catch
the correct orders of magnitude of the hydraulic con-
ductivities, comparison was made with the volume of
water drained from the well system. The comparison
between the measured discharge per unit length and the
ones calculated from the different analyses is reported
in Figure 10. The numerical analyses showed that:
the water discharge is substantially underestimated
if reference is made to the design conductivity
values, calibrated on the laboratory and in situ tests;
if the hydraulic conductivity of the coarser layers is
increased by one order of magnitude, better results
are obtained, although water discharge is slightly
overestimated and the piezometric heads are still
lower than those recorded;
the data seem to suggest that the diaphragm wall on
the land side has an average lower hydraulic con-
ductivity than expected, being better represented by
a value which is an order magnitude less than that
assumed in the preliminary design stage;
only an anisotropic hydraulic conductivity tensor
may justify the recorded piezometric profile, and
catches quite well the recorded water discharge.
Two vertical to horizontal permeability ratios were
investigated, namely kV /kH = 1/5, 1/10. The two ratios
do not change significantly the piezometric profile, but
affect slightly the water discharge. Best fit is obtained

Figure 8. Piezometric profile on the land side: comparison
between initial (h0 ) and final steady state (hf ) field data and
calculated values from analyses T, A, B5, B10.
Figure 9. Piezometric profile on the land side: comparison
between field data at steady state and calculated values from
analyses C5 and C10.
with a ratio of 1/5 on the landside and with an increased
ratio of 1/10 on the seaside.
To try to justify the low hydraulic head recorded
just behind the diaphragm wall in one of the wells,
it was assumed tentatively a locally non homogeneous
hydraulic conductivity of the diaphragm wall (analysis
C). The results of the analysis show that the consequent
localised decrease in pore pressure, evidenced in Fig-
ure 7b, does not affect much the total water discharge
(see Fig. 10), but may justify the low hydraulic head
290
Figure 10. Measured and calculated flow rates on the sea
side and on the land side.
recorded at depth behind the diaphragm (Fig. 9a) in a
single location.
6 CONCLUSIONS
The results of the numerical analyses, compared to the
data recorded during and after dewatering, allowed for
the determination of the large scale hydraulic conduc-
tivities of the Venetian Lagoon soil layers. With respect
to the initial design values, the coarser layers had to be
given a higher hydraulic conductivity in the horizontal
direction to catch correctly both the piezometric pro-
file and the amount of pumped water, highlighting the
role played by anisotropic hydraulic conductivity on
the piezometric head distribution. Local non homoge-
neous hydraulic conductivity of the CSM diaphragm
may explain anomalous data recorded in the field, but
does not affect substantially the cofferdam response.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of the
Magistrato alle Acque, the Consorzio Venezia Nuova
and the Technital S.p.A..
REFERENCES
Belloni, L.G., Rizzo, A., Caielli, A. & Mayerle, G. 2007.
Influenza sedimentologica sulle caratteristiche geotec-
niche dei terreni della Laguna Veneta. XXIII Con-
vegno Nazionale di Geotecnica, Padova, Patron Editore:
147159.
Caruso, M. & Jommi, C. 2005. An evaluation of indi-
rect methods for the estimation of hydraulic properties
of unsaturated soils. Problematic Soils, Bilsen H. &
Nalbatonglu Z. (eds.), Eastern Mediterranean University
Press 1: 183191.
Cividini, A. & Gioda, G. 2007. Back-analysis approach for
the design of drainage systems. Int. J. of Geomech., 7:
325332.
Cola, S., Simonini, P. & Sanavia, L. 2005. Modelling pore
pressure response as a function of tide in the Venice
Lagoon marshes. Proc. 11th IACMAG,.3: 101108.
van Genuchten, M. 1980. A closed form equation for predict-
ing the hydraulic conductivity of unsaturated soils. Soil.
Sci. Am. J., 44: 89289.
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Numerical analyses of granulometric stability of moraine dam cores

F. Federico & A. Montanaro

University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy

ABSTRACT: Piezometric measurements in the core of dams made of moraines reveal that pore pressure
dissipation mainly occurs near the downstream face of the core, due to the lack of granulometric stability of
these materials, under the drag forces acted by the seepage flow. To analyse this phenomenon, conventional
criteria defining susceptibility to suffusion are first recalled and applied. The simulation of depositionerosion
processes of migrating particles, by taking into account voids features of some moraines (geometric-probabilistic
models), as well as the rate of the seeping suspension and piezometric gradients (hydraulic models), has been then
carried out through an original numerical procedure. Results confirm that safety problems may affect moraine
cores of zoned earth dams. These problems may be faced through adequate protective transitions whose design
must be carried out according to peculiar numerical procedures simulating the complex depositionerosion
processes of migrating particles.

1 PREMISES
The core of several dams in the North of Italy
(S. Valentino dam) I.T.C.O.L.D. (1981), in Sweden
Suorva dam Nilsson (2007) or in the James Bay
territory, Lafleur (2007), is composed of moraine
materials.
Many of these dams, after some years of operation,
showed anomalies or malfunction, such as high pore
pressure and free surface profile in a large part of the
core, pore pressure dissipation mainly occurring near
the downstream face of the core and in a thin zone of
the material downstream the core (filter or downstream
shell), turbid water and unexpected leakages, rip-rap
deformation, sinkholes in the upstream shell, . . . .
Suffusion of the core material explains these phe-
nomena. Moraine materials are, in fact, often charac-
terized by widespread grain size distribution, modest
or negligible cohesion and clay content and local het-
erogeneity; therefore, especially the finer fractions of
these soils are easily susceptible to particles migration
phenomena.
The finer grains, under seepage forces depend-
ing on hydraulic gradients, may migrate through the
voids bigger than their size, formed mainly by coarser
particles. The drag forces may exceed the friction
forces related to normal contact forces induced by their
effective weight and confining pressures. The confin-
ing pressures are related to the effective stress state
that depends, in turn, on the height of the dam, the
geometry of the core, the shape of the valley.
A peculiar role may be moreover played by the pres-
ence of structural elements, as concrete diaphragms
beneath the core to reduce the flow rate through foun-
dation soils; these elements may locally induce not
negligible differential settlements, especially if the
dam rests on soft soils while the elements deepen into
stronger soils.
Consequently, a marked reduction of effective hor-
izontal stresses in the dam body may occur, thus
increasing the risk of particles migration.
To safeguard the core (base B) material and avoid the
progress of erosion, a protective transition (T ) must be
correctly designed; its voids, related to the grain size
distribution and porosity, must be sufficiently small to
stop the migrating B particles within short distances,
thus avoiding limit states related to backward erosion
leading up to flow pipes generation; (T ) must also
allow a safe drainage of B, to avoid limit states as
clogging and blinding, inducing in turn uncontrolled
increases of pore pressures.
2 MORAINE MATERIALS
These materials are widely employed due to their avail-
ability and ability to bear large strains, without hosting
cavities or hollow fractures for a long time, Lafleur
(2007).
Therefore, especially if characterized by low clay
contents, these materials exhibit significant self-
healing properties.
Typical grain size curves of damscores made of
moraine materials are represented in Figure 1.
After analyses and statistical re-organization of sev-
eral laboratory test results, Foster and Fell (2001)
classified (Tab. 1) the erosion susceptibility of base
materials in function of the percentage Pf of particles
smaller than 75 m.
They further classified the protective abilities of the
granular transitions (T ) through the comparison of the
DT ,15 diameter of the transitions grains (in the grain

291
size curve, the 15% of grains passes through) with the
DB,85 diameter of the base (B) material.
The design criteria of Sherard and Dunnigan (cited
in Foster & Fell) are presented in Table 1 too; they
should be applied taking into account a suitable safety
factor.
The criteria for no-erosion boundary proposed by
Foster and Fell must be applied to roughly assess the
filter performance of existing dams. However, it is
not possible to establish granulometric and hydraulic
behaviour of B T systems only on the base of Pf and
DT ,15 parameters.
3 PROBLEM SETTING
The cores materials of the Suorva and S. Valentino
dams, despite of their comparable heights, physical
and mechanical properties, differently behaved during
operation.
The Swedish dam suffered several accidents caused
by internal erosion processes (pipes, sinkholes, leak-
ages, . . . .).
Instead, the Italian dam efficiently operated since
1950, despite of some minor and tolerable malfunc-
tion, specifically the higher free surface profile and
pore pressures in the core, as compared to the expected
ones according to the original design.
The Foster and Fell classification (Tab. 2) under-
lines that both materials belong to the group 2A (Pf
40% for the S. Valentino finer grains size curves;
40% < Pf < 50% for the Suorva dam) (Fig. 2).
The erosion rate of these materials is related to the
percentage of granular fractions whose sizes range
between 0.075 and 1.18 mm and the DT ,15 of the
protective transition.
Besides, if DT ,15 < 0.7 mm, the base material is
never subjected to erosion processes.
The grain size curves of the S. Valentino and
Suorva dams cores materials and relevant protective
transitions are shown in Figure 2.
The analysis of the protective materials through
the Foster and Fell (2001) criterium shows that the
S. Valentino core material is adequately protected
(DT ,15 = 0.03 mm) while the Suorva transition is too
coarse (DT ,15 = 4 mm).
Figure 3 and Table 3 show a classification of the
granular transitions according to their ability to heal
local fractures or concentrated leaks.
The material of S. Valentino transition belongs to
the 1st typology (I category); these materials are able
to seals local fractures without intense erosion of core
material. The material of Suorva transition belongs
to the 4th or 5th typology (III category); in case of
Table 2. Classification of moraine core materials.
Pf Base soil
Base material % group
S. Valentino finer grain size curve 40 2A
S. Valentino coarser grain size curve 20 4A
Suorva finer grain size curve 53 2A
Suorva coarser grain size curve 35 2A
James Bay Dam 25 4A

Figure 1. Grain size curves of damscores built with

moraine materials. San Valentino dam: adapted from
I.T.C.O.L.D. (1981); Suorva dams: adapted from Nilsson Figure 2. S. Valentino and Suorva dams. Grain size curves
(2007); James Bay dam: adapted from Lafleur (2007). of the core materials and corresponding granular transitions.

Table 1. Results of Statistical Analyses and Criteria of No-Erosion of Filter Tests for Assessment of Filter of Existing Dams
(Foster & Fell, 2001).

Soil Pf no-erosion boundary no-erosion boundary

group % Sherard & Dunnigan (1989) (experimental range) (Foster & Fell)

1 85 DT ,15 9 DB,85 6 DB,85 13.5 DB,85 DT ,15 9 DB,85

2A 35 85 DT ,15 0.7 mm 0.7 1.7 mm DT ,15 0.7 mm
3 <15 DT ,15 4 DB,85 6.8 DB,85 10 DB,85 DT ,15 7 DB,85
4A 15 35 DT ,15 (40-Pf )(4DB,85 0.7)/ 1.6DB,85 2.5DB,85 DT ,15 (35-Pf ) (4DB,85 0.7)/
25 + 0.7 20 + 0.7

292
local fractures, a large erosion of core material occurs
(Tab. 3).
This analysis qualitatively justifies the different
behaviour of the two dams; however, more complex
analyses are needed to simulate the hydro-mechanical
behaviour of the involved materials.
The simulations must model both spatial and time
variations of the grain size, volume voids distributions
and porosities of the materials.
The proposed numerical procedure, takes into
account the grain size curve and the effective stress
state, the hydraulic gradients and the flow velocities
that, as a whole, influence the amounts of eroded
fractions and the length of their migration paths.
4 NUMERICAL PROCEDURE
4.1 Problem setting
The geometric-probabilistic models (Silveira 1965,
Wittmann 1979, Musso & Federico 1983, Atmatzidis
1989), which take into account the voids, the constric-
tion sizes and the porosities of the granular material,
have been coupled to the hydraulic model proposed
by Indraratna & Vafai (1997), to value the rate of
the seeping suspension, the piezometric gradients and
to quantify the amounts of eroded/deposited granular
fractions along time.
It has been assumed that movable particles may be
scoured only if high hydraulic gradients or flow veloc-
ities, greater than their critical values, act (hydraulic
condition) as well as if the particles meet voids greater
that their sizes (geometrical condition).
The local variation of the grain size curve and poros-
ity, due to the erosion/deposition of particles, induces
a variation of volume voids distribution and perme-
ability; the hydraulic features (flow rate, hydraulic
gradients, drag and lift forces on migrating particles)
and the geometrical conditions (voidssizes) change
in space and along time (Reddi et al. 2000) too. The
phenomenon thus evolves towards a stable condition
(equilibrium) or towards an ultimate limit state (full
erosion, clogging, blinding. . ..).
To simulate this complex process, the 1D unsteady
seepage flow through a heterogeneous base (B)
transition (T ) system, coupled with the particles
migration of movable particles, induced by a con-
stant, overall piezometric head difference H , has
been modeled.
4.2 Variables and governing equations
To better define the local hydraulic and geometric con-
ditions, (B) and (T ) have been decomposed into several
elements (Fig. 4), each characterized by initial grain
size curve (Pj,0 ), porosity (ni,0 ) and permeability (ki,0 );
i and j define the counters of the system elements and
materials granular fractions, respectively.
The variables Pj,t and ni,t change during time due
to the erosion-deposition processes; according to the
Kozeny-Carman equation (Harr 1962, Kowacs 1981)
ki,t changes too:

Figure 3. Classification of the S. Valentino and Suorva

granular transitions according to the Foster and Fell criterium. where w = water specific weight; w = water viscos-
ity; dh = equivalent grains diameter; and = numerical
Table 3. Transition performance in presence of local frac- coefficient; t counter of temporal step t.
tures or concentrated leaks (Foster & Fell, 2001).

Partial
Seals Seals or no seal
DT ,15 DT ,15 with no with some with large
T av max erosion (I) erosion (II) erosion (III)

1 <NE <NE hl u hl
2 <NE >NE & el el u
<EE
3 >NE <EE u el el
4 >NE & >EE u u l
<EE
5 >EE >EE hu u hl
Figure 4. Problem setting. (1) One-dimensional unsteady
NE = No-erosion; EE = Excessive-erosion boundaries; hl = seepage flow through a heterogeneous base (B) transition
highly likely; l = likely; el = equally likely; u = unlikely; (T) system; (2) B and T are divided into elements; (3) a
hu = highly unlikely constant total piezometric head difference H is assigned.

293
 To solve the problem, the unsteady state is decom-
posed according to a sequence of steady states, whose
duration is t (successive steady states method,
Harr 1962, Franciss 1985).
This limited time interval may assume constant or
variable value; for each t, the continuity equation
holds:
Therefore, the suspension rate Qt through the ele-
ments section , and the volume of the granular
suspension Vm,t , composed by the scoured particles
dragged by the seeping fluid, entering and washed out
from each element, is the same during each temporal
step:
So, the total volume of each element, composed
of the original material (Vor,i,t ), accumulated material
(Vacc,i,t , Vacc,0 = 0) and water saturating the ith element
(Vw,i,t ), doesnt vary during the interval time t.
The specific weight of filtering suspension is val-
ued rearranging the equation proposed by Indraratna &
Vafai (1997):
Sacc,i,t = the fraction of accumulated material
scoured from the (ith) element; Sor,i,t = fraction of the
original material scoured from the (ith) element, at
time t
Sacc,i,t and Sor,i,t are computed through both
hydraulic and geometric methods):
The particles can be scoured only if subjected to
a flow velocity greater than the local, critical flow
rate (vcr ); vcr is computed by analysing the forces act-
ing on a movable particle and imposing its dynamic
equilibrium along the flow direction.
A particle can migrate if the drag force FD (Stokes
law) exceeds the local shear resistance induced by the
294
Figure 5. Forces acting on migrating particles; a) plugged
particle (d = d0 ); b) unplugged particle (d < d0 ); d, particle
diameter; d0 , average size of a pore channel.
effective weight of the particle (A) and the confining
stresses (FS ) (Fig. 5).
For a horizontal flow path, vcr is expressed as
follows:
where = coefficient that allows to take into account
the density of the granular matrix (0 < < 4/;
= 4/ for granular matrix composed by spherical
particles arranged in hexagonal configuration, most
dense state) (Kovacs 1981, Biswas 2005).
The original material is generally subjected to
strong confining actions (frictional forces, geometric
hindrances); high values of the flow velocity need to
mobilize the plugged particles (Eq. 5).
Conversely, the accumulated, unplugged particles,
may be easily scoured during simulation; the corre-
sponding critical flow velocity thus assumes small
values (Eq. 6).
The hydraulic conditions allowing the migration of
movable particles are first considered; the analysis of
the geometric conditions follows, if the previous one
are verified (v > vcr ).
The particles (diameter dj ) composing the (ith) ele-
ment can be scoured only if able to pass through the
voids of the (i + 1)th element.
The statistical distributions of the pore volumes (Vi )
and the corresponding constriction sizes, related to
the geometry of the micro-configurations of suitably
constrained granular masses composed of randomly
disposed spheres (diameters dj ) are first theoretically
determined. The analysis is carried out through the
methods of Statistical Mechanics, by maximizing the
configurational entropy associated with the distribu-
tion of these micro-variables (Musso & Federico 1983,
Federico & Musso 1992).
The theoretical pore size distribution (PSD) curves
depend on the grain size Pj,t and porosity ni,t of each
element of the system.
 The material scoured from the ith element, at time Table 4. Physical and mechanical parameters assigned to
t (Vs,out ), is function of the specific weight of filtering the analysed materials.
suspension, m , Indraratna & Vafai (1997):
k0 c

Materials m/s n0 kPa

S. Valentino (Base) 1 106 0.3 25 0

S. Valentino (Transition) 1 106 0.3 25 0
The scoured volume of material is composed both Suorva (Base) 1 106 0.3 25 0
by Vor,out and Vacc,out (Federico & Montanaro 2006, Suorva (Finer Transition) 2.5 106 0.3 25 0
2009): Suorva (Coarser Transition) 5 106 0.3 25 0

Vor,out and Vacc,out in turn are decomposed into their

granular fractions (Indraratna & Vafai, 1997):

The element within which each scoured fraction is

deposited, is determined through the corresponding
length of the migration path, Lmig,j , this one depends on
the probability of a particle not encountering a smaller
constriction size.
The length covered by an assigned particle up to its
arrest is finally formulated on the base of concepts of
stereology and it depends on the PSD as well as on
the thickness of the filter (Musso & Federico 1983,
Federico & Musso 1992). The length of the migration
path is then compared to the length that the particles
can cross during each temporal step t:
where mj = number of constrictions greater than the
particle size encountered by the particle along its path;
and s = unit step assigned to each comparison.
At time t + t, the accumulated and original vol-
ume fractions within each element are:
By this way, the procedure allows to evaluate the
time evolution of the migration phenomena within
granular media.
5 RESULTS OF SIMULATIONS
Particles migration phenomena regarding the moraine
materials of the S. Valentino and Suorva dams have
been simulated through the proposed numerical pro-
cedure (Tab. 4).
Figure 6. Ratio Qt /Q0 versus time t (hours); Q0 , initial
value of the suspension flow rate Qt .
The length of the B-T systems is 3 m (B: 1 m,
T : 2 m); to study the displacements of the particles,
from the B through the protective T , each system
has been divided into 60 elements, 5 cm length. The
constant, overall piezometric head difference H is
equal to 6 m; this value takes into account the available
piezometric measures for the two dams.
To promote their erosion, confining stresses on B
particles are neglected (unplugged particles).
Results of numerical simulations show that erosion
mainly involves the finer fractions (d 0.002 mm) of
the analyzed core materials.
The evolution of the ratio Qt /Q0 versus time t is
shown in Fig. 6 for the three analyzed case; Q0 is the
initial value of the suspension flow rate.
The ratio Qt /Q0 rapidly increases if the Suorva core
material is protected by the coarser transition, due to
the intense erosion of the finer fractions of B and
the corresponding increase of permeability. After 12
hours, Qt /Q0 still increases: both granulometric and
hydraulic stabilizations are not yet occurred.
If the Suorva core material is protected by the finer
transition, after 4 hours Qt /Q0 slowly decreases: the
erosion of B is not still exhausted; the voids of T are
progressively clogged, the process seems to reach a
stable state.
The finer protective transition of S. Valentino dam
controls the washout of the finer particles of B; Qt very
less increases respect to the Suorva analyzed cases.
Stabilization occurs after 6 hours; Qt becomes only
1.2 times greater than Q0 .

295

Figure 7. Particles accumulation in the protective transi-
tions (d = 0.002 mm).
The lengths of the path crossed by the eroded parti-
cles through the examined granular transitions (T ) are
very different (Fig. 7). Within the T material of the S.
Valentino dam, the maximum particles accumulation
occurs just few cm after the B-T interface; in the finer
transition material of Suorva dam, the maximum par-
ticles accumulation occurs about 70 cm after the B-T
interface; finally, in the coarser transition material of
Suorva dam, about 150 cm after the B-T interface.
6 CONCLUDING REMARKS
The granulometric stability of cohesionless moraine
materials, composing the core of earth dams, has been
analyzed. Conventional criteria have been first taken
into account.
The depositionerosion process that takes place
in proximity of the contact coreprotective transition
material has been then numerically simulated.
The evolution of the migration phenomena has been
carried out by taking into account voids, constric-
tion sizes and porosities of the particulate materials
(geometric-probabilistic models) as well as the rate
of the seeping suspension and piezometric gradients
(hydraulic models), through an original numerical
procedure.
Results of numerical simulations put into evidence
that the proposed numerical procedure allows to simu-
late the depositionerosion process taking place at the
interface coregranular transition; specifically, ero-
sion phenomena mainly involve the finer fractions of
these materials and are not negligible if the protective
granular transitions are too coarse. In these cases, the
particles migration phenomena can cause anomalies
and malfunction, such as those ones often occurred
in dams whose core is composed by broadly graded
cohesionless materials protected in turn by coarse
transitions.
296
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clogging. Engineering-Research Master, University of
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I.T.C.O.L.D. 1981 Materials for Earth and Rockfill Dams
in Italy Italian Committee on Large Dams (I.C.O.L.D.),
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geometric-probabilistic method for filter design. Int. Conf.
on Filters and Filtration Phenomena in Geotechnical
Engineering, 7582, Karlsruhe, October.
Federico, F. & Montanaro, A. 2006. Geotechnical design of
granular transitions as protective filters.Thesis, University
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Filters That Do Not Satisfy Design Criteria. J. Geotech.
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filtration analyses. XI I.C.S.M.F.E., S. Francisco, Vol. I,
12071212.
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ability Reduction of Soil Filters due to Physical Clogging.
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 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Numerical prediction of time-dependent rock swelling based on

an example of a major tunnel project in Ontario/Canada

Ansgar Kirsch* & Thomas Marcher

ILF Consulting Engineers, Rum/Innsbruck, Austria

ABSTRACT: Especially long-term deformation of rock formations causes major problems in the design and
construction of underground structures and often governs the final lining design of the tunnel. This paper sys-
tematically studies the initiating processes and the effects of rock swelling. As an example a tunnel excavation in
the Silurian age cap rocks of the Niagara escarpment is presented. During and after construction of the tunnel the
surrounding rock experiences a change in anion concentration through diffusion through the porewater towards
the tunnel inner surface. It is assumed that swelling occurs in the shale formations. A reduction of chloride
concentration by 2% is defined as the extent of swell initiation and is considered to be a diffusion front, which
propagates into the surrounding rock formation.
Based on the differential equations for diffusion a robust and fast numerical model for radially-symmetric
boundary conditions has been developed using the Finite Difference Method. This enabled to carry out a para-
metric study incorporating various tunnel lining layers (representing the different materials and their time-related
installation). In such a way the potential and order of magnitude of swelling (spatial and timely distribution) can
be estimated.

1 INTRODUCTION pressure tunnel with a nominal internal diameter of

The success of design and construction of a tunnel is
generally related to the knowledge of geological envi-
ronment, rock mass parameters, overburden thickness,
in-situ stress field, tunnel size and shape, etc. Espe-
cially long-term deformation of rock formations often
governs the final lining design of the tunnel. The main
subject of the present paper is to identify the effects of
time-dependent deformations due to swelling.
In many publications, the time dependent deforma-
tion is described as rock squeeze and swelling. conclusions given in this paper are, thus, in particular
However, these processes are interrelated, and the indi-
vidual effects of each are difficult to distinguish. In the
present paper swelling of rock is considered as a time
dependent volume increase due to a physico-chemical
reaction of the rock with water.
As an example a tunnel excavation in the Silurian
age cap rocks of the Niagara escarpment is consid-
ered in the following (1; 3). Ontario Power Generation
has contracted to build a 10.4 km long water diversion
tunnel to increase power production at the Sir Adam
Beck Generating Complex in Niagara Falls, Canada.
The tunnel is a two-pass, cast-in-place concrete lined
*
Formerly: Division of Geotechnical und Tunnel Engineer-
ing, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria
12.7 m.
The tunnel is predominantly situated in the Queen-
ston Formation of South Ontario which is known
to exhibit time-dependent swelling and aggressive
ground water conditions and which is expected to
present unique challenges in design and construction.
In particular shale formations with considerable con-
tents of chloride tend to swell if the concentration of
chloride ions contained in the pore fluid of the rock
mass is reduced (1). The investigations and resulting
applicable to these formations.
The tunnel is excavated and supported by an ini-
tial lining consisting of shotcrete, steel ribs and rock
dowels. Time after the excavation a waterproofing
membrane and a final lining of cast in place concrete
will be installed, thus forming a double shell lining
system. All lining components influence the velocity
of chloride diffusion and hence have an effect on the
swelling potential of the rock mass at a given time. It
was assumed that swelling occurs predominantly in the
shale formations if there is a reduction of chloride con-
centration. The surrounding rock experiences a change
in anion concentration through diffusion trough the
porewater towards the tunnel inner surface. It was
assumed that rock swelling commences at a reduction
in chlorides of 2% (based on engineering judgement

297
and contractual basis). This reduction of chloride con- 3 NUMERICAL MODELLING
centration was considered to define a diffusion front.
The properties of the lining material with 3.1 Governing differential equations
respect to geometry and chloride permeability were
The differential equation for diffusion, also known as
systematically varied in a parametric study. It was
Ficks law, is
to determine which boundary conditions govern the
penetration depth of the diffusion front into the sur-
rounding rock formation over the 90 year design life
of the tunnel.
with concentration C, time t, coefficient of diffusion
2 PHYSICAL BACKGROUND D and the nabla operator .
As a deep circular tunnel in more or less homo-
Diffusion is modeled as a chemical process of net mass geneous rock can be considered a radially symmetric
transfer from the pore fluid with higher concentration problem, equation (??) was expressed radial symmetry
in the in-situ rock mass to a substance with a lower
concentration. Basic parameters are
a chloride diffusion coefficient of D = 1.5
106 cm2 /s for the lower shale formation, and
a chloride diffusion coefficient of D = 1.5
with radial coordinate r. Equation (2) served to numer-
ical modelling of the diffusion process.
105 cm2 /s for the upper shale formation and for
the plastic zone developping in the vicinity of the
tunnel. 3.2 Finite difference method
The chloride diffusion coefficient was determined A two-dimensional Finite Difference Scheme was
with the Nordtest Method, NT Build 443 (2). With implemented in Matlab to perform a parametric
this test concrete and similar materials, which are open study concerning the geometry of the problem and
to diffusion are being tested. For other materials (e.g. the diffusion coefficients for the multi-phase-material.
waterproofing membrane) the diffusion coefficients Under the given initial and boundary conditions the
were varied in meaningful ranges (cf. e.g. (5; 6)). Finite Difference Method (FDM) promised a high per-
It was assumed that the distribution of chlorides in formance with sufficient control over input and output
the rock mass prior to excavating the tunnel is uniform. parameters.
The diffusion rate along bedding planes is taken the The solution of equation (2) is achieved by discretis-
same as given for the plastic zone. It is further assumed ing the time variable tj (j = 1 . . . m) and the spatial
that during/after excavation of the tunnel (before variable ri (i = 1 . . . n) and expressing the derivatives
installation of the waterproofing membrane) there is in equation (2) by Finite Differences
a continuous supply of freshwater or high relative
humidity maintaining zero chloride concentration at
the tunnel circumferences. The surrounding rock expe-
riences a change in anion concentration through dif-
fusion from the chlorides towards the tunnel surface.
It was assumed that a diffusion gradient (gradient of
concentration) with a characteristic logarithmic shape
develops with time. At the start of the chloride diffu- and
sion zero chloride concentration was prescribed at the
tunnel circumference and the concentration of chlo-
rides in the rock was taken to be 100% and to remain
100% at an infinite distance from the rock surface.
A 2% reduction of chloride ion concentration was This integration scheme is also called Forward Time,
assumed to initiate swelling and, thus, defines a dif- Centred Space (FTCS). The integration of equa-
fusion front. This diffusion front advances from the tion (2) can be performed explicitely, leading to
tunnel circumferences at time 0 into the surrounding
rock formation.
All structural materials applied during excavation
of the tunnel have influence on the diffusion gradient.
Therefore multiple-phase-medium calculations had to
be performed to assess the development of the diffu-
sion front. To accomodate for system changes, such
as installation of waterproofing membrane and final
lining, and to cover a long period of time with suffi-
j+1
cient accuracy a flexible Finite Difference scheme was Equation (6) can be solved for Ci since all other
developed. variables are known for time tj .

298
 The choice of increment size, r and t, has an
influence on the quality of the integration. E.g. Press
et al. (4) put forward that the stability of the integration
with an explicit scheme can only be achieved for
This requirement leads to narrow time intervals t,
which are unsatisfactory for the purpose of this study.
The right hand part of equation (6) can, however, be
j+1
expressed in terms of Ci for a time step tj+1 . This
leads to a system of n 2 linear equations with the
j+1 j+1
unknowns C2 , . . . , Cn1 , which has to be solved in
every time step. With this implicit integration scheme,
equation (6) becomes
The jump of the diffusion coefficient at the material
layer interfaces has to be taken into account as well.
Therefore, the diffusion coefficient D is considered as
Dl for the material to the left of ri , and consequently
as Dr for the material to the right of ri .
Finally, the following approximation to equation (2)
was achieved
4 ANALYSIS
After a thorough consistency check of the Finite
Difference scheme for a homogeneous layer, four lay-
ers representing the different materials (final lining,
waterproofing membrane, shotcrete and rock) were
incorporated into the model.
4.1 Spatial discretisation
The geometry of the problem is illustrated in Fig. 1.
As the diffusion equation was solved for radial sym-
metry, the radius r plays an important role in the model;
the inner radius of the final lining was r0 = 6.38 m.
In a first step, the thicknesses of the different layers
were chosen as
299
Figure 1. Geometry of the multiphase system.
Figure 2. Geometry of the model (not to scale).
final lining: d1 = 0.600 m
membrane: d2 = 0.003 m, i.e. 3.0 mm
shotcrete lining: d3 = 0.130 m
rock: d4 = 14.000 m
The thickness of the, theoretically, infinite rock
layer was increased in a preliminary study until no
boundary effect could be detected any more. Thus, it
was found that 14 m of rock mass represent the outer
border of the model with sufficient accuracy.
For the Finite Difference scheme radial increments
of r = 1.0 cm were chosen.
4.2 Time discretisation
The time variable t was discretised with time incre-
ments of t = 0.1 d. Calculations were performed
from t1 = 0 (start of the tunnel excavation) to
tend = 33,580 d (construction time + lifetime of the
structure).
For the first 2 years (=730 days) only layers 3 and
4 were active (stage 1). At that point layers 1 and 2
were activated and the change in chloride concentra-
tion was calculated for an additional period of 90 years
(stage 2).
4.3 Initial and boundary conditions
Providing initial conditions for the radial distribution
of the cloride concentration (Ci1 for t1 = 0 at every
j j
location ri ) and boundary conditions (C1 and Cn for
every time step tj at the left and right boundary (r1 and
j
rn , respectively)), the concentration Ci at time tj was
calculated with equation (9).
 Table 1. Results before installation of final lining.

Shale formation Shotcrete

2% lim.
2
No. D (cm /s) tR (m) D (cm2 /s) tS (m) tD (m)

A 1.1.1 1.5 105 14.0 1.0 104 0.13 0.95

A 1.1.2 1.5 105 14.0 1.5 105 0.13 0.91
A 1.1.3 1.5 105 14.0 1.0 106 0.13 0.69
A 1.1.4 1.5 105 14.0 1.0 107 0.13 0.42
A 1.1.5 1.5 105 14.0 1.0 108 0.13 0
A 1.2.1 1.5 105 14.0 1.0 104 0.16 0.94
A 1.2.2 1.5 105 14.0 1.5 105 0.16 0.90
A 1.2.3 1.5 105 14.0 1.0 106 0.16 0.68
Figure 3. Display of simulation results. A 1.2.4 1.5 105 14.0 1.0 107 0.16 0.41
A 1.2.5 1.5 105 14.0 1.0 108 0.16 0

(dashed line), the chloride ions have diffused towards

the tunnel contour; the chloride concentration in the
vicinity of the tunnel decreases. Fig. 4 shows a detail
of the vicinity of the tunnel contour. It becomes obvi-
ous that the 2% reduction front penetrates well into
the rock. In the given example the penetration depth
is 0.73 m after two years. Within this zone, there is
potential for swelling.

5 RESULTS OF THE PARAMETRIC STUDY

Figure 4. Detail of Fig. 3. A parametric study served to investigate the influence
of the diffusion coefficients for all materials and the
For the given problem the following boundary shotcrete thickness on the penetration depth of the 2%
conditions were chosen: reduction front into the rock.
the chloride concentration of the minor (=tunnel)
j
surface is zero for all tj , i.e. C1 = 0. 5.1 Results before installation of final lining
the chloride concentration on the outer boundary (at In stage 1 only the rock mass and the shotcrete forming
unlimited distance in the rock mass) is always 100% the initial lining were modelled. The duration of this
j
(=1.0), i.e. Cn = 1.0. construction stage was assumed to be 2 years (730
days) at maximum. The shotcrete lining was modelled
with a thickness of 130 mm (calculation set A 1.1)
4.4 Material parameters and 160 mm (calculation set A 1.2). The variation in
The only material parameter relevant for the diffusion diffusion coefficients is expressed in Tab. 1.
process is the diffusion coefficient D. An initial set of
parameters was chosen as 5.2 Results after end of operational time
final lining: D1 = 1.5 105
In the second set of calculations the reduction in chlo-
membrane: D2 = 1.5 108
rides was analysed after installation of the final lining
shotcrete lining: D3 = 1.5 106
until the end of the operational time of 90 years. Case A
rock: D4 = 1.5 105 considers shotcrete with D = 1.5 105 cm2 /s (same
as rock mass). The coefficients for the waterproofing
membrane and the final lining concrete were varied as
4.5 Evaluation of results
expressed in Tab. 2.
The results of the simulations can be visualised as plots Case B (Tab. 3) considers the case that a very perme-
of concentration C (in %) vs. radial distance r (in m) able shotcrete (D = 1.0 101 cm2 /s) is placed. Other
(cf. Fig. 3). The r
axis starts at r0 = 6.38 m and covers parameters were varied according to Case A. Calcula-
a total of r = d = 14.73 m. The calculation for tions B 4.1.1 to B 4.1.4 consider a lower chloride diffu-
the whole analysis (tend = 92 years) with the given sion rate in the shale formation (D = 1.5 106 cm2 /s
incrementation took roughly 30 seconds. instead of 1.5 106 cm2 /s).
Fig. 3 shows the initial distribution of chloride con- Case C (Tab. 4) finally investigates the condi-
centration as full line. Two years after construction tion that no waterproofing membrane is present.

300
Table 2. Results after end of operational time (case A).

Shale formation Shotcrete Membrane Final lining

2% limit
2 2 2
No. D (cm /s) tR (m) D (cm /s) tS (m) D (cm /s) tM (m) D (cm2 /s) tF (m) tD (m)

A 2.1.1 1.5 105 14.0 1.0 105 0.13 1.0 108 0.003 1.0 105 0.6 4.15
A 2.1.2 1.5 105 14.0 1.0 105 0.13 1.0 109 0.003 1.0 105 0.6 1.25
A 2.1.3 1.5 105 14.0 1.0 105 0.13 1.0 1010 0.003 1.0 105 0.6 0.00
A 3.1.1 1.5 105 14.0 1.0 105 0.13 1.0 108 0.003 1.0 10-6 0.6 3.60
A 3.1.2 1.5 105 14.0 1.0 105 0.13 1.0 109 0.003 1.0 10-6 0.6 1.05
A 3.1.3 1.5 105 14.0 1.0 105 0.13 1.0 1010 0.003 1.0 10-6 0.6 0.00

Table 3. Results after end of operational time (case B).

Shale formation Shotcrete Membrane Final lining

2% limit
No. D (cm2 /s) tR (m) D (cm2 /s) tS (m) D (cm2 /s) tM (m) D (cm2 /s) tF (m) tD (m)

B 2.1.1 1.5 105 14.0 1.0 10-1 0.13 1.0 108 0.003 1.0 105 0.6 4.15
B 2.1.2 1.5 105 14.0 1.0 10-1 0.13 1.0 109 0.003 1.0 105 0.6 1.25
B 2.1.3 1.5 105 14.0 1.0 10-1 0.13 1.0 1010 0.003 1.0 105 0.6 0
B 3.1.1 1.5 105 14.0 1.0 10-1 0.13 1.0 108 0.003 1.0 106 0.6 3.60
B 3.1.2 1.5 105 14.0 1.0 10-1 0.13 1.0 109 0.003 1.0 106 0.6 1.05
B 3.1.3 1.5 105 14.0 1.0 10-1 0.13 1.0 1010 0.003 1.0 106 0.6 0
B 4.1.1 1.5 106 14.0 1.0 10-1 0.13 1.0 108 0.003 1.0 105 0.6 1.70
B 4.1.2 1.5 106 14.0 1.0 10-1 0.13 1.0 109 0.003 1.0 105 0.6 0.90
B 4.1.3 1.5 106 14.0 1.0 10-1 0.13 1.0 1010 0.003 1.0 105 0.6 0
B 4.1.4 1.5 106 14.0 1.0 10-1 0.13 1.0 10-11 0.003 1.0 105 0.6 0

Table 4. Results after end of operational time (case C).

Shale formation Shotcrete Membrane Final lining

2% limit
No. D (cm2 /s) tR (m) D (cm2 /s) tS (m) D (cm2 /s) tM (m) D (cm2 /s) tF (m) tD (m)

C 1.1.1 1.5 105 14.0 1.0 105 0.13 1.0 105 0.030 1.0 105 0.6 5.55
C 1.1.2 1.5 105 14.0 1.0 105 0.13 1.0 106 0.030 1.0 106 0.6 4.25
C 1.1.3 1.5 105 14.0 1.0 105 0.13 1.0 107 0.030 1.0 107 0.6 2.65
C 1.1.4 1.5 105 14.0 1.0 105 0.13 1.0 108 0.030 1.0 108 0.6 0.05
C 1.2.1 1.5 105 14.0 1.0 101 0.13 1.0 105 0.030 1.0 105 0.6 5.67
C 1.2.2 1.5 105 14.0 1.0 101 0.13 1.0 106 0.030 1.0 106 0.6 4.27
C 1.2.3 1.5 105 14.0 1.0 101 0.13 1.0 107 0.030 1.0 107 0.6 2.77
C 1.2.4 1.5 105 14.0 1.0 101 0.13 1.0 108 0.030 1.0 108 0.6 0.17
C 1.3.1 1.5 105 14.0 1.0 108 0.13 1.0 105 0.030 1.0 105 0.6 0

It was analysed, which coefficient of chloride diffu- 6 CONCLUSIONS

sion for the final lining concrete is required to make
the final lining concrete act as a barrier. The dif- 6.1 Results for the short term
fusion coefficient of the waterproofing membrane
The results of the analysis A 1.1.x and A 1.2.x are
was set equal to the coefficient of the final lining
representing the construction stage of excavation and
concrete. Moreover, the overall lining thickness was
support of the tunnel, which may last for two years (730
adjusted to reflect exactly 600 mm of final lining
days). High humidity and water used in construction or
thickness. All other parameters were set according
flowing from the surface may trigger chloride diffusion
to Case B. The results are presented for the assump-
in the tunnel before the final lining is installed. The
tion that diffusion through the shotcrete is the same
analysis leads to the conclusion that:
as through the rock (C 1.1.x), shotcrete is open to
diffusion (C 1.2.x) and shotcrete acts as a barrier Shotcrete with a Chloride Diffusion Coefficient
(C 1.3.x). <1.0 108 cm2 /s acts as a barrier to chloride

301
 diffusion over the analysed exposure time of two
years.
There is only marginal difference in chloride diffu-
sion between a shotcrete thicknesses of 130 mm and
160 mm.
In case shotcrete is open to diffusion of chlorides,
at a maximum one metre of rock mass around the
tunnel will suffer a reduction of chlorides larger than
2%.
6.2 Results for the long term
The results of the analysis A 2.1.x, A 3.1.x, B and C
consider the system behaviour in the lifetime of the
tunnel, i.e. over a period of 90 years (32850 days). A
combination of construction materials was analysed
using different parameters of chloride diffusion. The
analysis leads to the conclusion that:
A waterproofing membrane with a chloride diffu-
sion coefficient <1.0 1010 cm2 /s can be consid-
ered a barrier for chloride diffusion.
In case of shotcrete with a diffusion coefficient
<1.0 108 cm2 /s (i.e. barrier) the diffusion coef-
ficient of the final lining is irrelevant also within 90
years and no reduction in chlorides 2% will occur
in the rock mass.
In case the diffusion coefficient for the final lining
is less than 1.0 108 cm2 /s and no waterproof-
ing membrane is provided, the final lining concrete
alone will be sufficient to stop the propagation
of chloride diffusion over the 90 years opera-
tional time. There is no significantly different effect
detectable with respect to chloride diffusion resis-
tance of a final lining concrete with a coefficient
of 1.0 105 cm2 /s or a final lining concrete with
1.0 106 cm2 /s.
302
The effect of two different chloride diffusion rates in
the rock (diffusion coefficient of 1.5 106 cm2 /s
versus 1.5 105 cm2 /s) is analysed for water-
proofing membrane, shotcrete with a reduced dif-
fusion coefficient of 1.0 101 cm2 /s and the
final lining with a regular diffusion coefficient
of 1.0 105 cm2 /s. There is marginal difference
in the extent of chloride diffusion (zone of rock
mass with chloride reduction 2%) when apply-
ing different diffusion rates for the rock mass. A
waterproofing membrane with a chloride diffusion
coefficient <1.0 1010 cm2 /s can be considered a
barrier for chloride diffusion in both cases.
REFERENCES
Hughes, M. and Bonapace, P. and Rigbey, S. and Char-
alambu, H. (2007) An innovative approach to tunneling
in the swelling Queenston formation of Southern Ontario,
Rapid Excavation and Tunneling Conference 2007, (eds
M. Traylor, and J. Townsend), pp. 901912.
Nordtest, Concrete, hardened: accelerated chloride penetra-
tion, NT Build 443.
Pttler, R. (2007), Das Niagara Tunnel Projekt, in
Geotechnik-Kolloquium, Geotechnik im Verkehrsbau/
Infrastrukturmanahmen national & international, (eds.
H. Klapperich and H. Konietzky), pp. 205212.
Press H., Teukolsky S., Vetterling W. and Flannery B. (1992),
Numerical Recipes in Fortran, Cambridge University
Press, 2edn.
Rowe P., Hrapovic L. and Kosaric N. (1995), Diffusion of
chloride and dichloromethane through an HDPE geomem-
brane, Geosynthetics International, 2(3): pp. 507536.
Thoft-Christensen P. (2003), Stochastic modelling of the
diffusion coeffcient for concrete, in Reliability and Opti-
mization of Structural Systems (eds. H. Furuta, M. Dogaki
and M. Sakano), pp.151160, Swets & Zeitlinger.
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Some features of the coupled consolidation models used for the evaluation
of the dissipation test

E. Imre
Ybl Mikls Faculty of Architecture and Civil Engineering, Budapest, Hungary
Geotechnical Department, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Budapest, Hungary

P. Rzsa
Department of Computer Science and Information Theory, Budapest University of Technology and Economics,
Budapest, Hungary

ABSTRACT: Two families of the point-symmetric linear coupled consolidation models differing in one
boundary condition are treated. The models are with space dimension one (oedometric), two (cylindrical) or
three (spherical). Both qualitative and quantitative analyses are made. The numerical features of the analytical
solution are tested for the cylindrical models. It is shown that the numerical features of the analytical solution
are strongly influenced by the distance of the zero solution from the actual solution moreover, by the size of the
displacement domain.

1 INTRODUCTION

The analytical consolidation models used for the

evaluation of the dissipation test are the point-
symmetric linear coupled consolidation models with
space dimensions two and three.
Two sets of the boundary conditions are used. Con-
stant displacement boundary condition is assumed at
the penetrometer soil interface by both models. The
suggested model implies displacement type condition,
the models available implies volumetric strain type
condition in the soil.
These two sets of boundary conditions (either dis-
placement type at both boundaries; displacement and
volumetric strain types at the two boundaries) may
occur in the oedometric modelling (relaxation and
compression tests) for space dimension one.
The aim of the research was to study the main
analytical and numerical properties of these mod-
els. The system of partial differential equations of
the point-symmetric linear coupled consolidation was
summarized into a single model in the function of the
space dimension (Fig 1, Table 1). Closed form analyt-
ical solution was given in the special case of the two
sets of boundary conditions.
The solutions were analysed. It was shown that
Figure 1. The displacement domain for the point-symmetric
independently of the space dimension the transient models bounded by a (a) 0 dimensional sphere.
solution is determined by the boundary conditions.The
constants of the analytical solution were determined formulae approximate closed form solutions were
from the initial and from the boundary conditions. given resulting some approximate model laws.
In the one dimensional case the boundary condi- The numerical features of the analytical solution
tion equation has closed form solution resulting in including the Bessel function were approximation,
some dimensionless variables. In the two and three the validity of the approximate root formulae and
dimensional problems using the asymptotic Bessel the resulting approximate model law; moreover the

303
Table 1. Summary of point-symmetric consolidation 2.3 Boundary conditions
models.
In the following four boundary conditions are pre-
v or boundary sented for m = 2. Three are common, one is different
Model type condition Origin for the two models.
1D No (uncoupled) Terzaghi (1923 ) (1) The (common) boundary condition Nr. 1 implies
v-v (coupled 1) Imre ( 19971999) that the pore water pressure is zero at r = r1 :
v- (coupled 2) Biot (1941)
2D No (uncoupled) Soderberg (1962)
v-v (coupled 1) Imre & Rzsa (1998) (2) The (common) boundary condition Nr. 2 entails
v- (coupled 2) Randolph at al (1979) that the flux is equal to zero at r = r0 :
3D No (uncoupled) Torstensson (1975)
v-v (coupled 1) Imre & Rzsa (2002)
v- (coupled 2) Imre & Rzsa (2005)
(3) The (common) boundary condition Nr. 3 implies
that the displacement equals to a constant at
convergence properties were tested on the example r = r0 :
of the cylindrical models.

2 POINT-SYMMETRIC CONSOLIDATION (4) Boundary condition Nr. 4 concerning the sug-

gested model implies that the displacement
2.1 Models equals to zero at r = r1 :

The basic units of the two linear coupled consolidation

model-families (coupled 1 and 2) differing in one
boundary condition are presented in this chapter.
The models are one dimensional with various space
dimension m, as shown in Figure 1.
2.2 System of differential equations
Two equations have been derived from the equilibrium
condition and, from the continuity condition (Imre
et al, 2007). Equation (1) compiles the equilibrium
condition, the effective stress equality, the geometrical
and, the constitutive equations, as follows:
(5) Boundary condition Nr. 5 concerning the models
available expresses that the volumetric strain
is constant r = r1 :
These boundary conditions are equally usable for
m = 3, in the case of m = 1 the half of the space domain
is generally used and r0 = 0 is assumed.
3 SOLUTION

3.1 Structure of Solution

and, Equation (2) compiles the continuity equation, the The solution is equal to the following sum for each
Darcys law and the geometrical equation, as follows: variable (Imre, 19971999).:

where the superscripts has the following meaning:

where the volumetric strain and the Laplacian operator,
containing the dimension m of the embedding space
are as follows:
v is the radial displacement, u is the excess pore water
pressure (neglecting the gravitational component of
the hydraulic head), r and t are the space and the
time co-ordinates respectively, Eoed is the oedometric
modulus:
p indicates the drained continuum-mechanical prob-
lem (independent of t), L indicates the steady-state
seepage problem (independent of t), t indicates the
transient seepage problem, w concerns the self-weight
component (independent of both t and r).
3.2 Analytical solution
Steady-state solution part
The solution of the drained continuum-mechanical
problem for the displacement vp is the solution of the
following part of Equation (1):

G is the shear modulus, E is the is Young modulus,
is the Poissons ratio in terms of the effective normal
stress  (  = u where is the total normal stress),
k is the coefficient of permeability, v is the unit weight
of water.
which is the cavity expansion model for m = 2, 3 and
the oedometer (K0 ) compression model for m = 1.
The solution has the following general form:

304
where the parameters can be determined from the where the mean pore water pressure:
inhomogeneous form of the boundary conditions.

Transient solution part

The transient part of the solution can be determined
in different ways. Theoretically the best way is if vt is
determined by the solution of Equation (16). Inserting this boundary condition function into the
The transient part of the displacement solution in equilibrium Equation:
the function of m (Imre et al, 2007):

From this:

where Jm/2 and Ym/2 are the Bessel functions of the first
and second kinds, with the order of m/2, and k , k ,
Ck parameters of the solution, m is embedding space
dimension.
The volumetric strain and the pore water pressure
solutions from this:
It follows that for a realistic u the change in
with t is positive in the vicinity at the outer bound-
ary (rebound) and negative in the vicinity of the pile
(compression). By further integration:

The function u is determined using Equation (1):

It follows that for a realistic u the transient part of v

is non-negative and, monotonously decreases with t
for any r. The initial condition for u and vt have the
following relationships:
4 ANALYSIS OF THE MODELS

A qualitative analysis of the solutions is made in

this chapter on the basis of some explicit expressions
derived from the system of differential equations (1)
and (2) and, the boundary conditions.
The initial displacement function v0t (r) is zero for the
4.1 The u and v solution of the models coupled 1 model if u0 (r) is zero or constant.
Equation (1) is used to predict some features of v on the Coupled 2 models (available)
basis of u and, Equation (2) is used to characterise u on Inserting the inhomogeneous form of boundary con-
the basis of (the initial condition for) v. It is assumed dition Nr. 5 into the equilibrium Equation:
that u is positive and monotonously decreases with t for
any r (realistic u) with the time t. Instead of v the vol-
umetric strain is used sometimes since their relation From this:
is unique due to the boundary conditions. According to
the definition of the volumetric strain, the compression
is negative, the swelling is positive.

4.2 Analysis of Equation (1) It follows that for a realistic u the change in with t is
-negative (compression). By further integration:
Some explicit expressions are derived for v and u by
integrating the equilibrium Equation (1) with respect
to r including boundary condition Nr. 1:
It follows that for a realistic u the transient part of v
is non-negative and, monotonously decreases with t
In the coming expressions the homogeneous form of for any r. The initial condition for u and vt have the
the boundary conditions is included. following relationships for the coupled 2 models:
Coupled 1 (suggested) models
A boundary condition function is derived by further
integration between r0 and r1 using boundary condition
Nr. 3 and boundary condition Nr. 4:

It follows that the initial displacement function v0t (r)

is zero for the coupled 2 model if u0 (r) is zero.

305
4.3 The total stress and the effective stress
On the basis of the explicit expressions, the following
total stress and the effective solutions can be derived
for space dimension two m = 2:
4.3.1 Coupled 1 (suggested) model, m=2
The radial effective stress for any r:
and, at the shaft-soil interface:
It follows that for a realistic u the effective
stress increases with time at the shaft-soil interface;
decreases with time at the outer boundary. The radial
total stress at the shaft-soil interface:
It follows that for a realistic u, the radial total stress
decreases with time by the value of the mean pore
water pressure which variable has an important role.
4.3.2 Coupled 2 model (available), m = 2
The effective stress for any r:
and, at the shaft-soil interface:
The radial total stress at the shaft-soil interface
It follows that the effective stress increases with time
at the shaft-soil interface and it is constant at the outer
boundary. The mean of the first invariant of the effec-
tive stress tensor on the displacement domain increases
with time.
5 CONSTANTS OF THE SOLUTION
The parameters of the solution can be determined from
the boundary conditions and from the initial condition.
5.1 Boundary conditions
For the coupled 1 or 2 model-families, the bound-
ary condition equation (arisen from the homogeneous
form of boundary conditions Nr.3 and Nr.4 or Nr.3 and
Nr.5) can be written as follows, respectively:
306
The roots of the boundary condition equation for the
coupled 1 and 2 model-families, respectively, for for
space dimension one m = 1:
Inserting this into the analytic pile solutions the
following dimensionless arguments appear:
The appearance of the time factor T ensures that
the solutions related to different space domains can be
transformed into each other.
For the two-three dimensional models, the roots
of the boundary condition equation have no closed
form solution for the latter models. Therefore, the
solution has to be computed for each boundary condi-
tion. However, approximate closed form root formulae
can be suggested as follows. The asymptotical Bessel
functions formulae:
Inserting these into the boundary condition equa-
tion, the roots for the coupled 1 and 2 model-families,
respectively:
Using these, approximate time factors can be
derived and, the solutions related to different space
domains can approximately be transformed into each
other.
It can be noted that within a model-family -,
the precise (1 dimensional case) and the approximate
(2 and 3 dimensional cases) instances are identical
(compare e.g. (38), (39) with (44), (45)).
5.2 Coefficients from the initial conditions
The initial condition is generally given by a closed
form function for u0 . From this, the initial displace-
ment function v0 is to be determined then from this,
the Bessel coefficients can be determined as follows.
The coefficients Ck and Ek (k = 1 . . . ) can be
computed from the initial displacement function v0t
(r) with the same formula:
Table 2. Displacement domains for the numerical tests.

r1 r1 r0 n = r1 /r0
[cm] [cm] [-]

1 7 5.25 4
2 33.25 31.5 19
3 64.75 63 37
4 127.75 126 73
5 255.5 253.75 146
6 511 509.25 292
7 1022 1020.25 584

*r0 = 1.75 cm.

Table 3. Parameter D [] for initial conditions 1 to 10.

u0 1 2 3 4 5

D [-] 0.001 0.016 0.053 0.135 0.222

u0 6 7 8 9 10

D [-] 0.291 0.408 0.591 0.74 0.97

6 SIMULATIONS, MODEL LAW

6.1 Simulations
Seven space domains with the same r0 and varying
r1 were assumed (Table 2). For the description of the
initial pore water pressure distribution u0 , the follow-
ing normalised function, varying between 0 and 1 was
used to define a function series:
Being parameter F in one-to-one relation with D if the
space domain is specified, an u0 series was defined pre-
scribing D identically for the various space domains,
using ten values for D (Table 3).
The u0 series can be characterized as follows. At
the limit D 0 u0 (r) 0 (except in r0 ). At the limit
D 1 u0 (r) 1 (except in r1 ).
According to the results (Fig 2(a)), if u0 is between
the nearly constant zero function (except in r0 ) and the
linear function then u0 is convex. If u0 varies between
the linear u0 and the nearly constant 1 function (except
in r1 ) then u0 is concave.
The corresponding dissipation curve series were
determined for the various space domains, the results
can be summarized as follows.
6.1.1 Pore water pressure results, n = 37
The convergence of the dissipation curve series is
controlled by the initial condition in a different way.
Figure 2. (a) Initial condition shape functions. (b) Coupled
1 and 2 dissipation curves, m = 3.
For the Randolph Wroth model, there is one zero
solution at initial condition D = 0. As D 1, the dis-
sipation curves move away from the zero solution,
(see Fig 2(b), in dashed line).
For the Imre Rzsa model, there are two zero solu-
tion at initial condition D = 0 and 1. For convex initial
distributions the dissipation curves move away from
the zero solution at initial condition D = 0, for con-
cave distributions the dissipation curves move back
to the zero solution at initial condition D = 1 (Fig 2(b),
in solid line).
For not too extreme initial conditions (i.e. 3 to 7), the
dissipation curve solutions are very similar. The time
factor T is about three times larger for the Randolph-
Wroths model, than for the other model.
6.1.2 Model law
If the solutions of the same initial condition and for
the various space domains may coincide in terms of
the normalised time coordinate (T ) then the model law
is valid. This condition was tested for the dissipation
curves (i.e. for u at r = r0 ).
As it can be seen in Figure 2(a), for the one term
cylindrical model solutions, the model law can be
expected to be valid.
However, for multi-term solutions, as it can be seen
in Figure 2(b) and (c), with increasing space domain
and r1, the dissipation curve solutions deviate increas-
ingly. The one term solution seems to be a fixed

307

Figure 3. Dissipation curve envelopes in the function of
the space domain, m = 2. (a). One-term dissipation curve
solution, cylindrical models. (b) Multiterm solution, Ran-
dolph-Wroth model. b. Multiterm solutions, Imre-Rzsa
model.
element of the band, forming an the upper envelope
for the Imre-Rzsa model.
The model law seems to be valid for not too
extreme cases (i.e. 4 to 7) which are close to the one
term solution.
7 THE NUMERICAL FEATURES
In the case of the two cylindrical models (m = 2), 250
terms were considered for n = 37 and 40 otherwise.
7.1 Bessel function approximation
The Bessel functions were approximated according to
Press et al (1986) in both the small range (r < 8) and
the large range (r > 8) differently.
308
Figure 4. Variation of the argument r0 k with k and n.
Figure 5. The validity of the approximate root formulae.
The separation of the two ranges can be seen in Fig-
ure 4 for the various space domains on the example of
r0 k . The arguments r0 k and r0 k are about the same
for the two models on a given space domain. For exam-
ple, for the smallest space domain (n = 4) r0 k > 8
if k > 8. For the space domain of the dissipation test
(n = 37) r0 k > 8 if k>90.
The separation of the two ranges for the various
space domains on the example of argument r1 is as
follows. Being the terms r1 k and r1 k about equal to
k, they are in the large range if k > 3.
7.2 Validity of the root formulae
The precise roots of the boundary condition equa-
tions were determined with the secant method and,
were transformed using the approximate closed form
formulae. The results are shown in Figure 5.
According to the results, the error of the approx-
imate closed form formulae decreases with k and is
with opposite sign for the two models. The effect of
the size of the space domain shows a twisted mirror
image for the two models.
7.3 Numerical tests for the convergence
The rate of convergence of the Fourier-Bessel expan-
sion of the pore water pressure at r = r0 was tested
for ten initial conditions and seven space domains as
follows. The series:
 Figure 7. Imre-Rzsa model, the solution at r = r0 in the
Figure 6. Randolph-Wroth model, the solution r = r0 in the function of D and cut off at number k. a. n = 4. b. n = 37.
function of D and cut off at number k. a. n = 4. b. n = 37.

were cut off at a certain term k and, the difference

between the sum and 1 was computed. The results of
the convergence tests are summarized in the function
of the initial conditions, space domain and number of
terms in the Figures 6 and 7, for the case of k < 41.
According to the results, for small displacement
domain (n = 4), the limit differs from 1. Considering
the dependence on D, the error related to a certain k is
rapidly increasing as the mean initial condition ordi-
nate D varies towards the zero solution (i.e. D 0
for both models, D 1 for the Imre Rzsa model).
For the not too extreme initial conditions (i.e. 3 to 7),
the numerical error is not important.
Considering the dependence on the number of Figure 8. The unsmoothened sums of the Randolph-Wroth
terms, some oscillation was found for concave initial model, in the function of the cut off numbers k and the initial
conditions (i.e. 7 to 10). This was always eliminatable condition 1 to 10.
in the small range by a summation procedure where
the last term was halved.
description and some mathematically derived time
In the case of n=37, the results show that after
factors for two sets of the boundary conditions.
the summation the series was not convergent for the
Constant displacement boundary condition is
Randolph-Wroth model in the large range and some
assumed at the inner boundary r0 by both model-
smaller error was encountered for the Imre Rzsa
families. Constant volumetric strain boundary
model (Figs 89).
condition is assumed at the outer boundary r1 in the
consolidation theories available with space dimen-
8 DISCUSSION, CONCLUSION
sions 1 to 3 (coupled 2 models) and constant dis-
placement is assumed at the outer boundary r1 in
8.1 Analytical features
the suggested models with space dimensions 1 to 3
An analysis was made for the point-symmetric coupled (coupled 1 models).
linear consolidation models (see Table 1), resulting The results of the unified qualitative description
in a unified analytical solution, a unified qualitative showed that for a specified boundary condition the

309

Figure 9. The smoothened sums of the Imre-Rzsa model,
in the function of the cut off numbers k and the initial
condition 1 to 10.
model behaviour is the basically the same. An imme-
diate consequence of the results is that the oedometric
relaxation test can be used to study the phenomena
after pile penetration and vice versa.
The results of the unified qualitative description
showed that for the two kinds of boundary conditions
at r1 the model behaviour is different.
For the models available, the volume of the dis-
placement domain is decreasing, the total stress at r0
is constant at the shaft with time. This behaviour seems
to be qualitatively not realistic for piles.
The volume of the displacement domain is constant,
the total stress is decreasing at the shaft with time for
the suggested models. This behaviour is qualitatively
more realistic for the pile case.
8.2 Numerical features
The precise roots of the boundary condition equation
were determined for various space domains and initial
conditions, the validity of the approximate root for-
mulae and the resulting approximate model law was
tested. The error of the Bessel function approxima-
tion and the convergence properties of the analytical
solutions were characterized.
The Bessel functions were approximated according
to Press et al (1986) in both the small range (r<8)
and the large range (r>8) differently. According to the
results, the error of the Bessel function approxima-
tion was great for the large range type approximation
in some cases, for example in the case of smaller
space.
Concerning the error of the approximate closed
form root formulae, it was found that it decreases with
k and is with opposite sign for the two models. The two
models gave a twisted mirror image for the dependence
on the size of the displacement domain.
The model law was found to be approximately valid
in the case of the one-term solutions and, in the case of
not too extreme initial conditions (i.e. initial condi-
tion 4 to 7). These initial conditions are similar to the
initial condition related to the undrained penetration
310
(see Fig 2(a)). It follows that the model law can be used
to transform the solution concerning various space
domains if the penetration is undrained.
The convergence errors were not important if the
initial pore water pressure was not extreme (n > 19,
D > 0.1), which may occur for undrained penetration.
In this case about 40 terms are suggested to be taken
into account at least. The numerical error was to large
close to the zero solutions (i.e. D = 0 both models,
and D = 1 for the Imre Rzsa model). Approach-
ing these limits, the error of the approximation
increased.
This can probably be explained as follows. If the
solution series v0 (r, t) converges to the zero solu-
tion v0 (r, t) 0 then its coefficients Ck , Ek converge
to zero, too. Being any other term constant in Equa-
tions (49)(50), the sum of the numerical series for
u0 (r0 ) will decrease at every k.
The numerical features of the analytical solution
including the use of approximate root formulae; the
large range Bessel function approximation more-
over the convergence properties need some further
research.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The support of the National Research Fund Jedlik
nyos NKFP B1 2006 08 and the Norwegian research
fund HU-0121 was used for this research.
REFERENCES
Baligh, M. M. (1986). Undrained deep penetration, II. pore
pressures. Geotechnique, 36(4): 487503.
Biot, M. A. (1941). General Theory Of Three Dimensional
Consolidation. Jl. of Appl. Phys. 12: 155164.
Imre, E. & Rzsa, P. 1998. Consolidation around piles. Proc.
of 3rd Seminar on Deep Foundations on Bored and Auger
Piles. Ghent 385391.
Imre, E. (19971999) Consolidation models for incremental
oedometric tests. Acta Tech. Acad. Sci. Hung. 369398.
Imre, E. and Rzsa, P. (2002). Modelling for consolidation
around the pile tip. Proc. of the 9th Int. Conf. on Piling
and Deep Foundations (DFI), Nizza. 513519.
Imre, E. (2002). Pile consolidation models and scale effect.
Proc. of NUMGE 2002. Paris. 789796.
Imre, E., Rzsa, P (2005). Point-Symmetric Consolidation
Models for the Evaluation of the Dissipation Test. 11th
IACMAG 2005, Turin, Italy. 181191.
Imre, E., Farkas, M, Rzsa, P., (2007). A comment on the
similarity of the coupled consolidation models with point-
symmetry NUMOG XI Greece p. 337343.
Randolph, M. F. & Wroth, C. P. (1979). An analytical solution
for the consolidation around displacement piles. I. J. for
Num. Anal. Meth. in Geom, 3: 217229.
Soderberg, L. O. (1962). Consolidation Theory Applied
to Foundation Pile Time Effects. Geotechnique, 12:
217232.
Terzaghi, K. (1923). Die Berechnung der Durch. des Tones
aus demVerlauf der hydrodyn. Spannung-sercsheinungen,
Sitzber. Ak. Wiss. Wien, Abt.IIa, Vol. 123.
Torstensson, B. A (1977). The pore pressure probe. Paper
No. 34. NGI.
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Steady state seepage flow through zoned earth structures affected

by permeability defects

F. Federico, F. Calzoletti & A. Montanaro

University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy

ABSTRACT: Permeability defects in earth structures may induce considerable leakages, shear resistance loss,
internal erosion. These undesirable phenomena could evolve towards serviceability (settlements, heterogeneities
related to changes of permeabilities, high piezometric gradients) or ultimate limit states (local or global insta-
bilities, structural collapse, piping, hydrofracturing). The effects of defects in the core of zoned earth structures
are investigated through several 2D finite element analyses of steady state seepage flows. In computations, the
hydraulic losses in the pervious upstream material are neglected; the free surface is lowered by a filter drain
system between the core and the downstream shell. The discharge rate and the free surface profile are first para-
metrically computed for assigned values of the main geometrical and hydraulic variables. Numerical results are
then worked out through a multiple linear regression law to define an original analytical relationships allowing
to foresee the discharge rate for more general permeability defects.

1 INTRODUCTION Lafleur (2007), both made of cohesionless broadly

Permeability defects in earth structures and their foun-
dation soils may occur due to many causes (Jappelli &
Federico 1993, Jappelli 2004): granulometric hetero-
geneity of the quarried materials (intrinsic perme-
ability defects); compaction errors and/or the use
of inappropriate rollers; the climate conditions dur-
ing placing; structural discontinuities at the contact
of different geological formations; particle migration
and internal erosion phenomena; discontinuities of
displacements; dynamic actions; animal actions.
Permeability defects are practically unavoidable in
earth dams (Talbot & Ralston 1985), underground
diaphragm walls (Sherard et al. 1963, Jappelli et al.
1988), grouted zones (Federico 1994, Federico et al.
2002) and foundation soils. They may induce undesir-
able phenomena, whose severity falls in a wide range.
Specific attention deserves the redistribution of the
interstitial pressures: soil shear strength decreases and
instability phenomena may occur if these pressures
increase, Casagrande (1961); internal erosion, Charles
(2000), potential local increases of the hydraulic gra-
dients and related drag forces may cause particles
migration, that might evolve up to piping and dam
collapse (Federico & Musso 1990).
For example, with reference to the Nocelle earth
dam, on the river Arvo, up to the Sila Mountains in the
South Italy, fully operating since 1931, some drillings
made between 1995 and 1998 showed sand layers in
the clayey core whose thickness varied from 1 cm to
1 m (Catalano et al. 2004).
Different effects followed the internal erosion phe-
nomena occurred in the core of the Suorva dam,
Nilsson (2007), and of dams of the James bay project,
graded moraines. These materials are internally unsta-
ble or suffosive; some sinkholes occurred in 1983
and 1989; turbid water and increased leakages were
observed in the Suorva dam; strongly changes of the
pore pressure dissipation, mainly concentrated near
the downstream face of the cores, occurred in dams
of the James bay project.
The need to understand how a permeability defect
modifies the seepage through an embankment dam
and causes serviceability (change of discharge, tur-
bid water, piping) or ultimate limit states (local or
global instabilities, structural collapse, hydrofractur-
ing) of the dam is well recognized (Jappelli et al. 1996,
Jappelli 2004).
To this purpose, the 2D steady state seepage flow
through zoned earth structures, whose core houses a
permeability defect, is carried out by means of a finite
element (FE) approach, with the following goals: to
evaluate the discharges changes caused by permeabil-
ity dedefects within the core, as well as the related
interstitial pressures and the hydraulic gradients vari-
ations; to define an analytical relation between the
permeability defect features and the otained discharge
rate, through the multiple linear regression of results
of seepage flow simulations.
2 NUMERICAL MODELING OF THE
SEEPAGE FLOW
2.1 Features of the SEEP/W code
The seepage flow through permeable soils is governed
by the Darcys law and the continuity equation. The

311
solution of the governing partial differential equation
(PDE) depends on the boundary conditions (even on
the initial conditions if unsteady flow is concerned)
assigned to the seepage flow domain; these ones,
in turn, are expressed in terms of piezometric head,
interstitial pressure, discharge Harr (1962).
The numerical modeling allows to analyse complex
cases due to irregularly shaped flow domains and pecu-
liar boundary conditions; the simplified hypotheses Figure 1. Cross section and definition of the main geometric
through which analytic models may be applied are thus and hydraulic variables assumed in computations.
removed.
The SEEP/W code analyses the 2D seepage (plane
or radial) flow through saturated or partially saturated
soils. Steady or transient regimes may be accounted
for. In the paper, the seepage flow through a zoned
earth dam with a central core housing a permeabil-
ity defect (Aubertin & Chapuis, 2002) is studied. The
dam rests on a homogeneous foundation soil layer. The
computed variables are: the discharge (Q [m3 /s/m]),
the interstitial pressures (u [kPa]), the piezometric
gradients (grad h) and the free surface profile.
The permeability functions which characterize the
core material, the permeability defect, the foundation
soil have to be first defined.
The permeability functions allow to express the Figure 2. Permeability functions of materials.
hydraulic conductivity coefficient in terms of the inter-
stitial pressure (positive or negative). In saturated soils,
section and of the dam core are trapezoidal. The slope
the pores are filled by the flow and the seepage is
of the upstream and downstream shells is 3H:1V; the
maximised; conversely, if the water content decreases
slope of the core is 1H:2V. The width at the core top
(partially saturated soil), the water seeps through a
(Lmin ) is 3 m (dike) or 10 m (dam). The thickness T of
reduced (width and number of the void conduits) effec-
the foundation soil is 20 m.
tive void section; therefore, the overall permeability
The width of the horizontal permeability defect
reduces too.
varies from 25% to 100% of the corresponding core
As a consequence, the hydraulic conductivity of the
width. The permeability defect is alternately located at
soil is not constant but it depends on the soil water con-
various heights within the core; its thickness s is con-
tent. If partially saturated soils are involved, as always
stant, equal to 0.5 m (H = 10 m) and 2 m (H = 50 m);
occurs for unconfined seepage flows, the Laplace gov-
its permeability is larger than the permeability of the
erning equation becomes a non linear PDE. Depending
core material one.
the water content, in turn, on the interstitial pressure,
Physical properties: the high permeability of the
through the permeability function, the hydraulic con-
coarse soils, compared to that one of the core, allows
ductivity can be expressed in function of the interstitial
to neglect the upstream hydraulic head losses (hori-
pressure.
zontal free surface); the piezometric head is dissipated
As a final result, the permeability assumes a con-
through the core.
stant value for saturated soils and values decreasing
Furthermore, immediately downstream the core, an
with the interstitial pressure reduction (negative pres-
efficient filter-drain system lowers the free surface that
sures, partially saturated soils). The decrease of the
falls into the drain, up to its exit point. So, it does not
permeability coefficient is related to the grain size
cross the downstream shell. Then, in 2D steady state
distribution, as reported in literature.
seepage flow simulations, only the central core and the
For steady state motion, it is not necessary to define
foundation soil offer hydraulic resistance (Fig. 2).
the storage function, that is the volumetric water con-
The saturated conductivity ksat of the core material
tent in terms of the interstitial pressure (it shows the
has been fixed equal to ksat = 1108 m/s.
soil capacity to store water).
Referring to the foundation soil, high permeabilities
or large discharge would result unacceptable. There-
fore, the assigned permeabilities (ksat = 0.5108 m/s;
2.2 Problem setting
ksat = 1108 m/s; ksat = 5108 m/s) refer to an origi-
Geometry: Referring to a typical cross section of a nal small permeability or take into account the effects
zoned earth structure, the geometric and hydraulic of in situ treatments (e.g., grouting) (Fig. 2). The
variables considered for parametric simulations are permeability defect is characterized by a coarser
defined in figure 1. grain size distribution. Its saturated conductivity (ksat )
The height H of the structure ranges between 10 m ranges from 10 to 100 times larger than the core
(dykes) and 50 m (dam). The shapes of the cross one (Fig. 2).

312
Figure 3. Boundary conditions of the seepage flow domain.

Figure 4. Location of points and sections to evaluate inter-

Table 1. Parameters assumed in FE computations. stitial pressures and hydraulic gradients.

constant values
For a foundation soil with negligible permeability
kn H T s Lmin core side (rfs = 0), the discharge is computed along the verti-
m/s m m m m slope cal section, corresponding to the symmetry axis of the
core (Sec. A-A , Fig. 4). If rfs  = 0 (pervious foundation
Dyke (H = 10 m) 1108 8 20 0.5 3 1H:2V soil), the chosen section for computation is represented
Dam (H = 50 m) 1108 45 20 2 10 1H:2V by the piece-wise line composed by the foundation
soil-horizontal drainage line contact and the core-
variable parameters drainage line contact (Sections D-D , E-E , Fig. 4).
Both the core and the foundation soil contribute to
a/H  Ld /Ldmax rd rfs the discharge rate towards the horizontal drainage.
Hydraulic gradients The greatest hydraulic gradi-
Dyke (H = 10 m) 1/2, 1/4, 1/2, 1, 10, 0, 0.5,
1/4, 0 3/4, 0.85,1 100 1.5
ents occur at the contact core-downstream shell (sect.
Dam (H = 50 m) 1/2, 1/4, 1/2, 1, 10, 0, 0.5, D-D ).
1/4, 0 3/4, 0.85,1 100 1.5 This interface thus plays a significant role in ero-
sion and suffusion phenomena, which could occur and
induce serviceability or ultimate limit states, up to the
dam collapse.
2.3 Boundary conditions Along this interface, the core material is not well
The boundary conditions of the geotechnical system confined; moreover, it is exposed to high hydraulic
are described in Fig. 3: constant piezometric head (h) gradients; the corresponding drag forces can easily
equal to the geometric elevation of the reservoir level, scour the smallest particles through the voids of the
for all the nodes of the upstream shell and at the inter- filter- drain system, if this one has not been correctly
face foundation soil-reservoir; discharge Q = 0 for designed, Nilsson (2007).
all the nodes at the interface core-downstream side; In absence of arching phenomena, the internal vol-
through a trial and error procedure, it allows to define umes of the core are less exposed to erosion risks,
the position of the free surface exit-point; interstitial because their particles are surrounded by similar par-
pressure u = 0 for all the nodes at the interface foun- ticles and exhibit an appreciable interlocking (high
dation soil-downstream drain; an efficient drainage effective stresses and shear resistance).
ensures this condition; discharge Q = 0 without the Therefore, they better resist to the erosive action car-
condition of modifiable node for the remaining nodes ried out by the drag forces (Federico & Musso 1990).
on the domain border.

3 RESULTS OF THE FE SIMULATION

2.4 Development of computations
The main parameters (Tab. 1) are: the geometric eleva-
tion of the defect compared to the core height (a/H  );
the defect width compared to the core base width
(Ld /Ldmax ), the (saturated) permeability of the defect
compared to the core permeability (rd ); the saturated
permeability of the foundation soil compared to the
core permeability (rfs ).
For each model, two schemes have been accounted
for: (a) negligible permeability of the foundation soil
(rfs = 0): the seepage flow takes place only in the core
(limit case); (b) permeable foundation soil (rfs = 0):
the water seeps both through the foundation soil and
the core.
Discharge variations - A permeability defect in the
core always gets a discharge increase, in compari-
son to the case of a homogeneous core (absence of a
defect). Results concerning the discharge are reported
in figure 5.
The presence of a foundation soil whose overall per-
meability is comparable to that of the core one, further
increases the discharges, although the corresponding
numerical results substantially do not modify (Fig. 6,
dam height H = 50 m, for 3 permeability values of the
foundation soil (rfs = 0.5; 1 ; 5).
Defect location (a/H  ): it plays a moderate influ-
ence in the discharge variation; if a/H  decreases

313

Figure 5. Adimensional discharge rate (H  height of the
core) (dyke: height H = 10 m; dam: H = 50 m) as a function
of the permeability defect characteristics. The permeability
of the foundation soil has been neglected.
Figure 6. Discharge rate (dam, height H = 50 m) as a func-
tion of the permeability defect characteristics as well as of
the permeability of the foundation soils.
(reduction of the defect elevation), being unchanged
the remaining parameters, the discharge slightly
increases.
Length of the defect (Ld /Ldmax ): it affects the dis-
charge increase only if its values become very near
to the unity; for smaller values, it does not play a
remarkable role (Tab. 3).
Permeability of the defect (rd ): it plays a very
important role in the modification of discharges.
If rd = 100, the increases of the discharge become
very significant especially if appreciable rd values are
coupled to a significant length of the defect; on the
contrary, if rd = 10, the increases of the discharge are
appreciable (maximum increase: 70% respect to the
discharge obtained for a homogenous core).
Permeability of the foundation soil (rfs ): the pres-
ence of the foundation soil causes an increase of the
discharge which is proportional to its permeability.
Two cases have been considered: rfs = 0.5 and rfs = 1:
considerable increases of the discharges (up to 140%
for H = 10 m) in comparison to the discharges without
a pervious foundation soil; rfs = 5: marked increases
of the discharges (up to 700% for H = 10 m).
The overall discharge increases due to the contribu-
tion of the foundation soil, as expected.
314
Table 3. Increase of the discharge rate, as a function of the
adimensional ratio Ld /Ldmax .
Relative length of Discharge Discharge
the perm. defect increase increase
0,25 < Ld /Ldmax < 0,50 negligible 0 40%
0,50 < Ld /Ldma x < 0,75 appreciable 40 110%
0,75 < Ld /Ldmax < 0,95 high 110 280%
0,95 < Ld /Ldmax < 1,0 very high 280 900%
Figure 7. Interstitial pressure (u) distribution vs the eleva-
tion (y), along the cross section B-B (fig. 4).
Figure 8. Interstitial pressure (u) distribution vs the eleva-
tion (Y ), along the cross section C-C (fig. 4).
However, the effective most significant discharge
increases occur in absence of the foundation soil, due
to the greater volumetric percentage incidence of the
permeability defect compared to the whole seepage
domain volume.
In presence of foundation soil, a not remarkable
reduction of the interstitial pressures occurs in the
core, proportional to the permeability parameter rfs
of foundation soil.
Figures 10 (related to a quite remarkable defect
Ld /Ldmax = 0.75) and 11 (Ld /Ldmax = 1) highlight that
if Ld /Ldmax = 0.75, high hydraulic gradient values
localize at the extremities of the defect, which are thus
extremely exposed to potential erosive phenomena
(Kenney & Lau 1985, Indraratna & Vafai 1997).
If Ld /Ldmax = 1, the intensity of the gradients at
the edges of the defect appears smaller than that one
corresponding to the case Ld /Ldmax = 0.75.
Figure 9. Interstitial pressure (u) distribution vs the abscissa
(x), along the horizontal cross section E-E , F-F , G-G .
Figure 10. Hydraulic gradient distribution (defect elevation
H  /4; Ld /Ldmax = 0.75; rfs = 0).
Figure 11. Hydraulic gradient distribution (defect elevation
H  /4; Ld /Ldmax = 1; rfs = 0).
Therefore, the most critical situation for the erosive
effects often occurs just before than the permeability
defect extends along the whole core width.
Free surface generally slightly modifies due to the
presence of a permeability defect in the core, as those
ones considered in simulations. The profiles of the
free surfaces (dyke, H = 10), referred to a permeabil-
ity defect located at the elevation H  /2, are represented
in figure 12; the defect length and permeability vary.
Near the upstream shell, the free surfaces does not
significantly vary (dark-grey, light-grey curves); it
practically matches the free surface corresponding to
315
Figure 12. Free surface as a function of the abscissa x (the
origin of x coincides with the lower point of the upstream
face). Dyke height H = 10 m; permeability defect elevation
H  /2; foundation soil permeability neglected (rfs = 0).
that one of the homogenous core case (one only black
curve); near the downstream shell, the permeability
defect causes a general lifting of the free surfaces
compared to the free surface of a homogenous core,
as more marked as greater is the permeability of the
defect (the light-grey curves are above the dark-grey
curves). Lastly, the curves corresponding to a perme-
ability defect whose width is equal to the core width
always lay under the curve (black) related to that one
of the homogenous core.
The presence of a pervious foundation soil layer
induces a free surface lowering, compared to the case
(rfs = 0).
4 AN APPROXIMATE ANALYTICAL
RELATIONSHIP OF THE
DISCHARGE RATE
The multiple linear regression model generalizes to
the case of many variables the well-known model of
the simple linear regression, which considers only one
independent variable.
The model applies the least square method to get
the vector of the parameters to be inserted in the linear
regression law of considered base values.
Referring to the discharge rate, the main param-
eters are x1 = H  /H ; x2 = rfs ; x3 = rd ; x4 = a/H  ;
x5 = (rd ) Ld /Ldmax ; x6 = (rd ) (Ld /Ldmax )3 .
The (rd ), (rd ) functions allow to optimize the
coefficients xi (i = 1, . . . 6); they are defined as
follows:
the linearly decreasing function (rd ) assumes the
values 1 if rd = 10 and 0 if rd = 100;
the linearly increasing function (rd ) assumes the
values 1 if rd = 100 and 0 if rd = 10.
 The adimensional discharge rate y = Q/ksat H  is:
where c1 = 6.548; c2 = 7.061; c3 = 0.513; c4 = 5.247
103 ; c5 = 0.371; c6 = 0.377; c7 = 3.236.
5 CONCLUDING REMARKS
The effects of permeability defects in the core of a
zoned earth structure, resting on a permeable soil layer,
have been numerically (FEM) analysed. Several cases
have been taken into account and simulated; numer-
ical results allowed us to relate the features of the
permeability defect (location, length, permeability) to
computed discharge, interstitial pressures, piezometric
gradients, leakage.
The further re-organization of results, by applying
the multiple linear regression technique, allowed us
to work out an analytical relationship, referred to the
discharge rate, in a adimensional form, for both cases
of presence/absence of foundation soil layer.
The law synthetically describes obtained results
(336 simulations) and allows to foresee results pertain-
ing to different cases, as in current seepage problems
characterized by a permeability defect.
REFERENCES
Aubertin, M. & Chapuis, R.P. 2002. A simplified method to
estimate saturated and unsaturated seepage through dikes
under steady-state conditions, Can. Geot. J., 13211328.
Casagrande,A. 1961. Control of Seepage through Foundation
and Abutments of Dams, Geotechnique, XI, 161181.
Catalano, A., Federico F. & Jappelli, R. 2004. Analisi del
comportamento della diga di Nocelle dopo 70 anni di
esercizio. XXII Conv. Naz. di Geotecnica Sicurezza ed
Adeguamento delle Opere Esistenti, settembre, Palermo.
Charles, J. A. 2000. Internal Erosion in European Embank-
ment Dams. Report of the WG on Internal Erosion in
Embankment Dams, Euro Club I.C.O.L.D., March.
316
Federico, F. & Musso, A. 1990. Limit state design of con-
tacts and transitions in embankment dams. LIngegnere,
A.N.I.A.I., LXV, n. 14, pp. 4956.
Federico, F. 1994. Numerical analysis of the effectiveness
of imperfect underground barriers. 1st Int. Congr. on
Environmental Geotechnics, Edmonton.
Federico, F., Jappelli, R. & Marchetti, A. 2002. Effectiveness
of water barriers in dam foundations. 5th Eur. Conf. Num.
Meth. in Geotech. Engrg, 4/6, September, Paris.
Harr, M. E., 1962. Groundwater and seepage. McGraw-Hill.
Indraratna, B. & Vafai F. 1997. Analytical Model for Particle
Migration Within Base Soil Filter System. J. of Geotech.
Geoenv. Engrg., A.S.C.E., 123(2), pp. 100109.
Jappelli, R., Valore, C. & Federico, F. 1988. Imperfect under-
ground barriers under transient seepage conditions. 6th
Int. Conf. on Num. Meth. in Geomech., 1, pp. 637641,
Innsbruck.
Jappelli, R. & Federico, F. 1993. I difetti delle costruzioni
geotecniche. Identificazione e strategie di intervento.
Corso C.I.A.S. Evoluzione nella Sperimentazione per le
Costruzioni, Rel. gen. della sessione Affidabilit delle
indagini sulle fondazioni, pp. 109130, Rovinj.
Jappelli, R., Federico, F. & Musso, A. 1996. Analysis of
seepage limit states in embankment dams. XVI Int. Conf.
on Large Dams, Q. 73, Florence.
Jappelli, R. 2004. Difetti delle grandi dighe e rimedi strate-
gici. Convegno Problemi Strutturali nellIngegneria delle
Dighe, Lincei, febbraio, Roma.
Kenney, T.C. & Lau, D. 1985. Internal stability of granu-
lar filters. Canadian Geotechnical Journal, Vol. 22 (2),
pp. 215225.
Lafleur, J. 2007. Internal stability of particles in dam cores
made of cohesionless broadly graded moraines. Internal
Erosion of Dams and their Foundations Fell & Fry (eds),
Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415.
Nilsson, . 2007. The susceptibility of internal erosion in the
Suorva Dam. Internal Erosion of Dams and their Founda-
tions Fell & Fry (eds), Taylor & Francis Group, London,
ISBN 978-0-415.
Sherard, J.L., Woodward, R. J., Gizienski, S. F. & Clevenger,
A. 1963. Earth and Earth-Rock Dams. Wiley.
Talbot, J. R. & Ralston, D. C. 1985. Earth Dam Seepage Con-
trol, SCS Experience. Symp. on Seepage and Leakage
from Dams and Impoundments, A.S.C.E., Geotechnical
Engineering Division, Denver, Colorado, May, 446.
Unsaturated soil mechanics
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

A comparison between numerical integration algorithms for

unsaturated soils constitutive models

F. Cattaneo
Universit degli Studi di Brescia, Brescia, Italy

G. Della Vecchia
Politecnico di Torino, Torino, Italy

C. Jommi & G. Maffioli

Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy

ABSTRACT: Constitutive models for soils in unsaturated conditions must account for the role of suction on
the response of the volume element. Different constitutive formulations have been proposed to this aim in the
recent past by different authors. Focusing the attention on elastic-plastic models with generalised hardening, a
comparison between classical numerical algorithms, which can be adopted for the numerical integration of the
soil skeleton constitutive law, is discussed. A refined Runge-Kutta-Dormand-Prince explicit formula and a fully
implicit algorithm are compared one to the other in terms of convergence order and computational cost, on a
typical stress path dependent on both strain and suction variations. Results are shown with specific reference to
the axis-symmetric formulation of an elastic-plastic constitutive model, in which mixed isotropic and rotational
hardening is ruled by volumetric plastic strain and degree of saturation. Iso-errors maps are presented to evaluate
the performance of the implicit algorithm.

1 INTRODUCTION due to the high non linearities introduced by hydro-

The engineering applications involving soils above the
water table, or soils used as construction ma-terials,
take advantage of constitutive formulations able to
tackle the non-linear, irreversible behaviour of the vol-
ume element in unsaturated conditions. In this case, the
response of the soil skeleton is ruled by the coupled
action of total stress, water pressure and gas pressure.
In the last years, different constitutive formulations
have been proposed to model the behaviour of soils in
unsaturated conditions. With reference to the class of
models developed in the framework of elastoplasticity,
the constitutive equations for the soil skeleton may be
written in the general form (Gens et al. 2006):
mechanical coupling. Alternative strategies may be
pursued to this aim. Typically, explicit integration
schemes may prove to be a valuable choice during the
model development stage, as they do not require, in
general, heavy analytical effort. In view of the applica-
tion of the models to real scale problems more efficient
numerical algorithms are required in general.
Common numerical algorithms have been applied
to integrate a constitutive model for unsaturated soils,
conceived in the framework of elasto-plasticity with
generalised hardening, dependent on plastic strain and
degree of saturation. Convergence, iso-error maps and
computational effort are analysed in the following,
with reference to a coupled hydro-mechanical path
involving plastic strains induced by both load and
suction variations.

where c is a suitable constitutive stress rate, Dc is the

tangent elastic-plastic tensor, is the total strain rate
and s is a measure of that part of the strain rate which is
due to suction variations, where suction, s, is defined as
the difference between the gas and the water pressures.
The choice of the appropriate constitutive stress, and
of the way in which the suction induced strains are
calculated, in general distinguish the different models
one from the other.
All the appropriate constitutive models require
numerical procedures to integrate the stress paths,
2 ELASTIC-PLASTIC CONSTITUTIVE
FORMULATION
In the context of a general coupled finite element anal-
ysis, the integration is carried out at the Gauss point
level, given the strain, the water pressure and the gas
pressures increments.
To describe the soil response, both the hydraulic
and the mechanical constitutive relationships must
be introduced. The hydraulic constitutive law, named

319
water retention curve, describes the depen-dence of
the amount of water stored in the soil pores as a func-
tion of suction. Adopting the degree of sa-turation as
a useful measure of the amount of soil water, and lim-
iting the attention to a wide class of models relating it
to the suction and to the total void ratio, the retention
curve can be described in the general functional form:
For this class of retention models, the variation
of the degree of saturation in the incremental step
depends directly on the suction increment and on the
total volumetric strain increment. Being uncoupled
from the plastic strain increment, the variation of the
degree of saturation can be calculated by a suitable
integration method, before entering the mechanical
constitutive behaviour routine. Therefore, at the begin-
ning of the latter numerical integration procedure,
the total strain increment, the suction increment, and
the degree of saturation increment are known. The
unknowns to be found are the updated constitutive
stress and the updated plastic variables.
Adopting a linear kinematic description, the strain
rate is decomposed additively in an elastic, reversible
part, e , and a plastic, irreversible part, p :
In the class of models considered herein the average
soil skeleton stress, ,
is adopted as constitutive stress. In the previous expres-
sion is the vector whose entries are 1 for the normal
stress components and 0 for the shear components.
The constitutive stress is the static variable linked to
the elastic strains:
The elastic locus is bounded by a convex yield
surface, f , defined in terms of internal variables q,
depending on plastic strains and on the degree of
saturation:
Plastic strains are defined prescribing a general non
associated flow rule
where g is the plastic potential, and is the plastic
multiplier.
The evolution of the internal variables q is provided
by the following generalised hardening law:
320
where h and are hardening functions. The first
term describes the changes in the internal variables
associated with plastic strains, while the second term
describes a reversible evolution of the elastic locus
with the hydraulic history, ruled by the changes in the
degree of saturation.
The plastic multiplier is subjected to the classical
Kuhn-Tucker conditions:
stating that plastic strains may occur only for states on
the yield surface.
Let:
denote the gradients of f with respect to and q.
From the consistency condition, f = 0, the consti-
tutive equation (Eq. 5) and the flow rule (Eq. 7),
the following expression for the plastic multiplier is
obtained, in terms of and Sr:
provided that:
3 INTEGRATION ALGORITHMS
In a boundary value problem the load path is divided
into steps. Let n + 1 be a time step bounded by tn and
p
tn+1 . The state of the material ( n , qn , n , n , Sr n )
is assumed to be completely known at time tn . The
p
unknowns n+1 , qn+1 and n+1 must be determined,
given the assigned increments  and Sr, through
the integration of Equations 5-9.
Two classical approaches (see e.g. Ortiz & Popov
1985) have been implemented in a constitutive driver,
able to tackle any stress path under general mixed static
and kinematic control conditions. A refined explicit
algorithm of the Runge-Kutta family (e.g. Sloan 1987,
Jakobsen & Lade 2002), and a fully implicit backward
Euler scheme (Borja & Lee 1990, Tamagnini et al.
2002) were adopted.
In both cases, the initial trial solution is calculated
by a fully elastic prediction, which is checked against
an initial trial yield surface, in which the internal vari-
ables have already been updated for the change in the
degree of saturation.
3.1 Explicit algorithm
The trial elastic state is calculated with an explicit
approach:
 trial
If fn+1 := f ( trial
n+1 , qn+1 ) 0, the trial state satisfies
trial
the Kuhn-Tucker conditions (Eq. 9), and it coincides
with the converged solution in the step. Otherwise, if
trial
fn+1 > 0, a plastic integration step must be performed.
In the latter case, if at the beginning of the step the
stress state was strictly inside the yield locus, fn < 0, the
intersection with the trial yield surface must be found
before starting the plastic integration step. To find the
stresses and the internal variable at the yield surface
intersection, the scalar quantity , which satisfies the
equation:
must be found.
In general, Equation 14 is non-linear with respect
to the variable and can be solved by a variety of
numerical methods. As is bounded in the interval
0 1, Regula-Falsi procedure proves to be a valuable
choice (Quarteroni et al. 2007). Stresses and internal
variables on the yield surface become the initial values
at the beginning of the plastic integration step, which
consists in solving the non-linear system of ordinary
differential Equations 5, 8.
Several methods have been proposed to integrate
the non-linear constitutive equations. All of them
require a sub-stepping procedure, to limit the inte-
gration error. Among them, the algorithms belonging
to the Runge-Kuttas class, with automatic substep-
ping and error control, have proven to be reliable and
efficient. The basic idea of this class of algorithms
is to modify the substep size by comparing two dif-
ferent order estimates of the problem solution. The
Runge-Kutta-Dormand-Prince algorithm was chosen
here.
When an explicit algorithm is adopted, the plas-
tic extension does not force the stress state to lie on
the yield surface. The constraint fn+1 = 0 has to be
checked at the end, and, in the case it were violated,
consistency must be restored. The method proposed by
Sloan (1987) can be adopted to this aim. Assuming that
the internal variables qn+1 remain constant, the stress
state is modified in order to restore the consistency
condition. A scalar must be found, so that
where n+1 is the stress state at the end of the explicit
integration procedure, and n+1 is the final, corrected
stress state, satisfying the consistency condition, for
the given internal variables.
3.2 Implicit algorithm
The classical elastic-plastic operator split (Borja & Lee
1990) of the original problem (OR) may be extended to
hardening rules dependent on both the plastic strains
and the degree of saturation, as the sum of an elastic
predictor (EP) and a plastic corrector (PC) (Tamagnini
et al. 2002):
321
OR = EP + PC
e = tot Q e = tot e = Q
q = h + Sr q = Sr q = h
Trial values are calculated solving the elastic pre-
dictor problem:
A suitable accurate procedure must be envisaged to
solve the non linear equations (Eqs. 16). In fact, the
accuracy of the elastic prediction affects significantly
the final accuracy of the whole integration procedure,
as the results presented in the following will demon-
trial
strate. A closed form evaluation of qn+1 is strongly
suggested when the function is sufficiently sim-
ple to be integrated analytically, especially for large
increments of the degree of saturation.
trial
If the constraint fn+1 0 is violated, the trial state
lies outside the yield locus, and consistency needs to
be restored. The trial state becomes the initial state for
the following system:
where the unknowns are e , qn+1 and . Newtons
algorithm can be adopted to find the solution of the
non linear sysyem.
4 NUMERICAL IMPLEMENTATION
The two integration algorithms have been imple-
mented in a constitutive driver, in which the momen-
tum balance, the water mass balance and the air mass
balance are solved simultaneously at the representa-
tive volume element level. The transition between a
two-phase (saturated or dry) system and the general
three-phase system is tackled with a physically based
approach, by including water vapour and dissolved gas
in the formulation.
The hydro-mechanical model proposed by Romero
& Jommi (2008) is adopted here to describe the
behaviour of unsaturated soils. Basically, its formu-
lation is an extension to unsaturated conditions of the
mixed isotropic-rotational hardening model proposed
by Dafalias (1987) for saturated soils. The relevant
constitutive equations will be summarised here, for
axis-symmetric stress and strain paths only, adopting
the usual geotechnical triaxial variables.
 The elastic behaviour is described by:
The yield function,
depends on two internal variables, pc and M rul-
ing isotropic and rotational hardening, respectively.
An associated flow rule is adopted to describe plastic
strains (f = g).
The hardening functions h, describing the evolution
of the internal variables with plastic strains, are:
The original formulation of the model was adopted
here, although the hardening law (Eq. 20b), depending
on volumetric plastic strain only, does not lead to a
unique inclination of the yield surface at critical state.
The evolution of the preconsolidation stress pc with
the degree of saturation, i.e. the so called Loading-
Collapse (LC) curve, is written in the finite form,
The LC curve is thus the closed form of the
hardening function for the degree of saturation.
The model is able to reproduce quite well a series of
typical tests on clayey soils (Romero & Jommi 2008).
One of these tests is simulated here, to evaluate the per-
formance of the numerical integration algorithms. The
test chosen is characterised by hardening promoted
by both plastic strains and changes in the degree of
saturation.
A sample of Boom clay was compacted in oedome-
ter, on the dry side of the optimum Proctor. Oedometer
compaction gave the soil an anisotropic structure,
described by an initial yield surface rotated with
respect to the hydrostatic axis. After compaction, the
sample was mounted in a controlled-suction triaxial
cell, and it was compressed isotropically to a final total
external confining stress of p = 600 kPa. Afterwards,
a wetting-drying-wetting cycle was performed. The
experimental data showed that the initial anisotropy
was completely erased along the first wetting path.
In the following drying-wetting cycle the response
of the soil was isotropic. Significant volumetric plas-
tic strains were accumulated in the first wetting path,
due to the tendency of the yield locus to reduce with
increasing saturation, which is compensated by plas-
tic strain hardening. Due to initial anisotropy, also
irreversible shear strains were observed. Further vol-
umetric plastic strains were recorded in the following
322
Figure 1. Wetting-drying-wetting cycle at constant total
confining pressure on Boom clay sample: experimental
data and exact numerical simulation for the evolution of
volumetric strain.
drying stage, were the suction mainly acted as an
increasing external stress (Romero & Jommi 2008).
Relevant experimental data for the volumetric
strains are reported in Figure 1. The exact numerical
solution of the constitutive model prediction is also
reported in the figure. The solution was obtained by
means of the explicit or the implicit algorithm, by sub-
dividing the whole stress path in a huge amount of steps
(10,000 steps for the explicit procedure).
To evaluate the performance of the two different
algorithms, a set of numerical analyses were per-
formed, changing the number of time intervals in
which the whole stress path was subdivided. All the
analyses were carried out on a Intel Core 2 Duo
processor (E4600 at 2.40 GHz).
The results of the parametric analyses for the
explicit and the implicit integration algorithm are
reported in Figures 2a,b, respectively.
The numerical simulations confirm that the refined
explicit algorithm is rather efficient, although only
conditionally stable. A minimum of 80 time steps are
necessary to obtain a sufficiently accurate solution. On
the contrary, the implicit algorithm is unconditionally
stable, and a reliable solution can be obtained with a
reduced number of steps.
The error of the numerical solution with respect to
the exact solution is shown in Figures 3, 4, as a function
of the number of steps, and of the CPU time necessary
for the Newton-Raphson procedure to integrate the
whole wetting-drying-wetting cycle. The error is com-
puted with reference to the value of the axial strain at
the end of the whole cyclic path. A convergence order
of one characterises both algorithms, although uncon-
ditional stability of the implicit algorithm allows for a
lower global number of steps and lower CPU time.
Convergence of the global Newton-Raphson algo-
rithm for the solution of the balance equations is shown
in Figure 5 for the two methods. The figure refers to

Figure 2. Numerical solutions for volumetric strain
obtained with different number of steps: (a) refined explicit
procedure and (b) fully implicit Euler scheme.
a time step in the first wetting path, where significant
volumetric plastic strain is promoted by the reduc-
tion of suction. Adopting a consistent stiffness matrix
guarantees convergence of order two for the implicit
algorithm (Simo & Taylor 1985), while the explicit
procedure convergence rate decreases rapidly as the
number of iteration increases, as only the continuous
stiffness matrix was evaluated.
Iso-error maps for the implicit integration algorithm
are presented in Figures 6, 7.The error is defined on the
predicted stress state with respect to the exact solution:
The error was calculated by integrating the load
paths with different assigned increments of the degree
of saturation and of the volumetric strain, starting from
a stress point at yield. In the first case, the internal
323
Figure 3. Error on the final volumetric strain vs number of
steps.
Figure 4. Error on the final volumetric strain vs CPU time.
variables were updated exactly at the beginning of the
integration procedure, by means of the closed form of
(Sr) (Eq. 21). In the second case the initial closed
form calculation of (Sr) (Eq. 16b) was substituted
by its numerical estimate.
The results plotted in Figure 6 demonstrate that the
error in the calculated stress keeps small even for rel-
atively high assigned values of the volumetric strain
increment. At fixed volumetric strain increment, the
error is slightly higher when relevant plastic volu-
metric strain is accumulated at increasing degree of
saturation. The relevance of the saturation hardening
function on the global efficiency of the numerical
algorithm is demonstrated in Figure 7. Linearisation
introduced by the numerical estimate produces a much
faster increase of the error, especially at decreasing
degree of saturation.

Figure 5. Convergence rate of the global NetwonRaphson
procedure.
Figure 6. Iso-error map for the implicit procedure with a
closed form calculation of saturation hardening.
5 CONCLUSIONS
The different formulations proposed to model the con-
stitutive behaviour of unsaturated soils share high
non linearities coming from strong hydro-mechanical
coupling. Refined numerical algorithms are manda-
tory for their implementation in finite element codes.
The use of a refined Runge-Kutta-Dormand-Prince
explicit algorithm and of a fully implicit Euler scheme
were tested to this aim, on a model developed in
the framework of elastoplasticity with generalised
hardening.
Both procedures proved to be rather efficient in
the integration of the hydro-mechanical laws at the
Gauss point level, although conditional stability of the
explicit one may pose severe limits on the maximum
step size. The advantages of the implicit procedure
emerge when the solution of the global balance equa-
tions is tackled, if a consistent tangent matrix approach
is implemented.
324
Figure 7. Iso-error map for the implicit procedure with a
linearised numerical estimate of saturation hardening.
The numerical results showed that the global effi-
ciency of the algorithms is affected by the way in which
the generalised hardening laws are tackled at the pre-
dictor level. Closed form solutions, if available, are
clearly advantageous.
REFERENCES
Borja, R. I. & Lee, S. R. 1990. Cam-clay plasticity, part
1: Implicit integration of elasto-plastic constitutive rela-
tions. Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and
Engineering 78(1): 4972.
Dafalias, Y. 1987. An anisotropic critical state soil plasticity
model. Mechanics Research Communications 13(6), 341
347.
Gens, A., Sanchez, M. & Sheng, D. 2006. On constitutive
modelling of unsaturated soils. Acta Geotechnica 1(3):
137147.
Jakobsen, K. P. & Lade, P.V. 2002. Implementation algo-
rithm for a single hardening constitutive model for fric-
tional materials. International Journal for Numerical and
Analytical Methods in Geomechanics 26(7): 661681.
Ortiz, M. & Popov, E.P. 1985. Accuracy and stability of
integration algorithms for elastoplastic constitutive rela-
tions. International Journal for Numerical Methods in
Engineering 21(9): 15611576.
Quarteroni, A., Sacco, R. & Saleri, F. 2007. Numerical
Mathematics (2 ed.). Milano:Springer.
Romero, E. & Jommi, C. 2008. An insight into the
role of hydraulic history on the volume changes of
anisotropic clayey soils. Water Resour. Res. 44, doi
10.1029/2007WR006558.
Simo, J. C. & Taylor, R.L. 1985. Consistent tangent operators
for rate-independent elastoplasticity. Computer Methods
in Applied Mechanics and Engineering 48(1): 101118.
Sloan, S. W. 1987. Substepping schemes for the numerical
integration of elastoplastic stress-strain relations. Inter-
national Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering
24(5): 893911.
Tamagnini, C., Castellanza, R. & Nova, R. 2002. Numeri-
cal integration of elastoplastic constitutive equation for
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Pietruszczak (eds), Numerical Models in Geomechanics
NUMOG VIII: 213218.
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Comparison of stress update algorithms for partially saturated soil models

Matthias Hofmann
ALPINE BeMo Tunnelling GmbH, Austria

Gnter Hofstetter
Institute of Basic Sciences in Civil Engineering, University of Innsbruck, Austria

Alexander Ostermann
Department of Mathematics, University of Innsbruck, Austria

ABSTRACT: In this paper different stress update algorithms of constitutive models for partially saturated
soils are compared on the basis of the Barcelona Basic Model (BBM). They include both explicit and implicit
integration schemes applying the Richardson extrapolation method for sub-stepping with error control. The
comparison of the mentioned stress update algorithms is performed for prescribed ranges of volumetric and
deviatoric strain increments on the basis of two sets of material parameters for the BBM. Finally, some tests of
an extensive experimental program are selected for computing the constitutive response of an unsaturated soil
and comparing the numerical results with the experimental data.

1 INTRODUCTION the hardening law and by solving only a nonlinear

The development of constitutive models for par-
tially saturated soils and the implementation into
FE-programs are ongoing research topics. The latter
requires selection of a suitable stress update algorithm.
In addition to accuracy, robustness and efficiency of
the employed stress update algorithm play a decisive
role especially for large-scale FE-analyses. This is the
motivation for comparing different stress update algo-
rithms of constitutive models for partially saturated
soils. The comparison is performed on the basis of
the Barcelona Basic Model (BBM), which is currently
probably the most well-known constitutive model for
partially saturated soils. It is formulated in terms of
two independent stress parameters, consisting of net
stress and matric suction.
The investigated stress update algorithms include
both explicit and implicit integration schemes. The
former include a forward Euler integration scheme
and a semi-explicit integration algorithm (Mitten-
dorfer 2006). The Richardson extrapolation method,
described in (Fellin et al. 2009), is used as the
basis for sub-stepping with error control, which is an
essential ingredient especially for the explicit stress
update algorithms. The considered implicit schemes
include a general return mapping algorithm (Simo
and Hughes 1998) and a computationally efficient
version of a return mapping algorithm. Whereas the
former requires the solution of a system of several
nonlinear equations at the integration point level,
the latter is characterized by analytical integration of
scalar equation at the integration point level. More-
over, enhancements of implicit integration methods
with sub-stepping and error control techniques are
investigated. In addition, a fifth-order RungeKutta
stress update algorithm with error control is included
in this investigation (Hairer and Wanner 1996). The
comparison of the mentioned stress update algorithms
is performed for prescribed ranges of volumetric and
deviatoric strain increments on the basis of two sets
of material parameters for the BBM. Finally, some
tests of an extensive experimental program are selected
for computing the constitutive response of an unsatu-
rated soil and comparing the numerical results with
the experimental data.
2 UNSATURATED SOIL MODEL
For the present three-phase formulation the Barcelona
Basic Model (BBM) is employed as constitutive model
for describing unsaturated soil behavior. It is employed
here in its original version, proposed in (Alonso et al.
1990), because the latter was agreed as the basis for
extensive benchmark activities within the framework
of the MUSE network (Marie Curie Research Training
Network).
The BBM is formulated in terms of the net stress
tensor  and the capillary pressure pc . The net stress

325
is the total stress in excess of the pore air pressure pa ,
and the capillary pressure or matric suction
is the difference between the air pressure pa and the
water pressure pw . For stress states located within
the elastic domain, enclosed by the yield surface,
the elastic volumetric and deviatoric strain rates are
given as
with the material parameters and s , representing the
elastic stiffness for changes of the mean net pressure
p = (  : I)/3 and for changes of the capillary pres-
sure pc , respectively. Further, e, patm , sij and G denote
the void ratio, the atmospheric air pressure, the devi-
atoric stress rate and the shear modulus, respectively.
It follows from (31 ) that the elastic volumetric strain
rate ev depends on both the mean net pressure p and
the capillary pressure pc . Within the elastic domain the
stress point (p , e) lies on the unloading-reloading line
(URL) with slope . For isotropic plastic conditions it
lies on the isotropic compression line (ICL) with the
suction-dependent slope
(pc ) describes the soil stiffness during plastic loading
in a hydrostatic test for a given capillary pressure pc
in terms of the respective stiffness (0) at saturated
conditions and the material parameters r and .
The intersection point of the URL and the ICL is the
preconsolidation pressure p0 . The ICL is defined by
the slope (pc ) and the void ratio N (pc ) 1 at p = 1
with N (pc ) denoting the respective specific volume.
From the volumetric behavior of the BBM follows
from which
is obtained. The yield surface is defined as
with the second invariant of the deviatoric stress tensor
J2 = sij sij /2 and
326
Figure 1. Yield surface of the BBM for different values of
the preconsolidation pressure.
In (7) M defines the slope of the critical state line. ps
and p0 both depend on the capillary pressure accord-
ing to (8). For negative values of p the intersection
of the yield surface (7) with the plane J2 = 0 is given
by ps according to (81 ) with the material parameter
ks describing the increase in cohesion due to the cap-
illary pressure. The preconsolidation pressure p0 and
the one for saturated conditions (p0 ) are located on
the so called loading collapse yield curve (LC curve)
according to (82 ). This curve is the intersection of the
yield surface with the plane J2 = 0 for positive values
of p . Here, pref serves as a reference pressure such that
for (p0 ) = pref (82 ) degenerates to p0 = pref = const.
The plastic strain rate is determined from the non-
associated flow rule
with the flow potential
where is a constant. The hardening law relates the
rate of the preconsolidation pressure at saturated con-
ditions (p0 ) , which serves as the hardening parameter,
p
to the volumetric plastic strain rate v by
(11) describes the evolution of the yield surface. The
latter is shown for two different values of (p0 ) in
Fig. 1.
3 STRESS UPDATE ALGORITHMS
Within the framework of a FE-analysis the plastic
strains, the hardening variables and the stresses of the
soil skeleton at a given time instant tn+1 are determined
from the respective known values at tn and from given
increments of the total strain of the soil skeleton and
of the capillary pressure,  and pc , for the current
time step t = tn+1 tn .
 To this end, the following stress update algorithms quantities refer to the current values at tn+1 . In case of
for the BBM are investigated regarding accuracy, a constant value of G from (32 ) it follows
robustness and efficiency:
(a) an explicit stress update algorithm, characterized
by forward integration of the constitutive rate
equation

Inserting (14) into (15) gives

c
with Cep = / and Cp ,ep = /pc denoting
the constitutive tangent operators; it is combined
with adaptive sub-stepping and error control based
on the Richardson extrapolation method;
(b) a general return mapping algorithm (Simo and The term enclosed by the brackets is a scalar quantity,
Hughes 1998), which is characterized by back- hence, sij and sijTrial differ only by a scalar factor. Thus,
ward Euler integration of the rate equations for the from (16) it follows
plastic strains (9) and the hardening variable (11),
and enforcing the condition f = 0 for the yield
function (7) at tn+1 ; it requires solving a system
of nonlinear equations, consisting of the consis-
tency parameter, the net stress and the hardening
Making use of = (v ev )/(3g/I1 ), resulting
variable;
from (141 ), yields
(c) an optimized return mapping algorithm, which
is described in the subsequent subsection. It is
characterized by solving only a scalar nonlinear
equation for the unknown first invariant of net
stress I1 ;
(d) a semi-explicit stress update algorithm
(Mittendorfer 2006), which is characterized by
explicit integration of the rate equations for the
plastic strains (9) and the hardening variable (11) In (18) the incremental volumetric strain v is known
and by enforcing the condition f = 0 for the yield from the current estimate of the displacement incre-
function (7) at tn+1 for determining the consis- ment at tn+1 . Further, J2 and ev in (18) can be
tency parameter; it is combined with sub-stepping replaced by
and error control along the lines of the explicit
algorithm;
(e) the implicit fifth-order RungeKutta integration
algorithm with error control RADAU5, proposed
in (Hairer and Wanner 1996).
and

3.1 Optimized return mapping algorithm

For deriving a computationally efficient version of the following from (7) and from integration of the rate
return mapping algorithm the flow rule (9) is split into constitutive equation (31 ). The rate of the void ratio is
a volumetric and deviatoric part given by

Integration of (21) yields the value of the void ratio at

Backward Euler integration of (13) yields tn+1

(18) together with (19), (20), (22) and (6) represents

where = t. Note that quantities with the subscript
n refer to the converged values at tn , whereas all other
a nonlinear scalar equation for the unknown I1 (or
p = I1 /3), which can be solved, e.g., by the New-
ton method. Once p has been determined from this
equation, it is inserted into (6), yielding p0 , and the lat-
ter into the recast form of (82 ) yielding the hardening
parameter (p0 ) .

327

Figure 2. Integration errors for the general return mapping
algorithm (top) and the optimized return mapping algorithm
(bottom).
3.2 Comparison of the investigated stress update
algorithms
The comparison of the investigated stress update algo-
rithms is performed on the basis of two different sets of
material parameters for the BBM, provided in (Alonso
et al. 1990), for prescribed combinations of volumet-
ric and deviatoric strain increments ranging from 0
up to 3%. For this relavitely large range of strain
increments Fig. 2 shows a comparison of the integra-
tion errors obtained by means of the general return
mapping algorithm and the optimized return mapping
algorithm.
A particular point of the diagrams shown in
Fig. 2 indicates the error of a single step stress
update for a particular combination of volumetric and
deviatoric strain increment (v , s ). E.g., the point
(v = 2%, s = 3%) represents the integration error
for the strain increment v = 0.02 and s = 0.03,
obtained by a single step backward Euler integration.
The error of the computed stress is defined as a relative
error, related to the "exact" value for the respec-
tive stress component computed by the RADAU5
algorithm (Hairer and Wanner 1996) prescribing an
extremely small error tolerance of 1010 . According
to Fig. 2 the integration errors for the investigated
328
Figure 3. Work precision diagrams for two sets of material
parameters: (a) explicit stress update, (b) general return map-
ping algorithm, (c) optimized return mapping algorithm, (d)
semi-explicit stress update algorithm, (e) implicit fifth-order
RungeKutta algorithm.
strain increments reach up to 40%. Contrary to the
general return mapping algorithm the optimized return
mapping algorithm gives the exact solution for hydro-
static strain paths due to the analytical integration
of the hardening law. Because of the large integra-
tion errors, similar to the explicit and semi-explicit
stress update algorithm, the return mapping algorithms
are also enhanced by adaptive sub-stepping and error
control.
A comparison of the efficiency of the investigated
stress update algorithms for prescribed maximum val-
ues of the integration error, ranging from 101 to
1010 , is shown in Fig. 3. The diagrams are based on
stress updates for 25 combinations of volumetric and
deviatoric strain increments of 0.5%, 0.75%, 1.0%,
1.25% and 1.5%. The mean values of the computed
errors and the mean values of the number of required
arithmetic operations are shown in the diagrams of
Fig. 3.
It follows from Fig. 3 that for a prescribed error
tolerance the optimized return mapping algorithm is
by far more efficient than the general return map-
ping algorithm and it is even more efficient than the
explicit integration method. The RADAU5 algorithm
is very efficient for very small prescribed values of
error tolerances.
Table 1. Identified set of material parameters.

Parameter Dimension Identified value

[] 0.010
G [MPa] 104.4
s [] 0.0001
(p0 ) [MPa] 0.094
M [] 1.013
ks [] 0.627
pc [MPa] 1011.9
r [] 0.953
[MPa1 ] 99.08
(0) [] 0.079
N (0) [] 1.436

4 COMPARISON OF MEASURED AND

COMPUTED RESPONSE

An extensive experimental program for the constitu-

tive behavior of unsaturated soils is documented in
(Bucio 2002). This set of experimental results was
also used for a parameter determination benchmark
within the framework of the MUSE network (Marie
Curie Research Training Network). The soil is a sandy
silt with an initial value of matric suction of 0.8 MPa
and compacted with an isotropic confining pressure
of 0.6 MPa. From the extensive test data five tests
are selected in the present work for a comparison of
measured and computed constitutive response. They
include a hydrostatic test at saturated conditions (SAT-
1), a suction controlled hydrostatic test (TISO-1),
and three different triaxial tests (IS-OC-03, IS-NC-06,
IWS-NC-02). The abbreviations OC and NC indi-
cate over consolidated and normal consolidated tests,
respectively, the numbers of the IS tests indicate the
pressure at which shearing started and IWS denotes
tests including wetting paths.
In a first step the 11 constitutive parameters of the
BBM are determined from the test results of the five
selected tests by minimizing the sum of weighted least
square errors between given experimental data and the
results, predicted by the constitutive model. Since such
optimization problems are commonly characterized by
many local minima, global optimization techniques
are a good choice. In the present context a particle
swarm optimization method was applied. Details on
the identification procedure are provided in (Hofmann
et al. 2009), the identified material parameters are
summarized in Table 1.
Comparisons of the stress strain curves computed
on the basis of the identified material parameters with
the test results are shown in Figure 4. The calcula-
tions are conducted with the optimized return mapping
algorithm described in Section 3.1.

5 CONCLUSIONS

In this paper several stress update algorithms were

compared with respect to accuracy and efficiency: Figure 4. Comparison of computed constitutive response
(a) an explicit stress update algorithm, (b) a general with experimental data.

329
return mapping algorithm, (c) an optimized return
mapping algorithm, (d) a semi-explicit stress update
algorithm, and (e) an implicit fifth-order Runge-
Kutta stress update algorithm. Large integration errors
were encountered for the return mapping algorithms
when larger strain increments are integrated in one
step. Hence, similar to the explicit and semi-explicit
stress update algorithm, they are enhanced by adap-
tive sub-stepping and error control. For a prescribed
error threshold value the optimized return mapping
algorithm is by far more efficient than the general
return mapping algorithm and it is even more efficient
than the explicit integration method. The RADAU5
algorithm is very efficient for very small prescribed
values of error tolerances. The application of the opti-
mized return mapping algorithm for computing the
stresses for five representative tests of the exten-
sive experimental program (Bucio 2002) showed good
correspondence between computed stresses and test
results. The application of the optimized return map-
ping stress update algorithm in the context of the
numerical simulation of the impoundment of an earth
dam is documented in (Pertl et al. 2009).
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Financial support by a scholarship for young
researchers granted by the University of Innsbruck to
the first author is gratefully acknowledged.
330
REFERENCES
Alonso, E. E., A. Gens, and A. Josa (1990). A constitu-
tive model for partially saturated soils. Gotechnique 40,
405430.
Bucio, M. B. (2002). Estudio experimental del compor-
tamiento hidro-mecnico de suelos colapsables. Ph. D.
thesis, Universitat Politcnica de Catalunya.
Fellin, W., M. Mittendorfer, and A. Ostermann (2009). Adap-
tive integration of constitutive rate equations. Computers
and Geotechnics 36(5), 698708.
Hairer, E. and G. Wanner (1996). Solving Ordinary Dif-
ferential Equations II, Stiff and Differential-Algebraic
Problems (2nd rev. ed.). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.
Hofmann, M., T. Most, and G. Hofstetter (2009). Parame-
ter identification for partially saturated soil models. In
Proceedings of the Second International Conference on
Computational Methods in Tunnelling, pp. 701708.
Marie Curie Research Training Network (2009). http://muse
.dur.ac.uk. (April 17, 2009).
Mittendorfer, M. (2006). Interne Differentiation nichtlinearer
anelastischer Materialmodelle. Masters thesis, Leopold-
Franzens-Universitt Innsbruck.
Pertl, M., M. Hofmann, and G. Hofstetter (2009). Coupled
numerical analysis of an embankment dam. In Proceed-
ings of the Second International Conference on Long Term
Behaviour of Dams, pp. 519522.
Simo, J. and T. Hughes (1998). Computational Inelasticity.
Springer New York.
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Modelling of the hysteretic soilwater retention curve

for unsaturated soils

A. Tsiampousi, L. Zdravkovic & D.M. Potts

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Imperial College London, London, UK

ABSTRACT: One of the most important features in unsaturated soil mechanics is the soil-water retention
curve, which defines the relationship between the degree of saturation and suction. It has long been shown that
the retention curve exhibits significant hysteresis. Several attempts have been made in the past to model this
hysteretic behaviour assuming bi-linear and parallel hydraulic paths. An alternative approach, based on simple
geometric curves, is proposed herein. Even though the formulation is simple, implementation of the model into
a numerical code is relatively demanding. In particular, the algorithm has to keep track of the reversal points
where the path changes from drying to wetting and vice versa. Following the formulation and implementation
of the new model, simulations of laboratory experiments on unsaturated soils are presented, demonstrating its
effectiveness.

1 INTRODUCTION

Unsaturated soil behaviour has been proven to be sig-

nificantly different from saturated soil behaviour. Not
only do the principles of classical soil mechanics, such
as the principle of effective stress, not apply, but the
hydraulic behaviour of unsaturated soils also exhibits
significant differences. Drying and wetting of the soil
are irreversible processes.
As the nonsolid phase of unsaturated soils consists
of both water and air, the pore pressure is no longer
the pore water pressure, uw , but the excess of air pres-
sure, ua , over the water pressure, uw , called the matrix
suction:
Figure 1. Typical shape of the soil-water retention curve.

The volume of water, Vw , within the pores, over the

total volume of the voids, Vv , is a measure of the soil
saturation, called the degree of saturation, Sr :
The degree of saturation, Sr , generally reduces with the
logarithm of suction, s, following the so called soil
water retention curve (SWRC).The retention curve has
the typical s shape shown schematically in Figure 1.
In saturated conditions, the whole volume of voids
is occupied by water and the degree of saturation, Sr ,
is 1. It is common for soil to withstand a significant
amount of suction and still maintain a degree of satu-
ration, Sr , of unity. Desaturation occurs only when air
starts being present in the pores in the form of occluded
bubbles.At that time, the degree of saturation, Sr , starts
reducing.
On drying the soil further, the largest of the pores
empty of water and fill with air. The corresponding
value of suction is called the air entry value of suc-
tion, sair . The switch from fully to partly saturated
conditions is usually modelled to be at the air entry
value of suction, sair .
As suction increases with further drying, air exists in
a continuous form and water retreats to smaller voids,
loosing its continuity. At very high values of suction
water is present only in the form of meniscus at the
interparticle contacts. Any further increase in suction
is attributed to the meniscus water and does not cause a
further decrease of the degree of saturation, Sr , which
has reached its residual value.
A subsequent decrease of suction to zero due to wet-
ting brings the soil back towards saturated conditions.
Nevertheless, drying and wetting are not reversible

331
Figure 2. Hydraulic hysteresis in the soil-water retention
curve.
processes and the wetting path followed to satura-
tion lies beneath the drying path, demonstrating the
hydraulic hysteresis shown in Figure 2. It is possible
for air to be present in the form of occluded bubbles
even when the soil is wetted to zero suction (Sr = 1.0
at s = 0 kPa).
The retention state of a soil can exist anywhere
between the abovementioned drying and wetting paths
(point A in Fig. 2). These two paths are followed only
when a reconstituted soil sample is dried from slurry to
residual conditions and is subsequently wetted to full
saturation and are, therefore, referred to as primary
paths. The primary paths bound an infinite number
of scanning paths, as illustrated in Figure 2. On wet-
ting from an initial retention point A, the scanning
path followed rejoins the primary wetting path at lower
values of suction. The reverse behaviour is observed
during drying; the soil follows a scanning drying path
which converges to the primary one at larger values of
suction.
A direct consequence of the non-uniqueness of the
SWRC is that samples of the same soil can exhibit
significantly different degrees of saturation under the
same value of suction, depending on their drying and
wetting history. The mechanical behaviour of unsat-
urated soils, however, is intrinsically related to the
degree of saturation and therefore, identical samples
subjected to similar stress states can display different
mechanical response. Furthermore, the degree of satu-
ration is indicative of the water storage and contributes
to the evolution of water flow within unsaturated soils.
The necessity of modelling the hydraulic hysteresis
becomes obvious.
Several authors have attempted to include the
hydraulic hysteresis into numerical modelling of
unsaturated soils (Wheeler 1996, Vaunat et al. 2000,
Wheeler et al. 2003, Li 2005, Sun et al. 2007, Lloret
et al 2009). The general trend is to model the hys-
teretic retention curve as a linear closed loop. A typical
example is the work of Wheeler et al (2003) who pro-
posed the basic shape illustrated in Figure 3. Even
though the model is an improvement over the past
332
Figure 3. Hysteretic soil-water retention model proposed
by Wheeler et al. (2003).
approaches, modelling the primary paths as linear is a
crude approximation of the experimentally observed
behaviour, presented above. Similarly, the scanning
paths are also linear, rejoining the primary paths with
an abrupt change in slope.
An alternative approach is proposed here. The pri-
mary and the scanning paths are simple geometric
curves which have a common tangent at the point
of intersection. Despite its geometric simplicity, the
model has demonstrated effectiveness in the represen-
tation of laboratory data.
2 HYSTERETIC MODEL FOR THE SWRC
The hysteretic SWRC model developed and pre-
sented herein was aimed at satisfying two fundamental
requirements: the need for a realistic shape both for the
primary and the scanning paths and the necessity for
a smooth transition from scanning to primary paths.
The first requirement arises from the fact that the
slope of the retention curve is essential in a coupled
analysis as it affects the flow of water. More specif-
ically, the flow generated due to changes in water
content, and therefore in the degree of saturation, is
dependent on the gradient of the SWRC which con-
trols the water storage within the soil. Clearly, a linear
retention relationship with a constant gradient, results
in an unrealistic constant water storage within the soil,
independent of the suction level and the degree of sat-
uration. Therefore, realistic shapes for the primary and
the scanning paths are of importance.
The second requirement, for a smooth transition
from one type of path to the other, relates to numerical
singularities. The robustness of the model is believed
to be improved when abrupt changes on the slope of
the retention curve are avoided.
2.1 Formulation
2.1.1 Primary drying and wetting paths
The model is formulated in terms of degree of satura-
tion, Sr , and equivalent suction, seq , where seq is the

Figure 4. Primary and scanning paths assumed by the
hysteretic SWRC model; (a) drying; (b) wetting.
excess of the current suction over the air entry value
of suction, sair :
Desaturation during drying and full saturation during
wetting is assumed to occur at the air - entry value, sair ,
ensuring the two primary paths have a common point
(seq , Sr ) = (0.0, 1.0). Furthermore, it is assumed that
the residual point is also common for the two primary
paths and that it occurs at 0.0 residual degree of sat-
uration. The corresponding equivalent suction, s0 , is
a model parameter. The above assumptions allow the
following s-shape curve to be adopted:
where is a fitting parameter, carrying the index d for
drying and w for wetting. For the wetting path to lie
beneath the drying path, w has to be larger than d ,
while if they are equal a monotonic curve is generated.
The shape of the primary paths is shown schematically
in Figure 4a.
The slope of the primary paths for the current value
of equivalent suction is:
333
2.1.2 Scanning drying and wetting paths
On drying from an initial retention point A(sA , Sr,A ) in
between the two primary curves, the soil is assumed
to follow the scanning path shown in Figure 4a. This
scanning path is assumed to be the arc of a circle,
centred on the vertical line passing through point A
so that the suction corresponding to the centre of the
circle is equal to the suction at point A, sA . The circle
and the primary drying curve have a common tangent
at point Bdr (sB dr , Sr,B dr ), also shown in Figure 4a. In
this way, the slope of the scanning path is always zero
at point A and a smooth transition from the scanning to
the primary drying path is provided at point Bdr . The
radius of the circle, rdr , and the suction at point Bdr ,
sB dr , need to be identified.
The expression for the scanning drying path is:
The slope of the scanning drying path for the current
value of suction is:
As noted above, to define the scanning drying path,
the radius rdr is required. As Bdr is a common point for
the two curves given by Equations 4 and 6:
Furthermore, the two curves share a common tangent
at point Bdr :
The above two Equations, 8 and 9, form a system
where the suction at point Bdr , sdr B , and the radius rdr
are the two unknown variables. The system can have
the two possible solutions pictured in Figure 5. Care
must, therefore, be taken in order to select and apply
the correct one. Furthermore, solution of the system is
not straightforward and requires a numerical approach.
For the numerical instabilities associated with the pres-
ence of the square root to be eliminated, an equivalent
system of equations was solved where both sides of
the equations were squared. The Newton method was
chosen and proved to be adequate and efficient. A lim-
ited number of iterations was generally required for
convergence to be achieved.
On wetting from the same initial point A(sA , Sr,A ),
the soil follows the wetting scanning path shown in
Figure 4b, rejoining the primary wetting path at point
Bwet (sB wet , Sr,B wet ). Similar to the drying scanning

Figure 5. Possible solutions of the system of equations when
drying from a retention point A.
path, the wetting scanning path is the arc of a cir-
cle, centred on the vertical line passing through point
A. The circle and the primary wetting curve have a
common tangent at point Bwet (sB wet , Swet
r,B ). The expres-
sions for the scanning wetting path and its gradient at
the current value of equivalent suction, seq , are given
below:
and:
Similar to drying, the following system of equations
needs to be solved, in terms of the radius, rwet , and the
equivalent suction at point Bwet , sB wet :
and:
For the solution of the system the Newton method was
once more employed. As for the drying scanning path,
the suitability of the estimated solution was checked
so that the appropriate circle was selected.
2.2 Model parameters
Four model parameters are required to define the
hysteretic SWRC model described above: two fitting
334
parameters d and w , for the primary drying and
wetting paths respectively, the suction at the air-entry
value, sair , and the suction at zero residual degree of
saturation, s0 . For the primary drying path to lie above
the primary wetting one, d needs to be larger than w .
In addition, the suction at zero degree of saturation, s0 ,
needs to be larger than the air-entry value of suction,
sair .
The model parameters dictate the shape and the
position of the primary curves, which remain unvary-
ing during the analysis. On the contrary, the scanning
paths are not directly controlled by the model param-
eters; their shape is always circular and the actual
path followed is determined primarily by the initial
retention state (point A in Fig. 4) and indirectly by
the model parameters through the necessity of joining
the primary paths with a common tangent. This lack
of explicit control over the scanning paths could be
regarded as a limitation of the model which, however,
it guarantees simplicity.
2.3 Implementation
The abovementioned hysteretic SWRC model was
implemented in the Imperial College Finite Element
Program (ICFEP) (Potts & Zdravkovic 1999). Depend-
ing on the suction change and on the suction level,
the appropriate path needs to be selected. The suc-
tion change indicates the direction of hydraulic loading
(drying or wetting), while based on the suction level
itself distinction is made between the corresponding
primary and scanning paths.
For this procedure to be feasible a number of vari-
ables need to be stored during the analysis. It is
essential to register information concerning the last
retention point before a change in the direction of
hydraulic loading is detected. This point is commonly
referred to as the reversal point. If the soil is wetted
from an initial point A, shown in Figure 2, to point B,
point A is considered to be the reversal point for this
wetting path. If the soil is subsequently dried to point
C, point B is the new reversal point for this drying
path.
One drying and one wetting scanning path cor-
respond to every reversal point and remain unaf-
fected provided that the direction of hydraulic loading
remains unchanged. To obtain the congruent scan-
ning path the system of equations presented above
needs to be resolved, in order to determine the point
of intersection between the scanning and the corre-
sponding primary path. The system, however, needs to
be resolved only once for every reversal point and only
for the applied direction of hydraulic loading, as long
as information regarding the point of intersection are
stored.
The variables stored are herein referred to as rever-
sal parameters and consist of the following quantities
which require recalculation every time that a rever-
sal in the direction of hydraulic loading occurs: the
suction, srev , and the degree of saturation, Sr,rev ,
of the reversal retention point, the radius of the
corresponding circle, r, and the suction at the inter-
section point, scommon .
The initial soil state, consisting of the stress state
as well as the degree of saturation, has also to be
established. The initial equivalent suction is calcu-
lated based on the air-entry value of suction, sair , and
together with the corresponding initial degree of satu-
ration form the coordinates of the initial reversal point,
srev and Sr,rev .
Once an increment of suction occurs, the direction
of hydraulic loading is identified; drying is detected in
case the resulting equivalent suction, seq , is larger than
the suction at the reversal point, srev , while wetting is
detected in the opposite case.
If drying is detected, the system of Equations 8 and 9
is resolved and the radius, r = rdr , and the suction at the
intersection point, scommon = sB dr , are calculated and
stored. Distinction in the employment of the scanning
or the primary drying path (Eq. 4 and 6) is based on
the comparison of the current suction, seq , with the
reversal parameter scommon . For subsequent changes
of suction and provided that there is no reversal in
the direction of hydraulic loading, the same reversal
parameters are used in Equations 4 and 6.
If wetting is detected, the system of Equations 12
and 13 is solved and the corresponding reversal param-
eters r = rwet and scommon = sB wet are calculated and
stored. For suction levels higher than scommon the scan-
ning wetting path, given by Equation 11, is employed,
while for suction levels lower than scommon the primary
wetting path obtained from Equation 2 is used.

Figure 6. Hydraulic paths followed by specimens of com-

pacted London clay fill (Melgarejo 2002); (a) numerical
3 COMPARISON WITH EXPERIMENTAL reproduction of the primary paths; (b) numerical reproduction
RESULTS of a cyclic hydraulic path.

The hysteretic model for the SWRC presented above,

was employed to reproduce results from laboratory
tests carried out at Imperial College London (Mel-
garejo 2004). The tests were performed on intact and
reconstituted specimens of compacted London clay
fill.
Two reconstituted samples, formed from a slurry,
were prepared from the compacted material sup-
plied and the primary drying path of the SWRC was
obtained, as shown in Figure 6a. However, the max-
imum suction that could be measured was reached
before the residual degree of saturation was achieved
and it was, therefore, impossible to develop the full
SWRC. One of the samples was then wetted from
this point, forming the scanning wetting path shown
in Figure 6a.
The numerical reproduction of the primary dry-
ing and wetting paths, obtained for sair = 0.0 kPa,
s0 = 1.0E+7 kPa, d = 3.8E-5 and w = 3.5E-3, is
also illustrated in Figure 6a. It should be noted that
parameter w , controlling the primary wetting path,
was fitted in such a way that the scanning wetting
path, followed by the reconstituted sample upon wet-
ting, converged to the primary path at the lower values
of suction.
Two intact samples with a significantly different
initial retention states were tested. The first sample
(point A in Fig. 6a) demonstrated a degree of sat-
uration of 88% (Sr,A = 0.88) at 1000 kPa of suction
(sA = 1000 kPa) and was dried to 56% degree of sat-
uration obtained at 18000 kPa suction. The scanning
drying path was reproduced using the hysteretic model
proposed herein and the comparison of experimental
and numerical results is shown in Figure 6. It is evi-
dent that the model is capable of accurately simulating
this scanning path which distinctively lies beneath the
primary drying path and it finally converges to it at
high suction levels.
The second intact sample was dried from
its initial retention state (point A in Fig. 6b),
with sA = 150 kPa and Sr,A = 0.75, to point B
(sB = 1500 kPa, SrB = 0.46). Subsequently, the sam-
ple was wetted to point C (sC = 170 kPa, Sr,C = 0.74)
and dried to point D (sD = 22500 kPa. Sr,D = 0.28).The
numerically reproduced scanning paths are shown in
Figure 6b. The first scanning drying path was accu-
rately reproduced, while the wetting scanning path was
underestimated for low values of suction. As a result,
the subsequent drying path was simulated initiating

335
from a point lying slightly beneath the actual initial
point. Nevertheless, the reproduced scanning path fol-
lowed closely the experimentally observed behaviour
for values of suction up to 10000 kPa, overestimating
the degree of saturation thereafter.
The overall performance of the hysteretic SWRC
model is considered to be efficient, despite its sim-
plicity in terms of the shape of the curves employed.
The primary paths were effectively reproduced by the
model, however, the air-entry value of suction, sair ,
assumed was 0.0 kPa. Melgarejo (2004) reported that
the reconstituted samples remained fully saturated to
values of suction of the order of 1000 kPa. Employ-
ing one fitting parameter for each primary curve and
assuming that full saturation upon wetting occurs at
the same value of suction as desaturation upon drying,
is clearly a shortcoming of the model, even though it
ensures simplicity.
The capability of the model to reproduce the scan-
ning paths is generally satisfying, despite the simple
geometric shape assumed. As the scanning path fol-
lowed entirely depends on the primary path to which
it converges, it is expected that improvement of the
expression used for the latter will also improve the
performance of the former.
4 CONCLUSIONS
A new approach concerning the modelling of the
hydraulic hysteresis, exhibited by the soil-water reten-
tion curve of unsaturated soils, was presented. An
s-shape curve was adopted for the primary drying and
wetting paths, while the scanning paths were assumed
to be arcs of circles which rejoin the corresponding pri-
mary path with a common tangent. A smooth transition
from the scanning to the primary paths was obtained.
The formulation and implementation of the proposed
336
model into ICFEP was presented. Even though the
formulation is simple and based on 4 parameters,
the model is capable of effectively reproducing the
hydraulic paths obtained in the laboratory for recon-
stituted and intact samples of a compacted London
clay fill.
REFERENCES
Li, X.S. 2005. Modelling of hysteresis response for arbi-
trary wetting/drying paths. Computers and Geotechnics
32: 133137.
Lloret ,M., Sanchez, M. & Wheeler, S.J. 2009. Generalised
elasto-plastic stress-strain and modified suction-degree of
saturation relations of a fully coupled model. In O.Buzzi,
S. Fityus & D. Sheng (eds), Unsaturated soils; theoretical
and numerical advances in unsaturated soil mechanics;
Proc. 4th Asia Pacific conf., Newcastle, Australia, 2325
November 2009. London: Taylor & Francis Group.
Melgarejo ML (2002) Laboratory and numerical investiga-
tions of soil-water retention curves. PhD thesis, Imperial
College London, UK.
Potts, D.M. & Zdravkovi, L. 1999. Finite element analy-
sis in geotechnical engineering: theory. London: Thomas
Telford.
Sun, D., Sheng, D. & Sloan, S.W. 2007. Elastoplastic mod-
elling of of hydraulic and stress-strain behaviour of unsat-
urated soils. Mechanics of Geomaterials 39: 212221.
Vaunat, J., Romero, E. & Jommi, C. 2000. An elasto-
plastic hydro-mechanical model for unsaturated soils.
Experimental evidence and theoretical approaches in
unsaturated soils: 121138. Rotterdam: Balkema.
Wheeler, S.J. 1996. Inclusion of specific water volume within
an elastoplastic model for unsaturated soil. Can Geotech
J 33:4257.
Wheeler, S.J., Sharma, R.S. & Buisson, M.S.R. 2003. Cou-
pling of hydraulic hysteresis and stress-starin behaviour
in unsaturated soils. Geotechnique 53: 4154.
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Numerical integration and analysis of equilibrium

in unsaturated multiphase media

R. Tamagnini, M. Mavroulidou & M.J. Gunn

Department of Engineering Systems, London South Bank University, UK

ABSTRACT: Unsaturated soil mechanics has been largely focused on the phenomena of collapse upon wet-
ting. Since the early studies this mechanical feature has influenced the way of representing experimental data
and the constitutive modelling. Collapse has been generally modelled with a plastic amount of strains coupled
with the suction rate. This constitutive approach is discussed.
In the paper, the equilibrium and stability of the granular matrix is studied applying the criteria of thermo-
dynamics. The system is considered as an open continua and the filtration of the wetting phase during collapse
is taken into account. The paper provides some remarks about the hardening in partially saturated conditions.
The incremental constitutive system of equations is implicitly integrated adopting the Laplace transform and the
Newton Raphson technique. This allows defining the problem in the domain of a physical quantity that can be
measured in laboratory tests (namely the degree of saturation). Time evolution of the capillary stress is obtained
with the inverse transformation. The proposed integration is a part of the research program on lime stabilized
material in partially saturated condition. The integration for the partially saturated model is described in the
present paper.

1 INTRODUCTION namely the stress acting within the meniscus water

Unsaturated soils are mixtures of a granular solid
matrix, water (in liquid and gaseous form) air and inter-
faces between constituents. The solid matrix shows
mechanical behaviours similar to those of the satu-
rated soils in constant suction experiments but the
peculiarity of unsaturated soil is the collapse (solid
matrix compaction) during wetting. The latter feature
has leaded to the revision of an interesting formu-
lation (Bishop (1959)) for this kind of soils that
generally speaking are the real soils ensemble into
which the saturated soils belongs for the particular
case of fully saturation. In this paper unsaturated soils
mechanics is modelled starting from simple physi-
cal assumptions. The proposed study accords with
the thermodynamically based framework proposed by
Coussy (2004). This is the most simple and suitable
mathematical framework that can be adopted among
the others (see for example Hassanizadeh and Gray
(1990) for a detailed description of the mixture with
interfaces). The paper shows as the collapse can be
physically explained as the impulse that the capillary
stress applies to the solid matrix when the interfaces
between the different fluids and the matrix is perturbed
by the filtration of water.
The abrupt jump that the stress field experiences
when the interface between the fluids vanishes or
moves is studied by the Laplace transform of the
preconsolidation pressure. It is shown as the precon-
solidation pressure also models the capillary stress,
and the interfaces between the fluids and the solid.
The hardening forces are modelled as a function of the
water saturation rate. The softening induced by wet-
ting is modelled by the Maxwell symmetry of a free
energy quadratic form that is a function of the strains
as well as the saturation degree. This framework differs
from other works for unsaturated soils (Buscanera and
Nova (2008)). It is remarkable that the assumption of a
double dependency of the free energy of the skeleton
on both the strains and the saturation degree allows
for a simple numerical implementation because the
cross effects of the saturation rate is implemented in
the elastic predictor stage straightforwardly. It is to be
remarked that the capillary forces are the thermody-
namic force controlling the water retention properties
(called Affinity in this paper) and at the same time it
affects the Bishops stress and they are coupled with the
collapse strains. The present framework is the develop-
ing research on lime treated soils in partially saturated
conditions that is going on at London South Bank
University.
2 THERMODYNAMICS
Ulm and Coussy (1998) have proposed a thermo-
dynamically based model for concrete in which the
driving forces cementing the granular matrix are taken
into account. This framework fulfils the model by

337
Tamagnini (2000;2004) and the entropy inequality
reads:
in which the free energy is defined as:
and the terms in equation (1) are:
Am represents the driving force controlling the rate
of Sr (water degree of saturation) and has the mean-
ing of a Gibbs potential. It is the difference between
the capillary stress (or energy) as defined by Has-
sanizadeh and Gray (1990) and Coussy (2004) and the
suction (intended as the difference between the air and
water pressure). and are respectively: the harden-
ing kinematic variable (volumetric plastic strains) and
the hardening force controlling the frozen energy of
the granular matrix;  is the Bishops stress and is
the strain tensor.
The first interesting Maxwell symmetry shows the
following characteristic of the model:
and:
with = :
Equation 4 and 6 show that in the energy balance
there is a term, Am , that accounts for the retention
properties of the matrix and another term defining
the hardening/softening that depends on a kinematic
variable. The thermodynamic force representing the
preconsolidation pressure is equivalent to the wetabil-
ity potential Am and the role of the kinematic internal
variable and the saturation degree Sr can be inter-
changed. The latter feature will be adopted to describe
the evolution of the preconsolidation pressure in the
Laplace transform. The equation 4 states also a depen-
dency of the wetability potential on the plastic strains,
higher is the plastic strains higher is the wetability
potential, even if it seems to be reasonable the feature
deserves further investigation. The definition of the
capillary stress can be obtained by the following con-
siderations. If a Representative Element Volume REV
is considered as a closed system during the deforma-
tion process, the work done on the solid matrix can be
expressed in a simple way as:
338
in which the first term is the work done by the total
stress tensor on the overall deformation , the second
and third term are respectively the opposite in sing of
the work that the skeleton do on the volume fractions
of the fluids: vw and va (w represents the water phase
a the air and s the solid); uw and ua are the pressures
of the water and air:
equation (8) can be obtained by substituting the
volume fractions of the fluids with:
in the equations, n is the porosity and ij is the Kro-
necker delta. Note that in this equation the work of
the interfaces is not taken into account and the sys-
tem is closed. The same expression has been obtained
by Houlsby (1997).The internal energy of the solid
skeleton can be written as:
in which T is the temperature and S the Entropy. The
free energy of the solid matrix can be obtained by the
Legendre transform:
The free energy rate for isothermal deformation is
then:
with:
the first derivative in equation 13 is the Bishops stress
and the second one is the scaled suction (Houlsby
(1997)). In Sheng et al. (2004) they use this equa-
tions to model the solid skeleton even during collapse,
but phenomenological evidences suggest that collapse
occurs when the liquid phase enters the REV, then
when the REV is an open system and the equation
(12) is not strictly correct.
The first law of thermodynamics for open system
can be rewritten as follow:
in which G is the Gibbs free energy and dnin -dnout is
the overall mass balance dN of the fluids, the Gibbs
potential of the fluids is distributed on the surface of
the grains and in the menisci water. Considering that
the Gibbs free energy is defined as:
and assuming that the pressures of the fluids entering
and exiting are the same and that the net mass balance
of the fluids is:
The equation 14 reads:
in which the work done by the interface stress is intro-
duced in the last term according to Hassanizadeh and
Gray (1990). Introducing equation 8 and applying the
Legendre transform as in 11, the equation 12 results:
and then:
where pc is capillary stress (or Am ), only the first two
terms of pc can be linked to the suction as defined by
the difference of the bulk pressures of the fluids (in lit-
erature the suction) and Hassanizadeh and Gray (1990)
suggest the this equivalence holds only at equilibrium.
In the model proposed by Tamagnini (2000,2004) pc
represents also the preconsolidation pressure of the
solid matrix that is a function of Sr and not necessarily
equal to the suction measured in laboratory for the def-
inition of the WRC (Water Retention Curve), Equation
18 also explain that there is nothing new in the formu-
lation of Gallipoli et al. (2003), it is well known that
the capillary stress depends on the three contributions
and it is a function of Sr and not suction and Sr . The
second interesting Maxwell symmetry is:
Equation 20 explains the variation of the Bishops
stress during wetting (collapse) that is equal to the
variation of the Affinity during compaction.
The system of differential equations defining the
problem of the stress integration is:
339
in which D is the elastic stiffness and L defines the
Laplace operator and pc is the hardening force . For
the equation 6 it represents also the evolution of the
Gibbs potential of the capillary forces Am . The Laplace
transform can be expressed through the following
equation:
The Laplace transform of the capillary stress is defined
as:
Equation (22) defines the evolution of the capillary
stress in the domain of the variable Sr and the inverse
transform states that the capillary stress is the sum of
a unit step function u(t) and a delayed step function
u(t-) :
The time evolution of the capillary stress can be rep-
resented as in figure 1. The figure shows that at time
0 and there are two abrupt jumps in the value of
Am . These jumps are due to the energy input provided
by Sr , these jumps reduce the number of menisci
affecting the preconsoldation pressure and they allow
their motion. Moreover, they induce the softening and
subsequent rearrangement of the solid grains. During
water filtration the difference between the capillary
forces and suction tends to the equilibrium and the
rate of the Gibbs potential Am tends towards zero (after
the time ). During this stage the configuration of the
menisci network changes and the subsequent varia-
tions of Sr produce the same mechanical phenomena.
In figure 1 the first graph represents the step function
u(t) the second is the delayed step function u(t-) and
the third is the combination of the two. After time the
difference between the capillary stress and the suction
vanish and the Affinity is equal to zero representing
the hydraulic equilibrium.
3 IMPLEMENTATION
The modified Cam clay is integrated enhancing the
return mapping scheme proposed by Simo and Hughes
(1998), the improvement is based on two points: the
modification of the elastic trial step that describes
the variation of the effective Bishops stress and the
effects of the capillary stress.
At the timetn [0; T ] of the time domain the
following state variables are known:

Figure 1. Time evolution of the Affinity Am during the work
input due to Sr
Respectively: the total strain, the plastic strain, the
degree of saturation at time n.
The initial stress n and the elastic strain tensor are
known (in the following the super script indicating
the Bishops stress will be omitted). The integration
algorithm updates these variables at the time tn+1
[0; T ].
The unknowns are defined as:
in which ij = (u) and u is the vector of the
displacement rate that is computed during the lin-
earization of the global iterative problem, is the
plastic multiplier, S r is the rate of the saturation
degree (that is known at the start of the local iterative
linearization). The changes in the saturation degree is
computed with an evolution law controlling the energy
of the interfaces and the fluids pressure (the water
retention curve), the rate of the preconsolidation pres-
sure pc controls the dimension of the elastic domain,
that is the closure of the following domain in the
effective stress space :
340
in which h is the vector of the internal variables.
System 25 has to satisfied the Kuhn-Tucker condition:
and the initial condition:
The problem is split in two parts; the first part is
a trial elastic step that is called elastic predictor in
which the deformation is considered totally elastic. In
this stage the dimension of the elastic domain of equa-
tion 26 changes due to the changes in the saturation
degree; this is a remarkable difference with respect
to the original return mapping for saturated soils (see
for example Borja and Lee (1990)). After the check of
the discrete condition imposed by equation (27), if the
trial stress belongs to the elastic domain the stress are
updated and the stiffness matrix is the elastic tangent
matrix on the other hand if the trial elastic stress drives
the current stress outside or on the plastic yield sur-
face the trial step is followed by the plastic corrector
phase. The key issue for the extended hardening rule
with saturation degree dependency is the variation of
the boundary of the elastic domain during the elastic
predictor stage; this variation is driven by the incre-
ment Sr n+1 this feature of the algorithm implies
that an elastic unloading due to saturation could be
compatible with an elastic-plastic condition, namely
the elastic unloading could be compatible with the
p
condition f ( trial
n+1 ; q(v n ; Sr n+1 )) > 0 triggering a plas-
tic corrector stage that models the plastic shrinkage
(collapse).
At time tn , in the equilibrium condition at the
general iteration k, the increments:
are known. Then, the trial state variables can be written
as:
Note that the second equation introduces the
Laplace operator in the system. The hardening rule is
integrated in a closed form and splitted adopting the
Lies formula (see Simo and Hughes ((1998)); the trial
invariants are:
at this time the check for plasticity is applied:
if : f (ptrial trial trial
n+1 ; qn+1 ; pcn+1 )<0
n+1 =()n+1 EXIT
then : ()trial trial
else : Plastic corrector
The plastic corrector uses the trial stress and trial
hardening as the initial condition and through a return
mapping computes the stress and plastic strains. From
the discrete Khun-Tucker condition results:
The aim of the plastic corrector is the definition of
the plastic multiplier at time tn+1 and to compute then
the stress through the equations:
The non linear systems can be rewritten as:
that is a non linear system of four equations in the
four unknowns: pn+1 , qn+1 , pcn+1 and n+1 ; note
that Sr n+1 and ijn+1 are known at the start of the
integration. The system can be rewritten as:
in which:
The application of the Newton Raphson technique to
system (36) provides:
341
Figure 2. Collapse in terms of the mean Bishops stress.
in which Ri is the residual. The problem is solved
when the residual is smaller than a prescribed tolerance
value.
if : A(xi + dxi ) < TOL
then : xn+1 = xi + dxi EXIT
else : Perform another iteration
The numerical test is run with the following
constitutive parameters, k = 0.04; = 0.17; M = 1.2;
= 7.69 (note in this test the condition = is ful-
filled if the dependency of on v is disregarded),
v = 1.6. The initial values of the state variables are:
Sr = 0.71; s = 300 KPa the resulting initial Bishop
stress tensor components are  = (200; 200; 200 ;
0 ;0 ; 0) KPa and the initial net stress tensor = (4; 4;
4 ; 0 ;0 ; 0). The isotropic net stress is increased till
110 KPa and after the saturation is increased from 0.71
to 1.0 (full saturation) figure 2 reports the collapse in
compressibility plane p : e and figure 3 in the plane
of the isotropic net stress p and e.
4 CONCLUSION
The paper has shown as the mechanics of unsaturated
soils can be written adopting the Bishops stress and
enriching the formulation by the momentum of the
interfaces between the different fluids. The Laplace
transform is the suitable mathematical tool to describe
the abrupt jump that the solid matrix experiences dur-
ing the motion or vanishing of the capillary stress.
This approach differs substantially from the classic
bitensorial approach in which the collapse is modelled
by the simple rate of suction (defined as the difference
between the fluids pressures). The impulsive force that
the matrix receives during the transient variation of the
water content is modeled as the composition of two
phases.

Figure 3. Collapse in terms of the mean net stress.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This study is part of a larger research programme
on the hydro-mechanical properties of lime-treated
clays, funded by the UK Engineering and Physical
Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) through grant
EP/E037305/1
REFERENCES
Bishop,A.W. (1959),The principle of effective stress,Teknisk
Ukeblad, 106(39), pp. 859863
342
Borja. R.I., Lee S.R., 1990, Cam-Clay plasticity, Part I:
Implcit integration of elasto-plastic constitutive relations,
Comp. Meth. Appl. Mech. Eng., 78 4972
Buscanera G. and Nova R., (2009) An elastoplastic strain-
hardening model for soil allowing for hydraulic bonding-
debonding effects Int. J. for Num. and Anal. Meth. in
Geomech, Vol., 33, No., 8, Pages: 10551086
Coussy, O., (2004), Poro-mechanics, Ed. J. Wiley & Sons
D. Gallipoli, A. Gens, R. Sharma, J. Vaunat An elasto-
plastic model for unsaturated soil incorporating the effects
of suction and degree of satu Gotechnique 53(1) pp
123136
Hassanizadeh, S. M., & Gray, W.G., (1990) Mechanics and
thermodynamics of multiphase porous media including
interphase boundaries, Adv. Water Res., Vol. 13 No.4, pp.
149186
Houlsby, G.T. (1997) The Work Input to an Unsaturated Gran-
ular Material, Gotechnique, Vol. 47, No. 1, March, pp
193196
Sheng, D., Smith D.W., Sloan S.W., Gens A. (2003), Finite
element formulation and algorithms for unsaturated soils,
Part II: Verification and Application, Int. J. Num. An.
Meth. Geomech. Vol.-27, pp. 767790
J.C. Simo and T.J.R. Hughes (1998) Computational Inelas-
ticity (Interdisciplinary Applied Mathematics) Springer-
Verlag Berlin and Heidelberg GmbH & Co. K
Tamagnini, R., (2000), Modellazione dei terreni non sat-
uri e implementazione agli elementi finiti, MSc Thesis,
University of Rome La Sapienza (in italian)
Tamagnini, R., (2004), An extended Cam-clay model for
unsaturated soils with hydraulic hysteresis, Geotechnique
54, No.3, pp. 223228
Ulm, F. & Coussy, O. (1998) Coupling in early-age con-
crete: from constitutive modeling to structural design Int.
J. Solids Structure Vol. 35. No 3132. pp. 42954311
Artificial intelligence
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

A genetic algorithm for solving slope stability problems: From Bishop

to a free slip plane

R. van der Meij & J.B. Sellmeijer

Deltares, Delft, The Netherlands

ABSTRACT: Finding the safety factor of an embankment using a limit equilibrium method requires a search
algorithm to find the representative slip circle. Because of the complex solution space, a grid based method
is most often preferred. This paper presents a genetic algorithm as an alternative. This genetic algorithm gives
accurate results faster then a traditional grid based method. Because of its efficiency, the genetic algorithm is
even able to find a free slip surface using Spencers method with the lowest safety factor.

1 INTRODUCTION population. An individual can be tested for its fitness,

Several computational programs are available, with
which the stability of a soil body can be calculated
with a limit equilibrium method. In such a program,
a slip surface is analyzed with a certain methodology,
for example, the method Bishop (Bishop 1995) to
determine its stability. The user enters an area in which
the program needs to find the circle with the minimal
stability factor.
Searching such a space usually happens by calculat-
ing all possible slip circles with corresponding tangent
lines and reporting the one with the minimal safety.
This algorithm has several disadvantages:
for example with Bishops method.
The genetic algorithm improves the quality of a pop-
ulation is a similar way as nature does. Two individuals
cross their DNA, there is a chance for mutations and a
new individual is created. Two new individuals fight,
and the fittest one continues to the next generation.
The algorithm seems to be faster and better at find-
ing a global minimum. A disadvantage is that the
results are not always reproducible. On top of that,
there will be a very strong tendency to find the global
minimum, while sometimes, a local minimum is inter-
esting as well. This can be overcome using penalties
steering the result in the desired direction. Because of

its high speed, a genetic algorithm makes it possible

It is sequential and therefore time consuming

to find a free slip surface with Janbus or Spencers

There is no guarantee the (global) minimal safety
factor will be found.
A small displacement or change in boundary condi-
tions of the grid can lead to fundamentally different
answers.
A small change in boundary conditions can lead to
fundamentally different answers.
Much experience and understanding of the method
is required, even though this is not obvious.
Other search routines (for example hill climbing)
have great disadvantages as well. In the recent past
Genetic Algorithms (Barricelli, Nils Aall 1957) are
used more frequently as a search procedure and it
seems to be a well-suited method to find the repre-
sentative slip plane with the minimal safety factor. For
Flood Control 2015, a genetic algorithm (GA) has
been implemented in the stability program MStab.
Genetic algorithms process a mathematical repre-
sentation of a solution of an analyzed problem. For
Bishops method, this representation is a vector con-
taining the X and Y value of the centre of the circle,
and the radius of the circle. This representation can be
seen as an individual and a sum of individuals for a
method.
This paper will present in the second section that the
GA fundamentally works using an analytical simpli-
fication of Bishops formula. The next section shows
the efficiency of the GA by comparing calculation time
and accuracy of a grid based method to the algorithm.
Thereafter, the efficiency of the genetic algorithm is
explained. Finally, it is shown that a GA can perform
a free surface search using Spencers method.
2 TESTING THE GA IN MATLAB
An analytical formulation of Bishops method is
derived for a simplified embankment in order to have
an analytical safety factor to test the genetic algorithm.
Only the crest, slope and surface level of an embank-
ment will be considered, as can be seen in Figure 1.
H is the height of the embankment, L is the length of
the slope. Different angles defining the slip circle are
defined with 0 through 3 . The location of the cen-
tre of the slip circle is defined with X and Y using the
outer crest as a reference point. The radius of the circle

345
Figure 1. Slip circle entering in zone I and exiting in
zone III.
is defined as R. The subsoil is divided in three areas.
Area I is underneath the crest, area II is underneath the
slope and area III is underneath the ground level.
For the purpose of simplicity, no water pressures
are considered. The soil is cohesive and homogenous
without internal friction. The explicit result depends
on the zone (I, II or III) where the circle enters and
exits the soil body. In total, four types or circles can
be distinguished. A circle that enters through the crest
and exits on the surface level, as shown in figure 1, has
the safety factor of which the result of the derivation
is shown in equation (1).
The safety factor of the circle that enters through
the crest and exits in the slope of the embankment is
given in equation (2) and the safety factor of a circle
that enters through the slope and exits on the surface
level is given in equation (3). Finally, the safety factor
of a circle that enters and exits in the slope of the
embankment is given in equation (4).
To calculate the safety of the embankment, one
first needs to check which case is relevant, and the
safety factor can be calculated directly. These for-
mulas are programmed in Matlab to compare Matlabs
genetic algorithm with the genetic algorithm we wish
to implement in the stability program MStab.
Figure 2 shows the solution space for a fixed radius.
Matlab has a complex GA tool. Because it is dif-
ficult to understand and reproduce, a simple GA
specifically built to minimize the above equation is
programmed as well. This GA is called the MStab
GA as it will be used in MStab in the future. Because
of the chaotic convergence procedure of a GA, 10000
346
Figure 2. Solution space of Bishops equation above a slope.
Table 1. Average and standard deviation of the results of the
Matlab GA and the MStab GA.
Simulation Matlab GA MStab GA
Pop Gen average St. dev. Avg. St. dev.
50 50 2.7828 4.30E-3 2.7790 1.6192e-4
100 100 2.7792 5.26E-4 2.7789 3.1659e-5
runs have been performed to analyze the precision.
Pop stands for the size of the population, Gen
stands for the number of generations. The average
value of the optimum and its standard deviation are
presented in Table 1.
A population of 50 individuals running 50 genera-
tions seems to be sufficient to get an answer with less
then 1% error. The precision of the methods is alike
although the deviation of the MStab GA is an order of
magnitude lower.
3 IMPLEMENTATION OF BISHOPS AND
VANS METHOD IN MSTAB
The MStab GA as mentioned previously is imple-
mented in the stability program MStab in order to find
the representative slip circle.The grid and GA are com-
pared with the limit equilibrium methods Bishop and
Van (Van 2001).
Figure 3 on the previous page shows the represen-
tative slip circle found with the grid search algorithm,
figure 4 below shows the representative slip plane
found with the GA. Figure 5 shows the slip plane found
with the Vans method.
Table 2 compares the calculation time of the dif-
ferent search algorithms with Bishops method. The
representative circle is found each time because it is
already contained in the initial small search area. The
calculation time of the grid method is directly propor-
tional to the size of the grid. The calculation time of
the GA only depends on the population size and the
number of generations, so it does not vary.
 Table 3. Calculation time grid versus GA with increasing
search area.

Small Small Larger Larger Large Large Full

Van grid GA grid GA grid GA GA

Calc. t [s] 4,8 17 19,6 16 263,4 13,5 10,5

f [] 1,11 1,12 1,09 1,08 1,08 1,08 1,09

Figure 3. Representative slip circle using grid and tangent

lines.

Figure 6. Combination of calculations for bishop analysis.

The grid method is only faster if the user specifies

Figure 4. Representative slip circle found with a GA.
the location of the slip plane very well. If the search
area increases, the GA becomes relatively faster.Abso-
lutely, the calculation time also decreases. This is
because more geometrically impossible slip planes are
in the population and therefore not analyzed. The faster
calculation leads to less precision but Table 3 shows it
is still sufficient. Searching the entire area is impossi-
ble with a grid method and can be performed rapidly
with the GA.

4 CHOICE OF GA VERSUS GRID METHOD

The calculation time of a grid based method is a func-

tion of the calculation time of a single analysis times
a * b * c (see figure 6)
The optimization procedure of a GA is fundamen-
Figure 5. Representative slip plane method Van. tally different. In each dimension, a near value needs to
be selected and through a number of generations (n) the
Table 2. Calculation time grid versus GA with increasing right combination will be found. For bishops method,
search area.
n * (a+b+c) calculations need to be performed for the
Grid GA Large Large GA full GA optimization. Earlier in this paper, it has been shown
BHP small small grid that 50 is a good value for n.
Vans analysis (Figure 7) uses 5 parameters to
Calc. time[s] 2,5 5,0 31 5,0 5,0 describe the slip circle. A grid based method uses
f [] 1,10 1,10 1,10 1,10 1,10 a*b*c*d*e calculations. A GA based method uses
n * (a+b+c+d+e) calculations. With an increasing
search area and more search dimensions, the GA
One can see that for a small search area the grid method becomes a more efficient alternative.
is the quickest. As the search area increases, the grid Figure 8 shows an approach for an analysis of a
becomes relatively slower. This phenomenon is ampli- free slip plane. An upper and a lower bound of the slip
fied with Vans method as the search space is more plane is defined, and in between 13 straight lines are
complex. defined. Including the surface lines, 15 points on these

347

Figure 7. Combination of calculations for Vans analysis.
Figure 8. Approach for a free slip plane.
lines have to be found that, together, have the lowest
safety factor.
Assuming we allow 10 points per line, with a grid
based method, 1015 calculations have to be performed.
With a GA based method, n * (10 + 10 + 10) = 150
* n calculations need to be performed. This makes a
free surface search feasible. Most other search algo-
rithms have the curse of dimension (Bellman 1957)
whereby the calculation time exponentially increases
with the number of degrees of freedom in the problem.
Because the search time increases with the sum of the
number of degrees of freedom, this curse is overcome.
5 FREE SLIP SURFACE SEARCH
Figure 8 shows an approach for a free surface search.
As a limit equilibrium method, one can choose for
example Janbus or Spencers method. In this case,
Spencers method is chosen. An upper and lower
boundary is defined with 15 points. The first point
is connected through the surface line on the crest, the
second through 14th point is connected with a straight
line in between, and the last point is again connected by
the surface line. The genetic algorithm must find the
combination of points on the lines that has the lowest
safety factor.
The optimization is by far not as straightforward
as in Bishops method. Bishop will always be able to
calculate a safety factor given a centre for the circle
and a tangent line. Spencer is not able to produce a
safety factor if a sudden increase of the slip surface
slope comes across.There are two fundamental ways of
addressing this issue. The unrealistically high passive
earth pressures can be cut off in such a case by the
limit equilibrium method. This is common practice in
Bishops method. Alternatively, unrealistic slip planes
can also be avoided when defining the genome. This
issue has not yet been addressed, but as the method is
very robust, it already works.
Figures 9, 10 and 11 present the representative slip
plane of respectively a Bishop, Van and Spencer anal-
ysis. One can see that as the shape of the slip plane
becomes more complex, the safety factor decreases.
Because of the high pore water pressures in the bot-
tom sand layer, the slip plane tends to be deep and long.
It is difficult to describe this surface with a circle, and
therefore Bishops method gives a relative high safety
factor of 1,08. Vans method is designed to analyze
such problems and consequently gives a lower safety
factor of 1,06.
The fact that Spencers method combined with the
genetic algorithm gives a significant lower safety fac-
tor of 0,97 is remarkable. Especially, if one takes
into account that the passive shear force is cut off
in Bishops and Vans method, but not in Spencers
method. If this cut off is also implemented in Spencers
method, the safety factor will be lower and the passive
wedge can exit more steeply.
6 CONCLUSIONS
A Genetic Algorithm is an optimization procedure
to find the representative slip circle that has sev-
eral advantages above a grid based method. First, the
genetic algorithm can find the correct minimum, even
if the solution space is very complex. The method is
good at finding the global minimum, even if there are
several local minima.
Even though the algorithm does not converge
directly via the same path to the solution, the stan-
dard deviation of the solution is relatively small and
therefore reliable.
A much larger search space can be investigated in
the same amount of time. One can also choose to have
a quick answer with a relative good precision in very
little time. The time of an analysis is known in advance
as the number of generations are fixed. This makes it
a good procedure when many automated calculations
are performed.
The genetic algorithm theoretically works for all
limit equilibrium methods. Its relative efficiency
increases with a larger search space and also with a
larger number of parameters to be optimized. With
Vans method, the genetic algorithm is in general faster
then a grid based method. Finding a free slip plane
using a grid based method is not possible whereas the
efficiency of the genetic algorithm does make it fea-
sible as the genetic algorithm overcomes the curse of
dimension.
An analysis based on a free slip plane gives a sig-
nificantly lower factor of safety with a better limit
equilibrium model.
348
Figure 9. Slope stability calculated with Bishops Method, f = 1,08.

Figure 10. Slope stability calculated with Vans Method, f = 1,06.

Figure 11. Slope stability calculated with the genetic algorithm and Spencers Method, f = 0,97.

349
REFERENCES
Barricelli, Nils Aall (1957). Symbiogenetic evolution pro-
cesses realized by artificial methods. Methodos: 143
182
Bellman, R.E. (1957). Dynamic Programming. Princeton
University Press, Princeton, NJ.
Bishop, C. M. (1995). Neural Networks for Pattern Recogni-
tion. Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-853864-2
350
Bishop, W. (1955). The use of the slip circle in the stability
analysis of slopes. Geotechnique, Vol 5, 717.
Van, M. A. (2001). New approach for uplift induced
slope failure. XVth International Conference on Soil
Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, Istanbul.
22852288
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Simulation of the mechanical behavior of railway ballast

by intelligent computing

M.A. Shahin
Department of Civil Engineering, Curtin University of Technology, Perth, WA, Australia

ABSTRACT: Ballast is one of the main components of railway track foundations, thus, an accurate prediction
of its mechanical behavior is crucial for stability of railway tracks. In this paper, one of the most commonly used
intelligent computing techniques, i.e. Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs), is utilized to model the mechanical
behavior of ballast under static loading conditions. Experimental results from a series of large-scale consolidated
drained triaxial compression tests collected from the literature are used for ANN model calibration and validation.
The results indicate that predictions from the ANN model compare well with those obtained from the large-scale
experiments. In particular, ANN predictions demonstrate a high degree of accuracy in simulating the stress-strain
and volume change characteristics of ballast. The plastic dilation and contraction of ballast at various confining
pressures, and the strain-hardening and post-peak strain-softening are also well simulated.

1 INTRODUCTION Zhu et al., 1998). In this study, the feasibility of using

Ballasted railway tracks are usually consisted of a
granular medium of ballast and sub-ballast (capping)
placed above a compacted sub-grade (formation soil).
The stability and performance of a given railway track
are often governed by the mechanical behavior of bal-
last. Based on experimental results, Indraratna et al.
(2001) concluded that ballast can be responsible for
more than 60% of the total deformation of railway
tracks, which induces costly regular track mainte-
nance. This necessitates accurate predictions of the
constitutive relationships (i.e. stress-strain and volume
change under loading) that govern ballast behav-
ior. These constitutive relationships for ballast are
very complex and highly nonlinear. Consequently, the
development of constitutive models for ballast behav-
ior using conventional analytical solutions requires
rigorous mathematical procedures with various model
simplifications, which can affect model reliability. An
example of such sophisticated mathematical consti-
tutive models for ballast behavior is developed by
Salim and Indraratna (2004), which requires 11 ballast
parameters that are difficult to determine in the labora-
tory. In this context, artificial intelligence using neural
networks is more efficient as it provides the ballast
constitutive model representation, with fewer model
parameters, directly from raw experimental laboratory
data without any need for problem simplifications or
assumptions.
The potential use of neural networks for constitu-
tive modeling was first introduced by Ghaboussi et
al. (1991) and since then, neural networks have been
applied successfully in constitutive modeling of soils
(e.g. Ellis et al., 1995; Penumadu and Zhao, 1999;
artificial neural network in developing accurate and
parsimonious constitutive models for ballast behavior
is investigated.
2 BRIEF OVERVIEW OF ARTIFICIAL NEURAL
NETWORKS
The type of artificial neural networks (ANNs) used in
this study are multilayer perceptrons (MLPs) that are
trained with the back-propagation algorithm (Rumel-
hart et al., 1986). A comprehensive description of
back-propagation MLPs is beyond the scope of this
paper but can be found in Fausett (1994).
The typical MLP consists of a number of process-
ing elements or nodes that are arranged in layers: an
input layer; an output layer; and one or more inter-
mediate layers called hidden layers. Each processing
element in a specific layer is linked to the processing
element of the other layers via weighted connections.
The input from each processing element in the pre-
vious layer is multiplied by an adjustable connection
weight. The weighted inputs are summed at each pro-
cessing element, and a threshold value (or bias) is
either added or subtracted. The combined input is then
passed through a nonlinear transfer function (e.g. sig-
moidal or tanh function) to produce the output of the
processing element. The output of one processing ele-
ment provides the input to the processing elements
in the next layer. The propagation of information in
MLPs starts at the input layer, where the network is pre-
sented with a pattern of measured input data and the
corresponding measured outputs. The outputs of the

351
network are compared with the measured outputs, and
an error is calculated. This error is used with a learning
rule to adjust the connection weights to minimize the
prediction error. The above procedure is repeated with
presentation of new input and output data until some
stopping criterion is met. Using the above procedure,
the network can obtain a set of weights that produces
input-output mapping with the smallest possible error.
This process is called training or learning. Once
training has been successful, the performance of the
trained model has to be verified using an independent
validation set.
3 CONSTITUTIVE MODELLING OF BALLAST
USING ARTIFICIAL NEURAL NETWORKS
In this work, the artificial neural networks for con-
stitutive modeling of ballast are developed using the
computer-based software package Neuframe Version
4 (Neusciences, 2000). The data used to calibrate
and validate the models consisted of results from six
large-scale triaxial, isotropically consolidated com-
pression tests that were reported by Indraratna et al.
(1998). The ballast used was latite basalt, a quarried
igneous aggregate that is commonly used as rail-
way ballast in New South Wales, Australia. Latite
basalt used is highly angular in shape and has coeffi-
cient of uniformity Cu = 1.5, coefficient of curvature
Cc = 0.9, unit weight = 15.3 kN/m3 , maximum par-
ticle size dmax = 53 mm and effective particle size
d10 = 27.1 mm. The triaxial compression tests were
conducted under drained conditions at confining pres-
sures between 15 to 240 kPa.
3.1 Model inputs and outputs
In simulations of the mechanical behavior of soils and
rocks, e.g. ballast, the current state of stress and strain
governs the next state of stress and strain. Thus, a typi-
cal neural network for constitutive modeling of ballast
includes current state nodes, which are processing ele-
ment that remember past activity (i.e. memory nodes).
At the beginning of the training process, the inputs for
current state of stress and/or strain are set to zero and
training proceeds to predict the next expected state of
stress and/or strain for an input strain or stress incre-
ment. The predicted stress and/or strain are then copied
back to the current state nodes for the next pattern of
input data.
In this work, two single-output ANN models are
developed to simulate the stress-strain and volume
change characteristics of ballast. The inputs to the first
ANN model are the current state of deviator stress (qi ),
confining pressure (3 ), current axial strain (a,i ) and
axial strain increment (a,i ). The single output is the
next state of stress (qi+1 ). The inputs of the second
ANN model are the current state of volumetric strain
(v,i ), confining pressure (3 ), current axial strain (a,i )
and axial strain increment (a,i ). The single output
is the next state of volumetric strain (v,i+1 ). In this
study, the following varying axial strain increments
are chosen: 0.05, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, . . . , 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, . . . ,
1.8, 1.9, 2.0. As recommended by Penumadu and Zhao
(1999), using varying strain increment values results
in good modeling capability without the need for a
large size of training data. Because the data needed for
the ANN models at the above strain increments were
not recorded in the original experiments of the triaxial
tests, the curves of the deviator stress-axial strain and
volumetric strain-axial strain of the available triaxial
tests were digitized to obtain the required data. A set of
21 training patterns was used in representing a single
triaxial test.
3.2 Data division and scaling
The six available triaxial tests were divided into two
sets: training set for model calibration and an indepen-
dent validation set for model verification. The training
set includes the triaxial tests results related to con-
fining pressures of 15, 60, 120 and 240 kPa; whereas
the testing set has two triaxial test results at confining
pressures of 30 and 90 kPa. Before presenting the data
patterns to the neural networks, the inputs and out-
puts are scaled between 0.0 and 1.0 to eliminate their
dimensions and to ensure that they all receive equal
attention during training.
3.3 Model architecture and internal parameters
Model architecture requires selection of the optimum
number of hidden layers and the corresponding num-
ber of hidden nodes.As proposed by Hornik (1989) and
Cybenko (1989), a network with one hidden layer can
approximate any continuous function if sufficient con-
nection weights are used. Therefore, one hidden layer
was used in the current study. The optimal number of
hidden nodes is obtained by a trial-and-error approach
in which the network was trained using the software
default values of learning rate of 0.2 and momentum
term of 0.8, with a tanh transfer function in the hidden
layer nodes and a sigmoidal transfer function in the
output layer node. For each selected number of hid-
den layer nodes, training is terminated when the error
between the actual and predicted values of outputs over
all patterns has no significant improvement. This was
achieved at 20,000 training cycles (epochs). As a result
of training, a network with three hidden layer nodes
was found to perform the best for the deviator stress-
axial strain model; whereas a network with two hidden
layer nodes was optimal for the volumetric strain-axial
strain model.
3.4 Model performance and validation
The performance of the developed ANN models in the
training set is shown in Figure 1, and the predictive
ability of the models in the validation set is depicted in
Figure 2. It can be seen that excellent agreement has
been achieved between ANN model predictions and
352
Figure 1. Performance of the developed ANN models in the
training set.
laboratory experimental data in the training and valida-
tion sets, with coefficients of correlation equal to unity
in both sets. This demonstrates the strong capability
of ANN models in generalizing the complex nonlin-
ear constitutive relationships of ballast behavior. For
example, the nonlinear relationships of deviator stress
versus axial strain and volumetric strain (compression
is considered positive and dilation is negative) versus
axial strain are predicted accurately. The strain harden-
ing and the gradual decrease of deviator stress beyond
peak failure (post-peak strain softening) are very well
simulated. The transition of ballast behavior from ini-
tial compression to dilation at low confining pressures
and the change from dilative behavior at low confining
pressure to overall compacting behavior at high con-
fining pressure are also well captured. In conventional
constitutive modeling, the strain softening region will
result in negative soil modulus, which tends to increase
the mathematical modeling effort significantly (Zhu
et al., 1998).
As mentioned earlier, the current state of stress
and strain affects the next state of stress and strain.
Consequently, in modeling the ANN constitutive rela-
tionships of ballast behavior, an approach was used to
add incremental axial strain to the current stress and
strain so that the next stress and strain are predicted,
which are copied back to the current state of stress and
353
Figure 2. Predictive ability of the developed ANN models
in the validation set.
strain for the next pattern of input data. The above pro-
cedure is applied using the developed ANN models at
confining pressures of 30 and 90 kPa, and the virtual
results, which are shown in Figure 3, are compared
with the experimental laboratory data. It can be seen
from Figure 3 that good agreement still exists between
the measured and predicted deviator stress-axial strain,
and volumetric strain-axial strain.
4 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
Artificial neural networks (ANNs) were used to model
the constitutive relationships of the mechanical behav-
ior of railway ballast. Two ANN models were devel-
oped; one to simulate the deviator stress-axial strain
behavior and the other for volumetric strain-axial
strain behavior. The type of ANNs used were mul-
tilayer perceptrons (MLPs) that were trained with
the back-propagation algorithm. The scheme used for
ANN model development was based on the well known
plasticity theory that the current state of stress and/or
strain influences the next state of stress and/or strain.
The results of the ANN models were compared with
the experimental tests data.
The results indicate that the ANN based models
were capable of accurately simulating the complex

Figure 3. True predictions of the developed ANN models
in the validation sets.
constitutive relationships of the mechanical behavior
of railway ballast. The highly nonlinear relationships
of deviator stress versus axial strain and of volumetric
strain versus axial strain of ballast at various confining
pressures were accurately predicted. Strain hardening
and post-peak strain softening were well simulated,
and the plastic shear dilation and contraction of ballast
were also captured. To facilitate the use of the devel-
oped ANN models, they are translated into C++ code
354
that can be implemented in a finite element analysis.
The source code can be provided by the author upon
request.
REFERENCES
Cybenko, G. 1989. Approximation by superpositions of a
sigmoidal function. Mathematics of Control, Signals, and
Systems 3:303314.
Ellis, G.W., Yao, C., Zhao, R. & Penumadu, D. 1995. Stress-
strain modeling of sands using artificial neural networks.
Journal of Geotechnical Engineering 121 (5):429435.
Fausett, L.V. 1994. Fundamentals neural networks: Archi-
tecture, algorithms, and applications. Englewood Cliffs,
New Jersey: Prentice-Hall.
Ghaboussi, J., Garrett, J.J. & Wu, X. 1991. Knowledge-based
modeling of material behavior with neural networks.
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Hornik, K., Stinchcombe, M. & White, H. 1989. Multi-
layer feedforward networks are universal approximators.
Neural Networks 2:359366.
Indraratna, B., Ionescu, D. & Christie, D. 1998. Shear
behavior of railway ballast based on large-scale triax-
ial tests. Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental
Engineering 124 (5):439449.
Indraratna, B., Salim, W., Ionescu, D. & Christie, D. 2001.
Stress-strain and degradation behavior of railway ballast
under static and dynamic loading, based on large-scale
triaxial testing, Proceedings of the 15th International Con-
ference of Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering,
Istanbul: 20932096.
Neusciences. 2000. Neuframe Version 4.0. Southampton,
Hampshire: Neusciences Corp.
Penumadu, D. & Zhao, R. 1999. Triaxial compression behav-
ior of sand and gravel using artificial neural networks
(ANN). Computers and Geotechnics 24 (3):207230.
Rumelhart, D.E., Hinton, G.E. & Williams, R.J. 1986. Learn-
ing internal representation by error propagation. In Paral-
lel Distributed Processing, edited by D. E. Rumelhart &
J. L. McClelland. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Salim, W. & Indraratna, B. 2004. A new elasto-plastic
constitutive model for granular aggregates incorporat-
ing particle breakage. Canadian Geotechnical Journal 41
(4):657671.
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soil behavior with a recurrent neural network. Canadian
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 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Three dimensional site characterization model of Suurpelto (Finland)

using support vector machine

A. Pijush Samui & Tim Lnsivaara

Tampere University of Technology, Tampere, Finland

ABSTRACT: Site characterization is an important task in Geotechnical Engineering. The main objective of site
characterization models is to predict the subsurface soil properties with minimum in-situ test data. The success
of random field method and geostatic for site characterization model is limited. This paper describes Support
Vector Machine (SVM) applied for site characterization modelling of Suurpelto based on Cone Penetration Test
(CPT) Data. Suurpelto is a new development area of 325 hectares that will be built during the following 15
years. The subsoil in the area consists of soft clay up to a depth of 20m. In three dimensional site characterization
model, the functionqc = f (X , Y , Z). where X, Y and Z are the coordinates of a point corresponding to Cone
Resistance(qc ) value, is to be approximated with which qc value at any half space point in Suurpelto can be
determined. SVM model, which is firmly based on the theory of statistical learning theory, uses regression
technique by introducing -insensitive loss function has been used in this study. This study shows that SVM can
be used as a practical tool for site characterization model of Suurpelto.

1 INTRODUCTION & Kulhawy 1999; Uzielli et al. 2005). Geostatistics

One of the most important steps in geotechnical engi-
neering is site characterization. The basic objective of
site characterization is to provide sufficient and reli-
able information and data on the site condition to a
level compatible and consistent with the needs and
requirements of the project. In situ tests based on
standard penetration test (SPT), cone penetration test
(CPT) and shear wave velocity method are popular
among geotechnical engineering. These tests are time
consuming and expensive. Modelling of spatial varia-
tion of soil properties based on limited finite number of
in situ test data is an imperative task in probabilistic site
characterization. It has been used to design future soil
sampling programs for the site and to specify the soil
stratification. It is never possible to know the geotech-
nical properties at every location beneath an actual site
because, in order to do so, one would need to sample
and/or test the entire subsurface profile. So one has
to predict geotechnical properties at any point of a
site based on a limited number of tests. The prediction
of soil property is a difficult task due to uncertainty.
Spatial variability, measurement noise, measurement
and model bias, and statistical error due to limited
measurements are the sources of uncertainties. In
probabilistic site characterization, random field the-
ory has been used by many researchers in geotechnical
engineering (Yaglom 1962; Lumb 1975; Vanmarcke
1977; Tang 1979; Wu & Wong 1981; Asaoka & Grivas
1982; Vanmarcke 1983; Baecher 1984; Kulatilake &
Miller 1987; Kulatilake 1989; Fenton 1998; Phoon
(Matheron 1963; Journel & Huijbregts 1978) also have
been used to model spatial variation of soil properties
(Kulatilake & Ghosh 1988; Kulatilake 1989; Soulie
et al. 1990; Chiasson et al. 1995; DeGroot 1996). The
success of Random filed method and Geostatistic is
very limited in site characterization (Juang et al. 2001).
The objective of this paper is to use support Vecor
Machine(SVM) for three dimensional (3D) site char-
acterization model for Suurpelto based on a large
amount Cone Resistance(qc ) values in an area of
325 hectares. Cone penetration test(CPT) has been
done at five points. The Support Vector Machine
(SVM) based on statistical learning theory has been
developed by Vapnik (1995). It provides a new, effi-
cient novel approach to improve the generalization
performance and can attain a global minimum. In
general, SVMs have been used for pattern recogni-
tion problems. Recently it has been used to solve
non-linear regression estimation and time series pre-
diction by introducing -insensitive loss function
(Mukherjee et al. 1997; Muller et al. 1997; Vapnik
1995; Vapnik et al. 1997). The SVM implements the
structural risk minimization principle (SRMP), which
has been shown to be superior to the more tradi-
tional Empirical Risk Minimization Principle (ERMP)
employed by many of the other modelling techniques
(Osuna et al. 1997; Gunn 1998). SRMP minimizes
an upper bound of the generalization error whereas,
ERMP minimizes the training error. In this way, it
produces the better generalization than traditional
techniques.

355
2 SUPPORT VECTOR MACHINE
An interesting property of SVM approach is that
it is an approximate implementation of the Struc-
tural Risk Minimization (SRM) induction principle
which tells that the generalization ability of learn-
ing machines depend more on capacity concept than
merely the dimensionality of the space or the num-
ber of free parameters of the loss function. This study
uses the SVM as a regression technique by introduc-
ing a -insensitive loss function. In this section, a brief
introduction on how to construct SVM for regres-
sion problem is presented. More details can be found
elsewhere (Boser et al. 1992; Cortes & Vapnik 1995;
Gualtieri et al. 1999; Vapnik 1998). The -insensitive
loss function can be described in the following
way:
consider the problem of approximating a set of data,
The constant 0 < C < determines the trade-off
between the flatness of f and the amount up to
which deviations larger than are tolerated (Smola &
Scholkopf 2004). In practice, the C value is selected
by trail and error. The above constrained optimization
problem (5) is solved by using the method of Lagrange
multipliers. Lagrangian function is constructed in the
following way
Where , , and are the Lagrangian multipliers.
The solution to the constrained optimization problem
is determined by the saddle point of the Lagrangian
function L(w, , , , , , ) which has to be min-
imized with respect to w, b, and . The minimum
with respect to w, b, and of the Lagrangian, L is
given by,

Where x is the input, y is the output, RN is the N-

dimensional vector space and r is the one dimensional
vector space.The main aim in SVM is to find a function
that gives a deviation of from the actual output and
at the same time is as flat as possible. Let us assume a
linear function:

Substituting (7) into (6) yields the dual optimization

Where, w = is an adjustable weight vector and b = the problem
scalar threshold. Flatness in the case of (3) means Maximize:
that one seeks a small w. One way of obtaining this
is by minimizing the Euclidean norm w2 . This
is equivalent to the following convex optimization
problem:

The coefficients i , i are determined by solving the

In order to allow for some errors, the slack variables i
and i are introduced in (4). The formulation can then
be restated as:
above optimization problem (8). From the Karush-
Kuhn-Tucker (KKT) optimality condition, it is known
that some of i and i , will be zero. The non-zero i
and i are called support vectors. So equation (3) can
be written as

From (7) it is clear that w has been completely

described as a linear combination of training patterns.
So, the complexity of a function representation by

356
support vectors is independent of the dimensionality
of input space and it depends only on the number of
support vectors.
When linear regression is not appropriate, then
input data has to be mapped into a high dimensional
feature space through some nonlinear mapping (Boser
et al. 1992). After replacing x by its mapping in the
feature space (x) into the optimization problem (8)
Maximize:
The concept of kernel function
[K(xi , xj ) = (xi ).(xj )] has been introduced to reduce
the computational demand (Cristianini & Shwae-
Taylor 2000, Cortes & Vapnik 1995). So optimization
problem can be written as:
Maximize:
Some common kernels have been used such as polyno-
n
mial (homogeneous), polynomial (nonhomogeneous),
radial basis function, Gaussian function, sigmoid etc
for non-linear cases. The regression function (3) has
been obtained by applying same procedure as in lin-
ear case. Figure 1 shows the SVM architecture for qc
prediction.
In the present study, SVM has been used for pre-
diction of qc values in the subsurface of Suurpelto
(Finland). -insensitive loss function has been used in
this analysis. For implementing the SVM, the data has
been divided into two sub-sets: (1) A training dataset:
This is required to train the model. In this study, 2429
data is considered for training dataset. (2) A testing
Figure 1. SVM architecture for qc prediction.
357
dataset: This is required to examine the model per-
formance. In this study, the remaining 242 data is
considered as testing dataset.The coordinates(X,Y and
Z) of each data were prepared as input of the model,
while N value was the output from this model. The data
is normalized between 0 to 1. When applying SVM,
in addition to the specific kernel parameters, the opti-
mum values of the capacity factor C and the size of the
error-insensitive zone should be determined during
the modeling experiment. In this study, the radial basis
function is used as the kernel function of the SVM.
The program is constructed using the SVM toolbox in
MATLAB.
3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
In this analysis as a first step, the free parameters
of radial basis function , .. C and . have been chosen
arbitrarily. So it is necessary to investigate the impact
of these free parameters on the generalization error.
Firstly, the influence of . on the prediction perfor-
mance is studied. It is known to us that the level of
predicting accuracy is greatly influenced by the value
of . using too small . (i.e., . 0) or too large . (i.e.,
. ) will be not well suited for good model.
Figure 2 represents the impacts of . on the testing
results.
Figure 2 represents the impacts of . on the
testing results. The Mean Absolute Error (MAE)
1
[MAE = |ai pi | , where ai is the actual data, pi is
n i=1
the predicted data and n is the number of data] achieve
minimum value of 0.0271 at . = 3. It can be seen from
Figure 2 the MAE values change sharply when . < 40
and tend to flatten after . 40. In this study, a value
3 have been used. Figure 3 shows the variation between
the MAE and the C values. The MAE has a minimum
value of 0.0271 at C . = 150.
The numver of support vector is 1020. Figure 4
depicts the variation MAE value with values. The
MAE has minimum value at = 0.002. Figure 5
represents the performance of SVM model for train-
ing dataset (coefficient of correlation, R = 0.962) the
result are almost identical to the original data. In order
Figure 2. Variation of with MAE.
Figure 3. Variation of MAE with C values.
Figure 4. Variation of MAE with .
Figure 5. Performance of training dataset.
to evaluate the capabilities of the SVM model, the
model is validated with new qc data that are not part
of the training dataset. Figure 6 shows the performance
of the SVM model for testing dataset(R = 0.946).
From the Figure 6, it is clear that the SVM model has
predicted the actual values of qc very well and it can be
used for 3D site characterization model of Suurpelto
(Finland).
4 CONCLUSIONS
The three dimensional site characterization model
has been developed for Suurpelto (Finland) using
358
Figure 6. Performance of testing dataset.
SVM technique. SVM technique has shown to be a
promising tool for site characterization. SVM training
consists of solving a uniquely solvable quadratic
optimization problem and always finds a global mini-
mum. In this study, C and . factors are considered in
SVM method by using a kernel function. A detailed
parametric analysis of these parameters on the predic-
tive performance has been carried out. The SVM was
found to generalize well by setting the capacity fac-
tor C as 150 and value as 0.002. The result obtained
shows that the SVM model is accurate in predicting
qc values. In general, SVM is shown to provide a gen-
eral site characterization model of Suurpelto (Finland).
The predicted qc values from the developed model can
also be used to estimate the subsurface information,
allowable bearing pressure of soils and elastic modulus
of soils.
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Reliability and probability analysis
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Evaluation of soil variability and its consequences

M. Huber & P.A. Vermeer

Institute of Geotechnical Engineering, University of Stuttgart, Germany

A. Brdossy
Institute of Hydraulic Engineering Department of Hydrology & Geohydrology, University of Stuttgart, Germany

ABSTRACT: The focus of the present paper is on the incorporation of soil variability into a design process. One
possibility offers the full probabilistic method. For this purpose a deep knowledge on stochastic soil properties
is needed. Therefore field experiments have been carried out to evaluate stochastic soil properties, which are
compared to data in literature. Within a case study the procedure of the full probabilistic methods using the finite
element method is carried out by using different random field generators. The conventional Gaussian random
field approach is compared to the sequential indicator method adapted from hydrology. Through this the impact
of the different correlation structures is highlighted. The results of this contribution help to understand stochastic
soil properties and offers different ways to describe soil variability.

1 INTRODUCTION (1978). Herein is the lag between the points. If a

Whenever soil properties are measured at different
locations within a homogeneous soil layer, a scat-
tering of the measurement values appears. According
to Phoon & Kulhway (1999) there are different reasons
for spatially varying soil properties like geological pro-
cesses, measurement errors as well as errors due to
geotechnical modelling.
One possibility is to cover these varying soil prop-
erties with a global safety factor. Standards like the
Eurocode 7 offer a different way to capture the vari-
ability of soil properties. By using partial safety factors
for solicitation and resistance parameters, one can
take soil parameters into account, which cannot be
described by only one single value. The most exact way
to consider stochastic soil properties is the full prob-
abilistic method. Within this contribution this fully
probabilistic approach is introduced within a Finite
Element case study, whereas the standard approach is
compared to a new concept called sequential indicator
method adapted form hydrology. Moreover the results
of experiments to evaluate stochastic soil properties
are presented and compared to properties found within
a literature study.
1.1 Full probabilistic method
The full probabilistic method can take into account
soil variability in the most accurate way via using
random fields. Random fields are used for incorporat-
ing not only mean and standard deviation of a spatial
distributed soil property. The spatial dependency of
a random field can be expressed via an autocorrela-
tion function () according to Journel & Huijbregts
random field Xi has mean X and variance X 2 then
the definition of the autocorrelation () is as shown
in equation (1). Herein is E(X ) is the expected value
operator. The well known Markov correlation function
is a negative exponential function using the correlation
distance as described in formula (1) and in Figure 1.
If the autocorrelation function only depends on the
absolute separation distance of Xi and Xj the ran-
dom field is called isotropic. Another assumption
is ergodicity. Ergodicity means that the probabilis-
tic properties of a random field can be completely
estimated from observing on realization of that field.
Like for many approaches in Natural Sciences, sta-
tionarity is an assumption of the model, and may
only be approximately true. Also, stationarity usu-
ally depends upon scale. According to Baecher &
Christian (2003), within small region, such as a con-
struction site, soil properties may behave as if drawn
from a stationary process; whereas, the same proper-
ties over a larger region may follow this assumption.
By definition, autocorrelation functions are symmet-
ric and bounded. Another assumption is the sepa-
rability of the autocovariance function according to
Vanmarcke (1983). Separable autocovariance function
can be expressed as a product of autocovariance of
lower dimension fields. Vanmarcke (1983) as well as
Rackwitz (2000) offer various models for autocorre-
lation functions. In the field of geostatistics the spatial
dependence is described via a so called variogram.
The so-called semicovariance () is defined as the

363

Figure 1. Relationship between semivariance and autocor-
relation according to CLARK (1979).
Figure 2. Scheme of probabilistic Finite Element calcula-
tion.
expected squared increment of the values between two
locations according to Wackernagel (2003) and Baker
et al. (2006).
The full probabilistic approach is based on the prin-
ciple of stochastic simulation. Stochastic simulation
is the process of building alternative, equally probable
realizations of the spatial distribution as described by
Deutsch & Journel (1992). These random fields fulfil
the requirements of the mean value, standard deviation
as well as the correlation function.
After mapping these random fields onto the Finite
element (FE) mesh, the FE calculations are carried
out. As along as the statistics of the output is not sta-
ble, the circle of generation of random fields and FE
calculation is not stopped (Figure 2).
The full probabilistic method has the ability to
describe the stochastic behaviour of a geotechni-
cal problem in the most accurate way compared to
other techniques like First Order Reliability Method
364
as described in the German standard DIN EN 1990
(2002). Apart from the big computational effort the
stochastic description of soil is demanding. Study-
ing scientific publications like listed in Table 1
one can easily deduce that there is only a limited
knowledge on characterizing spatial variability of soil
properties.
1.2 Evaluation of spatial variability
In order to perform a full probabilistic analysis further
knowledge of spatial variability of soil parameters is
needed. To gain more knowledge of spatial behaviour
of mechanical soil properties, experiments have been
conducted within an urban tunnelling site. During the
tunnelling construction process at the Fasanenhoftun-
nel in Stuttgart (Germany) 45 horizontal core borings
have been carried out as shown in Figure 3. These
horizontal borings were grouped within a geological
homogeneous layer of mudstone with a separation dis-
tance of 2.5 m. The elevation of the boreholes is varied
according to the gradient of the tunnel. Therefore the
first and the last borehole have a difference in the ele-
vation approximately 2.5 m. At an approximate depth
of 1.35 m 45 borehole deformation tests have been car-
ried out. Figure 5 shows the equipment of the borehole
deformation test as described in the German standard
DIN 4094-5 (2001). Within this test to half-shells are
pressed diametrically against the walls of a borehole.
Three different loading cycles have been executed.
The pressure was raised up to three different levels
of 1000 kN/m2 , 2000 kN/m2 and 3000 kN/m2 . During
this loading process the deformation of the pressure
plates was measured as illustrated as a schematic curve
in Figure 5.
The statistical evaluation correlation distance EB,3
by using the semicovariance and the correlation func-
tion is shown in Figure 6. The resulting correlation
lengths for all loading cycles are shown in Table 2.
The reason of the spatial variability can be deduced
to the concentration of limestone inside the layer of
mudstone.
The results shown in Table 2 are an additional con-
tribution to evaluate spatial variability of mechanical
soil properties and are an extension of the presented
results of the state of the art presented in Table 1.
2 CASE STUDY
A case study is presented in order to enlighten the
scheme of a full probabilistic analysis by using the
FEM program PLAXIS (Al-Khoury et. al. 2008). For
the sake of simplicity, a strip footing on a spatially
varying soil with undrained cohesion is chosen. In
Figure 7 the geometry of the strip footing is shown.
15-noded elements have been used to calculate the
bearing capacity using a linearly elastic, perfectly plas-
tic model. The bearing capacity of the strip footing is
evaluated by increasing the load until it cannot bear
additional load increments.
Table 1. Summary of correlation distances of different soils presented in literature.

Soil

Source Type Property Correlation distance

Asoaka & Grivas (1982) Clay Undrained shear strength h = 4070 m

Mulla (1988) Clay Penetrometer resistance v = 2 m
Ronold (1990) Clay Shear strength h = 12 16 m
Unlu et al. (1990) Sand Permeability h = 20 m, h /v = 10
Soulie et al. (1990) Clay Shear strength h = 25 m, h /v = 8
Rehfeld et. al. (1992) Sand Permeability h = 25 m, h /v = 8
Hess et al. (1992) Sand Permeability v = 0.21.0 m, h /v = 10
Chaisson et al. (1995) Clay Cone resistance v = 1.5 m
Popescu et al. (1995) Clay Cone resistance h = 0.81.8 m
Jaksa et al. (2004) Clay Dilatometer v = 0.52 m
Vrouwenvelder & Calle (2003) Clay Cone resistance h = 2035 m

Figure 3. Experimental setup to evaluate the correlation

length.
Figure 5. Typical curve of measured displacement vs.
pressure and evaluation according to DIN 4094-5.

Figure 4. Testing Equipment as described in the German

standard DIN 4094-5 (2001).

2.1 Mid-point method Figure 6. Evaluation of the correlation distance of EB,3

using semicovariance and correlation function.
The mid-point method is used to generate the Gaussian
random fields representing the undrained cohesion
beneath the strip footing. As described by Baecher & triangular resulting of the Cholesky decomposition
Christian (2003), the following equation 2 is used to of the correlation matrix. The vector of uncorrelated,
generate correlated numbers y. The correlation matrix random variables is x.
was calculated by using an isotropic correlation func-
tion shown in formula (1). Herein is L the lower

365
Figure 7. Geometry of the strip footing with a single reali-
sation of a random field for lognormal distributed, undrained
Figure 9. Influence of the correlation length on the mean
cohesion ( = 100 kN/m2 , C.O.V = 10 %, = B).
bearing capacity for different correlation distances and coef-
ficients of variation.
Table 2. Mean value , coefficient of variation C.O.V. of the
lognormal distributed EB,3 and horizontal correlation distance
of EB,3 .

C.O.V = /
Loading cycle [MN/m2 ] [%] [m]

1 loading 125 54 10
reloading 660 64 1015
2 loading 229 53 1015
reloading 432 57 1015
3 loading 229 59 1520
reloading 397 61 1520

Figure 10. Conventional Gaussian approach (a) and

sequential indicator approach (b) using a mean value
= 100 kN/m2 , a standard deviation = 10 kN/m2 and a
correlation distance = 10 m.

bearing capacity is lower compared to other correlation

distances.

2.2 Sequential indicator simulation

Figure 8. Convergence of the mean and the C.O.V due
to additional realisations of the random field for undrained
cohesion.
As mentioned above, there are lots of equi probable
realizations of the random field necessary to capture
variability, until the influence of additional realiza-
tions is negligible (Figure 8). In Figure 9 the influence
of the spatial variability on the mean baring capacity
can easily be seen. The more the coefficient of varia-
tion increases, the more the better the influence of the
correlation distance can be seen. As shown by Fenton
& Griffiths (2008) the most critical correlation dis-
tance is the width of the strip footing. Here the mean
As described above, Gaussian fields can describe spa-
tial variability by using a mean value, a standard
deviation and one single variogram or correlation
function. The spatial dependence is an integral of
the whole distribution of the parameters emphasising
the mean value. But is this approach appropriate for
geo-mechanical problems like the strip footing?
In geostatistics there is a long tradition in simulation
of random fields in geohydraulics. Deutsch & Journal
(1992) as well as Seiffert & Jensen (1999) propose
the Sequential Indicator Simulation as an extension
of the Gaussian case. In Figure 10 one can see these
two approaches in comparison. Both random fields
share the same mean value, the same standard devia-
tion and the same correlation distance. But they look
different. This can be conducted to the correlation of
extreme high and low values. By using the indicator
approach the differences of these random fields can be

366
 Figure 12. Correlation distances at different thresholds of
the cumulativ distribution function.

Figure 11. Indicator approach for the threshold (38% quan-

tile of EB,3 ) and evaluation of the indicator - correlation
distance i .

enlightened. Basic principle of the indicator approach

is the subdivision of the cumulative distribution func-
tion into certain thresholds. Therefore equation (3) is
needed to take every value of the function z(x) up to a
certain threshold q into account as described in Journel
(1983).
Figure 13. Indicator correlation distances of the measure-
ments.

This explanation becomes clearer by studying Fig-

ure 11. In the upper part of Figure 11 all measured
values of the modulus of elasticity EB,3 are plotted in
gray. Up to a threshold of EB,3 = 199 MN/m2 every
value is taken into account. Everything above this
threshold is equal to zero. In the lower part of Figure
11 the correlation function of the indicator function is
plotted in order to evaluate the correlation distance
ind . In this way the random fields of Figure 10
are evaluated and the results are plotted in Figure 12
together with die cumulative distribution function of
the random fields. One can clearly see that the extreme
values of the distribution function have a shorter cor-
relation length than the median value in the standard
Gaussian case, which is visualized in grey. In the Figure 14. Comparison of the Standard approach and the
indicator approach one constant indicator correlation Indicator Approach for the bearing capacity of a strip footing.
distance is detected. When analyzing the test results
(Figure 13) it is apparent that a standard Gaussian generation of random fields, which fulfil the indica-
model does not take the correlation of extreme val- tor correlation distance ind = 10 m for all thresholds.
ues into account. The correlation of extreme values of The results of this are printed in Figure 14. The impact
the soil should have an impact on the bearing capac- of the indicator approach on the mean value of the
ity. Therefore an additional case study was carried out bearing capacity of the strip footing is apparent. A
using the indicator approach as shown in Figure 12. different correlation structure, which is introduced by
For this purpose a mean value = 100 kN/m2 and a the indicator approach an impact on the response of
standard deviation = 10 kN/m2 have been used for the system.

367
3 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
This contribution examines soil variability. Descrip-
tion, evaluation and incorporation of soil variability
into a design process are presented within a case study
on the bearing capacity of a strip footing on variable
soil.The traditional way of Gaussian random fields and
a new indicator based approach are used to represent
soil variability within a case study. It can be derived
from this case study that there is a need for more inves-
tigations in evaluating stochastic soil properties and
appropriate models to represent these properties apart
from the traditional way. Within this contribution an
alternative method is offered. It can be seen form the
evaluations of the test results that the state of the art
offers not a complete representation of stochastic soil
properties.
Moreover there should be more emphasis to gain
knowledge in stochastic description of soil behaviour.
Further knowledge in terms of stochastic description
of different soil layers via random fields is necessary
to make prediction of settlements due to construction
processes.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
These in situ test are friendly supported by Prof.
Dr.-Ing. habil H. Schad (Materialprfungsanstalt Uni-
versitt Stuttgart - Division 5 Geotechnics) through
consulting, support and fruitful discussions. Moreover
we thank Dipl.-Ing. C.-D. Hauck (Stadt Stuttgart, Tief-
bauamt), who allowed us to carry out the experiments
on-site.
Thanks also to Dr.-Ing. A. Mllmann and Dr.-Ing.
S. Mller for discussions and helpful comments.
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2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Inverse modelling including spatial variability applied

to the construction of a road embankment

A. Hommels & F. Molenkamp

Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands

M. Huber & P.A. Vermeer

Institute of Geotechnical Engineering, University of Stuttgart, Germany

ABSTRACT: Almost all natural soils are highly variable in their properties and rarely homogeneous. There is
a natural variation of soil properties from one point to another in space due to different deposition conditions
and different loading conditions. This is called spatial heterogeneity and can be modeled using the Random
Finite Element Method. To improve model predictions an inverse modeling technique can be implemented
to incorporate measurements into a deterministic model. This enables the improvement of the poorly known
parameters and consequently the model results. This allows for observations of on-going processes to be used
for enhancing the quality of subsequent model predictions based on improved knowledge of the soil parameters.
The Ensemble Kalman filter calculates an assimilated state each time measurements become available, using
these measurements and the model predictions for that time step including both the measurement and its possible
error range. In this way the uncertain parameters are improved. The combination of the Ensemble Kalman filter
and the Random Finite Element method is a very powerful instrument to address the uncertainty of soil parameters
and in this way improve the model prediction.

1 INTRODUCTION constant throughout the mass or the layer. However,

in nature, this is not really the case: properties of nat-
1.1 Inverse modelling ural soils will vary through depth and often also in
horizontal extent due to for example different loading
In geotechnical engineering context inverse modelling
conditions or different depositional conditions. One
or back analysis consists in finding the values of the
way to deal with this uncertainty is the Random Finite
mechanical parameters, or of other quantities charac-
Element Method. This technique incorporates the spa-
terizing a soil or rock mass, that when introduced in the
tial correlation between the properties using Monte
stress analysis of the problem under examination lead
Carlo simulations in order to represent the proper
to results (e.g. displacements, stresses etc.) as close as
stochastic properties.
possible to the corresponding in situ measurements.
The general formulations of the Ensemble Kalman
The optimal state of the system is obtained by minimiz-
filter and the Random Finite Element Method will
ing the difference between the observed values in the
be discussed in the next sections. In Hommels et al.
system and the forecasted or modelled state of the sys-
2006 the effectiveness of the Ensemble Kalman filter
tem within a certain time interval. In the eighties and
using the Random Finite Element Method for a soil
the nineties, several articles concerning inverse analy-
column has been proven. In this paper the Ensemble
sis in geo-mechanics using the Maximum Likelihood
Kalman filter will be combined using two Random
and the (Extended) Bayesian method were published
Finite Element methods for the construction of a road
(Gens et al. 1996, Honjo et al. 1994a,b). Recent devel-
embankment.
opments in other fields of science have shown a new
powerful technique indicated as the Ensemble Kalman
filter. In a filter, the state of the system is analysed each
time data becomes available. 2 THEORY

2.1 Basic principles

1.2 Geological uncertainty
Usually in the field of geomechanics the Finite Ele-
ment Method is used for numerical simulations. In this
method, one particular value for a certain parameter is
assigned to the soil mass or a soil layer, which remains
The true state of the subsurface at time step k can be
described by a state vector xt (k). The elements of the
state vector are filled with stresses but possibly also
strains or other state parameters. The superscript t
denotes that xt (k) is the true state; the exact value is

369
probably unknown. To obtain insight in the true state,
a model is developed to make a forecast or to model
xf (k + 1) at time step k + 1:
The superscript f denotes that xf (k) is a forecast
of the true state xt (k) at time step k, which is in the
best case a good approximation. In the context of the
shallow subsurface, the state vector can partly be filled
with displacements u. M denotes the dynamical model
operator, which describes for instance the constitutive
model of the soil, e.g. the soil parametersYoungs mod-
ulus Eand Poissons ratio in the simplest elastic case.
If there are uncertainties in the parameters, which have
to be updated, the state vector xf (k)is also filled with
the uncertain parameters.
Since models are never perfect:
in which (k) is the unknown model error in the k-
th forecast with E{} = 0 (E denotes expectation) and
E{2 } = P, which is the model error covariance matrix.
Some entities of the state are compared with data
from an observational network, for example the mea-
surements yo of the surface displacements. All avail-
able data for time step k are stored in an observation
vector yo (k). The superscript o denotes that yo (k) is
an observation. There is a difference (k) between
the true state xt (k) and the actual observed data The performance of the EnKF is dependent on sev-
yo (k):
where H (k) is the linear observational operator. The
observations are assumed unbiased (E{} = 0)) and
E(2 ) = R, which is the measurement error covariance
matrix.
The final goal of inverse modelling methods is to
improve the state vector; at each time step k measure-
ments become available, with an error (k) as small as
possible.
2.2 Ensemble Kalman Filter
Evensen (1994, 2003) introduced the Ensemble
Kalman Filter (EnKF). The EnKF was designed to
resolve two major problems related to the use of
the Extended Kalman filter (EKF). The first problem
relates to the use of an approximate closure scheme in
the EKF, and the other one to the huge computational
requirements associated with the storage and forward
integration of the error covariance matrix in the EKF.
In the EnKF, an ensemble of N possible state vec-
tors, which are randomly generated using a Monte
Carlo approach, represents the statistical properties of
the state vector. The algorithm does not require a tan-
gent linear model, which is required for the EKF, and
is very easy to implement.
370
At initialisation, an ensemble of N initial states
(N )0 are generated to represent the uncertainty at time
f
step k = 0. The matrix Ek+1 defines an approximation
of the covariance matrix Pk+1 .
The time update equations for the Ensemble
Kalman filter for each ensemble are
in which Gk is the noise input matrix and wk is the
process noise.
The measurement update step equation is:
in which yo are the measurements, H is the observa-
tional operator, is a randomly added measurement
noise, because the measurements are treated as ran-
dom variables (Evensen, 2003) and K is the Kalman
gain, which is defined as
eral input parameters, which are amongst others the
model- and measurement noise, the number of ensem-
ble members, the amount of observations and the
initial parameter uncertainty.
2.3 Simulation approach
Variability can be captured via the simulation
approach. Herein equi-probable realisations of ran-
dom fields are generated fulfilling a target mean,
standard deviation and correlation function. This con-
cept is realized in the Random Finite Element Method
(RFEM). RFEM combines the finite element analy-
sis with a random field theory. In the Finite Element
Method the uncertainty of a material is defined by its
mean and its standard deviation . For the intro-
duction of more spatial variability, the introduction of
an additional statistical parameter, the spatial correla-
tion length , is required. The spatial correlation length
defines the distance beyond which there is minimal
correlation and can be determined from for example
CPT-data. A large value of indicates a strongly corre-
lated material, while a small value indicates a weakly
correlated material. As described by Baecher & Chris-
tian (2003) stationarity and ergodicity are assumed.
A random field is said to be second order station-
ary, if mean and covariance depend only upon vector
separation. Ergodicity means that the probabilistic
properties of a random field can be completely esti-
mated from observing on realization of that field. With
these assumptions the random field can be generated.
There a several theories to generate a random field.
In this paper the Local Average Subdivision theory
(LAS) will be compared with the Midpoint method. A
brief description of each random field generator will
be given.

2.3.1 Local Average Subdivision

In the Random Finite Element Method, this is done
using the Local Average Subdivision (LAS) (Fen-
ton & Vanmarcke 1990), based on a standard normal
distribution (mean is zero and the standard devia-
tion equals one) and a spatial correlation function
(). LAS generates a square random field by uni-
formly subdividing a square domain into smaller
square cells, where each cell has a unique local aver-
age, which is correlated with surrounding cells. For an
isotropic field, where is equal in all directions, the
Gauss-Markov correlation function () is given by

Figure 1. Road embankment based on a random field (cor-

relation length v = 5 m, h = ); 10 observation points are
in which is the lag vector. The random field for a indicated with rectangles.
certain parameter E for cell i, based on a standard
normal distribution, can then be transformed into for
example a normal distribution: 2.4 Monte Carlo simulations
Since both the Ensemble Kalman filter and the Ran-
dom Finite Element Method are based on Monte Carlo
in which E is the mean and E is standard deviation
simulation, these simulations are combined in order to
of parameter E; Zi is the local average value for cell
save computational effort. However enough realiza-
i. There are an infinite number of possibilities for the
tions are required to ensure a good representation of
random field, based on the given set of statistics of
probability density of the state estimate.
, and . Again Monte Carlo simulations are used to
express the spatial distribution (Hicks & Samy 2002).

2.3.2 Midpoint Method 3 CASE STUDY

This Midpoint-Method is a robust method in generat-
ing correlated random fields, as described by Sudret
(2007). This technique is based on the LU triangular
decomposition of the matrix of covariances between
the center points of each element. The covariance
between two center points is calculated using a cor-
relation function such as a Gauss-Markov correlation
function () in equation 9. Covariance matrix is
symmetric and positive-definite and therefore can be
decomposed into the product of a lower and an upper
triangular matrix as shown in equation 11. Through the
multiplication of the vector of in-dependent random
variables r with the lower triangular matrix L a corre-
lated vector r is calculated fulfilling the requirements
of the correlation function () used for the covari-
ance matrix. The advantages of the method are that
it is simple to implement, is not limited to particular
forms of covariance functions and automatically han-
dles anisotropies. The major drawback of this method
is the amount of storage required which, at least in
its general form as presented. Dowd (2003) presents
possibilities how to overcome this problem.
3.1 Construction of a road embankment
For this case study, a four meter high construction of
a road embankment is considered, where the Youngs
modulus E of the foundation is uncertain and modelled
using LAS and Midpoint method (figure 1). Herein
8-noded quadric lateral elements have been used in
combination with the using the Mohr-Coulomb model
(Smith and Griffiths, 2004). The horizontal spatial cor-
relation length is considered to be infinite, where the
vertical spatial correlation length is considered to be
30% of the depth of the foundation.
In figure 1, the foundation below the embankment,
modelled using a Random Finite Element Method is
shown. The observation locations at which the verti-
cal displacement are measured and which are used for
the input of the EnKF are indicated with blue rectan-
gle. The embankment is constructed in four phases as
shown in figure 2.
3.2 Results of the calculation
3First the influence of the amount of measurement
noise is considered. In figure 3 the difference bet-ween
a measurement noise with a standard deviation of 104

371
(left) and 106 (right) using 100 ensemble members
in each case is shown. The influence of the differ-
ent standard deviations of the measurement noise can
clearly be seen in LAS as well as in Midpoint method.
The difference between the results of the LAS and the
Midpoint method shown in figure 3 are more or less
negligible. From these subfigures it can be concluded
that if the measurement noise decreases, the parameter
uncertainty decreases and the speed of the assimilation
process increases. In the right subfigure it is clearly
shown that both the mean and the standard deviation
of the Youngs modulus are improved.
One can clearly see the influence of the amount
of ensemble members in figure 4; 50, 100 and 150
Figure 2. Embankment height at the left axis constructed
in four phases; at the right axis the vertical displacement at
one of the observation locations.
Figure 3. Differences between a measurement noise with a standard devitation of 104 (upper part) and 106 (lower part)
using 100 ensemble members and using LAS (left column) and Midpoint method (right column).
372
ensemble members are used. From 4 it can be con-
cluded that 50 ensemble members is not enough for
a correct assimilation process of the Youngs modu-
lus E. Comparing the results of the LAS method (left
column, figure 4) and the Midpoint method (right col-
umn, figure 4) for 100 and 150 ensemble members, it
can be concluded that the reduction of the parameter
uncertainty, using the Midpoint method, of theYoungs
modulus shows small differences.
The differences between the results of the two dif-
ferent random field generators can be explained via
the distribution and the correlation parameter shown
in figure 5.
The Midpoint method matches the target distribu-
tion function in a better way than LAS. The non exact
matching of the correlation function (figure 5) can be
explained via ergodic fluctuations, which are related
to the domain size of the random field as described by
Deutsch & Journel (1998).
Moreover the theory behind the random field gen-
erators offers another explanation. Using LAS for the
generation of the random fields, there is top-to-bottom
dependency (Fenton and Vanmarcke, 1990).
4 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
Within this contribution the concept of inverse model-
ing in geotechnics is presented by using the Ensemble
Figure 4. Difference between 50 (first row), 100 (second row) and 150 (third row) ensemble members using a measurement
noise with a standard deviation of 104 together with LAS (left column) and Midpoint method (right column).

Kalman filter. This method enables the incorporation

of measurements results and possible error ranges. A
case study of the construction of a road embankment
shows the influence of different measurement noises
and different amounts of ensemble members on the
back analysis of the modulus of elasticity. If more
ensemble members are used, the parameter uncer-
tainty will decrease more and faster. Also a decrease
in measurement noise, will lead to better assimila-
tion results. If more observations are available, further
research on more suitable random field generators is
needed.
In general the combination of the Ensemble Kalman
Filter with the Random Finite Element Method is
a very powerful instrument to reduce the parameter
uncertainty. It depends on the boundary conditions
of the problem set, how spatial variability can be in-
corporated. Figure 5. Evaluation of the correlation length of the random
field realisations by using the autocorrelation funciton.

373
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Library and Userss guide, Oxford University Press, 1998.
Dowd, P. A. 1992: A review of recent developments in
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Evensen, G. 2003. The Ensemble Kalman filter: theoret-
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Fenton, G. A., and Vanmarcke, E.H. 1990. Simulation of
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Gens, A., Ledesma, A. and Alonso, E. 1996. Estimation
of parameters in geotechnical back analysis II. Appli-
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on undrained clay slope stability. The Quarterly Journal
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Hommels, A. and Molenkamp, F., Inverse analysis of an
embankment using the Ensemble Kalman Filter includ-
ing heterogeneity of the soft soil. Proc. of the Sixth
Eur. Conference on Numerical Methods in Geotechnical
Engineering, 68 September 2006, Graz Austria.
Honjo, Y., Liu, W.T. and Soumitra, G. 1994a. Inverse analy-
sis of an embankment on soft clay by extended Bayesian
method. Int. Journal for Num. and Anal. Methods in
Geo-mechanics, vol. 18, p. 709734.
Honjo, Y., Wen-Tsung, L. and Sakajo, S. 1994b. Application
of Akaike information criterion statistics to geotech-
nical inverse analysis: the extended Bayesian method.
Structural safety, vol. 14, p. 529.
Smith, I. M. and D. V. Griffiths. 2004. Programming the finite
elememt method. Chichester, Wiley and sons.
Sudret, B. 2007. Uncertainty propagation and sensitivity
analysis in mechanical models Contributions to struc-
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Clermont-Ferrand.
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Reliability analysis of piping in embankment dam

Ali Noorzad
Power & Water University of Technology, Tehran, Iran

Mohsen Rohaninejad
Iran University of Science & Technology, Tehran, Iran

ABSTRACT: The present paper is focused on the application of reliability analysis to assess the piping phe-
nomenon in embankment dams. In order to run the reliability analysis, the effective parameters in the failure
mode of piping are identified. Then the probability distribution curves of the parameters are drawn based on
the experimental results of the site. Utilizing Monte Carlo simulation and repetitive finite element analysis, the
probability of the occurrence of piping and exit gradients in critical zones are specified. To show the capability
of the approach, a case study, namely, No. 4 Chahnimeh dam located in Sistan- Baluchistan province, Iran has
been considered. The obtained results show that the dam demonstrates a high reliability in terms of piping phe-
nomenon and seems to be safe. In order to verify the results, sensitive analysis has been implemented with the
new hypotheses confirming the accuracy of the proposed hypotheses.

1 INTRODUCTION (US Army Corps of Engineers, 2006). Calibrations

The role of water resources projects in developing
countries and the safety level of the infrastructure are
important to decision makers. With respect to the fail-
ure mode in embankment, the uncertainties involved
are required to be first identified and then prioritized
using qualitative analysis. The significant risks should
be quantitatively assessed. Reliability analysis is one
of the methods which can be used in quantifying risks.
New aspects of geotechnical analysis based on
risk assessment have been widely considered due
to the uncertainty in geotechnical parameters. These
uncertainties are originated from physical uncer-
tainty, human errors and uncertainty in modeling. It
is believed that the combination of these unknown
parameters leads to unreliable design. Currently, most
of engineering analyses in conventional approaches
are not considered as complete design process. Thus,
any analytical method determining the failure proba-
bility needs to compute the entire of relevant mech-
anisms and their effective characteristics (Stewart,
2000).
There are various methods to determine the proba-
bility of dams failure in quantitative risk assessment
for all failure modes. For some failure modes like
overtopping and liquefaction, the methods are well
developed; in contrast, there is little work on other
phenomenon such as piping (Fell et al., 2000).
In conventional design, which utilizes determinis-
tic methods, guidelines are available providing enough
assurance to the project. However, in reliability
analysis, different calibrations should be performed
include performing of comparative studies of deter-
ministic analyses for a wide range of geotechnical
issues and case studies.
In this research, a case study, namely, Chahnimeh
dam is selected. Base on the existing documents,
piping phenomenon is expected to be the most seri-
ous failure mode of this dam. One of the significant
problems in reliability theory is the investigation of
reliability index changes due to changing in different
parameters. In order to overcome this problem, two
analyses are carried out.
2 RELIABILTIY ANANLYSIS IN
GEOTECHNICS
From 1980, comprehensive studies on the develop-
ment of reliability theory have been done. Among
them, Filippas et al. (1988) and Phoon et al. (1995)
studied the impact of geotechnical parameters in
reliability of foundation. The results indicated that
coefficient of variation (COV) of soil parameters is
important in the structure reliability.
Many researchers have investigated the problem of
water seepage in soil (Elkateb et al., 2003). Applying
the fundamental procedures into the geotechnical prac-
tice, Griffiths & Fenton (1993) considered the effect
of soil spatial variability on seepage flow.
To incorporate soil parameter variations, quantita-
tive approaches in risk analysis are utilized. Classi-
cal statistical methods for soil variation is based on
statistical outcome like the average, the coefficient

375
of variation and the probability distribution; such
as Schultze (1975) and Griffiths & Fenton (1998).
They have used the statistical distribution like normal,
lognormal and beta to interpret the field data.
In an attempt, Tobutt & Richards (1979) logically
used the variability of soil parameters in combination
of limit state equation with Monte Carlo simulation
for reliability analysis of earth slopes. In the same line
of thought, Paice et al. (1994) integrated spatial corre-
lation by performing the Monte Carlo simulation into
deterministic numerical analysis. In addition, Auvinet
et al. 1996 used the stochastic finite element method as
an efficient procedure to consider the soil variability
into a numerical analysis framework.
In the probabilistic methods, variables are divided
into two main categories of resistance and load. Under
this division, a simple form of the limit state function
can be defined according to Equation 1 in which there Figure 1. Assessment of dam safety using the reliability
is an implicit or explicit relation between variables index.
and the safety of a model. Accordingly, a limit state
equation (LSE) can be defined whereas Z = 0.
2. Defining the parameters as random variables in the
failure modes and assigning statistical distributions
to them;
3. Constructing suitable reliability model in accor-
Therefore, the limit state equation (LSE) clarifies dance with statistical models controlling random
two different regions where the LSE 0 or not. In this variables;
case, r is a vector of resistant variables, and s is a vector 4. Determining indefinite limits and making the prob-
of load variables. However, in complex problems as ability distributions to compute the probability of
well as in this research there is an implicit LSE in failure modes.
which the relation between stress and resistant is not
explicitly known. 2.1 Piping reliability assessment with finite
The reliability-based approach relies on selecting element model
design parameters that satisfy a desired degree of rli-
ability or a certain probability of failure. To compute There is no specific procedure to determine failure
the reliability index, safety levels can be used as given probability of internal erosion and piping, which are
in Equation 2. This index has been frequently used in the main problems of most embankment dams. Foster
slope stability analysis. For instance, Wolff (1996) sug- et al. (2000) presented an approach for evaluation of
gested a reliability index of three for ordinary slopes failure probability due to piping. The probability of
and four for critical slopes. The reliability index can failure is estimated by adjusting the historical fre-
be computed through quency of piping failure by weighting factors which
take into account the dam zoning. Lacasse et al. (2004)
evaluated the risk of piping based on engineering judg-
ment. In an attempt to investigate the piping risk,
Badv and Sargordi [24] utilized the limit state equation
where mFS is the mean factor of safety; L is a limit
incorporation the experimental relation of Sellmeijer
state value usually equal to one and FS is the stan-
and Koenders [25] that seems not to be reliable.
dard deviation of safety factor (Elkateb et al., 2003).
The finite element analysis is the only method to
As shown in Figure 1, by determining , the failure
evaluate the limit state equation without loss of accu-
mode of dam can be achieved (Phoon, 2004). The level
racy. An explicit term for the limit state equation
of safety can be considered as bounded by the fol-
is unavailable. In addition to utilize the finite ele-
lowing two extremes; the high level of safety that is
ment analysis, there is a need to use probabilistic
physically achievable at any cost, and a hazardous
techniques in engineering problems as they provide a
level below which the dam cannot withstand normal
deeper understanding of failure mechanisms. Hence,
operating conditions. Between these bounds, safety
to accomplish these advantages, a well-defined model
decision-making involves striking a balance between
of the structure together with a reliability technique
the risks and the benefits and between social equity
is required (Rajabalinejad et al., 2009). Monte Carlo
and economic efficiency.
simulation is extensively considered to be among
Based on random variables, the algorithm can be
the most efficient and commonly applicable proce-
summarized as follows:
dure. Therefore, the combination of finite element
1. Identifying all parameters pertinent to risk and model together with Monte Carlo simulation is the
reliability analysis; appropriate alternative for the reliability analysis.

376
Table 1. Technical specifications of No. 4 Chahnimeh dam
Dam type: homogeneous Crest length: 15250 m
embankment
Crest width: 8 m Foundation width: 105.5 m
Height from Reservoir volume: 820 MCM
foundation: 15.5 m at normal level
Upstream slope: 1 to 3.5 (V/H) Downstream slop: 1 to 3 (V/H)
Monte Carlo simulation has progressively become
more frequent in dam risk assessments. For the first
time, Kim and Major (1978) used Monte Carlo simu-
lation with limit equilibrium equation. Soil parameters
were assumed as uncorrelated random variables.
In order to get an acceptable estimation of the sim-
ulation, a large number of random variable should be
produced. According to Equation 3, Nowak & Collins
(2000) presented the required number of random
samples as
where Pf is the approximate failure probability and
COV is the coefficient of variables.
3 A CASE STUDY: NO. 4 CHAHNIMEH DAM
To demonstrate the capability of the Monte Carlo finite
element method, a case study has been considered.
No.4 Chahnimeh dam is located in south of Iran and a
summary of the dam characteristic is given in Table 1.
The elements controlling seepage in all sections of
the dam are vertical and horizontal drain, upstream
blanket and relief wells. Downstream berm and clayey
cutoff wall are also constructed in some specific
sections.
According to available documents prepared by dam
consultant, piping phenomenon is expected to be the
most serious failure mode of this dam. With the
assumption of using suitable materials with enough
compaction during construction and vertical and hori-
zontal drains along with the proper filter, seepage from
dam body does not seem to be an important issue.
However, seepage from the foundation of dam can be
significant because of the large thickness of alluvial
layer, considerable length of dam, high variation of
permeability coefficients, the presence of sand lens
in the foundation and lack of cutoff wall. Therefore,
the piping phenomenon and intensive seepage in some
zones of dam foundation are likely to occur.
In this study lognormal distribution for permeabil-
ity random variable and normal distribution for density
of foundation soil are considered [U.S. Army Corps
of Engineers, (2006), Duncan, (2000) and Gui et al.,
(2000)]. The probability density function for one of
input random variable is presented in Figure 2, which is
appropriately interpreted with lognormal and gamma
377
Figure 2. PDF of various coefficient of permeability.
distribution. In addition, vertical coefficient of per-
meability, Ky , is taken as random variable and the
permeability ratio, Kx /Ky is assumed to be 9.
In our model, the normal water level is considered as
the load. Also, the variations of two soil parameters are
considered in the safety analysis of the dam. The vari-
ations are considered both in horizontal and vertical
directions according to Table 2. As the main purpose
of the investigation is to study piping and seepage
failure mode in this dam, the reliability analysis will
be focused on piping phenomenon from foundation
to horizontal drain and to downstream, respectively.
Based on erosion model proposed by Fell et al. 2001,
only the piping within the foundation is assessed.
Subsequently from Equation 3, the failure probabil-
ity is computed as 104 ; then the required number of
random variables is taken 2500.
4 RELIABILITY ANALYSIS
IMPLEMENTATION
To accomplish the probabilistic analysis, a code is pro-
vided along with the FLAC software. Figure 3 shows
a finite difference model of No.4 Chahnimeh dam.
Because the dams geometry is somewhat regular, the
most element of numerical model is rectangular ele-
ments. This is very helpful in reducing the calculation
time and makes a simpler model by using the fewer
meshes.
According to simulation process, the variation of
the input parameters provides a wide range of possible
combinations of different variables, under the assumed
probability distribution function (PDF). Results of
stochastic numerical analysis may include total dis-
charge, exit gradients in major parts of the dam and
the safety factor against piping in horizontal drain and
downstream. By evaluating the above results, the prob-
ability of failure due to piping can be determined. An
overview of the process of determining failure prob-
ability is shown in Figure 4. In order to study the
random numbers generation process, Figure 5 shows
the probability density function (PDF) for one of the
permeability random variable. It is properly fitted to
lognormal distribution and in good agreement with the
hypotheses.
Table 2. The summary of field results.

Standard Coefficient
Specifications Maximum Minimum Average Deviation of Variation

Coefficient of First layer 0.0075 1.40 106 6.12 104 13.60 104 220
permeability Second layer 0.0032 1.40 106 3.95 104 7.22 104 183
(cm/s) Third layer 0.0033 1.60 106 4.87 104 7.50 104 154
Saturated density 18.40 14.00 15.38 0.77 5
(kN/m3 )

Figure 3. The finite difference model of No.4 Chahnimeh dam, modeled with FLAC.

Figure 5. PDF of random numbers for the first layer.

index, new features can be achieved toward dams sta-

Figure 4. Process of determination failure probability.
5 DISCUSSION OF RESULTS
After obtaining the results of Monte Carlo simulation
and determining the failure probability and reliability
bility against piping. A summary of the simulation
results is presented in Table 3. It can be stated that coef-
ficient of the variation of less than 10 percent of safety
factor shows the appropriate scattering of the output
data (Nwaiwu, 2008). The average amounts of exit gra-
dients are negligible and the safety factor and safety
margin are evaluated to be very high. By substituting
the average and standard deviation of the safety factors
in Equation 1, the reliability index in horizontal drain
is 5.48 and in downstream is 4.94. These quantities
show that the safety level of the dam is high. Further-
more, with regard to the fact that the safety factor in
none of the iterations has not been less than one, there-
fore the probability of failure will be less than 104 .
Considering Figure 1, and the amount of , the fail-
ure probability can be predicted to be about 3 107
being an acceptable level for dam construction.
Figure 6 presents the cumulative density function
(CDF) for safety factor against piping in downstream.

378
Table 3. Monte Carlo simulation results.

Outputs Max. Min. Average Coefficient of Variation

Total discharge (m3 ) 2.98 0.188 0.594 54.40

Horizontal gradients at vertical drain 0.32 0.077 0.166 29.41
Vertical gradients from foundation to horizontal drain 0.58 0.026 0.133 66.79
Vertical gradients at downstream 0.47 0.060 0.144 45.06
Horizontal gradients at relief wells 19.02 0.076 1.38 102.45
Safety factor against piping within the dam 2.57 1.30 2.01 8.59
Safety factor against piping downstream of dam 2.20 1.12 1.83 9.15
Safety margin against piping within the dam (kPa) 13.2 6.7 9.2 9.48
Safety margin against piping downstream of dam (kPa) 11.8 1.8 7.8 17.56

Figure 6. CDF of safety factor in downstream. Figure 7. CDF of safety factor in downstream.

As observed, the probability of occurrence is higher

than 1.2 indicating the safety factor is safe in different
locations.

5.1 Sensitivity analysis

One of the significant problems in the reliability theory
is to determine the changes in the reliability index due
to the changes in different parameters. This process
has been studied by sensitivity analysis. Two analy-
ses have been performed. In the first analysis, normal
distribution is employed based on Nwaiwu (2008)
who introduced normal and gamma distribution for
adjusting permeability data. In the second analysis, the Figure 8. PDF of generated random number for the first
horizontal coefficient of permeability, Kx , is consid- layer.
ered as a random variable and the permeability ratio,
Ky /Kx , is assumed to be 9.

5.1.1 Changing the type of random distribution
function
In this analysis, the distribution function of permeabil-
ity is changed from lognormal to normal distribution.
The average amount of exit gradients is negligible
and the safety factors are evaluated to be high. The
reliability indexes are 4.1 and 3.4 in horizontal drain
and downstream, respectively. Also, the safety factors
for different situations are greater than 1. The cumu-
lative density function (CDF) for safety factor against
piping in downstream is depicted in Figure 7. In this
figure, the probability of existence of safety factor is
not less than 1.1 indicating the dam is safe against
piping.
In order to explain the causes of decreasing reli-
ability index, Figure 8 shows the PDF of one of the
random generations with normal distribution. In this
figure, the generation outputs cannot be even adjusted
with normal distribution. It can be mentioned that the
high coefficient of variation in the safety factor is due
to generating inappropriate random variable. There-
fore, it can be stated that the lognormal distribution
can be fitted better than normal distribution for the
coefficient of permeability.

379

Figure 9. CDF of safety factor in downstream.
5.1.2 Changing random characters
It can be observed that coefficient of variation of less
than 10 percent for the safety factor shows the scatter-
ing of the output data. As mentioned in the previous
section, the reliability indexes are 8.9 and 5.4 respec-
tively in this analysis. These quantities illustrate that
the dam safety level is high. In addition, the safety
factor in none of the iterations has not been less than
one.
Figure 9 shows the cumulative density function
(CDF) for safety factor against piping in downstream.
In this figure, the probability of existence of safety fac-
tor is not less than 1.4 indicating the dam is safe against
piping. Based on the obtained results, it is shown the
capability and validity of the proposed hypotheses in
examining the reliability against piping phenomenon
in embankment dam such as No. 4 Chahnimeh dam.
6 CONCLUSIONS
In this study, using the finite element model and Monte
Carlo simulation, reliability analysis of piping phe-
nomenon for No. 4 Chahnimeh dam has been carried
out. The results indicate that the dam demonstrates a
high reliability in terms of piping phenomenon and
seems to be safe. With particular attention to high
reliability index, it is observed that the design of this
dam appears to be on the conservative side. Sensitive
analyses is confirmed the accuracy of the proposed
hypotheses.
The main purpose of using reliability models is its
capability for becoming an effective mechanism in
decision-making process. Reliability analysis can be
utilized in evaluating the risks related to embankment
dam. Probabilistic assessment is more efficient than
deterministic methods which are only relied on the
safety factor. Due to low failure probability of infras-
tructures like dams, safety factor cannot well explain
the uncertainties. With respect to the effect of failure
mode in embankment dams, it is necessary to use sys-
tematic analyses to reduce or minimize the uncertainty
effects. Therefore, along with conventional analyses,
it is better that these analyses are also accomplished.
380
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Rajabalinejad, M. (2009). Reliability methods for finite
element models. Ph.D. thesis, Delft University of Tech-
nology, Delft, The Netherlands, 120 p.
Schultze, E. 1975. Some aspects concerning the applica-
tion of statistics and probability to foundation structures.
Proceeding of the Second International Conference on
the Applications of Statistics and Probability in Soil and
Structure Engineering, Aachen, Germany, pp. 457494.
Sellmeijer, J.B and Koenders, M. 1991. A mathematical
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Tobutt, D.C. and Richards, E. 1979. The reliability of earth
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419433.
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Spatial variability of soil parameters in an analysis of a strip footing using

hypoplastic model

R. Suchomel & D. Man

Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic

ABSTRACT: Advanced hypoplastic constitutive model is used in probabilistic analyses of a typical geotech-
nical problem, strip footing. Spatial variability of soil parameters, rather than state variables, is studied by
means of random field Monte-Carlo simulations. The model, including correlation length, was calibrated using
a comprehensive set of experimental data. Foundation displacement uy for given load follows closely lognormal
distribution, even though some model parameters are distributed normally. The vertical correlation length v was
found to have minor effect on [uy ], but significant effect on [uy ], which decreases with decreasing v due to
spatial averaging. Applicability of a simpler probabilistic method (FOSM) is also discussed.

1 INTRODUCTION conditions during the deposition. In such a case,

it is necessary to consider spatially variable soil
Geomechanical properties measured in site investi- parameters.
gation programs are highly variable. The causes for
Most of the applications of probabilistic methods in
the parameter variability can be broadly divided into
combination with advanced soil constitutive models
two groups (Helton 1997). Objective (aleatory) uncer-
consider uncertainty in the state variable only. As an
tainty results from inherent spatial variability of soil
example, Hicks and Onisiphorou (2005) studied sta-
properties, whereas subjective (epistemic) uncertainty
bility of underwater sandfill berms. Their aim was
is caused by the lack of knowledge and measurement
to study whether presence of pockets of liquifi-
error. Both sources of uncertainty need to be consid-
able material may be enough to cause instability in
ered in geotechnical design (Schweiger and Peschl
a predominantly dilative fill. They used a double-
2005). In this work, we focus on the description
hardening constitutive model with probabilistic dis-
of the aleatory uncertainty, which is inherent to the
tribution of state variable . In other applications,
given soil deposit and cannot be reduced by additional
Tejchman (2006) studied the influence of the fluctua-
experiments or improvement of experimental devices.
tion of void ratio on formation of the shear zone in the
Advanced constitutive models for soils distinguish
biaxial specimen using the hypoplastic model by von
between material parameters and state variables. In
Wolffersdorff (1996).
principle, soil parameters are specific to the given
The aim of the research project presented is a com-
mineralogical properties of soil particles and soil gran-
plete evaluation of the influence of parameter variabil-
ulometry. State variables (such as void ratio e) then
ity of an advanced constitutive model on predictions of
allow us to predict the dependency of the soil behaviour
typical geotechnical problems. Suchomel and Man
on its state. In this respect, the sources of aleatory
(2009) performed a set of laboratory experiments on
uncertainty can further be subdivided into two groups:
sandy material, that were used for evaluation of prob-
1. In some situations, soil mineralogy and granulom- abilistic distributions and spatial variability of param-
etry may be regarded as spatially invariable, and eters of a hypoplastic model for granular materials by
the uncertainty in the mechanical properties of von Wolffersdorff (1996). The influence of their vari-
soil deposit come from variability in soil state. ation on predictions of a typical geotechnical problem
In this case, soil parameters may be considered (strip footing) is presented in this contribution.
as constants, and it is sufficient to consider spa-
tial variability of state variables describing relative
density of soil. 2 EXPERIMENTAL PROGRAM AND
2. In other cases, soil properties are variable due CALIBRATION OF A CONSTITUTIVE
to varying granulometry and mineralogy of soil MODEL
grains. Such a situation is for example typical
for soil deposits of sedimentary basins, where the For details of the experimental program and calibra-
granulometry varies due to the variable geological tion of the models see Suchomel and Man (2009).

383
Figure 1. The wall of the sand pit in south part of the Trebon
basin. Black dots represent positions of specimens for the
laboratory investigation.
Figure 2. Typical experimental and simulated results of
drained triaxial tests.
The material for investigation comes from the south Table 1. Characteristic values of statistical distributions of
part of upper Cretaceous Trebon basin in the South parameters of the hypoplastic model.
Bohemia from the sand pit Koln. The pit is located
in the upper part of the so-called Klikovsk layers, param. dist. mean st. dev.
youngest (senon) strata of the South Bohemian basins.
These fluvial layers are characterised by a rhythmical c log. 35.1 1.62
variation of gravely sands, sands and sands with dark hs log. 3.82 GPa 14.6 GPa
grey clay inclusions. n log. 0.289 0.095
Altogether forty samples were taken from a ten ec0 norm. 0.847 0.111
ei0 norm. 1.016 0.133
meters high pit wall in a regular grid (Fig. 1). The labo-
ed0 norm. 0.318 0.042
ratory program was selected to provide for each of the log. 0.074 0.048
samples enough information to calibrate a hypoplas- norm. 1.261 0.605
tic model for granular materials by von Wolffersdorff
(1996). The following tests were performed on each of
the 40 samples:
Oedometric compression test on initially very loose
specimens.
Drained triaxial compression test on specimen
dynamically compacted to void ratio correspond-
ing to the dense in-situ conditions. One test per
specimen at the cell pressure of 200 kPa.
Measurement of the angle of repose.
Figure 3. Examples statistical distributions of hypoplastic
The hypoplastic model by von Wolffersdorff (1996) parameters (hs and ).
has eight material parameters. The model was cali-
brated using procedures outlined by Herle and Gude- coefficient on distance was approximated using an
hus (1999). The whole process of calibration was exponential expression due to Markov
automated to reduce subjectivity of calibration. Exam-
ples of the measured and simulated results of triaxial
experiments are shown in Figure 2 (specimens from
one column of the sampling grid).
Suitability of different statistical distributions (nor-
mal and lognormal) to represent the experimental data
was evaluated using Kolmogorov-Smirnov tests. Char- where h is the horizontal distance between two spec-
acteristic values of statistical distributions of parame- imens and v is the vertical distance. The correlation
ters of the hypoplastic model are given in Tab. 1 (note length could successfully be evaluated using parame-
the results differ slightly from Suchomel and Man ter c only. This parameters depends directly on soil
(2009), as two specimens c1 and e4 with unusual granulometry. The least square fit of Eq. (1) through
behaviour were not considered in the present evalu- the experimental data is shown in Figure 4, leading
ation). Statistical distributions of parameters hs and to h = 242 m and v = 5.1 m. Note that practically no
are in Figure 3, as an example. correlation is observed in the vertical direction, there-
As position of each of the 40 samples was known, fore the obtained value v = 5.1 m is implied by the
Suchomel and Man (2009) could also evaluate the adopted vertical sampling distance, rather than by the
correlation length in the horizontal (h ) and verti- actual autocorrelation properties. Additional experi-
cal (v ) directions. The dependency of the correlation ments on specimens obtained from the outcrop in a

384
Figure 4. Evaluation of the correlation coefficient in hori-
zontal (a) and vertical (b) directions for parameter c , together
with least square fit of Eq. (1).
Figure 5. The problem geometry and finite element mesh.
smaller vertical sampling distance are currently being
performed to evaluate v more precisely.
In addition to the laboratory experiments, five in
situ porosity tests with membrane porosimeter were
performed at different locations within the area from
which the samples were obtained. Average natural void
ratio was 0.41. The sand was thus in a dense state.
3 STRIP FOOTING PROBLEM
The influence of spatial variation of parameters of the
hypoplastic model was studied by simulations of a
typical geotechnical problem settlement of a strip
footing. Simulations were performed using a finite
element package Tochnog Professional. The prob-
lem geometry and finite element mesh are shown in
Figure 5. The mesh consist of 1920 nine-noded quadri-
lateral elements. The foundation was analysed as rigid
and perfectly smooth. Element size in the vicinity of
the footing is 0.5 m.
The soil unit weight is 18.7 kN/m3 . The ini-
tial K0 = 0.43 was calculated from Jky formula
K0 = 1 sin c , with average value of c measured
in the experiments. The initial value of void ratio
e = 0.48 was used in simulations. The soil was thus
slightly looser then in situ, in order to ensure that the
void ratios do not surpass the physical lower bound
ed during Monte-Carlo simulations. Spatial variabil-
ity of void ratio was not considered. The analyses thus
focused on qualitative evaluation of the influence of
the spatial variability of soil parameters. In all cases,
foundation displacements corresponding to the load of
500 kPa were evaluated. Bearing capacity of the foun-
dation was not evaluated, as the peak loads depend on
the mesh density due to the localisation phenomena.
385
Figure 6. Tornado diagram showing sensitivity of founda-
tion displacements on different parameters.
4 SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS
At first, sensitivity of the results on different material
parameters was evaluated. In these simulations, spa-
tial variability of soil parameters was not considered.
Only one parameter was varied at a time, all other
parameters were given their mean or median values
(for normally and lognormally distributed parameters
respectively).
A Tornado diagram showing sensitivity of founda-
tion displacements uy on different parameters is given
in Figure 6. It shows uy for the mean value [X ] and for
[X ] [X ], where X is parameter value in the case
of normally distributed parameters and its logarithm
in the case of lognormally distributed parameters.
As expected, foundation settlements are influenced
the most significantly by the parameters controlling
soil bulk modulus (parameters hs and n) and parameter
that influences the shear stiffness. Less signifi-
cant is the influence of the relative density, controlled
through parameters ec0 , ei0 and ed0 . Note that ec0
and the other two reference void ratios ei0 and ed0
were varied simultaneously to ensure constant ratios
between them imposed during calibration (Suchomel
and Man 2009). The smallest influence on foun-
dation settlements have parameters and c , which
control soil strength.
5 PROBABILISTIC ANALYSES
The following probabilistic analyses of the strip foot-
ing were performed. First of all, the problem was
simulated without considering spatial variability of the
parameters (i.e. the correlation length was infinite).
In the second step, spatial variability of the param-
eters was introduced through simulations based on
random field theory by Vanmarcke (1983) (RFEM).
Last, applicability of a simpler probabilistic method
based on Taylor series expansion (first order second
moment method, FOSM) was studied.
 Figure 8. Probabilistic distributions of uy for Monte-Carlo
Figure 7. The dependency of [uy ] and [uy ] on the number analyses with infinite correlation length.
of Monte-Carlo realisations.
Table 2. Results of probabilistic simulations with infinite
correlation length (in meters).
5.1 Simulations with infinite correlation length
RFEM FOSM
If spatial variability of the soil parameters is neglected, random
the problem can be simulated using approximate ana- param. [uy ] [uy ] [uy ] [uy ]
lytical methods (for example, FOSM method). These
methods have, however, a number of limitations, as hs 0.231 0.128 0.193 0.107
discussed in Sec. 5.3. The probabilistic aspects of n 0.197 0.083 0.193 0.089
0.217 0.087 0.193 0.077
the problem analysed in this contribution are fairly
all param. 0.229 0.163 0.193 0.164
complex. The constitutive model and thus also the
dependency of uy on X are non-linear. Some of
the model parameters follow Gaussian distribution,
whereas other follow lognormal distribution. For this
reason, analyses with spatially invariable fields of
input variables were performed using Monte-Carlo
method.
This method is fully general, but depending on the
problem solved it may require significantly large num-
ber of realisations and consequently a considerable
computational effort. Figure 7 shows the dependency
of the mean value [uy ] and standard deviation [uy ]
for random field simulations from Sec. 5.2. At least
700 Monte-Carlo realisations is required to get a rea-
sonably stable estimate of [uy ] and [uy ]. In all
presented simulations, at least 1000 realisations were
performed.
Four analyses were performed. In three of them,
only one parameters was varied at a time and the other
parameters were given their mean (normal parameters) Figure 9. Typical random field simulations with v = 5.1 m
or median (lognormal parameters) values. These anal- (bottom part of the mesh not shown).
yses were performed for the parameters hs , n and .
follows normal, whereas hs and n follow lognormal
5.2 Random field simulations
distribution. In the last analysis, all paremeters were
considered as random. All parameters were simulated Spatial variability of soil parameters was considered
as uncorrelated, with the exception of ec0 , ed0 and ei0 , in the second set of analyses. Random fields were
which were perfectly correlated to preserve constant generated using method based on the Cholesky decom-
ratios between them. Figure 8 shows probabilistic dis- position of the correlation matrix. Due to uncertainty
tributions of uy and Tab. 2 gives the values of [uy ] and in the correlation length in the vertical direction (dis-
[uy ]. The distribution of the output variable is well cussed in Sec. 2), simulations were run with different
described by the lognormal distribution, even in the values of v . All parameters were considered as ran-
case of as single variable parameter, which itself fol- dom, ec0 , ed0 and ei0 were perfectly correlated and
lows the Gaussian distribution. Slight deviation from other parameters were uncorrelated.
the log-normal distribution shows the analysis with n Example random fields (parameters hs and ) for
and all parameters random. v = 5.1 m are shown in Figure 9. The same figure

386

Figure 10. Probabilistic distributions of uy in random field
analyses with finite v and all parameters treated as random.
Figure 11. The dependency of [uy ] and [uy ] on v
predicted by the random field method.
shows also corresponding distribution of void ratio
after 0.8 m of the foundation displacement. Study of
this example, as was well as other simulations not pre-
sented here, reveals that the lowest void ratios occur in
softer areas characterised by low values of the param-
eter . Parameter hs , which also have a substantial
influence on uy (Sec. 4), affects due to its highly
skewed lognormal distribution (Fig. 3) the results in
a global way, whereas the parameter controls the
local deformation pattern.
Typical statistical distributions of the output vari-
able uy are shown in Figure 10. In all studied cases, uy
follows lognormal distribution. This agrees with the
results of RFEM simulations with spatially invariable
parameters (Sec. 5.1).
Figure 11 and Tab. 3 show [uy ] and [uy ] pre-
dicted by the RFEM simulations with different values
of v . There is only slight change (decrease) of [uy ]
with v , whereas [uy ] decreases with decreasing v
substantially. This decrease is caused by the spatial
averaging of soil properties, leading to the reduction of
variance of the input variables and consequently of the
performance function (see Sec. 5.3 for more details).
5.3 FOSM simulations
One of the popular approximate analytical methods
for probabilistic analyses is the first-order, second-
moment (FOSM) method. Unlike the Monte-Carlo
method, the FOSM method has a number of limi-
tations. First, it consideres linear dependency of the
performance function (in our case uy ) on the input
variables (in our case, material parameters X ). Also, it
387
Table 3. Results of probabilistic simulations with variable
vertical correlation length (in meters).
RFEM FOSM
v [uy ] [uy ] eff. vert. dist.
1m 0.215 0.039 0.48 1.33
2m 0.219 0.059 0.61 1.78
5.1 m 0.226 0.089 0.75 2.53
12.3 m 0.225 0.119 0.87 3.04
does not provide any information on the skewness of
the probabilistic distribution of the output variable. Its
applicability to solve the highly complex probabilis-
tic problem from this work is studied in this section.
Details of the method may be found elsewhere, see
e.g. Suchomel and Man (2010). Parameter values
(normally distributed parameters) or their logarithms
(lognormal parameters) are used as an input into the
FOSM method.
Tab. 2 gives the values of [uy ] and [uy ] by the
FOSM and RFEM methods for infinite correlation
length. The FOSM method underestimates both [uy ]
and [uy ] due to the non-linear dependency of the out-
put variable uy on the parameters hs and (see Fig. 6).
The method does not provide any information on the
skewness of the statistical distribution of uy .Therefore,
its use requires a check of the distribution of uy through
Monte-Carlo simulation (or other general probabilis-
tic method). In our case, the distribution of uy is clearly
lognormal (Figs. 8 and 10).
As discussed by Suchomel and Man (2010), the
FOSM method can indirectly consider spatial vari-
ability of the input variables through reduction of
their variances due to spatial averaging. The reduc-
tion factor is defined as = ([Xi ]A /[Xi ])2 , where
[Xi ] describes the global statistics of the variable Xi
and [Xi ]A is the standard deviation of the spatially
averaged field. It may be calculated by integration
of the Markov function (Eq. (1)) (Vanmarcke 1983).
Suchomel and Man (2010) have shown that in the
case of a slope stability problem in spatially variable
c- soil, can be estimated a priori by integrating
the Markov function in 1D along the potential failure
surface.
The value of may be evaluated by comparing
standard deviations of the FOSM and RFEM out-
puts (Tab. 3). As is a variance reduction factor of
the input parameters, however, a linear dependency
of the ouput variable on the input parameters (or its
logarithms) must be assumed. The results are thus
only approximate. As expected, decreases with v .
Tab. 3 gives also an effective vertical distance below
the foundation that leads to the given , found by
2D rectangular integration of the Markov function.
This distance depends on v and it thus cannot be
easily estimated a priori. This limits applicability of
the FOSM method for estimation of [uy ] in the case
of spatially variable parameters with finite correlation
length.
6 CONCLUDING REMARKS
Advanced hypoplastic constitutive model was used
in probabilistic analyses of a typical geotechnical
problem, strip footing. In the analyses, spatial vari-
ability of soil parameters, rather than state variables,
was emphasized. It was shown that the result are influ-
enced the most by the soil parameters hs , n and . The
output variable uy was found to follow closely log-
normal distribution, even in the case when normally
distributed parameters (such as ) were varied. The
vertical correlation length v was found to have minor
effect on [uy ], but significant effect on [uy ], which
decreases with decreasing v due to spatial averag-
ing. Even though the problem is highly complex and
non-linear, the FOSM method was found to provide
satisfactory predictions for infinite correlation length.
For finite correlation length, however, the variance
reduction factor cannot be easily estimated a priori.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Financial support by the research grants GACR
205/08/0732, GAUK 31109 and MSM 0021620855
is greatly appreciated.
REFERENCES
Helton, J. C. (1997). Uncertainty and sensitivity analysis
in the presence of stochastic and subjective uncertainty.
Journal of Statistical Computation and Simulation 57,
376.
388
Herle, I. and G. Gudehus (1999). Determination of parame-
ters of a hypoplastic constitutive model from properties
of grain assemblies. Mechanics of Cohesive-Frictional
Materials 4, 461486.
Hicks, M. A. and C. Onisiphorou (2005). Stochastic evalua-
tion of static liquefaction in a predominantly dilative sand
fill. Gotechnique 55(2), 123133.
Schweiger, H. F. and G. M. Peschl (2005). Reliability analysis
in geotechnics with a random set finite element method.
Computers and Geotechnics 32, 422435.
Suchomel, R. and D. Man (2009). Calibration of an
advanced soil constitutive model for use in probabilistic
numerical analysis. In P. et al. (Ed.), Proc. Int. Sym-
posium on Computational Geomechanics (ComGeo I),
Juan-les-Pins, France, pp. 265274.
Suchomel, R. and D. Man (2010). Comparison of different
probabilistic methods for predicting stability of a slope in
spatially variable c-phi soil. Computers and Geotechnics
37, 132140.
Tejchman, J. (2006). Effect of fuctuation of current void ratio
on the shear zone formation in granular bodies within
micro-polar hypoplasticity. Computers and Geotechnics
33(1), 2946.
Vanmarcke, E. H. (1983). Random fields: anaylisis and
synthesis. M.I.T. press, Cambridge, Mass.
von Wolffersdorff, P. A. (1996). A hypoplastic relation for
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Mechanics of Cohesive-Frictional Materials 1, 251271.
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Validating models against experience in foundation engineering,

using the ROC curve

A.M.J. Mens & A.F. van Tol

Deltares, Delft, The Netherlands
Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands

ABSTRACT: This paper introduces the area under the Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve, in short
the AUC, as a useful measure to compare rules of thumb for vibratory driving. Using case histories from the
Dutch GeoBrain database and two rules of thumb for predicting the drivability of steel sheet piles, the AUC
determines the performance of these rules. In addition to this measure, the theory behind this method provides
us with a practical way for threshold optimization. An example is provided to explain both the database and the
measures in more detail.

1 INTRODUCTION 2 DATA: GEOBRAIN DATABASE

Validation is an important, but often underrated part of
the development process of models or new prediction
methods. It is difficult to compare observations with
predictions in a well-organized, objective manner. Fur-
thermore, comparing different methods is not always
fair, because the input variables can be different.
The authors encountered this problem after the
development of the GeoBrain Foundations predic-
tion model (Hemmen & Bles, 2005) and the Geo-
Brain experience database. The validation appeared
to be rather difficult. To simply validate the model
with one-to-one observations versus predictions was
impossible. Due to the fact that the classification of
the observations is different than the prediction results
it is not possible find a simple correlation.
One solution is the use of so-called Receiver
Operating Characteristic-curves (ROC-curves), as
described in a previous paper (Mens et al., 2010, in
press), to compare observations with model predic-
tions. However, the ROC-curve by itself is not able
to compare different models, only a derived measure
from this graph can represent the performance of a
model (or better: classifier). A common method in
other scientific areas, such as medical and ecologic
sciences and machine learning, is to calculate the
area under the ROC curve, abbreviated AUC (Bradley,
1997).
This paper first briefly explains the GeoBrain case
history database and the rules of thumb for vibratory
driving with a short example. It continues by describ-
ing the theoretical background of the ROC and the
AUC measure. Using the theory, it shows some early
results, proving that the method is a valuable contri-
bution to the geotechnical engineering community. It
concludes with an outlook for future research in this
area.
The GeoBrain experiences database (Barends, 2005)
contains case histories for foundation and drilling tech-
nology. Since 2005, different contractors have been
filling this database with their recent experiences in
the Netherlands. The total number of entries counted
1850 projects by the end of august 2009. In February
2009, 364 of them concerned the vibratory installation
of steel sheet piles (www.geobrain.nl).
An experience is uniquely defined by the type of
element (for example sheet-pile or prefabricated con-
crete pile), the type of equipment used and the soil
conditions. In addition to this numerical data, also
details concerning the building pit, the crew and the
surroundings are included.
Although the database comprised 364 observations
at the time, only 195 of them could be used for a first
evaluation for both the rules of thumb. An observation
was discarded when
essential data was lacking (like a Cone Penetration
Test);
a combination of installation techniques was used
(both hammering and driving);
unexpected obstacles were present;
large differences (>1.5 m) existed between the
entered length of the sheet pile and the difference
between the head and the toe of the pile1
the head of the pile was deeper than 1.5 m below
the surface.
The example below shows one project (one observa-
tion) of all 195.
1
This would be a measure for an inaccurate entry.

389
2.1 Example 1a Concerning vibrations: no
Concerning noise level: no
Observation in Amsterdam Bijlmer Station:
Sheet 1: Overview Damage to cables and pipes? No
Profile (see also at the website: www.geobrain.nl) Sheet 7: Experiences
Type of sheetpile: AZ26 Result: bad (see later)
Length of the piles: 23 m Any delay: 0 days
Vibratory Equipment: DELMAG D 30 Damage:
Sheet 2: Situation 5 piles that broke out of clutch
1 skewed pile
Project name: Station Bijlmer 1 5 piles did not reach the predetermined depth
Type Construction: Dry building pit
Toelevel: NAP 19 m
Head level: NAP 4 m 3 RULES OF THUMB
Retaining length: 1 m
Number of sheet piles: 330 3.1 Rule 1- CUR rule of thumb
Condition of the top layer: dry sand The CUR-rule calculates the free displacement ampli-
Sheet 3: Geotechnics: tude (d), that is used to determine the appropriate
vibration equipment (CUR166, 2005):
Representative CPT: station bijlmer.gef
Resemblance of different CPTs: uniform
Mean surface level: NAP +2 m
Mean ground water level: NAP +1 m
Cohesive layers (e.g. clay) present? yes where d = the displacement amplitude in m, Me = the
Weak layers present? yes eccentric moment in kgm, mv = the vibrating mass of
Firm toplayer present? yes the vibrator in kg, and mp = the mass of the sheet pile
Gravel layers present? No in kg. The displacement amplitude should be larger
Firm sand layers present? No than 0.005 m for the equipment to be sufficient.
Obstacles present? No
Sheet 4: Sheet pile 3.2 Rule 2-AZZ rule of thumb
Sheet pile producer: Arcelor Based on the HYPERVIB1 model, (Azzouzi, 2003)
Moment of resistance: 2600 cm3 /cm developed a formula that calculates the required ver-
Steel quality: S 240 GP tical cyclic force (Fc ) to be able to determine the most
Used sheet piles? No suitable vibrator. This formula uses the mean cone
Single/double/triple installation: double resistance over the considered sand layers, taken from
Clutches punched or welded? Punched a cone penetration test (CPT):
Coated piles? No
Sheet 5: Installation
Vibratory driving where Fc = the required vertical cyclic force from
Low frequency the vibrator that should be used in kN, L = length of
1700 rpm the sheet pile in the soil in m, = the perimeter of the
Eccentric moment: 500 Nm sheet pile (per unit of length) in m2 /m, qc,gem = the
Vertical Force: 1600 kN mean cone resistance over the sand layers in MPa, and
Pull-down? no At = the cross-sectional area of the toe of the sheet pile
Pile frame: no frame in cm2 .
Method: one-by-one
Reduction clutch friction applied? No 3.3 Defining positive and negative
Guided piles? Yes To be able to compare predictions with observations
Experience-level crew: Good (field-experiences, or cases) the terms positive and
Sheet 6: Surrounding negative need to be defined for both the predictions
and the observations.
Any adjacent objects? Yes
Foundation adjacent objects: directly on soil 3.3.1 Observations
Distance between piles and object: 0 m Every project in the database receives points that
Damage class for adjacent buildings: severe: reflect the amount of damage (wtot ):
ignorable
Any settlement? Yes, 45 cm next to the sheet piles,
20 cm at 1 m and 0 cm at 3 m.
Any complaints from the neighbourhood?

390
where
xi is the percentage of the sheet piles that suffered from
a specific problem i:
i = 1: the sheet pile did not reach the predetermined
depth,
i = 2: the sheet piles experienced irregularities
along the clutches,
i = 3: the sheet pile experienced burned clutches,
i = 4: the sheet pile broke out of the vibratory
equipment
i = 5: the sheet pile experienced any other damage
than described above.
and (wi,max ):is the maximum amount of points to be
received per problem, based on weighted experts
opinions:
Based on the damage (wtot ) and the percentages xi ,
experts distinguish two situations. The first one is less
strict than the second one in the sense that type I needs
more damage in a project to be classified as negative.
Type I classifies the case as negative if there is any
Type II classifies the case as negative if there is any
In case a project is already classified as a negative type
I, automatically it is a negative type II as well.
3.3.2 Predictions
According to the CUR handbook, the displacement
amplitude d should be at least 0.005 m for the equip-
ment to be sufficient. In case of the AZZ-rule, the
actually used vertical force should exceed the required
vertical cyclic force from the vibrator (Fc). This paper
shows that theoretically it is possible to optimize these
threshold values, using the cases from the GeoBrain
experience database. The AUC-curve method enables
to determine which rule of thumb performs best.
Example 1b applies equations 3 and 4 to the data from
example 1a.
391
3.4 Example 1b (example 1a continued)
3.4.1 Observation
The following numbers reflect the amount of damage,
using the information in example 1a (sheet 2 and 7)
and equations 3 and 4.
According to these numbers, experts will classify this
example in case of a type I situation as positive and
in a type II situation as negative, for not reaching the
predetermined depth. The website shows the Type II
classification (sheet 7).
3.4.2 Prediction
According to the information in example 1a and equa-
tions 1 and 2, the CUR-rule and the AZZ rule predict
the following.The CUR-rule uses an eccentric moment
of 500 Nm, a dynamic mass of 4000 kg and the mass
of the pile is 4498.8 kg, resulting in
which is a positive prediction, because d > 0.005 m.
The AZZ-prediction uses a mean cone resistance of
12.7 Mpa, the length of the pile is 23 m, the painting
area 2.8 m2 , the cross-sectional area is 249,2 cm2 and
the used vertical force is 1600 kN, resulting in
which is a negative prediction, because the used
vertical force (1600 kN) is smaller than the needed
vertical force (1950 kN).
4 THEORY: ROC-SPACE AND AUC
4.1 ROC-Space
The Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) Space
is primarily a way to visualize and compare binary
classification models. In fact a point in this space
represents the relationship between the true positive
ratio (Eq. 8a) and the false positive ratio (Eq. 8b).
The true positive ratio (TPR) is defined as the fraction
Table 1. Example of a contingency table, or confusion
matrix.

Predictions

+ Total

Observations TN FP O
+ FN TP O+
Total P P+ N

Table 2. Example of a contingency table, or confusion

matrix.

Predictions

+ Total

Observations. TN = 4 FP = 12 O = 16
+ FN = 84 TP = 95 O+ = 179
total P = 88 P+ = 107 N = 195 Figure 1. Receiver Operating Characteristic space
(ROC-space) with some examples.

of actually-positive cases correctly classified as pos-
itive by the prediction model. The false positive ratio
(FPR) is defined as the fraction of actually-negative
cases incorrectly classified as positive (Metz, 1978;
Mens et al., 2010, in press).
The input for a point in this space is a given
prediction model (such as the CUR-rule) and a set
with N observations. For these N observations, the
binary result (positive or negative) is known. Using
the information from these observations, it is possi-
ble to calculate the binary prediction results. These
can be summarized in a two-by-two contingency table
(or confusion-matrix), which serves as the base for a
so-called sensitivity-pair, the point in the ROC-space.
Table 1 provides an example of this contingency table.
O represents the total number of negative observa-
tions and O+ the positive ones. P and P + represent
the total number of negative and positive predictions
respectively.
The numbers from Table 1 enable us to calculate the
following measures (amongst others):
These measures are all dependent on the used
threshold value in the model. Take the CUR-rule
as an example. The rule predicts a pile to be vibra-
tory drivable (a positive outcome), if the calculated
displacement amplitude d exceeds 0.005 m:
Table 2 shows the contingency table for the CUR-
model, using all the 195 observations from the Geo-
Brain experience database.
Using this table, it is now possible to calculate the
so-called sensitivity-pair (TPR,FPR) and to plot the
outcome in the ROC-space. Figure 1 (Fawcett 2006)
explains this in more detail.
The coordinates in the ROC-space represent pos-
sible models. The sensitivity-pair (0,1) represents the
perfect predictor. Roughly one could say that a point
in the ROC space is better more to the top left of the
graph. In Figure 1 model C is better than model A.
Model B is considered to behave randomly and model
C is the reverse model of model C.
As stated previously, the input of a ROC space con-
sists of a prediction model and a set of observations.
Figure 2 shows the ROC-space for both the AZZ and
the CUR rule, for both type I and type II classifications.
4.2 Area under the curve
Equation 9 shows a threshold-value of 0.005 m at
the right hand side. By changing this value, the con-
tingency table will change (more or less predictions
will be positive) and therefore the sensitivity-pair will
change, resulting in a different point in the ROC-space.
By changing the threshold and plotting all resulting
sensitivity-pairs in one plot, a ROC curve appears.
The points that make up the plot enable us to find
the best threshold value for the models at hand. Figure
3 shows these ROC-curves for both rules with both
classification types.
The area under this curve (AUC) is a single-valued
measure for the performance of a model (Bradley
1997). In this way, it is possible to compare differ-
ent models, although their input variables and their
behaviour might be different. Since the AUC is the
portion of the area of the unit square, its value will
always be between 0 and 1.0. However, because ran-
dom guessing produces the diagonal line between (0,0)

392

Figure 2. ROC-space for type I labelled and type II labelled
observations and their CUR and AZZ predictions.
Figure 3. ROC-curve for type I labelled and type II labelled
observations and their CUR and AZZ predictions.
and (1,1), no realistic classifier should have an AUC
less than 0.5 (Fawcett 2006).
5 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
5.1 Results part 1 (ROC-SPACE)
Figure 2 shows some results for the CUR and the AZZ
rules of thumb, using the cases from the GeoBrain
experience database as present in February 2009.
The pentagram and the circle at the left show the
results for both type I (left) and type II (right) classifi-
cations for the AZZ-rule. The square and the diamond
at the right show the results for de CUR-rule in case
of a type I and a type II respectively.
393
5.2 Discussion part 1
5.2.1 CUR-rule
Based on the observations, the CUR-rule performs not
very well. This means that either the observations do
not reflect reality, or the rule of thumb is not reliable.
Firstly, consider the amount of observations. Type
I provides 16 negative observations and 179 positive
ones. For Type II this is 19 versus 176. This means the
percentages for negative observations compared to the
total number is 8% and 10% respectively for type I en
type II. These percentages reflect the common idea
about the Dutch vibratory driving projects. However,
the absolute number of negative observations is statis-
tically low. In fact, this number is too small to conclude
that the CUR-rule does not perform well. It is however
possible to draw some conclusions from the positive
observations.
Contractors always are interested in the probability
of a negative observation, given a positive prediction,
in other terms the FPR (Eq. 8b), or P(O |P + ). Using
the fact that P(O |P + ) = 1- P(O+ |P + ) and Bayes
rule:
where the TPR (Eq 8a), or P(P + |O+ ) is reliable in con-
trast with the FPR, it is possible to calculate the FPR,
assuming the probability on a positive observation
is for instance 95%. This results in 0.53*0.95=0.50.
This means that in 50% of the positive predictions, the
project will turn out to be negative.
Secondly, one could suggest to flip the > sign
in equation 9 to improve the results. Flipping the sign
would move the points to the other side of the line
of no discrimination (compare to model C in figure
4). Physically however, flipping the sign is impossi-
ble. Pushing the prediction result to the limits, a small
displacement amplitude (say 0) would be better than a
large one, which does not make sense. Changing the
right hand side of equation 9 though, could improve the
performance. Part two of the discussion will elaborate
on that.
5.2.2 AZZ
Based on the same observations, the AZZ-rule gen-
erally performs better, but regarding the previous
reasoning about the observations and considering the
TPR of 25%, the AZZ-rule does not perform well.
5.3 Results part 2 (AUC)
Figure 3 shows the results for the CUR rule of thumb,
using again the cases from the database. For the AZZ-
rule it is more complicated, but for explaining purposes
a threshold value has been incorporated:
The dots show again the previous results for the current
situation as denoted in Figure 2.
Table 3. AUC values for the curves, as shown in Figure 6.
AUC
classifier Type I Type II
CUR 0.359 0.367
AZZ 0.516 0.522
5.4 Discussion part 2
Figure 3 shows clearly the difference in performance
for both rules. Table 3 provides the matching AUC
values.
In this (hypothetical) case, the CUR-rule seems
not to be a realistic classifier and the AZZ-rule with
classification type II performs best. As soon as more
(negative) observations are available, a new analysis
will provide a more valid outcome.
Every point that makes up the ROC-curve reflects
another threshold. In this way the best threshold can
be determined from the figure. In this case the result is
not valid, because of a lack in (negative) observations.
The authors expect to be able to perform a sound vali-
dation, as soon as it is possible to use 500 observations
(in total).
6 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
6.1 Conclusions
The Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC)-space
enables us to judge models on their performance, using
case histories for vibratory driving of steel sheet pile
walls from the GeoBrain database. As soon as more
(negative) observations are available, a validation of
the current rules of thumb is possible.
Furthermore, the ROC-curve in this space enables
us to improve threshold parameters for practical use
of the models. Comparing rules of thumb with for
example different input-variables is possible using the
Area under the Curve (AUC). Since this measure is
single valued, it provides for an objective compar-
ison between different models within geotechnical
engineering, independent of the variables used.
6.2 Recommendations for further research
The measures described above only account for equa-
tions where one threshold value is involved. The
AZZ-rule however, depends on two parameters that
could be improved. Changing two parameters as a
threshold variable provides for a three-dimensional
ROC-curve, or in fact a ROC-area. The area under
the curve then changes into a volume, resulting in a
new measure: the VUA or the Volume Under the
Area. Although it is not possible to plot curves, this
measure is easily extendable for more dimensions.
Besides optimizing threshold parameters for more
dimensions, the database seems to provide for enough
data on prefabricated piles to validate the current rules
of thumb and more complicated models.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This research was sponsored by Deltares and Delft
University of Technology.
We kindly acknowledge the cooperation of the con-
tractors from the NVAF (the Dutch foundation for
contractors in foundation engineering). Without their
continuous contribution to the GeoBrain database, this
investigation would not have been possible.
REFERENCES
CUR 2005 Damwandconstructies, 4e druk (in Dutch). CUR,
Civieltechnisch Centrum Uitvoering Research en Regel-
geving. Nr 166.
Azzouzi, S. 2003. Intrillen van stalen damwanden in niet-
cohesieve gronden welke predictie is (on)juist? (in
Dutch). MSc Thesis, Delft, Delft University of Technology.
Barends, F. B. J. 2005. Associating with advancing insight
Terzaghi Oration 2005. XVI International Conference on
Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, Osaka.
Bradley, A. P. 1997. The use of the area under the ROC Curve
in the evaluation of machine learning algorithms. Pattern
Recognition 30(7): 11451159.
Fawcett, T. 2006. An Introduction to ROC analysis Pattern
Recognition Letters 27: 861874.
Hemmen, B. and T. Bles 2005. GeoBrain Funderingstech-
niek: Ervaringsdatabase voorspelt uitvoeringsrisicos (in
Dutch). Civiele Techniek 2: 2425.
Mens, A. M. J., T. J. Bles, M Korff, A.F. van Tol. 2010 (in
press). Validating models against experience in founda-
tion engineering, using the experience database of Geo-
Brain. Geotechnical challenges in urban regeneration,
11th International Conference. London.
Metz, C. E. 1978. Basic Principles of ROC Analysis. Semi-
nars in Nuclear Medicine VIII(4): 283298.
394
Dynamic problems and Geohazards
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

A 2.5D finite element model for simulation of unbounded

domains under dynamic loading

P. Alves Costa, R. Calada, J. Couto Marques & A. Silva Cardoso

Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto, Portugal

ABSTRACT: In this paper a 2.5D finite element model developed by the authors is presented. Apart from other
features, the proposed model is appropriate to deal with unbounded domains submitted to dynamic loads, which
is the aspect focused in the present work. The use of the 2.5D finite element method has been growing in the past
few years, proving to be a good strategy to deal with very long structures (such as roads and railways) submitted
to dynamic loads, whether of stationary or moving type. Within this approach a subject of particular interest
resides in the formulation of special procedures to treat the boundary effects that are inherent in the truncation of
the domain associated with the finite element discretization. Typically, the treatment of such artificial boundaries
can be dealt with by local or global procedures. Due to their simplicity and compatibility with the conventional
finite element formulation, the most popular techniques are based on local procedures such as the absorbing
boundaries or the finite-infinite element coupling. In this paper the accuracy of both methods is compared and
discussed for both dynamic loading conditions, i.e., stationary and moving loads.

1 INTRODUCTION The finite element method is a very popular and

During the last decade, a considerable research effort
has been devoted to the development of numerical
and semi-analytical methods for the modelling of
unbounded structures submitted to dynamic load con-
ditions. The increasing significance of this issue is
related to the current expansion of high-speed rail-
way lines. This kind of structure is difficult to model
due to several reasons, namely the infinite charac-
ter of its geometry. However, this apparent drawback
can be transformed into an advantage, since it con-
fers to these structures the necessary properties to
be dealt with by numerical models developed in the
wavenumber-frequency domain, employing Fourier
expansions along space and time. This is the main con-
cept behind most of the more sophisticated modelling
strategies that have been followed in recent years.
The modelling strategy based on the wavenumber-
frequency domain has been adapted to semi-analytical
models, but also to numerical models like the bound-
ary element or the finite element method. Due to
its nature, the boundary element method is particu-
larly adequate to deal with unbounded geomechanical
domains (Lombaert et al. 2006). However, the mod-
elling of complex geometries and the consideration of
inhomogeneities of the medium is often very difficult.
An alternative procedure is the finite element method
or the coupling between the finite element and bound-
ary element methods (Rastandi 2003; Muller 2007;
Alves Costa 2008). Nevertheless, the coupling of these
two methods is a complex task particularly for the
problems considered in this paper.
attractive alternative. An accurate procedure based
on finite element formulation constitutes a valuable
framework of analysis, since this method is known
to be capable of dealing with irregularities in geome-
try and materials, including embedded structures, the
natural layering of soil deposits and material inhomo-
geneities (at least in the cross section of the problem
in the context of 2.5D modelling) (Alves Costa et al.
2009; Alves Costa et al. 2010). Within this approach a
topic of particular interest is the formulation of special
procedures to treat the boundary effects that are inher-
ent in the truncation of the domain associated with
the finite element discretization. For static problems,
the contribution of the ground is reflected in terms of
stiffness, so it is possible to truncate the domain at a
sufficiently remote location where the ground defor-
mation is so small that it can be neglected. However,
in dynamic analyses the ground model should fulfil
the requirements of representing not only the dynamic
ground stiffness but also the radiation condition. The
latter requirement demands a special treatment of the
boundary conditions, since spurious reflection of the
waves at the mesh boundary should not occur. A rig-
orous approach can be achieved using finite elements
to represent the near-field domain and boundary ele-
ments to simulate the far-field domain. This approach
has been used in the context of 2.5D modelling by
several researchers with satisfactory results (Yang &
Hung 2001; Sheng et al. 2006; Muller 2007; Alves
Costa 2008). Another approach consists in the use
of local procedures, such as absorbing boundaries
(Lysmer & Kuhlemeyer 1969) or infinite elements

397
(Yang & Hung 2001; Yang & Hung 2008). Due to
their simplicity and compatibility with the conven-
tional finite element formulation, the most popular
techniques are based on local procedures, and several
methods are available for static or dynamic conditions
(White et al. 1977; Marques & Owen 1983; Kausel
1988; Bettess 1992). However, the reliability and accu-
racy of almost all these procedures have not been
checked in the context of 2.5D modelling.
In this paper, the reliability of a 2.5D finite element
model developed by the authors and coupled with local
procedures of boundary treatment is evaluated from Figure 1. Infinite structure invariant in one direction.
the theoretical point of view. The model was imple-
mented in the numerical platform Matlab 2009. Since the displacement field, is the mass density and p
the model is developed in the frequency domain, it represents the applied loads.
is possible to take advantage of the numerical com- After the transformation, the cross-section of the
putational tools available in Matlab 2009 for parallel domain remains on the untransformed domain and is
processing, which allows for a considerable reduction discretized into finite elements. This approach enables
of the computation time. to rewrite Equation 1 in terms of nodal variables.
The concept of virtual work can be applied in the
transformed domain by recourse to Parservals the-
2 NUMERICAL MODEL
orem (Kulhnek 1995; Grundmann & Dinkel 2000;
Muller 2007):
2.1 2.5D finite element method
The application of 2.5D finite elements is confined
to structures which can be assumed to have infinite
development and invariant properties in one direction, Considering Equation 1, the virtual work of the
as illustrated in Figure 1. In these cases the structure internal stresses and inertial forces in the transformed
is two-dimensional, since the cross-section remains domain is given by, respectively:
invariable in the longitudinal direction, but the load-
ing is three-dimensional. The main concept behind the
proposed solution to the problem is the use of a method
which is between the two and the three dimensional
domain. This method was first proposed by (Hwang &
Lysmer 1981) for the study of underground struc-
tures under travelling seismic waves. Subsequently, the
method has been applied by a few researchers to the
study of vibrations induced by traffic. In this field,
special attention should be dedicated to the works of
(Yang & Hung 2001; Sheng et al. 2006; Muller 2007;
Alves Costa 2008; Alves Costa et al. 2010).
Assuming that the response of the structure is where: B is the matrix with the derivatives of the
linear, the analysis can be carried out in the wavenum- shape functions; N is the shape function matrix; D
ber/frequency domain. All the variables, i.e., loads is the strain-stress matrix; un is the vector of nodal
(action) and displacements (response), must be trans- displacements (in the transformed domain).
formed to the wavenumber/frequency domain by The virtual work done by the external loads is com-
means of a double Fourier transform, related with puted taking advantage of the fact that the geometry
the direction along the track (x direction) and with is only discretized on the ZY plane. So, considering a
time. Transformed quantities are functions of the coordinate s, parallel to the edge of the element where
Fourier images of x and t, defined as wavenum- traction is applied, the virtual work developed by the
ber and frequency and are represented by k1 and , load system is given by,
respectively.
Following the usual steps of the finite element pro-
cedure, namely the strong and weak formulations, the
following equilibrium equation can be derived for any Replacing and rearranging Equations 3, 4 and 5 in
point of a three dimensional domain: Equation 1 yields,

where is the virtual strain field, represents the

stress field, u is the virtual displacement field, u is

398
Adopting the classic finite element notation leads to,
and
where [K] and [M] are the stiffness and mass matrices,
respectively.
As usual, matrix [B] is derived from the product
of the differential operator matrix [L] (in the trans-
formed domain) and matrix [N]. Since the direction x
is transformed to the wavenumber domain, the deriva-
tives with respect to k1 are analytically computed, as
presented in the following expression.
A hysteretic damping model is considered, i.e., with
complex stiffness parameters.
The computational efficiency can be improved by
dividing matrix [K] into sub-matrices, independent of
the wavenumber and frequency. This is achieved by
considering the matrix [B] as the sum of two matrices,
whereby the numerical and analytical derivatives are
separated. Equation 6 can then be replaced by:
The global system of equations is completely
defined after the assembly of the individual element
matrices and the introduction of the Neumann and
Dirichlet boundary conditions. The results obtained
after solving the equation system are in the trans-
formed domain, requiring a double inverse Fourier
transform for converting the solution to the space/time
domain.
The advantage of this method in relation to the
fully three-dimensional finite element approach is evi-
dent: instead of solving an equation system with a
large number of degrees of freedom, a smaller sys-
tem of equations is solved many times, corresponding
to a range of wavenumbers. This procedure provides a
great reduction of computational time.
2.2 Treatment of artificial boundaries by the
infinite element method
In both the infinite and finite element formulations
the field variable is approximated by shape functions.
However, the shape functions for infinite elements
must be more elaborate, since they have to represent
a reasonable behaviour of the field variable towards
Figure 2. Infinite element: a) global coordinates; b) local
coordinates.
infinity (Bettess 1992). In elasto-dynamic harmonic
conditions, this purpose can be reached by the combi-
nation of three functions: i) a standard shape function;
ii) a decay function; iii) an oscillatory function. The
issue is complex in elasto-dynamic problems since
there is no longer a unique wave speed, even for a
half-space problem. This problem can be overcome
by means of special infinite elements, which repre-
sent the characteristics of multiple waves propagating
out to the far field (Yun & Kim 2006); however, this
procedure increases its complexity. Alternatively, as
demonstrated by (Yang & Hung 2001), the use of con-
ventional infinite elements combined with criteria for
the choice of the decay and oscillatory factors can lead
to accurate results even for moving load problems.
So, in the present work, the authors decided to use
the infinite elements proposed by the aforementioned
authors.
A schematic representation of the adopted infinite
elements is presented in Figure 2. The displacement
shape functions of the element are defined by:
where and k are the decay and oscillatory factors,
respectively. For details regarding the value selection
procedure for these factors, readers should refer to the
works of (Yang et al. 1996; Yang & Hung 2001).
Having defined the infinite element shape functions
the usual finite element procedure is applied, i.e., the
stiffness and mass matrices of each infinite element are
computed and added to the global matrices, forming
the global system of equations.
2.3 Treatment of artificial boundaries with
absorbing boundaries
Since the finite element itself cannot deal with the
unbounded soil medium directly because of the limit of
the discretized mesh size, special boundary conditions
must be constructed in order to avoid the spurious wave
reflection on the artificial edge of the finite element
399

Figure 3. Absorbing boundary.
mesh. Regarding this subject, several procedures have
been proposed during the last 40 years, with various
degrees of complexity and, of course, of efficiency.
In spite of the recent and not so recent developments
in the field of absorbing boundaries, one of the most
commonly used is the standard viscous boundary pro-
posed by (Lysmer & Kuhlemeyer 1969). This consists
of discrete dashpots attached to all degrees-of-freedom
at the boundary, in which the dashpot coefficients are
constant quantities depending only on the compres-
sion and shear wave velocities and the mass density
of the soil adjacent to the boundary. In the frequency
domain, the damping matrix associated to these dash-
pots enables to formulate a relationship between the
stress and displacement fields along the artificial
boundary. Assuming the local referential, as illustrated
in Figure 3, this relationship in the frequency domain
is given by:
where q corresponds to the stress field at the bound-
ary, q = {xy , yy , zy }T , u represents the displacement
vector, u = {ux , uy , uz }T and [C] is the local damping
matrix, given by:
where Vs and Vp represent the shear and compression
wave velocities, respectively.
Following the usual finite element procedure, the
global damping matrix is computed by assembling the
local damping matrices and is added to the remaining
global matrices of the finite element problem, forming
the global system of equations.
Although (Kausel & Tassoulas 1981) have shown,
in a two-dimensional benchmark problem, that the
standard viscous boundary is a reasonable approxima-
tion with little extra computational effort, an important
aspect is the fact that the standard viscous boundary
perfectly absorbs waves that hit the boundary with a
400
Figure 4. A homogeneous soil layer on a rigid base.
normal angle of incidence. However, waves that strike
the boundary at other angles will reflect some of the
wave energy. To address or minimize this drawback,
(White et al. 1977) have suggested a correction fac-
tor to the damping matrix based on a weighting of the
absorbing properties for a generalized angle of inci-
dence of the wave front. The damping matrix proposed
by these authors is given by:
where the variable s represents the ratio between
compression and shear wave velocities.
To the authors knowledge, there is no experience in
the use of absorbing boundary conditions in the con-
text of 2.5D finite element modelling. Therefore the
reliability and accuracy of both formulations previ-
ously presented will be investigated and discussed in
the present paper.
3 NUMERICAL EXAMPLES
3.1 Example description
In order to check the reliability and accuracy of the
proposed approaches for the dynamic analysis of the
ground response under stand-still or moving dynamic
load actions, a small example, which was previously
presented by (Takemiya 2001), is used to compare the
numerical solutions with those obtained by the semi-
analytical approach presented by (Sheng et al. 1999).
The geometry of the problem is depicted in Figure 4,
as well as the properties of the ground. The load, with a
magnitude of 1 N, is distributed over a 2 2 m2 surface
(when the load is moving it is assumed that for t = 0 s,
the load surface is centred with the origin of the refer-
ential). Three distinct situations are analyzed: i) non-
moving dynamic load with oscillatory frequency, f;
ii) non-oscillatory load moving along the x direction;
iii) oscillatory load moving along the x direction.
In the 2.5 D formulation, only half of the domain
was discretized, taking into account the symmetry con-
ditions of the problem. The adopted finite element
mesh has a thickness of 10 m and a width of 20 m. In
the lateral boundary opposite to the symmetry plane,
Figure 5. Ground surface vertical displacement at t = 0s for
f = 10 Hz (computed by the semi-analytical approach).

the methods described above were applied in order

to avoid spurious wave reflection. The two described
procedures, i.e., the infinite element method and the
absorbing boundary techniques are analyzed and the Figure 6. Relative error of vertical displacement amplitude
results assessed by comparison with the theoretical at the ground surface for f = 10 Hz: a) infinite elements; b)
Lysmer viscous boundary.
ones.

3.2 Non-moving dynamic loads

Two distinct situations are investigated. The first one
corresponds to a frequency of excitation of 10 Hz, a
little above the first cut-off frequency of the ground,
while in the second example a higher excitation
frequency is chosen, i.e., f = 40 Hz.
Figure 5 displays the vertical displacement of the
ground surface at time t = 0 s for the 10 Hz excita-
tion frequency. These results were computed by the
semi-analytical approach and are used to evaluate the
accuracy of the local procedures in preventing spuri-
ous wave reflection at the artificial boundaries. The
displacement is plotted in non-dimensional form with
D* = uz a ( is the soil shear modulus and a is the
half-width of the loading area).
The relative error colour maps of the vertical
displacement amplitude provided by the numerical
methods are shown in Figure 6, for 10 Hz excitation
frequency. The relative error is defined with reference
to the semi-analytical solution. Two main conclusions
can be drawn: i) the error associated to the use of infi-
nite elements is below 5%, even in the vicinity of the
artificial boundary (y = 20 m); ii) the Lysmer absorb-
ing boundaries provide low accuracy, particularly at
a transversal distance from the dynamic source above
16 m.
To better discern the differences between the vari-
ous approaches, Figure 7 presents the vertical ground
surface displacement along the alignment y = 18 m at
t = 0 s.
Another aspect that must be mentioned is that the
coupling between 2.5 D finite and infinite elements
allows the simulation of the wave propagation even
when the discretized domain on the transversal direc-
tion is close to, or even smaller than the wavelength of
the propagated wave, contrarily to the Lysmer absorb-
ing boundary. This aspect is very important, and is
Figure 7. Vertical displacements along the alignment
y = 18 m at t = 0 s for f = 10 Hz.
one possible justification for the divergence of results
between the semi-analytical solution and the numerical
approach based on the absorbing boundaries proposed
by Lysmer.
From the presented results, it is possible to con-
clude that the approach based on the infinite element
technique is the most accurate. It is also interesting
to observe that Whites proposal performs better than
Lysmers. This happens because: i) Lysmer viscous
boundary is based on 1D wave propagation theory,
generalized and adapted to 2D wave propagation prob-
lems; ii) in the Lysmer viscous boundary energy
absorption is only fully accomplished if the wave front
is normal to the boundary; this requirement is satisfied
in 1D wave propagation problems but much more dif-
ficult to fulfil when the dimensionality of the problem
increases; iii) Whites proposal is based on a weight-
ing of the energy absorption, assuming arbitrary wave
propagation direction, which makes it more adequate
to deal with 3D problems.

401
Figure 8. Relative error of the vertical displacement ampli-
tude at the ground surface for f = 40 Hz: a) infinite elements;
b) Lysmer viscous boundary.

Another aspect that has been investigated refers

to the ability of the methods to simulate the system Figure 9. Vertical displacement at the ground surface for
response when more than one P-SV mode is excited. M = 1.5 at t = 0 s computed by the semi-analytical approach.
In this case the excitation frequency of 40 Hz has been
considered and Figure 8 displays the relative error of
the vertical displacement amplitude at the ground sur-
face computed using infinite elements and Lysmers
viscous boundary.
Once again infinite elements perform better. The
joint analysis of Figures 6 b and 8 b also shows that
the absorbing boundary technique is more efficient
for higher frequencies of excitation.

3.3 Non oscillatory moving loads

One of the most relevant features of the 2.5 D finite
element method is its ability to deal with moving
loads in a simple way. In this case, and when the load
is non-oscillatory, the system excitation comes from
the load speed and consequent change of the ground
stress field over time. As previously discussed by sev-
eral authors, true dynamic phenomena develop when
the load speed reaches the velocity of propagation of
Rayleigh waves on the ground. For that reason only an Figure 10. Vertical displacement at the ground surface for
extremely high speed is considered here, namely for M = 1.5 at t = 0 s: a) infinite element approach; b) Whites
boundary technique.
Mach number, M = c/Vs , equal to 1.5.
Since the absorbing boundary technique proposed
by White has been shown above to be superior to to the artificial boundary the accuracy of the model
the Lysmer approach, in the following examples only decreases. This particular aspect is well illustrated by
the first one is employed. The qualitative comparison the vertical displacement time history at the loca-
between the benchmark solution of Figure 9 and the tion (0,18,0) presented in Figure 11, which shows
numerical results of Figure 10 shows that the solu- that Whites technique cannot simulate accurately the
tion based on the infinite element approach fits the oscillation tail subsequent to the peak displacement
semi-analytical results very well. Regarding Whites associated to Machs cone. On the other hand, the
absorbing boundary, although a visual qualitative eval- model based on the coupling between finite and infi-
uation shows a good global fit to the semi-analytical nite elements simulates with higher accuracy the whole
results, a more detailed investigation leads to the vertical displacement time history at the observation
expected conclusion, i.e., in observation points close point selected.

402
Figure 11. Transient vertical displacements at (0,18,0) for
M = 0.927.
3.4 Oscillatory moving loads
In order to fulfil the requirement of generalization
of the proposed model, another aspect worth analyz-
ing is related to the system response when subjected
to moving harmonic loads. Since the model is devel-
oped in the frequency-wavenumber domain, the sys-
tem response associated to a moving load with time
variable magnitude can be decomposed in several har-
monic loads through a Fourier series or by a Fourier
transform. So, in such conditions, the key parameter
for an exact computation resides on the ability of the
numerical model to deal with harmonic moving loads.
With this purpose in mind a different example is now
analyzed, considering a constant load speed M = 0.5
(c = 100 m/s) and a driving frequency value of 10 Hz.
This problem is considerably more complex than the
examples presented above, because the Doppler effect
induced by the load movement excites several P-SV
modes at distinct frequencies.
The relative error of the vertical displacement
amplitude at the ground surface for the 10 Hz driv-
ing frequency is illustrated in Figure 12 for the two
numerical procedures under investigation. Note that
the colour maps are not defined in terms of absolute
coordinates x and y, but in a moving referential where
the coordinate x is replaced by s = x ct.
The absorbing boundary technique proposed by
White leads to significant errors which exceed 20%
in substantial portions of the analyzed domain. On the
other hand, the finite-infinite element coupling pro-
vides once again a very reasonable approximation to
the exact theoretical solution, with associated errors
below 7%.
4 CONCLUSIONS
In this paper, a 2.5D model developed by the authors
has been presented. Apart from other aspects, the main
characteristics of the model are described, with spe-
cial emphasis on the numerical techniques that have
been implemented in order to deal with the modelling
of unbounded domains through finite element proce-
dures. Following a strategy based on local procedures,
403
Figure 12. Relative error of the vertical displacement ampli-
tude at the ground surface for f = 10 Hz and M = 1.5: a)
infinite elements; b) Whites boundary technique.
i.e., infinite elements and absorbing boundaries, a
study was performed with the aim of checking the reli-
ability and accuracy of different treatment procedures
by comparison with benchmark solutions. Three types
of excitation were considered: i) dynamic harmonic
loads with fixed location; ii) moving non-harmonic
loads; iii) moving dynamic harmonic loads. The main
conclusion that can be drawn from the present study is
that, in the conditions considered, i.e., assuming con-
stant dimensions for the finite element mesh, a greater
accuracy was achieved through the procedure based
on the coupling between finite and infinite elements.
This conclusion applies to the three different load-
ing conditions that have been analyzed. On the other
hand, the techniques based on absorbing conditions
are associated to higher error levels, mainly for lower
excitation frequencies. Nevertheless, the 3D features
of the analyzed problem show that the White proposal
can minimize some of these errors in comparison with
the Lysmer proposal.
In addition to the results presented here, other
potentialities and features of the proposed model can
be found in (Alves Costa et al. 2010).
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This paper reports research developed under the finan-
cial support of FCT Fundao para a Cincia e
Tecnologia, Portugal. The first author wishes to thank
FCT for the financial support provided by the grant
SFRH / BD / 29747 / 2006.
The authors also wish to acknowledge the sup-
port of the project Risk Assessment and Management
for High-Speed Rail Systems of the MIT Portugal
Program Transportation Systems Area.
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2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

A comparison of different approaches for the modelling of shallow

foundations in seismic soil-structure interaction problems

Stphane Grange
Laboratoire 3SR, UJF, INPG, CNRS, Grenoble, France

Diana Salciarini
University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy

Panagiotis Kotronis
Institut GeM, Ecole Centrale de Nantes, UMR CNRS 6183, Nantes, France

Claudio Tamagnini
University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy

ABSTRACT: In this work, the performance of two different macroelement models for shallow foundations
on sands is assessed by considering the dynamic response of a RC bridge subject to earthquake loading. The
first macroelement model is formulated within the framework of kinematic hardening elastoplasticity with
prescribed bounding surface (Grange et al. 2009). The second macroelement model has been recently developed
within the framework of the theory of hypoplasticity (Salciarini and Tamagnini 2009). The results of a series
of FE simulations show that a significant reduction of the computed structural loads can be obtained by taking
properly into account the foundationsoil behavior, rather than assuming zero displacements and rotations at
the pier bases. The two macroelements considered provide quite similar results, in spite of the large differences
existing in their mathematical formulation.

1 INTRODUCTION

Recent developments in the analysis of the seismic

response of slender structures such as tall buildings
and bridge piers resting on shallow foundations have
shown that the proper consideration of soil deformabil-
ity is of primary importance for an accurate prediction
of the deformation and loads experienced by the struc-
ture during the earthquake, see, e.g., (Grange et al.
2009).
A substantial progress towards an efficient and
reliable approach to the analysis of soilfoundation
structure interaction (SFSI) problems for such kind of
structures has been recently achieved by the devel-
opment of the socalled macroelement models for
describing the overall behavior of the foundationsoils
system (see, e.g., Nova and Montrasio 1991, Mar-
tin and Houlsby 2001, Crmer et al. 2001). In the
macroelement approach, the mechanical response of
the foundationsoil system is described by means of
a constitutive equation relating the generalized load
vector:
and the generalized displacement vector:
Figure 1. Notation adopted for generalized forces (a) and
displacement (b) components.
In the above definitions, V , Hx , Hy , Mx and My are the
resultant forces and moments acting on the foundation;
w, ux , uy , x and y are the displacements and rotations
(in the vertical yz and xz planes) of the foundation, and
B is a characteristic length (i.e., the foundation diame-
ter or width), introduced for dimensional consistency
(see Fig. 1).
To reproduce correctly some important features
of the experimentally observed behavior of the
foundationsoil system such as nonlinearity, irre-
versibility and dependence from past loading history,
the constitutive equation for the macromodel must be
formulated in rateform:

405
where d := u is the generalized velocity vector, K is
the tangent stiffness of the system, depending on the
system state and loading direction, and q is a pseudo
vector of internal variables accounting for the effects
of previous loading history.
The properties of the stiffness matrix K are selected
according to the basic features of observed behavior.
To reproduce a rateindependent response, K must be
positively homogeneous of degree zero with respect to
the generalized velocity vector d. In order to reproduce
an inelastic behavior, K must depend on the loading
direction d/ d (Kolymbas 1991).
In this work, the performance of two different
macroelement models is assessed with respect to the
analysis of the dynamic response of a RC bridge
subject to earthquake loading. The first macroele-
ment model is formulated within the framework of
kinematic hardening elastoplasticity with prescribed
bounding surface (Grange et al. 2009). The second
macroelement model has been recently developed
within the framework of the theory of hypoplasticity
(Salciarini and Tamagnini 2009).
2 THE ELASTOPLASTIC MACROELEMENT
In the macromodels developed in the framework of the
theory of elastoplasticity (Nova and Montrasio 1991;
Martin and Houlsby 2001; Crmer et al. 2001; Grange
et al. 2008), the constitutive equation is built start-
ing from the fundamental assumptions of: i) elastic
and plastic decomposition of the generalized velocity;
ii) existence of a yield function f (t, q) in the gener-
alized load space; iii) existence of a plastic potential
function g(t, q) providing the plastic flow direction; iv)
existence of a suitable hardening law for the internal
variables; and, v) enforcement of Pragers consistency
condition.
The resulting constitutive equation in rate form then
reads:
where Ke is the elastic stiffness matrix; hq (t, q) is
the hardening function controlling the evolution of the
internal variables with plastic displacements; Kp is a
strictly positive scalar given by:
and H () is the Heaviside step function, equal to 1 if
the plastic multiplier:
406
is positive, and zero otherwise.
The particular elastoplastic macroelement model
considered in this study is a kinematic hardening
elastoplastic macroelement specifically developed for
cyclic loading conditions by Grange et al. (2009). The
yield function is given by the following equation:
where, for a square footing:
are nondimensionalized components of the general-
ized force vector; Vf is the bearing capacity of the
foundation under a vertical centered load; Bx and B is
the footing size; and are internal variables defin-
ing the size of the yield locus; is a kinematic internal
variable defining the position of the yield locus in the
generalized loading space; a, b, c, d, e and f are model
constants controlling the shape of the yield locus. The
failure locus of the foundation in the generalized load-
ing space is found by setting = 0, and = = 1 in
eq. (6).
As for the plastic potential function g, an associative
flow rule is adopted in the (hx , hy , mx , my ) hyperplane,
while, in agreement with available experimental obser-
vations, a nonassociative flow rule is defined in the
(hx , v), (hy , v), (mx , v) and (my , v) planes. A detailed
description of the plastic potential function and of the
evolution equations for the internal variables , and
is provided in Grange (2008) and Grange et al. (2008).
A specific feature of this model is in the possibility
of taking into account the irreversible displacements
associated to the uplift of the foundation which takes
place at high values of the load eccentricity. However,
as uplift has not been considered in this work, the inter-
ested reader is referred to Grange et al. (2009) for
further details.
3 THE HYPOPLASTIC MACROELEMENT
In the development of a hypoplastic macrolement, Sal-
ciarini and Tamagnini (2009) have assumed from the
outset that the tangent stiffness tensor appearing in
eq. (1) possesses the following basic structure:
Differently from elastoplasticity, the tangent stiffness
K(t, q, ) varies continuously with the direction of
the generalized velocity. This property is known as
incremental nonlinearity (see, e.g., Tamagnini et al.
2000), and is the key to the modeling of irreversibility
of the model response.
The construction of a specific hypoplastic macroele-
ment requires the definition of the constitutive func-
tions L(t, q) (a 5 5 matrix) and N (t, q) (a 5
dimensional vector). Upon load reversal, the incre-
mental response of the hypoplastic macroelement is
assumed to be almost elastic:
where Ke is the elastic stiffness matrix of the elasto-
plastic macroelement, and kv , kh and km define the
vertical, horizontal and rotational stiffnesses of the
foundationsoil system. Thus, the matrix L can be
written as follows (Salciarini and Tamagnini 2009):
where mR is a material constant.
The constitutive function N is obtained following
the approach proposed by (Niemunis 2002), according
to which N can be expressed as:
where 0 Y (t, Vf ) 1 is a scalar loading function and
m(t) is a 5dimensional unit vector.
In the particular case of continued loading along a
straight path of sufficient length, eq. (8) and (11) yield:
The scalar function 0 Y (t, Vf ) 1 controls the
degree of nonlinearity of the model response. If Y = 0,
eq. (12) reduces to a linear relation between t and
d. When Y (t, Vf ) 1 the system reaches an ulti-
mate failure state (t = 0) for a collapse mechanism
characterized by:
Thus m can be identified as the direction of the gener-
alized velocity vector at bearing capacity failure (i.e.,
unconfined plastic flow direction).
The loading function Y can be defined starting from
a 5dimensional generalization of the failure locus
proposed by Nova and Montrasio (1991):
407
Figure 2. Plan view of the bridge.
while the plastic flow direction m can be derived from
the plastic potential function of Nova and Montrasio
(1991):
in which the nondimensional variables v , hx , hy , mx
and my are obtained from the corresponding quantities
of eq. (7) by replacing Vf with Vg , a dummy variable
determined from the condition g(t, Vg ) = 0.
Finally, in order to describe the foundationsystem
response under both monotonic and cyclic loading
conditions, the hypoplastic macroelement is equipped
with the following set of internal state variables:
where Vf is again the bearing capacity of the foun-
dation under a vertical centered load, and is a
vectorial quantity the internal displacement vec-
tor which keeps track of the previous displacement
history, mimicking the concept of intergranular strain
introduced by (Niemunis and Herle 1997) for con-
tinuum hypoplasticity. The details of the evolution
equations for these internal variables are provided in
Salciarini and Tamagnini (2009).
4 THE PROBLEM CONSIDERED
The problem considered is a fourspan RC bridge,
whose geometry is shown in Fig. 2. This particular
structure has been studied at the European research
centre ELSA (JRC Ispra), where a series of 1 to 2.5
scale models of the bridge piers have been subject to
pseudodynamic tests, see Pinto et al. (1996).
The three piers are made of reinforced concrete with
a hollow rectangular section shape. The bridge deck
is composed of hollow prestressed concrete beams.
Some geometrical characteristics of the piers and
beams sections are given in Tab. 1.
The FE model of the structure is shown in Fig. 3.
Nonlinear Timoshenko multifiber beam elements
have been adopted to reproduce the behaviour of
the piers (Kotronis and Mazars 2005). In detail, 40
concrete fibers and 80 steel fibers (representing the
Table 1. Geometrical properties of structural elements. Table 2. Material constants of the elastoplastic macroele-
ment.
A Ix Iy Iz J
(m2 ) (m4 ) (m4 ) (m4 ) (m4 ) kv kh km Vf
(MN/m) (MN/m) (MN/m) (MN)
Deck 1.11 0.13 2.26 2.39
Piers 0.66 0.056 0.19 0.20 298.68 244.37 108.65 11.26

a b c d e f
() () () () () ()

0.48 0.33 1.00 0.95 1.00 0.95

Table 3. Material constants of the hypoplastic macro-

Figure 3. FE model of the bridge. element.

h m
() () () () () ()
reinforcement bars at their actual position) have been
used for each section. The mesh is refined at the base 0.48 0.33 0.95 1.75 1.50 0.25
of the piers where inelastic behavior is more likely to
occur. As for the prestressed concrete deck elements, mR mT R r
linear elastic behavior has been assumed. The inertial (MN/m) () () (mm) () ()
characteristics of the structural elements have been
simulated by means of lumped masses, as shown in 0.0 1.1 1.05 5.0 1.0 1.5
Fig. 3. The material constants adopted for pier and
deck elements are given in Grange (2008).
In order to validate the FE model, a first com-
parison of the numerical and experimental results
for the smallscale bridge model, under the hypoth-
esis of fixed base has been presented in (Grange et
al.), (Grange et al.). In this paper, the foundations
of the three piers have been modeled using the two
macroelements discussed in Sect. 2 and 3. The material
parameters adopted for the elastoplastic macroelement
are summarized in Tab. 2. They can be considered
appropriate for a foundation resting on a medium
dense sand. The material constants for the hypoplastic
Figure 4. Original and scaled accelerograms of the imposed
macroelement have been selected by matching the pre- seismic excitation.
dictions of the two macroelements on both monotonic
and cyclic loading paths. The result of this calibration
(i.e., zero displacement and rotations at the base of the
procedure is shown in Tab. 3.
piers).
The seismic input adopted in the FE simulations is
The computed loaddisplacement curves for the
shown in Fig. 4. It is an artificial accelerogram, applied
pier foundations are shown in Fig. 5 (Hx vs. ux ) and 6
in the x direction, consistent with the 5% damping
(My vs. y ). Although the hypoplastic model tends to
response spectrum provided by Eurocode 8 for a soil of
predict somewhat smaller horizontal displacements,
Class B, with a peak horizontal acceleration of 0.35g.
the agreement between the two numerical solutions
In the FE analyses, the accelerogram has been scaled
appears quite good.
by multiplying the accelerations by 2.5 and dividing
This is confirmed by the time histories of horizontal
the time scale by the same factor, in order to respect
forces and moments at the foundations, as shown in
the similitude laws. The same input motion is applied
Fig. 7 and 8 for pier P2. The results obtained with
at the base of the piles and at the bridge abutments.
the two macroelements are almost coincident, whereas
forces and moments obtained under the hypothesis of
fixed base are much larger.
5 RESULTS OF FE SIMULATIONS It is interesting to note that in the particular
case considered, the incorporation of the deformable
Some results of the FE simulations performed with the macroelements in the FE analysis does not affect sig-
two macroelement models are shown in Fig. 5 to 10. To nificantly the magnitude of horizontal displacements
assess the influence of soilfoundation deformability, at the top of the piers, as shown in Fig. 9. This is a
the results of full SFSI analyses are also compared consequence of the fact that, in the fixed base case,
to those obtained assuming the soil as perfectly rigid the bending moments at the base of the piers are so

408
 Figure 7. Timehistory of horizontal force at the foundation
of pier P2.

Figure 5. Horizontal force vs. horizontal displacement at

the foundations: a) piers P1 and P3; b) pier P2.

Figure 8. Timehistory of rocking moment at the founda-

tion of pier P2.

Figure 9. Timehistory of horizontal displacement at the

top of pier P2.

Figure 6. Rocking moment vs. rotation at the foundations:

a) piers P1 and P3; b) pier P2.

large that the piers enter into the nonlinear regime,

and undergo significant plastic rotations, as demon-
strated by the momentcurvature diagram for the base
of pier P2, shown in Fig. 10. However, for different soil
conditions or higher earthquake accelerations, a sig-
nificant underestimation of the displacements at the Figure 10. Bending moment vs. curvature at the base of pier
top of the piles can occur if the deformability of the P2.
soil is not properly taken into account (Grange et al.
2009), (Grange et al. 2010). computed horizontal displacements and rotations, in
Finally, Fig. 11 shows the timehistories of verti- this case the response of the two macroelements is
cal displacements accumulated at the foundation of quite different. While the elastoplastic analysis pre-
pier P2, for the two macroelements. Differently from dicts very small permanent settlements (about 1 mm),

409

Figure 11. Timehistory of vertical displacement at the
foundation of pier P2.
the hypoplastic simulation yields a much larger perma-
nent settlement (about 6 mm). This is most likely due
to the different nature of the plastic potential functions
adopted by the two models in the Hx : V and My /B : V
planes.
6 CONCLUDING REMARKS
In this work, two recently developed macroelements
for shallow foundations have been used to model the
soilfoundation response in the seismic analysis of
a RC bridge. In spite of the different mathematical
structure of the two models, the results obtained in
the two cases are surprisingly similar, both in terms of
computed displacements and structural loads.The only
exception is represented by the way the two macroele-
ments predict a continuous accumulation of vertical
settlements of the foundation under the earthquake
excitation.
It is worth noting that the good agreement between
the computed cyclic response of the foundations pro-
vided by the two macroelements is mostly due to the
presence in the set of internal state variables of a
vectorial quantity (the backstress in the elastoplas-
tic model; the internal displacement in the hypoplastic
model) which takes into account the effects of the
previous loading history.
Finally, the comparison with the results obtained
under the hypothesis of rigid soil indicates that this
last assumption may lead to a significant overestima-
tion of computed structural loads. Moreover, a proper
consideration of the soilfoundation deformability is
a key factor in the proper estimation of the displace-
ments experienced by the structure under the seismic
action.
410
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J. Guedes (1996). Pseudo Dynamic Testing of Large-Scale
R/C Bridges. HMC Grant Holder, Report EUR 16378 EN,
JRC Ispra, Italy.
Salciarini, D. and C. Tamagnini (2009). A hypoplastic
macroelement model for shallow foundations under
monotonic and cyclic loads. Acta Geotechnica 4(3),
163176.
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 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

A finite element approach for dynamic seepage flows

R. Stucchi, A. Cividini & G. Gioda

Department of Structural Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy

ABSTRACT: A finite element approach for the dynamic analysis of seepage flows is presented that represents
the first step of a study on the effects of earthquakes on retaining or embedded structures in saturated granular
soils. The equations governing the flow of a liquid within a porous skeleton under an acceleration field varying
with time are recalled first. Then they are combined in a differential equation that, reduced in its weak form,
leads to a finite formulation of the problem in term of discharge velocity only. This first approach shows some
stability problem during the time integration process unless exceedingly small time increments are adopted. To
overcome this drawback two alternative formulations, involving different sets of free variables, are outlined and
commented upon.

1 INTRODUCTION The fluid dynamic equations governing the flow of a

The solution of geotechnical problems involving satu-
rated two phase soils requires the simultaneous anal-
yses of the seepage flow of the pore water and of the
stress distribution within the soil skeleton.
In quasi static conditions, i.e. under an accelera-
tion field constant with time (gravity), the literature
provides exhaustive theoretical bases and broadly
accepted methods for the numerical analysis of seep-
age and of the coupled effective stress-flow problem
(e.g. Desai 1976; Sandhu & Wilson 1969; Zaman et
al. 2000).
In dynamic conditions however, e.g. during earth-
quakes, the analysis of seepage becomes less straight-
forward since recourse cannot be made anymore to the
usual concept of hydraulic head (Bear 1988; Bird et al.
2007). This led to various numerical approaches for the
dynamic coupled problem (Biot 1956) that involve dif-
ferent assumptions, different governing equations and
different free variables (Zienkiewicz & Shiomi 1984;
Zienkiewicz et al. 1999).
The relatively complex mathematical structure of
the problem does not permit a straightforward evalu-
ation of the consequences of these assumptions and,
hence, makes the choice of the most appropriate
numerical approach somewhat controversial.
The mentioned difficulties suggested undertaking
a study on the coupled dynamic analysis of saturated
granular deposits. Its initial part, discussed here, con-
cerns only the finite element solution of dynamic
seepage flows that represents a necessary first step
towards the analysis of coupled problems.
Note that a correct analysis of the dynamic seep-
age is particularly relevant when dealing with granular
deposits. In fact their high hydraulic conductivity rules
out the assumption of undrained conditions sometime
adopted in engineering practice.
liquid within a rigid porous skeleton are recalled first.
Their weak form is then presented and a first finite
element formulation is derived in which the discharge
velocity of fluid, instead of its pseudo-displacement
(Zienkiewicz & Shiomi 1984), represents the nodal
variable. The numerical results suggested some obser-
vation on the limits of this approach and on the possible
computational advantages obtained using alternative
sets of nodal variables. On these bases two alternative
formulations are considered. The first one involves as
free variables both discharge velocity and pore pres-
sure, the second one only the pore pressure. Finally,
the solution of a benchmark problem is compared with
Westergaard results (1933).
2 GOVERNING EQUATIONS
The dynamic equations governing the seepage flow of
a liquid within a saturated and rigid porous skeleton
in isothermal conditions are recalled here. All vari-
ables are in general functions of time t. Uppercase
and lowercase underlined letters denote, respectively,
matrices and column vectors. Superscripts -1 and T
denote inverse and transpose.
In the following v is the vector of the velocity com-
ponents of the liquid particles while v represents the
discharge velocity in Darcy sense, which pertains to
the liquid phase. The two vectors are related through
the matrix N S of the area, or surface, porosities the
entries of which (nSx , nSy , nSz ) are the ratios between
the area of pores and the total area of the sections,
The experimental difficulties met in determining
the area porosities suggest using the volume porosity n

411
in the formulation, which represents the ratio between
the volume of voids and the total volume of a soil ele-
ment. The volume porosity can be seen as the average
value of the area porosities (Bear 1988).
Consequently, the following approximated relation-
ship will be used,

The relative velocity w of the fluid phase with

respect to that of the solid one, u, is expressed as,

Figure 1. Relevant quantities for the equation of motion in

Since a rigid porous skeleton is assumed here, the
velocity u is simply the time integral of the accelera-
tions imposed by the earthquake and, hence, is known.
As a consequence, the problem can be tackled consid-
ering a fixed solid phase and subjecting the fluid phase
to a known acceleration field varying with time. This
allows using v instead of w as a free variable.
2.1 Equation of compatibility
For a liquid this equation expresses the relationship
between the strain rates, collected in vector , and the
velocity v through a differential operator C analogous
to that governing the strain-displacement relationship
for solids,
the x direction.
On these bases, the following relationship holds for
a Newtonian fluid,
where is its deviatoric viscosity and I 0 is a diagonal
matrix the entries of which are equal to 2 if they cor-
respond to normal stresses, otherwise they are equal
to 1.
Substitution of eqs.(7) and (5) into eq.(8) leads to
the strain rate vs. shear stress relationship,

where

As usual, the first three entries of vector corre-

spond to normal strains and the remaining three to
shear strains.
The above equation, rewritten in terms of the
discharge velocity v, becomes,
2.2 Shear stress-shear strain rate relationship
Assuming that the fluid phase behaves as a Newto-
nian liquid, a linear relationship can be established
between the deviatoric strain rates e and the deviatoric
stresses . To this purpose the following quantities are
introduced for convenience,
2.3 Equation of motion
Adopting an Eulerian approach, the equation of motion
expresses the momentum balance of the liquid con-
tained within an infinitesimal volume of the porous
medium. This implies that the rate of increase of
momentum is equal to the difference between the
inward and outward momentum rates plus the con-
tribution of the external forces acting on the liquid.
The equation of motion for a one dimensional flow
in the x direction (cf. Figure 1) can be written as,

Here and are the strain rate and the stress vectors;
p is the pore pressure (positive if tensile); vol is the
volumetric strain rate and m is a vector the entries
of which are equal to 1 if they correspond to normal
strains/stresses, otherwise they vanish.
where is the density, bx is the component of the
imposed acceleration field (e.g. gravity) in the x direc-
tion and fDx is the drag force due to the interaction
between the flowing liquid and the porous skeleton.

412

Figure 2. Relevant quantities for the equation of mass
continuity in the x direction.
Introducing the simplifying assumption expressed
by eq.(2), the matrix form of the equation of motion
for a three dimensional flow becomes,
Here vectors b and f D collect, respectively, the
given acceleration components in the Cartesian direc-
tions and the drag forces.
Confining our attention to laminar flows, the fol-
lowing relationship holds between the drag forces and
the discharge velocity,
where K  is the intrinsic permeability matrix of the
porous skeleton.
2.4 Mass continuity equation
If internal sources are neglected, the continuity of mass
requires that the mass of fluid cumulated within an
infinitesimal volume of the porous medium in a unit
time coincides with the difference between the rate of
masses entering and leaving it.
Figure 2 shows the relevant quantities for a flow in
the x direction. As to the rate of mass accumulation,
M , two contributions exist. The first one is the change
in mass due to the volumetric strain rate of the fluid
phase that, neglecting the possible volumetric viscos-
ity of the liquid, can be related to the pore pressure
rate through the bulk modulus B of the liquid and the
volume porosity,
The second contribution depends on the change in
density of the liquid,
413
On these bases, the mass continuity for a three
dimensional flow is expressed as,
In matrix form eq.(16) becomes,
2.5 Equation of state for the liquid phase
To reach the balance between the number of unknowns
and that of equations an additional scalar relationship
is necessary.This is represented by the equation of state
that expresses the variation of the density of liquid
with temperature and pore pressure.
As previously mentioned, it is reasonable to treat the
dynamic seepage flow under isothermal conditions,
thus neglecting the variation of density with temper-
ature. In addition, considering the high bulk modulus
of water, also the change of density with the pore pres-
sure is marginal. Consequently, the variation with time
of the density of liquid was neglected in eq.(17) and
in the finite element formulation.
3 FINAL SYSTEM OF MATRIX EQUATIONS
Introducing the assumption of constant density, the
governing equations (9, 6b) and (12) can be re-written
in the following form,
The final system of governing differential equations
consists of eq.(17) and of the combination of eqs.(18)
and (19),
It can be shown that, if b represents the accel-
eration of gravity, under some simplifying assump-
tions eq.(21) reduces to Darcy law between discharge
velocity and space derivative of the hydraulic head.
Eqs.(20) and (21) form the final system of
four scalar differential equations, involving as free
variables the discharge velocity components and the
pore pressure.
As to the boundary conditions, consider a porous
domain having surface  and volume . The surface
can be subdivided into its impervious part, V , where
the velocity normal to it vanishes and its pervious part,
P , where the pore pressure p is known, i.e.

The integration of eq.(24) is carried through a series

of time increments ti , so that ti = ti1 + ti , and
Here collects the direction cosines of the vector assuming a linear variation of the nodal velocities
normal to . within each increment. This leads to the following
expressions for ve and ve within the time interval,
4 VELOCITY APPROACH

Let now derive an approach where the discharge veloc-

ity represents the only nodal variable. To this purpose
eq.(21) and the boundary condition eq.(22b) are writ-
ten in weak form introducing a virtual variation v of where 0 1.
the discharge velocity that fulfils eq.(22a). Assuming = 1/2, substitution of eqs.(26) into
Note that the quadratic term on the right hand eq.(24) leads to,
side of eq.(21), equivalent to the kinetic part of the
hydraulic head in standard seepage analyses, can be
disregarded because the small value of the discharge
velocity makes its contribution marginal. In addition,
the presence of this non linear term would increase the
burden of the numerical solution.

The pore pressure at the end of the time interval

pe (ti ) that appears in vector f ep (ti ), cf. eq.(25e), can be
expresses as,

Integrating by parts the second term within brack- Considering that the pore pressure rate and the
ets, and applying Green-Gauss theorem, introducing velocity vary linearly within the time step, cf. eq. (20),
the interpolation or shape function matrix S ev , express- eq.(28) leads to the following relationship,
ing the velocity distribution within the e-th element
as a function of the nodal velocities ve , after some
manipulations one obtains,

where the pore pressure pe is defined at the integration

The following expressions hold for matrices and
vectors in eq.(24), where V e is the volume of the
element; eP represents its sides where a known pore
pressure pe is imposed; b is the vector of the imposed
accelerations and pe is the unknown pore pressure
distribution within the e-th element,
point of the element.
On these bases, and knowing the flow velocities
and pore pressures at time ti1 , the following iterative
process can be adopted to evaluate the quantities at the
end of the step:
The pore pressure pe (ti ) is approximated through
eq.(29) assuming ve (ti ) = ve (ti1 );
The velocity ve (ti ) is calculated solving the system
of linear equations (27);
The pore pressure pe (ti ) is updated through eq.(29);
The iterations end when ve (ti ) and pe (ti ) stabilize.

414
5 VELOCITY- PORE PRESSURE APPROACH
The above iterative approach, where the pore pressure
does not represent a nodal variable and, hence, does not
have a continuous distribution throughout the mesh,
might show some stability problem unless very small
time integration steps are adopted.
To overcome this drawback an alternative approach
can be easily formulated where both discharge velocity
and pore pressure represent nodal variables.
To this purpose eq.(20) is written in the following
weak form where p is a virtual pore pressure variation,
Introducing the interpolation function vector for the
pore pressure, sep , that relates the pore pressure within
the element to its nodal values pe , and integrating over
the volume V e of the e-th element, eq.(30) leads to,
where
Now the pore pressure pe in eq.(25e) is expressed
in terms of the nodal pore pressures pe through the
interpolation functions,
Combining eqs.(24), (31) and (33) the following
system is arrived at,
The time integration of eq.(34) is carried out assum-
ing a linear variation of velocity during the time incre-
ment (cf. eqs.26). In addition, also a linear variation of
the pore pressure should be assumed. This introduces
an approximation since, as previously observed, the
pore pressure rate should vary linearly with time.
Note that, to be consistent with eq.(20), the shape
functions of the pore pressure should coincide with
the space derivatives of those of the flow velocity.
This implies that higher order element should be used
for the velocity and lower order elements for the pore
pressure. The consequent non negligible computa-
tional burden and the above approximation suggest
disregarding this approach for practical applications.
415
6 PORE PRESSURE APPROACH
Taking into account that in many cases of interest in
geotechnical engineering the flow velocity is small,
some terms of eq.(21) can be disregarded since their
contribution is likely to be marginal. These are the term
of the left hand side of the eq.(21), which depends on
the acceleration, and the first term on the right hand
side that depends on the square of velocity.
Consider now the terms linearly depending on
velocity. The second one on the right hand side of
eq.(21), related to the curvature of the streamlines,
plays a major role in standard flow problem. How-
ever, in the case of seepage flows its contribution is in
general smaller than that of the last term on the right
hand side that represents the interaction between the
flowing liquid and the solid particles.
Hence, eq.(21) reduces to,
Upon substitution of eq.(35) into eq.(20) one
obtains the governing equation in terms of the pore
pressure only (Zienkiewicz et al. 1999) ,
Writing eq.(36) in weak form, and following the
same procedure previously outlined for the velocity
approach, the pore pressure finite element formulation
is arrived at,
where
7 TEST EXAMPLE
The velocity and the pore pressure approaches were
used for determining the water pressure distribution
along a vertical rigid wall due to a dynamic excitation
in the horizontal direction (Westergaard 1933).
The mesh consists of 200 four node quadrilateral
elements and 231 nodes, 11 of which discretize the
vertical wall.
The numerical results are reported, and compared
with Westergaard solution, in Figures 3 and 4. They
show, respectively, the maximum excess pressure dis-
tribution, with respect to the hydrostatic one, along the
wall and the variation with time of the excess pressure
at its base. In these figures H is the wall height and
pmax is the maximum excess pressure at the wall base
from Westergaard solution.

Figure 3. Excess pressure distribution along the vertical
wall.
Figure 4. Variation with time of the excess pressure at the
wall base.
416
8 CONCLUSIONS
Three finite element approaches have been presented
for dynamic seepage analysis, which involve different
sets of free variables.
Two of them, which seem more convenient from
the numerical standpoint, have been used for solv-
ing a benchmark problem obtaining an acceptable
agreement with Westergaard (1933) solution.
The study will now proceed towards the finite ele-
ment formulation of dynamic two phase problems in
view of the analysis of the effects of earthquakes on
structures embedded in saturated granular deposits.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The writers wish to thank Prof. Gabriele Dubini for his
friendly advice and stimulating comments.
REFERENCES
Bear, J. 1988. Dynamics of Fluids in Porous Media, New
York: Dover Publications.
Biot, M.A. 1956. The theory of propagation of elastic waves
in a fluid saturated porous solid. J. Acou. Soc. Am.,
168191.
Bird, R.B., Stewart, W.E. & Lightfoot, E.N. 2007. Transport
Phenomena. New York: J.Wiley & Sons.
Desai, C.S. 1976. Finite element residual schemes for uncon-
fined flow. Int. J. Numer. Methods Eng., 10:14151418.
Sandhu, R.S. & Wilson, E.L. 1969. Finite Element Analysis
of Seepage in Elastic Media. ASCE EM3, 95:641652.
Westergaard, H.M. 1933. Water pressures on dams during
earthquake. Transaction of ASCE, 98:418434.
Zaman, M., Gioda, G. & Booker, J. (eds.) 2000. Modeling in
Geomechanics. Chichester: J.Wiley & Sons.
Zienkiewicz, O.C. & Shiomi, T. 1984. Dynamic behaviour
of saturated porous media; the generalized Biot formula-
tion and its numerical solution. Int. J. Numer. Anal. Meth.
Geomech., 8:7196.
Zienkiewicz, O.C, Chan, A.H.C., Pastor, M., Schrefler, B.A.
& Shiomi, T. 1999. Computational Geomechanics. Chich-
ester: J.Wiley & Sons.
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

A method to solve Biots u-U formulation for soil dynamics applications

using the ABAQUS/explicit platform

F.J. Ye, S.H. Goh & F.H. Lee

Department of Civil Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore

ABSTRACT: This paper describes a numerical method for solving the coupled equations resulting from Biots
uU formulation for waves propagating in a saturated porous medium. The proposed ABAQUS Dual Phase
Coupling (ADPC) method is implemented in the explicit solver module of the general purpose finite element
program ABAQUS. This method features two overlapping meshes representing the fluid and solid phases of
the saturated medium respectively. Interactions between the two phases occur via dashpots connecting the two
meshes, and also by the use of user-defined material subroutines. In this way, the coupling effects arising from
complex dual-phase interaction can be incorporated into the analysis. In this paper, the ADPC method is restricted
to linear material behavior of both the solid and fluid phases. Preliminary validation of the proposed method
is carried out using a one-dimensional problem. The good agreement between the ADPC results and published
analytical/numerical solutions suggests that the proposed method provides a feasible, alternative approach for
studying dynamics problems involving wave propagation in saturated soil media.

1 INTRODUCTION overcome in the ADPC method via the use of spe-

In geotechnical engineering, Biots two phase theory
has been applied to solve practical problems such
as earthquake-induced liquefaction. Numerical stud-
ies based on the fully-coupled dual-phase formulation
were able to predict the pore pressure behavior dur-
ing earthquakes. The numerical results compared quite
favorably with centrifuge test measurements obtained
as part of the VELACS project (Zienkiewicz et al.,
1987; Yogachandran, 1990). On the other hand, tran-
sient phenomena, such as those associated with blast
or impulsive loadings in saturated soils, have also
been studied using the fully coupled method following
Biots theory (Prevost, 1982).
Various finite element implementations of Biots
theory have been carried out by Ghaboussi & Dikman
(1978), Zienkiewicz & Shiomi (1984), Zienkiewicz
et al. (1987), and Prevost (1985). However, these
implementations usually result in very specialized and
non-commercial codes, due to the complexities asso-
ciated with the discretization and solution of the dual
phases in both the spatial and time domains.
In this paper, an alternative numerical approach,
the ABAQUS Dual Phase Coupling (ADPC) method,
is proposed to solve the u-U formulation of Biots
fully coupled equations. As the name suggests, this
method is implemented in the general purpose finite
element program ABAQUS. More specifically, the
implementation is carried out using the explicit solver
module of the program. However, ABAQUS itself can-
not solve Biots coupled equations with its available
intrinsic functions and modules. These limitations are
cial ABAQUS features such as overlapping meshes,
connector elements and user-defined subroutines. The
proposed method is used to analyze a one-dimensional
transient problem involving a fluid-saturated porous
medium, the results of which are presented in this
paper.
2 BIOTS THEORY ON DYNAMICS OF
SATURATED POROUS MEDIA
Biot (1956a, 1956b) developed a theory which
describes the wave propagation mechanism in the
dual-phase medium for the linear elastic regime, by
introducing the concepts of mass and viscous cou-
pling in the fluid-solid interaction. It was found that
the solution consists of two dilatational waves and one
rotational wave propagating in the porous medium
with frequency dependent damping factors. Biots
original formulation was based on the concepts of par-
tial solid stress and partial fluid pressure as defined in
Section 2.1. This formulation, together with the elastic
constitutive relations, is commonly recognized as the
u-U formulation.
2.1 Assumptions
Biots theory on the dynamics of fluid saturated porous
media was established based on the following assump-
tions: 1) linear elastic, isotropic material behavior; 2)
reversibility of stress strain relations; 3) small strain; 4)
incompressibility of the pore fluid which may contain

417
air bubbles; 5) the fluid flow through the porous skele-
ton follows Darcys Law; 6) the frequency range is low
such that the assumption of Poiseuille flow is valid.
The original formulation, which incorporates the
mass and viscous coupling effects in the stress equi-
librium for both the solid skeleton and fluid phases,
can be written with respect to the three directions.
where
In the equations, the vectors u and U represent
the average displacement components in the three
directions of the solid skeleton and the fluid phase,
respectively. L denotes the spatial derivative opera-
tor matrix. The average displacement of the fluid is
defined as the volume of fluid flowing through a unit
area perpendicular to each direction. is the par-
tial fluid pressure, which is defined as the average
force supported by the fluid portion of the infinites-
imal cubic face. s , also known as the partial solid
stress vector, is the average force supported by the
solid portion of an infinitesimal cubic face. The partial
solid (fluid) stress in the y direction will be the aver-
age force in the corresponding direction supported by
solid (fluid). However, the partial solid stress has three
components with respect to the three directions while
the partial fluid pressure in all directions preserves
the same value. Both s and are taken as positive
in tension, and negative in compression, following
ABAQUS convention.
It is noted that the viscous damping and inertial
effects are explicitly incorporated into Equation 1. The
viscous damping component is a function of the rela-
tive velocity between the two phases, while the inertial
component includes induced mass coupling effects
arising from relative motion between the two phases.
2.2 Mass coupling
In Equation 1, the densities are defined as
where 1 and 2 denote, respectively, the mass of
solid per unit volume of the aggregate and the mass
418
of fluid per unit volume of the aggregate. 11 and 22
can be regarded as the intrinsic density coefficients,
and 12 or a the mass coupling parameter between
fluid and solid. This parameter may be considered
as a measure of the coupled inertial effect, which is
reflected by the additional inertial coupling induced
by the relative motion between the two phases. For
porous media under small strain conditions, the poros-
ity n may be assumed to be independent of the stress
level. Therefore, 1 and 2 can be defined as
where s is the true mass density of the solid grain and
f true mass density of the pore fluid. Therefore, the
density of the porous aggregate is
2.3 Viscous damping effect
The viscous coefficient D in Equation 1 corresponds
to the viscous drag imposed to each constituent per
unit volume when the fluid flows by the walls of the
pores due to external loading. The viscous coefficient
D can be defined if the Poiseuille flow assumption is
valid
where is the fluid viscosity and n is the porosity.
K is the absolute permeability for isotropic condition.
The opposite signs for the viscous term indicate that
the viscous drag imposed on one phase will induce an
equivalent drag of an opposite direction on the other
phase.
2.4 Stress-strain compatibility relationship
The fluid solid interaction in a saturated porous
medium is a complex physical mechanism in which the
volumetric behavior of one phase must be compatible
with the other on an infinitesimal scale. A coupled lin-
ear elastic stress-strain relationship was proposed by
Biot to capture the coupling in the constitutive model
between the two phases. The partial solid stress of the
solid aggregate s is related to the strain components
of the solid skeleton e and volumetric strain of the fluid
via the following relations:
The partial pore fluid pressure is related to the
volumetric strain of fluid and the volumetric strain
of solid skeleton, as follows
where the strain vector e for the solid skeleton may be
expressed as
The volumetric strains, and , may be defined as

where A, N , Q and R are the elastic material constants

as defined in Section 2.4.

In Equation 6a, D is a square stiffness matrix which

defines the stress-strain relationship of the partial solid
stress as follows
3.2 Finite element form
Either 1-D or 2-D elements can be used to solve
the coupled one-dimensional relations of Equation
11. In this study, four-node quadrilateral elements are
adopted. For each element, the displacement variables
u and U can be written in terms of their nodal vectors
as follows:

Applying Galerkins method to Equation 11, the fol-

where N and A are two material constants which define
lowing finite element formulation can be obtained at
the increment of partial solid stress resulting from the
the element level.
solid strain increment. The material constant Q reflects
the nature of the interaction which maintains the vol-
umetric equilibrium of the solid and fluid phases. The
material constant R is the pressure needed to force
a certain volume of fluid into the solid matrix while
the total volume remains unchanged. The vector m is where
equivalent to the Kronecker delta, which is defined as:

2.5 The u-U formulation

Substituting Equation 6 into Equation 1, the resulting
equations of motion can be reformulated into a form
Fes and Fef include all the body forces and prescribed
which contains the two independent displacement
tractions at the boundary.
variables u and U:

3.3 Principle of explicit time-integration

The coupled equation system represented by Equation
13 can be simply expressed as
where grad is a gradient operator. Equation (10) is
commonly known as the u-U formulation.
where
3 FINITE ELEMENT IMPLEMENTATION

3.1 Simplified one-dimensional form

Equation 10 can be reduced to a one-dimensional form
if the displacement components in the other two direc-
tions are neglected. In practice, the inertial effects
associated with the density term 12 are also assumed
to be negligible, and hence these terms can be dropped
from Equation 10. On the other hand, a complete stress
balance equation should include the solid and fluid Equation 14 may be discretized in time using the
phase body forces, i.e. bs and bf . Therefore the 1-D well-known central-difference scheme, to obtain the
form of the u-U formulation can be written as incremental velocity and acceleration as follows:

419
in which the subscripts t+ and t indicate values at
times t + t and t t, respectively. t is the incre-
mental time step. Substituting Equation 15 into the
incremental form of Equation 14 yields:

Figure 1. Illustration of how the dashpots work in the

overlapping system for one-dimensional analysis.

Equation 16 implies that the incremental displace-

ment ui,t+ at time t + t can be calculated by
inverting M + Ct without solving the equation. This
explicit time-integration scheme is especially effi-
cient when the M and C matrices are diagonal, which
allows the current incremental displacements to be
easily computed. By lumping the entire mass and
viscous damping to the corresponding nodes, the
computational costs can be considerably reduced.

4 ABAQUS DUAL PHASE COUPLING (ADPC)

METHOD
In this section, the three key features of the ADPC
method are introduced.These are: overlapping meshes,
connector elements and user defined subroutines.
4.1 Overlapping meshes
In this method, two identical and overlapping discrete
meshes are simultaneously present in the finite ele-
ment model to simulate an integrated fluid saturated
porous medium. One mesh contains the corresponding
degrees of freedom associated with the solid phase,
while the other mesh contains the corresponding
degrees of freedom for the fluid phase.
4.2 Connector elements
Given the two overlapping meshes, the viscous cou-
pling effects discussed in Section 2.3 can be introduced
by linking the two meshes at the corresponding nodes
with connector elements in the form of dashpots.
These connector elements are prescribed appropriate
mechanical properties that control how the two meshes
interact with each other. Figure 1 shows how the con-
nector elements are assigned in the one-dimensional
problem.
4.3 User defined material subroutine
As discussed in Section 2.4, the deformation behav-
iors of the two-phase medium are also dictated by
the coupled dependency in stress-strain relations.
These coupled stress strain relationships may follow
a linear elastic manner or a nonlinear elasto-plastic
manner, both of which are not available in the exist-
ing ABAQUS material model library. This limitation
may be circumvented using the VUMAT feature in
Figure 2. Infinite fluid saturated porous column subject to
step velocity loading in example problem.
ABAQUS, which allows non-conventional or special
material behavior to be modeled using user-defined
subroutines. In this study, VUMAT subroutines were
introduced to account for the coupled elastic stress-
strain relationship discussed in Section 2.4.
5 APPLICATION OF ADPC TO A ONE
DIMENSIONAL EXAMPLE PROBLEM
5.1 Description of the problem
In this example, a transient step velocity loading is
instantaneously applied over the surface of a fluid-
saturated, porous half-space. As shown on Figure 2a,
this is a one-dimensional problem which may be mod-
eled using a fully-constrained, infinitely long column.
The loading is applied in such a way that both the solid
and fluid phases at x = 0 will be subjected to a step
velocity loading at time t = 0, i.e. v(x = 0, t < 0) = 0
and v(x = 0, t 0) = 1, as shown on Figure 2b.
5.2 Analytical and finite difference solutions
Garg et al. (1974) presented the solutions for this prob-
lem using (i) analytical techniques involving the Bessel
function, (ii) numerical inversion of the Laplace trans-
form, and (iii) a finite difference code POROUS. The
field equations for the one dimensional problem con-
sidered by Garg and his associates follow the u-U
formulation:

420

Figure 3. FE model for the example.
where the material constants a, b and c are given in
Garg et al. (1974), u1 and u2 are the solid and fluid
displacements; 1 , 2 and D are as defined previously.
5.3 ADPC implementation
Figure 3 shows the overlapping finite element meshes
representing the solid and fluid phases. Following
Garg et al. (1974), the step velocity loading is applied
to both meshes, that is, both phases. Comparing Equa-
tion 17 with Equation 11, the two are exactly identical
such that a = A + 2N , b = R and c = Q. Garg et al.
(1974) adopted values of a, b and c as
where a1 and b1 can be expressed as
In these relations, KS , KF and KB are the intrinsic
bulk modulus of the non-porous solid, fluid and porous
solid skeleton, respectively.All the relevant parameters
are provided on Table 1, and are identical to those used
by Garg et al. (1974). The amplitude of the step veloc-
ity loading H (t) at the column top is shown in Figure
3. The coupled stress strain relations incorporated in
VUMAT can be written in one-dimensional form as:
421
Table 1. Basic parameters for the example.
Porosity n 0.18
Bulk modulus of solid (Pa) KS 3.600 1010
Bulk modulus of fluid (Pa) KF 2.200 109
Youngs modulus of skeleton (Pa) E 2.321 1010
Poissons ratio 0.171
Density of solid (kg/m3 ) s 2660
Density of fluid (kg/m3 ) f 1000
Magnitude of initial velocity (m/s) v0 1
Low drag (kg/m3 s) Dl 2.19 104
Medium drag (kg/m3 s) Dm 2.19 106
High drag (kg/m3 s) Dh 2.19 1010
Figure 4. Nodal velocity history at 10 cm below the col-
umn top for low drag condition.
where ex and x are the strains in the direction of
interest for the solid and fluid phases, respectively.
Equation 20 can be coded into individualVUMAT sub-
routines for the solid and fluid phases respectively, as
explained in Section 4.3.
The infinite, saturated porous column was mod-
eled using two overlapping rows of 200 four-node
reduced integration elements, each with dimensions
0.005 m 0.005 m. This results in a column length
of 1.0 m, which is sufficiently long to minimize
wave reflection effects at the output points of inter-
est. The lateral displacements for both meshes were
constrained using roller-type boundary conditions.
5.4 Results
To examine the influence of drag interaction effects on
the propagating waves in the two phases, three viscous
coefficients D of low, medium and high magnitude
were studied. Figures 46 present the nodal velocity
responses of both the solid and fluid phases at a point
10 cm below the top of the column. The ADPC results
are plotted together with the results presented in Garg
et al. (1974).
As shown on Figure 4, the computed solid and fluid
velocity responses from ADPC for the low drag con-
dition are close to those predicted using POROUS and
the analytical solutions. The figures clearly show the
existence of two dilatational wavefronts (Biot, 1956a),
especially in the fluid phase velocity history. It is noted
that the analytical solution preserves the step nature
of the wavefront (i.e. very short rise time of about

Figure 5. Nodal velocity history at 10 cm below the column
top for medium drag condition.
Figure 6. Nodal velocity history at 10 cm below the column
top for high drag condition.
0.1 sec), whereas the numerical results from ADPC
and POROUS indicate some smearing of the wave-
fronts, especially the second wavefront in the fluid
phase.
Figure 5 shows the solid and fluid nodal velocity
histories at the same point for the medium drag con-
dition. As before, there is good agreement between
ADPC and Garg et al.s results. The existence of two
wavefronts is still present in the fluid phase velocity
history. Unlike the low drag case, the particle velocity
increases almost linearly between the two wavefronts.
Figure 6 shows the solid and fluid nodal velocity
histories at the same point for the high drag condition.
Under high viscous coupling, the two wavefronts coa-
lesce into a single front, the effect of which is very
obvious for the fluid phase response. Due to artifi-
cial viscosity effects, it is noted that the ADPC and
POROUS results show a rise time of about 4 sec,
which is much larger than the 0.15 sec rise time given
by the analytical solution. In principle, the numerical
results can be improved by finer spatial zoning, or a
more refined mesh. This effect is not discussed here.
6 CONCLUSIONS
This paper describes a method implemented on the
ABAQUS platform for solving Biots u-U formulation
422
related to the dynamics of saturated porous media.
This method is verified using a published one-
dimensional wave propagation problem that was pre-
viously analyzed using analytical and finite difference
approaches. The good agreement between the ADPC
results and those reported by Garg et al. (1974) serves
as a preliminary first-order validation of the proposed
method. The results also indicate that the magnitude of
the viscous coefficient has a significant effect on the
computed response of the two phases. A low viscous
drag may result in minimal interaction arising from
the relative motion of the two phases, while a high
viscous drag may induce strong coupling between the
two phases, so that the solid and fluid motions coalesce
as one. Furthermore, two wavefronts can be observed
in the ADPC results, which is consistent with Biots
finding that two dilatational waves are present in a
saturated porous medium.
REFERENCES
Biot, M. A. 1956a. Theory of propagation of elastic waves
in a fluid-saturated porous solid. I. low-frequency range.
The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 28(2):
168178.
Biot, M. A. 1956b. Theory of propagation of elastic waves in
a fluid-saturated porous solid. II. high-frequency range.
The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 28(2):
179191.
Garg, S.K., Nayfeh, A.H. & Good, A.J. 1974. Compressional
waves in fluid-saturated elastic porous media. Journal of
Applied Physics 45(5): 19681974.
Ghaboussi, J. & Dikman. S. U. 1978. Liquefaction analy-
sis of horizontally layered sands. Journal of Geotechnical
Division, ASCE GT3: 341356.
Prevost, J. H. 1982. Nonlinear transient phenomena in sat-
urated porous media. Computer Methods in Applied
Mechanics and Engineering. 20: 318.
Prevost, J. H. 1985. Wave propagation in fluid-saturated
porous media: An efficient finite element procedure. Soil
Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering 4(4): 183202.
Yogachandran, C. 1990. Numerical and dynamic centrifuge
modeling of initiation of flow failure and interface behav-
ior. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering,
University of California, Davis. Ph.D thesis.
Zienkiewicz, O. C. & Shiomi. T. 1984. Dynamic behaviour
of saturated porous media; The generalized Biot formu-
lation and its numerical solution. International Journal
for Numerical and Analytical Methods in Geomechanics
8:7196.
Zienkiewicz, Chan, A.H.C., Pastor, M. & Shiomi, T. 1987.
Computational approach to soil dynamics. Developments
in Geotechnical Engineering 42: Soil Dynamics and
Liquefaction, Elsevier: 317.
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Alternative formulations for cyclic nonlinear elastic models: Parametric

study and comparative analyses

D. Taborda, L. Zdravkovic, S. Kontoe & D.M. Potts

Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Imperial College London, UK

ABSTRACT: The utilisation of cyclic nonlinear elastic models presents numerous advantages when analysing
simple dynamic problems, such as one-dimensional site response. This class of models requires a small number
of parameters to be determined and can efficiently reproduce the strain dependency of the secant shear stiffness
and hysteretic damping. However, it has been frequently noted that, for medium to large deformation levels, the
predicted damping ratio can be significantly larger than the values evaluated for most soils through laboratory
testing. To minimise the effects of this overestimation on the overall response of the system, which may lead to
non conservative results, different formulations have been proposed. In this paper, two alternative expressions
for the stress-strain behaviour of soils hyperbolic and logarithmic are presented and their ability to reproduce
well-established empirical stiffness degradation and damping ratio curves is assessed. Finally, the results of a set
of dynamic finite element analyses of a one-dimensional wave propagation problem are presented to illustrate
the impact of the different formulations on the engineering behaviour of soil deposits.

1 INTRODUCTION 2 CYCLIC NONLINEAR ELASTIC MODELS

In earthquake engineering practice, a site response 2.1 Basic concepts

analysis is frequently necessary to assess how a
The cyclic nonlinear elastic models were proposed as a
soil deposit with a particular stratigraphy alters the
method of analysis for dynamic problems by Finn et al.
bedrock seismic motion. As horizontal layering is
(1977) and included three main components: the back-
often encountered, one-dimensional wave propaga-
bone curve, which determined the basic stress-strain
tion is assumed when estimating the effects of soil
relationship; the unloading and reloading rules defin-
amplification. Naturally, the accuracy of the predicted
ing how a change in shearing direction affected soil
response greatly depends on the chosen method of
behaviour; and the hardening laws, which allowed the
analysis and, particularly, on its ability to reproduce
generation of excess pore water pressures during cyclic
the dynamic behaviour of the material.
loading to be simulated. Note that the latter aspect of
One of the possible approaches to study this type
the model will be disregarded in this study, since it is
of problems is to perform a dynamic finite element
mainly relevant for problems where the degradation
analysis using a suitable constitutive model, such as
of stiffness due to the reduction of effective stress is
those developed according to the cyclic nonlinear
crucial, such as liquefaction.
elastic framework (Finn et al. 1977, Taborda et al.
Analytically, a model of this class can be expressed
2007). In this paper, two alternative formulations
by the following equation:
of a model of this class, with clearly distinct lev-
els of sophistication and flexibility, are presented.
Particular emphasis is given to the evaluation of
their ability to reproduce the most common aspects
of dynamic soil behaviour, namely the secant shear
stiffness degradation and damping ratio. Finally, the where , = current shear stress and strain, respec-
impact of the chosen stress-strain relation on the tively; r , r = shear stress and strain at the last known
registered dynamic response of a soil deposit is reversal point, respectively; Fbb = chosen backbone
explored through a series of one-dimensional analy- function and n = a scaling factor. The latter variable,
ses. The widely used equivalent-linear method (Bardet n, is used to define the unloading/reloading behaviour.
et al. 2000) is also employed in order to provide a As an example, the basic Masing rules (Kramer 1996)
basis for comparison and assessment of the nonlinear can be modelled by initialising n = 1, corresponding
methods. to Rule (A) during initial loading, the stress-strain

423
curve follows the backbone curve , and changing its
value to 2 when the first reversal is detected, which is
equivalent to Rule (B) when a strain reversal occurs,
the curve retains the same shape as the backbone curve
but is scaled up by a factor of 2. More complex laws,
such as those defined in the extended set of Masing
rules (Kramer 1996) require either the storage of mul-
tiple reversal points or the use of mechanical models
(Iwan 1967).
Although the one-dimensional form of Equation 1
is efficient to illustrate the main concepts of the cyclic
nonlinear elastic framework, the implementation of a
model in a general finite element code, such as ICFEP
(Potts & Zdravkovic 1999), requires its components to
be formulated in 3D stress-strain space. As proposed in Figure 1. Dynamic behaviour reproduced by the hyperbolic
Taborda et al. (2007), this can be achieved by rewriting degradation model for different values of parameter a.
Equation 1 in the following form:
2/ = 63.66%. This limit, which is related to the cou-
pling of the chosen backbone function with the basic
Masing rules, raises obvious concerns over the possi-
ble overestimation of the damping ratio, since much
lower values are usually measured for soils (Guerreiro
where J and Ed = the second invariants of the stress 2008). A possible solution to minimise this problem
and strain tensor, respectively. Further details on this is to impose a minimum value for the tangent shear
aspect, including the procedure employed to detect the modulus, as discussed in Taborda et al. (2009).
occurrence of shear reversals, can also be found in the
same reference.
2.3 Logarithmic function model
2.2 Hyperbolic degradation model This model, which was proposed by Puzrin & Shiran
(2000), employs the following logarithmic function to
This version of the model employs a hyperbolic func- define the backbone curve:
tion as the backbone curve, as proposed by Kondner
& Zelasko (1963):

where JL = model parameter and and R = auxiliary

where Gmax = initial stiffness and a = degradation constants determined by:
parameter. Substituting the expression above in Equa-
tion (2) leads to:

The un-/reloading behaviour is defined by the basic with c a model parameter and xL calculated by:
Masing rules through the scaling factor n, as previ-
ously presented. It has been shown that this model
accurately reproduces most secant shear stiffness
degradation curves available in the literature (Guer-
reiro 2008) and has been successfully employed in the where Ed,L is a third input material property. To
analysis of the Lotung seismic array (Taborda et al. obtain the stress-strain behaviour, Equation 5 can be
2009). substituted in Equation 2:
In Figure 1, the results of a small parametric study
illustrate the effect of the value of a on the modelled
dynamic behaviour. It can be seen that, as a increases,
the secant shear modulus degrades faster (i.e. for where
smaller deformation levels), while the damping ratio
increases (i.e. the respective curve is displaced to the
left). It is also evident that, independently of param-
eter a, the value of the damping ratio always tends to

424
Figure 2. Effect of parameter c on the stiffness degradation
curve predicted by the logarithmic model.
Since an extensive description of the ability of this
model to reproduce dynamic soil behaviour can be
found in the original paper and in Lavda (2009), only
the roles of the initial stiffness, Gmax , and of parameter
c are going to be analysed in this text.
Unlike the hyperbolic degradation model, the ini-
tial stiffness, Gmax , influences the shape of the stiffness
degradation and damping ratio curves when employing
the logarithmic function to describe the stress-strain
behaviour of the material. Therefore, it is important
to note that a given set of parameters is only valid for
the value of Gmax used during the calibration proce-
dure. However, by analysing the models equations,
it becomes clear that, for the same behaviour to be
obtained for a different value of Gmax , only the value
of JL needs to be recalculated according to:
To investigate the role of parameter c, which defines
the minimum value of the tangent stiffness, a small
parametric study was performed. Values between c
= 0.40 and 1.00 were chosen, while the remain-
ing parameters were kept constant with the follow-
ing magnitudes: Gmax = 100 MPa; Ed,L = 0.001 and
JL = 20.0 kPa. The obtained stiffness degradation and
damping ratio curves are illustrated in Figures 2 and
3, respectively. It can be seen that, as the value of c is
reduced, the stiffness decreases for small deformation
levels, while the opposite trend is registered for larger
strain amplitudes. In terms of energy dissipation, the
results in Figure 3 show that this parameter can be used
to efficiently control the magnitude of the damping
ratio, since max decreases as the value of c is reduced.
It should also be noted that , for c < 1.0, suffers a
sharp reduction as the deformation level increases.
Therefore, a balance between limiting the magnitude
of max and severely underestimating the damping ratio
at large strains must be sought. Often, this approach
involves establishing a lower limit for c. Finally, Figure
3 also indicates that smaller values of c allow the damp-
ing ratio at lower strain levels to be increased. This is
particularly important to avoid excessive amplification
when analysing weaker ground motions.
425
Figure 3. Effect of parameter c on the damping ratio curve
predicted by the logarithmic function model.
3 EQUIVALENT-LINEAR ANALYSIS
3.1 General aspects
This method of analysis in the frequency domain is
widely used in earthquake engineering practice, due
to its reliability and to the vast experience accumu-
lated during the last decades. The term equivalent-
linear designates the central concept subjacent to this
method: although the nonlinear behaviour of the mate-
rial in terms of stiffness degradation and damping
ratio is considered, the calculation procedure employs
a constant value for these two properties for the com-
plete duration of the excitation. Since these quantities
are strain dependent, an iterative process is required to
estimate the final (or converged) values of these two
properties. More details on the exact algorithm can be
found in Bardet et al. (2000).
In the present case, an equivalent-linear analysis
using EERA (Bardet et al. 2000) was performed to
supply a term of comparison for the response deter-
mined by the truly nonlinear methods. Although the
outcome of this calculation cannot be regarded as
exact, it is widely accepted that this approach pro-
vides consistent and reasonably reliable results for
simple one-dimensional wave propagation problems.
3.2 Geometry and input motion
A 10 m-deep soil deposit of dry sand was subjected
to the motion recorded in the EW direction by the
instrument located at a depth of 47 m at the Lotung
seismic array, Taiwan, during the LSST-7 event (20th
May 1985). The time-history, with a total duration of
about 35.50 s, is illustrated in Figure 4.
3.3 Material properties
The modelled material was characterised by a unit
weight of = 20 kN/m3 and a small-strain shear
modulus of Gmax = 20 MPa, resulting in a value for
the shear wave velocity, Vs , of about 99 m/s. The
dynamic behaviour, defined by the stiffness degra-
dation and damping ratio curves, was determined

Figure 4. Acceleration time history employed as input
motion.
Figure 5. Stiffness degradation and damping curves pre-
dicted by Darendeli (2001).
using the expressions proposed by Darendeli (2001)
for p = 60 kPa (mean effective stress at the centre of
the deposit assuming K0 = 0.4); PI = 0%; OCR = 1.0;
f = 1 Hz and N = 10 (number of cycles). The resulting
behaviour is illustrated in Figure 5. Note that the slight
decrease in damping registered after its peak value is
a consequence of the employed expressions and was
disregarded in the equivalent-linear analysis by assum-
ing a constant value of = max for this range of strain
amplitudes (i.e > ( = max )).
4 DYNAMIC FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSES
4.1 General aspects
To highlight the impact of the different formula-
tions of the cyclic nonlinear elastic model on the
obtained ground response, the wave propagation prob-
lem described in the previous section was re-examined
using the finite element method. Due to its one-
dimensional nature, plane strain analyses were per-
formed using ICFEP on a 0.5 m 10.0 m column,
discretised into 20 eight-noded quadrilateral elements
with a size of 0.5 m 0.5 m each. In terms of bound-
ary conditions the vertical movement was restricted
Table 1. Material properties employed in the analyses.
Logarithmic Logarithmic
Parameter Hyperbolic (stiffness) (damping)
Gmax (MPa) 20 20 20
0.2 0.2 0.2
a 3398.0
Ed,L 8.02E-04 1.11E-02
JL (kPa) 4.39 12.23
c 0.988 0.744
Figure 6. Stiffness degradation curves reproduced by the
cyclic nonlinear elastic models.
for the nodes placed on the lateral and bottom bound-
aries, since the only solicitation applied to the material
was a vertically travelling shear wave. Additionally,
the acceleration corresponding to the input motion
(Fig. 4) was imposed at the nodes located on the bot-
tom boundary. The initial stress state of the material
was generated using = 20 kN/m3 and K0 = 0.4.
The time-integration scheme employed in the
dynamic analyses was the generalised- method (Kon-
toe et al. 2008), with parameters = 0.60, = 0.3052,
m = 0.35 and f = 0.45 and constant time step of
t = 0.01 s.
4.2 Material behaviour and properties
The stiffness curve illustrated in Figure 5 was used
to calibrate the hyperbolic degradation model using
the least squares method. Subsequently, the same
input data was supplied to a genetic algorithms-based
optimisation software in order to evaluate the 3 param-
eters employed by the logarithmic function. Finally,
since one of the advantages of this formulation is its
increased flexibility, a third calibration procedure was
performed using the same software to determine a set
of parameters capable of reproducing, approximately,
the reference damping ratio curve in Figure 5.
The obtained values for the parameters required by
the different expressions are presented in Table 1 while
the modelled stiffness degradation and damping ratio
curves are illustrated in Figures 6 and 7, respectively,
together with those obtained using the expressions sug-
gested by Darendeli (2001). It is evident that both
426
Figure 7. Damping ratio curves reproduced by the cyclic
nonlinear elastic models.

formulations can reproduce the reference stiffness val-

ues with a very high degree of accuracy. However,
when the same parameters are used to determine the
evolution of the damping ratio, it can be seen that both
models highly overestimate this property for deforma- Figure 8. Damping values registered for the different
analyses.
tion levels above 0.03%. Conversely, the logarithmic
function model, when calibrated using the damping
Table 2. Maximum surface acceleration values registered.
ratio data, approximates accurately this curve, while
underestimating the stiffness for strains below 0.1%. Maximum acceleration (m/s2 )
Furthermore, it has to be noted that the precise shape
of the damping curve could not be obtained, resulting Analysis Positive Negative
in slight overestimation of this property for deforma-
tion levels below 0.03% and underestimation above EERA 1.05 0.69
this value. Hyperbolic 0.51 0.42
Logarithmic (stiffness) 0.55 0.70
Logarithmic (damping) 0.96 0.86
5 RESULTS

5.1 Stress-strain behaviour

To assess the impact of the chosen formulation and,
for the logarithmic function, of the distinct values of
the parameters, the stress-strain curves at a depth of
5 m were analysed. For the three studied cases, the
stress-strain data was split into individual half-loops,
which were subsequently integrated to estimate the
equivalent secant shear stiffness and the correspond-
ing damping ratio (Taborda et al. 2009). The results
referring to the latter property are shown in Figure 8,
together with the converged value of about 17.3%
determined by EERA.
It is interesting to note that the main difference
between the three sets of results is not the maximum
damping ratio (all the values are between 19% and
22%), but the strain at which it is registered, which
is almost 10 times larger for the logarithmic function
(damping) than for the remaining cases.

5.2 Ground response Figure 9. Acceleration response spectra for 5% damping.

In terms of the resulting ground response, the two
extreme values one positive and one negative of
the acceleration registered at the surface are presented
for each case in Table 2. It is evident that the two
analyses where the employed cyclic nonlinear elastic
model was calibrated based only on the stiffness curve
have yielded significantly lower values. Identical con-
clusion can be drawn from the acceleration response
spectra for 5% damping (Fig. 9), where EERA and

427
the logarithmic (damping) case exhibit much larger
spectral accelerations for periods between 0.8 s and
2.0 s. Furthermore, the higher damping reproduced
for the observed strain range by the hyperbolic model
explains the weaker response registered at the sur-
face, when compared to the logarithmic (stiffness)
case. In fact, Figure 8 illustrated that the calculated
strain amplitudes were limited to the range where the
damping introduced by the hyperbolic model is larger
than that predicted by the logarithmic function model
(stiffness).
6 CONCLUSIONS
The cyclic nonlinear elastic models provide an effi-
cient and simple tool to simulate wave propagation
problems where the generation of pore water pres-
sures is not relevant. However, their known inability to
reproduce accurately and simultaneously the stiffness
degradation and damping ratio curves observed in lab-
oratory for most soils requires extreme caution when
using this class of models in engineering practice. In
this paper, the two alternative formulations of a cyclic
nonlinear elastic model implemented in the finite
element code ICFEP were presented and their mod-
elling capabilities were explored in simple parametric
studies. Finally, a one-dimensional wave propagation
problem was simulated to study the impact of the cho-
sen formulation on the registered ground response. In
effect, the obtained results showed that the calibra-
tion of a given model relying entirely on the adequate
reproduction of the stiffness degradation curve may
lead to an overestimation of the damping ratio and,
consequently, to the determination of weaker, non-
conservative, ground responses. In order to overcome
this problem, the superior flexibility of the logarithmic
function model was explored and a more reasonable
approximation of the reference damping ratio curve
was obtained. The modified set of parameters resulted
in a stronger ground response, very close to the one
calculated using an equivalent-linear analysis.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors would like to acknowledge the support of
FCT Fundao para a Cincia e Tecnologia, Portugal,
sponsor of the PhD programme of D. Taborda at
428
Imperial College London, UK. The Lotung strong-
motion data used as the input motion in this paper
was kindly supplied by the Institute of Earth Science,
Taiwan.
REFERENCES
Bardet, J.P., Ichii, K. and Lin, C.H. 2000. EERA: a com-
puter program for equivalent-linear analysis of layered
soil deposits. University of Southern California.
Darendeli, M.B. 2001. Development of a new family of nor-
malized modulus reduction and material damping curves.
PhD thesis. University of Texas, Austin.
Finn, W.D.L, Lee, K.W. & Martin G.R. 1977. An effective
stress model for liquefaction. Journal of the Geotechnical
Engineering Division 103(6): 517533.
Guerreiro, P.G.H.M. 2008. Dynamic soil behaviour test
interpretation and numerical modelling. MSc thesis,
Imperial College London.
Iwan, W.D. 1967. On a class of models for the yielding
behaviour of continuous composite systems. Journal of
Applied Mechanics 34(3): 612617.
Kondner, R.L. & Zelasko, J.S. 1963. A hyperbolic stress-
strain formulation for sands. Proc. of the 2nd Pan
American Conference on Soil Mechanics and Foundation
Engineering, Brazil, Vol. 1: 289324.
Kontoe, S., Zdravkovic, L. & Potts, D.M. 2008. An assess-
ment of time integration schemes for dynamic geotechni-
cal problems. Computers & Geotechnics 35(2): 253264.
Kramer, S. 1996. Geotechnical earthquake engineering. New
Jersey: Prentice Hall.
Lavda, A. 2009. Dynamic behaviour of gravelly soils
test interpretation and numerical modelling. MSc thesis,
Imperial College London.
Potts, D.M. & Zdravkovi, L. 1999. Finite element analy-
sis in geotechnical engineering: theory. London: Thomas
Telford.
Puzrin, A.M. & Shiran, A. 2000. Effects of the constitutive
relationship on seismic response of soils. Part I: Constitu-
tive modeling of cyclic behavior of soils. Soil Dynamics
and Earthquake Engineering 19(5): 305318.
Taborda, D., Kontoe, S., Zdravkovic, L. & Potts, D.M. 2009.
Application of cyclic nonlinear elastic models to site
response analysis. Proc. of the 1st Int. Symp. on Com-
putational Geomechanics COMGEO I, Juan-les-Pins,
29 April 1 May 2009.
Taborda, D., Zdravkovic, L., Kontoe, S. & Potts, D.M. 2007.
The importance of cyclic nonlinear models in dynamic
finite element analysis. Proc. of the 10th Intern. Symp.
on Numerical Models in Geomechanics NUMOG X,
Rhodes, Greece.
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Analysis of the effect of pile length in a pile group on the transfer

and impedance functions in soil-pile interaction models

A. Mahboubi
Power & Water University of Technology, Tehran, Iran

K. Panaghi
Department of Civil Engineering, Power & Water University of Technology, Tehran, Iran

ABSTRACT: Numerous works is done to account for deterministic parameters effects on the seismic soil-pile
interaction phenomenon. To consider soil nonlinearity, one has to consider the whole system of soil-pile-structure
in analyses with no effectual simplification. This approach, however, can lead to cumbersome calculations.
Despite its effect on the degree of accuracy of the results, the soil-pile interaction problems can be considered
with linear or slightly nonlinear behavior in soil. This methodology allows for the use of superposition law in the
studies. Adopting this approach, this study considered the soil-pile interaction phenomenon as kinematic and
inertial interactions. Pile groups of 2 2 with pile lengths of 16, 20 and 25 m were used in analyses. The piles had
circular cross sections with the diameter of 1 m. Separation between pile and the surrounding soil was allowed
in the models developed by the software ABAQUS. Finally the results are presented and discussed in detail.

1 INTRODUCTION together. However, this approach even in these days

1.1 History
The earlier approach in the past for structural analyses
was to apply the seismic loads directly to the founda-
tion of such systems. This idea was considered to be
conservative since the soil beneath the structure was
thought to lengthen the period of the seismic excita-
tions on structures, hence reducing the amount of wave
energy transferred from soil to the structural system.
The experience from destructive earthquakes (Bhuj
Earthquake of 2001, Chi-Chi Earthquake of 1999,
Kobe Earthquake of 1995 and North Ridge Earth-
quake of 1994) showed that building codes were not
mature enough to account for this phenomenon. The
period lengthening caused by this phenomenon could
lead to maximum amplitudes happening later than
predicted by response spectrums provided in some
building provisions. Consequently more research was
attracted towards soil-foundation-structure interaction
issues and empirical and analytical methods as well
as numerical simulations grew rapidly. More study
showed that depending on site characteristics, wave
propagation and structural system properties, soil-pile
interaction may either magnify or decrease the ground
motion. Although variety of the systems characteris-
tics establishes a wide range of diversity in studies, this
difficulty is sometimes overcome by normalization of
parameters.
To obtain a precise nonlinear analysis regarding
soil-pile interaction problems, one has to consider
the whole system of superstructure and substructure
of highly developed computers can lead to cumber-
some calculations and efficiency of such approach can
be a matter of problem. To overcome the difficulty
and since in dynamic soil-pile interaction analyses
the displacements at the pile heads disappear with a
great rate with depth, the slightly nonlinear behav-
ior of the soil around the pile heads in flexible piles
can be assumed. This allows for the use of superpo-
sition law which is applicable for linear problems.
Adopting this methodology, the problem of soil-pile
interaction can be divided into kinematic and inertial
interactions which the data obtained from the former
can be interpreted as input data for the latter case. The
work presented here uses the same approach that deals
with the effect of pile length on the functions used for
analyzing this phenomenon.
1.2 Previous work
Nogami & Konagai (1986, 1988) analyzed the
dynamic response of pile foundations in the time
domain using a Winkler approach. Fan et al. (1991)
performed an extensive parametric study using an
equivalent linear approach to develop dimensional
graphs for pile head deflections versus the free-field
response for various soil profiles subjected to verti-
cally propagating harmonic waves. Makris & Gazetas
(1992) applied free-field accelerations to a one dimen-
sional beam on dynamic Winkler foundation model
with frequency dependent springs and dashpots to ana-
lyze the response of single piles and pile groups. The

429
results showed that interaction effects on kinematic
loading are not significant at low frequencies but are
significant for pile head loading which can be inter-
preted as inertial interaction. Their study was limited to
equivalent linear elastic approach and one dimensional
harmonic loading. Nogami et al. (1992) introduced
material and geometrical nonlinearity in their analyses
using discrete systems of mass, springs and dashpots.
Bentley & El Naggar (2000) mentioned that elastic
kinematic interaction for a single pile slightly ampli-
fies the free-field transfer function. Cai et al. (2000)
attempted to include plasticity and work-hardening
of soil using a finite element technique in the time
domain; however, they used fixed boundary condi-
tions and neglected damping in the sub-system. Kim &
Stewart (2003) performed an extensive empirical study
of SSI effects using several strong motion data sets
recorded at different building sites. They concluded
that decrease in the natural frequency and increase in
the damping associated with SSI might indeed affect
the structural response. The response was influenced
most by a parameter describing the relative stiffness
between the foundation soil and the structure which is
known as impedance factor. This parameter reflects
dynamic characteristics of the soil, as well as the
dynamic characteristics of the structure. Maheshwari
et al. (2003) examined the effects of plasticity and
work hardening of soil on the free field response of sin-
gle piles and pile groups using the hierarchical single
surface (HiSS) soil model. Maheshwari et al. (2004)
extended their work to include the superstructure in
order to evaluate the effects of SPSI for a fully cou-
pled system. They conducted the analyses for both
harmonic and transient excitations and compared both
linear and nonlinear responses. They mentioned that
the effects of nonlinearity on the responses are depen-
dent on the frequency of excitation with nonlinearity
causing an increase in response at low frequencies
of excitation. The work presented in this paper is an
attempt to evaluate the effects of change in piles length
on the kinematic and inertial interaction of soil-pile
systems which are assessed by transfer and impedance
functions, respectively. The effect of foundation on the
earthquake ground motion is termed kinematic inter-
action and the effect of foundation compliance on
structural response plus the effects of inertial loads
on the foundation is referred to as inertial interac-
tion. The frequency dependent transfer functions are
defined by the ratio of the foundation motion to the free
field motion in the absence of structure. The flexibil-
ity of the foundation and the damping associated with
foundation-soil interaction is described by a frequency
dependent foundation impedance function which is
defined by means of the stiffness and damping of
the system and as research develops, more data are
available that consider different aspects of the issue.
2 THE NUMERICAL SIMULATION
Three types of 2 2 pile groups with different pile
lengths were used to study the effect of pile length on
430
the results. The circular pile lengths were considered to
be 16, 20 and 25 m. The pile diameters in all analyses
were 1m and therefore the length to pile diameter ratios
were 16, 20 and 25, respectively. The space to diam-
eter ratio in the models was 2.5. The pile heads had a
thickness of 1.2 m and were embedded in the soil with
embedment depth of 0.6 m. The concrete considered
for the pile group material type had elastic behavior
and no damping was assigned to it. For the kine-
matic interaction study, pile groups were simulated
with no structure on top and pile cap displacements
acquired by the seismic loading were considered to cal-
culate transfer functions. The secondary simulations
had structures on top of the pile caps. The load initi-
ated by the structure was 80 tons and for the purpose of
simplicity in modeling, the existence of structure was
simulated by change in the material density of the pile
caps so that the structures weight could be accounted
for. The soil was considered to be of very dense type
around the pile caps and for the depth of further than
1.2 m, dense sand was assumed. The two layer pro-
file of the soil was adopted to ensure the pile heads
fixed behavior. That is, the pile cap was restricted
by the dense soil media in a way that partially fixed
behavior was ensured. This method holds the advan-
tage of consideration of the in-between interaction of
piles which is ignored in completely fixed pile cap
simulations. The soil extent was 30 m in every dimen-
sion and Drucker-Prager behavioral law was used as
its failure criterion. Although soil behavioral laws with
more reliability could be employed, the simplicity of
the used constitutive law provided time efficient com-
putations viable. In the software, a parameter named
flow stress ratio can represent the degree of anisotropy
in the soil which is dependent on the soil cohesion as
well. The parameter is defined as the ratio of the triax-
ial tensile strength to the corresponding magnitude in
compressive state. The magnitude for both soils in the
calculations was considered as 0.8. Since the cohe-
sionless soil(s) were considered in all analyses, the
parameter in this study was not dependent on cohe-
sion. The stiffness and mass proportional dampings of
the soil(s) were modeled by Rayleigh type damping. In
addition, material damping in concrete piles was not
considered in analyses. Table 1 summarizes the soil(s),
piles and structure properties in more detail.
3 BOUNDARY CONDITIONS
Silent boundary conditions at models sides were simu-
lated by use of infinite elements. These elements were
applied to the side boundaries to ensure completely
transmitting boundaries. Since wave energy reflection
can cause box effect in the models and hence getting
false results, use of such elements seemed to be bene-
ficial. On the other hand, since in practice wave energy
is partially reflected and to have a better simulation,
the boundaries at the bottom of the models were con-
sidered to be reflecting. Figure 1 shows the 25 m piles
group developed for the analyses.
Table 1. Material properties considered for model parts in
all analyses.

Model part Material type Material property

Top soil Very dense sand E = 130 MPa

= 0.35
= 21 kN/m3
= 36
 = 6
Bottom soil Dense sand E = 80 MPa
= 0.35
= 19 kN/m3
= 35
 = 5
Pile groups Concrete E = 21 GPa
= 0.20 Figure 2. The Acceleration-Time history used in the kine-
= 24 kN/m3 matic interaction study.
Structure Fictional W = 800 kN
resultant response of the system at the pile caps was
considered. The displacements of the pile caps plus
free-field displacement data by which transfer func-
tions for the kinematic interaction study could be
calculated were converted to the corresponding mag-
nitudes in the frequency domain. This was done by
fast Fourier transform and hence, the analysis was
conducted in the frequency domain. For the inertial
interaction study, however, the harmonic loading with
the magnitude of 50 ton and frequencies of excita-
tion of 5, 7.5, 10, 12.5 and 15 Hz was applied to the
pile caps in every model. The loading duration for the
harmonic excitations was adjusted to have at least 50
cycles of loading in a way that steady state of the sys-
tem response could be ensured. The results regarding
changes of magnitude and direction of force and the
corresponding displacements of pile caps with time
were extracted to be used for the inertial interaction
study.

5 KINEMATIC INTERACTION

The input earthquake motion forces the structure and

Figure 1. The finite element model of soil-pile system.
The infinite elements outward directions can be
seen at the sides of the model.
the soil in free-field to oscillate. Kinematic interac-
tion in soil-structure systems is studied by means of
frequency dependent transfer functions. The magni-
tude of transfer function is defined as the ratio of the
maximum pile head displacement to the corresponding
value of free-field. This function can be arithmetically
shown as:

4 LOADING

The types of loading used in analyses regarding kine-

matic and inertial interactions were different. For the
kinematic interaction study, the acceleration-time his-
tory of a site located in the Fars province in Iran
was chosen (Figure 2). The duration of the event was
43.525s and for computational efficiency, only the
duration of 5 to 15s was used in which the most
noticeable amplitudes of the excitation occurred. This
type of loading was initiated at the bedrock and the
Where Up (f ) and Uff (f ) are the maximum lateral
response at the pile top and the free field for a given
excitation frequency, respectively. Transfer functions
for three sets of pile groups were calculated and the
results are shown in Figure 3. It can be seen that in 16 m
pile length case, the magnitude of transfer functions is
generally higher than the other two cases. This result
may be attributed to the fixity of pile heads and the

431

Figure 3. Transfer function-Frequency diagrams obtained
in the kinematic interaction study.
fact that loading was initiated at the bottom of models.
The flexible behavior of longer piles makes the dis-
placement of the pile groups be distributed along the
piles and therefore, less pile cap displacement could
occur. This trend changes as the frequency of excita-
tion increases which then motion of the system reaches
to a more steady state. As the frequency of excitation
increases and gradually matches the systems natural
frequency, the pile cap displacements increase and the
magnitude of transfer functions almost become the
same as the others. The difference in the transfer func-
tion magnitudes is higher at low frequencies and as the
frequency increases, it decreases. This implies that the
effect of pile length in the transfer function magnitudes
in this study is more noticeable at low frequencies
when the excitation frequency magnitude is notably
different from the systems natural frequency.
6 INERTIAL INTERACTION
Inertial interaction was studied by means of impedance
functions. The impedance function can be defined by
virtue of the stiffness and damping of a system. In
the frequency domain, this magnitude is represented
by a complex number which is a function of the driv-
ing frequency, magnitude of the driving force as well
as properties of the soil-pile system. The impedance
functions in the present study were calculated using
the following equations:
In which P0 is the amplitude of the exciting lateral
force, U0 is the lateral peak amplitude response at the
top of the pile at the steady state, tl is the time lag
between the driving force and the pile top response
and f is the driving frequency.
The magnitudes were normalized by static state
stiffness of the soil-pile group systems. The damping
432
Figure 4. Real parts of the normalized impedance func-
tions versus frequency in the inertial interaction study.
Figure 5. Imaginary parts of the normalized impedance
functions versus frequency in the inertial interaction study.
calculated in the study includes internal and radiation
damping. Since this study focused on the interaction
between two bodies with different stiffnesss; the radi-
ation damping had to be considered. This type of
damping occurs between two bodies with one being
stiffer than the other. The seismic excitation forces the
body of the pile foundation to oscillate in frequencies
much higher than the soil around it. This difference in
motion tends to force the soil to oscillate at the fre-
quencies the same as the concrete piles. Due to this, a
part of wave energy transmitted from the piles to the
soil in the vicinity of them is dissipated. Since radia-
tion damping is dependent on the surfaces in contact
and to have a more accurate simulation, separation
between the pile bodies and the surrounding soil was
considered in modeling.
Figures 4 and 5 show the results obtained for the
inertial interaction study. The changes of real and
imaginary parts of the impedance functions with fre-
quency are depicted and it can be seen that the behavior
of all systems are almost the same at high frequen-
cies. However, at low frequencies, the real part of
the normalized impedance function for the 16 m pile
length seems to be more affected by the less flexible
behavior of it compared to the two other pile groups.
This is because the magnitude of the real part of
the impedance function which represents the dynamic
stiffness of the system regarding the 16 m pile length
group is higher than the others.
The trend in the diagrams regarding the imaginary
parts of the normalized impedance functions is differ-
ent, however. The imaginary parts for the 16 m pile
length seem to be less than the two other sets. This is
consistent with the results obtained for the kinematic
interaction study, where the pile cap for the shortest
piles had more displacements and hence higher trans-
fer functions. The higher displacement at the cap leads
to more separation between the pile bodies and the soil
which causes a decrease in radiation damping. Due
to this, the overall damping magnitude decreases and
therefore the imaginary part of the impedance function
is lessened.
7 CONCLUSION
Three sets of 2 2 pile groups with different pile
lengths for dynamic soil-pile interaction study were
considered. The following conclusion could be drawn:
Although the system lower stiffness can be a fac-
tor in obtaining higher transfer functions in free-head
piles, this parameter does not necessarily affect the sys-
tem response the same way for fixed head piles. One
parameter that should be considered is the location
of the load applied to the system. For transfer func-
tion calculation in this study, seismic excitation was
applied to the bedrock and the more flexible behavior
of longer piles led to the distribution of displacement
along the piles, resulting less pile head displacements.
This idea was also confirmed by the results obtained
for the impedance function calculations.
The harmonic loads applied to the pile caps in the
inertial interaction study caused higher magnitudes in
shorter piles for the real part of the impedance func-
tions. This can be due to the less flexible behavior of
such systems which leads to higher dynamic stiffness
during seismic events.
The imaginary parts for the normalized impedance
functions presented here seem to be lesser for the
shorter piles. The reason can be attributed to the higher
stiffness of such systems which although in free-head
piles lead to increase in damping represented by them,
cause more pile head displacements as it was men-
tioned before. The increase in pile head displacement
leads to the occurrence of more separation and as a
result of that, radiation damping reduces. Besides the
separation parameter, one has to consider the overall
surfaces of the piles bodies and soil which can affect
433
the magnitude of damping. This is because radiation
damping is dependent on the surfaces adjacent to each
other and as this parameter increases, the magnitude
of damping changes with the same trend. Besides the
separation effect on the damping, the pile head dis-
placements which seemed to be higher in shorter piles
cause the soil around the caps to show more plas-
tic behavior. The increase in plastic behavior of the
soil causes damping to increase. However, since the
plastic strain rate for this study was limited (Rayleigh
damping was used), the effect of frequency of exci-
tation is more highlighted compared to high strain
levels. Because of this, the higher strain rate in shorter
piles could not be the mere parameter influencing the
damping magnitude in the system.
REFERENCES
Bentley, K. J. and El Naggar, M. H., 2000, Numerical anal-
ysis of kinematic response of single piles, Canadian
Geotechnical Journal, 37, pp. 13681382.
Cai, Y. X., Gould, P. L. and Desai, C. S., 2000, Nonlinear
analysis of 3D seismic interaction of soil-pile-structure
system and application, Engineering Structures, 22, pp.
191199.
Fan, K., Gazetas, G., Kaynia, A. M., Kausel, E. and Ahmad,
S., 1991, Kinematic seismic response of single piles and
pile groups, Journal of Geotechnical Engineering, ASCE,
117 (12), pp. 18601879.
Maheshwari, B. K.,Truman, K. Z., Gould, P. L. and El Naggar,
M. H., 2003,Three dimensional nonlinear seismic analysis
of single piles using FEM: effects of plasticity of soil,
International Journal of Geomechanics, ASCE.
Maheshwari, B. K., Truman, K. Z., El Naggar, M. H. and
Gould, P. L., 2004, Three dimensional finite element non-
linear dynamic analysis of pile groups for lateral transient
and seismic excitations, Canadian Geotechnical Journal,
41, pp. 118133.
Kim, S. and Stewart, J. P., 2003, Kinematic soil-structure
interaction from strong motion recordings, Journal of
Geotechnical and geoenvironmental Engineering, ASCE,
129 (4), pp. 323335.
Makris, N. and Gazetas, G., 1992, Dynamic pile-soil-pile
interaction, Part II: Lateral and seismic response, Earth-
quake Engineering and Structural Dynamics, 21, pp.
145162.
Nogami, T. and Konagai, K., 1986, Time domain axial
response of dynamically loaded single piles, Journal of
Engineering Mechanics, ASCE, 112 (11), pp. 12411252.
Nogami, T. and Konagai, K., 1988, Time domain flexural
response of dynamically loaded single piles, Journal of
Engineering Mechanics, ASCE, 114 (9), pp. 15121525.
Nogami, T., Otani, J., Konagai, K. and Chen, H. L., 1992,
Nonlinear soil-pile interaction model for dynamic lateral
motion, Journal of Geotechical Engineering, ASCE, 118
(1), pp. 89106.
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Dynamic fragmentation in rock avalanches: A numerical model

of micromechanical behaviour

K.L. Rait & E.T. Bowman

Department of Civil and Natural Resources Engineering, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand

ABSTRACT: It is hypothesized that the dynamic fragmentation of rock clasts is a key mechanism to the long
run out of rock avalanches. That is, large rock avalanches tend to travel further than expected in comparison with
scaled-up grain flows and this so-called size effect is a function of the avalanche size. It is thought that the
overburden pressure due to the avalanche size in a large rock avalanche promotes fragmentation of rock clasts and
therefore influences run out. The discrete element method is used to investigate this micromechanical behaviour
by placing a single brittle fragmenting cluster of particles within a group of non-fragmenting clusters. Using
PFC3D this system is placed under a high strain rate to determine the effect of fragmentation on the behaviour
of near particles. This paper shows that the overburden strain-rate is directly related to the fragmentation process
and that so long as load is applied sufficiently quickly, particles will dynamically fragment rather than simply
split or crush; the associated fragments will possess a kinetic energy and therefore collide with near particles.
This force of collision can influence the behaviour of the near particles, and under dynamic fragmentation,
kinetic energy is dispersed through the system as the near particles fragment. It is postulated that this energy
movement produces an isotropic dispersive stress that could explain the long run-out of rock avalanches via the
decrease in effective stress within the system.

1 INTRODUCTION
1.1 Rock avalanches
Sturzstrom or giant rock avalanches are known to
behave significantly differently to other avalanche and
landslide phenomena. For mountainous areas around
the world these catastrophic hazards are a threat to
populations and their lifelines.
A pre-fractured ground mass and a tectonically
active region in a steep mountainous area are
recognised as an initial condition for many events
(Friedmann et al., 2003).A sturzstrom generally begins
as a rock fall or rock slide and changes into a dynam-
ically disintegrating rock mass that appears to behave
as a granular flow. It can also entrain and/or deposit
material as it falls.
Sturzstrom are understood to travel upwards of 30
times in horizontal distance compared to the initial
fall height and the momentum of the flow may cause
the debris to surge upward especially in valleys where
there are confining walls (e.g. Elm and Falling Moun-
tain events, Hsu 1978, Davies and McSaveney 2002).
These flows travel for 30100 seconds and character-
istically stop suddenly (Hsu 1975, 1978). The deposit
from a sturzstrom can cover tens of square kilome-
tres and can be only a few metres thick at the distal
regions which are often deposited as a levee (Friedman
et al., 2006). Typically a sturzstrom deposit shows a
preserved stratigraphy and inverse grading silt is
present at the base and as a matrix material, with
angular blocks supported within the matrix and large
boulders sitting on the top. The inverse grading of
sturzstrom deposits is perhaps partly explained by the
higher probability of fine particles or powder filling
small voids as the sturzstrom flows a sieving pro-
cess (Friedmann et al., 2006). It may also be explained
through greater crushing of rock deeper in the deposit,
as discussed later.
Many mechanical theories to describe the behaviour
of sturzstrom have been advanced by researchers
over the last century. The first of these theories
involved mechanical fluidisation which was suggested
by Albert Heim in 1882 after his investigation of
the famous Elm sturzstrom (Hsu, 1978). This was
later supported to some degree by Hsu (1975) who
suggested that sturzstrom are likely to follow Bag-
noldian (i.e. collisional) grain flow behaviour. Further
theories advanced since 1882 include air cushioning
(Kent, 1966), air fluidization (Shreve, 1968), the devel-
opment of frictionite (Erismann, 1979) and acoustic
fluidization (Melosh, 1983).
Each of these theories appear relevant to specific
sturzstrom events, however they do not appear able
to fully explain the behaviours and deposits that are
common to all sturzstrom. In particular, these theo-
ries are collectively unable to explain the flow of the
rock debris as a dry granular mass, the angularity of
the blocks and fine silt found in the deposits, and the
inverse grading.
McSaveney and co-authors have suggested that
fragmentation of rock during a sturzstrom is responsi-
ble for producing the very fractured and angular rubble

435
that commonly occurs in the deposit area (McSaveney
1978; Davies and McSaveney, 2002; Davies et al.,
1999). Fragmentation according to Davies et al.
(1999), occurs in a sturzstrom as the overburden stress,
or pressure from the high volume of material from
these events, exceeds the strength of unjointed rock.
Therefore the rock material at the base of a sturzstrom
is more likely to undergo fragmentation. The fragmen-
tation of a rock in this situation is thought to result in
an isotropic dispersive stress that dilates the debris
an effect that is additional to mechanical fluidisation
for long run-out in sturzstrom. Davies et al. (1999)
state that the process responsible for fragmentation is
more likely to involve a crushing or grinding behaviour
than grain collisions thus producing substantial silt.
As rock clasts undergo fragmentation at the base of
a sturzstrom, larger material will be found at the top
of the flow, as it is under less pressure, with the finer
material at the base thus inverse grading.
We suggest that the fragmentation of multiple
grains occurring under this high overburden stress
produces high velocity fragments of rock that impul-
sively load surrounding grains. As the fragmentation
becomes more violent, these impacts produce an inter-
nal isotropic pressure that causes the fine rock material
to act like a pressurised fluid, reducing effective
stress and therefore reducing friction (i.e. following
Terzaghis theory of effective stress and Coulomb-type
friction) (Terzaghi and Peck, 1967). The reduction in
friction allows the granular material to flow rapidly
across terrain and produce long run out.
1.2 Discrete Element Modelling (DEM)
The Discrete Element Method utilizes discrete parti-
cles that only interact at contact points (Cundall and
Strack, 1979). Calculations of contact forces and for
the displacements of particles alternate between New-
tons second law and a force-displacement law. This is
the basis for the software Particle Flow Code in Three
Dimensions (PFC3D ) built by Itasca Consulting Group.
PFC3D utilises spherical discrete particles that can
be arranged and bonded as agglomerates to represent
angular and breakable rock or grains, or retained as
individuals to represent a granular medium such as
sand at low stress. The PFC3D numerical code can
show the effect of the applied macroscopic stress and
strain on the micro mechanisms within the medium
being tested, and give numerical and graphical results
relating to particle-level behaviour, such as the num-
ber of bonds broken, kinetic energy of the system or
individual particles and so on.
Using the DEM method, numerical agglomerates
can be impacted against a wall at high velocity or
crushed between two platens to investigate comminu-
tion in a particle of sand or piece of rock (Thornton
et al., 1996; McDowell and Harireche 2002). The
strength of the agglomerate is represented by bond-
ing the particles at their contact points. As these bonds
break the agglomerate is said to fracture, and frag-
ments occur once groups of bonded particles move
away from the original agglomerate being tested.
436
At sufficiently high impact, there are generally no
large fragments remaining due to the extensive shat-
tering that occurs (Kafui and Thornton 2000). Dense
agglomerates during high velocity impact will fracture
or shatter, whereas loose or highly porous agglomer-
ates simply disintegrate (Mishra and Thornton 2001).
Thornton et al., (1996) found through their DEM
experiments that a compressive wave propagates from
the point of contact through the agglomerate when it
impacts a wall at high velocity. If the rate of load-
ing an agglomerate is rapid in comparison to crack
growth many flaws will be activated to accommodate
the unloading of the stress (Thornton et al., 1996), a
conclusion supported by the earlier experimental and
analytical work of Grady (1981) and Lundberg (1976).
There are several methods of packing spherical par-
ticles to represent a grain or rock clast. The most
strongly supported type of packing for crystalline
structures is hexagonal close packing (HCP) where
every other layer is the same. Random percentages of
particles can then be removed to represent flaws and
create the correct porosity required to simulate the tar-
geted material. The removal of particles in this random
manner from agglomerates produces a Weibull distri-
bution of strengths (McDowell and Harireche 2002).
Under slow isotropic compression agglomerates
will undergo deformation through the contact bonds
initially being broken by shear. At a critical point
unstable fracture begins and the bonds are then bro-
ken rapidly through tensile stresses (Bolton, et al.,
2008). In agglomerates there are critical bonds that
once broken lead to the splitting or disintegration
of the agglomerates (Cheng et al., 2003). Under tri-
axial compression, the frequency of breakage was
found to increase as confining pressure increased with
around 15% of energy dissipated through bond break-
age (Bolton et al., 2008). This suggests that high
overburden pressure may cause multiple fragmenta-
tion events which in turn could provide a mechanism
towards the high mobility of sturzstrom.
In this work we attempt to represent the behaviour
that might be seen within a microscopic area of the
basal region of a sturzstrom during the fragmentation
of rock clasts. We utilize PFC3D to model the resultant
influence a fragmenting clast has on surrounding clasts
and compare this to the behaviour seen by Cheng et al
(2003) and Robertson (2000) in single agglomerate
testing.
2 SINGLE AGGLOMERATE TEST
2.1 Agglomerate creation
HCP agglomerates built from discrete spherical par-
ticles in PFC3D are created following the method
outlined by Robertson (2000) and Cheng et al (2003).
In Table 1 are listed the properties assigned to the
discrete particles.
An agglomerate is built from a maximum of 1150
particles and brought together into an HCP form. This
minimizes the space between spheres and eliminates
Table 1. Numerical model details of agglomerate.

Numerical
Parameter Dimensions Value

Agglomerate radius m 0.25

Particle radius m 0.002
Particle density kgm3 2650
Normal and shear bond N 4 and 4 103
strength
Particle normal and shear Nm1 4 106
stiffness
Particle friction coefficient 0.5
Percentage removed for flaws 20%

overlapping which can cause locked-in forces to occur

(Cheng et al., 2003). Statistical variability of strength
and shape is introduced by randomly removing parti-
cles. In these tests 20% of the particles were removed
to reduce the regularity of the packing and intro-
duce flaws (Cheng et al., 2003). Following Robertson
(2000) only contact bonds were used. The high coor-
dination number from the use of contact bonds in
an HCP packed agglomerate allows the generation of
resistance to moment without mechanical complex-
ity. The use of contact bonds only is also supported
by the Block Caving example in the Itasca man-
uals (Itasca, 2008) which states that contact bond
values control fragmentation. The agglomerate is then
brought to equilibrium such that the mean unbalanced
forces acting on the agglomerate are virtually zero. Figure 1. A Peak applied stress by strain rate for bond
Single ball drop experiments similar to those in strengths; B Power law relationship for bond strengths.
the Itasca Verification Problems manual (Itasca, 2008)
were performed to obtain a critical damping factor of
0.2 which corresponds to a coefficient of restitution
Both the 4 N and 4 kN data collapse to power law
of approximately 0.55. Platens (represented by smooth
relationships (see Figure 1B) as also reported by Grady
and stiff walls in PFC3D ) are placed at the base and top
(2008) in highly brittle material. The power law rela-
of the agglomerate and testing is undertaken by alter-
tionship for the stronger material appears to begin
ing the speed of descent of the top platen to reach 40%
under a greater strain rate compared to that for the
strain. The intention behind this method is to represent
weaker material. Curiously the data from both bond
the degree to which rock avalanche material may be
strengths converge to a similar peak stress at high
crushed via the overburden pressure due to the veloc-
strain.
ity of loading as the sturzstrom moves at high speed
We find that at low strain rates, after the peak stress
over a changing terrain.
is reached and the agglomerate is fractured, the platens
continue to approach one another until another contact
is found on the agglomerate where another fracture
2.2 Results of single agglomerate testing may occur. This behaviour was also reported by Cheng
Bond strengths of 4 N and 4 kN were tested to deter- et al (2003). Under high strain rates the material in con-
mine what differences may occur with weaker or tact with the load applying platen is crushed quickly
stronger materials. A randomly chosen agglomerate into individual particles or fines, with the base of the
was crushed under varying platen speeds with only agglomerate showing multiple fractures. Once the full
the bond strength changed between tests. Once the strain is reached and gravity removed, the base of the
prescribed strain was met gravity was turned off so agglomerate separates quickly into small fragments
that there was no increase in kinetic energy from the and all material disperses quickly.
relaxing of grains under the effects of gravity. The stronger material was chosen as the most real-
From Figure 1A it can be seen that at high strain istic representation of rock, given that tests on this
rates inertia-induced dynamic impact effects have an stronger agglomerate revealed a more brittle nature
effect on crushing behaviour as also found by Cheng similar to that seen in real rock. The peak kinetic
et al (2003). This dynamic regime is suggested as being energy produced from crushing a randomly oriented
of the dominant influence on the run out of sturzstrom. and flawed agglomerate with 4 kN bond strengths at

437

Figure 2. Peak kinetic energy by approximate real time for
bond strength of 4 kN by strain rate.
Figure 3. Kinetic energy histories of a 4 kN bond strength
HCP agglomerate model.
varying strain rates is plotted against approximate real
time in Figure 2. The peak kinetic energies indicate a
logarithmic relationship. This suggests fairly sensibly
that a low strain rate will take longer to cause fracturing
and therefore peak kinetic energy in this synthetic rock
sample. Conversely high strain rates appear to obtain
peak kinetic energy almost instantaneously suggesting
that explosive fragmentation may occur as discussed
by Grady (1981).
The kinetic energy history of four of the strain rates
tested with the 4 kN model is shown in Figure 3. The
residual kinetic energy declines in all cases however
remains the highest where the original agglomerate
was crushed with high strain rate. We suggest that a
very high strain rate, arising from a voluminous load
progressing at high speed over a rough terrain, can
cause high values of residual internal kinetic energy
leading to high numbers of particle impacts within the
sturzstrom body. This leads to a high internal pressure,
analogous to a pore pressure, and an associated reduc-
tion in effective stress which reduces the resistance to
sturzstrom motion.
438
Figure 4. The agglomerate system.
3 AGGLOMERATE SYSTEM TESTING
3.1 Agglomerate system creation
The stronger synthetic material was also chosen for the
agglomerate system testing. Due to hardware limita-
tions however, the particle radius size was increased to
0.09 m in order to reduce the total number of particles
in the system. At a maximum of 69 particles and 282
contact bonds per agglomerate with 27 agglomerates
overall in the system, the maximum total number of
particles was 1863 with a maximum of 7614 contact
bonds of which a maximum of 282 can break.
Pre-determined central coordinates were chosen for
the 27 agglomerates.At each set of coordinates an HCP
agglomerate was created following Robertson (2000),
randomly rotated and flawed by removing 20% of the
particles. A cubical arrangement of walls set at low
velocity was then used in order to bring the agglomer-
ates into close contact (see Figure 4). All contact bonds
were set to extremely high levels initially so that the
agglomerates would not unduly break during this com-
pression and subsequent cycling to equilibrium under
gravity.The close contact of the agglomerates was used
to represent the assumed close contact of rock clasts
at the base of a sturzstrom.
Once brought to equilibrium, a top platen was
placed above the system and this platen set to descend
at varying velocities to compress the system to 40%
strain. For these tests, all other confining walls were
kept stationary in order to test the system behaviour
under one dimensional loading at varying strain rates.
Once 40% strain had been achieved in these tests, as
with the single agglomerate tests, gravity was turned
off so as to remove any effects on the kinetic energy
of the system relaxing.
The stress on each wall and kinetic energy of the
system was logged and analysed. Stress is calculated as
the ratio of the force on the wall (or platen) by the cross-
sectional area of agglomerates that are in contact
9r2 (9 agglomerates in contact with each platen). The
peak applied stress is then defined as the maximum
stress that occurs on the top platen as it descends.
3.2 Results of agglomerate system testing
At high strain rate the central agglomerate quickly sep-
arates into individual particles or fines all bonds are
broken. As the system relaxes the fine particles move
throughout the system settling into the spaces between
Figure 5. Resulting graphic of the central agglomerate
behaviour at 40% strain after compression under high strain
rate (A) and low strain rate (B) of the agglomerate system.
Figure 6. Peak kinetic energy by strain rate versus time.
the surrounding agglomerates. These fines move both
horizontally and vertically as the surrounding agglom-
erates push into the space left void from the dynamic
breakage of the central agglomerate (see Figure 5A).
In comparison, at low strain rate, the central
agglomerate slowly fractures into a few fragments sur-
rounded by fines (around 90% of the bonds are broken
at 40% strain). As the system relaxes, the fines drift
to the base of the system and the fragments are held
in the central void of the system by the surrounding
agglomerates (see Figure 5B).
As seen in the single agglomerate testing and in the
work completed by Cheng et al (2003), the value of
the peak applied stress grows exponentially as strain
rate increases. As discussed in the single agglomerate
testing above this collapses to a power law relation-
ship where the power law begins at a higher value of
strain rate due to the use of the stronger material in
the breakable agglomerate. Similarly the peak kinetic
energy follows the same logarithmic trend indicated
in the single agglomerate testing. The highest peak
kinetic energy occurs almost instantaneously at high
strain rate and the lowest peak kinetic energy occurs
after approximately 6.5 seconds for the lowest strain
rate of 10% (see Figure 6).
From Figure 7 it can be seen that the higher strain
rates produce higher kinetic energy. Over time all
kinetic energy histories dissipate towards zero after
gravity is removed and the particles and agglomerates
settle. These tests on a system of agglomerates show
the kinetic energy from a higher strain rate dissipating
faster than that of a low strain rate. This is likely to
be due to a higher frequency of impacts with adjacent
439
Figure 7. Kinetic energy of agglomerate system.
Figure 8. Average horizontal wall stress.
particles, leading to faster energy dissipation in the
particle system overall.
Compare this graph with Figure 8 of the average
wall stress in the horizontal directions. The high strain
rate case shown here retains a much greater proportion
of wall stress after the particles have settled than is
seen for the low strain rate. Although the high strain
rate may lose kinetic energy at a faster rate after a
fragmentation event, the high average stress on the
horizontal walls (in comparison to the test at low strain
rate) suggests that there is substantial internal pressure
applied to the surrounding agglomerates from both the
strain and impulsive loading of the fragmented grains
from the central agglomerate.
4 DISCUSSION
The complex nature of sturzstrom for example their
temporal unpredictability, high speed, large volume
of material and short duration means that it is vir-
tually impossible to study these phenomena in situ.
This paper presents a study utilizing discrete numerical
modelling in PFC3D to investigate the micromechani-
cal behaviour postulated to occur during a sturzstrom
which may influence both run out and deposit type.
From the results presented above it is clear that mod-
elling in PFC3D is capable of providing useful infor-
mation about the likely internal mechanisms involved
in sturzstrom.
 From the results shown of the single agglomerate
and multi agglomerate system tests it is found that
a high strain rate modelled by the high velocity of a
top loading platen produces high peak kinetic energy
levels in the material tested. This high strain rate also
represents the fast application of a load which results in
explosive fragmentation which separates the material
into fines. At low strain rate (or low platen velocity),
the material separates into fragments with fines drift-
ing toward the base platen. Similar results have been
reported by Mishra and Thornton (2001) when impact-
ing single agglomerates at varying velocities into a
stiff platen.
The agglomerate system results indicate that pres-
sure increases on surrounding agglomerates when a
neighbouring agglomerate explosively fragments. The
fines from a fragmented particle appear to travel
throughout the available spaces between other agglom-
erates with the resultant void being filled by these other
agglomerates.This behaviour suggests that towards the
base of a sturzstrom, rock clasts may fragment explo-
sively causing fine rock powder and dilation of the
flow and as the effective stress of the whole system is
reduced, produce long run out.
5 FURTHER WORK
In future work to further investigate the micromechan-
ical behaviour of sturzstrom, it is intended to continue
discrete numerical testing examining the impact of
an explosively fragmenting agglomerate on its neigh-
bours where the neighbouring agglomerates are also
able to fragment. This work will utilise a larger par-
ticle system and more highly powered computational
hardware.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Funding for this work has been provided by the Depart-
ment of Civil and Natural Resources Engineering at the
University of Canterbury.
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 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Evaluation of the efficiency of a model of rockfall protection structures

based on real-scale experiments

F. Bourrier
L3S-R, UJF-INPG-CNRS, Grenoble Universits, Cemagref, Grenoble, France

Ph. Gotteland
L3S-R, UJF-INPG-CNRS, Grenoble Universits, Grenoble, France

A. Heymann
RAZEL, Saint Quentin, Cemagref, L3S-R, UJF-INPG-CNRS, Grenoble Universits, Grenoble, France

S. Lambert
Cemagref, Grenoble, France

ABSTRACT: A model for the design of rockfall protection sandwich structures is presented and evaluated
using results from real-scale experiments. The experiments consist of the impact by a 260 kg spherical projectile
on a structure composed of gabion cages filled with coarse materials in the front part and fine granular material
in the kernel part. This structure stands against a rigid concrete wall. The model allows accounting for the
mechanisms occurring in the individual layers of the structure. The comparison between the simulations and the
experiments shows that the model correctly predicts the time evolution of the force on the projectile. However,
the model partially accounts for the time evolution of the stress on the rigid concrete wall due to the simplicity
of the formulation of the constitutive model used to characterize the kernel layer.

1 INTRODUCTION part is either a rigid concrete wall or an embankment.

The current climate changes could cause an increase in
the frequency of natural hazards, justifying increased
research to improve the efficiency of protective tech-
niques. In particular, frequent rockfall occurrence has
led to the development of passive protection meth-
ods such as rockfall restraining nets and reinforced
soil structures. Whereas several studies were held to
improve the design of restraining nets both from the
experimental and from the numerical point of view,
the design of reinforced dams generally rests on an
empirical approach. Even though several experimen-
tal campaigns and numerical studies were carried out
(Labiouse et al., 1994; Hearn et al., 1995 ; Peila et
al., 2007 ; Aminata et al., 2008), a thorough analysis
of the mechanical response of these structures during
rock impacts remains to be done.
The paper focuses on cellular sandwich structures
(Nicot 2007). Such structures constitute innovative
developments aiming at using the cellular technology,
classical in the field of civil engineering, for rockfall
protection. The main interest of such structures is that
they allow strongly reducing the stress transmitted to
the back part of the structure. The structure is built with
an assembly of layers. The front layer is composed of
cubic boxes filled with a granular material, the kernel
layer is made of fine granular material and the back
In order to explore the mechanical behaviour of these
systems under impact loadings, an experimental cam-
paign of impacts on reference structures (Figure 13)
is performed and a numerical model of the structure is
developed. In a second time, the experimental and the
simulation results are compared.
2 EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATIONS AT
THE STRUCTURE SCALE
To study the dynamic mechanisms occurring during
the impact, an experimental campaign consisting of
impacts on a sandwich structure was held. The struc-
ture (Figure 13) consisted of a front layer composed
with 15 cells filled with coarse material, a kernel layer
composed of Seine sand and a 3 m height concrete wall
leaned against a ground compacted embankment. The
structure is laid on a concrete slab considered as a rigid
interface.
The cells composing the front layer were cubic in
shape and 500 mm in height. They were made up of a
hexagonal wire mesh and filled up with crushed quarry
limestone, 80 to 150 mm in grain size. The material of
the kernel layer consisted of Seine sand which is a well-
graded sand whose size distribution ranges from 0.2 to
5 mm. For practical purposes, the material of the kernel

441
Figure 1. Sandwich structure used in the experiments and
measurement devices (a1 : accelerometer on the projectile;
a2 : accelerometer at the interface between the front and the
kernel layers; a3 : accelerometer in the middle of the kernel
layer; F1 : stress tensor on the back part wall).
Figure 2. Principle of the experimental device.
Figure 3. Overviews of the experimental device (a) and of
the impacted structure (b).
layer is dumped in bulk (Figure 3) and maintained in
a geotextile container.
The structure is subjected to a pendular impact by
a 260 kg spherical boulder made of steel shell filled
with concrete. The maximal impact energy is 10 kJ.
The projectile is hanged from a 7 m high crossbar by
means of two chains (Figure 2). The projectile can be
lifted up to a maximal height of 4.75 m using a hand
cable winch.
A tri-axial piezoresistive accelerometer is placed on
the projectile. In addition, accelerometers are placed
at the interface between the front and the kernel layers
and in the middle of the kernel layer. All sensors are
placed along the direction of the velocity of the pro-
jectile before impact at the same height as the impact
442
Figure 4. Time evolution of the impact force Fimp on the
projectile.
Figure 5. Time evolution of the stress tran on the back part
of the structure measured in the experiments.
point. The accelerometer on the projectile allowed
determining the time evolution of the impact force
Fimp applied to the boulder on the structure. The other
accelerometers are used to measure the time elapsed
between the beginning of the impact and the beginning
of the displacements at the location of the accelerom-
eter considered. The stress sensor F1 provides the time
evolution of the stress tran , normal to the impact direc-
tion at the same height as the impact point on the
back part of the structure. Finally, the displacement of
the front face of the structure is measured after each
impact.
The results presented in the following concern a
10 kJ impact obtained by dropping the spherical boul-
der from a 4.75 m height which corresponds to an
incident velocity of 8.8 m/s. They are the time evolu-
tion of the impact force Fimp on the projectile (Figure 4)
and of the stress tran on the back part of the structure
(Figure 5). The experimental results obtained for the
impact force exhibit large variability for times smaller
than 0.01 s. Although a smoothing of the results was
performed (Figure 4), the interpretation of the results
 Figure 7. Cell strains definition.

Figure 6. Principle of the model of the structure.

for the impact force should therefore be done with

caution.

3 DISCRETE MODEL OF THE STRUCTURE

The structure is modelled as an assembly of rectangular

cells of the same size as the wire netting cages used
in the experiments (Figure 7). Each cell is supposed to
be a regular cubic system at the structure scale.
The different cells of the structure interact at their
interfaces by means of forces applied at the cells grav-
ity centre. For the calculation of the interaction forces,
each cell is divided into two sub-cells and a constitutive
model is associated with each of these sub-cells (Fig-
ure 6). Depending on the sub-cells position, the con-
stitutive models are developed from dynamic or static
experimental investigations. Front sub-cells that are
directly impacted by the boulders require defining con-
stitutive models from experiments in which sub-cells
are subjected to dynamic loadings (sub-cell 1 on Figure
6). On the contrary, inner sub-cells inside the structure
are considered to be only subjected to static loadings.
3.1 Front sub-cells: dynamic constitutive models
As the impacting boulder stiffness is larger than the
front sub-cell stiffness the interaction force between
them is only depending on the sub-cell strain. In the
x-direction, the increment dF i of the interaction force
Fi between the boulder and the cell i of the front layer
is given by (Figure 7):
where dui is the increment of the penetration of the
boulder inside the cell i:
g
where ki is the stiffness of the front sub-cell of the cell
g Finally, the unloading phase is characterized by a linear
i. The stiffness ki is defined from a constitutive model
based on the function fid which relates the force Fi on
the projectile and the projectile penetration ui :
Figure 8. Constitutive models for front sub-cells.
As the impact direction of the velocity of the boul-
der is not normal to the front face of the structure, a
tangential force at the contact point also exists. This
force is depending on the normal force Fi following
a Coulombs friction model. Modelling this tangential
interaction allows accounting for the changes in the
boulder tangential and rotational velocities during the
impact.
Mechanical tests have been carried out to get infor-
mation about the constitutive models associated with
the front sub-cells. The dynamic tests (Lambert et al.,
2009) consisted in the impact of the 260 kg projec-
tile by a vertical fall on a front cell surrounded with
the same material as the filling material of the cells
in order to provide lateral boundary conditions simi-
lar to those observed in the structure. These conditions
will be called Confined Material MC conditions (Lam-
bert et al. 2009). These results (Figure 8) showed that
the constitutive model for front sub-cells is defined
by a linear relation (Fi = k l ui ) for ui < ulim . When
the projectile penetration reaches values larger than
ulim , the interaction force remains constant (Fi = F lim ).
relation (Fi = k ul ui ).
3.2 Inner sub-cells: static constitutive models
The interaction force between inner sub-cells depends
on the strains of both sub-cells in contact along the

443
Figure 9. Constitutive models for inner sub-cells associ-
ated with the front layer.
x-axis. The equilibrium condition between the two
adjoining sub-cells i and j yields a relation between
the increment dF i/j of the interaction force Fi/j and the
relative displacement duij between the two cells along
the x-direction, (Figure 7):
with
g0
where lid0 , lj are the lengths of the sub-cells associated
with the cell iand cell j at the first time step; and Sc is
the area of the interaction surface. Eij is the equivalent
g
modulus accounting for both modulii Eid and Ej of the
sub-cells:
Assuming that the interface between adjoining cells
exhibits only little changes in size and shape over the
g
loading, it is possible to express the modulii Eid andEj
in terms of stresses and strains.
For inner sub-cells associated with the front layer,
the constitutive models are characterized from static
compression tests (Lambert, 2007) of cells under RC
(Rigid Conditions) and FD (Free to Deform) condi-
tions (Figure 9). For FD conditions, the evolution of
the axial stress ixx between sub-cells in the x-direction,
depending on the sub-cell axial strain xx i in the x-
direction, is characterized by a linear increase in the
stress until the threshold value lim is reached. For
xx lim lim
i larger than , the stress is equal to . On the
contrary, no threshold value is observed for RC condi-
tions. Interestingly, the coefficient of the linear relation
is different depending on the confinement conditions
(Figure 9): Erc l
(for RC conditions) and Efdl (for FD
conditions). Finally, the unloading phase is also char-
acterized by a linear decrease of ixx for decreasing xx i
444
Figure 10. Constitutive models for inner sub-cells associ-
ated with kernel cells.
using the coefficient Ercl
for RC conditions, and Efdl
for FD conditions (Figure 9). The constitutive model
associated with MC conditions is comprised between
these two extreme cases.
For the inner sub-cells associated with the kernel
layer, as no experimental results were available, a bilin-
ear constitutive model fully characterized by a loading
l
Eke ul
and an unloading Eke = 3Eke
l
modulus was chosen.
The values of the loading modulus were evaluated from
oedometric tests assuming that the sand cells were
loaded over a simple oedometric path. In the simu-
lations, two types of material were modelled: a loose
sand associated with a loading modulus Eke l
= 10 MPa
and a dense sand for which the loading modulus is
l
Eke = 200 MPa.
3.3 Lateral forces and back part of the structure
The cell strain in the x-direction entails lateral cell
strains that induce normal forces Filat at cell interfaces
in the y- and z-directions. Flat
i are calculated with K ,
a constant coefficient, as follows (Nicot et al., 2007):
g
where ldi , lj are the lengths of the sub-cells associated
with the cell i and cell j at the current time step.
f
The Filat forces induce tangential forces Fi that
counter the cells displacements along the x-direction:
where i is the Coulombs friction coefficient associ-
ated with the cell i.
The values of K and i were determined from
numerical simulations performed at the cell scale
(Nicot et al., 2007). One can also note that, when the
cell length reaches a limit value l lim corresponding to
the compaction limit of the cell, the cell is considered
as a rigid body that stills interacts with its neighbouring
cells.
Table 1. Values of the parameters of the constitutive models.

Constitutive model Parameters

Front sub-cells ulim = 0.05 m; k l = 2 106 N/m;

k ul = 2 107 N/m; F lim = 90000 N/m
Inner sub-cells FD: lim = 3%; lim = 60 kN/m2 ;
Front layer Efdl = 2 MPa; Efdul = 20MPa
RC: Ercl
= 36 MPa; Erc ul
= 360 MPa
Inner sub-cells l
Dense sand: Eke = 200 MPa;
Kernel layer ul
Eke = 600 MPa
l
Loose sand: Eke = 10 MPa;
ul
Eke = 30 MPa

Figure 12. Time evolution of the impact force Fimp on the

projectile for a kernel layer composed of dense sand.

Figure 11. Time evolution of the impact force Fimp on the

projectile for a kernel layer composed of loose sand.

Finally, the back part of the structure is modelled as

an elastic boundary condition associated with the mod-
ulus Ebo . The values of the parameters of the different
constitutive models are summarized in Table 1. Figure 13. Time evolution of the stress tran on the back part
of the structure for a kernel layer composed of loose sand.

4 COMPARISONS BETWEEN SIMULATIONS

AND EXPERIMENTS

The experimental tests were simulated using the model

presented in the previous section. The comparison is
performed using experimental results from a 10 kJ
impact which corresponds to an incident velocity of
8.8 m/s. Simulations were held using constitutive mod-
els for kernel layers associated with either dense or
loose sands. In addition, for both cases, the consti-
tutive models associated with the inner sub-cells of
the front layer under free-to-deform and rigid lat-
eral boundaries were both used to get information on
the more appropriate model. The comparison between
the experiments and the simulations focuses on the
impact force Fimp on the projectile (accelerometer a1
Figure 1) and on the stress tran on the back part of the
structure (stress tensor F1 Figure 1).
The simulation results (Figure 1114) first show Figure 14. Time evolution of the stress tran on the back part
that the model used for the inner sub-cells associated of the structure for a kernel layer composed of dense sand.

445
with the front layer does not strongly influences the
results obtained neither for the impact force nor for
the stress on the back part of the structure. Given the
weak differences observed and the reduced amount of
experimental result currently available, it seems there-
fore not possible to determine the more appropriate
constitutive models for inner sub-cells associated with
the front layer.
In addition, the simulations provide time evolution
of the impact force very close to the experimental
results. The adequacy is particularly marked during
the loading phase corresponding to times smaller than
0.02 s. However, the unloading phase, characterized
by a decrease in the impact force, is better predicted
by simulations using a constitutive model associated
with a dense sand made kernel layer. Indeed, if the ker-
nel layer is modelled as a loose sand, the impact force
largely faster decreases than what is observed in the
experiments.
Finally, the simulation results show that the model
is not able to predict both the time evolution and the
quantitative values of the stress on the back part of
the structure whatever the constitutive model used for
the kernel layer. For dense sands models, the maxi-
mum value of tran is observed at the same time as
in the experiments. However, this maximum value
is larger than the experimental value. On the con-
trary, for loose sand models, the maximum value is
of the same order of magnitude order as in the exper-
iments but its occurrence is time delayed compared
to the experiments. These differences may be due to
the simple formulation of the constitutive model used
for sub-cells associated with the kernel layer. Using a
bi-linear model is certainly not sufficient to model ade-
quately both the energy dissipation and the dynamic
mechanisms occurring in the kernel layer during the
impact.
5 CONCLUSION
In this paper, experimental results by the impact of a
projectile on a rockfall protection sandwich structure
were used for the evaluation of a structure model based
on a multi-scale approach. The comparison between
the experimental results and the simulations shows
that the model allows for a correct prediction of the
impact force on the projectile both in a qualitative and
in a quantitative point of view. On the contrary, the
prediction of the stress on the back part of the struc-
ture is less accurate because of the simple formulation
446
of the model used to characterize the kernel layer.
These results therefore emphasizes that the constitu-
tive model for the kernel layer has to be improved
before using the structure model for design purposes.
The improvement of this constitutive model is cur-
rently in progress by means of experimental studies
on the energy transfer inside a sand layer during rock
impacts.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The results presented in this paper were obtained in the
framework of the French research development project
REMPARe (www.rempare.fr) supported by the French
National Research Agency (ANR). All the partners of
project REMPARe, especially partners CER-LCPC, as
well as, for their financial support, the research con-
sortium VOR-RNVO, and the PGRN (Natural Hazard
Pole of Grenoble) from the Isre General Council are
gratefully acknowledged by the authors.
REFERENCES
Aminata, D., Yashima, A., Sawada, K., Sung, E., Sugimori,
K., & Inoue, S. 2008. New Protection Wall Against Rock-
fall Using a Ductile Cast Iron Panel. Journal of Natural
Disaster Science 30 (1): 2533.
Bertrand, D., Nicot, F., Gotteland, P., & Lambert, S. 2006.
Modelling a geo-composite cell using discrete analysis.
Computers and Geotechnics 32: 564577.
Hearn, G., Barrett, R., & Henson, H. 1995. Development
of effective rockfall barriers. Journal of transportation
engineering 121 (6): 507516.
Labiouse, V., Descoeudres, F., Montani, S., & Schmidhal-
ter, C. 1994. Experimental study of rock blocks falling
down on a reinforced concrete slab covered by absorbing
cushions. Revue franaise de gotechnique 69 : 4161.
Lambert, S., Gotteland, P., & Nicot, F. 2009. Experimental
study of the impact response of geocells as components
of rockfall protection embankments. Natural Hazards and
Earth Systems Sciences 9: 459467.
Lambert, S., Gotteland, P., Pl, O., Bertrand, D., & Nicot,
F. 2004. Modlisation du comportement mcanique de
cellules de matriaux confins. Journes Nationales de
Gotechnique et de Gologie: 219226.
Peila, D., Oggeri, C., & Castiglia, C. 2007. Ground rein-
forced embankments for rockfall protection: design and
evaluation of full scale tests. Landslides 4: 255265.
Nicot, F., Gotteland, P., Bertrand, D., & Lambert, S. 2007.
Multi-scale approach to geo-composite cellular structures
subjected to impact. International Journal for Numerical
and Analytical Methods in Geomechanics 31: 14771515.
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Evaluation of viscous damping due to solid-fluid interaction in a poroelastic

layer subjected to shear dynamic actions

J. Grazina & P.L. Pinto

Department of Civil Engineering, University of Coimbra, Portugal

D. Taborda
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Imperial College London, UK

ABSTRACT: Dynamic response of poroelastic saturated materials is largely dependent of factors such as the
solid skeleton permeability and the frequency of the movement. Depending on these quantities, the behaviour
is undrained for total coupled interaction or fully drained for null interaction. Between these limit cases, some
relative movement occurs among solid skeleton and fluid, generating viscous damping, which, in turn, modifies
the elastic response of the system. This paper presents results from FE analyses of coupled viscous solid-fluid
interaction in poroelastic saturated layers, using a code with coupled formulation us uw p. Firstly, the natural
frequencies are evaluated for free vibration responses considering different coupled levels. Secondly, the damping
ratios are estimated by imposing harmonic shear actions, with the previously obtained frequencies, to the layers.
It was observed that a sudden change of modal frequencies occurs, from nearly undrained values to nearly
drained values. This was followed by a variation of modal damping ratios, ranging from almost null values, for
permeabilities close to the above mentioned limit cases, to maximum values at intermediate coupled interaction.

1 INTRODUCTION full drained (null coupled) and nearly undrained (full

Dynamic behaviour of poroelastic saturated materi-
als is usually described using the Lagrange classical
mechanics - Biot theory (Biot 1941, 1956a, 1956b) -
or using the mechanics of continuum medium using
the Porous Mixtures theory (Fillunger, 1913), which
involves the concept of volume fractions (Schanz
& Diebels 2003). Some simplifications are possible
in both theories for common soil dynamic analyses,
which result in similar equilibrium equations. In accor-
dance with these theories, the interaction dynamic
force between the solid skeleton and the porous fluid
is expressed by:
where k = permeability; n = porosity; = viscosity of
fluid; w = bulk unit weight of fluid; vs = velocity of
solid; and vw = velocity of fluid.
The interaction between the solid skeleton and
the fluid in a poroelastic material is significantly
dependent on the permeability and the frequency of
the movement. Zienkiewicz et al. (1980) presented
parametric analyses for wide ranges of permeabil-
ities and frequencies of harmonic vertical excita-
tions in a poroelastic column, where different cou-
pled behaviours were observed. In those analyses,
bound parameters were defined considering nearly
coupled) situations, as well as the limit values for con-
solidation analyses despite inertial forces. For nearly
undrained behaviour, relative movements between
solid and fluid are reduced and interaction forces
developed are insignificant. In the opposite situation,
for nearly full drained behaviour, permeabilities are
very high and, consequently, interaction forces are very
small, in spite the existence of large relative move-
ments between both phases. In between these limit
situations, relevant viscous interaction forces may be
developed for common dynamic loadings, as those
originated by foundations of industry equipment or
earthquakes.
This paper presents a numerical analysis, where the
viscous damping due to interaction forces is evaluated,
in poroelastic saturated layers subjected to harmonic
shear accelerations.
2 NUMERICAL MODELLING
2.1 General description
The analysis consists, firstly, on the determination of
modal frequencies for the range of permeabilities con-
sidered. For this purpose, a free vibration horizontal
movement was induced at the layer by releasing a
pre-imposed displacement on the top. The modal fre-
quencies were calculated for the response at the top

447
using a Discrete Fourier Transformer (DFT) algorithm
(Taborda 2008). Permeabilities of poroelastic materi-
als related to limit cases of almost null and almost full
coupled behaviour were defined and compared with
responses of one-phase materials, respectively, with
dry and undrained properties. Secondly, harmonic
shear accelerations, with the previously calculated fre-
quencies, were imposed at the base of the layer. The
one-mode response with limited amplification allowed
the evaluation of the viscous damping ratio for the
viscous interaction level considered and related with
poroelastic permeability.
These analyses were carried using the FEMEP-
DYN finite element code (Grazina, 2009) with coupled
formulation us uw p (Zienkiewicz et al. 1999,
Arduino & Macari 2001), developed at the University
of Coimbra. This formulation implemented enables
computation of nodal displacements, velocities and
accelerations of both solid and fluid phases, as well as
pore pressures at the corner nodes of mesh elements.
For the time integration, the trapezoidal Newmark
algorithm was used, to avoid the introduction of any
undesirable numerical damping effect.
Properties of one-phase materials are presented
at Table 2 considering theoretical modelling of null
and full coupled interaction. Shear wave velocities,
vS , are also presented for these situations, calculated
accordingly to Equation 2:
where = material density, calculated using proper-
ties from Table 1 as = d = (1 n)s for dry mate-
rials and as = sat = (1 n)s + nw for saturated
materials.
2.4 Time discretization
For excitation of a specific vibration mode, accu-
rate values of natural frequency modes must be
obtained. Considering the inversely proportional rela-
tion between the total time t of computed response
and the frequency step f = 5 103 Hz established,
a t=200 s is required for calculation of modal frequen-
cies. Consequently, considering the spatial discretiza-
tions adopted, the time step values of t = 5 103 s

2.2 Finite element models

The model consists in homogeneous layers with a
thickness of 20 m, settled over a rigid bedrock material.
The absence of vertical movements on the dynamic
response of the layers subjected to shear horizontal
loadings allows a major simplification of the FE mesh.
In these conditions, a semi-infinite layer can be mod-
elled by a single column with restrictions of vertical
displacement at lateral boundaries. At the bottom, for
the bedrock interface, vertical and horizontal displace-
ment restrictions and an impervious boundary were
considered (Fig. 1a).
Figure 1. FE model and hybrid elements used in the
The columns are composed of 20 elements of mate- analyses.
rials with a shear modulus, G, of 20 MPa (G20) and
40 MPa (G40) and of 40 elements of material with a
shear modulus of 80 MPa (G80). Quadrilateral hybrid Table 1. Properties of poroelastic materials.
elements of Q8/C4 type were used for poroelastic
materials, with 8 nodes for computation of displace- G Es s w k
ments, velocities and accelerations (dva) and 4 corner (MPa) (MPa) (kg/m3 ) (kg/m3 ) n (m/s)
nodes for pore pressure (pwp) continuity, as presented
20 52 0.3 2.6 103 1.0 103 0.365 1 102
in Figure 1b. For one-phase materials analyses Q8
40 104 to
isoparametric elements were used. 80 208 1 105

2.3 Materials properties

Table 2. Properties of one-phase materials.
Three values of the shear modulus were considered in
the numerical analyses, for both poroelastic and one- G Es Coupled vS
phase type materials. Major properties of poroelastic (MPa) (MPa) Interaction (kN/m3 ) (m/s)
materials are presented in Table 1. In this case, the bulk
unit weight of saturated material is sat = 19.78 kN/m3 20 52.0 0.3 Null / Dry 16.20 110.1
and an incompressible fluid was considered with a bulk 59.6 0.49 Full / Saturated 19.78 99.6
modulus of Kw = 1 105 MPa. A wide range of per- 40 104.0 0.3 Null / Dry 16.20 155.7
119.2 0.49 Full / Saturated 19.78 140.9
meability coefficients was used, some of them with 80 208.0 0.3 Null / Dry 16.20 220.1
unrealistic high values in order to achieve the almost 238.4 0.49 Full / Saturated 19.78 199.2
null coupled situation.

448
and t = 2.5 103 s were used, respectively for k = 1 103 m/s to 100 m/s) it is visible a gradual drop
G20/G40 and G80 materials. of displacements with time, that reveals the presence of
For the second part of the analyses, where accel- viscous damping. In the sequence of crescent perme-
erations with modal frequencies were applied at the abilities, this drop increase sharply until k = 1 m/s and
base of the column, the time step values were defined
accordingly with the natural period Tn imposed, using
the relation t = Tn /80. For this value, a one-mode
response can be achieved and related damping ratio
computed.

3 EVALUATION OF MODAL FREQUENCIES

3.1 Free vibration responses

The movements of the layers in free vibration regime
may exhibit the viscous damping effect and the fre-
quencies content for each coupled level. Figures 2a-2i
present the development of normalized top displace-
ments with time, d/d0 , and frequencies spectra for a
sequence of increasing permeabilities, from full to
null interaction behaviours, referring to the G40 layer.
Limit coupled interaction levels responses (Fig. 2a,2i)
were obtained with one-phase materials.
Similar responses are showed in Figures 2a and
2b, meaning that for k = 1 105 m/s the almost full
coupled behaviour is achieved. At the opposite case,
Figure 2h reveals that even for k=100 m/s some damp-
ing effect still remains and null interaction cannot
be achieved. However, modal frequencies in this last
case are similar to those of null interaction analysis
(Fig. 2i). For the middle-range permeabilities (from

Figure 2. Evolution of normalized displacements and frequency content with increasing permeabilities for the G40 layer.

449
 Table 3. Modal frequencies of the G20 layer for different
coupled interaction levels.

Permeab. Modal frequencies

Coupled k f1 f2 f3
interaction (m/s) (Hz) (Hz) (Hz)

Null / Analytical 1.376 4.127 6.878

Null / One-phase 1.375 4.120 6.850
Poroelastic 102 1.375 4.120 6.845
10 1.375 4.120 6.850
1 1.350 4.125 6.870
101 1.250 (3.908)
Figure 3. Variation of free vibration response with perme- 102 1.245 (3.735)
ability of poroelastic G20 layer. 103 1.245 3.730
104 1.245 3.730 6.205
105 1.245 3.730 6.205
Full / Analytical 0 1.245 3.735 6.224
Full / One-phase 0 1.245 3.730 6.205

Table 4. Modal frequencies of the G40 layer for different

coupled interaction levels.

Permeab. Modal frequencies

Coupled k f1 f2 f3
interaction (m/s) (Hz) (Hz) (Hz)

Figure 4. Variation of free vibration response with perme- Null / Analytical 1.946 5.937 9.728
ability of poroelastic G40 layer. Null / One-phase 1.945 5.820 9.655
Poroelastic 102 1.945 5.820 9.655
10 1.945 5.820 9.655
1 1.925 5.825 9.665
101 1.780 (5.623)
102 1.760 (5.280)
103 1.760 5.270
104 1.760 5.270 (8.750)
105 1.760 5.265 8.750
Full / Analytical 0 1.761 5.282 8.804
Full / One-phase 0 1.760 5.270 8.750

the highest damped response, which is reached with

Figure 5. Variation of free vibration response with perme-
ability of poroelastic G80 layer.
tends to reduce for higher permeabilities as viscous
interaction becomes lower.
The frequencies spectra reveals well defined natural
frequencies for higher and lower permeabilities, and
more dispersive distributions where damping effect
is more pronounced (k = 1 101 m/s and 1 m/s). In
these last cases, higher natural frequency modes are
strongly damped and not detectable.
Figures 35 present the positive envelopes of the
normalized displacements for the first t = 40 s of the
analyses, for each values of k and G considered.
Comparing these last figures, it is visible that
for higher values of G and for lower permeabilities
responses became more damped. This is noticeable for
k = 1 m/s for G20 and G40 and with k = 1 101 m/s
for G80. The response decay is also more pronounced
in this last case.
3.2 Modal frequencies
The results of the first three natural frequencies
detected from spectral distributions for the aforemen-
tioned values of k and G, are compiled in Tables 3-5.
Cases where these values were not detected or with
dispersive frequency distribution (poorly defined as
shown in Fig. 2e) are also indicated on these tables.
Analytical values for the limit coupled cases are also
presented, according with (Kramer 1996):

450
Table 5. Modal frequencies of the G80 layer for different
coupled interaction levels.

Permeab. Modal frequencies

Coupled k f1 f2 f3
interaction (m/s) (Hz) (Hz) (Hz)

Null / Analytical 2.752 8.255 13.758

Null / One-phase 2.750 8.240 13.705
Poroelastic 102 2.750 8.240 13.705
10 2.750 8.245 13.705
1 2.740 8.240 13.715
101 2.540 (8.375)
102 2.490 (7.490) Figure 6. Amplified acceleration responses for the
103 2.490 (7.460) G40 layer subjected to shear harmonic excitation with
104 2.490 7.460 (12.410) f1 = 1.78 Hz.
105 2.490 7.460 12.410
Full / Analytical 0 2.490 7.470 12.450
Full / One-phase 0 2.490 7.460 12.410

Non-detectable values; () Inaccurate values.

where fn = frequency of mode n and H = the thickness

of the layer.
In these tables it is evident a good match between
the analytical and the one-phase frequency values, for
both coupled limits. This is a proof of good accu-
racy afforded by the spatial and time discretizations
adopted, although computed frequencies tend to be Figure 7. Amplified acceleration responses for the
lower than the analytical values, as had been noticed by G40 layer subjected to shear harmonic excitation with
Grazina (2009). For any value of G, it is visible that nat- f2 = 5.27 Hz.
ural frequencies remain similar with those of coupled
limit cases for a broad range of k values, approximately
which turns the achievement of stationary response
corresponding to two sets of frequency modes. Tran-
less accurate.
sition between these sets occurs suddenly in a narrow
Responses at the top of the layers are related with
range of k values, when viscous damping effect is more
the imposed movement at the base with the amplifica-
notorious (as shown in Figures. 35).
tion factor, D, expressed for a homogeneous layer by
(Kramer, 1996):

4 EVALUATION OF VISCOUS DAMPING

4.1 Methodology
The natural frequencies obtained were used to eval-
where = 2f is the angular frequency. Using this
uate the respective modal damping ratios, . For this
relation, Equation 3 becomes:
purpose, each harmonic accelerations with a modal
frequency was applied at the base and the forced
vibration response was obtained at the top. These cal-
culations proceeded until a stationary response was
reached. The duration of time analyses depends on the and substituting on Equation (4) the first term under
viscous damping presented. square root becomes 0 and therefore:
Figures 6, 7 exemplify time evolutions of relative
acceleration responses on the top and excited frequen-
cies of the movement. These are particularly referred
to the calculations of the 1st mode (f1 = 1.78 Hz) with
k = 1 101 m/s and of the 2nd mode (f2 = 5.27 Hz)
with k = 1 103 m/s, both for the G40 layer. One-
mode response is easily obtained for the first mode Estimated values of D for each mode are then used
calculations. However, for the second mode analy- to evaluate the respective damping ratio, , using the
ses, some influence of the first mode still persists, previous equation.

451
Table 6. Modal damping ratios for G20, G40 and G80 For middle-range permeabilities, coupled effect is
layers. notorious and the values of k related to their maximum
influence were identified. These values represent a
G20 layer G40 layer G80 layer transition of the coupled behaviour, dividing near full
from near null coupled interactions. This is followed
k 1 2 1 2 1 2
(m/s) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) by a sudden transition of frequency modes, which can
generally be divided in two sets of values. Each of
100 <0.05 <0.05 <0.05 these sets has very similar values to the respective limit
10 0.45 0.18 0.32 (0.19) 0.23 (0.12) cases. These limit cases, of null and full coupled inter-
1 3.74 1.51 2.92 1.06 2.16 0.76 action and without viscous damping, were calculated
101 1.87 4.68 2.65 5.25 3.53 6.95 using one-phase materials with properties respectively
102 0.21 0.28 0.82 0.40 1.18 of dry and saturated material.
103 <0.05 <0.05 (0.15) <0.05 (0.14) A comparison between values of damping ratio for
the 1st and 2nd modes reveals that damping is higher
Non-detectable values; () Inaccurate values. for the 2nd mode at near full coupled situations and
for the 1st mode at near null coupled situation.
4.2 Damping ratio values
For permeabilities near coupled limits, damping is REFERENCES
very small and resonance hinders the system to achieve
Arduino, P.; Macari, E.J. (2001). Implementation of a porous
a stationary response. Also, in analyses for higher media formulation for geomaterials. Journal of Engineer-
frequency modes, the presence of less order modes ing Mechanics. ASCE, Vol. 127, No 2, pp. 157166.
influenced significantly stationary responses. Conse- Biot, M.A. 1941. General theory of three-dimensional con-
quently, only damping ratios for 1st and 2nd modes solidation. Journal of Applied Physics 12: 155164.
were calculated for the middle-range permeabilities. Biot, M.A. 1956a. Theory of propagation of elastic waves in
These values are presented on Table 6 for the 3 values a fluid-saturated porous solid. I. Low frequency range.
of G considered. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 28(2):
The results of the damping ratios, , are in accor- 168178.
Biot, M.A. 1956b. Theory of propagation of elastic waves in
dance with the free vibration responses presented
a fluid-saturated porous solid. II. Higher frequency range.
above. Higher values of exists with k = 1 m/s for Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 28(2): 179
G20 layer and with k = 1 101 m/s for G40/G80 lay- 191.
ers (as noticed in Figs. 3-5). The results on the table Grazina, J. 2009. Modelao dinmica com acoplamento vis-
also show that 1 > 2 for behaviours near null cou- coso de macios elastoplsticos. Aplicao a estruturas
pled interaction and the opposite (1 < 2 ) for near full de suporte flexveis submetidas a aces ssmicas. PhD
coupled interaction. It is noticeable the strong influ- thesis, University of Coimbra (in Portuguese).
ence on damped free response of small values of for Kramer, S.L. 1996. Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering.
k = 100 m/s, as can be seen in Figure 2h. Prentice Hall, New Jersey.
Schanz, M.; Diebels, S. 2003. A comparative study of Biots
theory and the linear theory of porous media for wave
propagation problems, Acta Mechanica 161: 213235.
5 CONCLUSIONS Taborda, D. 2008. DFTi Improved Discrete Fourier Trans-
form Algorithm software: version 1.1.1.
The method described was successfully able to evalu- Zienkiewicz, O.C.; Chang, C.T.; Bettess, P. 1980. Drained,
ate damping ratios related with viscous coupled effect undrained, consolidating and dynamic behaviour assump-
on poroelastic saturated layers. tions in soils, Geotchnique, 30(4): 385395.
Permeability values for almost full coupled inter- Zienkiewicz, O.C.; Chan, A.H.C.; Pastor, M.; Schrefler,
action were founded. However, for the values of shear B.A.; Shiomi, T. (1999). Computational Geomechanics
with Special Reference of Earthquake Engineering. John
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not achieved.

452
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Non linear numerical modeling of slopes stability under seismic

loading reinforcement effect

F. Hage Chehade
Universit Libanaise Centre de Modlisation, PRASE, EDST IUT Liban

M. Sadek & I. Shahrour

Universit des Sciences et Technologies de Lille, France

ABSTRACT: This paper presents results of a numerical modeling of slope stability problems under seismic
loading in Lebanon by using a global dynamic approach. This methodology offers several advantages when
compared to simplified methods like pseudo-static approaches. So, we can investigate the effect of the governing
parameters such as the non linear soil behavior, the presence of weak soil near the surface, the spatial and temporal
variability of the seismic loading and the reinforcement element Some of these parameters are critical in
triggering instability under seismic loading. The analysis is focused on a parametric study of the reinforcement
element along the slope (position, length, inclination, numbers) in order to give the best appropriate reinforcement
scheme that minimize the earthquake effect. The present study is conducted by using measures recorded during
real earthquakes (Turkey, 1999).

1 INTRODUCTION and strong precipitation. Then except for slope move-

Earthquake risk is a major concern in Lebanon which
is located in an active seismic zone. Lebanon has wit-
nessed several earthquakes, some of which caused
massive destruction in the past. The topography of
Lebanon is known by its high mountains and steep
slopes. Because of large demographic expansion, new
constructions are actually built over dangerous slopes.
Moreover, since February 2008, abnormal seismic
activity has been noted in southern Lebanon as well as
a large number of minor earthquakes in a three-month
period. In case of medium or severe earthquakes,
extent of damage on Lebanese slopes could very severe
in terms of both human and economic losses. So it is
necessary to give some recommendations to improve
the stability of Lebanese slopes under seismic events.
The slopes represent a weak zone where the seismic
consequences could be amplified. During the last cen-
tury, there are more than 76 earthquakes generating
important critical cases number of slope movements
varying from one thousand to one million. The slope
morphology controls the instability type: The steep
slopes that have an inclination angle more than 35
are quite often the cause of superficial movements
such as falling boulders, rock slides or soil collapse
(Keefer, 1984; Rodriguez et al., 1999). Gentle slopes
can be affected by soil flows and mudflows like the
1960 earthquake of Chili (Keefer, 1984). Nevertheless,
most of the events which are produced in gentle slopes
are the result of a combination of seismic vibration
ments over gentle slopes and reactivation of ancient
deposits sliding, the majority of slope movements are
produced in slopes steeper than 25 . Site observa-
tions coupled with some works of Jibson et al. (1994)
show that the characteristics of the seismic input can
largely influence the type of instability. Earthquakes
of small magnitudes characterized by small accelera-
tions and a high frequency content cause essentially
bloc falls which belong to the category of superficial
movements. On the other hand, earthquakes of big-
ger magnitudes (large acceleration and low frequency
content) can cause more profound slides. This type of
earthquakes is the origin of a huge number of slope
movements.
The stability of slopes depends on its initial state
condition before the earthquake. When the slope is
close to static failure, a small seismic shock is enough
to trigger movement. The Ledu earthquake (China,
1984) having a magnitude of 2.9 was enough to trigger
a sliding because of the small depth if its source (Feng
& Guo, 1985). There are several real cases of slope
landslides recorded during real earthquakes.
The pseudo-static (Terzaghi, 1950) and the New-
mark (Newmark, 1963) methods are largely used to
assess slope stability subjected to seismic loading
because of their simplicity and there is no need to
sophistical softwares. The first one ignores the cyclic
nature of the earthquake and applies for that an addi-
tional static force. A seismic coefficient is used where
his value is provided in various reglementation. The

453
Figure 1. Slope case study.
second method assumes that the soil is an unde-
formable rigid-perfectly plastic block. This assump-
tion is not suitable for soils. During the earthquake in
Salvador for example (2001), severe damage of build-
ings was obtained at the limit of Armenia village and a
significant broken of slopes. These observations lead
to the fact the French Parasismic Reglementation could
underestimate the observations (AFPS, 2001).
Nevertheless, the high cost of numerical meth-
ods and the technical knowledge required for their
practical use (mechanical parameters for soils, seis-
mic loading) lead to the fact that the traditional and
simplified methods still widely used.
In this work, we propose a numerical global
dynamic analysis of the slope stability problems under
seismic loading. This methodology has the advantage
of taking into account the main parameters, generally
neglected by using simplified methods, such as the
spatial and temporal variability of the loading, the ini-
tial soil state, the presence of water in the soil, the
presence of weak soil layers near the surface, the non
linear soil behavior under static or cyclic loading and
the influence of reinforcement elements.
The numerical analysis is performed by using the
FLAC3D finite difference software (Itasca, 2005). For
the seismic loading, a real earthquake record corre-
sponding to the Kocaeli earthquake (1999) in Turkey
(Chen and Scawthorn, 2003) is adopted. At first, a
comparative study between the results given by respec-
tively elastic modeling and elastoplastic modeling of
the soil behavior shows the limitation of the elastic
modeling. Then the analysis is focused on the stability
of reinforced slopes. A parametric study according to
the length, the position, the inclination, and the num-
ber of the reinforcement element is performed. The
obtained results describe the evolution of the slope
state and give recommendations about the most effi-
cient scheme of the reinforcement element that could
reduce the seismic hazard on slopes under seismic
loading.
2 PROBLEM UNDER CONSIDERATION
2.1 Geometry
Figure 1 represents typical slope geometry of two soil
layers of equal depth (H) that has been modelled. The
454
Figure 2. Records of the Kocaeli earthquake a) Veloc-
ity, b) Acceleration and c) Fourier Spectra of Velocity
Component.
rigid soil at the bottom has a lateral extent equal to 14H
while the slope extent is equal to 8H. These values have
been adopted in order to minimise the boundary effects
(Bourdeau, 2005). At the lateral boundary, we use free
field conditions which ensure the absorption of the
outward waves. The results in this paper are presented
in the case of H equal to 15 m and the slope angle ()
is equal to 30 .
2.2 Seismic loading
Dynamic loading is applied at the bottom of the rigid
soil layer as a velocity excitation. The slope is sub-
jected to a real earthquake loading representative of
the 1999 Kocaeli earthquake (Mw = 7.4) in Turkey.
The estimated peak velocity is approximately 40 cm/s
(peak acceleration 0.247 g), and the duration is equal
to 30 s (Figures 2a-b). Fourier analysis of the earth-
quake velocity record reveals a dominant frequency of
about 0.9 Hz (the second peak is observed at 1.3 Hz).
Figure 2-c shows that the most of the power for the
input history is contained in low frequencies (Parish
et al., 2009). For comparison, the natural frequencies
of the slope were determined by a Fourier analysis of
its free response. Figure 3 shows a fundamental fre-
quency equal to 1.1 Hz which is close to dominant
frequency of seismic loading (0.9 Hz) while to 3.2 Hz.
2.3 Mesh
For an accurate representation of the wave trans-
mission through the soil model, the spatial element
size, l, must be smaller than approximately one-
tenth to one-eighth of the wavelength associated with
 Table 1. Soil mechanical properties.

Rigid soil Weak soil

Youngs Modulus 1000 (MPa) 25 (MPa)

Poissons ratio 0.25 0.3
Elastic shear modulus 400 MPa 9.6 (MPa)
Cohesion 200 (kPa) 5 kPa
Friction angle 35 30
Dilation angle 3 10
Unit Weight 20 kN/m3 20 kN/m3

Figure 3. Response spectra of free motion of the slope.

Figure 4. Mesh of the slope domain.

the highest frequency component of the input wave

(Kuhlemeyer and Lysmer, 1973):
Figure 5. Evolution of the lateral displacement at the crest
and the node A of the slope.

where is the wave length associated with the high-

est frequency component that contains appreciable
energy. So, reasonable analyses could be time and
memory consuming. In such cases, it may be possible
to adjust the input by recognizing that most of the sec-
ond frequency is equal the power for the input history
is contained in lower frequency components. Figure
4 shows, in the vertical plane, the mesh used for the
numerical modeling. It contains 500 elements.

3 NUMERICAL ANALYSIS OF THE SLOPE

BEHAVIOR

The behavior of the slopes under the seismic loading

was analyzed in two cases of the soil behavior. In the
first case, the soil behavior is assumed to be linear elas-
tic. In the second case, the soil behavior is assumed to
be non linear elastoplastic and it is described by using
the non associated Mohr-Coulomb criterion where the
properties are given in table 1. When elasticity is
used, Rayleigh damping equal to 5% is adopted in
order to compensate the energy dissipation through
the medium.
Figure 5 depicts the evolution of the lateral dis-
placement at the crest and at node A (see figure 7) on
the slope. We can see that the plasticity leads to very
important lateral displacement and the discrepancy
between the elastic and elastoplastic calculations starts
after 4 s. Figure 6 shows the lateral velocity amplifica-
tion at time equal to 15 s for the both calculations. We
Figure 6. Lateral velocity amplification at time equal to 15 s
(origin at the bottom of the slope).
can see a significant decrease in velocity amplification
with plasticity. This result could be explained by the
energy dissipation attributed to the plastic deformation
and by the influence of plasticity on the reduction of the
frequency response of the slope. The previous results
clearly illustrate the elastic calculation doesnt lead to
a realistic description of the slope behaviour and its
evolution with time. So, in the case of reinforcement,
the numerical modelling is carried out only in the case
of elastoplastic soil behaviour.

455
Figure 7. Reference position of the reinforcement element. Figure 8. Effect of the length of the reinforcement element
on the horizontal displacement at slope crest.

4 NUMERICAL ANALYSIS OF REINFORCED

SLOPE

4.1 Methodology
This section is focused on the effect of reinforcement
(nail or micropile) on the slope stability under seismic
loading. The reinforcement element has an axial rigid-
ity (EA) equal to 1100 103 kN and a stiffness (EI) equal
to 850 105 kN m2 . In order to study the performance of
the reinforcement element a parametric study accord-
ing to the length, position, inclination and number has
been performed.

4.2 Effect of the reinforcement element length

The evolution of the slope stability has been investi-
gated according to the reinforcement element length.
The reinforcement element is perpendicular to the
slope surface and it is located at 3 m below the crest
(figure 7). Three lengths of reinforcement length have
been respectively tested (7, 10 and 13 m). Figure 8
shows the evolution of the horizontal displacement at
the slope crest respectively without and for the three
tested lengths of reinforcement element. When the
reinforcement is used, we can see a decrease in the
horizontal displacement at crest about 12% when its
reinforcement length is equal to 7 m and 15% when
this is equal to 10 m. There is no significant decrease
in horizontal displacement when the length of the rein-
forcement element increases from 10 to 13 m. Figures Figure 9. Numerical results along the reinforcement ele-
9a and 9b depict at t = 15 s the distribution along the ment (a) horizontal displacement and (b) bending moment
(x position on the reinforcement element, see figure 7).
reinforcement element of the horizontal displacement
and the bending moment. A significant decrease of the
horizontal displacement is noted along the reinforce-
4.3 Effect of reinforcement element position
ment element especially near the tip: the amount of
reduction reaches 50% and 80% respectively where In addition to the previous reference position, the
the reinforcement length increases from 7 m to 10 effect of two more positions of the reinforcement
and 13 m (figure 9a). The bending moment slightly element on the slope stability has been investigated
increases with length in the upper part and decreases (length = 10 m). In the first one, the head of the rein-
around the tip (figure 9b). The highest lateral displace- forcement element is located at the crest (upper case).
ment at the slope is located under the reinforcement In the second position, the head of the reinforcement
element (figure 10) at time equal to 15 s for the case element is located immediately at the mesh node on
of reinforcement element length equal to 10 m. the slope under the reference position (see figure 7).

456
Figure 10. Shape of lateral displacement at time equal to
15 s and reinforcement element length equal to 10 m.

Figure 13. Effect of the reinforcement inclination on the

slope horizontal displacement.

4.4 Effect of inclination

The efficiency of the reinforcement element on the
slope stability according to its inclination has been also
analyzed. Four inclination values (angle , see figure
7) of the reinforcement element (length = 10 m) have
been investigated:
The reinforcement element is horizontal (angle
slope-reinforcement is equal to the slope angle)
Figure 11. Effect of the position of the reinforcement ele-
ment on the evolution with of the horizontal displacement at
The angle slope-reinforcement is equal to 60
node A. The reinforcement is perpendicular to slope surface
(reference case)
The reinforcement is vertical
In this When the angle slope-reinforcement is equal
to 60 , we obtain the lower values of the slope horizon-
tal displacement slope as compared to the other cases
(figure 13): this displacement is reduced by about 50%
near the crest.

4.5 Effect of reinforcement elements number

The effect of number of reinforcement elements on the
slope stability has been tested (length = 10 m and rein-
forcement element perpendicular to the slope surface).
So, three configurations have been analyzed:
The slope is reinforced by one element (reference
case, see figure 7)
Figure 12. Effect of the position of the reinforcement The slope is reinforced by two elements (dashed
element on the slope horizontal displacement at time = 15 s. lines in figure 15)
The slope is reinforced by three elements (figure
15 and the tip of the third element is at the slope
crest).
The numerical results show that the reinforcement ele- The reinforcement of the slope by using two ele-
ment at the crest is the less efficient position (figures ments leads to a significant improvement of its sta-
11 and 12). The horizontal displacement at node A is bility (figure 14): the horizontal displacement at crest
reduced by 13% at the end of the loading with the is reduced by 42% as compared to the non reinforce-
lower position of the reinforcement element. More- ment slope results. The reinforcement of the slope by
over, at time equal to 15 s, it can be seen that the slope using three elements has an insignificant effect on
horizontal displacement is reduced by approximatively the stability according to the obtained values when
20% while the reinforcement element is in the lower using two reinforcement elements. The shape of hori-
position (figure 12). zontal displacement around the slope at time equal to

457

Figure 14. Effect of the reinforcement element number on
the slope horizontal displacement.
Figure 15. Shape of lateral displacement around the slope at
time equal to 15 s in the case of two reinforcement elements.
15 s clearly shows an important reduction of this dis-
placement comparing to the case on one reinforcement
element (figures 10 and 15).
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
We think the Lebanese University and the Lebanese
National Council of Scientific Research for partially
funding of this work.
5 CONCLUSION
In this paper a finite difference numerical global
dynamic modeling of slope stability has been pre-
sented. A typical problem of slope has been modeled.
The effects of the soil behavior and of the rein-
forcement elements on the slope stability have been
458
investigated. The elastoplastic modeling leads to more
realistic results compared to those obtained when used
elastic calculation. The plasticity leads to a significant
residual displacement in one hand and to a reduc-
tion of the velocity amplification. A parametric study
according to length, position, inclination and num-
ber of reinforcement elements has been performed.
The following conclusions are related to the particular
problem treated in this paper. The efficient length of
the reinforcement element should be defined accord-
ing to the failure circle shape obtained by a reference
calculation without any reinforcement. The position
of the reinforcement improves the stability (not at the
crest). The optimal inclination is equal to 60 .
REFERENCES
Bourdeau C. 2005. Effets de site et mouvement de versant
en zone sismique : apport de la modlisation numrique,
thse Ecole de Mines de Paris
Chen W. F. and Scawthorn C. 2003. Earthquake Engineering
Handbook, CRC Press LLC
Feng X et Guo A. 1985. Earthquake landslide in China. Pro-
ceedings of the fourth international conference and field
workshop on landslides, Tokyo, p. 339346
Jibson R.W., Prentice C.S., Borissoff A., Rogozhin A. and
Langer C.J. 1994. Some observations of landslides trig-
gered by the 29 April 1991 Racha earthquake, Republic of
Georgia. Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America,
84: 963973
Keefer, D.K. 1984. Landslides caused by earthquakes. Bul-
letin of the seismological society of America, 95, p.
406421
Kuhlmeyer R. L. and Lysmer J. 1973. Finite Element Method
Accuracy for Wave Propagation Problems, J. Soil Mech.
& Foundations Div., ASCE, 99(SM5): 42142
Itasca Consulting Group, FLAC: Fast Lagrangian Analysis
of Continua, vol. I. Users Manual, vol. II. Verifica-
tion Problems and Example Applications, Second Edition
(FLAC3D Version 3.0), Minneapolis, Minnesota 55401
USA, 2005
Newmark N.M. 1963. Effects of earthquakes on dams and
embankments, Fifth Rankine Lecture Gotechnique
15(2): 139193.
Parish, Y., Sadek, M., and Shahrour, I. 2009. Review Arti-
cle: Numerical analysis of the seismic behaviour of earth
dam, Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 9: 451458
Rodriguez C.E., Bommer J.J. and Chandler R.J. 1999.
Earthquake-induced landslides: 1980-1997. Soil dynam-
ics earthquake engineering, 18: 325346.
Terzaghi K. 1950 Mechanism of landslides. The geological
survey of America Engineering Geology, Berkley
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Numerical analysis of blast impact on sealings of neighbouring structures

W. Krajewski & O. Reul

University of Applied Sciences Darmstadt/CDM Consult GmbH, Germany

L. te Kamp
ITASCA Consultants GmbH, Germany

ABSTRACT: Two case histories of sealings of structures subjected to seismic loads are presented. The first
case history deals with the base sealing of a landfill, which has been stressed dynamically during the construction
of a drainage gallery. The proof procedure showing that the excavation blastings have been acceptable for the
sealing is discussed. In the second case history, a pit for blast impacts will be sealed at the base by a plastic
liner and a concrete raft to protect the groundwater. Extended investigations comprising large scale blasting tests
and dynamic finite element and finite difference analysis, respectively, have been performed to investigate the
influence of the blast impacts on the sealing. In summary, the case history shows, that numerical analyses are
well suited for the investigation of seismic problems. However, the required scientific and technical knowledge
as well as the expenditure for system modelling and calibration are rather high.

1 INTRODUCTION

An increasing number of underground structures are

driven in the immediate vicinity of existing facilities
and buildings. Therefore it is sometimes necessary to
carry out blastings close to the sealings of those neigh-
bouring structures. Sealings, usually comprising of
clay and/or flexible plastic liners, are installed in order
to protect the groundwater from substances within the
structure or vice versa. In the past, studies concern-
ing the integrity of the sealings have been carried out
almost exclusively based on experimental methods or
on empirical data, respectively. Recently, numerical
methods are applied more frequently to investigate the
performance of sealings under blast impacts.
The first case history presented in the scope of this
paper deals with the base sealing of a large domes-
tic landfill site subjected to blast driving for a new
drainage gallery in immediate vicinity. For this project
the influence of the blastings on the sealing have been
estimated conventionally.
In the second case history the performance of the Figure 1. Rehabilitation of the drainage system of a landfill
by a system of drainage galleries: Performance of blast impact
sealing of a pit for blasting operations has been inves-
tests.
tigated by means of dynamic numerical analysis and
measurements carried out during a series of test blasts.
drainage gallery system. The system comprises a
840 m long tunnel as well as several inclined galleries
and shafts which reach up to the base of the deposit
2 BASE SEALING OF A LANDFILL
(Figure 1).
The underground excavations have been carried out
2.1 System
by means of blast driving. As the blastings have been
The drainage installations of a landfill for sludge and executed in close neighbourhood of the existing clay
domestic waste within the Rhine-Main-area has been liner, the compatibility of the dynamic impact had
redeveloped by the construction of an underground to be proofed. However, there existed no experiences

459
concerning the magnitude of the allowable dynamic
impact.
2.2 Blast impact tests
The magnitude of the seismic velocities due to excava-
tion blastings has been measured during field tests in
the shafts and inclined galleries. All tests have been
performed at the faces of the approximately 1.5 m
high bench. For each blasting eight holes have been
bored. Each hole has been filled with detonating cord
Dynacord 100 (Figure 1). The specific consumption of
blasting agent amounted to approximately 300 g/m3 .
During the blastings, the speed of vibrations was mea-
sured at the accessible top surface of the base sealing
using geophones. The distance between the blastings
and the geophones was approximately 12 m in average.
The measured seismic velocities amounted to
v = 1.5 mm/s to v = 2.7 mm/s while the frequency
spectrum ranged between f = 4 Hz and f = 78 Hz. In
a first step the seismic displacements have been
derived from the available measurements to evaluate
their compatibility for the base sealing. Assuming a
sinus-shaped curve progression for the vibrations, the
displacement si in i-direction is given by:
where vi = seismic velocity in i-direction, and
f = frequency.
In horizontal direction maximum seismic displace-
ments of sx = 68 m and sy = 44 m, respectively,
have been calculated. In vertical direction the maxi-
mum displacement amounts to sz = 57 m. Under the
assumption that
the maximum seismic displacements for mass
points on the top surface of the base sealing
interfere with each other and
that the corresponding mass points at the bottom
surface of the base sealing have zero displacements
It is possible to evaluate the strains occurring in
the clay liner of the base sealing. The resulting strains
and distortions can be simulated in a soil mechanical
triaxial test. The distortion * of the base sealing with
the thickness d is given by:
The vertical strain 1 which has to be applied in
the triaxial test can then be approximated by:
where = poisson ratio of the clay liner.
Under consideration of the amplification and an
additional safety margin the vertical strain amounts
to 1 95 m/m.
In a laboratory test these vertical strains have been
applied on a clay sample in approximately 2,000 cycles
during the period of one week. Afterwards the water
permeability of the sample has been measured. The
test showed that the cyclic loads did not have a negative
effect on the material behaviour of the sealing material.
Thus, for the excavation works a seismic velocity of
up to vi = 30 mm/s was allowed. However, during con-
struction single blasting events with remarkably higher
seismic velocities occurred without causing damage to
the base sealing. This leads to the conclusion that the
allowed seismic velocity still contains a large safety
distance to ultimate limit conditions.
3 PIT FOR BLAST OPERATIONS
3.1 System
In southern Germany currently a pit for blast oper-
ations is built. The pit is about 10 m deep with a
slope angle of 25 (Figure 2). The bedrock consists
of weathered limestone. After installation of the blast-
ing explosives, the pit is filled with broken granite.
The blastings can be performed at the surface level,
in 2 m depth or in 5 m depth, respectively. On the sur-
face level the specific blasting agent amounts up to
approximately 30 kg net explosive mass (NEM). The
loadings sparked inside of the test pit are 250 kg (2 m
depth) or 115 kg NEM (5 m depth), respectively.
Due to the high water permeability of the limestone
a pollution of the groundwater due to the explosives or
their reaction products is possible. Therefore the slopes
and the base of the pit will be sealed with flexible
plastic liners (PE-HD). At the bottom, the liners are
protected by a 30 cm thick reinforced concrete raft.
First estimations of the seismic velocities, which
may occur at the sealing showed that rather high val-
ues of approximately vi 300 mm/s to vi 500 mm/s
have to be taken into account. These values are more
than one decimal power higher than the admissible
seismic velocities for the base sealing of the landfill
as presented in section 2. Therefore detailed investiga-
tions concerning the influence of the blastings on the
sealing system were necessary.
3.2 Preliminary numerical analysis
In a first step, simplified dynamic calculations based
on finite element analysis (Plaxis 2009) have been exe-
cuted using an axis-symmetric model. The blasting
pit, the concrete raft and the subsoil were mod-
elled with triangle shaped 15-node-elements for which
the strains are zero in the tangential direction due
to the axis-symmetric conditions. The stress-strain
behaviour of the subsoil is characterized by the so-
called Hardening-Soil-model which models the non-
linear stress-strain behaviour of soils as well as the
different behaviour during loading, reloading and
unloading conditions. The concrete raft and the back-
filling material of the test pit are considered to behave
linear-elastically.
460
Figure 2. Blasting pit: Simplified cross section.

Figure 3. Blasting pit: Dynamic Impact.

The blasting load is modelled by the seismic

impulse given in Figure 3 (Original Blast Input).
For all simulations carried out, the maximum impulse
is reached after approximately 15 ms. After 50 ms the
impulse has decreased to zero. In the finite element
mesh the blasting load is modelled as a pressure at the
surface of a spherical blasting chamber with a diameter
of 1 m and its centre situated at the blasting point. The
magnitude of the impulse is chosen based on test expe-
riences, which show that the detonation of 250 kg of
explosives lead to principal stresses of about 10 MPa
at the edge of the blasting destruction zone. Further
considerations show that an impulse of 3,500 MPams Figure 4. Test pit, finite element analysis: Horizontal and
has to be used for an appropriate reproduction of the vertical displacements for selected points on the concrete raft.
blasting load. For lower blasting loads the impulse is
reduced linearly. The damping factors were taken to t = 0.065 s. Afterwards, the oscillation of the system
= 2.0% and = 2.0%. is damped. As an important result of the axis sym-
As an example of the extensive results achieved, metric finite element analysis it can be concluded, that
the time dependent displacements are presented in the blasting causes no significant vertical strains in
Figure 4 for selected points on the concrete raft. the sealing. The horizontal displacements of the seal-
The vertical displacements reach maximum values of ing increase from ux 0 at the centre of the raft up to
uy 1.5 mm up to uy 3.8 mm between t = 0.05 s and ux 0.072 mm at the edges. The maximum horizontal

461

Figure 5. Large scale test pit (depth: 5 m).
strain of the plastic liners amounts to a sufficiently low
value of 104 .
In spite of the simplifications made, the preliminary
analysis provided useful information for the further
design of the test pit:
The maximum strains of the plastic sealing lin-
ers will probably range between = 1 104 to
= 3 104 .
The vertical pressure acting on the sealing system
will amount to approximately 800 kPa.
The seismic velocity of the sealing systems will
range between approximately v 150 mm/s to
v 300 mm/s.
The maximum seismic acceleration will reach up
to approximately a 8 m/s2 .
3.3 Large scale tests
In addition to the numerical analysis, large scale blast-
ings tests have been performed in a 5 m deep blasting
test pit (Figure 5). The test pit was designed similar to
the planned operating blasting pit but with a smaller
scale.
Amongst others, a test with 35 kg NEM installed
in a depth of 2 m has been carried out. The result-
ing seismic velocities and seismic accelerations have
been measured with geophones, showing extremely
high seismic velocities of v > 800 mm/s at the sealing
system. After finishing the tests the sealing system has
been uncovered and has been inspected carefully. In
spite of the significant seismic velocities, the inves-
tigations showed that the plastic liners as well as
the concrete raft were entirely intact. Moreover, the
observations and the interpretation of the test results
showed:
The seismic velocities, measured in the neighbour-
hood of the blasting point are higher than expected.
However, a strong damping of the seismic impact in
the back-filling of the test pit leads to rather small
velocities at larger distances.
The seismic oscillation is of low frequency
(<70 Hz).
The strains of the sealing and the concrete raft due to
blasting impact are small and do not demand special
462
Figure 6. Test pit: Finite difference mesh.
protection measures. The investigations show that
even at small distances of less than 2 m between
sealing and explosives (test 2 with 15 kg NEM) no
mechanical or thermal damages could be observed.
3.4 Numerical analysis of the large
scale tests
To achieve a deeper understanding of the results of the
large scale tests as well as to predict the seismic loads
on the sealing system during the planned operational
blastings, three-dimensional numerical analysis has
been performed applying the finite difference method
(Itasca 2006). At this stage the known input parameters
were
Geometry and geomechanical characteristics of the
different soil layers and sealing system, respec-
tively.
Explosive charges (kg NEM) and geometrical posi-
tion of the blasting points.
Seismic velocities measured in the large scale tests.
Unknown parameters were the sequence of the det-
onations as well as the correlation between blasting
pressure and explosive charge. The detonations were
modelled by a normal pressure loaded at the surface
of a spherical blasting chamber (see section 3.2).
In a first investigation step the numerical model
was calibrated by reproducing the results of the field
tests (large scale blasting test). The applied three-
dimensional model has geometrical dimensions of
approximately x/y z = 30 m/30 m/16 m (Figure 6) and
comprises 220,000 zones. The time dependent devel-
opment of the normal pressure was first modelled
according to Figure 3 (Original Blast Input). How-
ever, the calibration procedure showed best fittings of
test results using the Modified Blast Input A shown
also in Figure 3. The detonation pressure was evalu-
ated to 8 MPa relating to an explosive charge of 15 kg
NEM. Since no information concerning the correla-
tion between detonation pressure and explosive load
was available, the detonation pressure was assumed to
be a linear function of the explosive load.
Two different types of damping have been intro-
duced in the numerical model. The following parame-
ters have been evaluated in the calibration procedure:
 Figure 8. Operational blasting pit: Finite difference mesh.

Figure 7. Test pit, calibration analysis: Comparison between

measurements and analysis results.

Rayleigh-damping with 0.75% of the critical damp-

ing and an intermediate frequency of f = 2500 Hz.
Artificial viscosity, chosing Neumann-term and
Landshoff-term to 0.6 each.
Figure 7 shows the measured and calculated seismic
velocities for one selected point of the sealing system.
The velocities in y- and z- direction could be mod-
elled with sufficient accuracy. However, only 50% of
the measured values in the horizontal x-direction could
be reproduced numerically. One reason for the discrep- Figure 9. Operational blasting pit, 115 kg NEM: Seismic
ancy between measurements and numerical simulation velocities in the concrete raft.
is the fact that a spherical propagation of the blast was
modelled. In reality a grenade which was covered with
a carpet was the source of the blast. This yielded in
a directional blast which was not modelled numeri-
cally because of insufficient knowledge of the blast
direction.

3.5 Numerical analysis of the operational

blastings
After calibration of the numerical model, the situa-
tion during the planned operational blastings has been
investigated. For these investigations the numerical
model had to be extended to geometrical dimensions
of approximately x/y/z = 115 m/115 m/900 m (Figure
8). For the discretization of the system, 680,000 zones
have been introduced.
For the operational phase two blastings with differ- Figure 10. Operational blasting pit, 115 kg NEM: Strains in
ent explosive load have been investigated: the concrete raft.

250 kg NEM, depth of blasting chamber 2 m below

ground surface.
115 kg NEM, depth of blasting chamber 5 m below
ground surface.
As an exemplary result of the numerical analyses for
the 115 kg blasting, Figure 9 shows the seismic veloc-
ities which have been calculated for several points on
the concrete raft.
The maximum seismic velocities amount to approx-
imately v 400 mm/s at point 17 at the centre of the
raft. The other points which are located in a distance
between 5 m and 7 m from the centre of the raft show
a significant decrease of the seismic velocities.
The rather large seismic velocities at the centre
of the raft are accompanied by maximum strains of
0.005 % (Figure 10), which are sufficiently small
and are considered to be tolerable for the concrete raft.
The maximum principal stresses increase up to
1.4 MPa (Figure 11). This load is small compared
to the uniaxial stresses at failure of the concrete of
f > 20 MPa.

463

Figure 11. Operational blasting pit, 115 kg NEM: Maxi-
mum principal stresses in the concrete raft.
4 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
It can be stated, that the operational blastings with
explosive loads of 115 kg and 250 kg NEM, respec-
tively, probably will cause seismic velocities of
approximately v = 450 mm/s at the sealing system.
Seismic velocities of this magnitude have already been
measured in field tests and have been proofed as tol-
erable. In spite of this rather high seismic velocity, the
strains and stresses occuring at the sealing system of
464
the blasting pit will be rather small and will be toler-
able for the sealing system. The large scale field tests
and the numerical analyses have been essential in pro-
viding a reliable prediction of the strains and stresses
in the sealing due to a blast impact.
The investigations show the complexity when mod-
elling seismic problems. The numerical modelling
of dynamic loads and the evaluation of the relevant
material parameters proved to be challenging. The
calibration of the numerical model requires defined
boundary conditions which can be provided in model
test. However, for real structures or even large scale
tests the identification of boundary conditions can be
difficult. It is therefore one of the major future tasks
to broaden the experience and knowledge of dynamic
numerical analysis for the geotechnical engineering
practice.
REFERENCES
CDM Consult GmbH, 2009. project reports, unpublished,
Stuttgart (Germany).
ITASCA. 2006. Fast Lagrangian Analysis of Continua in 3
Dimensions FLAC3D , Vers. 3.1. ITASCA Consulting
Group, Minneapolis, Minnesota, US.
Krajewski, W.; Wei, J..; Ernst, D. 1998. Ertchtigung der
Drnage einer Deponie durch den Bau eines bergmnnis-
chen Stollensystems, geotechnik 21, Nr.3.
Plaxis bv. 2009. PLAXIS 2D, Dynamics Module. Version 9.
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Numerical analysis of the seismic behavior of vertical shaft

Sangseom Jeong, Yongmin Kim & Sungjun Lee

Yonsei University, Korea

Jungbum Jang & Yonghee Lee

Korea Electric Power Research Institute, Korea

ABSTRACT: Dynamic responses of a vertical shaft subjected to seismic loads in a layered soil were investigated
by using a three-dimensional Finite Element(FE) approach. The emphasis was on quantifying the load distribution
and deformation of the vertical shaft under earthquake loadings in a multi-layered soil. It was found that the
dynamic behavior of the vertical shaft was significantly influenced by the soil stratigraphy and input motion.
Based on the FE analysis results, the maximum values of shear force and bending moment occurred near the
interface between the soil layers. The deformation and loading values of vertical shaft was highly influenced by
the amplitude of earthquake for the case of the vertical shaft constructed in a multi-layered soil.

1 INTRODUCTION response spectra, and ground motion time histories.

South Korea suffers from serious lack of land space
due to its high population of about 47 million peo-
ple on a little less than 100,000 km2 of land and the
fact that 75% of the land space is mountainous. There
is a great demand for development of underground
space. Recently, a number of huge underground con-
struction projects such as subways, tunnels, and
underground infrastructures have been frequently per-
formed in urban areas. It is necessary to construct the
underground structure deeper and larger than existing
structure foundations and tunnels in the ground.
Vertical shafts are so essential to underground con-
struction such as a ventilation system, working place in
underground structures and vertical approach to deep
tunnel. However, vertical shaft has higher earthquake
risk as compared to horizontal tunnel since vertical
shaft is frequently constructed to multi-layered soil
which has amplified deformation and loading by the
earthquake waves.
Much work has been carried out on horizontal tun-
nels under seismic loads (An et al. 1997, Hashash et al.
2001, Huo et al. 2005, Kawashima 2006). A relatively
less work has been done on the vertical shaft, with most
works (Kaizu 1990, Kato et al. 1991, Ohbo et al. 1992)
focusing on the performance of vertical structures
which are limited to site-specific characteristics.
The seismic design of underground structure is
characterized in terms of dynamic deformation and
stress-strain relationships on the structure due to a fun-
damental deformation of the surrounding soil during
earthquakes. In case of vertical shaft, the special atten-
tion is given to evaluate the fundamental deformation
of the surrounding soil and the ground motion param-
eters such as peak accelerations, velocities, target
These relations are based on the premise that verti-
cal shaft under seismic loading will tend to deform
with the surrounding soil, and thus the structure is
designed to accommodate the free-field deformations
without loss of its structural integrity (Kaizu 1990,
Kawashima 2006). However, it is necessary to inves-
tigate the influence of soil and loading conditions on
the vertical shaft since there exist some uncertainties
among researchers.
The overall objective of this study is to perform
the rational and economical seismic design for ver-
tical shaft. Therefore, a series of dynamic finite
element (FE) analyses were performed for the defor-
mation characteristics, the shear force and the bending
moment developed in circular Reinforced Concrete
vertical shaft.
2 NUMERICAL ANALYSIS
In order to fully understand the seismic behavior of
vertical shaft, a detailed structure and its surround-
ing soil are modeled by Finite Element Method(FEM)
software package, ABAQUS (2008). This software is
a powerful, general purpose FEM program which has
been widely used in many seismic soil-structure inter-
action problems, and the code has been extensively
verified for static and dynamic analyses of under-
ground structures. It allows the frictional elements
between the ground and the structure.
Analyses and interpretations of the numerical
results focus on the shear force and the bending
moment of the vertical shaft. Issue including ampli-
tude of normalized acceleration along the surrounding
soil and the structure was considered in this paper.

465
2.1 Model description
The three-dimensional model includes standard finite
element techniques. The finite element mesh for a typ-
ical case is shown in Figure 1. The surrounding soil
has been modeled using three-dimensional 8-noded
solid hexahedral elements (Lee et al. 2006, Jeong &
Won 2009). The cross-section of the vertical shaft has
been represented by cylindrical shell elements with
a thickness of 0.5 m. The vertical shaft element is
assumed to remain elastic at all time, while the sur-
rounding ground is idealized as a linear elastic material
first and then as an elasto-plastic material. This model
was selected among the soil models in the library of
ABAQUS (2008). All the analyses were performed
considering a 60 m-height and a 9 m outer diameter
vertical shaft. The material properties of the reinforced
Figure 1. The finite-element model of the vertical section
of the shaft and surrounding ground.
Table 1. Material Properties.
concrete are: modulus of elasticity (E) of 28 MN/m2 ,
Poissons ratio () of 0.2, and mass density equal to
2500 kg/m3 . The surrounding soil consists of two layer
system. As shown in Figure 1, total depth (H), in a
vertical layer is 60 m. The first layer (h1 ) and second
layer (h2 ) of soil were varied from 20 m to 40 m. It
was assumed that the bedrock is located at a depth
of 60 m. Properties of material and ground conditions
for numerical analyses were summarized in Table 1,
where the parameters are listed: unit weight (), soil
and structure modulus (E), mean shear wave velocity
(Vs ), cohesion(c), internal friction angle (), Poissons
ratio ().
In dynamic analysis, both the structure and the sur-
rounding ground are modeled by three-dimensional of
FEM, an issue is the effect of the location and nature
of the lateral boundaries on the response of the soil-
structure system. This is needed because the model
of the continuum requires the existence of a finite
domain with well-defined boundaries. If the lateral
boundaries are created artificially, it becomes neces-
sary to determine appropriate conditions that simulate
the physical behavior on the actual system. The appro-
priate boundary conditions should work as energy
sinks rather than energy reflectors in the sense that
the energy transmitted to the lateral boundary through
the soil media should not be reflected back to the struc-
ture. Otherwise, the solution would be affected by the
reflected energy between the structure and boundaries
of the ground which does not exist in reality. In this
paper, viscous dashpot (damper) boundaries have been
placed on the right and left-hand artificial boundary. It
is based on the absorbing boundaries in order to simu-
late the radiation of energy. Viscous dashpot boundary
is achieved using horizontal and vertical viscous dash-
pots, which absorb the radiated energy from the P and
S waves, respectively. The efficiency of the viscous
dashpots is quite acceptable, but as it depends strongly
on the angle of incidence of the impinging waves the
dashpots were placed at the boundaries to improve the
accuracy of the simulation.
The interface between the structure and the ground
were modeled as a frictional surface. The contact can
open if there is a tensile normal stress or it can slip
if the magnitude of the applied shear stress is larger
than the shear strength, which is assumed to follow
the Coulomb friction law. A coefficient of friction, ,

Thickness E Vs c
Model (m) (kN/m3 ) (MPa) (m/s) (kPa) (deg)

Vertical Side wall Elastic 0.6 25 28,000 0.2

Shaft Top and bottom slab Elastic 0.5/1.0 25 28,000 0.2
Case A h1 Mohr-Coulomb 20 18 41 179 100 30 0.4
h2 Mohr-Coulomb 40 21 807 761 0 40 0.3
Case B h1 Mohr-Coulomb 30 18 41 179 100 30 0.4
h2 Mohr-Coulomb 30 21 700 761 0 40 0.3
Case C h1 Mohr-Coulomb 40 18 41 179 100 30 0.4
h2 Mohr-Coulomb 20 21 807 761 0 40 0.3

466

Figure 2. Input accelerations.
467
Figure 3. Comparison of shear force and bending moment
on vertical shaft (case A).
equal to 0.4 is assumed which corresponds to a fric-
tion angle of 22 ; no cohesion between structure and
ground is used (Huo et al. 2005).
In this study, a special attention was paid to the ini-
tial stress field of soil. In ABAQUS program, at first
the initial stress is established in soil through initial
condition command and the adding the gravity of soil.
In the actual application for soil, the stress induced
from the soil weight over the calculation point is con-
sidered as the vertical stress and the horizontal stress is
obtained through the vertical stress multiplied by the
lateral pressure coefficient K0 .
In this paper, the initial horizontal stresses in the
soil were set up according to a K0 value of 0.5. The
ground motions imposed at the bottom of the model
for the numerical analyses are the motions registered

Figure 4. Comparison of shear force and bending moment
on vertical shaft (case B).
at the Hachinohe and Ofunato in Japan. Also artificial
earthquake was made to evaluate the behavior of ver-
tical shaft as a ground motion. The input accelerations
are specified on the bottom of the soil and at rock
level, to account for the amplification effects of the
soil layer and its influence on the results. The applied
maximum horizontal accelerations were applied about
0.154 g (Figure 2).
3 NUMERICAL RESULTS
3.1 Shear force and bending moments on vertical
shaft
Figures 35 show the shear force and bending moment
distributions of vertical shaft in case A, case B and
468
Figure 5. Comparison of shear force and bending moment
on vertical shaft (case C).
case C, respectively. It shows the maximum value in
a certain time along the depth. It can be observed
that shear force and bending moment of vertical shaft
occurs maximum value at a point between the soil lay-
ers. The maximum shear force and bending moment
due to relative displacement is too large between
the soil layers; displacement of upper soil is larger
than lower soil. Also, based on case B result, shear
force = 1486.12 kN which is 1.6 times larger than the
value of 981.11 kN can be obtained for the vertical
shaft at point between the soil layers when the Ofunato
earthquake was induced.
Figure 6 shows the comparison of maximum shear
force and bending moment on vertical shaft. It can be
observed that shear force and bending moment occurs
at the largest value in the case A, and then the smallest
Figure 6. Comparison of maximum shear force and bending
moment on vertical shaft.

values in the case C ground. Earthquake waves and

ground conditions slightly affects the seismic response
of the vertical shaft.

3.2 Acceleration amplitude ration between vertical

shaft and ground
The influence of the ground conditions on the vertical
shaft response to the three earthquake was investigated
through analyses conducted for a value of acceleration
of the input motion (amax = 0.154 g). Figure 7 shows
the characteristics of vertical shaft and surround-
ing soil under earthquake loading. The normalized
acceleration(aeach_point /abottom ) at each point in the
surrounding soil and the vertical shaft was obtained
at points 0 m, 20 m, 40 m and 60 m respectively. It
can be observed that the normalized acceleration of
the vertical shaft is smaller than that of the sur-
rounding soil in three ground cases. These results
are based on characteristics of underground structure
which tends to deform with the surrounding soil. Espe-
cially, normalized acceleration which had most signif-
Figure 7. Spatial distribution of normalized acceleration
icantly occurred was estimated in the case A, because
along the vertical shaft and the ground for three earthquakes.
earthquake wave was amplified through a layered soil.

469
4 CONCLUSION
This paper is based on the analysis of the seismic
behavior of vertical shaft. Numerical simulations were
performed for three earthquakes using ABAQUS. The
main objective of this study is to investigate the rational
seismic design that can accommodate various factors
influencing the deformation of the vertical shaft. A
series of dynamic FE analyses were conducted to deter-
mine the behavior of the shaft under seismic loading.
Based on the findings of this study, the following
conclusions can be drawn:
1. Based on the FE results, it is shown that the
dynamic behavior of the vertical shaft is signifi-
cantly influenced by the soil stratigraphy and input
motion.
2. The location of maximum shear force and bending
moment is needed to be checked for seismic design
of vertical shaft. It is important to note that almost
all of the maximum values occur near the interface
between the soil layers.
3. The deformation and loading values of vertical
shaft and surrounding soil was highly influenced
by the amplitude of earthquake for the case of the
vertical shaft constructed in a multi-layered soil.
REFERENCES
ABAQUS theoretical users manual. 2008. Hibbit, Karlsson
and Sorensen, Inc.
470
An, X., Shawky, A.A. & Maekawa, K. 1997. The collapse
mechanism of a subway station during the great han-
shin earthquake. Cement and concrete composites. Vol.19:
241257.
Jeong, S.S. & Won, J.H. 2009. Effects of vertical load on
the lateral response of single pile and pile groups in clay.
International journal of geo-engineerirng. Vol. 1: 1120.
Kaizu, N. 1990. Seismic response of shaft for underground
transmission line. Proceedings from the Third Japan-U.S.
workshop in earthquake resistant design of lifeline facili-
ties and countermeasures for soil liquefaction. 513525.
Kato, K., Ohbo, K., Hayashi, K. & Ueno, K. 1991. Earthquake
observation of shaft and ground(in Japanese). Proceeding
of the 46th annual conference of the JSCE. 12611262.
Kawashima, K. 2006. Seismic analysis of underground struc-
tures. Journal of disaster research. Vol.1: 378390.
Lee, C.J., Lee, J.H. & Jeong, S.S. The influence of soil slip
on negative skin friction in pile groups connected to cap.
Geotechnique. Vol. 56: 5356.
Ohbo, N., Hayashi, K. & Ueno, K. 1992. Dynamic behavior
of super deep vertical shaft during earthquake. Earthquake
engineering 10th world conference. 50315036.
Hashash, Youssef M.A., Hook, Jeffrey J., Schmidt, B. & Yao,
John I.C. 2001. Seismic design and analysis of under-
ground structures. Tunnelling and underground space
technology. Vol. 16: 247293.
Huo, H., Bobet, A., Fernndez, F. & Ramirez, J. 2005.
Load transfer mechanisms between underground struc-
ture and surrounding ground: Evaluation of the failure of
the Daikai station. Journal of geotechnical and geoenvi-
ronmental engineering, ASCE. Vol. 131: 15221533.
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Numerical and experimental study of the detection of underground

heterogeneities

P. Alfonsi, E. Bourgeois, F. Rocher-Lacoste & L. Lenti

Universit Paris Est, LCPC, MSRGI, Paris, France

M. Froumentin
Centre dEtudes Techniques de lEquipement Normandie-Centre, Rouen, France

ABSTRACT: Ground investigation in urban areas is often limited to the identification of the main layers, but it
is not common to undertake to locate underground heterogeneities, although they can have a significant influence
on the delays, in case caves, buried foundations, or archaeological remains of great historic value are present in
the subsoil. In order to assess the performance of the methods that can be used to detect the presence of such
heterogeneities, a full scale experiment was carried out in which two anomalies with very different densities
have been buried at different depths in a ground layer. Experimental wave propagation tests were performed and
the results were compared with numerical simulations. We discuss to what extent numerical computations can
provide a way of getting valuable information if little experimental data is available.

1 INTRODUCTION

Ground investigation is seen as essential for majorpro-

jects (tunnels, railways) but generally very restricted in
common urban sites. However, many research works
in this field aim at the detection of voids in the sub-
soil, to prevent collapses caused by tunnelling or by
vibrations induced in the ground by high speed trains
(Picoux, 2002).
When underground works or excavations are made
urban areas, buried structures or archaeological
remains may be discovered and damaged. It is gen-
erally thought that micro gravimetry (which is based
on a accurate measurement of local variations of the
gravity field) or radar are fruitful for cavities detection
or archaeological prospection, but need fine tuning and
the results depend on the anisotropy of the materials.
Geophysical methods can be used to investigate the
structure of the subsoil from the surface, but they
do not seem to be very suitable in heterogeneous
grounds: electromagnetic methods (radars), seismic
methods (Baltazart and al, 2006), and other techniques
have been tested (Lagabrielle and Grandsert, 2005,
Lonard, 2001). Some researches aim at extending the
applications of such methods to more general contexts,
by improving the experimental devices (Leparoux and
al, 2000, Abraham and al, 2006) or the numerical
processing of the collected data (Chammas, 2002).
Another view point consists in assuming that soft-
wares performing three-dimensional computations
can be used to improve the insight gained from
experimental results. In order to verify this idea, we
have compared experimental results with numerical
Figure 1. Side view of the numerical model.
simulations. The main objective is to check that numer-
ical models can help analyzing experimental data, and
to define the appropriate numerical treatment that can
be applied to the signals in order to extract valuable
information regarding the subsoil structure.
2 EXPERIMENTAL SETUP
An experimental excavation was filled with two dif-
ferent materials, and two anomalies were buried at
different depths: one is a cavity (made of honeycomb
plastic structure), the other is a square area filled with
flint, denser than the surrounding ground. The dimen-
sions of the excavation vary between 15 m 15 m at
the maximum depth of 5 m, and 30 15 m at the
ground surface (fig. 1). It is enclosed in the space
between two vertical concrete walls. The underlying
layer is made of chalk. The excavation was filled with
a layer of sandy fill (for depths smaller than 2 m), and
a layer of limestone between 2 and 5 m in depth.
A simple investigation campaign was undertaken,
aiming at locating the heterogeneities on the basis of
wave propagation tests in the ground: a shock is emit-
ted at one point of the surface, and waves are measures

471
 Table 1. Mechanical properties.

Vs Vp
Materials (t/m3 ) E(GPa) (m/s) (m/s)

Natural ground 2.4 6 0.3 310 580

Fill 2.4 10 0.26 407 714
Limestone 2.2 3 0.32 227 442
Flint 2.8 40 0.2 772 1260
Concrete 3.4 50 0.18 1116 1787
Chalk 2.4 20 0.28 570 1032

Figure 2. Top view of the numerical model with the posi-

tions of the shocks and of the heterogeneities.

by means of geophones placed on the surface near

the impact. Six 3D geophones were placed on a line,
first in the vicinity of the cavity, then on a line located
between the heterogeneities. Shocks were emitted on
four different points, using a mace. For each test, geo-
phones were placed in line with the shock. The position
of the shocks are shown by the white dots on the top
view of figure 2, the other dots showing the positions
of the geophones. Tests 1 and 2 were carried out with
the shocks and the geophones on the upper line of the
figure, which goes above the cavity ; tests 3 and 4 with Figure 3. Close up on the first wave in the geophone signals.
the lower line (between the void and the flint zone).

3 NUMERICAL MODEL
Three dimensional finite element simulations (dynamic
and linear wave propagation analyses) are carried out
with the software package CESAR-LCPC. The dimen-
sions of the mesh reproduce the geometry of the actual
site. To simplify the mesh and to keep within the lim-
its of the available computation tools, the sizes of the
cavity and the flint zone are larger than the actual ones.
To model the propagation of waves by finite ele-
ments, one has to choose a suitable size for the ele-
ments, with respect to the wavelength, keeping in mind
that numerical tools do not make it possible to solve
arbitrarily large linear systems. Newmarks method
of direct integration is applied in basic dynamic cal-
culation for advancing the resolution in time. We
use the implicit values = 2. = 1/2 for the control
parameters.
The distance between nodes in the horizontal and
vertical directions was roughly 50 cm. The mesh
includes 45000 nodes and 45000 quadratic elements.
Displacements are set to zero on the lateral and lower
boundaries.
Properties of the materials are given in table 1; it is
recalled that wave velocity depends on the stiffness of
the material they propagate in, and that elastic moduli
of geomaterials in the range of very small strains are
much larger than the moduli generally adopted in the
analysis of the behaviour of geotechnical works under
service or limit loads.
4 RESULTS
4.1 Experimental results
Geophones provide displacements along three axis
every 0.001 second. The signals recorded by the six
geophones A, B, C, D, E and F, show clearly four
waves in the first seconds of the records of the vertical
component.
The velocity of waves across materials, and the time
needed to get around a cavity results in differences
in the measured vertical displacements for different
points of the ground surface. Such differences can be
seen by using a suitable time scale (fig. 3).
For each geophone, we point out the time between
the shock and the first minimum and the first max-
imum, for each of the four waves. An average value
of the time lags is computed (grey lines in figures 4
and 5).
The amplitude of the initial shock was not pre-
cisely controlled, so that reproducibility of the shocks
is questionable. Note also that the absolute values
of the vertical displacements depend on the shock,
which prevents from comparing results obtained for
two different shocks.
However, the shape of the averaged signal is slightly
different between a shock emitted above the cavity
(test 1, fig. 4) and a shock emitted at a larger dis-
tance from the anomaly (test 2, fig. 5). Nevertheless, it
remains difficult to define a detection procedure on the
basis of the experimental signals. We tried to achieve
this by means of numerical simulations.

472
Figure 4. Results of test n 1: time lags between geo-
phones responses (vertical scale is not relevant).
Figure 5. Results of test n 2: time lags between geo-
phones responses (vertical scale is not relevant).
4.2 Results of numerical simulations
Several simulations were carried out in various con-
figurations, some of them simpler than the actual
experimental structure. Numerical simulations were
performed at first for homogeneous ground layers in
order to obtain reference signals, then with anomalies,
either void or filled with a material (flint) in which
wave velocities are higher.
4.2.1 Simulation with one centered anomaly
In the first step, we performed simulations with only
one anomaly placed in the center of the excavation,
in the area (x, y, z) [7, 10 m] [8.5, 10.5 m] [4,
2 m]. Depending on the simulations, it is made of
limestone (i.e. identical to the surrounding ground) or
flint, or void. A vertical force is applied on the surface
at x = 8.5 m , y = 12.5 m ; the forces varies over a short
time interval, following a bell-shaped curve.
Figure 6. Numerical model for one single centered anomaly
(top view).
Figure 7. Amplitude of the vertical signal at different points
between y = 8.5 and y = 16.96 m.
The influence of the anomaly is discussed by com-
paring the displacements computed at the surface (at
the positions of the black dots of figure 6).
Results are compared with the vertical displace-
ments obtained if the fill and limestone layers are
homogeneous. Simulations reproduce 400 time steps
of 0.1 ms, and last roughly 2.5 hours on standard
hardware.
The vertical displacements computed at the surface
show a shift in the time for which the minimal value
is obtained, depending on the distance to the source
of the signal. This time lag is also clear for the first
peak of vertical upward displacement, then becomes
less distinct after 15 ms (fig. 7). It seems therefore
preferable to limit the analysis to the first 15 ms of
propagation. It can be noted also that the maximum
amplitude in obtained at the location of the signal
source, y = 12.5 m.
Figure 8 (respectively 9) shows the time lags
obtained for the first minimum (resp. maximum) of
the vertical displacement, for different points of the
surface.
473
Figure 8. Time lags for the first minimum of the vertical
displacement.
Figure 9. Time lags between the maximum vertical dis-
placement at the point of impact and at the current point.
Figure 8 shows no difference between the time lags
for the homogeneous material (limestone) and the void
anomalies (fig. 8). For a faster anomaly (made of
flint), there seems to be smaller lags on one side of
the anomaly (above the anomaly) and larger ones on
the other side.
Time lags show a singularity for the simulations
with a void (fig. 9), which might be simpler to detect.
Another way of looking at the results consists in
defining set of 642 nodes located at the surface in the
area (x, y) [2, 13 m] [8, 17 m] in order to perform
a Fourier transform of the vertical displacements. We
compare the amplitudes obtained for the frequencies
in two 20 Hz intervals, for a homogeneous layer and
for a layer containing a void or a dense anomaly, for
frequencies in the range 7090 Hz.
Figures 9 and 10 show clearly the position of
the impact, and one can see a dissymmetric pattern
between the zone of the anomaly and the area above
the impact (White dotted lines show the position of the
anomalies).
The results corresponding to frequencies between
90 and 200 hertz (not shown here) do not clearly indi-
cate the position of the anomaly, but also reflect the fact
that the presence of the anomaly modifies the signal
in the zone above the impact.
4.2.2 Simulations with two anomalies
The next step was to make a simulation with a model
geometry closer to that of the actual experimental site,
Figure 10. Ratio of the amplitude between the model con-
taining a void zone and the homogeneous model, for frequen-
cies in the range 7090 Hz. White dots show the position of
the void.
Figure 11. Ratio of the amplitude between the model con-
taining a flint anomaly and the homogeneous model, for
7090 Hz range frequencies. White dots show the position
of the anomaly.
with two anomalies relatively close to each other (and
located at two different depths):
a void zone at (x, y, z) [5, 7 m] [11.5, 13.5 m]
[4, 2 m ];
a flint zone at (x, y, z) [11, 14 m] x [ 9.5, 11.5 m]
x [5, 3 m ]. (note that the size of this dense
anomaly has been exaggerated).
In the simulations, a shock is emitted on a line situ-
ated between the anomalies, at (x, y, z) = (9 m, 11.5 m,
0). Displacements are plotted along the y direction,
for three parallel lines (x = 6, 9 and 12.5 m, respec-
tively above the void zone, the central homogeneous
limestone zone, and the flint anomaly).
No special feature of the curves makes it possible
to detect either of the anomalies (fig. 12).
Results obtained for x = 6 m shows a decrease of
the time lags above the cavity (fig. 13), however it is
474
Figure 12. Time lag between the impact and the first
minimum of the vertical displacement.

Figure 14. Ratio of the amplitude obtained with the model

containing anomalies and the homogeneous model, for the
frequency range 7090 Hz. White dotted lines show the
positions of the anomalies.

Figure 13. Time lags between the first maximum at the

impact point and the first maximum at the current point.

not so clear for the points at x = 12.5 m above the flint

anomaly.
In other words, the time lags between the first max-
imum of the displacement reflect the perturbation of
wave propagation by heterogeneities, but the signals
are difficult to interpret.
Spectral analysis of the computed displacement
has been performed on frequency intervals of 20 Hz.
Figure 13 shows the results obtained for the inter-
val [90110 Hz], together with the position of the
impact and of the anomalies. More precisely, the gray Figure 15. Time lags for the first minimum of the displace-
shades show the value of the Fourier transform of the ment, tests 1 and 2.
vertical displacement (or of the vertical velocity, or
acceleration) computed for the model with the hetero-
geneities, divided by the same value computed with
the homogeneous model. Numerical simulations show a good agreement
This method could in principle give a interest- between time lags between the emission of a shock
ing way of extracting relevant information from the and the reception by the geophones for test 2. Wave
numerical analysis, but the mesh is clearly too coarse velocity is well reproduced. Besides, the slope is rel-
to allow for a good spatial resolution of the anomalies. atively constant on either side of the impact which
leads to conclude that the velocity is almost uniform
over the zone covered by the sensors. In other words,
4.3 Comparison between experimental results the number of geophones does not allow to detect the
and simulations anomaly. For test 1, there is also a good agreement
between measures and simulations.
Tests involve too few geophones to perform such
As before, it can be observed that:
a Fourier analysis of the results. Nevertheless, we
have tried to compare the experimental results with there is a good agreement between simulations and
numerical simulations, for the configuration with two measures;
anomalies. the time lags do not reveal the position of the
We compare the results for a shock placed above anomalies, since the curves are almost symmetrical
the cavity (x=6 m), then for x = 9 m and x = 11.5 m. with respect to the position of the impact.

475

Figure 16. Time lags between the first maximum of the
displacements, tests 1 and 2.
Figure 17. Time lags for the first minimum of the vertical
displacement: comparison between measures and simulations
for test 4.
Other comparisons have been undertaken for a
shock located on the line x = 9 m, (test 4): the agree-
ment between the simulations and the experiment is
not so good (fig.17). Detecting the heterogeneities on
the basis of the time lags does not seem possible.
476
5 CONCLUSION
We have discussed the possibility of detecting a cav-
ity in a simple, bilayered ground mass, on the basis
of wave propagation tests. Emitting a shock at the
ground surface proves unsuccesful: we assume that
results could be more useful with a significantly larger
number of geophones, in order to see local variations
of the time of propagation of waves.
On the other hand, there is a good agreement
between the results of numerical simulations and the
experimental data.
This leads to the conclusion that more accurate
numerical models (with more nodes and a better
spatial discretization), and experimental setups includ-
ing a larger number of geophones together with the
appropriate acquisition devices might provide a way
of detecting underground heterogeneities from the
surface with relatively simple experimental means.
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laboratoires des Ponts et Chausses. LCPC publication,
4160.
Chammas, R. (2002). Caractrisation mcanique de sols
htrognes par ondes de surface. Thse de doctorat,
universit de Nantes, France.
Lagabrielle, R., Grandsert, P. (2005). Comparison of cavities
detection methods in a silt layer. Example of the SNCF test
site along the Paris-Lille high speed line.. Geoline Symp.
Lyon, France.
Lonard, C.(2001). Dtection des cavits souterraines par sis-
mique rflexion haute rsolution et par Impact Echo.
Thse de doctorat, universit de Lille, France.
Leparoux, D., Bitri, A., Grandjean, G. (2000). Underground
cavity detection: a new method based on seismic Rayleigh
waves. Eur. Journal of Environmental and Eng. Geo-
physics, 5, 3353.
Picoux, B. (2002). Etude thorique et exprimentale de la
propagation dans le sol des vibrations mises par un
trafic ferroviaire. Thse de doctorat, universit de Nantes,
France.
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Numerical modelling of impacts on granular materials with a combined

discrete continuum approach

A. Breugnot
EGIS Gotechnique, Seyssins, France
L3S-R, UJF-INPG-CNRS, Grenoble Universits, Grenoble, France

Ph. Gotteland & P. Villard

L3S-R, UJF-INPG-CNRS UMR 5521, Grenoble Universits, Grenoble, France

ABSTRACT: This paper investigates modelling of granular material submitted to high energy impact due to
block impact. An original combined discrete continuum method is proposed which permits to use discrete
element method to model precisely the complex behaviour of granular material in the vicinity of the impacted
zone while a continuum approach is used in farther areas. Coupled methods proposed are validated through simple
static and dynamic tests and, finally used to simulate high energy impact of a cubic impactant on a gravel layer.

1 INTRODUCTION Method (DEM) (Cundall & Strack 1979) seems to

The anthropization of mountainous regions raises the
problem of infrastructures (roads, railways, industrial
areas . . .) and inhabitants protection against risk of
rockfall. Zones defined as potentially risky, can be pro-
tected with civil engineering structures placed upward
to stop or deviate the trajectory of a falling rock.
Among structures protections, the dams (embank-
ments) and cushions covering rock sheds, benefit from
the capacity of geomaterials to absorb energy and
distribute loading through the structure.
The behaviour of ground structures submitted to
local impact due to rockfall is quite complex to
be characterized precisely. Indeed, high energy load-
ing induces large and irreversible deformations, high
strain rates and stresses in geomaterials which make
difficult the prediction of mechanical behaviour of
rockfall protection structures.
Consequently, their design suffers from a lack of
regulation and is often limited to static stability con-
sideration, and only a few approaches (Tissires 1999,
Ronco 2009) estimate the dynamical component of
impact braking force.
At this time the most sophisticated numerical
codes may assist in the analysis of the dynamical
phenomena induced by impact loading, using either
continuum (Pichler et al. 2008, Peila et al. 2007)
or discrete approaches (Plassiard 2007, Calvetti et
al. 2005, Bertrand et al. 2005). Indeed, models are
often calibrated with experimental results, and per-
mit to enlarge analysis to other configurations tests
(parametric study).
Considering the granular nature of geomaterials,
and numerous rearrangements and fractures that take
place in the most solicited areas, the Distinct Element
be particularly adapted to model local mechanical
behaviours in geomaterials under dynamical impact.
However, the use of this approach, to model large
scale works, requires a large number of particles,
which increases both the times of modelling and
computation.
In order to improve the design of larges struc-
tures, modelling needs to maintain accuracy in highly
stressed areas while representing the mechanical
behaviour of the global structure.
Consequently, an innovative and original multi-
scale approach is developed (Xiao & Belytschko 2004)
to improve the computational efficiency: a discrete
element method is coupled with a continuum mechan-
ical model, which resolution can be far coarser than in
DEM. Thereby, continuum domain, adapted to mate-
rials with non significant discontinuities, is used as a
boundary condition.
The first part of the paper is devoted to the proce-
dure of the combined discrete continuum elements
method.The use of such combined approach for granu-
lar material is validated through a simple configuration
tests, in static and dynamic applications. In the second
part, simulations, modelling an impact with a cubic
impactant on a soil layer, are led to show the prospects
of this combined approach.
2 COMBINED DISCRETE CONTINUUM
METHOD
2.1 General coupling method and methodology
Research concerning combined discrete contin-
uum approaches began in the early eighties, and was
led in physical domain in order to study materials

477
Figure 1. Discrete and continuum scaling factors in over-
lapping domain.

behaviour at molecular scale. Since then, the coupling Figure 2. Discrete element position in a continuum volume
methods and domains application were widely devel- belonging to bridging domain.
oped (Munjiza 2004, Itasca 2006, Onate 2003, . . .).
Xiao & Belytschko (2004) and Xiao & Hou (2007) pro-
posed two different decompositions of domains which
permitted to link continuum and discrete domains,
either with an edge-to-edge method or with a
bridging domain method, to study dynamical wave
propagation or crack propagation in micromechanical
structures.
In the latter case, discrete and continuum domains
are overlapped in a bridging subdomain, where Hamil-
tonian H is taken to be a linear combination of
the discrete and continuum total energies (Fig. 1),
respectively HDiscrete and HContinuum (Equation 1).
Figure 3. Projection of discrete element position on a
continuum surface belonging to edge-to-edge domain.
In bridging zone, discrete and continuous displace-
ments are linked to ensure continuity between the two For the simpler edged-to-edge model, the Hamil-
domains. The displacement dj (Xj ) of a discrete par- tonian is defined as the sum of discrete and continuum
ticle j, localized by vector position Xj , is written dj ones (no scaling) because domains are disjoint. Aim-
(Equation 2). The continuum displacement u(Xj ), at ing at formulating seamless method for non ordered
the same localization Xj , can be expressed in terms discrete element sample, the kinematics constraints
of displacement ui of the 8 nodes i = a to g, which are calculating using displacement of fictive nodes j
surround discrete particle j, by the mean of kinematic (localized by position vector Xj ) obtained by orthog-
relations k ji (Equation 3). The two domains are finally onal projection of position vector Xj in the vicin-
constrained via Equation 4: discrete displacements are ity of the junction, on the continuum plane border
required to conform to the continuum displacements at (Fig. 3). Kinematic relations and constrains become
the positions of particles. The difference between dis- (Equation 5 & 6):
crete and continuum displacements is characterized by
vector of residual displacements g.

where nodes i = a to d, are the 4 nodes surrounding

Originally formulated for ordered particles, the
formulation of the method, proposed by Xiao and
Belytschko, remains relevant for amorphous sample
used to model geomaterials.
fictive node j in the plane junction.
Combined problem is solved by minimizing mod-
ified Hamiltonian HL for the complete model, using
the Lagrangian multiplier method to ensure con-
tinuity in bridging domain (Equation 7). An explicit
algorithm is used for dynamical application and the

478
 Table 1. Characterization of elasticity in discrete element
model.

Elastics kn ks
Parameters N/m N/m

Gravel 1.77e6 R 0.35e6 R

Natural Soil 3.78e6 R 1.13e6 R

Table 2. Characterization of plasticity in discrete element

model.
Figure 4. Representation of coupled samples used for Plastics cf bn bs
static triaxial tests. (a) bridging model (b) edge-to-edge Parameters N N
model.
scheme of resolution is detailed in Xiao Belytschko Gravel 1.0 1.78e5 R2 1.78e5 R2
Natural Soil
2004 and Frangin et al. 2006.

In our approach, distinct element method (DEM)

(PFC3D code, Itasca) is employed in the discrete
domain while finite difference method (FLAC3D code,
Itasca) is employed in the continuum domain. Imple-
mentation of the coupled approach in these two differ-
ent codes is motivated by the fact they have TCP/IP
socket connection ability which permits data trans-
mission at each calculation step to control and correct
displacements at combined boundary.

2.2 Validation of coupling methods

2.2.1 Triaxial quasi-static test Figure 5. Vertical stresses (Young modulus characteriza-
In this section, these coupled methods are compared tion) in sample during triaxial test: comparison of coupled
and validated through static and dynamic tests. models with full continuum and full discrete models.
First, a numerical triaxial test is performed on a
cubic elastic sample (Fig. 4) (length = 3 m), character-
ized by a Youngs modulus E = 500 MPa and a Poisson
coefficient = 0.32. When it is used, the granular
material is modelled by spherical particles of various
diameters (ratio of 2.0 between the greater and smaller
particles) associated together by rigid elastic bonds.
The contact properties in discrete domain are equal to
those of Natural Soil material in section 3, and are
summed up in Table 1 & 2. For quasi-static solicitation,
local damping coefficient is set to 0.7 in both discrete
and continuum approaches.
The confining pressure conf apply on the lateral
faces is constant and equal to conf = 10 kPa. Figure 6. Lateral strain (Poissons effect) in sample dur-
The bridging or edge-to-edge models can be ing triaxial test: comparison of coupled models with full
compared with continuum and discrete approaches. continuum and full discrete models.
Vertical stresses and lateral strains measured numer-
ically are very close whatever the model employed.
Only lateral deformation curve for DE method 2.2.2 Dynamical compression test
presents a quite different behaviour. Apparent Youngs The coupling methods are also tested for dynamical
modulus (Fig. 5) and Poisson coefficient (Fig. 6) application, in particular for wave propagation into an
are overall unchanged for coupled models: material elastic medium. The same four models are handled for
continuity is ensured at the transition areas. Implemen- this validation test (Fig. 7). The material properties
tation of Edge-to-edgeand bridgingcoupling meth- are identical to those established in the previous static
ods are validated for elastic material in quasi-static test, except damping coefficient which is set to zero
application. for dynamical application.

479
Figure 7. Schematic representation of coupled samples used
for dynamic tests. (a) Bridging model (b) Edge-to-edge
model.
Figure 8. Imposed dynamical stress loading at the top of the
discrete element model.
Figure 9. Displacements in samples during dynamical sim-
ulation: comparison between different approaches.
A dynamical force load (t) is applied on the head
of each sample, and in order to evaluate their dynam-
ical behaviour, vertical displacements are recorded at
points A(0,0,3) and B(0,0,1.5).
Amplitudes and frequencies numerically calculated
are very similar for all samples. It should be noted that
errors on peaks dont exceed 35% (Fig. 9). These
480
Figure 10. Scheme of the bridging coupled model, defined
by two overlapping zones.
insignificant differences are partly inherent to cou-
pled models: constraining degree of liberty can slightly
modify local mechanical behaviour.
These previous dynamical tests provide interesting
results regarding the capability of combined model to
describe dynamical behaviours in elastic domains.
3 IMPACT BLOCK SIMULATION
3.1 Model description
In this section we employ coupling methods to inves-
tigate modelling possibilities of a rock impact on
geomaterial layer or later on a global structure.
The model presented thereafter is adapted from
experimental research, described by Pichler et al.
2005, concerning the loading of layers of gravel sub-
jected to rockfall. The experimental approach is based
on measurements or estimations of penetration depth,
impact force and impact duration when a cubic rock
impacts onto the ground with a tip.
The following model is composed by a trench of
4 m width and 2 m depth, dug in natural soil, and
filled by well-graded gravel (Fig. 10). In the dif-
ferent approaches, mechanical behaviour of gravel
is described by elasto-plastic behaviour to take into
account the absorbing energy capacity of gravel. The
natural soil is not submitted to high load, and is
modelled by elastic behaviour. It can be viewed as a
boundary condition.
Bloc impact on gravel is simulated with the edge-
to-edge and bridging combined model, and entirely
discrete one in order to validate the numerical pro-
cesses.
The transition between discrete and continuum
approaches must take place in elastic domain (natu-
ral soil). Elastic parameters of the gravel cushion were
estimated by the mean of tests on the embankment

Figure 11. Penetration and impact force calculated by
coupled and discrete approaches.
(E = 196 MPa, = 0.36), but no significant informa-
tion were available to estimate plasticitys parameters.
First, to validate the combined discrete contin-
uum approach the discrete element model retained is
rather simple, composed only by spherical element.
The inter-particular interactions are characterized by
local normal and shear stiffnesss (kn and ks ), normal
and shear local bonds (bn and bs ), and a local fric-
tion coefficient (cf ). Using spherical elements tends
to limit the macro friction angle to values around
30 (Chareyre 2003) which can be considered as a
low value for gravel. The choice of a local friction
coefficient cf = 1.0 (45 ) lead to a macro friction
angle of = 29 , and the local bond normal bn and
shear bs strength are fitted to obtained a macro cohe-
sion c = 16 kPa. Micro-mechanical parameters (kn and
ks ) of the natural soil insure an elastic behaviour
characterized by E = 500 MPa and = 0.32).
The mechanical parameters for discrete numerical
simulation are summarized Table 1 & 2. It should be
noted that values of kn , ks , bn and bs are not intrinsic
to a material but depend on particle radius chosen for
soil modelling. Note that damping coefficient is kept
to zero for impact simulation.
481
Table 3. Penetration and impact force obtained experimen-
tally and simulated numerically for an 850 kJ impact.
Block Experimental
V = 13 m/s & m = 104 kg Pichler et al. (2005) Numerical
Penetration 0.51 m 1.15 m
Max. Impact Force 3.5 MN 2.5 MN
The shape of the impactant block is quite cubic,
has a masse of around m = 10,000 kg, and is sup-
posed very stiffer compared to the impacted soil. Fall
is not calculated but consequently, the velocity of the
boulder was initialized to v = 13 m/s, which corre-
spond to a 8.5 m high fall. The kinetic energy of the
impact is almost E = 850 kJ which corresponds to the
experimental work of Pichler et al. (2005).
3.2 Calculation results and comments
During impact, penetration and resulting force on
the cubic impactant are recorded to be compared to
experimental measures (Pichler et al. 2005).
The response of the model based on coupling meth-
ods is close to the entirely discrete one (Fig. 11), and
draws the prospects of this approach to model large
geometry of structure which need locally accurate
description.
However, due to simplifying assumptions made to
model the gravel soil, the comparison with experimen-
tal and analytical results given by Pichler et al. (2005)
show that dynamical resistance of the gravel layer is
under-estimated. Indeed, experimental penetration and
analytical impact force are respectively 50% lower and
40% upper (Table 3).
These differences can be partially explained by
both static characterisation of the mechanical param-
eters and no consideration of dynamical effect during
impact (energy dissipation, local plasticity, braking of
grains, etc.).
First, the macro mechanical parameters ( = 29 ,
c = 16 kPa), affected to the gravel material to describe
plasticity, are determinate by the analysis of the peak
resistance for triaxial. Post-failure, resistance is very
weaker, mainly because of the low residual resistance
retained for well-graded gravel in large deformations.
Thus, mechanical behaviour needs to be updated to
simulate upper friction angle in geomaterial, in intro-
ducing rolling resistance at each contact (Plassiard
2007), in inhibiting rotation degrees of freedom (Cal-
vetti et al. 2005) or using non-spherical particles
(Bertrand et al. 2005, Salot et al. 2009) for instance.
Another explanation is issued from the phenomenon
of particles ejection observed numerically around
impact (Fig. 12). The model seems not to dissipate
enough energy, and the elastic restitution is over-
estimated, for shallow discrete element, compared
to experimental observations. The actual constitutive
law, calibrated from quasi-static triaxial tests, can not

Figure 12. Cross section of the DE model after impact.
Visualisation of particles ejection in the vicinity of impact
area.
model phenomenon as viscosity, compaction and local
breaking in high loaded areas.
Dissipations, due to interparticle sliding (friction)
or break of cohesive bond, are not sufficient to repre-
sent all sources of dissipation during impact. Aiming
at improving the response of the granular material, and
in the same time the validity of this model, additional
dissipative laws need to be implemented.
4 CONCLUSION
An innovative combined discrete continuum ele-
ment method has been adapted to study mechanical
behaviour of large civil and geotechnical engineering
structures. Validated by means of static and dynamical
elementary tests, prospects of coupling methods are
then evaluated through the boulder impact on a gravel
layer. In this case, the good accordance between dis-
crete and continuum discrete element methods shows
the interest of such method to describe locally impact
phenomenon.
At this step, the limits of the numerical model are
based on the description of the dissipative behaviour
of high loading granular material. Local constitutive
laws needs to be further developed to take into account
dynamical behaviour of granular under high energy
impact.
In the framework of REMPARe research project
(www.rempare.fr), high energy impact experiments
(2000 kJ) have been performed to test protection dams
at real scale. Experimental data should permit us to feat
our model in order to optimize and improve protection
structure design.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The work presented in this paper was performed in the
framework of the French research development project
482
REMPARe (www.rempare.fr) supported by the French
National Research Agency (ANR). All the partners of
project REMPARe, as well as the research consortium
VOR-RNVO for the financial support (Software), are
gratefully acknowledged by the authors.
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Calvetti, F. Di prisco, C. & Vecchiotti M. 2005. Experimental
and numerical study of rock-fall impacts on granular soils.
Rivista Italiana di Geotecnica 4.
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cal model for granular assemblies. Gotechnique 29(1):
4765.
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composites sol gosynthtique par lments discrets.
Application aux ancrages en tranches en tte de talus.
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of combined finite/discrete element method for impacted
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Itasca Consulting Group. 2006. Fish in PFC3D, AC/DC
(Adaptive Continuum/Discontinuum) logic.
Munjiza, A. 2004. The Combined Finite-Discrete Element
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Peila, D. Oggeri, C. & Castiglia C. 2007. Ground rein-
forced embankments for rockfall protection design and
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of rocks onto gravel. Design and Evaluation of experi-
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559578.
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2008. Semi-probalistic design of rockfall. Comput Mech
42: 327336.
Plassiard, J.-P. 2007. Modlisation par la mthode des l-
ments discrets dimpacts de blocs rocheux sur structures
de protection type merlons. Thse de doctorat, universit
Joseph Fourier, Grenoble.
Ronco, C. Oggeri, C. & Peila D. 2009. Design of reinforced
ground embankments used for rockfall protection. Natural
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 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Numerical simulations of the dynamic impact force of fluidized debris flows

onto structures

F. Federico & A. Amoruso

University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy

ABSTRACT: Mechanical effects due to the impact of fluid-like debris flows against structures are analyzed.
Current design criteria usually neglect the impulsive component of the phenomenon to evaluate the exerted
thrust, although recent theoretical and experimental studies pointed out its importance. The results of experiments
reported in literature are not easily comparable, since recorded impact pressures are widely scattered and seem
to depend on several factors. Numerical analyses (FEA) of the impact against structures aiming to highlight the
mechanics of this phenomenon have been carried out; results allow to analyze the impulsive phase, identify the
most important physical and mechanical governing factors, forecast possible mechanical effects. The analytical
and numerical evidences finally suggest a different, possible interpretation of lab tests.

1 INTRODUCTION

The analysis of the dynamic interaction between fluids

and solids involves different areas of civil engineering;
referring to debris flows, hydraulic and geotechnical
engineers devoted specific attention to the trigger-
ing (Musso & Olivares 2003), fluidization (Musso
et al. 2004, Hungr 2003) and runout phenomena (Iver-
son 1997) rather than to the impact against structures
(Armanini 1997, Scotton & Deganutti 1997).
Events like the ones occurred in Sarno and Quindici
(Campania, Italy), in May 1998, prove the destruc-
tive power of the high-velocity fluid-like debris flows.
They originated from the shallow pyroclastic soils
of the Appennino Campano, covered a distance up
to 4 km and reached the inhabited areas (Revellino
et al. 2004), causing death and widespread damage Figure 1. Impact of debris flows. (a) general scheme of
to structures. the impact between a fast moving debris flow and a (solid
Modeling of debris flow surges is difficult, due to or deformable) body (a structure or a block); (b) simplified
the diversity of substances composing debris flows: schemes to study the impact phenomena; (1) blocks (isolated
water, mixtures of granular and fine particles in water or in groups), eventually transported by fluid flow; (2) dry
and large solid particles such as boulders; solid con- or saturated granular mass; (3) fluid-like debris flow (a wide
centration, for example, strongly affects the rheology range of solid concentration is allowed).
of these mixtures. Solid fraction made of fine parti-
cles (silt and clay) can be incorporated into the fluid or Herschel-Bulkley approaches are assumed; thus,
and the grains act as part of the fluid (Iverson 1997). the fluid is described as a single-phase material that
Typical values of density of such flows range from remains rigid until the deviatoric stress exceeds a
1000 to 1500 kg/m3 ; the viscosity lies in the interval threshold value (Iverson, 1997). Seminara & Tubino
0.0010.1 Pa s (Iverson, 1997). (1993) propose a general theoretical framework for
The analysis of the impulsive phase of the impact mixtures of fluids and granular matter, based on the
force by debris flow should take into account the dif- mass and momentum balances of a control volume,
ferent properties of the flow (Fig. 1). The selection of considering that the mixture and both the solid and
a suitable flow resistance law which describes the flow fluid components behave like compressible fluids.
regime, by taking into account the physical properties, Literature on impact shows that a modified value of
still constitutes a complex problem. The propagation the hydrodynamic pressure exerted by an incompress-
of a fluid-like debris flow is often modeled through a ible fluid flow (proportional to the square of velocity,
visco-plastic constitutive behaviour, and the Bingham Hungr 2003, or a multiple of the hydrostatic force,

483
Armanini 1997), usually approximate the unknown,
impulsive action.
By this way, the impact force assumes a constant
value. Analytical or numerical studies regarding the
evolution with time of the impact force acted by
fluid-like debris flows against a structure, are not
developed, yet.
In coastal engineering, on the other hand, recent
works (Peregrine 2003, Bullock et al. 2004) report
original advanced theoretical and experimental results
of the impact of sea waves against structures. The same
AA. sustain that the dynamics of fluid-structure inter-
action is not completely understood, yet; geometrical
(wave shape), kinematical (impact velocity) and phys-
ical and mechanical (presence of air in the fluid, solid
concentration, . . .) variables control the phenomenon.
Their role must be carefully evaluated to identify the
actions which determine ultimate limit states of the
structure under impact, their evolution with time and
to distinguish the effects related to the impulsive from
those ones related to the hydrodynamic phases.
Water waves and debris flows are characterized by
different pressure and velocity fields; however, if a uni-
formly progressive flow is considered (Hungr 2000), a
surge with constant velocity can be considered. Results
pertaining to coastal engineering appreciably differ
from the ones obtained in the study of debris flows.
To interpret this difference, FEA are carried out and
results are compared to those ones obtained through
theoretical models; the proposed procedure finally
allowed some mechanical effects, such as the displace-
ment of a free, rigid block resting on a rough surface
or the collapse of a reinforced concrete pillar, to be
numerically analyzed.
2 NUMERICAL ANALYSES
2.1 Overview
The dynamic interaction between flow and structures
often plays a key role in the efficiency and safety of
engineering applications. Fluid flow is governed by
non-linear partial differential equations; in many sit-
uations, the flow spans a huge range of length scales,
the non-linearity of the governing equations resulting
in the transfer of energy from a length scale to another
one. Due to this complexity, to solve the governing
equations of fluid mechanics problems, many innova-
tive numerical methods have been proposed; generally,
the computational domain needs to be divided into
discrete components; different numerical methods are
based on different discretization techniques, which can
be roughly grouped into two main groups: grid-based
methods (FEM, FDM) and meshless methods (SPH,
DEM).
Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) method
allows the solution of the equations of dynamics,
expressed in Lagrangian form, to be obtained.
Although initially developed in astrophysics, the
method has been applied to solve non trivial problem
of fluid dynamics, otherwise treated through Eulerian
484
Figure 2. Impact of a 2D rectangular fluid domain against
a rigid structure. (a) geometry of the problem (3D view:
displacements are not allowed along the direction 3); (b)
geometry of the problem (2D view; Walkden et al., 2001).
schemes: free surface flows (Monaghan 1992), waves,
unsteady jets, fluid-structure interaction.
The method is based on the discretization of the
computational domain into a finite number of mov-
able points which represent fluid particles; the field
of motion is then obtained by interpolating, through
suitable functions, the values of the state quanti-
ties (density, velocity, . . .) of each particle. As stated
before, the acceleration of the particles is calculated
by solving the equations of motion (Euler equations,
Navier-Stokes equations, Shallow water equations) in
Lagrangian form.The reduction of the whole number
of movable points allows to reduce time computation;
however, by this way, the problem of particle defi-
ciency near or on the boundaries arises (Monaghan
2005).
Different procedures have been developed to prop-
erly treat problems concerning contact and impact
between bodies (Oger et al. 2006), but this aspect has
not been univocally cleared.
One of the main features of the SPH method lies in
the introduction of an equation of state (EOS) describ-
ing the behaviour of a compressible fluid, through the
celerity c0 of sound waves in the fluid.
However, the actual values assumed by this param-
eter would lead to extremely small (thus, prohibitive)
computational time steps.
Being the maximum velocity (vmax ) of the flow in
the numerical simulations a priori known (or esti-
mated), to simulate the behaviour of an almost incom-
pressible fluid (negligible density variations), a small
value of the Mach number:
is imposed (Ma << 1); c0 is thus easily obtained, but
its value, generally, have no physical meaning.
2.2 The FE code
Numerical analyses of the impact between a fluid and
a solid body have been carried out by means of FE
Abaqus\Explicit code; the explicit time integration
procedure is based on the implementation of a central
difference rule (Bathe 1995). The meshes of both the
fluid and the solid domains are made of C3D8R ele-
ments (8-node linear bricks, reduced integration with
hourglass control).
2.3 Treatment of contact
The implemented contact algorithm models the master
and the slave interacting surfaces. The master surface
pushes into the slave surface; as a reaction, contact
forces are generated to prevent that the nodes of the
slave surface penetrate the master surface. Contact is
established with contact pairs which use a kinematic
contact algorithm that enforces contact constraints and
conserves momentum. At the beginning of each time
increment, the kinematic state of a model is modi-
fied according to a predicted configuration, without
considering the contact conditions.
The slave nodes that penetrate the master surface
are then determined; the depth of each nodes penetra-
tion, the corresponding associated mass and the time
increment are used to calculate the force necessary to
resist the penetration. If this force had been applied
during the increment, it would have caused the slave
node to exactly contact the surface.
The resisting force at each slave node is defined
through a common hard contact condition (as opposed
to a penalty contact condition); no pressure is transmit-
ted between the considered surfaces if their nodes are
not in contact. Any contact pressure can be transmitted
between the surfaces in contact.
2.4 Adaptive meshing
In the numerical computations, the fluid domain has
been defined as an Adaptive meshing domain.
Adaptive meshing technique makes it possible to
maintain a high quality mesh throughout the analy-
sis, even if large deformations occur. This is achieved
by allowing the mesh to move independently of the
underlying material.
The adaptive meshing technique in the code follows
the work of Van Leer (1977) and combines the features
of a pure Lagrangian analysis and an Eulerian analysis.
Therefore, it is often referred to as an ALE (Arbitrary
Lagrangian Eulerian formulation). A smoother mesh
is created by sweeping iteratively over the adaptive
domain.
During each mesh sweep, nodes in the domain are
relocated based on the positions of neighboring nodes
and element centres. A volume smoothing technique is
used to improve the quality of the mesh and one mesh
sweep is performed after each increment.
2.5 Advecting solution variables to the new mesh
The ALE method of adaptive meshing introduces
advective terms into the momentum balance and mass
conservation equations. These account for the inde-
pendent mesh and material motion. The code solves
these modified equations by decoupling the material
485
motion from the mesh motion. It has been proven that
this technique has a high computational efficiency.
In an adaptive meshing increment, the element
formulations, boundary conditions, external loads,
contact conditions, etc. are all handled first in a manner
consistent with a pure Lagrangian analysis.
Once the Lagrangian motion has been updated and
the mesh sweeps have been performed to find the
new mesh, the solution variables are remapped by
performing an advection sweep.
Both momentum and field variables are advected
during an advection sweep. This procedure is per-
formed following the work of Benson (1992), ensuring
that the advecting momentum is properly conserved
during remapping.
The applied method, known as the Half-Shift Index
method, first shifts each of the nodal momentum vari-
ables to the element centre; the shifted momentum is
then advected from the old to the new mesh. Finally,
the momentum variables at the element centres of the
new mesh are shifted back to the nodes.
2.6 Constitutive model of the fluid
In case of floods (5 10 % concentration of sediment
by volume) as well as of hyperconcentrated flows (up
to 40% of sediment concentration), the fluid behaviour
is controlled by water (USGS 2005). In computations,
it is defined through the state equation [p = f ()],
according to the linear Hugoniot explicit form:
the variable v and the parameters 0 , co being previ-
ously defined.
By setting the material and kinematic parameters
s = 0 and G0 = 0, it is obtained the bulk response
p = Kv = KU /c0 where K = 0 c02 . For water, if
0 = 1000 kg/m3 , c0 = 1450 m/s, U = 5 m/s, it results
p = 7.25 MPa.
The code allows the user to define the devia-
toric behaviour, through the Newtonian viscous fluid
model: S = 2 e; where Sis the deviatoric stress, the
fluid viscosity and e the deviatoric component of the
strain rate.
The deviatoric and volumetric responses are thus
uncoupled. A rigid behaviour for the fluid-bottom
interface has been considered.
3 FEA RESULTS
The impact pressure increments (p) vs time (t),
as a function of the position along the depth of the
considered point, is represented in Figure 3.
The maximum theoretical pressure (pmax ) is
attained only in the lowest part of the fluid domain,
(points B and C, Fig. 3); from the top to the bottom of
the fluid front, the confinement action increases and
Figure 3. Impact pressure p computed for three points on
the fluid front vs the elapsed time t after the impact. Point A
is located 5 cm below the free surface. The geometry of the
impacting fluid mass is h = 1 m, b = 1 m, L = 2 m; the fluid
properties are c0 = 1450 m/s, 0 = 1000 kg/m3 . The impact
velocity is U = 5 m/s; pmax = 7.25 MPa.
Figure 4. Impact of a rectangular fluid front; c0 = 1450 m/s;
pressure development over the fluid domain.
the maximum pressure lasts longer at the bottom of
the fluid front.
The numerical analysis approximates the actual,
continuous fluid pressure evolution through dis-
cretized time steps; thus, it doesnt allow to model the
almost instantaneous growth and subsequent decrease
to nil values of the fluid pressure in those points
belonging to both the free and the impact surfaces.
A minor error can be observed in numerical results
obtained for the fluid pressure excess in the point A
(Fig. 3), located 5 cm below the free surface.
Different simulations have been carried out taking
into account two different celerity of sound waves, c:
c0,1 = 1450 m/s (pure water) and c0,2 = 150 m/s (water
with a small volumetric fraction of entrained air).
For both simulations, the impact velocity was equal
to 4 m/s and the value of viscosity = 0 has been
assigned to the fluid; this parameter doesnt play
a remarkable role on the time evolution of impact
pressure increments (Federico et al. 2005).
3.1 Results obtained for c0,1 = 1450 m/s
The distribution of the pressure at the fluid front,
for some prefixed instants, is reported in Figure 4;
at the impact, an increment of pressure involves the
whole fluid front, including the free surface (Fig. 4a,
t = 0.154 ms after the impact); however, after just the
486
Figure 5. Impact of a rectangular fluid front; c0 = 150 m/s;
pressure development over the fluid domain.
new time increment (t = 0.266 ms after the impact,
Fig. 4b), at the borders and on the whole lateral surface,
the pressure vanishes. In Figures 4c, d (respectively
0.378 ms and 0.490 ms after the impact) it is shown that
the maximum impact pressure (pmax = 5.80 MPa) is
reached only in the central portion of the fluid domain;
moving from the centre towards the border, the pres-
sure progressively reduces and the area characterized
by maximum pressure decreases with time.
3.2 Results obtained for c0,2 = 150 m/s
The pressure evolution after the impact is reported
in Figure 5. The dynamics of the impact is similar
to the one obtained for c0,1 = 1450 m/s; however, as
expected, the characteristic time is bigger.
Larger times in fact are needed (Fig. 5a, b) to ensure
an appreciable dissipation of the borders pressure; in
this case, furthermore, the maximum pressure is less
than the previous case. The maximum theoretical value
is pmax = 0.60 MPa.
Another set of computations have been carried out
for the geometrical scheme reported in Figure 2a, in
order to evaluate and to compare the impulse I to
the values obtained by Walkden et al. (2001), under
the hypothesis of incompressible fluid behavior. The
results are reported in Figure 6. FEA results fall
between the two extreme theoretical responses (elastic
and inelastic impacts).
The analysis of the impact of 2D waves charac-
terized by a triangular cross section has been the-
oretically carried out by Cooker (2002), referring to
both incompressible and compressible behaviours. In
the numerical scheme a 3D domain has been set up;
the lateral displacements (horizontal direction perpen-
dicular to velocity vector U ) of the waves have been
constrained, in order to force a 2D-like behaviour.
The domain has been subdivided into about 22800
elements (tetrahedrons); the time integration step is
approximately equal to 106 s.
It can be shown (Federico et al. 2004) that, if the
curvature of the fluid front increases, the impact lasts
longer and the impact force decreases, due to the
different time evolution of pressure over the zones
progressively impacting the solid.

Figure 6. FEA; impact of a rectangular fluid front: ratio
I /4a2 U vs the dimensionless ratio b/2a describing the
geometry of the fluid domain. (I , impulse).
Figure 7. Triangular isosceles water-wave (H = 1 m)
impacting a vertical, rigid, fixed, impermeable wall (impact
velocity U = 5 m/s). (a) (c) pressure p within the cross
section of the wave after the impact; (a) t1 = 0.5 ms after the
impact; (b) t2 = 2.5 ms; (c) t3 = 4.5 ms. The black straight
lines mark the theoretical, Cooker (2002), boundary of the
maximum pressure domain (p = pmax ) at times t1 , t2 , t3 .
Pressure increment pmax and impulse I , instead,
dont vary appreciably.
Time evolution of the fluid pressure, for some
instants after the impact, is reported in Figure 7a, c.
The zone characterized by the maximum pressure
pmax (pmax = 7.25 MPa) changes with the time; the-
oretical Cooker (2002) and numerical results agree
although a sharp transition between the pmax domain
and the p = 0 zone is not obtained.
These results are referred to a fluid domain char-
acterized by a planar, vertical front; this geometry
induces, at the impact, a simultaneous increment of
fluids pressure over the whole front.
487
4 CONCLUDING REMARKS
Design criteria in literature, taking into account the
mechanical effects due to the impact of fluid-like
debris flows against structures, usually neglect the
impulsive component of the phenomena to evaluate the
exerted thrust. The results of experiments in literature
are not easily comparable (Federico & Amoruso 2008,
2009), since recorded impact pressures are widely
scattered and depend on several factors. Therefore,
especially in lab experiments, a key role is played
by the position of pressure transducers, coupled to
the optimal frequency of data acquisition, that govern
the recorded values of the impact time interval and
maximum pressure.
To better understand this phenomenon, FEA analy-
ses of the impact against structures have been carried
out; results allow to analyze the impulsive phase,
to identify the most important governing factors, to
foresee possible mechanical effects.
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Armanini, A. 1997. On the dynamic impact of debris flows.
Armanini & Michiue (eds), Recent developments on
debris flow: 20826. Springer.
Bathe, K.J. 1995. Finite element procedures. Englewood
Cliffs: Prentice-Hall.
Benson, D.J. 1992. Momentum advection on a staggered
mesh. J. Comput. Phys. (100): 14362.
Bullock, G., Obhrai, C., Muller G., Wolters, G., Peregrine,
D.H. & Bredmose, H. 2004. Characteristics and design
implications of breaking wave impacts. In: Proc. of 29th
Int. Conf. Coastal Eng., ASCE, Lisbon.
Cooker, M. J., 2002. Liquid impact, kinetic energy loss
and compressibility: Lagrangian, Eulerian and acoustic
viewpoints. J. Eng. Math.(44): pp. 259276.
Cooker, M.J. & Peregrine D.H. 1992. Wave impact pressure
and its effect upon bodies lying on the sea bed. Coast Eng
(18): pp. 205229.
Cooker, M.J. & Peregrine D.H. 1995. Pressure impulse theory
for liquid impact problems. J. Fluid Mech, (297): 193214.
Federico. F., Musso, A. & Amoruso, A. 2005. Impact of
a fluid-like debris flows on reinforced concrete pillars.
Numerical simulations and back-analyses of a failure case.
ICF Congress XI Post Symposium on Damage and
Repair of Historical and Monumental Building.
Federico, F., Amoruso, A. 2005. Numerical analysis of the
dynamic impact of debris flows on structures. ISEC 03
3rd International Structural Engineering and Construc-
tion Conference, Shunan, Japan.
Federico, F. & Amoruso, A. 2008. Simulation of mechani-
cal effects due to the impact of fluid-like debris flows on
structures. Italian Journal of Engineering Geology and
Environment, 524, 2008.
Federico, F., Amoruso, A. 2009. Impact between fluids and
solids. Comparison between analytical and FEA results.
Int. J. Impact Engrg. (36): 154164.
Hungr, O. 2003 Flow slides and flows in granular soils.
Picarelli L. (ed), Proc. Int. Workshop on Occurrence and
mechanisms of flow-like landslides in natural slopes and
earthfills, Sorrento., 3744.
Iverson, R.M. 1997. The Physics of debris flows. Review of
Geophysics, 35, (3): 245296.
Monaghan, J.J. 2005, Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics,
Reports on Progress in Physics, 68, 17031759.
Musso, A., Federico, F. & Troiano, G. 2004. A mechanism of
pore pressure accumulation in rapidly sliding submerged
porous blocks. Computers and Geotechnics, 31, (3):
209226.
Musso A., Olivares L. 2003. Flowslides in pyroclastic soils:
transition from static liquefaction to fluidization.
Invited Lecture Proc. Int. Workshop on Occurance and
mechanisms of flow in natural slopes and earthfills.
Sorrento, Italy, May 2003.
Oger G., Doring M., Alessandrini B. & Ferrant P. 2006.
Two-dimensional SPH simulations of wedge water entries.
Journal of Computational Physics, Volume 213, Issue 2,
April, Pages: 803822.
Peregrine, D.H. 2003. Water-wave impact on walls. Ann Rev
Fluid Mech, (35): 2343.
Revellino, P., Hungr, O., Guadagno, F.M. & Evans, S.G. 2004.
Velocity and runout simulation of destructive debris flows
and debris avalanches in pyroclastic deposits, Campania
region, Italy. Environ Geol., (45): 295311.
Seminara & Tubino 1993. Debris Flows: mechanics, pre-
vention, forecasting, G.N.D.C.I.-C.N.R. Monograph (in
Italian).
USGS 2005. Distinguishing between Debris flows and floods
from field evidence in small watersheds. USGS fact sheet
20043142.
Van Leer, B. 1977. Towards the ultimate conservative dif-
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Walkden, M.J., Wood D.J., Bruce T. & Peregrine D.H. 2001.
Impulsive seaward loads induced by wave overtopping on
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488
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Three dimensional analysis of seismic performance of an earthfill

dam in Ethiopia

B.G. Tensay & W. Wu

Institute of Geotechnical Engineering, BOKU, Vienna, Austria

ABSTRACT: The seismic performance of earth dams is usually studied by two dimensional space. However,
considerable effort is required to estimate the overall three dimensional dynamic response of dams in a narrow
canyon from plane strain analyses of the dam. This is so because the plane strain analysis normally ignores
the arching effect of the valley. Researches reported in this paper represent 3D numerical study of an earthfill
dam founded on a liquefiable foundation subjected to earthquake loading and effect of canyon geometry on
its seismic performance. The shape of the canyon is varied to determine the related effects to the earth dam. A
finite difference numerical scheme is used for the study. The assumed 3D model contains all details of the dam
body and foundation materials of Tendaho earthfill dam in Ethiopia. Results and discussions related with the
significance of these two factors for the seismic performance evaluation of earth dams are presented.

1 INTRODUCTION on dams. Gazetas (1987) discussed the historical

In numerical modeling, it is usually intended to sim-
plify the real structure by eliminating regions that are
believed to have minor effect on the desired results.
This is mainly due to the lack of proper simulating
tools, as well as insufficient knowledge of the relevant
affecting factors. One of the important stages in the
design of earth dams is the exact evaluation of irrecov-
erable volume and porewater pressure through out the
dam body as a result of shaking. This can be explained
in terms of evaluating the seismic performance of the
dam.
The seismic performance of earthfill dams is often
performed in two dimensional (2D) space, which
demands selection of the critical cross sections of
the dam. However, considerable judgment is required
to estimate the overall three dimensional dynamic
response of a dam in a narrow canyon from plane
strain analyses of individual critical sections of the
dam. In addition as the two dimensional consideration
requires such simplifications as eliminating the effect
of the canyon geometry, the two dimensional deforma-
tion analysis is believed to render inaccurate results.
This is so because the plane strain analysis normally
ignores the arching effect of the valley which is par-
ticularly relevant for dams in narrow valleys. For this
purpose the effect of the canyon geometry is studied by
carrying out 3D model of a real dam site. The assumed
3D model contains all details of the dam body and its
foundation of Tendaho earthfill dam in Ethiopia but
with variable valley configuration.
Since the 1971 San Fernando earthquake in Cali-
fornia (Ming and Li, 2003), major progress has been
achieved in the understanding of the earthquake action
developments of theoretical methods for estimating
the dynamic response of earth dams to earthquake
ground excitation. Progress in the area of geotechnical
computation and numerical modeling offers interest-
ing facilities for the analysis of the dam response
in considering complex issues such as the soil non
linearity, the evolution of the pore pressure during
the dam construction procedure and real earthquake
records. Detailed analysis techniques include equiva-
lent linear (decoupled) solutions, and non linear finite
element and finite difference coupled or decoupled
formulations.
Tendaho dam project over river Awash is located in
the north-east of Addis Ababa, capital city of Ethiopia.
It is among the largest dams in the country. It is a
zoned earthfill dam with fill volume of about 4 Mm3
and expected to impound about 1.8 Bm3 water for irri-
gation purpose. The length of the dam crest is about
412 m and its maximum height at the river section is
about 53 m. The width of the dam is about 10 m at the
crest and 412 m at the widest point in the foundation
level. The Tendaho dam is built on an alluvium con-
sisting of alternating layers of mudstones siltstones,
conglomerates and sandstones.
This paper presents a numerical study that investi-
gates the seismic performance of the Tendaho earthfill
dam taking into account the canyon geometry and
ground conditions.
2 GEOLOGICAL SETTING OF DAM SITE
Tendaho dam site is located within an area known as
the Tendaho graben, which forms the center of Afar

489
Figure 1. Typical geological profile along the dam axis.
triangle. The volcanic rocks are composed of material
of sea floor spreading as a result of crustal plate separa-
tion of Arabia and Africa during Tertiary times. Due to
tensile tectonic strain acting along three rift lineations,
the NWSE oriented Tendaho graben, a fault-bounded
basin, is formed.
The cores from the boreholes show the lake deposit
to be a mixed assemblage of silt, clay, sand, calcareous
inclusions, mudstones, sand stones, and conglomer-
ates. The typical geological profile of the dam site is
shown in Figure 1.
The dam site is located in western and southern parts
of highly complex fault zone of Afar triangle. Many of
the fault scarps are of recent date and the area is seis-
mically active. From the regional seismicity review,
earthquakes with magnitude, M, greater than 6 can
be expected. The Tendaho dam design project recom-
mends a peak acceleration of 0.18 g for the Operating
Basis Earthquake, OBE. Moreover, the regional seis-
micity study required 0.3 g for the Maximum Credible
Earthquake, MCE.
3 CONSTITUTIVE MODEL
The seismic concern of an earthfill dam is the devel-
opment of large displacement that could endanger the
safety and serviceability of the dam. Such movements
depend on the earthquake loading, the geometry of
the dam, and the strength properties of the materials
of the dam and foundation, valley geometry and the
ground water conditions. For the calculation of these
movements, a 3D finite difference modeling FLAC3D
is used during the dynamic analyses. The behaviors
of the geomaterials are described by an elastic-plastic
Mohr-Coulomb constitutive model. This is so because
490
the elastoplastic analysis constitutes an efficient tool
for the investigation of stability of dams under seismic
loading when there exist few data like the case here.
The seismically induced settlement could be used for
the evaluation of the stability of the dam.
3.1 Numerical model
The numerical analyses are conducted using the finite
difference program FLAC3D. The analyses are carried
out within the framework of plasticity. This program is
based on a continuum finite difference discretization
using the Langrangian approach (FLAC3D, 2005). In
this numerical model, the equations of motion are
derived for a continuum media. And the equations of
motion are used to obtain the velocities and displace-
ments from stresses and forces. The strain rates are
then calculated according to the new nodal velocities
in each element.
To analyze the problem, the strain-rate tensor and
rotation rate tensor can be written as follows:
where vi is the deformation velocity and vi, j is the
velocity gradient. The equation of motion is written as:
The constitutive equation can be written out in gen-
eral as:
Figure 2. Dam geometry and its zone (not to scale).
" Accordingly, the grid size or element size for the dif-
where ij is the co-rotational stress-rate tensor, Hij
is the constitutive function, and is a parameter,
which takes into account the loading history. The
co-rotational stress rate tensor is defined as follows
dij
is the material time derivative of .
dt
The above equations are solved by finite differ-
ence method. A coupled calculation with dynamic
groundwater flow is performed to determine the
excess pore pressure. Regarding the mechanism of
pore pressure generation, an empirical equation that
relates the increment of volume decrease, vd to
the cyclic shear-strain amplitude, , and accumulated
irreversible volume strain , vd is used (Byrne 1991)
where C1 and C2 are material parameters, which vary
according to the sand type. These parameters are
estimated from the following relationships
where Dr and (N1 )60 are the relative density and SPT
blow counts corrected for energy respectively.
The dynamic loading is applied at the base of the
foundation layer as an acceleration time history. The
frequency content of the input motion and the veloc-
ity of the propagating waves affect the accuracy of the
numerical solutions. For appropriate wave propagation
through an element, the maximum element size, xmax
has to be smaller than one-tenth to one-eighth of the
wave length,. This wave length corresponds to the
highest frequency component, f , that contains appre-
ciable energy of the input motion. This is according
491
to the recommendation by Kuhlemeyer and Lysmer
(1973). Therefore xmax /10 is used in this study.
From the seismic record analysis, the highest angu-
lar frequency of the input motion is about 15 rad/sec.
ferent materials of the dam body and the foundation
are determined as shown in Figure 3.
The Free-Field Boundaries are used to absorb the
outward waves originating from the structure.This sys-
tem of boundary condition involves the execution of
free-field calculations in parallel with the main-grid
analysis. The lateral boundaries of the main grid are
coupled to the free-field grid by viscous dashpots to
simulate a quiet boundary.
The Sigmoidal hysteretic damping with four param-
eters is used in the analyses for the energy dissipation
through the medium.
4 DAM GEOMETRY AND MATERIAL
PARAMETERS
The basic general geometry, zones and slopes of the
earthfill dam considered are shown in Figure 3. It
consists of the following zones.
Zone 1: Impervious core.
Zones 2A & 2B: Shell (sandy gravel).
Zone 3: Transition zone (fine sand)
Zone 4: Filter Zone (coarse sand).
The dynamic properties used in this work are taken
from Seed et al. (1986). Except the lake deposit, the
maximum shear modulus of all materials is considered
to vary with the mean effective stress according to the
formula:
But for the lake deposit Gmax = (Vs )2 with the
shear wave velocity Vs = 1 km/sec is used. The val-
ues used for the coefficient K2max are listed in Table 2
along with other soil parameter. The materials that
are assumed to liquefy are modeled with the pore-
water pressure generation model proposed by Finn
(1975). The other materials are modeled with the
Mohr-Coulomb constitutive model. The shear strength
envelope is specified by friction angle and cohesion.
The model parameters for the different materials of the
dam body as well as the foundation are given in Table 1
and 2.
 Table 1. Zone material property.

Zone

Property 1 2A 2B 3 4

Specific gravity, Gs 2.72 2.70 2.70 2.70 2.70

Dry density, (kg/m3 ) 1600 1800 1800 1800 1800
Porosity, n 0.41 0.33 0.33 0.33 0.33
Permeability, k (m/s) 2.5 108 5 105 1 106 1 105 1 104
Cohesion, c (kPa) 7 0 0 0 0
Friction angle,  ( ) 25 34 34 34 34

Table 2. Material property.
Material Poissons ratio, K 2max
Mixed clay core 0.34 40
Sandy gravel shell 0.3 90
Alluvium foundation 0.3 70
5 SEISMIC LOADING
As there is no acceleration time history at / or around
the area, the commonly used acceleration time history
for earthquake resistant design, the 1940 El Centro
(California) earthquake is used, Figure 4. This earth-
quake had a magnitude of 7.1. The base line correction
and filtering of the raw acceleration record is car-
ried out. So this modified and scaled to different
magnitudes is applied to the considered earthfill dam
model.
6 DYNAMIC ANALYSIS RESULTS
In order to know whether the canyon geometry has
an effect on the seismic performance, different 3D
seismic simulations for different shape of canyon and
earthquake magnitudes are carried out. The obtained
results are compared and correlated. From the results
of the analyses and correlations created, the canyon
geometry under which three dimensional behavior is of
importance in the dynamic response of a dam are deter-
mined. And the resulting correlation is then applied to
the seismic performance of the Tendaho earthfill dam.
The results of the analysis give a clue which model
(2D or 3D) to use for the problem at hand.
In order to investigate the effect of the canyon
geometry on the seismic performance of earth dams,
different valley configuration are considered, Figure 3.
The numerical model outlined above has been
applied to four different cases of canyon geometry.
The dynamic analysis is carried out for the horizontal
El Centro earthquake scaled to different acceleration
magnitudes, 0.15 g, 0.3 g and 0.6 g.
For the sake of illustration crest settlement contours
for one slope angle 20 is plotted in Figure 5. The crest
settlement time histories for the different slope con-
sidered are plotted in Figure 6. The parameter m is the
tangent of the slope angle of the valley from the hori-
zontal. In addition, the maximum crest settlements for
different canyon geometries and different magnitude
of earthquake acceleration are presented in Figure 7.
The results of the analysis show that the canyon
effect is highly pronounced for dams with tangent of
slope angle of valley greater than about 0.5. An m
value of 0.5 is equivalent to a slope angle of about
27 . This effect decreases with decrease in the magni-
tude of the acceleration. The canyon effect diminishes
with decrease in the value of the slope angle below
about 27 .
In addition to the canyon effect of the dam, the dan-
ger of liquefaction of the alluvium foundation material
of the dam was evaluated. Based on the preliminary
evaluation of liquefaction susceptible of the alluvium
material, there is a danger of liquefaction. In addition
the shell materials are assumed to liquefy. So in the
dynamic analysis of the dam, the alluvium and shell
material are assumed to liquefy and the analysis is
carried out for two different peak ground acceleration,
PGA magnitudes, the MCE, and OBE.
For the case considered, a maximum crest settle-
ment of 0.80 m and maximum horizontal crest dis-
placement of 2.11 m has been predicted under the
action of MCE, Figure 8 and 9. The same case was ana-
lyzed for the OBE, and a maximum crest settlement of
0.63 m is predicted.
7 CONCLUSIONS
From the results of analyses for the different shapes
of the valley with the data from Tendaho dam, the
following important conclusions are drawn:
1. The canyon effect diminishes with decrease in
the slope of the valley below about 27 , two
dimensional analyses can suffice for dams with
are constructed on valley with slope less than
about 27 .
2. Plane strain analysis (2D) gives conservative results
as compared to real 3D analysis. If plane strain anal-
ysis (2D) is carried out for dam to be constructed
in valley with slope angle greater than about 27 ,
then the analysis will be on the safe side. In the case

492
Figure 3. 3D model of dam along with the valley.
Figure 4. Modified input acceleration time history.
Figure 5. Crest settlement contours for angle of slope
of 20 .
Figure 6. Crest settlement versus dynamic time for differ-
ent slope of valley (0.3 g).
where carrying out 3D model analysis is expensive
then a 2D model analysis with reduction factor that
takes the arching or canyon effect into account can
be done.
493
Figure 7. Crest settlement versus slope of valley, m for
different magnitude of accelerations.
Figure 8. Time history of horizontal and vertical displace-
ment at the dam crest.
3. As far as the Tendaho dam is concerned, the angle
of the slope varies from about 26 to 30 with the
vertical which corresponds to m values of 0.49 and
0.58 respectively. Based on this, the effect of the
canyon shape on the dam is not significant.
4. The results of the dynamic analysis carried out
using hysteretic damping based on the finite differ-
ence numerical method indicate that displacements
are concentrated near the crest of the dam.
5. The peak ground accelerations are predicted to be
amplified from 0.3 g at the base of the model to
about 0.7 g at the crest for the Tendaho dam. This
corresponds to an amplification value of about 2.4.

Figure 9. Time history of vertical displacement at the dam
crest.
6. A peak horizontal crest displacement of magnitude
2.11 m and peak crest settlements of 0.80 m are
predicted.
7. From the results it was observed that with increas-
ing level of earthquake magnitude the effect of the
canyons shape becomes significant.
494
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generation model. In: Billaux et al. (eds), Proc. of the 2nd
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Academic Publishers, USA, ISBN 0-412-98891-7.
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Proc. Int. Conf. Microzonation, Seattle, Washington.
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Reinhold, New York, NY.
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age using geotechnical centrifuges, Special section on
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Lagrangian Analysis of Continua in 3 Dimensions.Version
3.0. Minneapolis, Minnesota, MN 55401.
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ltd, Canada.
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Design Displacements of Rigid Retaining Walls, Proc.
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Slopes and cuts
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Effect of updated geometry in analyses of progressive failure

A.S. Gylland
Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway

H.P. Jostad
Norwegian Geotechnical Institute, Oslo, Norway, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim,
Norway

ABSTRACT: Case records of progressive failure in Sweden and Norway shows excessive propagation of failure
zones into horizontal ground accompanied by soil heave in the passive zone. According to static equilibrium
analyses the passive resistance in these zones is theoretically exceeded. Thus, the horizontal propagation should
stop due to this passive failure mode. This paper aims at investigating the mechanism of progressive failure with
special attention to the effect of updated geometry and horizontal propagation by comparing FEM calculations
with and without updated mesh together with case records and a simple analytical method. In the simulations,
the effect of passive heave is limited whereas the case records show considerably higher values. This clearly
demonstrates that this type of failure mechanisms is not fully understood and more detailed investigation of this
problem is required.

1 INTRODUCTION have a rate dependent strength (Berre & Bjerrum

Progressive failure can occur in slopes of strain soft-
ening material and is often recognized by large slide
events triggered by a limited local disturbance. In
Norway and Sweden such slope failures are often asso-
ciated with soft, sensitive and quick clays. The mecha-
nisms involved in progressive failure have been widely
discussed (Bishop 1967, Bjerrum 1967, Bernander
2000, Andresen et al. 2002, Andresen & Jostad 2004,
Gylland et al. 2010) and the reader is referred to these
publications for further details.
One of the features with downward progressive
failure is the occurrence of zones down slope with
extensive passive heave, often spreading far out into
horizontal ground. Some examples where this was
highly apparent are the Surte landslide in 1950 (Jakob-
son 1952), the Tuve landslide in 1977 (Larsson &
Jansson 1982), both occurring close to Gothenburg
in Sweden, and the Bekkelaget landslide in 1953 in
Oslo, Norway (Eide & Bjerrum 1954).
The cases of Tuve and Surte have been analyzed in
terms of progressive failure by (Bernander 2000) and it
is found that the passive resistance in the slope theoret-
ically is exceeded during the failure process. However,
no passive failure mechanism occurs in the field.
Instead the failure zone propagates near horizontally
into almost flat terrain.
To explain this feature, two hypotheses are pro-
posed. First, the passive heave occurring during the
failure process increases the passive resistance and
thus forces the failure surface to propagate further hor-
izontally. Second, it is known that these clay materials
1973). This effect might become considerable in a slid-
ing process and thereby increase the passive strength of
the material. In both these cases, inertia effects should
be included.
This paper aims at investigating the mechanism of
progressive failure with special attention to the effect
of updated geometry.
2 METHOD AND PARAMETERS
2.1 FEM analysis
The FEM analysis presented herein are performed
using Plaxis 2D version 9.02.
2.1.1 Softening related issues
The framework of rate independent elasto-plasticity
has some issues when using strain softening materials.
Such a material will locally develop negative second
order internal work which makes it locally unstable
(Hill 1958, Rudnicki & Rice 1975). This implies that
strains might localize in thin zones (shear bands). In
the FEM the shear band will shrink to the minimum
size given by the element size, type and orientation
(Pietruszczak & Mrz 1981). This implies that the
results obtained from a FEM analysis with a soften-
ing material will depend on the mesh discretization
(de Borst et al. 1993). To obtain mesh independent
solutions a regularization technique must be used
(Tikhonov & Arsenin 1977).

497
 In this paper no regularization other than the ele-
ment size is used to set the width of the shear band. The
element scaling technique proposed by Pietruszczak &
Mrz (1981) is utilized to have representative soften-
ing behavior in the shear band.
2.1.2 Updated mesh procedure
In the updated mesh analysis the effect of geome-
try change on the equilibrium conditions is included.
Plaxis 2D uses the co-rotational rate of Kirchhoff stress
and an Updated Lagrangian formulation (Plaxis 2009).
2.1.3 Material model
The material model used is the elastic-perfectly plastic
Mohr-Coulomb model in Plaxis. Plane strain condi-
tions are used. The material is set to undrained and
effective stress parameters are used as input. Strain
softening behavior is achieved by using a negative dila-
tancy angle. In the model the stress state will move
downwards along the Mohr-Coulomb line once fail-
ure is reached. The tension cutoff criterion is used to
control the residual strength. Figure 1, together with
equations 1, 2 and 3, describes the situation in an s t
stress space. These expressions can be derived by using
the basic equations of the material model.
Figure 1. MC model with negative dilatancy.
Figure 2. Model geometry.
498
Here c is the cohesion, the friction angle, the
dilatancy angle, the Poissons ratio, E the Youngs
modulus, tens the tensile strength and 0 the effective
initial stress. The peak strength is controlled by the ini-
tial stress state and the effective stress parameters. The
residual strength is constant with depth and controlled
by the friction angle, cohesion and tension cut-off cri-
terion. The softening modulus is given by the elastic
stiffness, Poissons ratio, friction angle and negative
dilatancy angle.
2.1.4 Geometrical model
A 6 m thick flat terrain of sensitive clay with a 2 m high
sand fill is analyzed. Load is added at the top of the
fill and increased using incremental multipliers until
failure occurs. Here, failure implies the formation of a
definite failure mechanism. The geometry is shown in
Figure 2. The flat terrain is chosen to better isolate the
geometry effects and to avoid self propagating failure
zones as can be seen in slopes (Bernander 2000).
To generate constant strength with depth, a heavy
material is added to the surface during the generation
of initial stresses with the soil unit weight set to zero.
Jakys formula (K0 = 1 sin ) sets the ratio between
the initial major and minor principal stress. 5354 6-
noded triangular plane strain elements are used. This
gives a sufficiently fine mesh to avoid severe align-
ment. The average equivalent shear band thickness in
the model is 0.9 m.
2.1.5 Material parameters
Table 1 gives the parameters used. Two stiffness values
are chosen, one that can be regarded as stiff (mod-
els x.1) and one that is very soft (models x.2). The
softening modulus is kept constant by balancing
according to the change in E. The sr /su -ratio is set to
0.75 for models 1.x while it is 0.25 for the others. The
undrained shear strength (su ) is set constant equal to
41 kPa. The tensile cut-off criterion and the dilatancy
angle are used to obtain the desired softening modulus
(SM ) and residual strength (sr ).
 The parameters chosen give a ratio between the Equilibrium requires P2 = P1 T . By expressing
softening modulus and shear band thickness of approx- these forces in terms of stresses and assuming con-
imately 330. The corresponding ratio for the sensitive stant undrained strength with depth and that Sr acts
Onsy clay is 1500 for active loading, 1000 for direct along L one obtains the expression given in Equation
shear and close to 0 for passive loading when using 4. It is here assumed that the passive resistance can be
the sample size as length scale (Lacasse et al. 1985). expressed as passive = Nr su . With full friction along
This implies that the material simulated here can be the vertical face where P1 and P2 acts, the value of Nr is
regarded as mildly sensitive with respect to the rate of 1 + /2. The parameter M represents the ratio between
softening. passive1 and passive2 meaning that M > 1 implies fail-
The finite element model (used for both Models ure along line 1 and M < 1 implies failure along line
1.x and 2.x) is shown in Figure 2. Models 3.x have 2. The minimum size of the parameter L is given by
the same geometry, but the softening material is only the geometry of zone 1 for the assumptions
made in
applied to a 0.6 m, one element thick layer at the base. this simplified model, L = H0 2. Inserting this in
The overlying material is modeled as perfectly plastic. equation 4 one obtains the graph shown in Figure 10
These models are used for two reasons. First, soften- where M is plotted as a function of H /H0 and sr /su .
ing is very limited in passive loading of sensitive clays Note that no softening is assumed along the passive
(Lacasse et al. 1985). Second, when a passive failure failure line, only on the horizontal propagation plane.
zone starts to develop in a softening medium, resis-
tance will be lost in this failure mode. Although there
is some passive heave, this increase in resistance might
be less than the softening induced loss. This results in
a situation where the first passive failure surface will
give the final situation almost unaffected by passive
heave.
A mechanism that is not included in the model is the
2.2 Analytical model case where L approaches zero. This represents a mech-
anism where the passive failure zone is continuously
A simple analytical model is developed in order to pushed forward based on a surface slope gradient cri-
analyze the effect of passive heave from standard limit terion. Since this information is not available for the
equilibrium based earth pressure theory. Figure 3 illus- case records studied, the presented formulation is used.
trates a simplified situation where the earth pressure
in front of the passive heave zone (2) is given by P2 .
P1 gives the earth pressure in the heave zone (1). The 3 RESULTS
force T is the shear force at the base between these two
zones. 3.1 FEM analysis
Figures 4 to 9 show the failure surfaces for the different
Table 1. Material parameters. models. Results from the calculations with and with-
out update mesh are presented in the same figure. In
Model ID 1.1 1.2 2.1 2.2 3.1 3.2 Fill all cases a failure zone developed horizontally before
a more circular surface formed as the final failure
[ ] 25 25 25 25 25 25 35
c [kPa] 5 5 5 5 5 5 5
mechanism.
[ ] 3.73 18.54 3.75 18.54 3.75 18.54 0 For models 1.x and 2.1, there is almost no difference
[] 0.35 0.35 0.35 0.35 0.35 0.35 0.35 in the obtained failure mechanisms. For model 2.2 the
E [kPa] 8000 1000 8000 1000 8000 1000 10000 updated mesh analysis terminated before forming a
[kN/m3 ] 20 20 20 20 20 20 17
tens [kPa] 30.4 30.4 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.0
SM [kPa] 300 300 300 300 300/0* 300/0*
su [kPa] 40 40 40 40 40 40
sr [kPa] 30 30 10 10 10/ 10/

* Models 3.x have a softening layer under a non-softening.

Figure 4. Model 1.1. E = 8000 kPa, sr /su = 0.75.

Figure 3. Analytical passive heave model. Figure 5. Model 1.2. E = 1000 kPa, sr /su = 0.75.

499
 Table 2. Capacity loads.

Without update mesh Update mesh

Load Disp. Load Disp.

Model [kPa] [m] [kPa] [m]

Figure 6. Model 2.1. E = 8000 kPa, sr /su = 0.25. 1.1 166 0.24 184 0.22
1.2 173 1.77 260 2.03
2.1 102 0.22 118 0.21
2.2 85 2.21 125 1.60
3.1 147 0.38 201/308 0.38/2.84
3.2 186 3.10 286 2.90

Figure 7. Model 2.2. E = 1000 kPa, sr /su = 0.25.

Figure 8. Model 3.1. E = 8000 kPa, sr /su = 0.25.

Figure 9. Model 3.2. E = 1000 kPa, sr /su = 0.25.

Figure 10. Comparison of FEM calculations and analytical
definite final failure mechanism because of a nearly model.
singular stiffness matrix. Studying the incremental
strains for the last steps a shear surface as illustrated Table 3. Passive heave.
by the dotted line in Figure 7 is indicated. For mod-
Model Passive heave [m]
els 3.x, with softening material only in a thin layer at
the base, longer horizontal propagation is seen. For 1.1 0.020.06
model 3.2, the conventional analysis gave more hori- 1.2 0.100.50
zontal propagation compared to the updated geometry 2.1 0.020.07
calculation. It should be noted that the horizontal fail- 2.2 0.200.60
ure zone for model 3.2 propagated to the left boundary 3.1 0.050.20 (0.101.50)
before passive failure occurred. 3.2 0.200.5
Table 2 compares the maximum capacity loads and
corresponding vertical displacement at the center of
the fill. All calculations displayed two peaks in the load Ranges of passive heave obtained for the six models
displacement curve. The first occurs approximately are shown in Table 3. It is seen that the heave for the
at 50% of the maximum capacity and represents the low stiffness cases is larger compared to the cases with
onset of the horizontal failure zone. The second peak high stiffness.
is often followed by unloading and represents the for-
mation of the final failure mechanism. The updated
geometry analysis gives higher capacity loads. This 3.2 Analytical model
is in accordance with results obtained by Van Langen The analytical model together with results from the
(1991) and comes from the reduction in driving forces FEM calculations and the landslides at Surte, Tuve
and increase in resisting forces as the fill is pushed and Bekkelaget is presented in Figure 10. H /su is set
down. It should be noted that large deformations were to 3 according to the simulations. For the line marked
needed to obtain the maximum load for the calcula- with *, H /su is set to 13 which is more representative
tions with low stiffness. For model 3.1, values for the for Surte and Tuve. For Bekkelaget the value is close
forming of the first and second shear surface is given. to 6.

500

Figure 11. Distribution of shear stresses for models 2.x.
4 DISCUSSION
4.1 Effect of update geometry
The calculations show that all deformation and thus
also the passive heave is higher for the models with
low stiffness. However, the effect on the failure surface
is limited, also for an updated mesh simulation.
Studying the results from both the FEM calculations
and the analytical model it seen that a low residual to
peak strength ratio increases the ability of the failure
surface to progress horizontally. This is expected as
a low residual strength implies low resistance against
horizontal sliding.
Concerning the geometry effects, a low stiffness
gives a higher passive heave and thus conditions for
horizontal propagation. However, at the same time the
stiffness affects the distribution of shear stresses along
the failure surfaces. Figure 11 shows the distribution of
shear stresses along the horizontal base for models 2.x.
It is seen that low stiffness gives a narrower hardening
zone and a longer residual zone compared to the high
stiffness case. This implies that the low stiffness case
has a reduced resistance for sliding along the hori-
zontal plane and should thus intensify such a failure
mode.
For model 3.1, the effect of a non-softening top
layer on the final failure mechanism is to increase
the horizontal propagation some. In model 3.2, with
low stiffness, excessive deformations occurred and the
failure zone propagated first horizontally all the way
to the left boundary. The obtained result implies that
the boundary condition might affect the result and that
passive failure could have occurred there if it had been
a lowering in the terrain or similar.
When comparing the FEM calculations to the ana-
lytical modes it is seen that extensive horizontal
propagation should not be expected for models 1.x
and 2.1. The passive heave is too low. For models 2.2
and 3.x however, horizontal propagation could be pos-
sible. But still, it does not happen to any high extent.
Studies of the developing failure zones show that the
first zone becomes the final. This is partly expected for
models 2.x as the strain softening induced reduction of
strength in the passive zone prevents formation of new
modes. However, this is not expected for models 3.x.
501
Still, once a failure zone is formed, all deformation
occurs within this mechanism. For model 3.1, failure
zone 2 forms after extensive heave in this region thus
indicating that for large deformations, the admissible
kinematics of the problems are governing. A possi-
ble explanation for this behavior is the resulting load
application in the vertical section A in Figure 2. In the
model, a moment is acting on this section together with
the horizontal force. This enhances the circular passive
failure mode. For the case studies, the passive heave
occurs down slope, a considerable distance from the
load application point. Here the force is more purely
horizontal.
It is interesting to see how the historical slides plot
in Figure 10. Due to extensive passive heave, the three
examples included here all plot in a region where hor-
izontal propagation could be expected, indicating that
this mechanism could be possible due to geometry
effects. As noted above, the difference in application
of the horizontal force might explain this nonconfor-
mity between the historical slides and the simulations.
Further, the H /su parameter is higher for the case
records compared to the simulations because of larger
values of H and lower values of su . As shown in Figure
10, increasing values of H /su promotes horizontal
propagation. This indicates that the depth of the sim-
ulated model and the undrained shear strength used
prevents passive heave from being effective in the
studied mechanism.
4.2 Stress rotations
By studying stress points along the horizontal failure
zone it is seen that the maximum shear stress is hor-
izontal as the peak strength is reached. This explains
why this failure mode develops first. As the load is
increased the shear stresses can rotate further and
finally give the passive failure mode. This aspect is
discussed by e.g. Potts et al. (1996) and illustrates
the importance in distinguishing between local and
global failure when performing analysis with strain
softening materials. A locally developing failure zone
might not be the path of minimum resistance in a
global sense. Jostad & Andresen (2004) have shown
results where several local failure zones are initially
developing before dying out.
5 LIMITATIONS AND FURTHER WORK
As mentioned, the FEM modeling performed here is
not regularized with implications as discussed. Fur-
ther, the simple tri-linear softening model used implies
some uncertainties. The direction of propagation will
depend on the degree of mobilization in the area
close to the material point which passes the peak
strength first. The model used here will overestimate
the stiffness before peak and the softening after peak.
In addition, Norwegian quick clays have anisotropic
strength properties (Lacasse et al. 1985) which might
affect the propagation direction.
 The co-rotational rate of Kirchhoff stress used in the
update-mesh analysis is most adequate for moderate
levels of shear strain. This might not be the case in the
failure calculations performed here.
The iteration process will also affect the results. For
softening materials the initial failure will to a large
extent govern the direction and the development of
localized zones. This initial localization is affected by
the size of the applied load step and is thus sensitive
to the iteration settings.
In order to overcome these issues, simulations
should be done in a regularized model with smooth
anisotropic material response. A Newton-Raphson
iteration scheme as used by e.g. Jostad (1993) might
resolve some of the iterative issues.
Concerning the results from the updated geometry
calculations it seems clear that full slopes with repre-
sentative values of H /su must be modeled in order to
capture the full effect of passive heave. Even though
the simple analytical model indicates that the passive
heave in the case records could be sufficient to explain
the horizontal propagation seen, the results remain
inconclusive and it is believed that both effects of strain
rate and inertia should be included to investigate these
results further.
6 CONCLUSIONS
Progressive failure is investigated with special focus
on the effect of updated geometry and its effect on
horizontal propagation of failure zones by comparing
FEM simulations with and without updated mesh.
The effect updated geometry on horizontal propa-
gation is limited in the simulations performed. This
is mainly because of the low passive heave obtained
and the governing kinematics in the final failure con-
figuration. In historical slide events a much higher
heave is seen. This indicates that the passive heave
mechanism might partly explain the excessive hori-
zontal propagation of progressive failures. However,
the results are not conclusive and it is recommended
that full slopes with realistic geometry and material
parameters are investigated. Further, to complete the
study, strain rate effects on the material strength and
inertia effects should be included.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Professor Steinar Nordal and Professor Lars Grande at
the Norwegian University of Science and Technology
are greatly acknowledged for valuable discussions and
comments.
The work described in this paper is supported by
the Norwegian Public Roads Administration, the Nor-
wegian National Rail Administration, the Norwegian
Water Resources and Energy Directorate and by the
Research Council of Norway through the Interna-
tional Centre for Geohazards (ICG). Their support
is gratefully acknowledged. This is ICG contribution
No 286.
502
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 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Evaluation of the effective width method for strip footings on slopes under
undrained loading

K. Georgiadis & E. Skoufaki

Department of Civil Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece

ABSTRACT: The effective width method is well established and commonly applied for the calculation of the
bearing capacity of eccentrically loaded shallow foundations on horizontal ground. This paper examines the
applicability of the method for the case of undrained loading of strip footings on or near slopes. Finite element
analyses are presented, which consider various slope angles, slope/footing distances and load eccentricities. The
calculated ultimate vertical loads and moments are presented in terms of failure envelopes and load interaction
diagrams and are compared to those obtained with the application of the effective width method to analytical
solutions based on finite element analyses and upper bound plasticity calculations for centrally loaded footings. It
is observed that the results obtained directly from finite element analyses and those obtained with the application
of the effective width method, diverge, especially at relatively low eccentricities. However, the effective width
method is shown to be always more conservative. Finally, a comparison of load interaction diagrams is also
presented for the problem of combined eccentric and inclined loading, for the case of a 45 degree slope and
different slope/footing distances.

1 INTRODUCTION are considered and both the analytical and numeri-

The undrained bearing capacity of strip footings
on slopes has been investigated by several authors.
Hansen (1961) and Vesic (1975) proposed empirical
factors to take account of ground and load inclina-
tion, however their solutions apply only to footings
at the crest of a slope and do not consider the case of
overall slope stability type failure. Meyerhof (1957),
Kusakabe et al. (1981) and Azzouz & Baligh (1983)
presented solutions for vertical only loading which
take account of the distance of the footing from the
slope, but either do not consider other affecting param-
eters or are generally not conservative (Georgiadis,
2009).
A complete solution for vertical only loading was
presented recently (Georgiadis, 2009), based on finite
element analyses, and was subsequently confirmed
with the upper bound plasticity method (Georgiadis,
2010a). The effect of inclined loading was investigated
in a separate study (Georgiadis, 2010b) with the upper
bound plasticity and finite element methods and an
equation for the horizontal vertical load interaction
curve was proposed.
This paper presents a series of finite element anal-
yses performed in order to investigate the influence
of eccentric loading on the undrained bearing capac-
ity. The effective width method proposed by Meyerhof
(1957) is combined with the above solutions for verti-
cal and inclined loading and the results are compared
to the finite element analysis results. Various slope
angles, slope/footing distances and load eccentricities
cal results are presented in terms of load interaction
diagrams.
2 PROBLEM DEFINITION
The geometry of the problem is presented in
Figure 1. Four slope angles = 0 , 15 , 30 and 45
and two normalised footing/slope distances = 0 and
1 are considered. The footing width and slope height
D are constant in all analyses equal to B = 2 m and
D = 7.5 m, respectively. It is noted that the value of
D did not affect the calculated failure loads in any of
the analyses performed since bearing capacity fail-
ure as opposed to overall slope stability type failure
was always predicted. In addition, although the analyt-
ical solutions presented consider the effect of footing
depth db , finite element results are presented only for
surface footings.
The numerical analyses were performed with the
finite element program Plaxis V8.6 (Brinkgreve &
Broere, 2006). 15-noded triangular elements were
used to model the soil, while the footing was modeled
with beam elements. Interface elements were placed
between the footing and the soil.
The soil was modelled as a Tresca material with
constant undrained shear strength cu , bulk unit weight
and undrainedYoungs modulus Eu = 30 MPa. A sin-
gle ratio of cu /B = 2.5 was considered. The value
of cu /B affects the failure loads but has a very
limited effect on the normalised load interaction

503

Figure 1. Problem definition.
Figure 2. Finite element mesh for 45 slope angle: a) whole
mesh with boundary conditions and b) detail of mesh under
footing.
diagrams provided that bearing capacity fail-
ure takes place (Georgiadis 2010b). The footing
was modelled as linear elastic with bending stiff-
ness EI = 2.4106 kNm2 /m and axial stiffness of
EA = 2.9107 kN/m. Finally, a very thin 2.5 cm zone
of zero tensile strength soil elements was modelled
beneath the footing. As a consequence, the interface
elements were also not allowed to sustain tension and
therefore an effective gap was allowed to form between
the soil and the footing due to footing rotation in the
eccentric loading analyses.
3 ANALYTICAL SOLUTION
3.1 Vertical loading
The solution for vertical only loading presented by
Georgiadis (2009), extended to include foundation
depth, db , (Fig. 1) is given by the following equation:
where Vo = ultimate vertical load for vertical only
loading, Nc = undrained bearing capacity factor,
po = overburden pressure and gq = depth factor. Nc
can be obtained from the design charts provided in
Georgiadis (2009) as a function of the ratios cu /B,
d/B and D/B and the slope angle . Low values of
cu /B and/or large slope angles lead to overall
slope stability type failure, while other combinations
lead to bearing capacity type failure independent of
D/B. In the latter case the following equation can be
used instead of the design charts:
where Nco = undrained bearing capacity factor for a
footing at the crest of a slope:
= dimensionless function of the distance of the
footing from the slope and the footing depth (see
Fig. 1):
and o = critical value of , beyond which Nc = 5.14:
Finally, the depth factor gq in Equation (1) varies
linearly with :
3.2 Inclined central loading
The failure loads for the case of inclined loading can be
calculated from the following expression (Georgiadis,
2010b):
where v = V /Vo the normalised vertical load,
vo = normalised vertical load for horizontal ground
surface ( = 1), Vo = ultimate load for vertical only
loading, obtained from Equation (1), h = H /Ho the
normalised horizontal load (positive when directed
towards the slope as shown in Fig. 1), Ho = Bcu the ulti-
mate horizontal load and a parameter which depends
on both the slope angle and the normalized footing
distance :
3.3 Inclined eccentric loading
The influence of eccentric loading can be taken into
account by applying the effective width principle to the
above equations. In the case of vertical eccentric load-
ing this can be done simply by substituting the footing
width B with the effective width B = B-2e and the
footing distance d with d  = d + 2e (only for positive
504
load eccentricities as shown in Fig. 1) in Equations (1),
(3) and (4). For general inclined eccentric loading the
load interaction curve can be obtained by modifying
Equation (7):

where:

and m = M /(BV o ) is the normalised bending moment

(M = eV ).

4 RESULTS

4.1 Vertical eccentric loading

The Figure 3a illustrates the failure envelopes in M-V
load space for the case of a footing at the crest of a
slope ( = 0), obtained from the finite element anal-
ysis results (FE) and Equation 1 with the application
of the effective width principle (EQ). Both solutions
reproduce the expected reduction in the size of the
failure envelope due to the increase of the slope angle Figure 3. (a) Failure envelopes and (b) load interaction
. It can be observed that although Equation 1 com- diagrams for = 0.
pares excellently to the FE results for the case of zero
load eccentricity (M = 0) and any slope angle, the two
solutions diverge with increasing eccentricity, with the
analytical solution underestimating the failure loads
by up to 8%. Beyond a certain eccentricity all failure
curves converge towards the horizontal ground surface
failure curve, especially for positive load eccentrici-
ties, indicating that as the failure mechanism reduces
in size it becomes identical to the horizontal ground
surface mechanism and therefore the presence of the
slope becomes insignificant.
Similar observations can be made for the case of
a footing at a normalised distance of = 1 from the
slope (Figure 3b). In this case the transition from a
failure mechanism involving the slope to the horizontal
ground surface failure mechanism is more marked and
occurs at lower eccentricity. The two different failure
modes are shown in Figures 4a and 4b for e = 0.45 m
and e = 0.15 m, respectively. As a consequence the
overall influence of the slope angle on the calculated Figure 4. Failure mechanism for = 1: (a) e = 0.45 m and
failure loads is less significant than the = 0 case. (b) e = 0.15 m.
As seen in Figure 3b, similarly to the = 0 case, the
effective width method provides a conservative esti- diagram exists for footings at the top of slopes since
mate of the failure loads, compared to the FE results, the shape of the failure curve depends on both the slope
with the maximum difference being less than 8%. angle and the distance of the footing from the slope. It
The analytical and numerical results are presented can be observed by comparing the two figures that the
in terms of normalised load interaction diagrams in influence of the slope on the load interaction diagrams
Figures 5a and b for = 0 and = 1, respectively. It is reduces with the increase of the normalised distance.
clear from this figure that no unique load interaction This is not surprising, since it is expected that beyond

505
Figure 5. Load interaction diagrams in the v m normalised
load plane: (a) = 0 and (b) = 1.
a certain distance all curves should tend towards the
unique load interaction curve for horizontal ground
surface. The critical distance beyond which the pres-
ence of the slope is not relevant is given by Equation
5 for the case of central loading and appears to be less
for the case of eccentric loading. As seen in Figure 5
the initial inclination of the load interaction curve (at
low eccentricities) increases with the increase of slope
angle. This indicates that the slope has a smaller effect
on eccentric failure loads than on the ultimate failure
load Vo .
4.2 Inclined eccentric loading
The horizontal failure loads and bending moments at
different normalised vertical loads v (V /Vo ) = 0.25,
0.5 and 0.75, for the case of a 45 slope angle are
shown in Figures 6a and 6b for normalised slope-
footing distances = 0 and = 1, respectively. The
finite element results are compared in these figures
to the failure loads obtained from Equation 9. It can
be observed that although the introduction of effec-
tive dimensions to the equations for inclined loading
is in relatively good to excellent agreement with the
FE results for either eccentric or inclined loading, it
is does not perform as well in the case of combined
loading. It is noted, however, that the analytical results
506
Figure 6. Failure envelopes in the h m normalised load
plane for different vertical load levels: (a) = 0 and (b) = 1.
are always conservative compared to the finite element
analyses.
As seen in Figure 6, the failure curves are not sym-
metrical about the H nor the M axis for the case of
= 0 and become almost symmetrical for = 1. This
can be attributed to the fact, as noted above, that the
effect of the slope reduces with the increase of the
slope/footing distance. For the non-symmetric = 0
case, the failure loads are higher for positive eccen-
tricities (away from the slope) and negative horizontal
loads (towards the horizontal ground surface), with
the maximum bending moment obtained for negative
horizontal load.
5 CONCLUSIONS
An analytical expression was presented for the cal-
culation of the failure loads of footings on or near
slopes under eccentric and combined loading. The
expression was developed by applying the effective
width principle to previous solutions for vertical cen-
tral loading and inclined central loading. The predic-
tions of this solution were compared to the results
of a series of finite element analyses of footings on
or near slopes for various slope angles. It was found
that the application of the effective width method to
footings on slopes is always conservative, yields suffi-
ciently accurate results for vertically loaded footings
but underestimates the bearing capacity in the case
of combined loading. The results of the analyses were
also used to investigate the influence of slope angle and
slope/footing distance on the bearing capacity and the
shape of the failure load envelopes.
REFERENCES
Azzouz A. S. & Baligh M. M. (1983). Loaded areas on cohe-
sive slopes. Journal of Geotechnical Engineering,ASCE,
Vol. 109, No. 5, pp.724729.
Brinkgreve R. B. J. & Broere W. (2006). Plaxis users
manual, Plaxis B.V., Netherlands.
Hansen J B. (1961). A general formula for bearing capacity.
Danish Geotechnical Institute, Bulletin 11, Copenhagen,
Denmark, pp 3846.
Georgiadis K. 2009. Undrained bearing capacity of strip
footings on slopes. Journal of Geotechnical and
Geoenvironmental Engineering ASCE, (10/13/2009),
10.1061/(ASCE) GT.1943-5606.0000269.
507
Georgiadis K. 2010a. An upper bound solution for the
undrained bearing capacity of strip footings at the top of
a slope. Geotechnique (in press).
Georgiadis K. 2010b. The influence of load inclination on
the undrained bearing capacity of strip footings on slopes.
Computers and Geotechnics (in press).
Kusakabe O, Kimura T & Yamaguchi H. (1981). Bearing
capacity of slopes under strip loads on the top surfaces.
Soils and Foundations, Vol. 21, No. 4, pp 2940.
Meyerhof G G. 1953. The bearing capacity of founda-
tions under eccentric and inclined loads. Proceedings 3rd
ICSMFE, Zurich, pp 440445.
Meyerhof G G. 1957. The ultimate bearing capacity of
foundations on slopes. Proceedings of the 4th ICSMFE,
London, pp 384386.
Vesic A S. 1975. Chapter 3: Bearing capacity of shal-
low foundations. Foundation Engineering Handbook, Ed.
Winterkorn H. F. and Fang H. Y., Van Nostrand Reinhold.
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Failure induced pore pressure by simple procedure in LEM

T. Lnsivaara
Tampere University of Technology, Finland

ABSTRACT: Pore pressures play often a dominant role in stability evaluations. In addition to initial pore pres-
sure conditions, also failure induced pore pressure may have a significant effect on the stability of embankments
on soft sensitive Scandinavian clays. When analyzing the stability for such embankments using effective stress
analysis, one should thus be able to incorporate also this effect into the calculations. In finite element analysis
this is possible, although the results are depending on the applied soil model and its parameters. One should
thus be very careful in assessing them. Especially the general shape of the yield surface and the parameters
governing it are of importance. In calculations based on the limite equilibrium method (lem) the failure induced
pore pressure is often ignored, resulting in an overestimation of safety. In the paper a new simple procedure
to include failure induced pore pressure in lem calculations is introduced. The method is aimed for normally
consolidated soft clays. Such conditions are dominant for many railway embankments on existing railway lines
in southern Finland. Calculations will be made for two embankments, one existing embankment still in use, and
one old embankment taken out of use where a full scale failure test was conducted.

1 INTRODUCTION well know phenomena that higher strain rates gives

In failures occurring in soft normally consolidated
clays, the pore pressures play often a dominant role. In
addition to e.g. loading or ground water/precipitation
caused pore pressure, the failure process itself induces
an excess pore pressure. Therefore, if one desires to
use effective stress analysis, pore pressure develop-
ment both before and under the failure progress needs
to be addressed. In finite element (fem) analysis failure
induced pore pressure may be accounted, although one
needs to be very careful in choosing the soil model and
its parameters. In limite equilibrium method (lem) the
failure induced pore pressure is usually ignored, lead-
ing to an over prediction of safety. In this article both
fem and lem analysis are addressed and a new sim-
ple way to incorporate failure induced pore pressure
in lem is introduced.
2 FAILURE INDUCED PORE PRESSURE
higher undrained shear strength in e.g. the vane tests.
The strain rate does not however, influence the effec-
tive strength parameters; see e.g. Janbu & Senneset
(1995). The effective strength parameters, i.e. the fric-
tion angle and cohesion are rate independent, while
the phenomenon is caused by dissimilar pore pressure
response. The higher the strain rate is, the lower is the
pore pressure, resulting in a higher shear stress.
From soft clay behavior, we also know that the
lower the strain rate is, the more there will be creep
strain. In terms of soil modeling, the rate dependency
of failure shear stress can thus be explained by that a
higher volumetric straining for lower strain rates needs
to be compensated by a larger reduction of effective
stress. For high strain rates, the creep tendency is much
smaller, resulting in a smaller reduction of effective
stresses, as a smaller tendency to volumetric harden-
ing need to be compensated. This is illustrated in a
principal sketch in Figure 1.

When soft normally consolidated clay is loaded, the

break down of the soil skeleton results in a tendency
to large volumetric compression. However, the low
permeability of the clay hinders the water to dissi-
pate, resulting in pore pressure build up and undrained
conditions in most usual loading rates.
In terms of soil modeling, the tendency to large pos-
itive plastic volumetric straining needs to be compen-
sated by negative elastic straining, which is possible
only by a reduction in effective stresses.
It is also known, that the higher the strain rate is,
the higher shear stress is obtained. This result in the
3 FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS
It has been shown, that for a drained failure analysis
by the finite element method the factor of safety is
not significantly influenced by the deformation prop-
erties (Cheng et al 2007). This is however true only for
drained conditions, or an analysis done using a sim-
ple elastic-perfectly plastic soil model. From chapter
2 it is clear, that to model realistically undrained fail-
ure one needs to have a proper description of the yield
surface, elastic and plastic deformation properties and

509

Figure 1. Undrained shear for normally consolidated clay.
The arrows correspond to stress paths for different loading
rates. The higher rate, the higher stress level on the failure
line is reached.
rate dependency. The shape of the yield/plastic poten-
tial surface, especially between the K0 line and failure
state, is a key factor on the development of excess
pore pressure. The ratio between elastic and plastic
deformation parameters governs how closely the mod-
eled yield surface is followed in a rate independent
undrained analysis. The stiffer the elastic response is
modeled, the more closely is the initial yield surface
followed by the resulting stress path. One could thus be
attempted to model the rate dependency by softer elas-
tic parameters for high strain rates and stiffer elastic
properties for low strain rates. However, to properly
model the rate dependency of failure, one needs to
incorporate also creep in the model. This is a rather
difficult task, as the important area is just close to the
initial yield surface. The model would need to describe
well both the low creep area inside the initial yield sur-
face, and the high tendency for creep when passing the
initial yield surface.
When applying finite element analysis in practical
engineering, soft clay behavior is often described with
cap type models like the soft soil and soft soil creep
models in Plaxis. As discussed above, to describe the
failure induced pore pressure development properly,
one needs to address the properties of the model care-
fully. The M -parameter that in Plaxis governs the yield
and plastic potential surfaces is normally set to give a
proper K0 value in the normally consolidated range.
However, near failure the surfaces might then be to
steep resulting in a low excess pore pressure build
up and high failure load. To incorporate the failure
induced pore pressure in a failure analysis, one needs
to asses what is the true shape of the yield surface near
failure. Then it might be more appropriate to fit the
M -parameter more to the friction angle, having then
a yield surface more close to the modified cam clay
model. If one wishes that the stress paths in the analysis
follows closely to the given yield surface, the elastic
properties should be modeled very stiff. For a lamda
kappa relation of 20 or higher the relation did not have
any influence to the development of excess pore pres-
sure, and thus also to the failure load in the analysis
(Mansikkamki & Lnsivaara 2009).
510
Figure 2. Over prediction of factor of safety in undrained
effective stress analysis using traditional lem.
4 LEM ANALYSIS
In limite equilibrium based stability analysis the
stress conditions are described in a somewhat simpli-
fied way. Stress distribution is not considered, while
stresses e.g. from external loads are transferred solely
to the bottom of the slice upon they act. Thus in
undrained conditions one needs to compensate this
stress increase by a pore pressure increase to avoid
unrealistic increase of strength in undrained analysis
with effective stresses. All general methods assume an
equal factor of safety along the slip surface and give
an equilibrium strength/shear stress needed to balance
the unstabilising forces. Failure induced pore pressures
are normally not accounted for. The equilibrium shear
stress obtained from the analysis is therefore compared
to a strength level corresponding to drained analysis,
leading to an over prediction of strength and safety,
see Figure 2.
Failure induced pore pressure was introduce to lime
equilibrium analysis at least already in 1981 by Svan
(Svan 1981). Herein a more simplified approach is
introduced aiming to solve the problem for existing
railway embankments of soft clays in Finland. The
need for stability evaluations on the existing rail-
way lines rises from the need to increase train loads.
Therein the situation is that embankments have been
built several decades ago on very soft clays. There
might be some small overconsolidation in the clays
due to aging effects, but under the embankments the
clays are generally normally consolidated. If a failure
state occurs, there will thus develop an excess pore
pressure corresponding to a stress change from the in
situ state at K0NC line to the failure state.
It has been shown (Lnsivaara 1996, Lnsivaara
1999) that the shape of the initial yield surface can
be approximated by an inclined elliptical yield surface
by only knowing the friction angle of the clay. Then
one only needs to assume that associated flow is valid
for the yield point on the K0 -line, and fit the inclination
accordingly. In Figure 3, some examples of estimations
for yield surfaces are presented.
One can thus describe both the initial hydrostatic
stress pK0 and the failure hydrostatic stress pf with the
aid of preconsolidation pressure and friction angle, i.e.:

Figure 3. Estimations of yield surfaces using only strength
and preconsolidation data (Lnsivaara 1999).
 ern Finland are often slightly overconsolidated due to
Where cv = preconsolidation pressure and = friction
angle. For a normally consolidated soil, the preconsol-
idation pressure can be substituted by the effective in
situ vertical pressure.An estimation for failure induced
pore pressure can then be obtained from equation (3):
In limite equilibrium method this can be used by apply-
ing a similar pore pressure parameter as ru , with the
exception that it now only stands for failure induced
pore pressure and should be applied to effective verti-
cal stress. This new pore pressure parameter is herein
referred as ru and is defined as:
Where ue = failure induced excess pore pressure.
An equation for ru can now be solved by using
an inclined elliptical yield surface. For simplicity,
the solution is herein presented in graphical form in
Figure 4.
As can be seen from Figure 4, the method gives a
decreasing pore pressured development with increas-
ing friction angle. The same conclusion can be drawn
also by only looking at the yield surfaces presented in
Figure 3. With higher friction angles the yield surfaces
are more inclined, and the relative horizontal distance
from the K0 -line to failure on top of the yield surfaces
decreases.
511
Figure 4. Effective pore pressure parameter ru as function
of friction angle.
The procedure described above is strictly valid only
for the active case. So in limite equilibrium calcula-
tions, one should apply different solutions in shear
and passive zones. Simply by looking at Figure 3, one
might argue, that the failure induced pore pressure in
the passive zone should be higher than in the active
zone. However, as described earlier, the clays in south-
aging. So while perfectly normally consolidated con-
ditions usually occur under an existing embankment
due its own loading, the clay next to the embankment
in the passive zone is most likely slightly overconsoli-
dated. Then, the development of excess pore pressure
due to failure in passive case is less than might be
assumed from Figure 3. It should also be remembered,
that the intention herein is to try and develop a simple
way to account for failure induced pore pressure for
engineering practice.
5 APPLICATION
The method to include failure induced pore pressures
in LEM calculations described in chapter 4 will be
tested for two cases, both related to railway embank-
ment stability. Case 1 includes an existing track on very
soft normally consolidated clay. Case 2 is a test site,
where a full scale failure test was recently performed.
5.1 Case 1, Turku-Uusikaupunki track
The Turku-Uusikaupunki track is located in southwest
Finland. The subsoil consists of very soft clay with
a water content ranging generally from 70 to 100%
and clay content close to 80%. The undrained shear
strength varies generally between 6 and 10 kPa. Due to
large settlements, the old railway embankment stands
almost fully inside the subsoil.
Table 1. Calculation parameters used in lem and fem
calculations for Turku-Uusikaupunki site.

 c
o
kPa kN/m3

Embankment 35 0 20
Dry crust 25 4 16
Top soft clay 25 4 15.3

Figure 6. Failure surface from the fem calculations by soft

soil model for case 1, the Turku-Uusikapunki site.

Figure 5. Critical slips surface from the lem-calculations

for case 1, the Turku-Uusikapunki site.

Effective strength parameters and unit weights used

in the calculations are presented in Table 1. From Fig-
ure 4 it can be seen, that for a friction angle of 25 Figure 7. Typical cross section from the 50 m long failure
the effective pore pressure parameter for the limite test site in Perni.
equilibrium method calculations is close to ru = 0.2.
The calculated critical failure surface by lem is Table 2. Calculation parameters used in lem and fem
presented in Figure 5. The minimum factor of safety calculations for the Perni site.
varied between FOS = 1.55 to 1.62 depending on how
the pore pressure from the train load was modeled. The  c
o
pore pressure from the train load caused also some kPa kN/m3
instability to the calculations. If the failure induced
pore pressure would be left unaccounted, the limite Embankment 34 0 21
Fill 34 0 19
equilibrium method would yield a factor of safety
Dry crust 0 40 17
equal to FOS = 1.91. Previous finite element calcula- Clay 1 15 0 23
tions (Mansikkamki 2008) using the Soft Soil model Clay 2 16 0 26
in Plaxis program had given a factor of safety equal to
1.56 if the shape of the yield surface was set to give an
appropriate K0 value according to the standard proce-
dures. If, however, the yield surface was set to better been recently performed on an old railway embank-
model the shape of the surface near failure by defining ment, see (Mansikkamki & Lnsivaara 2010) in the
M according to the friction angle, the factor of safety same proceedings. The subsoil in Perni site consists
dropped down to FOS = 1.26. In Figure 6 the devel- of a sandy fill on top of a dry crust layer. Under the
oped failure surface is shown with the aid of developed dry crust a soft cay layer can be found followed by
shear strains. The shape and location of the failure silt and moraine layers. The soft clay has a water con-
surfaces from lem and fem calculations coincide rea- tent ranging typically from 70 to 90%. The undrained
sonable well. The largest differences can be found shear strength is the soft clay varies in the range of 9
under the train load. There, in that area also the great- to 14 kPa.
est difficulties in the lem calculations were found. The A typical cross section from the site is shown in
excess pore pressures in the lem calculations where at Figure 7, and the calculation parameters in Table 2.
maximum 11 kPa in the shear zone decreasing towards In the lem calculations the ru parameter was set to
zero towards the end of slip surface. ru = 0.205 for the upper clay layer and ru = 0.19 for
the lower clay layer. In fem calculations using the soft
soil model, parameter M was adjusted according to
5.2 Case 2; Perni test site
the friction angle and the relation between elastic and
The Perni test site is located near the city of Salo in plastic volumetric stiffness that is between and was
Southern Finland. There, a full scale failure test has to give high pore pressure response.

512

Figure 8. Critical slips surface from the lem-calculations
for case 2, the Perni site. All analyzed slip surfaces with
FOS < 1.02 are presented.
Figure 9. Failure surface from the fem calculations by soft
soil model for case 2, the Perni site.
The lem calculations using ru to account for failure
induced pore pressure gave a failure load of approx-
imately 80 kPa. The fem calculations gave a very
similar result, with a failure load of 80.5 kPa. Actual
failure in the test occurred at a load of 87 kPa. It most
though be noted, that there are no exact answer to what
is the failure load. It is highly related to the loading rate.
Now the loading was ended when the containers used
where filled up to maximum level with sand, in more
detail see Mansikkamki & Lnsivaara (2010). After
the maximum load was added the pore pressures con-
tinued steadily to increase. The pore pressure increase
accelerated about 1.5 hours after end of loading result-
ing in the final failure half an hour later. Obviously
the embankment would have failed also with a smaller
load if enough time would have been waited. In nei-
ther lem nor fem calculations have 3D effects been
accounted, which also results in a smaller failure load
in the predictions.
If the excess pore pressure would be left unno-
ticed in the lem calculations, the calculations would
give a failure load of approximately 120 kPa that is a
significant over prediction.
In Figure 8 calculated critical slip surfaces for lem
calculations are shown for 80 kPa load. All analyzed
failure surfaces with FOS < 1.02 are presented. In
Figure 9 the failure surface from fem is presented.
The result from the lem calculation is also depend-
ing on the method used. The presented results corre-
spond to the GLE method using sin(x) as the force
513
function. For example the Janbu simplified method
with the correction factor f0 resulted in this case in
a slightly lower failure load and a more deep seated
critical slip surface. In general it can though be con-
cluded, that the lem and fem gave very similar results.
Greatest differences are again under the load as a result
of different load and pore pressure distributions under
the load.
The pore pressures in the lem analysis using the ru
parameter is about 10 kPa in the shear zone decreasing
to zero towards the ditch. The measured excess pore
pressure just before they started to accelerate where
from 10 to 20 kPa in the shear zone and below 10 in
the passive zone.
6 CONCLUSIONS
A simple approach to include failure induced pore
pressure in lem calculations has been introduced. The
goal has been to develop a tool for the practice to
include this important effect in undrained effective
analysis using straightforward lem calculations. The
results have been compared to fem calculations using
a cap-type hardening plasticity model, and the results
of a full scale failure load test.
The main idea in the method is to use an effective
stress pore pressure parameter ru , which value is basi-
cally determined in relation to the clays friction angle
and yield surface. As an approximation of the yield
surface is used, only the friction angle is needed to
determine the parameter.
It can well be argued, that the method is strictly valid
only in active shear. However, due to the stress-time
history typically found in the subsoil beneath rail way
track in southern Finland, the error in the generality of
the assumptions is generally not much.
Although the results are at this stage only prelim-
inary, the method shows very good potential. The
calculations are very much in line with the results from
fem analysis. Also results from the full scale failure
tests support the new method. The calculated failure
load equal to 80 kPa was surprisingly close to the actual
value of 87 kPa. There are though many things left
unnoticed. Also, the choice of which limite equilib-
rium method is used influences much on the failure
load. For example, using Janbu simplified instead of
GLE method drops the failure load to 70 kPa in the
lem calculations. If, however, the failure induced pore
pressure would not be accounted, the lem calculation
would significantly over predict the failure load. It can
thus be concluded, that the new method show good
potential. In the future more work will be but in anal-
ysis of the failure tests and in the development of both
lem and fem methods.
REFERENCES
Plaxis 2D. Material Models Manual, version 9.0.
Janbu, N., & Senneset, K. 1995. Soil parameters determined
by triaxial testing. Proceedings of the 11th European
 Conference on Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineer-
ing, Copenhagen. Vol. 3 pp. 101106.
Lnsivaara, T. 1995. A critical state model for anisotropic
soft soils. Proceedings of the 11th European Confer-
ence on Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering,
Copenhagen. Vol. 6 pp. 101106.
Lnsivaara,T. 1999.A study of the mechanical behavior of soft
clay. Doctoral thesis, Norwegian University of Science
and Technology.
Mansikkamki, J. 2008. Stability analysis of existing railway
embankments based on finite element method. Masters
Thesis (in Finnish). Tampere University of Technology.
Mansikkamki, J. & Lnsivaara, T. 2009. Effective
stress analysis of old railway embankments. 17th
514
International Conference on Soil Mechanics & Geotech-
nical Engineering.
Mansikkamki, J. & Lnsivaara, T. 2010. Analysis of a full
scale failure test on old railway embankment. 7th Euro-
pean Conference on Numerical Methods in Geotechnical
Engineering (to be published).
Cheng, Y. M., Lnsivaara, T. & Wei, W. B. 2007 Two-
dimensional slope stability analysis by limit equilibrium
and strength reduction methods. Computers and Geotech-
nics, vol 34 pp. 137150.
Svan, G. 1981. Undrained effective stress analyses. Doctoral
thesis. The Norwegian Institute of technology.
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Investigation of soil property sensitivity in progressive failure

A.S. Gylland & M.S. Sayd

Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway

H.P. Jostad
Norwegian Geotechnical Institute, Oslo, Norway
Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway

S. Bernander
Lule Technical University, Lule, Sweden

ABSTRACT: Progressive failure in long natural slopes with strain softening clay is studied. A FEM approach
which accounts for the non-linear stress-strain curve of the material, including the post peak softening behavior, is
used. Sensitivity of the results to variations of key parameters like in-situ shear stress at failure plane, brittleness,
stiffness of the soil mass, and geometry are investigated in terms of critical load for initiating the slide and critical
length. The results show that the capacity of the slope is decreasing with increasing initial shear stress level,
increasing brittleness and decreasing stiffness of the soil mass. Further, by studying variations in the critical
length it is indicated that the validity of classical limit equilibrium methods is limited for steep slopes in soft and
very sensitive clay.

1 INTRODUCTION features of progressive failures it that a relative small

and local disturbance in highly sensitive clay generates
1.1 Background an extensive landslide, often spreading into areas with
modest inclination. This process will be discussed in
This paper deals with progressive failure as a result
the following section.
of strain softening material behavior. Strain soften-
Among the first to include thoughts of the pro-
ing is in this context defined as loss of strength when
gressive failure process in slope stability analysis was
a material is sheared beyond a peak value. For soft
Terzaghi (1936). Following that, this failure mech-
sensitive clays this behavior is not only a rheologi-
anism has been widely discussed and modeled for
cal phenomenon. Such materials are relatively loosely
several materials showing strain softening behavior,
packed and when sheared the behavior will tend to
e.g. (Bishop 1967, Bjerrum 1967, Christian & Whit-
be contractant. If the shearing occurs under undrained
man 1969, Palmer & Rice 1973, Bernander 1978).
conditions there is no possibility of volume change
With the development of the finite element method,
and the contractant behavior induces excess pore pres-
several authors have analyzed progressive failure of
sures. Following the principle of effective stresses
slopes by this approach. Some examples are (Wiberg
this implies that the contact forces between the soil
et al. 1990, Potts et al. 1996, Andresen et al. 2002,
grains is reduced and the shear strength of the soil is
Andresen & Jostad 2004, Andresen & Jostad 2007,
decreasing toward a residual value (see Figure 2).
Chai & Carter 2009, Gylland & Jostad, 2010). One
When considering capacity analysis, strain soften-
simple way of incorporating the effect of strain soften-
ing leads to situations where the assumptions behind
ing behavior in limit equilibrium analyses is to reduce
limit equilibrium (LE) are not longer fulfilled. In
the peak shear strength measured in the laboratory
contrast to materials behaving perfectly plastic, the
or to simply use the residual value as proposed by
shear stress along a potential failure surface may adopt
Lefebvre & Rochelle (1974). Another alternative is
any value between the initial shear stress, peak shear
to apply some correction factor (Dascal et al. 1972).
strength and the residual shear strength during the fail-
ure process. This feature gives a situation where the
failure zone, or strain softening zone, under certain
1.2 Progressive failure
conditions spreads progressively in the soil. Here, the
maximum global capacity in most cases is obtained 1.2.1 Mechanism
before the global failure mechanism used by limit equi- An analog to the progressive failure mechanism can
librium methods has formed. One of the characteristic be the process of falling dominoes. The first failure is

515

Figure 1. Progressive failure mechanism.
triggered locally and once started; it develops progres-
sively from one to the next brick. When transferred to
a slope with a strain softening material the individual
falling brick may be compared with the local instabil-
ity of a soil element when it is loaded into the post peak
softening regime. This can be due to an applied load,
displacement or increased pore pressure. The mate-
rial point next to this one will then have to sustain the
contribution due to softening induced loss of strength,
in addition to the applied load. In turn this point will
also be loaded into the softening regime and additional
loads are transferred to the next soil element. In this
way a failure zone develops progressively through the
soil.
This mechanism is illustrated in Figure 1, where a
slope is loaded at the crest. N is the horizontal force
due to the distributed load, q. Along the potential fail-
ure surface three points are studied in terms of stress
and strain. At the considered stage of loading point a
has reached the residual strength, point b is at the peak
level and point c is in the hardening regime. This is also
illustrated in the graph showing shear stress distribu-
tion along the failure surface. The plus-sign indicates
increased resistance and the minus-sign indicates loss
of resistance compared to the initial state.
For a progressive failure to develop the material has
to be strain softening and have strains high enough so
that the peak is passed. In addition there is the condi-
tion used by Bernander (2000) and also emphasized
by Andresen & Jostad (2004) that for a progressive
failure to propagate in an infinitely long slope, the
residual shear strength must be lower than the initial
shear stress. This condition is seen in Figure 1 as the
shaded minus-area.
As mentioned in the introduction, the mechanism
of progressive failure cannot be modeled well within
limit equilibrium methods. This is for instance seen in
Figure 1 where the assumption of constant mobiliza-
tion along a potential shear surface is not fulfilled.
516
Figure 2. Shear stress/deformation relationship.
1.3 Sensitivity study
This study aims at investigating the relative impor-
tance of some of the parameters on the capacity of an
infinitely long slope of sensitive clay. Undrained load-
ing conditions are assumed. The parameters studied
are the average Youngs modulus (E) of the overly-
ing soil layer, the ratio between peak and residual
strength and the value of the initial shear stresses. The
effect of slope geometry and softening modulus is also
commented.
2 METHOD
The finite element software BIFURC developed at the
Norwegian Geotechnical Institute is used for the cal-
culations presented herein (Jostad & Andresen 2002).
A slope is modeled as a top layer of 3-noded truss
elements with thickness H on a weak layer consisting
of 6-noded interface elements. The top layer is mod-
eled as linearly elastic and a strain softening material
law is applied to the interface elements. The model in
this study is fitted to the method of Bernander where
a constitutive shear stress/deformation relationship as
shown in Figure 2 is used. The method of Bernander
is motivated by and designed for long slab-slides in
Swedish sensitive clays caused by up slope triggering
agents. It was developed during the eighties based on
the model presented in (Bernander 1978, Bernander
et al. 1988, Bernander et al. 1989). The model is sum-
marized in Bernander (2000) and readers are referred
to these references for further details.
The main difference between the FEM calculations
performed herein and the method of Bernander is
the solution algorithm. Bernanders method is a finite
difference method (FDM) approach where soil defor-
mations and a full stress/strain curve is incorporated.
It is formulated so that different states are compared in
an iterative process until the one meeting the applied
critical load at its current location is found. In the
FEM analysis the load is applied at a given loca-
tion using a Newton-Raphson scheme and a robust
arc-length based solution algorithm (Jostad & Nordal
1995).
3 RESULTS

The main result of the analyses is the critical load

(Ncr ) and the critical length (Lcr ). The former being
the maximum value of the force N in Figure 1 which
represents the state where any further attempts on
increasing the load results in a progressively self-
developing failure. Lcr is defined as the length of
positive resistance along the potential shear surface
(see Figure 1) when Ncr is reached. If using limit equi-
librium methods to analyze slope stability in strain
softening materials, Lcr indicates the maximum size
of the slip surface to be used if any reasonable com-
patibility between occurring mechanisms and the limit Figure 3. Stiffness and initial stress sensitivity for
equilibrium assumptions is to be obtained (Bernander Cr/Cu = 0.25.
2000).

3.1 Procedure
The modeling and choice of parameters are based on
the example slope inAppendixA of (Bernander, 2000).
Four values of the undrained Youngs modulus of the
overlying soil mass (Eu ), initial shear stress (0 ) on the
potential failure surface and the Cr/Cu ratio are chosen
for the study. The parameters are normalized according
to the values and results from appendix A in Bernander
(2000). For simple estimates the initial shear stress can
for instance be found from the shear surface inclination
and the material weight, 0 = W sin, see Figure 1.
The following parameters are defined for presenting
the results. A Cu-value of 30 kPa is used. The value of
cr (see Figure 2) is kept constant at 0.30 m, meaning
that the softening modulus is changed according to the
variation in Cr/Cu.
3.2 Sensitivity plots
The results in terms of n and l constitute a fifth
order tensor. In order to simplify the interpretation, the
results are presented parameter by parameter where
the first presentation gives the sensitivity with one
parameter fixed while the second gives the sensitiv-
ity of this parameter. Some results are then omitted,
but the general trends are captured. The most sensitive
combinations can be interpreted as those showing the
steepest inclination in the graphs. The sensitivities of
the parameters are compared in section 3.4.2.
3.2.1 Initial shear stress, t
Sensitivity plots in terms of n (solid line) and l (dashed
line) for variations of the stiffness and the initial shear
stress for Cr/Cu = 0.25 is shown in Figure 3.
Figure 4 complements Figure 3 by showing how
the initial stress sensitivity varies for different Cr/Cu
ratios for e = 1. This implies that it shows how the e-
sensitivity graph is shifted with changes in theCr/Cu-
ratio. The graph is only for one value of e, but the trend
is similar for other values of the stiffness.
Figure 4. Cr/Cu and initial shear stress sensitivity for e = 1.
Cr/Cu is varying some because it was not possible
to run all calculations with the same parameters as
the softening and balance of parameters did not pass
through the numerical algorithm.
It is seen from both graphs that the capacity and
the critical length are reduced when the initial stresses
are increased. It is further seen that the capacity is
more sensitive for changes in the initial stress level
if the stiffness is high. The initial stress sensitivity is
rather moderately affected by changes in the Cr/Cu-
ratio. Compared to n, the critical length is relatively
insensitive to changes in the initial stress level.
3.2.2 Stiffness, e
Initial stress and stiffness sensitivity for Cr/Cu = 0.25
are shown in Figure 5. The results are complemented
by Figure 6 showing the stiffness-sensitivity for vary-
ing Cr/Cu-ratio and fixed t.
These results show a clear trend of decreasing
capacity and critical length for decreasing stiffness.
This is also seen in Figure 3. It is further seen that the
stiffness sensitivity increases for lower values of the
initial shear stress and higher values of the Cr/Cu-ratio.
3.2.3 Cu/Cr-ratio
Sensitivities of n and l to variations in stiffness and
Cr/Cu-ratio for t = 1 is shown in Figure 7. Fig-
ure 8 shows the Cr/Cu-sensitivity when varying initial
stresses but with a fixed stiffness.

517
Figure 5. Initial stress and stiffness sensitivity for
Cr/Cu = 0.25.
Figure 6. Cr/Cu and stiffness sensitivity for t = 1.
Figure 7. Stiffness and Cr/Cu sensitivity for t = 1.
Both graphs show reduced capacity and critical
length for decreasing values of the Cr/Cu-ratio. Higher
stiffness and lower initial stress increase the Cr/Cu-
ratio sensitivity. The critical length is reduced with
decreasing stiffness and almost unaffected by changes
in the initial stresses as found in sections 3.2.1 and
3.2.2.
3.2.4 Parameter comparison
Sensitivities of the different parameters are presented
in Figures 9 and 10. The base parameters e = 1, t = 1,
Cr/Cu = 0.5 are used. Cr/Cu is normalized with 0.5
to make all graphs pass through the same point and
518
Figure 8. Initial shear stress sensitivity for e = 1.
Figure 9. Parameter comparison, critical load.
Figure 10. Parameter comparison, critical length.
thereby ease the interpretation. In addition the param-
eter cr is studied. It is defined in Figure 2 and for a
constant Cr/Cu-ratio this parameter defines the rate of
softening or softening modulus.
Remembering that the graphs with the steepest
inclination represent the theoretically most sensitive
parameters, one can see from Figure 9 that the most
sensitive parameter, when considering the capacity, is
the initial stress level. Then the Cr/Cu-ratio follows
and is particularly decisive for high values. The stiff-
ness and the rate of softening affect the result, but not
as much as the other parameters.
As far as the critical length is concerned, it is the
stiffness together with the initial shear stress level that
are the most sensitive parameters. However, the Cr/Cu
ratio and the rate of softening are also important. It can
be noted that increased rate of softening reduces both
the capacity and the critical length.
4 DISCUSSION
4.1 Parametric analysis
The parametric analyses show that the capacity, in
terms of the crest loading, decreases for reducing val-
ues of the stiffness and falling values of the Cr/Cu
ratio. It is also lowered for increased values of the ini-
tial shear stress level (or increased slope inclination).
These effects become more pronounced for higher val-
ues of stiffness, initial stress level and Cr/Cu ratio. The
critical length shows basically the same trends as the
capacity.
These results show the importance of assessing the
initial stresses correctly. This is not unexpected as
the margin between the initial stress level and the
undrained shear strength is bound to have a decisive
effect on the capacity. This can be seen from Figure 1.
For the case of an infinite slope, as studied here, this
value will be constant. However, for real slopes the ini-
tial stress level will vary and is best assessed using the
finite element method. It is also interesting to see that
the soil stiffness, which is omitted in the LE calcula-
tions, comes in as an important parameter and should
be assessed correctly.
It is also seen that the brittleness of the soil, both
in terms of the Cr/Cu ratio and the rate of soften-
ing, affects the results. The more brittle, the lower the
capacity and critical length.
The above considerations show that the capacity of
a slope, in the context of progressive failure, decreases
the steeper the slope is and the softer and more brittle
the material is. At the same time, the critical length
is reduced for the same conditions. As mentioned, the
critical length can be seen as a measure of the maxi-
mum LE-shear surface length that within reason can
be applied in a strain softening material. This implies
that for steep slopes in soft and brittle material, the
validity of LE to evaluate the factor of safety for long
shear surfaces is reduced. In such cases it is necessary
to include the effect of strain softening in the analysis.
An important point to note in the context of this
study is that the presented results deal with theoreti-
cal variation only. In real cases, inherent variation of
the different parameters will not be the same. E.g. the
uncertainty in the stiffness parameter might be rela-
tively high compared to the uncertainty of the initial
stress level. This implies that the practical sensitivity
of the initial stresses might be less than for the stiffness
value because of the smaller variation range.
4.2 Effect of geometry
The calculations presented herein are based on the spe-
cial case of an infinite slope. However, for real slopes,
519
Figure 11. Slope A and B.
Table 1. Capacity and critical length for slope A and B.
Ncr Lcr
Slope kN/m m
A 690 298
B 188 117
the geometry will affect the capacity as exemplified in
this section.
Two slopes shown in Figure 11 are studied within
the framework of the Bernander FDM method. Slope
A is linearly decreasing from the top to the toe
while slope B is curving according to the func-
tion h(x) = H (x/L)2 . The following parameters are
used; L = 300 m, H = 21 m, D = 20 m, Cu = 30 kPa,
Cr/Cu = 0.75 and Eu = 3600 kPa. Initial shear stresses
are generated in a separate stage where plastic creep
deformation of the clay is accounted for. The results
in terms of Ncr andLcr are presented in Table 1.
It is seen that the capacity of the slope is 73% less
for the curved slope compared to the linear while the
critical length is 61% less.
This example illustrates the importance of assess-
ing the geometry correctly in progressive slope failure
analysis.
4.3 Limitations and further work
The analyses presented herein have several limitations
and it is emphasized that the aim of the work is to
illustrate trends in the parameter variations. One of the
issues is the limited set of material parameters used.
Further, the sensitivity analysis covers only the case of
an infinite slope. An effect of geometry is exemplified
in section 4.2.
As shown by Lacasse et al. (1985), the softening
branch of sensitive clay is non-linear. Considering the
impact of varying the post peak parameters, this non-
linearity should be investigated further.
It is shown by the analyses of Cr/Cu and cr that
the rate of softening, or softening modulus, may be of
fundamental importance for the capacity of a slope.
Within the strain based finite element method this
value is set by the shear band thickness. This is a
parameter yet to be determined precicely for sensitive
clays and should be studied further.
5 CONCLUSION
A parametric analysis of progressive failure in an infi-
nite slope is performed. The sensitivity of changes in
the Youngs modulus of the overlying soil mass, initial
stress level and Cr/Cu ratio are studied with respect to
the capacity of the slope under undrained loading and
the critical length.
The analyses show that the capacity is lowered for
decreasing values of the Youngs modulus, Cr/Cu ratio
and increased values of the initial shear stresses or
slope inclination. The initial shear stress level is the
most sensitive parameter followed by the Cr/Cu ratio.
The critical length is reduced for the same conditions
as the capacity and is most sensitive to variations in
the initial shear stress level and the Youngs modulus.
It is also illustrated that the geometrical shape of the
failure surface is of importance.
The results emphasize the initial shear stress level
as an important parameter in slope stability analy-
sis involving progressive failure. The results indicate
further that limit equilibrium methods are less suit-
able for analysis of the most critical slopes meaning
slopes of high inclination in markedly strain-softening
materials.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Professor Steinar Nordal and Professor Lars Grande at
the Norwegian University of Science and Technology
are greatly acknowledged for valuable discussions and
comments.
The work described in this paper is supported by
the Norwegian Public Roads Administration, the Nor-
wegian National Rail Administration, the Norwegian
Water Resources and Energy Directorate and by the
Research Council of Norway through the International
Centre for Geohazards (ICG). Their support is grate-
fully acknowledged. This is ICG contribution No 287.
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& La Rochelle, P: 1972. Failure of a test embankment
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 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Short-term slope stability calculation according to Eurocode 7

V. Thakur
The Norwegian Public Roads Administration, Norway

S. Nordal
The Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway

S. Hove
The Norwegian Public Roads Administration, Norway

ABSTRACT: It is the experience of the authors that Finite Element (FE) methods gives just as reliable results as
Limit Equilibrium (LE) methods for slope stability analyses and that FE gives better insight in the slope stability
problem at hand. Still, the application of finite element (FE) methods for slope stability analyses is not common
in Norway compared to analyses with limit equilibrium (LE) based tools. This is mostly related to uncertainty
in proper use of FE. In Norway, soft soils often require slope stability evaluations for undrained conditions. This
paper addresses the problem that even though an undrained effective stress analysis would be preferable, there is
a danger in using too simple effective stress based soil models in such an analysis. The undrained shear strength
is easily overestimated. The paper describes how undrained stability calculations with the simple Mohr-Coulomb
(MC) model are used in practice. FE results are compared to results from LE methods. Geotechnical design
must comply with Eurocode 7 and Eurocode requirements relevant for slope stability evaluations are presented
and discussed.

1 INTRODUCTION Table 1. Material factor (EN 1997).

Janbu 1973, Bjerrum & Kjrnsli 1957 were pioneers Soil parameters Symbol M
in developing and applying limit equilibrium (LE)
methods in Norway for evaluating stability of natural Friction angle (tan  )  1.25
Effective cohesion c 1.25
slopes and manmade fills. In the later years finite ele-
Undrained shear strength cu 1.4
ment (FE) methods are used, but mainly in academia. Unit weight 1.0
The application of FE for practical design is still lim-
ited probably because of the need for more soil param-
eters in a FE simulation and uncertainty in the general national annex (NA) to EN 1997 in Norway, the unified
use of FE. However, it is the experience of the authors material factor or partial factor for soil parameters
that FE and LE in practice give very similar results if (M ), shown in Table 1, will replace the factor of safety.
proper input parameters are given and if higher order In practice this does not imply a significant change.
elements and a sufficiently fine FE mesh are used. For undrained conditions we define:
In undrained applications, unfortunate shortcomings
of simple soil models seem to cause some confusion
related to the risk of overestimating the undrained
strength in an effective stress analysis. This relates to Here Cu refers to undrained cohesion and sub-
the fact that normally consolidated clays show sig- script d refers to design value. For effective stressbased
nificant contractancy upon undrained shearing and simulations we define:
significant strength anisotropy. The simple soil mod-
els mostly available in commercial FE codes do not
offer soil models that can reproduce such behaviour.
Still the FE methods can be and should be used for Here C and tan  refers to effective cohesion and
design, but if an effective stress approach is used to an effective friction angle, respectively. With one value
undrained situation, care must be taken to specify input for M for cohesion and friction, we preferably write
parameters that predict correct undrained strength. the design Mohr Coulomb strength as:
From 2010 Geotechnical design in Norway must
follow Eurocode 7 NS-EN 19971: 2004+NA: 2008
(hereafter, referred as EN 1997). According to the

521
Figure 1. The slope geometry.

where tan d is the average mobilized strength.

In the Norwegian National Annex (NA) to EN 1997
it is stated that the material factors should be increased
relative to tabulated values in Table 1 for sensitive soils
like quick clays. Further, it is stated that for natural
slopes with initial marginal stability, one may accept
lower material factors if the building activity in the
area lead to an increase in stability and at no point in
time decreases the stability.
Keeping this in view, this paper presents LE and
FE results for a natural slope consisting of materials
known for progressive failures. The results are dis-
cussed in the view of the requirements and footnotes
in NA to EN 1997.

Figure 2. Undrained strength in compression and extension.

2 A REAL SLOPE CASE

A real slope geometry taken from a road project is

shown in Figure 1. The slope consists of 1014 m thick
sensitive-soft-clay-layer also know as quick clays. A
sensitive clay layer is located at depth between 6 to
14 m from the surface. The side slopes are approxi-
mately 1:2 to 1:3, and a river or water-canal is located
beside the road. The ground water level is about 2.5 m
below the ground surface. Short and long term stabil-
ity of the slope has been evaluated using the LE and
FE methods.

2.1 Material behaviour

Quick clays are highly sensitive in nature and known
for strain softening behaviour i.e. decreasing shear
resistance after peak with increasing strain. This may
lead to progressive failure.
The quick clays are anisotropic in nature. Figure 2
illustrates typical results from an anisotropic consoli-
dated undrained triaxial test on a quick clay.
Figure 3 shows results from anisotropically consoli-
dated triaxial tests on samples from the site in Figure 1.
During the undrainded compression test the clay dis-
play contractancy with a tendency for volume decrease
with a peak shear strength CCu .
Figure 3. Undrained triaxial compression test results for the
quick clay samples taken from the slope area in Figure 1.
When the clay is subjected to an undrained triaxial
extension test we again observe contractancy and find
a peak strength, CEu equal to about 40 % of CCu , Figure 2.
During undrained direct simple shear tests the quick
clays may exhibit peak strength, CD u , which is around
70% of CCu . These values reflect the importance of
taking anisotropy into account for undrained strength
of normally consolidated soft clays.

522
Table 2. Calculations methods applied. Table 3. Input parameters.

Description Parameters Unit CDu

weight C Profile
Average undrained shear strength (Cau ) Cau Input parameters (kN/m3 ) (kPa) (degree) (kPa)
based calculation using FE
Anisotropic ADP calculation using LE CCu , CD E
u , Cu Upper soft clay 19 5 30 15 + 2.z
Effective stress parameters (at failure, C, Sensitive clay * 19 10 26p /30f 25 + 1.5.z
and at peak) based undrained Lower clay 20 10 30 45 + 2.z
analysis using the FE Upper soft clay 19 20 22 ----
Undrained calculation based on the C, (using Equation 7)
effective stress parameters Sensitive clay 19 10 13 ----
obtained from Equation 8, using FE (using Equation 7)
Drained analyses using LE and FE C, Lower clay 20 0 18 ----
(using Equation 7)

2.2 Calculation methods *p: at peak, f: at failure.

The stability of the slope shown in Figure 1 has been

calculated using the FE tool Plaxis 2D V9.0 and LE
tool Geosuite-Stability V10. The FE calculations are
performed with 15-noded triangular elements using a
simple MC elastic perfectly plastic soil model with
zero dilatancy. Short-term stability has been inves-
tigated using both a total stress and an undrained
effective stress based method. Different stability cal-
culations, as listed in Table 2, have been performed
and checked if the obtained material factors comply
with the requirements according of EN 1997.
At present Plaxis 2D V 9.0 does not have any com-
mercially available anisotropic soil model, therefore
an average shear strength based calculation is used for
short-term stability analyses. The average undrained
shear strength (Cau ) as referred to in Table 2 is defined
by Equation 4.
For CD u = 0.7Cu and Cu = 0.4Cu the average
C E C
strength becomes equal to the direct simple shear
strength, CD D
u , which explains why Cu often can be
used as an average strength , Cau .
Modified C and values are used in the effec-
tive stress based undrained analyses to fit the correct
undrained strength profile with depth, as explained in
Section 2.5.
2.3 Input parameters
Soil input parameters are presented in Table 3. These
parameters are suggested based on field and laboratory
tests, as the one shown in Figure 3. Increasing CD
u with
depth, z, is expressed by MCu , (in kPa/m).
2.4 LE versus FE results
The LE and FE results obtained from the long-term
(drained) and the short-term stability using a total
stress based calculations (with friction angle zero) are
presented in Figure 4 and Table 4. The results from the
effective stress parameters based undrained analyses
are presented and discussed in Section 2.5.
The results show that that the slope is critical against
short-term stability, whereas the long-term stability is
rather good. The material factors in the range of 0.6 is
certainly unrealistic, considering that the slope actu-
ally is a real and apparently stable slope. However, we
do observe that the results obtained from the LE and
FE calculations are in good agreement (0.62 and 0.67).
Part of the reason for the low material factor is the lack
of a soil model for anisotropic undrained strength in
the FE simulations. However, the main reason for the
low material factor for undrained conditions lies in the
conservative estimate of the design strength. Accord-
ing to Eorocode the design strength is not the most
probable strength, but a carefully estimated average,
with only 5% probability of having less strength than
the design value. However, it is evident that the slope
in reality has a marginal stability wrt building activity.
We also note that the FE material factor lies slightly
below the LE result. Similar trend has been observed
for several other slope geometries from the area. Aver-
age variation between the LE and FE results is 5% and
FE gives slightly lower M than LE. This is believed
to relate to search routines for the most critical slid-
ing surface in LE programs and assumptions in LE
regarding interslice forces.
2.5 Effective stress parameters based undrained
calculation in plaxis
All finite element calculations produce results that
are largely dependent on the selection of soil models
and input parameters. Therefore, proper understanding
of constitutive models as well as the input parame-
ters, is important for a safe design. The MC model in
Plaxis gives a possibility to perform both drained and
undrained effective stress calculations. However, the
input parameters C and for the undrained effective
stress simulations must be scaled down in order to pro-
duce useful results. The adjustments are needed due to
the simplicity of the MC model.

523
Figure 4. Results: Cau analyses performed using the LE tool (upper), and the FE tool Plaxis (lower).

Table 4. Obtained material factors for the slope. Table 5. Input parameters selected for the back calculation
of an undrained triaxial compression test in SOIL TEST in
M Plaxis.

Calculation methods Drained Undrained HS MC

Parameters Name Model Model
FE (Plaxis)* 1.82 0.62a
LE (Geosuite-Stability)* 1.90 0.67a , 0.83b Soil unit weight (kN/m3 ) 19 19
Secant stiffness (kPa) Eref
50 8000 8000
* a = based on Cau ; b = ADP analyses Tangent odometer Eref
oed 8000
stiffness (kPa)
Unloading/reloading Eref
ur 25000
stiffness (kPa)
Power for stress m 1
dependent stiffness
Reference stress (kPa) Pref 100
Poissons ratio ur 0.3 0.3
Lateral stress coefficient KNC
o 0.5 0.5
Cohesion (kPa) C 10 10
Frictional angle 30 30 and 28
Dilatancy angle 1 1

Figure 5 and Table 6 shows that the effective stress

Figure 5. Back calculation of an undrained triaxial com-
pression test using the HS and MC model in Plaxis.
Figure 5 shows in principle for how the adjustments
are made, illustrated by simulations of an undrained
triaxial test. For the purpose of the illustration, the
laboratory test results are assumed to be equal to simu-
lated results from the Hardening Soil (HS) model, here
shown together with results from using the MC model.
The input parameters for the simulation of Figure 5 are
presented in Table 5.
parameters (C and ) can be selected differently
according to if we aim to fit the ultimate Coulomb
line or the undrained strength. It we use effective stress
parameters to fit the Coulomb line we over predict the
real undrained strength by 34%. Even a Mohr Coulomb
failure line through the peak of the effective stress path
will over predict the undrained strength, actually by
15%. It is thus important to select low effective stress
strength parameters corresponding to Ma = 6singa /
(3-sina ) or Ccu for stability calculations using the MC
model.
For the HS simulations in Figure 5 a negative dila-
tancy angle were used to simulate contractancy, see
Table 5. In general negative dilatancy angles should

524
Table 6. Effective stress parameters at different stages.

Parameters c %
at (kPa) (o) M m = (/o ) error

Failure (A) 10 30 Mf = 1.2 1.54 34%

Peak (B) 10 28 Mp = 1.1 1.32 15%
Actual (C) 10 23 Ma = 0.9 1.15

Table 7. Undrained stability calculation based on effective

stress parameters obtained from the lab and Equation 7.

Effective stress parameters based undrained

stability calculation for the slope M

Parameters selected at failure (FE) 1.41

Parameters selected at peak (FE) 1.25
Parameters selected from actual CDu 0.89
based on Equation 8 (FE)

Figure 6. CD
u profile used in the calculations.
be avoided in a complete boundary value problem
unless appropriate regularisation techniques have been
implemented to handle the associated strain softening Table 8. Calculation summary and comparison.
behaviour as described by Thakur (2007).
M Increased
The effective stress parameters corresponding to Calculation obtained from M as per M
design CuD for the slope have been obtained from methods the calculation EN 1997 (NPRA)
Equation 7. The equation is based on the linearly elas-
tic perfectly plastic Mohr Coulomb criterion with zero Cau based M 1.4 M 1.6
dilatancy: calculations
FE 0.62
LE 0.67
ADP analysis 0.83 M 1.4 M 1.6
Here z is vertical effective stress. Input parameters (LE)
Undrained effective 0.89 M 1.4 M 1.6
for the effective stress based undrained calculation in
stress parameters
Plaxis are shown in Table 3 and a corresponding CD u based on Equation 7
profile is presented in Figure 1 and Figure 6. In Figure in (FE)
6 an alternative undrained strength profile resulting Undrained effective 1.25 (peak) M 1.25 M 1.6
from using unadjusted effective stress values for C stress parameters 1.41 (failure)
and is also shown. Note the serious over prediction based (FE)
this gives of the undrained strength with depth. Results Drained analyses M 1.25 M 1.6
from the undrained analyses are presented in Table 7. LE 1.82
Variation in M is significant. The results obtained FE 1.90
using the parameters at the failure and at the peak are
misleading. Thus in Table 7 only M = 0.89 is realistic
and comparable to the ADP result presented in Table
4. The FE Cau analysis in Table 4 gave M = 0.62 and is EN 1997. Material factors from the undrained effective
hence lower than the M = 0.89 found in the undrained stress simulation must be compared with the undrained
effective stress analysis. This is attributed to the use of factor cu which is 1.4.
an inaccurate reference depth in Plaxis for the total As mentioned earlier, the result shows a marginally
stress analysis. The problem of inaccurate reference stable slope with material factors less than 1 for
depths is avoided in the undrained effective stress anal- undrained loading. Thus building in this slope is a seri-
ysis, which is recommended if properly reduced Cand ous difficulty. The tabulated requirement in the NA
are applied. to EN. 1997, is by no means fulfilled. Actually The
Norwegian Public Roads Administration (NPRA) rec-
ommends even higher material factors than Eorocode
3 STABILITY IMPROVEMENT MEASURES with a minimum M 1.6 to account for progressive
failure in quick calys, see reference Hb016, 2010.
Table 8 summarizes computed material factors for the Obviously the stability of the slope must be
slope shown in Figure 4 compared to requirements in improved prior to any construction activities. Such

525

Figure 7. Influence of terrain modification on the location
of the critical slip surfaces.
work is currently under planning. Alternatives for
stability improvement are studied using FE. 20%
improvement has been obtained by excavating 35 m
of the top soil from the left slope and by adding a 5 m
high counter fill in the valley at the toe of the slope.
(The design process for improving the stability of the
slope is not finished as by February 2010.)
The following observations were made from these
FE calculations:
a) The material factor M after the improvement is
1.40 and 1.41 using LE and FE, respectively, for
the left slope.
b) The FE calculations revealed that now the right
hand slope was critical with material factors of 1.15
and 1.11, which means that stability measures are
needed also in this slope.
This highlights one of the advantages of FE that no
presumptions have to be made about the location of
the slip surface, see Figure 7.
4 CONCLUSIONS
Long term and short-term stability calculations of a
real slope show that the LE and FE results are in good
agreement. The material factors may still often be 5%
less from FE, probably due to shortcomings in the LE
methods to identify the most critical slip surface and
assumptions on interslice forces. This leads to conclu-
sion that FE methods should be used more often to
analyse actual slopes.
However, one must be aware of pitfalls in selec-
tion of input parameters for an effective stress based
undrained analysis if a simple MC model is used.
Effective stress parameters for undrained analyses
should be selected such that Equation 7 gives the
design value of the undrained shear strength.
526
LE and FE analyses can equally well be applied
under Eurocode 7.
For FE a c- reduction procedure should prefer-
ably be used. An exception is when material factors
less than one occur. A gravity multiplicator can then
be used to evaluate the margin against failure, but a
simulation with an upscaled strength is preferred to
see the upscaling factor needed and hence determine
a material factor consistent with the one from a c-
reduction procedure.
A FE tool like Plaxis can be extremely useful when
improvement measures like counter fills are studied,
since the method automatically locates the new critical
surface.
In summary, these results show the capability and
usefulness of the FE for real slope stability evalua-
tions. FE has so far been used to a very little extent,
especially in onshore geotechnical practice in Norway.
However, examples as above do encourage us in further
application of FE in geotechnical practice.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The author would like to thank the NPRA for providing
resources for this study.
REFERENCES
Bjerrum, L. & Kjrnsli, B. 1957. Analysis of the stabil-
ity of some Norwegian natural clay slopes. Geotechnique
6(4):16.
EuroCode 7. 2008. Geotechnical design. NS-EN 1990:2002
+NA:2008.
Geosute Stabilitet. 2010. Geosute Toolbox. Vianova Nova-
point.
Hb016. 2010. Geoteknikk I vegbygning. Statens Vegvesen.
Handbooks of recommended practice.
Janbu, N. 1973. Slope stability computations. The embank-
ment Dam engineering, Casagrande Volume. Editors
Hirschfeld and Poulos. John Wiley &Sons: 4786.
Nordal, S. Aln, C. Emdal, A. Jendeby, L. Lyche, E. Madshus,
C. 2009. Skredet i Kattmarkvegen I Namson I 13.mars
2009. Report by the investigation committee appointed
by the Norwegain trasnportation ministry, NTNU.
Plaxis 2D V 9. 2010. PLAXIS BV, the Netherlands.
SVV Report. 2010. Geoteknisk Vurderingsrapport til Fv 900
Klett-Heimdal. Statens Vegvesen Region midt.
Thakur, V. 2007. Strain Localization in sensitive soft clays.
PhD Thesis, NTNU.
Embankments, shallow foundations, and settlements
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

3D settlement analysis using GIS and FEM: A case study

in Sliedrecht area, the Netherlands

N.B. Yenigl
MTI Holland BV, Kinderdijk, The Netherlands

A.S. Elkadi
TNO DIANA BV, Delft, The Netherlands

ABSTRACT: A comparative regional settlement analysis is presented in this paper by using 3D Geosciences
Information System (GIS) and 3D finite element analysis (midas GTS) approaches for the Sliedrecht area,
Netherlands. For settlement analysis in GIS, Koppejan Formula is used. The compressibility coefficient involved
in the formula has been determined based on the cone resistance values. Mohr-Coulomb constitutive model was
adopted in nonlinear analysis for the needs of 3D finite element analysis. The results obtained from the GIS
analysis are on average comparable to those of 3D finite element analysis.

1 INTRODUCTION 2.1 Geology

The application of 3D-GIS in geotechnical site char-
acterization and engineering geology are scarce. There
are some 3D modeling examples in dredging industry
for offshore civil engineering projects (Orlic, 1997),
for an underground powerhouse excavation (Hould-
ing, 1994), and for aggregate resources assessment
and foundation purposes (Orlic, 1997). But the imple-
mentation of 3D-GIS modeling for regional settlement
analysis is not fully treated as found in the literature.
Ground settlement is defined as vertical downward
displacement due to a surcharge or other activities
applied by engineering constructions. An accurate
modeling of subsurface conditions and prediction
of ground-structure interaction may help to prevent
undesirable damages and related high repair cost.
Hence, a comparative settlement analysis by using
3D Geosciences Information System (GIS) and 3D
finite element analysis (midasGTS) approaches for the
Sliedrecht area, Netherlands, is presented in this paper.
2 DESCRIPTION OF AREA
Sliedrecht, a small city with an area of 5 km2 situated
about 9 km east of the city of Dordrecht, the Nether-
lands. It is built on the natural levee and floodplain
of the river Beneden Merwede. Present ground eleva-
tion ranges from NAP (Normal Amsterdam Peil, i.e.,
Normal Amsterdam ordnance datum, which is compa-
rable to Mean Sea Level, used as the reference level in
the Netherlands) +4.2 m to NAP 3.6 m. The original
ground surface was raised by placing fill material.
Upper Pleistocene Kreftenheye Formation and the
Holocene Westland Formation are the two major geo-
logical formations encountered in the area. Complex
subsurface structure is characterized by composition
of clay, peat and sand package up to a depth of 25 m
and the fill unit overlays them. The fill has been used
in order to raise the ground level of the area for soil
improvement. The water level is around NAP 2 m in
the study area.
2.2 Geotechnical units
The geological units have been categorized into four
geotechnical groups (Figure 1) according to lithology
and engineering properties characteristic for different
lithology not related to geological age (Orlic, 1997).
The four geotechnical units can be described as follow
(Welidenya 1996 and Orlic, 1997).
1. Fill unit is man-made and overlays the other units
all over the area (Fig. 1). It is composed of sand,
some clay, peat and other debris. The elevation of
the ground surface, as well the top of the fill, varies
between +4.2 m and 4.2 m NAP. Its thickness of
the fill unit varies from 0.1 to 7.6 m with an average
thickness of approximately 1.5 m. It has a low com-
pressibility (compressibility coefficient C  = 200).
The unit is partially saturated and has a unit weight
of 20 kN/m3 .
2. Clay unit is present all over the study area (Fig-
ure 1). It has a unit weight of 16 kN/m3 and a C 
of 12. The clay has a cone resistance, qc between
0.12.1 MPa. The thickness of the unit ranges

529
Figure 1. Perspective view of the 3D geotechnical model
looking from north.

between 0.1 and 11.6 m. It is fully saturated,

medium to highly and deform plastically.
3. The peat unit occurs in most parts of the study area
except in the southern part (Figure 1). Its thickness
varies between 1.7 and 8.5 m. This unit presents
the worst consolidation behavior among the other
units in the area. It is rich in organic matter, very
light, completely saturated with water, extremely
compressible and plastic. Peat has a unit weight of
11 kN/m3 and a C  of 6. The qc value varies between
0.05 and 1.6 MPa.
4. Sand unit has a weight of 20 kN/m3 and C  of 200.
In the southwest part of the area thickness of sand
unit reaches up to approximately 15 m (Figure 1).
The unit occurs at a depth of 9.8 to 14.3 m. The
qc value of sand is greater than 4 MPa.

3 3D GIS MODELING
The digital database was created based on the raw
data provided by the Royal Geological Survey of
the Netherlands (Chowdhury, 1994, Somboon-Anek,
1995, and Orlic, 1997). These raw data have included
the location map of boreholes and CPTs, a settlement
map, a geological map, geological cross-sections in
east west and in the north-south directions, and CPT
logs. The digital data base was updated, by entering the
cone resistance data for the geotechnical units based
on the interpretation of CPT logs.
In the previous studies, the settlement values were
calculated first at existing or dummy boreholes inter-
secting clay or peat and then the values were extrap-
olated to produce the settlement prediction maps. In
this study settlement calculations are performed at the
center of each 3D grid cell.
3.1 3D Grid model construction for the
sliedrecht area
The 3D-grid model of area is created with an azimuth
of 180 and zero inclination. The grid cell dimensions
are 10 m 10 m in horizontal (i.e. N-S and E-W) and
1 m in vertical direction (depth). The study area cov-
ers approximately 1420 m 1310 m surface area and
depth is limited to 20 m NAP. These dimensions,
when intersected with the above defined grid, result
in 372,040 cells.
Figure 2. Experimental semi-variogram and fitted model
for qc values for top) clay and bottom) peat units.
Thereafter the 3D-grid model is intersected with the
existing 3D volume geological model in order to deter-
mine volumes of geotechnical units (fill, clay, peat,
and sand) enclosed in every grid cell separately and to
interpolate qc values. This, in turn, will allow deter-
mining the C  values of peat and clay units per grid
cell.
3.2 Geostatistical modeling
Statistical analysis in the form of histogram and fre-
quency plots is performed to check the distribution
of the qc values of peat and clay layers at sampled
CPT locations and to select the model for geostatisti-
cal analysis. The analysis result indicated that the qc
data shows a log-normal distribution both for clay and
peat units. For qc in clay unit a mean value of 0.42 MPa
and a standard deviation of 0.29 and in peat unit a mean
value of 0.29 MPa and a standard deviation of 0.23 are
determined.
Kriging was chosen as a geostatistical model due
to: 1) log normal distribution of qc data 2) its common
use in geosciences, and 3) to be known as the Best
Linear Unbiased Estimator. Thereafter a trend and a
semi-variogram analysis (Figure 2) are performed to

530

Figure 3. 3D perspective for estimated cone resistance
values for top) clay and bottom) peat.
investigate the stationary and spatial variability and to
ensure the applicability of Kriging as a geostatistical
model.
Then a cross validation is performed to investigate
the accuracy of estimation compared to the original
values. For both clay and peat units the Z-statistics
show normal distributions with the averages close to
zero and the standard deviations close to one. Figure 3
presents the three dimensional perspective for esti-
mated cone resistance values for both clay and peat
units.
4 3D SETTLEMENT ANALYSIS IN GIS
4.1 Settlement analysis procedure
Settlement analysis is performed using modified
Terzaghi or so-called Koppejan Formula (CUR, 1996)
for long-term settlements. The C involved in the for-
mula has been determined based on theqc values.
Thereafter the settlement results are presented as set-
tlement prediction map and as 3D iso-volume to reflect
the real picture of settlement predictions. Modified
Terzaghis or Koppejan equation: is given by
Where, S is settlement (m), H is the thickness
of the compressible layer (m), C is the coefficient
of compressibility, v is the initial vertical effective
stress at the mid-height of the compressible layer
531
(kPa), and p is the increase in vertical effective
stress (kPa). The coefficient of compressibility beyond
pre-consolidation pressure, C is estimated by:
where Cp and Cs are the Koppejans primary and sec-
ondary coefficients of compressibility beyond the
pre-consolidation pressure, respectively, and t is time
interval (day) and td is time interval of one day. Since
in practice settlement is often regarded as completed
after 104 days (CUR, 1996) the equation 2 becomes
The 3D settlement calculations were performed by
dividing the area (by creating 3D Grid block model)
into soil columns, each consists of blocks (cells) of
10 10 m in N-S and E-W directions and 1m depth.
The settlement calculation is performed at the center of
each cell separately in cumulative sequence from bot-
tom to top. The calculations considered the volumetric
contribution of the different soil types encountered
within each cell by applying a volume weighted aver-
age algorithm. The top of the fill unit is considered
as ground level and the total settlement under a uni-
formly distributed load of 50 kPa is calculated. This
geometrical condition is considered as present situa-
tion in Sliedrecht area and the settlement calculation
results may serve as a primary reference for future
construction activities in the area. a constant phreatic
groundwater level is considered at NAP-2.
Representative soil parameters given in the Dutch
standards (NEN 6740) are used to determine the C
values in equation 1 in this study. The required param-
eters, which will be used in the calculations, are chosen
according to description and consistency of the soil
type (Table 1). The values are presented together with
other representative values of unit weight and qc val-
ues, which can be used (if available) for confirmation
of the selected soil type due to the fact that consistency
of the soil type is not described unless boreholes and
laboratory testing are conducted. The data available in
this work are composed mainly of qc values and no
laboratory test results were available. Therefore, the
Cp and Cs values for peat and clay units are selected
based on qc values as depicted inTable 1.Then by using
equation (3) the C values for clay and peat units are
calculated in each grid cell as the qc values that belong
to these units are stored in the grid cells centroid.
First, the total vertical stress (v ), the hydrostatic
pore pressure (u) and the vertical effective stress (v )
at the center of each grid cell is calculated by using
the following equations (Douwes Dekker, 1991): v is
given by
Table 1. Relation between soil type and soil parameters according to NEN6740 (CUR, 1996).

s qc Cp Cs
Soil Admixture Consistency kN/m3 MPa

Clay Clean Soft 14 0.5 7 80

Medium 17 1 15 160
Stiff 1920 2 2530 320500
Slightly sandy Soft 15 0.7 10 110
Medium 18 1.5 20 240
Stiff 2021 2.5 3050 400600
Very sandy 1820 1 2550 3201680
Organic Soft 13 0.2 7.5 30
Medium 1516 0.5 1015 4060
Peat Not preloaded Soft 1012 0.10.2 57.5 2030
Moderately preloaded Medium 1213 0.2 7.510 3040

* The table presents the low representative value for the soil properties of the concerning soil type. If the most unfavorable
situation is created by application of the high representative value of the layer average, a value based on consistency/relative
density of the soil type concerned must be chosen from the next row (i.e. from denser, respectively stiffer material) and in the
case of dense, respectively stiffer material the value after must be chosen (CUR, 1996).

where, zi is depth of layer in (m) [depth to the center
of each grid cell] and iI is the unit weight of the layer
i (kN/m3 ) [average unit weights of soil units in each
cell]. u (water pressure) is determined by,
where hw is water column (m) and w is the unit weight
of water (kN/m3 ). And finally v is equal to v u.
For calculating the vertical effective stress at each
grid cell center, the volume weighted average of unit
weight value that has been calculated for each cell,
The volume weighted average unit weight per grid cell
(kN/m3 ) is calculated based on the volume of each unit
available in a grid cell as follows:
where, Cs , Cp , Cc , Cf are the compressibility coeffi-
cients of sand, peat, clay and fill units available within
a grid cell, respectively and vs , vp , vc and vf are the
same as defined above for equation 6.
The calculations start at the top of each soil col-
umn and proceed downwards cell by cell, until the
top of the sand layer. The total settlement, both at the
top of the soil column and at any cell center, can be
obtained by upward cumulative summation of settle-
ment values at grid cell centers. Settlement values at
every required elevation are available as well as the
total settlement at the ground level since the settle-
ment values were determined at each grid cell. This
enables more accurate settlement prediction for shal-
low and/or deep foundation designs. Moreover it gives
an insight to which depth the excavation of top soil lay-
ers is needed to find a foundation level with only small
or threshold settlement values.

where, s , c , p , and f are the unit weight of sand, 4.2 Results

clay, peat and fill units respectively (kN/m3 ) and vs ,
vp , vc , and vf are volumes of sand, peat, clay and fill
units available within a grid cell (m3 ) respectively.
After calculating the v , the settlement is calcu-
lated at each grid cell center by using equation 1. The
soil thickness in the calculations is taken 1m, which
correspond to the height of the grid cell. The volume
weighted average of compressibility coefficient values
are used in the calculations.The volume weighted aver-
age compressibility coefficient per grid cell Cwv is
determined based on the volume of each unit available
in a grid cell as follow:
Figure 4 presents the settlement analysis results as a
2D settlement map and Figure 5 shows the result in
3D iso-volume. The settlement values ranges between
0.03.5 m. As it is mentioned earlier in Section 2.2 the
qc values for clay unit ranges between 0.12.1 MPa and
for peat unit ranges between 0.051.6 MPa. This rather
wide range of qc values results in C values of between
3.7523.08 for clay unit and C values of between 2.5
5.0 for peat unit (Table 1). Hence, the variation and
distribution of the qc readings within the grid cells
results in different C values per grid cell and this leads
to a variation and densely distributed settlement zones.
In the areas where the thickness of compressible
layers, peat and clay, are increasing up to 10 m, the
settlement values also increase up to 2.5 m. Thick-
ness of compressible layers decrease towards south

532
 Figure 6. 3D Mesh and uniform load in midasGTS.

Table 2. Material properties.

Figure 4. Settlement prediction map of Sliedrecht area.
Parameter Fill Clay Peat Sand

(dry) [kN/m3 ] 18 15 10 18
(wet) [kN/m3 ] 20 16 11 20
Youngs modulus [kPa] 25000 500 750 25000
Poisons ratio [] 0.3 0.35 0.35 0.3
Cohesion [kPa] 0.5 10 5 0.5
Friction angle [ ] 30 22.5 15 30
Dilatancy angle 0 0 0 0

the middle part of the area and towards east it reaches

up to 1m.

5 3D SETTLEMENT ANALYSIS IN FINITE

Figure 5. 3D perspective view of settlement in Sliedrecht
area.
and southwest. Therefore towards north and north-
east direction, the settlement values are higher. In the
west part of the area the thickness of peat is approxi-
mately 7 m and clay in total is about 3 m, which result
in high settlement values. The thickness of fill is about
4 m in the south, southwest part even at some spots it
reaches up to 6 m. In northern part, the fill thickness is
about 2 m and in the north-east part it decreases up to
0.3 m. The thickness of the fill contributes in reducing
surcharge effect within the compressible layer. More-
over fill layer, which is of higher stiffness, absorb and
redistributes the strains resulting from the underlying
compressible layers. Therefore the lower the fill thick-
ness the higher the settlement value expected and this
is witnessed in the settlement zones in the middle, west
and northeast parts of the area (Figure 4).
As peat is more compressible compared to clay,
when the thinner clay layer is followed by a thicker
peat layer in other words where peat is closer to the sur-
face, the settlement values are expected to be higher
than the case where thicker clay layer is overlaying.
This is the case seen in the middle and the western
parts of the area, as the thickness of upper clay layer is
about 0.7 m at the west, decreasing to about 0.3 m in
ELEMENT USING MidasGTS
Midas GTS software v3.0.0, a general 2D/3D Geotech-
nical and Tunnel analysis System, was used for the
nonlinear finite element analysis. Based on the avail-
able soil parameters and subsequent assessment of soil
conditions, the Mohr-Coulomb constitutive model was
adopted in nonlinear phased analysis. An advanced
model for soft soil would have probably been better
suited but the lack of soil investigation data dos not
grant the use of such models. The main aim of the
analysis was to predict the settlement of the soil lay-
ers under own weight and a uniform surcharge load of
50 kPa (Fig. 6).
A common practice in finite element analysis for
geotechnical problems is to run a staged analysis by
initializing the stresses under own weight in the first
stage while resetting their resulting displacements.
The following stage(s) would include the analysis
due to new loads, excavations, etc. In this study, the
GIS modeling do not account for stress initialization
and calculated displacements are total displacements.
Therefore, for the sake of comparison, two analyses
were performed, one with stress initialization and one
without. The prior would calculate settlements due to
both self-weight and surcharge load, while the latter
would calculate settlement results due the surcharge
load only.

533

Figure 7. Settlement results due to self-weight and sur-
charge load in nonlinear analysis.
The soil properties used for the Mohr-Coulomb
model during the analysis are summarized in Table 2
and are based on literature values (Van Meurs et al.
1999) following the qc values from CPT results. The
literature values are used in the analysis because
these were based on the laboratory test result val-
ues from the area between Amsterdam and Utrecht,
where the soil units show similarity with those avail-
able in the study area. A quarter-symmetry model with
50 50 m side dimensions was considered with a total
of 21208 tetrahydron elements. The soil profile used
from ground surface consisted of 1m fill, 0.9 m clay,
5 m peat, 1.3 m clay, 1m peat, 0.8 m clay, and 11m
sand, respectively. The surcharge load is uniformly
applied on top of the fill layer. All analyses took place
in drained conditions.
The total settlement value from the analysis with-
out stress initialization is 0.92 m (Fig. 7), whereas
the settlement value from the analysis with stress ini-
tialization and load application in a following stage
resulted in 0.52 m. This latter value indicates the net
settlement due to the surcharge load.
6 CONCLUSIONS
The comparative 3D settlement analysis using 3D GIS
and 3D finite element approaches have been presented
534
in this study. The results of 3D GIS analysis are pre-
sented as settlement prediction map and iso-volumes.
The C values used in 3D GIS analysis are determined
using qc values both for peat and clay units. The settle-
ment varies between 03.1 m in the area. The detailed
settlement zones observed is mainly due to the spa-
tial variation in qc values. The average value of the
settlement is around 1.5 m.
The 3D finite element analysis resulted in a settle-
ment value comparable to the average value obtained
from the GIS analysis of about 1 m.
The use of the 3D GIS approach coupled with
geostatistical distribution of properties could be used
for preliminary urban planning on regional scale. A
detailed 3D finite element analysis could then be used
for detailed analysis on project scale. The advance in
computer hardware and availability of user-friendly
full 3D geotechnical software, e.g. midas GTS, makes
such analysis accessible for the geotechnical design
office.
REFERENCES
Douwes D.1991. Soil Mechanics. Lecture Notes of M.Sc.
Course in Engineering Geology. ITC-Delft. The Nether-
lands: 286.
Chowdhury. M. A. 1994. Application of Geotechnical
Database and GIS For The Preparation of Engineering
Geological Maps In a Queternary Geological Area. MSc
Thesis. ITC-Delft. The Netherlands: 107.
Houlding. S.W. 1994. 3D Geoscience Modelling: Computer
Techniques For GeologicalCharacterization. Springer-
Verlag Berlin: 309.
Somboon-anek. P. 1995. 3D-GIS Modelling For Geotechni-
cal Purposes: Sliedrecht. Netherlands. MSc. Thesis. ITC.
Delft. The Netherlands: 44.
Center for Civil Engineering Research and Codes (CUR).
1996. Building on Soft Soils. Balkema. Rotterdam. The
Netherlands: 389.
Welideniya. H.S. 1996. GIS Application in Foundation Cost
Zonation For an Area in Sliedrecht The Netherlands. Msc.
Thesis. ITC- Delft. The Netherlands.
Orlic. B. 1997. Predicting Subsurface Conditions for
Geotechnical. Modelling. ITC Publication. No.55. The
Netherlands.
Meurs van. A.N.G. Berg van den. A. and Ven.ans. A.A.M.
1999. Embankment widening with the Gap-method. In
Barendsen et. al. [ed]. Geotechnical Engineering for
Transportation Infrastructure. Rotterdam: Balkema.
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

A comparison of 1D, 2D, and 3D settlement analyses

of the Tower of Pisa

A.J. Klettke & L. Edgers

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Tufts University, Medford, MA.

ABSTRACT: This paper compares and evaluates settlement analyses of the Tower of Pisa by 1D, 2D, and 3D
computer models. The Tower of Pisa has been an important settlement case study for more than a century. The
Tower settlement has been previously modeled using 1D consolidation and, more recently, 2D and 3D finite
element analysis. The recent work provides a large amount of subsurface data used in these analyses. The 1D
analyses underestimate the average settlement of the Tower by neglecting shear induced deformations. In 2D,
a plane strain analyses can model the Towers tilt but the magnitude of the settlement must be calibrated for
the difference between plane strain and axisymmetric loading. The results of the calibrated 2D and 3D analyses
show excellent agreement and both agree reasonably well with the estimated actual settlements and tilts.

1 INTRODUCTION 2.2 Estimated settlement

Original elevations of the Tower foundation in 1173
The development of advanced numerical techniques,
are unknown. Thus an absolute measured settlement
especially two-dimensional and three-dimensional
history is not available. There are, however, some
finite element analysis, has greatly enhanced our abil-
estimated final settlements reported in the literature.
ity to model complex geotechnical problems. These
Mitchell et al. (1979) estimate the final settlement of
advanced techniques, however, offer a number of chal-
the Tower to be approximately 140 cm on the north
lenges including: evaluating the effects of numerical
side, 220 cm in the center, and 310 cm on the south
error and instability; the time for setup, verification,
side. Bai et al. (2008) report observed final settlement
and execution; and, computer memory requirements.
values of 201 cm on the north side and 390 cm on the
Traditional models, such as one-dimensional con-
south, although the basis of these values is not known.
solidation theory offer the advantage of simplicity,
although they are severely limited in their ability to
model complex situations. 2.3 Tilting history
This paper describes a comparison of results Burland and Potts (1995) provide a reconstructed his-
obtained from one-dimensional (1D), two-dimensional tory of the tilt of the Tower based on adjustments made
(2D) and three-dimensional (3D) models. The Tower to its masonry layers and their relative inclinations.
of Pisa was selected as the case study for this com- Table 1 summarizes the tilting history of the Tower.
parison because of its settlement history and the well During the first phase of construction, the Tower tilted
characterized soil conditions. It is beyond the scope
of this paper to model the behavior of the Tower or to Table 1. Estimated Tilting and Load History (Costanzo
evaluate the causes of its settlement and tilt history in et al., 1994).
detail.
Year Activity Wt (kN) Tilt0

2 TOWER HISTORY 1173 Start Construction 0 0

1178 Complete 3-1/2 floors 94.8 0
2.1 Construction 1272 Resume Construction 94.8 0.200
1278 Complete to 7th floor 137.28 0.103
Construction of the Tower of Pisa began in August 1285 Resume Construction 137.28 1.112
1173. In 1178, after three and a half stories had been 1360 Complete Construction 137.28 1.112
built, work was interrupted possibly because of politi- 1370 144.53 1.611
cal or construction difficulties. After nearly a century, 1550 144.53 4.684
work on the tower resumed in 1272. By 1278, construc- 1758 144.53 4.831
1817 144.53 5.103
tion reached the seventh cornice when work again was 1911 144.53 5.246
stopped. Work on the bell chamber began in 1360 and 1990 144.53 5.469
the Tower was finally completed in 1370.

535
Figure 1. North-South profile (Rampello & Callisto, 1998).
slightly to the north. After construction resumed in
1272, the Tower began to tilt distinctly towards the
south. By the time construction was completed in
1370, the estimated tilt was 1.611 increasing to 4.684
by 1550. Miscellaneous construction activities since
then have caused incremental increases in the Towers
tilt. For example, in 1838 the excavation of a walk-
way known as the catino increased the Towers tilt
by about 0.5 (Burland and Potts, 1995). By 1990,
the tilting of the Tower had increased to 5.469 . This
tilt overstressed the concrete masonry of the structure
and threatened the stability of the foundation. As a
result, over the next decade the Tower was stabilized
by well-documented measures including the installa-
tion of pre-stressed tendons around the lower levels of
theTower, a temporary concrete ring around the base of
the Tower with lead ingots placed on the ring in calcu-
lated phases, and soil extraction (Burland et al., 2003).
The analyses described in this paper do not consider
the period after the Tower was stabilized.
3 SUBSURFACE CONDITIONS
3.1 Soil conditions
The subsurface conditions beneath the Tower have
been extensively studied from early in the 20th cen-
tury. As many as 16 committees in the past century
have investigated methods to stabilize the Tower of
Pisa (Lo Presti et al., 2003). Figure 1 provides a north-
south cross section created by Rampello and Callisto
(1998) based upon a large amount of the available
borehole and CPT data.
536
The upper A horizon consists of varying thicknesses
of mixed sand, silt, and clayey soils. The B horizon,
known as the Pancone clay, consists of an upper clay
(B1 , B2 , B3 ) and intermediate clay (B4 , B5 ). These are
underlain by intermediate sand (B6 ) and lower clays
(B7 , B8 , B9 , B10 ). The depression in the top boundary
of the upper Pancone clay (B1 , B2 , B3 ) shows that this
layer has contributed greatly to the overall settlement
behavior of the Tower. In addition, variations in the
upper A horizon may have caused the Towers initial
tilt. This initial tilt would have produced non-uniform
stresses in the foundation soil, causing the Towers
inclination to increase over the following centuries.
3.2 Soil properties
Mitchell et al. (1977), in a 1D settlement analysis,
reported some of the soil properties data of earlier
committees and provided some one dimensional con-
solidation parameters. Rampello and Callisto (1998)
and Lo Presti et al. (2003) summarize the vast amount
of data on the soils below the Pisa Tower from the
past century. They include soil compressibility, creep,
strength and stress history data obtained from very
high quality samples and modern testing methods.
Table 2 presents the soil properties based on these data
used in this study.
4 NUMERICAL MODELING METHODS
AND ASSUMPTIONS
4.1 Introduction
The numerical analyses were based on the loading his-
tory of Table 1, the soil profile of Figure 1 and the soil
Table 2. Input Soil Properties.
Soil Layer Cc Cr C Avg. OCR
Fill
A1-Clayey Silt 0.225 0.026 0.004
A2-Upper Sand
B1,B2,B3 Upper Clay 0.853 0.141 0.015
B4,B5 Int. Clay 0.296 0.042 0.004
B6 Int. Sand
B7,B8,B9,B10 Lower Clay 0.518 0.081 0.01
C Lower sand
Cc and Cr = compression and recompression indices, C = secondary compression index, OCR = overconsolidation ratio,
c = cohesion,  = friction angle, E = modulus of elasticity, = Poissons ratio.
properties data of Table 2. Klettke (2009) describes the
details of parameter selection. WinSaf-I and WinSaf-
TR (Prototype Engineering, 2001) were used for the
1D computations. WinSaf-I uses 1D compression the-
ory but distributes the applied stresses throughout the
subsurface using elastic theory. WinSaf-TR computes
time rates using conventional 1D consolidation theory.
The 2D and 3D analyses were performed using Plaxis
2D (1998) and Plaxis 3D Foundation (2007). Plaxis
2D and Plaxis 3D Foundation use the finite element
method (FEM) with automated mesh-generation capa-
bility, interface elements, and a number of available
soil models. A series of initial studies were performed
to validate the performance of these computer pro-
grams. These included Plaxis 2D element type and
Plaxis 2D and 3D mesh refinement and mesh size stud-
ies. The FEM programs were also used to perform a
1D analysis for a comparison with WinSaf and in order
to verify their accuracy.
4.2 1D analysis
The 1D profile used for this analysis is a simpli-
fication of a north-south profile of Figure 1 with
layers of uniform thickness. The Tower was assumed
to apply a net uniform vertical load over a circular
area, using ramp loadings to approximate the construc-
tion time-history of Table 1. The loads accounted for
the 3 m deep excavation within the fill layer. Shear
induced displacements were neglected in this simpli-
fied analysis. Thus, the settlement computed in this 1D
analysis is an average settlement representative of the
Towers center. WinSaf-TR performed a time-rate anal-
ysis for the ultimate settlement computed by WinSaf-I.
Independently calculated secondary compression was
added to the settlements due to primary consolidation
after the final load was applied.
4.3 2D analysis
The Plaxis analyses used a Soft Soil Creep (SSC)
model to model the compressible clay layers and a
Mohr-Coulomb (MC) model for the sand and fill lay-
ers. The clay layers experienced undrained loading
followed by consolidation. The sand and fill layers
beneath the Tower were assumed to be drained.
537
c, kPa 0 E, kPa
1 34 22000 0.3
3.23 6.8 34
1 34 13000 0.3
1.63 9.8 24
2 1 29
1 34 18000 0.3
1.25 3.1 26
1 34 100000 0.3
Plaxis 2D analyses were performed using both the
axisymmetric and plane strain models. The axisym-
metric model can represent the Towers circular foun-
dation but cannot model the non-uniform stresses
beneath the tower and its tilt. The plane strain model
can account for the Towers tilt but computes too much
settlement because of the differences between plane
strain and axisymmetric loading conditions.
The Plaxis 2D axisymmetric analyses used a 60 m
wide mesh with significant mesh refinement within
the A1 and B1, B2, B3 soil clusters. The mesh con-
sisted of 2,622 15-noded elements and 21,193 nodes.
The loads applied for these analyses were the same as
the loads applied for the 1D analysis. Plane strain mesh
computations (2286 elements, 18525 nodes) were first
made with variations in the mesh to capture some of
the detailed subsurface variations in soil properties
and type beneath the Tower, particularly in horizon A
(Figure 1). These initial computations produced very
uniform settlements, suggesting that subsurface varia-
tions beneath the Tower, by themselves, are not a major
cause of the Towers present day tilt. A comparison of
the plane strain computations with the axisymmetric
computations with the same soil properties and loading
provided a measure of the effect of plane strain versus
axisymmetric conditions on settlements. The axisym-
metric computation produced a final settlement at the
centerline of 260 cm versus 380 cm. for the plane strain
loading, suggesting a scaling factor of 0.683.
An initial 2D plane strain analysis using uniform
stresses produced no measurable differential settle-
ment. Therefore, a series of 2D plane strain compu-
tations were made to investigate the extent to which
non-uniform stresses contribute to the Towers incli-
nation. An eleven phase calculation was established in
Plaxis 2D based on the loading increments of Table 3.
These stresses include the effects added to the weight
of the Tower due to overturning moments caused by
the Towers tilt to date as summarized by Table 1.
4.4 3D analyses
A series of initial computations were made with sym-
metrical loadings in order to evaluate the effects of
mesh fineness and mesh size on the results, and the
accuracy of Plaxis 3D Foundation by comparison with
Table 3. Non-uniform Applied Stresses (All stresses in
kPa).

Year Tilt avg north south

1173 0 0.0 0.0 0.0

1178 0 314.2 314.2 314.2
1272 0.200 314.2 324.4 304.1
1278 0.103 455.0 447.6 462.5
1285 1.112 455.0 374.0 536.1
1360 1.112 455.0 374.0 536.1
1370 1.611 479.1 346.9 611.2
1550 4.684 479.1 93.9 864.2 Figure 3. 1D, 2D, and 3D Center Settlement vs. Time.
1758 4.831 479.1 82.0 876.2
1817 5.103 479.1 59.5 898.6
1911 5.246 479.1 47.5 910.6
1990 5.469 479.1 29.2 928.9 largely completed by this time and much of the Tower
settlement over the final 600 years has been due to
other factors including secondary compression and
shear induced creep
The ultimate settlement under the center of the
Tower computed by the 1D, 2D, and 3D analyses are
152 cm, 260 cm, and 240 cm respectively.The 1D com-
putation shows the least settlement because it neglects
the effects of shear induced displacements in the foun-
dation soils. An approximate calculation by Mitchell
et al. (1977) using elastic theory and an estimated
modulus of elasticity for the clays estimates that these
shear induced displacements may account for about
26 cm, 24 cm, and 2 cm respectively for each of the
three loading phases (52 cm total) bringing the 1D
computation into better alignment with the 2D and 3D
computations.
The final values of 260 cm for the 2D analysis
Figure 2. Non-uniform line loads for 3D analysis.
and 240 cm from the 3D analysis agree well with the
range of actual settlements estimated by Mitchell et al.
(1979) and Bai et al. (2008). The difference between
the Plaxis 2D results. The soil stratification and consti- the Plaxis 2D and Plaxis 3D computations occurs
tutive models were the same as described above for the because of differences in element type, 15-noded ele-
Plaxis 2D analyses. Mesh design is particularly impor- ments in Plaxis 2D versus 6-noded elements in Plaxis
tant in 3D finite element analyses in order to produce 3D, and mesh fineness, an average element size of
accurate results without excessive computer mem- 0.99 m in Plaxis 2D versus 3.18 m in Plaxis 3D.
ory or execution time requirements. The mesh used
for the final computations was 120 m 120 m 43 m
and consisted of almost 13,882 6-noded elements and 5.2 Non-uniform loadings
37,602 nodes. Non-uniform stresses were applied in
11 phases as in the 2D analyses to model the effects of Figure 4 presents a plot of center settlement of the
overturning moments caused by the tilt of the Tower. Tower versus time for the 2D and 3D computations
These stresses were approximated by a series of line assuming non-uniform loading as described above.
loads as illustrated by Figure 2. The Plaxis 2D results were obtained from the plane
strain model, reduced by the calibration factor of 0.683
determined from a comparison of the axisymmetric
and plane strain results as described in section 4.3.
5 NUMERICAL RESULTS
The 2D (calibrated) and 3D curves agree well. The
small differences are due to element type and mesh
5.1 Uniform loadings
fineness issues as described in the preceding section
Figure 3 presents a plot of center settlement of the 5.1. Both computations show center settlements that
Tower versus time for the 1D, 2D, and 3D compu- agree well with the estimated final values. However,
tations assuming uniform loading as described above. the computed settlements are low on the south side and
All three curves show large settlement rates at the times high on the north side of the Tower. This suggests that
corresponding to the two major loading periods, 1173 the computed tilts are less than the measured tilts of
1178 and 12721278. After the completion of Tower the Tower. This point is illustrated in Figure 5 which
construction in 1370, the settlement rates decrease compares the computed 2D and 3D inclinations to the
rapidly. This suggests that primary consolidation is estimated final settlement values.

538

Figure 4. 1D, 2D, and 3D Center Settlement vs. Time for
Non-Uniform Loading.
Figure 5. 2D, 3D and Estimated Measured Tilt vs. Time.
6 DISCUSSION
The 1D analysis computes settlements that are small
compared to the estimated final settlements and the
settlements computed by the 2D and 3D analyses. This
occurs because the 1D analysis neglects both initial
and long-term shear induced displacements.
The 2D and 3D analyses with uniform loading show
much better agreement with the estimated center set-
tlement (Figure 3) because they better account for the
shear induced movements. The calibrated 2D plane
strain analyses show that the non-uniform thicknesses
in the soil layers, especially the A1 layer, were found to
have little effect on the long-term tilting of the Tower.
The results of the 2D and 3D analyses with non-
uniform loading, Figure 4, correctly show the trend
of increasing tilt from north to south over the cen-
turies. The overturning moment generated from the
Tower weight and the center of gravity moving hor-
izontally cause the Towers increasing tilt with time.
However, the computed differential settlements and
tilts are smaller than the estimated actual values, Fig-
ure 5. These larger tilts may have developed because
the foundation soils were very close to experiencing a
bearing capacity failure during construction, not fully
accounted for in these analyses. In fact, Burland et al.
(2003) note that had work continued without interrup-
tion, it is likely that soils beneath the foundation of the
Tower would have experienced an undrained bearing
539
capacity failure during construction. Bai et al. (2008)
perform a three-dimensional creep analysis and con-
clude that creep effects could account for 1.5 of the
towers tilt.
Other factors that may contribute to the differ-
ence between the estimated and computed settlements
include:
Uncertainty in the measured settlements and incli-
nations.
Numerical error due to the FEM discretization.
The approximation of the non-symmetrical stress
distribution.
Soil property estimates in material such as the
Upper Pancone clay that is very sensitive to sample
disturbance.
7 CONCLUSIONS
The 1D analyses underestimate the average settle-
ment of the Tower because they neglect the shear
induced deformations. In 2D, a plane strain analysis
can model the Towers tilt but the magnitude of the set-
tlement must be calibrated for the difference between
the infinite strip plane strain loading and the actual
axisymmetric loading. The results of the calibrated
2D and the 3D analyses show excellent agreement and
both agree reasonably well with the estimated final
settlements and tilts.
Initial mesh refinement and mesh size studies are
important to validate and compare the performance of
these computer programs. Mesh design is particularly
important in 3D finite element analyses in order to
produce accurate results without excessive computer
memory or execution time requirements. Although the
2D and 3D analyses agreed reasonably well, the 3D
analysis requires much longer execution times than
2D and produces more discretization error because of
a coarser mesh.
REFERENCES
Bai, J., Morgenstern, N., and Chan, D. (2008). Three-
Dimensional Creep Analysis of the Leaning Tower of
Pisa, Japanese Geotechnical Society, Soils and Founda-
tions, Vol. 48, No. 2, pp. 195205.
Burland, J.B., Jamiolkowski, M., and Viggiani, C. (2003).
The Stabilisation of the Leaning Tower of Pisa, Japanese
Geotechnical Society, Soils and Foundations Vol. 43, No.
5, pp. 6380.
Burland, J.B and Potts, D.M. (1995). Development and
Application of a Numerical Model for the Leaning
Tower of Pisa, Pre-Failure Deformation of Geomaterials,
Shibuya, Mitachi, & Miura (eds). Balkema. pp. 715738.
Costanzo, D., Jamiolkowski, M., Lancellotta, R. and Pepe,
B. (1994). Leaning Tower of Pisa-Description of the
Behaviour, International Symposium on Settlement 94,
Invited Lecture, Austin, Texas.
Klettke, A.J. (2009). A Comparison of 1D, 2D, and 3D Set-
tlement Analyses of the Tower of Pisa, Master of Science
Thesis, Tufts University, Medford, MA, USA.
Lo Presti, D.C.F., Jamiolkowski, M., and Pepe, M.
(2003). Geotechnical characterization of the subsoil
of Pisa Tower, Characterisation and Engineering Prop-
erties of Natural Soils, Swets & Zeitlinger, Lisse.
pp. 909946.
Mitchell, J.K., Vivatrat, V., and Lambe, T.W. (1977). Founda-
tion Performance of Tower of Pisa, ASCE, Journal of the
Geotechnical Engineering Division, Vol. 103, No. GT3,
pp. 227249.
Mitchell, J.K., Vivatrat, V. and Lambe, T.W. (1979). Closure
of Foundation Performance of Tower of Pisa. ASCE,
Journal of Geotechnical Engineering Division, Vol. 105,
No. GT11, pp. 13631365.
540
PLAXIS 8.2. (1998). Finite element code for soil and rock
analysis, version 8.2, R.B.J. Brinkgreve and P.A. Vermeer,
eds., Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
PLAXIS 3D Foundation Version 2 (2007). Finite ele-
ment code for soil and rock analysis, version 2, R.B.J.
Brinkgreve and W.M. Swolfs, eds., Rotterdam, The
Netherlands.
Rampello, S. and Callisto, L. (1998). A Study on the subsoil
of the Tower of Pisa based on results from standard and
high-quality samples, Canadian Geotechnical Journal,
Vol. 35, No. 6, pp. 10741092.
WinSaf-I (2001), Prototype Engineering, Winchester, MA.
WinSaf-TR (2001), Prototype Engineering, Winchester, MA.
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Analysis of a full scale failure test on old railway embankment

J. Mansikkamki & T. Lnsivaara

Tampere University of Technology, Finland

ABSTRACT: Tampere University of Technology has started a research project related to stability of railway
embankments. One notable part of this project was a full scale stability test on an old railway embankment.
The test site was an obsolete short rail track in southern part of Finland. Subsoil consists of very soft and
sensitive clay with undrained strength varying between 9. . .12 kPa. The test was accomplished in October 2009.
Extensive instrumentation was accomplished to get comprehensive information from the test. Measurements
included pore water pressure and earth pressure gauges, automatic inclinometers, different types of settlement
indicators and displacement measurements with automatic theodolites and laser scanners. The focus was on to
determine the shape of slip surface and to measure pore pressure behavior under the load, beside the load and
also attempting to measure failure induced pore pressure. Motives for this kind of extensive test are mainly in the
development of stability calculation methods, comparison between undrained strength (Su or C u ) and effective
strength parameters (c and  ), improve LEM and FEM calculations, especially how to better account for the
failure induced pore pressure. Analysis will be accomplished using LEM-program and 2D/3D FEM-programs
using material models which are particularly developed to soft soil calculations.

1 INTRODUCTION

Stability of railway embankments on soft clays is com-

monly calculated with limit equilibrium method using
undrained strength parameters. However, calculations
with undrained strength might for some cases produce
too small factors of safety. The calculated total fac-
tor of safety might even be less than 1.0 for existing
embankments. On the other hand LEM calculations
with effective strength parameters tend to overestimate
the safety factor for undrained conditions.
A major problem in effective stress analysis is the
assumptions for stress and pore pressure distribution
and the difficulty in accounting for failure induced
pore pressure.
According to the guidelines by Finnish railway
authorities (2006), the failure induced pore pressure
can be taken into account by using reduced effective
strength parameters. The reduced strength parameters Figure 1. Test site situated southern part of Finland near
grain storage silos and Helsinki Turku railway track.
should be applied in conventional LEM analysis (lem)
and when applying simple elastic-perfectly plastic
models in the finite element method (fem). Alter- failure test to gather more information about failure
natively fem calculations with hardening plasticity induced pore pressure and to be able to compare dif-
models can be used in order to account for the fail- ferent calculation methods to an actual failure. The test
ure induced pore pressure. Selection of preliminary embankment was an existing old railway embankment
fem calculations are presented in this paper. in southern part of Finland as shown in figure 1.
The upmost soil layer in the test site was old
embankment fill that consist of sand and gravel. Dry
crust layer was 1.01.5 m thick and had partially set-
2 TEST SITE AND TEST PROCEDURE tled under the groundwater level. Beneath the dry crust
there is a 5 to 7 m thick soft clay layer which undrained
Finnish Rail Administration and Tampere University strength varies between 9. . .12 kPa. Frictional soil lay-
of Technology accomplished a full scale embankment ers under the soft soil consist of silt and moraine.

541
 prism system and laser scanning. The pore pressure
gauges were mostly concentrated to one cross section
to be able to capture the failure induced pore pressure.

3 PARAMETERS FOR THE PRELIMINARY

CALCULATIONS

3.1 Calculation method

Stability calculations with finite element method were
performed using Strength reduction method (SRM). It
Figure 2. Typical cross section from the test site. is a well known method where the strength parameters
tan and c of the soil are reduced until failure of the
Table 1. Basic soil parameters for preliminary realistic structure occurs. The factor of safety is determined
FEM calculations. from the relation between the input soil strength and
the limit strength which causes a failure in the structure
model Type  c /cu M as presented in equation 1:

Embankment MC Drained 21.0 34.0 0.2

Fill (sand) MC Drained 19.0 34.0 0.2
Dry crust MC Drained 17.0 0.0 40.0
Clay1 SS Undrain 15.0 23.0 0.2 0.90
Clay2 SS Undrain 16.0 26.0 0.2 1.03
One should notice that at least for now the SRM
method is a standard procedure only for the Mohr-
Coulomb model (Plaxis 2D). When more sophisti-
cated models are used, the SRM needs to be applied
Table 2. Basic soil parameters for the calculations using
undrained shear strength. separately.
The simple Mohr-Coulomb model cant take into
 cu cu /m account the failure induced pore pressure while the
more sophisticated hardening models can. A mate-
Embankment 20.0 34.0 0.0 0.0 rial model used in the preliminary FEM calculations
Fill (sand) 19.0 34.0 0.0 0.0 was hardening plasticity model named Soft Soil model
Dry crust 17.0 0.0 30.0 0.0 (SS). The yield surface of the Soft Soil model includes
Clay1 15.5 0.0 9.5 0.5 a cap which shape/height is set with parameter M.
Clay2 16.5 0.0 14.0 5.0 The failure criteria itself is similar to conventional
Mohr-Coulomb.

Typical cross section from the middle of the test struc-

ture is presented in figure 2 together with some of the
soil investigation results. The main calculation param-
eters for the different soil layers are presented in the
tables 1 and 2.
Loading was accomplished by filling containers
with gravel. Between rails and containers a framework
of steel beams were laid to simulate real bogie units.
Loading structure consisted of 4 units or cars, each
12 m long.
The loading was made in two days on 20.21.
October 2009. During the first loading day the total
load was raised to 24 kPa, which corresponded to a
stress state close to the preconsolidation pressure of
the clay. On the second day the load was raised to maxi-
mum in 5 kPa steps constantly observing the displace-
ments and the measuring data from the instruments
located in the subsoil. Maximum load 85. . .87 kPa
was fully loaded at 7:34 pm. The embankment finally
collapsed two hours later at 9:27 pm.
Instrumentation was extensive including e.g. 40
strain-type pore pressure gauges, 9 strain-type earth
pressure gauges, 9 inclinometer tubes, 3 settlement
tubes with a total of 54 pressure gauges, automatic
deformation monitoring using 2 tachymeters and 27
3.2 Assessing of M-parameter in soft soil model
In the Soft Soil model the M-parameter determines the
shape of the cap yield surface. As associated flow is
assumed for the cap, it governs also the plastic flow.
According to standard procedure the M-parameter is
set in a manner that the model yields a realistic coef-
ficient of earth pressure at rest. However, in stability
calculation it might be more important to match the
yield surface near the failure line (Mansikkamki,
2008). In Figure 3 examples of two calculated stress
paths are shown together with the estimated yield sur-
face and a triaxial stress path. In addition, an undrained
stress path for Mohr-Coulomb model is also shown.
One can see that the influence of M-parameter is essen-
tial. In the preliminary calculation the M-parameter
was adjusted only to match with the friction angle .
As the effective stress path for undrained condi-
tions follows close to the initial yield surface, the shape
of the yield surface much determines at which shear
stress level the failure line is reached, influencing thus
strongly also on the safety factor. If the shape of the
yield surface is known, the M-parameter should prefer-
ably be adjusted to give a best fit of the actual true yield
surface at the most relevant stress level.

542
Figure 3. Failure line, investigated stress path and two dif-
ferent calculated stress paths caused by the difference of the
M-parameter (Mansikkamki and Lnsivaara 2009).
3.3 Stiffness parameters
For drained analysis, it has been shown that the stiff-
ness parameters used in fem-calculations play an
insignificant role to the factor of safety (Cheng et al.,
2006; Sterb Glmen et al., 2004). However, for
undrained conditions applying effective strength and
hardening plasticity the situation is quite different.
Relation of the stiffness parameters and deter-
mines the hardening effect of the soil model. The larger
difference in undrained conditions is between and ,
the closer stress path follows the initial yield surface.
Previously made studies have shown that influence
can be significant if the / relation is 10 or less
(Mansikkamki et al., 2009). Influence is found to be
practically negligible if the ratio is more than 20. Typi-
cal true values in Finnish soft clays are = 10 . 5
If the stress path should follow closely the yield sur-
face of the model, which is a safe approximation,
one should choose a rather high stiffness relation.
In the FEM calculations concerning this study lab-
oratory tested and on the other hand = /20
values were used. Effective strength parameters and
unit weights used in the fem-calculations are presented
in table 1.
4 PRELIMINARY CALCULATIONS
Preliminary calculation results are presented in
figure 4. There two sets of calculations are presented
for lem-calculations using undrained shear strength
(Cu), lem-calculations using effective strength and
fem calculations using hardening plasticity.
The calculations made with undrained shear
strength represent present guidelines with safe assess-
ment of the parameters. Basic soil parameters for the
undrained shear strength calculations without strength
reduction are presented in the table 2. The overall
safety factor of 1.0 is reached at a load of 27. . .35 kPa.
This method produces very conservative results as
failure occurred with 87 kPa train load.
Figure 4. Preliminary calculations with different methods.
Limit equilibrium calculations were made assuming
an excess pore pressure development due to failure for
the whole slip surface. The failure load was predicted
to be 60. . .72 kPa with this method.
Finite element calculations are presented with dia-
mond and line with dots. Both calculations were
carried out using SRM prescribed earlier. The first
calculation was made using more conservative soil
parameters and pre-overburden pressure according to
new FEM calculation code for Finnish rail adminis-
tration. The second calculation was made using more
realistic soil parameters. Calculation with conserva-
tive soil parameters forecasts that failure will occur
when train load is 65 kPa and failure load 80.5 kPa,
when using realistic soil parameters as presented in
the table 1.
PORE PRESSURE DEVELOPMENT
One of the main goals of failure load test was to get
more information about pore pressure development
during short-term static loading. This will then be used
to develop calculation methods and models to be able
to better account for the failure induced pore pressure.
Extensive pore pressure instrumentation was applied
to the test site to reach that goal.
Selection of pore pressure data with applied train
load is presented in the figure 5. Train load increasing
from 0 kPa to 24 kPa illustrates first loading day and
steps from 24 kPa to over 80 kPa second loading day.
Failure occurred 21.10.2009 9:27 PM, when load was
85. . .87 kPa.
Excess pore pressures increased more slowly than
train load during the whole test. An 80 kPa increase in
train load corresponded to 22. . .32 kPa increase in the
pore pressures under the embankment. Pore pressures
started to increase in whole failure area when the load
increased to 30 kPa. For the maximum train load pore
pressures increased 12. . .20 kPa in direct simple shear
zone and under 10 kPa near the ditch in the passive
zone.
Pore pressures started to increase rapidly an hour
after the loading was stopped caused by yielding
543
Figure 5. Train load and excess pore pressures in the test
site during the loading and the failure.
in the soil skeleton. Total failure of the soil mass
occurred approximately one hour later. As shown in
figure 5, failure induced pore caused significant and
rapid increase in excess pore pressure measurements
during the collapse.
6 FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS
In figure 6 measured pore pressure data and prelim-
inarily calculated pore pressures under the embank-
ment are presented. As shown, the calculated data
correspond quite well with measured excess pore
pressure development; despite the calculation slightly
overestimates the increase of pressures. Most of the
difference developed on the first calculation steps,
when train load was increasing from 0 kPa to 50 kPa.
During final loading phases difference between calcu-
lated and measured pressures was negligible.
Nevertheless, this result is very promising because
one can easily correct pore pressure behaviour by
adjusting M-parameter of Soft Soil model as men-
tioned before. The calculated pore pressure devel-
opment presented in the figure represents softest
behaviour one can model with Soft Soil model, since
M-parameter was fully adjusted to match with friction
angle.
During these preliminary calculations only a limited
amount of laboratory data was available. Hence the
shape of the yield locus was not fully known and a
bit too conservative assumptions were perhaps made.
This is one of the reasons that the calculated failure
load was 4. . .7 kPa less than the actual failure load.
544
Figure 6. Calculated pore pressure development versus train
load and measured pore pressure data.
Also a great simplification was made in that the time
effects were ignored in the preliminary calculations. It
is a well known fact that the strength of the clay is
strongly depending on the loading rate. The faster the
loading is applied, the higher failure load is applied.
This is explained by the pore pressure response of
the clay, while the effective strength parameters are
independent of loading rate. So to fully analyse the pre-
formed failure test, one needs to include creep effects
in the model. This will be done in connection with the
more comprehensive analysis of the test.
7 CONCLUSIONS
In this paper some preliminary results from a full scale
failure load test are presented. The test corresponds to
a rather typical railways embankment on soft clay in
southern Finland.
As also known previously, present stability cal-
culation guidelines by the Railway authorities using
undrained shear strength often leads to a rather con-
servative estimate of the safety. To fully analyse the
failure, calculations with FEM are needed. Therein
one should apply a hardening plasticity model which
includes also time effects.
Preliminary calculations have been done using the
Soft Soil model in Plaxis. The times effects have thus
jet been disregarded. The failure induced pore pres-
sure that develops in the analysis are much dependent
on the shape of the yield surface. In the preliminary
calculations, the yield surface was modeled so, that
the M parameter was adjusted according to the fric-
tion angle. This gives a yield surface more close to
the modified cam clay model. This way a maximum
pore pressure increase can be modeled i.e. represent-
ing the softest undrained response. Time effects are not
included, but the modeling would correspond close to a
slow undrained loading. In the future anisotropic mod-
els should be applied to better model the actual yield
surface.
In the failure test the load was applied rather rapidly.
This is probably the main reason why the prelimi-
nary calculations underestimated slightly the failure
load. Other possible reasons are conservative strength
parameters, especially for the dry crust, and that 3D
effects where not accounted for.
The preformed test gives valuable information
about undrained failure and rated pore pressure devel-
opment. Future studies will include among others
more detailed analysis of the failure tests and analysis
with more sophisticated models.
545
REFERENCES
Cheng Y.M., Wei W.B., Lnsivaara T. 2006. Factors of safety
by limit equilibrium and strength reduction methods.
NUMGE06.
Finnish railway authorities (RHK). Ratahallintokeskuksen
julkaisuja, A10/2006. Radan stabiliteetin laskenta, ole-
massa olevat penkereet. Kirjallisuus ja laskennallinen
taustaaineisto. Helsinki 2006. 319 s.
Mansikkamki, J. 2008. Masters Thesis: Stability analysis
of existing railway embankments based on finite element
method. Tampere University of Technology.
Mansikkamki, J. & Lnsivaara, T. 2009. Effective stress
analysis of old railway embankments. 17th Interna-
tional Conference on Soil Mechanics & Geotechnical
Engineering.
Plaxis 2D. Material Models Manual, version 9.0. 2008.
Sterb Glmen M.G., S. Nordal &A. Emdal. Slope Stability
Evaluations using the Finite Element method, NGM 2004.
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Analysis of ground movements induced by diaphragm wall installation

B. Garitte, M. Arroyo & A. Gens

Department of Geotechnical Engineering, UPC, Barcelona, Spain

ABSTRACT: The construction process of diaphragm walls can lead to movements in the surrounding area
that are seldom taken into account. However, these movements may be important in situations where soft soils
dominate. In this paper, after briefly reviewing the state of the art on this issue, we present results of a hydro-
mechanical simulation of the problem in a case located in deltaic soils of Barcelona. The auscultation record of
the settlements of a nearby building is employed to validate the computational model. Panel length and bentonite
slurry level were found to be the most influent parameters on induced displacements.

1 INTRODUCTION available in the literature and present modeling results

Excavation protected by diaphragm walls may be con-
sidered as the default execution method for stations
and other rail- and underground structures in urban
areas. Diaphragm walls of reinforced concrete are built
section by section. The principal construction phases
of such a section, called panel, are as follows: (a) con-
struction of guide wall (b) panel trench excavation
under bentonite slurry or other supporting fluid (c)
bottom-up concrete filling of the trench using a tube
(d) reinforcement installation. Diaphragm wall panels
may reach important dimensions (up to 1.2 m width,
8 m length and 60 m depth are not exceptional).
There are several reasons why the study of the
effects due to panel installation is interesting. First
(direct effect) to assess the possible impact of the panel
installation on its environment, as sometimes panel
collapse occurs and, quite more frequently, significant
movements in the vicinity of the panel are registered
during construction. Second (indirect effect) because
even if ground movements induced by panel execu-
tion are small, they may lead to stress changes in the
environment relevant to later excavation stages.
Direct effect of panel installation has more signifi-
cance in the case of soft soils. The indirect effect is
more important in hard overconsolidated soils. As a
first approximation, ignoring the indirect effect tends
to leave design on the side of safety, since the broad
consequence of panel excavation is horizontal stress
relaxation. Ignoring the direct effect instead, is not
safe, since the movements induced by the diaphragm
wall installation are added to those produced by the
subsequent excavation of the structure.
Given the increasing requirements regarding limita-
tion of ground movements in urban areas, development
of tools to evaluate the effect of the installation of
diaphragm walls in soft soils is necessary. In the paper,
we briefly review some observations on the problem
relevant to a real case.
2 STATE OF THE ART
2.1 Field observations
Although well documented cases of instrumented
excavation of diaphragm wall panels are rare, there are
enough in the literature (Di Biagio and Myrvoll 1973,
Poh and Wong, 1988, Tsai and others 2000, De Wit
and Lengkeek, 2003) to obtain some general lessons.
Table 1 lists the main geometric features of these cases,
i.e. the width (W), length (L) and depth (D) of the stud-
ied panel. A description of soil type and a measure of
the characteristic resistance (CR) are also included for
each case. The correspondent values are also given for
the case study presented later in this paper.
Where panel installation does not lead to failure
(a) final superficial settlements measured at the edge
of the panel vary between 10 and 20 mm (b) those
settlements attenuate rapidly with the distance from
the panel, being negligible for distances greater than
10W (Fig. 1) (c) horizontal displacements at a certain
depth tend to reach values several times higher than
the surface settlements. Its attenuation with distance
from the panel follows a law similar to the surface
settlement.
Some characteristics of the construction process are
clearly reflected in the observations. For example, set-
tlements and movements toward the panel that occur
during the excavation phase decrease during concret-
ing. Occasionally, the movement direction is even
reversed (Fig. 2). Unloading (excavation) and load-
ing (concreting) during the installation of a panel also
produce pore water pressure changes in less perme-
able materials. In that case, measurements during the
excavation correspond to a situation of partial drainage

547
Table 1. Cases of panel installation experiments in the litterature.

Case Soil CR W(m) L(m) D(m)

Barcelona (this study) Sand qc = 510 MPa 11.2 2.86 2535

Clayey silt Su = 4080 kPa
Oslo (Di Biagio and Myrvoll, 1973) Soft clay Su = 3040 kPa 1 1.85 28
Singapur (Poh y Wong, 1998) Soft clay Su = 1440 kPa 1.2 26 55.5
Taiwan (Tsai et al., 2000) Silty sand qc = 2040 MPa 0.9 8 15
Amsterdam (De Wit and Lengkeek, 2002) Clay and turf Su = 3040 kPa 0.8 3 35
Sand qc = 20 MPa

Figure 1. Effect of the installation of a panel on the

superficial settlements (Poh and Wong, 1998).

Figure 3. Measured fresh concrete pressure in a 45 m deep

panel (Schad et al., 2007).

panel on induced movements. Greater displacements

Figure 2. Settlement at 3 m from the panel measured with are expected to be induced by panels of larger length
an hydraulic cell (Di Biagio y Myrvoll, 1973).
and depth, but there are few data to quantify this
phenomenon.
and more movements may occur during the subsequent
Finally, observations have repeatedly confirmed
consolidation phase.
(Uriel and Oteo, 1977, Lings et al., 1994; Schad et
Other interesting observations are those concern-
Al., 2007) that the pressure applied by fresh concrete
ing the effect of variations of the basic construction
on the panel walls is not always hydrostatic. In fact,
process. In practice, such variations may be due to
hydrostatic pressure seemed to be maintained only
work incidents (a) excavation induced movements are
until a certain depth, referred to as the critical depth
very sensitive to the sustaining fluid level in the panel
(Fig. 3). The observed critical depths vary between
trench. Apparently small decreases (e.g. 1m for a
1/3 and 1/5 of the panel depth. This characteristic is
55 m deep panel) can produce significant additional
still poorly understood, but seems to depend on the
movements and even the collapse of the excavation
interplay between concreting rate and hardening.
(b) movements are not increased significantly during
important waiting times (e.g. one day), as long as a
constant fluid level is maintained inside the trench.
2.2 Analytical solutions
(c) Once the impervious cake has developed satisfacto-
rily on the panel wall, excavation induced movements There are a number of analytical solutions to the prob-
are relatively insensitive to the density of the sustaining lem of panel stability (e.g. Fox, 2004; Tsai, 2000).
fluid (in the range 1 to 1.3 t/m3 ). Most of them were derived using limit equilibrium
One aspect that is not clear from the cases described and the differences between them lie mainly in the
in the literature is the influence of the size of the degree of complexity of the alleged failure surface.

548
A major drawback of these analytical solutions is their
limited applicability for layered profiles. Moreover,
only stability is dealt with and they are not use-
ful for quantifying the settlement induced by panel
excavation.
However, it is interesting that these analytic solu-
tions also indicate the enormous importance of the
level of bentonite on the panel stability. For instance,
Fox (2004) predicts a security factor reduction from
2 to 1, by a decrease of bentonite level of 2 m in
a 15 m deep trench of 8 m length in sand ( = 34 ,
Figure 4. Plane view of the study area. The investigated
= 20 kN/m3 ). diaphragm wall (R15) and reference measurement points
(P17) are indicated.

2.3 Numerical models

An interesting alternative to obtain quantitative
answers to the panel problem is to use numerical
models. However this approach is relatively costly.
For practical reasons numerical modeling of excava-
tions still takes place mostly in 2D. In such models,
diaphragm wall construction is simultaneous for the
entire wall length. Available examples (Ng and Yan,
1998; Gourvenec and Powrie, 1999, Schafer and Tri-
antafyllidis, 2006) make clear that it is very difficult to
obtain approximate results if the three-dimensionality
of the problem is ignored. The cited authors also
emphasized the importance of the initial earth pres-
sure coefficient K0 , because of its influence on stress
redistribution.
Several common modeling features can be noticed
from the precedents (1) guide wall construction is
not considered; (2) excavation under bentonite is
reproduced by removing the elements included in the
volume of the panel and prescribing the hydrostatic
pressure of bentonite on the new contour; (3) fresh con-
crete pouring is represented by changing the boundary
condition of total stresses from the hydrostatic ben-
tonite profile to a bilinear profile; (4) finally, to
represent hardened concrete, the total stress boundary
condition is removed and elements in the panel volume
are re-activated, with material parameters correspond-
ing to those of reinforced concrete. Note that, while
this procedure is in accordance with the above men-
tioned field observations, it does neglect the tangential
frictional stresses between soil and fresh concrete that
will be necessary for equilibrium. The critical depth is
usually taken equal to one third of panel depth.
3 CASE STUDY
3.1 Background
The case that inspired the studies described here
can be considered typical of the excavations in soft
soil of deltaic areas near Barcelona. The motivation
arose from the observation of significant movements
in a building near some excavation works during
diaphragm wall installation.
Construction activities were complex because most
diaphragm wall installation was simultaneous to other
Figure 5. Settlements measured during the execution of the
R-diaphragm wall. Vertical dotted lines indicate the day in
which each panel was built (R5 to R1).
potentially disturbing activities, like jet-grout treat-
ment and micro-pile installation. However, the con-
struction sequence began with the execution of a
diaphragm wall section near the building (Fig. 4).
During that period, which preceded all other con-
struction activities, significant building movements
were already registered (Fig. 5). Those records made
clear that diaphragm wall construction had produced
some movement, but they did leave open the magni-
tude, because settlement occurring after the diaphragm
wall section was finished might have been due to
consolidation or to other, later activities. Since sim-
ilar diaphragm walls needed to be constructed in the
vicinity a detailed study of this problem by means of
numerical simulations seemed necessary.
3.2 Geotechnical site characterization
The geotechnical profile at the site might be described
by five main levels. Made ground (2 m thick), clay
(2 m), sand (11 m), silt (33 m) and gravel (undefined).
The water table is found at the top of the sand layer.
The geotechnical site characterization procedure can-
not be described here other than it was heavily reliant
on in situ tests. The in situ measurement campaign also
provided information on the earth pressure coefficient
K0 which was used to prescribe initial stress state.
The silt package is slightly overconsolidated and
has a relatively high deformability. It is likely that
much of its deformation takes place under plastic

549
Table 2a. Geomechanical parameters (MC).
E c
(m/d) (kPa) (kPa)
Made ground 0.22 3000 0.3 30
Clays 0.005 15,000 0.3 50
Sand 31.3 20,000 0.3 1 33
Gravel 105 31,000 0.3 50
Table 2b. Geomechanical parameters (MCC).
(m/d) ( ) OCR
Silt 0.003 27 1.15 0.012
regime. Hence, the characterization of this regime has
some importance and a modified Cam-clay (MCC)
model was chosen. For the other materials a simpler
Mohr-Coulomb (MC) model was selected. The most
important geomechanical parameters employed in the
calculations are shown in Table 2.
3.3 Characteristics of the numerical models
Precedent published analyses of this problem modeled
clayey soils, for which undrained behaviour might be
safely assumed. The geotechnical profile in this case
includes layers of very different permeability and any
generic assumption about drainage was not granted.
For this reason fully coupled hydromechanical com-
putations were performed.
The program employed was Code_Bright, a finite
element code developed in the Department of
Geotechnical Engineering of UPC (Olivella, 1995).
The modeling of the construction process of a panel
required some modifications to the program, the most
important being the implementation of a boundary
condition with (bi)linear stress variation with depth.
The new implementation was verified by benchmark-
ing against a case reported in the literature (Gourvenec
and Powrie, 1999).
Two types of analysis were performed: a para-
metric study of the excavation of an isolated panel
and a detailed modeling of a particular excavation
sequence of five panels, namely the R-diaphragm wall
(Fig. 4). Figure 6 shows the mesh used for modeling
the R-diaphragm wall excavation sequence (the mesh
used to simulate the installation of one panel is simi-
lar). Advantage was taken of the vertical longitudinal
symmetry plane of the panels.
Coupled hydro-mechanical computations require
the explicit specification of construction times. After
some consultation with the site managers and inspec-
tion of construction records, a site-representative con-
struction sequence was established for the base case.
Excavation under bentonite support is modeled by
removing meter by meter the elements of a panel dur-
ing 3.2 hours in the base case (25 m deep panel). Once
( )
25
29
36
0.06
Figure 6. 3D mesh used for the analysis of the
R-diaphragm wall excavation sequence.
a certain volume has been removed in a panel, hydro-
static bentonite pressure is applied as total stress on
the new wall. After the excavation sequence finishes, a
five hour waiting time represents bottom cleansing and
reinforcement placement. The hydrostatic bentonite
pressure profile is then replaced by the bilinear profile
representing fresh concrete. Concrete hardening time
was estimated as 12 hours, after which solid elements
with concrete properties are placed in the panel. Con-
crete hardening is thus modeled as an instantaneous
process, which is clearly unrealistic.
4 RESULTS
4.1 Base case
Geometric features of the base case (depth D, length
L and width W) are shown in Table 3. Bentonite level
within the panel, nb , and the assumed critical depth
Dc , are also indicated.
Surface settlement histories at different distances
from the panel edge are given in Figure 7. Times at
which excavation ends, fresh concrete is poured and
hardening is assumed are indicated by vertical dotted
lines. Excavation produces settlement, reaching about
3.5 mm at 2 m from the panel edge. Most settlements
induced by the excavation occur simultaneously to it
and later consolidation has a moderate influence. Fresh
concrete deposition results in heave and after concrete
hardening, settlements are resumed. Final settlement
values are similar to those registered after excava-
tion. It is worth noting the qualitative similarity with
the measurements by Di Biagio and Myrvoll (Fig. 2),
especially during fresh concrete injection.
4.2 Parametric study of a single panel
The parametric study includes five variations on the
base case. As outlined in Table 3, a single parameter
was changed from the base case for each variant. In
550
Figure 7. Time evolution of settlements at different dis-
tances from the panel edge (base case).
Table 3. Modeling of single panel. Parametric study cases.
Figure 9. Superficial settlement simulated at a distance of
3 m from the panel wall for two panels of 3.6 m length and
one panel of 6 m length.

Case D(m) L(m) W(m) nb (m) Dc (m)

Base (V1) 25 3.6 1.2 0 8

V2 25 3.6 1.2 2 8
V3 25 6 1.2 0 8
V4 35 3.6 1.2 0 8
V5 25 3.6 1.2 0 5
V6 25 3.6 1 0 8

Figure 10. Comparison of measured and simulated settle-

ments at observation points P1 and P2.

4.3 R-diaphragm wall construction sequence

Figure 8. Left graph: evolution of settlements at 3 m from
the panel edge for the 6 cases of the parametric study. Right
graph: horizontal displacements of the panel wall after the
excavation phase for the 6 cases of the parametric study.
variant 2 (V2) the level of bentonite, nb , was lowered
by 2 m; in variant 3 (V3) a length of 6m is considered
for the panel; in variant 4 (V4) a deeper panel was
excavated up to 35 m; in variant 5 (V5) the critical
depth was modified to 1/5 of the panel depth instead
of 1/3 and in variant 6 (V6) the panel was made thinner.
A comparison between the different cases is given
in Figure 8, in terms of settlement evolution and hor-
izontal displacement of the panel wall. According to
the simulation results, the most damaging cases are
V3 and V2, i.e. a longer panel and a lower bentonite
level. Differences between the other cases are negligi-
ble for superficial settlement measurements, although,
as expected, a deeper panel causes higher movements
at depth.
The R-diaphragm wall panels (Fig. 4) have similar
dimensions to the base case panel: all panels have a
length of 3.6 m, excepted one (R1), which is 4.9 m
long and the depth of the wall is 24 m instead of 25 m
in the base case. The construction sequence was sim-
ulated according to work site information. Bentonite
level and critical depth were taken as in the base case
because no measurements were available.
This computation confirmed some of the previous
results. For instance, the installation of one 6 m long
panel produces more settlement than the consecutive
installation of two 3.6 m long panels (Fig. 9). The dif-
ference in settlement behaviour appears mostly during
the excavation phase. After concrete hardening, quite
similar final settlement levels are predicted for the 6 m
long and the joint 7.2 m long excavation.
Simulated and measured settlements at observation
points P1 and P2 are compared in Figure 10. The posi-
tion of those points was illustrated in Figure 4. Quite
a good agreement between measurements and simu-
lation is obtained. One remarkable difference is the
smooth evolution of the measurements when com-
pared with simulation results. This is likely due to
the abrupt modeling approach adopted for concrete
hardening (instantaneous).

551

Figure 11. Measured and simulated settlement profiles after
construction.
Measured and simulated settlement profiles after
construction are drawn in Figure 11. Two simulation
profiles have been plotted: one at the level of R4, corre-
sponding to observation point P1 and one at the height
of R1-R2, corresponding with the remaining points.
The fit is quite good for measurement points close to
the wall, but its quality decreases with distance to the
wall. The observed discrepancies are probably due to
the fact that the building structure is not taken into
account in the computation. The structure may act as a
stiffening element, hindering settlement recovery dur-
ing fresh concrete injection. The overall good match
between simulation results and measurements can be
considered satisfactory and gives more credibility to
the results of the parametric study.
5 CONCLUSIONS
Diaphragm wall installation in soft soils may produce
settlement in its neighborhood. Numerical models may
help to quantify and understand the problem. The
presented parametric study allow for isolating two
influent parameters: bentonite level and panel length.
Other parameters, like panel width, depth and criti-
cal depth were found to be less important in the range
considered in the parametric study.
552
REFERENCES
De Wit, J. C. W. M. & Lengkeek, H. J. (2002). Full scale
test on environmental impact of diaphragm wall trench
installation in Amsterdam the final results. Proceedings
of the international symposium on geotechnical aspects
of underground construction in soft ground, Toulouse,
France (eds R. Kastner, F. Emeriault, D. Dias and A. Guil-
loux), pp. 433440. Lyon
DiBiagio E, Myrvoll F. (1972) Full scale field test of a
slurry trench excavation in soft clay. Proceedings of the
15th European Conference Soil Mechanics Foundation
Engineering, Madrid 1972; 461471.
Fox, P.J. (2004) Analytical solutions for stability of slurry
trench, ASCE Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenviron-
mental Engineering, Vol. 130, No. 7, 749758
Gourvenec, S. M. & Powrie, W. (1999). Three-dimensional
finite-element analysis of diaphragm wall installation.
Gotechnique 49, No. 6, 801823
Lings M, Ng CWW, Nash DFT. (1994) The lateral pressure
of wet concrete in diaphragm wall panels cast under ben-
tonite. Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers:
Geotechnical Engineering; 107:163172.
Ng CWW, Yan RWM. (1998) Stress transfer and deforma-
tion mechanism around a diaphragm wall panel. Jour-
nal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering;
128(7):638648.
Olivella, S., 1995. Nonisothermal multiphase flow of brine
and gas through saline media. Doctoral Thesis, Technical
University of Catalonia (UPC), Barcelona, Spain.
Poh TY, Wong IH. (1998) Effects of construction of
diaphragm wall panels on adjacent ground: field trial.
Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineer-
ing; 124(8):749756
Schad, H., Vermeer, P.A., Lchler, A. (2007) Fresh concrete
pressure in diaphragm wall panels and resulting deforma-
tions. In: Grosse, Ch. U. (Ed.): Advances in Construction
Materials, Berlin: Springer Verlag, 2007, pp. 505512.
Schafer R, Triantafyllidis T. (2006) The influence of the
construction process on the deformation behaviour of
diaphragm walls in soft clayey ground. International
Journal for Numerical and Analytical Methods in Geome-
chanics; 30:563576
Tsai, J.S., Jou, L.D., Hsieh, H.S. (2000) A full scale sta-
bility experiment on a diaphragm wall trench, Canadian
Geotechnical Journal, 37, 379392
Uriel S. y Oteo C. S. (1977) Stress and strain beside a circular
trench wall. Proc. 9th ICSMFE, Tokyo, 1,781788.
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Bearing capacity of a surface footing founded on a layered clay subsoil

Z. Bournta*
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece

L. Zdravkovic
Imperial College London, UK

ABSTRACT: The ultimate bearing capacity of surface footings resting on homogeneous soils has been studied
extensively. Real soil strength profiles beneath footings, however, are not homogeneous but may increase or
decrease with depth, or consist of distinct layers having significantly different properties. The current study
focuses on the application of the finite element method for the evaluation of the ultimate bearing capacity of
a rough rigid footing resting on a layered clay profile. Computations are performed using the finite element
analysis software ICFEP (Imperial College Finite Element Program). One set of parametric analyses is carried
out for the case of strip and circular footings resting on soft clay overlying stiff clay, in order to examine the
effect of the vicinity of the strong clay layer on the bearing capacity factor. Another set of parametric analyses
is performed for the case of circular footings resting on a multi-layered soil profile that includes a layer of soft
clay resting within the strong clay subsoil, in order to investigate the effect of both the vicinity and the thickness
of the soft clay layer on the bearing capacity factor. In both cases comparison of the analyses results with the
literature has been made.

1 INTRODUCTION horizontally and 100 m vertically. The two vertical

The ultimate bearing capacity of surface footings rest-
ing on a single layer of homogeneous soil has been
studied by numerous investigators, with practition-
ers generally using Terzaghis (1943) expression to
compute ultimate footing loads. In reality, however,
soil strength profiles beneath footings are not homo-
geneous but may increase or decrease with depth or
consist of distinct layers having significantly different
properties. For such critical soil profiles the modi-
fied conventional procedures appear to be generally
unrealistic and suffer from several limitations.
The current study focuses on the application of the
finite element method for the evaluation of the ulti-
mate bearing capacity of a rough, rigid surface footing
resting on layered clay profile. Both circular and strip
footings are examined.
2 FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSES
Due to symmetry only half of the problem is dis-
cretized with the use of eight nodded quadrilateral
isoparametric elements. Only the soil is discretized
into finite elements. The foundation is represented by
appropriate boundary conditions. A footing diameter
of 15 m is modelled. The boundaries of the mesh are
sufficiently distant from the footing, extending 100 m
*
formerly Imperial College London
sides of the mesh are restrained in the horizontal direc-
tion, while the base of the mesh is not allowed to move
either in the vertical or the horizontal direction. Along
the top boundary of the mesh from the edge of the
footing to the right hand side corner of the mesh, hor-
izontal and vertical movements are allowed. At the
underside of the footing 6-noded interface elements of
zero thickness are used in order to model the movement
of the soil in contact with the footing realistically. All
the analyses are performed using the Imperial College
Finite Element Program (ICFEP, Potts and Zdravkovic,
1999), which employs a modified Newton-Raphson
approach with an error controlled sub-stepping stress
point algorithm to solve the non-linear finite element
equations.
To model the rough interface between the side of the
footing and the soil, interface elements along the foun-
dation base are assigned an equal normal and shear
stiffness of 105 kN/m3 and an undrained strength of
either 20 kPa in the case of soft clay lying at the sur-
face, or 200 kPa in the case of strong clay being present
at the surface. The footing is considered to be rigid
and the loading is modelled by applying increments of
uniform vertical displacement to the nodes located at
the top of the interface elements. The ultimate footing
load is then obtained by summing the vertical reac-
tions of the nodes which have been subjected to this
displacement.
The soil is modelled as an isotropic elastic-perfectly
plastic material satisfying the Tresca failure criterion.

553
An undrained Young modulus, Eu, of 50 MPa and a
Poissons ratio of 0.49 are assigned to the clay. The unit
weight of the clay is taken to be 20 kN/m3 . Constant
undrained strength Su is adopted within all clay layers.
The undrained shear strength of the clay is 20 kPa for
the soft layer and 200 kPa for the strong layer.

3 RESULTS

3.1 Footings on homogeneous clay

In order for the accuracy of the finite element method
to be established, analyses for the cases of both strip
and circular rough footings lying on a homogeneous
clay profile have firstly been performed. The Nc fac-
tor of 5.182 obtained for the strip footing lying on
strong homogeneous clay is 0.8% in error compared Figure 1. Mobilized bearing capacity factors against nor-
with the 5.14 solution of Prandtl (1920). In a simi- malised displacement /B (strip footing).
lar way, the Nc factor of 5.185 for the footing lying
on soft homogeneous clay is 0.88% in error with the
known solution. The Nc factor of 6.0903 obtained for
the circular footing lying on strong homogeneous clay
is 0.66% in error compared with the 6.05 solution of
Eason & Shield (1960). In a similar way, the Nc factor
of 6.094 for the footing lying on soft homogeneous clay
is 0.73% in error with the known solution. The accu-
racy of the finite element analysis results was therefore
proved to be excellent, being within 1% of the closed
form solutions.

3.2 Footings on a two layered soil profile

Figure 2. Mobilized bearing capacity factors against rela-
Parametric analyses were carried out in order to pre- tive thickness of the upper soft clay, H/B.
dict the bearing capacity of a surface strip footing
(width B = 15 m) resting on a layered subsoil consist-
ing of soft clay (Su1 = 20 kPa) overlying strong clay
(Su2 = 200 kPa), by varying the thickness, H, of the
top soft layer. The effect of the vicinity of the strong
clay layer on the bearing capacity factor is examined.
Mobilized bearing capacity factors against normalised
displacement /B, with B being the width of the surface
footing for different H/B ratios are shown in Figure 1,
where a reduction in bearing capacity with increasing
H/B ratios is indicated.
A decrease of the mobilized bearing capacity fac-
tor with increasing relative thickness of the upper soft
clay, H/B, is presented in Figure 2. By increasing the
thickness of the upper layer the contribution of the
underlying strong layer to the bearing capacity factor
of the layered subsoil gradually diminishes and tends to
reach the value for the case of soft homogeneous clay
subsoil. For H/B = 0.267 the influence of the strong
layer on the bearing capacity factor is in a range of Figure 3. Comparison of the bearing capacity factor Nc for
19% and reduces almost to 4% for H/B = 0.47 rough strip footings obtained by the current study with the
The values of bearing capacity factor Nc for rough results of Merifield and Sloan (1999).
strip footings obtained by the current study are com-
pared with the results of Merifield and Sloan (1999), within their upper and lower bound solutions for the
who had followed upper and lower bound numerical range of H/B ratios that were examined (Fig. 3).
approach and bracketed the actual collapse load for Parametric study was also carried out in order to
the case of strip footings on a two layered clay profile. predict the bearing capacity of a surface circular foot-
The results of the current numerical analysis are lying ing (D = 15 m) resting on the same layered subsoil

554
Figure 4. Mobilized bearing capacity factors against nor-
malised displacement /B (circular footing).
Figure 5. Mobilized bearing capacity factors against rela-
tive thickness of the upper soft clay, H/D.
Figure 6. Comparison of the mobilised bearing capacity
factor for circular footings obtained by the current study
with model footing tests performed by Brown and Meyerhof
(1969).
(Fig. 4), where again a reduction in bearing capacity
with increasing H/D ratios is indicated.
Figure 5 presents the decrease of the mobilized
bearing capacity factor with increasing the relative
thickness of the upper soft clay, H/D. For H/D > 0.25
the influence of the strong layer on the bearing capac-
ity factor is in the range of 8% and reduces almost to
555
Figure 7. Comparison of the ultimate bearing capacity of
circular footings obtained by the current study with the
semi-empirical approach of Meyerhof (1974).
Figure 8. Comparison of the bearing capacity factor Nc for
circular footings obtained by the current study with the limit
equilibrium approach of Button (1953).
0% for H/D = 0.47. Thus, from this value onwards the
effect of the under layer can be neglected and the soil
behaviour appears to depend only on the top soft soil.
Comparison of the results of the current study with
model footing tests performed by Brown and Mey-
erhof (1969) has shown that the empirical results lie
very close to the ones of the present study over the
range of H/D ratios that were investigated (Figure 6).
A reduction in bearing capacity for a soft -over- strong
clay system occurs up to a depth ratio of H/D = 0.2
and after that the bearing capacity factor for circu-
lar footings stabilizes at the value for a homogeneous
subsoil.
Results produced by the semi-empirical approach
of Meyerhof (1974) appear to deviate significantly
from the results of the current study and therefore
are not considered to be reliable over a wide range
of geometric scales.
Button (1953), following the limit equilibrium
approach, obtained results that seem to overestimate
the bearing capacity factor for strip footings. (Fig. 8).

Figure 9. Mobilized bearing capacity factors against rela-
tive depth of the soft layer, H/D, for different values of its
relative thickness, t/D.
3.3 Circular footings on a multi-layered soil profile
Parametric analyses were performed for the case
of a circular rough footing (D = 15 m) lying on a
multi-layered soil profile that includes a layer of soft
clay resting within the strong clay profile in order to
investigate the effect of both the vicinity and the thick-
ness of the soft clay layer. The parametric analyses
were performed by changing both the depth of the soft
clay layer, H/D, and its thickness, t/D. The study was
carried out for ratios of H/D varying from 0.033 to
1.467 and t/D from 0.066 to 0.333. A ratio of undrained
strength Su1 /Su2 = 10 was used.
It was found that the bearing capacity of the surface
foundation increases with increasing the thickness of
the upper strong clay layer. When the thickness of the
upper layer, H, reaches an average value of 1.2 diam-
eter of the footing (1.2D), most of the cases show no
or very little influence from the underlying soft layer
(Fig. 9). However, when the thickness of the upper
layer is less than 1.2D the bearing capacity reduces
due to the soft soil underneath. For a given ratio of
H/D, increasing the thickness of the soft clay layer
results in a general decrease in the bearing capacity
of the foundation. When the thickness of the soft clay
layer reaches a value of 0.2D, any further increase in
thickness has a minor effect on the bearing capacity of
the footing as inferred from the closeness of lines in
Figure 9 when t/D 0.2.
4 CONCLUSIONS
The following conclusions result from this numerical
parametric study:
For footings lying on a two-layered soil profile there
appears to be a decrease of the mobilized bearing
capacity factor with increasing relative thickness of
556
the upper soft clay. For strip footings the results of
the current numerical analysis are lying within the
upper and lower bound solutions of Merifield and
Sloan (1999) for the range of H/B ratios that were
examined. For circular footings the results of the
current study lie very close to the ones obtained by
model footing tests (Brown and Meyerhof (1969)).
Results produced by the semi-empirical approach
of Meyerhof and Hanna (1974) appear, to some
degree, to be valid only for the restricted case of
relatively thin soft soil crust layer (H/D < 0.4). The
results of Button (1953) seem to overestimate the
bearing capacity factor with the difference ranging
from 35% at H/B = 0.133 to 5%, as the ratio H/B
increases to 0.4.
For circular footings lying on a multi- layered soil
profile it was found that the bearing capacity of
the surface foundation increases with increasing the
thickness of the upper strong clay layer. When the
thickness of the upper layer, H, however, reaches an
average value of 1.2 diameter of the footing (1.2D),
most of the cases show no or very little influence
from the underlying soft layer. When the thickness
of the soft clay layer reaches a value of 0.2D, any
further increase in thickness has a minor effect on
the bearing capacity of the footing.
REFERENCES
Brown, J. & Meyerhof, G. 1969. Experimental study of bear-
ing capacity in layered clays, Proc. 7th int. conf. on soil
mech. and foundation eng. 2.
Button, S. J. 1953. The bearing capacity of footings on
a two-layer cohesive subsoil, Proc. 3rd Int. Conf. on
soil mechanics and foundation engineering, Zurich, 1:
332335.
Eason, G. & Shield, R. T. 1960. The plastic indentation of a
semi infinite solid by a perfectly rough circular punch, J.
Appl. Math.Phys. (ZAMP) 11: 3343.
Merifield, R. & Sloan, S. & Yu, H. 1999. Rigorous plasticity
solutions for the bearing capacity of two-layered clays,
Gotechnique, 49(4).
Meyerhof, G. G. 1974. Ultimate bearing capacity of footings
on sand layer overlaying clay, Can. Geotech. J., 11(2):
223229.
Potts, D.M. & Zdravkovic, L. 1999. Finite element analysis in
geotechnical engineering. London: Thomas Telford Ltd.
Prandtl, L. 1920. Uber die harte plastischer korper,
Nachrichten von der koniglichen gesellschaft der wis-
senschaften, Gottingen Math. Phys. Klasse:7485.
Terzaghi, K. 1943. Theoretical soil mechanics, Wiley,
New York.
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Finite element analysis of the main embankment at Empingham dam

A. Grammatikopoulou & N. Kovacevic

Geotechnical Consulting Group, London, UK

L. Zdravkovic & D.M. Potts

Imperial College, London, UK

ABSTRACT: Empingham dam is a 37 m high earth fill embankment which was constructed in the UK in the
early 1970s. The embankment was built on a brecciated Upper Lias Clay (ULC) foundation, of fill derived from
it. The ULC is a typical stiff plastic clay which shows a post-peak strength loss and as such is prone to progressive
failure. The paper describes the finite element back analyses of the embankment behaviour during construction,
using a kinematic hardening bubble model which accounts for both pre-peak plasticity and post-peak strain
softening.

1 INTRODUCTION The information obtained from the construction

Empingham dam is one of the last large dams to
be built on a stiff plastic clay in the UK, using a
fill derived from the same clay (Bridle et al. 1985).
It is a zoned earth-fill dam 37 m high and 1200 m
long, founded on Upper Lias Clay (ULC) (Figure 1).
The ULC in the valley slopes was extensively dis-
turbed by cambering and in the valley floor by bulging
(Horswill & Horton, 1976). The clay was then brec-
ciated by periglacial ground freezing. Brecciated clays
have severely disturbed fabric which is heterogeneous
and therefore causes variation in the undrained shear
strength. Hence, at the design stage there were uncer-
tainties with respect to the properties of the ULC (and
the fill derived from it).
In order to obtain information with respect to the
clay foundation and its strength, an instrumented trial
embankment was built as part of the upstream fill of
the main embankment (Figure 1). This was designed
to induce shear stresses in excess of the assumed
undrained strength. The trial embankment suffered
large movements during its construction; however,
there was no sign of strain softening and progressive
failure despite the likelihood that the stiff plastic ULC
would strain-soften.
Figure 1. Cross section of main embankment at Empingham
and location of the trial bank.
of the trial embankment, combined with slips that
occurred in the temporary slopes of borrow pits
upstream of the main embankment confirmed the
undrained strength used for the initial design. In the
main embankment the undrained strength of the foun-
dation alone was too low to carry the full height of
the embankment. Hence, vertical sand drains were
installed below the centre of the embankment where
it was more than 25 m high. However, for the ends of
the embankment, where it was less than 25 m high,
no drainage was provided and therefore these sections
relied solely on the undrained strength of the ULC in
the foundation.
Just before completion of the main dam the north
section (where there were no drains) started to spread
laterally, quite suddenly, when the fill was some 2 m
below the final crest level (Bridle et al. 1985). This
suggested potential instability which was in contrast
to the apparent stability of the trial embankment.
The behaviour of the trial embankment was repro-
duced successfully by finite element back-analyses
(Kovacevic et al. 2007a,b), by adopting a kinematic
hardening model which accounts for pre-peak plas-
ticity and non-linearity. Kovacevic et at. (2007a) used
the same constitutive model in the back-analysis of the
north section of the main embankment and attempted
to recover the observed behaviour by varying the
undrained strength. However, it was not possible to
reproduce the sudden increase in movements as fill-
ing approached the crest level. Kovacevic et at. (2007a)
concluded that this was only possible by using a model
which accounted for strain softening. However, at the
time when the analyses were carried out the kine-
matic hardening model they used could not model
strain-softening.

557
Figure 2. North section of main embankment at Emping-
ham with position of rod gauges.

This paper presents the back-analysis of the north

section of the main embankment with a new kinematic
hardening model which accounts for both pre-peak
plasticity and post-peak strain softening. This back-
analysis is also compared with a back-analysis using
the same kinematic hardening model, but assuming no
strain-softening.

2 MAIN EMBANKMENT

The north section of the main dam is shown in Figure 2.

Lateral movements were measured by rod gauges. In
addition there were piezometers in the foundation and
in the fill.
The ULC is the dominant foundation material at the
Empingham Dam site; however, in general this is over-
lain by younger deposits of Northampton Sands and
Estuarine Series and by more recent deposits of head
and alluvium of variable thickness. These overlying Figure 3. Undrained strength profiles in the ULC founda-
materials were excavated before placement of the fill tion.
started.
The pore water pressures in the ULC were found
to be hydrostatic, with the ground water table close to
the surface. A value of the coefficient of earth pressure
at rest of Ko = 1 was deduced on the basis of suction
measurements (Bridle at al. 1985). The permeability
of the ULC was very low and the permeability of the
fill derived from it was even lower; hence the overall
dam response during construction was undrained.
Figure 3 summarises a number of undrained strength
measurements made in the ULC foundation. Results of
conventional quick undrained triaxial tests on 100 mm
samples showed great scatter. Quick plate loading tests
showed less scatter but on average they both pre- Figure 4. Representation of bounding and kinematic yield
dicted similar undrained strength. Slow triaxial tests surfaces in triaxial stress space.
with pore pressure measurements were also carried out
(Maguire 1976); the undrained strength was shown to
be dependent on sample size. Figure 3 also shows the (Grammatikopoulou 2004, Grammatikopoulou et al.
undrained strength profile assumed in design. 2006). The latter is a version of the two-surface
bubble model by Al-Tabbaa and Wood (1989). It
employs a single kinematic yield surface, within the
modified Cam Clay bounding surface, Figure 4. The
3 CONSTITUTIVE MODELS
kinematic yield surface encloses the region within
which the behaviour is assumed to be elastic. The
3.1 Foundation
model has been generalized and implemented into the
The ULC foundation was modelled with the new finite element code ICFEP (Grammatikopoulou 2004,
constitutive model. This is an extension of an Grammatikopoulou et al. 2006).A number of improve-
existing two-surface kinematic hardening model ments have been made including a variety of shapes of

558
the yield and plastic potential surfaces. The equation
of the bounding surface in general stress space is:
The equation of the kinematic yield surface is:
where p is the mean effective stress, s is the devia-
toric stress tensor (tensor quantities are represented by
bold type), po defines the size of the bounding surface,
pa and sa are the mean effective stress and the devia-
toric stress tensor at the centre of the kinematic surface
respectively, R is the ratio of the size of the kinematic
surface to that of the bounding surface. The functions
g( b ) and g( y ) define the shape of the bounding and
kinematic surfaces in the deviatoric plane where b and
y are the values of the Lodes angle for the bounding
and kinematic surfaces respectively. In the analyses
presented in this paper a Mohr-Coulomb hexagon was
adopted as the deviatoric shape of the yield surface:
where  is the critical state angle of shearing resis-
tance. The plastic potential surface was assumed to
have a circular shape. Moreover, the model requires the
slopes of the isotropic compression line, , and the
elastic part of the swelling line, , which are assumed
to be straight in ln v-lv p space. In the analyses pre-
sented in this paper a constant Poissons ratio, , is
assumed.
The model is an improvement over the model used
in the back-analyses of Kovacevic et al. (2007a, b) in
that it employs a modified hardening modulus which
ensures a smooth elasto-plastic transition (Gram-
matikopoulou et al. 2006). The parameters required
by this version of the model are: , , ,  , R and field measurements (Kovacevic et al. 2007a, b).
(parameter in the modified hardening modulus). An
additional parameter, N , is also usually adopted in
order to fix the model in ln -ln p space, taken here as
the specific volume of the isotropic compression line
at p = 1 kPa.
In the new extension of the model, softening is
achieved by allowing the critical state angle of shear-
ing resistance,  , to vary with the plastic deviatoric
strain, Ed , from the peak value,  p , to the residual
p ment by using a Mohr-Coulomb strain softening

value, r , as shown in Figure 5, following the ideas
put forward by Potts et al. (1990).The deviatoric plastic
p
strain invariant Ed is defined as follows:
p
where es is the plastic deviatoric strain tensor. In this
extension of the model the peak angle of shearing resis-
tance,  p , replaces the angle of shearing resistance,  ,
559
Figure 5. Variation of angle of shearing resistance with the
p
deviatoric plastic strain invariant, Ed .
as an input parameter and the model requires the fol-
lowing additional parameters:  r , the residual angle of
p
shearing resistance, E d p , the plastic deviatoric strain at
p
peak and E d r , the plastic deviatoric strain at residual.
3.2 Fill
For the clay fill the same two-surface kinematic hard-
ening model adopted in the back-analyses of Kovace-
vic et al. (2007a, b) is employed. Kovacevic et al.
(2007a, b) showed that the adopted model and param-
eters simulated successfully the behaviour of the fill.
No softening was modeled for the fill.
This model requires the same parameters as the
model used for the foundation, without the soften-
ing part and with the exception that the parameter
replaces the parameter in the hardening modulus
(Grammatikopoulou et al. 2006).
The partially saturated nature of the ULC fill was
modelled by setting the compressibility of the pore
fluid as a multiple of the soil skeleton compressibility
using a coefficient . This coefficient was chosen to
give similar pore water pressure response and volume
changes to those obtained from both laboratory and
4 MODEL PARAMETERS
4.1 Foundation
Kovacevic et al. (2007a) recovered the observed
behaviour of the north section of the main embank-
elasto-plastic model, to simulate the behaviour of
the ULC foundation, in which the peak undrained
strength was reduced and a stiffer pre-peak response,
as compared to the available laboratory data, was
adopted. The peak undrained strength profile adopted
in the Mohr-Coulomb model can be seen in Figure 3.
Figure 6 shows the stress-strain curve and pore
pressure response predicted by the same model in
undrained triaxial compression. The peak and resid-
ual angles of shearing resistance were assumed to be
 Table 1. Parameters for kinematic hardening bubble mod-
els for the Upper Lias Clay foundation and the fill derived
from it.

Foundation

No strain Strain
Parameter softening softening Fill

(kN/m3 ) 20.5 20.0

N 2.35 5.18
0.06 0.16
0.0022 0.03
0.2 0.3
R 0.85 0.5
/(1) 6.0 0.75
 p ( ) 21.0 20.0
 r ( ) n/a 13.0 n/a
p
E d p (%) n/a 1.0 n/a
p
E d r (%) n/a 5.0 n/a
OCR 1.85 3.5(2)
Ko 1.0 2.5(3)

(1) in the model used for the foundation / in the model

used for the fill
Figure 6. Predicted behaviour of ULC foundation in (2) defined in terms of mean effective stress
undrained triaxial compression. (3) as constructed.

equal to 21 and 13 respectively. Moreover, the plas-

tic deviatoric strain at peak and residual were assumed
to be equal to 1% and 5% respectively.
In the new kinematic hardening model the param-
eters , N , , , R and Ko were taken to be the
same as in the analyses of Kovacevic et al. (2007a,
b). The parameter was reduced in order to achieve a
stiffer pre-peak response similar to the one adopted in
the Mohr-Coulomb model and a value of = 0.0022
was assumed. In the analysis which did not model
strain softening,  was assumed to be equal to 21 .
In the analysis which modelled strain-softening the
peak and residual angles of shearing resistance,  p
and  r , and the plastic deviatoric strain at peak and
p p
residual, E d p and E d r were taken to be the same as
for the Mohr-Coulomb strain softening model. Finally,
the OCR (which defines the size of the bounding sur-
face) was reduced in order to model an undrained
strength lower than the design strength and close to
the strength predicted by the Mohr-Coulomb model.
A value equal to 1.85 was adopted. The undrained
strength predicted by the kinematic hardening model is
plotted in Figure 3; this is the peak strength in the case
where strain-softening is modelled. It should be noted
that the assumption of the Mohr-Coulomb hexagon
as the deviatoric shape of the yield surface and the
circle in the case of the plastic potential results in
the plane strain undrained strength in compression (or
extension) being lower than the undrained strength in
triaxial compression. The predicted stress-strain curve
and pore pressure response in undrained triaxial com-
pression are plotted in Figure 6. Two predictions are
shown one in which there is no softening and one
with softening. The parameters adopted in the model
for both cases are summarized in Table 1.
Figure 7. Finite element mesh of north section of main dam.
4.2 Fill
The parameters for the clay fill are the same as those
adopted by Kovacevic et al (2007a, b). These are also
summarized in Table 1.
5 FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSES
The analyses were carried out using the finite element
code ICFEP (Potts and Zdravkovic, 1999). Figure 7
shows the finite element mesh adopted in the analyses.
The analyses were plane strain and used eight noded
isoparametric quadrilateral elements with 2 2 inte-
gration. A modified Newton-Raphson scheme, with
an error controlled sub-stepping algorithm, was used
as the non-linear solver.
As mentioned before the permeability of the ULC
foundation was low. Hence, this was modelled as
undrained by setting a large value of the compress-
ibility of the pore fluid.
The partially saturated nature of the ULC fill was
modelled as mentioned before, by adopting a value
of = 0.5. Appropriate values of suction were speci-
fied in the newly constructed elements, as described
by Potts and Zdravkovic (2001). In this way it was
possible to control the undrained strength of the clay
fill material in the effective stress analyses.

560
 The analyses initiated with the excavation of the
saturated head material of a variable thickness (3.5 m
to 9.0 m) and a shallow trench for the inclined clay
core. The fill operations were then modelled with more
placing of fill in the downstream berm. Subsequently,
the fill was raised uniformly in layers. Fill layers were
of variable thickness, the lower layers being thicker (3
to 4 m) than the upper ones (2 m).
As mentioned before, two analyses were carried out,
one in which no softening was modelled and one in
which softening behaviour was simulated in the ULC
foundation. In both analyses the kinematic surface was
assumed to be centred around the current stress state
at the beginning of the analysis.
Modelling of the strain softening is not easy. A pro-
cedure similar to that employed by Potts et al. (1990)
was used in the FE analyses reported herein.

6 RESULTS OF ANALYSES

Figure 8 shows the development of the horizontal dis-

placement at points A and B (shown in Figure 2), as
the fill of the main embankment is placed, together
with the predictions of the two analyses. The analy-
sis modelling strain softening predicts the observed
increase in the horizontal displacements as the crest
of the dam (last 2 m of fill) is placed, whereas the
analysis modelling no strain-softening cannot cap-
ture this abruptness of movement. Figure 9 plots the
observed and predicted horizontal displacements dur-
ing construction of the main embankment for the
strain-softening analysis. It can be seen that the analy-
sis predicts well the sudden acceleration of movement
as the fill approaches the crest level.
Figure 10 plots the incremental displacement vec-
tors predicted by the two analyses due to the placement
of the last layer of fill (2 m thick). These vectors
show the direction of movement. Their absolute mag-
nitude is not important as it is their relative magnitude
which indicates the current mechanism of behaviour.
Figure 10 suggests that the strain softening analysis
shows a different mechanism than the analysis with
no strain softening, as the top of the dam is placed,
with the former indicating an increase in the horizontal
movements, which is not indicated in the latter.
Figure 11 plots the predicted contours of plastic
shear strain, Ed p , for the same stage of the analyses. Figure 8. Observed and predicted horizontal movement of
Figure 11b indicates that there is some strain softening the north section of the main dam (a) rod gauge point A (b)
at the top of the ULC foundation. Hence, the sudden rod gauge point B.
increase in the horizontal movements seems to be a
consequence of the low undrained shear strength at
the top of the ULC foundation combined with strain- at Empingham. The back-analysis shows that it is only
softening. possible to capture the observed sudden increase in
horizontal movements of the embankment, as the fill
placement approached the crest of the dam, by mod-
7 CONCLUSIONS elling strain-softening. This sudden increase seems to
be a consequence of the low undrained shear strength
A new kinematic hardening model has been developed at the top of the ULC foundation in combination with
which accounts for pre-peak plasticity and post-peak strain-softening.
strain softening. The model has been used in the back- It should be noted that similar results were obtained
analysis of the north section of the main embankment by Kovacevic et al. (2007a) by using a Mohr-Coulomb

561

Figure 9. Observed and predicted horizontal movements
during construction of main dam (north section) bubble
strain-softening analysis.
Figure 10. Predicted incremental displacement vectors at
north section of main dam due to the last 2 m of fill placing
(a) analysis with no-strain softening (b) analysis with strain
softening.
Figure 11. Predicted contours of plastic shear strain, Ed p , for
north section of main dam due to the last 2 m of fill placing
(a) analysis with no-strain softening (b) analysis with strain
softening.
562
strain softening model to characterize the behaviour
of the ULC foundation. However, Kovacevic et al.
(2007a) had to switch from a kinematic hardening
model to a Mohr-Coulomb strain-softening model,
as the kinematic hardening model that was available
when they carried out their analyses did not model
strain-softening. This paper shows that the new kine-
matic hardening model, which can simulate strain
softening, is capable of reproducing the observed
undrained behaviour of the north section of the main
embankment at Empingham.
REFERENCES
Al-Tabbaa, A. & Wood, D.M. 1989. An experimentally
based bubble model for clay. Int. Conf. Num. Models
Geomech., NUMOG III, Edt.A. Pietruszczak G. N. Pande:
9199.
Bridle, R.C., Vaughan, P.R. & Jones, H.N. 1985. Empingham
Dam: Design, construction and performance. Proc. Inst.
Civ. Engrs, London, Part 1 (78): 247289.
Grammatikopoulou, A. 2004. Development, implementa-
tion and application of kinematic hardening models for
overconsolidated clays. PhD thesis, Imperial College,
London, UK.
Grammatikopoulou, A., Zdravkovic, L. & Potts, D.M. 2006.
General formulation of two kinematic hardening con-
stitutive models with a smooth elasto-plastic transition.
International Journal of Geomechanics, ASCE, 6(5):
291310.
Horswill, P. & Horton,A. 1976. The valley of the River Gwash
with special reference to cambering and valley bulging.
Phil Trans. Royal Soc., London, 283: 451461.
Kovacevic, N., Higgins, K.G., Potts, D.M. & Vaughan, P.R.
2007a. Undrained behaviour of brecciated Upper Lias
Clay at Empingham Dam. Geotechnique 57(2): 181195.
Kovacevic, N., Higgins, K.G., Potts, D.M. 2007b. Finite ele-
ment back-analysis of trial bank at Empingham Dam. Int.
Conf. Num. Models Geomech., NUMOG X, Edt. G. N.
Pande & A. Pietruszczak: 587593.
Maguire, W. M. 2004. The undrained strength and stress-
strain behaviour of Upper Lias Clay. PhD thesis, Univer-
sity of London, UK.
Potts, D.M., Dounias G.T. & Vaughan, P.R. 1990. Finite
element analysis of progressive failure of Carsington
embankment. Geotechnique 40(1): 79101.
Potts, D.M. & Zdravkovic L. 1999. Finite element analy-
sis in geotechnical engineering: Theory. London: Thomas
Telford.
Potts, D.M. & Zdravkovic L. 2001. Finite element analysis in
geotechnical engineering: Application. London: Thomas
Telford.
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Forecasting of the stability of the tailing dam in permafrost region

on the basis of numerical methods

A.B. Lolaev, A.P. Akopov, A.Kh. Oganesian & M.N. Sumin

North Caucasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (State Technological University), Vladikavkaz, Russia

V.V. Butygin
Norilsk Institute of Industry, Norilsk, Russia

ABSTRACT: A complex of numerical methods was used for predicting the stability of the tailing dam in Norilsk
industrial region (Northern Siberia). The carried out calculations include the calculation of the temperature
conditions of the tailing dam on the base of UWay FEM package, the calculation of the stability of the tailing
dam on the base of UniFos FEM package and of the fuzzy modelling. The forecast of geoecological processes
on the basis of described methods will allow to increase reliability of the accepted design decisions.

1 INTRODUCTION
Owing to the high density of the industrial enterprises
of the mining and non-ferrous metallurgy industries
as well as the growing amounts of waste prod-
ucts in Norilsk industrial region (Northern Siberia)
there the changes in physical and mechanical prop-
erties of the frozen soils that cause the infringement
of the reliability of the foundations. That is why
the stability problem of engineering constructions in
the area of cryolitozone becomes more and more
urgent.
Each hydrotechnical construction including tailing
dams is unique if not in design, then in method of
building and exploitation. That is why its safety must
be ensured not by standard observations but by inves-
tigations including scientific researches and original
methods of observations as well as searching of new
technological processes and securing ecological safety
of constructions.
For this reason it is difficult to produce the adequate
theoretical model for the forecasting of the thermic
state of a dam body and of frozen basis of dam.
The main objective of this paper is to develop
special technique of forecasting of the stability of
a dam. This technique includes the theory of fuzzy
sets and the direct calculations using the licensed
software.
The main factors determining the stability of dam
were revealed for fuzzy modelling, including lithol-
ogy and physicomechanical characteristics of the dam
composed soils, specifically their strength character-
istics: angle of internal friction and the cohesion; the
water presence in the dam body characterized by the
depression curve; as well as the constructive param-
eters of the dam the main of which are the height of
the construction and the bottom back, also the heat
conditions of the soils (Lolaev, 2006).
2 MODELLING THE STABILITY OF THE
TAILING DAM
For forecasting the stability of a tailing dam the prog-
nostic model based on the theory of fuzzy models of
logic and linguistic ones in particular (Lolaev, 2006)
was adopted.
The algorithm of construction of fuzzy model with
use of linguistic variables looks as follows:
1. Definition of factors space of the investigated
phenomenon;
2. Delimitation of opposite scale and terms under each
factor;
3. Preparation of a matrix of interrogation;
4. Coding of the factors LV (translation in to the
metrics);
5. Account of polynomial factors using the method of
the least squares;
6. Estimation of a mistake of numerical experiment;
7. Estimation of the importance of polynomial
factors;
8. Estimation of polynomial adequacy to an expert
estimation of the investigated phenomenon;
9. Estimation of adequacy of the received model to
the investigated phenomenon;
The algorithm of construction of adequate forecast-
ing model is submitted in Figure 1.

563

Figure 1. Algorithm of construction of forecasting model.
As the explanatory to algorithm of forecasting
model construction we shall note, that the definition
of factors space includes:
definition of the maximum number of the influenc-
ing factors;
allocation of the essentially influencing factors;
choice of linear independent and controlled
factors.
The delimitation of opposition scale includes:
definition of quantitative estimation of the bottom
and top borders of the chosen factor;
definition of quantity of divisions (term sets) of
splitting of a scale and their names;
definition of a degree of illegibility of concept.
The preparation of a matrix of interrogation of the
expert is carried out according to methods of the theory
of experiment planning.
564
The coding of the factors consists in transformation
of the names of terms scale in the metrics.
The account of polynomial factors consists in trans-
lation of dependent factors (Y) in a precise scale and
performance of traditional actions with a matrix of
interrogation accepted in the theory of experiment
planning.
The estimation of a mistake of numerical experi-
ment originally consists in comparison of meaning of
the polynomials free member b0 with an estimation
of opinion of the expert at the centre of planning of
factors space of the investigated phenomenon.
The estimation of the importance of polynomials
coefficients consists in exception of those coefficients,
which meaning are lower than a mistake of their
definition on t Students criterion.
The estimation of polynomials adequacy with
important coefficients to an expert estimation of the
investigated phenomenon consists in comparison of
calculated polynomial factors and expert estimation
among themselves (and also on algorithm necessity
opportunity NEC POS );
The estimation of adequacy of the received model
to the investigated phenomenon consists in compari-
son of calculated and experimental data by traditional
statistical methods.
Six input linguistic variables were chosen describ-
ing investigated phenomenon in the most complete
form. In a fuzzy kind variables are coded as follows:
X1 is the angle of slope and determined as:
where x1 means the angle of slope in degrees.
X2 is the height of dam and determined as:
where x2 means the height of a dam in meters.
X3 is the granule composition of tails and deter-
mined as: X3 = 1 for clay fraction, X3 = 0 for mixed
fraction, X3 = +1 for sand fraction.
X4 is determined as the thermal condition of the
soils in dams body. X4 = 1 for thawed condition,
X4 = 0 for semi frozen, X4 = +1 for frozen condi-
tion.
X5 is determined as the characteristic of under-
ground water pressure. X5 = 1 for no pressure con-
dition, X5 = 0 for gydrostatic pressure, X5 = +1 for
piezometric pressure.
X6 is the width of dams beach and determined as:
where x6 is the width of dams beach.
Y is the value of the stability coefficient of the
dams body.
The variables are shown in Figure 2.
 The resulting equation in a coded kind was
found as:

Only substantial coefficients are presented in a

equation (valuation of an error has made 0.1 at a level
of the substantiality of 0.05).
It should be noted, that the equation (4) has obvi-
ously a non-linear character. Even the threefold inter-
actions having a physical sense proved to be sig-
nificant. For example: X2 *X3 *X4 it is possibly
interpreted as the characteristic of complex influence
of the height of dam, granule composition of tails and
temperature condition of dam on its stability coeffi-
cient; X3 *X4 *X5 is a parameter of complex influence
of granule composition of tails, temperature condition
of dam and type of underground water pressure on its
stability coefficient.
Cumulative action of the several factors (the dou-
ble and threefold interactions) is commensurable on a
degree of influence on the stability coefficient of the
dam with the linear factors, and some even surpass
them.
The submitted method permits to compare the
degree of the influence of the various factors on the
stability coefficient of the dam by the value of the coef-
ficients of variables. Geometric characteristics X1 and
X2 have the strongest effect on stability coefficient of
the dam. It is important on the stage of acception of
design decision. But then they have constant meaning
in the equation (4). Factor X3 (granule composition
of tails) depends upon construction parameters. Then
factor X3 become constant too. Another factors X4 , X5
and X6 depend upon the exploitation conditions of the
disposal area which can often change. In this case, the
submitted method permits to forecast the influence of
the changing factor on the stability coefficient of the
dam.
The forecast of the dam stability was done on the
base of submitted method and equation (4).

3 CASE HISTORY

The climatic characteristics of Norilsk industrial

region are:
average annual temperature of the air is 9.4 C;
the maximum temperature of the air is +32 C and
the minimum temperature is 56 C;
the maximum speed of wind is 40 m/sec;
winds with speed above 15 m/sec are observed
during 90 days;
the strong winds and snowfalls are observed up to
130 days a year;
average amount of precipitations is 564.5 mm per
Figure 2. Characteristics of tailing dam. year.

565

Figure 3. The situation plan of the tailing dump.
1. Tailing dump
1; 2. The pond; 3. Local tailing dam;
4. Spillway channel; 5. Magnetic pyrite depository
2.
Object of research of the present work is the tailing
dump
1, located on the territory of Norilsk industrial
region.
The basic hydraulic engineering structures include:
pond for reception of pulp and storage of tails
local tailing dam;
system of pipelines for turnaround water supply
with coastal and floating pump stations
spillway system
The constructive characteristics of dam are:
1. the disposal area 715 000 sq. ms
2. the length of the tailing dam 4.41 kms
3. the height of dam 56.7 m;
4. the inclination of a top drain level 1:201:30
5. the inclination of a bottom slope 1: 3
6. the maximal depth of pool 4.0 m
7. the average depth of pool 0.4 m.
The basis of pool and dam is layered by artificial,
alluvial and moraine soils with gravel and pebble with
sand, sandy loam and loam additions of 560 m capac-
ity being in a frozen state. The underlaying layer is
heterogenous rock.
The situation plan of the tailing dump is shown in
Figure 3.
Problems of stability of the structure are connected
with the fact that the levee of the tailing dump was
erected by principle I, with application of freezing
columns as the basic method of protection of a struc-
ture. During operation and preservation of the damp
the freezing system has failed, and maintenance of
the stability of object now consists in the passing of
flood waters and maintenance of a safe water level in
pond zone. Thus during the summer-autumnal period
on downstream side of a dam egresses and separate
earthflows are observed.
In the tailing dump
1 the tails of floatation
ore-dressing of Norilsk concentration plant had been
stored from 1948 to 1975. After commissioning of the
tailing dump
2 in 1976, the dump
1 had been used
from 1976 to 1987 as a backwater basin.
Since 1987 the tailing dump has served as a con-
struction for reception of drain, regulation and passing
of flood waters and for accumulation of surface-water
flow arriving on the water collecting area of the
tailing dump in the form of atmospheric precipitation.
Now on the tailing dump
1 the hydromechanized
lifting and reprocessing of stale tails with extraction
of non-ferrous metals and precious metals is done. In
the magnetic pyrite depository
2 which is located in
the basis of a downstream side of the tailing dump
1
works on lifting of magnetic pyrite concentrate with
the application of means of hydromechanization are
being done.
Condition of the local dam (3) of the tailing dump

1 (1) in the place where it adjoins the magnetic pyrite
depository is unsatisfactory. Lifting of stale concen-
trate and tails in a hydromechanized way can entail
destruction of the local dam (3), filling of the worked-
out area of the magnetic pyrite depository
2 (5) and
loss of valuable raw materials.
4 TEST RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The carried out engineering-geological researches
have shown complexity of a structure of a body of
the tailing dam: the combination of thawed and frozen
lays, presence of over-, inter- and underglacial waters,
that has an effect on stability of the structure.
Mathematical modelling of various schemes of
working-off of stale tails and magnetic pyrite concen-
trate, with the forecast of stability of frame fillings,
was done for the development of effective technique.
Drilling and maintenance of inspection equipment,
measuring of temperatures and water levels in a dam
body were executed. Exploration drilling with full test-
ing of core samples was done on the territory of the
magnetic pyrite depository
2.
At forecasting of stability of a levee the complex
of programs was used. Program complex UWay FEM
package (Vlasov et al. 2003) has been applied to tem-
perature condition calculation on the basis of finite
elements. Forecasting of stability of a levee is exe-
cuted by means of program UniFos and on the basis of
fuzzy sets method .
The program complex UWay permits to forecast
of the stress-strained state of soil and rocky mas-
sifs, and also to forecast of change of temperature
and hydrological modes of soil massif and definition
of the effective characteristics of composite materi-
als, layered and jointy massifs of rocks (Vlasov et al.
2003).
566
Figure 4. Results of calculations of the temperature condi-
tions. a) in winter time; b) in summer time.
Program UWay allows to reflect in calculations:
changes of geometry of settlement area (for exam-
ple, the registration of phases of buildings);
changes of properties of materials;
changes of boundary conditions (both power, and
kinematic);
operation of materials according to various models
of behaviour of soils under load
At the first stage the calculations of the temperature
conditions in tailing dams massif for winter and sum-
mer periods were made. The results of calculations are
shown in Figure 4.
The given results were used for the appointment
of physical and mechanical characteristics of soils
composing the dams body and has formed the basis
of the calculations of dams coefficient stability. The
calculation were carried out by means of program
UniFos.
The program UniFos is a part of UWay complex and
is intended for calculations of stability of soil construc-
tions. It is written in object-oriented language C++
with usage of optimising compiler Borland C++ Bor-
land International v.5.02 with library OWL usage v.5.0
(Vlasov et al. 2003).
At the next stage the check of adequacy of an equa-
tion (4) was carried out by comparison with the results
of the numeric calculations with the software package
UniFos.
Calculations were made for the next parameters of
tailing dam in equation (4):
angle of slope 15 ;
the height of dam 40 m;
granule composition of tails sand fraction;
thermal condition of dam frozen;
type of underground water pressure no pressure;
the width of dams beach 100 m.
Figure 5. Results of calculations of the stability coefficient.
a) in winter time prior to the beginning of excavating;
b) in winter time on termination of excavating;
c) in summer time on termination of excavating at flooding
by water;
d) the same without flooding by water.
Numeric calculations were made for the next
parameters:
angle of internal friction = 20 ;
cohesion C = 0 mPa;
density = 16 kN/m3
The results of comparison show their good conver-
gence: coefficient of stability Kst = 1.48 calculated on
equation (4) and Kst = 1.20 on numeric calculations.
At the last stage the calculations of the stability coef-
ficient of the tailing dam under various conditions were
made. The calculation were carried out for four condi-
tions: a) in winter time before excavating works; b) in
winter time on termination of excavating; c) in summer
time on termination of excavating works at flooding by
water; d) in summer time without flooding by water.
The results of calculations of the dams stability
coefficient are shown in Figure 5.
The analysis of results of mathematical modelling
shows (Fig. 5) that when excavating of magnetic pyrite
concentrate by earlier suggested technology stability
of a dam is not provided during the summer period
567
(stability coefficient is less than 1). The given con-
clusion has formed the basis for alteration of work
technique that has provided ,in its turn, safe and
effective execution phase.
5 CONCLUSIONS
Program complex UWay FEM package has been
applied to the dams temperature condition calculation
on the basis of finite elements. Forecasting of stability
of a levee is executed by means of program UniFos
and on the basis of fuzzy sets method.
The forecast of the dams stability on the basis of
the described method and received equation (4) has
shown their high adequacy.
Carried out calculations permit to forecast the sta-
bility of tailing dam and has formed the basis for
568
alteration of work technique that has provided ,in its
turn, safe and effective execution phase.
REFERENCES
Lolaev, A.B. 2006. Fuzzy modelling in the geoecological
forecasting in cryolitic zone. In works of North Caucasian
Institute of Mining & Metallurgy (State Technological
University. Vladikavkaz, Russia (in Russian).
Vlasov, A.N., Yanovsky, Yu.G., Mnushkin, M.G., Popov, A.A.
2003. Solving geomechanical problems with UWay FEM
package. In Proceedings EPMESCIX. International Con-
ference on Enhancement and Promotion of Computational
Methods in Engineering and Science. Macao.
Lolaev, A.B., Akopov A.P., Oganesian A.Kh. & Sumin M.N.
2009. Forecasting of the stability of the tailing dam in
permafrost region. In Proceedings of 5-th International
Conference Global Scientific Potential, Tambov, Russia
(in Russian).
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Numerical modeling of the mechanical response of recycled materials in

embankments

M.M. Villani, X. Liu & A. Scarpas

Section of Structural Mechanics, Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences,
Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands

A. DAndrea
Department of Hydraulic, Transport and Roads, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy

ABSTRACT: Every year, in Europe, 3 billion tonnes of aggregates are required for construction applications
and, at the same time, 1.3 billion tonnes of waste are disposed of. The idea of using some of them as new
alternative materials could be economically beneficial but several studies have to be done in order to guarantee
their bearing capacity and durability. In this study three waste products, clay and lime, pozzolan, sludge and
lime and construction and demolition wastes, were selected in order to use them as new alternative materials
for embankment construction. On the basis of the information obtained from laboratory and in situ tests, the
embankment was simulated by means of the finite element method. Comparisons have been made between in
situ and modeled results by considering material stress dependence and surface deflection profiles. Modeling
with the finite element system CAPA-3D has shown good agreement with in situ response. The results indicate
that stabilized materials can be characterized by a hyperelastic assumption while unbound materials can be
appropriately modeled by using a Mr- model.

1 INTRODUCTIONS load cells were installed inside the embankment and

Natural materials for construction applications are a
limited and expensive resource. For this reason, Euro-
pean laws allow to recycle materials in which the
mechanical and chemical compositions conform to
predefined specifications.
The goal of this investigation is to find a good com-
promise between the mechanical characteristics of the
recycled materials and the total expense for recycling.
In the framework of this project various materi-
als were studied for their potential to be used for
recycling purposes. They were clay (by-product of
excavation activities) to which lime was added (AC),
pozzolan (by-product of tunnelling activities), sludge
(provided by an aggregate industry) and lime (3P30),
construction and demolition waste (C&D)
Because the mechanical response characteristics of
these materials depend and vary with the selected per-
centage of water and stabilizer, extensive mechanical
tests were performed. The test results were compared
with those of standard aggregate material (MG).
Various geotechnical characteristics tests, CBR,
Uniaxial Compressive Strength and Resilient Modulus
were performed.
In order to know also the in situ response of the
material an embankment was created in Nepi (VT)
by the Italian Railway Association during a project
that investigates the mechanical behavior of recycled
material. During the construction of the embankment,
different in-situ tests such as static plate load, FWD
and LWD were considered.
In the last phase of these studies, comparisons
between Finite Element Modeling and in situ test
results have been done for the different recycled mate-
rials. The analyses provided valuable insight into the
various mechanisms and phenomena controlling the
response of the embankment.
2 LAB MATERIAL CHARACTERIZATION
2.1 Introduction
In order to obtain information of the geotechnical and
mechanical behavior of the materials in relation to
water content and load application, an extensive labo-
ratory testing was performed for clay and lime and for
pozzolan, sludge and lime (Villani 2009). The main
results are presented in the following paragraph.
2.2 Index properties
Index properties tests were performed according to
American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM)
test procedures listed below:
Water content ASTM D 2216-80
Liquid Limit and Plastic Limit and Plasticity Index
ASTM D 4318-84

569
Table 1. Geotechnical characteristics of the mixtures.

w s wl Ip
(%) (kN/m3 ) (%) (%) AASHO Class

Clay 24 27 44 27 A7-6
Pozzolan 24 25 A4
Sludge 68 27 43 20 A7-6
Lime 22
C&D 10 26 A1-b
MG 9 26 A1-a

Table 2. Mechanical characteristics of mixtures and mate-

rials.

Maturation time UCS CBR Figure 1. Geometrical characteristics of the embankment.

Material (day) (daN/cm2) (%)

Clay 0 4.5 37
3P30 7 18 147
C&D 7 N.A. 62
MG 0 N.A. 108

Particle Size Analysis ASTM D 422-63

Specific Gravity ASTM 854

2.3 Mechanical characteristics

2.3.1 CBR and Uniaxial compressive strength
In order to obtain information about the bearing capac-
ity of the embankment different tests (Californian
Bearing Ratio and Uniaxial Compressive Strength)
for different maturation time (7 days for stabilized
materials) have been done.
2.3.2 Resilient modulus
The resilient modulus is based on the conventional tri-
axial compression test in which the stress state due to
the wheel load is reproduced by cyclic loading. It is
expressed by the ratio between the maximum devia-
toric stress and the elastic component of deformation
recovered.
Different relations between the resilient modulus
and the first invariant stress have been reported in lit-
erature. In this study the following Mr (Hicks &
Monismith 1972) was considered:
where is the first invariant stress and k1 and k2 are
regression coefficients.
3 IN SITU MECHANICAL
CHARACTERIZATION
The total length of the entire embankment is eighty
meters (twenty meters for each material). The dimen-
sions of the entire embankment are reported in
Figure 1.
Figure 2. Position of the pressure cells into the embankment
and transversal section.
Considering the pressure cell it is possible to study
the stress-depth relationship under low load (345 kPa,
static plate load test) and high load application (truck
passage 700 kPa). For the purpose of this paper the
results of load cell located at 72 cm are discussed. Fig-
ure 2 indicates the configuration adopted in order not
to create interference between different load cells.
The Static Plate Load Test has been done according
to AASHTO T 222 and ASTM D 1196: Non repetitive
Static Plate Load of Soils and Flexible Pavement Com-
ponents, for Use in Evaluation and Design of Airport
and Highway Pavements.
From the results presented in Table 36 the rela-
tion between bearing capacity during a first (Md)
and a second (Md ) load application and matura-
tion time. Results are not smooth because they are
affected by many factors such as weather conditions
or heterogeneity of the material.
Other used instruments are Falling Weight Deflec-
tometer (Dynatest 8000) and Light Weight Deflec-
tometer (Dynatest Light Falling Weight Deflectometer
3031).
It is clearly shown that FWD and LWD moduli are
usually higher than static plate load tests.

570
Table 3. Deformation modulus maturation time (clay and
lime).

Maturation time (day)

Clay and lime 0 15 166 205

Md (N/mm2 ) 80 127 132 145

Md (N/mm2 ) 195 358 273 290
Md/Md 0.41 0.35 0.49 0.5

Table 4. Deformation modulus maturation time (3P30).

Maturation time (day)

3P30 0 15 166 205

Md (N/mm2 ) 47 66 600 145

Md (N/mm2 ) 181 236 698 290
Md/Md 0.26 0.63 0.86 0.5

Table 5. Deformation modulus maturation time (C&D). Figure 3. Dimension of the embankment finite element
mesh.
Maturation time (day)

C&D 0 15 166 205

Md (N/mm2 ) 44 66 132 138 4 NUMERICAL MODELLING

Md (N/mm2 ) 191 264 391 300
Md/Md 0.23 0.25 0.34 0.46 4.1 Introduction
Different numerical techniques can be used in order to
model the mechanical response of the embankment.
Table 6. Deformation modulus maturation time (MG). At the beginning of this study, a multilayer elastic
analysis was performed by means of the following
Maturation time (day) programs: BISAR, KENLAYER (Huang Y. H., 1993)
and mePADS. Among these programs, the results of
M&G 0 15 166 205 mePADS were closer to the measured response. The
use of Finite Element Analysis instead of Multilayer
Md (N/mm2 ) 94 114 170 205 Elastic Analysis has several advantages since differ-
Md (N/mm2 ) 224 335 450 360 ent types of load areas and constitutive models can be
Md/Md 0.42 0.34 0.38 0.57 taken into account and since different types of bound-
ary conditions can be specified instead of only infinite
boundaries.
Table 7. Comparison between different in situ tests. The finite element system CAPA-3D (Scarpas &
Liu 2000) was utilized to perform the numerical sim-
E SPL E FWD E LWD ulations. The system is capable of solving large scale
Material (MPa) (MPa) (MPa) models like those typically encountered in pavement
engineering and to consider various soil conditions
Clay and lime 159 388 287 such as fully or partially saturated condition under
3P30 454 1122 923 static and/or dynamic load conditions.
C&D 126 188 137
MG 139 236 161
The finite element mesh of the embankment and the
Subgrade 30 loading area are inserted in Figure 3. The position of
the load doesnt allow considering a double symmetric
geometry, for this reason the slope of the embankment
has also been taken into account.
The results show that the predicted modulus val- Due to the half symmetry, proper boundary condi-
ues depend on the type of the instruments utilized. tions had to be introduced in the analyses. Constraints
Also, the bearing capacity of the stabilized material have been defined for each surface of the structure (in
is strongly dependent on the load position indicating order to simulate far field confinement) except for the
thus the in homogeneity of the material. surface on top.

571
Table 8. Comparison between modulus obtained from static Table 10. Comparison between stresses obtained from load
plate load or using FEA. cells and using FEA.

E FEM E SPL v v measured v CAPA3D

Material (mm) (MPa) (MPa) (kPa) Material (kPa) (kPa)

Clay and lime 0.57 160 159 9 Clay and lime 1 9

3P30 0.2 550 454 6 3P30 1 6
C&D 0.72 110 126 12 C&D 6 12
MG 0.65 125 139 11 MG 10 11

Table 9. Stresses and stiffness in wet condition.

Bearing
v E SPL capacity
Material (mm) (kPa) (MPa) loss (%)

Clay and lime 0.67 12 128 20

3P30 0.26 7 425 23
C&D 0.83 14 93 15
MG 0.67 12 125 0

The goal of the finite element modeling was the

development of an analysis methodology for embank-
ments built with recycled materials. For this reason,
in the framework of this research different materials
were compared with the predictions of measured in
situ response for the purpose of identifying the model
that gave best prediction. According to the available
data two different approaches have been taken into
account; in the first a hyperelastic neo-Hookean con-
stitutive model was used while in the second, the model
of Eq. (1). In the following section results from both
models are compared.
The static plate load and its elastic modulus were
considered in order to obtain the relation between
stress and depth while truck passages were utilized
to determine the variation of stresses in the horizontal
direction.
4.2 Stress modelling
Stress modeling was studied considering static plate
load applications and truck passages modeling.
4.2.1 Static plate load application
During the static plate load application, the load is
applied (345 kPa) and deflections are measured. By
means of CAPA-3D, the displacement measured from
the Static Plate Load tests were applied on the mesh
of Figure 3.
On the basis of the finite element results, the mod-
ulus of the embankment was computed. As it is shown
in Table 8 moduli obtained are very close to those
obtained by formulae from literature. It can be con-
cluded that the combination of the static plate load
measurements and Finite Element Analyses can be
used for the determination of material characteristics.
This technique makes also possible to compare
stresses and moduli in wet and dry conditions and to
show a loss of bearing capacity (Table 9) caused by
Figure 4. Influence of E1/E2 ratio on the stress depth
relation.
bad weather condition. A comparison between in situ
stresses and the ones obtained via modelling showed,
in some cases, significant differences (Table 10).
In case of clay and lime and 3P30, the differences
between in situ results and modeling, can be attributed
to the local discontinuity generated by the stiffness
differences between the embankment material and the
sand used in order to fill the hole created during the
installation of the load cells.
Considering the modulus of the embankment E2
and the modulus of the sand E1 it is possible to study
the variation of the vertical stresses with the moduli
ratio.
Figure 4 shows the influence of the moduli ratio on
the generated discontinuity of stresses in the vicinity
of the load cell.
4.2.2 Truck passage modeling
Regarding modeling of truck passage, the FEM was
also utilized to evaluate the effects of tire pressure,
wheel configuration and axle load of a truck on the
structural response of the embankment.
The truck passage was aligned with the position
of the load cells (Fig. 2). Load cells registered load
transmitted by the truck in relation to time.
The results in term of stresses on the first wheel of
the track are shown in Fig. 57. The pressure under a
single wheel (650 kPa) was calculated considering the
load of the camion and the load percentage applied to
a single wheel. The modulus calculated by the static
plate load model was utilised for these analyses. The

572
Figure 5. Relation stresses space at 0.72 m.
Figure 6. Relation stresses space at 0.72 m for C&D.
Figure 7. Relation stresses space at 0.72 m for granular
material.
unsymmetrical shape is due to the presence of the tan-
dem wheel. Results regarding 3P30 are not presented
because the differences between measured and com-
puted values were even higher due to the high moduli
ratio.
4.3 Deflection modeling
In the previous chapter it was shown that the hyper-
elastic model was capable of predicting the variation
of the stress. As suggested in literature (Desai 2002)
and as it is also obtained from the analysis with the
elastic material or with a material model according
to Eq. (1) the variation of stress with the dept is not
depending on the model used (Figure 8 shows the result
obtained for C&D). On the other hand, it has been
573
Figure 8. Relation vertical stress depth for C&D.
Figure 9. Relation between deflection and distance from
the center plate for different FWD tests.
Figure 10. Relation between deflection and distance from
the center plate for different FWD tests.
also demonstrated that, depending on material type,
the choice of material model can have some influence
on the computed surface displacement profiles.
In order to investigate the influence of material
model on the predicted surface deflection, FWD
displacements were studied.
Finite Element Analyses of the tests showed that in
case of the stabilized materials i.e. Clay and Lime and
3P30, the hyperelastic model was adequate in simulat-
ing both stresses and surface deflections, Figure 910.

Figure 11. Relation between deflection and distance from
the center plate for different FWD tests.
Figure 12. Relation between deflection and distance from
the center plate for different FWD tests.
In the case of C&D and granular material the analyses
showed that only the model of Eq. (1) was capable of
simulating accurately stress (Fig. 1112).
5 CONCLUSIONS
This paper presents a comprehensive methodology for
characterization of recycled materials for road con-
structions by means of laboratory tests. On the basis
of laboratory results appropriate material models can
be calibrated and utilized for the prediction of the
response of embankments.
In this project the laboratory response was com-
pared with actual in situ tests showing that mechanical
response of the alternative materials is, for most cases,
574
better than the traditional materials but particular
attention must be taken to moisture penetration and
different components mixing.
Data from static plate load tests can be utilized for
predicting the mechanical response of the embank-
ment using Finite Element Analysis.
In relation to the model that can be used, the
response of stabilized materials can be simulated by
means of hyperelastic models while, for the accurate
simulation of the response of granular material and
C&D the effect of lateral confinement must be taken
into account.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of the
staff of Road Material Laboratory of Sapienza, Uni-
versity of Rome (N. Fiore, G.P. Rossi, A. Di Curzio),
the Istituto Sperimentale Ferrovie of Italian Rail-
way Network as well as DIC-Road and Transportation
Division (University of Pisa) for soil testing data.
REFERENCES
Villani M. M. 2009. Modellazione di rilevati costituiti da
materiali alternativi, Master thesis, Sapienza University
of Rome.
DAndrea A. & Villani M. M. 2008, Recycling of material
with high water content, Proc. International conference
of solid waste management and construction. (pg. 1327
1338).
Scarpas A. and Liu X. 2002. CAPA-3D Finite Element
System-Users Manual, Part I, II and III, Section of
Structure Mechanics, Delft University of Technology,
Netherlands.
Scarpas A. 2005. Mechanics based Computational Platform
for Pavement Engineering, PhD thesis, Delft University
of Technology.
Liu X., 2003, Numerical modelling of porous media response
under static and dynamic load, PhD thesis, Delft Univer-
sity of Technology.
Huang Y.H. 1993. Pavement Analysis and Design, Prentice-
Hall International UK, London.
Hicks, R.G., and Monismith, C.L. (1971). Factors influenc-
ing the resilient modulus of granular materials. Highway
Research Record 345: 1531.
Desai C. S. 2002. Mechanistic Pavement Analysis and Design
using Unified Material and Computer Models. In A.
Scarpas & S.N.Shoukry (eds.), Proc. of the Third Interna-
tional Symposium on 3D Finite Element Analysis, Design
and Research, Amsterdam, 25 April 2002: 2153.
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Rail track structural analysis using three-dimensional numerical models

A. Paixo & E. Fortunato

Laboratrio Nacional de Engenharia Civil, Lisbon, Portugal

ABSTRACT: The current competitive growth of transport systems and the rising demands placed on railways
have promoted the improvement of systems that comprise the railway infrastructure. From this perspective, the
optimization of track design and the reduction of life-cycle costs assume greater relevance. Attaining a better
comprehension of the role of the elements that form the structure is essential to achieve such objectives. Within
this context, the use of numerical models is a valuable tool for better understanding of the track behaviour and
thus to optimize its design. The present study focuses on some aspects of three-dimensional track modelling.
Linear and nonlinear constitutive laws are used to reproduce the behaviour of granular material. Stress and
deformation results obtained on different layers, are presented and the suitability of different track solutions is
discussed. Finally a comparison of the results obtained with different software is also presented.

1 INTRODUCTION the help of different models (Tarabji & Thompson

Regarding the current life-cycle costs reduction
paradigm for transport infrastructures, namely in what
relates to the railway system, optimizing the design of
these structures holds greater relevance.
In order to contribute to the optimization of the
design of structural solutions in respect to the phys-
ical and mechanical characteristics of trackbed layers,
numerical models can be used for better understanding
of the behaviour of the railway track. To this end, the
present study makes use of three-dimensional numeri-
cal modelling to reproduce the structural behaviour of
the track and its subgrade. The developed models aim
at simulating the performance of various elements that
comprise the railway track when submitted to vertical
loadings.
The ballasted track is the most widespread super-
structure solution for railways. It is a rather complex
structure, often showing a nonlinear behaviour when
submitted to traffic loads. Many analytical models
have been developed to either individually represent
each response component associated with such loads
or to simultaneously represent the different compo-
nents. So far, most efforts focused on studying its
response to vertical loads.
Finite element and finite difference methods are
particularly suited to model actions and to make use of
nonlinear constitutive relations for some of the mate-
rials that comprise the track system. These methods
allow the spatial variation of physical and mechanical
characteristics, improving resemblance with the real
structure.
Previous studies regarding the track response due
to loads imposed by trains have been carried out with
1976, Prause & Kennedy 1977, Adegoke et al. 1979,
Sauvage & Larible 1982, Chang et al. 1980, Huang
et al. 1984) which have evolved in time in accor-
dance with the available computational capacity. The
intensive use of these models has made it possible to
carry out parametric studies and to prepare diagrams
that describe the relations between relevant variables.
Some of these results have been used to develop design
procedures for trackbed layers (Li & Selig 1998, ORE
1983 and Ministerio de Fomento 1999). Other authors
(Sanguino et al. 1998, Williams & Prez 1998, Aubry
et al. 1999) have modelled the railway track using com-
mercial software, making evidence of the distinctive
capabilities.
In general, the above studies have considered the
linear elastic behaviour of the layers supporting the
track. Initially, this consideration was due to the
limited computational potentialities of both software
and hardware available at the time. In face of the
developments made on computing performance and
on the tools available, some authors suggested the
use of more complex models in order to obtain a
better estimate of the actual behaviour of these mate-
rials (Ministerio de Fomento 1999 and Fortunato
2005).
Within this context, this study focuses on several
aspects of rail track modelling and on the influ-
ence of physical and mechanical characteristics of
the trackbed layers. Results are compared and dis-
cussed. Different constitutive laws to reproduce the
behaviour of granular materials are taken into account.
A comparison of the results using different commer-
cial software (FLAC3D and ANSYS) is also carried
out.

575

Figure 1. Example of the track model used as reference.
2 RAILWAY TRACK MODELLING
2.1 General aspects
In applications of this kind, the construction of the
model usually takes into account the symmetry of
the problem, allowing the reduction of the domain
to a quarter of its total (see Figure 1). As a result,
two symmetry planes can be defined: a vertical plane
containing the longitudinal axis of the track and a
transverse vertical plane where the load is applied.
The studied models were approximately 2.5 m long
in the rail direction, 3.8 m wide in the transverse direc-
tion and showed a constant depth of 4.0 m from the
sleepers bottom surface. It was decided to keep a
constant depth for all the studies performed due to
excessive influence of this parameter on the vertical
displacements.
Horizontal displacements were restricted in the
vertical boundary planes and vertical displacements
restricted in the lower horizontal boundary.
The models were developed with 8-node hexahe-
dral grid with about 10,000 elements/zones and with
a total of 12,000 nodes to represent the following
track elements: rail, rail pads, sleepers, ballast, sub-
ballast, capping layer and subgrade (see Figure 1).
In FLAC3D, a mixed discretisation technique is used
where each 8-node zone corresponds to an assembly
of 2 overlays of five 4-node tetrahedral. In ANSYS,
8-node elements were used.
As in similar static problems, only a single axis load
was considered, as experience shows that in quasi-
static problems, the influence of loading a second axis,
at a distance of approximately 3.0 m, introduces very
small variations in the results.
Regarding the vertical loading, some authors (Alves
Ribeiro, et al. 2009) have carried out dynamic analy-
ses to evaluate the wheel-rail interaction forces when
high-speed vehicles cross vertical stiffness transi-
tion zones. These studies indicate that when crossing
abrupt subgrade deformability transitions (i.e. moduli
of deformability transition between 50 and 1000 MPa)
a dynamic increment of about 45% of the static load
576
can be expected. Therefore, in the present study, a con-
servative approach has been adopted to comprise such
scenarios. A value of 300 kN was used as reference
for the analyses carried out. Since symmetry condi-
tions were present, a quarter of loading (i.e. 75 kN)
was applied on top of the rail, in the transverse vertical
plane of symmetry.
In the studies performed, the load was applied in two
stages. Initially, gravity was activated so that the bulk
weight of the materials could be taken into account.
After achieving equilibrium of the initial stress state,
the load was applied on the rail.
2.2 Modelling rail, rail pads and sleepers
When studying this type of structures, some of the
relevant modelling aspects are related to how the super-
structure is modelled. When the track is loaded with
a single axle, the load distribution between sleep-
ers is strongly dependent on the vertical stiffness
of the system. Underestimating the load transferred
to the sleeper located right under the axle induces
lower stress levels at the sub-grade, leading to a
non-conservative approach to the problem.
In order to attain a better reproduction of the load
distribution between sleepers, special attention needs
to be paid to some modelling aspects. Within this con-
text, several models were developed, aiming at evaluat-
ing the influence of different modelling assumptions.
Regarding the results obtained, some considerations
can be made, as follows.
To reproduce the rail, a simplified rectangular shape
can be adopted with the same width as the rail foot,
using brick elements. The rail height and the Young
modulus should be determined to obtain the same
bending stiffness as the actual rail type being mod-
elled. To assess the influence of such parameters two
situations were compared: changing a UIC 60 by a
UIC 54 rail (having 30% less moment of inertia) may
induce an increase of vertical stress on top of the sub-
grade by about 4%, due to the axle load. Displacements
at the rail may be increased by 5%. Although chang-
ing the rail induces stress and deformation variations,
in the context of rail engineering, choosing between
different rail types aims at dealing with issues outside
the scope of this study.
In the studies performed, rail type UIC60 was mod-
elled with a parallelepiped shape. The rail was 0.15 m
wide and an equivalent height was determined so that
a similar moment of inertia could be attained. These
elements were linear elastic, with Youngs modulus of
210 GPa and Poissons ratio of 0.3. An equivalent den-
sity was attributed to the rail elements to obtain the
actual rail weight.
Regarding the sleepers modelling, it is also impor-
tant to adequately reproduce the flexural behaviour of
these components.
To reproduce the B70 monoblock sleepers, brick
elements were used. The sleepers dimensions were
determined to obtain similar plan area and approxi-
mate moment of inertia as the B70 sleeper. A Youngs
modulus of 64 GPa and Poissons ratio of 0.25 were
chosen to characterise the linear elastic behaviour and
an equivalent density was considered to obtain the
actual mass of 300 kg per sleeper.
Some authors (Ministerio de Fomento 1999) rec-
ommend the use of higher-order elements, such as
20-node brick elements, to adequately reproduce the
flexural behaviour of track framework components.
However, experience shows that 8-node brick elements
can also be used, as long as a minimum of 4 layers of
elements are considered.
Different approaches can be adopted regarding the
modelling of rail pads. Contact elements or brick ele-
ments between the rail and the sleeper surfaces usually Figure 2. Vertical stress in the ballast layer, under the
bring good results, ensuring the vertical stiffness pro- sleepers.
vided by the supplier is kept. In some situations the
users choice depends also on the features available in
the software.
The load distribution between sleepers strongly
depends on the rail pad vertical stiffness. Figure 2 illus-
trates the effects of including either relatively soft or
stiff rail pads (average stresses are given at the centre
of gravity of each element/zone).
As it could be expected, using a stiffer rail pad
induces high stresses at the top layers and higher
concentration of load under the first sleeper. It is inter-
esting to note that, in this situation, an additional 10%
of the load is being transferred to the sleeper under the
load. On the other hand, the vertical displacement at
the top of the rail is decreased by 20 % (from 1.82 mm
to 1.45 mm). Figure 3. Vertical stress in the ballast layer, under the
In the following analyses, rail pads were placed sleepers.
over the full width of the sleeper and rail. They were
modelled with 0.01 m deep brick elements. An equiv-
obtaining unrealistic results. Generally, in linear elastic
alent Young modulus was determined so that a vertical
models, when the ballast is modelled between sleep-
stiffness of 100 kN/mm could be achieved.
ers and if no contact elements on the sleeper sides are
included, poor results may be obtained.
The consideration of yield criterion to reproduce
2.3 Modelling trackbed layers
the ballast behaviour of the crib is usually adopted
Choosing the constitutive laws to reproduce the with fairly good results. Since the presence of crib
behaviour of the trackbed materials may be a key deci- shows limited relevance to the vertical track struc-
sion in order to obtain a reasonable approximation to tural behaviour, it may also be omitted. To illustrate
the problem. In some situations, the consideration of a the described behaviour, four models were developed
linear elastic behaviour of the materials that comprise regarding the different ballast behaviour and the crib
the trackbed layers may lead to unrealistic load distri- was omitted in two of them. As depicted in Figure 3,
bution between sleepers. As a result, inadequate stress the assumption of the ballast linear elastic behaviour
distribution in depth may be obtained. with the presence of crib originates a case where the
In previous studies (Paixo & Fortunato 2009), the vertical load is partially transferred from the sleepers
authors have compared the results of considering either vertical sides to the crib, reducing stresses under the
linear or nonlinear elastic-perfectly plastic behaviour sleepers.
of ballast and sub-ballast material.Although the results Thus, if linear elastic behaviour is being consid-
suggested that the use of more complex constitutive ered, the modelling of ballast between sleepers can be
relations, taking into account the variable elasticity avoided. Therefore, in the following analyses the crib
of materials (Fortunato & Resende 2006), gives more was omitted so that a more realistic behaviour could
realistic results, regarding the distribution of loads in be achieved with linear elastic models. Ballast shoul-
the three-dimensions, the adoption of linear elastic- ders were included (material placed laterally beside
perfectly plastic laws is a fair approximation to the the sleepers); 0.5 m wide and a 2:3 slope.
real problem and has the advantage of requiring less In order to evaluate the influence of the variation of
computation resources. some railway track characteristics, namely thickness
Special care needs to be taken in the modelling and modulus of deformability (E) of the substructure
of ballast between sleepers (crib) in order to avoid layers, several three-dimensional numerical models

577
Table 1. Values for the different parameters of the track
layers.

Layer/Value

Parameter Ballast Sub-Ballast Capping

E (MPa) 130 100 to 500 40 to 80

Poisson ratio 0.20 0.30 0.30
friction angle ( ) 45 55 45
bulk weight (kN/m3 ) 17.3 23.0 23.0
layer depth (m) 0.35 0.30 0.4
Sub-grade
E (MPa) 25 to 60
Poisson ratio 0.30
bulk weight (kN/m3 ) 19.5 Figure 4. Vertical stress, under the load application point.

were developed, reproducing a variety of structural

cases. Two situations were studied for the materials
behaviour: 1) linear elastic; 2) linear elastic-perfectly
plastic. Table 1 presents a summary of the physical and
mechanical characteristics on the different supporting
layers used in this study.
In cases where nonlinear behaviour was consid-
ered for the granular material layers, a Drucker-Prager
(DP) criterion with nearly zero cohesion was adopted.
The circumscribed alternative of the DP cone was Figure 5. Contours of total vertical stress (kPa): transverse
used to fit to the Mohr-Coulomb (MC) yield sur- (left) and longitudinal (right) alignments.
face outer edges. Although MC yield criterion usually
brings a better reproduction of the granular material
behaviour, DP criterion was used so that a compari-
son between different software could be carried out
(see section 3.4). As could be expected, some tests
showed that DP yield surface also allowed slightly
faster calculation speeds.

3 RESULTS

Deformations and stresses observed in the trackbed

were analysed and a brief description of the results
is presented. The effects of the bulk weight were
subtracted to show the results due to the axle loading.
3.1 Models with linear elastic behaviour
From the series of parametric studies carried out,
several considerations can be drawn. Definitely, one
of the most relevant aspects that influence the track
behaviour concerns the subgrade parameters, in par-
ticular its deformability. Take, for example, a structural
solution which comprises ballast with E = 130 MPa,
sub-ballast with E = 200 MPa and capping layer with
E = 80 MPa. Increasing the subgrade modulus of
deformability from 25 to 60 MPa leads to a vertical
stress increment of about 30% at the upper part of the
subgrade (see Figure 4). On the other hand, very small
variations occur when changing the modulus of the
upper layers. However, the results indicate that using
Figure 6. Contours of vertical displacement (m) due to the
loading: transverse (left) and longitudinal (right) alignments.
higher values of E on the upper layers slightly reduces
stresses at the subgrade.
The subgrade deformability exhibits even greater
influence on the displacements. Coming back to the
above example, changing the subgrade deformability
between 25 to 60 MPa, reduces vertical displacements
at the ballast top by approximately 57%.
To give an example of the deformation and stress
distribution in depth, contours of these results are
presented in Figures 5 and 6. In general, vertical
stress concentration occurs under the outer edge of the
sleeper, while maximum vertical displacement occurs
under the centre of the sleeper.
Note that, in some of the studied cases, the consider-
ation of linear elastic behaviour leads to a situation that
does not adequately represent the material behaviour
since it allows the development of horizontal tensile

578
stress in the upper supporting layers. Such stress state
is not supported by the granular materials that com-
prise the ballast or sub-ballast layers. This occurrence
can be prevented with the introduction of elastic-
perfectly plastic behaviour in some materials, as will
be addressed next.
3.2 Models with elastic-perfectly plastic behaviour
The same series of parametric studies mentioned in
section 3.1 were carried out, though in this case, the
elastic-perfectly plastic behaviour was introduced in
the ballast, sub-ballast and capping layers, according
to Table 1. In comparison with linear elastic models,
slightly higher increments of stress and deformations
were obtained with these models, mainly under the
loaded area. Giving the previous example, increas-
ing the subgrade modulus of deformability between
25 and 60 MPa, and considering instead a nonlinear
behaviour, a vertical stress increment of about 27%
at the upper part of the subgrade was obtained. Ver-
tical displacements at the ballast top were reduced
by approximately 61%. Once again, the results indi-
cate that the subgrade deformability exhibits great
influence in the obtained stresses and deformations.
Despite the fact that horizontal tensile stresses do
develop on the upper trackbed layers of the linear elas-
tic models, which is not a fair reproduction of the
material behaviour, the obtained vertical stress and
deformation results with both material laws were rel-
atively close. The maximum displacements obtained
here were about 6% greater than those obtained with
linear elastic models.
3.3 Sub-ballast layer thickness variation
For both material behaviour approaches, described
above, variations were implemented on the sub-ballast
and capping layer thickness in order to evaluate the
benefit of replacing capping layer material with sub-
ballast material. The sum of the depth of the two
layers was kept constant. The results indicate that
there is a limited benefit regarding the reduction of
vertical stresses on the subgrade. Such benefit is rel-
atively small and only relevant up to a certain point
in the reduction of the capping layer depth. Taking
as an example, a track structure with a 0.30 m deep
sub-ballast layer and a 0.40 m deep capping layer:
replacing the top 0.30 m of that capping layer with
sub-ballast material only reduces the maximum stress
at the subgrade by about 4%.
3.4 Comparison between different numerical tools
Regarding the three-dimensional models developed
for this study, different automatic calculation software
was used, namely FLAC3D (Itasca 2006) and ANSYS
(2009). The first software makes use of the finite
difference method, while the second uses the finite
element method. In both cases the modelling of the
579
Figure 7. Average vertical stress under the rail alignment on
top of the ballast layer.
rail track followed the same geometry and parameters
described in section 2.3
The explicit calculation (Lagrangian) and the
method of discretisation used by FLAC3D provide an
adequate modelling of continua, allowing the resolu-
tion of three-dimensional equilibrium problems with
considerable geometric and physical complexity. One
of the characteristics that led to the preference for
this software is related to the straightforward imple-
mentation of constitutive models for materials with
the development of routines in an internal program-
ming language. Considering the resolution algorithm
used (Itasca 2006), the implementation of constitutive
models is relatively simple, whether they are linear or
nonlinear.
On the other hand, the ANSYS software makes use
of the finite element method and, for the analysed
cases, slightly smaller computation times could be
achieved, since the studied problems showed relatively
small strains, allowing a fast convergence.
The studies presented in section 3 were performed
with these two programs. The results obtained were
quite consistent, either considering linear and nonlin-
ear behaviour of the materials.
The results were consistent under the loaded area,
especially in deeper layers. Minor result differences
occurred under the distant sleepers, at the ballast and
sub-ballast layers, as illustrated in Figure 7.
4 CONCLUSIONS
In order to study the structural behaviour of rail tracks,
a few aspects concerning the numerical modelling
of such structures were introduced. A set of results
obtained with different three-dimensional modelling
tools was presented and discussed.
To evaluate how different techniques, used to model
track components, influence the load distribution
between sleepers, some analyses were carried out and
considerations were made.
A wide rage of different track structures was mod-
elled in order to evaluate the influence of some phys-
ical and mechanical characteristics of the trackbed
layers. The results indicate that the stiffness of the
subgrade has a great influence with regard to the
vertical stress levels and displacements obtained at
different depths. Considering the variations performed
on the parameters of the supporting layers, namely its
modulus of deformability and depth, the replacement
of capping layer material with sub-ballast material
showed a limited influence on the output results, tak-
ing into account the modulus of deformability of these
materials.
A comparison between linear and nonlinear
behaviour models for granular materials was con-
duced. The analysis of the results evidenced that,
when studying deeper layers, the use of linear elastic
laws may lead to a close approximation to the results
obtained with more complex constitutive laws.
The above analyses were carried out using two
numeric programs (FLAC3D and ANSYS) and a good
consistency between both tools could be achieved.
Given the results, it can be concluded that both soft-
ware are powerful tools to study and model the track
behaviour.
In general, the development of these models has
contributed to a better understanding of the struc-
tural behaviour of the track and its subgrade. The
use of these models establishes a good base for fur-
ther developments, such as analysing the benefit of
including non-traditional structural elements in the
track. At present day, studying how the inclusion of
under-sleeper pads, bituminous sub-ballast layers or
geo-synthetics influence the track behaviour presents
relative importance, considering the current paradigm
for life-cycle cost reduction.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors acknowledge the financial support of
R&D project PTDC/ECM/70571/2006 Optimisa-
tion of High-Speed Railway Track Using Bituminous
Sub-ballast funded by Fundao para a Cincia e
a Tecnologia (FCT), from Portuguese Ministry of
Science, Technology and Higher Education.
REFERENCES
Adegoke, C., Chang, C. & Selig, E. 1979. Study of analyti-
cal models for track support systems. Transport Research
Record 733: 1220.
Alves Ribeiro, C., Dahlberg, T., Calada, R. & Delgado,
R. 2009.Anlise dinmica de zonas de transio em
vias frreas de alta velocidade atravs de mtodos de
anlise explcitos. 3as Jornadas Hispano Portuguesas
sobre Geotecnia en las Infraestructuras Ferroviarias,
Madrid, 2526 June 2009: 1419.
ANSYS 2009. Release 12.0 Documentation for ANSYS.
Canonsburg, PA: ANSYS, Inc.
Aubry, D., Baroni, A., Clouteau, A., Fodil, A. & Modaressi,
A. 1999. Modlisation du comportement du ballast en
voie. Proceedings of XII European Conference on Soil
Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, Amsterdam:
Balkema.
Chang, C, Adegoke, C. & Selig, E. 1980. GEOTRACK model
for railroad track performance. Journal of the Geotechni-
cal Engineering Division, ASCE, 106(11): 12011218.
ITASCA 2006. FLAC3D Fast Lagrangian Analysis of Con-
tinua in 3D. Users Manual. Minneapolis, MN: Itasca
Consulting Group, Inc.
Fortunato, E. 2005. Renovao de Plataformas Ferrovirias.
Estudos Relativos Capacidade de Carga. PhD Thesis.
Porto: University of Porto.
Fortunato, E. & Resende, R. 2006. Mechanical Behaviour
of Railway Track Structure and Foundation Three-
dimensional Numerical Modelling. Railway Foundations.
RailFound 06, Birmingham, 1113 Septembre 2006:
217227.
Huang, Y., Lin, C., Deng, X. & Rose, J. 1984. KENTRACK.
A Computer Program for Hot Mix Asphalt and Conven-
tional Ballast Railway Trackbeds. RR-84-1. Lexington,
KY: Asphalt Institute.
Li, D. & Selig, E. 1998. Method for railroad track founda-
tion design. I: Development. Journal of Geotechnical and
Geoenvironmental Engineering, ASCE, 124(4): 316322.
Ministerio de Fomento 1999. Recomendaciones para el
proyecto de plataformas ferroviarias. Madrid: Ministe-
rio de Fomento. Secretara de Estado de Infraestructuras
y Transportes.
Office de Recherches et dEssais de lUnion Internationale
des Chemins de Fer ORE. 1983. Question D117. Rapport
No. 27.
Prause, R. & Kennedy, J. 1977. Parametric study of track
response. Federal Railroad Administration, Office of
Research and Development 77/75. Washington: US
Dept. of Transportation.
Paixo, A. & Fortunato, E. 2009. Anlise estrutural de via-
frrea com recurso a um modelo numrico tridimensional.
3as Jornadas Hispano Portuguesas sobre Geotecnia en
las Infraestructuras Ferroviarias, Madrid, 2526 June
2009: 136148.
Sanguino, M., Requejo, P. & Urroz, E. 1998. Clculo de
plataformas ferroviarias mediante el empleo de modelos
matemticos avanzados. Congreso Nacional de Ingeniera
Ferroviaria, Corua, 35 June 1998: 161172.
Sauvage, R. & Larible, G. 1982. La modlisation par l-
ments finis des couches dassise de la voie ferre. Revue
Gnrale des Chemins de Fer (9): 475484.
Tarabji, S. & Thompson, M. 1976. Finite Element Analysis of
a Railway Track Support System. Federal Railroad Admin-
istration, Office of Research and Development 76257.
Washington, DC: US Dept. of Transportation.
Williams, P. & Prez, M. 1998. Clculo de plataformas fer-
roviarias mediante elementos finitos. Congreso Nacional
de Ingeniera Ferroviaria, Corua, 35 June 1998:
149160.
580
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Three dimensional analyses of ring foundations

M. Laman, A. Yildiz, M. Ornek & A. Demir

Civil Engineering Department, Cukurova University, Adana, Turkey

ABSTRACT: Numerical predictions of the ultimate bearing capacity of ring foundations supported by a sand
bed are presented. Three dimensional numerical analyses of the test models were carried out using the finite
element package PLAXIS (Finite Element Code for Soil and Rock Analysis). It is shown that the behaviour of
ring foundations on sand beds may be reasonably well represented by the hardening soil model available in the
Plaxis package. The hardening soil model parameters were derived from the results of drained triaxial tests. The
results from the finite element analysis are in very good agreement with the experimental observations.

1 INTRODUCTION performed a series of laboratory tests on model ring

In recent decades, an exponential growth in the area
of digital computers and computational mechanics
has resulted in the application of the non-linear finite
element method to almost all areas of geotechnical
engineering, including shallow foundations. The finite
element method (FEM) has also become a highly use-
ful tool, and has been widely used for the numerical
analysis of soil structures (Abdel-Baki and Raymond
1994; Yetimoglu et al. 1994; Ismail and Raymond
1995; Ismael, 1996; Ohri et al, 1997; Kurian et al.
1997; Chandrashekhara et al. 1998; Otani et al. 1998;
Yoo 2001, Boushehrian and Hataf 2003; Laman and
Yildiz, 2003; Zhao and Wang 2007, Laman and Yildiz
2007). It provides the advantage of idealising the mate-
rial behaviour of soil, which is non-linear with plastic
deformations and stress path dependent, in a more
rational manner. The FEM can also be particularly
useful for identifying the patterns of deformations
and stress distribution in and around the reinforcing
elements, during deformation and at ultimate state.
Ring foundations are used in a variety of structures,
such as cooling towers, smoke-stacks, transmission
towers, radar stations, liquid storage tanks and TV
antennae. Analyses for the ultimate bearing capaci-
ties of these foundations are not as advanced and as
well understood as those for strip, rectangular, square
and circular foundations. A few studies relating to ring
foundations have been reported in the literature. Ismael
(1996) investigated the behaviour of ring foundations
on very dense cemented sands by using plate loading
tests. The loadsettlement curves and ultimate bear-
ing capacities for solid and ring plates were compared.
Ismael (1996) found that the ultimate bearing capac-
ity of ring plates is close to that of the solid plates,
and proposed that ring foundations can be used with
different ratios of the inside to outside radii (ri /re )
up to 75% in practical applications. Ohri et al. (1997)
footings and found that, for a ratio of internal to exter-
nal diameter of the ring (n) equal to 0.38, the unit
bearing capacity reaches its maximum for dune sand.
Hataf and Razavi (2003) found that the value of n
for the maximum unit bearing capacity of sand is not
unique, but is in the range 0.20.4. Boushehrian and
Hataf (2003) performed tests to investigate the bearing
capacity of circular and ring footings on sand by con-
ducting laboratory model tests together with numerical
analysis. They found that n is 0.40 for ring foundations.
Laman and Yildiz (2003) performed some experimen-
tal analysis and investigated the bearing capacity of
ring foundations supported by sand beds; they showed
that the optimum ring width ratio (r/R) is 0.30. They
found that a ring foundation with optimum width gives
similar performance to that of a full circular foundation
with the same outer diameter. Zhao and Wang (2007)
utilize a finite difference code FLAC to study bearing
capacity factor Nc for ring footings in cohesionless,
frictional and ponderable soil. Soil model employs
MohrCoulomb yield criterion and associative flow
rule. The value of Nc is found to decrease significantly
with an increase in ri /ro , which is the ratio of internal
radius to external radius of the ring. The value of Nc
for a rough ring footing, especially for lager values of
u, is obviously higher than that for a smooth footing.
The results are compared with those available in the
literature.
In this study, three dimensional (3D) FE analy-
ses were carried out on ring foundations resting on
sand soil using the FE program Plaxis 3D Foundation
V2.1 (Brinkgreve and Broere, 2006). The hardening
soil model (Schanz et al. 1999), incorporating param-
eters from drained triaxial compression and oedometer
tests, was used for the mathematical modelling of the
non-linear soil in the numerical analyses. The results
were compared with the results of model tests reported
by Yildiz (2002), Laman and Yildiz (2003).

581
Table 1. Properties of sand paper.

Property Value

Coarse sand fraction (%) 0

Medium sand fraction (%) 34
Fine sand fraction (%) 66
D10 , D30 , D60 (mm) 0.28, 0.36, 0.42
Cu , Cc 1.50, 1.10
Specific gravity 2.68
kmax , kmin (kN/m3 ) 17.80, 15.90
kmean (kN/m3 ) 17.10
c (kPa) 0
( ) 41
USCS SP

2 EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION

2.1 General
The experimental programme was carried out using
a test facility in the geotechnical laboratory of the
Civil Engineering Department of the University of
Cukurova. The experimental set-up has been used
extensively for the bearing capacity of shallow founda-
tions on sand (Yildiz 2002; Laman and Yildiz 2003).
Details of the experimental programme, test proce-
dures and analysis of the test results of model studies
of the ultimate bearing capacity of ring foundations
on sand have been presented in detail by Yildiz (2002)
and Laman and Yildiz (2003).

2.2 Soil properties

Uniform, clean, fine sand obtained from the Seyhan
riverbed in Southern Turkey was used for the model Figure 1. Ring foundation.
tests. The properties are summarized in Table 1. The
angle of shearing resistance of the sand having a dry
unit weight 17.1 kN/m3 and under normal pressures
of 50, 100, and 200 kPa was determined by direct-
shear tests. The measured average peak friction angle
was 41 .

2.3 Model foundations

Loading tests were carried out on five different model
rigid foundations fabricated from mild steel. All mod-
els were 20 mm thick and 85 mm in diameter (D). The
first of the five model foundations was circular; the
others were ring foundations. The diameter of the inner
boundaries of the ring foundations (d) were 25.0, 45.0,
55.0 and 65.0 mm. Fig. 1 shows the geometry of the
model ring foundation considered in this investigation
Figure 2. An overview of the test setup.
2.4 Model tests
Tests were conducted in a steel tank 700 mm long by to each layer. The model foundation was placed on
700 mm wide and 700 mm deep.The model foundation the surface of the sand bed at predetermined loca-
tests were performed at a unit weight of 17.1 kN/m3 . tions in the test pit. Vertical compressive load was
The facility of the test is shown in Fig. 2. To main- applied in small increments to the model foundation
tain consistency of the in-place density throughout by means of a mechanical jack supported against a
the test pit, the same compactive effort was applied reaction beam. Constant load increments were applied

582
until the foundation settlement during the load incre-
ment had stopped. The tests were continued until the
applied vertical load clearly reduced, or a large settle-
ment of the foundation resulted from a relatively small
increase in vertical load.
3 FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSES
The FE studies of the bearing capacity of ring foun-
dations resting on sand bed with the same model
geometries as in the tests were carried out using the
program Plaxis 3D Foundation V.2.1. The program
is a special purpose three-dimensional finite element
computer program used to perform deformation anal-
yses for various types of foundations in soil and
rock (Brinkgreve and Broere, 2006). Stresses, strains
and failure states of a given problem can be calcu-
lated. An elasto-plastic hyperbolic model called the
hardening soil model (HSM) was selected for the non-
linear sand behaviour in this study. The HSM is an
advanced model for simulating the behaviour of dif-
ferent types of soil, both soft and stiff (Schanz et al.,
1999). When subjected to primarily deviatoric loading,
sandy soil decreases in stiffness, and simultaneously
irreversible plastic strains develop. The observed rela-
tionship between the pressure and the axial strain can
be well approximated by a hyperbola, as used in the
variable elastic hyperbolic model (Duncan and Chang
1970). The HSM is formulated in the framework of the
classical theory of plasticity. The HSM supersedes the
hyperbolic model: first by using the theory of plasticity
rather than the theory of elasticity, second by includ-
ing soil dilatancy, and third by introducing a yield cap
(Schanz et al. 1999).
Limiting states of stress are described by means of
the friction angle , cohesion c and dilatancy angle
. Soil stiffness is described by using three different
input stiffnesses: the triaxial loading stiffness E50 , the
unloadingreloading stiffness Eur , and the oedome-
ter loading stiffness Eoed . The HSM also accounts for
stress dependence of stiffness moduli. This means that
all stiffness values increase with pressure. Hence all
three input stiffness values relate to a reference stress,
usually taken as 100 kPa. (Brinkgreve and Broere,
2006). Under primary loading the behaviour is dis-
tinctly non-linear, and is assumed to be hyperbolic
up to a failure stress. In contrast to E50 , which deter-
mines the magnitude of both the elastic and the plastic
strains, Eur is a true elasticity modulus. In conjunc-
tion with a Poissons ratio ur , the elasticity modulus
Eur determines the soil behaviour under unloading and
reloading. Both the secant virgin loading modulus E50
and the unloading modulus Eur are stress-level depen-
dent. For the HSM, these parameters are computed
as
583
Table 2. HSM parameters.
Property Value
pref (kPa) 100
n (kN/m3 ) 17.10
E50 (kPa) 28000
Eur (kPa) 75000
Eoed (kPa) 28000
m 0.50
c (kPa) 0.50
( ) 41
 ( ) 11
0.20
K0 0.34
Rf 0.90
Eref ref
50 and Eur are input parameters for a particular refer-
ence pressure pref . The exponent m can be determined
from both oedometer and triaxial test results. A value
of m=0.5 is typical for sands, and m = 1.0 for clays.
In the HSM the virgin oedometer stiffness is stress
dependent according to
In addition to the moduli Eref ref
50 and Eur , the oedome-
ter modulus Eoed ref
is also an input modulus for the
HSM. Together with the parameters m, ur , c, and
the dilatancy angle , there are a total of eight input
parameters (Vermeer et al. 2001). The soil parameters
in Table 2 represent sand used in the model tests. The
initial stresses in the soil are generated using Jakys
formula, expressed by Equation 4 (in Plaxis, the pro-
cedure to generate initial soil stresses are often known
as the K0 procedure),
where K0 is the coefficient of lateral earth pressure and
is the friction angle of the soil. The ring foundation
is modeled as a rigid plate, and is considered to be
very stiff and rough in the analyses. Values of Youngs
modulus and Poissons ratio of 207 106 kPa and 0.25,
respectively, were assumed for the foundation.
The program incorporates a fully automatic mesh
generation procedure, in which the geometry is divided
into elements of the basic element type, and compati-
ble structural elements. In the analysis, the number of
elements was about 3000. A local mesh refinement
is also applied to around the foundation. The sand
medium was modeled using quadratic 15-node wedge
elements. A typical graded FE mesh composed of soil
and foundation together with the boundary conditions
used is shown in Fig. 3. The boundaries of the mesh
were based on the soil in dimensions used in the phys-
ical modelling. In previous supplementary analyses,
Yildiz (2002) reported that these boundary distances
did not influence the results. The program generates

Figure 3. Typical finite element mesh.
Figure 4. Total displacement fields below the ring
foundations.
full fixity at the base of the geometry and smooth
conditions at the vertical sides. Fig. 4 shows a typ-
ical example of the resultant vertical and horizontal
displacement fields below the ring foundation.
4 COMPARISON BETWEEN NUMERICAL
AND EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
Typical plots for the loadsettlement behaviour
obtained from the experimental test and FE analysis
are shown in Fig. 5. The vertical displacements pre-
dicted by the HSM are in very good agreement with
the experimental results. The measured and predicted
584
Figure 5. Curves of loading against settlement.
Figure 6. Relationship between r/R and qu .
ultimate bearing capacities are 220 kPa and 213 kPa,
respectively.
The settlement ratio (s/D) for the unreinforced sand
at failure was approximately 4.9% in the test and 5.4%
in the analysis. The failure loads were obtained from
the loadsettlement (qs) graphs and used to calculate
the ultimate bearing capacities.
As seen from Fig. 6 that a good agreement is found
between the experimental results and the FE modeling.
It can be seen from Fig. 6 that q remains approximately
constant when r/R changes from 0 to 0.40, and then
decreases when r/R changes from 0.30 to 0.65. The
numerical results show that an optimum value of r/R
may visually be estimated from the curve as approx-
imately 0.40. In the literature, the ratio of inside to
outside radii (r/R) is generally recommended to be
in the range 0.20.4 for ring foundations. Ohri et al.
(1997) found that for a ratio of internal to external
diameter of the ring (n) equal to 0.38. Hataf and Razavi
(2003) also proposed that the value of n for sand is not
unique but is in the range 0.20.4.

Figure 7. Displacement shading.
Fig. 7 shows some typical examples of the resul-
tant vertical and horizontal displacement fields below
the ring foundation at the ultimate bearing capacity. It
can be seen that there is a reduction of horizontal and
585
vertical displacements with increasing r/R ratio when
the ultimate bearing capacity is reached.
5 CONCLUSIONS
The ultimate bearing capacity of ring foundations
supported by a sand bed was investigated using the
three dimensional FE program Plaxis. The results of
the finite element simulations were compared with the
model test results. Based on comparisons between
the field observations and the finite-element results
the following main conclusions can be drawn:
Numerical analyses, using an elasto-plastic hyper-
bolic model (hardening soil model), incorporating
parameters derived from drained triaxial tests, gave
results that closely match those from physical model
tests. The optimum ring width ratio, r/R, for ring foun-
dations is about 0.40. It was noted that the value of
bearing capacity decreases after the r/R > 0.4. A ring
foundation with the optimum width shows approxi-
mately similar performance to that of a full circular
foundation with the same outer diameter as the ring
foundations. This option can provide an economical
solution in practical applications.
REFERENCES
Abdel-Baki, M. S. & Raymond, G. P. 1994. Reduction of
settlement using soil geosynthetic reinforcement. Ver-
tical and Horizontal Deformations of Foundations and
Embankments, ASCE, Vol. 1, pp.525537.
Boushehrian, J. H. & Hataf, N. 2003. Experimental and
numerical investigation of the bearing capacity of model
circular and ring footings on reinforced sand. Geotextiles
and Geomembranes, 21, No. 4, 241256.
Brinkgreve R.B.J. & Broere W., 2006. Plaxis Finite Element
Code for Soil and Rock Analysis. 3D FoundationVersion
2.1.
Chandrashekhara, K., Antony, S. J. & Mondal, D. 1998. Semi-
analytical finite element analysis of a strip footing on an
elastic reinforced soil. Applied Mathematical Modelling,
22, 331349.
Duncan, M. & Chang, C. Y. 1970. Nonlinear analysis of
stress and strain in soil. Journal of Soil Mechanics and
Foundations, ASCE, 96, No. 5, 16291653.
Hataf, N. & Razavi, M. R. 2003. Behavior of ring foot-
ing on sand. Iranian Journal of Science and Technology,
Transaction B, 27, 4756.
Ismael, N. F. 1996. Loading tests on circular and ring plates
in very dense cemented sands. Journal of Geotechnical
Engineering, ASCE, 122, No. 4, 281287.
Ismail, I. & Raymond, G. P. 1995. Geosynthetic reinforce-
ment of granular layered soil. Proceedings of Geosynthet-
ics95 Conference, Vol. 1, pp. 317330.
Kurian, N., Beena, K. S. & Kumar, R. K. 1997. Settlement of
reinforced sand in foundations. Journal of Geotechnical
Engineering, 123, No.9, 818827.
Laman, M. & Yildiz, A. 2003. Model studies of ring
foundations on geogrid-reinforced sand. Geosynthetics
International, 10, No. 5, 142152.
Laman, M. & Yildiz, A. 2007. Numerical studies of ring
foundations on geogrid-reinforced sand. Geosynthetics
International, 14, No. 2, 113.
Ohri, M. L., Purhit, D. G. M. & Dubey, M. L. 1997. Behav-
ior of ring footings on dune sand overlaying dense sand.
International Conference of Civil Engineers, Tehran, Iran.
Otani, J., Ochiai, H. & Yamamoto K. 1998. Bearing capac-
ity analysis of reinforced foundation on cohesive soil.
Geotextiles and Geomembranes, 16, No. 4, 195206.
Schanz, T., Vermeer, P. A. & Bonnier, P. G. 1999. The harden-
ing soil model: formulation and verification. Beyond 2000
in Computational Geotechnics, A. A. Balkema Publishers,
Rotterdam, pp. 281296.
Vermeer, P. A., Punlor, A. & Ruse, N. 2001. Arching effects
behind a soldier pile wall. Computers and Geotechnics,
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Yetimoglu, T., Wu, J. T. H. & Saglamer, A. 1994. Bearing
capacity of rectangular footings on geogrid-reinforced
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on Geogrid-Reinforced Sand. PhD thesis, University of
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Yoo, C. 2001. Laboratory investigation of bearing capac-
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Piles
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

A back analysis of vertical load tests on bored piles in granular soil

L. Tosini, A. Cividini & G. Gioda

Politecnico di Milano, Department of Structural Engineering, Milan, Italy

ABSTRACT: Two back analyses are discussed of load tests carried out on bentonite slurry piles bored in
granular soils. The first case concerns a test on a pile belonging to a 12 pile group. The back analysis permits
calibrating an axisymmetric finite element model that reproduces, with reasonable accuracy, the experimental
results. The calibrated model is then extended to three-dimensional conditions and applied to the analysis of
the entire group. The results suggest some comments on the different assumptions that can be adopted in the
calculations and on their effects on the global load-settlement curve of the pile group. The second case concerns
a load test in which, in addition to the load-settlement data, also the axial strains along the pile were measured
through electrical extensometers. The numerical back analyses highlight an apparent contradiction between the
two sets of experimental data. On their bases some conclusions are drawn on the possible causes of the observed
inconsistency and on the influence of the construction technology on the soil-pile interaction.

1 INTRODUCTION of a load test on a single pile. The back analysis

When dealing with the design of deep foundations in
granular deposits the prediction of their settlements is
not straightforward due to the difficulties met in defin-
ing the values of the mechanical parameters influenc-
ing them. In most cases, in fact, the design is based on
the results of penetrometer tests, which provide only
approximated mechanical parameters of the granular
soil. In addition, the pile settlements depend on the
mechanical characteristics of the pile/soil interface
that, in turn, are influenced by the adopted construc-
tion technology. Being aware of the possible limited
accuracy of the computed settlements, load tests are
customarily carried out to quantitatively assess the
behaviour of the deep foundation under loading.
In some instances, however, the load test does not
directly provide the sought results, e.g. when the settle-
ment of a pile group has to be evaluated on the basis of
a load test on a single pile. In other instances the results
present some apparent inconsistencies that make their
interpretation somewhat controversial.
Here the back analyses of two load tests
on bored piles are presented based on two-
and three-dimensional, elastic-plastic finite element
calculations.
Among the various approaches proposed in the lit-
erature for the analysis of piles under vertical loads,
see e.g. (Coyle & Reese 1966; Poulos & Davis
1968; Butterfield & Banerjee 1971; Ottaviani 1975;
Randolph & Wroth 1978), the finite element method
was adopted here since it can be easily applied to inho-
mogeneous deposits accounting for their non linear
behaviour.
The first examined case aims at evaluating the load-
settlement curve of a 12 pile group based on the results
of the test permits an acceptable calibration of the
numerical model in 2D axisymmetric regime. How-
ever, when extended to 3D conditions for the entire
group, the calculations show the appreciable influence
of the different assumptions that can be introduced in
the analysis of the deep foundation.
The second case concerns a load test in which, in
addition to the load-settlement curve, also the axial
strain within the pile was measured through exten-
someters applied to its steel reinforcement. In this case
the experimental data present an apparent contradic-
tion that leads to comments on the possible influence
of details of the construction technique.
2 FIRST LOAD TEST
The test was carried out on a 17 m long bentonite
slurry bored pile with a diameter of 120 cm. Due to
the geometrical characteristics of the foundation mat,
the pile head is located about 5 m below the ground sur-
face. The soil deposit consists of sand and gravel with
a marginal percentage of silt. The design was based
on the results of standard penetration tests shown in
Figure 1. Note that the high NSPT values reported at
two depths are likely to depend on the presence of
boulders.
Figures 2a and 2b report, respectively, the estimated
variation with depth of the friction angle  and of
the elastic modulus ratio E/E* (Mandolini & Viggiani
1997). In the present case the modulus E* coincides
with that of the first layer and was evaluated on the
basis of the load test data.
The numerical results and the experimental data are
shown by solid and dashed lines in Figure 3.

589
Figure 1. Results of the standard penetration test.
Figure 3. First load test: experimental results (solid line)
and numerical simulation based on the calibrated finite
element model (dashed line).

Figure 2. Estimated variation with depth of the friction

angle  (a) and of the elastic modulus ratio E/E* (b).

The numerical analyses were carried out in axisym-

metric conditions modelling both the pile and the 9
layers of the surrounding soil through a mesh of four
node isoparametric elements. To account for the distur-
bance caused by the pile construction, thin interface
elements (Desai et al. 1984) were placed along the
pile contour and at its base. Figure 4 shows a detail of
the finite element mesh in the vicinity of the pile.
An elastic behaviour was assumed for the pile, while
an elastic perfectly plastic constitutive model, obeying
Mohr-Coulomb yield criterion with a non associated
flow rule, was adopted for the soil layers. The modulus Figure 4. A detail of the axi-symmetric finite element
E* (cf. Figure 2b) was calibrated first by matching the meshes in the vicinity of the pile.
slope of the initial part of the load settlement curve.
Note that, since E* is calibrated on the basis of the load analyses are: the angle of plastic dilation , govern-
test, the evaluated variation of the soil elastic modulus ing the flow rule, that depends on the friction angle 
with depth is already influenced by the disturbance due through a parameter , i.e. tan = tan  ; the reduc-
to construction. Consequently, it was assumed that the tion factor of the interface friction angle *, i.e. tan
elastic modulus of each interface element coincides * = tan  ; the coefficient of horizontal pressure K0
with that of the corresponding soil layer. The remain- relating the normal stress between pile and soil to the
ing mechanical parameters entering in the numerical vertical stress.

590
Figure 5. Contour lines of the error function: dilatancy
parameter, friction angle reduction coefficient. Figure 6. Detail of the horizontal section of the 3D finite
element mesh.

The above parameters, collected in vector p, were

evaluated through a back analysis that consists in
minimizing the discrepancy F between the n mea-
sured settlements u and the corresponding numerical
results u(p). In order to express F in non dimensional
form the difference between measured and calculated
displacements is divided by the maximum measured
displacement umax ,

The back analysis was carried out assigning differ-

ent values to K0 and working out, for each of them,
the values of and that minimizes the function F.
Comments on the minimization algorithms suitable for
back analyses can be found e.g. in (Gioda & Sakurai,
1987). Figure 5 reports the contour line of the error
function for one of such minimizations.
The back analysis process led to the following
values of the sought parameters:
E* = 750 MPa; K0 = 0.5; = 0.7; = 0.07.
Having calibrated its material parameters, the
numerical model was extended to three dimensional
conditions to investigate the behaviour of the 12 pile
group. Taking advantage of its double symmetry only
1/4 of the problem was discretized into a mesh of 8
node brick elements. A detail of the horizontal section
of the mesh, in the vicinity of the pile group, is shown
in Figure 6.
The calculated load-settlement diagrams are sum-
marized in Figure 7. Curve (a) represents the mere
superposition of the load-settlement diagram calcu-
lated for a single pile (cf. Figure 3), i.e. the pile
interaction is neglected. Curve (b) refers to the actual
3D case in which the pile group is connected to a foun-
dation mat and the interaction between the mat and
Figure 7. Calculated load-settlement curves: a) simple
superposition of 12 independent piles; b) pile group and inter-
action between soil and foundation mat; c) pile group without
soil-mat interaction. (A dashed line represents the working
load of the foundation).
the underlying soil is accounted for. Finally, curve (c)
represents the 3D case in which the mat-soil interac-
tion is neglected. Case (c) could represent the case of
an extremely severe erosion of the soil underneath a
bridge pier.
The numerical results show the increase of settle-
ments due to the interaction between the piles (curves
b and c) with respect to the case in which the interac-
tion is neglected (curve a). In addition, the calculation
permits a quantitative assessment of the effects of
the interaction between the foundation mat and the
underlying soil.

591
Figure 8. Second load test: experimental results (solid line)
and numerical simulation based on the calibrated finite
element model (dashed line).
In particular, it can be observed that depending
on the assumptions adopted in the calculations the
expected settlement of the pile group under working
loads (dashed line in Figure 7) varies between 6.5 and
10.5 mm.
3 SECOND LOAD TEST
This test was carried out on a 80 cm diameter bored
pile having length of 11.5 m. Since the in situ inves-
tigation indicates that the soil profile is reasonably
uniform, mechanical properties constant with depth
were used in the design. The adopted finite element
mesh is similar to the one used for the first load case
and depicted in Figure 4.
Applying the same procedure described for the
previous case, the back analysis led to the follow-
ing parameter characterizing the numerical model:
E = 700 MPa; K0 = 0.6; = 0.7; = 0.03. The conse-
quent numerical results are compared in Figure 8 with
the experimental ones.
In this case, in addition to the load-settlement data,
also the axial strains at three locations along the
pile where measured through electrical extensometers.
They were placed at 3.65 m, 7.10 m and 10.15 m from
the pile top. The available strain measurements cor-
respond to point A of the load-settlement diagram in
Figure 8.
The distribution of the axial load derived from the
measured strain is compared with the corresponding
finite element results in Figure 9.
It can be observed that, while the calibrated numer-
ical model provides an acceptable approximation of
592
Figure 9. Axial force from the extensometer measurements
(solid line) and numerical results based on the calibrated
numerical model (dashed line).
the load-settlement data (cf. Figure 8), a large dif-
ference exists between the computed axial force and
that deriving from the experimental data (cf. Figure 9).
According to the experimental data in Figure 9 a van-
ishing vertical load reaches the pile tip and, hence, the
limit skin friction has not been reached yet.
On the contrary, the calibrated numerical model
indicates that about half of the applied load is carried
by the base. This leads to conclude that the limit skin
friction was reached, at least for the upper portion of
the pile.
In order to overcome the above apparent contradic-
tion and, hence, to limit the axial force that reaches the
pile base, various attempts were made by modifying
the soil parameters.
The most successful one (see Figure 10) consisted
in introducing a limited adhesion (50 kPa) at the soil-
pile interface that could depend on the silty fraction
present in the granular deposit.
Unfortunately this provision eliminates any simi-
larity between the experimental and calculated load-
settlement diagrams, as shown by the diagrams in
Figure 11. Note, in particular, the difference existing
between points B and A in Figure 11 that corre-
spond, respectively, to the experimental and numerical
diagrams in Figure 10.
The difficulties met in modelling both sets of exper-
imental data cannot merely depend on errors in the
values of the soil parameters. They should rather
depend on some aspects of the field problem that lead
to the barely relevant force at the pile base.
A possible cause of this effect could be the pres-
ence of a very soft zone at the pile tip that depends,
for instance, on the partial cleaning of the excavation
Figure 10. Axial force from the extensometer measure-
ments (solid line) and numerical results with soil-pile adhe-
sion of 50 kPa (dashed line).
Figure 11. Comparison between experimental results (solid
line) and numerical ones with soil-pile adhesion of 50 kPa
(dashed line).
bottom or on the presence of a zone where the concrete
was mixed with the bentonite slurry.
The finite element model was then modified intro-
ducing a layer of soft material below the pile tip and
reducing the soil-pile adhesion to 20 kPa. The corre-
sponding numerical results are shown in Figures 12
and 13.
Apparently the introduction of a soft zone improves
the agreement between experimental and numerical
593
Figure 12. Axial force from the extensometer measure-
ments (solid line) and numerical results with a soft zone at
the pile tip (dashed line).
Figure 13. Comparison between experimental results (solid
line) and numerical ones with a soft zone at the pile tip
(dashed line).
results, even though some discrepancy can still be
observed (cf. Figure 13).
This could depend on the assumed homogeneity of
the soil deposit or on the limits of the relatively simple
constitutive model adopted in the calculations.
However, it seems reasonable to conclude that
the presence of the mentioned soft zone is likely to
be a possible cause of the measured marginal load
transferred to the pile tip.
4 CONCLUSIONS
The two discussed case histories show that the back
analysis of load tests represents a practical proce-
dure for calibrating the numerical models of deep
foundations.
When dealing with pile groups, the parameters
obtained from the axisymmetric interpretation of the
load test on a single pile can be adopted for the three
dimensional analysis of the entire group. In this case,
in addition to the interaction between the piles, the
finite element model can also account for the elastic-
plastic interaction between the foundation mat and the
underlying soil.
In the second test the numerical analysis highlighted
an apparent contradiction of the in situ measurements.
In fact, the strains measured along the pile show that a
limited load is transferred to its base. On the contrary,
the back analysis of the load-settlement diagram indi-
cates that at least half of the applied load reaches the
base.
This apparent contradiction is likely to depend on
some field condition that is not properly accounted for
in the numerical model.
In the present context it appears that the men-
tioned discrepancy between experimental and numer-
ical results can be, at least partially, reduced by
introducing in the calculations a soft zone underneath
the pile tip. This zone could be due, for instance, to a
poor cleaning of the excavation bottom or to the for-
mation of a soft mixture of concrete and bentonite at
the pile tip.
If this explanation can be accepted, the back anal-
ysis provided an insight into an apparent weakness of
the application of the construction technique at that
specific site.
It is worthwhile observing that a more effective
interpretation of the second load test could have been
reached if the vertical load at the pile tip were directly
measured through a load cell or a flat jack. This
additional information would have in fact validated
and completed the measurements of the electrical
extensometers.
594
It can be finally observed that numerical modelling
is not only a useful design tool for analysing various
aspects of the interaction between deep foundations
and surrounding soil. Its use in the interpretation of
in situ measurements could also lead to a deeper
understanding of the effectiveness of a construction
technology and, perhaps, to some suggestions for
improving its application.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors wish to thank Michela Chiorboli and
Mario De Miranda for providing the experimental data
and for their technical comments.
REFERENCES
Butterfield, R. & Banerjee, P.K. 1971. The problem of
pile group-pile cap interaction. Geotechnique 21(2):
135142.
Coyle, H.M. & Reese, L.C. 1966. Load transfer for axi-
ally loaded piles in clay. Journal of Soil Mechanics and
Foundation Engineering ASCE, 92(2): 126.
Desai, C.S., Zaman, M.M., Lightner, J.G. and Siriwar-
dane, H.J. 1984. Thin-layer elements for interfaces and
joints. International Journal for Numerical and Analytical
Methods in Geomechanics, 8(1): 1943.
Gioda, G. & Sakurai, S. 1987. Back analysis procedures for
the interpretation of field measurements in geomechan-
ics. International Journal for Numerical and Analytical
Methods in Geomechanics, 11(6): 555583,
Mandolini, A. & Viggiani, C. 1997. Settlement of piled
foundations.Geotechnique, 47(4): 791816.
Ottaviani, M. 1975. Three-dimensional finite element analy-
sis of vertically loaded pile groups. Geotechnique 25(2):
159174.
Poulos, H.G. & Davis, E.H. 1968. The settlement behaviour
of single, axially loaded, incompressible piles and piers.
Geotechnique 18: 351371.
Randolph, M.F. & Wroth, C.P. 1978. Analysis of the defor-
mation of vertically loaded piles. Journal of Geotechnical
Engineering ASCE, 104(12): 14651488.
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

A numerical study on the effects of time on the axial load capacity of piles
in soft clays

K.P. Giannopoulos, L. Zdravkovic & D.M. Potts

Imperial College London, UK

ABSTRACT: This paper investigates the axial load capacity of a pre-loaded pile installed in soft clay and
subjected to vertical loading. Previous studies on pre-loaded shallow footings have shown that the undrained
shear strength of soft clays is enhanced with time due to the dissipation of the excess pore water pressures
generated during initial loading, as well as due to the soil ageing, after all pore pressures have dissipated,
associated with creep. It remains a question whether the pile load capacity is enhanced with time as well, after
the effects of installation have settled. The problem is investigated by means of a series of coupled finite element
analyses, thus taking account of consolidation processes in the ground, in which the soil is modelled using
an elastic-plastic constitutive model. Subsequently a similar set of coupled analyses is performed, using an
elastic-viscoplastic model, to examine the effect of creep on pile capacity.

1 INTRODUCTION It is evident that the method of installation of a sin-

The bearing resistance of a pile is usually determined
either by analytical or semi-empirical methods, or
from the results of pile load tests. The ultimate axial
load which can be supported by a pile is equal to the
sum of the base resistance and shaft resistance. The
base resistance is the product of the base area and
the ultimate bearing capacity at base level, whereas the
shaft resistance is the product of the perimeter area of
the shaft and the shaft friction between the pile and the
soil, i.e. the shearing resistance.
The short term capacity of a pile is usually the most
critical in pile design and several solutions have been
put forward either analytically or empirically. How-
ever, a question remains if extra loading is applied on
an existing piled foundation, which has been in place
for a period of time. Such a situation may arise when
new floors are added to an existing structure, resulting
in a load increase on existing piles. Previous studies on
the effects of preloading and soil ageing on the bear-
ing capacity of shallow foundations on soft clay by
Zdravkovic et al. (2003) and Bodas Freitas et al. (2007)
respectively have shown that the capacity of shallow
foundations is significantly enhanced with time, how-
ever it remains a question whether this is the case for
deep foundations.
Clearly, pre-loaded foundations have to sustain a
certain load over a period of time during which the
soil is subjected to time-related processes of consolida-
tion, as well as creep. Both of these processes enhance
the soil strength and stiffness compared to the initial
ones, and it remains a question whether these pro-
cesses affect the long-term load capacity of single
piles.
gle pile significantly affects the processes involved in
the soil surrounding the pile. It has been described
by several authors including Tomlinson (2008) and
Jardine et al. (2005) that during pile installation and
equilibration, the soil strength surrounding the pile
may be enhanced or reduced depending on the method
of installation or even the soil medium. However, this is
out of the scope in this study. The effects of installation
are omitted and the processes examined are those that
take place after the effects of installation have settled.
The problem is investigated by means of a series
of coupled finite element analyses. Two constitutive
models, the well known Modified Cam Clay (MCC)
model and the Equivalent Time (ET) Creep model, are
used in order to distinguish the time effects on pile
capacity. The MCC model accounts for the consolida-
tion processes in the ground and the ET Creep model
takes account of the creep effects as well. The soft-
ware package used to perform the required analyses is
the Imperial College Finite Element Program (ICFEP),
Potts & Zdravkovic (1999), which employs a modified
Newton-Raphson approach with an error-controlled
sub-stepping algorithm as a non-linear solver.
2 CHOICE OF CONSTITUTIVE MODELS
The scope of this study is to distinguish the effects of
consolidation and the effects of creep on the axial load
capacity of preloaded singles piles in soft clays. Two
constitutive models are required, which can predict
these effects. The first one is a form of the MCC model
(Potts & Zdravkovic, 1999), which can predict accu-
rately the change of undrained shear strength during

595
Table 1. (a) MCC model parameters, (b) ET Creep model
parameters.
 G v1 k
Degrees kPa kN/m3 m/s
32 0.022 0.22 1700 17.0 3.00 5 1010
to o vm vp limit
day
1.0 0.00434 0.5
Notes:  = angle of shearing resistance; = slope of the
swelling or instant time line in v-lnp space; = slope
of the consolidation or the reference time line in v-lnp
space; G = elastic shear modulus; = bulk unit weight of
the soil; v1 = specific volume at p= 1 kPa on the isotropic
virgin consolidation line; k = permeability; to = reference
time; o = time dependent parameter; vm vp limit = limit for
the amount of volumetric visco-plastic strain.
consolidation. The second one is the ET Creep model
(Bodas Freitas, 2008), which can predict the change
of undrained shear strength due to the development of
viscoplastic strains, or creep strains, with time along
with the associated changes due to consolidation.
The MCC model is a critical state model, which
is fully described in Potts & Zdravkovic (1999). The
model parameters are given in Table 1. Undrained
shear strength is not an input parameter; however it
is possible to calculate it from the effective stress and
input parameters and the input Ko and OCR profiles.
The ET Creep model is a critical state model as
well which is based on the overstress theory and the
Equivalent Time (ET) concept (Yin et al. 2002). The
time-dependent behaviour of the model is character-
ized by the coefficient of secondary consolidation
C. It incorporates a non-logarithmic function of vis-
coplastic strain with time, with a limit for the amount
of viscoplastic strain that is attained at infinite time. It
can predict soil ageing by accounting for viscoplastic
strains, i.e. creep strains, however it is not able to deter-
mine any contribution to the soil strength and stiffness
by the development of structure with time. Thus, this
study is limited to the effects of consolidation and
creep on the axial load capacity of a preloaded pile in
soft clay. More details of this model may be found in
Bodas Freitas (2008). The model parameters are given
in Table 1.
3 SOIL CONDITIONS
The ground profile adopted for this study is that of
a typical soft clay profile, which is more susceptible
to creep. Similar soil conditions as those adopted by
Zdravkovic et al. (2003) and Bodas Freitas et al. (2007)
are used, in order to make this analysis consistent with
the footing analysis. The material parameters are based
on the site investigation and laboratory data from a site
in Grimbsy, Yorkshire (Mair et al. 1992).
596
Figure 1. Su , OCR and Ko profiles.
The ground profile at the site under investigation
consists of normally consolidated clay with 2 m thick
stronger and overconsolidated crust above the ground
water table.The soil above the water table is assumed to
be saturated and able to sustain tensile pore water pres-
sures. The results from undrained triaxial tests (Fig. 1)
are used in order to obtain the OCR and Ko profiles
above the water table for the MCC analysis. For depths
below the ground water table, where the soil is nor-
mally consolidated, the ratio Su /v is set 0.3, which is
typical of soft clays.
For the ET Creep model analysis, the undrained
shear strength is not only a function of the basic model
parameters as it is in the MCC model. It is in addition
a function of the shearing rate. Therefore, a realistic
rate is incorporated in the analyses as described later.
4 PROBLEM GEOMETRY AND BOUNDARY
CONDITIONS
The mesh used to perform the finite element analyses
is shown in Figure 2. The analysis is axi-symmetric
and the mesh domain is 50 m deep and 20 m wide.
The single pile is 20 m long and its diameter is 1 m.
The pile dimensions are chosen arbitrarily, however
they are chosen such that the pile represent a typical
friction pile. Full adhesion between the pile and soil is
assumed.
Both the pile and the soil are discretised. The pile is
modelled as a very stiff elastic material which is able
to transfer load from the pile head to the surround-
ing soil, whereas the soil is modelled either using the
MCC or ET Creep model. The mesh consists of eight
nodded isoparametric elements with four pore pres-
sures degrees of freedom at the corner nodes, and two
displacement degrees of freedom at both corner and
mid-side nodes.
The displacement boundary conditions set prevent
the base of the mesh from moving in the vertical and
horizontal directions, while the vertical sides of the
mesh are fixed in the horizontal direction and can move
in the vertical direction only.
The seepage boundary conditions applied for the
coupled analyses allow no flow of water to the base of

Figure 2. Mesh of single pile.
the mesh, around the pile and to the left hand bound-
ary of the mesh, while on the right hand boundary
pore pressures are kept equal to their initial values, as
determined by the water table 2 m below ground level.
Along the ground surface, next to the pile no flow of
water is allowed during the loading stages, aiming to
maintain undrained conditions, while in the consoli-
dation and creep periods the pore water pressures are
set equal to their initial values.
5 DESCRIPTION OF THE ANALYSES
The approach adopted to determine the effects of time
on the axial load capacity of single piles is as follows:
(1) a single pile is first loaded undrained to failure
in order to establish its initial short term (undrained)
load capacity; (2) a further series of analyses is then
performed, on the same single pile, in which the pile is
first loaded undrained to a percentage (20, 40, 60, 80
or 100%) of its initial short term load capacity; (3) the
load is then held constant at this value for a period of
50 years, during which it is ensured that all excess pore
water pressures generated during initial loading have
dissipated; and (4) additional load under undrained
conditions is then applied until failure is reached to
determine the new ultimate undrained load capacity.
This approach is followed for both the MCC and
ET Creep analyses, however due to the time dependent
nature of the latter a realistic loading rate is required.
597
Figure 3. Definition of failure load for ET Creep analysis.
This rate is chosen to satisfy the assumption that the
pile is loaded to failure under constant displacement
rate over a period of six months.
It should be noted though that due to the develop-
ment of viscoplastic strains and consolidation during
loading, the failure load cannot be well defined in
the ET Creep model. A coupled analysis is performed
in order to obtain the displacement rate at which the
increase in the sustained load between a pile displace-
ment , after 6 months, and a pile displacement four
times is smaller than 5%, as shown in Figure 3. This
rate is defined as the rate which gives failure in 6
months. It is equal to 0.0004 m/day and is kept constant
for all ET Creep model analyses.
The amount of viscoplastic strains in the ET Creep
model is proportional to the OCR value. The soft clay
is assumed normally consolidated, i.e. OCR equal to 1.
However, such an OCR value represents the situation
when the clay is first formed, resulting in unrealistic
initial viscoplastic strains. In these analyses, OCR is
chosen to be equal to 1.05, which is consistent with the
observations made by Schmertmann (1991), where it
is claimed that no real soil can be purely normally
consolidated since it has been in place for a certain
period of time during which creep has made the soil to
appear overconsolidated. This is usually termed as
aging preconsolidation.
For the MCC model, analyses to obtain the load
capacity are undrained since the interest is in the short
term capacity, whereas in those where the load is held
constant, until all excess pore water pressures dissi-
pate, are coupled to allow consolidation. On other
hand, the ET Creep analyses are all coupled. This is
due to the time dependent nature of the model and the
relation of strain with time. It should be noted though
that rapid loading even in coupled conditions may be
considered as undrained, since the period for full dis-
sipation of excess pore water pressure is expected to
be longer than the 6 month initial loading period.
6 DISCUSSION
6.1 MCC analysis
The first MCC analysis is on the behaviour of the sin-
gle pile under undrained conditions. In Figure 4, the
load-settlement response is plotted for undrained load-
ing. Failure is assumed to be reached when the curve
reaches a plateau; this is at 4% of the pile diameter. The
Figure 4. Load-settlement response for undrained loading.
Figure 5. Contours of excess pore water pressure at failure.
undrained load capacity of the single pile is 1615.3 kN.
The contribution of the base and shaft resistances to the
pile capacity is also presented, which shows that the
pile works as a friction pile with the capacity mainly
being provided by the shaft resistance. Contours of
excess pore water pressure at failure are also plotted
in Figure 5, which are indicative of the soil area whose
strength is enhanced during consolidation.
Subsequent analyses for different levels of preload-
ing (20, 40, 60 and 80%) are performed, where the
load settlement profiles are plotted in Figure 6. It is
598
Figure 6. MCC model: load-settlement response for differ-
ent levels of pre-loading.
clear that there is no gain in capacity for all levels of
preloading. It seems that pile capacity is not enhanced
due to the dissipation of excess water pressures gen-
erated during initial loading, even though settlements
are larger for higher levels of preloading. This accounts
for the excess pore water pressures developed during
initial loading. As shown in Figure 5, the magnitudes
of the excess pore water pressures, as well as their con-
centration around the pile toe, indicate that the soils
strength is enhanced only around the pile toe. Consid-
ering also the contribution of the base in respect to the
shaft in the load capacity (Fig. 4), one would anticipate
that the consolidation processes in the ground do not
affect the long term capacity of piles founded in clays.
6.2 ET Creep analysis
The first analysis using the ET Creep model is to deter-
mine the initial load capacity. A constant displacement
rate for a period of 6 months is applied, where the load
capacity is calculated equal to 2265.6 kN. This value
is quite different to the value calculated in the MCC
analysis. This is due to the difference of the plastic
potential in the deviatoric plane between the two mod-
els. In particular, the ET Creep model assumes that
the shape of the yield and plastic potential surfaces in
the deviatoric plane passes through the corners of the
Mohr Coulomb hexagon and follows closely its shape,
whereas the MCC model assumes that the yield and
plastic potential surfaces are given by a Mohr Coulomb
hexagon and a circle respectively. Such differences in
the plastic potential in the deviatoric plane can cause
significant discrepancy in the predicted failure loads
(Potts & Gens, 1984). Thus, comparisons can only be
made in terms of the proportional increase in load
capacity observed in each set of analyses.
Analyses for different levels of preloading (20,
40, 60, 80 and 100%) are then performed. The load

Figure 7. ET Creep model: load-settlement response for
different levels of pre-loading.
settlement profiles are plotted in Figure 7. The load
capacity of the pile is enhanced; it is proportional to
the level of pre-loading. 50 years of maintained load
on the pile is beneficial to the pile capacity. This is
due to the development of viscoplastic strains which
enhance the soils strength. During that period, due
to the coupled nature of the analyses, dissipation of
excess pore water pressures generated during initial
loading takes place as well; however it has been already
shown that this is not enhancing the capacity of the pile
due to their concentration around the pile toe.
Viscoplastic strains enhance the undrained shear
strength of the soil due to the changes in void ratio with
time under constant load, making the soil to appear pre-
consolidated. Higher values of preloading give larger
creep settlements and larger load capacities. This is
due to the fact that the larger the stress in the soil, the
larger the change in strain and void ratio with time due
to creep.
Settlement is due to consolidation and creep. The
contribution of the consolidation settlement is very
small in respect to the creep settlement in the soft clay
for a preloading period of 50 years. This is indicated
in Figures 6 and 7, where the settlement for different
levels of preloading for the MCC model is of the order
of mm, whereas for the ET Creep model of the order
of cm. Creep settlement is due to: (a) settlement of the
soil by its own weight, taking place in the entire soil
volume, which is accumulated at the pile level, and (b)
settlement depending on the level of preloading, where
the more loaded the pile, the larger creep settlement.
In Figure 8 the normalised load capacity, as pre-
dicted by the ET Creep model, is plotted against the
initial level of pre-load. Figure 8 also includes the
results produced by the analysis using the MCC model.
The results show that there is an important increase in
the load capacity of pre-loaded piles when soil harden-
ing due to creep is considered. In addition the effect of
599
Figure 8. Gain in load capacity for different levels of
pre-loading.
creep is found to be more significant at higher levels
of pre-load, resulting in an additional increase in load
capacity of 29.1% at 100% pre-load.
7 CONCLUSIONS
The results presented in this paper demonstrate the
importance of considering the time dependent nature
of soils in bearing capacity. Creep in piled foundations
in soft clays can give a rise to increased pile capacity
and settlement depending on the level of preloading.
For instance, the capacity of a typical 20 m long fric-
tion pile with 1 m diameter may be enhanced by 29.1%
after 50 years of loading at its full capacity. This allows
the addition of floors on buildings founded on piles,
whose piles have been preloaded for the life span of
the building. On the other hand, it seems that consol-
idation processes in the ground due to initial loading
do not enhance the load capacity of piles.
REFERENCES
Bodas Freitas, T.M. 2008. Numerical modelling of the time
dependent behaviour of soils. PhD Thesis. University of
London (Imperial College London)
Bodas Freitas, T.M., Potts, D.M. & Zdravkovic, L. 2007. A
numerical study on the effect of ageing on undrained bear-
ing capacity. 10th Int. Symp. on Numerical Methods in
Geomechanics: 419424
Jardine, R., Chow, F., Overy, R. & Standing, J. 2005. ICP
design methods for driven piles in sands and clays.
London: Thomas Telford
Mair, R.J., Hight, D.W. & Potts, D.M. 1992. Finite element
analyses of settlements above a tunnel in soft ground. Con-
tractors Rep. 265. Crowthorne, England: Transport and
Road Research Laboratory
Potts, D.M. & Gens, A. 1984. The effect of the plastic poten-
tial in boundary value problems involving plain strain
deformations. Int. Journal Numerical Analytical Methods
Geomechanics 8: 259286
Potts, D.M. & Zdravkovic, L. 1999. Finite element analy-
sis in geotechnical engineering: Theory. London: Thomas
Telford
Schmertmann, J.H. 1991. The mechanical ageing of soils.
Journal of Geotechnical Engineering 117(9).: 12881330
Tomlinson, M.J. 2008. Pile design and construction prac-
tice. 5th edition. London: E & FN Spon, an imprint of
Chapman & Hall
Yin, J.-H., Zhu, J.-G. & Graham, J. 2002. A new elastic
viscoplastic model for time-dependent behaviour of nor-
mally and overconsolidated clays: theory and verification.
Canadian Geotechnical Journal 39: 157173
Zdravkovic, L., Potts, D.M. & Jackson, C. 2003. Numerical
study on the effect of preloading on undrained bearing
capacity. Int. Journal of Geomechanics 3(1): 110

600
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Analysis of foundation solution of new building in built-up area

. Arbanas, V. Jagodnik & S. Dugonjic

Faculty of Civil Engineering, University of Rijeka, Rijeka, Croatia

ABSTRACT: Foundations of a new building in old urban or built-up areas are very demanding and conditioned
by eliminating their influence on surrounding buildings. In this paper we are presenting the numerical analysis
and design solutions of an accommodation business building foundations, nearby the centre of the city of Rijeka,
Croatia. The site of future building was surrounded by old masonry buildings so as a new underground garage.
In geological point of view the location is built on the alluvial deposits in the Rjecina river mouth covered with
an embankment. Extra complication is insisting on one store underground garage below the ground water level
and shallow foundation of the nearby masonry buildings. In the process of selecting the foundation construction,
the optimization of possible alternate constructions was conducted. Based on results of the analyses, solution
with bored piles to the 22 m deep gravel layer was adopted for the foundation construction designed.

1 INTRODUCTION

Foundations of new building in old urban or built-up

areas are very demanding and, as a rule, conditioned
by eliminating of influence on surrounding buildings.
The existence of free site in old urban area indicates
that the unfavourable geotechnical conditions or some
other problems on the site are present. Presence of
surrounding buildings and the limitation of space for
the construction site organization represent the major
problems during the design and construction of a new
building. The city of Rijeka has been founded in roman
time in the estuary of the Rjecina River in the north-
west part of the Adriatic Sea. Geographical position
affected by forming of an old urban nucleus during
the 18th century. Expansion of the city area started
in the second half of the 18th century by filing of the
Rjecina River estuary (Arbanas et al. 1994a). Intensive
expanding of the Rijeka port during the 20th century
influenced on the expansion of the built-up area on all
disposed sites around the old city centre.The rarest free
sites in the urban core of the city of Rijeka are situated
on the embankments on border parts of the city.
Intensive constructions on one of the free wider
areas nearby the old city core started during the last
years. The location is surrounded by the old cathedral
with significantly leaning bell-tower and old masonry
building from the second half of the 19th century, so
as some relatively new buildings with contemporary
safe foundations and constructions. The construction
of the new underground garage under the future square
pointed on geotechnical problems of this area, such as
unfavourable deformability properties of unconsoli-
dated soil layers, presence of the old waste material
and high underground water level with numerous
springs and underground flows. The construction of
garage complex was stopped several times due to
Figure 1. Photo of the site.
requirements of additional redesign of foundation and
underground construction.
The last free site in this area was small and sur-
rounded by two old masonry buildings and the new
underground garage building, Figure 1. In geological
point of view the location is built on the alluvial clayey-
silty deposits in the Rjecina River mouth covered with
an artificial low compacted embankment filled 450
years ago. Limestone bedrock is positioned from 35 to
55 m below the surface. The ground water level is rela-
tively high, only 1 m below the existing terrain surface.
The designed future building is relatively small but
because of unfavourable geotechnical conditions and
possible influence on the nearby buildings, demands
complex foundation analysis and construction. Extra
complication is insisting on one store underground
garage below the ground water level and below the
shallow foundation of the nearby masonry building.
The designed foundation construction predicts
bored piles to the 22 m deep gravel layer to decrease the
settlements and the influence on nearby buildings. In

601
the process of foundation construction optimization,
mat foundation and foundation on the piles with dif-
ferent depths reaching the limestone bedrock. Stress
strain analyses during the optimization process shown
that the settlements caused by bored piles founded
on the 22 m deep gravel layer have acceptable values
without significant impact on surrounding masonry
buildings. The pit construction for underground garage
store predicts jet-grouting pile wall. The underpin-
ning of nearby shallow foundation is the standard
procedure during the undercutting of the foundation.
Design predicts underpinning with jet-grouting tech-
nique as a part of open pit construction. The lowering
of ground water level is predicted with system of
drainage and wells below the pile cap construction
during the construction works until the weight of con-
struction overloads buoyancy. The construction works
were started in July 2007. During the construction, the
observational method according to Eurocode 7 was
used (Arbanas et al. 2008a).
2 GEOTECHNICAL PROPERTIES
OF THE SITE
The construction site is located in the estuary of the
Rjecina River, formed by filling of the river basin
after 1550 (Benac & Arbanas 1990). The datum of the
site plateau is about 2.30 m above the sea water level.
Based on the field investigation and results of geotech-
nical investigations in the wider area, the geotechnical
cross section was determined. The geotechnical cross
section consists of thick cover and limestone bedrock.
The thickness of the high compressible cover is from
35 to 50 m upwards limestone bedrock. The cover is
formed of artificial fill so as gravel and silty-clayey
sediment layers. The artificial fill layer consists of
heterogeneous silty and clayey material mixed with
construction waste from 3.0 to 7.0 m deep. The lower
part of the cover is formed from upper well graded
to clayey gravel layer (GC/GFs/GFc) with thickness
of 5.0 to 7.0 m; high plasticity clays (CH) layer with
thickness of 13.0 to 15.0 m, lower well graded gravel
(GW) and silty gravel (GFs) layer with thickness of
6.0 to 7.0 m and layer of uniform graded sands (SU)
with thickness of 8.0 to 15.0 m. The ground water
level is relatively high and caused by the sea level and
groundwater flows.
Cover layers have unfavourable deformability char-
acteristics in the wider area of the Rjecina River
estuary, especially in high plasticity clay layers and
uniform graded sands (Pavlovec et al. 1992, Arbanas
et al. 1994a, Pavlovec et al. 1998). The consistency
of clay layers is liquid to plastic with very low values
of deformability modules (Mv < 5 MPa) and low val-
ues of strength parameters ( = 22 , c = 3 kPa). The
layer of uniformly graded sands are relatively soft to
medium compacted and the results of SPT in this layers
are NSPT = 8 to 23. Gravel layers are formed in peri-
ods with high velocities and flows of Rjecina River
and have relatively favourable geotechnical properties
602
than silty and clayey layers (Arbanas et al. 1994b,
Benac et al. 1992). Another adversity on the loca-
tion is existence of steep slope of the bedrock and
quickly increases of the cover thickness from 35 to
50 m towards the Rjecina River Basin.
Evident existence of unfavourable geotechnical
conditions in the site wider area is clearly visible on the
existing buildings from second half of the 19th century.
These buildings were spread founded in upper gravel
layer and evident damages due existence of significant
different settlements are present. Total values of the
settlements are also remarkable however these values
arent wholly known. The confirmation of remarkable
settlements is the fact that numerous basements are
now below the water level and sink.
3 CONSTRUCTION AND FOUNDATION
DESIGN
The five-story business building with layout dimen-
sions of 26 34 m was designed on the described site.
Building was designed to be placed in the contact with
an old masonry five-story building from the second
half of the 19th century, on the south border of the site
and nearby the new underground garage facility on
the west. According to design, an underground garage
store was planed below the underground water level
and below the shallow foundations of the nearby build-
ing. Regarding the position of the new building and
positions of nearby buildings, designed underground
level and adverse geotechnical characteristics of the
location, it was necessary to analyse the following
importance during the construction:
Bottom of the basement pit lies below the level of the
existing shallow foundation of the nearby facility so
the design required the underpinning of the existing
building before the basement pit excavation.
The basement pit is below the ordinary underground
water level so substantial inflow is expected. It was
necessary to prevent the lateral inflow in and to
reduce the seepage through the bottom layers in the
basement pit.
Geotechnical anchors from garage underground
construction pervade in space of the future base-
ment pit.
The effect of the construction weigh on soil with
unfavourable deformation characteristics can affect
significant deformations with adversely impacts
on nearby facilities. New additional settlements of
the nearby facility would provoke extra damages
in masonry constructions that can endanger the
stability of existing structures.
4 DESIGN SOLUTIONS
To overload described problems, numerous technical
solutions were analysed (Arbanas et al. 2008b).
To ensure the stability of the basement pit and to pre-
vent the inflow of the ground water jet grouting curtain

Figure 2. Schematic ground plan of foundation.
Figure 3. Cross section of the foundation construction of
the new building.
construction was designed. The jet-grouting curtain
was constructed of the jet grouting piles with a diam-
eter of 1.00 m on a distance of 0.80 m on the diameter
of the basement pit, Figure 2. The jet-grouting curtain
was reinforced by piling the steel profiles between the
certain jet grouting piles to assume bending moments
due to active soil pressure on. To reduce the ground
water inflow through the bottom of the basement pit
the construction of jet grouting curtain was performed
up to 8.50 m to the layer of the high plasticity clay,
5 m below the designed pit bottom level. On the con-
tact with the neighbouring building, jet-grouting piles
were bored trough existing shallow foundations and so
served to safely underpin the construction during the
excavation of the basement pit.
The ground water lowering below the level of the
basement pit excavation was realized by two wells
(drainage shafts) carried out to the datum 6.50 m,
connected on drainage system below the mat foun-
dation, Figure 3. Drainage shafts allowed the water
extraction and water drainage until the higher buoy-
ancy on the mat foundation was achieved (Arbanas
et al. 2008a).
Lightly performed analyses implied that the load
of the new construction on the simple mat founda-
tion can provoke the soil settlement in order of 20 cm,
while the settlements of the nearby facilities could
reach settlements up to 8 cm. These settlements can
cause serious construction damage as a functioning
damage in nearby existing buildings (tilting, cracking
603
in walls, pipe axis). Performed analyses implied on
necessity of serious stress-strain analysis in the process
of selecting of adequate foundation structure to exten-
uate influence of the new structure on nearby facilities.
Results of analyses implied on deep foundation solu-
tion. The optimization of foundation chosen process
was conducted manageably by following influent fac-
tors: impact on nearby structures, technical feasibility
and cost price.
5 FOUNDATION STRUCTURE MODELLING
AND RESULTS
To optimize foundation construction, numerical mod-
elling of possible foundation solutions was carried out.
The considered possible foundation solutions can be
seen in Table 1. Geotechnical modelling and analyses
were performed using software package Geo Studio
GEOSlope, Sigma/W module (GEO Slope 1998).
For numerical modelling, the same representative
geotechnical cross section was used, Figure 4. Dif-
ferent foundation solutions were modelled using mat
foundation model in combination with different piles
depths.
Geotechnical model have been analysed with finite
element method using soil characteristics obtained
from geotechnical research works. Using the stress-
strain analyses, four solutions of foundation construc-
tion have been analysed in variations of shallow mat
foundation and deep foundation on the bored piles.
Elastic-plastic Mohr-Coulomb material model and
rectangular finite element meshes were used in the
plain strain models. Because of small distance between
the piles, it was possible to use plain model. Number
of elements varying from model to model is shown in
Table 2.
Settlements under shallow mat foundation below
the basement on the elastic plate are reaching values
from 14 to 26 cm, Figure 5. The most non-convenient
situation is on the contact with existing neighbour
building where displacements beneath the edge point
reaches 12 to 15 cm. After eliminating of mat foun-
dation, solutions with different depths of bored piles
were analysed.
Deep foundation solutions purported large diameter
bored piles to different layers in geotechnical cross-
section. Analyses of bored piles on 13 m depth clay
layer resulted with decreasing settlements, reaching
values from 14 to 20 cm, Figure 6. On the contact with
existing neighbour building calculating displacements
beneath the edge point reached unacceptable values of
8 to 10 cm.
Analyses of bored piles in 22 m depth gravel layer
resulted with decreasing settlements, reaching values
from 2.5 to 5 cm, Figure 7. On the contact with existing
neighbour building calculating displacements beneath
the edge point reached acceptable values of 2.5 to 3 cm.
Analyses of bored piles founded on limestone
bedrock from 28 to 41 m depth resulted with expected
small settlement values, from 0.1 to 1.2 mm and
Table 1. Possible foundation solutions.

Foundation solution Depth

Mat foundation 3m
Piles to clay layer 13 m
Piles to gravel layer 22 m
Piles to bedrock 28 to 41 m

Figure 6. Settlements of the bored piles founded in clay

layer.

Figure 4. Numerical model for mat foundation.

Table 2. Number of finite elements in the model.

Total number of Number of pile

Model type elements elements Figure 7. Settlements of bored piles founded in gravel layer.

Mat foundation 10456 0

Piles to clay 10768 225
layer (13 m deep)
Piles to gravel 10768 400
layer (22 m deep)
Piles to bedrock 13149 1121
(28 to 41 m deep)

Figure 8. Settlements of bored piles founded on limestone

bedrock.

of the possible damages recovery on nearby facilities.

Figure 5. Settlements caused by mat foundation.
negligible settlement values on the contact with exist-
ing neighbour building, Figure 8. The review of
obtained settlements is presented in Table 3. Based on
performed analyses it was clear that shallow mat foun-
dation and deep foundation founded in clay layer are
unacceptable because of the impact on the neighbour
buildings and expected damages. Selection of accept-
able and sure solution was based on the cost-benefit
analysis and comparison between cost price and cost
Estimated cost prices of foundation construction for
different solutions so as impact and estimated damages
on nearby structures are presented in Table 4.
The significant difference in cost between deep
foundation on piles founded on the gravel layer and
piles founded on the bedrock, excluding the possibil-
ity of damages on surrounding facilities, decided in
type of foundation construction selection.
After the foundation construction with 22 m deep
bored piles with base in the gravel layer with plate
cap construction was selected, detailed analyses were
examined. The analysis of pile group capacity con-
firmed assumed dimensions and disposition of piles
in the foundation structure. Foundation structure con-
tains 55 bored piles with 1.0 m diameter positioned

604
Table 3. Settlements estimation for different foundation
solutions.

Below Below nearby

construction building
Foundation min max min max
solution (cm) (cm) (cm) (cm)

Mat foundation 14 26 12 15
Piles to clay 14 20 8 10
layer (13 m deep)
Piles to gravel 2.5 5 2.5 3
layer (22 m deep)
Piles to bedrock 0.02 0.12 0.02 0.04
(28 to 41 m deep)

Table 4. Estimation of cost price and impact on nearby Figure 9. Photo of the new building after construction.
building.

Foundation Cost price Estimated damage

solution (in 1000 EUR) of nearby building
Mat foundation 120 Structural damage
Piles to clay 420 Structural damage
layer (13 m deep)
Piles to gravel 655 Fissures in mortar
layer (22 m deep)
Piles to bedrock 1.065 No damage
(28 to 41 m deep)
below the pillars and walls in the upper frame con-
struction. Piles were in heads connected with plate
cap construction to ensure commonly acting and
soil-construction interaction.
During the design process, it was necessary to
analyse some others geotechnical problems such as
stability of the jet-grouting curtain, the ground water
inflow through the bottom of the basement pit and pos-
sible hydraulic heave, pumping impact on the water
level lowering and uplift stability of structure after
finishing the basement construction.
6 CONSTRUCTION AND OBSERVATIONS
DURING CONSTRUCTION
The construction started in July 2007. Due to vicin-
ity of the existing buildings, the works were carefully
constructed in the next order (Arbanas et al. 2008a):
Construction of the bored piles.
Jet grouting curtain on the edges of the building pit.
Construction of the drainage wells and extracting of
the ground water.
Excavation of the building pit.
Construction of the drainage system below the cap
plate.
Construction of the underground store.
Bored piles with diameter of 1.00 m (totally 55)
were constructed below the individual pillar point and
perimeter walls of the future building reaching the
lower gravel layer at depth of 20.00 m.
While building pit construction the jet-grouting cur-
tain on the edges of the pit construction, was carried
out. The height of the jet grouting curtain is 7.0 m,
and it is extra reinforced with steel profiles I 160
between certain jet-grouting piles. Underpinning of
nearby building with jet grouting piles before base-
ment pit excavation was performed nearly vertical.
Underpinning jet-grouting piles are the part of the
curtain of the basement pit.
Before beginning of the excavation works it was
necessary to build drainage wells situated in the cen-
tral part of the pit which enables adequate lowering
of the underground water levels beneath the level of
foundation plate. Drainage wells were made of per-
forate tubes with diameter of 1.0 m to 6.50 m under
the excavation level. Extracting of the ground water
from the drainage wells was taken out continuously to
keep the ground water level 1.0 m under design con-
struction. After the construction of jet grouting curtain
it was possible to begin the excavation of the base-
ment pit. On the bottom of the excavation, bellow
the cap plate the drainage system was placed into the
gravel material to drive drainage water towards the
drainage wells.
In final design, the usage of observational method
during construction was predicted according to
Eurocode 7: Geotechnical Design (BSI, 2004). For
that purpose, in context of the main foundation design,
scheme of monitoring and surveying has been done.
Using that scheme the construction of monitoring
equipment was defined: three vertical inclinometers
sliding deformeters and two clinometers on masonry
wall of nearby existing building. Monitoring was
conducted in construction phases (Nicholson et al.
1999).
The new building was completed in September
2008, Figure 9. Conducted monitoring on installed
monitoring equipment is in range with calculated
stress-stain analyses. Slope increasing on nearby
building is negligible which validates adequately
design estimations. Monitoring is still in progress and
it will be conducted in long time period of exploitation.

605
7 CONCLUSIONS
Constructions of new buildings on free locations in old
urban areas are very rear. The existence of free site in
old urban area indicates that the unfavourable geotech-
nical conditions or some other problems are present.
Presence of surrounding buildings and the limitation
of space for construction site organization represent
the major problems during the design and construc-
tion of new buildings. Foundations of the new building
in an old urban or built-up area are very demand-
ing and conditioned by eliminating their influence on
surrounding buildings. In this paper we are present-
ing the numerical analysis and design solutions of an
accommodation business building foundation nearby
the centre of Rijeka, Croatia. The site of future build-
ing is surrounded by an old masonry building from the
second half of the 19th century and by the new under-
ground garage. In geological point of view the location
is built on the alluvial deposits in the Rjecina River
mouth covered with an artificial embankment filled
450 years ago. The ground water level is relatively
high, only 1 m below the existing terrain surface.
The building in construction is relatively small
but because of unfavourable geotechnical conditions
and unfavourable influence on the nearby buildings
demands complex foundation analysis and construc-
tion. Extra complication is insisting on the one store
underground garage below the shallow foundation of
the nearby masonry building. After performed stress-
strain analyses and optimization process, designed and
constructed foundation assumed bored piles to the
22.0 m deep gravel layer to decrease possible settle-
ments and influence on nearby buildings. The lowering
of the ground water was executed with system of
drainage and wells below the pile cap construction
during the construction works until the weight of con-
struction overload buoyancy. The construction works
started in July 2007 and were completed in Septem-
ber 2008. During the construction, the observational
method according to Eurocode 7 was used. Con-
ducted monitoring on installed monitoring equipment
is in range with calculated stress-stain analyses. Slope
increasing on nearby building is negligible which val-
idates adequately design estimations. Monitoring is
still in progress and it will be conducted in long time
period of exploitation.
606
REFERENCES
Arbanas, ., Benac, C. & Jardas, B. 1994a. Geotechnical
properties of the soil in the coastal area of the City of
Rijeka. Maritime almanac 32: 467480 (in Croatian).
Arbanas, ., Benac, C., Jardas, B. & Markovic, A. 1994b.
Geotechnical aspects of expansion of Rijeka Port. Modern
traffic 14(56): 204208 (in Croatian).
Arbanas, ., Jagodnik, V., Pavlic, V. & Goric, D. 2008a.
Conditions of building foundation in old urban areas.
In J. Logar, A. Petkovek and J. Klopcic (eds), Peto
posvetovanje slovenskih geotehnikov, Proc., Nova Gor-
ica, Slovenija, 1214 June 2008: 175184. Ljubljana:
Slovenian Geotechnical Society.
Arbanas, ., Jagodnik, V., Groic, M. & Goric, D.
2008b. Foundation of new buildings in old urban
areas. In M.J. Brown, M.F. Bransby, A.J. Brennan and
J.A. Knappett (eds), Second British Geotechnical Asso-
ciation (BGA) International Conference on Foundations
ICOF2008, Proc. intern. symp., Dundee, Scotland, UK,
2427 June 2008: 975984. Norfolk: HIS BRE Press.
Benac, C. & Arbanas, . 1990. Sedimentation in the area
of the mouth of Rjecina River. Maritime almanac 28:
593609 (in Croatian).
Benac, C., Arbanas, . & Jardas, B. 1992. The morpho-
genesis and the evolution of the river mouths in the
Kvarner area. In: Proceedings of International Symposium
Geomorphology and Sea, Mali Loinj, Croatia: 3745.
BSI 2004. Eurocode 7: Geotechnical design-Part 1: Gen-
eral Rules, BS EN 1997-1. London: British Standard
Institution.
GEO-Slope Int. Ltd. 1998. Users Guide Sigma/W for Finite
Element/Deformation Analysis, Version 4. Calgary: GEO-
Slope.
Nicholson, D. P., Tse, C. M. & Penny, C. 1999. The obser-
vational method in ground engineering: Principles and
applications, Report 185. London: CIRIA.
Pavlovec, E., Arbanas, ., Benac & C., Galic, D. 1992. Sed-
imentation and deformational properties of the embank-
ment south of the Old City of Rijeka. Maritime almanac
30: 655677 (in Croatian).
Pavlovec, E., Benac, C. & Arbanas, . 1998. Settlement
of coastal area in the City of Rijeka. Gradevinar 50(4):
203208 (in Croatian).
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Collapse of thin-walled model piles during hard driving

J. Bergan
Norwegian University of Science and Technology/Det Norske Veritas AS

S. ren Holo
Norwegian University of Science and Technology/Myklebust AS

S. Nordal
Norwegian University of Science and Technology

ABSTRACT: In 2002 five out of eight piles collapsed during pile driving at the Valhall-field in the North
Sea. The steel pipe piles had an open end where the steel tapered off towards the pile tip. Two committees
were established to determine the causes of pile refusal, and it was concluded that this tip geometry was a
contributing factor to pile collapse. In this study laboratory work supported by a numerical study has been
performed to validate the committees conclusions. Model piles with a diameter of 102 mm, and a wall-thickness
of 2 mm were used. These piles had the same D/t-ratio as the piles used in the Valhall-field. Two different pile
tips where investigated; a flat-ended pile tip and a tapered pile tip. A noncircular or oval flat-ended pile tip
was also investigated. One flat ended model pile was instrumented with strain gauges, and the stresses from the
measurements were compared to simulations using Abaqus. It was found from the laboratory results and from the
numerical analyses that the maximum stress in the flat-ended pile tip during hard driving was 30%50% higher
than the incoming stress wave. Based on this, it is suggested that the incoming stress wave should be limited
to 70% of the pile materials yield strength if such hard driving is likely. A tapered pile tip is an unfortunate
construction detail that should be avoided.

1 INTRODUCTION 2 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

Offshore foundation piles are usually thin-walled open The one dimensional stress wave equation is widely
steel piles with diameters up to 2,5 meters. In 2002 used for analyzing the stresses during pile driving:
the Valhall-field in the North Sea was being upgraded
with another platform. The platform was a jacket with
8 piles, 2 in each jacket leg. During driving 5 out of the
8 piles refused in a very dense sand layer at 45 to 55
meters below seabed before reaching their target pene- A solution of eq. (1) was found by DAlembert.He
tration. The piles in the existing platform were driven showed that the displacement, u, at a location, x, at a
without experiencing any problems. The piles in the time, t, in a bar is given by any two functions where x
new platform had a different pile tip than the existing and t is related through the wave velocity, c.
ones. The steel tapered off towards the tip, a construc-
tion detail referred to as a chamfered pile tip. Pile tip
details are shown in Figure 3. The chamfered pile tip
was made in an attempt to prevent plugging of the It can be showed that the stresses in the bar can be
pile, and therefore make the driving easier. After the determined by:
incident, two committees were appointed to determine
the causes of the pile refusals as documented by BP
Norge (2003).The committees did an extensive numer-
ical study, but did not include any laboratory work. where
In the Masters thesis of Bergan & Holo (2009) hard is the compressive stress
driving has been the subject and with special focus is the material density
on pile tip collapse. The thesis includes laboratory v is the material particle velocity
work and back-calculation with the finite element code The material particle velocity is given by the velo-
Abaqus. city of the falling ram and the initial value of the stress

607
 Figure 2. Photos of the rig.

Figure 1. Pile driving test rig.

wave is accordingly only dependent on the fall height,

theoretically less or equal to:

After reflection from the pile tip an upward prop-

agating wave will superpose on the downward propa-
gating wave both satisfying eq. (1). Whether the pile
tip will reflect a compression or tension wave is strictly
determined by the boundary conditions.A free end will
reflect a tension wave, while a fixed end will reflect a
compression wave.
3 TEST FACILITY/LABORATORY WORK
The laboratory tests were performed in the Geotech-
nical Divison Laboratory at the Norwegian University
of Science and Technology (NTNU). The pile driv-
ing test rig is illustrated in Figure 1 and 2, where a
weak concrete block is buried in sand in a barrel. The
weak concrete is supposed to represent a firm soil layer
causing extremely hard driving.
The model piles were 3 m long steel tubes with
diameter D = 102 mm, wall thickness t = 2 mm and
Figure 3. Pile tip details.
with a yield strength fy = 235 MPa. The D/t ratio is
similar to the piles used in the Valhall-field. Concrete
blocks with a varying diameter of 30 to 40 cm over a
height of 30 cm were made to represent a hard layer.
The concretes compression strength was measured in
the lab at the Department of Structural Engineering at
NTNU before driving. One pile was instrumented with
2 strain gauges (1-LY61-6/120) from HBM to measure
the stresses in the pile during driving. The gauges were
set up midway down the pile, 1.5 meters from the top.

608
 Table 1. Pile driving data.

Compression
strength of the
Pile concrete layer Penetration Collapse

no. Pile tip MPa mm

1 Flat-ended 14 230 No
2 Flat-ended 34 90 Yes
3 Chamfered 9 119 Yes
4 Ovalized 9 150 Yes
flat-ended
Figure 4. Ovalization of pile 4.

Figure 5. Test result from strain gauges.

Two different pile tips were studied; a flat-ended tip

and a chamfered tip, Figure 3. A third pile detail, an
ovalized flat-ended pile tip, was also studied and the
ovalization is illustrated in Figure 4.

4 TEST RESULTS

The instrumented pile had a flat-ended pile tip, and

a result from the strain gauges is shown in Figure 5.
The theoretical maximum stress level of the incom-
ing stress wave according to equation 3 is 200 MPa as
indicated in the Figure.
The peak measurements show reasonable agree-
ment with the theoretical value of the incoming stress
wave. After about 0,9 ms the strain gauges pick up
the reflection from the pile tip. This fits well with
steels wave speed of 5172 m/s. Because of the short
pile the compression wave from the tip adds up with
the remaining incoming wave. The maximum stress is
found in a peak after about 1,7 ms to be about 250 MPa.
This is higher than the given yield strength, but pile
tip collapse did not occur during this peak. The given
yield strength of 235 MPa is a characteristic value,
and a real yield strength up to 260 MPa is likely. The
reflected wave from the pile tip hitting the concrete is
partly in compression and it can be assumed that the
stress at the pile tip would be about 300 MPa. This is
about 50% above the incoming stress wave and above
the steels yield stress. The reason why collapse didnt
occur can be explained by the three-dimensional stress
Figure 6. a. Pile tips after pile driving.
state at the pile tip. Some data and test results from the
different model piles are shown in table 1.
Figure 6a and b shows the pile tips after driving.
The piles collapsed in different manners. Pile num-
ber 2 experienced an unsymmetrical collapse after the
concrete block cracked. Pile number 3s collapse was
symmetrical probably because of the chamfered pile
tip and pile number 4 collapsed by gradually pressing
the nonsymmetrical cross section together.
5 NUMERICAL MODELLING
The back-calculation was performed with the finite
element code Abaqus/CAE ver. 6.7-1 (Simulia
(2006)). The purpose of the back-calculation with

609

Figure 6. b. Pile tips after pile driving.
Table 2. Material data used in the back-calculation.
Uniaxial
E modulus strength
MPa kg/m3 MPa
Steel 210 000 7 850 0.3 250
Concrete 26 200 2 500 0.2 40
this dynamic, explicit 3D FEM-analysis was to com-
pare selected laboratory results and to study details in
the behavior closer. The steel pile was modeled with
the material data shown in table 2. A linear elastic,
perfectly plastic material model was used for the steel.
The numerical model consisted of the ram weight,
the helmet, the pile and the concrete block, as shown
in Figure 7 (the pile is the long, straight rod shown
with the ram at the top and the concrete block at the
lower end). Low order 4 noded tetrahedral elements
were used for the concrete in order to reduce numerical
noise in the analysis to a minimum. (Cook et al (2002)).
The contact condition was defined as general con-
tact in Abaqus with a friction coefficient of one in the
tangential direction. In most of the analyses only one
fourth of the pile and concrete was modelled and the
model consisted of approximately 450 000 elements.
Figure 7. One of the numerical models used in Abaqus with
a steel ram at the top and a concrete block at the lower end.
The concrete was modelled elastic perfect plastic with
a yield strength of 40 MPa for the test shown.
Due to the high number of elements, only one stroke
with the ram was analyzed. In order to validate the
measured stresses in the pile the wave propagation
caused by the impact of the falling ram was studied
as shown in Figure 8. The figure shows the axial stress
during the first 0,1 milliseconds after the ram touches
the helmet, in a sequence from upper left to lower right.
The pile still was completely linear elastic in the top
for the particular fall height used for this simulation.
The stresses found from the Abaqus simulation at
a point half way down the 3 m long pile are shown in
Figure 9. At this point strain gauges were positioned
and the simulated stresses are shown to give acceptable
agreement with the measurements.
The numerical model was used to study the stresses
at the pile tip, which could not be measured. A com-
parison of the stresses at a point half way down the
pile and the stresses at the pile tip, 1,5 meter further
down, is shown in Figure 10. The analysis shows that
the stresses at the pile tip are about 30% higher than
the stresses in the incoming stress wave. The results in
Figures 9 and 10 are for a pile with a flat-ended pile
tip.
An analysis with the chamfered pile tip was also per-
formed. Based on the result in Figure 5 a yield strength
of 250 MPa was assumed for the pile, even though the
characteristic value normally used as a design strength
for this steel is 235 MPa. For a study of the shape of the
permanent deformations this is of minor importance.
Figure 11 shows the deformations and mobiliza-
tion of the Mises yield strength of the steel in the pile
tip for an analysis with a chamfered pile tip. The pile
tip is bent inward and collapses apparently because
of the inward tapered pile tip and the deformation
agrees well with the observations in the laboratory as
shown in Figure 6b Pile 3. The picture of Pile 3 is
taken at a stage when the deformation has developed
610
 Figure 10. Simulated axial stresses at a point half way down
the pile compared to the simulated stresses at the pile tip.

Figure 11. Deformed mesh of chamfered pile tip. The shad-

Figure 8. Stress wave propagation in the ram weight, the ings illustrate the utilization of the material in terms of an
helmet and the pile due to the hammer impact for the first equivalent Mises stress.
0,1 ms.

Figure 9. Back-calculation of the axial stresses at a point

half way down the pile.

much further than in the numerical simulation shown

in Figure 11.
Figure 12 shows a contour plot of the Mises yield
stress in the concrete block into which the pile tip
is partly embedded. The three dimensional stress
state allows for vertical stresses higher than the yield Figure 12. Deformed mesh of the concrete block. The
strength of the concrete. shadings represent the utilization of the material strength.

611
6 CONCLUSIONS
The model tests in the laboratory gave a pile tip col-
lapse during hard driving. There can be several reasons
for pile tip collapse. During hard driving yielding can
occur simply due to too high stresses in the stress wave
initiated by the ram. These stresses could theoretically
double due to the reflection from a fixed pile tip. Based
on our simulations and measurements the pile tip stress
is not doubled at the pile tip since the tip is only partly
fixed in the hard soil or here weak concrete. The inten-
sity of the incoming stress wave from the impact is
mainly related to the impact velocity of the ram or
simply the fall height.
For flat-ended piles the laboratory work as well as
the numerical analyses indicate an increase in pile tip
stresses by 3050% compared with the incoming stress
wave. Based on the results in this study, it is suggested
that the incoming stress wave should be limited to
about 70% of the pile materials nominal yield strength
in order to avoid pile tip collapse, if hard driving is
expected.
The stresses in the pile tip is found to be substan-
tially higher in a chamfered (tapered) pile tip than in
a flat -ended pile tip. The chamfered tip is an unfortu-
nate construction detail which leads to premature pile
collapse.
As expected an out-of-roundness is also seen to
cause premature pile collapse in our tests.
This study validates the conclusions from the
Valhall-committees that the chamfered pile was a con-
tributing factor of pile collapse at the Valhall-field.
A chamfered pile tip cause high inward soil stresses
612
normal to the chamfered surface, which will tend to
bend the tip inward. Permanent deformation may occur
and the pile tip may collapse during continuous hard
driving.
If the soil strength varies along the circumference
of the pile tip, a chamfered pile tip also increases the
chance of a nonsymmetrical response along the cir-
cumference of the tip leading to a non-circular cross
section. An oval cross section will during further driv-
ing lead to pile collapse. A tapered pile tip is beyond
doubt an unfortunate construction detail that should
be avoided.
REFERENCES
Bergan, J. & Holo, S.. 2009. Kollaps av pelespiss ved hard
ramming, MSc thesis NTNU.
BP Norge, 2003. Valhall Water Injection Platform Jacket:
Investigation into Premature Pile Refusal Panel A and
B reports, BP Norge AS.
Simulia, 2006. Abaqus User manual version 6.7.
Cook, R. D., Malkus, D. S., Plesha, M. E. & Witt, R. J. 2002.
Concepts and Applications of Finite Element Analysis,
Fourth Edition. University of Wisconsin Madison: John
Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Alm, T. & Hamre, L. 1998. Soil model of driveability
prediction. Houston: Offshore Technology Conference.
API-RP 2a. 2003. API Recommended Practice for Planning,
Designing and Constructing Fixed Offshore Platforms
Load and Resistance Factor Design.Pkt G.10.5. American
Petroleum Institute.
Brush, D. O., & Almroth, B. O. 1975. Buckling of bars, plates
and shells. McGraw Hill.
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Dynamic analysis of large diameter piles Statnamic load test

K.J. Bakker
Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands
WAD32 bv, IJsselstein, The Netherlands

F.J.M. Hoefsloot
Fugro Ingenieursbureau, Leidschendam, The Netherlands

E. de Jong
Volker Wessels Stevin Geotechniek bv, Woerden, The Netherlands

ABSTRACT: In order to check the bearing capacity of a newly introduced large diameter casing pile, both
CPT analysis and static load testing was applied. In addition to that, two piles where tested using the Statnamic
load testing technique. With respect to the interpretation, in addition to the standard Unloading Point method by
Middendorp et al. (1992), a dynamic analysis with a dynamic finite element code, i.e. Plaxis, was done; further
the static load test results were used to calibrate the soil parameters for the analysis. Comparing the Dynamic
load testing results according to Middendorp with the Numerical results; it came forward that some additional
mass below the pile tip, more or less moving with the pile, needs to be taken into account. Further after Mullins
et al. (2002), the damping is calculated for the stationary part of track 4. Overall this gives a better agreement
with numerical analysis for the bearing capacity. Based on an extrapolation of the physical test up to deformation
required by NEN 6743-1 (2006), an ultimate load bearing capacity of 15.5MN was established.

1 INTRODUCTION and further the deformation of all piles were monitored

Related to the city extension Leidsche Rijn near
Utrecht, The Netherlands, and the extension of the rail-
way between Utrecht and Gouda to four railway tracks,
a total of 20 new viaducts need to be built. In order to
improve the foundation concept of the classic multi
pile pier foundation, an alternative was proposed that
includes the use of bored casing piles with a diameter
of 1.65 m. This innovation reduces the original design
of 48 prefab concrete piles to 6 large diameter casing
piles only.
Since the bridges are intended to support the rail-
way track, the design requirements are very strict. On
the one hand the piles should be capable to bear a
design load of at the least 12,000 kN, on the other
hand the deformation during train passings should be
less than 10 mm. Since bored piles show a relatively
less favourable load-displacement curve compared to
driven piles, to improve the stiffness, the introduction
of pile tip grouting device adopted.
Both the large diameter casing pile in combination
with the grout injection device at the tip was a first time
application in the Netherlands. For the evaluation of
the bearing capacity, as a start CPTs after prestress-
ing the grouting device, were taken and evaluated as a
first step in checking the influence of the installation
procedure. In addition a total of three piles were instru-
mented and tested on site by means of a static load test
during construction and the actual passing of the first
trains in December 2007. Details are given in de Jong
et al. (2010). In addition, after that it became clear that
a suitable testing device would be available; two addi-
tional test piles were tested with a 16 MN statnamic
device.
In addition to the standard procedure of check-
ing these tests using the UPM (Unloading Point
Method), by Middendorp et al. (1992), a dynamic
axisymmetric Finite Element analysis of the load
tests was performed. The result of the static load
tests both with respect to load and deformation was
used to calibrate the soil parameters for the dynamic
numerical analysis. Further the dynamic response as
calculated with Plaxis was put into the same UPM
evaluation procedure for further corroboration of the
method.
In this paper a comparison between the UPM eval-
uation procedure by Middendorp and the Numerical
analysis with Plaxis will be described. Attention shall
be given to the effect of drained bearing capacity for
design and undrained behaviour during the test.
Some typical modelling issues such as mesh finesse
at pile tip and dynamic effects in interface elements
will be discussed.
In addition to understanding the dynamic behaviour
of the pile, the calibrated numerical model opens up
the possibility to evaluate the equivalent static load

613

Figure 1. Stages in statnamic testing.
bearing capacity, which can be compared to the Dutch
code for static load capacity NEN 6743 (2006).
2 STATIC LOAD TESTING AND SOIL
PARAMETER ESTIMATION
Before it was decided to do statnamic testing a static
pile test was done; although it was known in advance
that the limit load with respect to bearing capacity
could not be reached.
At bridge number 6 a row of three, 17.85 m long,
1.65 m diameter piles at a centre to centre distance
of 3.75 m where individually tested. The goal of
these tests was verification of the load displacement
behaviour up to 8,000 kN, i.e. the pile stiffness.
Strains were measured at three levels with vibrat-
ing wire strain gauges, and a load cell was installed at
the top. Further displacements were measured at the
pile head by high accuracy levelling. In addition to
the deadweight of 1,000 kN the reaction frame was
anchored to the ground by 8 Gewi-anchors with a
capacity of 1,250 kN each.
Prior to pile installation one CPT was carried out at
the centre of each pile. Based on the 3 CPTs before
pile installation the ultimate bearing capacity of the
piles was estimated to be about 20,000 kN.
During the static test, the piles were loaded in steps
of 1,000 kN.The load was then kept constant for 1 hour,
a time that was extended if the deformation rate was
above 0.3 mm/h up to a maximum of 4 hours. At a load
of 6,000 kN the piles were unloaded to 4,000 kN and
reloaded to 6,000 kN in steps of 1,000 kN. Only one of
614
the piles was loaded up to 8,000 kN. More details and
results of the Static Pile test can be found in de Jong
et al. (2010).
After that the Static load tests were done, the intro-
duction of a 16 MN Statnamic device in the Nether-
lands by Fugro made it possible to test the piles to loads
that would approach the ultimate bearing capacity of
the piles.
In addition to the field test it was decided to try
for a dynamic finite element analysis to get a better
understanding and to create added value to the field
test.
The Statnamic load test were done not too far from
the site were the Static tests were done, and had a sim-
ilar soil layering. Therefore the static tests were used
as an additional source of information for calibration
of the soil parameters for the dynamic analysis. The
static analysis was back-analysed and soil parameters
were calibrated and applied for the first prediction of
the Statnamic test.
3 STATNAMIC TESTING
In November 2008 two Statnamic load tests were car-
ried out on sacrificial test piles that had been installed
in 2005. Originally it was intended to test these piles to
refusal by means of a static load test. Such a test would
have required a load of approximately 20,000 kN, even
though the piles have a limited length of 13 m.
In a Statnamic load test, pile loading is achieved by
launching a reaction mass. Due to the high acceleration
of the reaction mass, the effectiveness of the load is
increased by a factor of about twenty. The loading is
perfectly axial, the pile and the soil are compressed as a
single unit and the static load-displacement behaviour
of the pile can be determined if a series of tests is
performed.
Given the fact that the information of the static load
test up to a load of 8,000 kN was already available, the
two test piles were only tested once with the maximum
Statnamic load of approximately 16 MN. The general
description of the statnamic test has been given by
Middendorp et al. (1992). The test procedure itself is
according to the draft European guideline (Hlsher and
van Tol, 2009).
4 EMPIRICAL EVALUATION OF BEARING
CAPACITIY
According to Middendorps (1992) simplified evalu-
ation procedure, that dynamic force balance may be
written as:
Where
Fu (t) = static soil reaction (point and shaft)
Fv (t) = damping force (depends on pile velocity)
Fa (t) = inertia force, depending on mass and
acceleration
Both Fstat (t) and Fa (t) have been measured or can be
inferred from the measuring data. Whereas Fu (t) is
the unknown soil resistance we want to establish and
further Fv (t) is also relatively unknown and depends
on the known pile velocity.
However, as the loading time is relatively long com-
pared to the velocity of pressure waves in the pile,
which is in the order of 3,800 m/s, whereas the loading
time is in the order of 0,08 s, pressure waves may travel
up and down the pile, 12 times within this period. For
that reason the load may be judged to act semi-static.
The effect will be that the pile will displace more or
less as a rigid mass. For that reason it is assumed that
the time of maximum displacement equals zero veloc-
ity of the pile. Realising that at this point; i.e. referred
to as the Unloading Point the damping is zero, the
Figure 2. Soil resistance as back-analyzed from the Stat-
pile resistance can be calculated as:
namic test, assuming averaged damping in track 4 of the test;
concave loading curve is found.

According to the UP method it is assumed that the

soil resistance between maximum statnamic force and
standstill, has developed beyond the point of maximum
bearing capacity commonly referred to as trajectory 4,
is nearly a constant. If this is really the case may be
disputed. However, if this is assumed equation 1 may
be rewritten as

Where
C4 = damping coefficient
m = Pile mass
a(t) = Pile acceleration (measured)
Given that Statnamic loading as well as the pile accel-
erations are measured, the average damping factor can Figure 3. Interpretation of Damping coefficient C4, inter-
be calculated according to: pretation after Mullins et al. 2002.

the whole trajectory. With this adaptation the result

With
With the damping coefficient determined, the soil
resistance can be back-calculated for the whole track
between maximum statnamic loading and maximum
displacement.
It is customary to back analyse the damping for
this whole trajectory and taking the average value.
According to this standard interpretation method, the
Soil resistance can be back analysed and will result in
the curve given in Figure 2. Contrary to expectation,
the curve has a concave form; moves upward whereas
static loading tests normally show a more convex; i.e.
hyperbolic shape.
Evaluating this phenomenon in more detail the
result seems to be negatively influenced by the aver-
aging procedure for the damping ratio. According to
Mullins et al. (2002), a better result can be found by
taking the static value of the damping ratio as indi-
cated in Fig. 3, instead of averaging the damping in
is improved, corroborates better with the numerical
results and shows the common observed hyperbolic
shape, see also Fig. 10 with the improved curve.
Based on the evaluation with the UP method, it was
established that the largest soil resistance was reached
for a deformation of 47 mm, which is further taken into
account.
Before going into more detail into the final results
of the Statnamic test, some details of the numerical
analysis will be given, that shed some more light on
the way the test results may be interpreted.
5 NUMERICAL MODELLING OF STATNAMIC
LOAD TEST
For the numerical analysis of the load test an axisym-
metrical model was made using dynamics module of
the Plaxis 2D V9 finite element code.
With respect to the numerical analysis distinction
must be made between the prediction for the first stat-
namic test and back-analysis on the first and the second
test.

615
Table 1. Soil parameters after calibration with static loading test.
Level
NAP dry wet
Soil type [m] kg/m3 kg/m3
Holocene (loose) sand +0.507.10 18 19
Pleistocene (dense) sand 7.10down 18 19
m = power in hyperbolic relation between elastic stiffness and isotropic stress; e.g. 0,5 for sand and 1.0 for clay.
0,7 = threshold for small strains in the Hssmall model; i.e. the strain at which the shear modulus has reduced to 70% of Gmax .
G0 = Gmax = shear modulus at very small strain; may be compared to the shear modulus in dynamic analyses.
Figure 4. Simulation of Static analysis of the test pile con-
figuration (13 m pile) with Plaxis; with (upper curve), or
without base grouting of the pile toe (lower curve), (Plaxis
output loading per radial).
For the prediction of the first statnamic test a rel-
atively detailed soil layering was applied, based on a
direct interpretation of the CPT data in combination
with table 1 of NEN 6740 (2006). Further the parame-
ters were calibrated with respect to the static load test,
see section 2, carried out in 2005, recognizing that both
the piles in the static tests (with a length of 18 m) and
those in the statnamic tests (with a length of 13 m),
were positioned in the same geologic layering.
Further a first analysis of the static bearing capacity
of the pile indicated the stiffness effect of the grout bag
at the pile toe. From measurements during installation
and grouting of the pile, it was known that a pile rise
of about 8 mm was observed. In the finite element
analysis the effect was modelled as a volume strain
in a zone of 17% in a zone of 0.5 m below the pile
tip, which gave the same rising of the pile. A first
indication of the Static bearing capacity of the pile,
with and without grouting at the pile toe is indicated
in Fig. 4.
The static model test has been performed up to a
total settlement of the pile head of 0.1 D (0.165 m)
according to the NEN 6743 (2006). The load capac-
ity based on the static numerical analysis indicates a
bearing capacity of:
Please note that the output of Plaxis, Fig. 4, presents
the load per radial, so this result needs to be multiplied
with 2, to get the full bearing capacity of the pile.
Eref
50 Eref
ur m 0,7 G0 C  K0
kN/m2 kN/m2 [] [] kN/m2 kN/m2 []
10000 30000 0.7 104 37500 1.00 28 0 0.50
50000 150000 0.7 104 187500 0.03 38 8 0.75
With respect to the dynamic prediction for the
first Statnamic test, the displacements where over-
estimated to be between 130 and 180 mm, whereas
the actual displacement was about 50 mm.
Given this observation, and in order to improve the
model the tested data was back-analyzed, to reduce the
differences between numerical and field test. For that,
a sensitivity analysis with the model, and the applied
parameters was performed:
A first observation in this analysis was that the
actual loading time during the test was a lit-
tle shorter than assumed in the prediction, and
subsequently contained a little less energy.
Secondly back-analysis indicated that the friction
angle, of the Pleistocene sand layer at the pile toe,
must have been higher than first assumed, i.e. a
better match was found for a friction angle = 38
instead of 35 .
Subsequently the dilatancy angle was adjusted,
assuming the common relation = 30 , and
was increased up to = 8 for this layer.
Introduction of the Hssmal, small strain material
model, see Benz (2007), improved the results; fur-
ther the parameters for this material model were
evaluated, indicating that with 0,7 = 104 the best
agreement was found.
In addition to that, the damping factors where
slightly increased up to Rayleigh = 103 and
Rayleigh = 1.75 103 , see Zienkiewicz et al.
(1991).
In addition to that, the mesh needed to be refined
around the pile tip, further some variation in Holocene
upper layers was ignored as some of the very soft
layers near the soil surface seemed to destabilize
the numerical analysis. Due to tensile stresses at the
pile delaminating of the interface elements seemed to
develop leading to numerical instability. As a solution
averaged soil parameters for the Holocene layer were
assumed which seemed not to affect the overall result
to much, see Fig. 5 and table 1.
5.1 Drained and undrained analysis
For the static analysis as indicated in Fig 4 drained
analysis was assumed. For the statnamic test, given
the large diameter and short duration of the test, only
0,08 sec for the test, undrained behaviour must be
assumed. The effect is illustrated in Fig 7, where the
616
Figure 5. Finite Element model for dynamic load test.
Figure 6. Characteristic displacement field in Plaxis
dynamic analysis, indicating that a zone underneath the pile
toe moves more or less with the pile.
results of both a drained and an undrained analysis
are given. Due to undrained behaviour the bearing
capacity at the toe will be limited due to excess water
pressure, whereas due to dilation of the soil at the
pile shaft the friction in undrained analysis leads to
a higher soil resistance. Fig 7 indicates that undrained
behaviour at the shaft friction is dominant.
For the interpretation of the dynamic analysis the
ratio between the two curves will be taken into account.
5.2 Dynamic analysis with plaxis
Using the same procedure as for the direct interpreta-
tion of the Statnamic test, the bearing capacity was
back-analysed from the numerical analysis, i.e. the
UPM method as explained in the previous paragraph.
Based on several variations of the numerical analy-
sis, and considering that the elements in the numerical
model itself do not differentiate between pile elements
and soil elements, it became clear that to explain the
test properly it is necessary to account for some moving
soil mass underneath the pile toe. Here, to be conser-
vative, a soil volume of 1 times the diameter and 0.6
times this depth was adopted. To get a full agreement
617
Figure 7. Static analysis with the optimized Finite element
model; drained and undrained.
Figure 8. Results of the dynamic deformation analysis
back-analyzed with Plaxis.
with the static analysis the size of this soil mass needed
to be increased up to 2 times the pile diameter, which
in itself is not unlikely, see Fig 6, but was not applied
further, in order to have a conservative result.
Compared to more slender piles, the effect of soil
mass moving with the pile tip the effect here was more
dominant due to the relative large diameter of the pile.
The result of the back analysis is indicated in Fig. 8.
and Fig. 9.
In section 5.1 it was argued why the dynamic
analysis was performed undrained whereas for the
bearing capacity it is customary to assume drained
soil behaviour. The difference between drained and
undrained behaviour is partly contributing to what is
known as the rate-effect.
Here this effect is discounted for by taking the ratio
between the drained and the undrained analysis as
presented in Fig. 7, for the measured deformation of
47 mm; which gave a reduction factor of 0.84.
In Fig. 9, the characteristic load displacement curve
based on the back-analysis with Plaxis is given, that
may be compared to Fig. 10. The agreement overall is
reasonable, the only shortcoming is that it seems to be
difficult to represent the elastic unloading at the end,
that lags behind in the numerical analysis. This test
result in itself may however also be disputed, there is

Figure 9. Results of Numerical simulation of the Statnamic
load test on 17 nov. 2008 evaluated with the UP method. To
compare with the physical result as indicated in Figure 10.
Figure 10. Hyperbolic extrapolation of the load displace-
ment curve acc to eq. no 8.
reason to assume that the pile tip has come loose in
rebound.
Based on the UPM evaluation of the numerical anal-
ysis a maximum pile load during statnamic testing was
found of: Fr,I ( = 47 mm) = 9.84 MN
In order to compare this load with the ultimate bear-
ing capacity according to a CPT or a static load test, it
is necessary to consider not only the drainage effect,
but also the fact that the deformations derived with the
Statnamic test do not satisfy the necessary deforma-
tion for a static load test, that requires a displacement
of 0.1 Deq , or in this case 0.165 m.
Referring to the load development curves in Fig. 7,
an exponential extrapolation is assumed. Further,
618
correcting for the rate effect as indicated in Fig. 7,
the bearing capacity of the pile is approximated as:
Comparing this value with the results of direct static
analysis it is concluded that:
6 CONCLUDING REMARKS
A dynamic analysis of the statnamic pile test helps
to explain for the deformation behaviour.
In order to prevent delaminating of interface ele-
ment at the pile in the softer upper layers it was
deemed necessary to apply averaged soil parame-
ters for the whole upper layer.
Rate effects seems to be partially explained by
undrained behaviour of the soils and partially by
soil mass moving with the pile that needs to be taken
into account in order to get agreement between
numerical and physical test.
In order to get a reasonable corroboration between
test and back-analysis one needs to realise that
for the latter mean values of soil parameters are
needed whereas for design it is customary to use
characteristic i.e. conservative values.
Overall the agreement between field test and
numerical model seems to be reasonably good.
REFERENCES
Benz, T. (2007), Small Strain Stiffness of Soils and its Numer-
ical consequences, PhD. Thesis Stuttgart University.
Middendorp, P., P. Bermingham and B. Kuiper, (1992). Stat-
namic load testing of foundation piles. Proc. 4th Int. Conf.
on Stress Wave to Piles, The Hague. Balkema Rotterdam.
de Jong, E., K.J. Bakker & F.J.M. Hoefsloot, (2010), Stat-
namic load tests on large diameter casing Piles, execution
and interpretation, Proc. 11th Deep Foundations Institute
Conference, London.
Hlscher, P. and A.F. van Tol, (2009), Rapid Load Testing on
Piles, CRC Press, Taylor and Frances, London UK.
Mullins, G.C. Lewis & M.D. Justason, (2002). Advance-
ments in Statnamic Data Regression Techniques. ASCE
Geotechnical SpecialPublication 116, pp. 915928.
NEN 6743-1 (2006) Geotechniek- Calculation method for
foundations on piles pressure piles (in Dutch), NEN.
Zienkiewicz, O.C., Taylor R.L. (1991), The Finite Element
Method (4th edition), Volume 2, Solid and Fluid mechan-
ics, Dynamics and Non Linearity. Mc Graw-Hill, Uk.
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Finite difference analysis of pile on sloping ground under passive loading

K. Muthukkumaran & M. Gokul Khrishnan

Department of Civil Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli, Tamilnadu, India

ABSTRACT: Pile foundations are slender structural elements used to transfer loads from structures into deep
hard strata below the ground level. It is time consuming and expensive to carry out field test over the piles
in larger lengths. Computer simulations of Finite Element/Finite Difference Modelling will allow for in depth
studies to analyze the pile soil interaction of laterally loaded piles on sloping ground under passive loading.
This paper presents a three dimensional finite difference analysis for the lateral response of pile located at the
crest of slopes under passive loading: 0 degrees, 33 degrees 40 min, 26 degrees 33 min. with relative densities:
30%, 45%, and 70%. Soil stratum is represented elastic-plastic Mohr Coulomb model. FDA and Model test
results are compared and analyzed. Conclusions are drawn regarding application of the analytical method to
study the effect of slope on laterally loaded pile.

1 INTRODUCTION by Poulos and Davies (1980), the solution is based on a

Pile foundations can be used to transmit both ver-
tical and horizontal loads. Many pile foundations
supporting structures such as wharfs and jetties along
the coast, offshore structures, bridge foundations, tall
structures like chimneys, TV towers, and high rise
buildings are subjected to significant lateral forces.
The lateral forces are mainly due to the action of
wind and earth pressures due to lateral soil move-
ment in case of on land structures. While in the case
of coastal and offshore structures, the predominant
forces leading to lateral movements are mainly due
to waves, currents, winds berthing forces, mooring
forces, lateral earth pressure due to unstable slope as
a result of dredging or siltation, etc. Many analyti-
cal approaches have been developed in recent years
for the response analysis of laterally loaded piles.
The various analytical and numerical methods that are
commonly employed to study the static and dynamic
behaviour of laterally loaded piles are (a) Beam on
Winkler foundation approach (b) Elastic Continuum
approach; (c) Boundary Element method; (d) Finite
Element approach; (e) Finite difference approaches,
etc. Most of the approaches consider either the theory
of subgrade reaction (Matlock and Ripperger, 1956)
or the theory of elasticity (Pise, 1984). However, the
load deflection behaviour of laterally loaded piles is
highly nonlinear in nature, and hence requires a nonlin-
ear analysis. Several empirical and numerical methods
have been proposed for analyzing the response of sin-
gle and pile groups to lateral loading from horizontal
soil movement. Most of the numerical methods that
have been proposed utilize the finite-element method
(Carter 1982; Broms et al. 1987, Springman 1989, Goh
et al. 1997, Ellis et al. 1999) or the finite difference
method (Poulos and Davis 1980). In the approach taken
point load in an elastic half-space (Mindlins solution)
and empirically to account for the presence of rigid
bearing layer. Prakash and Kumar (1996) developed a
method to predict the load deflection relationship for
single piles embedded in sand and subjected to lat-
eral load, considering soil nonlinearity based on the
results of 14 full-scale lateral pile load tests. Kim and
Barker (2002) studied the effect of live load surcharge
on retaining walls and abutments.
This paper describes a finite difference approach to
determine the effect of slope on lateral response of pile
in dry sand subjected to lateral soil movement induced
by surcharge load.
2 NUMERICAL MODELLING
Numerical models involving FDA can offer several
approximations to predict true solutions. Often the
problem being modelled is complex and has to be sim-
plified to obtain a solution. Two of the major factors
which have a vast impact on both the real and model
piles are
1. The constitutive properties of the sand and
2. The soil structure interaction at the interface over
the structural surface.
The finite difference program FLAC 3D is used
for the study. The method of solution in FLAC 3D
is characterized by the following three approaches
Finite difference approach (First-order space and
time derivatives of a variable are approximated
by finite differences, assuming linear variations of
the variable over finite space and time intervals,
respectively.)

619
Figure 1. Maximum Unbalanced Force Vs Number of
Steps.
Figure 2. 8 Nodded brick element.
Discrete-model approach (The continuous medium
is replaced by a discrete equivalentone in which
all forces involved (applied and interactive) are con-
centrated at the nodes of a three-dimensional mesh
used in the medium representation.)
Dynamic-solution approach (The inertial terms in
the equations of motion are used as numerical means
to reach the equilibrium state of the system under
consideration.)

3 DESCRIPTION OF THE APPROACH

FLAC 3D uses an explicit time-marching finite dif-

ference solution scheme for every time step, the
calculation sequence can be summarized as follows
1. Nodal forces are calculated from stresses, applied
loads and body forces (velocity and displacement
vary linearly and stress and strain are constant
within an element)
2. The equations of motion are invoked to derive new
nodal velocities and displacements
3. Element strain rates are derived from nodal veloc-
ities Figure 3. Two nodded pile sel coordinate system and 12
4. New stresses are derived from strain rates, using degrees of freedom of the beam finite element.
the material constitutive law
equilibrium if the net nodal-force vector (the resultant
The sequence is repeated at every time step, and the
force) at each grid point is zero.
maximum out-of-balance force in the model is moni-
Figure 1 shows the variation of the unbalanced force
tored. This force will either approach zero, indicating
Vs the time step. It is observed the state static equi-
that the system is reaching an equilibrium state, or
librium was reached at the 7000th step at which the
it will approach a constant, nonzero value, indicating
unbalanced force is almost zero.
that a portion (or all) of the system is at steady-state
(plastic) flow of material. In this.

3.2 Modelling with FLAC 3D

3.1 Static solution in FLAC 3D
A static or steady-state solution is reached in FLAC 3D
when the rate of change of kinetic energy in a model
approaches a negligible value. This is accomplished by
damping the equations of motion. A model is in exact
Soil block in FLAC 3D is modelled using brick
shaped eight nodded elements (Figure 1) of elastic
plastic Mohr-Coulomb model. Piles/beams are mod-
elled as two nodded structural finite element segments
(Figure 2).

620
 Table 3. List of Analysis.

Soil surface Relative density (%)

Horizontal 30,45,70
1V:2H 30,45,70
1V:1.5H 30,45,70

Figure 4. Discretized finite element model.

Table 1. Soil Properties.

Sand

Material model 30% 45% 70% Unit

Figure 5. Bending momentVs Depth curve for 1V:2H slope.
Dry Soil Weight 16 17 18.5 kN/m3
Youngs Modulus 30,000 45,000 60,000 kN/m2
Poissons Ratio 0.333 0.319 0.291 5 LIST OF ANALYSIS CARRIED OUT
Cohesion 0 0 0 kN/m2
Friction Angle 30 32 36 degree List of analysis carried out for the various parameters
Bulk modulus 3.0 107 4.14 107 4.7 107 kN/m2 is shown in the table 3.
Shear modulus 1.1 107 1.7 107 2.3 107 kN/m2

Ref. Muthukkumaran et al. 2008. 6 RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

Table 2. Pile Properties. 6.1 Model validation

Figure 5 shows the bending moment variation of
Description Pile Unit Muthukkumaran et al. and finite difference analysis.
It is observed that the value of the Maximum bending
Youngs modulus 7.65 104 kN/m2
Poissons ratio 0.33
moment obtained by FDA is having good agreement
Cross sectional area 7.54 105 m2 with Muthukkumaran et al. (2008) and the location
Polar moment of inertia 1.09 108 m3 of the maximum bending moment is also at the same
Moment of inertia 5.43 109 m4 depth.
Perimeter 0.07854 m Figure 6 shows the maximum bending variation
for the increase in relative density and it is observed
Ref. Muthukkumaran et al. 2008. that the variation of bending moment obtained through
finite difference analysis is similar to that obtained by
The typical finite element discretization of the Muthukkumaran et al. (2008).
model is shown in Figure 4. From these two figures it is observed that the result
obtained by finite difference analysis is having good
agreement with Muthukkumaran et al. (2008) and
4 MATERIAL PROPERTIES hence the developed FD model can be used for further
parametric study. The following parameters are con-
4.1 Soil and structural properties sidered to study the effect of slope on laterally loaded
The analyses are conducted with sand of various rel- pile.
ative densities of 30%, 45% and 70%. The input
parameters for soil and structural elements are taken
6.2 Parametric study
from Muthukkumaran et al. (2008). The input values
of soil and structural elements are presented in Table-1 From figure 7 & 8 it is seen that the increase in sur-
& 2 respectively. charge load increases the bending moment. This is

621
Figure 6. Relative Density Vs Maximum Bending moment
for 1V:2H for 20 kN load.
Figure 7. Bending moment Vs Depth curve for 1V:1.5H and
30% relative density.
due to increase in lateral soil movement. The maxi-
mum bending moment of 10900 Nmm is observed for
30% relative density with 1V:1.5H slope and minimum
bending moment of 3040 Nmm is observed for 70%
relative density with zero slope. The depth of maxi-
mum bending moment is occurred at a depth of 14D
for zero slope and 16D for 1V: 1.5H and 1V: 2H slope.
Figure 8 shows effect of relative density on maxi-
mum bending moment for zero, 1V:2H and 1V:1.5H
slopes with 20 kN surcharge load. The increase in rela-
tive density decreases the maximum bending moment
for all three slope angles. Increase of relative density
from 30% to 70% decreases the maximum bending
moment by 30%, 35% and 46% for 1V:1.5H, 1V:2H
and 0 slopes respectively.
Figure 10 shows the effect of slope on maximum
bending moment for 30%, 45% and 70% relative
density with 20 kN surcharge load. The increase in
steepness of slope from zero to 1V:1.5H increase the
maximum bending moment by 45%, 53% and 55% for
30%, 45% and 70% respectively.
622
Figure 8. Bending moment Vs Depth curve for zero slope
and 70% relative density.
Figure 9. Relative density Vs Max. Bending moment for
20 kN load.
From figure 11 & 12 it is seen that maximum lateral
displacement of the pile is maximum at the top and
as the slope of the soil increase the displacement of
the pile is reduced due to the reduction in the passive
resistance.
Figure 13 shows the effect of relative density on
displacement for zero, 1V:2H and 1V:1.5H slopes
with 20kN surcharge load. The maximum displace-
ment of 57 mm is observed for 30% relative density
with 1V:1.5H slope and a minimum displacement of
27 mm is observed for 70% relative density with zero
slope. Increase in relative density from 30% to 70%
decreases the maximum displacement by 42%, 31%
and 43% for 1V:1.5H, 1V:2H and 0 slopes respectively.
Figure 14 shows the effect of slope on maximum
displacement for 30%, 45% and 70% relative density
with 20 kN surcharge load. The increase in steepness
of slope from zero to 1V:1.5H increases the maximum
displacement by 45%, 54% and 46% for 30%, 45%
and 70% respectively.
 Figure 12. Displacement Vs Depth curve for zero slope and
Figure 10. Steepness of slope angle vs maximum bending 70% relative density.
moment for 20 kN load.

Figure 11. Displacement Vs Depth curve for 1V:1.5H and Figure 13. Relative density vs Displacement for 20 kN load.
70% relative density.

7 CONCLUSION

The results obtained through the finite difference anal-

ysis were compared with the existing results and found
to be more reliable and can be applied to study the
effect of slope on laterally loaded piles. This paper
described a finite difference approach for the lateral
response of pile located at the crest of slopes under
passive loading under various slopes of 0 degree,
33 degree 40 min, 26degree 33min and for rela-
tive densities of 30%, 45%, and 70% were analysed.
When the ground surface changes from horizontal to
1V:1.5H, the maximum bending moment was found
to be increased by 45%, 53% and 55% for relative
densities of 30%, 45% and 70% respectively and the
maximum displacement was found to be increased
by 45%, 54% and 46%. As relative density increases
from 30% to 70%, the maximum bending moment Figure 14. Steepness of slope vs Displacement for 20 kN
decreases by 30%, 35% and 46% for 1V:1.5H, 1V:2H load.

623
and 0 slopes respectively and maximum displacement
decreases by 42%, 31% and 43%.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Funding for these studies was provided by Department
of Science and Technology (DST) under Fast Track for
Young Scientists Program (SR/FTP/ETA-08/2007),
and this support is gratefully acknowledged.
REFERENCES
Broms, B.B., Pandey, P.C. and Goh, A.T.C. (1987) The lat-
eral displacement of piles from embankment loads, Proc.,
Japan society of Civil Engineers, Tokyo, Japan, 338 8(12),
pg: 111
Carter, J.P. 1982 A numerical method for pile deformation
due to nearby surface loads, Proceedings of 4th Interna
tional Conference Numer. Methods in Geo-mech., Vol. 2,
811817
Ellis, E.A. and Springman, S.M. 2001, Modeling of soil-
structure interaction for piled bridge abutment in plane
strain FEM analyses, Computers and Geotechnics 28 pg:
7998
624
Goh, A.T.C., Teh, C.I. and Wong, K.S. 1996 Analysis of pile
subjected to embankment induced lateral soil movement,
journal of Geotechnical and geo Environmental Eng.,
ASCE, 123(9) 792801
Kim, J.S. and Barker, R.M. 2002. Effect of live load surcharge
on retaining walls and abutments, journal of Geotechnical
and geo Environmental Eng., ASCE, 127(6), 499509
Muthukkumaran, K., Sundaravadivelu, R. and Gandhi, S.R.
2008, Effect of slope on P-Y curves due to Surcharge load.
Soils and Foundation Vol 28, No. Japanese geotechnical
society
Matlock, H. and Ripperger, E.A. 1956, Procedure and instru-
entation for tests on a laterally loaded pile, Proceedings
of the 8th Texas Conference on Soil Mechanics and Foun-
dation Engineering, Bureau of Engineering Research,
University of Texas, Special Publication 29, 139
Prakash, S. and Kumar, S. 1996 Non linear lateral pile deflec-
tion prediction in sand, journal of geotechnical Engineers,
ASCE, 112: 130138
Pise, P.J. (1984) Lateral response of free-head pile, Journal
of Geotechnical Engineering, ASCE, 110: 18051809
Poulos, H.G. and Davis, E.H. (1980) Pile foundation analysis
and design, John Wiley and Sons, New York
Springman, S.M. 1989 Lateral loading of piles due to Sim-
ulated embankment construction, Ph.D. thesis, Univ. of
Cambridge, England
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Ground displacements due to pile driving in Gothenburg clay

T. Edstam & A. Kullingsj

Skanska Sweden AB, Gothenburg, Sweden

ABSTRACT: A 1 km long highway bridge is under construction in Gothenburg, Sweden. The ground consists
of soft clay to a depth of 80 to 100 m. Therefore, the bridge pier foundations will be supported by 50 to 80 m
long precast concrete friction piles. During pile driving for one of the bridge piers vertical and horizontal
ground displacements were measured on and below the ground surface. The measurements are compared with
the response obtained from some empirical and semi-analytical theoretical models as well as the response
obtained from three dimensional finite element analyses. Generally, there is a good agreement between the
measurements and the models. However, the empirical and semi-analytical models are based on several idealised
assumptions which make these methods less suitable for assessing ground displacements in more complex
situations. Therefore, additional FE-analyses have been performed in order to estimate how some more complex
field conditions affect the ground displacements.

1 INTRODUCTION Table 1. Typical properties of the clay at the test site.

The Partihallen highway bridge is under construction Unit weight [kN/m3 ] 15 to 17

in Gothenburg, Sweden. The 1 km long bridge will be Water content [%] 60 to 90
supported by a large number of bridge piers, founded Liquid limit [%] 70 to100
Sensitivity [] 5 to 20
on precast concrete piles with typical lengths in the Undrained shear strength* [kPa] 10 to 15
range of 50 to 80 m. The piles for the new bridge Over consolidation ratio [] 1.1 to 1.5
piers are partly driven close to an existing railway
bridge being sensitive to (differential) displacements. *Strength at the top of the clay; the increase with depth is
In order to gain more insight in how ground displace- typically 1.0 to 1.5 kPa/m.
ments, due to pile driving, evolve and may be assessed
the study described in this paper was undertaken. The
study comprised extensive measurements of evolving
ground displacements due to pile driving for one of
the bridge piers. Theoretical analyses were also per-
formed, based on some theoretical models reported in
the literature. Furthermore, simulations were made in
3D FEM.
At the test site the ground surface is almost flat,
even though some minor excavations were done before
pile driving. The ground consists of soft high plastic
marine clay to a depth of more than 80 m, with the
ground water level located about 1 m below the ground
surface. In Table 1 some typical properties of the clay
are given.

2 FIELD MEASUREMENTS
The field measurements were performed in connec-
tion to pile driving for the bridge pier foundations
A10, A11 and A12, see Figure 1. Focus was put on
ground displacements due to pile driving for bridge
pier A11, even though the measurements also gave
some information on ground displacements during
piling for bridge piers A10 and A12.
Figure 1. Plan view showing the bridge piers, the measur-
ing lines (N, S and W) and the measuring equipment (open
symbol = settlement gauge; filled symbol = settlement
gauge & bellow hose & inclinometer).
The instrumentation was installed along three lines
N(orth), S(outh) and W(est) and consisted of a total
of 6 inclinometers, 6 bellow hoses and 18 settlement
gauges. The inclinometers and bellow hoses captured

625
Figure 2. Plan view showing the location of the 60 piles
supporting bridge pier A11. Filled symbols represent the last
three piles that were driven.

relative ground displacements down to a depth of

about 45 m while the settlement gauges captured dis-
placements at ground surface. In order to capture the
absolute displacements below ground surface, the data
obtained from the bellow hoses and inclinometers (not
reaching firm layers) were adjusted in order to fit the
displacements at the ground surface, measured with
the settlement gauges. The inclinometers at positions
3, 6, 10 and 12 were of an automatic type which made
it possible to measure ground displacements with a
time interval of 10 minutes.
The other instruments were measured manually
as the pile driving evolved, thus necessitating inter-
mediate pausing of the pile driving every now and
then.
The foundation for bridge pier A11 consists of
a total of 60 precast concrete friction piles with a
length of 52 m. Each pile has a cross sectional area
of 275 275 mm2 and a typical spacing of 1.3 m, see
Figure 2. Most of the piles have an inclination of 9:1
to 7:1 (vertical to horizontal).
The pile installation scheme was planned in such
a way as to try to produce a symmetric displace-
ment pattern around the bridge pier. Thus, the piles
in row A were driven first, then the piles in row B,
etc, finishing with the piles in row E. Within each
row piling started from the central part evolving to
the south, then continuing from the central part and
evolving to the north. Generally speaking this scheme
was followed, but with some minor adjustments due to
practical reasons.
Some of the bellow hoses and inclinometers were
installed and calibrated in the end of December 2008.
In early January 2009 the piles for bridge pier A10
were installed. Then, the remaining instruments were
installed and all instruments were calibrated. There-
after, all 60 piles, but three, were driven for bridge
pier A11 during a period of two weeks in the begin-
ning of February 2009. During this period a major
part of the measurements took place. In order to not
delay the construction works too much some of the
piles for bridge pier A12 were also installed during this
period, even though most of the piles for bridge pier
A12 were installed in the end of February. The manual
instruments were read at a few occasions until the end
of May, while the automatic inclinometers continued
registering several times a day. However, no additional
Figure 3. Measured displacements at ground surface; (a)
heave; (b) horizontal displacements in parallel with lines N,
S and W.
ground displacements were registered after the end of
the pile driving for bridge pier A12.
As previously mentioned, measurements were made
at a large number of occasions and locations before,
during and after pile driving. However, in this paper
only some of the ground displacements, due to the
installation of piles for bridge foundation A11, will be
discussed.
The measured horizontal and vertical displacements
at the ground surface along lines N, S and W are shown
in Figure 3, at two stages of the pile installation. In
the first stage 18 piles were installed while 57 piles
were installed at the second stage. As may be seen
the patterns along lines N and S are very similar, as
expected. The displacements along line W are larger,
at the same distance from the centre of the bridge pier,
which again is as expected.
The measured horizontal and vertical ground dis-
placements at positions 3 and 6 (cf. Figure 1), after
the installation of 57 piles, are shown in Figure 4.
Two curves are shown for each measurement at posi-
tions 3 and 6. The difference between these curves
reflects the accuracy of the measurements made with
the settlement gauges.
3 MODELLING OF GROUND
DISPLACEMENTS
In order to assess the evolving ground displace-
ments due to pile driving three different approaches,

626

Figure 4. Measured displacements at and below ground
surface at positions 3 and 6; (a) heave; (b) horizontal
displacements in parallel with lines N and S.
requiring very different amount of work effort, were
adopted.
A first approach, applied before the field measure-
ments took place, was to use an empirical method,
which is frequently used in Sweden. The method was
originally suggested by Hellman (1981). However, it
was developed further by S-E Rehnman at the Royal
Institute of Technology, but not published until in
Olsson & Holm (1993). In this method it is assumed
that the ground surface heave is limited by a line start-
ing at the pile tip and ending at the ground surface, with
a 45 inclination to the vertical, see Figure 5. Further-
more, it is assumed that the horizontal displacement
at the ground surface is equal to the ground surface
heave. In the present study it is also assumed that the
volume of the displaced soil corresponds to the total
volume of the driven piles. The horizontal and vertical
displacements at ground surface, h and v , can then
be calculated as:
where V = total volume of the piles driven into the
ground; L = pile length; a, b = horizontal extent of the
pile group; and x = distance from the edge of the pile
group (0 x L).
A second approach, partly applied before the field
measurements took place, was to use the shallow strain
path method (SSPM) introduced by Sagaseta (1987)
627
Figure 5. The Rehnman-method, which is frequently used
in Sweden (after Olsson & Holm, 1993).
and described in more detail in Sagaseta et al (1997).
In this method the installation of a pile is approximated
to a spherical point source penetrating an inviscid fluid
from the ground surface down to the level of the pile
tip. In order to account for the incompressibility of
the fluid a point sink is introduced, moving from the
ground surface to a position above ground surface,
corresponding to the pile length. In order to model
the stress free ground surface corrective shear stresses
must be applied radially along the ground surface. The
analyses in the present study are based on the small
strain version of the SSPM and the assumption that
the strains and corrective shear stresses at the ground
surface are linked by a linear-elastic relation. The hor-
izontal (radial) and vertical displacements at ground
surface, r and v , due to the installation of a single pile
with a circular cross-section, can then be calculated as:
where R = pile radius; L = pile length; and r = radial
distance from the pile.
The effect of several piles is accounted for by super-
position. Unfortunately, closed form solutions do not
exist for calculating displacements below ground sur-
face. However, in the present study the equations
presented in Sagaseta et al (1997) for a single pile
were solved numerically using the engineering calcu-
lation software MathCad. Again, the resulting effect
of several piles is accounted for by superposition.
As shown in Section 4 the calculated response,
if applying the Sagaseta-method, and the measured
response agrees quite well, especially at ground sur-
face. Therefore, several simplifying approaches were
tested in order to make the Sagaseta-method easier to
apply in practice, as described below.
A simplified way to superpose the effect of a large
number of piles was tried out. In this approach the 60
piles for bridge pier A11 are replaced by three equiva-
lent super-piles. Each super-pile replaces a cluster of
piles, whose outside edge forms a square. Each super-
pile is horizontally located in the centre of the cluster it
replaces and with its cross-sectional area being equal
to the sum of the cross-sectional area of the piles it
Figure 6. Calculated heave at and below ground surface at
positions 3, 6, and 10, using the Sagaseta-method with various
simplifications.
replaces. Of course, this approach cannot be used for
assessing ground displacements very close to an indi-
vidual pile or in between the piles. However, as shown
in Figure 6 this approach works very well in the present
case.
Several piles supporting bridge pier A11 are
inclined, which is difficult to account for when apply-
ing the Sagaseta-method. In order to assess the influ-
ence of this feature, calculations were made with
two different assumptions regarding the horizontal
location of the (vertical) super-piles; based on the
horizontal location of the pile tops and the pile tips
respectively. As shown in Figure 6 the calculated
ground displacements differ somewhat, but within
acceptable limits.
A third approach, applied after the field tests were
finished, was to use the finite element method (FEM).
Since the situation at hand is three dimensional it
was decided to use 3D FEM (PLAXIS 3D Founda-
tion, Version 2.2), but still trying to keep things as
simple as possible. Some preliminary tests were done
for a single pile using the volumetric strain feature
available in PLAXIS (Brinkgreve, 2007) and assum-
ing the soil to behave as a linear-elastic solid. Since
the results seemed promising further preliminary tests
were done, including the introduction of super-piles,
in the same way as in the Sagaseta-method. Eventu-
ally, the installation of the 60 piles for bridge pier A11
was simulated using three super-piles, as indicated in
Figure 9. It should be noted that the governing bound-
ary condition is of displacement type (volumetric
expansion). Thus, the magnitude of Youngs modulus
has no effect on the resulting displacements in the sur-
rounding soil.A Poissons ratio of 0.495 was used since
the soil consists of low permeable clay.
4 COMPARISON BETWEEN MEASURED AND
MODELLED GROUND DISPLACEMENTS
The measured and calculated displacements at the
ground surface are shown in Figure 7. Both the
Sagaseta-method and the 3D FEM simulation seem to
capture the measured ground displacements quite well,
628
Figure 7. Measured and calculated displacements at ground
surface along line N and S; (a) heave; (b) in horizontal
direction in parallel with lines N and S.
both in terms of magnitude and pattern. The Rehnman-
method seems to capture the right order of magnitude
fairly good, but not the right pattern.
The measured and calculated ground displacements
at positions 3 and 6 are shown in Figure 8. Again, both
the Sagaseta-method and the 3D FEM simulation seem
to capture the measured ground displacements quite
well.
5 CALCULATED GROUND DISPLACEMENTS
FOR MORE COMPLEX FIELD CONDITIONS
A great advantage of 3D FEM compared to the pre-
viously discussed analytical methods is the possibility
to account for the effect of more complex field condi-
tions. If necessary, a non-linear stress-strain behaviour
and time effects may be accounted for, at least qualita-
tively. However, the previously described FE-analyses
indicate that very simple assumptions, i.e. a linear-
elastic soil model, the introduction of super-piles and
neglecting of time effects, will suffice for capturing the
measured behaviour. Therefore, these simple assump-
tions were maintained when analysing the ground
displacements for some more complex scenarios as
described below.
A construction is wished in place in the 3D FE-
model, see Figure 9, before the installation of the piles
for bridge pier A11 is simulated. The construction has
an area of 10 20 m2 with its centre being located

Figure 8. Measured and calculated displacements at and
below ground surface at positions 3 and 6; (a) heave; (b)
horizontal displacements in parallel with lines N and S.
Figure 9. View of the 3D FE-model used for modelling
pile installation for bridge pier A11, including the effect of a
hypothetical bridge pier existing before pile driving.
36 m from the centre of bridge pier A11, along line N
(cf. Figure 1).
Three scenarios were studied, in which the construc-
tion consists of various combinations of the following
features: a vertical surface load of 50 kPa; a 0.5 m thick
concrete slab; 65 friction piles with a length of 52 m
and a spacing of 1.5 m, see Figure 9.
The concrete slab is modelled using the floor fea-
ture while the piles are modelled using the embedded
pile feature, see Brinkgreve (2007). In both cases, the
629
Figure 10. Measured shear modulus in Gothenburg clay
(from Kullingsj, 2007).
Figure 11. FE-calculated ground surface displacements
along line N for some hypothetical scenarios.
axial and bending stiffness of the structural members
are accounted for.
The introduction of a 50 kPa surface load has no
influence on the displacements due to pile driving.This
is a direct consequence of the use of the linear-elastic
model for describing the soil. However, the deviatoric
strain, due to pile driving for bridge pier A11, is in
the order of 0.001 in the area of the surface load. For
such a small strain the shear modulus of Gothenburg
clay does not vary too much, see Figure 10. Thus, the
effect of the surface load would probably be rather
small if a non-linear material model had been used in
the FE-analyses.
The introduction of the concrete slab has a negligi-
ble effect on the heave at and below the ground surface,
see Figure 11 and Figure 12a. The horizontal displace-
ments at the location of the slab (e.g. position 3) will
of course be affected at the ground surface, but this
effect will decrease with increasing distance from the
slab, see Figure 11 and Figure 12b. These effects are
a consequence of the relatively low bending stiffness
and relatively high axial stiffness of the concrete slab.
Founding the concrete slab on friction piles will
reduce the heave at ground surface at the location of
the slab (e.g. position 3), see Figure 11. This reduction
will successively decrease with depth, see Figure 12a.
Below a certain depth the heave will increase com-
pared to the situation without piles. This is due to the
relatively high axial stiffness of the piles and the load
transfer mechanism between the friction piles and the
surrounding soil. On the other hand the piles will have

Figure 12. Calculated displacements at and below ground
surface at positions 3 and 6 for some hypothetical scenarios;
(a) heave; (b) horizontal displacements in parallel with line N.
a negligible effect on the horizontal displacements due
to the high slenderness of the piles, see Figure 11 and
Figure 12b.
6 CONCLUSIONS
Construction works in urban areas require reliable
methods for assessing the environmental impact. In
this paper the evolving ground displacements due
to pile driving are treated. Based on the performed
field measurements and analyses the following can be
concluded:
For ideal field conditions (flat ground surface,
homogenous ground conditions, etc), the Rehnman-
method may be used in order to make a rough estimate
of the displacements at ground surface.
In order to get a better estimate of ground displace-
ments for ideal field conditions the Sagaseta- method
may be used. This method may also be used to estimate
displacements below ground surface.
When applying the Sagaseta-method a cluster of
piles may be approximated with a single super-pile.
630
This is a pragmatic way to make the Sagaseta- method
easier to apply in practice, especially if a large number
of piles should be accounted for. However, super-piles
should only be introduced when estimating ground
displacements at some distance from the piling area.
The ground displacements may also be estimated
by 3D FEM, using the concept of super-piles and
a simple linear-elastic material model. However, for
ideal field conditions the benefit of using 3D FEM is
limited compared to the Sagaseta-method.
3D FEM has its merits when the field conditions are
more complex, as demonstrated for some hypothetical
scenarios. The concept of super-piles and the use of
a simple linear-elastic material model, will probably
suffice also in such a case, if ground displacements at
some distance from the piled area are of main interest.
However, well-documented case histories are needed
in order to judge if this hypothesis is correct.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The financial support from the following organisations
and companies is greatly acknowledged: The Devel-
opment Fund of the Swedish Construction Industry,
Skanska Sweden AB, The Swedish Road Adminis-
tration, The Swedish Pile Commission, The Swedish
Geotechnical Society, Ruukki and finally Infra
Centre of Competence at Chalmers University of
Technology.
REFERENCES
Brinkgreve, R. B. J. (ed.) 2007. PLAXIS 3D Foundation
Users Manual.
Hellman, L. 1981. On foundation technique in urban areas (in
Swedish; original title Om grundlggningsteknik i ttort).
Byggnadskonst, Vol. 73 No. 10: 1316.
Kullingsj, A. 2007. Effects of deep excavations in soft clay
on the immediate surroundings. Analysis of the possibility
to predict deformations and reactions against the retain-
ing systems. Diss. Chalmers University of Technology,
Gothenburg.
Olsson, C. & Holm, G. 1993. Piled foundations (in Swedish;
original title Plgrundlggning). Swedish Geotechnical
Institute, Linkping.
Sagaseta, C. 1987. Analysis of undrained soil deformation
due to ground loss. Geotechnique, Vol. 37 No. 3: 301320.
Sagaseta, C., Whittle, A. J. & Santagata, M. 1997. Defor-
mation analysis of shallow penetration in clay. Interna-
tional Journal for Numerical and Analytical Methods in
Geomechanics, Vol. 21 No. 10: 687719.
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Lateral loading of pile foundations due to embankment construction

A. Feddema & J. Breedeveld

Deltares Geo-engineering, Delft, The Netherlands

A.F. van Tol

Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands
Deltares Geo-engineering, Delft, The Netherlands

ABSTRACT: One of the research projects within the Dutch Delft Cluster research programme is Lateral
loading of pile foundations due to embankment construction. As part of this research project, centrifuge tests
have been performed in Deltares geotechnical centrifuge. The results of the centrifuge tests have been evaluated
with several calculation methods, such as the Finite Element Method (2D and 3D), in order to validate prediction
models for soil deformations and bending moments in foundation piles. In this paper the evaluation results of
the centrifuge tests with the Finite Element Method (PLAXIS) are presented.

1 INTRODUCTION

In 2004 GeoDelft/Deltares performed a test series in

the geocentrifuge. The objective of these tests was to
gain insight in the behaviour of laterally loaded piles,
installed next to an embankment at different stages of
the embankment construction process.
The geocentrifuge tests were conducted to gener-
ate an extra case among four field tests that have
been used to validate calculation methods used in the
Netherlands to predict (1) horizontal soil deformations
induced by raising an embankment and (2) the result-
ing lateral loads on a pile foundation (Feddema et al.
2009).
In this paper the measured horizontal soil deforma-
tions near a pile, installed in the embankment toe are
compared with the horizontal soil deformations pre-
dicted with an empirical calculation method (Bourges
et al. 1979) and with 2D and 3D FEM analyses with
PLAXIS. Since horizontal soil deformations are hard
to predict, also this empirical method has been used
to asses its accuracy and to compared it with the FEM
prediction of the horizontal soil deformations. More-
over, the measured bending moments in the piles are
compared to the 2D and 3D FEM predictions.
With regard to the dimensions, the prototype dimen-
sions are used in the predictions.
2 CENTRIFUGE TESTS
2.1 Test layout and
In the geocentrifuge a model scale of 1:100 has been
applied. In order to achieve stress conditions in the
geocentrifuge similar as in the prototype situation an
acceleration of 100 g was applied. As a result, 1 mm in
Figure 1. Cross section of test lay out with instrumentation.
the scale model corresponds to 100 mm in prototype.
Figure 1 shows a cross-section of the scale model.
The scale model was built up in a strongbox, which
has one side made of Perspex. First a foundation layer
of Baskarp sand with a thickness of 50 mm has been
applied. Then a 100 mm thick layer of Speswhite clay
was installed, which represents the soft Holocene clay
and peat layers in the Netherlands.
At the start of the centrifuge test the groundwater
table was set at a level equal to the top of the clay
layer and was maintained at this level during the test.
After reconsolidation of the clay at 100 g the actual test
started.
During the test in the geocentrifuge a 50 mm (5 m
in prototype) thick embankment was constructed, by
applying an embankment of Baskarp sand on top of the
Speswhite clay in five construction stages (see Table 1
for construction stages).
During the test two piles were installed in the toe
of the embankment; the first pile is installed after
reconsolidation of the clay and prior to the embank-
ment construction, while the second one is installed
directly after completion the embankment. The piles
were installed during the test by pushing them through

631
Table 1. Construction stages in geocentrifuge test. Table 2. Soil properties of Speswhite clay.

Embankment load Parameter Value Unit

Time
Stage Description [m] [kPa] [days] dry/wet unit weight d /sat 16/16 kPa
compression ratio CR 0.178
1 installation pile 1 0 0 0 recompression ratio RR 0.0233
2 stage 1 1.8 30.6 0 initial void ratio e0 1.551
3 stage 2 2.6 44.2 7 vertical permeability kv 1.8 104 m/day
4 stage 3 3.4 57.8 42 effective cohesion c 0 kPa
5 stage 4 4.2 71.4 126 effective angle of internal friction  22

6 stage 5 5 85 371 undrained shear strength cu 11 kPa

7 installation pile 2 5 85 581 normally consolidated earth pressure 0.64
8 end of test 5 85 1825 coefficient at rest Knc
0

the effective embankment load in kPa will decrease during

the test due to settlement below the groundwater table.
Table 3. PLAXIS parameters for soil properties of
Speswhite.
the clay layer 4.1 m into the sand layer with a hydraulic
plunger. The top of the piles was fixed between two Model
pressure gauges that allowed for a limited rotation of
the pile head. Parameter SS SSC HS
Brass square tubes were used to represent the piles
with prototype measurements of the free length of dry/wet unit weight 16/16 16/16 16/16
15.15 m and an outside diameter of 500 mm. These d /sat [kN/m3 ]
modified compression 0.085 0.085 n/a
model piles have a bending stiffness (prototype) of index []
approximately 1.39 105 kNm2 , which is comparable modified swelling index 0.022 0.022 n/a
to an un-fractured prefabricated square concrete pile []
with a diameter of 500 mm. This type of pile is often modified creep index n/a 1.3 104 n/a
used in the Netherlands for bridge abutments. []
During test the following sensors, of which the posi- triaxial stiffness Eref
50 n/a n/a 1,870
tions in the cross-section are indicated in Figure 1, [kN/m2 ]
collected measurement data: oedometer stiffness n/a n/a 1,050
Eref
oed [kN/m ]
2

1 soil pressure meter (GDD1) unload-reload stiffness n/a n/a 1,230

7 piezometers (W1 t/m W7) Eref
ur [kN/m ]
2

2 model piles equipped with 6 strain gauges each normally consolidated 0.64 0.64 0.64
(R1 t/m R6). earth
pressure coefficient at
The horizontal and vertical soil deformations in the rest Knc0 []
clay layer were determined using video analysis of a Poissons ratio unload- 0.2 0.2 0.2
marker grid that had been applied to the clay. reload ur []
cohesion c [kPa] 0.5 0.5 0.5
angle of internal friction 22 22 22
 [ ]
2.2 Production and properties of speswhite clay vertical permeability 2 104 2 104 2 104
The Speswhite clay used in the test was obtained by kv [m/day]
enforced consolidation of a 0.29 m thick slurry sample. horizontal permeability 4 104 4 104 4 104
kh [m/day]
Therefore an air pressure of 50 kPa was applied on top
of the slurry in a consolidation cell.According to (Ladd
1986) this results in an undrained shear strength of the
clay of approximately 11 kPa.
In the consolidation cell the Speswhite clay slurry (c ) and angle of internal friction ( ) were assessed.
sample was compressed with 0.09 m at the end-of- At first, the lateral earth pressure coefficient at rest for
consolidation. It was assumed that 95% of this (i.e. the normally consolidated Speswhite clay (Knc 0 ) was
0.0855 m) comprised primary compression and only taken from (Al-Tabba 1987). Later on, the results from
5% creep deformation. Moreover, from oedometer K0 -CRS tests confirmed this value.
tests on Speswhite clay from earlier tests it was con- The soil parameters for the Speswhite clay as
cluded that the recompression ratio of Speswhite clay mentioned above are summarized in Table 2.
should be taken 7.64 times stiffer than the primary In addition, a suitable set of Speswhite clay strength
compression ratio. and stiffness parameter values for the FEM analyses
Based on results of triaxial tests on Speswhite clay (PLAXIS) have been derived from simulation of the
conducted in the past, values for the effective cohesion clay production process (see Table 3).

632
Table 4. PLAXIS Mohr Coulomb parameters for sand.
Parameter Value Unit
dry/wet unit weight d /sat 17/19 kN/m3
Youngs Modulus E 10,000 kN/m2
Poissons ratio 0.3
effective cohesion c 0.1 kPa
effective angle of internal friction  42
angle of dilatancy 3
horizontal and vertical permeability k 1 m/day
3 CALCULATIONS
3.1 Introduction of methods used
The following calculation methods are presented in
this paper for the calculation of the soil deformations
near the piles and the resulting bending moments in
the piles, both at the end of the geocentrifuge test:
empirical method of Bourges & Mieussens
(Bourges et al. 1979), to predict horizontal soil
deformations;
2D FEM analysis, to predict horizontal soil defor-
mations;
2D FEM analysis with the pile modeled as a wall
using plate elements, to predict bending moments
in the piles;
3D FEM analysis, to predict bending moments in
the piles.
The Bourges & Mieussens method is prefered to
other empirical or analytical methods because of the
use of the stability factor as a parameter that deter-
mines the horizontal soil deformation. The presented
FEM results have been calculated with PLAXIS 2D
v.8.6 and PLAXIS 3D Tunnel v.2.0.
3.2 Material and model properties
3.2.1 Plaxis FEM analyses
In the 2D PLAXIS analyses the behaviour of the
Speswhite clay in the geocentrifuge tests is mod-
eled with three different constitutive models: the
Soft Soil (SS), Soft Soil Creep (SSC) and Harden-
ing Soil (HS) model. Therefore the soil properties
in Table 2 have been modified to the corresponding
model parameter values (see Table 3).
For the sand layers the PLAXIS Mohr-Coulomb
model has been used (Table 4).
The model piles have a bending stiffness of approx-
imately 1.39 105 kNm2 and an axial stiffness of
approximately 6.34 106 kN. For the fixation of the
pile heads a rotation stiffness of 50,000 kNm/rad has
been used.
For the 2D FEM analysis with the piles modeled
as plate elements, the bending stiffness of the plate
elements is reduced with a model factor S in order to
simulate 3D behaviour from:
Table 5. Parameter for Bourges & Mieussens method.
Parameter Value Unit
X/L 1.07
D/B 0.27
Thickness D of compressible soil layer 10 m
Total settlement St 0.85 m
Initial settlement Si 0.09 m
Stability factor F 1
Movement factor 2.38
depends on the factor of safety and the ratio of the length
of the slope (L) and the distance between the crown of the
embankment and the point of interest (X).
extrapolated value.
where EImodel = bending stiffness of the beam ele-
ment in FEM model (kNm2 /m ); EIpile = bending stiff-
ness of pile (kNm2 ); S = 3D/2D model factor ();
Dpile = pile diameter (m).
The bending moment in the piles can be derived
from:
where Mpile = bending moment in the pile [kNm];
Mmodel = bending moment beam element [kNm/m ];
S = 3D/2D model factor; Dpile = pile diameter (m).
In the Dutch design practice a value for the model
factor S ranging from 1.5 till 3 is often used for single
piles or pile groups with a large centre-to-centre dis-
tance. This value has also been used in the 2D FEM
analyses presented in this paper.
3.2.2 Model properties empirical method
The required embankment settlement, including creep,
for the Bourges & Mieussens method is determined
with the calculation program MSettle, in which the
Dutch Koppejan method (Visschedijk et al. 2009) is
used (see also paragraph 3.3).
The values for the parameters required for the
Bourges & Mieussens method are summarized in
Table 5. In this paper only the horizontal soil defor-
mations at the end of the test are presented.
The maximum horizontal soil displacement can be
derived from:
where St = total settlement (m); Si = initial settle-
ment (m); h;max = maximum horizontal soil displace-
ment (m); = movement factor (); D = thickness of
compressible soil layer (m).
For compressible soil layers with a relatively uni-
form stiffness, the distribution of horizontal soil
displacements within the compressible layer can be
derived from:
633
Figure 2. Measured versus calculated embankment settle- Figure 3. Measured versus calculated (PLAXIS) free field
ment. horizontal soil deformations at the pile location at the end of
the test.
where h = horizontal soil displacement (m); h;max =
maximum horizontal soil displacement (m); z = depth
(m); D = thickness of compressible soil layer (m).

3.3 Settlement of embankment

In Figure 2 the time-settlement curves of the measured
and calculated settlements are presented for the crown
of the embankment. The measured settlement at the
end of the test is 0.75 m.
Figure 2 shows that all calculated settlements are
larger than the measured settlements during the whole
test. Furthermore the time-settlement curves from
MSettle and the Soft Soil model overlap as well as the
time-settlement curves for the 2D and 3D Soft Soil
Creep model.
The difference between measured and calculated
values for the final settlement are: for MSettle and Figure 4. Measured versus calculated free field horizontal
the Soft Soil model +15%, for the 2D and 3D Soft soil deformations at the pile location at the end of the test.
Soil Creep +21% and for the Hardening Soil model
+32%. From these results it is concluded that for this
case the MSettle and the Soft Soil model generate the and Mieussens method slightly over predicts the max-
best results concerning settlements. imum horizontal displacement (0.37 m) and the total
displacement curve equals the measured curve.
3.4 Horizontal soil displacements
In Figure 3 the measured and calculated (PLAXIS) free 3.5 Bending moments
field horizontal soil deformations near the piles at the
end of the test are presented. The measured maximum From paragraph 3.4 it is concluded that from the
horizontal displacement is 0.35 m. numerical models the Soft Soil Creep model is the
All PLAXIS models overestimate the horizontal soil most suitable model to predict the horizontal soil
deformation at the bottom 3 to 4 m of the clay layer. deformations. Therefore, this material model has been
With the Soft Soil model the smallest horizontal soil used to predict the bending moments in the piles with
deformations are calculated whereas the Hardening a 2D and 3D FEM model.
Soil model over predicts the horizontal soil deforma-
tions. The 2D Soft Soil Creep model gives very good 3.5.1 Pile installed prior to embankment
results. The difference between the curves for the 2D construction
and 3D Soft Soil Creep model is probably caused by Figure 5 shows measured and calculated bending
the difference in element size. moments at the end of the test for the pile that has
Figure 4 shows the measured free field horizontal been installed prior to embankment construction. With
soil deformations near the piles at the end of the test the 2D model the bending moments are underesti-
from the PLAXIS 2D Soft Soil Creep model and the mated; with the 3D model the bending moments are
empirical Bourges & Mieussens method. The Bourges overestimated.

634
Figure 5. Measured versus calculated bending moments for
pile installed prior to embankment construction.
Figure 6. Measured versus calculated bending moments for
pile installed after completion of embankment.
3.5.2 Pile installed after completion
of embankment
Figure 6 shows measured and calculated bending
moments at the end of the test for the pile that has
been installed after completion of the embankment.
The maximum free field horizontal soil displacement
between pile installation and the end of the test is
approximately 0.04 m.
In the 2D model the bending moments are largely
underestimated; with the 3D model the predicted
bending moments are very close to the measured
values.
4 ANALYSIS OF SOIL PRESSURES ON PILES
In order to explain the (large) differences between the
results of the 2D and 3D analysis, the effective soil
635
Figure 7. Effective soil pressures on front and back of pile
installed prior to embankment construction.
pressures acting on the front (embankment side) and
the back of the pile have been analysed.
4.1 Pile installed prior to embankment
construction
In Figure 7 the calculated effective soil pressures on
both sides of the wall/pile are presented for the pile
installed prior to the embankment construction at the
end of the test. It shows that the pressure at the front
of the pile is higher in the 2D analysis than in the 3D
analysis.
The largest difference, however, occurs at the back
of the pile. In the 2D analysis a considerable counter
pressures acts on the pile, whereas in the 3D analy-
sis this counter pressure is very low. This results in a
large difference in resulting effective pressure (= front
pressure backpressure) on the pile (see Figure 8).
Figure 8 shows that the resulting effective soil pres-
sure in the 3D situation is approximately twice the
pressure in the 2D situation, which results in the same
difference in the bending moments. This is primarily
caused by the difference in pressure at the back of
the pile between the 2D and 3D situation. In the 2D
situation the wall representing the piles is preventing
that the horizontal soil deformations can get past the
piles. The piles/wall will bend due to the soil pres-
sures at the front, but at the back of the pile a counter
pressure can develop as large as the passive earth
pressure.
In the 3D situation however, the soil can move
around the piles. The piles will also bend due to the
soil pressures at the front, but the pile deformation is
smaller than the horizontal soil deformations at some
distance from the pile. Due to this drag the soil pres-
sure at the back of the pile is much lower than in the
2D situation.

Figure 8. Resulting effective soil pressures on pile installed
prior to embankment construction.
Figure 9. Resulting effective soil pressures on pile installed
after completion of embankment.
4.2 Pile installed after completion
of embankment
In Figure 9 the calculated resulting effective soil
pressures are presented for the pile installed after
completion of the embankment construction at the end
of the test.
Here the difference between the 2D and 3D calcu-
lations is even larger (2 to 4 times) than for the pile
installed prior to embankment construction.
636
5 CONCLUSIONS
1. Based on the results for this case, the empirical
calculation method of Bourges & Mieussens seems
to be useful in daily practice for predicting free field
horizontal soil deformations.
2. In general, the measured horizontal soil deforma-
tions can be well predicted by the FEM with soil
parameters calibrated from simulation of the clay
production process. The PLAXIS Soft Soil Creep
model generates the best results for this case.
3. The 2D FEM predictions of bending moments, in
which the pile behavior is modeled as a wall using
plate elements, are poor. This is caused by the fact
that in the 2D FEM model the soil cannot flow
around the structure, as it does around a pile. In
the 2D FEM model the soil on the passive side of
the plate elements will develop a support pressure,
through which deformation of the plate element is
resisted. In real life situations the support pressure
can be considerably lower.
4. When the centre-to-centre distance between piles
is relatively small, the 2D approach may be accept-
able. In situations where the soil can move around
the piles the model factor used for the reduction
of the bending stiffness of the wall in a 2D anal-
ysis depends on the type of soil and the situation
at hand. Therefore, it is concluded that a 2D FEM
approach is not suitable for the prediction of bend-
ing moments in piles, that are horizontally loaded
by displacing soil.
5. The bending moments in the piles calculated with
the 3D FEM model vary from reasonable (60%)
to good (15%). Therefore, the use of a 3D FEM
model is recommended in situations (1) where the
soil can move around the pile and (2) risks are
considerable.
REFERENCES
Al-Tabba, A 1987, Permeability and stress-strain response of
speswhite kaolin, Ph.D. Thesis Cambridge University
Bourges, F & Mieussens, C. 1979, Dplacements latraux
proximit des remblais sur sols compressibles, Mth-
ode de prevision, Bulletin liaison Laboratoire Central des
Ponts et Chausses, 101, maijuin 1979
Feddema, A & Breedeveld, J. 2009, Lateral loading of pile
constructions due to horizontal soil deformations, analysis
of case study centrifuge test GeoDelft, report no. 410822-
0031-v02 Delft: Deltares
Ladd, C.C. 1986, Stability Evaluation During Staged Con-
struction, The Twenty-Second Terzaghi Lecture, ASCE
1986 Annual Convention, October 28 1986
Visschedijk, M.A.T. & Trompille, V. 2009, MSettle version
8.2, Embankment Design and Soil Settlement Prediction,
Delft: Deltares
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Modelling of piled rafts with different pile models

S.W. Lee
Geotechnical Consulting Group (Asia) Ltd, Hong Kong

W.W.L. Cheang
Plaxis (Asia), Singapore

W.M. Swolfs & R.B.J. Brinkgreve*

Plaxis BV, & Delft University of Technology*, The Netherlands

ABSTRACT: There has been an increasing use of three-dimensional finite element analyses to analyse the
behaviour of piled raft foundations. The raft-piles-soil interaction can be fully modelled for complex ground
conditions and pile arrangements.This paper uses the Plaxis 3D Foundation programme to model the performance
of two well-documented piled raft foundations in the Frankfurt clay, Germany. The piles are modelled by solid
elements with/without interface elements and embedded piles. The embedded pile approach predicts the raft
settlements and the load sharing between the raft and the piles in good agreement with the interfaced solid pile
approach. The predictions made by the two approaches fall within +/10% of the measurements.

1 INTRODUCTION (with or without interfaces) and embedded piles, and

In traditional piled foundation design it is commonly
assumed that the entire design load is resisted by the
piles only, although the pile cap/raft is also part of
the foundation system. Over the past three decades
there has been an increasing recognition of the concept
of piled raft foundation, and an increasing number of
tall buildings are supported by piled rafts (Katzenbach
et al. 2000). A piled raft foundation consists of both
a pile cap/raft and piles, where the raft transmits load
directly to the competent bearing ground and the piles
are used to reduce settlements and differential settle-
ments/tilting, i.e. settlement reducers (Burland et al.
1977). Two key issues associated with the piled raft
design are (1) the load sharing between the raft and the
piles; and (2) the control of absolute and differential
settlements by the settlement-reducer piles (Randolph
1994).
The design of piled raft foundations requires meth-
ods of analysis which can consider the raft-piles-soil
interaction and calculate the load-sharing between
the raft and the piles (Poulos et al. 1997). Three
broad categories of analysis are (1) simplified calcu-
lation methods (e.g. equivalent raft/pier method); (2)
approximate computer-based analyses (e.g. plate on
springs approach); and (3) more rigorous computer-
based methods (e.g. boundary element methods and
three-dimensional finite element analysis (3D FEA)).
This paper uses the Plaxis 3D Foundation FE pro-
gramme to investigate the behaviour of piled raft
foundations using two well-documented case histories
in Frankfurt. The piles are modelled by solid elements
their predictions are compared to field measurements
and results from other analysis approaches. Discus-
sion is made on the performance of the embedded pile
approach.
2 BACKGROUND INFORMATION OF FEA
The two case histories investigated are the Torhaus
and Westend 1 high rise buildings on piled rafts in
Frankfurt, Germany. The ground conditions of engi-
neering interest comprise quaternary terrace sands
and gravels underlain successively by the tertiary
Frankfurt clay and the rocky Frankfurt limestone,
see Figure 1 (Katzenbach et al. 2005). The Frank-
furt clay is a stiff, over-consolidated clay with an
undrained shear strength (cu ) of 100 to 200 kPa (Som-
mer et al. 1985), suggesting that foundation behaviour
is dominated by the soil stiffness instead of the soil
strength.
Figure 2 shows the Youngs modulus (E) profiles of
the Frankfurt clay proposed by Amann & Breth (1975)
and Reul (2000). In the Plaxis 3D analyses the mechan-
ical behaviour of the Frankfurt clay is modelled by the
Hardening Soil (HS) constitutive model. The initial (or
input) stiffness profile of the Frankfurt Clay modelled
by the HS model is shown in Figure 2, which lies in
between Amann & Breths and Reuls profiles. Table 1
summarises the soil input parameters used in the 3D
analyses. Apart from the stiffness parameters associ-
ated with the HS model, the input parameters in Table 1
are based on Reul & Randolph (2003).

637

Figure 1. Geology of Frankfurt am Main.
results to the drained analysis for the long-term con-
dition. Because the input stiffness parameters for the
Frankfurt clay already represent a stiff soil, its over-
consolidation ratio (OCR) is input as 1. The rafts and
piles are modelled as a linear elastic material, with
an E of 34 GPa for the rafts modelled using solid ele-
ments and E of 23.5 and 22 GPa for the piles supporting
Torhaus and Westend 1 respectively.
The piles are modelled by three different
approaches (1) solid elements with interface ele-
ments (SPI) along the pile shafts; (2) solid elements
with no interface element (SPNI); and (3) embedded
piles (EP). In Case (1) the pile-soil interface strength
is specified similar to the surrounding soil strength,
considering that the input of 20 for the Frank-
furt clay is close to its critical state strength. The
embedded pile is a slender beam element connected
to the surrounding soil by embedded skin (or shaft)
and foot (or toe) interfaces, (Engin et al. 2008). The
pile can cross the bulk soil elements in any directions,
and new nodes are generated at the interaction of the
pile and soil elements. An elastic behaviour is spec-
ified for the soil region within the pile diameter to
minimise mesh-dependent effects. The embedded pile
approach thus allows for modelling of a large num-
ber of piles installed in non-symmetrical arrangements
with a reasonable/practicable mesh size.

3 TORHAUS

Figure 3 shows a schematic diagram of the Torhaus

Figure 2. Soil stiffness profiles for Frankfurt clay. building located in Frankfurt am Main. Detailed infor-
mation about the geotechnical aspects of the building
Table 1. Soil input parameters. foundation was given by Sommer et al. (1985) and
Reul & Randolph (2003). The 130 m tall building was
Quaternary Frankfurt Frankfurt constructed between 1983 and 1986, and supported
Parameters sands & gravels clay limestone by two piled rafts sized 17.5 m 24.5 m 2.5 m thick.
Each raft has 42 nos of 0.9 m diameter, 20 m long bored
Soil model MC HS MC piles spaced at 3.8 times pile diameter c/c, and the
Material type Drained Drained Drained
edge-to-edge distance between the two rafts is 10 m.
(kN/m3 ) 18 19 22
Eref
The groundwater table is located at 3 m below ground
50 (MPa) 75 38 2000
Eref level (mbgl), which corresponds to the raft underside.
oed (MPa) 38
Eref The ground conditions comprise a 5.5 m thick qua-
ur (MPa) 114
m [] 1 ternary terrace sands and gravels underlain by the
c (kPa) 20 1000 Frankfurt clay and the Frankfurt limestone which is
(Deg) 32.5 20 15 located outside the foundation influence zone.
Knc
0 [] 0.46 0.66 0.50 Figure 4 shows the 3D model set-up for the Touhaus
ur or [] 0.25 0.20 0.25 piled raft foundation. Taking advantage of two sym-
pref (kPa) 100 metric planes, only one-half of a piled raft is modelled.
The number of 15-noded wedge elements is 33 400.
Notes: MC = Mohr Coulomb; = unit weight; Eref 50 = secant The 0.5 m thick soil above the raft top surface is mod-
oed = oedometer stiffness; Eur = unload-reload
stiffness; Eref ref
elled by a surcharge. A settlement-effective building
stiffness; m = stress dependency stiffness; c= effective load of 200 MN per raft is applied as a uniformly
cohesion; = friction angle; Knc 0 = coefficient of earth pres- distributed load (UDL) on the raft top surface. In
sure at rest; = Poissons ratio; pref = reference pressure.
the embedded pile analysis the unit shaft and unit
toe capacities are capped at 150 kPa and 1350 kPa
A drained material with an effective c and is respectively for the 20 m long piles.
specified for the long-term behaviour of the Frank- Figure 5 shows the predicted mesh deformation
furt clay, as Reul (2002) has demonstrated that for upon imposition of the 200 MN building load.
the similar subsoil and loading conditions a fully Figure 6 compares the measured average raft settle-
coupled elasto-plastic FE analysis would give similar ment of 124 mm in 1988 with the Plaxis 3D Foundation

638

Figure 3. Schematic view of Torhaus and piled rafts.
Figure 4. 3D model for piled raft of Torhaus.
predictions and Reul & Randolphs (2003) predic-
tions. Note that Reul and Randolph have used the
Abaqus 3D FE programme with the piles modelled as
equivalent square piles using solid elements with no
interfaces along the pile shafts. The Plaxis SPI (solid
639
Figure 5. Deformed mesh for piled raft of Torhaus.
Figure 6. Comparison of raft settlements for Torhaus.
Figure 7. Comparison of Qp /Qt for Torhaus.
piles with interfaces) analysis predicts a raft settle-
ment of 106 mm, which is the closest to the measured
124 mm.
Figure 7 compares the measured ratio of the sum of
all pile loads over the total load on the foundation sys-
tem (Qp /Qt ) with the predictions made by Plaxis and
Reul & Randolph. The Plaxis SPI, SPNI (solid piles
with no interfaces) and EP (embedded piles) analyses
predict a Qp /Qt of 0.74, 0.78 and 0.77 respectively,
which are higher than the measured 0.67.
4 WESTEND 1
Figure 8 shows a schematic diagram of the Westend
1 building located in Frankfurt am Main. Detailed
Figure 8. Schematic view of Westend 1 and piled raft.

information about the geotechnical aspects of build- Figure 9. 3D model for piled raft of Westend 1.
ing foundation was given by Katzenbach et al. (2000)
and Reul & Randolph (2003). The 208 m high office
tower was constructed between 1990 and 1993 and
supported by a piled raft sized 47 m 62 m 3 to
4.65 m thick. The 40 nos of bored piles are 1.3 m diam-
eter and 30 m long. The groundwater table is located
at 7 mbgl, and the raft underside at 14.5 mbgl. The
ground conditions comprise a 8.5 m thick quaternary
terrace sands and gravels underlain by the Frank-
furt clay of at least 63 m thickness and the Frankfurt
limestone.
Figure 9 shows the 3D model set-up for the Westend
1 piled raft foundation.The number of 15-noded wedge
elements is 37,400. The 9.85 m thick soil above the raft
top surface is modelled by a surcharge. A settlement-
effective building load of 957 MN is applied as a
UDL within the core area on the raft top surface. In
the embedded pile analysis the unit shaft and unit
toe capacities are capped at 200 kPa and 1800 kPa Figure 10. Deformed mesh for piled raft of Westend 1.
respectively for the 30 m long piles.
Figure 10 shows the predicted mesh deformation
upon imposition of the 957 MN building load.
Figure 11 compares the measured raft settlement
of 120 mm in mid-1994 with the predictions made
by Plaxis, Clancy & Randolph (1993) and Reul &
Randolph (2003). Note that the Clancy and Randolph
prediction was based a hybrid approach of load trans-
fer treatment of individual piles, together with elastic
interaction between piles and between the various
raft elements and the piles. The Plaxis SPI and EP
analyses predict a settlement of 109 mm and 114 mm
respectively, which are close to the measured 120 mm.
Figure 12 compares the measured Qp /Qt of 0.50
with the different predictions. The Plaxis SPI and EP
analyses predict a Qp /Qt of 0.54 and 0.51 respectively,
which are in good agreement with the measured 0.50. Figure 11. Comparison of raft settlements for Westend 1.

640
 Table 4. Predictability/deviation for Qp /Qt predictions.

Predictability Analyses Torhaus Westend1 Average

1 Plaxis SPI +10% +7% +9%

2 Plaxis EP +15% +2% +9%
3 R & R (2003) +13% +32% +23%
4 Plaxis SPNI +16% +44% +30%

with both methods predicting average deviations in the

range of +/ 10% from the measurements. For the soil
Figure 12. Comparison of Qp /Qt for Westend 1. parameters and reasonably fine 3D mesh sizes used
herein, the 3D FEA tend to under-predict the raft set-
tlements and over-predict the load portion transmitted
Table 2. Summary of predicted raft settlements and Qp /Qt to the piles (i.e. higher predicted Qp /Qt ).
ratios.

Settlement (mm) Qp /Qt []

6 CONCLUSION
Analyses Torhaus Westend1 Torhaus Westend1
This paper uses the Plaxis 3D Foundation programme
Measurement 124 120 0.67 0.50 to analyse the behaviour of the piled rafts for the
Plaxis SPI 106 109 0.74 0.54 Torhaus and Westend 1 high rise buildings in Frank-
Plaxis SPNI 104 98 0.78 0.72
furt, Germany. The piles have been modelled using
Plaxis EP 105 114 0.77 0.51
R & R (2003) 96 109 0.76 0.66 solid elements with/without interface elements and
C & R (1993) 117 0.55 embedded piles. The embedded pile approach gives
very similar predictions to the interfaced solid pile
Notes: R & R = Reul & Randolph; C & R = Clancy & approach, where both approaches predict the raft set-
Randolph. tlements and the load sharing between the raft and
the piles within +/ 10% of the measurements. This
demonstrates that the embedded pile approach is tech-
Table 3. Predictability/deviation for raft settlement predic- nically rigorous for the ground conditions and the
tions. vertically loaded piled raft systems considered. For
other ground and loading conditions (e.g. combined
Predictability Analyses Torhaus Westend1 Average vertical and horizontal loads), it is always recom-
mended to calibrate the embedded pile model first
1 Plaxis EP 15% 5% 10%
2 Plaxis SPI 15% 9% 12%
before using it in the foundation design.
3 R & R (2003) 23% 9% 16%
4 Plaxis SPNI 16% 18% 17%
REFERENCES
Amann, P. & Breth, H. 1975. Uber den Einflub des Ver-
formungsververhaltens des Frankfurter Tons auf die
5 DISCUSSION Tiefenwirkung eines Hochhauses und die Form der Set-
zungsmulde. Mitteilung der Versuchsanstalt fur Boden-
Table 2 summarises the predicted raft settlements and mechanik und Grundbau TH Darmstadt, Heft 15.
the ratios of the sum of all pile loads over the total load Burland, J.B., Broms, B.B. & De Mello, V.F.B. 1977.
Behaviour of foundations and structures. 9th Soil. Mech.
on the foundation system (Qp /Qt ). Found. Engng.; Proc. int. conf., Tokyo 2: 495546.
The deviation of the predictions from the mea- Clancy, P. & Randolph, M.F. 1993. An approximate analysis
surements in Table 2 can be expressed in terms procedure for piled raft foundations. Int. J. Numer. Analy.
of percentage, where a positive/negative percentage Methods Geomech. 17: 849869.
represents an over-prediction/under-prediction respec- Engin, H.K., Septanika, E.G. and Brinkgreve, R.B.J. 2008.
tively. A smaller deviation percentage represents a Estimation of pile group behaviour using embedded piles.
better prediction. The predictability is summarised in 12th Int. Assoc. Comp. Methods Advances Geomech.;
Table 3 for the raft settlements and in Table 4 for the Proc. int. conf., Goa, India: 32313238.
Qp /Ot ratios. The Clancy & Randolph (1993) hybrid Katzenbach, R., Arslan, U. & Moormann, C. 2000. Piled
raft foundation projects in Germany. In J.A. Hemsley
approach is not included in the comparison because it (ed.), Design applications of raft foundations: 323391.
has not been used in the Torhaus prediction. London: Thomas Telford.
The results in Tables 3 and 4 show that the per- Katzenbach, R., Bachmann, G., Boled-Mekasha, G. &
formance of the embedded piles (Plaxis EP) is com- Ramm, H. 2005. The combined pile raft foundations
parable to the solid piles with interfaces (Plaxis SPI), (CPRF): an appropriate solution for the foundation of high

641
 rise buildings. 7th Geotechnics in urban areas; Proc. int.
geot. conf., Bratislava, Slovak Republic: 4760.
Poulos, H.G., Small, J.C., Ta, L.D., Sinha, J. & Chen, L. 1997.
Comparison of some methods for analysis of piled rafts.
14th Soil Mech. Found. Engng.; Proc. int. conf., Hamburg
2: 11191124.
Randolph, M.F. 1994. Design methods for pile groups and
piled rafts. 13th Soil Mech. Found. Engng.; Proc. int. conf.,
New Delhi 5: 6182.
Reul, O. 2000. In-situ measurements and numerical studies
on the bearing behaviour of piled rafts. PhD thesis (in
German). Darmstadt University of Technology, Germany.
642
Reul, O. 2002. Study of the influence of the consolida-
tion process on the calculated bearing behaviour of a
piled raft. In P. Mestat (ed.), 5th Numerical Methods in
Geotechnical Engineering; Proc. European conf., Paris:
383388.
Reul, O. & Randolph, M.F. 2003. Piled rafts in overcon-
solidated clay: comparison of in situ measurements and
numerical analyses. Geotechnique 53(3): 301315.
Sommer, H., Wittmann, P. & Ripper, P. 1985. Piled raft
foundation of a tall building in Frankfurt clay. 11th Soil
Mech. Found. Engng.; Proc. int. conf., San Francisco 4:
22532257.
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Modelling performance of jack-in piles

Sun Jie & Siew-Ann Tan

National Uiversity of Singapore, Singapore

ABSTRACT: The installation of jack-in piles involved the quasi-static insertion of a solid cylindrical or square
pile into the ground by means of large hydraulic pressures equal to at least twice the design working load of the
pile. Instrumented field tests data from several Singapore sites have shown that the pile capacity usually increased
significantly beyond three times working load with small displacements of pile head, even though the piles were
installed with jack pressures of about twice working load.This paper attempt to develop a new model for Jack-in
piles. The pile installation process is modeled as a spherical cavity expansion at the pile tip and the prescribed
horizontal displacement at the pile shaft. The numerical cavity expansion model with updated mesh computation
is first validated against a closed-form Tresca soil solution with very good agreement. Subsequently, several
effective stress computations were made using the Hardening Soil model to examine lateral earth pressure, the
shaft shear stress distribution at failure and load-settlement response after pile jacking.The results are compared
with centrifuge pile load test with good agreement.

1 INTRODUCTION

The installation of Jack-in piles involved the quasi-

static insertion of a solid cylindrical or square pile into
the ground by means of large hydraulic pressures. Dur-
ing the installation, the soil around the pile is pushed
away and compacted while the stresses surrounding
the pile are significantly increased. These complicate
the problem significantly. The complexity of the prob-
lem and their interaction explain why litte progress has
been made to date in modelling of displacement piles
in FEM (Broere & Tol, 2006).
This paper describes the development of a new FEM
numerical model for Jack-in pile in PLAXIS. Firstly,
Broere & Tol (2006) method of modeling displace-
Figure 1. Normal and shear stresses after Pile installation
ment pile is reviewed and the problem of their model is (left) and at failure (right) ( Boere & Tol. 2006).
re-investigated. Then, the numerical cavity expansion
model with updated mesh computation is validated
against a closed-form Mohr-Coulomb soil and Tresca generation by increasing the volume of the pile cluster
soil solutions. Finally, the new numerical model is by the prescribed displacements at the pile-soil bound-
proposed. This model combines the volumetric strain ary. After that the material of the pile cluster is replaced
below the pile tip and the prescribed displacement by the linear elastic concrete material and then the
around the pile shaft. Thereafter, the results are com- interface elements between soil and pile are activated.
pared with centrifuge pile load test and a field pile load The stress state obtained in this step is maintained and
test with further discussion. all displacements are set to zero. Their approach can
predicte acceptable bearing capacity of a displacement
pile in sand.
2 BROERE & TOL S METHOD The shear stress on the pile-soil interface along the
pile shaft at failure is shown in Figure 1. As observed,
Plaxis V9 with updated mesh capability does not allow the full shaft friction of the pile at failure increases with
simulating the actual installation process. In order to depth but decreases again some two meters above the
overcome the limitations of the code, Broere and Tol pile tip. The distribution is different from findings by
proposed a new modelling approach. The pile installa- many authors (i.e. Lehane et al (1993), Nicola (1996),
tion process is simulated directly after the initial stress and Tomlinson (2001)), showing continued increase

643
of shaft friction towards the pile tip. The only similar
case is found by Klotz (2001). However, he did not
give any explanation on the contrasting observations.
Clearly, the stress state around the pile using Broere &
Tols (2006) method is different from many experi-
mental findings, and their numerical model does not
capture the installation effects correctly, although it
can reliably predict the total bearing capacity of the
displacement pile.
The behavior of shaft friction is described with an
elastic-plastic model in Plaxis used in the calculation.
To distinguish between elastic and plastic behavior the
Coulomb criterion is used:
where h is the normal effective stress on the pile shaft.
i and ci are the friction angle and the cohesion of
the interface element respectively. In Plaxis, they are
calculated from the strength of the soil using following
Equation.
Thus the shaft friction reduction near the pile tip is
due to the decrease of normal effective stresses some
distance above the pile tip.
The following calculations make an attempt to
explain why the normal effective stress reduces when
Broere & Tols (2006) method is used. Three cases are
considered:
Case 1: the prescribed displacements ux = 15 mm
and uy = 0 mm are applied
Case 2: the prescribed displacements ux = 0 mm and
uy = 400 mm are applied
Case 3: the prescribed displacements ux = 15 mm
and uy = 400 mm are applied
The normal radial stress states along pile shaft obtained
in Case13 then are checked and the results are shown
in Figure 2. As can be seen from the graphs, Case 1
where zero vertical displacement is applied shows rea-
sonable distribution of normal effective stress along
pile shaft. This is similar trend as Mahutka et als
(2006) calculation. Very high horizontal stresses can
be observed at the pile tip. Case 2 where there is only
applied vertical displacement at the pile tip shows
significant reduction on normal effective stress some
distance above the pile tip, from initial value 60 kPa,
decreasing to 6 kPa. It is due to the relaxation of
the stress occuring as the prescribed displacement
is deactived when the pile cluster material is acti-
vated owing to the numerical implementation in Plaxis.
Thus when these two prescribed displacements are
combined together (Case 3), it is not surprising that
reduced normal effective stress near the pile tip can
be observed (Figure 2). Clearly, applying horizontal
prescribed displacement to the pile shaft gives reason-
able distribution of normal radial effective stress, while
applying simple vertical prescribed displacement to
the pile tip to simulate the installation effect will give
unreasonable behavior of shaft friction.
644
Figure 2. Radial stress distribution along pile shaft.
The pile/cone penetration can be simulated by
expanding a cavity of an initial zero radius or finite
radius. Many authors (Vesic.1977, Ladanyi.1961,
Randolph et al. 1994 and Yasufuku et al. 2001)
believed that the soil displacements in front of the
pile/cone tip may be considered closer to those
undergoing spherical expansion. Thus spherical cav-
ity expansion will be applied to the soil cluster below
the pile tip to simulate the installation effect to the soil
below. Prior to that, the numerical model for spherical
expansion in Plaxis was tested by comparing com-
puted pressure-expansion curves with those given by
closed-form solutions.
3 NUMERICAL SIMULATION OF SHERICAL
EXPANSION VS THEORY
Xu (2007) applied volumetric strain to simulate the
spherical cavity expansion. The numerical procedures
are summarized here.
The analysis was performed with an axi-symetric
mesh using triangular elements with 15 nodes and 12
gauss stress points. The initial radius of the spheri-
cal cavity ao was set at a nominal value of 0.1 m. Xu
(2007) suggested that this value was selected so that the
variation in initial stresses adjacent to the cavity had
minimal effect for the analyses performed. The radius
of the mesh domain is 12 m and the height is 24 m.
This mesh boundary is sufficient to represent an semi-
infinite half-space soil mass for spherical cavity with
initial radius is 0.1 m. The cavity pressure-expansion
relationship can be obtained by selecting appropriate
nodes and gauss points for output. For large strain
problem, the Updated Mesh option in Plaxis was used.
To validate the accuracy of the numerical model,
the pressure-expansion curves derived using Plaxis
are compared with the closed-form solutions of Yu
and Houlsby (1991) for a Mohr-Coulomb soil model
in drained condition and the closed-form solutions
of Collins and Yu (1996) for Tresca soil model in
undrained conditions. Four cases with the parame-
ters listed in Table 1, were considered. Case 13 are
drained conditions while case 4 is undrained condition.
Table 1. Soil parameters in the verification calculations.

Po: kPa ao : m E: Mpa

Case1 120 0.1 5 0.2 20 0

Case2 120 0.1 50 0.2 40 0
Case3 120 0.1 100 0.2 40 10
Case4 240 0.1 6.5 0.3 0 30

Figure 3. (Continued)

Figure 3. Comparison between closed-form and numerical

results.

As can be seen in Fig. 2, the results from FEM calcu-

lations showed very good agreement with those from
closed-form solutions. The difference between the
FEM results and the closed-form solutions is within
5% error.

Figure 4. Volumetric strain and prescirbed displacement.

4 NEW MODEL

The spherical cavity expansion will be applied to the
soil cluster below the pile tip and the prescribed hori-
zontal displacement is applied at the interface between
pile and soil along the pile shaft (Fig. 4). The combina-
tion of the spherical cavity expansion at the pile tip and
the cylindrical cavity expansion by prescribed horizon-
tal displacement at the pile shaft is used to simulate
the pile installation process. Thereafter, the material
of the pile cluster is replaced by the linear elastic con-
crete material and the interface elements between soil

645
 Figure 6. Lateral earth pressure after pile jacking along a
vertical section.
Figure 5. Geometry of the cavity and the pile.

and pile are activated, and the prescribed horizontal

displacement deactivated.
The relationship between geometry of the cavity and
the pile is schematically shown in Figure 5. The d
is diameter of the pile and a is radius of the spher-
ical cavity. Based on the assumption that the angle
of the soil wedge, ABC = 45 + /2. The radius of
spherical cavity a equals d/2 tan (45 + /2).

5 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The prediction of performance of a displacement pile

is evaluated by comparisons with the centrifuge test. Figure 7. Shear stress distribution along the shaft at faiure.
The parameters used in the FEM calculations are the
same as those used by Broere & Tol (2006). In order to
judge the correctness of the FEM results, the following
issues are considered:
(1) Lateral earth pressure after pile jacking.
(2) The shear stress on the pile-soil interface along
the pile shaft at failure.
(3) The total load capacity of the pile at failure,
distribution between the shaft friction and base
resistance and the load-settlement curve.
The results of the radial stress in the vertical cross
section at a distance of 0.3 m from the pile shaft
after installation are shown in Fig. 6. As can be seen,
very high horizontal effective stresses can be found at
the pile tip. Below the peak level, the radial stresses
reduces to a value below Ko values. This distribution of Figure 8. Load-settlement curve with new model compared
radial stress is in accordance with findings by Mahutka to Broere & Tols (2006) method.
et al. (2006).
The distribution of shear stress on the pile-soil inter-
face along the pile shaft at failure are shown in Fig. 7 method gives a different trend near the pile tip with
compared with the results form Broere & Tols (2006) the shear stress decreased to zero at the pile tip, unlike
method and the design approach proposed by Ran- real experimental findings.
dolph et al. (1994). It shows shear stress calculated Fig. 8 shows the load-settlement curve for the new
from new model generally increases with depth and model and Broere & Tols (2006) method, compared
has a very high value near the pile tip. This pattern to centrifuge test. As can be seen, the load-settlement
is similar to those from design approach proposed by curve from the new model seems to agree better
Randolph et al. (1994). While Broere & Tols (2006) with the test results. Both the shaft friction and

646
Table 2. FEM results from different models compared with
test results.
Ftotal : MN Fshaft : MN Fbase : MN
Broere & Tols method 2.33 1.07 1.26
New model 2.30 1.10 1.20
Centrifuge test 2.34 1.12 1.22
base resistance predictions are better than those from
Broere & Tols (2006) method (Table 2).
6 CONCLUSIONS
The stresses increase due to pile installation is mod-
eled with a few relatively simple steps. Applying
prescribed horizontal displacement cylindrical cavity
expansion) to the pile shaft gives reasonable distribu-
tion of induced normal radial effective stress around
the pile shaft, while applying simple vertical pre-
scribed displacement to the pile tip to simulate the
installation effect will give unreasonable behavior of
shaft friction near the pile tip compared to experi-
mental results. Contrasted to Broere & Tols (2006)
method, the proposed method applies spherical cav-
ity expansion to the soil cluster below the pile tip
instead of prescribed vertical displacement; and the
prescribed horizontal displacement is applied at the
interface between pile and soil along the shaft similar
to Broere & Tols procedure.
The results of the new model showed reasonable
stress state around the pile shaft and pile tip, and are in
closer agreement with experimental findings. Predic-
tion of bearing capacity can be obtained using this new
model and the distribution between base resistance and
shaft friction obtained is reasonably good.
Further tests of the simulation scheme would be
needed for different pile geometries and different soil
647
conditions in order to verify the general applicability
of this new model for Jack-in piles installations. This
research is ongoing at NUS.
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Klotz, E. U., Coop, M.R. (2001). An investigation of the
effect of soil state on the capacity of driven piles in sands.
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Randolph, M. F. (1994). Design of driven piles in sand
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Vesic, A. S. (1970). Tests on instrumented piles, Ogeechee
River site. Journal of the Soil Mechanics and Foundations
Division 96(2): 561584.
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capacity of sand related to soil compressibilty Soil &
Foundations. 41(4): 5971.
Yu, H.-S. H., G.T. (1991). Finite cavity expansion in dilatant
soils: loading analysis. Geotechnique 41(2): 173183.
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ics. Boston, Kluwer Academic Publishers.
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Numerical analyses of axial load capacity of rock socketed piles in Turkey

M. Kirkit, H. Kl & C. Akgner

Yldz Technical University, Istanbul, Turkey

ABSTRACT: High rise residential and commercial buildings are increasingly being constructed in urban
areas of Turkey. Rock socketed piles are typically selected when large loads due to superstructures need to
be transferred to competent bearing strata and restrict deformations within the serviceability limits of such
structures. The axial load carrying capacity of rock socketed piles can be estimated utilizing various approaches:
static analyses, information/data collected from pile load tests, numerical methods and empirical approaches
that take into account the engineering properties of rocks surrounding the pile. In this study pile capacity of
two rock socketed pile from Turkey were estimated using the finite element approach. A geometric model was
constructed for the pile foundation which involved the pile diameter and length and the socketed length. The
Mohr-Coulomb and Hardening Soil model was utilized to investigate the effective soil parameters. The load-
displacement behavior from pile load tests were compared with those obtained from finite element analyses.

1 INTRODUCTION In this study, two rock socketed piles constructed in

Rock socketed piles are typically selected when large
loads of superstructures, such as high-rise buildings,
tower structures, and bridge footings/abutments, need
to be transferred to competent bearing strata so as to
restrict deformations within the serviceability limits.
Furthermore, the use of drilled piles socketed into rock
as foundation structures is one of the best solutions
when layers of loose soil overlie bedrock at shallow
depths. In these cases, considerable bearing capacity
can be ensured by shaft friction in rock, even with
small pile displacements (Carrubba 1997).
Piles can be classified based on the expected
governing load-transfer mechanism (CFEM 2006):
a) at the tip of the pile,
b) on the pile shaft,
c) both at the tip and on the shaft.
The axial load carrying capacity of rock socketed
piles can be estimated by applying static analyses,
information/data collected from pile load tests, numer-
ical methods and empirical approaches. Load tests
are conducted to determine the in-situ bearing capac-
ity and the load-deformation behavior of piles. Pile
load testing provides the most reliable information for
design because it is a large scale, if not full scale,
model for the behavior of a design pile in actual soil
conditions.
The acceptance of numerical analyses in geotech-
nical problems is growing and finite element calcula-
tions are increasingly being used in the design of foun-
dations. Pile behavior has been widely investigated
using numerical analysis. Various modeling tech-
niques of the pilesoil interface have been reported
in literature (Seol et al. 2009).
Turkey were analyzed with the finite element method.
A geometric model was developed to investigate the
load-displacement behavior, which was then compared
with the results of pile load tests. The effect of varying
material properties and models were determined based
on parametric studies and analyses involving Mohr-
Coulomb and Hardening Soil models.
2 FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSES
Two dimensional numerical analyses of piles with a cir-
cular cross-section were conducted with Plaxis 2D V9
finite element code. The pile behavior was assumed
to be linear-elastic. The soil was described by the
Mohr-Coulomb (MC) and by the Hardening-Soil (HS)
models. The yield criterion for both models is an exten-
sion of Coulombs frictional law to general states of
stress. The Mohr-Coulomb yield condition is specified
by the friction angle  and the cohesion c . Addition-
ally, the dilatancy angle is used to model dilatant
behavior. In contrast to the MC model, a cap type yield
surface is introduced in the HS model to calculate irre-
versible strains due to primary isotropic compression.
This yield cap describes an ellipse in p - q modified
plane for stress paths, where the top of the ellipse lies
on the q-axis. Furthermore, the HS model involves a
family of subsequent shear yield surfaces to estimate
irreversible strains due to deviatoric loading, which
may expand up to the Mohr-Coulomb yield surface
(Schanz 1998; Wehnert and Vermeer 2004). The elas-
tic parameters for the MC model require at least the two
following parameters: E (Youngs modulus),  (Pois-
sons ratio). The HS model necessitates three stiffness
parameters. The stiffness in the MC model is constant,

649

Figure 1. Geometric model based on the pile diameter, pile
length and socket length.
while the stiffness of the HS model is stress depen-
dent. Details of the models are given by Wehnert and
Vermeer (2004).
2.1 Geometric Model and Material Parameters
Fifteen-node triangle axisymetric elements were used
in analyzing the concrete shaft and the soft rock mass,
thus providing a fourth order interpolation for dis-
placements. Interface elements were used to simulate
the bonding and separation between the concrete and
the rock mass. Fine meshes were used in regions of
high stress gradient near the interface (Ls from the
axis of the socket) as shown in Figure 1, in which D is
the pile diameter, Ls is the socket length and L is the
total length of the pile. The radial displacements are
restricted to 30D from the axis of the socket. Both the
radial and vertical displacements are restricted to 1.5L
beneath the tip of the socket, as shown in Figure 1.
The boundaries were selected because larger lateral
and vertical geometries did not have any effect on the
results. Distributed loads were applied to the piles.
The critical point in numerical analyses of piles is
to correctly model the pile-soil-pile interface. Inter-
face elements were used in this study to separate the
piles and the soil (clay, sand, silt, etc.) or rock environ-
ments. An elastic-plastic model based on the Coulomb
criterion was used to describe and model the behav-
ior of rock-pile and soil-pile interaction in Plaxis. The
strength properties of interfaces were linked to the
strength properties of the rock layers. Each data set
had an associated strength reduction factor, Rinter for
interfaces in Plaxis as follows:
650
Figure 2. Extended of interface element.
Table 1. Material parameters of pile.
Parameter Description
Material Model Lineer Elastic
Unit Weight () 20.4 kN/m3
Modulus of Elasticity (E) 30 GPa
Poissons Ratio () 0.15
Wehnert and Vermeer (2004) studied the effect of
mesh fineness for bored piles. Very fine mesh and
very coarse mesh were used in their analysis.They con-
cluded that the mesh effect can be neglected for shaft
resistance and a small change occurs for base resis-
tance. In this study, a fine mesh was used in the area
near the pile for increased precision and a medium
mesh was utilized in other areas of the numerical
model.
Since Plaxis may cause stress oscillation at the edge
of the socket base, an extended interface zone of two
meters was used at the tip of pile as shown in Figure 2.
These elements enhance the flexibility of the finite
element mesh, and thus, prevent non physical stress
results (Brinkgreve et al. 2004).
The concrete pile was assumed to be an isotropic,
homogeneous and elastic solid with a Poissons ratio
of = 0.15, which is typical for drilled shafts (Nam
2004). An elasto-plastic Mohr-Coulomb model was
selected to represent the rock mass because of its
simplicity and easy application.
The material properties of the piles for the numeri-
cal analyses are presented in Table 1.
The material parameters for the soils (clay, sand, silt,
etc.) and rock were obtained from site investigations
conducted as part of the pile load testing. The modulus
of elasticity was determined from pressiometer tests
and the shear strength parameters were found from
laboratory tests on undisturbed soil and rock samples.
2.2 Analysis phase
Plaxis analyses were run in two phases. The at-rest
stresses of the system under its own loads prior to pile
construction were calculated in the first phase. Pile
construction and applied loads were examined in the
Table 2. Properties of test piles.
Load Test City D (m) L (m) Ls (m)
LT 1 Ankara 0.8 10 1.5
LT 2 Mersin 0.9 20 8.5
second phase. The at-rest earth pressure coefficient,
Ko was calculated as Ko = 1 sin (Brinkgreve et al.
2004). The structural loads, i.e., loads involved dur-
ing pile testing, were gradually applied to piles by the
Total Multipliers option.
The displacements during pile load testing were
measured at the pile head. Similarly, the calculated
loads and displacements at the pile head were consid-
ered in numerical analyses.
2.3 Pile load tests, numerical model and analyses
The properties of the two test piles are presented
in Table 2. The soils for pile load test LT-1 consist
of a marl deposit underlying 8.5 m thick silty clays.
The displacements began increasing at approximately
3100 kN applied load and reached failure at about
5400 kN (alsan & zkan 1996). Slow maintained
load testing (SML) was conducted in accordance with
ASTM-D 1143.
The soil layering for LT-2 consist of (from the
surface down) 8.5 m alluvium overlying 2.0 m con-
glomerate followed by a basal claystone (Yldrm
1994).
The numerical model based on the dimensions of
Pile LT-1 and the corresponding finite element mesh
to analyze the rock socketed pile load testing is shown
in Figure 3, which was similar for Pile LT-2. (Kirkit
2009). The material properties obtained from in-situ
investigations were utilized in numerical analyses as
summarized in Table 3. Various material models were
selected in analyses to identify the most appropriate
model corresponding to the encountered soil type. Ini-
tially the Mohr-Coulomb model was chosen for the
material behavior of the soils and rocks, which was fol-
lowed by analyses with the HS model for the soils and
the MC model for the rocks. Analyses were repeated
with and without interface elements to determine their
effects on the outcome. Furthermore, parametric anal-
yses were conducted for Pile LT-1 to identify how the
changes in cohesion c, internal friction angle and
modulus of elasticity E vary the obtained results when
the MC model was applied to soils and rocks.
The calculated and measured load-displacement
curves for Pile LT-1 are compared in Figure 4. The
final displacement was obtained when the MC model
was used for the soils and rocks; however, the shapes
of the curves are not similar. The load-displacement
was linear especially when no interface elements are
used. The final displacement was slightly overesti-
mated when the HS model for soils and the MC model
for rocks are utilized. The comparison of the results
and pile load test data are shown in Figure 5 for Pile
LT-2, where both curves have a linear behavior.
Figure 3. Numerical model of Pile LT-1 and the finite
element mesh.
Varying c ,  , and E affect the results obtained from
analyses of Pile LT-1 when MC model was utilized for
the soils and rocks.
The cohesion of the marl layer was estimated as
c = 700 kPa; therefore the analyses were repeated for
a range of 600 to 800 kPa (Figure 6).
The internal friction for the marl layer was calcu-
lated as  = 32 in the field. Results of the analyses
within 3 of this value are presented in Figure 7.
The estimated in-situ modulus of elasticity for the
marl layer was E = 255 MPa. Results of the analyses
within 50 MPa of this value are shown in Figure 8.
When Figures 6 through 8 are considered, it can
be concluded that while the variation of cohesion
and modulus of elasticity have a significant effect on
the outcome, the changes in internal friction are less
important.
In addition, an analysis was carried out with the
HS small strain model. However, a logical load
displacement curve could not be obtained due to lack
of data for soil parameters obtained from laboratory
experiments.
3 RESULTS
In this study, numerical analyses of two rock socketed
piles with a circular cross-section were conducted with
the Plaxis 2D V9 finite element code. The material
properties were obtained from in-situ investigations
or laboratory tests. Different material models (Mohr-
Coulomb and Hardening Soil) are considered to iden-
tify the appropriate material model for the analyses
in accordance with the soil types. Analyses were con-
ducted to determine the effect of incorporating inter-
face elements. Parametric studies were run for varying
material properties of the Mohr-Coulomb model. The
651
Table 3. Material parameters of soils.

Elevetion sat c  E /Eref

50
Test (m) Soil Type Material Model (kN/m3 ) (kPa) ( ) (MPa)  /u Rinter

LT 1 0.08.5 Silty Clay MC/HS 19.0 75 20 4/3 0.35/ 0.20 0.75

8.510.0 Marl MC 27.5 700 35 255 0.25 0.50
LT 2 02.0 Loose Alluvial MC/HS 16.5 1 30 4/3 0.30/0.20 0.60
2.08.5 Alluvial MC/HS 17.0 1 32 20/15 0.30/0.20 0.60
8.511.5 Conglomerate MC 23.0 1 35 65 0.20 0.50
11.520.0 Claystone MC 24.0 800 33 125 0.20 0.50

Figure 4. Comparison of the load test and finite element Figure 6. The influence of cohesion on the results from
results for Pile LT-1. analyses.

Figure 7. The effect of varying the internal friction angle.

Figure 5. Results of the load test and finite element calcu-

lations for Pile LT-2.

variation of many parameters of the numerical model

was studied through back-analysis.
The following conclusions are reached based on the
findings:
1. In investigating the pile-soil interaction, interface
elements and an appropriate interface element
coefficient (Rinter ) should be used.
2. Varying material properties based on the soil type Figure 8. The effect of changes in modulus of elasticity.
does not have a significant effect on the results. The
commonly accepted Mohr-Coulomb model, which 3. When the Mohr-Coulomb model is used to model
involves typical parameters obtained from in-situ the soil and rock behavior, cohesion and modulus
and laboratory testing, can be selected for analyses of elasticity are critical parameters. The internal
involving rock socketed piles. friction angle is of lesser significance.

652
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors wish to acknowledge Prof. Dr. Snmez
Yldrm, Prof. Dr. Mustafa Yldrm and Mge Inanr Technical University.
for their valuable contributions in preparing this paper.
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Bowles, J. E. 1997. Foundation Design and Analyses, Singa-
pore: The McGraw Hill Companies.
Brinkgreve, R.B.J., Broere, W. & Waterman, D. 2004.
PLAXIS 2D Version 8, Netherlands: Plaxis bv Delpht.
Canadian Geotechnical Society 2006. Canadian Founda-
tion Engineering Manual 4th Edition. Vancouer: Bitech
Publishers Ltd.
Carrubba, P. 1997. Skin Friction of Large-Diameter Piles
Socketed into Rock, Canadian Geotechnical Journal, 34:
230240.
alsan, O. & zkan, M.Y. 1996. The Evalution of the Pile Yldrm, S. 1994. Load Test on a Pile Socketed into Clay-
Load Test for the ayrhan Termoelectric Power Plant,
Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering 6. National
Conference: 218226 (in Turkish).
D 1143 \D 1143M 2007. Standard Test Method for Piles
Under Static Axial Compressive Load, United States:
American Society For Testing and Materials.
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Kirkit, M. 2009. Establishing a Database of Pile Load
Test Conducted in Turkey and Analysis of Rock-Socketed
Piles within The Database, Master Thesis, Istanbul:Yldz
Mayne, P.W., Christopher, B.R. & DeJong, J. 2001. Geotech-
nical Site Characterization Manual of Subsurface
Investigations, National Highway Institute, Publication
No. FHWA NHI-01-031, Washington: Federal Highway
Administration.
Nam, M. S. 2004. Improved Design For Drilled Shafts in
Rock, PhD Thesis, Houston, TX: University of Houston.
Schanz, T. 1998. Zur Modellierung des mechanichen Verhal-
ten von Reibungsmaterialien, Mitteilungen des Institus fr
Geotechnik der Universtt Stuttgart: Heft 45.
Seol, H., Jeong, S. & Kim, Y. 2009. Load transfer analysis
of rock-socketed drilled shafts by coupled soil resistance,
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 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Numerical simulation of low-strain integrity tests on model piles

J. Fischer, C. Missal, M. Breustedt & J. Stahlmann

Institute for Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering, Technische Universitt Braunschweig, Germany

ABSTRACT: Using the theory of wave propagation in piles, the characteristics of the measured pile head
velocity during a low strain integrity test enable the tester to rate the quality of cast in place concrete piles. In
reference to possible pile appearances in situ, several polyamide plastic piles with well-defined discontinuities
were constructed and afterwards tested. To simulate the influence of the surrounded soil on the recorded data,
piles were driven into different soil types at our test site. Correlations between the data from the model piles
and cast in place piles on site were clearly visible. To better understand the interaction between pile, soil, and
the initiated stress wave traveling axially through the pile, a three dimensional finite difference numerical model
was developed. The model piles, the surrounding soil, and the impact of the hammer were simulated and the
velocity-time graph of the pile head was theoretically calculated. For the specification of the pile-soil interaction,
interface-elements were used. These elements were able to give a realistic reproduction of the damping effects
in the radial and axial pile directions. The results showed a very good agreement between calculation and
measurement with respect to pile discontinuities and damping effects from the surrounding soil.

1 INTRODUCTION strain method is based on the theory of one dimen-

National and international standards for low strain
integrity testing give recommendations for assessing
the quality of piles by the recorded pile head velocity
during testing. Depending on the size and the direc-
tion of the recorded velocity amplitude, the quality of
the pile can be classified. Furthermore, the measured
wave speed will allow the tester to rate the pile length
and its concrete quality.
Within the last few years the Institute for Soil
Mechanics and Foundation Engineering at the Tech-
nische Universitt Braunschweig (IGB-TUBS) made
varying low strain integrity test studies on cast in place
concrete piles all over Europe. Depending on the soil
conditions and the pile system used, the quality of the
recorded data was very different. In some cases, even
though the pile producer could prove the correct instal-
lation, the recorded pile head velocity showed minor
or major quality reductions on the basis of national and
international recommendations for low strain integrity
testing, listed for example in Beim (2008).
To better understand the correlation between pile,
soil, and the stress wave, an experimental test series
on polyamide plastic piles was done. Additionally, the
results of the experimental tests were recalculated in
a three dimensional numerical model on the basis of
finite differences.
sional wave propagation. The smooth surface of the
pile head is hit with a hand held hammer to generate a
stress wave in the pile. A sensor is set on top of the pile
head and measures the acceleration of the stress wave.
Through integration of the measured acceleration sig-
nal, a velocity time trend will be developed whose
characteristics enable inferences on the pile integrity
to be made.
The stress wave propagates through the pile from
pile head to pile toe, where it will be reflected and
will reach the pile head, and thus control section, after
time:
where t = time; L = length of the pile; and c = wave
speed.
The return time of the wave is dependent on the pile
length L and the wave speed c. In the one dimensional
case, the wave speed c, neglecting the Poissons ratio
, can be calculated using the following equation:

2 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
2.1 Basis of dynamic pile testing
Low strain integrity testing is a worldwide used
method for assessing the condition of piles. The low
where E = dynamic Elastic Modulus; and = density.
Should there be causes for impedance variation
(necking, bulging, rock pocket etc.) along the length
of the pile, a part of the stress wave will be reflected
and reach the control section before the pile toe reflex.

655

Figure 1. Wave propagation during low strain integrity
testing.
The impedance Z of the pile is given by the following
equation:
where E = dynamic modulus of elasticity; A = cross-
sectional area; and c = wave speed.
In addition to the reflections due to a change of the
pile impedance, a change in the surrounding soil den-
sity will cause stress wave reflections. Figure 1 shows
a pile on the left side and its stress wave propagation
in reference to length and time on the right side.
The pile shows a cross sectional reduction after
approximately two thirds of its length. The down-
ward travelling stress wave is divided in two parts at
that point. One part travels back upwards to the pile
head, the other part travels further downwards and is
reflected at the pile toe.
The pile head velocity which will be recorded dur-
ing an integrity test is highlighted in black. The impact
of the hammer causes the first velocity amplitude.
Afterwards, while the stress wave travels through the
pile, no pile head velocity is measured. The second
amplitude is caused by the piles cross sectional reduc-
tion. After equation 1, based on a given wave speed for
concrete, the location of the impedance reduction can
be calculated. Likewise, the length or the wave speed
of the pile can be calculated by the third amplitude,
caused by the pile toe.
2.2 Sign conventions
The velocity sign conventions are positive and negative
for compressive and tensile waves. Through the impact
of the hammer, a compressive wave with a downward
directed particle velocity is initiated in the pile. At any
point of impedance reduction, the reflected part of the
wave will travel backwards to the pile top as a ten-
sile wave. The particle velocity will still be directed
downward. In contrast, at any point of impedance
enlargement, the compressive wave will be reflected
as compressive wave with an upward directed particle
velocity.
656
Figure 2. Velocity-time graph of a model pile with a con-
stant cross-sectional enlargement and an abrupt reduction.
Within the paper, downward directed particle veloc-
ities will be defined as positive. As a result the
amplitudes in the velocity-time graph of figure 1 are
positive.
3 EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH
3.1 Model piles
As visual inspection of cast in place concrete piles
is hardly possible, polyamide plastic piles with well-
defined discontinuities were constructed and tested
instead.
On the basis of unclear velocity-time graph data we
measured during the mentioned test series on cast in
place concrete piles, the possible pile cross-sectional
distributions were assumed and rebuilt as geometri-
cally scaled down model piles. An example of a model
pile is shown in figure 3.
All figures shown in this chapter illustrate the
results we received from the experimental research
program on the model piles.
3.2 Piles with well-defined discontinuities
After driving or boring into the ground and the place-
ment of the concrete, the casing of a displacement
cast in place concrete pile will be withdrawn. During
withdrawal of the casing an enlargement of the pile
cross-section is possible between stiff soil conditions
in the deeper parts of the soil and the upper, softer con-
ditions. Within further progress, the cross-sectional
enlargement will possibly reduce to the regular diam-
eter of the casing. Comparable soil conditions were
often found during testing on site.
Therefore, a model pile with the mentioned cross-
sectional conditions was developed. Figure 2 shows
the result of the low strain integrity test on that model
pile.
Regarding the velocity-time graph of the recorded
data, the signal shows a very strong reduction of the
pile impedance after two-thirds of its length. The pre-
vious constant enlargement is not visible in the signal.
Therefore, only by observing the velocity-time graph,
the pile should be rated as damaged.
The results of that test series showed that under cer-
tain soil conditions the recorded signal may lead the
pile integrity tester to misread the true conditions of
Figure 3. Full displacement bored pile original, model
pile and schematic drawing with a soil filled gap between the Figure 4. Wave speed in accordance to the depth of the coil
coils. and the soil between the coil and the pile.

the pile. Instead of an abrupt cross-sectional reduction,

a constant enlargement is often not clearly visible in
the velocity-time graph.

3.3 Full displacement bored piles

According to equation 2 the wave speed for a cast
in place concrete pile can be calculated. The Ger-
man standard EA-Pfhle (2007) suggests a range of
the wave speed for set concrete piles to be between Figure 5. Wave speed in accordance to the soil in the gap
4100 m/s and 3500 m/s. If the measured wave speed, between coil and pile.
calculated by the recorded velocity-time graph form
peak to peak after equation 1 is higher, a shortage Additionally, we filled the gap between the coil and
of the pile is likely. If the wave speed is slower than the pile with gravel and sand. As shown in figure 5 the
suggested in the recommendations, a weak quality of wave speed reduction is dependent on the soil type.
the concrete seems to be possible. As a result of the second test series, a reduction of
In fact, while testing full displacement bored piles the traveling wave speed in accordance to the size of
during our test studies on site, sometimes a very low the coil and the soil in the gap between the pile and the
wave speed under 3000 m/s was measured through- coil was clearly visible. In relation to the data form the
out an entire test site. A bad concrete quality for the tests on site, the percentage change of the wave speed
piles was unlikely, especially as a sample was tested was congruent.
for quality from each supply. The production of longer
piles was very doubtful as well.
Therefore, a model pile was produced with exactly 3.4 Influence of the surrounded soil
the same structure as the tested full displacement bored
According to chapter 2, the surrounded soil has an
piles on site, scaled down geometrically. With a length
influence to the recorded velocity-time graph of a low
of 200 cm and a diameter of 5.0 cm the original wave
strain integrity test. A change of the soil stiffness will
speed of the polyamide model pile was 1790 m/s. The
be measured as a stress wave reflection on the pile
gaps between the coils were cut into the pile in four
head. Furthermore, the damping of the soil will lead
increments, each increment 0.25 cm. The model pile
to an energy reduction of the stress wave which will,
is shown in figure 3.
for example, lead to a weaker toe reflex amplitude.
After every step, the wave speed of the model pile
To simulate the influence of the surrounding soil,
was tested.The result is given in the left part of figure 4.
model piles with a constant diameter were driven into
It is clearly visible that, with an increasing depth of the
different soil types at our test site. The damping effect
gap, the wave speed reduces significantly.
and the change of impedance were clearly visible.
After full installation of the pile coil, a wave speed
reduction of 16% was measured. Further on, we filled
the gap between the coil and the pile section by sec-
4 NUMERICAL MODEL
tion (see figure 3). Each section had a length of 50 cm.
After each section was filled the pile integrity was
4.1 Numerical simulation
tested and the wave speed calculated. The result is
shown on the right site of figure 4. An additional wave To recalculate the results of the experimental
speed reduction of 30% was measured. In total a wave researches numerically, the program FLAC3D (Fast
speed reduction of 41% could be generated though the Lagrangian Analysis of Continua in 3 Dimensions)
mentioned processes. was chosen. The program works on the basis of the

657
explicit finite difference method. The materials, as for
example the pile or the surrounded soil, are represented
by polyhedrons in a three dimensional grid. The con-
stitutive law of the elements can be chosen as linear or
non-linear. The use of the dynamic analysis option per-
mits three-dimensional, fully dynamic analysis with
FLAC3D (2006).
4.2 Constitutive law
Because the low strain impact of the small hand held
hammer used for the experimental tests on the model
pile will cause no plastic deformations, an ideal lin-
ear elastic constitutive law was chosen for the pile
material.
Mohrs constitutive law was chosen for the soil, not
only because no displacement of the soil was expected,
but also because the soil parameters (, c, E and ) are
available for regular soils.
More important than the constitutive law of the soil,
the damping effects had to be included in the numerical
model, as the stress wave looses energy by damping in
radial and axial pile direction. To consider the damping
effects, interface elements were used (see also chapter
5.2).
4.3 Initiation pulse
As described in Plassmann (2002) the quality of a low
strain integrity test depends on the force and the con-
tact time of the impact pulse. For an ideal reflection
of the stress wave at any change of impedance, a short
contact time and a high intensity of the force is neces-
sary. The requirements can be summarized in equation
4 as:
where d = pile diameter; L = pile length; c0 = wave
speed; and t = contact time.
From Elmer (1995) the described ideal impact pulse
can be generated in a numerical model by the following
cosine function:
where tI = contact time; T = runtime of the wave; and
P0 = force.
When using the cosine function, a very good agree-
ment between the initiation pulse of the experimen-
tal research and the numerical simulation could be
generated.
4.4 Time discretization
The quality of the numerical results depends on the
chosen time-step where the critical time-step is the
most influential factor. If the chosen time step is too
large, no plausible numerical results can be calculated.
658
The optimum critical time-step can be calculated after
Schmitt (2009) with:
where tcrit = critical time-step; and max = largest
unique frequency of the structure.
To determine max , the systems largest unique fre-
quency, a complete dynamic analysis of the whole
system has to be carried out.
As this approach is very complex the critical time-
step will be estimated in most cases. From Konietzky
(2001) the critical time-step for a full or half-space can
be estimated with the maximum of the longitudinal
wave speed P and the minimum grid-point distance
X after the following equation and was used for our
numerical model:
where tcrit = critical time-step; X = minimum grid-
point distance; and p maximum longitudinal wave
speed.
4.5 Grid discretization
When building up a numerical model its discretization
has to be considered. To avoid long calculation times
and still receive satisfactory results in terms of accu-
racy, an optimized number of elements in radial and
axial direction must be found.
The main discretization criteria when building up
the numerical model was to avoid a so called numer-
ical dissipation of the stress wave. When choosing a
small number of elements in radial and axial direction,
parts of the stress wave will be dissipated numerically
while traveling through the pile. Therefore, sensitiv-
ity studies in accordance to the numbers of elements
were carried out. The numerical result of two different
sensitivity studies is shown in figure 6.
As known from a free end pile with no damping
effects around its pile shaft (e.g. ideal Hopkinson bar),
the pile toe reflex, measured after equation 1 as pile
head velocity, will be twice as high as the initiation
pulse.
Using an inadequate discretization for the numer-
ical model, a delayed and declined pile toe reflex is
calculated. When choosing a discretization with more
than 40 elements per wavelength (equation 7) the
described numerical dissipation could be eliminated.
5 NUMERICAL RESULTS
5.1 Simulation of gradual change in section
In the early stages, we started our numerical investi-
gations with a model pile similar to the pile shown in
figure 3. The length of the pile was 1.6 m. The cross
sectional surface exhibited a gradual enlargement to
Figure 6. Discretization studies of the numerical model.
Figure 7. Comparison between an experimental result and a
numerical calculation according to gradual change in section.
1.25 m, while the remaining 0.35 m of the diameter
corresponds to the pile head diameter. The numeri-
cal investigations for the cross sectional enlargement
within the first 1.25 m were carried out from 10% to
300%.
A very good accordance between the velocity-time
graph of the model pile and the numerical simulation
could be achieved as specifically shown for a pile with
a gradual cross sectional enlargement of about 66% in
figure 7.
As the initiation pulse varies during an experimental
test, both the numerical and the experimental velocity-
time graph were standardized to the initiation pulse.
5.2 Influence of the soil
As described in chapter 3.4 a change of the surrounding
soil condition causes stress wave reflections. Further-
more a reduction of the stress wave energy will occur
through damping effects of the soil. These effects have
to be considered in the numerical simulation.
For the specification of the pile-soil interaction,
interface-elements were used. These elements were
able to give a realistic reproduction of the damping
effects in the radial and axial pile directions. The rhe-
ological model of the interface elements in FLAC3D is
illustrated in figure 8. The shear stiffness and normal
stiffness both greatly affect the damping of the wave
speed amplitude in the pile. For realistic reproduction
of the soil damping in the numerical simulation, an
659
Figure 8. Rheological model of the interface-elements,
FLAC3D (2006).
Figure 9. Comparison between an experimental result and
a numerical calculation according to damping effects.
estimated value for the stiffness of ks and kn must be
determined with sensitivity studies.
Figure 9 shows the pile head velocity measured
from a model pile driven into soil at the test site, com-
pared with the result of a numerical simulation. The
noticeable decrease in the velocity from approximately
1.4 m to 1.9 m is based on a change in impedance due
to a higher ground resistance. The result is compara-
ble in both the driven model pile and the numerical
simulation.
Figure 10 shows the decrease of the wave speed
amplitude across pile length due to damping. The
numerical simulations show that under consideration
of the apparent stiffness for the interface elements,
different soil types will lead to plausible results. There-
fore a loose sand (e.g. hydraulic fill) has only minor
damping effects over the pile length when compared
to a dense sand.
6 OUTLOOK
Initial numerical simulations of the low strain integrity
test on the full displacement bore pile model show
that when choosing a group-modulus of elasticity for
both the polyamide and the soil in the gaps between
the coils, a realistic reduction of the wave speed is
calculated. A numerical result is shown in Figure 11.

Figure 10. Dependence between soil damping and pile
length.
Figure 11. Wave speed reduction.
Different effects on the travelling stress wave,
caused by any change of impedance within the length
of the pile, can be simulated numerically with a very
good agreement compared to the experimental results
on the model piles. The applicability of the numerical
model to cast in place concrete piles on site still needs
to be proven.
The need for more detailed analysis through the use
of additional numerical simulation is, to clarify the
660
results of any unclear data measured during a low strain
integrity test on site. Through numerous variations of
the possible interactions causing stress wave reflec-
tions the most likely pile appearance can be determined
based on the best match between the measured signal
and the numerical result.
REFERENCES
Beim, G. Likins, G. 2008. Worldwide dynamic foundation
testing codes and standards, 8th International Conference
on the Application of Stress-Wave Theory to Piles, Sci-
ence, Technology and Practice, pp 689697, Lisbon, J.A.
dos Santos, Lisbon, Portugal.
EA Pfhle. 2007. Empfehlungen des Arbeitskreises Pfhle,
Deutsche Gesellschaft fr Geotechnik (DGGT), Dort-
mund, Ernst & Sohn.
Elmer, K.-H. 1995. Modellierung und Simulation einer Dehn-
welle zur Risserkennung im Stab, Technische Mechanik,
Band 15, Heft 1.
FLAC3D. 2006. Fast Lagrangian Analysis of Continua in 3-
D, Itasca Consulting Group Inc., Minneapolis, Minnesota,
Version 3.1.
FLAC3D. 2006. Fast Lagrangian Analysis of Continua in 3-
D Manual Optional Features, Itasca Consulting Group
Inc., Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Konietzky, H. 2001. Numerische Simulationen in der
Geomechanik mittels expliziterVerfahren,Verffentlichun-
gen des Instituts fr Geotechnik der TU Bergakademie
Freiberg, Heft 20012.
Plassmann, B. 2002. Zur Optimierung der Metechnik und
derAuswertemethodik bei Pfahlintegrittsprfungen, Dis-
sertation, Institute for Soil Mechanics and Foundation
Engineering, Technische Universitt Braunschweig, Heft
67.
Schmitt, J. 2009. Spannungsverformungsverhalten des
Gebirges beim Vortrieb mit Tunnelbohrmaschinen mit
Schild, Dissertation, Institute for Soil Mechanics and
Foundation Engineering, Technische Universitt Braun-
schweig, Heft 89.
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Response of pile groups in clays under lateral loading based on 3-D

numerical experiments

E.M. Comodromos & M.C. Papadopoulou

Department of Civil Engineering, University of Thessaly, Volos, Greece

I.K. Rentzeperis
Egnatia Odos S.A., Greece

ABSTRACT: The response of laterally loaded pile foundations may be significantly important in the design
of structures for such loads. Although simplified numerical methods are reliable for evaluating the response of a
single pile under horizontal load, their application is questionable for assessing the response of pile groups. The
aim of this paper is to evaluate the influence of the interaction between the piles of a group fixed in a rigid pile
cap, in clayey soils, on both the lateral load capacity and the stiffness of the group. For this purpose, a parametric
three-dimensional nonlinear numerical analysis, allowing for the nonlinearities of the interaction between soil
and piles as well as the effect of pile-soil separation, was carried out for different arrangements of pile groups.
The response of the pile groups is compared to that of the single pile. The influence of the number of piles, the
spacing and the deflection level to the group response is discussed. Furthermore, the contribution of the piles
constituting the group to the total group resistance is examined.

1 INTRODUCTION commonly accepted that for the same mean load,

The response of laterally loaded pile foundations may
be significantly important in the design of structures
for such loads. In many cases the criterion for the
design of piles to resist lateral loads is not the ulti-
mate lateral capacity but the deflection of the piles,
Poulos and Davis (1980). In the case of bridges or
other structures founded on piles, only a few cen-
timetres of displacement could cause significant stress
development on these structures. The load-deflection
curve of a single free-head pile can be determined
using numerical methods and/or results from pile load
tests, while full-scale pile group tests for determin-
ing the response of a pile group are very rare due
to the extremely high cost required. Furthermore, for
single piles various approaches have been proposed
with the aim to take into account nonlinearities aris-
ing from soil-pile interaction. Within this framework
Reese (1977) proposed the well-known p-y analysis,
according to which the soil response is described by
a family of curves giving soil resistance as a function
of deflection and depth below the ground surface. The
simplicity of the method, in conjunction with the well-
defined procedures for establishing the p-y curves,
made the method the most widely used. Although the
method is reliable for evaluating the response of a
single pile under horizontal load, it is questionable if
reasonably reliable simple methods could be applied
to assess the response of pile groups. It is however
the piles of a pile group exhibit significantly greater
deflection than an identical single pile. This behaviour
should be attributed to the fact that the resisting zones
behind the piles overlap. Clearly the effect of the
overlapping becomes larger as spacing between piles
decreases. The application of three-dimensional (3-
D) numerical analysis on the other hand, despite its
complexity and high computational demands, is the
most powerful tool for pile group response evalu-
ation under horizontal or other loading, since it is
able to predict both stiffness and ultimate resistance
reduction factors, particularly in the case of sensitive
soils undergoing plastification for even a low level of
loading.
The aim of this paper is to use numerical analy-
sis tools to estimate the interaction level between soil
and piles for various layouts of horizontally-loaded
fixed head pile groups, in various soil conditions, and
to determine the reduction factors for ultimate lat-
eral load capacity and stiffness corresponding to the
working load or any other load level.
2 SOIL-PILE INTERACTION EFFECT ON PILE
GROUPS
According to Prakash and Sharma (1990), and Oteo
(1972), the lateral group efficiency nL defined by
Equation 1 may reach only 40%, depending on the

661
number of piles in a group and the layout of the
group:
As mentioned in the introduction, the load-
deflection curve could be the determinant factor for
the design of a project and, therefore, the group stiff-
ness reduction factor caused by a lateral load is of
greater importance than the group efficiency factor.
The widely used p-y method could be considered
as extremely effective for the prediction of a sin-
gle pile under horizontal loading and this has been
demonstrated by the application of the back-analysis
procedure in many cases, where a pile load test was
carried out. Even though available data from a sin-
gle pile test under horizontal loading exists together
with the results from a p-y analysis, further cal-
culations are required to establish the response of a
pile group due to the effect of pile-soil-pile interac-
tion. Poulos (1971, 1989) introduced four different
kinds of interaction and reduction factors for piles
under lateral load, depending on the loading at the pile
head and the type of deformation. Moreover, based
on the elastic continuum approach Randolph (1981)
proposed a relationship for estimating the interac-
tion factors in fixed-head piles, demonstrating that the
interaction under lateral loading decreases much more
rapidly with spacing between piles than for axial load-
ing. Wakai et al. (1999) used 3-D elasto-plastic finite
element analysis to estimate the effect of soil-pile
interaction within model tests for free or fixed-head
pile groups. In that analysis thin frictional elements
were inserted between the pile and the soil in order to
consider slippage at the pile-soil interface. It must be
mentioned however, that in many cases where the pile-
soil interaction is governed by nonlinearities arising
from the soil separation behind the pile and the yield of
soil in front of the pile, a 3-D analysis including inter-
face elements around the piles can be considered more
accurate in providing the response of a pile group.
Comodromos (2003) and Comodromos & Pitilakis
(2005) utilised 3-D FDA (Finite Different Analysis) to
evaluate the response of free-head and fixed-head pile
groups respectively. A parametric 3-D analysis was
then performed and the results have been compared
with those of the pile test. The effect of the pile-soil-
pile interaction was then estimated for various group
configurations and, finally, a relationship was pro-
posed allowing the establishment of load-deflection
curves for both free-head and fixed-head pile groups.
As stated in those papers, the applicability of the pro-
posed formulas to different soil profiles should be
verified or readjusted for different soil profiles.
With the aim to examine the response of fixed-head
pile groups under lateral loading in clayey soils, an
extensive parametric numerical analysis for various
pile dispositions has been carried out in this paper,
for different soil profiles covering the range from very
soft to hard clays.
662
3 NUMERICAL ANALYSES OF FIXED-HEAD
PILE GROUPS
3.1 Group configurations and loadings
Configurations of 3 3 were examined with spacings
of 2.0D, 3.0D, 6.0D and 9.0D, along with com-
plementary 2 2 and 4 4 configurations in some
cases, with the aim of drawing conclusions about
the effect of number of piles and their axial distance
on the group response. The piles have a diameter of
D = 1.00 m and a length of 25 m. The three dimen-
sional finite difference code FLAC3D has been used
for a series of parametric analyses of fixed-head pile
groups.
The geometry of the mesh was parametrically
defined in order to give the possibility for geometrical
variations when needed. A mesh generator subrou-
tine was implemented using the FISH built-in pro-
gramming language providing the possibility of mesh
refinement and geometry variation. The bottom eleva-
tion and the lateral sides of the computational domain
were taken far enough from the group to avoid any
significant boundary effect. More specifically, the dis-
tance between the piles tip and the bottom of the mesh
was taken equal to 25.0D and the lateral sides of the
domain were taken either 30 or 60 m away from the
outmost side of the piles, depending on the distance
between the two corner piles of the group. At the bot-
tom level of the computational domain all movements
were restrained while at the lateral external sides, lat-
eral movements perpendicular to the boundary were
prohibited. Based on the experience gained through
this and previous numerical works, a mesh refinement
around the piles leads to a more accurate distribution
of stresses and displacements. This has been taken into
account when preparing the finite difference meshes,
as characteristically illustrated in Figure 1, which cor-
responds to a 3 3 pile group configuration at a
distance of 3.0D, consisting of 22872 elements and
24045 nodes.
Four types of clayey soil were examined in the para-
metric solutions, corresponding to soft, medium stiff,
stiff and very stiff clay, referred to as C1, C2, C3 and
C4, respectively. The elastic perfectly-plastic Tresca
constitutive model was used to simulate the behaviour
of the soil.Table I summarises the properties of the four
soil types. The shear strength and the Youngs modulus
of the soil were considered to increase with depth, z,
as presented in Table I.
In the particular case of pile foundations, where the
applied loads provoke shear strains in the immediate
vicinity of the piles, partial drainage occurs in this area
even in the case of short term loading. For this reason,
values of Poissons ratio slightly lower than vu = 0.5,
which corresponds to undrained conditions, have been
adopted in the analysis.
Pile behaviour was considered as linear elastic with
Poissons ratio = 0.20 and a modulus of elasticity
E = 32000 MPa.
Due to the fact that soil has a limited capacity in sus-
taining tension, interface elements were introduced to
 Figure 2. Components of the interface constitutive model
in FLAC3D .

The normal and shear forces are determined by the

following equations:
Figure 1. Finite difference mesh for a 3 3 pile group,
spacing 3.0D, cross section at y = 0.

Table 1. Geotechnical properties of soil types C1 (soft clay),

C2 (medium stiff clay), C3 (stiff clay) and C4 (very stiff clay). where Fn , Fsi = normal and shear force respec-
tively; kn , ks = normal and shear stiffness respec-
C1 C2 C3 C4 tively; A = area associated with an interface node;
usi = incremental relative shear displacement vec-
Youngs Modulus, 400Cu 300Cu 200Cu 150Cu tor; un = absolute normal penetration of the interface
E (MPa) node into the target face; n = the additional normal
Poissons Ratio, 0.45 0.45 0.45 0.45
stress added due to interface stress initialization; and
Undrained Shear 25 + z 50 + z 100 + z 150 + z
Strength, cu (kPa) si = the additional shear stress vector due to interface
Soil Pile adhesion, 25 50 72 75 stress initialization.
ca (kPa) In many cases, particularly when linear elastic anal-
Unit weight, (kN/m3 ) 0 20 20 20 ysis is performed, values for interface stiffness are
defined to simulate the nonlinear behaviour of a prob-
lem. In the present analysis, where nonlinear analysis
is carried out and the use of interface elements covers
allow pile separation from the surrounding soil. Sepa- the soil-pile separation, the value for the interface stiff-
ration occurs near the top and behind the pile generally ness should be high enough, in comparison with the
no deeper that 20% of pile length, depending on pile surrounding soil, in order to minimise the contribution
and soil stiffness. Together with the local yield at the of those elements to the accumulated displacements.
top of the soil where large compressive stresses are To satisfy the above requirement the guidelines of
developed in front of the soil, separation is consid- FLAC3D manual (2006) propose values for kn and ks
ered as the main reason for the nonlinear behaviour. of the order of ten times the equivalent stiffness of the
According to Poulos and Davis (1980), separation is stiffest neighbouring zone. The use of considerably
able to cause an increase in displacements up to the higher values is tempting as it could be considered as
extreme level of 100%, while 30 to 40% appears to be more appropriate, but in that case the solution conver-
more reasonable in the case of stiff piles. gence will be very slow. Based on this principle, for
The constitutive model of the interface elements in both kn and ks , a value of 1000 MPa/m was taken.
FLAC3D is defined by a linear Coulomb shear-strength Numerical analyses were carried out for all the
criterion that limits the shear force acting at an inter- aforementioned soil types. The simulation sequence
face node, a dilation angle that causes an increase in included an initial step, in which the initial stress
effective normal force on the target face after the shear condition was established, followed by a number of
strength limit is reached, and a tensile strength limit. loading steps in order to define the load-displacement
Figure 2 illustrates the components of the constitu- curve up to a level of deflection of at least 10%D. The
tive model acting at an interface node. The interface pile group total load, H , was applied to the top of the
elements are allowed to separate if tension develops central pile for the 3 3 configuration and to the top
across the interface and exceeds the tension limit of of a corner pile for the 2 2 and 4 4 arrangements.
the interface. Once gapping is formed between the In either cases, to simulate the fact that the piles were
pile-soil interface, the shear and normal forces are set fixed in a rigid pile head, the pile heads of the rest of the
to zero. piles where restrained to undertake the same deflection

663
Figure 3. Displacement contours in the direction of loading Figure 4. Displacement contours in the direction of loading
for the case of a 3 3 layout with a spacing of 2.0D, soil type for the case of a 3 3 layout with a spacing of 3.0D, soil type
C1. C1.

with the loaded pile (nodes slaved to that where the

load was applied). In addition, the degrees of freedom
of the nodes at the pile heads corresponding to the
directions y-y and z-z were eliminated. The direction
of loading was always the x direction, whereas a ramp
loading procedure was also used to avoid numerical
instabilities due to the high load value.
The case of a fixed-head single pile was also con-
sidered since its response is to be used to compare the
group responses with. The single pile response was
derived by the 3 3 mesh and a preliminary analy-
sis was carried out for the central pile of the first, the
second and the third row in the direction of loading
(position of piles P8 , P5 and P2 respectively at the pile
group), confirming that the position of the single pile
does not affect the results. Figure 5. Displacement contours in the direction of loading
for the case of a 3 3 layout with a spacing of 6.0D, soil type
C1.
3.2 Numerical results
Figures 3 to 5 illustrate the displacement contours
along the direction of loading at the plane y = 0 for
the case of the 3 3 layout with spacing of 2, 3 and 6
diameters, for soil type C1. The displacement contours
correspond to a mean load of 1.75 MN, where the mean
load, Hm , is defined as the total load imposed at the pile
cap divided by the number of piles.The level of interac-
tion between piles and soil can be drawn qualitatively
from the displacement contours.
When spacing is too small (Figure 3), the displace-
ment tends to be unified at the soil surface between the
piles, while from a certain level of loading the resist- Figure 6. Numerically established load-deflection curves,
ing zones behind the piles overlap. When these zones for the fixed-head single pile and various pile group config-
are plastified, the lateral load capacity is rather the urations, soil type C1.
load capacity of an equivalent single pile containing
the piles than the summation of the lateral load capac-
ity of the piles. A comparison between Figures 3 to 5 number of piles play also an important but less affect-
demonstrates that as spacing increases the effect of ing role. Figure 6 illustrates the load-deflection curves
overlapping between the resisting zones becomes less at the top of the pile for various fixed-head pile groups
significant. together with that of the fixed-head single pile. The
A detailed comparison of the results demonstrated group 3 3 with a spacing of 9.0D is the most stiff,
that the load-deflection curve is significantly affected followed by the 3 3 group with the 6.0D spacing and
by pile spacing while the number of rows and the total the 4 4 group with a spacing of 9.0D.

664
 In addition, the lowest stiffness is exhibited by the
4 4 group with a spacing of 2.0D. When examining
the groups in either the 3 3 or the 4 4 layout, it
can be verified that when spacing decreases, the stiff-
ness of the group declines and that the number of piles
affects the response of the group as well. Despite the
variation of the load-deflection curve of each group,
it can be concluded that all curves have a form similar
to that of the single pile.
As it was previously stated, the criterion for the
design of piles to resist lateral loads, in the majority of
cases, is not the ultimate lateral capacity but the deflec-
tion of the piles under a specific load. From the results Figure 7. Variation of amplification factor Ra with deflec-
of the numerical analyses, it may be concluded that the tion level for a fixed-head pile group in soil type C1, 3 3
piles in groups undergo considerably more deflection arrangement with various spacings.
for a given mean load Hm per pile than a single pile
under the same load.A comparison between the deflec-
tion of the single pile and that of the pile group for the
same mean load provide the deflection amplification
factor defined by the following equation:

in which ymG and ymLs stand for the deflection at the

head of the piles and the single pile under the same hor-
izontal mean load Hm , respectively. It can be seen that
the deflection amplification factor, Ra , is the inverse of
the stiffness efficiency factor, RG , defined by Equation
(5), whereas the stiffness of a pile group for a given Figure 8. Variation of amplification factor Ra with spacing,
mean load Hm can be then calculated using Equation for a deflection of 2, 3, 5 and 7%D, for a 3 3 pile group
(6): arrangement, in soil type C1.

where KS = the stiffness of the single pile for a given

load; and KG = the stiffness of the pile group for the
same load. The total group stiffness is determined by
multiplying KG with the number of piles of the group.
Figure 7 illustrates the variation of the amplifi-
cation factor Ra with the normalized deflection of
various pile groups. More specifically, the amplifi-
cation factor is plotted against the level of deflection
for 3 3 and 4 4 pile group configurations in soft
clay and pile spacings of 2.0, 3.0, 6.0 and 9.0D. It can
be seen that the Ra factor exhibits its maximum effect
at low levels of deflection. This shoud be attributed
to the fact that at low level of displacements linear
elastic behaviour or limited yielding occurs in the sur-
rounding soil and the interaction between the piles of
a group exhibits its maximum effect and as a result the
Ra factor attains its maximum value. As displacement
increases the Ra factor shows a gradual degradation up
to a certain level of deflection, which depends on both
the group arrangement and the soil strength. Beyond
this level the Ra factor practically remains constant.
The effect of the pile spacing can be seen in
Figure 8. For the same layout, the group with the
Figure 9. Variation of amplification factor Ra with spacing,
for a deflection of 2, 3, 5 and 7%D, for a 3 3 and a 4 4
pile group arrangement, in soil type C1.
minimum spacing shows the maximum deflection
amplification factor, Ra , which means that exhibits the
maximum stiffness reduction.
Figure 9 illustrates the variation of the amplification
factor Ra with different configurations. It can be seen
that the lateral displacement is amplified by more than
four times in 4 4 groups with 2.0D spacing, whereas
the effect becomes less significant in the case of a 3 3
group with the same spacing, where the amplification
factor was found of the order of 3.0. Thus, for the same
spacing, the greater the number of the piles in a group
the greater the stiffness reduction.

665

Figure 10. Variation of normalized load with normalized
deflection for piles P2 , P3 , P5 , P6 , P8 and P9 in a 3 3 layout
with a spacing of 6.0D, in soil type C1.
Figure 11. Variation of normalized load with normalized
deflection for piles P2 , P3 , P5 , P6 , P8 and P9 in a 3 3 layout
with a spacing of 9.0D, in soil type C1.
In order to investigate the effect of interaction
within a pile group, the responses of the piles in a
3 3 layout were examined precisely. As anticipated,
the central pile, P5 , carries the lowest load for the
same deflection, presenting the minimum stiffness,
while the two corner piles on the direction of load-
ing (P7 and P9 ) carry the highest load, presenting the
maximum stiffness. It should also be noted that the
front piles (P8 and P9 ) resist more than the back row
(P2 and P3 ). Figures 10 and 11 illustrate the normal-
ized load undertaken by the piles of the group as a
function of the normalized deflection in the case of
spacing equal to 6.0D and 9.0D, respectively. The cen-
tral pile, P5 , initially carries the 72% or 79% of the
mean load for spacings of 6.0D and 9.0D, respectively.
These percentages gradually increase to 99% when
the deflection level becomes of the order of 10% of
the pile diameter. On the other hand, pile P9 initially
666
carries 115 or 110% of the mean load. This percentage
gradually decreases with deflection level, becoming
102 or 101% when deflection increases to 10% of the
pile diameter. Finally, the loads transferred to the other
piles of the group remain within the limits of these two
piles.
4 CONCLUSIONS
In this paper, the effects of the interaction to the
response of a pile group fixed in a rigid cap were
examined for various group configurations under hor-
izontal loading. Based on the results of the parametric
three dimensional nonlinear numerical analysis, the
response of particular piles in the group was inves-
tigated and their contribution to the entire group
behaviour was also quantified.
REFERENCES
Comodromos, E. 2003. Response prediction of horizontally
loaded pile groups. Geotechnical Engineering Journal
34(2): 123133.
Comodromos, E. & Pitilakis, K. 2005. Response Evaluation
of Horizontally Loaded Fixed-Head Pile Groups using 3-D
Nonlinear Analysis. International Journal for Numerical
and Analytical Methods in Geomechanics 29: 597625.
Itasca. FLAC3D 2006.Fast Lagrangian analysis of continua.
Itasca Consulting Group; Users manual ver 3.1. Min-
neapolis.
Oteo, C.S. Displacement of a vertical pile group subjected to
lateral loads. Proceedings of 5th European Conference of
Soil Mechanics & Foundation engineering, Madrid, 1972:
397405.
Poulos, H.G. 1971. Behaviour of laterally loaded piles: I-
single pile, and II- pile group. Journal of Soil Mechanics
& Foundation Division 97: 711751.
Poulos, H.G. 1989. Pile behaviour theory and application.
Gotechnique 39(3): 366415.
Poulos, H.G. & Davis, E.H. 1980. Pile foundation analysis
and design. Singapore: J. Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Prakash, S. & Sharma, D. 1990. Pile foundation in engineer-
ing practice. New York: J. Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Randolph, M.F. 1981. The response of flexible piles to lateral
loading. Gotechnique 31(2): 247259.
Reese, L.C. 1977. Laterally loaded piles: Program documen-
tation. Journal of Geotechnical Engineering Division 103:
287305.
Wakai, A., Gose, S., Ugai, K. 1999. 3-D Elasto-plastic finite
element analyses of pile foundations subjected to lateral
loading. Soils and Foundations 39(1): 97111.
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Selection of the proper hammer in pile driving and estimation of the total
driving time

A. Afshani, A. Fakher & M. Palassi

Department of Civil Engineering, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

ABSTRACT: There are various methods for analyzing pile driving process such as dynamic formulas, wave
equation analyses and dynamic measurements. The programs of the two latter methods are relatively expensive to
purchase and also require trained engineers to interpret the data it collects. Meanwhile, the use of the site specific
empirical formulas based on the real cases of pile driving and output analyses of the wave equation analysis
programs can be beneficial. In the current study, pile driving data from three sites in the south of Iran were
collected. Using the data of these cases and one-dimensional wave equation analysis program GRLWEAP, couple
of experimental formulas which determine the proper range of hammers ID for driving a pile, are proposed.
Finally, due to the importance of the time in marine projects, another experimental formula is also proposed for
the estimation of the total driving time.

1 INTRODUCTION 2 DRIVEABILITY ANALYSIS

Engineers and contractors have been designing and
installing pile foundations for many years. The most
common way of installing a pile is driving of it by a
hammer especially in marine environments. A hammer
which is too small may not be able to drive the pile
to the required capacity; or may need an excessive
number of blows. On the other hand, a hammer which
is too large may damage the pile or fails to operate
properly after a few blows.
Three general methods are available for predicting
the hammer performance: dynamic formulae, dynamic
test and wave equation analysis. Dynamic test meth-
ods measure strain and acceleration of the produced
wave by hammer impact near the pile head. These mea-
surements can be used to evaluate the performance of
the pile driving system, determine pile integrity and
estimate static pile capacity. But these tests must be
performed during pile driving and also need trained
engineers to interpret the data it collects. Wave equa-
tion analysis performed in the design stage requires
assumptions on the hammer type and performance
level, the drive system components, as well as the soil
response during driving.
In the current paper, based on the field observation
data and a parametric study, couples of experimen-
tal equations were presented to provide a proper
hammer for driving a certain pile in a certain soil con-
dition. Furthermore, an equation was also obtained
which represents an estimation of the total driving
time.
2.1 The basics of driveability analysis
By performing a static soil analysis the graph of ulti-
mate soil capacity as function of depth can be plotted.
The wave equation is then used to calculate the blow
count for certain depth value. In this way, the blow
count versus embedded length curve is obtained. This
process is called a driveability study which can be
performed:
1. To determine if the proposed hammer(s) are suit-
able for the pile installation.
2. To assess the ability of the hammer(s) to restart pile
driving after an interruption.
2.2 GRLWEAP program
GRLWEAP is the latest updated wave equation analy-
sis program (Pile dynamic 2003). This program simu-
lates motions and forces in foundation pile when driven
by either impact or vibratory hammer. The program
can compute the following:
1. The blow count of a pile under one or more assumed
ultimate resistance values and other dynamic soil
resistance parameters, given a hammer and a driv-
ing system (helmet, hammer cushion, pile cushion).
2. The energy transferred by the hammer to the pile
for each capacity analyzed.
3. The expected blow count per meter along the
penetrated depth of the pile (driveability analysis).

667
Table 1. Soil condition. Table 2. Collected records from the field for calibration of
the input information in GRLWEAP program.
From To
(m) (m) Description Driven Total
Total pile length of number of
Site A length the pile Hammer the blow
0 12 Dense silty sand Pile No (m) (m) model counts
12 18 Very dense clayey silty sand
18 28 Hard silty clay Site A
28 43 Very dense sandy silt A1 31.45 16.45 Da -36 970
Site B B1 31 16 D-36 848
0 7 Back fill material C1 31 16 D-36 896
7 17 Sandy soil with some shell debris B2 35.1 23.1 D-36 1632
17 27 Clayey soil with layers of dense silt C2 35 23 D-36 1570
27 Clayey soil with layers of V. dense silt B3 36.31 29.6 D-36 2925
A4 24.3 22.3 D-36 1521
Site C
B4 24.3 22.3 D-36 1367
0 12 Gray silty sand
M1-1 32 18 D-36 1808
12 22 Very dense silty gravel with sand
M1-2 34.65 23.65 D-36 2115
22 27 V. dense silty gravel with sand and gobble
M1-3 32 18 D-36 2405
27 - Very dense silty gravel with sand
M3-1 32 18 D-36 2009
M3-3 32 18 D-36 1856
M4-1 32 18 D-36 1837
M4-3 32 18 D-36 1817
3 FIELD MEASURMENTS OF THE PILE Site B
DRIVING L3-AP3 7 6.75 D-62-22 80
L3-AP4 7 6.75 D-62-22 117
3.1 General description L3-AP5 7 6.25 D-62-22 31
L3-AP6 7 6.5 D-62-22 41
During the process of obtaining an equation for select-
ing a proper hammer to drive a pile, a series of data Recorded Total
was needed to calibrate the unknown parameters in Total pile length of number of
the used wave equation program. In order to fulfill length the pileb Hammer the blow
this goal, the field data from three recent pile instal- Pile No (m) (m) model counts
lation projects were collected. All three projects were
located in the south of Iran on the coastline of the Site C
Persian Gulf. The more details of these projects are B31 38.6 9.48 D-100-13 1134
presented in subsequent parts. A32 38.6 5.52 D-100-13 761
A27 38.6 7.34 D-100-13 918
B32 38.6 8.54 D-100-13 984
3.2 Site A A34 38.6 8.6 D-100-13 920
C34 38.6 8.33 D-100-13 1089
This site has located on Bahonar harbor in Bandar- B35 38.6 7.79 D-100-13 1012
Abbas, a port city on the southern coast of Iran, on C31 38.6 7.2 D-100-13 946
the Persian Gulf. At this site, abundant numbers of B37 24 9 D-46 978
piles were driven as a deep foundation which their A37 24 8.95 D-100-13 1293
characteristics are: piles type = open-ended steel pipe E34 39.6 8.64 D-100-13 843
D43 39.6 8.96 D-100-13 1160
pile, piles total length = 24 to 36 m, piles embedded
D42 39.6 8.71 D-100-13 958
length = 16 to 30 m, piles diameter = 0.762 m, piles B31 39.6 8.2 D-100-13 1016
wall thickness = 18 mm. The Delmag D-36 was cho-
sen as a typical diesel hammer with an efficiency of a
D denotes Delmag diesel hammer.
0.8. The general soil profile was consisted of dense b
The blow count per meter has been recorded in this length
to hard silty sand as described in Table 1. In order to which shows the last few meter of the driven length.
calibrate the input information of the GRLWEAP pro-
gram for the next analyses, field data of blow counts
per meter was collected in each of these projects. For
instance, in site A, the blow counts per meter along are: piles type = open-ended steel pipe pile, piles total
the driven length of the 15 cases of pile driving were length = 7 m, piles embedded length = 6.75 m, piles
gathered which has been summarized in Table 2. diameter = 0.914 m, piles wall thickness = 16 mm.
The hammer which was used to drive the piles was
Delmag D-62-22 with approximate efficiency of 0.85.
3.3 Site B
The soil condition of this site is summarized in Table
This site was in Kish, a resort island in the Persian 1. Based upon field observation, four records of blow
Gulf and was performed as an expansion phase of Kish counts per meter along the driven length of piles were
commercial harbor. The characteristics of used piles gathered during the driving process. The total numbers

668
of blow counts along the entire driven length of these Table 3. The values of unknown parameters in GRLWEPA
piles have been shown in Table 2. before and after calibration in different sites.

Stiffness of the
3.4 Site C Qs Qt Js Jt hammer cushion
Site (mm) (mm) (sec/m) (sec/m) (kN/mm)
This site locates in Kangan harbor, a small harbor in
Kangan town in the coastline of the Persian Gulf on The values of unknown parameters used for Starting
Bushehr province. Multitude numbers of large diame- estimates
ter piles were driven by Delmag D-100-13 and Delmag A 2.5 6.35 0.16 0.5 40000
D-46 with estimate efficiency of 0.85. Piles charac- B 2.5 7.6 0.16 0.5 40000
teristics were: pile type = open-ended steel pipe pile, C 2.5 11.85 0.65 0.5 10000
pile total length = maximum 40 m, pile embedded The values of unknown parameters after calibration
length = 25 to 30 m, pile diameter = 1.422 m, pile wall A 2.5 6.35 0.16 0.5 900000
thickness = 19.8 mm. The soil profile mainly consists B 2.5 7.6 0.16 0.5 648000
of the normal to the very dense silty sand and gravel. C 2.5 2.5 0.65 0.5 38180
The general soil profile is described in Table 1. Totally,
14 records of blow counts per meter along the pene-
trated length of pile were gathered. But in this site,
these records are only pertaining to the last few meter
of driving length which has been shown in Table 2. The
total number of blow counts along the recorded driven
length of the piles has presented in the last column of
Table 2.

4 ALIBRATION OF INGOING PARAMETERS

IN GRLWEAP FROM FIELD TEST DATA

4.1 Calibration procedure

The analyses have been carried out in this study using
GRLWEAP program. The soil parameters needed for
analyses are: toe quake, Qt , skin quake, Qs , which
describe maximum elastic deformation at the toe and
skin of the pile; toe damping, Jt , skin damping, Js ,
which describe dynamic behavior of the soil at the toe
and skin of the pile respectively. The required driving
system properties are hammer and pile cushions infor-
mation such as cross sectional area, elastic modulus,
thickness, coefficient of restitution, cushionsstiffness
and helmet weight. Physical and mechanical properties
of pile are also needed. All of the above information
was provided from field data except soil properties and
the hammer cushions stiffness.
The unknown parameters were back-calculated
from the set of pile per blow data, which were directly
collected in the field as presented in Table 2. To initiate
the iterative process, starting estimates are required.
The typical values of smith damping and quake param-
eters recommended by others (Mcvay & Kuo 1999,
Nath 1990 , Pile dynamic 2003) are used to obtain
starting estimates for Qt , Qs , Js and Jt . These values
have been shown in Table 3.
The hammer cushions stiffness is calculated from
EA/t whe E is the elastic modulus, A is the cross sec-
tional area and t is the thickness of the cushion. The
used hammer cushion material in the both of sites
A and B were a few rounds of towing wire, while
wood hammer cushion was exerted in site C. Table
3 shows the quantities of the unknown parameters in
GRLWEAP before and after calibration. In order to
evaluate the calibration result, measured blow counts
Figure 1. Comparison of the measured blow counts per
meter in field with the calibrated model of site B in GRL-
WEAP program.
per meter of the field were compared with GRLWEAP
program output after calibration process. For instance,
the calibration result in the site B has been displayed
in Figure 1.
5 PARAMETRIC STUDY
After calibration of driveability analyses for each of
three above mentioned sites, a parametric study was
undertaken for each site to produce more data. This
parametric study also considers the effects of vari-
ous involving parameters on the numbers of the blow
counts per meter, n. These parameters are (1) coef-
ficient of restitution of the hammer cushion, C.O.R,
which shows amount of energy dissipation when ram
impacts a pile cushion; (2) toe quake, Qt , which
describes maximum elastic deformation of the soil
at the pile toe; (3) skin damping, Js , which describes
dynamic behavior of soil at the skin of the pile; (4)
helmet weight; (5) stiffness of the hammer cushion, k;
(6) embedded length of the pile. After conducting the
parameter study, following results were obtained:
C.O.R of commonly used material for cushions usu-
ally varies between 0.5 and 0.8. For increasing the

669
Figure 2. Effect of the hammer cushion stiffness on the blow
counts per meter in site C.
value of C.O.R, no notable changes was recognized
in the numbers of blow counts per meter.
According to the others recommendation (Mcvay &
Kuo 1999, Nath 1990, Pile dynamic 2003), toe quake,
Qt , can vary from 2.5 mm to D/120, where D is pile
diameter in millimeter, but skin quake, Qs , can be taken
2.5 mm for all soil types. Also toe damping, Jt , can be
chosen 0.5 sec/m for all soil types while skin damping,
Js , is changing from 0.16 sec/m for non-cohesive soils
to 0.65 sec/m for cohesive soil. So, here only Qt and
Js were considered. This study showed a slight varia-
tion of blow counts per meter, while changing these
parameters.
Helmet weight was varied between 10 and 30 kN
to investigate its effect on blow counts per meter. The
helmet is usually heavy and so rigid so that it is con-
sidered as a lump mass in wave equation analyses.
Increasing the helmet weight whiles the hammer, pile
and soil properties are constant, resulted in decreas-
ing and then increasing of the blow counts per meter
values.
The stiffness of hammer cushion, k, is calculated
based on the k = E.A/t where E is elastic modulus, A
is cross sectional area of the cushion and t is cushion
thickness. To investigate the effect of hammer cush-
ion stiffness, elastic modulus of cushion material was
varied from 250 to 5000 MPa and the thickness was
taken to 5 cm. As it can be seen in Figure 2, which
depicts the effect of the hammer cushion stiffness in
site C, for increasing the value of the k form 5000A
to 100000A (MN/m3 A), the blow counts per meter
are decreased. It means that stiffer cushions transmit
greater percentage of the hammers energy to the pile
head.
Figure 3 shows the effect of embedded length of
the pile on the number of blow counts per meter in
the site A for different Delmag diesel hammers. As the
pile is driven into the soil, total soil resistance at the
point and skin of the pile is accumulated. According
to the Figure 3, as the embedded length of the pile is
varied from 0 to 16.45 m, blow counts per meter tend
to increase exponentially.
670
Figure 3. Effect of embedded length of the pile on the blow
counts per meter in site A for various Delmag hammers.
6 APPROXIMATE EQUATIONS
6.1 Approximate equations for hammer selection
In order to present an equation to determine which
hammer is suitable for driving a certain pile in a known
soil condition, a basic concept of energy transferring
during pile driving and some of the more accurate
pile driving formulas were considered. Then, using the
results of parametric study, the final equations were
obtained.
As the ram descending to impact the cushion, poten-
tial energy or rated energy, Er , which is given by
manufactures, is progressively converted to the kinetic
energy. After losing some energy in the hammer and
driving systems, the energy that actually arrives at the
pile top is called transferred energy as follow:
where Et = transferred energy; Er = rated energy;
eh = hammer efficiency; and ed = loss factors in driv-
ing system. In the current study, some of the more
accurate pile driving formulas like Janbu, Gate and
Hiley (Lowery et al. 1968, Fragaszy et al. 1985, Allen
2005) were considered in the terms of energy as pre-
sented in Table 4. Using the general form of Janbu
formulas in the term of transferred energy and know-
ing the fact that energy is product of a force or
resistance through a distance, leads to
where Et = transferred energy; Ru = total soil resis-
tance; s = permanent set of the pile per blow and
C = elastic compression of the pile which is computed
by C = Ru L/AE where Ru is total soil resistance; L is
total length of the pile; A is cross sectional area of the
pile and E is elastic modulus of the pile.
Mean value of diesel hammer efficiency, eh , is about
0.8 and according to the output results of GRLWEAP
 Table 4. Pile driving formulas.

Formula Equation for Et Remarks

Janbu Et = Qu sKu Ku = Cd {1 + (1 + e /Cd )0.5 }

e = WHL/AEs2
Cd = 0.75 + 0.15Wp /W
Gate Et = [Qu (104.5(2.4-log s))]2 Qu (kN), s(mm), Et (kN.m)
Hiley Et = [Qu (s + 0.5(c1 + c2 + c3 ))]/ = {(W + n2 Wp )/W + Wp }
c1 , c2 , c3 , and n are
tabulated by (Chellis 1961)

analyses, average quantity of loss factor in driving sys- Table 5. Comparison the output results of the proposed
tems, eh , was also obtained 0.8. Thus, for simplicity of equations with GRLWEAP program.
final equation, the values of eh and ed were set to 0.8.
So, inserting corresponding values for eh and ed into Data of the Pile No. A1 of Site A
the Equation (1) and using Equations (1) and (2) gives
Total length of the pile: 31.45 m
Embedded length of the pile: 16.45 m
Cross sectional area of the pile: 420.7 cm2
Total soil resistance (skin plus toe) 3836 kN
Elastic modulus of pile: 2 108 kN/m2
Using the results of the parameter study, it was Min Set of pile per blow (smin ): 5.27 103 m
observed that number of blow counts per meter, n, is Max Set of pile per blow (smax ): 14.64 103 m
varying with the embedded length of the pile exponen- Output results of the proposed equations and GRLWEAP
tially as presented in Figure 3. As the set per blow, s, is Min rated Energy (Eqs (6)&(7)): 115 kJ
the inverse of the n, the Equations of (4) and (5) were Max rated Energy (Eqs (6)&(7)): 264 kJ
obtained by plotting the embedded length of the pile Range of hammer ID (Eqs (6)&(7)): Da -36 to D-80
with blow counts per meter for driving the pile with Range of hammer ID (GRLWEAP): D-15 to D-80
small and large hammers respectively as follows: Used hammer in filed: D-36
a
D denotes Delmag diesel hammer.

Emax. As the rated energy of various hammers is given

where smin = minimum set of pile per blow, which is
usually created by small hammers; smax = maximum
set of pile per blow, which is made by large
hammers; nmin and nmax are minimum and maxi-
mum number of blow counts per meter respectively;
andLe = embedded length of the pile. Putting the
Equations (4) and (5) into the Equation (3) yields the
Equations of (6) and (7) as follows:
by manufactures, a proper hammer for a certain pile
and a certain soil condition can be selected. Exerting
the Equations (6) and (7) for the condition of 3 studied
sites showed a very good agreement with GRLWEAP
output result. Table 5 indicates the output results of the
proposed equations and GRLWEAP program using the
data of the pile No. A1 of site A. The used hammer for
driving this pile in field was Delmag D-36. According
to Table 5, Equations (6) and (7) are suggesting the
range of Delmag D-36 to D-80 for driving of this pile.

6.2 Approximate equations for the estimation of

driving time
The driving time can be estimated from total number
of blow counts, N , and hammer blow rate (blows per
minute), B, as follow:

where Emin and Emax are minimum and maximum rated

energy of diesel hammers. Ingoing parameters in
Equations (6) and (7) are: total soil resistance, Ru ,
embedded length of the pile, Le , total length of the pile,
L, cross sectional area of pile, A and elastic modulus
of pile material, E. The two latter experimental equa-
tions present a range of rated energy between Emin and
where T = total driving time; N = total number of
blow counts and B = the blow rate. In order to obtain
an experimental equation for computing total driv-
ing time, a parametric study carried out based on the
GRLWEAP calibrated models, but for brevity it is not
included here. Considering the pattern of blow counts

671
per meter, n, with embedded length as the pile is driven
into the soil usually shows an exponential growth as
presented in Figure 3. Thus, in this study using the
general form of geometric progression formulae, N is
computed based on parametric study as follow:
where N = total number of blow counts; n = blow
counts in the first meter of driving; Le = embedded
length of the pile which shows how many number of
terms must be added and q = common ratio which is
related to the pile driving factors like the embedded
length, total soil resistance and rated energy of ham-
mer according to the parametric study results as given
by
where q = common ratio; Le = embedded length;
Er = rated energy of used hammer and Ru = total soil
resistance. According to the collected data of the sites
A, B and C, averagely 5 blows per meter in the first
meter of driving were observed. Furthermore, mean
values of blow rate, B, in the diesel hammers in the
studied sites was about 45 blows per minute. Thus, to
avoid the complexity of the final equation, n and B
are set to 5 and 45 respectively. Using Equations (8)
and (9) with corresponding values of n and B yields
where q, common ratio, must be computed from Equa-
tion (10). It should be noted that: (a) Equation (11)
represents an estimation of total driving time which
does not include interruption times (wait time). How-
ever, it shows a good agreement with GRLWEAP
results. (b) If refusal occurs (blow counts goes high
e.g. greater than 300 blows per foot according to (API
2000)), the driving time calculation is meaningless.
7 CONCLUSIONS
The pile driving data of three different sites were col-
lected and the driving conditions in these sites were
672
modeled in the wave equation analysis program, GRL-
WEAP. Unknown input parameters in GRLWEAP
were obtained by calibration of the output result of
this program with recoded blow counts per meter in
the field. Then a parametric study was performed to
produce more data. Based upon the measured and
generated data, a series of equations were obtained:
(i) Equations (6) and (7) represent the minimum and
maximum of rated energy. As the rated energy of
various hammers is given by hammer manufac-
tures, a proper range of hammers are achieved for
driving a certain pile in a certain soil condition.
(ii) Equation (11) represents an estimation of total
driving time.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The research was supported by Pars Geometry Con-
sultant and Karan Darya Construction Company. Dr
A. Cheshmi was also very helpful. These supports are
acknowledged.
REFERENCES
Allen, T. 2005. Development of the WSDOT pile driving
formula and its calibration for load and resistance factor
design. Report No: WA-RD-610.1, HQ Material labarto-
bary, Geotechnical Div, Washington State Department of
Transportation , Olympia, Washington.
API. (21nd ed) 2000. Recommended practice planning,
designing, and construction fixed offshore platform work-
ing stress design. API Recommended practice 2A-WSD
(RP 2A-WSD).
Chellis, R. (2nd ed.) 1961. Pile foundations. New York:
McGraw-Hill.
Fragaszy, R.J. & Higgins, J. 1985. Development of guidelines
for constructive control of pile driving and estimation of
pile capacity. Report No: WA-RD-68.1, Washington State
department of Transportation, Washington.
Lowery, L., Finley, J. & TJ, H. 1968.A comparison of dynamic
pile driving formulas with the wave equation. Research
report 33-12, The Texas Transportation Institute, Texas
A&M University, The texas Highway Department, Texas.
Mcvay, M. & Kuo, C. 1999. Estimate damping and quake by
using the traditional soil testing. Report No. WPI0510838,
Univeristy of Florida, Florida Department of Transporta-
tion Managment Center.
Nath, B. 1990. A continuum method of pile driving analysis:
Comparison with the wave equation method. Computers
and Geotechnics 10 (4): 265285.
Pile dynamic, I. 2003. GRLWEAP Wave Equation Analysis
Of Pile Driving. Procedures and Models, Cleveland, Ohio.
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Settlement analysis of a large piled raft foundation

M. Wehnert
Wechselwirkung Numerische Geotechnik GmbH, Stuttgart, Germany

T. Benz
Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway
Wechselwirkung Numerische Geotechnik GmbH, Stuttgart, Germany

P. Gollub
BAUER Spezialtiefbau GmbH, Schrobenhausen, Germany

T. Cubaleski
E.ON Engineering GmbH, Gelsenkirchen, Germany

ABSTRACT: This paper presents a settlement analysis of a large piled raft foundation. Total raft area is about
12,600 m2 . The raft investigated is a monolithic raft supported by more than 500 large diameter bored piles. Due
to problem size, all bored piles are discretized with embedded elements. Analyses taking into account the full
soil-structure interface between soil and pile are conducted for smaller pile groups and single piles: First, load
tests on single piles are back calculated. Then, a small pile group is analyzed. From this, the element size in the
3D analysis of the complete raft is determined so that the embedded element approach yields reasonable results
in the service load range. The analysis aims mainly for an estimate of differential settlements and quantification
of load distribution between raft and piles.

1 INTRODUCTION The single piles as well as a pile group underneath

a highly loaded column of the UHA structure are
1.1 Project description and aim of the investigation modeled with the 3D program. Again, piles are
discretized with volume elements; soil-structure
This paper is concerned with three dimensional fi-
interaction is accounted for by interface elements.
nite element analyses of a piled raft foundation. The
Transfer 3D pile group to a 3D FE model using
piled raft carries all main structural components of
ABAQUS version 6.7. In the ABAQUS model, piles
the 1070 MW coal-fired Maasvlakte Power Plant 3
are discretized with embedded elements. In both
(MPP3) in Rotterdam, the Netherlands: The boiler
codes, PLAXIS and ABAQUS, the same constitu-
building (UHA), the steam turbine building (UMA),
tive models are used. Concrete is assumed to be
two stair cases (UHT and UMT), the unit control build-
linear elastic. The Hardening-Soil model (Schanz
ing (UCA), and the air preheater denox (UVA). The
et al. 2000) is adopted for sand and clay.
raft is supported by more than 500 large diame-ter
Analyze the complete raft using ABAQUS 6.7
bored piles with diameters of 120 or 150 cm. The piles
considering the findings of the previous analyses.
have different lengths and the monolithic raft varies in
thickness and foundation depth.
WechselwirkungNumerische Geotechnik GmbH
was mandated by BAUER Spezialtiefbau GmbH to 1.2 Soil profile and subsoil conditions
perform settlement analyses of the piled raft founda-
The subsoil in the area of the power plant consists of
tion using the finite element method (FEM). The
thick layers of sand divided by thin layers of clay and
methodology for deriving the final 3D FEM model
peat. Soil profiles at four different locations A to D
was chosen as follows:
are shown in Figure 1. The location of points A to
Back analyze three pile load tests performed on the D in respect to the foundation is shown in Figure 7.
site with a 2D FE code (PLAXIS V8.6). Piles and The thicknesses of most layers vary only little so that
pile-soil interaction are modeled with volume and in the calculation model they are assumed constant
interface elements, respectively. in thickness. An exempt is the uppermost clay layer.
Transfer findings from the axi-symmetric 2D model This layers boundary to the underlying sand layer is
to a 3D FE model (PLAXIS 3D Foundation V2.1). assumed as an inclined plane.

673
Figure 1. Subsoil conditions in the area of the piled raft.
Figure 2. Subsoil conditions in the area of the pile load tests.
2 BACKCALCULATION OF PILE LOAD TESTS
2.1 Pile load test data
Three bored piles were tested on the site (Krber 2009).
Skin friction of all piles was eliminated from ground
level to the uppermost clay and peat layer.
All three piles have different embedment lengths in
the dense sand. Diameters and pile base pre-stressing
vary, too: Pile 1 has a diameter of 1.5 m, a total length
of 31.0 m and is equipped with a closed lift-cell. Pile
2 has a diameter of 1.5 m, a total length of 36.0 m and
is equipped with an open foot-grouting-cell. Pile 3 has
a diameter of 1.2 m, a total length of 31.0 m and no
special equipment at the pile toe. The geology in the
load test area differs slightly from the one shown in
Figure 1. Figure 2 illustrates the subsoil model as well
as the three tested piles.
2.2 Back analysis of load tests
In a first stage, axis-symmetric analyses of the pile
load tests are performed. The aim of these analyses was
twofold: First, to calibrate soil parameters. Secondly,
to simulate pre-stressing in pile base 1 and 2, and to
674
Figure 3. 2D (left) and 3D (right) FE mesh for the back
analysis of the pile load tests.
simulate soil disturbance underneath pile toe 3 due to
installation processes.
Disturbed and loosened soil conditions underneath
pile toes are often reported for bored piles in granular
soils (Stocker 1980, Feda 1986, Hartung 1994). Pile
base pre-stressing can be a suitable countermeasure.
Two different methods of pile base pre-stressing were
investigated in the load tests: closed lift cells and base
grouting.
With regard to the size of the power plants raft, the
consideration of piles and special measures at the pile
toe in the numerical analysis should be as simple as
possible.Thus, piles are wished in place.The following
additional assumptions are made concerning the pile
base:
Pre-stressing of pile base with closed lift-cell for
pile 1: pile is assumed to be 0.75 m longer in the
analysis.
Pre-stressing of pile base with open lift-cell for pile
2: no special measures are assumed in the analyses
(base grouting compensates the loosening due to
installation).
Disturbance underneath pile toe for pile 3: cluster (
2.4 m, height 3 m) with reduced stiffness parameters
(40%) is placed underneath pile toe.
The 2D axis-symmetric domain has a width of 25 m
and a depth of 55 m. 15-noded triangular elements with
a fourth order interpolation function are used.
In a second stage, the findings from 2D calculations
are transferred to a 3D model (Figure 3.) One half
of the test pile is modeled here due to limitations in
geometry pre processing typically a quarter would
do. The 3D domain has a width of 20 m and a depth
of 55 m. 15-noded wedge elements with a quadratic
interpolation function are used in the 3D analysis. In
both analyses piles are modeled with volume elements.
Interface elements are located along the pile shaft. The
FE discretizations for both, the 2D and 3D analysis, are
shown in Figure 3.
Table 1. Soil Parameters of Hardening Soil model used in all analyses.

Clay and Sand, Sand, Sand, with Sand, Sand,

Sand peat dense 1 Clay 1 dense 2 clay lamin. clayey Clay 2 dense 3

r [kN/m3 ] 20.0 17.0 20.0 18.0 20.0 20.0 18.0 18.0 20.0
c [kN/m2 ] 0.0 2.0 0.0 5.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 5.0 0.0
 [ ] 30.0 22.5 25.0 25.0 35.0 27.0 27.0 25.0 35.0
[ ] 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 5.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 5.0
Eref
50 [MN/m2 ] 35.0 1.92 200.0 3.2 150.0 43.0 7.4 4.0 250.0
Eref
oed [MN/m2 ] 35.0 0.96 200.0 1.6 150.0 43.0 3.7 2.0 250.0
Eref
ur [MN/m2 ] 105.0 7.68 600.0 8.0 450.0 129.0 33.3 12.0 750.0
ur [] 0.20 0.15 0.20 0.15 0.20 0.20 0.20 0.15 0.20
m [] 0.5 1.0 0.5 1.0 0.5 0.5 1.0 1.0 0.5
Rinter [] 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0

The piles are assumed linear elastic. Isotropic

hardening plasticity is assumed in all soil layers
(Hardening-Soil). The soil parameters used in all anal-
yses are shown in Table 1. Elimination of skin friction
in the upper sand layers is accounted for by a reduced
value of Rinter = 0.01. In all other layers Rinter = 1.0,
which is a common setting for bored piles (Wehnert
2006).
A comparison of numerical results and pile load
test (PLT) data is shown in Figure 4. The mea-
sured load-settlement-curves of the three piles can be
modeled reasonably well with the assumptions made
concerning the pile toe.

3 FROM VOLUME PILES TO EMBEDDED

PILES

For the large number of bored piles at hand, it is

not feasible to consider the soil-structure interface of
each individual pile in the analysis. Instead, pile ele-
ments are embedded in soil elements. Soil elements
are the host for pile elements and constrain the transla-
tional degrees of freedom of pile nodes. The embedded
pile technique is explored in more detail in Sadek, &
Shahrour (2004). In contrast to this reference, here,
a simplified form is used as no cut-off in skin fric-
tion and no point bearing failure is considered in the
(rebar-) formulation. For service load conditions this
seems to be acceptable. A further advantage of the
embedded element approach is that geometry changes
concerning piles e.g. optimization of pile layout or
length, can be realized without regeneration of the
entire problem geometry.
To ensure that the use of embedded piles does not Figure 4. Back analysis of pile load test (PLT) data for pile
derogate the analysis results, one part of the raft is 1 (top), 2 (middle) and 3 (bottom).
modeled with and without embedded elements first.
In the latter case, piles are modeled same as in the Underneath the column, a 5 5 pile group of pile
previously discussed 3D calculation of a single pile. type 1 ( 1.5 m, with closed lift-cell) is located. Around
Due to constraints in the pre-processor of Plaxis 3D this group a row of five piles of pile type 3 ( 1.2 m,
Foundations V2.1, again one half of the pile group without pre-stressing) supports the raft.
is modeled. The calculation with embedded piles is A sketch of the pile layout is shown in Figure 5. The
performed with ABAQUS V6.7 as 64bit computing is grey rectangle in the center of the pile group indicates
inevitable in analysis of the complete raft. the boiler column. In the pile group analysis the same
The area around a highly loaded boiler column of assumptions are made as previously discussed in the
the UHA structure is selected for the comparison. back analyses of load tests, except for the additional

675
length of pile type 1. Here, an additional length of
1.0 m instead of 0.75 m is assumed. This is due to
higher pre-stressing of production piles compared to
test pile type 1. The domain of all analyses has a width
of 15.625 m, a length of 27.5 m and a depth of 75.15 m.
For the study on the performance of the embedded
elements a coarse and a fine mesh in the ABAQUS
calculation is investigated. An overview of the finite
element meshes used in the analyses is given in Table 2.
The subsoil is layered according to Figure 1 and
the soil parameters are again taken from Table 1. A
raft thickness of three meters is assumed where the
bottom of the raft is located at a depth of 7.975 m.
Unloading due to excavation is taken into account in
the analyses. The ground water table is assumed at a
depth of 3.65 m. During construction the groundwa-
ter table in the upper sand layers, above the clay and
peat layer, is lowered to the bottom of the raft Hence,
the analyses incorporate the following steps:
Phase 1: Initial conditions considering the
unloading due to excavation and
ground water table lowering in the
upper sand layers
Phase 2: Pile installation (wished in place)
Phase 3: Activation of foundation slab
Figure 5. Layout of selected pile group.
Table 2. Pile group analyses.
PLAXIS
3DF
Type of element wedge
Nodes per element 15
Interpolation quadratic
No. of elements 47,730
No. of nodes 133,115
Max. settlement 55 mm
676
Phase 4: Increase of ground water table to a
level of 3.65 m
Phase 5: Application of a distributed load of
75 kPa representing the basement
Phase 6: Application of single loads representing
the up-going structure
Calculated vertical deformations below the boiler col-
umn (center) are given in the last row of Table 2. Note
that the raft is also subject to uniform settlements prior
analysis phase 6: Uniform vertical deformations of
about 38 mm are found due to self weight, basement
load, and groundwater uplift. All FE discretizations
listed in Table 2 can reproduce this result. However,
the analysis results start to deviate with application of
the boiler column point load and hence, with higher
pile loads and bending in the raft.
Both pile group models based on embedded piles
show a stiffer behaviour than the one based on vol-
ume piles and interface elements. This result is to
be expected as the embedded piles are smeared in
neighbouring elements and there can be no local-
ized deformation in the interface between soil and
pile. However, for service loads and in particular for
the service loads in the project at hand, a reasonable
agreement between both calculation approaches can
be obtained with a finer mesh.
4 FINAL ANALYSIS
The domain of the 3D FE mesh of the complete raft has
a size of 320 m by 440 m by 75 m. A total of 857,608
nodes are defined, resulting in a total of 2,572,824
variables in the model.
The characteristic element length in the raft is
smaller than the one used in the analysis denoted
coarse mesh in Table 2. This holds also for all soil
elements which are in contact with the structure.
ABAQUS ABAQUS
fine coarse
tetrahedron tetrahedron
10 10
quadratic quadratic
62,518 23,222
93,948 35,794
52 mm 49 mm
All elements, except those discretizing piles, use a
quadratic interpolation function. Figure 6 details raft
and pile layout. The 3D FE mesh for soil and structures
is illustrated in Figure 7.
Figure 6. Raft and pile layout of main structural
components.
In the final design only piles of type 1 and 3 are con-
sidered. Additionally, shaft grouting (above first clay
layer) is performed on the site for the piles underneath
the staircase towers UHT and UMT. This grouting is
accounted for in the model by a 50% increase of pile
diameter ( 2.25 m) above the first clay layer. Next
to the main raft, the loads of the coal storage as well
as of the structures UHQ and UVB are considered.
The coal storage is modeled as distributed load. UHQ
and UVB are founded on driven piles. In the analy-
sis, the driven piles are assumed to have a quadratic
40 40 cm cross-section. Their spacing is assumed
to be 4.0 m. Both structures are embedded in the soil
cluster (embedded elements).
The basement and the up-going structures are
accounted for with single and distributed loads. In
total, more than 275 single loads are considered in
the analysis. Load input is facilitated through external
access of ASCII files containing load information. The
point and area of load application is defined in node
sets and surfaces, respectively.
The excavated soil in the area of the raft is not
considered in the analysis. In determination of initial
conditions this material is replaced by a load on top
of the raft. During all construction phases the excava-
tion pit is supported by distributed loads which act on
the vertical slope of the pit. The magnitude of these
loads is equivalent to the initial horizontal stress in the

Table 3. Load distribution.

# Load Uplift Pile Force

[MN] [MN] [MN] []

UMA 736 217 375 0.72

UHT 139 27 132 1.18
UCA 197 43 96 0.62
UMT 153 38 190 1.65
UHA 920 158 607 0.80
UVA 222 0 162 0.73
Raft Total 2367 483 1562 0.83

= Pile Force/(# Load Uplift).

Figure 8. The raft subdivided in UMA, UCA, UMT, UHA,

Figure 7. A BAQUS FE mesh as used in the analysis. UHT, and UVA. UHA boiler columns marked by a cross.

677
Figure 9. Vertical deformations of piled raft.
subsoil. Thus, the following construction phases are
considered in the 3D analysis:
Phase 1: Initial conditions considering the ground
water table lowering in the upper sand
Phase 2: Unloading due to excavation
Phase 3: Pile installation (wished in place)
Phase 4: Activation of foundation slab
Phase 5: Increase of ground water table to 3.65 m
Phase 6: Application of distributed loads
representing the basement and staircases
Phase 7: Application of all loads representing
the up-going structure and live loads
Phase 8: Activation of surrounding structures and
loads including coal storage
5 RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS
The piled raft foundations dead and live loads are
partly carried by the piles and partly transferred to
the subsoil directly via raft contact stress.
The load transfer is analyzed in more detail in
Table 3. Here all applicable dead and live loads at
the end of Phase 8 are compared to calculated pile
and buoyancy forces. The comparison is conducted
for the components UMA, UCA, UMT, UHA, UHT,
and UVA, separately. The geometry assumed for these
components is sketched in Figure 8. This figure addi-
tionally indicates the areas and volumes assumed for
calculating dead loads and buoyancy forces. Pile forces
are derived from the FE analysis by integrating the
stresses of the uppermost pile elements.
Vertical deformations of the piled raft at the end of
phase 8 are exemplarily shown in Figure 9. The calcu-
lated differential settlements of the four main columns
in the boiler house (UHA) are below those specified
in the design requirements.
678
The analysis presented shows the possibility of
analyzing a large and inhomogeneous raft (raft thick-
ness & pile layout) by relatively simple means. The
variation in load distribution factors presented in
Table 3 proof it necessary to model the entire raft in
the settlement analysis: Neither a 2D cross section nor
a 3D calculation of the UHA assembly alone would
be adequate to forecast differential settlements of the
boiler columns.
REFERENCES
Feda, J. 1986. Zulssige Belastung von Grobohrpfhlen.
Bautechnik 63(2): 4245.
Hartung, M. 1994: Einflsse der Herstellung auf die
Pfahltragfhigkeit in Sand. Mitteilung des Instituts fr
Grundbau und Bodenmechanik der Technischen Univer-
sitt Braunschweig, 45.
Krber, G. 2009: Vorwegnahme von Setzungen bei
hochbelasteten Grobohrpfhlen durch den Einbau von
Hubkissen an der Pfahlsohle. In: Pfahl-Symposium 2009,
425436, Braunschweig.
Sadek, M. & Shahrour, I. 2004: A three dimensional embed-
ded beam element for reinforced geomaterials. Int. J.
Numerical and Analytical Methods in Geomechanics
28(9): 931946.
Schanz, T. & Vermeer, P.A. & Bonnier, P.G. 1999: The
hardening soil model formulation and verification. In
Beyond 2000 in Computational Geotechnics, 281296.
Rotterdam: Balkema.
Stocker, M. 1980: Vergleich der Tragfhigkeit unter-
schiedlich hergestellter Pfhle. In Vortrge der Baugrund-
tagung in Mainz, 565590. Essen: Glckauf.
Wehnert, M. 2006: Ein Beitrag zur drainierten und
undrainierten Analyse in der Geotechnik, Universitt
Stuttgart, Mitteilung des Instituts fr Geotechnik, 53.
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Study of a complex deep foundation system using 3D Finite

Element analysis

F. Tschuchnigg & H.F. Schweiger

Computational Geotechnics Group, Institute for Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering,
Graz University of Technology, Graz, Austria

ABSTRACT: This paper shows results from numerical analyses with the objective to assess the settlement
behaviour of two towers situated close to each other. The aim of the study was to find the optimal layout of the
foundation elements with respect to minimising vertical and differential displacements. Since a 2D representation
of the problem is not possible a number of 3D analyses have been performed. Different arrangements of diaphragm
wall panels have been investigated using simplified finite element models. All calculations in the paper are
performed with the Finite element code Plaxis 3D Foundation and the mechanical behaviour of the soil is
described with both the Hardening Soil and the Hardening Soil Small model.

1 INTRODUCTION

In general high rise buildings cannot be supported by

shallow foundations and a deep foundation system is
required. Depending on the soil profile and the corre-
sponding soil properties a pile, piled raft or diaphragm
wall foundation is the solution for most cases. For these
types of deep foundation systems assessment of settle-
ments and differential settlements are the key issues.
Thus ultimate limit state conditions are not considered
in the proposed paper. To find the optimal layout of the
foundation elements with respect to minimising ver-
tical displacements, advanced numerical modelling is
essential. Figure 1. Project overview.
Numerical analyses with the objective to assess the
settlement behaviour of the towers are presented. Since
tower II of 165 m. It is planned to build the foundations
a 2D representation of the problem is not possible a
for both towers at the same time but to construct the
number of 3D analyses have been performed. Different
superstructure of tower I first. Due to the fact that the
arrangements of diaphragm wall panels are investi-
towers will be located very close to each other it is
gated and finally a new 64 bit calculation kernel was
necessary to take the loads from the later built tower
used to run one big finite element model without any
II into account for the design of the foundation system
geometrical simplifications.
of tower I.
All calculations in the paper are performed with
Figure 1 shows a schematic overview of the con-
the Finite element code Plaxis 3D Foundation and the
struction and the designed layout of the diaphragm
diaphragm wall panels are modelled as individual vol-
wall panels. The barrettes have a unit length of 3.6 m
ume elements. The mechanical behaviour of the soil
and a unit width of 0.6 m. This layout is used for all
is described with the Hardening Soil model, a double
calculations presented in this paper.
hardening model and the Hardening Soil Small model.
The circumference of the foundation elements indi-
Both models are available in the Plaxis model library
cates at the same time the dimensions of the two towers.
(Brinkgreve & Swolfs 2007).
Next to the towers four stories of underground car
parks are planned.
2 GENERAL INFORMATION

2.1 Project overview 2.2 Soil conditions and its numerical modelling
The projects discussed are two very high and slender The soil profile for the finite element simulation is
towers. Tower I has a total height of about 220 m and based on core drillings with depths down to 70.0 m

679
 Table 1. Soil properties for the Hardening Soil model.

Parameter Deposit Gravel Sandy silt Fine sand

unsat (kN/m3 ) 17.5 21.0 20.0 20.0

sat (kN/m3 ) 20.5 22.0 20.0 21.0
Eref
50 (kPa) 2000 40000 20000 25000
Eref
oed (kPa) 2000 40000 20000 25000
Eref
ur (kPa) 6000 120000 50000 62500
c (kPa) 0 0 20.0 2.0
 ( ) 27.5 35.0 25.0 32.5
( ) 0.0 5.0 0 2.5
ur () 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2
pref (kPa) 100 100 100 100
m () 0.60 0.00 0.80 0.65
Knc
0 () 0.538 0.426 0.577 0.463
Figure 2. Soil profile and geometry of towers.

Table 2. Additional parameters for the HSS model.

from the surface. Figure 2 shows the soil profile
obtained with the borehole logs together with impor-
tant levels of the construction.
Due to the fact that the interaction between deep
foundation elements and the surrounding soil is the
key element for such a foundation the mechanical rep-
resentation of the soil is the most important part of the
analysis.
For the calculations presented either the so called
Hardening Soil model (Schanz et al. 1999) or the Hard-
ening Soil Small model (Benz 2007) was used to model
the soil behaviour. Both models are elasto plastic
constitutive models which enable to model both devi-
atoric and volumetric hardening and take the stress
dependency of stiffness into account. The Harden-
ing Soil Small (HSS) model additionally allows for
modelling the high stiffness at very low strains. As a
consequence the obtained soil displacements at deeper
depths are automatically reduced and a more realistic
settlement profile with depth can be computed.
Compared with the Hardening soil model (HS)
the HSS model needs two additional parameters
to describe the stiffness behaviour at small strains.
Namely the initial shear modulus G0 and the shear
strain level 0.7 , which represents the amount of shear
strains where the secant shear modulus is reduced to
70% of its initial value. The small strain shear modulus
G0 is defined with the help of a correlation between
very small strain stiffness and stiffness at larger strains
after Alpan (1970). The therefore necessary static
Youngs modulus is interpreted as unloading/reloading
stiffness, which correlates to recent published experi-
mental data (Wichtemann & Triantafyllidis 2009). The
value of 0.7 is taken from stiffness reduction curves
after Vucetic and Dobrey (1991).
The input parameters for the Hardening Soil model
are given in table 1. The used parameters for the HSS
model are given in table 2. The values for the initial
shear modulus G0 are again reference values at a stress
level of 100 kPa. The stress dependency is taken into
account according to equation 1. A similar power law
is also utilized for the scaling of the other stiffnesses
used in the constitutive models.
Parameter Gravel Sandy silt Fine sand
G0 (kPa) 150000 62500 78125
0.7 () 0.0001 0.0002 0.0002
All slabs behave linear elastic and the diaphragm
wall elements are modelled with the Mohr-Coulomb
model (linear elastic - ideal plastic model). In addition
the tensile strength of the barrettes is limited to a value
of 3000 kPa.
3 COMPUTATIONAL MODEL
3.1 Description of finite element models
Due to the geometrical layout of the problem (Fig. 1)
a two dimensional representation is not possible and
full 3D modelling is required. In the 3D calculations 15
noded wedge elements with quadratic shape functions
are used. Because of the small distance between the
two towers an interaction is expected and thus it is
necessary to model both towers.
To reduce the complexity of the 3D model in a
first step the barrettes of only one tower are mod-
elled in full detail and the foundation system of the
other tower is modelled as homogenized blocks, mean-
ing that the zones of the sub-soil in which panels are
installed are defined with smeared properties. With
this approach the global settlement behaviour of the
entire structure is calculated because the interaction
of the towers is taken into account. All barrettes are
modelled by means of volume elements. However, to
validate this modelling assumption an analysis where
both foundations are explicitly modelled is presented.
Figure 3 shows exemplary one finite element model
for the detailed analysis of tower 1. All models
analysed consist of around 50000 finite elements.

680
Figure 3. Standard 3D Finite elment model. Figure 4. Contour lines of vertical displacements for
detailed model of tower II with 25 m long barrettes.
3.2 Calculation procedure
All calculations in this paper are drained analysis, thus
final settlements are presented. To obtain realistic final
deformations a reliable stress distribution in the soil
after the excavation is required, consequently it is nec-
essary to model the building process. This is done in
the following phases:
Generation of initial stresses
Activation of the sheet pile wall
Excavation and groundwater lowering
Activation of barrettes (wished in place)
Activation of slabs
Full loads of tower I and loads from basement floors
of tower II
Closing of settlement joint tower I
Full loads of tower II
Closing of settlement joint tower II Figure 5. Optimised barrett layout for tower I and II.
End of ground water lowering
For the generation of the initial stress state it is
important to take the overconsolidation of the soil In the first analysis a constant length of 25.0 m for
into account. This is done with the so called pre- all barrettes is used. The calculation is performed once
overburden-pressure (POP). See Equation 2 below: for a detailed geometry of tower I and in a separate
calculation for a detailed model of tower II. For both
calculations maximum vertical displacements of about
80 mm are calculated. And the assumption that tower
II contributes to settlements also in the region of tower
where p is the largest vertical effective stress earlier I are confirmed.
reached and yy 
is the in-situ effective vertical stress. Figure 4 shows the contour lines of vertical dis-
placements for the model, where tower II is modelled
For all soil layers a value of 600 kPa is defined
in detail. Because of the eccentric loading of both
for the POP and the earth pressure coefficient K0 is
towers the maximum settlements are also off-centre.
increased from Knc 0 to a value of 0.7. Due to the fact that the differential settlements will
All displacements discussed in the paper are worked
lead to slightly leaning towers it is necessary to opti-
out after the final calculation phase and deformations
mise the foundation system in a way that the expected
computed until the activation of the slabs are reset to
maximum of deformation is in the centre of each tower.
zero.
Additional it is required to design the deep foundation
elements of tower I with prevision of the settlements
coming from the later built tower II.
4 RESULTS OF NUMERICAL ANALYSIS For this optimisation procedure a number of 3D
analyses have been performed for both towers. The
4.1 Optimisation of the foundation concept result of this study is a final layout of the panels
The results shown in this paragraph are related to the with lengths between 20 and 30 m. The maximum set-
HSS model and the diaphragm wall layout shown in tlements calculated are again about 80 mm for both
Figure 1. The next section will compare the results towers, but this foundation set-up does not yield eccen-
with the HS model and will show the benefit of the tric settlement troughs. Figure 5 shows the optimised
HSS model. layout for both towers.

681
Figure 6. Top view of 3D FE mesh for 64 bit calculation
kernel.

Table 3. Mesh details.

Nr.El in
Model Nr. El. Nr.Nodes 2D plane Layers
Figure 7. Vertical displacements of entire 3D model (a) and
32 bit model 49096 131993 2888 17 structural elements (b).
64 bit model 136710 361243 6510 21

Finally a calculation with a detailed geometry for

both towers and a much finer mesh discretisation is
performed. More than 300 diaphragm wall panels are
modelled. The top view of the mesh is shown in figure
6 and mesh details are given in table 3. The calculation
phases and the soil parameters remain unchanged. Due
to the size of the analysis a 64 bit calculation kernel is
used, because the standard 32 bit kernel would not be
able to solve such a big model.
As expected the obtained results are similar to the
ones calculated with the first approach, where only the
foundation system of one tower is modelled in detail.
Figure 7a shows the contour lines of vertical displace-
ments of the entire model and figure 7b the settlements
of the structural elements. The maximum settlements
of both towers are again about 80 mm. Figure 8. Schematic top view including adjacent buildings.

4.2 Differential settlements
Due to the fact that the two towers are located in a
densely built-up region differential settlements are a
key issue of the settlement prediction. Figure 8 shows
schematically the situation in a top view. Additionally
some selected points are presented for which the dif-
ferential settlements are worked out. Table 4 presents
the vertical displacements uy obtained in the selected
points and the inclination tan between two neigh-
bouring points. For the distribution of settlements
between the two towers the big model, where both
towers are modelled in detail, is used.
The railway lines are in the most critical area, where
a maximum vertical deformation of 18 mm and a incli-
nation of the settlement trough (tan ) up to 1/600 is
calculated. This value is after Bjerrum (1973) accept-
able from a mechanical point of view. In the region of
the highways the settlements are 14 mm and between
the towers, where a road is situated, displacements up
to 40 mm are computed.
4.3 HS vs HSS
As mentioned above the so called Hardening Soil
Small model (HSS) takes the very high stiffness
at small strains into account which automatically
decreases the settlements at deeper depths. To show
this effect the calculations with the final diaphragm
wall layout are considered and the settlement distribu-
tion over depth, for a point in the middle of the towers,

682
Table 4. Differential settlements of selected points.

Selected points uy (mm) Distance (m) tan ()

A1 33
A2 14 17.0 1/900
A3 6 16.0 1/2000
A4 2 16.0 1/4000
B1 19
B2 5 23.0 1/1600
B3 2 16.0 1/5300
B4 0 16.0 1/8000
C1 36
C2 18 11.5 1/600
C3 13 5.0 1/1000 Figure 10. Settlement troughs.
D1 38
D2 32 9.0 1/1500
D3 48 15.0 1/900

Figure 11. Normalized settlement troughs.

Figure 10 shows the settlement trough of cross sec-

Figure 9. HS vs HSS Settlements over depth.
is worked out. This is done for the analysis performed
with the HS and the HSS model. Figure 9 shows the
comparison of both constitutive models. Due to the
fact that the settlements are almost the same for both
towers, only the graph for tower I is shown.
Until a depth of 36.6 m below ground level, which
is the level of the longest barrettes, the distribution of
settlements obtained with the HS model is similar to
the one obtained with the HSS model, but the HSS
model computes 25% less settlements. Beneath the
foundation elements the difference between the HS
and HSS model is increasing and at a depth of 75.0 m
below the surface the settlements obtained with the
HSS model are 51% smaller than the once calculated
with the HS model
This clearly shows the influence of small strain stiff-
ness and indicates that once a model including small
strain stiffness is used the effect of the position of the
bottom boundary condition is reduced and the right
depth of influence is taken into account automatically
by the constitutive model.
Another significant difference are the settlement
troughs computed. With the HS model the settlements
at the surface are higher and the spread of relevant
settlements are wider compared to the HSS model.
tion AA (Fig. 8) at the surface for both constitutive
models.
The Hardening Soil Small model computes differ-
ential settlements between point A2 and A3 in the
range of 1/2000. When using the HS model this value
decreases significantly to a value of 1/1000. This
decrease of tan is related to the big difference in
maximum vertical displacements obtained with the
different models. If the settlements are normalized
by their maximum values the behaviour changes and
the settlement trough computed with the HSS model
is steeper. Figure 11 shows a normalized settlement
trough for cross section A-A.
In this particular project the HS model gives conser-
vative results for both the maximum settlements and
the differential settlements, but for other applications
it is possible that the HSS model yields steeper settle-
ment troughs, which is the more critical scenario when
considering differential settlements.
5 CONCLUSIONS
Results from numerical analyses with the objective
to assess the settlement behaviour of two high tow-
ers founded on diaphragm wall panels have been
presented.
The first calculations show that deep foundation
elements having the same length yield to eccentric

683
settlements troughs and due to the interaction of both
towers to additional settlements in the region of tower
I once tower II is built. As a consequence the panels
must have different lengths in different regions. The
final concept with lengths of barrettes between 20
30 m shows the improvement related to the settlement
behaviour of the towers. In most calculations the finite
element model was simplified in that way that only one
tower is modelled in detail and the foundation of the
second tower is modelled with a homogenized block.
For the final foundation concept the calculated
maximum vertical displacements for both towers are
about 80 mm. The settlements of the highways and the
railway lines are in the order of 1520 mm and the
maximum inclination of the settlement trough is less
than 1/500.
Finally a calculation using a 64 bit calculation ker-
nel was performed. In this calculation with about
137000 elements both towers are modelled in detail.
The maximum vertical displacements are similar to the
calculations using the simplified models, but concern-
ing the interaction of both towers and the settlement
trough between the buildings a more accurate result is
obtained.
The comparison of the Hardening Soil model with
the Hardening Soil Small model shows that once the
high stiffness at small strains is taken into account set-
tlements from deeper levels are automatically reduced.
Due to the difference in computed maximum deforma-
tions also the settlement troughs show less differential
684
settlements when the HSS model is used. Hence the
influence of the model boundary conditions on the
computed displacement is diminished and a more
realistic settlement behaviour can be obtained.
REFERENCES
Alpan, I. 1970. The geotechnical properties of soils. Earth-
Science Reviews 6(1): 549.
Benz, T. 2007. Small-strain stiffness of soils and its numerical
consequences. Dissertation. Mitteilung 55 des Instituts fr
Geotechnik. Universitt Stuttgart.
Bjerrum, L. 1963. Allowable settlements of structures. 3rd
European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Foundation
Engineering; Proc. int. conf., Wiesbaden, 1518 October
1963. Vol. 3: 135137.
Brinkgreve, R.B.J. & Swolfs, W.M. 2007. Plaxis 3D Founda-
tion, Finite element code for soil and rock analyses. Users
manual. Netherlands.
Schanz, T., Vermeer, P.A., Bonnier, P.G. 1999. The
Hardening-Soil Model: Formulation and Verification. In
R.B.J. Brinkgreve (ed.), Beyond 2000 in Computational
Geotechnics: 281290. Rotterdam: Balkema.
Vucetic, M., Dobry, R. 1991. Effect of Soil Plasticity on
Cyclic Response. Journal of Geotechnical Engineering
117 (1): 89107.
Wichtemann T., Triantafyllidis T. 2009. On the correlation of
static and dynamic stiffness moduli of non-cohesive
soils. Bautechnik Special Issue 2009 Geotechnical
Engineering 86 (S1): 2839.
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

The influence of pile displacement on soil plug capacity of

open-ended pipe pile in sand

Li Sa
Geotechnical Institute, Civil Engineering Department, Tianjin University, Tianjin, China

Lars Grande
Civil and Transport Engineering Department, Norwegian University of Science and
Technology, Trondheim, Norway

Huang Jianchuan & Liu Guohui

Geotechnical Institute, Civil Engineering Department, Tianjin University, Tianjin, China

ABSTRACT: In order to study the bearing capacity of open-ended pipe piles in sand, the soil plug capacity has
been calculated by the finite element method, and the results are compared with performed on 3.5 m long model
piles. The analysis shows that the outside shaft friction is quickly mobilized to maximum whereas large pile
displacement is needed to mobilize the inside shaft friction and the soil plug capacity. When the pile is loaded
up to its ultimate bearing capacity as determined from the load settlement curve, the soil plug and the inside
shaft friction are not in limit state according to the analysis. Therefore, the value describing the magnitude of
the inside shaft friction varies not only by the value of vertical position h/Ri but also by the pile displacement.
The influence of displacement should be considered properly when estimating the inside shaft friction.

1 INTRODUCTION

Open-ended pipe piles are widely used for foundation

of structures both onshore and offshore. Driving of
full scale pipe piles in sands generally takes place in a
partially plugged or fully coring manner. Compared to
solid piles, the characteristics of the bearing capacity
of an open-ended pipe pile is much more complex due
to the soil plugs inside the piles.
Many design criteria for open-ended piles have been
suggested, based on field tests, chamber tests or ana-
lytical methods. In general, the bearing capacity of a
pile comes from three parts, namely the external shaft
friction force Qexter , the annulus resistance Qann , and
either the internal shaft friction force Qinter or the plug Figure 1. The stress state of the soil plug.
resistance Qplug whichever is the lesser.
a vertical effective stress v + dv at the bottom, and
the shear stress i between the soil plug and the pile
wall. The effective unit weight of the soil plug is  .
The force equilibrium condition is applied to each disc.
The shear stress acting between the pile wall and the
(1a) is considered to be closer to the reality (Hao et al soil plug is then characterized through the following
2001). The most difficult problem in using (1a) is how assumption:
to calculate the internal shaft friction because the stress
state in the soil plug is affected by many factors.
In general, one may use a one-dimensional plug
analysis, in which the soil plug is modeled as a series leading to:
of horizontal thin discs (Figure. 1). Each of them is
subjected to the vertical effective stress v on the top,

685
Here, K = r /v , = K tan and is the friction angle
between soil and pile wall, Ri is the inner radius of the
pipe pile.
To improve the accuracy of the one-dimensional
plug analysis, the concept of the wedged soil plug
(Muff et al. 1990, ONeill and Raines 1991, Randolph
et al 1991) is introduced. According to test results, they
claim that the soil plug can be divided into a wedged
plug zone below an unwedged plug zone. While the
wedged plug zone transfers load from the pile to the
soil plug, the unwedged plug zone transfers no load. It
is merely providing a surcharge pressure on top of the
wedged plug zone.
According to the above-mentioned assumption,
they (Randolph et al 1991, Lehane, 2001) integrated
Eq.(3), subjected to a boundary condition of a sur-
charge pressure  Lup acting at z = 0 and letting
z = Lwp , to obtain
Where Lup = length of unwedged plug; Lwp = length of
wedged plug. The plug resistance qplug is then depen-
dent on Lwp and . This equation is useful in indicating
how the plug capacity is mobilized.
However, it is not easy to apply the analysis to prac-
tical cases, due to the sensitivity of the method with
respect to the lateral earth pressure coefficient, which
is not easily estimated.
Recent contributions examining plug resistance in
sands have focused on determining expressions for
K (lateral earth pressure coefficient). Paik and Lee
(1993) used model tests to develop an expression for
the average K value in a wedged plug in terms of the
peak friction angle of the sand and the ratio of plug
length to pile penetration (PLR). De Nicola and Ran-
dolph (1997) used centrifuge model tests to propose a
profile of K along the soil plug length as a function of
both the relative density of the sand and the soil plug
height. Lehane(2001) pointed out that the combination
factor is strongly dependent on the interface friction
angle and the dilatancy capacity of the sand. Although
the authors used different methods to determine the
soil plug capacity, they all assumed limit equilibrium
condition when they did the analysis.
2 THE MODEL TESTS
For studying pipe pile bearing capacity, the model tests
were done at Norwegian University of Science and
Technology (NTNU).The tests were carried out in a
concrete bin which is 3 meters deep and 4 meters by
4 meters wide. From a top silo, sand was filled into
a spreader wagon which automatically passed back
and forth with a speed of 8 cm/sec. The sand was then
rained out through holes in the spreader bottom.
The porosity of the sand is controlled by the size of
holes in the spreader bottom. Different size holes and
hence porosities, may be obtained by exchanging 462
nozzles inserted in the bottom plate of the spreader,
686
Figure 2. The formation of the soil plug.
thus changing the nozzle diameter. In these tests, the
size of the nozzles was 16 mm.
The model piles were driven into the sand, then
the load was applied in different levels for getting a
pipe piles load-displacement curve (p-s curve). Dur-
ing installation of the test pile, the plug length for
six different penetration levels was measured. From
Figure 2, it can be seen that plugging occurred after
the pile had penetrated 1.7 m. Based on results from the
model tests, some analysis were performed for getting
information about the value and soil plug capacity
by the finite element method.
3 FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS
3.1 The calculation model and parameters
The finite element method is used to simulate the
model tests procedure, and to get some information
that is difficult to measure during the test. The anal-
ysis was performed with the FEM program PLAXIS
using the hardening soil model.
For single pile analysis, the geometry is simulated
by means of an axisymmetric model in which the pile
axis is positioned along the axis of symmetry. Both the
soil and the pile are modeled with 15-noded elements.
Interface elements are placed around the pile to model
the interaction between the pile and the soil.
The soil calculation scope was 3 meters deep and
1 meter by 1 meter wide which simulate the model
test condition. The mesh was generated with a global
coarseness set to medium. A local refinement was
made in the pile cluster, the cluster around the pile
whose width is 0.2m. Fixed boundary was assigned at
the bottom. The two vertical sides were assigned hori-
zontal fixities. The sketch of the finite element model
is shown in Figure 3.
The physical and the mechanical indexes of the sand
used to do analysis are shown in Table 1.The charac-
teristics of model pile are shown in the Table 2. They
are all obtained from the model tests mentioned above.
Table 1. The physical and mechanical index of sand.

e Dr E

kN/m3 kPa
16.0 0.67 0.73 40 30 8000

Table 2. The model pile characteristics.

Pile length diameter wall thickness density E

m mm mm kN/m3 GPa

3.5 75 4 27.3 70

Figure 4. Comparing calculation result with model test

result.

Figure 3. The finite element model.

The load acts on the top of the pile, and the load set-
tlement curve for the pile is obtained under the load
control.
Initial effective stresses are generated by the K0 pro-
cedure. In the initial situation the pile does not exist
and the soil properties are assigned to the correspond-
ing clusters. Then, assigned the pile properties to the
pile cluster, assigned non to the cluster above the soil
plug. Finally the pile is subjected to the static load on
the top.
3.2 Calculation results
3.2.1 Reliability of calculation
The results from the FEM analysis is compared with
the result from the NTNU model tests, see Figure 4.
From Figure 4, we can see that the analysis results are
close to the test results, and the discrepancy mainly
appears at the tail of load settlement curve.
Consequently the finite analysis may be regarded
to simulate the model test with a fair accuracy, and the
FEM results may describe fairly well the role that the
plug plays in the test.
3.2.2 Analysis of calculation results
As mentioned above, it is very important to assess the
value for calculating the internal shaft friction coming
Figure 5. The distribution of internal shaft friction along
soil plug height.
from soil plug. Because the open-ended model pile got
plugged and were given large deformations, the resis-
tance provided by the soil plug should be the largest
value that it can provide.
The value may be judged from the distribution of
i along the soil plug height as obtained by the FEM
analysis, see Figure 5.
From Figure 5, it can be seen that within the soil
plug (1.2 m 2.5), the internal shaft friction only
appears in the part extending from 2.3 m to 2.5 m.
Above this part, the internal shaft friction is very small.
At the same time, i is not only related to the height
of the soil plug height, but also to the displacement of
the pile.
The relation between and the pile displacement is
shown in Figure 6, and labels in the figure yield h/Ri
values, here h is the position along the soil column.
It can be seen that the value changes with the pile
displacement for a given value of h/Ri . For h/Ri = 0.3,
gets its peak value ( = 0.6) when the pile displace-
ment is about 6 mm. For the h/Ri = 0.7, gets its peak
value ( = 0.7) at a pile displacement about 12 mm.
In this analysis, when 4.0 h/Ri 1.0, the value
increases with increasing pile displacement. When the
h/Ri is less than 1.0, value has stabilized before the

687
Figure 6. The relationship between and pile displacement.
Figure 7. The relationship between and h/Ri .
Figure 8. Comparing calculation results with De Nicolas
method.
end of loading step, and when h/Ri 4.0, is a very
small, almost constant value.
Figure 7 shows the relationship between and h/Ri
for different pile displacements. The value is clearly
affected by h/Ri and the pile displacement. The results
at the end of the loading were compared with the value
calculated according to De Nicolas (1997) method, see
Figure 8. De Nicola give a schematic diagram of the
proposed design variation of K along the length of the
soil column for open-ended piles, and the method to
decide the value of Kmax , Kmin . Based on this method,
688
Figure 9. Comparing e with i changing with pile displace-
ment.
and the relationship of and K: = K tan , one may
obtain the variation of along the length of the soil
column shown in Figure 8 where Dr = 0.73, = 30 .
It can be seen that is divided into three parts for
varying values of h/Ri both in the FEM calculation and
in De Nicola s result. The largest value appears in
the height of approximately one inner diameter (1Ri ).
In our calculation is reduced nearly linearly over the
height range of 1Ri 3.0Ri . In De Nicola s result,
this range changes to 1Ri 5.0Ri , and the reduction
gradient is less than obtained in the FEM analysis.
When exceeding this range, the stays constant and
the value is very small in two results.
From the FEM analysis, one may also compare how
the internal shaft friction i and the external shaft fric-
tion e at h/Ri = 1.0 varies with the pile displacement,
see Figure 9.
When the load is applied, both the internal and
external shaft friction begins to increase with the pile
displacement. In the initial stage, the external shaft
friction is higher than the internal. When the pile
displacement is more than 6 mm, the external shaft
friction becomes stable and reaches its peak value,
but the internal shaft friction continues to increase
during the whole loading. At the end of analysis, the
internal shaft friction is about twice as large as the
external shaft friction. This implies that it takes larger
deformations to mobilize the plug resistance and the
inside shaft friction than to mobilize the outer shaft
skin friction resistance.
The development of the resistance below the soil
plug(qplug ) and pile annulus (qann ) with the displace-
ment of pile is shown in Figure 10. The figure shows
that the resistance below the plug and the annulus
increases with the pile displacement. Until in the end
of the calculation, the resistance below annulus seems
to get the peak value, while the resistance below the
plug is still increasing.
4 CONCLUSION
The bearing capacity of an open-ended pipe pile is
a complicated problem. According to the performed

Figure 10. The development of qplug qann with pile displace-
ment.
FEM analysis, it can be concluded that the soil plug
capacity is mobilized gradually with the pile dis-
placement. The analysis shows that during the loading
process, the soil plug resistance increases all the time.
Although the external shaft friction and the pile annu-
lus capacity reach their ultimate value, the whole soil
plug is far away from its limit state. Large pile dis-
placements are needed in order to mobilize the soil
plug capacity. When the pile reaches its ultimate bear-
ing capacity determined by the load settlement curve,
689
the soil plug is not yet in limit state, and the influence
of the pile displacement should therefore be consid-
ered properly in simplified analyses of the soil plug
capacity for open-ended piles.
REFERENCES
Hao X.Y., Pang Y.S., Yang S.P. 2001. Calculation method for
vertical bearing capacity of single open-ended pipe pile.
Journal of Hohai university 29(12):124127
Kyuho Paik and Rodrigo Salgado 2003. Determination of
bearing capacity of open-ended piles in sand. Journal of
geotechnical and geoenvironment engineering 129(1):46
57
Lehane, B.M. and Gavin, K. G. 2001. Base resistance of
jacked pipe piles in sand. Journal of geotechnical and
geoenvironment engineering 127(6): 473480
Lehane, B. M. and Randolph, M. F. 2002. Evaluation of a
minimum base resistance for driven pipe piles in siliceous
sand. Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental
Engineering 128(3): 198206
Nicola, A.D. and Randolph, M.F. 1997. The plugging behav-
ior of driven and jacked piles in sand. Geotechnique 47(4):
841856
Nicola, A.D. and Randolph, M.F. 1999. Centrifuge modeling
of pile in sand under axial load . Geotechnique 49(3):
295318.
Randolph M.F. et al. 1991. One-dimensional analysis of soil
plugs in pipe piles. Geotechnique 41(4): 587598
Deep excavations and retaining walls
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

3D modelling of a deep excavation in a sloping site for the assessment of

induced ground movements

O.J. Gastebled & S. Baghery

Coyne & Bellier Consulting Engineers, Tractebel Engineering, Gennevilliers, France

ABSTRACT: In densely built area with high land value, the trend is towards building higher and deeper, often
adjacent to existing structures. Such projects involve the adoption of tight ground movement criteria which are
nowadays commonly checked using 2D finite element analysis. For the excavation discussed here, however, the
constraints in terms of site configuration and projects requirements lead to adopting a retaining system which
takes advantage of its 3D arching effects. 3D finite element analysis was thus adopted at the design stage.
The project concerns a high-rise 49 floors tower to be constructed in Monaco, on a sloping site. The tower
basement and foundations involve a deep excavation, mainly in marlstone, with depths of 70 m on the uphill
side and 30 m on the downhill side. The results obtained using 3D modelling are discussed in term of induced
ground movements and plasticity in so far that it provides better insight into the way the retaining system fulfils
its role.

1 INTRODUCTION

A high-rise tower, which will be the highest build-

ing in Monaco, is currently under construction in a
densely built area. The 150 m high tower consists of
a 10 level deep basement, excavated on a 1/3 slope.
The exceptional depth of this excavation (72 m on the
uphill side), the steep sloping terrain, the sites exigu-
ity, the built environment and the presence of a poor
marlstone layer at depth all contributed to adopting a
3D approach at the early design stage of the retaining
solution to ensure:

Safety against loss of overall stability (GEO limit

state),
Limitation of the induced displacements and set-
tlements at the foundations of adjacent buildings
(SLS limit state).
Figure 1. Location and project dimensions. Impressions of
While the retaining wall design could be checked tower and excavation.
against structural failure (STR limit state) using stan-
dard analysis tools based on the elasto-plastic sub-
2 PROJECT CHARACTERISTICS
grade reaction method and 2D modelling (see German
Geotechnical Society, 2008), the 3D configuration of
2.1 Excavation geometry
the site and the 3D nature of the design rendered inap-
plicable the standard analysis approach for the overall The construction site is a mostly terrace hillside
stability check (such as 2D limit equilibrium method) located in Monaco, bounded downhill by a street and
and for the SLS (such as 2D plane strain finite ele- uphill by the French border. The tower basement and
ment analysis). To avoid over-design and to validate podium are to occupy the great majority of the area of
a safe and economical retaining solution, a detailed the available construction site, creating difficult access
3D numerical model was therefore developed using conditions in this steep slope, Figure 1.
Midas GTS, a finite element package dedicated to The four-sided excavation is 70 m long in the
geotechnical analysis. downhill-uphill direction, 30 m wide on the uphill side

693
Figure 2. Bird-eye view of full 3D model. Natural ter-
rain and adjacent building foundation levels, before tower
excavation.
Figure 3. Zoom on bird-eye view of 3D model. Tower exca-
vation completed and adjacent building foundation levels.
and 65 m wide on the downhill side, at street level, Fig-
ure 4. The maximum difference in altitude of the nat-
ural terrain over the excavated area is 39 m, Figure 2.
With an excavation level at 37 m NGM (Ordnance
Survey Datum of Monaco), the excavated depth is 33 m
on the downhill side and 72 m on the uphill side, see
Figure 3. The embedded depths of the diaphragm wall
and foundation barrettes extend a further 15 m below
the excavation level (toe level of the in-situ concrete
walls is at 22 m NGM).
2.2 Built environment
The following buildings are within immediate prox-
imity of the excavated area, Figures 4 and 6:
The 10 storey high Charles III high school,
founded on piles, is at a close distance, south of
the excavation,
A 7 storey high and 3 basement deep building
immediately adjacent to the excavation, on the
downhill side.
A 7 storey and 10 storey buildings are at a close
distance from the excavation, on the uphill side.
2.3 Geological-geotechnical characterization
Extensive site investigations have been carried out;
these include borehole logging, down-hole video,
694
Figure 4. Zoom on top view of 3D model. Tower excavation
completed and adjacent building foundations.
Figure 5. Top view of 3D mesh. Excavation boundary in
grey. Outcrops: scree in white and marlstones in darker
colours.
dilatometer tests, Menard tests, core sampling and
various laboratory tests.
A relatively thick scree layer (>10 m) exists uphill
and thins and then vanishes at mid-length of the
planned excavated area (light grey top layer in Fig-
ure 2).
Underlying the scree layer is a heterogeneous marl-
stone, tending slightly towards a lime-marlstone, to
depths of at least 20 m below the planned excavation
level. Particularly poor clayey marlstones are found
locally, on the uphill side of the excavation. These
anomalies are located at excavation level (37 m NGM),
with thicknesses varying between 10 and 20 m.
The bedding plane of the marlstone is favourable,
tilting in the uphill direction. After due consider-
ation of the various identified joint families and
taking into account the scale effect, a continuum
mechanics approach with an equivalent modulus and
shear strength parameters was chosen to represent
the behaviour of the marlstones in the SLS analysis.
Reduced shear strength parameters were adopted for
the stability analysis (GEO limit state).
2.4 Construction method and support system
The presence of the scree layer in a state of near
limit equilibrium associated with the exiguity of the
Figure 6. Zoom on bird-eye view of 3D mesh. Planned excavation and neighbouring foundations. Excavation boundary in
white.
site precluded a sloped excavation. Thus in order to
undertake the construction of the main retaining wall
a micro-pile wall, consisting of grouted steel tube sol-
dier piles, shotcrete infilling, horizontal steel girder
beams and prestressed cable anchors, is designed to
enable a 12 m deep excavation on the uphill side in
order to establish a working platform for the construc-
tion of the second retaining wall, of bored concrete
piles, shotcrete infilling and prestressed cable anchors
enabling a further 20 m to be excavated down to the
main work platform at 74 m NGM.
From the main work platform panels of in-situ con-
crete, 54 m deep, are constructed to create a buttressed
diaphragm wall and foundation barrettes. An up/down
construction method is then adopted, whereby excava-
tion progresses below basement slabs in parallel to the
erection of the tower super-structure. The diaphragm
wall is anchored in its upper part and braced on base-
ment slabs over the full excavation depth. Buttresses
are used to increase the diaphragm walls stiffness and
the barrettes are used as basement walls and deep foun-
dation system. The soil enclosed by the diaphragm
wall is considered reinforced due to the presence of
buttresses and barrettes. In zones of low barrette den-
sity, on the uphill side, the soil shear strength is further
improved by installing vertical fibreglass nails.
3 NUMERICAL MODELLING
3.1 General aspects
A detailed 3D finite element model of the ground,
retraining structures, basement and tower foundations
695
was built. The model boundaries were chosen far
enough from the excavation to minimise boundary
effects: 375 m long in uphill-downhill direction and
250 m wide with a base at 7 m NGM, i.e. a model
thickness varying between 60 m and 100 m over the
excavation area, see Figure 2.
The use of an automatic tetrahedron mesher allowed
total freedom in defining the geometry of the ground
solids and the grading of mesh sizes, see Figures 5 and
6. The tetrahedron mesh size ranges from 2 m on the
retaining wall surfaces to 25 m on the model bound-
ary.A total of 154 400 linear tetrahedron elements were
generated, for a total of 30 900 nodes. The accuracy on
surface displacements proved satisfactory when com-
paring the results of a linear elastic analysis carried out
with the same mesh of linear elements and of quadratic
elements (difference <10%).
3.2 Retaining walls, basement and foundations
The micro-pile wall was modelled by a combination
of shell elements, representing the shotcrete, hori-
zontal beam elements, representing the steel girders,
and vertical beam elements, representing groups of
micro-piles on the basis of 1 for 2 or 1 for 4.
The bored pile wall was modelled by a combination
of shell elements, representing the shotcrete, and ver-
tical beam elements, representing the bored concrete
piles on the basis of 1 for 1, figure 7.
The diaphragm wall, the foundation barrettes and
the infrastructure slabs were modelled by shell ele-
ments, Figure 8. A shear-free interface was defined
between the buttresses and the diaphragm wall, beam
elements representing buttresses were connected at

Figure 7. Front view (facing west) of the three-level
retaining system. The enclosing diaphragm wall is shown
transparent.
Figure 8. Birds-eye view of barrette foundations and base-
ment slabs enclosed in diaphragm wall (transparent).
696
Figure 9. Top view of retaining walls.
Figure 10. Top view of cable anchor system. Free length in
light grey, grouted length in dark grey.
their neutral axis to the shell elements representing
the diaphragm wall, see Figure 9.
3.3 Prestressed anchors
A total of 520 prestressed anchors, distributed on 19
rows, were modelled, see Figures 10 and 11. Each
anchor had its orientation, free length and grouted
length accurately represented. An approach based
on the elasto-plastic subgrade reaction method was
applied to a number of characteristic sections were
used to determine the design pre-stress force for each
anchor.
The grouted length of the anchors was modelled
using the so called embedded truss elements which
allow the positioning of truss elements independently
of the 3D solid mesh of the ground, while keeping
full mechanical bond between the two element types.
Nodal connectivity between anchor and ground was
enforced at the connection point between grouted and
free length. The free length of the anchor was mod-
elled using a single truss element linking the end of

Figure 11. Side view (facing north) of cable anchor system.
the grouted part to the anchored point on the retaining
wall.
During the prestressing stage of an anchor, only
the grouted length was activated and an opposite pre-
stress forces was applied to the end of the grouted
length (action) and on the wall (reaction). The free
length element was activated at the next analysis stage
to take into account the anchors stiffness.
3.4 Material models
All structural elements (steel and concrete) are
assumed to behave linear-elastically. This is a good
approximation as the design is checked, independently
from this detailed 3D model, against structural failure
(STR) using a conservative 2D approach.
As described in section 2.3, the behaviour of
all ground layers were modelled with a continuum
mechanics approach, using an isotropic linear-elastic
perfectly plastic Mohr-Coulomb model. The inabil-
ity of this model to represent the significant stiffness
changes between the primary loading and unload-
ing/reloading stress paths (De Vos & Whenham 2005
and Schweiger 2002) is partly compensated by spec-
ifying the unloading/reloading stiffness for the bulk
modulus, K, while specifying the primary loading
stiffness for the shear modulus, G.This approach deliv-
ers a good approximation of soft rock behaviour when
subjected to an excavation loading path.
The equivalent isotropic shear strength properties
of the rock mass were adopted for the analysis aimed
at calculating displacements (SLS limit state). For
global stability analysis (GEO limit state), a con-
servative approach was adopted using the isotropic
Mohr-Coulomb model with two sets of shear strength
parameters for the marlstones:
Equivalent shear strength properties of the rock
mass was reduced using regular partial safety
factors,
Characteristic values (not factored) of the shear
strength properties of the rock joints were assumed
to be ubiquitous and unfavourably oriented.
697
3.5 Initial stress state
The sloping terrain produces in-situ stress rota-
tion, stress release under the slope, and local stress
concentration at the slope toe. The earth pressure
acting on the retaining walls and the ground move-
ments induced by the stress release can be significantly
influenced by this complex in-situ stress state.
Very little is known, however, on the actual in-
situ stress state, especially for the deeper layers,
which are influenced by geological history (e.g. over-
consolidation, erosion and tectonic activity), terrain
geometry and very long term ground behaviour.
A pragmatic approach was adopted:
Ensure that the obtained in-situ stress distributions
are fully compatible with the plastic laws of the
ground layers and with static equilibrium under self
weight of the ground,
Carry out a parametric study on K0 , using a lower
bound and upper bound value.
The values of K0 obtained under normal conditions
of consolidation were indirectly controlled by setting
specific long term Poisson ratios, valid only for the
initialisation stage. This approach allowed investiga-
tion into the behaviour for an upper and lower bound
K0 in the deeper layers of the model while the stress
state in the zone of slope influence remained mainly
controlled by the terrain geometry.
3.6 Construction stages
The non-linear analysis was carried out with a total of
50 construction stages.
Two stages were used for stress initialisation,
including the application of adjacent building loads
on their respective foundations. Two analysis stages
were considered for each of the 19 rows of anchors:
Excavation down to anchor level,
Installation of the anchor and prestress force.
A single analysis stage was used per basement slab,
below the anchor levels.
4 RESULTS
4.1 Induced displacements
The results of one of the SLS analysis cases consid-
ered are presented in terms of induced displacements
at ground level in Figures 12 and 14.
Diaphragm wall displacements results are presented
in Figure 15. Induced plastic strains in the marlstone
are shown in Figure 13.
The induced displacements at the foundation of
adjacent buildings are shown to remain limited. The
plastic strain of the marlstone in the grouted zone of
the anchors remains relatively small. The strong influ-
ence of the poor marlstone layer is clearly visible on
the diaphragm wall displacements and on the plastic
volumes at the excavation level (uphill side).
Figure 12. Top view of natural terrain with imprint of adja-
cent buildings. Contour plot of horizontal displacements
after completion of construction (max = 9 mm, contour
every mm).
Figure 13. Bird-eye view of ground (transparent), exca-
vation and anchors. 3D colour plot of plastic volumes
(colour = value of plastic shear strain, max = 1, contour
every 0.1).
Figure 14. Top view of natural terrain with imprint of
adjacent buildings. Contour plot of vertical displacements
after completion of construction (min = 5 mm settlement,
contour every mm).
4.2 Global stability
The overall stability of the excavation in the slope,
taking into account the complete construction his-
tory was checked under varied assumption of initial
stresses. This check was carried out by reducing
698
Figure 15. Side view (facing north) of the outer face of the
diaphragm wall. Contour plot of horizontal displacements of
wall after completion (max = 28 mm, contour every 2 mm).
the terrain strength properties c and using safety
coefficients deduced from national recommendation
CLOUTERRE. The strength reduction was applied
just before starting excavation.
5 CONCLUSIONS
The numerical analysis presented here was carried out
as part of a recent design. The excavation is currently
under construction. The retaining system and the adja-
cent buildings are being closely monitored in term
of induced movements. The displacement fields pre-
dicted by this model were instrumental in defining
the threshold values and action values which allow
early detection of warning signs and timely response
to geotechnical hazard.
For the presented case, satisfactory understanding
of the soil-structure interaction and of the way the
retaining system fulfils its role could only be gained
using 3D numerical analysis. This in turn allowed
optimizing and validating the design.
Thanks to continuous improvement in software and
hardware, detailed 3D analysis has become a viable
option and a valuable tool available to the engineer
in the design office. It should be noted however
that successful 3D analysis requires sound theoretical
understanding and experience.
REFERENCES
De Vos, M. & Whenham, V. 2005. Final Report - part 2:
The use of finite element and finite difference methods
in geotechnical engineering. Geotechnet WP3- Innovative
Design Tools in Geotechnics. www.geotechnet.org.
German Geotechnical Society (DGGT). 2008. Recommen-
dations on Excavations EAB. Berlin: Ernst & Sohn.
Schweiger, H.F. 2002. Results from numerical benchmark
exercises in geotechnics. In P. Mestat (ed.), Proc. of
5th European Conf. Numerical Methods in Geotechnical
Engineering: 305-314. Paris: Presses Ponts et chausses.
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Analysis of an excavation in asymmetrical soil conditions: The Marqus

station

A. Pedro & J. Almeida e Sousa

Department of Civil Engineering, University of Coimbra, Portugal

D. Taborda
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Imperial College London, UK

P. Frana
CJC / Figueiredo Ferraz, So Paulo, Brasil

ABSTRACT: The Marqus station belongs to line D of the Oporto Metro, Portugal. The main access to the
station platforms consists of an elliptical shaft of approximately 48 m and 40 m in the principal directions,
reaching a depth of 27 m. The performed geotechnical survey revealed asymmetrical soil conditions, due to
the existence of a fault. Thus, on one side of the fault, the excavation was carried out in weathered residual
granitic soil, while on the other half the works were performed in a slightly weathered granitic rock mass. The
monitoring results showed a great difference in the displacements measured on the two sides. This paper presents
a 3D finite element back-analysis of the shaft, modelling the complexity of its geology and the entire construction
sequence. A parametric study will also be presented in order to evaluate the influence of the support system and
the geological conditions on the behaviour of the structure.

1 INTRODUCTION which the excavation was performed (Andrade et al.

The Oporto Metro, in Portugal, is a network composed
of 4 major lines with a total combined length of approx-
imately 70 km, including almost 20 km of completely
new lines. In the centre of the city, due to the density
of buildings and infrastructures, the network is mostly
underground and includes nearly 7 km of tunnels and
12 stations (Fig. 1). The Marqus station belongs to
line D and its design by CJC / Figueiredo Ferraz faced
multiple challenges due to the geological conditions in
2003).
In this paper, after a brief description of the project,
a 3D numerical analysis of the Marqus station is pre-
sented and the obtained results are compared with
those registered by the instrumentation. Finally, a para-
metric study was carried out in order to evaluate the
influence of the geological conditions on the behaviour
of the structure.

2 PROJECT CHARACTERISTICS

2.1 Location and geometry

Figure 1. Oporto Metro network (adapted from Urban-
Rail.Net).
The Marqus underground station is located beneath
the Marqus do Pombal square in the centre of Oporto
city. The square has a centenary garden and is sur-
rounded on all sides by buildings which strongly
restrained the location and the geometry of the station
(Figs. 2, 5). Consequently, it was decided that the main
access to the station should be performed through the
excavation of an elliptical shaft of approximately 48 m
and 40 m in the principal directions, reaching a depth
of 27 m (Andrade et al. 2003). In order to minimise
the impact of the works, the major axis of the shaft
was aligned with the main direction of the square and
complementary tunnels were excavated at the bottom
of the shaft to accommodate the platforms (Fig. 2).

699

Figure 2. Location and geometry of the Marqus station.
Figure 3. Vertical and horizontal construction sequence.
2.2 Geological-geotechnical characterisation
The characterisation of the local soil conditions
included the execution of 15 rotary boreholes. These
allowed the recovering of samples for laboratory test-
ing, the definition of the ground profile and the execu-
tion of several in-situ tests. Generally, SPT tests were
performed with 1.5 m spacing in depth, and 16 Lugeon
and 1 Lefranc permeability tests were conducted. With
the collected samples, besides the usual characterisa-
tion tests, it was possible to carry out several uniaxial
and point load tests (Geodata/Normetro, 2002).
The geotechnical survey revealed both the typical
heterogeneity of this type of soils, which led to the
definition of 7 distinct layers, and the unexpected
asymmetrical soil conditions (Santos et al. 2004).
These were caused by a fault which intersected the
shaft close to its centre, exhibiting some obliquity rel-
atively to the shafts principal axis. Therefore, on one
side of the fault (South side), the excavation was car-
ried out in weathered residual granitic soil, while on
the other half (North side) the works were performed in
a slightly weathered granitic rock mass (Fig. 6). Dur-
ing the initial survey, the water table was identified,
for both sides of the fault, at approximately 6 m depth.
2.3 Construction method and support system
The shaft was designed according to the NATM princi-
ples (Rabcewicz, 1964). The excavation was executed
in steps of 1.8 m of depth (14 levels) and 6 to 12 m of
length, depending on the type of soil (Figs. 3-4).
700
Figure 4. Excavation of the 11th level.
Figure 5. Aerial view of the shaft when the excavation was
concluded.
The support used along the entire contour of the
shaft consisted of fibre-reinforced shotcrete, except
for the first metre where a beam of concrete with 60 cm
of thickness was built. Due to the expected increase of
the magnitude of stresses with depth, the thickness of
the shotcrete varied from 30 cm, for the first 5.4 m, to
45 cm, for the next 3.6 m, and finally to 60 cm until the
base of the excavation (Fig. 3). The areas of the shaft
near the platform tunnels were reinforced in order to
assure the stability of the entire structure during their
excavation.
A fine mesh of drains was installed along the entire
contour of the shaft to avoid large water pressures act-
ing on the lining and also to prevent the occurrence of
local instabilities.
During the first stages of excavation, the rate of
displacements on the South side of the shaft increased
sharply, requiring the design of jet-grouting columns
with the objective of preventing potential problems
and, eventually, failure. The columns with diameter of
1 m were only executed along the South perimeter of
the excavation, at a depth of 8 m and were, in average,
6 m long (Figs. 2-3).
2.4 Instrumentation and observation
Considering the specific aspects of the project, in par-
ticular the geotechnical and geological conditions at
the site, and the spatial configuration of the shaft, an
instrumentation plan was defined in order to allow
both the evaluation of safety during the construction
works and the extrapolation of the behaviour from the
early stages of excavation to the later ones in order
to modify and adapt, if necessary, the construction
methodology and the structural solutions (Santos et
al. 2004). In order to achieve those purposes, sev-
eral instrumentation devices were installed on the shaft
and on the surrounding buildings. In this paper only
the values registered by the survey marks (Fig. 2),
located at different depths will be analysed, due to
space limitations.
Figure 6. Vertical cut of the 3D model (stage 21).

3 NUMERICAL MODELLING Table 1. Geotechnical parameters.

c  E
3.1 General aspects
Complex (kN/m3 ) (kPa) ( ) (MPa) K0
The numerical analyses were performed with the finite
element software UCGeoCode (UCGC), which has G7 19 0 28 20 0.3 0.50
been developed at the University of Coimbra since G6 19 0 32 30 0.3 0.50
1999 (Almeida e Sousa 1999, Frana et al. 2006). This G5 20 20 36 90 0.3 0.65
G4 21 50 40 300 0.3 0.65
code, in its most recent version, has several constitu-
G3 23 200 45 500 0.3 0.80
tive models implemented and a 3D formulation which G2 23 250 45 800 0.3 0.80
allowed the modelling of the complete construction G1 23 350 45 1500 0.3 0.80
sequence used in the excavation of the Marqus sta- Fault 19 0 28 20 0.3 0.50
tion. It should be noted, however, that the platform and
the TBM tunnels were not considered since they were
constructed after the excavation of the entire shaft.
The employed mesh consists of 5648 20-noded ele- Table 2. Lining and jet-grouting parameters.
ments and enables the reproduction of the vertical and
horizontal construction sequences using a total of 86 c  E
stages. The complexity of the geological ground pro- Lining Model (kN/m ) (kPa) ( ) (MPa)
3

file was taken into account in the model, though some

simplifications were required. As a result, the fault Beam LE 25 20000 0.25
was simulated by a plane of solid elements, divid- Shotcrete LE 25 10000 0.25
ing the model in two sides, while the stratification of Jet-grouting MC 21 250 40 350 0.20
the excavated materials was considered to be horizon-
tal. In Figure 6 a part of the geometry of the model
used in the analyses can be visualised for stage 21.
The analyses were performed assuming drained con- In this paper, due to space limitations, only the
ditions, due to the specific nature of the soils and to the results corresponding to the set of parameters lead-
employed drainage scheme. Finally, the behaviour of ing to the best reproduction of the behaviour observed
the materials was simulated using the linear elastic- in situ will be presented.
perfectly plastic Mohr-Coulomb constitutive model The final values determined by the back-analysis
(the dilatancy, , was considered to be 0 ). procedure are listed in Tables 1 and 2 and are within
In order to achieve a good agreement between the the ranges initially proposed by the geological and
results of the numerical simulations and the moni- geotechnical study performed prior to the design of
toring data, a back-analysis process was carried out. the shaft. Moreover, they are also supported by a recent
In this study, the soil characteristics in terms of study carried out by Topa Gomes (2009).
deformability and strength were adjusted, until the In the next section, the main results in terms of
calculated displacements agreed reasonably well with displacements are presented and compared with the
the instrumentation data. During this study, particular monitoring data.
attention was also given to the influence of the lining
and the jet-grouting properties on the behaviour of the
excavation.
3.2 Results of the back-analysis
The methodology employed for the back-analysis
process consisted, firstly, in the evaluation of the Figures 78 present the evolution with time of the ver-
impact of the stiffness, cohesion and K0 value of each tical displacement of the extremities of the shafts axes,
individual layer on the computed deformed shape of for levels 1 and 6. The graphs illustrate the signifi-
the shaft. The obtained results were then analysed and cant difference between the displacements measured
a final study was carried out in order to assess the rel- at opposite sides of the fault. This contrast is nearly 4
ative influence of the stiffness of the lining and of the times greater in level 1 and tends to decrease slowly
jet grout columns. with depth.

701
Figure 7. Evolution of the vertical displacements Level 1.
Figure 8. Evolution of the vertical displacements Level 6.
The magnitudes of the vertical displacements
obtained by the reference calculation of the back-
analysis study (CB) show a reasonable agreement
which tends to improve with depth. For level 1, there
are some discrepancies on the North side (mostly after
the excavation of level 8) and, particularly, for the sur-
vey mark P1. The reason for this difference is probably
related o the poor geological conditions likely to be
found at such short distance from the fault, which
could not be reproduced in the numerical model, since
the discontinuity was simulated as a plane of limited
thickness.
The effect of the jet-grouting columns is quite vis-
ible in Figure 7, mostly between levels 4 and 7 on the
South side, when the rate of vertical displacements
indicates a dramatic reduction.
In Figures 910 the results obtained for the con-
vergence sections are presented. It can be seen that in
level 1 the analysis shows a good agreement with the
values of convergence measured along the principal
axes (1-3, 2-4). For the sections measured within the
same side, it can be seen that the numerical simulation
is unable to reproduce neither the magnitude nor, for
section 1-2, the direction. The agreement between the
analysis and the monitoring data is better for level 6.
At this depth, only the magnitude of the convergence
section 3-4 is highly underestimated.
702
Figure 9. Evolution of the convergence sections Level 1.
Figure 10. Evolution of the convergence sections Level 6.
4 PARAMETRIC STUDY
4.1 Methodology
In order to evaluate the influence of the support system
and of the geological conditions on the behaviour of
the shaft, two parametric studies were carried out. The
results of the numerical simulations were subsequently
compared with those obtained in the analysis presented
in the previous section (CB).
The first study evaluates the impact of the jet-
grouting columns on the control of the displacements
and on the stability of the shaft.
The second study consists of two additional anal-
yses where the geological conditions are assumed to
vary only with depth. Therefore, in one case the geol-
ogy corresponds to that previously attributed to the
North side, while in the other calculation the stratigra-
phy proposed for the South side was employed for the
whole model.
In Table 3, the designations and respective descrip-
tion of all the performed analyses are listed.
4.2 Influence of the jet-grouting columns (PS1)
Figure 11 shows the evolution of the vertical displace-
ments in level 1 for the analyses with (CB) and without
(NJ) the modelling of the jet-grouting columns. As
expected, the results on the South side of the two
Table 3. Description of the analyses performed.
Analysis Description
CB reference analysis
NJ without modelling the jet-grouting columns
NS entire model with the North side geology
SS entire model with the South side geology
Figure 11. PS1 Evolution of the vertical displacements in
the level 1.
Figure 12. PS1 Vertical displacements along the contour
of the shaft for the last stage.
analyses are only similar until level 4 is reached, since
the columns were executed at this depth. After this
point, the rates at which the vertical displacements
evolve are clearly distinct, with the case labelled as NJ
registering much larger movements. It is also possible
to observe that the majority of this difference is accu-
mulated between levels 4 and 7, since the displacement
rate after this stage is similar in both analyses.
Figure 12 presents the vertical displacements along
the contour of the shaft at the end of the analy-
ses for levels 1 and 6. In the North side the values
obtained are relatively small and approximately con-
stant, which corresponds to the expected behaviour
since no jet-grouting exists on that side. On the South
side, the displacements in level 1 are higher when no
jet-grouting is used and the peak is located approxi-
mately at the extremity of the smaller axis ( = 270 ).
The displacements reached in level 6 are smaller, when
Figure 13. PS1 Hoop force along the contour of the shaft
for the last stage.
Figure 14. PS2 Vertical displacements along the contour
of the shaft for the last stage.
compared with the ones in level 1, and approximately
identical for both analyses. Furthermore, it is also
possible to visualise that, in the analysis without jet-
grouting, the displacements presented important fluc-
tuations, with heaves being reached near the fault due
to the horizontal construction sequence. That aspect is
apparently smoother for the case CB probably due to
the stabilising effect of the jet-grouting.
Figure 13 shows the hoop forces along the contour
of the shaft for the last stage of the analyses. It can
be seen that the forces tend to increase with depth,
reaching a maximum value of nearly 2000 kN in the
South side, level 6. There is also a significant differ-
ence between the forces in the North and South sides,
with higher magnitudes being registered on the more
deformable side.
The absence of the jet-grouting columns does not
change significantly the magnitude of the hoop forces.
It is also possible to observe in the same diagram
the apparently stabilising effect of the columns on the
South side.
4.3 Influence of the geological conditions (PS2)
In Figure 14, the vertical displacements obtained along
the contour of the shaft corresponding to last stage
are illustrated for the second parametric study. As
expected, the displacements obtained when geology
703

Figure 15. PS2 Hoop force along the contour of the shaft
for the last stage.
only varied in depth are symmetric and approximately
constant. The deformations on the NS model are much
smaller when compared with those on the SS model.
In both analyses the displacements tend to decrease
with depth, as previously observed for the CB and NJ
cases.
It is possible to conclude from the figure that the
vertical displacements of the NS model are similar
to those registered on both levels of the North side
for cases CB and NJ. However, on the South side the
results, in particular those for level 1, are quite differ-
ent. At this depth, the displacements of the SS model
are smaller than the ones obtained for the NJ model,
implying that the stiffness differential between the two
sides of the fault tends to amplify the movements of the
more deformable side (in this case, a factor of almost
2 is observed). This effect is not evident for level 6
where the displacements of the SS and NJ analyses
are of the same magnitude.
In terms of hoop forces, which are presented in Fig-
ure 15, it can be observed that, for the NS and SS
models, the obtained distributions are symmetrical.
However, the amplification effect registered for the
displacements on the South side of the model does not
seem to globally apply to the obtained forces. In fact,
although for level 1 the NJ case yielded slightly larger
values than those calculated for the SS case (i.e. ampli-
fication), for level 6 the hoop forces determined using
the asymmetrical geology were slightly lower (i.e. no
amplification). On the North side, the hoop forces are
similar for all the cases analysed.
5 CONCLUSIONS
The analysed project, the Marqus shaft, presented
a unique set of geological conditions. Consequently,
704
the excavation revealed an asymmetrical behaviour in
terms of displacements caused by the presence of a
fault dividing the shaft.
The mechanical properties of the different for-
mations were estimated by performing a 3D back-
analysis, allowing the influence of several aspects on
the behaviour of the shaft to be effectively assessed.
Furthermore, it was observed that the execution of the
jet-grouting columns occupied a central role in the
stabilisation of the vertical displacements.
A parametric study concerning the geological con-
ditions revealed that the stiffness differential between
the two sides of the fault resulted in an amplification
of the vertical displacements and, to a lesser extent,
in the reduction of the hoop forces determined on the
more deformable side.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors would like to acknowledge Metro do Porto
SA, Normetro ACE and CJC/ Figueiredo Ferraz for
authorising the publication of this article.
REFERENCES
Almeida e Sousa, J. 1999. Tunnels in Soils Behaviour and
numerical modelling. PhD thesis, University of Coimbra
(in Portuguese).
Andrade, J. C., Campanh, C., Mota, A, Jordo, P. 2003.
Estao subterrnea em poo e tnel no Metro do Porto.
Proc. of the Jornadas Hispano-Lusas sobre obras subter-
rneas, Madrid: 391408 (in Portuguese).
Frana, P., Taborda, D., Pedro, A., Almeida e Sousa, J., Topa
Gomes, A. 2006. Estao Salgueiros do Metro do Porto:
aspectos executivos e estudo do comportamento. Proc. of
the III Congresso Luso-Brasileiro de Geotecnia, Curitiba,
369374 (in Portuguese).
Geodata/Normetro 2002. Relatrio geotcnico-geomecnico
geral dos troos enterrados (linhas C, S e ramal de lig-
ao C-S). Projecto de execuo. Technical report (in
Portuguese).
Rabcewicz L. 1964. The New Austrian Tunnelling Method,
Part one, Water Power, November: 453457.
Santos, L., Jordo, P., Mota, A., Gaspar, A., Andrade,
J.C. 2004. Estao do Marqus. Observao e acom-
panhamento durante a obra. Proc. of the 9 Congresso
Nacional de Geotecnia, Aveiro, Vol. III: 235244 (in
Portuguese).
Topa Gomes, A. 2009. Elliptical shafts open by the sequen-
tial excavation method Oporto Metro. PhD thesis,
University of Porto (in Portuguese).
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Comparison of finite element predictions with results from a centrifuge

test representing a double anchor wall in sand

P.J. Bourne-Webb
formerly Imperial College, UK

D.M. Potts
Imperial College, UK

D. Knig
Ruhr-Universitt Bochum, Germany

ABSTRACT: A study examining the effect of plastic hinging on the response of embedded retaining walls
was undertaken. Double anchored walls embedded in dry sand were modelled in a geotechnical centrifuge at
1/30th scale. Finite element calculations were undertaken using Lades double hardening cap model to represent
the behaviour of the sand. Analyses yielded good accord with the test results in many aspects of the wall
behaviour. The consequences of testing with a dig-accelerate versus an accelerate-dig sequence, and the effect
of introducing a hinge zone into the wall section was examined. Comparisons between tests and their associated
numerical simulation are of interest as they provide insight into the influence of these factors in the observed
behaviour; it was found that the consequence of the dig-accelerate sequence appears minimal and other factors
had a greater influence, while the introduction of a hinge zone into the wall system resulted in significant changes
in the response with reference to the intact wall system.

1 INTRODUCTION 2 CENTRIFUGE MODELLING

As part of the work undertaken in order to develop
design guidance for the application of EN 1993-5 Steel
piling to the plastic design of steel sheet pile retain-
ing walls, both physical and numerical modelling was
undertaken.
Physical modelling in the form of centrifuge tests
undertaken at a scale of 1:30 was undertaken at
the Institute of Geotechnical Engineering and Soil
Mechanics of Ruhr-Universitt (RU) Bochum, Ger-
many and numerical predictions using the finite ele-
ment method were undertaken at Imperial College,
London.
The intention of the physical modelling was to pro-
vide a dataset based on a realistic construction process
for an embedded retaining wall, from which the finite
element model could be verified in order to provide
confidence in subsequent calculations.
The following paper presents part of this study
in which an embedded wall with two levels of sup-
port was modelled. This follows on from worked
reported elsewhere which examined the results of test-
ing and numerical predictions for the case of a wall
with a single level of support, Bourne-Webb et al.
(in print).
A total of ten centrifuge tests were performed at RU
Bochum. Seven of these simulated embedded walls
with a single row of anchors and the remaining three
two anchor levels.
The intention of the tests was to measure the earth
pressure acting on a wall in dry sand, forming a kine-
matic mechanism associated with plastic hinge forma-
tion, while taking into account realistic construction
processes. The physical modelling allowed compari-
son of responses between walls that remain elastic and
those in which the wall had a plastic hinge, and pro-
vided a means for verifying the finite element models.
Only the three double anchor tests (SPWFG17 to
19) are presented in detail here. In these tests, a 10.5 m
long (35 cm model) wall with two levels of support, in
dry sand was modelled. In each of these tests, the upper
anchor was located at a depth of 0.54 m (1.8 cm), and
the lower anchor 4.5 m (15 cm) depth, Fig. 1. Elastic
walls were modelled in tests SPWFG17 and 18, and a
plastic hinge zone was introduced just below the lower
anchor level in test SPWFG19.
In order to achieve exact similitude between model
and prototype, impractically thin steel wall sections
would have been required and, therefore, the model

705
Figure 1. Layout of centrifuge test models.
Figure 2. Wall hinge zone plastic moment-curvature
response.
wall was formed from aluminium sheet. When a test
was intended to study the effect of plastic hinging, a
notch was introduced into the wall section at a level
where the maximum bending moment was observed
in the elastic tests. The use of the notch was a com-
promise which had a number of problems, not least
of which was that the section strain hardens and does
not exhibit the softening of resistance due to section
buckling observed in real steel sheet piles, Fig. 2. In
test SPWFG19, the notch was further modified by
drilling a series of holes along its length in order to
reduce the available bending resistance. The effect was
to reduce the resistance by about half compared to the
notch alone.
Each test specimen was constructed by applying
greased-plastic sheeting to the side walls and then
706
Figure 3. Observed anchor response and equivalent linear
stiffness values.
raining sand into the strongbox. During the place-
ment of the sand, the process was halted at appropriate
stages to allow the instrumentation and anchor cables
to be placed. The instrumentation included displace-
ment transducers (LVDTs) at various levels on the
wall, load cells on the anchors and strain gauges over
the height of the wall on its centreline, Fig. 1.
The anchor system comprised wire cables which
ran from a waling beam on the wall, inside a tube,
through the sand, passing through the rear wall of
the strongbox and onto an axle mechanism. Anchor
pre-stressing could be simulated via a counterweight
system. A brake system allowed the anchors to be fixed
and a force transducer measured each of the anchor
loads, Knig (2002).
Equivalent linear effective stiffness values for each
anchor have been assessed from the various tests,
Fig. 3. It can be seen that the effective anchor stiff-
ness values changed from test to test, as well as during
each test. The variation from the theoretical stiffness
value of 7330 kN/m/m was greatest in the first test and
improved as the tests proceeded possibly as a result
of the action of loading and unloading of the anchor
strands, Bourne-Webb (2004).
In all the tests, the anchors were fixed from the
outset of the test with no pre-loading applied. In tests
SPWFG17 and 19, excavation was undertaken prior to
 Table 2. Lade cap model parameters inferred for Bochum
sand.

Parameter Value

Modulus number, Kur 1315

Elastic exponent, n 0.512
Poissons ratio, 0.2
Collapse modulus, C 3.45 104
Collapse exponent, p 0.807
Failure constant, 1 74.41
Failure exponent, m 0.246
Plastic potential const., R 0
Plastic potential const., S 0.527
Plastic potential const., t 2.37
Work hardening const., 2.618
Work hardening const., 0.0112
Work hardening const., P 0.132
Work hardening expt., l 0.976

3.1 Soil model

The finite element (FE) analyses undertaken and
reported here used Lades double hardening cap model,
Lade (1977); Lade and Nelson (1987).
Figure 4. Inferred bending moment profiles for double Lades cap model has been implemented within
anchor wall tests at the end of each test. ICFEP, validated and applied to boundary value prob-
lems, Kovacevic (1994). The model was chosen for
Table 1. Anchor load values. these calculations because it reproduces many aspects
of granular soil behaviour including a stress depen-
At test end Predicted
Test Anchor kN/m kN/m dent non-linear elastic stiffness, the influence of the
intermediate principal stress, 2 on the strength and
SPWFG17 Upper 0.71 1.00 the stress-strain response, and curvature of the failure
Lower 1.73 1.73 envelope.
SPWFG18 Upper 1.02 1.20 In order to derive suitable parameters for the model
Lower 1.96 1.70 (Table 2), laboratory testing of the sand used in the
SPWFG19 Upper 0.83 1.02 centrifuge tests was undertaken at RU Bochum and
Lower 1.57 1.63 comprised four drained triaxial compression tests and
two oedometer tests.
The parameters determined from the Bochum test
acceleration in the centrifuge, allowing higher accel- data were used in the analyses presented here on the
erations (up to 60 g) to be used, as the 30 g rated basis that the element tests were reproduced by FEA
excavation equipment was not required. simulation, Fig. 5. Good accord in terms of mobilised
In test SPWFG 18, excavation was undertaken at shear strength and volumetric strain response is pre-
30 g acceleration. In this case, excavation was simu- dicted up to about 8% to 10% axial strain. Beyond this
lated by lowering the front wall of the strong-box and point, dilation is predicted to continue whereas in the
then using a scraper mechanism to remove the sand tests, the rate of dilation appears to reduce beyond this
in front of the model sheet pile wall. The system for point. This divergence is likely to be due to a combi-
carrying out the test is described in Knig (2002). nation of shear banding effects and the shearing of
Data obtained from the tests included a bending the soil towards its critical state, effects the model
strain envelope, from which the bending moment dis- does not capture. It is not expected that the results of
tribution on the centre-line of the wall was inferred the analyses would have been greatly affected by this
(Fig. 4); anchor loads (Fig. 3 and Table 1), and dis- divergence because strains outside this range occurred
placements at the level of the wall toe, the hinge zone only in small areas of the model.
(when present), anchor level and the head of the wall
(Fig. 7). 3.2 Wall model
One-dimensional, curved, 3-node iso-parametric
3 NUMERICAL ANALYSES Mindlin beam elements have been implemented in
ICFEP in order to be able to model structural ele-
Numerical modelling was undertaken at Imperial Col- ments (Day, 1990; Potts & Zdravkovic, 1999). As part
lege, London using the program ICFEP (Potts and of the implementation of the beam elements, an elasto-
Zdravkovic, 1999). plastic constitutive model which allows hardening or

707
 Figure 6. Geometry and displacement boundary conditions
for finite element mesh.

Numerical simulation of four point bending tests

were undertaken to verify that the moment-curvature
characteristics were replicated, Fig. 2.
The sand-wall and sand-strong box interfaces were
modelled with the zero thickness interface elements
which use an elastic-perfectly plastic Coulomb type
soil model. Interface shear tests yielded a value of
interface angle of friction of 26 which was assigned
to these elements.

3.3 Initialisation and boundary conditions

The geometry for the finite element mesh is well
Figure 5. Verification of Lades cap model against element defined by the strong box used for the centrifuge
tests. modelling, which had internal plan dimensions of
0.63 m long by 0.36 m wide and 0.41 m deep. The two-
dimensional finite element mesh used is illustrated in
Table 3. Model wall section properties.
Fig. 6.
Parameter Main wall Hinge zone
Initial stresses have been based on a coefficient of
earth pressure at-rest, K0 = (1 sin  ) = 0.38 and a
Density, kN/m3 26.5 26.5 bulk unit weight for the sand of about 16.5 kN/m3 . As
Youngs modulus, E GPa 69 69 the sand was dry, pore water pressures throughout the
Wall thickness, t cm 0.30 0.085 problem were set to zero.
2nd Moment of area, I cm4 /m 0.2250 0.0010 All the boundaries representing the strongbox con-
Yield stress, fy MPa 118 118 tainer are fixed in the horizontal direction and the
Plastic moment, MP kNm/m 0.0028 strongbox base and rear wall boundaries are also fixed
in the vertical direction, Fig. 6.
A bar element was used to represent the anchor(s),
softening of the element force parameters to a residual and in these tests the end was fixed in the vertical and
value was included. The form of the model is piece- horizontal direction throughout the analysis. It should
wise linear and the force parameters are uncoupled. A be noted that the bar as defined, is not attached to the
check of the axial and shear force values during the cal- solid elements surrounding it, in order to replicate the
culations showed that they were sufficiently small not test set-up where the anchor passes through a duct.
to have impacted on the available moment resistance. In order to simulate the centrifuge test, where grav-
To model the hinge mechanism in the centrifuge ity was increased to about 30g, vertical body forces
tests, beam elements at the position of the notch have were applied to the entire mesh from an initial stress
been given characteristics appropriate to the particular state (based on 1g), until an equivalent of 30g acceler-
test. The plastic bending characteristics for the wall ation has been applied. The application of body forces
sections were based on both physical and numerical modified the K0 state; in this case to an average value
simulation of bending tests. Elements over the remain- of about 0.34 but with a non geo-static variation with
der of the wall are elastic with properties associated depth. This variation is at least qualitatively similar to
with the full aluminium sheet section, Table 3. profiles reported elsewhere, Garnier (2002).

708
Figure 7. Observed test wall response at 30g compared to numerical predictions for lateral displacement and bending moment.
3.4 Test and analysis sequence
The test sequence modelled in each of the back-
analyses was fairly simple; with the anchors locked
off and no pre-stress having been applied, excavation
proceeded to the required depth. In tests SPWFG 17 &
19, excavation of the sand in front of the wall, was car-
ried out at 1g, before body forces equivalent to a total
of 60 g acceleration were applied for brevity and
because the comparison does not alter significantly
at higher acceleration values, only the results at 30 g
acceleration are presented here. In test SPWFG 18, the
model was accelerated to 30 g and then excavation
followed.
4 COMPARISON AND DISCUSSION
The back-analyses presented here generally pro-
vide reasonable agreement with the wall responses
observed in the physical modelling, Fig. 7 (note that
all results are at model scale). Bending moments
and wall deflection at the lower anchor level were
particularly well reproduced however displacements
elsewhere were not so well replicated.
Similarly, anchor loads predicted at the lower level
show much better accord with those observed than at
the upper anchor level where loads tend to be over-
predicted by about a quarter to a third, Table 1. In order
to be compatible with the recorded anchor loads, pres-
sures in the uppermost part of the wall would have to
be half those predicted in the FEA. It is thought that
this discrepancy is due to the proximity of the upper
free-boundary surface and possible over-prediction of
resistance by the soil model at low confining pressures.
Also, the sand density achieved in this zone may not
be as compact as at deeper levels and thus, the model
parameters used may not be entirely compatible with
the actual state.
709
The effect of the decision to carry out the excavation
before accelerating the model in the centrifuge can be
assessed by comparing tests SPWFG17 (at 30 g) and
18, Fig. 7. The argument for using the sequence used in
tests SPWFG17 and 19 was that the predicted response
would be similar to that for the standard sequence i.e.
that used in SPWFG 18, but there would be added
flexibility to enable the centrifuge to be spun up to
higher accelerations, increasing the bending moment
demand in the wall.
When the two physical test results are compared,
the results for the wall forces and displacements show
significant differences. In both cases, the mode of
deformation is towards the excavation as expected
however it is the top of the wall that leads in SPWFG17
and the toe in SPWFG18. A consequence of the mode
of movement in the latter case is that the bending about
the lower anchor is reduced to about half of the value
in SPWFG17. Clearly, in this case there are factors at
play that mean that the comparison between the two
loading sequences is inconclusive.
However, when the two FEA calculations are com-
pared, there appears to be broad agreement in terms
of the wall forces and displacements that might be
expected, Fig. 7 and Fig. 8. In particular, the moment
over the lower anchor is very similar, as are deflec-
tions at each anchor level and the general mechanism
of movement, Fig. 8. If it is assumed that the FEA
provides a reasonable indicator of the likely mecha-
nisms involved in the two sequences, then all things
being equal, better agreement between the two actual
tests would be expected. It is interesting to note that as
for the other two tests, the FEA suggests that the toe
of the wall should not have kicked out in the manner
observed.
Wall plasticity was simulated by incorporating a
weakened hinge zone in the wall. In this case, the wall
was notched and drilled out just below the level of the

Figure 8. Incremental displacement vectors illustrating
movement mechanism.
lower anchor position. By comparing tests SPWFG17
and 19, Fig. 7, the effect of the hinge zone can be
assessed.
The predicted and observed effect of the hinge zone
in SPWFG19 is apparent in that the bending moment
at this location is reduced by about 70%, compared
with the intact wall in SPWFG17 and there is a clear
discontinuity in the deflected wall shape at the hinge
zone.
This is a consequence of the use of a notch to pro-
vide a weakened zone which was present throughout
the test resulting in a much more flexible wall system.
As a result, the moment demand generated in the wall
(SPWFG19) reduced substantially compared to that
mobilised in the intact wall (SPWFG17), Fig. 7. This
is not a surprise; the effect of flexibility is well known,
Rowe (1952) however the magnitude of the reduction
was unexpected. Similar results were seen in the single
710
anchor walls but the flexibility effect reduced moment
demand by only about 20%, Bourne-Webb (2004);
Bourne-Webb, Potts & Knig (in print).
5 CONCLUSIONS
In this study, the finite element method has been suc-
cessfully used to capture many aspects of the observed
response of a series of centrifuge model tests repre-
senting a double anchored wall system embedded in
dry sand. The calculation used Lades double harden-
ing cap model to represent the sand and zero-thickness
beam and bar elements to model the structure. Because
of this ability to capture key characteristics of the phys-
ical model tests, more extensive parametric studies
have been done with some degree of confidence.
The comparison of FE simulations suggests that in
an ideal situation, physical modelling based on a dig-
accelerate sequence should yield similar results to that
for an accelerate-dig sequence. However, it is apparent
from the physical tests that such accord may not always
be readily achievable in practise.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors would like to thank our sponsors Corus,
Arbed and HSP, and colleagues at RWTH Aachen
who helped in developing the model wall used in the
centrifuge modelling.
REFERENCES
Bourne-Webb, P.J. 2004. Ultimate limit state analysis for
embedded retaining walls, PhD thesis, Imperial College,
University of London.
Bourne-Webb, P.J., Potts, D.M. and Knig, D. In print. Analy-
sis of model sheet pile walls with plastic hinges, accepted
for publication in Gotechnique.
Day, R.A. 1990. Finite element analysis of sheet pile retaining
walls, PhD thesis, Imperial College, University of London.
Garnier, J. (2002). Properties of soil samples used in cen-
trifuge tests. Physical modeling in Geotechnics: ICPMG
02. Phillips, Guo & Popescu (eds), Newfoundland,
Canada, 519.
Knig, D. 2002. Modeling of deep excavations. Intl. Conf.
Physical Modeling in Geotechnics, ICPMG 02, New-
foundland, Canada, 8388.
Kovacevic, N. 1994. Numerical analyses of rockfill dams,
cut slopes and road embankments, PhD Thesis, Imperial
College, University of London.
Lade, P.V. 1977. Elasto-plastic stress-strain theory for cohe-
sionless soil with curved yield surfaces, Intl. J. Solids
Struct., 13, 10191035.
Lade, P.V. & Nelson, R.B. 1987. Modelling the elastic
behaviour of granular materials, Intl. J. Num. Anal. Meth.
Geomech., 11, 521542.
Potts, D.M. & Zdravkovic, L. 1999. Finite element analy-
sis in geotechnical engineering: Theory, Thomas Telford,
London, 440 pages.
Rowe, P.W. 1952. Anchored sheet pile walls, Proc. Institu-
tion of Civil Engineers Part 1, 1, 2770.
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Crane monopile foundation analysis

A. Mar
Coffey Geotechnics Limited, Manchester, UK

ABSTRACT: This article describes the use of three-dimensional finite element analysis to analyse the defor-
mation and stability of a crane monopile foundation supporting a 24.4 m high tower crane in close proximity
to an existing two-level basement structure. The crane monopile is a composite structure composed of concen-
tric structural and geotechnical elements whose pile head is pinned to the top of the basement floor slab by a
reinforced concrete tie-slab. The author was engaged to carry out a Category III check of this temporary works
structure. This case study illustrates the importance of identifying the issues associated with the problem before
any analysis is carried out and the best practice of performing supporting calculations on simplified idealisations
of the problem to gain an idea of orders of magnitude of the results and to develop confidence in the numerical
analysis predictions.

1 INTRODUCTION monopile is to be pinned to the top of the basement

1.1 Background
Three-dimensional finite element analysis predictions
on simplified representations of the pile founda-
tion were compared with Coffey in-house developed
analytical tools.
The crane monopile is a composite structure com-
posed of concentric elements and the effect of explic-
itly modelling the various rings of different material
using solid finite elements was explored.
1.2 Description of the problem considered
The proposed foundation is a monopile situated very
close to an existing two-level basement structure as
illustrated in Figure 1. As shown, the top of the
floor slab by a 500 mm thick concrete tie-slab. As well
as ensuring that the proposed design of the monopile
and tie-slab was structurally capable of carrying the
applied loads from the tower crane, the close prox-
imity of the foundation to the basement warranted
investigation of the loads and deformations induced
in these neighbouring structures by the activities of
the tower crane. Such predictions would not have been
possible via simplistic calculations hence the recourse
to finite element modelling to gain insight into this
three-dimensional soil-structure interaction problem.
1.3 Tower crane and ground details
The base of the crane platform grillage (1000 mm
thick) is elevated at 9.5 m above the top of concrete
capping and tie slab. The tower crane is 24.4 m high
with a 60 m long jib, a schematic of which is shown in
Figure 2.
The soil parameters used in the analysis were
derived in the first instance from data in a comprehen-
sive geotechnical investigation interpretative report.
In summary, the site is underlain by: 2 m of made
ground, 4 m of weathered London Clay, 14.5 m of

Figure 1. Plan and elevation (A-A) showing the crane

monopile and adjacent basement structure. Figure 2. Schematic of tower crane.

711
 Table 1. Material properties for the soil and pile.

K0 u su Eu u int

Material kN/m3 kPa MPa

London 20 1 0 150 0 30 0.495 0.85

Clay

*Interface reduction factor.

E
Material kN/m3 MPa

Concrete 24 2.1 104 0.15

Figure 3. Plan cross-section showing the concentric com-
ponents of the crane monopile.
London Clay, 19.5 m of Lambeth Clay and 3.5 m of
Thanet Sands founded on Upper Chalk.
Given the transitory nature of the crane loading
a short-term undrained response of the ground was
considered appropriate; consequently an undrained
analysis was performed using undrained soil param-
eters. A range of soil parameters were considered
for the detailed analysis and because of the extreme
nature of the problem in terms of the close proximity
of the surrounding structures and uncertainties with
regard to soil strength and stiffness due to construc-
tion stage effects; the final analyses assumed a single
London Clay layer with very conservative values for
the undrained Youngs modulus and undrained shear
strength of: 30 MPa and 150 kPa respectively.
The pile-soil interaction was analysed as an
undrained load case with the London Clay modelled as
an undrained, cohesive linear elastic-perfectly plastic
(Tresca) material. The Mohr-Coulomb strength model
was used with the friction and dilatancy angles equal
to zero ( = = 0), cohesion equal to the undrained
shear strength (c = su ) and zero tensile strength ten-
sion cut-off criterion in place which restricts the
development of tensile stresses in the soil.
The monopile is a composite structure as shown in
Figure 3 which comprises a 16.825 m length of steel
pipe (outer diameter 2.2 m with a wall thickness of
40 mm) surrounded by a 6.825 m length of concrete
caisson (inner diameter of 3 m with a wall thickness
of 160 mm) in the upper portion of the pile where
it is known that the high lateral loads will develop.
The infill between the concrete and steel is a cement-
bentonite grout mixture and the infill in the steel pipe
is a 20:1 sand-cement mixture.
The basement structure comprises three floors and
a contiguous piled wall composed of 28.825 m length;
900 mm diameter piles at 1050 mm centres. The hori-
zontal distance between the bored pile wall and crane
monopile centrelines is 3.2 m. The top of the crane
monopile is connected to the top of the basement struc-
ture by a 500 mm thick reinforced concrete slab as
shown in Figure 1.
20:1 Sand/Cement Mix 20 30 0.25
Steel 77 2.0 105 0.30
Cement-Bentonite Grout 24 200 0.15
The material properties used for this problem are
summarised in Table 1. Interface elements have been
used along the outside surfaces of the monopile for
all the finite element models in this study. These ele-
ments are used to improve the results by allowing for
slip between the monopile and the soil and to model a
possibly reduced strength su,int = int .su along the sides
of the monopile to account for reduced soil strength
due to the effects of pile installation.
2 PRELIMINARY ANALYSES
2.1 ERCAP analyses
The monopile was first analysed using the boundary
element program ERCAP (Poulos 1992). The program
implements the method described by Poulos & Davis
(1980). This program can analyse a pile subjected to
lateral loading and/or lateral soil movements. ERCAP
(Earth Retention CAPacity of piles) can analyse the
effects of the proximity of a pile to a slope or cutting
in an approximate manner. It has the facility to enable
the assessment of the stabilising force which a pile or
row of piles can develop in a potentially unstable soil
mass. In this problem it was used to model the lateral
interaction of the monopile with the surrounding soil
when subjected to the horizontal load and overturning
moment at the pile head. The objective of the prelim-
inary analyses was to compare results from PLAXIS
3D Foundation (PLAXIS BV 2007) with ERCAP.
2.2 Analysis details
The ERCAP program restricts the user to a single
uniform pile geometry. For this reason, two separate
analyses were performed with uniform cross-sectional
representations of the actual crane monopile. To bound
the predictions of lateral pile deflection in the Lon-
don Clay; the performance of the steel pipe alone and
the composite pile were considered. The first analysis
modelled the steel tubular section whereas the second
analysis modelled the composite pile; each over the
full 16.825 m length of pile. For the latter, a compos-
ite Youngs modulus of 12.4 GPa for a solid circular

712
Table 2. Evaluation of composite Youngs modulus of pile.

do di UCS I EI
Component m m MPa m4 kNm2

Caisson 3.32 3.00 20.0 1.9880 4.174 107

20:1 Sand/ 2.12 0.00 2.00 0.9915 2.975 104
Cement Mix
Steel Pipe 2.20 2.12 0.1584 3.167 107
Cement- 3.00 2.20 2.00 2.8260 5.652 105
Bentonite
Grout

I = 5.964, EI = 7.401 107 .

Table 3. Loads acting at the base of the crane.

Horiz. Vert. Overturning

Thrust Load Moment
H V M Figure 4. Steel pipe pile deflection predictions from
Load Case kN kN kNm ERCAP.

In-service crane 40 1622 6242

Out-of-service crane 191 1565 3104

pile of 3.32 m diameter was calculated

on the basis of
the ratio of the summations EI/ I (see Table 2)
where do , di , UCS, I and E are the outer/inner diame-
ter, unconfined compressive strength, second moment
of area and Youngs modulus respectively.
Both the in-service and out-of-service crane loads
were considered (Table 3) to identify the worst case
combination which would develop the highest deflec-
tions, shear forces and bending moments in the
monopile. This was for the situation without any
horizontal restraint offered by the tie-slab.
Both the in-service and out-of-service load cases
were performed undrained and this is applicable as the
key stratum is London Clay with an average coefficient Figure 5. Composite pile deflection predictions from
of consolidation cv of 0.3 m2 /year. For drainage paths, ERCAP.
D, in the range of 5.5 m to 30 m and an out-of-service
time, t, of 1 year say, the dimensionless time factor
T ( = cv t/D2 ) is less than 0.01 and Duncan (1996) has these two simplifications and so it is expected that
suggested that the soil can then be considered to behave the deflection predictions will fall within the range
in an undrained manner under the loading specified. of deflection predictions shown for this extreme case
With reference to Figure 1, it can be seen that the crane without a tie-slab in place.
grillage soffit level is elevated at 9.5 m above the top Figure 6 shows the ERCAP prediction of bend-
of concrete and tie slab. Thus for a 1 m thick crane ing moment developed in the pile for these two load
platform grillage the lever arm will be 10 m inducing conditions. It can be seen that the in-service loads
an additional bending moment equal to the horizontal induce higher bending moments in the pile than their
thrust multiplied by this lever arm. For the in-service out-of-service counterparts.
crane loads this produces an overturning moment of
6642 kNm at the top of concrete capping and tie-slab.
3 THREE-DIMENSIONAL ANALYSES OF
Figures 4-5 show the ERCAP predictions of pile
CRANE MONOPILE AND BASEMENT
deflection in the London Clay for the steel pipe alone
and composite pile respectively under the action of the
3.1 Outline
in-service and out-of-service load conditions. It can be
seen that the in-service loads produce slightly higher The three-dimensional finite element analyses
horizontal pile head displacement. From the deflected (3DFEA) considered two idealisations of the pile:
pile shapes it can be seen that the composite pile is (1) a simplified composite pile consisting of a solid
behaving more like a short rigid pile than the steel pipe circular pile with a: Youngs modulus of 12.4 GPa,
alone. The actual crane monopile is a combination of diameter of 3.32 m and length of 16.825 m (as used

713
Figure 6. Pile bending moment distribution predictions
from ERCAP.
Figure 7. Pile deflection comparison between PLAXIS and
ERCAP.
in the ERCAP analyses) and (2) a complex com-
posite pile comprising individual concentric elements
as summarised in Table 2 (see the next section for
further details on modelling). The horizontal deflec-
tions, bending moments and shear force predictions are
broadly similar as shown in Figures 79 thus confirm-
ing the idealisation approaches and different analysis
methodologies used.
3.2 Modelling of the complex composite pile
The series of concentric elements (Figure 3) form-
ing the crane monopile were explicitly modelled in
PLAXIS 3D Foundation using the pile designer. This
was achieved by selecting the circular tube pile type
which is defined by its wall thickness and internal
diameter. Tubular piles were specified for the con-
crete caisson, cement-bentonite grout and steel pipe
and each of these components were centred on plan at
the same (x,z) coordinates. This created a mesh of solid
elements with full connection at the mating boundaries
714
Figure 8. Pile bending moment comparison between
PLAXIS and ERCAP.
Figure 9. Pile shear force distribution predictions from
ERCAP.
between each concentric component. Through the pile
designer, interface elements were specified along the
outside boundaries of the monopile to allow for the
simulation of slippage and separation between the soil
and monopile. The use of the pile designer creates
an equivalent structural line element along the centre-
line of the pile which enables the pile: displacements,
bending moments and shear forces to be output in a
convenient manner.
3.3 Three-dimensional analyses of crane monopile
and basement
In order to predict the interaction of the monopile with
the ground and the adjacent basement structure, a 3D
finite element analysis using PLAXIS 3D Foundation
was performed. A serviceability limit state analysis
(no partial factors applied to materials) was performed
with the unfactored working loads applied to the pile
head at ground level. The analysis did not consider the
Table 4. Analysis phases for the crane monopile and Table 6. Model load conditions considered.
basement.
Model Description
Phase Description Notes
1 Jib load, moment and tailwind applied away from
0 Generation of initial K0 -procedure. the pile wall without the surface tie-slab in place
stresses in the virgin 2 Jib load, moment and tailwind applied away from
ground. the contiguous pile wall with the surface tie-slab
1 Wish-in-place of No basement construction in place
basement and details were available.
contiguous pile wall. 3 Jib load, moment and tailwind applied in the
2 Installation of the crane Previous displacements direction towards the contiguous pile wall with
monopile. reset to zero. the surface tie slab propping against the
3 Application of crane basement wall in place
loads. 4 Jib load, moment and tailwind applied parallel
to the contiguous pile wall with the surface
tie-slab providing restraint
Table 5. Physical and material properties for the tie-slab,
basement floors and wall.

t E
Component kN/m3 m GPa

Tie-slab 500 mm thick 24 0.5 21 0.15

Floor 400 mm thick 24 0.4 21 0.15
Floor 1000 mm thick 24 1 21 0.15
Contiguous pile wall 24 0.742 21 0.15
900 mm diameter at
1050 mm centres

*Equivalent plate thickness refer to Eq.(1).

detailed stages of excavation and construction of the

basement. The phases considered are summarised in
Table 4.
The initial stresses in the ground were computed
using the K0 -procedure with K0 = 1 for the London
Clay layer. As the analysis was in terms of total stress
parameters no pore water was modelled so the phreatic
level was set below the base of the model.
The basement floors were idealised using 6-noded
triangular plate elements and the basement walls were
modelled using 8-noded quadrilateral plate elements.
The contiguous bored pile wall was idealised as a con-
tinuous plate with a reduced thickness, deq , to account
for the spacing of the piles:
where d is the pile diameter and s is the centre-to-centre
pile spacing. The properties of the tie-slab, basement
floors and wall are summarised in Table 5.
The soil and monopile were modelled using 15-
noded wedge elements. The horizontal, vertical and
moment loads applied to the monopile were ratio-
nalised into equivalent horizontal and vertical pres-
sures acting over the steel pipe cross-section. Interface
elements were inserted between the soil, walls, floors
and outside surfaces of the monopile to simulate the
reduced strength between the soil and these structures.
For these analyses an interface reduction factor of 0.85
was assumed, resulting in a reduced undrained shear
Figure 10. Deformed mesh shown to an exaggerated scale
(scaled up 500x); Max. 3.73 103 m, Min. 0, (Model 2,
Phase 3).
strength of 127.5 kPa between the soil and non-soil
structures.
Four 3D finite element analyses were under-
taken to model the excavation and wished-in-place
construction of the basement and the subsequent
monopile with loading based on the tower crane load
specifications. The soil-structure interaction between
the monopile, walls and floors was simulated in these
analyses. These analyses considered the in-service
load combination and the results confirmed that the
worst case corresponded to case 2 of Table 6.
3.4 Results
This section summarises a selection of results from the
3D finite element analyses.
Figure 10 shows the deformed shape for Model 2
(Table 6) Phase 3 (Table 4) note that the London
Clay has been hidden from view. Figure 1a shows the
horizontal deflection of the crane monopile. The shear
force and bending moments developed in the pile are
shown in Figures 11b, c. These plots are direct outputs
from the program with no additional post-processing

715

Figure 11. 3DFEA pile outputs (Model 2, Phase 3).
made. The resolution of the shear force diagram is a
result of the relatively coarse mesh being used.
However, independent checks described in Section
2.2 on similar mesh refinements of the simplified pile
provide confidence in the accuracy of these results.
The deformed shape of the contiguous pile wall,
floors and tie-slab has been determined and pre-
dicted deformations are very small with peak total
displacements of around 0.6 mm, 0.7 mm and 3 mm
respectively.
4 DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS
An understanding of the underlying engineering prin-
ciples is essential and a review of the literature on the
subject is good practice. Reference was made to Mat-
lock & Reese 1960, Elson 1984, Smith & Griffiths
1988.
Sensitivity studies were performed to investi-
gate: mesh density, model extent, load application
approaches and material property variation.
An investigation was made to explore the effect of
a reduction in the stiffness of the cement-bentonite
mix between the concrete caisson and steel pipe. The
reduction of this from 600 MPa to 200 MPa was found
to have little effect on the behaviour of the monopile.
The analyses did not consider the detailed stages
of excavation and construction of the basement (Ng,
2004) so the deformations and loads predicted to
develop in the basement could not reliably be taken into
account. To address this, the prediction of movement
and structural forces induced in the basement during
this phase were discounted by zeroing displacements
at the start of Phase 2 and by external post-processing
of the structural forces developed between Phase 3 and
Phase 1. Therefore, the structural forces and displace-
ments reported are in addition to the existing structural
forces and displacements due to the wall and floor
loads and live loads applied to the basement.
The results of the ERCAP analyses (Figures 4
to 6) predict that the monopile will deflect later-
ally between 46 mm with bending moments in the
range of 5014 kNm to 6642 kNm (this is without the
tie-slab in place).
716
The ERCAP analyses identified that the worst case
crane loads were the in-service combination compris-
ing a horizontal thrust, axial load and overturning
moment of 40 kN, 1662 kN and 6242 kN respectively
and these were assumed to act at the crane base, which
is 10m above ground level.
PLAXIS predicted the worst case deflection to be
5.4 mm horizontal (Model 1 without tie-slab) and
this results in a pile head rotation at ground level
of 0.000831 radians (which would result in a 29 mm
deflection 34.4 m above ground level). The bending
moment in the monopile for this case is 6170 kNm
which is of the same order of magnitude as that found
in the ERCAP analysis. The results of the PLAXIS
analysis predict that the monopile will deflect later-
ally by 0.50.8 mm with peak bending moments in the
range of 6960 kNm to 6980 kNm and shear forces in
the range 922 kN to 928 kN (this is with the tie slab in
place).
The maximum horizontal wall deflection is of the
order of 0.3 mm which is negligible and the peak
bending moment of 200 kNm is generated.
The maximum compressive axial load developed in
the 500 mm thick tie-slab is 1490 kN for the loading
condition in Model 3. The maximum tensile axial load
developed is 942 kN for the loading condition in Model
2. The structural capacity of the monopile and tie-slab
system is adequate under the action of these structural
loads (well within the 20 MPa compressive strength of
the concrete and the 275 MPa yield stress of the steel).
This case study illustrates the importance of iden-
tifying the issues associated with the problem before
any analysis is carried out and the best practice (Mar,
2002) of performing supporting calculations on sim-
plified idealisations of the problem to gain an idea
of orders of magnitude of the results and to develop
confidence in the numerical analysis predictions.
REFERENCES
Duncan, J. M. 1996. State of the art: Limit Equilibrium and
Finite-Element Analysis of Slopes, Journal of Geotechni-
cal Engineering, ASCE 122, No.7, July, pp. 557596.
Elson, W.K. 1984. Design of laterally loaded piles, CIRIA
Report 103.
Mar, A. 2002. How To Undertake Finite Element Based
Geotechnical Analysis. NAFEMS (The International
Association for the Engineering Analysis Community).
Matlock, H. and Reese, L.C. 1960. Generalised solutions for
laterally loaded piles, Proc. ASCE, J. Soil Mech. Found.
Div. Vol 86 (SM5), pp. 6391.
Ng, C.W.W., Simons, N. and Menzies, B. 2004. A Short
Course in Soil-Structure Engineering of Deep Founda-
tions, Excavations and Tunnels, Thomas Telford, London.
PLAXIS BV, 2008. PLAXIS 3D Foundation. Version 2.2,
PLAXIS BV, Delft, the Netherlands.
Poulos, H.G. and Davis, E.H. 1980. Pile Foundation Analysis
and Design. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
Poulos, H.G. 1992. Program ERCAP (Earth Retaining
Capacity of Piles) Users Manual, Coffey Geosciences
Pty Ltd.
Smith, I.M. and Griffiths, D.V. 1988. Programming the finite
element method (2nd edition), John Wiley, Chichester.
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Influence of excavation and wall geometry on the base stability

of excavations in soft clays

T. Akhlaghi, H. Norouzi & P. Hamidi

Faculty of Civil Engineering, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran

ABSTRACT: Evaluation of safety factor for base stability of excavations is of great importance in the design of
excavations in soft soils. The two dimensional base stability of excavations is evaluated using either the traditional
limit equilibrium techniques or the finite element methods. In this study, the FEM with shear strength reduction
is used to evaluate the 2D base stability of excavations in soft clays. The influences of the width and the depth
of the excavation and the embedded depth of the wall on the base stability have been investigated and discussed.
The results indicate that the safety factor against base instability increase almost with the ratio of the depth to
the width of excavation. Also with increasing the wall embedded depth, the safety factor increases, whereas the
increase in the safety factor is smaller in the case of the large clay thickness under the base of excavation than
in the case of small clay thickness.

1 INTRODUCTION

The estimations of ground movement and base insta-

bility are the most important aspects that must be
considered in excavation works, specially excavations
in soft clays, to prevent any hazardous effect to nearby
buildings. The temporary struts are required to sup-
port wall safely and the bending moments in the wall
should not go beyond the designed capacity and ser-
viceability. In recent years, it is becoming possible to
do detailed numerical analyses for the various mechan-
ical behavior of braced excavation by researching and
developing the numerical analysis technique such as
the finite element method (FEM).
Economic demands favor excavations without
sheeting and bracing, but safety requirements limit
these solutions. The importance of base stability prob-
lems has been indicated with increasing excavation
scale and depth for underground space development. Figure 1. Geometry of excavation.
Evaluation of the safety factor against base instability
is important in the design of excavations in soft soils.
If the factor of safety is smaller than from acceptable for predicting the safety factor of excavations, and
value, expensive ground improvement schemes may include separate calculations of basal stability based
become necessary to stabilize the soil below the final on failure mechanisms proposed by Terzaghi (1943);
excavated level (ORourke et al., 1997). Short-term Bjerrum and Eide (1956); or overall slope stability
undrained stability often controls the design of exca- using circular or noncircular arc mechanisms based on
vations in soft clays immediately after construction. well established methods proposed by Bishop (1955);
In the practical point of view, there are two distinct Spencer (1967); Morgenstern and Price (1967). It is
methods used to perform stability calculations for all noted that, Terzaghis method is only used for shal-
excavations: (1) traditional limit equilibrium methods low or wide excavations with H /B 1, where B
(LEM); and (2) finite element methods. is the width and H is the depth of the excavation
Several limit equilibrium analysis methods are (Figure 1). Since The three-dimensional effect is
available for evaluating the base stability of exca- important at the length to width ratio smaller than six,
vations; however, the calculated safety factors vary Terzaghis equation for base stability can be used to
with different methods. Up to the present, limit equi- evaluate the three-dimensional base stability of rect-
librium methods has been widely used in practice angular (or shallow) excavations after modification.

717
 In this study, the finite element method with Table 1. Properties of the soft soil.
reduced shear strength is used to evaluate the 2D base
stability of excavations. Numerical results of this paper Property Value
indicate that the base stability of excavations was sig-
nificantly influenced by the factors such as: (1) the Su 35(kPa)
Eu 250Su (kPa)
depth to width ratio, (2) the thickness of the soft soil
0.45
layer between the excavation base and the stiff stratum, 18(kN/m3 )
and (3) the depth of walls inserted below the excava-
tion base. Surely, the base stability of excavations in
soft clays was also influenced by the stiffness of walls,
The initial value of F is assumed to be sufficiently
that were not considered here.
small so as to produce a nearly elastic problem. Then
the value of F is increased step by step until finally
a global failure develops (Cai et al., 2001). The load
2 FEM WITH STRENGTH REDUCTION
step is controlled by the increment of the safety factor.
TECHNIQUE
If convergence cannot be reached after, for example,
1000 iterations, the F value just before this load step is
The stability problems (such as, slope stability
taken to be the unique safety factor Fs . This method is
and base stability of excavations in soft soils) are
called FEM with shear strength reduction technique.
commonly analyzed by a limit equilibrium method.
The finite element method with strength reduction
However, such a traditional approach is limited by
technique used in stability analysis offers a number of
assumptions concerning the analysis method itself and
advantages over traditional limit equilibrium method.
failure mechanism of the slope. On the other hand, the
For instance, it eliminates the need for a priori assump-
most difficult problem faced in the utilization of dis-
tions on the shape or location of the failure surface, and
placement based finite element method in the stability
can automatically trace the progressive failure from
analysis is the calculation of the safety factor. Such
localized areas all the way to the overall shear failure.
a difficulty can be overcome by the introduction of
Furthermore, it is possible for the FEM with reduced
FEM with shear strength reduction technique which
shear strength to evaluate the slope stability under a
was proposed as early as 1975 by Zienkiewicz et al.
general framework even for the case of base stability of
The FEM with reduced shear strength has been
circular excavations. However, the success of reduced
applied to the slope stability analysis in two-
shear strength FEM relies strongly on the determina-
dimensional situations by Zienkiewicz et al. (1975),
tion of global instability of soil slopes, i.e. definition
Matsui et al. (1992), Ugai, and Griffiths et al. (2001).
of failure.
Recently the reduced shear strength FEM has been
A 2D finite element program is used for the present
successfully applied to evaluate the base stability of
analysis, and the secant Newton method is used to
circular excavations. The essence of the finite ele-
accelerate the convergence of the modified Newton
ment method with shear strength reduction technique
Raphson scheme (Sloan, 1983). The isoparametric
is the reduction of the soil strength parameters until
elements with eight nodes are used to model the soil
the soil fails. In other words, in the finite element with
and wall elements. In order to obtain the precise results
reduced shear strength, the safety factor is evaluated
it is found that at least six rows of elements must be
by the gradual reduction of the shear strength param-
put below the bottom of the wall, where the soil fail-
eters (c, ) of soil inducing the divergence (failure) of
ure should take place. The horizontal distance from the
the nonlinear analysis. The shear strength equation is
wall to the outer boundary of the excavation should be
given by:
not less than at least two times of excavated depth (H ).
The vertical distance in the mesh under the base of
excavation must be as fine as possible which depends
The reduced shear strength parameters cf and f on the thickness of the clay under the base of exca-
replace the corresponding values of c and  in the vation. The mechanical properties of the soft soil are
above equation to: shown in Table 1.

3 CALCULATION OF BASAL STABILITY

USING LEM
and
For excavations in an homogeneous clay, the stability
of the excavation can be most conveniently expressed
in terms of the stability number, Nc = H /Su , where
and Su are the average total unit weight and undrained
so the shear strength equation with reduced shear shear strength in the retained soil, respectively. Table 2
strength can be written as: shows the various methods for assessing the stability
number from limit equilibrium methods. As indicated
in the table, there are subtle differences in these basic

718
Table 2. Various proposed stability numbers.

case Stability number (Nc ) Notes

 
H H B
Terzaghi = Nc1 + 2 Base case for homogeneous deep clay Nc1 = 5.7, d
Su B 2
 
H H B
= Nc1 + Effect of underlying bearing layer d <
Su d 2
   
H Sub H
= Nc1 + + 2 Two clay layer: Suu & Sub are strengths in retained soil and
Suu Suu B below excavated level (anisotropic shear strength in clay)
   
H H +D D
= Nc1 + 2 +2 Effect of rigid wall embedment
Su B B
H
Bejrrum and Eide = Nc2 Base case for homogeneous deep clay Nc2 = f (H /B)
Su

H D
Eide et al. = Nc2 + 2
Su B interior soil plug and wall
H 2 My
ORourke = Nc2 + x
Su D(D + h)Su
solutions associated with assumed values of the bear-
ing capacity factor, Nc , the location of the vertical shear
surface in the retained soil, and the inclusion of shear
tractions along this plane.
Simple modifications are widely used to account for
the proximity of an underlying bearing layer and for
contrast in undrained shear strength above and below
the excavated grade.The effects of wall embedment are
usually computed the approach proposed by Terzaghi
(1943), assuming that failure occurs below the base of
the wall and is resisted by the weight of the interior soil
plug and adhesion acting along the plugwall inter-
face. A similar approach is used by Eide et al. (1972).
Both methods implicitly assume that the wall is rigid
(i.e., does not yield). ORourke (1993) assumes that
wall embedment does not alter the basal failure mech-
Effect of rigid wall embedment is the adhesion between
My is yield moment of wall, h is the excavation depth below
lowest support and x is equal to 1/8, 9/32 or 1/2 for free,
sliding and fixed end conditions respectively
If the soil layer of the thickness D below the excava-
tion base acts as a load (D), and the wall is rigid, the
following equations that are summarized in Table 3,
could be derived from the energy dissipation assump-
tion. In the following equations that are considered
in Table
3, dc is called the critical depth and equals
to B 2. It is noted that, the value of H /Su in the
upper bound analysis is equivalent to the Nc -value in
FE analysis.
The equations from upper bound limit analysis are
considered here for making a comparison with pro-
posed FEM with strength reduction, and results of this
comparison are considered in the next section.
5 DISCUSSIONS ON THE RESULTS
anism in the soil, but does contribute to the stability
due to the elastic strain energy stored in flexure. The
resulting stability numbers are functions of the yield
moment and assumed boundary conditions at the base
of the wall.
4 UPPER BOUND LIMIT ANALYSIS FOR BASE
STABILITY OF EXCAVATIONS
The upper bound formulation equates the power dissi-
pated in a kinematically admissible velocity field with
the power expended by the external loads. A kinemati-
cally admissible velocity field is one which satisfies
the (1) compatibility equations; (2) velocity boundary
conditions; and (3) the flow rule. Power is dissipated
by the plastic yielding of the soil mass, during plastic
flow. It is noted that, limit analysis theorems (upper
and lower bound theorems) in conjunction with finite
element, are very powerful methods for calculations
of stability problems in soil mechanic.
719
 
H
5.1 Influence of depth to the width ratio :
B
For the case which the thickness of the soft soil layer
below the excavation base is less than the critical depth
(d dc ), the results of the FEM with shear strength
reduction indicate that the location of stiff layer has
influence on the Nc -value. Figure 2 indicates the influ-
ence of depth to the width ratio (H /B) on the base
stability of excavation, when the thickness of the soft
soil layer below the excavation base is bigger than
the critical depth (d dc ), and the embedded depth
is equal to zero, i.e. D = 0.0 (case 1 in Table 3). For
more comparison the results of Nc -value are evaluated
for different values of d/dc and are shown in Figure 2,
where Nc is defined by:
Table 3. Stability numbers from limit analysis calculations.

Eq. Number case Stability Number (Nc ) Notes Condition

H H
1 Terzaghi Nc = = 5.81 + Case (1)
Su d
D = 0.0 and d dc
1 H
2 Prandtl Nc = 6.14 +
 2 d 
3
3 Nc = 2 1 + 1 3 + tan 1 3 is variable and must be chosen
4
1 H to minimize Nc - value
+ tan 3 +
2 d 2d
cos 1 = cos 3
  B
3 1 H 2d
4 Nc = 2 1 + 1 + tan 1 + 1 = cos1
4 2 d B
H +D
5 Terzaghi Nc = 5.71 + 2 Case (2)
B
D 0.0 and dn > dc
H +D
6 Prandtl Nc = 6.14 +
B
H +D
7 Terzaghi Nc = 5.71 + Case (3)
dn
H +D
8 Prandtl Nc = 6.14 +
 2dn 
3
9 Nc = 2 1 + 1 3 + tan 1 3 is variable and must be chosen to
4 minimize Nc - value
1 H
+ tan 3 + 2d
2 d cos 1 = cos 3
B

in which Nc andFs are dimensionless coefficients

depending on the geometry of the excavation and
the safety factor of base stability of excavation,
respectively.
Figure 3 presents the Nc -values, for various ratios of
depth to the width, from proposed FEM with strength
reduction, the method of Bjerrum & Eide which is
considered in Table 2 and Equations (1) and (2) from
Table 3. In this figure the FEM results for Nc -values
are compared with those obtained from the limit equi-
librium (Bjerrum & Eides method) and upper bound
analysis (Equations (1) and (2) from Table 3). From
Figure 3 it is obvious that for the shallow or wide exca-
vation with H /B 1.0, the Nc -value, predicted using
the FEM with reduced shear strength, is close to Equa-
tion (1) from Table 3. It is noted that for H /B > 1.0, Figure 2. In fluence of H /B on Nc -value with different
the Nc -value, from proposed FEM is less than Prandtls values of d/dc from FEM (D = 0).
method (Eq. 2 in Table 3). As shown on Figure 3 the
FEM computations give less safety factors than those
obtained from the upper bound analysis that are con- the case d dc , the results of the FEM with strength
sidered in Table 3, and for H /B > 1.0 the Nc -value reduction indicate that the thickness of the clay layer
obtined from FEM increases with the ratio of depth has influence on the Nc -value as shown in Figure 4.
to the width. Figure 3 also shows that the differences This figure presents the influence of the soft soil thick-
between the proposed FEM with strength reduction, ness for H /B = 1.0. As shown in Figure 4, the safety
limit equilibrium (Bjerrum & Eides method) and factor decreases with increasing the thickness of clay
upper bound analysis (Equations (1) and (2) from under the base of excavation. It can be concluded that
Table 3) increase with increasing the ratio of depth when d < dc , the presence of the stiff layer close to
to the width. the base of excavation increases the Nc -value. It is
noted that for clay extending to a considerable depth
below the base of excavation (d > dc ), the increase of
5.2 Influence of soft soil thickness (d/dc )
clay depth has not more influence on the Nc -value. In
In this section the effect of the thickness of soft soil other words, in this case the Nc -value slightly decreases
layer under the base of excavation is considered. For with increasing the clay thickness. Figure 4 also shows

720

Figure 3. Influence of H /B on Nc -value with different
methods (D = 0).
Figure 4. Influence of d/dc on Nc -value (H /B = 1, D = 0).
that the Nc -values predicted using Eq.(1) and Eq.(2)
are larger than that of the FEM with shear strength
reduction.
When d/dc > 0.5, the difference of the Nc -values
between the FEM with reduced shear strength, Eqs.(1)
and (2) are small as shown in Figure 4. When the
thickness of the soft soil layer are equal to the criti-
cal depth, the difference of the Nc -values between the
FEM with reduced shear strength, Eqs.(1) and (2) is
smaller than 1.
5.3 Influence of embedded depth of the wall
The normalized maximum displacement on the base
of excavation () can be used for base instability
computations. The normalized displacement increases
with the reduction factor of the shear strength F, and
develops with F trending to the safety factor of the
excavation bases. Thus, the safety factor can be deter-
mined from the -F curve. Figure 5 illustrates the
influence of the embedded depth on the safety factor of
excavation base. If we define D/dc , as the embedment
ratio, in case that the soft soil depth are equal or smaller
721
Figure 5. Influence of wall embedded depth below the
excavation base (d = dc , H /B = 1.5).
than the critical depth (d dc ), the results of proposed
FEM with strength reduction shows that, the safety
factor increase with increasing embedment ratio. That
is because the wall precludes from the movement of
soil towards the base of excavation, which is the cause
of increasing the safety factor against base instability.
The influence of embedded depth on F values for clay
extending to a considerable depth below the base of
excavation (d > dc ), are illustrated in Figure 6. When
d > dc , the effect of increasing the embedded depth of
the wall will leads to a marginal increase in the safety
factor. From Figures. 5 and 6 we can see that, for clay
that has smaller thickness (d dc ) below the base of
excavation, by increasing the embedded wall depth,
the increase of the safety factor will be bigger than
that for clay with larger thickness (d = 2dc ) below the
excavation base.
It is obvious that, with increasing the wall embed-
ment ratio, the safety factor will increase, whereas the
increase of the safety factor in the case of small clay
thickness under the base of excavation (d dc ) is big-
ger than in the case of large clay thickness (d = 2dc ). It
can be seen that, when the embedded depth is shorter,
the higher resistance will be taken place against the
soil movement. FEM with reduced sear strength shows
that displacement of the wall at its end is significantly
smaller than that of the adjacent soil displacements.
This means that the wall resistance to the soil move-
ment was high. While in the case of large embedded
depth the displacement of the wall at its end is almost
the same as the adjacent soil, this means that the resis-
tance of the wall to the soil movement was small. It is
noted that, the analyses of the effect of the wall stiff-
ness on the safety factor shows that, there are relations
between the embedded depth and the wall stiffness.
The safety factor increases with increasing the stiffness
of the wall, which depends on the embedded depth of
the wall.
6 CONCLUSIONS
In this paper, the base stability analysis of excava-
tions in soft clays was evaluated by the 2D finite

Figure 6. Influence of wall embedded depth below the
excavation base (d = 2dc , H /B = 1.0).
element method with shear strength reduction tech-
nique. Emphasis has been given to the numerical com-
parison of the safety factor of base stability obtained
by this technique and the upper bound limit analysis
method. The influence of the width and the depth of
the excavation and the embedded depth of the wall
on the base stability are investigated and discussed.
The results indicate that the safety factor against base
instability increase almost with the ratio of the depth to
the width of excavation. Also with increasing the wall
embedded depth, the safety factor increases, whereas
the increase in the safety factor is smaller in the case
of the large clay thickness under the base of excava-
tion than in the case of small clay thickness. It has
demonstrated that the finite element method with shear
strength reduction technique is an effective method for
assessing the safety factor of base stability. It should be
pointed out that, the determination of the global base
instability of excavations in soft clays in the reduced
shear strength FEM analysis should be received much
more attention in the future.
REFERENCES
Bjerrum, L. & Eide, O. 1956. Stability of strutted excavations
in clay. Geotechnique; 6 (1): 3247.
Cai, F. & Ugai, K. 2000. Numerical analysis of the stability
of a slope reinforced with piles. Soils and Foundations;
40 (1): 7384.
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Cai, F. & Ugai, K. 2001. Base stability of circular excava-
tion in soft clay estimated by FEM. Proceedings of the
Third International Conference on Soft Soil Engineering,
HongKong; 30510.
Goh, A.T.C. 1994. Estimating basal-heave stability for braced
excavations in soft clay. J Geotech Engrg, ASCE; 120 (8):
14306.
Griffiths, D.V. 1980. Finite element analyses of walls, foot-
ings and slopes. PhD thesis, ,
UK.
Griffiths, D.V. & Lane, P.A. 1999. Slope stability analysis by
finite elements. Geotechnique; 49 (3): 387403.
Hata, S., Ohta, H., Yoshida, S., Kitamura, H. & Honda, H.
1985. A deep excavation in soft clay Performance of an
anchored diaphragm wall. Fifth Inter. Conf. on Numerical
Methods in Geomechanics, Nagoya; 725730.
Matsui, T., San, K.C. 1992. Finite element slope stability
analysis by shear strength reduction technique. Soils and
Foundations; 32 (1): 5970.
ORourke, T.D. & ODonnell, C.J. 1997. Deep rotational
stability of tieback excavations in clay. J. Geotech. Geoen-
viron. Eng; 123(6), 506515.
Sanematsu, T. & Isobe, T. 1998. Behavior of braced exca-
vations and simulation analysis of eExcavation in soft
ground. In: Annual Report, KAJIMA Technical Research
Institute, 46. (in Japanese).
Sloan, S.W. 1983. Elastoplastic analyses of deep foundation
in cohesive soil. Int J Numer Anal Meth Geomech; 7:
38593.
Terzaghi, K. 1943. Theoretical soil mechanics. NewYork:
John Wiley.
Ugai, K. 1989. A method of calculation of global safety factor
of slopes by elasto-plastic FEM. Soils and Foundations;
29 (2): 1905 (in Japanese).
Ugai, K. & Leshchinsky, D. 1995. Three-dimensional limit
equilibrium and finite element analyses: a comparison of
results. Soils and Foundations; 35 (4): 17.
Zienkiewicz, O.C., Humpheson, C. & Lewis, R.W. 1975.
Associated and non-associated visco-plasticity and plas-
ticity in soil mechanics. Geotechnique; 25 (4): 67189.
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Numerical modelling of a steel sheet-pile quay wall for the harbour of

Ravenna, Italy

D. Segato, V.M.E. Fruzzetti, P. Ruggeri, E. Sakellariadi & G. Scarpelli

Universit Politecnica delle Marche, Italy

ABSTRACT: In this paper, the case of a bulkhead in the Ravenna harbour is presented, where it was possible to
monitor the behaviour of a steel sheet pile structure. This monitoring included inclinometer probes in the ground,
topographical displacement readings at the top of the bulkhead, vibrating wire load cells on the anchors. On
the basis of a good knowledge of the subsoil geotechnical characteristics, both in terms of the soil stratigraphy
and of the constitutive behaviours of the various soils, a finite element numerical model of the problem, both
in 2D and 3D, was used to analyze the data from the monitoring and to interpret the observed displacement
fields. From this work some conclusions about the selection of the appropriate numerical scheme and of the soil
constitutive modelling to better represent the observed behaviour were reached; such conclusions appear useful
in the design of these very common marine infrastructures.

1 INTRODUCTION

Despite the large number of applications and high costs

involved in the construction of sheet pile bulkheads
for harbour facilities, a comprehensive monitoring of
the structure behaviour is often lacking, which lim-
its the possibilities to increase our knowledge on the
behaviour of such important infrastructures, especially
when difficult subsoil conditions are encountered, as
is usually the case for harbour environments. On the
other hand, the behaviour of a bulkhead for marine
applications is often characterized by the simplic-
ity of the boundary conditions, both in terms of the
groundwater regime and of the problem geometry, typ-
ically plane, whereas most of the uncertainties for a
soilstructure interaction analysis relate to the actual
construction and loading histories. Figure 1. Plan of the Candiano channel at the end of years
In this paper, the case of the so called ex-Cabot 90 and indication of the future channel widening.
bulkhead in the Ravenna harbour is presented, where it
was possible to monitor the behaviour of a steel sheet
pile structure, during construction and subsequent load
testing. The growing demand for facilities develop-
ment within the Ravenna Port area required the con-
struction of new quay walls able to guarantee higher
draft levels and the adjustment of older water- ways to
allow the transit of larger ships. One recent work is the
removal of the ex-Cabot dock bottleneck produced by
the progressive widening of Candiano Channel (Fig- Figure 2. Plan view of the quay and location of monitoring
ure 1). For this purpose, after a partial demolition instruments.
of the existing structure, the building of a new quay
wall, aligned with the neighbouring docks and able to
deepen the water level from 9.50 m to 11.50 m, The design validation process, established by the
was planned. The new retaining structure has been Port Authority of Ravenna, required monitoring of the
constructed using ARBED HZ975A-12/AZ18 sheet structure during the static testing prescribed at the end
pile elements anchored in correspondence to the top of construction. Figure 2 shows the monitoring points
concrete beam. and the location of measuring devices.

723
Figure 3. Cross section of the new ex-Cabot quay wall before the removal of the old wall.

The wall deformations were measured by two incli-

nometers (IV1-IV2) installed behind the top beam
about 1.5 m away from the sheet pile face.
At monitoring point 1, where the static tests were to
be run, the anchor load was controlled by two vibrating
wire load cells (VW) and topographic targets (MT)
controlled the top beam displacements.
In this paper, the data collected is interpreted
and compared to the results of a numerical model.
Although the monitoring was not arranged for back
analysis purposes, in the present paper the collected
data are interpreted and compared to the results of a
numerical model in order to verify if the structural
behaviour can be effectively predicted. The main issue
is to interpret the complex loading history of the new
structure accounting for the geometrical evolution of
the boundary conditions.

2 PROJECT DESCRIPTION
Figure 3 shows how the sheet piles of the new quay,
anchored at 0.5 m above sea level through five-tendon
active ground anchors placed at the same spacing of
the sheet pile element (1.79 m), extend to a depth
of 27.50 m below sea level where a dense silty sand
deposit is located.
Since the old quay was only partially demolished
before the construction of the new wall, in Figure 3
the profile of the ground is represented as expected
during the works in the central part of the quay.
At the end of the quay the concrete structure was
replaced by a breakwater with the side sloping at the
same angle. Such a non-horizontal boundary condition
determines non-K0 initial conditions throughout the
entire quay length.
During this preliminary phase, a working surface at
+1.5 m above the mean sea level was prepared; after
that, the sheet pile wall was constructed, and finally
the ground anchors were installed and pulled to the
design tension (300 kN).
Figure 4. Time sequence and test setup of the load test
stages.
Next a two step excavation was executed:
an initial excavation to the depth of 5 m below sea
level;
complete excavation to the project depth (10.50 m
below sea level).
The demolition of the older structure induced a fur-
ther local deepening of the ground level to 12 m below
the mean sea level.
After completion of the above phases, two static
tests were performed in the area facing the monitoring
point 1, involving in the application of a distributed
load on the quay. The two tests differ in the shape of the
load area and in the amount of surcharge applied; the
time sequence of the test program is shown in Figure 4.
TEST 1 simulates the maximum expected crane load:
a 150 kPa pressure load is applied on a small area.
In TEST 2 a smaller pressure (80 kPa) is applied on

724
a larger surface in order to charge the active wedge Table 1. Index properties of clayey soil.
behind the sheet pile.
Depth LL PL PI A CF
3 GEOLOGICAL AND GEOTECHNICAL 27.8 28.3 36 19 17 0.59 29
DESCRIPTION OF THE SITE 12.0 12.5 51 24 27 0.90 30
13.1 13.6 44 22 22 1.05 21
Several borings, integrated with laboratory and in situ 22.5 23.0 27 23 4 0.50 8
tests, have been carried out in the recent years to define 16.0 16.5 43 23 20 0.59 34
the geological and geotechnical features of the area. 21.5 22.0 93 21 15 1.07 14
With reference to the ex-Cabot site, ground inves- 12.0 12.5 52 23 29
tigation showed homogeneous conditions in the hori- 18.0 18.5 42 23 19 1.12 17
zontal direction; such homogeneity is consistent with 16.0 16.5 31 21 10 1.00 10
the geological evolution of the area of Ravenna and
related to effects of eustatic phenomena in the first
30 m of the ground.
Three main layers were identified in the project been implemented using FEM commercial codes: the
area; the first 13.50 m from sea level are character- first in plane strain conditions by means of PLAXISV8
ized by a sand layer representing the most recent and the second using the three-dimensional 3D Tunnel
phase of the still active olocenic regression. From v1.2 code.
13.50 m to 26 m below sea level, a layer of soft silty Since the monitoring was intended for static test-
clay with small sandy-silty lenses deposited in marine ing only, the inclinometer zero reading refers to a
environment during the extension of the olocenic date when the excavation depth was already at 5 m
transgression can be found. Below this layer, dense below sea level. The 2D scheme was used in order to
gray sandy silts and silty sands forming the beginning refine the soil mechanical characterization by com-
of the continental sequence are found. From the sea paring results from the numerical analyses with the
level to the top surface a 1.5 m thick landfill is present. observed behaviour from the monitoring. Data dur-
In order to achieve a geotechnical characteriza- ing the excavation phases (plane strain conditions)
tion of the mainly incoherent layers cone penetration required to bring ground level from 5 m to 10.50 m
testing was used. The shear strength of the silty below sea level were used. The 3D scheme was then
sands determined using the Robertson and Campanella implemented, based on the soil characterization val-
(1983) empirical correlation gives a friction angle idated through the plane strain model, and used to
of 36 associated, according to Meyerhof (1956), to predict the load test results at monitoring point 1.
loose medium dense sands.
The shear modulus value was assigned by reducing
the initial G0 value in relation to the expected devia- 4.1 Model description
toric strain. In order to define the shear modulus G0 , The 2D and 3D model cross section geometry coin-
the Robertson (1982) and Rix & Stokoe (1992) cor- cide although a different number of elements was
relations have been adopted giving a value of 65 MPa necessary. The mesh spans 40 m upstream and 30 m
and consequently a 150 MPa tangent stiffness E0 . downstream and vertically extends to 37 m in depth; it
For flexible retaining walls, deviatoric strains rang- is restrained horizontally at the sides and fixed at the
ing between 101 and 3 102 % (Mair, 1993) are base.
usual, thus a G/G0 ratio of 0.4 can be chosen; the cor- The 3D model, reproducing a whole bulkhead cell,
responding unloading modulus is 60 MPa. The former measures 50 m in the longitudinal direction.
value corresponds to a ratio E / qc = 15 17 similar to
that suggested by Baldi (1989) in a similar strain field
(101 %). 4.2 Construction phases
The geotechnical characterization of the sandy
silt was basically obtained from laboratory testing. All construction phases as described in Table 2 were
Index properties are described in Table 1. Triaxial reproduced in the analyses, in order to achieve a
compression tests were used to derive strength and realistic simulation of the entire load history.
deformability parameters.
The slope of CSL (Roscoe & Burland; 1968), coin-
ciding in this case with the failure envelope, was equal 4.3 Material properties

to 1.25 associated to a critical state angle cs of 31 . Soil behaviour was modelled using the hardening soil
The Young secant modulus at a stress level similar to (HS) model, an elastic-plastic model with deviatoric
that expected in situ ranges between 6 and 7 MPa. isotropic hardening, which can account for pre-failure
non linearity and for changes in stiffness when the
4 NUMERICAL MODEL direction of the stress path is reversed (Brinkgreve;
2002). In the model the elastic behaviour depends
In order to interpret the monitored behaviour of the on the effective stress state through an hyperbolic
structure during the test, two numerical schemes have relationship.

725
 For the silty sands, referring to Baldi (1989) for NC soil friction angle was assumed (value of the interface
and OC sands, Eref 50 = 12 MPa and Eur = 60 MPa was
ref
coefficient R in Plaxis set to unity). The analyses were
adopted. Regarding the oedometric modulus, accord- developed in terms of effective stresses assuming a
ing to Lunne and Christophersen (1983), a value of drained behaviour both for non cohesive and cohesive
oed = 14 MPa = 4qc was chosen. Values of power m
Eref materials.
(Brinkgreve; 2002) were chosen according to the soil
type.
The values of mechanical parameters for the clayey 5 DISCUSSION ON THE MONITORING DATA
layer were chosen on the basis of drained and AND ANALYSIS RESULTS
undrained triaxial test results (Figure 5).The unloading
ref
modulus Eref ur was set equal to three times E50 . The first set of analysis was run in plane strain
The soil model parameters are summarized in conditions to reproduce the effect of the excavation
Table 3 where the assumed Mohr Coulomb (MC) from 5 m below the mean sea level, corresponding
model and its basic parameters for the landfill material to the zero reading of the IV2 inclinometer, to 10 m
are also given. below sea level. In Figure 6, measured and computed
With reference to the structural materials, the sheet displacements referred to this stage are compared.
pile wall was modelled as an elastic beam; a Young The measured displacement profiles (represented
modulus of 210 GPa, a Poisson coefficient equal to by a line connecting the experimental points) are satis-
0.15 and a unit weight of 78 kN/m3 were assumed factorily reproduced by both numerical schemes to a
for the steel; Young modulus of 30 GPa, Poisson coef-
ficient of 0.2 and unit weight of 25 kN/m3 for the
reinforced concrete. The node-to-node steel anchors
are 14 m long, at a 20 angle. A geotextile element was
added at the end of each anchor in order to simulate the
grouted anchor foundation. The grout elements simu-
lated with the geotextile are assumed to have a normal
stiffness EA, of 6.6 105 kN/m; a pre stress load equal
to 300 kN per anchor was imposed during the staged
construction. In the end, considering the extension of
the contact surface between sheet piling and soil in the
longitudinal direction, an interface friction equal to the

Table 2. 2D and 3D numerical simulation stages.

Description 2D 3D

K0 stress state generation Phase 0 Phase 0

Initial ground profile Phase A Phase 1
Sheet pile installation Phase B Phase 2
Anchors at the design tension load Phase C Phase 3
Excavation to 5 m below s.l. Phase D Phase 4
Fill Phase E Phase 5
Excavation to 10.5 m below s.l. Phase F Phase 6
Testing load 1 (2 areas 5 2 m2 150 kPa ) Phase 7
Eliminate testing load 1 Phase 8
Testing load 2 (area 10 15 m2 80 kPa) Phase 9 Figure 5. Stress strain relation comparison between exper-
Eliminate testing load 2 Phase 10 imental results and numerical simulation of triaxial CIU for
clayey soils.

Table 3. Soil model properties.

Landfill Sands S.Clay D. Sands

Depth [m] +1.5 0 0 13.5 13.5 26 26 40

Model [] MC HS HS HS
[kN/m3 ] 18 18 19 19
Eref
50 [MPa] 10 12 6.3 12
Eref
oed [MPa] 14 3.1 6
Eref
ur [MPa] 60 25 40
m [] 0.5 1 1
[ ] 26 36 31 34
c [kPa]
K0 [] 0.560 0.420 0.485 0.422

726
depth of 22 m with a maximum displacement located lower part of the silty clays which again in this occa-
at 48 m from the top of the inclinometer. sion, contrary to phase 6, exhibit a softer response.
The maximum calculated displacement values are Outside the load area, the sheet pile is influenced by
about 10 15% less than the measured ones. Below the induced stress on a wide area (Figure 8).
22 m the calculated displacement profiles diverge The topographic survey of the beam horizontal
from the real deformation profile exhibiting a stiffer displacement (Figure 9) concerning the test phases,
behaviour. appears in agreement with the anchor load measured
In Figure 7 the displacements measured at point 1 by the VW1 cell; the trend would confirm an elastic
and those computed by the 3D model are compared behaviour of the anchor system except for the soft-
with reference to the phases involved in the load test ening recorded far from loading stages. In particular,
(7 and 9), where non plane strain conditions occur; it after the increment due to the phase 5 excavation, the
is worth to note that the 2D model give for the same measured load reverted to the pre-stress value. The
phases a maximum displacement 9 and 4 times higher former load seem in turn to be overestimated by the
respectively. model (Table 4).
From the 2D model a deeper pressure bulb resulted The displacement patterns of the topographic tar-
in comparison with the 3D model, inducing an high gets (MT) allow a further comparison between numer-
stress change in the softer lower clay strata. ical predictions and measured deformations; Figure 10
During TEST 1 (phase 7 in Table 1), the position of shows that the 3D model is able to reproduce the trend
the maximum incremental displacement point is not of both vertical and horizontal displacement of the
correctly reproduced by the 3D model although a good
estimation of the overall deformation is achieved. The
former inconsistency can be partially explained by the
limited extent of the loading area which is comparable
with the distance from the reference vertical and the
sheet pile; nevertheless an overestimation of the silty
clay compressibility at low stress is still appreciable.
TEST 2, which was carried out on a wider load
area, is reproduced satisfactorily by the model, con-
cerning both the incremental displacement pattern and
the maximum value which appears overestimated of
about 15% during the loading phase. The displacement
predicted in excess during the tests, develop inside the

Figure 7. Comparison of computed and measured horizon-

tal displacements of the wall from phase 6.

Table 4. Comparison of computed and measured anchor

loads.

3D model [kN] VW1 cell [kN]

Phase no. Total Incremental Total Incremental

6 342 306
7 350 8 323 17
8 350 0 315 8
Figure 6. Comparison of computed and measured horizon- 9 429 79 364 49
tal displacements of the wall from phase 5 to phase 6.

727

Figure 8. Predicted deformed shape of the wall for the entire
quay cell from phase 6 to 9.
Figure 9. Comparison of measured anchor load trend and
topographic target displacement.
Figure 10. Comparison of computed and monitored dis-
placements (MT) of the wall from phase 6 to 9.
728
concrete dock beam for both the first and the second
load tests.
6 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
An assessment of the effects produced by a full
scale load test on a sheet pile bulkhead was achieved
through F.E.M. analysis which accounted for both soil
behaviour and three dimensional aspects. The problem
was characterized by a complex load geometry which
couldnt be handled in plane strain conditions without
heavily over-predicting the final deformed shape. An
elastic-plastic model with deviatoric isotropic harden-
ing was used in order to model the wide range of stress
and strain induced behind the wall both in extension
(excavation phases) and in compression (test phases).
Nevertheless, a lack of accuracy is observed in the
lower part of the soft silty clay layer, where a stiffer
response (compared to the real structure) is predicted
by the model under small incremental unloading stress
and vice versa a softer behaviour is shown under small
compression stress. Such behaviour seems to be linked
to the inability of the non linear model to deal with
small strain deformability.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Authors wish to acknowledge Port Authority of
Ravenna and Coop. C.M.C. for their assistantship
and for having made available the data from the
monitoring.
REFERENCES
Baldi, G. & al. 1982. Design Parameters for Sands from
CPT. Proc. 2nd Eur. Symp. on Penetration Test, ESOPT
II Amsterdam 425432. Rotterdam: Balkema,
Brinkgreve, R.B.J. 2002. Plaxis v.8, Material models manual,
Rotterdam: Balkema.
Clayton C.R.I. 1995. The Standard Penetration Test (SPT):
Methods and use CIRIA Report n 143.
Lunne,T. & Christophersen, H. P. 1983. Interpretation of cone
penetrometer data for offshore sands. Proceedings of the
Offshore Technology Conference, Houston, Texas, Paper
No. 4464, 191192.
Meyerhof, G.G., 1956. Penetration tests and bearing capacity
of cohesionless soils. Journal of Geotechnical Engineer-
ing, ASCE 82, 112.
Rix, G.J. & Stokoe, K.H.1992. Correlation of initial tangent
modulus and cone resistance. Proceedings of the Inter-
national Symposium on Calibration Chamber Testing,
Postdam 1991, 351362. New York: Elsevier.
Robertson, P.K. 1990. Soil Classification using the Cone Pen-
etration Test. Canadian Geotechnical Journal, 27 (1),
151158.
Robertson, P.K. & Campanella, R.G. 1983. Interpretation of
cone penetration tests. Part 1: sand. Canadian Geotechni-
cal Journal, 20 (4), 719733.
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Numerical modelling of spatial passive earth pressure in sand

M. Achmus, S. Ghassoun & K. Abdel-Rahman

Institute of Soil Mechanics, Foundation Engineering and Waterpower Engineering
Leibniz University of Hannover, Hannover, Germany

ABSTRACT: The calculation of earth pressures acting on underground structures is a central problem in soil
mechanics. In special cases spatial earth pressure problems also have to be considered. In order to investigate
the spatial passive earth pressure acting on rigid walls in sand, numerical simulations with the finite element
method (FEM) were carried out. A hypoplastic material law was adopted to account for the complex stress-strain
behaviour of sand. Different wall geometries with varying spatiality ratios (breadth to height) and different
deformation modes of the rigid wall were considered. The results show a high dependency of the earth pressure
coefficients on the wall spatiality ratio. For a smooth wall, a good agreement with the approach of the German
standard DIN 4085 is obtained. The wall displacement necessary to reach the maximum earth pressure is also
dependent on the wall geometry, with the displacement decreasing with increasing spatiality ratio. The analysis
of the earth pressure distributions shows that the earth pressure increase due to spatiality occurs almost only in
the lower half of the wall.

1 INTRODUCTION DIN 4085 based on the investigations of Weienbach

The calculation of passive earth pressures acting on
underground structures is a central problem in soil
mechanics. The horizontal pressure acting on a fixed
rigid wall is termed earth pressure at rest. When the
wall is moved towards the soil the pressure increases
until it reaches a maximum, which is called pas-
sive earth pressure. For a wall with height H and a
breadth B much greater than H the two-dimensional
(plane strain) solution of the earth pressure problem
applies, with the passive earth pressure force (Ep ) in
non-cohesive soils to be determined by the following
equation:
where = unit weight of soil; H , B = height and
breadth of the wall; and kp = passive earth pressure
coefficient.
The earth pressure coefficient in the two-
dimensional case is dependent on the angle of internal
friction of the soil and on the wall friction angle .
According to the German standard DIN 4085, Equa-
tion (1) is valid for parallel movement of a wall.
For other deformation modes, the resulting force is
smaller. For a rigid wall rotating around the top the
reduction factor can be estimated to about 0.67 and for
a rotation around the toe between 0.5 and 0.67 (DIN
4085).
The passive earth pressure coefficient for the three-
dimensional case is known to be greater than for the
two-dimensional case. According to an approach in
(1961), the increase is dependent on the spatiality ratio
B/H and on the angle of internal friction .
Open questions regarding spatial passive earth pres-
sure concern the exact value of the earth pressure
coefficient, the wall displacement at peak state and
the earth pressure distribution behind the walls.
2 OVERVIEW OF PREVIOUS WORK
Experimental investigations were first done by
Weienbach (1961&1983) on model walls (I-beam)
embedded in sand. He developed a semi-empirical for-
mula to calculate the increase of the earth pressures
due to spatial conditions. Ovesen (1964) conducted
an extensive series of model tests on anchor plates
to investigate the 3-D effects. His tests showed that
passive earth pressures are higher than those pre-
dicted using conventional methods. Brinch Hansen
(1966) developed a method for correcting the results of
conventional passive pressure theories behind anchor
plates to account for 3-D effects. He also found that the
geometry of the supporting structure is an important
factor for the analysis of 3-D passive earth pressure.
Neuberg (2002) established an experimental model of
a retaining wall (I-profile) in order to determine the
3-D passive earth pressure. He also performed numer-
ical simulations using a discrete element model. Based
on the results he proposed a mobilization function for
the dependence of passive earth pressure on the wall
displacement.
A number of researchers developed theories for
determining spatial passive earth pressure. Blum

729

Figure 1. Spatial passive earth pressure increase with spa-
tiality ratio for different friction angles (Benmebarek et. al.
2008).
(1932) developed a failure mechanism, as in
Coulombs theory, by creating a three-dimensional
flat failure surface. Based on the log spiral method,
a spreadsheet was developed by Duncan & Mokwa
(2001) to calculate the spatial passive earth pressure.
Soubra & Regenass (2000) developed a method to cal-
culate 3-D passive earth pressure coefficients based
on the upper-bound method of limit analysis. Jung
(2007) used a finite element simulation to investi-
gate the behaviour of I-profile walls, applying an
elasto-plastic material model for sand. His numerical
results were calibrated with in-situ measurements of
a large scale model made at the University of Texas
(Briaud, J. & Lim,Y. 1999). With the results, he derived
a mobilization function based on subgrade theory.
Benmebarek et al. (2008) carried out a numeri-
cal study of 3-D passive earth pressure for parallel
movement of rigid walls by means of a finite element
simulation. They used a linear elastic-ideal plastic con-
stitutive model with Mohr-Coulomb failure criterion
and an associated flow rule. Their results were pre-
sented in design tables relating different geometrical
input parameters and 3-D passive earth pressure coef-
ficients. Figure 1 summarizes the numerical results
showing the decay of the spatial passive earth pressure
factor ( = kp3D /kp2D ) by increasing the spatiality ratio
(B/H ) until it reaches the 2-D passive earth pressure
conditions.
3 MATERIAL BEHAVIOUR
The numerical modelling was done for Karlsruhe
medium sand material. The behaviour of Karlsruhe
sand is well documented. It consists mainly of sub
round quartz grains. The index properties of the sand
are given in Table 1.
The modelling of the material behaviour of the soil
is of course of crucial importance for the quality of the
computation results. The computations were executed
for each movement mode using the hypoplastic mate-
rial law developed for sandy soil. Hypoplasticity was
first developed at the University of Karlsruhe. Using a
tensorial function, it connects stress and strain rate in
730
Table 1. Index properties of Karlsruhe medium sand.
Unit weight of the grains, kN/m3 26.5
D10 , mm 0.240
D60 , mm 0.443
Uniformity coefficient, Cu 1.85
Min. void ratio, emin 0.53
Max. void ratio, emax 0.84
Table 2. Input parameters for hypoplastic material law for
Karlsruhe Sand.
grain stiffness
c hs ed0 ec0 N ei0
30.0 5800 MN/m2 0.53 0.84 0.25 1.00 0.13 1.05
a material, taking the current stress state and void ratio
into account. This constitutive material model has the
following advantages:
1) It is able to describe the behaviour of granular mate-
rials with one tensorial equation, i.e. there is no
need to distinguish elastic or plastic regions.
2) Hypoplasticity describes loading, un- and reloading
processes without any additional material informa-
tion.
3) The material law takes the effects of the stress level
and the relative density on the soil behaviour and
in particular on the shear strength into account.
The constitutive equation has eight constants, which
are measured in a simple way by standard tests in
soil mechanics. The eight constants used in the finite
element analysis are listed inTable 2. For a detailed dis-
cussion of the mathematical background and physical
significance of the input parameters for the constitu-
tive model reference is made to Herle (1997). More
details concerning this material law are given in Herle
& Gudehus (1999).
4 DESCRIPTION OF THE NUMERICAL
MODEL
4.1 Model features
For the numerical investigation with the finite element
method (FEM), the ABAQUS program was used. The
main aspects of the modelling are listed below:
Due to symmetry, only half of the model was dis-
cretized. The dimensions of the three-dimensional
model area were varied in order to fit different
wall dimensions (breadth/height). The geometrical
model for B = 10 m is shown in Figure 2. It was
verified that with the model dimensions used the
calculated behaviour of the wall is not influenced
by the boundary conditions.
The soil was modelled with 8-noded solid elements
(Fig. 3). The interaction behaviour in the boundary
 Table 3. Input parameters for primary stress state.

eo D ( ) (kN/m3 ) Ko
void no relative friction unit earth
ratio porosity density angle weight press.

0.55 0.355 92.0% 40.0 17.1 0.46

0.65 0.394 56.8% 36.0 16.1 0.48
0.75 0.428 26.0% 33.0 15.1 0.50

Figure 2. Geometrical model used.

Figure 4. Passive earth pressure coefficient as a function

of the wall displacement for parallel movement (H = 10 m,
B/H = 1).

Figure 3. Finite element mesh.

surface between wall and soil was modelled using
interface elements.
In the front surface of the model area twelve differ-
ent smooth rigid walls were specified (Fig. 2). By
moving certain walls, different breadth-to-height
values could be easily realized. The earth pressure
on the wall elements moved was calculated by inte-
grating the horizontal soil stresses behind the wall
elements. Regarding the mode of wall movement,
parallel movement, rotation around the toe of the
wall and rotation around the top of the wall were
examined.
For the calculations described here, the coefficient
of friction between the soil and the walls was
set to zero, i.e. a wall friction angle p = 0 was
considered.
Geometrical non-linearity was also implemented
to account for the effect of the relatively large
deformations necessary to mobilize passive earth
pressures.
Three different initial void ratios (e0 = 0.55, 0.65,
0.75), i.e. three different relative densities, were
considered as shown in Table 3.
The simulation process is executed in stages. First,
the primary stress state using own weight of the soil
medium is generated. Then the required rigid walls
are moved gradually under three different basic wall
movements as mentioned before.
In Table 3 friction angles for peak states of the
sand are also given. In the hypoplastic formulation the
shear strength is stress-dependent and is not described
by an explicit parameter.Thus, the friction angles given
were derived by numerical simulation of a direct shear
test under vertical stresses of 100, 200 and 400 kN/m2 .
These values were used for the conventional calcula-
tion of earth pressures with regard to Equation (1). In
a similar way, the K0 -values given were derived by a
numerical simulation of the stress state under the own
weight of the soil using the hypoplastic material law.
4.2 Model verification
The reference wall examined with the finite element
method (FEM) exhibits a height (H ) of 10 m and a
breadth (B) of 10 m (B/H = 1). Figure 4 shows the
relationship between the passive earth pressure coef-
ficient (kph ) and the normalized displacement (U /H )
under parallel movement. The earth pressure coeffi-
fem
cient at peak (kp3D ) ranges from 8.0 for dense sand
(e0 = 0.55) to 5.0 for loose sand (e0 = 0.75).
The passive earth pressure for plane strain con-
fem
ditions (kp2D ) was calculated from the model with
B = 260 m (i.e. B/H = 26). The results were com-
pared to the equations given in the German standard
DIN 4085. According to this standard, the earth pres-
sure coefficient calculated for plane strain conditions
should be multiplied by a correction factor (DIN )
to calculate the spatial passive earth coefficient as
follows:
The obtained results are summarized inTable 4. Evi-
dently, for the investigated case of parallel movement

731
Table 4. Comparison of earth pressure coefficients from
numerical simulation and from the German standard DIN
4085.

Initial Friction
void angle = kfem
p3D /
ratio ( ) DIN
(kp2D ) DIN fem
kp2D fem
kp3D fem
kp2D

0.75 33.0 3.39 1.39 3.55 5.0 1.41

0.65 36.0 3.85 1.44 4.00 6.0 1.50
0.55 40.0 4.60 1.50 5.10 8.0 1.56

Figure 5b. Spatial earth pressure coefficient () as a func-

tion of the spatiality ratio (B/H ) for rotation around the top
of the wall.

Besides the numerical simulation results, the results of

Figure 5a. Spatial earth pressure coefficient () as a func-
tion of the spatiality ratio (B/H ) for parallel movement.
of a smooth rigid wall the agreement of the numeri-
cal results and the DIN 4085 approach is rather good.
The coefficients for plane strain conditions obtained
from the numerical simulation are slightly higher than
the coefficients obtained from Equation (1), which of
course is a result of the different assumption regard-
ing the material behaviour. However, the factors of
both methods coincide very well, with deviations of
less than 4%. From the results of Benmebarek et al.
(2008) obtained with a simple elasto-plastic material
law (see Section 2) larger values between 1.65 and
1.90 were reported.
5 PARAMETRIC STUDIES
In the following numerical results regarding the spatial
passive earth pressure coefficient, the wall displace-
ment at peak state and earth pressure distribution will
be presented, taking different spatiality ratios and wall
deformation modes into account.
5.1 Spatial passive earth pressure coefficient
The numerical modelling was done for a certain wall
height (H ) of 10 m and the wall breadth (B) was varied
from 10 m to 260 m. In the Figures 5a to c the depen-
dence of the correction factor for spatial passive
earth pressure and thus of the passive earth pres-
sure coefficient (kp ) on the spatiality ratio (B/H ) is
shown for the three considered wall movement modes.
the DIN 4085 approach and for parallel movement
only of Benmebarek et al. (2008) are also presented.
From these figures, the following can be concluded:
1) The limiting value of the passive earth pressure
depends on the wall breadth, i.e. on the spatiality
ratio, for the three different wall movements. With a
higher spatiality ratio (n = B/H ), the passive earth
pressure coefficient (kph ) decreases until it reaches
the standard 2-D passive earth pressure condition
( = 1).
2) The parallel wall movement gives higher values
and thus larger passive earth pressure coefficients
than rotation around the top of the wall and also
around the base of the wall.
3) The numerical results presented here match the
German standard DIN 4085 very well, whereby
the results of Benmebarek et al. (2008) shown in
Figure 5a overestimate the spatial passive earth
pressure compared to the numerical results.
5.2 Wall displacement at peak state
The normalized wall displacement at peak (Up /H )
obtained from the numerical modelling are shown in
the following Figures 6a, b for parallel wall movement
and wall rotation around the top. For rotation around
the toe a maximum passive earth pressure coefficient
could not be reached in the numerical simulation, since
even with very large displacements no peak stress was
reached. For the presentation in Figure 5c the earth
pressure at a wall toe displacement of 20% of the wall
height was taken.
Figure 6a shows that the wall displacement (Up )
required to mobilize the maximum passive earth pres-
sure decreases by increasing the spatiality ratio (B/H ).
Also, by increasing the initial void ratio (e0 ), the
wall displacement required to mobilize the maximum
passive earth pressure increases.
Similar results are shown in Figure 6b for wall rota-
tion around the top of the wall, which confirms that
the wall displacement at peak state for spatial passive
earth pressure is higher than in the 2-D passive earth
pressure case.

732
Figure 5c. Spatial earth pressure coefficient () as a func-
tion of the spatiality ratio (B/H ) for rotation around the toe
of the wall.

Figure 7a. Passive earth pressure distributions in the centre

of the wall for medium dense sand (e0 = 0.65) and parallel
wall movement.

Figure 6a. Normalized wall displacement at peak (Up /H )

as a function of the spatiality ratio (B/H ) for parallel
movement.

Figure 6b. Normalized wall displacement at peak (Up /H )

as a function of the spatiality ratio (B/H ) for rotation around
the top of the wall.

Figure 7b. Passive earth pressure distributions in the cen-

5.3 Earth pressure distribution at peak state
The stress distributions on the wall at peak state for
different spatiality ratios is given in Figures 7a-c for
the centre line of the wall, i.e. the symmetry axis.
For parallel movement (Fig. 7a) the earth pressure
distribution is almost linear in the upper half of the
wall and is not subject to change with spatiality ratio.
In the lower part, the earth pressures are different, with
a non-linear distribution and a large increase in the
lower third particularly for B/H = 1.
tre of the wall for medium dense sand (e0 = 0.65) and wall
rotation around the top.
Regarding the rotation around the top of the wall
(Fig. 7b), the earth pressure starts from very small val-
ues in the upper half of the wall. Differences between
the distributions for different spatiality ratios are lim-
ited to the lower third of the wall. The maximum earth
pressures at the wall toe are greater than in the case of
parallel movement of the wall.

733

Figure 7c. Passive earth pressure distributions in the cen-
tre of the wall for medium dense sand (e0 = 0.65) and wall
rotation around the toe.
For rotation around the toe of the wall (Fig. 7c),
the earth pressure increases up to its maximum value
at almost 2/3 of the wall height and then decreases
towards the toe of the wall. The differences due to
different spatiality ratios occur mainly between 1/2 and
3/4 of the wall height.
For the 2-D case, the resultant passive earth pres-
sure force for rotation around the wall top amounts
to about 80% of the force for parallel wall movement
and for rotation around the toe to about 70%. Thus,
the reduction factors recommended in DIN 4085 (see
Section 1) lie on the safe side. For 3-D cases, reduc-
tion factors between 82 and 86% (rotation around the
top) and between 70 and 75% (rotation around the toe)
were obtained with the numerical simulations. This
means that the effect of the wall deformation mode on
the resultant earth pressure is similar in 3-D and 2-D
cases.
6 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
For the investigations presented a numerical model
was developed to simulate spatial passive earth pres-
sure problems in sand. The computations were exe-
cuted using the hypoplastic material model developed
for granular materials like sand. It was proved by the
numerical results that for the investigated case (smooth
wall) the 3-D approach given in the German standard
DIN 4085 produces very reasonable results. The spa-
tial passive earth pressure factor depends mainly on
734
the breadth to height ratio (B/H ) and only to a minor
degree on the relative density of the sand.
The wall displacement at peak state was found to
decrease with increasing B/H value. Thus, for the
mobilization of the larger 3-D passive earth pres-
sures, larger wall deformations than in the 2-D case
are necessary. The consideration of stress distributions
showed that the stress increase due to spatial conditions
occurs almost completely in the lower half of the wall.
For forthcoming research, a parametric study of
different soil-wall friction angles and different wall
heights will be undertaken.
REFERENCES
ABAQUS 2008. User Manual, Version 6.8, Simulia, Provi-
dence, RI, USA.
Benmebarek, S. et. al. 2008. Numerical evaluation of 3D
passive earth pressure coefficients for retaining wall sub-
jected to translation, Computers and Geotechnics (35),
4760.
Blum, H. 1932. Wirtschaftliche Dalbenformen und deren
Berechnung, Bautechnik 10(5).
Brinch Hansen 1966. Comparison of Methods for stability
Analysis, Three-dimensional effect in stability analysis
resistance of a rectangular anchor slab.Danish Geotechni-
cal Institute Bulletin, No.21.
Briaud, J. & Lim, Y. 1999, Tieback walls in sand: numerical
simulations and design implications, Journal of Geotech-
nical and Geoenvironmental Eng. ASCE.
DIN 4085. 2007. Berechnung des Erddrucks, Deutsches
Institut fr Normung. Beuth Verlag.
Duncan, M., Mokwa, R. 2001. Passive Earth Pressures
Theories and Tests, ASCE Journal of Geotechnical
and Geoenvironmental Engineering, Vol. 127, No. (3),
248257.
Herle, I. 1997. Hypoplastizitt und Granulometrie von
Korngersten, Verffentlichungen des Instituts fr Boden-
mechanik und Felsmechanik der Universitt Karlsruhe,
Heft 142.
Herle, I., Gudehus, G., 1999. Determination of a hypoplastic
constitutive model from properties of grain assemblies.
Mechanics of Cohesive-frictional Materials, 4: 461486.
Neuberg, C. 2002. Ein Verfahren zur Berechnung des rum-
lichen Erddruckes vor parallel verschobenen Trgern,
Verffentlichungen des Instituts fr Geotechnik, Technis-
che Universitt Dresden, Heft 11.
Ovesen, NK. 1964. Anchor slabs, Calculation methods and
model tests, Danish Geotechnical Institute Bulletin, No.
16, 539.
Soubra, A-H, Regenass, P. 2000. Three-dimensional Passive
Earth Pressures by Kinematical Approach, ASCE Journal
of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, Vol.
126, No. (11), 969978.
Stefan, J. 2007. Nichtlinearer Horizontaler Bettungsmodu-
lansatz fr Trgerbohlwnde in mitteldicht gelagertem
Sand, Verffentlichungen des Instituts fr Bodenmechanik
und Grundbau, Technische Universitt Kaiserslautern.
Weienbach, A. 1961. Der Erdwiderstand vor schmalen
Druckflchen, Mitteilung des Franzius-Instituts fr
Grund- und Wasserbau, Hannover.
Weienbach, A. 1983. Beitrag zur Ermittlung des Erdwider-
stands, Bauingenieur 58, 161173.
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Practical numerical modelling for very high reinforced earth walls

A. Mar, D.M. Tonks & D.A. Gorman

Coffey Geotechnics Limited, Manchester, UK

ABSTRACT: The authors have carried out numerical studies in connection with several very high walls,
ranging from 1980 m tall. To date, few such studies have been reported and comparison of analysis results with
full scale wall instrumentation data has been infrequent, or where done, it has generally been somewhat lacking
in data and specific modelling details. There are however, a few notable cases giving detailed methodologies and
comparison of results with well instrumented walls up to about 4 m high. Following similar methodologies for
the very high walls considered here; some modelling challenges have been encountered. Novel ways to overcome
this have been explored enabling the influence and sensitivity of the walls to a range of key parameters to be
investigated. The models have reached the stage where they can thus provide valuable assistance to design and
prediction; including an understanding of performance as the walls are constructed and data is obtained.

1 INTRODUCTION to investigate the influence of key model parameters

with the aim of developing a model and set or sets of
1.1 Background parameters that can predict wall behaviour generally in
line with observations and in particular, the relatively
This paper addresses practical numerical modelling for
low wall displacements observed at Dibba Road.
a range of very high, multi-tiered geogrid reinforced
Working stress analysis runs using FLAC have been
earth (RE) walls, the highest being some 80 m tall
carried out. The analyses assume fully drained, dry
arranged in up to four tiers. The wall length varies
conditions. The backfill mesh comprised 3 rows of
depending on the particular lift; some sections being
elements between each geogrid. Stress-dilatancy has
well over 500 m long.
been explored in some of the analyses (Rowe 1962,
Initial design of the reinforcement grid layout had
Bolton 1986, Simoni & Houlsby 2006).
been carried out by the designers using standard soft-
The backfill soil and geogrid elements reported here
ware using the Bautechnik design method. This is a
are linear elastic-perfectly plastic. Stress redistribu-
limit equilibrium approach based on the tie back wedge
tion due to local yielding of the backfill has taken
method.
place during the staged construction with an active
The purpose of this work was to provide an inde-
wedge of plastic points developing behind the wall.
pendent geotechnical assessment of the RE walls to
The geogrid elements are tension only cable elements
gain insight into the structural behaviour of the sys-
tems and to predict likely movements to address the
serviceability limit state (SLS).
Modelling runs have been performed using finite-
difference based FLAC (Itasca Consulting Group
2001). The deformed shape of the three tier rein-
forced wall is shown in Figure 1. The facing blocks
would be tied mechanically to the geogrid using full
strength connectors. This has been idealised as shown
in Figure 2.
This paper explores what can practically be done in
a design office using first order models and this forms
the basis of ongoing work using more sophisticated
approaches.

2 SINGLE TIER ANALYSES

2.1 18 m high Dibba Road RE wall

The purpose of this study was to carry out a range of
sensitivity analyses using ideal plastic Mohr-Coulomb Figure 1. Deformed mesh of 56 m high wall (Scaled 20x).

735
 Table 1. Sensitivity analysis matrix for single tier work.
 
backfill of 38 backfill of 50

2 month backfill backfill backfill backfill

geogrid of 0 of 20 of 0 of 20
stiffness
parameters
Higher QC backfill backfill backfill backfill
geogrid of 0 of 20 of 0 of 20
stiffness
parameters

backfill backfill effective angle of shearing resistance.
Figure 2. Facing block idealisation detail. backfill backfill angle of dilation.

and are fully bonded to the adjacent soil zones. More

advanced nonlinear work is ongoing.
Extensive review of the literature, notably the work
of Bathurst et al. (2001) explores the use of more
sophisticated nonlinear soil and geogrid models to take
account of stress-dependency of stiffness but space
precludes inclusion in this paper.
(Hatami & Bathurst, 2005, 2006a, b) tested the
shear strength of the block-block interface and mea-
sured a cohesion of 46 kPa and an angle of shearing
resistance of 57 . A back of wall interface angle of
shearing resistance of 27 was used in the analysis.
This is based on an interface strength of (2/3)*tan(38 )
where 38 is the lower bound angle of shearing
resistance of the backfill.
A series of analyses have been performed to assess
the sensitivity of the results to changes in the input
parameters. More runs were carried out using the input
parameters that the model proved to be sensitive to.
Initial analysis runs indicated that the analysis results,
in particular the magnitude of wall displacements were Figure 3. Peak resultant displacement predictions with
sensitive to the following parameters: backfill angle angles of friction and dilation (QC geogrid stiffness).
of shearing resistance, backfill angle of dilation and
geogrid stiffness.
An initial sensitivity analysis of backfill stiff-
ness was carries out in which Youngs moduli of Figure 4 shows the peak axial forces generated in
150 MPa and 1000 MPa were considered. The dif- selected geogrids from the eight sensitivity analyses of
ference between maximum total and horizontal wall Table 1. It can be seen that the peak geogrid forces are
displacements was less than 5% and 2% respectively. sensitive to the backfill angle of shearing resistance
For this reason further sensitivity analysis of the back- and to a lesser extent the dilation angle. However, the
fill stiffness was not investigated. For this reason the results of the investigation appear to show only minor
sensitivity analysis matrix shown in Table 1 excludes sensitivity to the geogrid stiffness.
backfill stiffness as a variable. As can be seen a total of Figure 5 shows the force distribution along two
8 sensitivity analyses have been carried out with linear selected layers of geogrid, at 3 m above the toe of the
elastic-perfectly plastic models. wall. The magnitude of the angle of dilation appears to
influence the pattern of axial force distribution along
the geogrid. The analyses with high dilation angle pro-
2.2 Results duce considerably smoother distributions. The areas
Figure 3 indicates that increased angles of shearing under these curves are analogous to the work done by
resistance and dilation of the backfill significantly the geogrid in resisting the active pressures developed
reduces the predicted maximum wall displacement, behind the wall.
with a minimum value of 60 mm comparable to the The stronger the backfill soil the lower the active
50 mm actually measured. pressures developed behind the wall and hence the less
This trend was also observed for the 2-month work the geogrid has to do to resist lateral movement.
geogrid stiffness however the minimum value was This is evidenced by the smaller areas below the curves
around 100 mm. for the stronger soil.

736
 Table 2. Summary of analyses (56 m high RE wall).

No. of Backfill/
element rows wallfill
between stiffness Run-time*
Analysis geogrids E (MPa) (Hours)

1 3 1000 48 (Tier 1 only)

2 2 1000 15 (Tier 1 only)
3 2 150 97 (3 tiers)
4 Super-geogrids 150 14.5 (3 tiers)
5 2 150 12 (3 tiers with
surcharges replacing
tier 2 and tier 3)

*PC with a 2.4 GHz processor and 2 Gb RAM.

Table 3. Mesh Sensitivity Studies (Analyses 12).

No. of Peak Peak Peak

elements horizontal vertical geogrid
Figure 4. Peak geogrid force distribution with height above between displ. of T1* displ. of T1* force
toe of wall (QC geogrid stiffness). Analysis geogrids (mm) (mm) (kN/m)

1 3 10.0 12.0 7.0

2 2 12.0 12.5 6.0

*T1 = Tier 1.

Strength and stiffness properties for the geogrids

have been provided by the suppliers. From the sin-
gle tier analyses it was found that using the higher
QC geogrid stiffnesses gave the best predictions to the
displacements observed for the Dibba Road wall.
A total of 5 analyses have been performed as
summarised in Table 2.

3.2 Analyses 1& 2 (Tier 1 only)

Figure 5. Geogrid force distribution 3m above toe (QC
geogrid stiffness).
3 THREE TIER ANALYSES
3.1 56 m high RE wall
The single tier sensitivity analyses indicated that
a linear-elastic perfectly-plastic Mohr-Coulomb soil
model could match the supposed low horizontal wall
displacements of around 50 mm for the 18 m high
Dibba Road wall, by invoking high strengths ( = 50 ,
 = 20 ) and stiffnesses for the backfill and geogrid.
With reference to Figure 1 the upper, middle and
lower tiers are referred to as 3, 2 and 1 respectively.
Tiers 3, 2 and 1 possess total geogrid axial capacities
of 2.03, 1.95 and 4.41 MN/m respectively.
As this model is approximately 3 times geometrically
bigger than the Dibba Road model and due to the closer
spacing of the geogrids in the bottom tier, consider-
ably more elements are required thus increasing the
computer run-times for the analysis.
Therefore, a number of mesh refinements were tri-
alled in order to reduce the number of elements as far as
possible without significantly affecting the accuracy
of the results. These refinements included reducing
the number of rows of elements between each geogrid
from three to two. With reference to Table 2, it can be
seen that the run time for the coarser mesh of Analysis
2 is more than 3 times quicker than the finer mesh of
Analysis 1.
For the bottom tier, the difference between peak
predicted values of displacements and geogrid forces
were found to be within 10%.
As it was likely that the run-time would increase
non-linearly for the second and third tiers, element
tyings were incorporated to enable coarse grids to
be used in non-critical areas, i.e. the foundation and
un-reinforced backfill regions. This further reduced
the computational run-time for tier 1 to 10 hours.

737
Table 4. Peak wall displacements for the three tier model
(Analysis 3).
Horizontal (mm) Vertical (mm)
Construction
stage Tier 1 Tier 2 Tier 3 Tier 1 Tier 2 Tier 3
Tier 1 17.5 7.5
Tier 2 40.0 60.0 10.0 60.0
Tier 3 60.0 90.0 60.0 20.0 80.0 80.0
As shown in Table 3, the results for the two analyses
show that the coarser mesh produces similar displace-
ment and force predictions for tier 1. The coarser
mesh is predicting horizontal movements that are 20%
higher inferring that more conservative predictions
will be obtained compared to using a finer mesh. How-
ever the peak axial force mobilised in the geogrid
is 15% lower for the coarser mesh and so this must
be borne in mind when analysing the results for the
three-tier model.
3.3 Analysis 3: (Tiers 1, 2 & 3)
This model exhibited analysis difficulties during the
construction of the final 2.2 m lift of the upper tier
3. The model therefore falls 2.2 m short of the
56 m height and the 20 kPa traffic surcharge was not
yet applied. The problem manifested as excessive
distortion of the soil element at the toe of tier 3.
Table 4 shows the peak horizontal and vertical dis-
placements of the wall after sequential construction of
tier 1, tier 2 and tier 3. The results show that the peak
horizontal displacement after completion of tier 1 is
17.5 mm. This peak horizontal displacement in tier 1
then increases to 40 mm after completion of tier 2 and
then further increases to 60 mm after construction of
tier 3.
The peak horizontal displacement of 60 mm was
predicted for both tier 2 and tier 3 under the action of
their own self-weights. This was expected as the tiers
are of similar height and contained approximately the
same amount of geogrid reinforcement. The horizontal
displacement in tier 2 is considerably higher than for
tier 1 as the first tier is much more heavily reinforced
(4.4 MN) than the others (both approximately 2.0 MN)
as discussed in Section 3.1.
The largest horizontal displacement of 90 mm was
predicted in tier 2 after completion of tier 3 above it.
The movements are greater in tier 2 than in tier 1 even
though there is clearly more material and hence self-
weight load acting on tier 1. This is again due to the
fact that there is considerably more reinforcement in
tier 1.
Globally, the maximum vertical displacement is
predicted to be 80 mm. This is concentrated in the
facing block at the base of tier 3. The results indi-
cate that the facing blocks in tier 1 will not settle
more than about 20 mm whereas those in tier 2 and
tier 3 may settle by 60 mm to 80 mm. These blocks
are punching into the tiers they are founded on.
Table 5. Peak geogrid forces for the three tier model
(Analysis 3).
Maximum axial force in
geogrid (kN/m)
Construction
stage Tier 1 Tier 2 Tier 3
Tier 1 9.0
Tier 2 15.1 23.0
Tier 3 18.5 24.2 29.2
Figure 6. Geogrid force vs. height above tier base at end of
construction of tier 3 (Analysis 3).
Again, the presence of bearing pads beneath the blocks
may reduce this effect and overcome the convergence
difficulties experienced for Analysis 3.
Table 5 shows the peak axial force generated in the
geogrids after successive construction of each tier. The
results indicate that the axial forces in the geogrids
increase as expected as the height of the wall increases.
The geogrid force in tier 2 and tier 3 exceeds that in
tier 1 by factors of 2.6 and 3.2 respectively; a result of
fewer geogrids in these tiers. Furthermore, the maxi-
mum geogrid force of 29.2 kN/m is predicted to occur
in tier 3 rather than tier 2 and this is likely to be due to
tier 3 being founded on a the less stiff tier 2 compared
to the stiffer and more heavily reinforced tier 1.
Figure 6 shows the distribution of mobilised axial
force in the geogrids with height for each of the three
tiers for the completed construction stage.
The graphs show that the maximum force in the
geogrids for each tier is predicted in the bottom third
of the tiers. The maximum force in tier 1 is located
nearer the base of the tier than that for tier 2 and tier 3.
Table 6 shows the maximum axial force mobilised
in the geogrids in each of the three tiers following each
construction stage.
As stated in Section 3.1, the total axial force that
can be resisted by the geogrid in tier 1, tier 2 and
tier 3 is 4.41 MN, 1.95 MN and 2.03 MN respectively.
738
Table 6. Sum of geogrid axial forces mobilised after each Table 8. Peak geogrid forces for the super-geogrid model
construction stage (Analysis 3). (Analysis 4).

Sum of axial forces in Maximum mobilised axial force in

geogrids (kN/m) super-geogrid
Construction Construction
stage Tier 1 Tier 2 Tier 3 stage Tier 1 Tier 2 Tier 3

Tier 1 393.0 Tier 1 37.0 (7.4)

Tier 2 663.0 532.0 Tier 2 57.6 (11.5) 58.0 (19.3)
Tier 3 800.0 591.0 638.0 Tier 3 70.4 (14.1) 64.3 (21.4) 62.0 (20.7)

Table 7. Peak wall displacements for the 3-tier super Table 9. Peak results for tier 1 for (tier 2 + tier 3) surcharge
geogrid model (Analysis 4). model (Analysis 5).

Horizontal (mm) Vertical (mm) Construction Horiz. wall Vert.wall Geogrid axial
Construction stage displ. (mm) displ. (mm) force (kN/m)
stage Tier 1 Tier 2 Tier 3 Tier 1 Tier 2 Tier 3
Tier 1 17.5 25.0 9.0
Tier 1 20.0 7.5 Tier 2 + Tier 3 35.0 120.0 12.0
Tier 2 50.0 70.0 10.0 50.0 surcharge
Tier 3 70.0 90.0 60.0 20.0 80.0 100.0

Analysis 3 it was in tier 3. Intuitively, this seems more

Therefore, the minimum factor of safety (force avail-
able/force mobilised) is 3.18 in tier 3 and the overall
factor of safety is 4.14.
3.4 Analysis 4: Super-geogrid model
In order to further reduce the computer run-time an
analysis was run whereby the tiers were split into
approximately 1m high sections with one super-
geogrid to represent all the geogrids in that section.
The stiffness and strength properties of this super-
geogridwere factored up by superposition to represent
the combined properties of the other geogrids.
Table 7 shows the peak horizontal and vertical dis-
placements for each of the three tiers at each stage of
construction.
Comparison with Table 4 illustrates consistently
slightly higher peak displacements with a similar
pattern of movement as Analysis 3 with higher val-
ues at the facing owing to the larger spacing of the
super-geogrids.
The results of Analysis 4 indicate that modelling of
the RE wall by combining groups of grids into one
super-geogrid gives similar results to Analysis 3. This
approach drastically reduces the computer run-time
from 97 hours to 14.5 hours; a factor of almost 7 times
quicker. This will be particularly useful for carrying
out sensitivity analyses in the future.
Table 8 shows the maximum axial force mobilised in
the super-geogrids. The values in brackets represent
the maximum force per single geogrid, i.e. the force
in the super-geogrid divided by the number of single
geogrids it represents.
Although the axial forces mobilised in the geogrids
for Analysis 4 are smaller than those in Analysis 3
(Table 5), the general trend of increasing force as
construction proceeds is evident. However the peak
geogrid force in Analysis 4 occurs in tier 2 whereas in
plausible due to the fact that tier 2 is being loaded by
tier 3. It was noted that distortion of the facing block
elements occurred in Analysis 3 and this may have
contributed to the prediction of the peak geogrid force
in tier 3 for that analysis.
3.5 Analysis 5: Surcharge model
In order to obtain an idea of the likely outcome of the
3-tier analysis quickly, without explicitly modelling
the upper two tiers, a surcharge was applied to the tier
1 model of analysis 2. This would simulate the self-
weight load imparted by tier 2 and tier 3 but would
not model the stiffness offered by these two tiers. The
results are presented in Table 9.
The results for this analysis show vertical displace-
ments consistent with Analyses 3 and 4. However,
peak horizontal displacements are approximately three
times smaller. The horizontal movements are consid-
ered to be unrealistically small as the surcharge is not
capable of modelling actual redistribution of load that
will occur in the actual geogrid-reinforced upper tiers.
The forces mobilised in the geogrids are also less as a
result of smaller horizontal movements.
4 DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS
4.1 Analysis methods
Analyses have been carried out for the 3 stages of
the 3-tier, 56 m high RE wall. Following on from the
single tier work, higher QC geogrid stiffnesses have
been used and high angles of shearing resistance and
dilation have been adopted for the backfill material
(Table 1).
The detailed FLAC Analysis 3 (Table 2) is con-
sidered the most reliable for present purposes as it
does not include the simplifications made in Anal-
yses 4 and 5 such as combining the geogrid layers

739
into super-geogrids, or modelling the upper tier as a
surcharge. Analyses 1 and 2 model the first tier only
and are therefore not suitable for consideration of the
full scale deformations. However, modelling has been
very time consuming to run (about 4 days for the full
model), precluding practical exploration of sensitivity
and parametric studies.
The FLAC super-geogrid model simplifies the
analysis by substituting a single geogrid per approxi-
mate 1 m height of RE wall with equivalent strength
and stiffness to the actual geogrids it represents. This
gives peak horizontal displacements within 5 mm (bet-
ter than 20%) agreement on the conservative (higher)
side. Predicted geogrid forces are lower by typically
4 kN/m or say 20%. These are minor differences in
comparison to the other uncertainties in such mod-
elling. The super-geogrid approach opens up the
opportunity to study the 80 m RE wall.
4.2 Horizontal movements
Analysis 3 predicts that the bottom tier 1 will exhibit
peak horizontal wall movement of around 20 mm after
construction; 40 mm after completion of tier 2 and
60 mm upon completion of tier 3. The final peak hor-
izontal displacement is predicted to be around 90 mm
at approximately mid-height in tier 2. The higher dis-
placement in tier 2 rather than tier 1 is attributed to
having far less reinforcement than tier 1 (2.0 MN/m
compared to 4.5 MN/m). This suggests that the rein-
forcement in tier 1 could be substantially reduced.
However, this would imply approximately proportion-
ate increases in horizontal movement which could
exceed acceptable wall movement (SLS) require-
ments. Halving the amount of reinforcement in tier
1 might approximately double the wall movements to
about 100 mm. Conversely for tier 2, doubling the rein-
forcement could reduce movement to about 50 mm.
4.3 Geogrid forces
Analysis 3 predicts that the bottom tier 1 geogrids will
experience forces up to 18.5 kN/m, very well within
the yield strength. The maximum predicted force is in
a geogrid placed 1.4 m from the base of the bottom tier.
This corresponds to a factor of safety on rupture of 3.5
on the 120 year creep limited strength. This suggests
fewer and/or weaker grids could be used, subject to
satisfying SLS deflection requirements. There appears
to be no significant force mobilised in the geogrids in
tier 1 at more than about 12 m from the face therefore
the lengths could be reduced.
4.4 Vertical displacements
The maximum vertical displacements are predicted to
be of the order of 100 mm in the unreinforced backfill
material behind the reinforced zones, at around mid-
height (i.e. middle tier 2), considerably influenced
by the soil stiffness. Of more consequence may be
740
the localised vertical displacements in the vicinity of
the wall/facing. The overall picture is of movements
of perhaps 100 mm in the reinforced fill behind the
centre of each wall tier, not greatly affected by the
subsequent lifts. Noting that the Dibba Road 18 m
wall is understood to have performed satisfactorily,
the vertical strain effects of subsequent tiers appears
limited and hence probably manageable, noting also
the considerable set-backs in this case. That said, the
facing, connection and adjacent area warrants better
modelling in detail.
4.5 Conclusions
The studies are giving increasing understanding of
practical numerical modelling, parameters and factors
influencing the design and performance of high RE
tiered walls. The present analyses have reached the
point where we can practically model the full proposed
80 m tiered wall. Calibrations can be set against the
models to date and a reasonably consistent picture is
emerging. Validation depends on field data and test
data for the fill materials, but the numerical methods
now have the potential to back fit existing factual data
(Class C) and monitoring data obtained during con-
struction (Class B predictions/observational method),
and hence have increasing value for design and (Class
A) prior prediction purposes.
REFERENCES
Bathurst, R.J., Walters, D.L., Hatami, K. and Allen, T.M.
(2001). Full-scale performance testing and numerical
modelling of reinforced soil retaining walls. In Pro-
ceedings of the 4th International Symposium on Earth
Reinforcement, IS Kyushu 2001, Fukuoka, Japan, 14
16 November 2001. Edited by H.Ochiai, J. Otani, N.
Yasufuku and K. Omine. A.A. Balkema, Rotterdam, the
Netherlands, Vol.2, pp. 777799.
Bolton, M.D. (1986). The strength and dilatancy of sands.
Gotechnique, 36, pp.6578.
Hatami, K. & Bathurst R.J.(2005). Development of a numer-
ical model for the analysis of geosynthetic-reinforced soil
segmental walls under working stress conditions. Can.
Geotech. J. 42: 10661085.
Hatami, K. and Bathurst, R.J. (2006a). Numerical Model
for Reinforced Soil Segmental Walls under Surcharge
Loading. ASCE. Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvi-
ronmental Engineering.
Hatami, K. and Bathurst, R.J. (2006b). Parametric anal-
ysis of reinforced soil walls with different height and
reinforcement stiffness. 8th international Geosynthetics
Conference Proceedings.
Itasca Consulting Group. 2001. FLACFast Lagrangian
Analysis of Continua. Version 4.00. Itasca Consulting
Group Inc., Minneapolis, Minn.
Rowe, P.W. (1962). The stress-dilatancy relation for static
equilibrium of an assembly of particles in contact. Proc.
R. Soc. 269A, 500527.
Simoni, A. and Houlsby, G.T. (2006). The direct shear
strength and dilatancy of sand-gravel mixtures. Geotech-
nical and Geological Engineering Vol.24, pp. 523549.
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Short term three dimensional back-analysis of the One New Change

basement in London

R. Fuentes
University College of London, UK
Arup Geotechnics, UK

A. Pillai & M. Devriendt

Arup Geotechnics, UK

ABSTRACT: This paper presents the results of a three dimensional back-analysis in the short term with the aim
to validate the soil parameters used in the BRICK model. The comparison has been made between the results of
the numerical analysis and the field measurements obtained on site during the works. An additional comparison
between detailed modelling and simplified sequences is presented. Finally a LS-DYNA tool to model bearing
piles as embedded beams using beam elements is presented. The results of this work have provided increased
confidence in the new BRICK model parameters. Furthermore, the conclusions and lessons learnt in using the
new system of pile modelling, as well as the construction sequence used, provide valuable information for their
application in future projects and research work.

1 INTRODUCTION

The BRICK model for London Clay has been exten-

sively used and published by means of the original
parameters presented by Simpson (1992), and later
reviewed by Pillai (1996). However, not much work has
been presented on the application of the new parame-
ters, or so called Most probable parameters derived
by Arup (SCOUT, 2007) to deep excavations.
This paper presents the back-analysis carried out for
short term performance of a deep basement excavated
in London Clay. In this work, the authors have focused
on the new retaining wall performance in the short
term, and more specifically on the eastern side of the
excavation where a complete understanding of the con-
struction sequence adopted on site is known. Devriendt
et al. (in press) have recently prepared a paper which
shows the effect of this basement construction on the
adjacent tunnels. The aim of the present paper is to
validate and examine the performance of the Most
probable BRICK parameters and compare it to the
original, or Characteristic parameters, adopting the
EUROCODE 7 terminology. This will increase con-
fidence in this set of parameters, and also provide
the platform for others to extend their knowledge and
research on the behaviour of deep basements in stiff
clays in constrained urban environments.
2 SITE DESCRIPTION
The site is located at New Change in the City of Lon-
don. It covers an entire city block bounded by building
Figure 1. Site location and adjacent tunnels shown
indicatively.
on all sides (Fig. 1). It has maximum dimensions of
105 m (north to south) by 150 m (west to east) and
covers an approximate area of 12,000 m2 .
The existing ground level of the site is approxi-
mately +17.5 mOD along Cheapside at the north of
the site and the surrounding topography generally falls
towards the River Thames in the south. St. Pauls
Cathedral and St. Pauls Cathedral Choir School are
located immediately to the west.
2.1 Existing structures
The proposed development involved the demoli-
tion of the former Bank of England offices. This
was a seven-storey steel framed building. Two lev-
els of basement (basement and sub-basement) were
present, with approximate floor levels of +14 mOD
and +11 mOD.

741
Table 1. Soil stratigraphy and properties. Table 2. BRICK parameters.

Top of Parameter Characteristic Most probable

layer E 
Soil type (mOD) (kN/m3 ) (GPa) (deg) K0 0.1 0.1
0.02 0.02
Made Ground 17.5 18 10 25 0.58 0.0019 0.00175
Brickearth 11.7 18 20 25 0.58 0.2 0.2
Terrace deposits 10.0 20 20 36 0.41 1.3 1.3
London Clay 6.6 20 Used BRICK model G , 4.0 4.0
Lambeth G Clay 29.0 20 Used BRICK model
Lambeth G Sand 42.0 20 125 36 0.41 String length (Gt/Gmax)
Thanet Sand 48.0 20 250 38 0.38 Portion of material
(strain,%) Characteristic Most probable
KEY: represents the bulk density, E is the drained Youngs
Modulus,  is the angle of shear resistance, and K0 represents 0.08 3.04E-05 3.00E-05
the earth pressure coefficient at rest. 0.17 6.08E-05 7.50E-05
0.22 1.01E-04 1.50E-04
0.24 1.21E-04 4.00E-04
0.16 8.20E-04 7.50E-04
0.055 1.71E-03 1.50E-03
0.031 3.52E-03 2.50E-03
0.027 9.69E-03 7.50E-03
0.0135 2.22E-02 2.00E-02
0.0035 6.46E-02 6.00E-02

KEY: Gmax is the maximum shear modulus, Gt is the shear

modules at a given strain level, is the slope of the isotropic
normal compression line and is the slope of the isotropic
swelling line in vol ln p space, is a parameter controlling
elastic stiffness, is the Poissons ratio, controls string
length due to changes in orientation in the -plane, G ,
control the amount of initial stiffness and strength gain from
overconsolidation respectively.

Figure 2. Groundwater measurements at the Terrace
Deposits within the site.
2.2 Nearby tunnels
The twin bored tunnels of the LU (London Under-
ground) Central Line run beneath Cheapside to the
north of the site. The tunnels are approximately 3.8 m
in diameter and lined with a cast iron segmental
lining. Figure 1 shows the approximate position of
these tunnels as dotted lines, with respect to the new
development. Their presence and construction was
modelled as part of this work. Devriendt et al. (in press)
have recently published the effects of the basement
construction on the tunnels.
3 GROUND AND GROUNDWATER
CONDITIONS
Table 1 shows the soil stratigraphy and the ground
parameters that were chosen for the analysis. Most of
these parameters were all derived from a thorough site
investigation.
Figure 2 shows the ground water readings of the
boreholes located within the site. From this informa-
tion, a water level of +8.5 mOD was assumed for
the site in its current conditions. An under drained
profile was taken for the London Clay and underly-
ing Lambeth Clay using a 60% of a fully hydrostatic
profile. A fully hydrostatic profile was then chosen
below the clay materials. This assumption was based
on the results of nearby sites presented by Simpson et
al (1989), as no data was available for the London Clay
and underlying soils for this site.
3.1 Brick parameters and initial stresses
Simpson (1992) introduced the two-dimensional
BRICK model. This is a non-linear model, which
was formulated in strain space. The non-linearity of
the stiffness is modelled using the analogy of strings
attached to bricks being dragged by a man. Simpson
has since developed a three dimensional version of
this model which has never been published in detail.
A detailed explanation of this model has been recently
given by Ellison (in prep.).
The values of the parameters used in this case are
shown in Table 2. These show the characteristic param-
eters as presented by Pillai (1996), and most probable,
as presented in SCOUT (2007).
The values of K0 are calculated by the program
based on the stress history of the material. An over-
burden of 206 m was used for this site to model
the overconsolidated nature of the London Clay and
Lambeth Clay.

742
Table 3. Construction sequence in the model.
Stages Description
1 Initialisation.
2 Apply volume loss to existing tunnel material.
3 Tunnel material excavation and wish in place
lining.
4 Wish in place existing building (self-weight of
slabs above formation level neglected) without
bottom slab to allow heave in the short term.
5 Apply loads from existing building.
6 Long term conditions (up to date) using existing
groundwater conditions.
7 Demolish existing building, install new wall in all
areas except east side.
8 Install berm in east side. Wish in place rest of
temporary works around the site.
9 Excavate berm partially and install new
secant wall.
10 Excavate berm down to +11.0 mOD and connect
existing wall to new wall 17/04/08.
11-8q Wish in place cofferdam for Core 2 and excavate
inside to +6.6 mOD approx 23/04/08.
12-9q Excavate in from of NE corner to +110.0 mOD,
install access ramp in east side 28/05/08.
13-10q Excavate inside cofferdam for Core 2 to
+3.2 mOD, wish in place cofferdam for
Core 3, and dig to +6.6 mOD 26/06/08.
14-11q Install access ramp in SW corner, excavate inside
cofferdam for Core 3 to +3.2 mOD, wish in place
bearing piles inside cofferdam, superstructure
for Core 2 begins (25% of total weight assumed)
09/07/08.
15-12q Removal of ramp in centre of east side, wish in
place cofferdam for Core 1, excavate inside to
+6.6 mOD. Core 3 excavated to formation level.
Core 2 reaches top level (assume 90% of total
load). 13/08/08.
4 FE MODEL
The mesh for the problem was built using Hyper-
mesh v. 10, whereas the analysis was carried out using
LS-DYNA CEAP software. The latter allows for multi-
processor analysis, which decreases computing times
dramatically. An Intel Xenon CPU with 8 X5482
@ 3.20 GHZ processors and 8.00 GB of RAM com-
puter was used, which led to a total computation time
of approximately 26 minutes per stage.
4.1 Analysis models
Two main analysis have been carried out; one using
the characteristic values and the second using the most
probable parameters, as shown in Table 2.
A further model has been carried out with a less
detailed construction sequence, where all the tempo-
rary works were wished in place. The stages of this
model are shown in Table 3 using the letter q. This
less detailed model was carried out to show the effects
of using the less detailed approach, which is typi-
cal of projects when the FE analysis is undertaken at
stages when the construction sequence has not yet been
totally defined.
4.2 Construction sequence
A cantilever type construction was adopted to reach
level +11.0 mOD. Below this level, a top down
sequence was followed under the proposed lower
ground floor slab. Moling techniques were used to
excavate the underlying ground. However, this paper
covers only the cantilever stage up to 13/08/08.
Seven different construction sequences were
adopted during construction of the perimeter wall at
the cantilever excavation stage. These consisted of
very different arrangements which ranged from the use
of hit-and-miss techniques using buttress walls com-
bined with raking props, thrust blocks and / or berms
as temporary support. Since this paper focuses on the
east area only, all these different sequences were not
modelled in detail, and only wished in place at Stage
8 (see Table 3). They are believed to have little effect
on the behaviour of the east wall, especially far from
the corners. On the other hand, a detailed excavation
construction sequence was modelled for the east side.
Details of this sequence are shown in Table 3.
4.3 FE elements
The model comprises of over 500,000 elements. Three
different element types were used: (a) solid elements
to model the soil, (b) shell elements to model retaining
walls, internal walls, core walls and slabs, and (c) beam
elements, used to model temporary props and bearing
piles (see Section 5.8 of this paper for more details on
the modelling of bearing piles).
4.4 Boundary conditions
The model extended from +17.5 mOD at the top or
existing ground level, to 60 mOD or top of the Chalk
layer. It was assumed that the Chalk layer represented
a fixed boundary. The model is 310 m wide and 490 m
long approximately.
The following displacement boundary conditions
have been applied: (a) the horizontal base of the model
was restrained in all directions since at this depth the
effects of the excavations and surface surcharges were
negligible and restraint was anticipated to have no
effect on the behaviour of the system, (b) all of the
vertical boundaries were restrained in both horizontal
directions but were free to move vertically. These were
assumed to be sufficiently far from the excavations to
have no effect on the behaviour of the basement itself.
4.5 Soil models
London Clay and Lambeth Group Clay were modelled
using the BRICK model, and all the other remaining
soils where modelled using the linear elastic perfectly
plastic Mohr-Coulomb soil model.
4.6 Tunnel modelling
The construction of the tunnel was modelled using a
2% volume loss along its length.
743
Figure 3. Typical output using embedded piles showing
axial force decreasing with depth.

This is done in LS-DYNA by assuming an isotrop-

ical compression of the material using an algorithm
similar to that of a thermal compression (LS-DYNA
Manual, 2008). The self-weight of the material inside
the tunnel needs to be set to zero or a very low value,
in order to avoid collapse of the tunnel and error of the
program.
Figure 4. Location of ground settlement points and incli-
nometers in the east side of the site. KEY: SM is settle-
ment monument, I-1 denotes inclinometers and LS denotes
levelling studs.

Table 4. Dimensions of structural elements in the model.

4.7 Bearing piles modelling diam/s * t Emod
An Arup internally developed routine allows mod- Element (m)/(mm) (m) (kPa)
elling of piles as beam elements connected to solid
New secant wall 1 0.9/1.25 0.78 1.82E+07
elements, which represent the soils.
New secant wall 2 1.2/1.80 1.04 1.69E+07
Cores secant 0.9/1.25 0.78 1.82E+07
4.7.1 Brief description (after LS-DYNA Manual, pile walls
2008) Sheet piles for AU14 0.51 5.43E+06
The beam elements modelling the piles have no coin- capping beam
cident nodes with the solid elements that surround Sheet piles AU21 0.57 6.22E+06
them. The behaviour of the pile-soil interaction is elsewhere
modelled using a stress-displacement relationship. An
elastic-perfectly plastic and hyperbolic relationships Element Dimension in model (m)
are offered in the program. User defined relationships
Existing retaining wall 0.68 m thick
can also be inserted. In this case an elastic-perfectly Existing floor slabs 0.30 m thick
plastic relationship was used. Furthermore, the inter- Proposed floor slabs 0.4 m thick
face pile-soil is also modelled by means of a reduced Proposed raft 1.5 m thick
undrained shear strength or angle of shear resistance,
depending if it is an undrained or drained situation. *Sheet piles were calculated using the Piling Handbook
Visualisation of the stresses at the shaft and the base (2005).
of the piles is achieved by the definition of null beams.
Figure 3 shows a typical output obtained for a pile
under Core 2 (see Fig. 4) at Stage 15.
As the pile-soil interaction is modelled using a
4.7.2 Advantages of this approach stress-displacement relationship, the data obtained
The proposed approach allows the designer to model from pile tests can be used to model site specific rela-
the piles separately from the soil giving a much tionships. A further advantage of this method is the
increased flexibility. For example, the costs of re- reduction of element numbers, and therefore, comput-
meshing the problem are reduced significantly, should ing time, versus a solution where piles are meshed and
the position of piles change during the design process. modelled as solid elements.

744
Figure 5a & 5b. Inclinometer I11 readings and FE predic-
tions a) Above: Characteristic, b) Below: Most probable.
4.8 Shell elements and other structural elements
The walls were modelled as continuous elements using
linear elastic model. The width and stiffness of these
elements was calculated such that the modelled values
of axial and flexural stiffness (perpendicular to the
745
Figure 6a & 6b. Inclinometer I12 readings and FE predic-
tions. a) Above: Characteristic, b) Below: Most probable.
wall) were equal to those of the proposed secant pile
walls. The Youngs modulus of concrete and steel were
taken as 2.8 107 MPa and 2.1 108 MPa respec-
tively. Table 4 shows the results of these calculations
for the different elements used in this project.

Figure 7. Comparison between detailed and less detailed
construction sequence models.
5 FIELD MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS
Figure 4 shows the settlement monitoring and incli-
nometers that were installed on site.
Figures 5a and 6a show the readings of inclinome-
ters I11 and I12 respectively at stages of construction
as close as possible to those modelled in this study.
It can be seen that I12 is showing smaller movements
than those in I11, which shows the stiffening effects of
the corner. The top 1m of the readings in I11 have been
removed from the plots after comparing the unusual
readings to the capping beam survey measurements.
A maximum settlement of +1.65 mm was measured
at point LS37 behind the retaining wall on the east side
at Stage 15. The FE results gave a settlement value of
0.38 mm. A potential explanation could be that the
readings are close, and possibly smaller, than the actual
achievable accuracy of the instrument. Investigating
further the causes of this, is outside the scope of this
paper.
Figures 5 and 6 show that the agreement is better
for the model using the Most Probable parameters
than the one using Characteristic parameters for the
retaining wall displacements.
Figure 7 shows that the less detailed model presents
a different deformation mode in the top 10 m. This can
have a significant impact on the prediction of ground
movements.
746
6 CONCLUSIONS
This study has allowed the comparison and verification
of different set of parameters of the BRICK soil model
against a case study. This provides confidence in the
model to be used in future projects. It has also been
shown that modelling the actual construction sequence
as closely as possible is important to obtain the cor-
rect movements of walls and ground. The match with
ground movements is not as good. Finally, a method
to model piles using beam elements has been shown.
This offers great advantages during pre-processing,
analysis and post-processing.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors thank Dr Pedro Ferreira and Professor
Swain of UCL, and Dr Pellew of RKD Consultants
for their support, and to all the other partners in the
project: Land Securities, Bovis Lend and Lease, Skan-
ska, McGee and Warner Land Surveys. This work is
funded by the EPSRC and Arup, and forms part of
an Engineering Doctorate degree the first author is
undertaking at UCL.
REFERENCES
Simpson, B. 1992. Thirty-Second Rankine Lecture Retain-
ing Structures: displacement and design. Geotech-
nique,42, No. 4, 541576.
Pillai A. 1996. Review of the BRICK model of soil behaviour.
MSc dissertation, Imperial College, London.
Devriendt, M, Doughty, L, Morrison, P and Pillai, A. (in
press) Displacement of cast iron tunnels arising from a
deep basement excavation in central London. Geotechni-
cal Engineering.
Simpson, B, Blower, T, Draig, R, N, Wilkinson, W, B. 1989.
The engineering implications of rising groundwater levels
in the deep acquifer beneath London. CIRIA SP69.
Piling Handbook. 2005. Arcelor.
Ellison, K, Soga, K & Simpson, B. (in prep.) A strain space
model for overconsolidated clay with evolving stiffness
anisotropy.
SCOUT project. 2007. Report on Observational Method
under the Framework of Eurocodes. Report no D18.
SCOUT.
LS DYNA. 2008. CEAP (Civil Engineering Application
Program) Manual. Livermore Software Technology Cor-
poration.
Tunnels and caverns
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

3D analysis of a micropile umbrella for stabilizing the tunnel face of a

NATM tunnel

Falko Schmidt
TERRASOLUM S.L., Santander, Spain

Csar Sagaseta
University of Cantabria, Santander, Spain

Heinz Konietzky
Technical University Bergakademie Freiberg, Germany

ABSTRACT: In this paper, a 3D numerical analysis is presented to investigate the effect of a micropile umbrella
on the stability of the tunnel face. Data from an actual NATM tunnel, constructed in Burgos (Spain) in Miocenic
sandy clay are taken as a basis. During the development of numerous FLAC3D models, several mechanism
and factors were discovered, that influence the tunnel face safety and the behaviour of the micropile umbrella.
A sensitivity analysis was performed, evaluating the effect of some of the problem variables: piles inclination
(), length (L), spacing (s) and overlapping (d) and ground cohesive strength (c). The evaluation is performed
regarding the influence of micropile parameters on safety factors and the extent of the failure zone around the
tunnel face.

1 INTRODUCTION IR the injection of the micropile can be repeated in

Excavation under a micropile umbrella (canopy) is
a potential alternative for hand-excavated tunnels in
difficult ground conditions, for instance soft soil.
Micropiles are installed from the periphery of the tun-
nel face, and extended over a given length. If needed,
consecutive umbrellas can be constructed with some
overlapping between them. Evaluation of the protec-
tive effect of this element is difficult due to the three
dimensional character of the problem and the complex
soil-structure interaction.
This study is based on three dimensional numerical
simulations in order to investigate this kind of support
used commonly in tunnel excavations.
2 MICROPILES
In contrast to common concrete piles, reinforced
only to bear bending moments and shear forces, the
micropile consists mainly of a high resistance steel
tube. The tube is injected with cement in order to
achieve proper coupling between surrounding soil and
micropile.
Many authors categorise the micropiles according
to the injection method applied:
IGU unique global injection, usually from the tip
of the perforation
order to improve coupling to soil
IRS the injection process can be repeated and the
zone to be treated can be selected.
3 TUNNEL FACE STABILITY
Usually, excluding the tunnel entrance problems, there
are two types of stability problems when facing a
tunnel construction. One type can be a possible fail-
ure affecting an already supported zone of the tunnel.
Another type of failure affects the tunnel face, where
the excavation and support work takes place.
The objective of this paper is to investigate the influ-
ence of micropile umbrellas on tunnel face stability.
Figure 1 shows a typical tunnel face failure: the soil
mass collapses at the unsupported tunnel face area. In
this case preliminary support in form of micropiles is
not installed. This enables mass movement (collapse)
and produces a so-called chimney - a cylindrical fail-
ure body, which might reach the surface and create a
sinkhole under unfavourable conditions.
4 FLAC 3D MODELLING
The analysis of tunnel face stability is a three dimen-
sional problem. Although there are several methods
available to simulate this phenomenon (e.g. Panet

749
Figure 1. Collapse of a tunnel face forming a chimney
(displacements in m).

1982), which uses a decreasing inner pressure, there

is no exact way to formulate these types of problems
in the two dimensional space. Additionally, there is
no appropriate way to model the effect of a forerun-
ning micropile umbrella. Therefore, a model in three
dimensions is chosen for this investigation.
Figure 2. Three-dimensional numerical specimen used for
parameter calibration and diagram showing the reduction of
the friction angle as a function of the accumulated plastic
strain.

4.1 Soil softening constitutive model

Additionally to the parameter study on micropiles
using the classical Mohr-Coulomb constitutive law
for the soil mass, a special strain hardening / soften-
ing Mohr-Coulomb model [ITASCA 2005] has been
applied, which simulates the soil behaviour at the
Fuente Buena tunnel site in a more realistic manner,
especially if failure occurs.
In order to calibrate the constitutive model, labora-
tory data are needed. Often, and also in this case, post
failure behaviour is rarely investigated by laboratory
tests, because only peak values are of interest for many
projects. Therefore, laboratory data of a similar soil
were used to calibrate the post failure behaviour, which
should represent the soil material at the Fuente Buena
site. The test data were obtained from the Geotechni-
cal Institute at the Technical University of Freiberg,
Germany.
The calibration of the softening soil model was per-
formed by the numerical backanalysis of triaxial lab
tests with FLAC3D [ITASCA 2005]. Exemplary, Fig-
ure 2 illustrates the mesh of the 3-dimensional model
and the softening function for the friction angle. The
mesh size of the triax model was sized according to
the mesh size of the tunnel face in order to avoid zone
size dependence of the softening. A detailed simula-
tion of the shearband evolution was not the aim of this
modelling.
4.2 Modelling of the tunnel
One part of the Fuente Buena tunnel was modelled
over a length of 60 metres with a soil overburden of
Figure 3. Three dimensional tunnel model at a certain
excavation stage with micropiles and coloured plastified
elements.
54 metres; the tunnel geometry and dimensions (cross
section approx. 95 m2 ) were according to the construc-
tion project and the excavation steps were divided into
heading and bench. The excavation was executed in
steps of 1 metre within the numerical model. Taking
advantage of the symmetry of the tunnel geometry only
half of the tunnel was modelled (see Figure 3). Exem-
plary, Figure 3 shows a plot which indicates plastified
zones around the tunnel for a certain excavation stage.
All the support elements, like micropiles, steel arcs
and shotcrete and their interaction with the surround-
ing soil were applied. Of particular interest are the
micropiles: they are rigidly attached to the tunnel liner,
fixed and braced by the steel arcs. They interact with
the surrounding soil by springs and frictional-cohesive
interfaces in axial and normal direction.
Figure 4 shows the excavation sequence used in the
FLAC3D model: in order to close the ring of the tunnel

750
 Figure 5. Example with micropiles: factor of safety and cor-
Figure 4. Illustration of the applied excavation sequence. responding collapsed soil volumes (white colour corresponds
to FoS values >1.6).
support immediately, a separation of 20 metres was
established between heading and bench excavation.
Having modelled the whole tunnel and the excava-
tion process an intensive parameter study was carried
out. This analysis was dedicated to micropiles, vary-
ing pile spacing (s), overlapping (d), inclination ()
and length (L). The provided project data showed a
wide range of soil cohesion and in order to show its
influence on the tunnel face stability, this value was
changed as well during the parameter study.

5 EVALUATION OF THE NUMERICAL

MODELLING RESULTS

As mentioned above, the investigation was carried out

in two phases:
Phase 1: general parameter study using the classical
Mohr-Coulomb constitutional material model.
Phase 2: site specific simulations using the soil
softening constitutive law
Figure 6. Example without micropiles: factor of safety
and collapsed soil volumes(white colour corresponds to FoS
values >1.6).

The following conclusions can be drawn from the

5.1 Parametric study with posterior FoS
calculations
The objective of this study was to find the optimal
micropile configuration for the given soil parameters.
Having installed the umbrella, a factor of safety (FoS)
analysis was conducted including the determination of
the collapsed soil volume.As an example Figures 5 and
6 show the difference in respect to the factor of safety
and the corresponding collapsed soil volumes for the
same excavation stage by either applying micropiles
or not.
The procedure to obtain the FoS value is based on c-
-reduction-technique, reducing progressively these
parameters by a factor, and detecting unstable grid
point values within the model. An additional algorithm
marks every failed model zone with the actual FoS and
sums up the failed soil volume.
Figures mentioned above:
The FoS in the immediate unsupported tunnel face is
increasing from 1.3 to 1.4 by installing micropiles.
The soil volume affected by a potential collapse is
much smaller by having micropiles installed.
In order to evaluate the study and to gain tendencies
from it, the results were presented in tables containing
the collapsed soil volume and the corresponding FoS
as a function of the micropile configuration. Table 1
shows only an extract of the parameter study. More
information is given by Schmidt (2007), where a total
of 39 parameter calculations are documented in detail.
From the data obtained by the parameter study,
an optimal configuration was chosen for the Fuente
Buena tunnel under safety and economical criteria.
This configuration was later investigated in more detail

751
Table 1. Volume of failed soil mass as a function of
micropile umbrella configuration (for soil of 20 kPa cohe-
sion).

Umbrella configuration Failed soil volume [m3 ] at FoS

[ ] s[m] L[m] d[m] 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8

4 0.5 14 1 403 16e3 17e3 19e3 19e3

4 0.5 20 5 (**) 73 9e3 17e3 18e3 18e3
4 0.5 14 8 0 700 7e3 18e3 18e3
4 0.5 14 5 (*) 0 1.4e3 14e3 15e3 15e3
4 0.3 14 5 0 580 8e3 15e3 16e3
4 1.0 14 5 101 772 10e3 16e3 19e3
6 0.5 14 5 33 8e3 16e3 16e3 17e3
10 0.5 14 5 252 13e3 15e3 20e3 20e3
No micropiles installed 421 21e3 21e3 22e3 22e3

(*) Optimal configuration for this case.

(**) Plastic moment of pile elements results in a lower FoS
value.

with the softening soil model adequate for the spe-

cific tunnel site conditions. A model without micropile
umbrella was calculated as well, in order to eval-
uate the effect of the canopy. It can be seen that
an overlapping of only 1 m gives similar results in
comparison to an unsupported tunnel that means a
minimum overlapping of a few meters is recommended
anyway.
Figure 7 elucidates the influence of each investi-
gated pile parameter on the failed soil mass for a FoS
of 1.5. The analysis of the influence of each parameter
is obtained by individual variation, leaving the other
three parameters unchanged.
This sensitivity study shows that reducing the pile
inclination and length are positive measures to reduce
the failed volume, while reducing the pile segment
overlapping favours collapsing. The influence of the
pile spacing could not be clarified during this study
and needs further investigations. Increasing the pile
length and maintaining pile overlapping result in a
higher collapsed soil mass, because the piles yield limit
is reached and failure occurs.

5.2 Calculation applying the soil softening model

The authors had access to construction site data like
convergence and settlement of the tunnel. So it was
possible to compare numerical calculation results with
measuring data obtained from the Fuente Buena tun-
nel. For instance, the convergence measurement on site
coincided with the values obtained from the numerical
model with about 60 mm of closure.
Other results, difficult to measure on a tunnel site Figure 7. Influence of pile geometry parameters on col-
could be derived from the FLAC3D calculations: Fig- lapsed soil mass for a FoS equal to 1.5.
ure 8 shows maximum bending moments of 29 kNm in
the pile elements. This helps to dimension micropiles
and understand their influence on safety of the tunnel
face.

752

Figure 8. Bending moments [Nm] acting in the micropiles.
6 CONCLUSIONS
The parametric study led to the following practical
results:
The micropiles should be installed as parallel as
possible to the tunnel axis, minimising the pile angle.
753
The length of the pile should not be too long in order to
avoid high bending moments, which can exceed mate-
rial resistance and produce failure. The separation of
the piles should not permit soil collapse between the
pile tubes. As well as the overlapping of the single
umbrellas with each other in order to secure a forerun-
ning support: it should be chosen in a matter to grant
a mutual support between the umbrella segments.
The use of the soil softening model enabled the cal-
culation of realistic stress and deformation values for
the Fuente Buena tunnel including the loading of the
micropiles, as shown by comparison with construction
site data.
REFERENCES
ITASCA Consulting Group, Inc. 2005. Flac 3D Manual,
Second Edition. Minneapolis, United States of America.
Panet, M. y Guenot, A. 1982. Analysis of convergence
behind the face of a tunnel. Proc. Tunnelling 82, Institu-
tion of Mining and Metallurgy, London, United Kingdom,
p. 197204.
Schmidt, F. 2007. Tunnel Fuente Buena The use
of micropiles in tunnelling a numerical approach.
Diploma Thesis. Geotechnical Institute, TU Freiberg,
Germany.
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Analysis and design of a two span arch cut & cover structure

Sachin Kumar & Tony Suckling

Arup Geotechnics, Solihull, UK

Lewis Macdonald
Arup, London, UK

Hoe-Chian Yeow
Arup Geotechnics, London, UK

ABSTRACT: This paper describes a case study of a finite element analysis undertaken using Plaxis to model
a two span arch cut and cover structure with significant backfilling above. The methods used to model the
backfilling and the effects of compaction are described. The limitations found of using Plaxis are discussed
along with recommendations for the future development of this tool.

1 INTRODUCTION and by the contractor. Considering the complexity of

1.1 General
Arup UK was employed to undertake independent
design work to check the design of 17 deep cut and
cover structures carried out in Australia for a large
infrastructure project in Brisbane. The designer was
a joint venture between two international consultants.
The work described in this paper was undertaken as
part of this checking process for one particular cut
and cover structure called CC210.
CC210 is a 400 m long cut and cover structure
and carries up to 5 lanes of traffic, which merge and
diverge inside the structure. An 80 m long section of
CC210 was designed as a twin span cast in-situ con-
crete arched roof structure. An arched roof structure
was chosen as it could efficiently carry the high verti-
cal loads due to the significant depth of backfill over
the tunnel. The span of the arches is approximately
20 m and 22 m. Each of the arches has a ring thickness
generally of 500 mm. These large span arches were
cast in 12m long sections.
The base slab, interior and exterior walls of the
CC210 structure below the arches are constructed from
cast in-situ reinforced concrete. The wall concrete and
the slab immediately below the walls are cast directly
against the excavated rock surface. The remainder of
the slab is cast onto a no fines concrete drainage layer.
The permanent walls were laterally supported at the
top by the smoke duct tie slab.
In the UK there was a high profile collapse in 2005
during backfilling over a single span precast concrete
arch structure at Gerrards Cross near London. The
risks of working with such structures were therefore
very well appreciated by the design and checking team,
the structure, the interaction between the structure and
fill, and the interaction with temporary works, the
arch structure was analysed in different ways using 2D
finite element software Plaxis v9. The different meth-
ods ensured that all anticipated effects of compaction
of the fill were accounted for, such as introducing
stress history, locked in horizontal ground stresses and
of potential variations to the construction sequence. A
structural model was also developed to validate the
forces in the various members of the structure.
Results from the Plaxis analyses will be compared
and conclusions drawn on the accuracy of the results.
Comment will also be made on the mesh genera-
tion facility within Plaxis 2D and the limiting factors
encountered during the design.
1.2 Geology
The geology of Brisbane is complex with a great diver-
sity of the rocks within a small area. During the late
Triassic period (220 million years ago), volcanoes in
the region were active. Actual lava flows were rare but
instead large volumes of rock were blasted out of the
vents as floods of fragments in gas-rich clouds.Around
Brisbane itself, violent volcanic eruptions of rhyolitic
compositions saw clouds of ash mixed with air and flu-
ids rush down valleys in the hilly terrain. Such clouds
consist of a dense mass of semi-liquid pumice and
dust close to their melting points with hot gas between
acting as a lubricant. Some of the ash flows travelled
over 100 km, but when they came to rest, the mate-
rial was so hot that its own weight compacted and
welded it to a very strong rock called welded tuff or
ignimbrite. This rock unit is known as the Brisbane

755

Figure 1. 3D Geological Model.
Figure 2. Geological Cross-section.
Tuff and provided the main founding medium for the
CC210 structure. Overlying the Brisbane Tuff here is
the Aspley / Tingalpa formation which are shales, silt-
stones and sandstones formed by the deposition of fine
sediments.
2 GROUND MODEL
2.1 Geological cross-section
After examining various cross-sections from a 3D
ground model, see Figure 1, the geological cross-
section adopted for the analysis of the structure is
shown in Figure 2.
2.2 Ground water
Data from boreholes and shallow wells installed in
the area of CC210 indicate ground water level to be
at +7mAHD. Some deeper boreholes installed into
the Brisbane Tuff indicated sub-artesian ground water
conditions within the Brisbane Tuff. The piezometers
installed in the Tuff indicated water pressure higher
756
Figure 3. Typical Cross-section.
than the upper ground water level at +11.5mAHD.
Based on this, the artesian water pressure in the Bris-
bane Tuff was considered in the design with head at
+11.5mAHD in addition to the ground water level of
+7mAHD for the soil layers above the Brisbane Tuff.
3 ARCH STRUCTURE
3.1 Description of the structure
CC210 is a 42 m wide cut and cover structure with
an arched roof consisting of two concrete arches with
maximum backfill thickness of 22 m above them, see
Figure 3. The arches are fully fixed at the springing
points to the tie slab and to the walls of the car-
riageway section below. The base is fully fixed to the
carriageway section walls, which is required for their
stability.
The form of the arches near to the springing points
was sub-optimal resulting in greater bending stress
in the arches in this area. To accommodate this, the
arches were thickened and more heavily reinforced
at the springing points. The thickness of the arch is
500 mm around the crest and then increases gradually
to 1000 mm at the springing points.
The structure follows a bottom-up construction
sequence with the excavation supported by tempo-
rary anchored secant piles to the top of the Brisbane
Tuff and below using temporary rock bolts. The base
slabs were constructed first, then the walls followed
by the arches, and finally the tie slab. As a result of
this sequence the forces resulting from the arch self-
weight are transferred to the walls. The tie slab acts to
tie the arch helping it to resist all the imposed loading
including the weight of backfill.
The backfilling over the arches is divided into two
zones, referred to as A and B, as shown in Figure 3.
Zone A covers the area from the top of the structure
up to 2 m above the arch crown, and beyond that up to
ground level is zone B.
The permanent external walls will be designed for
full hydrostatic water pressure whilst the base slab and
internal walls are drained.
4 FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS (FE)
4.1 The FE software
The FE software Plaxis 2D was used as the tool
for the analysis of this structure. This plane strain

Figure 4. Different aspects to be included in the Plaxis
analysis.
problem would be adequately investigated in a 2D
analysis instead of a complete 3D model, saving a lot
of computational time.
Plaxis was chosen because this was the only 2D FE
tool common to both the joint venture design team in
Australia, and to Arup UK.
A Plaxis 3D model was also developed to study
the interaction of the ends of the arches with another
structure but this is not described in this paper.
4.2 Analysis methodology
Due to limited available information on the material
parameters, the linear elastic-plastic Mohr-Coulomb
model was selected to model the ground and backfill
materials. After finalising the geological model, var-
ious other critical issues needed consideration in the
analysis including backfilling and achieving the long-
term conditions. Due to so many variables involved
in the analysis, it was imperative that none of them
should be missed when studying their impact on the
arch forces and deformations. To help a chart was
developed as shown in Figure 4.
A brief explanation of Figure 4 follows;
1. Due to the overlap between the arch plates and soil,
the weight of the plate was reduced to account for
this overlap.
2. The friction slip between the arch and soil was con-
sidered by using various values of interface friction
factor (Rint). A brief description of this is presented
in section 4.4.
3. Different methods of modelling horizontal ground
pressure due to compaction needed to be studied.
This is discussed in more detail in section 4.5.
Ranges of stiffness were also considered.
4. Water pressure was considered to be developed
behind the permanent walls, soon after the com-
pletion of backfilling.
5. Any low permeability soil modelled as undrained
during construction will be changed to drained,
757
with the appropriate consolidation stage to elim-
inate the excess porewater pressure developed
during construction.
6. There is a wide range of possible water pressure
regimes over the arches after backfilling is com-
plete, e.g. seepage through the secant piles, seepage
under the toe of the piles, surface water infiltra-
tion etc. Therefore, assessment of worst loading on
the arches was undertaken assuming different water
pressure distributions on the arches.
7. Effects of differential effective stresses were con-
sidered.
8. The stiffness of structural elements to be changed
to long term properties. The properties of the arch
elements for the short term were calculated assum-
ing the full Youngs modulus of concrete (Ec) and
were reduced to values corresponding to 70% of Ec
for long term conditions to account for shrinkage
and cracking. The properties of the wall elements
were calculated based on the recommendations of
CIRIA C5801 for retaining walls.
9. The different potential sequences for de-stressing
of the temporary ground anchors was considered
in the analysis.
10. Similar to the ground anchors, various sequences
of de-stressing of the temporary rock bolts was
considered.
11. Unbalanced loading over the structure was applied
as below;
a) Maximum vertical load + Minimum horizontal
load
b) Minimum vertical load + Maximum horizontal
load
c) Unbalanced loading from left
d) Unbalanced loading from right.
12. To consider the effect of rock creep over the struc-
ture, a reduction in properties of the Brisbane Tuff
was considered in the analysis.
4.3 FE mesh
The initial Plaxis model attempted to include all the
variations in the ground model, but with the struc-
tural elements and with the addition of surcharge to
model the compaction pressure Plaxis failed to gen-
erate the mesh due to the closely spaced nodes. The
model was subsequently refined by simplifying the
ground model; after five attempts a satisfactory mesh
was successfully achieved having 7724 elements and
63,314 nodes, refer to Figure 5.
4.4 Interface between arch and soil
To ensure no water seepage into the structure, a water-
proofing membrane was specified around the arches.
The presence of the membrane will reduce the inter-
face friction between the fill and arches. To consider
this effect in the Plaxis analysis, a simplified model
was set up considering a range of values of the inter-
face friction factor from 0 to 0.67.A value of Rint = 0.3
Figure 5. Final FE mesh, 7724 Elements & 63,314 Nodes.
was then chosen to model slip between the fill and the
arches in the final models.
4.5 Backfilling sequence
An important issue to consider in the analysis was
the backfilling sequence and the application of com-
paction pressure. This required a careful examination
of the load deformation behaviour and variation in arch
forces under different backfilling sequences.
As described in section 3.1, the area to be backfilled
was divided into two zones, referred to as A and B. The
properties of the granular backfill and the compaction
equipment were defined for each of the two zones.
In zone A, the backfilling layer thickness was spec-
ified as a maximum of 300 mm to achieve adequate
compaction and the maximum differential on either
side of each arch was specified as 600 mm. While in
zone B a maximum differential of 1m was specified
again with the maximum layer thickness of 300 mm in
order to achieve adequate compaction.
The horizontal compaction pressure to be applied
to zones A and B was calculated based on the method
prescribed in CIRIA C5162 , for the assessment of com-
paction pressure on retaining walls, refer to Figure 6.
This method is the procedure recommended in Aus-
tralian standard AS5100.3 section C8.2.
The horizontal compaction pressure to be applied
during backfilling was calculated based on Figure 6
and was 10 kPa for zone A and 20 kPa for zone B.
In order to reduce the number of stages in Plaxis, it
was decided that modelling of backfilling would be in
600 mm thick layers in zone A and 1m in zone B with
the corresponding minimum horizontal compaction
pressures to be achieved.
A study was then needed to assess the value of
the vertical surcharge required over each backfill
layer to achieve the calculated minimum horizontal
compaction pressure and also the effects of differ-
ent backfilling sequences on the arch forces and
deflections.
Carrying out this study on the full Plaxis model
would have required enormous computational time
and hence was not considered practical. Therefore a
simple model was produced to carry out this study,
refer Figure 7.
The model shown in Figure 7 considered only the
arches and tie slab as structural units with backfilling
758
Figure 6. Assessment of compaction pressure on retaining
walls Reproduced from CIRIA C5162 .
Figure 7. Simplified model to study the backfilling
sequence.
and vertical surcharge/compaction pressure as applied
forces. In the first step, the aim was set to assess the
vertical surcharge required to produce the required
minimum horizontal compaction pressure. This would
have been much easier for any vertical wall but since
the arches were curved, and due to ground arching
between them, several trials were carried out with
different values of surcharge to make sure that the
required lateral stress to be applied over the arches
was achieved. This assessment was done for each
backfilling stage up to the top of zone A.
The next step was to assess the limitations on the
backfilling sequence over the arches. After many iter-
ations, the following two methods were identified as
being critical in terms of structural stability, and as
would be expected the method of backfilling in zone
A was found to be the predominant factor influencing
the resulting loads in the structure.
Method 1: Backfilling between the arches first
over the full width with a level difference of one
layer thickness on either side and apply vertical sur-
charge/compaction pressure. The compaction pressure
was then removed from inbetween the arches and
backfilling carried out on the sides followed by the
compaction pressure on the sides. The compaction
pressure on the sides was then removed and backfill-
ing carried out back in the middle with application of
compaction pressure and so on. Figure 8 shows the
stage of backfilling in the middle of the arches.
Figure 8. Backfilling as per Method 1.

Figure 10. Plot of Steady State Seepage.

Figure 9. Backfilling as per Method 2.

Method 2: Backfilling between the arches first over

the full width with a level difference of one layer thick-
ness on either side of arches and apply the compaction
pressure. With the compaction pressure in the middle
of arches present, carry out backfilling on the sides and
apply the compaction pressure. Backfill in the middle
of the arches with compaction pressure on the sides Figure 11. Plot of Principal Stresses.
present, apply compaction pressure in the middle and
at same time remove previous compaction pressure
present in the middle. The same approach was also fol-
lowed for the backfilling on the sides. Figure 9 shows
the stage of backfilling in the middle of the arches.
The first method was found to induce more sway
in the arches resulting in higher bending stresses in
the third points of the arches during the backfilling
in zone A. The second method resulted in greater
bending stresses near to the springing points of the Figure 12. Bending moment envelope of all of the structural
arches. Apart from this, both methods indicated final elements.
forces generally of a similar magnitude throughout the
structure. Figure 12 shows typical output of the forces in the
Both methods considered similar modelling of the structural elements for the long term conditions.
backfilling in zone B, which was backfilling in one sin-
gle layer over the full span of the structure and applying
vertical surcharge/compaction pressure in four stages 5 STRUCTURAL DESIGN
of the same length. This was finalised after studying
the impact of different ways of backfilling and com- 5.1 Independent forces check
paction in zone B, which was not found to significantly Due to the complex soil structure interaction being
influence the arch forces. modelled as a part of the arch design, Plaxis was
relied upon for the overall design of the arch. To
4.6 Output verify the structural results, normal ground stresses
were extracted from Plaxis and applied to a structural
The output from the Plaxis analysis in terms of model produced using Oasys GSA. This demonstrated
stresses, deformations and structural forces was care- a satisfactory correlation between member forces in
fully examined and interpreted to make sure that the GSA and in Plaxis. GSA was then used in the analysis
structure was behaving as predicted. One of the exam- of the seismic and fire load cases.
ples on the checking of the model performance would
be to check the behaviour of the Brisbane Tuff under
the base slab. Since drainage is provided for the base
5.2 Structural design of the arch members
slab and considering the Brisbane Tuff permeability
to be very low, it was important to check the distribu- The precise construction sequence of the arches was
tion of pore water pressure in the Brisbane Tuff and its considered to be a key element of the design, in par-
stability under that water pressure regime. ticular the process of backfilling above the arches.
The distribution of pore water is shown in Figure 10, The arches flex considerably during construction; their
and Figure 11 shows the plot of principal stresses. shape changing depending on backfill state. Any alter-
These confirmed that due to the high strength of the ation to the construction sequence from that prescribed
Brisbane Tuff it will form an inverted arch to sustain would result in stresses that the structure was not
the water pressure which could potentially develop in designed for, which would be likely to affect the long
the long term. term stability of the arches.

759

Figure 13. Example of Moment-Axial interaction chart
used in arch design. The solid line represents the ultimate
strength envelope of the section considered and the discrete
points represent co-existent loads from all stages modeled in
the Plaxis analysis.
Significant axial loads exist in the arches, mean-
ing the interaction of moment and axial force was
important. Due to the depth of the structure, this was
also the case in the walls, with significant axial com-
pression loads being developed. As a result, structural
capacity was checked on the basis of co-existent loads
(Moment-Axial and Shear-Axial) as opposed to the
use of envelopes.
For each critical stage, the co-existent member
forces (M, N & V) were investigated, allowing the
structural stability to be verified for all considered load
scenarios.
Moment-Axial interaction charts were used to
check that the arches were not overstressed during
any stage of construction or in the long term. The
co-existent values from each Plaxis stage for each
structural element were extracted and plotted with the
section interaction chart. Figure 13 shows one such
chart, which shows the ULS capacity of a meter-wide
strip of arch near to the springing point. The plot
demonstrates the capacity of the arch to be sufficient
for all stages.
760
6 CONCLUSIONS
Plaxis is an excellent tool to carry out routine geotech-
nical analysis and works satisfactory for such work.
However, for analysis requiring complex models, like
one described in this paper, Plaxis becomes rather
difficult to control and time consuming due to the
following reasons;
1. Due to unstructured and relatively difficult to con-
trol mesh generation, significant problems were
encountered to achieve the satisfactory mesh for
this analysis. The authors request that Plaxis
enhances the softwares applicability by allowing
increased manual control on the mesh generation.
An application to import a mesh into Plaxis will be
helpful.
2. Extracting the forces from Plaxis is another aspect
which needs to be improved. The lead author spent
significant time pulling out the forces and displace-
ments of each structural element for the critical
stages, exporting them to Microsoft Excel, and then
combining them to produce design envelopes. If
Plaxis could allow one to choose the appropriate
stages, to then export to Excel in one go this would
really enhance its features.
3. The automatic stage calculation is a very good
upgrade in the version 9.0. However, its effec-
tiveness is impaired due to its requirement to
re-calculate the steady state seepage calculations.
REFERENCES
1. Gaba, A.R. & Simpson, B & Powrie, W & Beadman, D
2003. CIRIA C580 Embedded retaining walls. CIRIA,
UK
2. Chapman, T. 2000. CIRIA C516 Modular gravity retain-
ing walls. CIRIA, UK
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Analysis of a bolt-reinforced tunnel face using a homogenized model

E. Bourgeois
Universit Paris-Est, LCPC-MSRGI, France

E. Seyedi Hosseininia
University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

ABSTRACT: This communication deals with the effect of tunnel face reinforcement on the wall convergence
and on the loads in the lining, studied by means of a homogenized anisotropic model for reinforced ground.
While the tunneling process is generally handled in a plane strain framework (within the so-called convergence-
confinement method), tunnel face reinforcement makes it necessary to take into account the three-dimensional
nature of the problem. In the case of an isotropic and uniform initial stress state, and of a circular tunnel, analyses
can be performed in axisymmetric mode. Within this framework, finite element simulations have been carried
out, using the finite element software CESAR-LCPC, to simulate the process of tunnel excavation and lining
construction. Results indicate that reinforcement of the tunnel face reduces tunnel convergence and decreases
the compressive forces in the lining. In the last place, it is shown that results obtained with the anisotropic
multiphase approach can be approximated with an isotropic model with adjusted parameters, which may be
useful for preliminary design.

1 INTRODUCTION 2 MULTIPHASE MODEL

Reinforcement of tunnel face by bolts is, in the first 2.1 Principles

place, an efficient technique to improve the stability of
The principle of the homogenization procedures is to
the ground during construction. It is also seen as a way
replace the heterogeneous composite material made
of decreasing deformations around the tunnel, in order
of the association of the ground with the bolts by a
to keep surface settlements within acceptable limits in
homogeneous material having equivalent mechani-
the case of shallow urban tunnels. The technique is
cal properties. Recently, de Buhan and Sudret (1999)
very often used in tunneling engineering. However,
have introduced a model in which the reinforced
there is still no simple and well recognized design
ground is replaced by the superposition of two con-
method to choose the number, length and diameters
tinua in mutual mechanical interaction. In such a
of bolts, or the type of bonding between the bolts and
framework, a displacement field and stress field is
the ground, etc.
associated with each phase. Phases are connected
Numerous studies have been undertaken to get a
to each other through an interaction law (Bennis &
better understanding of the influence of tunnel face
de Buhan, 2003). An example of application of this
reinforcement on the tunnel behavior: numerical anal-
approach to tunnel reinforcement by bolts can be found
yses have proven that face reinforcement can reduce
in de Buhan et al (2008).
tunnel face displacements (Kavvadas & Prountzopou-
The multiphase approach has been introduced in
los, 2009) as well as convergence and change the loads
the finite element code CESAR-LCPC (Humbert et al,
on the lining (Chungsik & Hyun-Kang, 2003). Such
2005), and used for the analyses presented here, under
analyses remain difficult to perform, because of the
the assumption that there is a perfect bonding between
number of bolts in the face (several tens) and their size.
the ground and reinforcements: within this framework,
In this context, it can be efficient, to use homogenized
one has to handle only one displacement field, com-
approaches to take into account the role of the bolts
mon to both phases; however, the model still includes
(Bourgeois et al, 2002, Wong et al, 2004, Wong et al,
two distinct stress fields. The elastic properties of the
2006). In this paper, we use such a homogenization
reinforced ground as a whole are the sum of the elastic
procedure to discuss the influence of bolt reinforce-
properties of the initial ground and of a uniaxial tensor
ment on wall convergence and on compressive forces
increasing stiffness in the direction of the bolts. Thus,
in the lining, on the basis of numerical simulations of
even if the ground is initially isotropic, the reinforced
the excavation process of a deep tunnel with circular
material has anisotropic elastic properties. Much in the
section.

761
same way, strength properties of the reinforced ground
are improved in an anisotropic way.
2.2 Overview of the general formulation
The multiphase model is a generalized homogeniza-
tion procedure in which the bolt-reinforced ground is
represented, not by one single medium, but by the
superposition of two continuous media: one, called
the matrix phase represents the ground, whereas the
reinforcement phase is the macroscopic counterpart
of the bolts network. This leads to the introduction,
at the macroscopic scale, of two displacement fields
denoted by m for the matrix phase and r for the rein-
forcement phase. The matrix phase is associated with a
Cauchy stress tensor m , and the reinforcement phase
with a (scalar) density of axial force in the bolts per unit
area transverse to the direction of the bolts, denoted
by r .
The momentum balance is expressed for each phase
separately as:
where er is the unit vector in the direction of the
bolts, and I er denotes the volume density of inter-
action forces exerted by the reinforcement phase on
the matrix phase (Volume forces have been omitted to
keep equations simple).
Three constitutive laws describe the behavior of the
reinforced ground mass: one for the ground, one for
the reinforcement phase, and one for the interaction.
Since the volume of the bolts is small compared
with that of the reinforced ground, it is assumed that
the matrix phase has the same behavior as the initial
ground. In what follows, we have adopted the usual
Mohr-Coulomb constitutive model.
The behavior of the reinforcement phase is
described by a linear elastic model:
where r denotes the vertical strain of the reinforce-
ment; E r is the product of the Youngs modulus of
fiberglass bolts Eb by the ratio of the bolts volume
over the overall volume of reinforced ground.
The density of interaction force between the matrix
and the reinforcement phases is described by a one-
dimensional constitutive law, that can be linear or not.
In what follows, we use a simplifying assumption and
it is not necessary to describe precisely the constitutive
law associated with the interaction.
2.3 The simplified case of perfect bonding
We make the additional assumption that there is a per-
fect bonding between the bolts and the ground, in the
sense that the displacement fields of the matrix and the
reinforcement are equal: m = r . With this assump-
tion, the numerical implementation of the multiphase
model is much simpler, since we can use standard finite
762
elements, without having to introduce extra nodal
degrees of freedom. However, the stresses associated
with the matrix and the reinforcement are com-
puted separately, in order to compute the plastic strains
in the ground.
3 NUMERICAL MODEL
In this study, we present simulations of the excavation
of a tunnel with a sequential method. The tunnel sec-
tion is assumed to be circular, with a radius R = 2.5 m,
the depth of the tunnel axis is equal to 75 m and the
initial stress state is isotropic, so that the coefficient of
lateral pressure at rest K0 is equal to 1. It is assumed
that variations of the initial in-situ stress field can be
neglected: the stress field is homogeneous, and the
mean stress is equal to 1.5 MPa. Under these assump-
tions, the problem can be dealt with in axisymmetric
conditions.
Simulations do not integrate the introduction of the
bolts in the ground, but we assume that there is a pre-
existing longitudinal reinforced zone along 35 m of
the tunnel axis. This assumption simplifies greatly the
preparation of data, but can be criticized because the
typical length of actual bolts lies in the range between
10 to 25 m. However, it can be expected that the trac-
tion forces in the bolts are almost negligible beyond a
given distance from the tunnel face, so that the length
of bolts taken into account in the simulations makes
little difference on the final results. This assumption
is discussed later.
The density is equal to 1 bolt per square meter of
tunnel face, which corresponds to a volume ratio of
= 103 if the bolt diameter is equal to 35 mm.
Each step of excavation consists in excavating the
stross over a length of 2.5 m. For practical reasons,
the installation of the shotcrete lining is performed
only after the excavation of the 2.5 m step is com-
pleted. There is therefore a given length of ground left
unsupported behind the tunnel face. In the simulations,
for each step of excavation, a 2.5 m-long concrete lin-
ing segment with a thickness e = 20 cm is installed to
support the ground excavated during the previous step.
The mesh used is presented in Figure 1.All elements
are of quadratic type. Elements far from the tunnel are
triangular; elements close to the tunnel are quadrangu-
lar. The mesh includes 3100 nodes and 1300 elements.
The simulation of the excavation process (deactiva-
tion of excavated zones, activation of the lining in
sequence) leads to defining 34 different zones. The
interest of the multiphase model lies in the fact there
is no need to describe each bolt separately.
The behaviour of the unreinforced ground is
described by the Mohr-Coulomb model with a linear
isotropic elasticity. We adopted the following values
of the parameters
E = 150 MPa ; = 0.4;
c = 100 kPa ; = 32 degrees, = 2 degrees.
The behavior of bolts is linear elastic with
Eb = 20 GPa (Youngs modulus for fiber-glass bolts).
Bolts are parallel to the tunnel axis.
 Figure 2. Generic step of the modeling sequence of tunnel
drilling: forces are applied on the boundary of the excavated
zone (arrows); a lining segment is activated behind the tunnel
face.

Figure 1. Mesh used in CESAR-LCPC.

The lining segments are assumed to behave as

a linear elastic material with EC = 5000 MPa and
= 0.25.
The initial (in situ) stresses in the model are intro-
duced and then, excavation steps are carried out. Each
simulation step of the construction process includes
several elements (Figure 2):
the stiffness of the elements of the zone to be
excavated is set to zero;
the excavated ground exerted on the ground
that remains a system of forces that must be
removed . The finite element procedure consists
in computing the appropriate nodal forces to take
into account this unloading . On the whole, the Figure 3. Traction force in a bolt placed in the center of the
remaining ground was subjected to compression tunnel face.
forces from the excavated ground ; in the final state,
it is subjected to zero surface forces : the excavation excavation steps). The results show clearly that the
process is therefore equivalent to applying tensional traction force decreases rapidly ahead of the tunnel
forces, shown in figure 2; face, in such a way that the traction in the bolt is neg-
activating the lining segment corresponding to the ligible at a distance of 10 m from the tunnel face. In
previous excavation step. other words, assuming that the ground is reinforced
The excavation process starts from the bottom of over a distance larger than that of the actual bolts has no
the mesh and the tunnel face moves upwards. significant influence on the results of the simulations.

4 RESULTS 4.2 Wall convergence

4.1 Traction forces in the bolts
Figure 3 shows the values of the traction forces com-
puted in the bolts placed in the tunnel face (after 10
Figure 4 shows the convergence (i.e. the radial dis-
placement) of the tunnel wall along the axis of the
tunnel. The abscissa x = 25 m corresponds to the posi-
tion of the tunnel face after the completion of the tenth

763

Figure 4. Comparison of the radial displacement of the wall
along the tunnel axis, in the reinforced and unreinforced
cases, after completion of 10 excavation steps (tunnel face
is located at x = 25 m, the excavated zone being on the left).
excavation step (the section of the tunnel already exca-
vated is on the left, for x < 25 m, and the ground not
yet excavated corresponds to x > 25 m).
In the first place, it is worth noting that displace-
ments are almost uniform at a distance larger than 5 m
behind the tunnel face, showing that the lining is stiff
enough to prevent further convergence of the ground.
Besides, with the parameters taken for simulations
presented here, the radial displacement in the case
where the tunnel face is reinforced is about 10%
smaller than in the case without bolting (38 mm vs.
42 mm).
4.3 Compressive force in the lining
For a circular section, it is possible to find the compres-
sive force in the lining. Since the lining is a thin ring
(R/e > 10), the compressive force N can be calculated
by (Panet, 1995):
where:
urmean is the mean radial displacement of the lining,
Ksn is the normal stiffness of the lining:
Ksf is the flexural stiffness of the ring, given by:
The simulations presented above give a compres-
sive force in the lining of 9 MN/m without bolts
and 8.1 MN/m in the reinforced case. This shows
that tunnel face reinforcement can not only improve
tunnel face stability, but also decrease tunnel wall
convergence and the compressive force in the lining.
764
Figure 5. Homogeneous (two-phase) and non-
homogeneous elements.
5 SIMPLIFIED ANISOTROPIC MODEL
FOR THE REINFORCED ZONE
The ground is modeled as an isotropic elastic- per-
fectly plastic material; however, the reinforced zone
overall behavior is anisotropic. In this section, we dis-
cuss the possibility to use an isotropic model for the
reinforced ground as a whole, with improved values
of the parameters.
The role of reinforcement element in the reinforced
ground is to increase the rigidity as well as the strength
of the ground in the direction of bolts. In what follows,
we propose to account for the increase in strength
provided by the bolts by replacing the cohesion of
the initial unreinforced ground by an equivalent
increased cohesion, all other parameters remaining
unchanged. The improved cohesion is denoted by cH
and its value is estimated as follows.
Consider a reinforced soil element as shown in
Figure 5 in which the reinforcements are placed
horizontally.
The element is subjected to a mechanical loading
defined by major (#2 ) and constant minor (#1 ) prin-
cipal stresses. Now, it is possible to simply replace
it by a homogeneous two-phase element. Since there
is a perfect bonding between phases, the equilibrium
condition results in:
where im (i = 1,2) and r correspond to local stress
components in matrix and reinforcement phases,
respectively. m r
i and are the local strain components
in the same order.
Consider the failure criterion of the soil as follows:
Substituting (7) in (8), one gets:
where E r is the stiffness of the reinforcement phase
(equal to the product of the modulus of the bolts Eb by

Figure 6. Comparison of convergences obtained between
with an isotropic and an anisotropic model (reinforced tunnel
face).
their volume fraction ). On the other hand, if the new
soil element with cH is subjected to the same stress
conditions defined by #1 and #2 , failure is associated
with the following condition:
By comparing equations (8) and (10), the value of
the cohesion cH can be assessed as:
The cohesion found depends on the deformability of
the reinforcement phase. It can be noted that Equation
(11) is similar to the expression stated by Charmetton
(2001) if the term Er r is replaced by ultimate tensile
strength of the reinforcement phase.
Analyzing the results of the simulation for the non-
reinforced tunnel problem, one observes that the axial
strain in the vicinity of the tunnel face is about 2.5%.
Assuming that the strain would be about 1% in the case
of a bolt reinforced face, the value of the improved
equivalent cohesion cH is approximately equal to
280 kPa.
A simulation with this value of the cohesion gives
for the axial strain a value of 0.8% which is close to
the value of 1% taken into account to estimate the
equivalent cohesion. In Figure 6, the result of the new
isotropic analysis is compared with the simulation car-
ried out with the (anisotropic) multiphase model. As
can be seen, the agreement between the results of both
models is very satisfactory: the radial displacements
obtained with the homogeneous isotropic cohesion are
almost equal to those obtained with the multiphase
model. In other words, the homogeneous equivalent
model, with a modified value of the cohesion and
all other parameters (especially stiffness parameters)
unchanged, makes it possible to reproduce the increase
of stiffness of the ground mass as a whole.
It can be expected that a simulation in which
the elastic moduli of the reinforced ground were
765
increased to account for the bolts would lead to smaller
radial displacements, and would not provide a better
agreement.
Sensitivity analyses (not detailed here) also show
that results are entirely different if the increased homo-
geneous cohesion is associated with the whole ground
mass and not only with the ground ahead of the
tunnel face. They also show that the radial displace-
ment depends strongly on the value of the increased
cohesion.
6 CONCLUSION
Reinforcement of tunnel faces by bolts is a common
practice, but a difficult problem for designers. The dif-
ference between the dimensions of the bolts and the
area in which the stress state is modified by the excava-
tion, the mechanical interaction between the bolts and
the ground, and the three-dimensional nature of the
problem make it difficult to build models to analyze
the performance of the technique.
It is worth mentioning that the role of radial bolts
placed in the tunnel wall, in planes perpendicular to
the tunnel axis, can be taken into account in classic
plane strain analyses (using the convergence confine-
ment method), the bolts being seen as an increase in
stiffness of the ground surrounding the excavation. In
the case of bolts placed in the tunnel face, things are
more complex, because the area reinforced by the bolts
is eventually excavated and the bolts are destroyed as
the tunneling process goes on.
The finite element simulations presented here are
based on a homogenized approach that makes it possi-
ble to overcome the main difficulties of the problem.
They are based on several assumptions that can be
discussed, but provide a way of overcoming the com-
plexity of the problem. It can be pointed out that the
simulations presented here are carried out in axisym-
metric conditions, but the model is available to perform
fully three-dimensional simulations if necessary (in
the case of a non-circular section, or if the initial stress
state is not isotropic and homogeneous).
Results tend to show that tunnel face reinforcement
reduce both the convergence of tunnel wall and the
compressive forces in the lining. The decrease is of
the order of 10%, which remains moderate, but it must
be recalled that many parameters are involved in the
analysis (one could account for elastic non linearities,
or discuss the influence of the length of unsupported
ground behind the tunnel face).
From a qualitative point of view, it is interesting
to note that a longitudinal increase in stiffness due to
bolts results in a decrease of the wall convergence.
This is clearly the result of the modification of the
three-dimensional stress distribution due to bolts: it
seems therefore difficult to take them into account
in a plane strain analysis (as is usually done using
the usual convergence-confinement method). Unlike
the reinforcement of the surrounding ground by radial
bolts, the use of longitudinal bolts in the tunnel face
cannot be analyzed without taking into account the
three dimensional nature of the problem.
It is also recalled that the model provides an esti-
mated of the traction forces in the bolts, which may be
useful to choose the number and diameter of bolts.
In the last place, a simple analysis makes it pos-
sible to model the reinforced zone with a classical
homogeneous isotropic model, provided that a suitable
increased value of cohesion is taken into account. The
increased cohesion depends on the deformability of the
bolts, and requires making an assumption regarding
the axial strain in the bolts close to the tunnel face. This
assumption has to be based on engineering judgment,
empirical knowledge, or numerical analysis.
REFERENCES
Bennis, M. & de Buhan, P. 2003. A multiphase constitutive
model of reinforced soils accounting for soil-inclusion
interaction behavior, Mathematical and computer mod-
eling 37: 469475.
Bourgeois, E., Garnier, D. & Semblat, J-F. 2002.A 3D homog-
enized model for the analysis of bolt-reinforced tunnel
faces, 5th Int. Conf. on Num. meth. In Geotech. Eng.:
573578.
Charmetton, S. 2001. Renforcement des parois dun tunnel
par des boulons expansifs retour dexprience et tude
numrique, Ph D thesis, Ecole centrale de Lyon.
Chungsik, Y. & Hyun-Kang, S. 2003. Deformation
behavior of tunnel face reinforced with longitudinal
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pipes-laboratory and numerical investigation, Tunneling
and unground space technology 18(1): 303319.
de Buhan, P., Bourgeois, E. & Hassen, G. 2008. Numerical
simulation of bolt-supported tunnels by means of a mul-
tiphase model conceived as an improved homogenization
procedure, Int. J. for Num. and Analytical Meth. Geomech.
32 (13): 15971615.
de Buhan, P. & Sudret, B. 1999. A two-phase elastoplas-
tic model for unidirectionally-reinforced materials, Eur.
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Humbert, P., Dubouchet, A., Fezans, G., Remaud, D. 2005.
CESAR-LCPC : A computation software package dedi-
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ponts et chausses, n 256257,737.
Kavvadas, M., & Prountzopoulos, G., 2009. 3D Analyses
of Tunnel Face Reinforcement using Fibreglass Nails,
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259266.
Panet, M. 1995. Le calcul des tunnels par la mthode
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ysis of a bolt-reinforced tunnel face with finite element
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 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Class A prediction of the effects induced by the Metro C construction

on a preexisting building, in Rome

F. Buselli, A. Logarzo & S. Miliziano

Dipartimento di Ingegneria Strutturale e Geotecnica Sapienza Universit di Roma, Italia

A. Zechini
Roma Metropolitane, Italia

ABSTRACT: This paper reports the main results obtained through a numerical study aimed to predict the
effects induced on an old building by tunneling operations for the construction of Metro C line, in Rome.
In order to achieve high quality of class A prediction, full 3D finite elements numerical analyses have been
carried out. The most important simulated features are: i) the advancement of tunnel front; ii) the pressure for
front support; iii) the TBM geometry (weight and conicity of shield); iv) the tail void grouting; v) the building
foundations. A simple elasto-plastic model with Mohr-Coulomb strength criterion and tension cut off is used to
describe both soil and foundation behaviour. Results of preliminary analyses carried out using different mesh
densities and tolerated errors are used to optimize the complete analysis achieving an acceptable compromise
between calculation time and accuracy of the results. The study clearly underlines the necessity to incorporate
into the model the presence of the building; in fact, both the weight and the stiffness of the building largely
influence the solution.

1 INTRODUCTION old building located near Pigneto Station, in Rome.

It is important to predict settlements due to excava-
tion of tunnels in urban area to determine the effects
induced on pre-existing structures. This prediction is
very difficult because of the tridimensionality of the
problem and due to the large number of factors that
influence the interaction between soil-tunnel-surface
structures. Using 3D numerical analysis it is possi-
ble to reproduce realistically the main features of the
excavation process, without those assumptions that are
necessary when the problem is approached by plain
strain analysis (2D analysis). In detail, a 3D approach
allows to simulate easily the main features of the exca-
vation via Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM): the front
support, the conicity of the shield and the grouting in
pressure of the tail void between the excavation profile
and the lining. Moreover, in 3D numerical analysis it
is possible to introduce 3D building structures into the
model without conceptual difficulties.
Settlements profile and volume loss obtained per-
forming 3D simulations are simply analysis results
which depend on geometry, soil characteristics and
modality of excavation. Numerically obtained stress
and strain distributions in the building structure can be
analyzed to assess the level of damage induced both in
term of cracks formations and reduction of structural
safety level.
The case study presented in this paper is a real
case: the interaction between Metro C line and an
Two circular cross-section tunnels will be driven by
Earth Pressure Balanced Shield (EPB), to minimize
as much as possible the excavation-induced settle-
ments. The building is located above one of the tunnels
but it interacts with both of them. Full 3D numeri-
cal analyses were carried out to obtain a true class
A prediction, modeling in detail the most important
aspects of the excavation process. Only the founda-
tion slab of the building was simulated. A distributed
load was applied on the foundation to take into account
the weight of the building. Youngs Modulus of the
foundation was appropriately increased to represent
the global stiffness of the entire building. Soil and
building foundation behaviour have been modeled as
simply elasto-plastic and the Mohr Coulomb strength
criterion was adopted.
In this paper, the geotechnical characterization of
the site is reported after the descriptions of the build-
ing structure and the tunnels. Then, main features of
the numerical models are described and main numer-
ical results are related and compared. Three types of
finite element analysis were carried out using Plaxis
3D Tunnel code (Plaxis 3D Tunnel, 2007): i) prelim-
inary analyses with a simplified model to study the
influence of mesh density and tolerated error on results
accuracy and calculation time; the aim of those analy-
ses was to achieve an acceptable compromise between
accuracy and calculation time in the complete anal-
yses; ii) greenfield analysis, that involves only the

767
Figure 1. Building involved in this study.
construction of both tunnels (the building is not simu-
lated); iii) full analysis to study the interaction between
soil-tunnels-building. Finally, the main conclusions of
this research are summarized.
2 BUILDING AND TUNNELS
The building under investigation is a 27 meters high
civil habitation located near Pigneto Station, in Rome.
The building was built around 1930; at the beginning
it was a T shaped masonry structure of three levels
(Fig. 1). In the fifties of last century, after the damages
suffered during the Second World War, it was refur-
bished and four levels were added using reinforced
concrete.
The foundation of the building is a masonry slab
placed two meters below the ground surface. The qual-
ity and the maintenance of the building are poor; a large
number of cracks were detected.
The structure is located just above the tunnel A; the
tunnel B is 23 m far away (Fig. 2). The tunnels have a
cover of 21 m.The adoptedTunnel Boring Machine has
an external diameter, D, of 6.7 m; seven 0.30 m thick
precasting reinforced concrete elements compose the
lining (the outside diameter is 6.4 m).
3 GEOTECHNICAL CHARACTERIZATION
Soil profile and hydraulic conditions have been deter-
mined on the base of an extensive geotechnical inves-
tigation involving laboratory and in-situ tests. The
main results of the geotechnical characterization are
reported in Buselli (2009). The subsoil consists of a
top layer (8 m) of man-made ground (R), overlaying a
volcanic soil deposit, characterized by alternation of
hard rock layers, lithoid tuffs with variable cementa-
tion (T1 and T2), and thin layers of partially weathered
tuff (Ta). The thickness of each layer ranges between
1.5 to 3.0 m.
The presence of T1 and T2 strata is important
because of their high mechanical properties and their
location (immediately above the tunnels crown). The
768
Figure 2. Plan view of building and tunnels.
Figure 3. Geotechnical soil profile.
tunnels are mostly bored through the underlying flu-
vial prevolcanic deposit made up of three main levels,
from the top to the bottom: St, a very dense silty
sand and clayey silt; Ar, a clayey silt and silty clay;
and, at the end, Sg, a sandy gravel layer. The bedrock
is at the bottom of Pleistocenic fluvial deposit: it
consists of hundred meters of consistent and over-
consolidated Pliocenic clay, Apl. Geotechnical cross
section is represented in Fig. 3. Groundwater con-
ditions are hydrostatic with the water table located
16 m below the ground level. Therefore, the tunnel will
be excavated under the water level. The constitutive
model adopted for soil behaviour is elastoplastic with
Mohr-Coulomb strength criterion. Due to the adopted
excavation modality (TBM, EPB), small strain levels
are expected in the soil around the tunnel. Therefore,
small strain stiffness moduli determined by dynamic
soil testing were selected. According to the rela-
tionship proposed by Hardin (1978), Youngs moduli
were assumed to increase with depth. Each layer is
characterized by a Poissons ratio of 0.2 and the hor-
izontal effective stresses are calculated according to
the classical equation K0 = 1 sin  .
The physical-mechanical soil parameters adopted
in the analyses are summarized in Tab. 1.
Table 1. Physical and mechanical parameters of soils.

c  E
Soils (kN/m3 ) (kPa) ( ) (MPa) K0

R 17.5 5 33 185190 0.45

Ta 16 17.5 32 298302 0.47
T2 16 100 45 9981002 0.29
T1 16 450 59 59986002 0.14
St 18 25 30 184190 0.5
Ar 18 40 30 372378 0.5
SG 20 0 35 370380 0.43 Figure 5. Detail of local refinement of the clusters around
the tunnels.

Figure 4. Adopted mesh.

Figure 6. Scheme of excavation simulation. (1) TBM plate;
(2) Front pressure; (3) Conicity of the shield; (4) Grout
4 3D NUMERICAL MODELLING injection; (5) Fresh grout; (6) Hard grout.

4.1 Geometry Table 2. Plate characteristics.

Finite element mesh for soil is generated using Plaxis
3D Tunnel v.2 commercial code. The model is 123 m
wide, 47 m deep, and the total length in the z direction
is 170 m (Fig. 4). In order to minimize the influence
of mesh boundaries, according to Franzius & Potts
(2005), the longitudinal distance between the tunnel
face and the remote vertical boundary are fixed equal
to 7 D and 13 D, ahead and behind the position of
the studied structure building, respectively. The mesh
is divided, in tunneling direction, in slices of 2.5 m
thick.
The deformation analyses do not extend into the
deeper layer Apl. Since the bottom boundary is
assumed to represent such a stiff ground layer, both
horizontal and vertical total fixities have been adopted
as displacement restrains.
Roller supports are applied to all vertical sides. For
the non-symmetric analyses it was necessary to mesh
the complete problem; a coarse mesh is considered in
these analyses with a local refinement of the clusters
around the tunnels (Fig. 4 and 5).
Tunnel Boring Machine has a 6.7 m diameter and
the shield is 10 m long. It is modeled as a four slices
long ring of plate element; the weight of the plate
is 53 kN/m, representing the full weight of the TBM
including equipments for each meter.
4.2 Tunnel construction
The construction process is simulated discontinuously
removing slices of elements inside the profile of exca-
vation 2.5 m tick for each step, while at the same time
the TBM shield advance, activating shell on front and
E EA EI
Plate GPa kN/m kN/m2 /m
TBM 210 0.33 1.2 108 3.8 108
Lining 38 0.15 3.7 106 6.8 105
deactivating shell on tail. A total pressure equal to the
active horizontal earth pressure is applied to the front
to support the soil during excavation. This pressure
is about 100 kPa at the crown and increases linearly
(15 kPa/m) moving to the invert (Fig. 6). The shield
is slightly conical: the tail radius is 10 mm less than
the frontal one. In order to simulate a reduction of the
tunnel cross section area, the shield has got a truncated
cone shape. The continuous homogeneous final lining
is switched on from behind the tail of the shield. Both
TBM and tunnel lining are modeled as linear elastics,
using shell elements with flexural stiffness, EI, and
normal stiffness, EA, as reported in Tab. 2.
The tail void injection is simulated using an axial
pressure applied to the ring cluster between the lining
and the excavation profile, opposite to the direction of
tunnel advancement (Fig. 6), 50 kPa higher than the
maximum value of the pressure at the front.
The stage construction process considers the age-
ing process of the grout: fresh grout is charac-
terized by a low shear modulus and incompress-
ibility ( = 21 kN/m3 , E = 1 MPa, = 0.49), while
hard grout is very stiff ( = 21 kN/m3 , E = 14 GPa,
= 0.15). Volume elements are activated to fill the
tail void (15 cm) assuming linear elastic properties for

769
Figure 7. Foundation model.

them. The grout is assumed to be hardened after four

slices.
Tunnel A is the first one to be realized and, once it
is completed, tunnel B advances.

4.3 Building model

Complete analysis studies the influence of buildings
stiffness. Only the foundation of the structure is mod-
eled (Fig. 7). Foundation consists of elasto-plastic
cluster of elements with high compressive strength
(c = 1200 kPa) and a relatively low strength in ten-
sion (t = 1/20c ). The foundation is a masonry slab
1 m thick with a Youngs Modulus E = 35 GPa. This
modulus was chosen about 100 times greater then
the real one to consider approximately the stiffness
of the whole structure. Assuming the Mohr-Coulomb
strength criterion, the adopted strength parameters are
c = 300 kPa, = 40 and t = 60 kPa. A distributed
load of about 10 kPa for each of the seven levels is
applied on the foundation to take into account the
weight of the building.
The foundation is connected to the soil by an inter-
face, using a value of 0.5 for the strength reduction
factor (the strength of the interface is half of the
strength of surrounding soil). The presence of other
buildings is simulated by the application of distributed
load acting directly at the upper bound of the model.
In the first phase of complete interaction analysis the
building is constructed and the distributed load rep-
resenting the surrounding buildings is activated; the
resulting displacements are not taken into account
in further steps: displacements are set equal to zero
before starting the construction of the tunnels.
5 ANALYSIS OF THE RESULTS
5.1 Preliminary analyses: influence of mesh density
and error tolerance
In preliminary analyses, a small portion of complete
mesh (the mesh was reduced in longitudinal direc-
tion; 123 47 30 m) has been adopted and only one
tunnel was modeled. Geotechnical profile and geome-
try are the same as in the complete analyses. Fig. 8
shows the maximum vertical displacement and the
calculation time obtained varying the density of the
mesh (very coarse, coarse, medium, fine, very fine)
and the tolerated error (0.1, 0.01, 0.001). The accu-
racy of the solution increases by increasing the density
of the mesh and decreasing the tolerated error, but
Figure 8. Results of preliminary analyses.
Figure 9. Greenfield analysis: settlements profile in the
cross section a-a and comparison with Gaussian curve on
advancement steps of tunnel A.
the calculation time speedily increases. An acceptable
compromise between calculation time and accuracy of
the results is obtained adopting a coarse mesh density
and a tolerated error equal to 0.01 (see Fig. 8). In fact,
the difference between this solution and the most accu-
rate solution obtained adopting a very fine mesh and
a value of 0.001 for tolerated error is only about 5%.
However, the calculation time reduces drastically.
5.2 Greenfield and complete interaction analyses
Fig. 9 shows the evolution of the greenfield settlements
profile calculated along the cross section indicated in
Fig. 15a, during the construction of the tunnel A, at
foundation level. The settlements begin to appear when
the front of excavation is about 2 diameters behind the
reference section (located at 72.5 m from the edge of
the mesh); the maximum value was 3.2 mm at the end
of the tunnel excavation. The numerical result matches
quite well the Gaussian distribution originally pro-
posed by Peck (1969) and successively adapted by
Moh et al. (1996) for calculation of the settlements
profile under ground level, selecting for K a value
of 0.7 (Fig. 9). The resulting settlements profile is
quite flat according to the presence of rock levels T1
and T2 located immediately above the tunnels crown.
Similarly, the volume loss, VL , calculated from numer-
ical results, starts to be appreciable when the front is

770

Figure 10. Greenfield analysis: volume loss on advance-
ment steps of tunnel A, cross section a-a.
Figure 11. Greenfield analysis versus complete interaction
analysis: settlements profile in the cross section b-b at the
end of tunneling operations.
Figure 12. Greenfield analysis versus complete interaction
analysis: volume loss on advancement steps of tunnel B, cross
section b-b.
about 2D behind the reference section. Then, it regu-
larly increases and reaches its maximum value (0.32%)
when the front is about 3D far away from the reference
section. Further excavations do not affect the value of
VL (Fig. 10).
The weight and the stiffness of the building
(Figs. 11, 12, 13 and 14) modify the subsidence basin.
The presence of the building significantly increases the
settlements: the maximum settlement value is about
two times higher than the value obtained in green-
field analysis. This result is attributed to: i) the high
weight of the building, only partially compensated;
ii) the relative position: the building is located just
above tunnel A; iii) the building is set entirely inside
the sagging area of the greenfield settlements profile
(probably the most important). Due to the buildings
stiffness, however, the differential settlements and con-
sequently the angular distortions are not appreciable
(0.004%). According to classification proposed by
Burland (1995), the expected class of damage of the
building is 0.
Figure 13. Greenfield analysis versus complete interaction
analysis: settlements profile in longitudinal direction at the
end of tunneling A operations, section c-c.
Figure 14. Greenfield analysis versus complete interaction
analysis: settlements profile in longitudinal direction at the
end of tunneling B operations, section d-d.
Figure 15. Considered sections for the representation of
numerical analyses results.
Figs. 16 and 17 show normal stresses, N, and bend-
ing moments, M, on the lining in the cross section a-a,
at the end of construction of tunnel A. The normal
stresses obtained in the complete interaction analysis
result higher then those obtained in greenfield condi-
tions. In particular, at the crown, N increases of about
75%. Similarly for M, in the presence of the building,
the results show an appreciable increment of the max-
imum values (for crown, sidewalls and invert arch). In
this case too, the phenomenon is due to the buildings
presence into the model. In fact, the stresses in the soil
before the tunnel construction are higher compared to
the greenfield conditions and, consequently, the result-
ing N and M on lining after tunnel construction are
higher too.
771

Figure 16. Greenfield analysis versus complete interaction
analysis: normal forces distribution on lining at the end of
tunnel A operation.
Figure 17. Greenfield analysis versus complete interaction
analysis: bending moments distribution on lining at the end
of tunnel A operation.
6 CONCLUSIONS
In order to obtain realistic results about the effects
induced on surface structures by tunneling operations,
772
full 3D finite elements numerical analyses shall be
carried out. The analysis shall include the simula-
tion of the support of the tunnel face, the conicity of
the shield as well as the grouting in pressure of the
annulus between lining and excavation profile. Settle-
ments profile and volume loss obtained numerically
are simply analysis results depending on geometry, soil
characteristics and modality of excavation.
The study clearly underlines the necessity to incor-
porate the presence of the building into the model:
both the weight and the stiffness of the building play
an important role. For the case under investigation,
the presence of the building significantly increases the
amount of settlements; this phenomenon is essentially
due to the weight of the building and the relative posi-
tion between the building and tunnel A. The weight
of the building produces an increase of normal forces
and bending moments on the tunnel lining.
Due to the stiffness of building, however, the dif-
ferential settlements are small and the angular distor-
tions are not appreciable (0.004%). Consequently, the
expected class of damage for the building is zero.
REFERENCES
Burland, J.B. 1995. Assessment of risk of damage to building
due to tunnelling and excavation. Invited special lecture
to IS-Tokio: 1st Int. Conf. On Earthquake Geotechnical
Engineering.
Buselli, F. 2009.Analisi dellinterazione tra lo scavo delle gal-
lerie della Metro C in Roma e un edificio a struttura mista
nel quartiere Pigneto. Tesi di laurea. Sapienza, universit
di Roma.
Franzius, J.N., Potts, D.M. 2005. Influence of Mesh Geometry
on Three-Dimensional Finite-Element Analysis of Tun-
nel Excavation. International journal of geomechanics,
ASCE.
Hardin, B.O. 1978. The nature of stress-strain behaviour for
soils. State of the Art. Proc. Geotechnical Eng. Division
Specialty Conference on Earthquake Engineering and Soil
Dynamics, ASCE, Pasadena, California.
Moh, Z.C. & Hwang, R. N. 1996. Ground movements around
tunnels in soft ground. London, UK.
Peck, R.B. 1969. Deep excavations and tunnelling in soft
ground. Proc., 7th Int. Conf. Soil Mech., Mexico City,
State of the art 3. pp. 225290.
PLAXIS, Plaxis 3D Tunnel Version 2.4, 2007. Finite Element
Code for Soil and Rock Analyses.
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Estimated settlements during the Brescia Metrobus tunnel excavation

A. Sanzeni, L. Zinelli & F. Colleselli

University of Brescia, DICATA, Brescia, Italy

ABSTRACT: The paper describes ground subsidence and effect on historic buildings induced by the Earth
Pressure Balanced (EPB) shield single tunnel construction of the first line of the Brescia Metrobus (Italy, 2005
2009). The diameter of the shield is 9.15 m, the tunnel is 5.6 km long and excavation was carried out mainly in
alluvial gravelly soil deposits. Among the buildings in Brescia the Palazzo della Loggia has been the venue of
the city municipality since its construction between the 15th and 16Ith century. The progressive deterioration
of the building massive piers and the forthcoming tunnel construction located 25 m from the building and
20 m below ground level required the consolidation of the soil beneath the foundations by means of low-
pressure grouting and assessment of building settlements induced by the excavation. A number of finite element
numerical simulations were carried out on a calibration-purpose model and preliminary results were compared
with measured subsidence obtained from tunnel sections previously constructed. Predicted settlements and
settlement distribution at the Loggia section were found in good agreement with movements measured during
construction. Among the factors affecting subsidence prediction, particular attention was given to the ground
loss during tunnel excavation and the presence of loads due to the building foundations.

1 INTRODUCTION

This paper presents the study carried out to predict

subsidence induced by the construction of the tunnel
for the first underground metropolitan line in the city
of Brescia, Italy, the Metrobus Brescia project.
The project comprises the construction of a light-
railway line which includes surface and under-ground
cut-and-cover trunks (3.4 km and 3.8 km respectively)
and a 5.9 km single tunnel trunk, for a total extent of
13 km. The tunnel was excavated between 2005 and
2009 with a Tunnel Boring Machine equipped with a
shield and earth pressure balance technology (EPB-
S). The machine is suitable for most soils, can operate
below water table and is capable of automatically lay-
ing the permanent tunnel lining. The shield diameter
is 9.15 m and the permanent lining diameter is 8.85 m,
consisting of pre-cast reinforced concrete elements
of 0.35 m thickness. The excavation was carried out
mainly in alluvial gravelly soil deposits and the soil
cover is generally in the range of 1720 m. Face pres-
sure was approximately equal to 130 kPa at the top Figure 1. Layout of the Brescia Metrobus light-railway line.
and 250 kPa at base, backfill injection of the tunnel
lining was 4.5 m3 /m and advance rate was 30 mm/min section showing the position of the tunnel and Figure
(average measured values). 4 illustrates the tunnel layout and indicates the con-
The tunnel layout lies beneath the historic center trol system installed around the building area. The
of Brescia where a number of buildings of historical two storey building ground plan is 47 m 30 m and
and social interest are located (Fig. 1). Among the most about 30 m high. The structure is made of bricks and
important structures, Palazzo della Loggia has been the stones in elevation, covered by wooden floors and cross
venue of the city administration since its construction vaults, and the dome is shaped like a trough vault cov-
between the 15th and 16th centuries, during the Repub- ered with lead sheets (Marini and Riva 2003, Giuriani
lic of Venice domination. Figure 2 shows the main East 2007). The foundations are continuous in the West part
faade of the building, Figure 3 reports a schematic and are isolated piers in the East part; the foundation

773

Figure 2. Palazzo della Loggia East faade.
level is approximately 5.0 m below ground surface. As
documented by Giuriani (2007), the building suffers
foundation problems due to partial degradation of the
short wooden piles driven for soil improvement pur-
poses in the 15th century (Fig. 2). The tunnel axis is
located between 23 m and 25 m from the West side of
the building and 24.5 m from ground level.
A number of other buildings of different sizes,
mainly devoted to residential purposes are located
near the palace (Figs. 34). The progressive deteriora-
tion of the building foundations and the forthcoming
tunnel construction required the improvement of soil
conditions beneath the foundations and assessment of
building settlements induced by the excavation; the
improvement of the building foundation was accom-
plished only one month before the tunnel excavation,
by means of low-pressure grout injection of the cav-
ities left by the degraded wooden piles (preparatory
studies are described by Giuriani 2007).
Before the authors involvement the ground subsi-
dence induced by the Metrobus tunnel was computed
using the classic empirical equation proposed by Peck
in 1969; a similar approach has been recently used with
acceptable results to estimate subsidence induced by
the excavation of Line-1 extension in Milan (Antiga
and Chiorboli 2007). In this study however the effect
of tunneling was analyzed using a plain-strain finite
element model.
To predict soil movement and building response, a
number of numerical simulations were carried out on
774
Figure 3. Schematic section at Palazzo della Loggia.
Figure 4. Plan view of Palazzo della Loggia and tunnel
location; benchmarks around and connected to the building.
a calibration-purpose model and preliminary results
were compared with measured settlements obtained
from a number of tunnel sections, previously con-
structed. The model was subsequently used to predict
subsidence induced at Palazzo della Loggia section
(Zinelli et al. 2010).
2 SOIL PROFILE AND PARAMETERS
2.1 Site characterization
The tunnel excavation was carried out mainly in
alluvial gravelly soil deposits.
Soil characterization was performed before the
authors involvement and included a comprehensive
preliminary desk study with results of pre-existing
investigations, and a site investigation campaign. The
latter was carried out in 2003 and 2004 and consisted
of 22 borings with execution of Standard Penetra-
tion Tests, geophysical down-hole tests, continuous
dynamic penetration tests and soil sampling.
Figure 5 shows a schematic soil profile obtained by
collecting results of bore-holes and SPT tests along the
layout of the tunnel near Palazzo della Loggia. From
the ground surface (146.3 m a.s.l.) the following layers
are encountered:
Made ground: mainly cohesionless, medium to
loose soil, NSPT = 1525.The thickness of this layer
varies between 1.0 m to 6.0 m along the line layout
Figure 5. Soil profile at Palazzo della Loggia with SPT test
results.
and is approximately 5.0 m at the Loggia palace
section.
Gravel: well graded cohesionless (4560% gravel,
2035% sand, 1025% silt and clay), medium to
dense soil, NSPT = 3560. Local sandy and clayey
soil deposits as well as weak cemented volumes are
encountered along the tunnel layout.
Weathered limestone: this geological unit was
encountered only at Palazzo della Loggia section at
an elevation below 118119 m a.s.l. (z = 2728 m).
The water table is generally a few meters below
the tunnel axis, is located at an elevation 118 m a.s.l.
at the Loggia section, and rises above the tunnel axis
southward of the city.
2.2 Constitutive model and soil parameters
The subsidence induced by tunnel excavation was stud-
ied through a number of finite element analyses using
the code Plaxis (version 8.6, Delft University) with
a plain-strain, 15-node triangular element model. The
mechanical behavior of the soil around the excavation
was described using the constitutive model Hard-
ening Soil, available in the code library (Shanz et
al. 1999). This is an elastic-plastic rate independent
model with isotropic hardening and stress-dependent
stiffness according to a power law.
The shear resistance parameters were determined
based on the authors experience with local soil
deposits and with empirical correlations with results
from SPT tests (De Mello 1971, Shioi and Fukuni
1982, Yoshida et al.1988). The soil stiffness was
estimated from experimental data obtained from geo-
physical down-hole tests performed along the tunnel
axis, as described by Rampello and Callisto (2003). In
the Hardening Soil (H-S) constitutive model the elastic
775
Figure 6. Small strain shear stiffness obtained from
down-hole tests and assumed profile for the alluvial soil
deposit.
behavior of granular soils is defined by isotropic
elasticity through a stress-dependentYoungs modulus:
where 3 is the minimum principal effective stress,
pref = 100kPa is a reference pressure, E  ref and m
are model parameters. The Youngs modulus E  ref has
been related to the shear modulus at small strain G0
obtained from down-hole tests. Figure 6 shows exper-
imental values of G0 estimated from measurements
of the shear wave velocity Vs obtained from several
down-hole tests (SB 23, 7, 11, 13 and, more recently,
S5). Although there is some scatter in the experimental
data, it is possible to identify a unique profile for the
alluvial gravel deposit.
 ref
The parameter E50 , which identifies the secant
stiffness modulus at the reference confining pres-
sure pref , was estimated assuming the Pois-
sons ratio = 0.200.25 and introducing a ratio
 ref
E  ref /E50 = 10 12 in relation to the expected soil
shear strains.
The mechanical behavior of the superficial layer
of made ground and of the altered limestone were
described using a perfectly plastic model with Mohr-
Coulomb failure criterion (M-C) and a liner elastic
model (L-E) respectively.
Table 1 reports soil constitutive models and param-
eters adopted in the analyses.
Table 1. Soil constitutive models and parameters.

 ref
E  ref m E50

Soil layer Soil model MPa MPa

Made ground M-C 32 25

Gravel H-S 36 750 0.4 65
Weathered rock L-E 270

3 EXCAVATION ANALYSIS

3.1 Evaluation of ground loss

Ground conditions and tunneling method combine to
control the ground movements which result from sub- Figure 7. Calibration section SCBF 8 at km 7 + 597.
surface excavation. To normalize the volume of lost
ground with respect to tunnel size, the volume of the
settlement basin at the surface, Vs , can be expressed
as a percentage of the excavated tunnel volume, Vexc .
Before the magnitude of ground movements can be
predicted it is necessary to estimate the expected
ground loss Vs /Vexc . This estimate is generally based
on case history data and should include an engineering
appraisal that takes into account the adopted tunnel-
ing method and site conditions (New and OReilly
1991). Alternatively, the movement of soil can be esti-
mated through the determination of the so called gap
parameter (Lee et al. 1992), which takes into account
the ground loss as a function of soil strength and
deformation behavior, physical clearance between the
excavated diameter and the lining, and workmanship.
In the numerical simulations, that were performed
using a plain-strain model, the effect of ground loss
during excavation and construction was simulated by
applying a contraction to the tunnel lining equal to the
ratio Vs /Vexc . The numerical value of the applied con- Figure 8. Ground surface settlements at section SCBF8.
traction was estimated with measurement of surface
settlements obtained from a number of sections, taken
from a trunk of tunnel already constructed, where the although backfill grouting of tunnel lining is system-
soil profile had geotechnical features similar to those atically executed, the settlement registered over the
encountered nearby Palazzo della Loggia. Figure 7 permanent lining is approximately 50% of the total.
shows one of the sections (named SCBF 8, located At the time of the authors involvement an estimated
at km7+597) with indication of the soil profile, depth ground loss 0.450.50% represented the most likely
of the water table and tunnel location, while Figure 8 value with frequency of occurrence in the range of
reports vertical settlements taken during tunnel exca- 86-90% (the frequency of occurrence of ground loss
vation and construction. The most appropriate value of higher than 0.5% was 1014%).
lining contraction was calculated integrating the set-
tlement profiles such as the one reported in Figure 8
3.2 Back analysis and prediction simulations
and dividing the obtained value by the area of the TBM
face. Figure 9 shows the variation of surface vertical The back analysis simulations of tunneling through the
settlement along the longitudinal tunnel crown axis reference sections were performed with a numerical
with the advance of the TBM machine: the vertical model assuming the soil profile illustrated in Fig-
settlement is normalized by the maximum measured ure 7 and absence of buildings at the ground surface.
value and the machine advance is expressed both in Since the examined sections were symmetric, only one
meters and in shield diameters. half of the tunnel section was taken into account. The
The reported data show that vertical displacement soil behavior was described with constitutive models
ahead of the TBM face amounts to 2022% of the and parameters reported in Table 1. The lining con-
total and starts showing approximately at a distance traction was applied instantly during one calculation
equal to 2 diameters; ground loss over the shield con- phase because the permanent lining is constructed
sists of some other 2528% of the total and finally, immediately after the excavation and the effect of a

776
 Figure 10. Comparison of observed and computed vertical
settlements at section SCBF8.
Figure 9. Ground surface settlements with TBM advance.

higher contraction as a direct consequence of tech-

nical problems encountered during excavation was
examined.
The prediction analysis at Palazzo della Loggia sec-
tion (Fig. 3) considered the soil profile represented in
Figure 5 and soil constitutive models and parameters
reported in Table 1. The presence of the palace and
other buildings were conservatively taken into account
by applying distributed loads at the foundation levels
(150 kPa for Palazzo della Loggia and 50 kPa for the
other buildings), therefore neglecting the stiffness of
the structures in elevation.

4 COMPARISON OF OBSERVED AND

COMPUTED BEHAVIOR, CONCLUSIONS

In Figure 10 the vertical displacements measured at

ground level 33 days after the excavation and con-
struction of section SCBF 8 are compared with those
computed in the numerical analysis and with those esti-
mated with the empirical equation proposed by Peck
in 1969 assuming parameter K = 0.35, in agreement
with the settlement prediction in the Metrobus project.
Measurements and computations show a satisfactory
agreement, particularly regarding the amount of settle-
ment above the tunnel axis (with maximum settlement
not exceeding 1314 mm). However, the amplitude of
the ground surface affected by subsidence is signifi-
cantly underestimated by Pecks empirical correlation,
due to the numerical value assumed for parameter K,
which affects the transverse distance of the point of
inflection from the tunnel longitudinal axis, whereas
the FEM computed settlement distribution reproduced
the real subsidence well. The comparison also demon-
strates that the value of applied lining contraction,
estimated as the ratio between measured subsidence
and the area of the TBM face, Vs /Vexc , is suitable
for describing the effects of excavation and construc-
tion process on ground movement around the tunnel,
although the plain-strain numerical model does not
Figure 11. Comparison of observed and predicted vertical
settlements at Palazzo della Loggia.
allow to appreciate three dimensional and time effects
as observed in Figure 9.
To investigate the effects of ground loss a number
of numerical analyses were performed applying val-
ues of lining contraction in the range between 0.3%
and 1.5%, as this was intended to represent the highest
possible figure in case of technical difficulties during
tunneling such as a sudden stop, sudden loss of face
pressure, uncontrolled machine tilting and overcutting,
or interruption of backfill grouting of tunnel lining.
The expected vertical settlement above the tunnel
axis greatly increases with applied contraction values
higher than 0.7%. Similarly, the amplitude of the sub-
sidence basin increases as a result of the increase in
volume of soil subjected to high shear strains near the
tunnel lining.
Figure 11 shows the results obtained from the pre-
diction analysis at Palazzo della Loggia in comparison
with selected measurements of vertical settlements

777
obtained from the control system in Figure 4. The
computed settlement is taken from a horizontal sec-
tion located at the building foundation level of the
numerical model. The measured settlement is obtained
from geometric leveling of benchmarks connected to
the building and refers mainly to the north and south
side of Palazzo della Loggia, plus some other points
across the tunnel. The maximum vertical settlement,
measured along the West side of the building at points
34 and 31, is less than 2 mm, and decreases to values
comparable with the control system error within 10 m
from the West side of the building (benchmarks 44 and
924).
The resulting angular distortion is estimated as
1/5000. The settlement prediction compares well with
measurements and confirms that, due to the distance
of the building from the longitudinal axis of the tun-
nel, the risk of damage is limited, although the group
of buildings directly above the tunnel axis is subjected
to more severe effects. The vertical settlements mea-
sured above the tunnel show the effect of the buildings
stiffness in the sagging zone of the subsidence profile.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors wish to thank Brescia Mobilit S.p.A.,
Astaldi S.p.A and Stone S.p.A. for providing technical
documents of the Metrobus project.
REFERENCES
Antiga, A. and Chiorboli, M. 2007. Lanalisi dei cedimenti
nella progettazione di gallerie realizzate con EPB-Shield
in terreni incoerenti. Proc. XXIII Convegno Nazionale di
Geotecnica, Padova. Associazione Geotecnica Italiana.
Patron Editore (ed.): 103110.
778
De Mello, C.F.B. 1971. The standard penetration test. Proc.
IV Panamerican Conf. of SME, San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Vol. 1: 186.
Giuriani, E. 2007. Il percorso delle indagini e degli studi per
gli inerventi sulla struttura del Palazzo della Loggia. Il
Palazzo della Loggia di Brescia, Indagini e progetti per
la conservazione. Starrylink (ed.), ISBN 978-88-89720:
554.
Lee, K.M., Kerry Rowe, R. and Lo, K.Y. 1992. Subsi-
dence owing to tunneling. I. Estimating the gap parameter.
Canadian Geotechnical Journal vol. 29: 929940.
Marini, A. and Riva, P. 2003. Nonlinear analysis as a diagnos-
tic tool for the strengthening of an old wooden dome. J. of
Structural Engineering, ASCE vol. 129, n. 10: 14121421.
ISSN: 0733-9445.
Peck, R.B. 1969. Deep excavation and tunneling in soft
ground. Proc. 7th Int. Conf. on Soil Mechanics and
Foundation Engineering, Mexico City. State-of-the-Art:
225290.
Rampello, S. and Callisto, L. 2003. Predicted and observed
performance of an oil tank founded on soil-cement
columns in clayey soils. Soils and Foundations. Japanese
Geotechnical Society vol. 43 n. 4: 229241.
Shanz, T., Vermeer, P.A. and Bonnier, P.G. 1999. Formula-
tion and verification of the Hardening-Soil model. R.B.J.
Brinkgreve, Beyond 2000 in Computational Geotechnics.
Balkema, Rotterdam: 281290.
Shioi, Y. a nd Fukui, J. 1982. Application of N-value to
the design of foundations in Japan. Proc. 2nd European
Symp. on Penetration Testing (ESOPT2). Amsterdam, 1:
159164.
The Brescia Metrobus Project. Metropolitana leggera auto-
matica di Brescia. http://www.metro.bs.it/. Accessed
November 2009.
Yoshida, I. and Motonori, K. 1988. Empirical formulas of SPT
blow-counts for gravelly soils. Proc. of ISOPT-1. Orlando
(USA).
Zinelli, L., Sanzeni, A. and Colleselli, F. 2010. Subsi-
denza indotta da scavi in sotterraneo. Technical Report.
University of Brescia, Dipartimento DICATA (in italian).
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Numerical investigation of the face stability of shallow tunnels in sand

Ansgar Kirsch
ILF Consulting Engineers, Rum/Innsbruck, Austria

ABSTRACT: Tunnels with low cover are often headed using the shield technique. In this context the face
stability is an important issue. The tunnel face must be supported in order to minimise settlements on the ground
surface in front of the tunnel and to prevent failure of the soil ahead of the face. Still, the mechanisms that occur
during face collapse are not completely understood.
In this paper a numerical study of the given problem with finite elements will be presented. Different material
models, such as a simple elasto-plastic with Mohr-Coulomb failure criterion and a hypoplastic model, were
investigated with respect to their ability to model the collapse of a tunnel face.
The numerical results were compared to experimental results that were obtained with small-scale experiments
at single gravity. The observed necessary support pressure and incremental displacements were predicted suffi-
ciently well by both constitutive models. Moreover, the numerical results were compared to the predictions of
some chosen theoretical models that are in use in engineering practice. Good agreement was achieved with an
upper bound solution by Lca/Dormieux and an empirical equation by Vermeer/Ruse.

1 INTRODUCTION

The face stability of shallow tunnels (cf. Fig. 1) must

be guaranteed to minimise settlements at the ground
surface and to prevent an uncontrolled collapse of the
soil ahead of the tunnel. For this reason, a necessary
support pressure, pf , must be prescribed for slurry and
EPB shield machines, which needs to counteract water
and earth pressure with a sufficient safety margin. For
the determination of pf theoretical models as well as
laboratory investigations and numerical calculations
have been published.
The theoretical approaches can be subdivided
into kinematic approaches with failure mechanisms
(e.g. Horn [10] and variations [1, 2, 19], Krause [17],
Lca and Dormieux [18] and derivations [22]) and
static approaches with admissible stress fields (e.g. Figure 1. Tunnel geometry.
Lca and Dormieux [18], Atkinson and Potts [3]).
Some additional approaches are neither purely kine-
matic nor purely static (Kolymbas [16], Balthaus [4]). results the authors derived an empirical equation for
A number of numerical studies of the face stabil- the determination of pf .
ity of shallow tunnels have been performed, mainly A two-dimensional discrete element model was
with three-dimensional finite element calculations applied by Kamata and Mashimo [11] to analyse face
(e.g. Schubert and Schweiger [21], Sterpi and Cividini stability, thus modelling the soil as a discontinuous
[23], Mayer et al. [21] and Chaffois et al. [5]). medium.
Ruse andVermeer [20, 24] also investigated the nec- To assess the quality of proposed models for face
essary support pressure for the face of shallow tunnels stability analysis, the author performed two series of
with finite elements, making use of a linear elastic, per- small-scale model experiments, which are described
fectly plastic constitutive model with a Mohr-Coulomb briefly in section 2 and in detail in Kirsch [12, 13].
failure condition for the soil. From their numerical Moreover, a numerical study with finite elements
served to study the given problem. A simple elasto-
plastic model with Mohr-Coulomb failure criterion
Formerly: Division of Geotechnical und Tunnel Engineer-
ing, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria and a hypoplastic model were investigated with respect

779
Figure 2. Box and model tunnel for the first series of
experiments. Figure 3. Box and model tunnel for the second set of
experiments.

to the following task: to predict the displacement

pattern and the necessary support pressure for face
stability analyses.
For all calculations the commercial software
Abaqus/Standard was used. The performed sandbox
experiments offered the opportunity to compare the
simulation results of the two material models not
only with each other, but also with the results of the
laboratory experiments.

2 SETUP OF THE PHYSICAL MODEL

For the sake of clarity, the authors 1g-experiments,

which served as one reference for the numerical study,
are briefly desribed. In a first series of experiments the
evolution of failure mechanisms in dense and loose
sand with different overburden was investigated, mak-
ing use of Particle Image Velocimetry. The resulting
support force on the tunnel face was studied in a second
series of experiments.
The first series of experiments was conducted
in a model box (Fig. 2) with inner dimensions
37.2 28.0 41.0 (width depth height in cm).
The outer frame was made of steel, bottom and side
walls wooden, and the front wall was 1 cm thick hard-
ened glass. Thus, the soil grains adjacent to the glass
wall could be observed throughout the test.
The problem was modelled in half; therefore, the
tunnel was represented by a half-cylinder of perspex,
with an inner diameter of 10.0 cm and a wall thickness
of 0.4 cm. This model tunnel protruded 7.0 cm into the
soil domain, and its axis lay approx. 8.0 cm above the
bottom of the sandbox. An aluminium piston was fitted
into the tunnel to support the soil.
In the second series the geometry of the experi-
ment was slightly modified to model the full problem.
Therefore, the tunnel was modelled with a hollow alu-
minium cylinder with an inner diameter of 10 cm and
the same wall thickness of 0.4 cm (Fig. 3).
The face of the model tunnel was supported by an
aluminium disk with a slightly smaller diameter than
the inner diameter of the tunnel (Dpiston = 9.8 cm). The
piston rod was supported by a linear roller bearing,
embedded in the side wall. The rod made contact with
a miniature load cell that was mounted on a sliding
carriage on the outside of the side wall. The carriage
could be moved by turning a knob (Fig. 4).
Figure 4. Carriage construction with load cell, goniometer
and turning knob.
The experiments were performed displacement-
controlled: by incrementally retracting the carriage,
and thus the piston, the failure of the tunnel face was
triggered. The load cell measured the resulting force
exerted by the ground on the piston. All tests were
performed with dry quartz sand with grain diameters
between 0.1 and 2.0 mm. In a parametric study the
cover-to-diameter ratio C/D and the initial density Id
were varied.
3 MATERIAL MODELS
The applied constitutive models will briefly be
described in the following, together with informa-
tion about the model calibration. The loose sandbox
experiments served as reference for the numerical sim-
ulations, because shear localisation was expected to
play a minor role. Thus, regularisation was avoided.
3.1 Mohr-Coulomb
A linear elastic, perfectly plastic material model with a
Mohr-Coulomb failure criterion was applied as a sim-
ple elasto-plastic model. Despite its simplicity it is still
one of the most commonly applied material models in
engineering practice. Moreover, it has been shown that
it performs well for the calculation of ultimate limit
states (e.g. [6]). The Mohr-Coulomb (MC) model

780
Table 1. Applied material parameters.
Mohr-Coulomb model (MC)
E c
440/825/1190 kPa 0.31 34 0.005 kPa 2
Hypoplastic model (HYPO)
c hs n ed0 ec0 ei0
32 1000 MPa 0.30 0.42 0.75 0.76 0.10 2.25
requires five parameters:Youngs modulus E and Pois-
sons ratio describe the material behaviour in the
elastic domain. The friction angle , cohesion c and
dilation angle govern the plastic behaviour of the
material. The elastoplastic Mohr-Coulomb model is
implemented in Abaqus.
3.2 Hypoplasticity
To make realistic predictions for the deformation char-
acteristics, the consideration of basic soil behaviour,
such as dilatancy, different stiffnesses for loading and
unloading, dependence on stress level and others,
is essential (e.g. [8]). These requirements are ful-
filled by the applied hypoplastic model (HYPO):
Hypoplastic models are formulated as non-linear ten-
sorial equations of the rate type (evolution equations),
i.e. the stress rate is expressed in terms of strain rate,
actual stress state and void ratio. The equations are
incrementally non-linear and hold, equally, for load-
ing and unloading. Moreover, the applied hypoplas-
tic formulation takes pressure level and density into
account.
An overview of the derivation and features of
hypoplastic models was given by Kolymbas [14, 15].
The author applied the version of von Wolffersdorff
[25] for his simulations.
Hypoplasticity requires eight input parameters:
void ratios at zero stress level, ei0 , ec0 and ed0 , critical
friction angle c , granular hardness hs and exponents
, and n. These parameters are assumed insensitive
to pressure or density and can easily be determined
from simple laboratory and index tests [9].
Hypoplasticity is not implemented in Abaqus. It
can be incorporated via a user-defined subroutine
(UMAT), though. For the present study, a UMAT
by Fellin and Ostermann [7] was used, which pro-
vides error-controlled time integration of constitutive
models in rate form.
3.3 Calibration
Both models were calibrated for Ottendorf-Okrilla
sand, a material which was used in the authors exper-
imental campaign. The material parameters for both
models are summarised in Tab. 1; they were quanti-
fied with back-calculations of element tests (triaxial,
oedometer and index tests).
The Mohr-Coulomb parameters were carefully
adapted to the low stress levels prevailing in the
sandbox models. Moreover, a Youngs modulus E for
unloading was used, because the ground was predom-
inantly relieved of pressure by the failure of the tunnel
face. As the stress level varies with overburden, Tab. 1
lists three values for E corresponding to the respective
C/D = 0.5 . . . 1.5.
As the loose experiments were performed with
densities Id = 0.27 . . . 0.33 (corresponding to void
ratios e between 0.64 and 0.66), the self-weight of the
soil was set to = 16.0 kN/m3 (e0 = 0.65, Id = 0.3).
Further information about calibration is given by
Kirsch [12].
4 SETUP OF THE NUMERICAL MODEL
The simulation of the sandbox tests included a pre-
liminary parametric study for the numerical model:
as a first step, three different modelling procedures
for the given problem were tested with both, the
Mohr-Coulomb and the hypoplastic model. Then, the
numerical configuration of the favoured procedure,
e.g. time and space discretisation, element type and
integration schemes, was varied. Finally, a mesh study
served to assess the influence of the finite element
mesh on the results of the simulations.
The author finally favoured the follwing setup of
the numerical model:
4.1 Geometry and boundary conditions
The spatial discretisation of the numerical model was
chosen in accordance with the performed experiments,
obeying recommendations by Ruse [20] (Fig. 5a). The
systems symmetry was accounted for.
On the symmetry plane displacements in 2-
direction were prohibited, same as on the back of the
model (Fig. 5b). Displacements in 1-direction were
restricted on the left and right planes, whereas the
bottom boundary was fixed in vertical direction.
The tunnel lining was considered rigid and rough.
Therefore, the nodes on the tunnel perimeter were
fixed in all directions. In agreement with the experi-
mental investigation, the construction process was not
modelled, i.e. the tunnel was wished-in-place.
4.2 Mesh
The preliminary investigation revealed that the mesh
size had the biggest influence on the numerical predic-
tions of the necessary support pressure ND . The soil
was finally modelled with a total of 3829 elements
(Fig. 6) with 52395 degrees of freedom. Twenty-noded
brick elements with quadratic interpolation functions
and reduced integration were used.
4.3 Analysis steps
In the laboratory experiments, the failure of the face
was triggered by retracting a piston into the model
tunnel. Therefore, the piston was modelled as indepen-
dent part. The piston had linear elastic properties, with
a stiffness roughly five orders of magnitude higher
781

Figure 5. Size and boundary conditions of the FE model.
Figure 6. Finite element mesh.
than the soil stiffness. The diameter of the piston was
slightly smaller than the tunnel diameter. Piston and
soil interacted via a contact law, which allowed for
separation of the elements. The contact between piston
and soil was assumed frictionless.
In the initial analysis step the piston front was
aligned with the front of the tunnel. Subsequently,
782
Figure 7. Load-displacement curves for a variation of C/D
(range of experimental results shaded in grey).
the displacement of the piston in 1-direction was pre-
scribed. In agreement with the laboratory experiments,
increments of 0.25 mm were used for each analysis
step.
4.4 Evaluation criteria
The numerically predicted (dimensionless) support
pressure ND = pf /( D) and the development of p
vs. piston displacement s served as main evaluation
criterion for the comparison of different model con-
figurations. In addition, the incremental displacements
in the plane of symmetry served as a criterion for the
comparison of the finite element calculations with the
laboratory experiments.
5 RESULTS AND INTERPRETATION
5.1 Results
The performed sandbox experiments with loose sand
were simulated, varying the cover-to-diameter ratio
between 0.5 and 1.5. The resulting load-displacement
curves for a variation of C/D and both material models
are shown in Fig. 7.
All curves drop to approximately the same residual
value of ND 0.10 after sufficient displacement of the
piston.
For the chosen input parameters and model config-
uration, the overburden C/D and the material model
only have a marginal influence on the resulting ND
(Tab. 2).
Plots of incremental displacement for an advance
step from 0.25 to 0.50 mm (Fig. 8) reveal a small differ-
ence between the Mohr-Coulomb and the hypoplastic
model: although both models predict soil movements
up to the ground surface, the magnitude of incremen-
tal displacements in the failure zone is smaller for the
Mohr-Coulomb calculation.
The result for the Mohr-Coulomb simulation for C/D = 1.5
was taken at a piston advance of 1.0 mm.
Table 2. Computation times and predicted ND values. probably due to the fact that the kinematics of the prob-
lem are slightly different, if the soil is allowed to bulge
Mohr-Coulomb Hypoplasticity into the tunnel. There is also a good agreement with the
theoretical model by Lca and Dormieux [18], which
Comput. Comput.
predicts a value of ND = 0.0903.
C/D time (h) ND time (h) ND
Sterpi and Cividini [23] modelled the problem with
0.5 1.18 0.103 28.14 0.098 a strain softening material model. They found that
1.0 2.23 0.100 37.08 0.095 neglecting strain softening, as with the Mohr-Coulomb
1.5 92.41 0.099 118.71 0.098 model, led to an underestimation of displacements.
This statement is in agreement with the obtained pat-
terns of incremental displacements for the two applied
models (Fig. 8).
For the simulations with hypoplasticity there are
no published references. But the coincidence between
predictions for ND with both material models is
remarkable.
The results of both the Mohr-Coulomb and the
hypoplastic model are in good quantitative agreement
with the measured support pressures (shaded in grey
in Fig. 7).
The numerically obtained ND 0.10 value is
roughly 10% smaller than the mean ND 0.11 from
the laboratory experiments. A reason for this might be
that the applied mesh (Fig. 6) is still not fine enough.
Still it allowed to perform the parametric study in
practicable computation times.

6 CONCLUSION

The numerical study has shown that both models are

capable of predicting the necessary support pressure
sufficiently well. Also the resulting displacement pat-
tern match the experimental observations well, with
some advantages for the hypoplastic model.
The Mohr-Coulomb model might seem easier to
grasp, but the calibration procedure is error-prone: the
expected loading history of the soil, its density and
the stress level need to be considered correctly. The
hypoplastic model, in contrast, has the advantage that
a single set of input parameters is sufficient for one
type of soil. The effects of density and stress level
on the strength of the material are incorporated in the
model by means of the state parameter e. But, there is a
price for this capacity: the finite element calculations
with hypoplasticity lasted about 25 times longer than
the Mohr-Coulomb calculations.
Figure 8. Plots of incremental displacements for a piston
advance from 0.25 to 0.50 mm for C/D = 1.0.
REFERENCES
5.2 Interpretation
[1] Anagnostou G. and Kovri K. (1992), Ein Beitrag
The obtained load-displacement curves for the Mohr- zur Statik der Ortsbrust beim Hydroschildvortrieb, in
Coulomb calculations are in good qualitative agree- Symposium 92, Probleme bei maschinellenTunnelvor-
ment with results published by Ruse [20]. In both trieben?, Gertehersteller und Anwender berichten.
investigations, no influence of C/D on the necessary [2] Anagnostou G. and Kovri K. (1996), Face Stabil-
ity Conditions with Earth-Pressure-Balanced Shields,
support pressure was observed. Tunnelling and Underground SpaceTechnology, 11(2):
The absolute value for ND is slightly smaller than pp. 165173.
predicted by Ruses empirical formula: for = 34 , [3] Atkinson J.H. and Potts D.M. (1977), Stability of a shal-
ND = 0.1147. Reason for this might be that Ruse low circular tunnel in cohesionless soil, Gotechnique,
triggered the face-collapse load-controlled. This is 27(2): pp. 203215.

783
 [4] Balthaus H. (1988), Standsicherheit der flssigkeits-
gesttzten Ortsbrust bei schildvorgetriebenen Tunneln,
in Festschrift H. Duddeck, Institut fr Statik der
Technischen Universitt Braunschweig, pp. 477492,
Springer, Berlin.
[5] Chaffois S., Laral P., Monnet J. and Chapeau C.
(1988), Study of tunnel face in a gravel site, in Proc.
6th Int. Conf. on Numerical Methods in Geomechanics,
Innsbruck (ed. G. Swoboda), vol. 3, pp. 14931498.
[6] de Borst R. and Vermeer P. (1984), Possibilities and
Limitations of Finite Elements for Limit Analysis,
Gotechnique, 34(2): pp. 199210.
[7] Fellin W. and Ostermann A. (2002), Consistent tangent
operators for constitutive rate equations, Int. J. Numer.
Anal. Methods Geomech., 26: pp. 12131233.
[8] Hejazi Y., Dias D. and Kastner R. (2008), Impact
of constitutive models on the numerical analysis of
underground constructions, Acta Geotechnica, 3: pp.
251258.
[9] Herle I. (1997), Hypoplastizitt und Granulometrie
einfacher Korngerste, No. 142 in Verffentlichungen
des Institutes fr Bodenmechanik und Felsmechanik
der Universitt Karlsruhe.
[10] Horn M. (1961), Horizontaler Erddruck auf senkrechte
Abschlussflchen vonTunneln, in Landeskonferenz der
ungarischen Tiefbauindustrie (German translation by
STUVA, Dsseldorf).
[11] Kamata H. and Mashimo H. (2003), Centrifuge model
test of tunnel face reinforcement by bolting, Tunnelling
and Underground Space Technology, 18: pp. 205212.
[12] Kirsch A. (2009), On the face stability of shallow tun-
nels in sand, No. 16 in Advances in Geotechnical
Engineering and Tunnelling, Logos, Berlin.
[13] Kirsch A. (2010), Experimental investigation of the
face stability of shallow tunnels in sand, Acta Geotech-
nica, accepted for publication.
[14] Kolymbas D. (1977), A rate-dependent constitutive
equation for soils, Mech. Res. Comm., 4: pp. 367372.
[15] Kolymbas D. (2000), Introduction to hypoplasticity,
No. 1 in Advances in Geotechnical Engineering and
Tunnelling, Balkema, Rotterdam.
784
[16] Kolymbas D. (2005),Tunnelling andTunnelMechanics,
Springer, Berlin.
[17] Krause T. (1987), Schildvortriebmit flssigkeitsund
erdgesttzter Ortsbrust, No. 24 in Mitteilung des
Instituts fr Grundbau und Bodenmechanik der Tech-
nischen Universitt Braunschweig.
[18] Leca E. and Dormieux L. (1990), Upper and lower
bound solutions for the face stability of shallow circu-
lar tunnels in frictional material, Gotechnique, 40(4):
pp. 581606.
[19] Mayer P.M., Hartwig U. and Schwab C. (2003),
Standsicherheitsuntersuchungen der Ortsbrust mittles
Bruchkrpermodell und FEM, Bautechnik, 80: pp.
452467.
[20] Ruse N.M. (2004), Rumliche Betrachtung der Stand-
sicherheit der Ortsbrust beim Tunnelvortrieb, No.
51 in Mitteilungen des Instituts fr Geotechnik der
Universitt Stuttgart.
[21] Schubert P. and Schweiger H.F. (2004), Zur Stand-
sicherheit der Ortsbrust in Lockerbden, in Proc. ISRM
regional symposium EUROCK 2004 and 53rd Geome-
chanics Colloquium, October 79, 2004, Salzburg,
Austria (ed. W. Schubert), pp. 99104.
[22] Soubra A.H. (2000), Three-dimensional face stabil-
ity analysis of shallow circular tunnels, in Int. Conf.
on Geotechnical and Geological Engineering, Mel-
bourne, Australia, November 1924, pp. 16.
[23] Sterpi D. and Cividini A. (2004), A Physical and
Numerical Investigation on the Stability of Shallow
Tunnels in Strain Softening Media, Rock Mech. and
Rock Engng., 37(4): pp. 277298.
[24] Vermeer P.A., Ruse N.M. and Marcher T. (2002), Tunnel
heading stability in drained ground, Felsbau, 20(6):
pp. 818.
[25] von Wolffersdorff P.A. (1996), A hypoplastic relation
for granular materials with a predefined limit state sur-
face, Mechanics of Cohesive-Frictional Materials, 1:
pp. 251271.
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Numerical modeling of a bolt-reinforced tunnel in a fractured ground

E. Seyedi Hosseininia
Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran

E. Bourgeois & A. Pouya

Universit Paris Est, LCPC-MSRGI, France

ABSTRACT: During the drilling of galleries in the deep underground laboratory of ANDRA in Meuse Haute
Marne, it has been observed that the excavation process created in the surrounding ground fractures with very
specific shapes. A research programme was undertaken to model the mechanical behaviour of the fractured zone
and the influence of radial bolts on the ground deformation around the galleries. For simplicity, the tunnel section
is assumed to be circular and the problem is analyzed in axisymmetric mode. An original approach was used, that
combines two homogenization procedures, to account for the role of the fractures and of the bolts. This approach
was implemented in the finite element code CESAR-LCPC. Computations give larger wall displacements if
fractures are taken into account, and show that the most efficient way to reduce wall convergence is to place
bolts perpendicular to the axis of tunnel, regardless of the inclination of fractures.

1 INTRODUCTION

In finite element simulations of tunnelling in rock

masses, it is often assumed that the ground behaviour is
homogeneous and isotropic. However, discontinuities
of the rock mass can induce anisotropic deformabil-
ity properties. Since it remains difficult to deal with a
large number of fractures in a numerical model, it is
worth using an equivalent anisotropic model for the
fractured ground.
In practice, the stability of deep underground exca-
vation is improved by means of bolts placed in the
tunnel walls. Since bolts are placed in an ordered
manner, the reinforced zone can be modelled using
a homogenisation approach too.
In the present paper, the process of drilling a tunnel
through a fractured ground, whose walls are reinforced
by bolts, is modelled by a general finite element code.
Two homogenization procedures are used to account
for the role of the fractures and of the bolts. The paper
presents a preliminary parametric study of the influ-
ence on wall convergence of the orientation of the
fractures and of the direction in which bolts are placed.
Analyses are carried out in axisymetric condition.
2 MODELLING OF FRACTURED GROUND
During the drilling of galleries in the deep under-
ground laboratory of ANDRA in Meuse Haute Marne
(France), it was observed that the excavation process
resulted in the creation of fractures in the vicinity of the
galleries. Fractures show a complex three-dimensional
Figure 1. Geometry of fractures with chevron shape ; (a)
vertical plane parallel to the tunnel axis, (b) horizontal plane,
(c) vertical plane orthogonal to the axis.
shape, and form a network of discontinuities more or
less uniformly distributed along the axis of the tunnel,
illustrated on Figure 1 by three plane sections. It is not
our purpose to explain the fracture pattern here, but it
reflects :
a complex initial behaviour of the ground (includ-
ing material anisotropy),
the anisotropy of the initial stress field (obser-
vations show that the geometry of the fractures
depends on the direction of the gallery axis),
and of the excavation technique itself.
Unfortunately, it is very difficult to get undisturbed
samples to improve the understanding of the rock
behaviour.
In what follows, an equivalent anisotropic model is
used for the fractured zone. It is assumed that the shape
of fractures can be simplified as conical, as shown in
Figure 2.
For the initial intact ground, the elasticperfectly
plastic Drucker Prager model is applied with a lin-
ear and isotropic elasticity. As a preliminary step, it

785

Figure 2. Simplified geometry: fractures are replaced by
cones (having the same axis as the tunnel).
Figure 3. (a) Multi-layered system; (b) unit vector n.
is assumed that the fractures change the elastic char-
acteristics of the ground, but the strength remains the
same as that of the intact ground. An homogenization
procedure makes it possible to replace the fractured
discontinuous ground by a continuum with equivalent
anisotropic elastic properties.
In order to derive the elastic tensor behaviour, the
fractured medium is considered in a first step as the
superposition of homogeneous layers separated by
plane of finite but small thickness joints. For layers
perpendicular to the z-axis (Figure 3a), the equivalent
compliance matrix of the system is calculated. In a sec-
ond step, one takes into account the local orientation
of the fracture by replacing the z-axis by the direction
og the unit vector n perpendicular to the plane tangent
to the cones in a global coordinate system as shown
in Figure 3b. Four parameters mentioned below are
added to the existing Drucker Prager model in order
to consider the fractures:
normal stiffness of fractures, kn
tangential stiffness of fractures, kt
distance between two successive fractures, D
angle of orientation of fractures, which is equal to
the angle between the axis of symmetry and the
plane tangent to the conical fracture, .
As a consequence, the stress-strain relationship for
the fractured material is given by:
where:
786
Denoting by E and the Young modulus and Pois-
sons ratio of intact material, respectively, parameters
in equation (2) are given by:
with
3 MODELLING OF REINFORCED GROUND
The role of the bolts is taken into account by means
of the so-called multiphase model introduced for rein-
forced materials by de Buhan and Sudret (2000). The
framework is an extension of classical homogenization
methods. In this model, the whole medium consti-
tuted by a ground mass and the bolts it contains
is represented by two continuous superposed media
(or phases), one representing the ground and the
other standing for inclusions. In other words, there
are, in every geometrical point, two material particles
in mutual mechanical interaction. Different kinematic
fields are associated with each phase, and the model
includes a description of the mechanical interaction
between them (Bennis and de Buhan, 2003). The over-
all properties of the equivalent material are elastically
and plastically anisotropic. In the present study, the
interaction between phases is described as a perfect
bonding.
4 CASE STUDY AND NUMERICAL MODEL
The present case study includes the process of drilling
a 5-meter diameter gallery with a length of 25 m. The
tunnel is drilled in ten successive steps. The ground is
isotropic prior to drilling. However, the drilling process
generates fractures in the ground around the gallery.
The extent of the fractured zone is assumed to be 2 m
beyond the wall and 2.5 m ahead of the tunnel face.
The tunnel is supposed to be excavated at a depth
of 75 m with an isotropic (K0 = 1) initial stress state
( = 1.5 MPa).
The problem is dealt with in axisymmetric condi-
tion The problem is simulated by a research version
of the finite element code CESAR-LCPC, in which
both homogenization techniques are implemented.
The dimension of the mesh used for the problem is
35 m by 55 m. All elements are quadratic. Far from
the tunnel, triangular elements are used; however,
quadrangular elements are used around the excavated
zone.

Figure 4. Modelling sequence of tunnel drilling.
Figure 5. Definition of angles and .
For each step of drilling, the simulation of construc-
tion process consists of (Figure 4):
deactivating the zone to be excavated,
introducing boundary forces representing the
forces applied by the excavated zone,
associating the fractured model with the ground in
front of the tunnel face,
associating the combination of the fractured model
and the multiphase model to the ground next to the
wall in the excavated zone.
The constitutive law for the ground is described by
the Drucker-Prager model with E = 50 MPa, = 0.35,
= 30 degrees, = 20 degrees.
For the fractured ground, additional parameters are:
kn = 50 MPa/m, kt = 5 MPa/m, D = 0.2 m.
For the opening of the cones that represent the
fractures, computations were made for six values of
the angle between the vertical plane containing
the tunnel axis and the plane tangent to the cones:
= 60, 45, 30,+30,+45 and +55 degrees.
Bolts are assumed to be elastic, made of steel
(Youngs modulus Eb = 210 GPa), with a diameter of
25 mm. The density of bolts is taken equal to 1 bolt per
square meter of tunnel wall. Three values were stud-
ied for the angle between the tunnel axis and bolt
direction = 30, 60, and 90 degrees. The schematic
definition of and angles is presented in Figure 5.
Figure 6. Variation of convergence of wall tunnel along the
tunnel axis (non-reinforced ground).
5 RESULTS
The results of analyses are presented in terms of tunnel
convergence (i.e. of radial displacements of the tunnel
wall) along the axis.
5.1 Effect of fracturing
Figure 6 compares the convergences obtained for a
non-reinforced tunnel with different directions of frac-
tures. It is found that displacements are larger in a
fractured rock mass than in an intact ground, but it is
not possible to establish a simple relationship between
the convergence and the fractures inclination.
On the other hand, convergences obtained with
= +30 and = 30 are obtained very close to
those obtained with = 60 and +55 , respec-
tively. It is more obvious especially for distances far
from the tunnel face.
5.2 Effect of bolting
The calculated tunnel convergence is presented for dif-
ferent bolting directions ( = 30, 60, and 90 degrees)
for all cases of fractured ground in Figure 7. It is very
interesting to observe that the inclination of fracturing
has no effect on the optimized direction of bolting. The
more inclined the bolts, the smaller the convergence.
In other words, the best way of stabilizing the radial
wall displacement is to place the bolts perpendicular to
the tunnel axis, regardless the inclination of fractured
ground around the tunnel.
6 CONCLUSION
The generation of fractures during tunnelling and the
reinforcement of the wall can be modelled using a
combination of homogenization procedures. Numer-
ical simulations show that the wall convergence is
larger in a fractured ground than in an intact ground
and that the best way of reinforcing the tunnel wall
is to place the bolts perpendicular to the tunnel axis,
regardless the inclination of fractures. In other words,
787
Figure 7. Variation of convergence of wall tunnel along the tunnel axis (fractured and reinforced ground).
anisotropy in the ground around the excavated zone
has no effect on the pattern of bolting. It is important
to recall that in the models used here, anisotropy is only
taken into account for the elastic part of the behavior
of the fractured ground: the influence of fractures on
plastic properties will be considered in future studies.
Besides, results presented here only reflect numeri-
cal analyses and should be confirmed by comparisons
with in situ observations.
788
REFERENCES
de Buhan, P. & Sudret, B. 2000. Micropolar multiphase model
for materials reinforced by linear inclusions, Eur. J. Mech.,
A/Solids, 19: 669689.
Bennis, M. & de Buhan, P. 2003. A multiphase constitutive
model of reinforced soils accounting for soil-inclusion
interaction behavior, Mathematical and Computer Mod-
elling, 37(56): 469475.
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

On the effects of modelling gap closure and assumed soil

behavior on the FE predictions of ground movements
induced by tunneling in soft clay

C. Miriano
Universit degli Studi G. Marconi and DISG, Sapienza Universit di Roma, Rome, Italy

C. Tamagnini
Dipartimento di Ingegneria Civile e Ambientale, Universit degli Studi di Perugia, Perugia, Italy

ABSTRACT: In this work, the effects of two key aspects of simplified 2d FE analyses of tunnel excavation
in clays namely, the simulation of TBM tunnel driving and the assumed constitutive model for the soil are
investigated with particular reference to the prediction of ground movements induced by the excavation. The
technique proposed for the simulation of the tunnel face advancement can be considered an improvement of
the method originally developed by Lee et al (1992). Here, the original methodology is extended to take into
account the possibility of a nonuniform gap closure around the tunnel lining, giving rise to the ovalization of
the originally circular tunnel section. As for the constitutive modelling of the excavated soil, Modified Cam-clay
model has been compared with an hypoplastic model for clays, recently developed by Man The Lower Market
Street tunnel has been reanalyzed, comparing the predictions obtained with the proposed modelling technique
and the hypoplastic soil model with those provided by standard approaches. The results of the simulations indicate
that both the tunnel ovalization and the use of the hypoplastic model lead to a significant improvement in the
predicted ground movements and potential damage on surrounding structures.

1 INTRODUCTION The particular choice of the two aforementioned

The FE simulation of tunneling represents an interest-
ing benchmark for the constitutive framework adopted
to describe soil behavior. In fact, the imposed stress
paths are strongly nonproportional and characterized
by significant changes in both magnitude and direc-
tion, in the different zones of soil surrounding the
excavation (crown, invert and springlines).
In order to investigate this aspect of the numerical
modelling process, two inelastic soil models namely,
the Modified Camclay model (MCC, Roscoe and
Burland 1968), and a recently developed hypoplas-
tic model for clays (HMC, Man 2005) have been
used to simulate the excavation of a circular tunnel
in soft clays. The Lower Market Street tunnel, driven
in the S. Francisco Bay mud, for which displace-
ments measured during the construction process have
been provided by Kuesel (1972), has been reanalyzed.
The MCC model is a classical isotropic hardening
elastoplastic model for clays, currently available in
the material libraries of most widely used FE codes.
The HMC model, developed within the framework of
the theory of hypoplasticity, is a nonlinear inelastic
model for clays characterized by the lack of a large
elastic domain, and by the continuous dependence of
the tangent stiffness on the direction of the loading
path.
model is motivated by the following reasons: i) both
MCC and HMC incorporate in their mathematical for-
mulation the basic concepts of Critical State Mechan-
ics and, for this reason, share a large number of
material constants (e.g., the slopes of the CSL and
of logarithmic compression curves); ii) they can be
calibrated from the same set of conventional labora-
tory tests; iii) the mathematical structure of the HMC
model is sufficiently simple to allow a straightforward
implementation in commercial FE codes.
A rational approach to the FE simulation of the
complex activities taking place around the advancing
shield during tunnelling operations should in princi-
ple be based on the use of large scale 3d models. Such
an approach is nowadays fortunately made possible
by current advances in digital computers and numeri-
cal algorithms. However, the availability of simplified
twodimensional approaches for modelling the effects
of the excavation is still of great practical value in
tunnel design. This is particularly true when signifi-
cant changes in tunnel geometry, soil conditions and
groundwater regime are expected to occur along the
tunnel axis, thus requiring a frequent update of the
numerical model. Moreover, a twodimensional, plane
strain approach is ideally suited for a unified modelling
of both short and longterm effects of the excavation.
In fact, the consolidation process, induced in clayey

789
soils by the development of excess pore pressures, usu-
ally takes place long after the front of the excavation
has passed the section under examination, and a full
3d analysis is therefore unnecessary.
In this work, the simple, yet effective, numerical
technique proposed by Tamagnini et al. (2005) to sim-
ulate shield tunnelling under plane strain conditions
has been adopted. This technique, based on a mod-
ification of the socalled gap closure approach of
Lee et al. (1992), allows to take into account both the
effects of the volume loss at the tunnel face and of
tunnel section ovalization, by imposing a nonuniform
gap closure. The importance of tunnel ovalization on
the predicted displacement field has been evaluated by
comparing the results of FE simulations run with and
without ovalization with the available measurements
for the Lower Market Street tunnel.
2 THE MODELS CONSIDERED
The classical MCC model is thoroughly discussed in
many textbooks, see e.g., Wood (1990), and the reader
is referred to them for further details on it. In the
present work, we have adopted the standard imple-
mentation provided in the FE code ABAQUS Standard
(v6.4, ABAQUS 2002).
The HMC model has been developed by Man
(2005), starting from the basic principles of Critical
State soil mechanics. Its constitutive equations pos-
sess the classical structure of hypoplastic constitutive
equations:
Closed form expressions for the two tensors L()
and N (), as well as for the barotropy function
fs (p) and the pyknotropy function fd (p, e) have been
obtained by Man (2005) adopting the bilogarith-
mic compression laws of Butterfield (1979), as well
as the elliptic yield surface and the CS locus of the
MCC model. The details of the constitutive equa-
tions are provided by Man (2005) and are not
repeated here. The HMC model is capable of repro-
ducing such aspects of clay behaviour as pressure
dependent stiffness (barotropy); historydependent
behavior (pyknotropy); existence of a critical state con-
dition; contractant/dilatant behaviour related to stress
state and to loading history.
To improve the model response at small strain lev-
els and upon cyclic loading conditions, the version of
the HMC model used in this work is an extended ver-
sion, equipped with a tensorial internal variable the
socalled intergranular strain (Niemunis and Herle
1997) which preserves the memory of the previous
deformation history.
For the FE simulation of the tunnel excavation,
the HMC model has been implemented in the FE
code ABAQUS Standard, using an explicit, adaptive
stress point algorithm with error control, based on
RungeKutta explicit schemes of 2nd and 3rd order,
respectively. See Miriano (2008) for details.
790
Figure 1. Virtual temperature change imposed to simulate
a nonuniform gap closure along the excavation boundary.
3 SIMULATION OF TBM TUNNEL DRIVING
The technique proposed for the 2d FE simulation of
the advancement of the tunnel face can be considered
an improvement of the method originally proposed by
Lee et al. 1992, based on the concept of volume loss.
A key point of this approach is the idea of modelling
the volume loss at the face and at the tail of the shield
by reducing the initial diameter of the excavation, D0 ,
by a quantity G, called gap parameter.
Although simple and physically appealing, this
approach is not completely satisfactory, as available
experimental evidence suggests that the deformations
occurring at the tunnel boundary induce not only a
reduction of its size, but also of his shape (tunnel
ovalization, see e.g. Sagaseta 1998).
Among the factors associated with current shield
tunnelling practice which may induce tunnel ovaliza-
tion, we recall: i) the practice of driving the tunnel with
the TBM axis slightly inclined upwards, to prevent the
effects of its self weight; ii) the deformation of the tun-
nel lining due to selfweight, during the erection stage;
iii) the nonuniform filling of the tail void during tail
grouting if employed. All the aforementioned effects
are likely to produce, for a given amount of volume
loss, vertical ground movements at the crown which
are larger than the gap parameter G, as defined by Lee
et al. 1992.
In order to take such effects into account, the pro-
cedure adopted in this work after Tamagnini et al.
(2005) allows to prescribe both the volume loss and
the degree of ovalization, by imposing nonuniform
tangential displacements to the shield elements after
their installation. In particular, the closure of the
gap around the excavation boundary is simulated by
imposing a virtual temperature change to the struc-
tural elements representing the shield, for which a
fictitious coefficient of thermal expansion is assumed.
Tamagnini et al. (2005) have shown that a realistic
displacement pattern around the tunnel boundary can
be obtained by prescribing a sinusoidal temperature
change along the shield perimeter (see figure 1).
The amount of tunnel ovalization is quantified by
the dimensionless factor := a/b, where 2a and 2b
represent the tunnel dimensions measured after the
gap closure in the horizontal and vertical directions,
respectively. In practice, due the above mentioned

Figure 2. Soil profile at the instrumented section.
construction details affecting the spatial distribution
of the displacements due to the gap closure, a value of
> 1 is generally to be expected.
Given the total volume loss Vl and the tunnel oval-
ization after the gap closure, , the two constants T0
and A defining the virtual temperature change field to
be imposed on the shield elements can be easily deter-
mined (see Tamagnini et al. 2005). Note the method
of Lee et al. 1992 is recovered as a particular case for
A = 0.
4 THE LOWER MARKET STREET TUNNEL
The constitutive models mentioned in Sect 2 have been
used to simulate the excavation of the Lower Mar-
ket Street tunnel in S. Francisco, using the technique
discussed in the previous Sect. 3.
The Lower Market Street tunnel is a part of the Bay
Area Rapid Transit (BART) system in San Francisco.
It is a 5.65 m diameter circular tunnel, excavated in a
very soft, normally consolidated clay, the San Fran-
cisco Bay Mud. The details of the project are reported
in Kuesel 1972. During the excavation, a monitoring
program was undertaken to check the ground displace-
ment induced by tunnelling operations. The ground
movements reported by Rowe and Kack 1983, relative
to one of the instrumented sections, are considered in
the following.
The soil profile at the instrumented section com-
prises a 33 m thick layer of San Francisco Bay Mud,
underlain by a layer of dense fine sand, 6 m thick, and
by a 30 m thick layer of soft silt and clay (see Fig. 2).
The bedrock is found at 69 m below the ground sur-
face. At the instrumented section, the tunnel depth at
springline is 19 m, with a depth to diameter ratio of
3.4. The groundwater table is located approximately
at the ground surface.
791
Figure 3. FE discretization adopted in the simulations.
5 THE FE MODEL
As the tunnel was excavated in a clay soil and the
coupling between the solid skeleton and pore water
is expected to play a major role in the evaluation of the
displacement field associated to the excavation pro-
cess and its evolution with time, the FE analyses have
been carried out adopting a fully coupled formulation.
An extensive preliminary study has been carried out
in order to assess the influence of element size and time
steps on the computed solution, with particular refer-
ence to the distribution of pore pressure increments in
the soil surrounding the excavation.
The finite element discretization adopted in all
the simulations is composed of a total of 888 ele-
ments and 2693 nodes, corresponding to 6338 degrees
of freedom (see Fig. 3). All soil layers have been
modelled using eightnoded CPE8RP elements, with
biquadratic interpolation for displacements and linear
interpolation for pore pressures. Fully drained condi-
tions have been enforced in the dense fine sand layer
by fixing the pore pressure degrees of freedom to
their initial, hydrostatic values. Two different sets of
16 threenoded B22 beam elements have been used to
model the shield and the tunnel lining.
The mechanical behavior of S. Francisco Bay Mud
has been described using both the MCC and HMC
models. For the sand layer, a threeinvariant extended
DruckerPrager model has been adopted. In lack of
detailed information on the behavior of the deep soft
silt and clay layer, it has been assumed as linear elas-
tic. This assumption appears reasonable considering
that, given its distance from tunnel boundaries and the
nature of stresspaths induced by excavation, plastic
deformations are unlikely to occur in this layer.
The calibration of all the elastoplastic models,
including the MCC for the Bay Mud, has been per-
formed based on available experimental data, as dis-
cussed in Tamagnini et al 2005.As for the HMC model,
those material constants which share the same physi-
cal interpretation with the corresponding constants of
the MCC model have been determined in the same
way, ensuring consistency between the two sets of
parameters. The constants controlling the evolution of
Table 1. Stages of the FE simulation of tunnel driving.
Stage t
# (days) Description
1 Geostatic loading
2 4.5 Excavation of soil elements and activation
of the shield
3 2.25 Gap closure
4 2.25 Removal of shield elements and activation
of lining elements
Table 2. Program of the FE simulations.
Run # Soil model Vl (%) ()
r01 MCC 2.46 1.0
r02 HMC 2.46 1.0
r03 HMC 2.46 1.0125
soil stiffness at small strain levels which appear in
the evolution law of the intergranular strain have
been assumed based on the indications provided by
Niemunis and Herle 1997 for a wide range of fine
grained soils. The full calibration process has been val-
idated by comparing the predicted responses of MCC
and HMC models along conventional axisymmetric
loading paths (Miriano 2008).
The FE simulations of the tunnel excavation has
been performed in 4 stages, as detailed in Tab. 1. After
the first geostatic stage, the soil elements within the
tunnel boundary are removed and, at the same time, the
shield elements are activated. Subsequently, the pro-
cess of gap closure is simulated by imposing a suitable
temperature variation to the shield elements. Finally,
the shield elements are removed and simultaneously
replaced by lining elements.
Three different simulations are considered in this
work, as shown in Tab 2. They have been selected
among the complete set of FE simulations in order
to highlight the influence of the constitutive model
adopted and of the excavation simulation technique on
the predicted ground displacement pattern. The coef-
ficient of ovalization adopted in Run r03 has been
obtained by trial and error as the value which provides
the best fit with the observed maximum ground surface
settlement along the tunnel axis.
6 DISCUSSION OF SELECTED RESULTS
Computed vertical displacements at ground surface
for the three different simulations are compared with
available measurements (after Rowe and Kack 1983)
in Fig. 4a. In the same figure, the results of the FE
simulations are also compared with the Gaussian curve
obtained as the best fit to the experimental data.
By comparing the measured settlement with the
results of Runs r01 and r02 in which = 1.00
792
Figure 4. Ground surface displacements: a) computed vs.
measured vertical displacements; b) computed vs. measured
normalized vertical displacements.
has been assumed it is apparent that none of the
two model captures correctly both the maximum set-
tlement at tunnel centerline and the shape of the
settlement through, although the performance of the
HMC model is significantly better than that of the clas-
sical MCC model. In particular, while for the MCC
model the maximum computed settlement at center-
line is only 40% of the measured one, the ratio between
the computed and measured maximum settlement
increases to about 65% for the HMC model.
On the contrary, a strikingly good match between
predictions and measurements is obtained by using the
hypoplastic model and introducing a small amount of
tunnel ovalization ( = 1.0125). It is worth noting that
the same level of accuracy in the settlement predictions
could be obtained with the MCC model, but at the
expense of a larger ovalization ratio , see Miriano
(2008).
The effects of the constitutive model adopted and
of the assumed ovalization ratio on the shape of
the settlement trough can be assessed by normalizing
computed displacements with respect to the maximum
settlement at tunnel centerline, as shown in Fig. 4b.
The use of classical elastoplastic model in connection
with the standard procedure of Lee et al (1992) results
in a large overestimation of the settlement through
width. This problem can be partially solved by resort-
ing to a more appropriate description of soil behavior,
but the consideration of a certain amount of tunnel
ovalization during gap closure is nonetheless neces-
sary in order to accurately reproduce the observed
displacement pattern.
The relevance of the above results in terms of the
potential tunnelling hazard evaluation can be assessed
by means of the damage charts proposed by Boscardin
and Cording (1989), where the damage due to tun-
nelling operations to existing structures is related to
the quantities:
representing, respectively, the horizontal strain and the
angular distortion at the ground surface.
In Fig. 5, the values of $h and vh computed in Runs
r02 (HMC, = 1.0) and r03 (HMC, = 1.0125) are
superimposed to the damage level isolines proposed by
Boscardin and Cording (1989). As potential building
damage is typically associated to extension longitudi-
nal strains, in the figure only the positive part of $h ,
defined as:
has been considered.
Computed values of |vh | and $h  at ground sur-
face are plotted in the figures as a continuous curve,
parameterized by the distance x to the tunnel axis. The
dashed curves in the figure define the boundaries of
the 5 zones corresponding to different damage cate-
gories, as defined by Boscardin and Cording (1989).
The damage categories are identified with numbers
ranging from (1) almost no damage to (5) severe
damage.
In both the FE simulations, the points close to the
tunnel axis undergo compressive horizontal strains,
and therefore, the potential damage is associated with
angular distortions only. As the distance x from the
tunnel axis increases, distortions tend to decrease in
magnitude, but extensional horizontal strains develop
at the same time, so that the potential damage level
remains more or less constant. Eventually, as the dis-
tance to the tunnel axis has increased sufficiently that
the effects of the excavations on ground displacements
are negligible, the damage levels decrease and the
curves representing the results of each FE analyses
converge towards the origin of the plot.
The comparison between the damage curves corre-
sponding to the two simulations, shown in Figs. 5a and
5b, clearly indicates that the use of the conventional
approach of gap closure can lead to a significant under-
estimation of potential building damage levels. In fact,
in Run02, only slight damage is predicted in the zone
between 6 and 14 m from the tunnel axis, whereas in
Run03, the zone affected by category (2) damage level
is much larger (from about 3 m to about 18 m), and
damage level (3) can be expected in the zone between
7 and 14 m from the tunnel axis.
7 CONCLUDING REMARKS
In this work, two important aspects in the FE simula-
tion of shield tunnel driving the constitutive model
adopted for the soil and the technique employed to sim-
ulate the advancement of the shield in a planestrain
approximation have been investigated with reference
to a particular casehistory: the Lower Market Street
tunnel in S. Francisco.
The results obtained in a series of 2d FE simula-
tions carried out using two different inelastic consti-
tutive models the Modified CamClay model and
793
Figure 5. Computed building damage levels, after the dam-
age categories of Boscardin and Cording (1989): a) HMC
model with = 1.00; b) HMC model with = 1.0125. Labels
on the symbols indicate the distance, in m, to the tunnel axis.
the hypoplastic model for clays by Man (2005)
have shown that the adoption of an inelastic model,
with no elastic domain and capable of providing a
better description of the evolution of soil stiffness
with changing loading direction, can improve signifi-
cantly the prediction of soil displacements induced by
the excavation at ground surface, which are largely
underestimated by the use of classical elastoplastic
models.
However, a key factor in obtaining a good quantita-
tive agreement between predictions and measurements
is the modelling of tunnel ovalization which typically
accompanies the volume loss due to the tunnel driving
operations. In fact, a strikingly good match between
predictions and measurements has been obtained for
the Lower Market Street tunnel by using the hypoplas-
tic model and introducing a small amount of tunnel
ovalization, while the classical approach of uniform
gap reduction by Lee et al. (1992) yields a signifi-
cant underestimation of the maximum settlement at
the tunnel centerline.
While other factors linked to specific features of the
mechanical behavior of the soil such as, for exam-
ple, intrinsic or induced anisotropy (Lee and Rowe
1989) or strain localization (Callari 2004) can also
have some impact on the displacement field around the
tunnel and at ground surface, the role played by tunnel
ovalization appears to be at least of equal importance
in actual predictions. In particular, the modelling of
tunnel ovalization appears necessary in order to get a
realistic assessment of potential building damage lev-
els. In this respect, it is worth noting that, while the
a priori estimation of the proper value of the oval-
ization ratio is indeed a difficult task, the field data
reported by Gonzlez and Sagaseta (2001) suggest that
a well defined correlation exists between tunnel oval-
ization and normalized volume loss which can be used
to obtain a first estimate of tunnel ovalization ratio ,
see Tamagnini et al. (2005).
REFERENCES
ABAQUS (2002). Abaqus/Standard v. 6.3, Users Manual.
Hibbit, Karlsson & Sorensen, Inc.
Boscardin, M. D. and E. J. Cording (1989). Building response
to excavationinduced settlements. J. Geotech. Engng.,
ASCE 115(1), 121.
Butterfield, R. A. (1979). A natural compression law for soils.
Gotechnique 29(4), 469480.
Callari, C. (2004). Coupled numerical analysis of strain local-
ization induced by shallow tunnels in saturated soils.
Comp. & Geotechnics 31(2), 193207.
Gonzlez, C. and C. Sagaseta (2001). Patterns of soil defor-
mations around tunnels. Application to the extension of
Madrid Metro. Comp. & Geotechnics 28, 445468.
Kuesel, T. R. (1972). Soft ground tunnels for the BART
project. In Proc. 1st Rapid Excavations Tunnelling Con-
ference, pp. 287313.
Lee, K. M., K. R. Rowe, and K. Y. Lo (1992). Subsidence
owing to tunnelling. I. Estimating the gap parameter. Can.
Geotech. J. 29, 929940.
Lee, K. M. and R. K. Rowe (1989). Deformations caused
by surface loading and tunnelling: The role of elastic
anisotropy. Gotechnique 39(1), 125140.
794
Man, D. (2005). A hypoplastic costitutive model for clay.
Int. J. Num. Anal. Meth. Geomech. 29, 311336.
Miriano, C. (2008). Modellazione numerica dei movimenti
indotti dallo scavo di gallerie superficiali in terreni
a grana fine. Ph. D. thesis, Universit degli Studi di
Perugia Dottorato in Ingegneria Civile.
Niemunis, A. and I. Herle (1997). Hypoplastic model
for cohesionless soils with elastic strain range. Mech.
CohesiveFrictional Materials 2, 279299.
Roscoe, K. H. and J. B. Burland (1968). On the generalised
stressstrain behaviour of wet clay. In J. Heyman and
F. A. Leckie (Eds.), Engineering Plasticity, pp. 535609.
Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge.
Rowe, R. K. and G. J. Kack (1983). A theoretical examina-
tion of the settlements induced by tunnelling: four case
histories. Can. Geotech. J. 20, 299314.
Sagaseta, C. (1998). On the role of analytical solutions for
the evaluation of soil deformation around tunnels. In
A. Cividini (Ed.), Application of Numerical Methods to
Geotechnical Problems. Invited Lecture. CISM Courses
and Lectures No. 397, pp. 324.
Tamagnini, C., C. Miriano, E. Sellari, and N. Cipollone
(2005). Two-dimensional FE analysis of ground move-
ments induced by shield tunnelling: the role of tunnel
ovalization. Rivista Italiana di Geotecnica 1, 1133.
Wood, D. M. (1990). Soil behaviour and critical state soil
mechanics. Cambridge University Press.
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Role of numerical modelling in the current practice of tunnel

and cavern design for hydroelectric projects

C. Vibert, G. Colombet & O.J. Gastebled

Coyne et Bellier Consulting Engineers, Tractebel Engineering, Gennevilliers, France

ABSTRACT: While engineering expertise, professional recommendations and empiricisms play an important
role in current tunnel and cavern design practice, the tremendous increase of computer power and the improvement
of the user-friendliness of available software have produced a step change which has led to routinely adopting
numerical modelling techniques at all stages of the design. This paper reviews the benefits and the limitations
in the application of 2D and 3D finite element analysis. The discussion is illustrated with learning points using
tunnel and cavern design case studies of past or current hydroelectric projects.

1 INTRODUCTION 2.2 Characterisation of the rock mass

The characterisation of the different geotechnical units
The paper reviews the evolution of design practices
constituting the rock mass is the basic task, for which
in underground works relating to hydropower projects
field investigations and laboratory tests are essential.
during the last decades, with the apparition of ever
Investigations allow defining, among other aspects,
more powerful computation means and the elabora-
the nature and strength of the rock matrix, the dis-
tion of sophisticated modelling software. The benefits
tribution and the geotechnical characteristics of the
and drawbacks of the different practices are analysed,
discontinuities, the hydrogeological conditions as well
and conclusions are drawn on the best practice on
as the in-situ stress field through which the excavation
modelling.
will take place.
Hydropower projects are specific in nature due to
It is obvious that obtaining knowledge of the
the generally high level of rock cover, water pressures,
geotechnical properties of the rock mass is, in many
rock mass, as opposed to soil conditions and absence
cases, a rather challenging task, since many unex-
of urban constraints.
pected local variations in the geotechnical properties
can occur, the logical consequence of an often eventful
geological past.
2 MAJOR DESIGN ISSUES

2.1 General overview of underground works
in hydropower projects
Hydropower projects involve the design of various
types of underground structures, depending on the
projects. These are access tunnels, derivation tunnels
for temporary deviation of the river, water pres-
sure tunnels, shafts (gate shaft, surge shaft, pressure
shafts), and various large caverns, (power houses and
transformer halls, etc.).
The present paper concerns the structural design of
the tunnels, shafts and large caverns excavated in rock,
that is to say, the required support measures to ensure
long-term stability of the works, for which numerical
modelling has now become routine work.
The design of the works from the hydraulic point
of view (leakages, potential of hydrofracturing, etc.),
which requires other specific means, is not the subject
of this paper.
2.3 Definition of shape and support
A shape is to be defined for the works, and the available
support means identified, which requires, for each cat-
egory of support, the characteristic strength of steel,
concrete or other material to be placed. This task is
generally easier to achieve, since we deal here with
man-made materials, the properties of which can be
controlled. The modelling of the support is established
on this basis.
3 EARLY TIMES, WITHOUT
COMPUTATIONAL MEANS
3.1 First step: characterisation of the rock mass
A large number of projects have been designed and
constructed without the help of computers.The general

795
approach adopted in design of underground works, in
hydropower projects, included the topics developed
below of which the first consists in the description
and assessment of the mechanical properties of a rock
mass as a whole. The investigations focused on the
geology, the geomechanical characteristics (strength,
deformability, alterability) of the rock matrix and of
the joint sets (density, roughness, persistence), in order
to estimate shear strength along those joints.
Taking into account the scale effect could be done
using in-situ deformability tests and geophysics. The
definition of rock mass parameters as the basis for
design included safety margins (not a mean value),
to allow taking into account local weaknesses, which
may trigger instability. This approach is still valid
nowadays, and this first step remains of absolute
necessity.
3.2 Definitions of loadings
The rock pressure acting on the support of tunnels was
often determined by means of empirical assumptions,
such as the one by Terzaghi (1946).
The design of hydraulic tunnels also requires the
consideration of all possible hydrostatic loadings
which may occur during construction and operation of
the structure (from transitory conditions to emptying).
3.3 Design of temporary and permanent support
Support was estimated as a structure able to withstand
the external loads as defined here above, and to prevent
rock wedge instabilities, using stereonets and assumed
shear strength of joints.
The rock-support interaction analysis (or
convergence-confinement method) was a key element
towards a better evaluation of the rock loads, although
application of this method is usually restricted to a
round shape excavation within a hydrostatic in-situ
stress field (therefore, the method can not be applied
to large cavern design, the shape of which is generally
far from circular). The method allows for checking the
adequacy of the designed support for stabilising the
excavation, using the equivalent support pressure.
It was on the basis of the obtained results, but
also largely on the basis of experience and engineer-
ing judgement of the Designer, that the final design
was established. Although the well-known empirical
support patterns using the rock mass characteristics
established by Bieniawski (1974) and Barton (1974)
achieved substantial progress towards formalisation
of this experience, engineering judgment still remains
necessary.
3.4 Comments on this process
When no computer was available, implementation
of the here above described approaches required
time-consuming calculation, especially if one wanted
to perform a parametric analysis, to check the impact
of the variation of one of the input data.
796
Nevertheless, the collection of the necessary data
was the subject of particular attention as the foun-
dation stone necessary for any reliable engineering
judgement. A tendency by some owners to restrict
investigations, due to budget pressure has always been
a major hurdle, still of actuality.
The analytical calculations undertaken by the
designer, by hand, allowed him to obtain a real insight
into the site specific problems.
It must be said that the rock support actually placed,
rather than being determined by measurements and
calculation, was very often defined on site, being
adapted to the encountered geological conditions
according to the experience of the Site Engineer.
4 EMERGENCE OF FEM ANALYSIS
4.1 The power of numerical modelling
With the increase in power of computers, it has become
common practice from the 1980 to proceed with
2D numerical modelling, at least for caverns and other
excavation shapes, which could not be satisfactorily
covered by the rock-support interaction analysis.
Finite element calculations (here after referred to as
FEM) enabled the analysis of any shape of excavation
within a plane, to divide the rock mass according to
expected variations of mechanical characteristics, to
simulate the different excavation phases and the plac-
ing of support elements. Nevertheless, the emergence
of powerful calculation technique raised new issues
about numerical modelling practices. Some of these
are discussed here after.
4.2 Rock mass characteristics and failure criteria
The FEM modelling requires input data in order to
reproduce, as closely as possible, the mechanical prop-
erties of the rock mass in which the structures are
to be excavated. This is not different from the previ-
ous approaches, in the case of elastic calculation (still
a recommended first approach). However the defini-
tion of a failure criterion for the rock mass implies an
elastoplastic approach with the simulation of the limit
strength of the rock mass.
Such problems were already known by engineers
using the rock-support interaction analysis methods,
where the definition of a failure criterion for the rock
(generally of Mohr-Coulomb type) is necessary, but
the question becomes more acute as the then available
software had not yet reached sufficient maturity.
The use of numerical modelling conceals some
unexpected traps in this respect, and it is always
worth to remind younger colleagues the now well-
known case of the earlier softwares using a Drucker-
Prager failure criterion, as experienced by two of
the authors in 1991. Although requiring a definition
of a cohesion and friction angle, this conical-shaped
criterion does not fit with the Mohr-Coulomb cri-
terion, and overviewing this important aspect could
lead to the absence of failure of the material under a
bi-compressive state of stress.
Such a finding illustrates how the Designer requires
an in-depth knowledge of the actual modelling tool,
otherwise he may be led to perform erroneous calcu-
lation
Subsequent definition of the rock-dedicated
Hoek & Brown failure criterion (1980) and jointed
rock model (ubiquitous joint) brought significance
advance in capturing the real behaviour of the rock,
but added one more difficulty in the choice of rock
mass parameters.

4.3 Numerical modelling of support

The use of FEM analysis allowed the direct modelling
of the support elements, such as anchors, shotcrete and
plain concrete, steel ribs, etc. (using different formu-
lations, which are outside of the scope of this paper).
However, the requirement of connecting the support
elements to nodes of the mesh was restricting the
number of support patterns that could be modelled.
The activation of the support elements remains a
major problem in 2D modelling, as it is necessary to
define, empirically, under which conditions and after
how much time the support is placed after excavation
is carried out.
The rock-support interaction analysis has often been
the chosen method of solving the problem. Axisym-
metrical FEM modelling of tunnel excavation were
able to provide a value for the stress release depending
on distance from the face. The stress release ratio is
hence still used in 2D modelling to assess the forces
to be withstood by the support, the internal pressure
within the part of the work to be excavated being
initially diminished to simulate partial stress release,
and then the support elements are activated before
complete release.
Consequently, as in the rock-support interaction
method, the final stresses within the support will
depend on the assumed stress release ratio. Quite
different practices may coexist depending on the con-
ditions, from the assumed zero stress release at support
installation (upper bound of forces within the support),
through a 0.3 stress release ratio for a support placed
immediately at the face, to complete stress release
(upper bound of convergence displacement).
4.4 Conclusion on early 2D FEM analyses
The use of 2D FEM modelling unquestionably led to
significant improvement in the design of underground
structure, by enabling direct simulation of an exca-
vation of any shape, through the various construction
phases and within several rock materials of distinct
geomechanical properties. Direct modelling of the
support has also been made possible.
However, the limited capabilities of the first 2D
software packages could not allow rapid computations
and any change in the mesh or in the material prop-
erties was time-consuming and prone to errors due to
Figure 1. Numerical modelling for determination of in situ
stresses around the caverns to be excavated.
the cryptic nature of input data files. Furthermore the
available softwares were not able to reproduce pre-
cisely the failure criterion commonly used in rock
mechanics. The Designer had thus to remain vigilant
as to the consequences of his assumptions.
Modelling of the support also implies an assump-
tion about the stress release ratio to be considered when
being placed.
5 CURRENT APPLICATION OF 2D
NUMERICAL MODELLING
5.1 The additional capabilities of software
modelling packages
Nowadays, 2D numerical modelling, using different
methods, have become very common through a reduc-
tion in their cost, significant improvement in their
user-friendly interfaces and the reduction in computer
computation time. Advanced modelling of specific
failure criteria has also become possible. Therefore,
numerical modelling is now routinely used in the
design of underground structures in most hydropower
projects.
The main benefits of these improvements is the abil-
ity to obtain results within a few minutes, for a 2D
analysis, thus permitting numerous scenarios through
changes in the input data to check the influence on the
design of the uncertainty on some factors, such as the
characteristics of the rock mass, the knowledge and
relevancy of which still remain questionable in many
cases. It also enables swift back-analysis on the basis of
monitoring results of the deformation in the excavated
cavities, to check the relevance of the input data.

797
Figure 2. Extent of plastic zones around the caverns, due to
the asymmetrical stress field (Midas GTS).
Figure 3. Extension of plastic zones in 2D model through
This increased ease in modelling opens the possi- the gate shaft (Phase 2D).
bility of analysis at different scales around the project
under study. One example of the benefits of such soft-
ware can be illustrated using the recent computations
performed using GTS software for the design of adja-
cent power house and transformer cavern the latter
including the downstream surge shaft in its bottom
part in a project in the Ecuadorian Andes.
The caverns are located under steep slopes, thereby
producing a strongly asymmetrical stress field.
A large-scale model (Figure 1) was used to assess
the distribution of stresses according to the topography
(some slight readjustments were necessary to mach the
stress ratios found in the hydrofracturing tests).
The importance of such analysis is illustrated in
Figure 2, reproducing the model of the two caverns
under a stress field, as determined by the large-scale
model. The strong influence of the asymmetrical stress
field increased plasticity in the direction of the princi- Figure 4. Model under the same conditions of the horizon-
pal stress, resulting in the lengthening of the support tal section located at the floor of the transformer cavern; no
plastic zone extends within the pillar (Phase 2D).
anchors (originally assumed from empirical design)
within the pillar separating the two caverns.
Similar effects were noted on another project, in
Nepal, using a different software (FLAC 2D). through one of the two gate shafts located beneath
It is to be highlighted that a significant improve- the transformer cavern. Extensive plasticity was found
ment has been achieved in recent software packages within the pillar separating the two caverns (see Fig-
as the modelling of the support elements do not need ure 3). However, a simple 2D model on a horizontal
anymore to be mandatorily linked to a node of the cross-section was sufficient to ascertain that plastic-
mesh. ity under the invert of the cavern was actually limited
to the direct vicinity of the shafts, due to their rela-
tively small size compared to the caverns (see section
of Figure 4). Therefore, the extensive support orig-
5.2 Remaining limitations of the method
inally foreseen, on the basis of the previous model,
Despite the great progress achieved, some major points could be significantly reduced.
still call for caution in the use of 2D numerical analysis. Subsequent elaboration of a three-dimensional
Apart from the problem in choosing the character- model confirmed this conclusion.
istics of the rock mass and its modelling, the problem
of selecting a stress release ratio when placing the
supports remains.
6 3D NUMERICAL MODELLING
This is an in-built limitation of the 2D modelling
approach as it can not reproduce three-dimensional
6.1 When to use three-dimensional modelling?
effects.
A perfect example of this was witnessed by the Three-dimensional numerical modelling is unques-
authors, and also concerned a group of two caverns. tionably a great achievement, since it allows for the
The initial model had been made using the most reproduction of the real geometry and sequence of
unfavourable section, along a vertical plane cutting excavation of complex underground works.

798
 Nevertheless, the implementation of a 3D model
remains time-consuming with respect to the mesh def-
inition and construction as well as in computational
time. Although the computation time will still decrease
due to advances in computer technology, the authors
opinion is that a 3D model is justified where a real
three-dimensional effect exists due to the complexity
of the geometry, the geology or due to the construction
sequence
6.2 About solving the problem of stress
release ratio
Theoretically, one of the key benefits of 3D mod-
elling is that rock-support interaction analysis is duly
taken into account, and avoids the use of an arbitrar-
ily chosen stress release ratio before the placement of
the rock support. For instance, the displacements and
stresses within a newly excavated stretch of tunnel are
immediately deduced from the total release of internal
pressure. Thus in the next step, the support can there-
fore be directly applied, without the need to define a
stress release ratio.
This implies, however, that:
1. the analysis stages of excavation and subsequent
support activation should be strictly separate,
2. the dimensions of each of the excavated and then
supported stretches should follow the real excava-
tion sequence of the work.
Condition 2 is especially constraining, and if the con-
sidered length of the excavated stretch in the model is
greater than the actual one, it shall be small enough to
allow neglecting the actual support effect generated by
the proximity of the excavation front at the different
intermediate stages of support placement to take place
in reality over the considered length.
Typically, the simulation of the excavation, and sub-
sequent support activation, of a large part of a cavern
in only one computing step, cannot model the stress
conditions, since it would overview the whole inter-
mediate stages of excavation and support placement
which occur during the actual construction process of
this part of the cavern, thereby leading to overesti-
mated deformations of the ground and underestimated
the supporting forces.
In practice, condition 2 is rarely fulfilled, espe-
cially in case of large excavations, since it would imply
the consideration of a large number of computation
steps and the knowledge of the construction methods
that would be chosen; generally not available at the
design phase. Therefore, the use of a stress release
ratio remains necessary in many cases.
6.3 An example of 3D modelling
A particularly illustrative example of 3D modelling has
been recently performed for a hydropower project, in
Laos, shown in figure 5. The design of the river diver-
sion tunnel, located beneath the right abutment of the
dam to be constructed, had to consider the intersection
799
Figure 5. Representation of the excavated tunnel and intake
shaft, under the right dam abutment (Midas GTS).
with a future intake shaft that will convey the water
to the power plant during operation. Therefore, the
sequence of the work, and consequently computational
steps, was as follows.
1. Application of in-situ stresses,
2. Excavation of tunnel portal, shaft platform and dam
abutment foundation,
3. Excavation of the diversion tunnel with the place-
ment of temporary support (taking into account a
stress release ratio),
4. Excavation of the intake shaft with temporary sup-
port, down to the tunnel (taking into account a stress
release ratio),
5. Placement of the tunnel lining, followed by full
stress release,
6. Placement of the lining of the shaft and tunnel/shaft
junction, followed by full stress release,
7. Construction of the dam abutment and the intake
tower,
8. Reservoir infilling and application of hydrostatic
pressure wherever it is to act,
9. Simulation of dewatering of the tunnel with full
reservoir.
The considerations of these different steps in the
computation of the model made clear the very different
loadings applied to the lining, during the construction
and operation, once the reservoir filled. In such a con-
figuration, and under such different load cases, the 3D
numerical model is of special importance in the design
of the concrete structure at the intersection of shaft and
tunnel.
Stresses within this structure were calculated, and
the reinforcement designed accordingly. A graphical
output of results is shown in Figure 6.
7 CONCLUSIONS
The development of computer technology during the
last decades has deeply modified the design approach
of underground works in hydropower projects, and has

Figure 6. Representation of forces within the lining of the
intersection between the tunnel and the intake shaft (Midas
GTS).
brought unquestionable progress in solving, econom-
ically; the complex problems faced occurring during
construction and operation.
In most of the cases, a two-dimensional modelling,
combined with engineering judgment is sufficient to
gain a satisfactory assessment necessary in dimen-
sioning the stresses for design, furthermore it enables
parametric analysis approaches in order to evaluate the
weight of the different input data. The implementation
of three-dimensional model should be used for solv-
ing particularly complex problems or for projects with
high financial impacts, unless further reduction in time
enables a more rapid implementation of the models.
800
Progress has also been achieved in the modelling
of rock wedges, although 3D-analysis is of course
necessary to fully comprehend the problem.
However, it is obvious that using the most improved
software will not guarantee pertinent results if the input
data are not representative of the actual conditions that
are to be met. From this point of view, progress, from
the early computer-less times, is not so significant,
and the careful recollection of geotechnical data is a
mandatory step prior to any calculation.
Although software have become extremely pow-
erful and useful tools, engineering judgement, expe-
rience, and monitoring during excavation are still
required for selection of input data, proper inter-
pretation of results, and therefore, pertinence of the
modelling.
REFERENCES
Terzaghi, K. 1946. Rock defects and Load on Tunnel Sup-
ports. In Rock Tunnelling with Steel Support, Editors
R.V. Proctor and T.White. Youngstown: Commercial and
Sharing Co.
Bieniawski, Z.T. 1974. Geomechanics classification of Rock
Masses and its application in tunnelling. Proc. 3rd ISRM
International Congress. Denver
Barton, N., Lien, R. & Lunde, J. 1974. Engineering Classifi-
cation of Rock Masses for the design of Tunnel Support.
Rock Mechanics, Vol. 6, No.4: 189236
Hoek, E. 2007. Practical Rock Engineering. Available at
www.rockscience.com
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Some modeling techniques for deep tunnels in rock

with FE-continuum models

T. Marcher
ILF Consulting Engineers, Rum/Innsbruck, Austria

ABSTRACT: There are many computation methods available to estimate the ground-support interaction and
the stress-strain behavior of deep tunnel excavations. Various methods are compared with each other in this paper
based on representative examples. The advantages of the FE continuum analyses with respect to an appropriate
initial stress state are obvious as is the correctness of tunnel lining geometry, the simulation capabilities for all
construction stages and support elements. Nevertheless, the successful application of elasto-plastic FE continuum
analyses for deep seated tunnel excavation simulations require special attention to both the realistic rock stiffness
and the rock strength in connection with the depth from a geomechanical point of view. This paper addresses
a modeling technique for deep tunnels in rock with FE continuum models which takes into account the full
overburden and the elasto-plastic stress-strain behavior in the vicinity of the tunnel opening.

1 INTRODUCTION 2 CHARACTERISTICS OF DEEP TUNNELLING

The paper discusses continuum modeling approaches 2.1 Magnitude of in-situ rock pressure (initial
in deep tunnel engineering. Hence, stress induced fail- stress state)
ure conditions are considered. Discontinuity induced
The magnitude of the rock pressure is affected by the
failure conditions, which would rather require a dis-
shape, width and height of the tunnel opening and the
continuum model, are not part of the present paper.
excavation scheme. Amongst the most important fac-
A brief review is presented in connection with the
tors influencing the effective stress state on a tunnel
use of closed-form solutions such as the convergence-
lining are the rock strength and the initial stress state.
confinement method.
Other decisive effects are the geological stratification
There is no clear definition for shallow/ deep tun-
(see Kastner 1962) and the groundwater conditions
nels. In shallow tunnels, the potential for failure
including the groundwater flow (percolation water) in
mechanisms under low stress conditions is prevailing;
case of drained tunneling conditions.
in deep tunnels, the effects and significance of strength
Full geostatic pressure will generally act only on
and stiffness are of particular interest due to the higher
tunnel portals. With higher overburden depth instead
overburden pressures.
of full geostatic pressure loosening pressure acts on
The present paper considers conditions for deep tun-
the tunnel lining.
nels in rock including pseudosolid rocks, e.g. the
It has to be outlined that a prediction of the mag-
transition from soft rock to hard soil such as marl
nitude of rock pressure (both vertical and horizontal
or weathered claystone. Squeezing conditions of weak
primary stress state) is generally most uncertain. Con-
rock and swelling pressures are not considered in this
sequently, the magnitude of the secondary stress state
paper.
(i.e. influenced by the excavation process) implies a
The deformability and strength of the rock mass sig-
high degree of uncertainty. Measurements of an initial
nificantly influences the tunnel behavior thus being
stress field are generally very demanding (see John et
an important factor for the design of deep tunnels.
al. 2004). The scattering of measurement data makes it
The modulus of deformation and the strength prop-
difficult to determine characteristic input parameters
erties of rock mass are often obtained using standard
for calculation models.
test equipment assuming moderate to large strain
characteristics.
Generally, the dimensions of the tunnel opening are
small compared to the overburden rock mass. Such 2.2 Rock pressure on tunnel lining (secondary
boundary conditions require an enormous numerical stress state)
model to reproduce the whole mountain region. The Assuming pseudosolid rock conditions and classical
present paper focuses on model approaches for deep excavation methods (e.g. NATM method) the rock
tunnels in rock with special consideration for in-situ pressure is characterized by the loosing process in
stress conditions, stiffness behavior and strength. the vicinity of the tunnel opening. Practical values

801
Figure 1. Protodykanovs theory for rock pressure evalua-
tion.
for rock pressure evaluations are given in the litera-
ture within rather wide ranges, see Kastner 1962 (e.g.
Terzaghi, Bierbumer, Jaky, etc.). Protodykanovs the-
ory is based on the simple determination of natural
arching in the rock (Figure 1).
2.3 Rock mass parameters
2.3.1 Strength
The Mohr Coulomb criterion has its origins in soil
mechanics. In slopes, excavation pits, foundations and
shallow tunnels such a constant strength approach is
appropriate as normal stresses do not change signif-
icantly. However, rock masses have rather different
shear strength characteristics, particularly in applica-
tions to design of large slopes or deep tunnels. In such
cases the change in normal stresses can be decisive.
The solution for such conditions consists of either
introducing individual rock layers increasing the
Mohr-Coulomb strength properties continuously or
introducing a curvilinear Mohr envelope, of which
the Hoek Brown criterion is one (see Hoek et al.
2002). Such a non-linear criterion completely elimates
the problem of trying to estimate equivalent Mohr
Coulomb cohesion and friction parameters.
2.3.2 Stiffness
Constant deformation properties are common practice
in modeling rock tunnels. Nevertheless, the signifi-
cance of confining stress on the stiffness properties of
rock is generally known. Asef et al. (2002) presents
results of literature review combined with laboratory
testing, which outlines the significance of confine-
ment on the stiffness of the rock mass for numerical
modeling. Based on this paper the impact of the con-
fining stresses on the deformation properties of the
rock mass is even more pronounced for weaker rock
masses (e.g. Verman et al., 1997).
2.4 Rock mass behavior
The ground behavior is defined as ground reaction to
excavation without consideration of support or subdi-
vision of the cross section taking into account local
influencing factors such as the relative orientation
Figure 2. Concept of soil-structure interaction by the con-
vergence confinement method.
of relevant discontinuities, ground water conditions,
primary stress field, etc.. Depending on hard rock
or squeezing conditions deep tunnels in rock are
characterized by either fracturing induced by stresses
and/or discontinuities, progressive failure induced by
stresses, or squeezing conditions.
3 COMPUTATIONAL METHODS
3.1 General
Numerous methods are available for stress analyses
of tunnels, from very simple closed-form solutions to
high-sophisticated numerical model approaches.
3.2 Convergence-confinement method
Closed-form solutions are still of great impor-
tance for conceptual design purposes to understand
response effects of tunnel excavations. One of those
is the ground/support reaction curve (also defined as
convergence-confinement method). Such a method is
proposed originally by Fenner (1938), which is an ana-
lytical rock-support interaction solution based upon
the development of a plastic zone in the rock mass
surrounding a tunnel (see Figure 2).
The advantage of such methods is the simplic-
ity of the approach and the time-saving handling,
nevertheless assumptions such as circular tunnel and
hydrostatic stress field limit these methods mainly to
conceptual studies.
3.3 Continuum approaches
In continuum approaches the rock mass is treated
isotropic, i.e. with equal input data in all directions. A
direct determination of rock mass properties on a true
scale for tunnel excavation problems is not available.
The usual approach is down-scaling the properties of
802
the intact rock taking into account rock mass joint-
ing. The mechanical and hydraulic properties shall be
based on data which describe the ground at a scale
proportionate to the volume of rock affected by the
tunnel structure. Laboratory tests provide data of the
selected rock matrix, without effects of discontinuities
and other defects. Usually properties for the rock mass
are determined by indirect methods. The application of
indirect methods considers either an empirical scaling
of existing lab- and in-situ data or the use of empirical
classification systems or both. Due to the subjective
interpretations possible it is necessary to cross check
between data obtained from different methods.
The rock mass rating by Bieniawski, Z. T. (1974)
provides a method of determination of the properties
of the rock mass. The concurrent version used is the
RMR89 from Bieniawski, Z. T. (1989). The Q Rock
Mass Rating System originally proposed by Barton et
al., (1974) also considers intact rock and rock mass
properties, including RQD. The most decisive param-
eter of the Hoek and Brown Method is the so called
Geotechnical Strength Index (GSI). The GSI value is
a classification of the rock structure and conditions of
discontinuities. The mechanical properties are deter-
mined on the basis of an empirical formula by Hoek
et al., (2002).
A number of computer based numerical methods
are available. These numerical methods can be divided
into boundary and domain methods. In boundary
methods such as the the Boundary Element method
(BEM) the mesh needs to be constructed only on the
excavation surface and the effect of the infinite or
semi-infinite domain is considered without having to
revert to mesh truncation. Inside the rock mass no
shape functions have to be used and therefore equilib-
rium conditions are satisfied (see Beer 2003). On the
other side domain methods include the finite element
(FEM) and finite difference methods where the phys-
ical problem is modeled by discretizing the problem
region.
3.4 Discontinuum approaches
The rock is represented as a discontinuum and the
focus lies on characterizing both, the intact rock and
the discontinuities (joints and bedding planes). The use
of discontinuum theories has been gaining attention
in tunnel engineering e.g. through the use of UDEC
(ITASCA software), which uses a force-displacement
law specifying interactions between the deformable
joint bounded blocks and Newtons second law of
motion, providing displacements induced within the
rock mass.
4 FE-CONTINUUM MODELING TECHNIQUES
4.1 Tunnel lining geometry
The form and size of the tunnel cross-section gen-
erally depends on its intended use and thus on the
required serviceability envelope. The groundwater and
803
geological conditions also play a role. In general,
squeezing rock in lower locations, and increasing lat-
eral pressure necessitate an approximately circular
cross-section. The examples chosen for this paper
are typical cross-sections which were used for the
construction of railway and highway tunnels world-
wide. To illustrate different geometries the following
cross-sections will be discussed hereafter:
Cross-section with flat invert arch,
Cross-section with deep invert arch,
Circular cross-section.
4.2 Stress release at face
The excavation of a tunnel generally leads to a com-
plex stress state at the tunnel face. At a certain distance
behind the tunnel face, where initial support has been
applied, plane strain conditions can be assumed. How-
ever, the distribution of stresses and strains close to the
tunnel face is three dimensional. For the design of the
support measures, the 3-D behavior near the face is to
be approximated when using 2-D models.
Plane strain models are strongly dependent on the
assumed degree of ground stress relief at the time of
lining installation. By doing so it is necessary to con-
sider deformations of the ground, which precede the
excavation itself, i.e. to approximate the so-called load
sharing effect. To evaluate the stress release of the
ground ahead of the tunnel face due to the excava-
tion the -method is used for the numerical analysis.
The initial stress pk acting around the tunnel excava-
tion is divided into a part (1-) pk that is applied to the
unsupported tunnel ahead of the face and a part pk
that is applied to the supported tunnel. The factor (1-)
represents the stress release factor (see Figure 3).
The stress release factor can be estimated according
to Kielbassa et al. (1991). The proportion of the forces
that act on the ground ahead of the face and the pro-
portion which act on the combined system of ground
and lining depends on:
Size of excavation
Stiffness of ground
Stiffness of the lining
Unsupported length of excavation.
It is to be noted that the calculation of the stress
release factor by Kielbassa et al. (1991) is based on
the theory of elasticity. In case of fracturing ahead of
the face due to a high virgin stress field the stress
release factor will be increased based on experience
and engineering judgment.
4.3 Finite element model with heavy layer
For most sections analyzed the tunnel depth is 100 m or
more from the surface. Creating a mesh which would
encompass the whole overburden height would be
computationally inefficient. Also in FE-programs the
minimum element size depends on the overall dimen-
sions of the problem. If the mesh extent is too large,

Figure 3. Stress Release in 2D FE calculations.
Figure 4. 2-D FE-model with a Heavy Layer.
the elements are too coarse which can lead to meshing
problems around the tunnel.
High overburden can be modeled introducing a stiff
and heavy layer at the top of the model replacing fur-
ther overburden. The specific weight of the layer is
calculated according to the resembling overburden.
This implies the characteristic virgin stress distribution
without further interference of the model. Model sizes
can thus be reduced to a manageable size resulting
in finer meshes and higher precision of the results. As
illustrated in Figure 4 the computational section is cho-
sen of such size as to be able to neglect all secondary
influences at the boundaries, the initial boundary con-
ditions of the FE-mesh are as follows: the top face is
free to displace, the side surfaces have roller bound-
aries (horizontal fixities) and the bottom face of the
FE-model is fully fixed, the overburden is simulated
with a FE-mesh that extends to a maximum height
(for example maximum 50 m above the tunnel crown
in Figure 4). Overburden weight exceeding the max-
imum FE-height is taken into account by using an
additional high overburden layer of 1 m thickness.
The specific weight of this equivalent layer is chosen
in such a way that full overburden stress is achieved.
Tunneling causes a transfer of the ground load by
arching to the sides of the opening. However, cutting
off a finite element mesh reduces the space for the
804
ground to form these arches. This leads to unrealis-
tically high lining loads. To account for the arching
effect and obtain more realistic lining loads stiffen-
ing of the top and side surface layers is required. The
restraining of the boundaries of the model accounts
for the typical 3-D restraining effects of rock type
material when undergoing tunnel excavation. Increas-
ing the E-modulus of the continuum elements of the
top and side surface layers (see Figure 4) by a factor
of 100 simulates the restraining of the boundaries.
4.4 Finite element model for high overburden
Due to the observations that the E-modulus of rock
mass increases with tunnel depth (Asef at al., 2002)
and depth dependency of the E-modulus is more pro-
nounced in weaker rock masses (Verman et al., 1997)
weak rock mass conditions combined with high over-
burden are modeled taking a relation of elasticity
modulus to the horizontal stress field into account.
The approach is based on basic assumptions given in
Asef at al. (2002) and Verman et al. (1997) and shown
in Figure 5.
The E-modulus E0 for the rock mass determined on
the basis of tests (lab or in-situ tests) and/or empiri-
cal classification methods is appropriate for regions
with larger strains. In deep tunnelling considerable
areas around the tunnel opening behave almost fully
reversible or elastic. Figure 5 illustrates an approach
with linear increase of stiffness with depth according
to formula (1). E0 is used for the rock mass close to
the surface and in the vicinity of the tunnel opening.
The area of large strain in the vicinity of the tunnel
may be defined either by the loosening area according
to Protodjaknov (see Figure 1) or simply by the plas-
tic zone using convergence-confinement method (see
section 3.2).
5 CASE EXAMPLES
5.1 Example 1 motorway tunnel in U.S.
A new 2-lane roadway tunnel (approx. 1.3 km long) at
the Route 1 south of San Francisco is under construc-
tion at the moment. The NATM tunnels with a diameter
of approx. 10 m are shown in figure 6. In this calcu-
lation section the initial stress state is assumed to be
given by an overburden of 145 m. The ground is mod-
eled using the constitutive model of Mohr Coulomb
with linear elasticity and perfect plasticity. The sec-
tion is characterized by an investigated shear zone
between the 2 tunnel openings. This shear zone has

Figure 5. Depth-dependent stiffness approach for deep
tunnels.
Figure 6. Example for FE-model with Heavy Layer.
been assumed to be 2 m with an angle of inclination
of 45 to horizontal level. A variation of the loca-
tion of the shear zone has been investigated during an
iterative numerical process to analyze the anisotropic
deformation behavior.
Construction stages are considered according to
sequencing. The mesh above the tunnels extends 50 m
above the crown and 27.5 m below the invert. The
full overburden of 145 m is simulated with applica-
tion of additional stresses at the top of the FE-model
of 95 m * 24 kN/m3 = 2280 kN/m2 .
805
Figure 7. Example for FE-model with High Overburden
model.
5.2 Example 2 railway tunnel in greece
In the course of the preliminary design for the New
Railway Line from Kalambaka to Igoumenits a 10 km
long tunnel (single track line with a diameter of approx.
10 m) has to be considered using NATM. Figure 7
illustrates the section with the highest overburden,
the initial stress state is assumed to be given by an
overburden of approx. 500 m.
Figure 7 illustrates a linear increase of stiffness with
depth according to formula (1). E0 is used for the rock
mass close to the surface and in the vicinity of the
tunnel opening (E0 900 1000 MN/m2 ). The area
of large strain in the vicinity of the tunnel has been
defined by the loosening area according to Protodja-
knov resulting in approx. 60 m. Outside this area the
effects of confining pressure and small strain result in
an E-modulus of maximum E1 = 4000 MN/m2 .
5.3 Example 3 motorway tunnel in greece
These 2-tube NATM tunnels of the Maliakos Kleidi
Motorway project in Greece have an opening width of
15 m (2 lanes plus an emergency lane).
The tunnels exhibit an overburden of up to 300 m
consisting of rock of the Ossa Unit (phyllites and
limestones). Between these major rock types tran-
sitional rock units such as deformed phyllites with
intercalations of crystalline limestones are found. To
account for the arching effect and obtain realistic lin-
ing loads stiffening of the top and side surface layers
is used according to the description in section 4.3. The
restraining of the boundaries of the model accounts
for the typical 3-D restraining effects of rock type
material when undergoing tunnel excavation.
Figure 8 shows a longitudinal section of the tunnel
with a maximum overburden of approx. 300 m. Due to
the fact that approx. 15 m wide fault zone may influ-
ence the primary stress field, FE-analysis are carried
out. The result of these calculations is that due to the
large variety of stiffness of the different lithological
units the stress distribution changes considerably. Due
to the alternating sequence of soft and hard rock for-
mations and their inclination the vertical stress state
will not only be governed by the height of the overbur-
den and the specific weight of the ground. In the fault

Figure 8. Example for a FE in-situ stress analyses in
longitudinal direction.
Figure 9. Example for FE-model of a local Weakness
Zone.
zone the vertical stress varies approximately between
0.5 and 1.0 MN/m2 while the full overburden ( h)
leads to approximately 5 MN/m2 . This result is used
for the numerical analyses of the cross sections.
Cataclasites and disintegrated serpentinized peri-
dotites characterize local weak zones in contact with
peridotite with a height of weakness zone of 50 m and
an extension of 40 m. Such a local transition zone is
illustrated in Figure 9 overlain by compact limestone.
Such conditions of a local soft pocket allow cut-
ting off the finite element mesh. Figure 9 illustrates a
FE-cross section with an overburden of 60 m used for
dimensioning excavation & support measures in this
area.
6 CONCLUSIONS
This paper discusses modeling techniques for deep
tunnels in rock with FE-continuum calculations. In
summary the following findings can be listed:
Rock mechanical analyses of deep tunnels are
often characterized by a low level of both input data
and understanding. Use of simple empirical or semi-
empirical methods, analytical solutions combined with
806
empirical design rules and engineering judgment shall
always be the starting phase.
Due to the large amount of unknowns numerical
calculations shall concentrate on the factors, which
significantly influence the behavior of deep seating
tunnel structures, such as the deformability and the
strength of the rock mass. For other factors it is pro-
posed to take results of various empirical methods into
account and to define characteristic values for the rock
mass properties on the basis of a engineering judgment
regarding the conclusiveness of results
With respect to modeling techniques for deep tun-
nels the realistic judgment of the in-situ stress fields
(taking into account arching effects and silo effects of
individual geological stratifications and the large vari-
ety of stiffness of the different lithological units into
account), the high degree of stress arching at the tunnel
face and the influence of small strains on the stiffness
of the rock mass depending on confining pressure and
strain conditions have to be considered.
REFERENCES
Asef, M. & Reddish, D.J. 2002. The impact of confining stress
on the rock mass deformation modulus. Gotechnique 52,
No. 4: 235241.
Barton, N. Lien, R., and Lunde, J. 1974. Engineering Classi-
fication of Rock Masses for the Design of Tunnel Support,
Rock Mechanics, Vol. 6, No. 4.
Beer G., Dnser C. & Noronha M. 2003. Recent advances
in the numerical simulation of tunnel excavation. ISRM
2003Technology roadmap for rock mechanics, South
African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy.
Bieniawski, Z.T. 1974. Geomechanics classification of rock
masses and its application in tunneling, Proc. of the
3rd International Congress on Rock Mechanics, Denver,
2732.
Bieniawski, Z.T. 1989. Engineering Rock Mass Classifica-
tion: Manual. Wiley, New York, 205219.
Hoek, E. 1994. Strength of Rock and Rock Masses. ISRM
News Journal, 2 (2), 416.
Hoek, E., Carranza-Torres, C. and Corkum, B. 2002. Hoek-
Brown criterion2002 edition. Proc. NARMS-TAC Con-
ference, Toronto, 1, 267273.
Hoek, E.1990. Estimating Mohr-Coulomb friction and cohe-
sion values from the Hoek-Brown failure criterion. Inter-
national Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sci-
ences & Geomechanics Abstracts, 12 (3), 227229.
John M. Poscher G. 2004. Primrspannungsmessungen:
Zurecht oder zu Unrecht ein Stiefkind der Felsmechanik.
Band 6, 2. Felsmechanik Kolloquium. Wien.
Kastner, H. 1962. Statik des Tunnel- und Stollenbaus. Berlin:
Springer.
Kielbassa, S. & Duddeck, D. 1991. Stress-Strain Fields at the
Tunnelling Face Three dimensional Analysis for Two-
dimensional Technical Approach, in: Rock Mechanics and
Rock Engineering, 24, 115132.
Verman, M., Singh, B., Viladkar, N., & Jethwa, J.L. 1997.
Effect of Tunnel Depth on Modulus of Edformation of
Rock Mass. Rock Mech. Rock Eng. 30 (3): 121127.
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Stress-strain behaviour of a soft-rock pillar acted upon vertical loads

F. Federico & S. Screpanti

University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy

G. Rastiello
Universit Paris-Est, Laboratoire Central des Ponts et Chausses, Paris, France

ABSTRACT: Many abandoned room and pillar mines were excavated in weak pyroclastic soils not far from
the surface of large areas of Rome (depths ranging from 3 to 15 m). A lot of them collapsed; others appear to be
in stable condition, although a large percentage of their structural components shows increasing signs of distress
from both morphological and mechanical points of view. The stress-strain behaviour of the pillars under vertical
loads (imposed settlements of the ground surface) has been simulated (FEA) starting from the in situ initial
conditions due to excavation. The soft rock composing the pillars is mechanically modeled through a Modified
Cam-Clay Model, suitable to describe the transition from a brittle-dilatant to a ductile-contractive behaviour. It
is shown that the average vertical stress in the horizontal cross section, at the mid-height of the pillar, increases
following a non linear trend, from the initial, up to the yielding condition.

1 INTRODUCTION roof, pillar, base layer (Fig. 1) has been numerically

analyzed through the ABAQUS code.
1.1 Roman room and pillar mines Starting from the geostatic condition, the room and
pillar cavities follow the progressive removal of the
Several systems of abandoned room and pillar mines
soft-rock material (Fig. 1). Similar analyses were made
(cavities), at shallow depth, have been found in Euro-
on coal pillars (Murali Mohan et al. 2001).
pean cities (Bekendam & Price 1993). In Rome, these
The pillars are loaded by the weight of overlying lay-
cavities (rooms) have been usually excavated at 3
ers and additional external loads, both acting within an
to 15 m depths from the ground surface, in weakly
influence (tributary) area At ; therefore, the interaction
cemented puzzolanas (pillars) under a layer of con-
between two contiguous pillars, due to the irregular-
sistent tuffs (roofs or vaults); the rooms compose an
ities of the system, the stress redistribution after the
approximately regular grid, at one or more levels. Pillar
collapse of some pillars, are neglected.
shape is generally quadrangular.
Stability of pillars has been analysed through vir-
The main causes of limit states (LS) of roofs and
tual load tests, by imposing assigned displacements of
pillars are: a) changes of stresses and strains due to
the ground surface, up a conventional ultimate LS (col-
additional loads on ground surface, dynamic actions
lapse) is attained. This numerical procedure has been
(earthquake, traffic, . . .), local collapse and redistribu-
applied on 67 pillars characterized by different shapes
tion of loads on pillars and roofs, increase of extraction
(circular, squared, rectangular) and sizes (cross sec-
ratio; b) weathering, change of water content or chem-
tion area, height); further numerical simulations (149)
ical actions c) ageing (time effects) (Nova et al. 2003).
concerned square shaped pillars (parameter: height)
Pillar failure mechanisms can lead to global (ULSG
to better define how the stiffness and shear strength
e.g., crushing, punching, shear failure) and local
parameters of the composing material influence the
ultimate limit states (ULSL ; e.g., slabbing) (Lembo
pillar response.
Fazio & Ribacchi 1990).

2 FEA PROCEDURE
2.1 Problem setting
The stress-strain behaviour of pillars, referred to in situ
initial conditions, due to excavation, and its evolution
following increasing vertical loads, have been anal-
ysed (FEA). The geotechnical system composed by
the shallow layers beneath the ground surface (g.s.),
2.2 Geometry
The analyses regard shallow soils overlying a thin hard-
rock layer (a few meters) superposed on a thick soft
rock layer, down to 30.5 m under the ground surface,
resembling a typical stratigraphy of soils potentially
seat of systems of shallow cavities, in Italian urban
areas.
The following hypotheses have been assumed: hori-
zontal g.s. and soil and soft rock layers; the cross

807

Figure 1. Typical geometry of the geotechnical system.
section area (Ap ) and the shape of the pillar do not
vary along the height of the pillar.
The following stratigraphy holds: 1) thick layer
(10 m thickness) of covering soils, affected by poor
mechanical properties; being generally unknown their
plastic mechanical parameters, the linear elastic con-
stitutive model has been chosen to represent their
mechanical behaviour; 2) a 2.0 m thickness sound
rock layer, composing the roof of the cavities; the
mechanical behaviour is modelled through an elasto-
perfectly plastic constitutive model, coupled with a
Mohr-Coulomb failure criterium and associated flow
law; 3) soft-rock layer, whose upper part is the seat
of excavation activities (thickness: 17.5 m). As con-
cerns its constitutive modelization, this layer has been
further sub-divided: a) the behaviour of the mate-
rial composing the pillars and the layer immediately
beneath the pillars, for a global thickness equal to
7 m, is simulated through a Modified Cam Clay
constitutive model (implemented as Critical State
Clay-Plasticity Model, hardening-softening elasto-
plasticity) (Leroueil & Vaughan 1990, Cecconi et al.
2002); b) the lower layers exhibit a linear elastic
behaviour.
The relevant mechanical parameters have been
quoted referring to typical values of materials in the
roman area (Tab. 1). To define the Cam-Clay model
parameters, reference has been made to the values
reported in (Federico & Screpanti 2003), obtained
through the comparison among theoretical results of
virtual (FEA) triaxial tests and experimental data
Table 1. Physical and mechanical parameters characterizing
involved materials.
E c pc
MPa MPa k M MPa
1 100 0.25
2 1000 0.3 30 1
3 0.25 0.13 3.2 103 1.2 3.0
1.3 4.5
1.5 6.0
pertaining to black roman pozzolana (Cecconi & Vig-
giani 2001). Each layer is homogeneous; each material
exhibits isotropy as concerns the relevant mechani-
cal parameters. The vertical stresses affecting more
in-depth layers are not appreciably modified by the
excavation.
2.3 Finite element analysis procedure
Five FE meshes have been defined. Stresses and strains
and the role of cross section area on the pillar strength
have been analysed by simulating load tests on 2D and
3D models.
The 3D mesh (Fig. 2) takes into account the peculiar
symmetries referred to the geometry and applied loads
(geostatic load and possible uniformly distributed
loads over the g.s.); it represents only a quarter of the
whole system beneath the tributary area; it describes a
prismatic part of the subsoil wide 4.93 m; its height is
30.5 m; the roof of the cavity is 12.0 m below the g.s.;
the base of the cavity parametrically varies between
15.5 m and 17.5 m below the g.s.; correspondingly, the
height hp of the pillars ranges between 3.5 m and 5.5 m.
Due to the strain-softening behaviour, FE results
could be mesh-dependent. So, preliminary analyses
have been developed to evaluate the effect of the
FE size on the stress-strain behaviour of the pillar.
As a result, the optimal mesh is composed by about
250.000 FE of the first order, hexahedrally shaped,
with 8 nodes. Their density increases near the pillar
and roof, where high gradients of stresses and strains
are expected.
Initial conditions and loads - The initial condi-
tions, expressed through the stresses components and
the void index (e), have been previously determined
under the hypothesis of non-elastic (porous elastic)
behaviour for all materials.
Excavation phases - The excavation has been sim-
ulated by removing prefixed sets of finite elements,
accounting for the whole height of the pillar, starting
from the symmetry axis of the cavity.
By this way, although the unrealistic, contemporary
excavation of 4 tunnels around the pillar is modelled, it
allows to describe the growth of pillars whose geom-
etry progressively varies; moreover, a careful choice
of the number and geometry of the elements to be
removed, ensures a valuable estimate of the current
stresses and strains in the pillars, corresponding to
each imposed displacement of the g.s..
808

Figure 2. 3D FE mesh of a pillar quarter.
Virtual load tests - Virtual load tests have been excavation phases, not uniform stresses and strains
simulated by imposing assigned displacements of the
g.s., until a conventional ULS (collapse) of the pillar
is attained.
The maximum allowable displacement (g.s.,max )
and the number (nmax ) of load increments have
been imposed. The numerical code fixes the generic
load increment (g.s.,i ) within the range (105 m
g.s.,i 2 102 m). are assumed at the pillar mid-height.
This procedure (imposed displacements) does not
cause the divergence of the numerical solution; more-
over, it allows to simulate the behaviour of the system
after the peak strength is attained. This phase is very
interesting because, at the verge of the failure, part of
the applied load is transferred to the contiguous pillars,
although the collapsing pillar still sustains a not negli-
gible load. On the contrary, the equilibrium condition
is no longer satisfied if the external applied loads are
not balanced by the cavity-pillar system.
3 RESULTS OF NUMERICAL ANALYSES
3.1 Stress-strain evolution
Due to the imposed displacements of the g.s. and the
related stresses variation affecting the geotechnical
system, the pillar shortens its height and widens its
cross section area (orthogonal to the pillar axis); this
mechanical behaviour strongly depends on the slen-
derness of the pillar. In reason of the roof stiffness,
the pillar is not uniformly loaded; thus, during the
809
Figure 3. Vectorial representation of the principal stresses
evolution in a vertical section crossing the diagonal of a
squared cross section pillar (six phases of the virtual load
test).
occur both in the roof and pillar; the reduced con-
finement allows the maximum strains affecting the
external regions of the pillar.
At roof-pillar and base-pillar connections, the shear
stresses cause further compressive stresses that, in
turn, increase the corresponding confinement and pre-
vent transversal dilatations, whose maximum values
The principal stresses in the pillar strongly rotate
according to the virtual load test phases. Referring
to a vertical section along the diagonal of the square
cross section of a pillar, whose height is hp = 3.5 m,
the vectorial representation of principal stresses (1
and 3 2 ) corresponding to the six phases through
which the test develops, is depicted in Figure 3.
The corresponding evolution of plastic strains is
represented in Figure
4 through the plastic
p p
strain mag-
nitude PEMAG = (2/3 p: p ) = (2/3 ij ij ), which is
a scalar measure of the accumulated plastic strain (p
being the plastic strains tensor).
Initially (displacements are not still imposed at the
g.s.) (Figures 3a, 4a), the greatest stresses arise at the
corners of the base-pillar and roof-pillar connections.
The internal regions, close to the symmetry axis of the
pillar, bear small stresses.
High shear stresses at the roof-pillar and pillar-base
intersections induce appreciable rotations of princi-
pal stresses, respect to the external reference system
(O,1,2,3). The rotations progressively decrease, for the
whole pillar height, in proximity of the symmetry axis,

Figure 4. Evolution of the yielding in a vertical cross sec-
tion of the pillar (square cross section; variable PEMAG; six
phases of the virtual load test).
along which the maximum principal stresses coincide
with the vertical ones.
Referring to the horizontal cross section at the pil-
lar mid-height, for each volume element, the greatest
principal stress ( 1 ) approximately coincides with the
vertical stress ( v ) and the horizontal plane can be con-
sidered as a principal plane of stress; the intermediate
( 2 ) and minor ( 3 ) principal stresses, for symme-
try reasons, assume the same value and are directed
according to the diagonals of the section.
The progressive increase of the imposed displace-
ments on the g.s. initially induces (Figures 3b, 4b) an
increase of stresses of the mostly stressed elements,
until yielding is attained.
A stress redistribution takes place; new plas-
tic strains thus develop, firstly affecting large sub-
horizontal volumes of materials near the base of the
pillar and at the roof-pillar connection (Figs 3c, 4c,
3d, 4d); then, plastic strains affect the external parts
of the mid-height pillar too. Further increases of the
plastic strains in the internal part of the pillar follow
additional g.s. displacements (Figs 3e, 4e, 3f, 4f).
These phases of the virtual load test are respec-
tively related to the conventional pillar collapse (peak
strength) and to a post-peak phase; during this final
phase, the most part of applied loads is beared by the
internal, better confined volumes of the pillar.
Principal stresses within the pillars (Figures 3e, f)
tend to align according to a hourglass shaped con-
figuration.
Results of simulations, particularly the plastic
strain evolution in the pillar, appreciably agree with
experimental observations described by Martinetti
& Ribacchi (1965). On the base of a systematic
810
Figure 5. Average normal stress p vs the average axial
strain p . Virtual load tests on squared cross section pillars;
height hp = 3.5 m; variable area Ap .
examination of in situ damages, cracks and visi-
ble local collapses observed in puzzolana pillars and
walls, these Authors distinguished five classes qual-
itatively describing a damage degree: 1 degree
less damaged pillars; only sub-horizontal cracks, some
centimeters wide; 2 degree local collapses, some
decimetres wide at the external parts of the roof-pillar
connection; 3 degree wedge collapse (thickness
some decimetres, height 0.5 2 m); 4 degree further
wedge or prismatic sub-vertical collapses coupled with
visible, large cracks along the whole height of the pil-
lar; 5 degree the pillar assumes a hourglass shape.
Yielding of large sub-horizontal volumes of materi-
als near the base of the pillar and at the external parts of
roof-pillar connection (Fig. 4) may be related to obser-
vations reported by (Martinetti & Ribacchi 1965),
referring to the first crack degrees. High stresses affect
yielded material, due to high confinement deriving
from the pillar-roof interaction.
Fitting among results of numerical simulations and
in situ observations appears more evident if reference
is made to phases close to the conventional collapse of
the system. Under this condition, the external, less con-
fined parts of the pillar are highly plasticized and bear
very small stresses. The peculiar hourglass shape
configuration assumed by the principal stresses dis-
tribution may be related to the similar configuration
observed in highly damaged pillars (4 , 5 damage
degree).
3.2 Global response variables
The variables describing the global behaviour of the
pillar are listed below.
p is the average vertical stress acting in the
horizontal cross section, at the mid-height of the pillar:
Figure 6. a) Average normal stress p vs the average axial strain p . Virtual load tests on squared cross section pillars;
height hp = 3.5 m. Evolution of yielding of base, mid-height, top cross sections; b) Evolution of the average vertical stress v
on the pillar in the mid-height horizontal cross section of the pillar (six phases of the virtual load test).

where v = average vertical stress on the pillar deriv-
ing from the overburden (weight of soils above the
pillar);  v (g.s .) = increase of v due to the increase
of external loads (or imposed displacements g.s ) and
Ap = area of the pillar cross section.
p is the average pillar axial strain:
where hp,i = initial height of the pillar, hp (g.s .) =
shortening of the pillar computed along the symmetry
axis.
Strains occurring with excavation are referred to the
unstrained state (p = 0) of the system, while stresses
induced by excavation are taken in account in the
following steps of the analysis.
It is worth observing that the change of the mechan-
ical characteristics of the upper soil layers changes
the response of the whole geotechnical system; this
one, in turn, may induce a global ultimate limit
state (ULSG ) in different structural elements (e.g., the
roofs). However, these variations do not play any role
on the response ( p , p ) of a single pillar as well as
on the ULSG corresponding to its crushing, because
they depend only by the geometry (area, height) and
properties of the pillar material.
The curve ( p , p ) represents a constitutive rela-
tionship of a pillar as a whole (macro-element),
if subjected to vertical stress increments (Fig. 5,
square cross section, 7.07 m2 Ap 63.42 m2 , con-
stant height hp = 3.5 m).
FEA results show that p increases following a non
linear trend, from the initial value, corrisponding to the

811
vertical stress associated with the weight of the cover-
ing soils (tributary area) up to the yielding condition.
The initial trend is characterized by a progressively
increasing slope. The only exception regards the small-
est pillar (Ap 7 m2 ), widely affected by plastic strains
arised with excavation: a progressive decrease of the
slope is obtained.
The smaller pillars (Ap < 19.63 m2 ) exhibit a peak
strength p,peak , coupled with a brittle post-peak
behaviour. If Ap increases (Ap > 28.27 m2 ), a ductile
behaviour is observed (Martin & Maybee 2000).
In the following, the yielding condition is repre-
sented by the stress-strain state for which the psudo-
linear trend ends and a change of the slope of the curve
( p , p ) is observed. Referring to the conventional ana-
lytical methods, the yielding stress p,max represents
the compressive strength of the pillar.
The curve ( p , p ) and the evolution of the PEMAG
variable of a pillar (height 3.5 m), for three horizon-
tal sections (base, mid-height, close to the roof) are
reported in Figure 6.
Plastic strains evolve from both highly stressed
upper and lower corners (point 1), starting from the
free sides of the upper section (point 2); then, plastic
strains occur also at the base of the pillar.
Further increases of the axial strain induce the pro-
gressive yielding of the mid-height cross section (Point
3) that, at the peak-strength condition, appears fully
yielded (point 4).
By imposing further g.s. displacements after the
peak-strength is attained, plastic strains at the mid-
height of the pillar increase; at the same time, the
internal parts of the upper cross sections yield too.
Due to the excavation of the cavities system, ini-
tially (absence of applied loads or of ground dis-
placements), the maximum vertical stress ( v ) affects
a circular shaped region whose diameter is approx-
imately equal to 1/10 of the side length, located in
proximity of the external corner, along the diagonal.
Then, by increasing the g.s. displacements, the loads
are progressively borne by the internal, mechanically
better confined regions; the maximum stress concen-
tration falls in the centre of the cross section; the
contours of the stress levels assume a circular shape
too, whose centre is the pillar axis.
4 CONCLUSIONS
The stress-strain behaviour of pillars under vertical
loads has been numerically simulated through FEA.
The features of the soft rock composing the
pillars has been modeled through a Modified Cam-
Clay Model, allowing the transition from a brittle-
dilatant to a ductile-contractive behaviour, if the
pre-consolidation pressure increases.
812
The effects on the pillar strength of the cross sec-
tion area, shape, height, slenderness of the pillar, as
well as of the mechanical parameters characterizing
the constitutive model, are numerically evaluated.
Obtained results show that, for all pillars, p (aver-
age vertical stress acting in the horizontal cross sec-
tion, at the mid-height of the pillar) increases following
a non linear trend, from the initial, up to the yielding
condition.
The smallest pillars are widely affected by plas-
tic strains arisen after excavation: they exhibit a peak
strength coupled with a brittle post-peak behaviour. If
the cross section area increases, a progressive increase
of the strength (ductile behaviour) is observed.
REFERENCES
Bekendam, R. and Price, D. 1993. On the stability of aban-
doned room and pillar mines in very weak Maasrtichtian
calcarenites in the Netherlands. In Anagnostopulos, A. et
alii editors, Geotechnical Engineering of Hard Soils, Soft
Rocks, vol. 2.
Cecconi, M. & Viggiani., G. M. B. 2001. Structural features
and mechanical behaviour of a pyroclastic weak rock. Int.
J. for Num. Anal. Meth. Geomech., 25(15):15251557.
Cecconi, M. Tamagnini A., De Simone C., Viggiani G.M.B.
2002. A constitutive model for granular materials with
grain crushing and its application to a pyroclastic soil.
Int. J. for Num. Anal. Meth. Geomech., 26:15311560.
Federico, F. & Screpanti, S. (2003). Analytical criteria and
numerical procedures for safety analyses of pillars and
vaults excavated in pyroclastic rocks. XXII Convegno
Nazionale di Geotecnica, Palermo (in Italian).
Lembo Fazio, A. & Ribacchi, R. 1990. Problemi di stabilit di
scarpate e cavit sotterranee in rocce piroclastiche. M.I.R.,
vol. II, pp. 113.
Leroueil, S. and Vaughan, P. 1990. General and congru-
ent effects of structure in natural soils and weak rocks.
Geotechnique, 40:46788.
Martin, C. & Maybee, W. 2000. The strength of hard-
rock pillars. Int. J. of Rock Mech. and Min. Sc., 37(8):
12391246.
Martinetti, S. and Ribacchi, R. 1965. Osservazioni sul com-
portamento statico dei pilastri di una cava in sotterraneo
di materiali piroclastici. Simp. Probl. Geomin. Sardi,
Cagliari.
Murali Mohan, G., Sheorey, P., and Kushwaha, A. 2001.
Numerical estimation of pillar strength in coal mines. Int.
J. of Rock Mech. and Min. Sc., 38(8):11851192.
Nova, R., Castellanza, R., and Tamagnini, C. 2003. A consti-
tutive model for bonded geomaterials subject to mechan-
ical and/or chemical degradation. Int. J. for Num. Anal.
Meth. Geomech., 27(9):705732.
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Tunnel face stability with groundwater flow

P.M. Strhle & P.A. Vermeer

Institute of Geotechnical Engineering, University of Stuttgart, Germany

ABSTRACT: The topic of this paper is the tunnel heading stability with groundwater flow towards the excava-
tion face. The starting point is a formula for the minimum face pressure as considered by other researchers. It is
shown that some stability numbers, as used in this formula, need further calibration. In this study, calibration is
done by finite element analyses. Pore pressures are solved by a simple steady-state groundwater flow calculation
and the minimum face support pressure is obtained from a nonlinear elastoplastic failure analysis. Both the size
and the fineness of the finite element mesh are studied in full detail, as they condition the accuracy of the finite
element calculations.

1 INTRODUCTION AND MOTIVATION of ground flow. The support pressure is expressed as

For each individual project, it is a technical challenge
to build a tunnel under difficult groundwater condi-
tions. Indeed, a disaster occurred to Marc Isambard
Brunel as he built the Thames-Tunnel (18251842).
In conventional NATM tunneling a lowering of the
groundwater or alternatively a soil freezing is essen-
tial. In this paper, however, conventional NATM tun-
neling is not to be discussed; instead the use of a closed
shield will be subject of this paper.
Closed shields are intended on the one hand to sup-
port the tunnel face and on the other hand to reduce
or stop the flow of groundwater. For this purpose, two
types of shield machines can be used, i.e. the earth pres-
sure and the slurry shield. The choice of the machine
type depends on the soil parameters. Earth pressure
shields are predominantly used in cohesive soils. Con-
ditioning of the soil can significantly increase the
fields of application. In general slurry shield machines
will be used with cohesionless soils such as fine sand
formations up to coarse gravel, see Bielecki.
On considering the minimum pressure at the tunnel
face, we will extend previous work by Anagnostou &
Kovri. They considered a tunnel with groundwa-
ter flow towards the face and proposed a particular
formula for the minimum face pressure, assuming a
wedge-sliding mechanism at failure. Later, Vermeer
et al. performed nonlinear finite element analyses
to improve the face-pressure formula. However, they
did not consider groundwater flow. In this paper we
will extend the work by Vermeer et al. to include
groundwater flow.
a function of the piezometric height. Anagnostou &
Kovri only considered the support of the tunnel face
by the earth pressure shield, which as mentioned is
used in cohesive soils.
The failure pressure equation for the tunnel face
according to Anagnostou & Kovri depends on follow-
ing parameters (see equation 1): diameter of the tunnel
D, overburden H, piezometric head in the working
chamber hF , elevation of the water table h0 , cohesion
c , as well as frictional angle  and the submerged
unit weight  (for soil below the water table) and on
the dry unit weight d (for soil above the water table).
According to Anagnostou & Kovri the equation for
the failure pressure pf
F0 , F1 , F2 and F3 are functions of the overburden H and
the diameter D of the tunnel as well as the angle of fric-
tion of the soil. h is the difference (h = h0 hF )
between groundwater level and the water level in the
working chamber. For dry soils equation (1) reduces
to the first two terms. In Figure 1 the situation without
flow pressure is shown.
Vermeer et al. performed a very large number of
non-linear finite element calculations and were able
to fit computational results by the functions

at least under the conditions that  > 20 and H > 2D.

2 ACTUAL STATE OF SCIENCE For friction angles beyond 25 , the above expressions
even hold for H > D. From Figure 2 it can be observed
Anagnostou & Kovri described an analytical formula that the above F0 -function corresponds well with data
for the calculation of face stability including the effect by Lca & Dormieux and Krause. In contrast to the soil

813
Figure 1. Support pressure without seepage pressure.
Figure 2. The soil weight stability number as determined
by different methods.
Figure 3. The cohesion stability number F1 according to
different models.
weight number, the cohesion number can be derived
theoretically. In fact, Vermeer & Ruse derived the sim-
ple expression F1 from above, which was also verified
by use of the finite element method. Again this expres-
sion can be compared to findings by other researchers,
as also done in Figure 3. Once more Krauses results
are based on shell-shaped failure body, whereas the
data by Anagnostou & Kovri are based on the slid-
ing wedge model. On the other hand Anagnostou &
Kovri proposed higher values for F0 and F1 , but this is
814
Figure 4. Chart for the dimensionless coefficient F2 after
Anagnostou & Kovri.
Figure 5. Chart for the dimensionless coefficient F3 after
Anagnostou & Kovri.
probably due to their use of a very approximate wedge
sliding model.
In Figure 4 and Figure 5 the functions F2 and F3
by Anagnostou and Kovri are presented. F2 is the
function for the head difference on failure pressure
in cohesion less soil and F3 is for the head difference
on support pressure in cohesive soil.
The analyses of these two functions F2 and F3
with the finite element method with the elastic-plastic
Mohr-Coulomb constitutive model will be the aim of
the authors work.
3 CALCULATIONS FOR FACE STABILITY
WITHOUT GROUNDWATER
For limit load analyses, pre-failure deformations are
not of great importance and are assumed to be lin-
early elastic, as is usual within the elastic-plastic
Mohr-Coulomb model being used in this paper. Elas-
tic strains are governed by the elasticity modulus E
and Poissons ratio . The particular values of these
input parameters influence load displacement curves
as shown in Figure 7, but not the failure pressure pf .
 Figure 7. Typical pressure displacement curve.

Table 1. Input parameter for the analyses without ground-

Figure 6. Flow area at collapse. water.

For this reason they will not get any further atten- saturated unit soil weight = 22 kN/m3
tion in this study. In addition to the elasticity modulus cohesion c= 0 kN/m2
and Possionss ratio, there are three material param- angle of friction = 2540
angle of dilatancy = 0
eters for the plastic behavior: the effective cohesion youngs modulus E = 10.000 kN/m2
c , the effective angle of friction  and the angle coefficient of lateral earth pressure K0 = 1.0
of dilatancy . Different dilatancy angles give dif-
ferent collapses mechanism, but they have very little
influence on the failure load. For this reason, nearly
all our computations were performed for non-dilatant
material.
As symmetrical tunnel are considered, the collapse-
load calculations are based on only half circular tunnel
which is cut lengthwise along the tunnel axis. Figure 6
shows a typical finite element mesh as used for the
calculations. The ground is represented by 10-noded
tetrahedral volume elements.
The boundary conditions of the finite element mesh
are as follows: the ground surface is free to displace,
the side surface have roller boundaries and the base is
fixed. It is assumed that the distribution of the initial
stresses is geostatic according to the rule h = K 0 v ,
where h is the horizontal effective stress and v is
the vertical effective stress. K0 is the coefficient of
lateral earth pressure. Vermeer & Ruse investigated Figure 8. The soil weight stability number as determined by
the possible influence of the initial state of stress, by Vermeer & Ruse and current calculations.
varying the coefficient of lateral earth pressure and
found that the K0 -value influences the magnitude of of the tunnel axis and u the displacement of the corre-
the displacements but not the pressure at failure. sponding control point at the tunnel face. The control
The first stage of the calculations is to remove point has to be chosen within the collapsing body;
the volume elements inside the tunnel and to activate otherwise the load-displacement curve in Figure 7
the shell elements of the lining. This does not dis- will come to an almost sudden end and the curve
turb the equilibrium as equivalent pressures are applied then cannot be used to conclude that failure has been
on the inside of the entire tunnel. To get full equiva- reached.
lence between the initial supporting pressure and the In order to validate the assumptions defined here,
initial geostatic stress field, the pressure distribution is first of all calculations without groundwater were car-
not constant but increases with depth. This is obviously ried out and compared with the results from Ruse. The
significant for very shallow tunnels, but a nearly con- calculations were made using the three dimensional
stant pressure occurs for deep tunnels. The minimum FE-Code Plaxis GiD. The diameter of the tunnel is
amount of pressure needed to support the tunnel is then D = 10 m, the width of the domain is B = 20 m and
determined by a stepwise reduction of the supporting the length is L = 26 m. The material parameters of the
pressure. subsoil are shown in Table 1.
A typical pressure-displacement curve is shown in In Figure 8 the effect of the angle of friction on the
Figure 7, where p is the support pressure at the level normalized failure pressure, i.e. on pf /D is shown.

815

Figure 9. Flow net in front of the tunnel face.
The calculations were carried out and the results were
compared with those of Ruse.
The difference with Ruse can be explained by the
choice of the support pressure.
Ruse used for his calculation a linear increase of
the support pressure over the depth at the tunnel face.
In the calculations, presented here, a constant support
pressure over the depth was assumed. Considering the
importance of the face distribution and the fact that a
trapezoidal distribution is most realistic, it was decided
to continue this study with a trapezoidal distribution.
For the analyses with groundwater flow Plaxis 3D
Tunnel is used.
4 GROUNDWATER FLOW CALCULATIONS
Assuming a horizontal groundwater level all water par-
ticles has the same hydraulic head before the tunnel
is constructed. The hydraulic head is defined as the
elevation head plus pressure head plus velocity head.
As soon as a tunnel is constructed below the ground
water table, there is a difference in hydraulic head and
a groundwater flow towards the tunnel face occurs.
Because of the low permeability, the velocity head can
be neglected in the given boundary value problem.
The groundwater flow causes a seepage pressure on
the tunnel face. At the tunnel face holding and driving
forces acting on the failure body. The seepage forces
on the failure body have a negative effect on the sta-
bility of the tunnel face and should be considered in
the determination of the failure pressure. The flow net
in front of the tunnel face, (see Figure 9) is indepen-
dent of the coefficient of permeability k in steady state
conditions. Only the hydraulic gradient i increases in
direction to the tunnel face, because the potential lines
are closer in front of the tunnel face (see Hfle et al.).
For the calculations the following hydraulic bound-
ary conditions were chosen: the groundwater table was
at the ground surface as in Anagnostou & Kovri.
Symmetry was also used, that means only one half
tunnel was modeled. The symmetry line was taken as
an impermeable boundary. In the working chamber
atmospheric pressure was described.
816
Figure 10. Effect of rear mesh boundary on the normalized
support pressure.
Figure 11. Effect of front mesh boundary on the normalized
support pressure.
The seepage forces in front of the tunnel face
are maximum for these boundary conditions. An
impermeable tunnel lining was used.
In Figure 10 the effect of the rear mesh boundary is
shown graphically. For a mesh boundary at only a dis-
tance of 0.25D behind the tunnel face the calculated
failure pressures for the impermeable or permeable
boundary are very different. However at a distance
of 4D the failure pressures are the same and remain
constant.
In Figure 11, the influence of the front mesh bound-
ary can be seen. The mesh independent failure pressure
occurs in this case at a distance of 6D from the tunnel
face.
The distribution of the hydraulic head is shown
in Figure 12. The left picture shows the head with a
permeable front boundary, the right picture with an
impermeable front boundary. This has a clear effect
on the groundwater head in front of the tunnel face. In
order to neglect this effect, it is recommended to use a
length of six times the diameter in front of the tunnel
face.
5 SUPPORT PRESSURE CALCULATIONS
IN GROUNDWATER
All the failure pressure calculations presented are for
drained conditions. Steady state groundwater flow will
Figure 12. Potential lines for permeable front boundary
(left) and impermeable front boundary (right), in each case
for a distance of 3D in front of and 4D behind the tunnel face.
Figure 13. Geometry variation dependent on the diame-
ter D.
be considered. The parameters for the subsoil are
shown in Table 1.
In addition a permeability of k = 105 m/s for the
subsoil is used. This corresponds to a fine sand. Before
the effect of the mesh fineness or the shear parameters
on the failure pressure can be investigated, a suitable
domain size for this problem has to be found.
The mesh should have minimum dimensions such
that no change in the failure pressure occurs for the
same soil parameters and hydraulic boundary condi-
tions. For this reason the size of the domain was varied
in the width (variant A), in the depth below the tunnel
(variant B), in the length of the tunnel (variant C) and
in the length in front of the tunnel face (variant D). For
all variations the overburden was 2D, therefore 20 m.
In Figure 13 the four variants are illustrated. The
outcome of the domain size variation is also shown in
Figure 13 by using in variant D a length of 6D in front
of the tunnel face. The final domain has a width of
4D, a height of 7D, a length of 6D in front of and 4D
behind the tunnel face by using an overburden of 2D.
Results of the analyses respect the variations can
be obtained from Figure 14, which shows the results
for the four calculations (variant A-D). The support
pressure which is calculated in the final stages for a
particular variant is not always the same, as can be seen
in Figure 14. This depends on the chronology of the
investigation of the variants.
817
Figure 14. Effect of the domain size.
Figure 15. Mesh variation.
It was started from a domain with a length of 5D,
a width of 2D and a height of 4D. Than variant A
was investigated, i.e. the width was varied from 1D to
8D. The dashed line in Figure 14 represents variant D
and thus the final result for the domain. During these
calculations a mesh with the same average element size
at the tunnel face and around the tunnel cross section
was used. In the area of the failure body the mesh was
refined in the longitudinal direction.
6 DISCRETISATION EFFECT
The mesh needs special monitoring. With a finer mesh
the accuracy of the results increases, but this result in
longer calculation time. Special attention should be
paid to the area in front of the tunnel face, because in
this space the failure body develops.
Therefore, in an area of 10m in front of the tun-
nel face a finer mesh for the used soil parameters (see
Table 1) was used, in which the failure body accord-
ing to Horn occurs. Different lengths of refinement
between 5 m and 15 m were tested.
The mesh dependency was investigated according
to Figfure 15. The average element size was changed
in three different areas: inside the failure body (FB),
at the tunnel face (TF) and outside these two areas
(SUB). The average element sizes in these areas in
longitudinal direction (subscript L) as well as in the
cross section (subscript C) were varied.
At the end of the first mesh variation cross the tun-
nel axis, it can be seen, that the effect of the average

Figure 16. Final finite element mesh in longitudinal direc-
tion (left) and cross the tunnel axis (right).
element size in area SUBC has no significant effect
on the failure pressure. Simply the effect of the aver-
age element size at the tunnel face (TF) is in this case
important for the results. Here, the average element
size in FBC was the same as in SUBC . In example, a
mesh with an average element length of 1.5 m at the
tunnel face (TFC ), achieve the same failure pressure for
average element lengths between 4 m and 8 m around
the tunnel (SUBC ).
In a next step, the mesh (FBC ) was refined in the
failure body. Similar to the first mesh variation cross
the tunnel axis, the effect of the average element size
at the tunnel face is important and a small effect of the
average element size in the failure body (FBC ) can be
seen.
The average element size in longitudinal direction
of the tunnel axis plays also an important rule. Differ-
ent average element sizes in SUBL and FBL was used
in the mesh. In FBL the average element size from
0.5 m to 2 m and in SUBL from 2 m to 10 m was anal-
ysed. As well as in the mesh variation cross the tunnel
axis the influence of the average element size in SUBL
is of small importance for the failure pressure.
Finally, according to Figure 16 a mesh with an aver-
age element size of 10 m in area SUBL and 1m in FBL
as well as 10 m in SUBC , 4 m in FBC and 1m in TF
will be used for further analyses. This model has a
length of 100 m, a height of 70 m and a width of 40 m
consists to 10.500 15-noded elements with quadratic
interpolation.
It is assumed that for this mesh size the mesh
dependency can be neglected.
7 COMPARISON TO ANAGNOSTOU &
KOVRI
In comparison to the results of Anagnostou & Kovri it
can be seen that their results, because of the use of the
sliding-wedge model, are extremely on the safe side.
The necessary support pressure by use of equation 1
for a cohesionless soil with a friction angle of = 30
, a diameter of 10 m, an overburden of H = 2D, a satu-
rated unit soil weight of = 22 kN/m3 and a maximum
h is nearly 150 kPa by Anagnostou & Kovri. The
necessary support pressure for the same conditions
in current calculations is 110 kPa. Assuming to the
818
results by Anagnostou & Kovri equation (1) reduces
in cohesionless soil to
Using the coefficient F0 and F2 of Anagnostou &
Kovri pf is 150 kPa. In contrast to this, the supporting
pressure becomes nearly 140 kPa if F0 after Vermeer
et al. and F2 by Anagnostou & Kovri was used. F2
for a soil with a friction angle of  = 30 by Anagnos-
tou & Kovri is arround 0.46. One can deduce from
the presented calculations, that F2 becomes lower than
stated by Anagnostou & Kovri. F2 ranges between 0.3
and 0.4. Both approaches offer nearly the same result,
using a cohesion of 70 kPa. In this case no supporting
pressure is needed.
8 CONCLUSIONS AND OUTLOOK
It has been shown that the face-pressure formula is
suitable for tunneling in dry soil. For groundwater
flow towards the excavation face, however, the stabil-
ity number F2 requires further calibration. As yet, this
number has been calibrated on the basis of a sliding-
wedge stability model by Anagnostou & Kovri, which
would seem to be inaccurate. For dry soil this has
been shown by Vermeer et al. and shown in this study
for a case with groundwater flow. Further such FE-
analyses are needed to arrive at graphs or mathematical
expressions for the stability numbers F2 and F3 .
REFERENCES
BIELECKI, R. 2009. Schildvortriebe mit Tbbingausbau.
Editor: Wissenschaftsstiftung Deutsch-Tschechisches
Institut. GbR Verffentlichungen Unterirdisches Bauen.
Hamburg
VERMEER, P.A.; RUSE, N.; MACHER T. 2002. Tunnel
heading stability in drained ground. Felsbau 20. No. 6.
pp. 818
ANAGNOSTOU, G.; KOVRI, K. 1996. Face Stability Con-
ditions with Earth-Pressure-Balanced Shields. Tunnelling
and Underground Space Technology. Vol. 11. No. 2
LCA, E.; DORMIEUX, L. 1990. Upper and lower bound
solutions for the face stability of shallow circular tunnels
in frictional material. Geotechnique 40 (4)
KRAUSE, T. 1987. Schildvortrieb mit flssigkeits- und
erdgesttzter Ortsbrust. Institut fr Grundbau und Boden-
mechanik. Technische Universitt Braunschweig. Disser-
tation, Heft 24
VERMEER, P.A.; RUSE, N. 2001. Die Stabilitt der Tunnel in
homogenen Baugrund. Geotechnik 24. No. 3. pp 186193
RUSE, N. 2004. Rumliche Betrachtung der Standsicherheit
der Ortsbrust beim Tunnelvortrieb. Dissertation, Mit-
teilung 51. Institut fr Geotechnik. Universitt Stuttgart
HFLE, R.; FILLIBECK, J.; VOGT, N. 2008. Time depen-
dent deformations during tunnelling and stability of tun-
nel faces in fine-grained soils under groundwater. Acta
Geotechnica 3. pp. 309316
HORN, M. 1961. Horizontaler Erddruck auf senkrechte
Abschlussflchen von Tunnelrhren. In: Landeskonferenz
der ungarischen Tiefbauindustrie. Budapest berset-
zung ins Deutsche durch die STUVA
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Viscoplastic models for the analysis of tunnel reinforcement in

squeezing rock conditions

G. Barla & D. Debernardi

Department of Structural and Geotechnical Engineering, Politecnico di Torino, Italy

D. Sterpi
Department of Structural Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, Italy

ABSTRACT: Numerical analyses of tunnels in rock masses which exhibit a time dependent behaviour, such
as in severely squeezing conditions, require the use of viscoplastic constitutive laws. Tunnel excavation needs
to be modelled with attention paid to the excavation-construction sequence, in order to correctly estimate the
interaction between the rock mass and the support system. This paper presents the numerical analyses carried
out to study the excavation process of the Saint Martin La Porte access adit (Lyon-Turin Base Tunnel), where
very severely squeezing conditions were met. In order to face these conditions a novel construction system has
been implemented, with performance monitoring being used systematically in order to closely follow the tunnel
response. Two different viscoplastic constitutive models (SHELVIP and 3SC) have been adopted. A comparison
between numerical results and monitoring data allows one to assess the potential of the two models.

1 INTRODUCTION in cases where squeezing effects show up in the short

In rock masses characterized by a time dependent
behaviour tunnelling at great depth is to encounter dif-
ficulties whenever the increasing ground deformations
lead to large tunnel convergences and high pressure
on the supports, even in the short term, i.e. in a time
span comparable with the excavation advance time
(Steiner 1996, Hoek 2001). This is the case of the
so called squeezing conditions (Barla 1995), usually
met in weak rock masses or during excavation through
fault zones (Cristescu & Hunsche 1998, Dusseault &
Fordham 1993).
Among the approaches proposed and applied to tun-
nel design (Barla, 2002), numerical analysis is most
effective whenever a detailed response of the interac-
tion between rock mass and structures in the short and
long term is to be assessed. In order to correctly predict
the tunnel convergence and the pressures that the rock
mass will exert on the supporting structures, an accu-
rate modelling of both the excavation-construction
sequence and the mechanical constitutive behaviour
of the rock mass is of primary importance.
The first requirement is the use of three-
dimensional or axi-symmetric models and a realistic
simulation of the actual excavation sequence and struc-
tures installation. Here, the term structures refers
to the reinforcement measures, installed at the tunnel
face and in the heading behind the face, including the
primary support and the final lining. These aspects
turn out to be crucial elements for design, especially
term and last for a long time. The second requirement
is particularly true when using elasto-viscoplastic con-
stitutive laws and time dependence is explicitly taken
into account. The complexity of the problem has often
led to the adoption of simplified models where time
dependence is accounted for by degrading stiffness
and shear strength properties with time. However, this
approach is very limited in the case of very severely
squeezing conditions.
With the choice of the constitutive model, the neces-
sity is to calibrate its parameters with reference to the
in situ rock mass behaviour. This task might repre-
sent the drawback of advanced constitutive models. In
fact, in situ creep tests involve operational difficulties
and suitable scaling rules, allowing for estimating the
rock mass parameters on the basis of laboratory data,
have yet to be validated. In some cases, when severely
squeezing conditions arise and performance monitor-
ing is adopted systematically, convergence and stress
measurements could provide data for the back analysis
of the creep phenomenon.
In this framework, the case study of the Saint Martin
La Porte access adit, along the Lyon-Turin Base Tun-
nel, is taken as representative of very severe squeezing
conditions. The excavation process has been analysed
with a two-fold purpose to assess the potential of two
different elasto-viscoplastic constitutive models and
to get insights into the response of a novel yielding
support system, especially devised to cope with the
encountered conditions.

819
Figure 1. Geological profile along the Saint Martin La Porte
access adit.
Figure 2. Typical geological conditions at chainage 1444 m.
2 THE CASE OF SAINT MARTIN LA PORTE
ACCESS ADIT
The Saint Martin La Porte access adit is located along
the Lyon-Turin Base Tunnel and crosses a Carbonifer-
ous formation (marked as hSG in Fig. 1), consisting
of black schists (45 55%), sandstones (40 50%),
coal (5%), clay-like shales and cataclastic rocks. The
typical geological condition at the tunnel face shows
a highly heterogeneous and fractured rock mass, often
crossed by faults (Fig. 2).
Initially, with a horse-shoe cross section supported
by anchors, yielding steel ribs with sliding joints
and shotcrete, convergences up to 2 m were observed,
with overburden around 300 m (Fig. 3). Having to
face higher overburden pressures under the same
squeezing conditions, a novel construction method
was then implemented, in a near circular cross section,
consisting of:
Face reinforcement, including a ring of grouted
fibre-glass dowels around the opening perimeter.
Mechanical excavation, carried out in steps of 1 m
length, with 8 m long untensioned anchors, 1 m
spaced, yielding steel ribs with sliding joints and
shotcrete (first phase).
Completion of the excavation, 30 m from the tunnel
face, with yielding steel ribs with sliding joints and
9 longitudinal slots fitted with Highly Deformable
Concrete (HiDCon) elements (second phase).
Installation of a coffered concrete lining, 1 m thick,
approximately 80 m from the tunnel face (third
phase).
820
Figure 3. Horseshoe cross section initially adopted showing
the large convergences experienced.
The deformable concrete elements provide the tun-
nel with a yielding support which allows controlled
deformations to take place. The hollow glass parti-
cles included in the concrete mixture increase its void
fraction and collapse at a given compressive stress,
thereby providing the large deformability required. In
this case the elements have height 40 cm, length 80 cm
and thickness 20 cm. They have been designed to yield
up to 50 per cent strain approximately in a ductile
manner, while the yield stress has been chosen to be
8.5 MPa.
A monitoring system was installed to control the
tunnel performance, in particular:
the convergence, with optical targets along the
perimeter;
the in depth radial displacements, with multi-point
borehole extensometers;
strains and stresses in the concrete lining, with
embedded strain cells.
The available data exhibit a clear anisotropic time-
dependent behaviour of the rock mass, slow move-
ments taking place even during standstill, a large extent
of the zone of influence of the excavation, and a long
lasting tendency to undergo deformations. In this way
a back analysis can be performed and the mechanical
parameters can be identified.
3 VISCOPLASTIC CONSTITUTIVE MODELS
Two constitutive models have been developed in order
to describe the squeezing behaviour of the rock mass
during tunnel excavation.
The first one is referred to as Stress Hard-
ening ELasto VIscous Plastic (SHELVIP) model
(Debernardi 2008, Debernardi & Barla 2009). It has
been derived from the classical theory of elasto-
plasticity, which is frequently adopted in design
analysis of tunnels, by adding a viscoplastic com-
ponent based on the Perzynas overstress theory
(Perzyna 1966). The time-independent plastic strains

Figure 4. Stress Hardening ELasto VIscous Plastic model
(SHELVIP).
Figure 5. 3 Stages Creep rheological model (3SC) and
strains developing during primary (dotted line) and sec-
ondary/tertiary creep (solid line).
develop only when the stress point reaches the plas-
tic yield surface fp () = 0 which is defined by the
Drucker-Prager criterion (Fig. 4). The non associated
flow rule and the consistency condition of the classi-
cal theory of elasto-plasticity allow the rate of plastic
strains to be evaluated. The time-dependent viscoplas-
tic strains develop only if the effective stress state
exceeds a viscoplastic yield surface fvp () = 0, which
is also defined by the Drucker-Prager criterion and
is internal to the plastic yield surface. The rate of
viscoplastic strain, which is both deviatoric and volu-
metric, can be evaluated by using the viscoplastic flow
rule of Perzyna and depends on the deviatoric state of
overstress referred to the viscoplastic yield surface.
Inside the viscoplastic yield surface the behaviour is
purely linear elastic. The plastic yield surface is fixed,
while the viscoplastic yield surface, which defines the
stress threshold of development of viscoplastic strains,
can harden according to a stress-based hardening rule.
The second model has been devised to account
for the 3 Stages of Creep (3SC model), namely pri-
mary, secondary and tertiary creep, by way of the
connection of simple elements into the rheological
model shown in Fig. 5 (Gioda & Cividini 1996, Sterpi
& Gioda 2009). The first elastic element represents
821
the time independent reversible response. The vis-
coelastic Kelvin element accounts for the deviatoric
primary creep, i.e. time-dependent reversible strains
which develop with decreasing rate, thus reaching a
stable value. The viscoplastic element accounts for
the deviatoric secondary creep, i.e. time-dependent
non reversible strains, which develop with constant
rate. The secondary creep is onset when the devia-
toric component of the state of stress exceeds the limit
established by the viscoplastic envelope Fvp () = 0,
defined by a non associated Drucker-Prager criterion.
The secondary creep rate is therefore governed by the
coefficient of plastic viscosity vp and by the portion
of deviatoric stress exceeding the limit. Finally, the
tertiary creep corresponds to an increase of the creep
rate and is introduced by a progressive reduction of
the coefficient vp and a contraction of the viscoplas-
tic envelope, i.e. a reduction of its parameters clim ,
lim . This sort of progressive damage is controlled by
the cumulated viscoplastic strains.
The two models have been tested to verify their
effectiveness in reproducing creep at the laboratory
scale. Several triaxial creep tests on rock samples of
various nature have been considered to this purpose,
and among them also samples of coal taken from the
Saint Martin La Porte access adit (Barla et al. 2009).
Due to the different mathematical formulation it is
rather difficult to compare the two constitutive models
on a theoretical basis.
The main distinguishing features of the SHELVIP
model are: (i) the true yielding limit, which can-
not be exceeded by the stress state and induce an
instantaneous irreversible strain, (ii) the possibility
to accurately describe the load dependency, (iii) the
volumetric component of time-dependent strains.
For the 3SC model one can mention: (i) the pos-
sibility to reproduce the tertiary phase of creep, (ii)
the intuitive physical meaning of the time-dependent
parameters, which could be obtained on the basis of a
controlled procedure (Sterpi & Gioda, 2009).
4 NUMERICAL ANALYSES
Tunnelling through the Carboniferous rock mass at the
Saint Martin La Porte access adit has been analysed by
using SHELVIP and 3SC, respectively implemented in
the Finite Difference Method code FLAC (Itasca 2006)
and in the non commercial Finite Element Method
code SoSIA (Gioda & Cividini 1996).
The tunnel section between chainage 1394 and
1527 m has been chosen for the analyses carried out,
where the overburden is approximately 360 m. The ini-
tial stress state is assumed to be isotropic and equal to
9.8 MPa. The water table is not present.
Axi-symmetric conditions have been adopted in
order to reproduce the three-dimensional influence of
the tunnel face, which is known to play a significant
role in squeezing conditions. The tunnel cross section
is assumed to be circular, with an equivalent radius of
6 m. Full face excavation with a constant advance rate

Figure 6. Sketch of the numerical model adopted to simulate
the excavation-construction sequence.
of 0.54 m/day is considered. The total size of the mesh
is very large in order to minimize the boundary effects
that are very significant in the case of large deforma-
tions. In addition, the need to represent the various
excavation-construction phases, which are quite dis-
tant from each other, forces one to adopt a large size
model along the tunnel axis.
After a series of preliminary back analyses, meant
to calibrate the mechanical parameters on the basis
of the monitored tunnel convergence only (Barla et al.
2009), the attention has been focused on the modelling
of the support system and the excavation-construction
sequence. The reinforcement ahead of the face has
been described by using an equivalent pressure of
0.1 MPa (Fig. 6). Similarly, the first phase support
has been simulated by using an equivalent radial pres-
sure which is assumed to reach the constant value of
0.1 MPa, 5 m behind the tunnel face, as depicted in
Fig. 6.
The second phase support has been described as an
elasto-perfectly plastic ring, installed at a distance of
30 m from the face, with a given stiffness and yield
limit. The equivalent stiffness of the ring depends on
the stiffness of the single deformable element and on
the volume fraction of the 9 elements installed in the
ring pertaining to the cross section of interest. The
yield limit of the ring is equal to the yield limit of the
element. Laboratory compression tests allowed one to
evaluate this yield limit to be 8.5 MPa (Barla et al.
2007). As a consequence, for a thickness of 0.2 m and
a tunnel radius of 6 m, the second phase support at
yielding gives a maximum radial pressure equal to
0.283 MPa.
In the FDM analysis with the SHELVIP model the
second phase support has been simulated by using a
refined FDM mesh (Fig. 6a). A new linear elastic-
perfectly plastic model has been specially developed
to allow the material to yield only in the out of plane
direction. In the FEM analysis with the 3SC model
this support has been introduced by activating spe-
cially devised elastic-perfectly plastic rib elements
Table 1. Mechanical parameters of SHELVIP and 3SC
models.
SHELVIP model
E 640 MPa
0.3
26
c 0.56 MPa
t 0.10 MPa
p 0
5.1E-5
m 2.2
n 0.18
l 0.01
vp 0.735
3SC model
E 640 MPa
0.3
Gve 52 MPa
ve 2.3 GPad
lim 16.3 13.2
clim 0.76 0.64 MPa
lim 7.8 6.4
vp 18 14.4 GPad
time in year and pressure in kPa.
(Fig. 6b). These act as out of plane springs, by way
of a nodal force applied in the radial direction and
equivalent to the radial pressure due to the ring being
compressed.
Finally the third phase lining has been modelled as a
linear elastic ring at a distance of 80 m from the tunnel
face. In the FDM analysis it has been introduced by
using a refined FDM mesh (Fig. 6a), while in the FEM
analysis by using shell elements (Fig. 6b). An elastic
modulus E = 30 GPa and a Poissons ratio of 0.2 have
been assumed.
In the FEM analysis for each computational step the
following simulation stages are considered: excavation
of 1 m length by element removal; application of pres-
sure at the face and along the newly excavated tunnel
perimeter; activation of a length of 1 m of the second
and third phase supports, respectively 30 m and 80 m
behind the face. The same procedure has been adopted
for the FDM analyses, however with the following dif-
ferences. An excavation step length of 0.5 m has been
adopted. The third phase support has been activated
in steps of 5 m length and the elastic modulus has
been incremented gradually to reach the desired value
in 28 days, to better reproduce the real construction
procedure and the setting of the concrete.
The constitutive parameters of the SHELVIP model
have been chosen on the basis of the preliminary back
analyses above mentioned (Barla et al. 2009), while the
parameters of the 3SC model have been assessed with
new back analyses taking into account the monitored
state of stress in the final lining.
Table 1 gives a summary of the constitutive param-
eters for the two models. The different mechanical
meaning of the two sets of viscous and plastic param-
eters does not permit a straightforward comparison
822
Figure 7. Computed vs. monitored radial displacements
with time, at the section at chainage 1444 m: SHELVIP model
(solid line) and 3SC model (dashed line).

between these values. In addition, besides the different

formulations of the two constitutive models, various
differences exist between the two numerical analyses
in terms of modelling and procedures, as pointed out
above. Figure 8. Computed vs. monitored radial displacements at
Despite these differences, the validity of the com- depth, at chainage 1444 m: SHELVIP model (solid line) and
parison still holds as long as the aim is to investigate 3SC model (dashed line).
the different potential of the two numerical analyses in
capturing the overall response of the rock mass and the
supporting structures to the excavation. This response
is checked in terms of strain and stresses in the short
and long term.

5 DISCUSSION OF THE RESULTS

In the following Figures 7 to 9 the computed and

measured displacements and concrete lining stresses
for the sections at chainage 1444 m and at chainage
1457 m respectively are compared.
The tunnel convergence versus time (Fig. 7) is well
reproduced by the numerical analyses performed with
both the two constitutive models SHELVIP and 3SC,
notwithstanding the scattering of the monitoring data.
The available data point out the heterogeneity and Figure 9. Computed vs. monitored circumferential mem-
anisotropy of the rock mass, which cannot be repre- brane stress in the concrete liner, at chainage 1457 m:
sented in a simplified axi-symmetric model. A good SHELVIP model (solid line) and 3SC model (dashed line).
agreement between computed and observed radial dis-
placements measured around the tunnel up to a depth monitoring, 3SC provides a short time response in
of 24 m is also shown in Figure 8, where reference is agreement with the data, but it overestimates the rate of
made to both phases I and II, i.e. respectively 32 and 84 increasing stress, thus leading to a stable value which
days after installation of the multipoint extensometers. is however greater, in the long term, than for SHELVIP.
For the second phase support, the state of stress in This discrepancy could be due also to the slow setting
the out of plane direction was proved to be equal to the of the concrete which has not been taken into account
given yield limit. This value is reached a short time with the 3SC model.
after activation of the support.
It is noted that rock mass anisotropy affects the
stress distribution in the final lining (Fig. 9), with a 6 CONCLUSIONS
large scattering in the monitoring data. In this case,
the two models show rather different responses: while Two elasto-viscoplastic models have been introduced
the stress predicted by SHELVIP rapidly reaches a con- to study the behaviour of tunnel excavation in severely
stant value, corresponding to the average value from squeezing rock conditions.

823
 The first model (SHELVIP) couples the general the-
ory of elasto-plasticity with a time-dependent compo-
nent. The elasto-plastic behaviour is associated with an
external plastic surface that defines the locus of plas-
tic strains development, while the viscous behaviour
depends on an internal stress-hardening viscoplas-
tic surface that establishes the onset of viscoplastic
strains.
The second model (3SC) consists of the connec-
tion of basic rheological elements, which reproduce,
for different values of the applied deviatoric stress,
the three creep stages, namely primary, secondary and
tertiary creep.
Both models have shown their effectiveness in
reproducing the tunnel convergence versus time, the
radial displacements around the tunnel and the state of
stress in the final lining. The results obtained with the
two models have also shown some differences, due to
their intrinsic theoretical differences.
A final comment can be made on the need for
reaching a satisfactory result in simulation of tunnel
excavation: an accurate description of the excavation-
construction sequence and the adoption of a suitable
elasto visco-plastic constitutive model. The calibra-
tion of the parameters pertaining to each model is
crucial for obtaining a good numerical prediction of
tunnel behaviour based on back analysis and in situ
monitoring.
REFERENCES
Barla, G. 1995. Squeezing rocks in tunnels. ISRM News
Journal, Vol.II (34), 4449
Barla, G. 2002. Tunnelling under squeezing rock conditions.
In D.Kolymbas (ed), Tunnelling mechanics, Eurosummer
School, Innsbruck, Logos Verlag, 169268
824
Barla, G., Bonini, M.C. & Debernardi, D. 2007. Modelling
of tunnels in squeezing rock. In J.Eberhardsteiner et al.
(eds), Euro:Tun 2007, Proc. 1st Int. Conf. Computa-
tional Methods in Tunnelling, Vienna: Vienna University
of Technology
Barla, G., Debernardi, D. & Sterpi, D. 2009. Numerical anal-
ysis of tunnel response during excavation in squeezing
rock by using two constitutive models. In G.Meschke et al.
(eds), Euro:Tun 2009, Proc. 2nd Int. Conf. Computational
Methods in Tunnelling, Freiburg: Aedificatio Publishers,
Vol.1, 389396
Cristescu, N.D. & Hunsche, U. 1998. Time effects in rock
mechanics. Wiley & Sons.
Debernardi, D. 2008. Viscoplastic Behaviour and Design of
Tunnels. Ph.D. Thesis, Politecnico di Torino, Department
of Structural and Geotechnical Engineering, Italy
Debernardi, D. & Barla, G. 2009. New viscoplastic model for
design analysis of tunnels in squeezing conditions. Rock
Mech. Rock Engng., 42, 259288
Dusseault, M.B. & Fordham, C.J. 1993. Time-dependent
behaviour of rocks. In J.A.Hudson (ed), Comprehensive
rock engineering, Pergamon Press, Vol.3, 119149
Gioda, G. & Cividini, A. 1996. Numerical methods for the
analysis of tunnel performance in squeezing rocks. Rock
Mech. Rock Engng. 29, 171193
Hoek, E. 2001. Big tunnels in bad rock (36th Terzaghi
Lecture). Int. J. Geotech. Geoenv. Engng. ASCE, 127,
726740
Itasca (2006), FLAC Fast Lagrangian Analysis of Continua,
Version 5.0. Itasca Consulting Group, Minneapolis, USA
Perzyna, P. 1966. Fundamental problems in viscoplasticity.
Advances in Applied Mechanics, Academic Press, 9, 243
377
Steiner, W. 1996. Tunnelling in squeezing rocks: Case histo-
ries. Rock Mech. Rock Engng., 29, 211246
Sterpi, D. & Gioda, G. 2009. Visco-plastic behaviour around
advancing tunnels in squeezing rock. Rock Mech. Rock
Engng., 42, 319339
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

3D FEM analysis of soil improving resin injections underneath

a mediaeval tower in Italy

M. Gabassi, A. Pasquetto & G. Vinco

Uretek, Verona, Italy

F. Mansueto
Studio Montaldo & Associati, Genova, Italy

ABSTRACT: In order to stop the settlement process of a mediaeval tower located in Citt di Castello (Italy),
polyuretanic resins injections were performed in the foundation soil. The designing of the ground improving
intervention was made with a 3D finite elements code and an analytical method based on the finite cavity
expansion theory (Yu H.S. e Houlsby G.T., 1991), which allows to predict soil parameters changes due to resin
expansion in the ground. During job site activity and for a long period after the works were finished the structure
has been accurately monitored; the measured data seem to get on well with the one obtained from model analysis.
The model creation, starting from the avilable geological data input, was necessary for the understanding of the
causes which trigged to settlements. The Safety Factor improvement experienced during the simulation was
about 30%.

1 THE CITT DI CASTELLO CIVIC TOWER 2 GEOTECHNICAL INVESTIGATION

1.1 Historical overview 2.1 Real time monitoring

The tower, initially built for military purposes, can be
dated around the thirteenth century and is the only slim
structure, together with the Campanile Rotondo, left
in the old town Citt di Castello.
The building has a rectangular shape, dimensions
6,10 times 6,80 m and has a maximum height in the
front of 39,80 m. It is divided into seven different
levels, four of which were previously used as a prison.
The tower, like we see it today, is the result of sev-
eral collapses and reconstructions occurred over time;
this can be gathered from the different wall textures,
which interchange themselves along the whole tower
height.
1.2 Settlement detection
In March 2007, following an earthquake registered
in the area, with a magnitude of 2.2 of the Richter
scale, a separation of 4 cm was detected in the purpose
made seismic joint between the tower and the Bishops
Palace. By analyzing the data of the cracks monitoring,
a differential settlement caused by the earthquake was
clearly identified. This settlement strongly increased
the before measured leaning of the tower towards the
main square.
In detail, the leaning grew from 72 to 78 cm, making
this way even worse a strain state already close to the
limit.
The real time electronic monitoring was started on
October 3rd 2007 and the zero measurement showed
a leaning of 74 cm towards the main square and 34 cm
towards the contiguous alley.
During the next eleven days, a further settlement of
8 mm was registered in both directions.
2.2 Geological survey
During October 2003 a geological survey was per-
formed including four deep soundings, ground pen-
etration radar and laboratory tests.
The foundation depth from the ground level, varies
from 2.3 m, on the sides facing the square (front side)
and the alley, to 3.6 m on the side jointed to the Bishops
Palace and the backside.
The underground is constituted by a superficial
inhomogeneous replenishment layer, which thickness
varies from 1.5 to 5.7 m, over a sequence of silty sands
and sandy silts layer, followed by a bottom layer of
clay and clayey silts at a depth varying from 10.0 to
13.0 m.
These kind of soils, characterized by a strong geo-
metric and granulometric as well as geomechanical
variability, determine different responses to static and
dynamic stress states, worsen by replenishment layers
with strong thickness variability due to the ancient old
town urbanization.

827
Table 1. OCR values.
S1 C3 (7.78.0 m) OCR = p / v0 = (179.95/156.91)kPa = 1.147
S1 C4 (11.311.5 m) OCR = p / v0 = (229.97/225.55)kPa = 1.019
S1 C5 (15.215.5 m) OCR = p / v0 = (499.99/304.00)kPa = 1.645
The ground water table was detected at a depth of
10 m from the ground level, but is capable of relevant
changes depending from the different soils permeabil-
ity. Also suspended underground water was detected in
several spots, coming from water pipes leakages and
from the square, following big rainfall events.
2.3 Geotechnical parameters
The Consistency Index (IC), varies from 0.738 to
0.950, revealing a solid to plastic consistency of the
analyzed soils. These values are proper of groups of
inorganic clays with low to medium plasticity, silty and
sandy clay and fine silty sands.
Sandy soils have a medium-high consistency,
whereas clayey soils are characterized by high drained
cohesion values (c) varying from 25 to 30 kPa and
oedometric moduli M included between 6.2 and
17.4 MPa meaning a coefficient of volume compress-
ibility mv ranging from 0.16 e 0.06 m2 /MN.
From the oedometric tests performed, the consoli-
dation pressure and the over consolidation ratio (OCR)
were calculated; the tested samples are all in the range
of normal consolidated to poorly overconsolidated
soils with some peaks in the clays of the deepest part
of the soundings:
3 GROUND IMPROVEMENT DESIGN
3.1 Uretek deep injections method
Due to the need of a low impact technology, which
could guarantee low vibrations and small diameter
drillings, a polyuretanic resin injections technique was
chosen.
Uretek Deep Injections is a very particular tech-
nology, consisting of local injections into the soil of
a high-pressure expansion resin; which produces a
remarkable improvement of the geotechnical proper-
ties of the foundation soil. The operation steps are
relatively simple and do not require invasive exca-
vations or connection systems to existing and new
foundation structures.
Small quantities of expanding materials are injected
precisely underneath the foundation level into the soil
volume were the stress state reaches its peak. In order
to avoid the material to flow outside from this volume,
the expansion together with the viscosity increase of
the resin have to be very quick. Therefore, after having
injected the soil to be treated, resin immediately starts
to expand.
A high expansion pressure of the injection grout
is also needed to guarantee a proper compaction of
828
the soil. It has to be way higher than the stress state
induced by the overlaying structures both to allow a
certain expansion rate and to avoid higher material
consumption.
The expansion process, first leads to the compaction
of the surrounding soil and then, in case of light
overstructures, also to the lift. All the procedure is
monitored by electric receivers lighted by a laser emit-
ter and anchored to the building whose foundation is
treated.
A wide set of laboratory tests have been carried
out on the Uretek resin, named Geoplus , in order
to evaluate its main mechanical properties. Vertical
compression with free lateral expansion and vertical
expansion in oedometric conditions tests were per-
formed in the geotechnical laboratory of the University
of Padova (Favaretti et al. 2004).
3.2 Theoretical view and simulation
of the expanding process
The expansion process of the resin, locally injected into
the soil, can be theoretically studied as a spherical cav-
ity (or cylindrical, if several injections are performed
very close each to other, along the same vertical line)
expanding in quasi-static conditions.
The soil is modelled as a liner elastic-perfectly
plastic material with a non-associated Mohr-Coulomb
yield criterion and is considered initially subjected to
an isotropic state of stress.
During the first part of the expansion process,
when the internal pressure of the cavity increases, soil
shows an elastic behavior, while after reaching a spe-
cific value of the internal pressure plastic deformation
starts, similarly to the elastic phase, until it reaches the
pressure limit (lim ). It is assumed that as soon as pres-
sure limit is reached, the resin solidifies (Dei Svaldi et
al. 2005).
The expansion process is theoretically treated
adopting analysis at large and small strains, respec-
tively, on the plastic and elastic region (Yu & Houlsby
1991).
3.3 Uretek ground improvement calculation
software
The analytical model of the expansion process together
with the resin expansion law obtained in laboratory,
were recently used to develop a software, Uretek
S.I.M.S. 1.0, capable to predict the ground improve-
ment index of a soil injected with Geoplus resin.
Uretek S.I.M.S. 1.0 computerizes the above
explained model and enables designers to get the
improved ground parameters rapidly. To perform a
stress-strain analysis this parameters can later on be
used to perform a FEM analysis.
The quality of the previsions, provided by the
analytical model, has been verified on a number of
real cases. The reliability of the theoretical previ-
sions increases with the quality of the geotechnical
investigation available to designer.
 During first phase injections, due to the expan-
sion of the grout, all voids are filled, the ground is
compacted and its stiffness increases. In normal con-
solidated ground conditions, this leads to the rise of
the horizontal stress to values close to the vertical one
in a limited volume around the injection point.
When the isotropic stress state is reached, the
expansion pressure also develops in vertical direction,
inducing a surface lifting (Schweiger et al. 2004).
The isotropic volume growth is obviously a simpli-
fication, because the expansion pressure first devel-
ops on the lowest stress plane in homogeneous soil
conditions.

3.4 3D FEM analysis

The analysis has been performed using a PLAXIS 3D
Tunnel software version 1.2 of the Dutch Plaxis b.v.
company.
In order to model the intervention, some simplifi-
cations were adopted and the injections were this way
modelled as a volumetric expansion of solid elements.
A stiffness increase of both the surrounding as well
as the treated soil has been adopted; the isotropic
expansion implemented in Uretek S.I.M.S. 1.0 was
modelled in the 3D FEM analysis, by forcing the vol-
umetric strain value of the element according to the
volume increase calculated with Uretek S.I.M.S. 1.0
(Mansueto et al. 2007).
Doing so, an accurate determination of the grout
quantities to be injected has been possible. The quick
reaction time, as a matter of fact, prevent the material to
flow away from the injection point, making this way
easier the determination of the injected volumes in
a certain soil volume. Considering that the material
flows for one meter at the most, the added volume in a
sphere of one meter radius around the injection point
is equal to the injected quantity times the expansion
factor calculated with Uretek S.I.M.S. 1.0 (Pasquetto
et al. 2008). Also the soil stiffness increase was taken
from the Uretek S.I.M.S. 1.0 output.
Figure 1 shows the different foundation levels of the
tower: they are higher towards the square (x < 0) and
towards the alley (z > 0) as verified in the tests.
A stress-strain analysis of the tower for every sched-
uled injection phase has been performed, simulating
the injected volume as an expansion of the soil element
located exactly in correspondence of the injection
point (x, y and z).
The volumetric expansion rate has been assigned
to every element, according to the volume of resin to
be injected in every injection point and the calculated
expansion factor of the resin.
The construction of the 3D model, interested
14.310 m3 of soil and required the generation of
8.708 elements, 25.053 nodes and 52.248 stress points
internal to the elements.
The tower has been modeled in vertical position
in the input data. Afterwards, the construction phases
have been simulated using intermediate steps, until
the final configuration has been reached. The error
Figure 1. 3D FEM model of the tower.
between the modeled tilting and the measured one,
lower than 4%, has been evaluated acceptable. The
model has been based on the soil stratigraphy, on the
precise geometry of the tower and on the scheduled
injection phases.
The initial condition analysis pointed out that, apart
from the rather complex local stratigraphy charac-
terized by the presence of overconsolidated material
lenses into much more deformable soils, the different
foundation levels determined the tower rotation.
As a matter of fact, to a higher foundation level,
corresponds a thicker layer of deformable soil, which
origins, therefore, a differential settlement and the
rotation of the tower. The leaning direction towards the
less deeper foundation can be read as a confirmation
of this.
The FEM analysis clearly evidenced this point.
The stress state, in correspondence to the founda-
tion/soil interface, reaches the highest level (700 kPa)
underneath the foundation facing the square, exactly
were the settlement is the highest. These are the
effects of the stress redistribution caused by the tower
eccentricity.
Figure 2 shows the distribution of the relative
shear stresses (meant as the ratio of the existing
shear stresses and the resisting ones calculated with a

829
 Table 2. OCR values.

Parameter

sat E c

Soil Type KN/m3 kPa kPa Constitutive law

Replenishment (Silty Clay) 19.5 6250 31 23 Mohr-Coulomb

Replenishment (Sandy Silt) 20.0 4000 30 28 1 Mohr-Coulomb
Replenishment (Sand) 18.5 3000 0 32 Mohr-Coulomb
Sandy Silt 20.0 8000 18 30 3 Mohr-Coulomb
Silty Sand 20.0 9000 18 30 2 Mohr-Coulomb
Clay and Clayey Silt 21.2 13000 10 27 Mohr-Coulomb

Figure 2. Relative shear stresses distribution.

Figure 4. Injections points distribution and monitoring

points.

Therefore, if the first one is a typical superficial

punching failure mechanism, the second one depends
from the stress state transferring to deeper soil lay-
ers; the two effects are certainly related, depending the
second from the first one.

3.5 Executive project

Figure 3. Relative shear stress in the center cut of the tower
before the injections.
Mohr-Coulomb failure criterion) just underneath the
foundations.
It has been observed, that where the settlements
are the highest, the existing stresses are equal to the
resisting ones, meaning that the soil reached a plastic
equilibrium condition.
This obvious result is important, because proves the
correspondence of the analysis performed; the foun-
dation ground reached the full mobilization of the
end-bearing capacity.
Figure 3 shows an interesting double failure mecha-
nism mobilization. The first one, more superficial, lays
just underneath the foundation level and is limited to
the first sandy silt soil layer; on the other hand, the
second and deeper one, also interests other soil layers
under the first one.
Based on the indications come from the FEM analysis,
an executive project has been arranged, which has been
changed continuously, depending on the reaction of the
tower during the different injection phases.
During a total of 14 working days, 2.475,5 kg of
resin were injected. The amount of injected grout per
day has been very different, depending on the real time
monitoring data analysis.
4 FIELD AND DESIGN DATA COMPARISON
As mentioned before, during the whole work a real
time electronic monitoring was operating. These data
have been, afterwards, compared with the settlements
calculated with the FEM analysis.
4.1 Expected settlements
Figure 5 shows the expected settlements shells for
monitoring points A and B, representing two limit

830

Figure 5. Calculated settlements and monitoring data graph.
Figure 6. Relative shear stress in the center cut of the tower
after the injections.
scenarios with zero and full expansion of the resin.
The graph also withholds the settlements data, mea-
sured on field after each one of the three injection
phases.
It can be observed that, according to the modeling,
little settlements had to be expected, due to a double
effect: a lateral soil flow due to the resin injection and
expansion first and a ground strain due to the increase
of the effective soil stress, also caused by the resin
volume expansion, second.
Figure 5 shows how little are the differences
between the calculated time/settlement curve and the
real settlements measured on field after every injection
phase.
4.2 Final stress state distribution
Referring to relative shear stress (Fig. 2), the FEM
analysis clearly shows how the injections strongly
reduced this value within the improved ground vol-
ume.
This reduction is the effect of the soil compaction
induced by the resin expansion.
4.3 Safety factor increase
The determination of the safety factor, was done
using a c- reduction procedure, which foresees a
Figure 7. Safety factor graph.
Figure 8. Settlement/Time graph.
progressive reduction of the ground parameter values
until the soil body collapse is reached.
The final result is a movement/reduction factor
graph, which represent the safety factor of the struc-
ture.
Figure 7 shows a comparison of the safety factor
before and after the intervention; it can be observed
that the injections effect was the raising of the safety
factor of about 30%.
4.4 Post intervention monitoring
The precision monitoring of three datum points, started
on March 25th 2007 and has been necessary for mea-
suring the settlements of the structure before during
and after the job site.
Figure 8 shows the settlement/time graph, from
which clearly appears how the settlement speed rapidly
decreases after the injections. Also other electronic
devices have been installed on the tower before the
intervention, such as three electronic inclinometers
with a 103 degrees precision and two electronic crack
monitors with a 102 mm precision.
In this case the monitoring had to register eventual
settlement trends in the short such as in the long period.
In order to obtain a significant measurement, also a
thermometer has been installed to neglect movements
only due to thermal shocks.
Analysing the data, it has been observed that during
the drilling phase no significant settlement were reg-
istered, meaning that the small diameter drills made
with hand augers didnt influence the tower stability.
831
 On the other hand, during the injection phase, a vari-
ation of the cracks opening, such as a tower leaning
progress have been observed, confirming this way the
results of the FEM analysis.
The monitoring is still working and the tower didnt
register any further settlements in the last two years.
5 CONCLUSIONS
In this interesting case history, clearly appears how
helpful a 3D FEM analysis can be, to take impor-
tant job site decisions. In this delicate compensation
grouting with polyuretanic resin injections, under-
neath a mediaeval tower, key choices like the injections
sequence such as the grout quantities, were taken
according to the modeling outputs.
At the end of the work a good correspondence
between settlements data measured on field and the
ones forecasted with the analysis was found, confirm-
ing the good quality of the model; also in terms of
bearing capacity increase, a significant rise of the
safety factor was observed.
The aim of this designing approach was the eval-
uation of the strain behavior of the tower during the
different injection phases, in order to analyze the
critical points of the work.
To cover the stability problem at hand, also the
increasing action of gravity, because of the increasing
tilting should be taken into account in a leaning insta-
bility problem, which wasnt, however, the purpose of
this modeling.
REFERENCES
Dei Svaldi, A. Favaretti, M. Pasquetto, A. & Vinco, G.
2005. Analytical modelling of the soil improvement
by injections of high expansion pressure resin. In 6th
International Conference on Ground Improvement Tech-
niques; Congress proceedings, Coimbra, 1819 July 2005:
577584.
832
Favaretti, M. Germanino, G. Pasquetto, A. & Vinco, G. 2004.
Interventi di consolidamento dei terreni di fondazione
di una torre campanaria con iniezioni di resina ad alta
pressione despansione. In XXII Convegno Nazionale
di Geotecnica; Congress proceedings, Palermo, 2224
October 2004: 357364. Bologna: Ptron.
Foti, S. & Manassero, M. 2009. Rinforzo e adeguamento delle
fondazioni per sollecitazioni statiche e dinamiche. In Risk
mitigation and soil improvement and reinforcement; Proc.
intern. symp., Torino, 1819 November 2009.
Mansueto, F. Gabassi, M. Pasquetto, A. & Vinco, G. 2007.
Modellazione numerica di un intervento di consolida-
mento del terreno di fondazione di un palazzo storico
sito in Rue Joseph de Maistre sulla collina di Monmatre
in Parigi realizzato con iniezioni di resina poliuretan-
ica ad alta pressione despansione. In XXIII Convegno
Nazionale di Geotecnica; Congress proceedings, Padova-
Abano Terme, 1618 May 2007: 277284. Bologna:
Ptron.
Pasquetto, A. Gabassi, M. Vinco, G. & Guerra, C. 2008. Con-
solidation du sol par injection de rsine polyurthane, afin
dattnuer le gonflement e le retrait des sols argileux. In
SEC 2008-Symposium international scheresse et con-
structions; Congress proceedings, Marne-La-Vale, 13
September 2008: 343348.
Plaxis B.V. 2004. Plaxis 3D Tunnel, Tutorial Manual.
Schweiger, H. F. Kummerer, C. Otterbein, R. & Falk, E.
2004. Numerical modelling of settlement compensation
by means of fracture grouting. Soils and foundations 44
(1): 7186.
Yu, H.S. & Houlsby, G.T. 1991. Finite cavity expansion
in dilatant soils: loading analysis. Gotecnique 41 (2):
173183.
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

A numerical study of factors governing the performance of stone columns

supporting rigid footings on soft clay

M.M. Killeen & B.A. McCabe

Department of Civil Engineering, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland

ABSTRACT: The Vibro Replacement technique is now frequently used as a means of improving the bearing
capacity and settlement performance of soft cohesive soils. In this paper, a parametric study using the finite
element method is presented which examines the influence of some key variables on the behaviour of small
groups of stone columns supporting rigid footings. There is great potential to use the finite element method in
an applied sense, as analytical approaches have many shortcomings and high quality field data is scarce.

1 INTRODUCTION published. In this paper PLAXIS 3-D Foundation (Ver-

The optimum design of stone columns supporting
small loaded areas (such as pad and strip footings) is
arguably the most challenging aspect of stone column
design in soft soils. Analytical theories developed to
date assume an infinite grid of stone columns sub-
jected to wide-area loading which is implemented
mathematically using the unit cell approach (for exam-
ple, Priebes 1995 method for settlement design).
Therefore they do not directly capture the behaviour
of those columns under footings that are not equally
confined on all sides; correction factors are applied
within the design for this purpose. In addition, the ver-
tical stress beneath footings decays much more sharply
with depth than the stress beneath loaded wide areas,
allowing partial-depth treatment to be used. Current
design practice relies heavily on empirical methods
for partial-depth treatment as analytical theory is much
less well developed in this area.
Equally, a database of measured field settlement
improvement factors in fine soils compiled by McCabe
et al. (2009) highlights a dearth of data for strip and pad
footings. High quality physical models of footings on
soft clay supported by stone columns (i.e. McKelvey
et al., 2004, Black et al., 2010) have been informative,
although there are obvious difficulties in extrapolating
model test findings to field scale, and the proportion
of area under each pad that has been replaced with
stone in these tests has tended to lie at the high end of
what might commonly be used in practice.
Publications in which the finite element method
has been used to model ground improved with stone
columns mostly relate to wide-area loading, using
either a unit cell (i.e. Domingues et al., 2007) or 2-D
axisymmetric (i.e. Elshazly et al., 2008) approxima-
tion. Some 3-D modelling of wide-area loading has
also been carried out (i.e. Gab et al., 2008); how-
ever, hardly any 3-D modelling of footings has been
sion 2.2) is used to model the behaviour of rigid square
pad footings supported by stone columns. The soil pro-
file at the former geotechnical test site at Bothkennar,
Scotland, is used as it is representative of many soft soil
profiles in Ireland and the UK for which the applicabil-
ity of stone columns is of growing interest. This paper
begins to identify some of the key factors relevant to
the design of small groups of stone columns, such
as column arrangement, spacing, length, and Youngs
modulus of the column material.
2 MODEL OF BOTHKENNAR SOIL PROFILE
Located on the Firth of Forth estuary near Grange-
mouth, in Scotland, Bothkennar is the former UK test
site for soft soil engineering research and as a result is
extensively characterised. A weathered crust extends
to a depth of 1.5 m and is underlain by 13.0 m of soft
uniform Carse clay, deposited under shallow marine
or estuarine conditions.
2.1 General soil parameters
The clay properties used in the soil model are presented
in Table 1 and separated into crust, upper Carse clay
and lower Carse clay. A high critical state friction angle
( ) of 34 (attributable to a high proportion of angular
silt particles, Allman & Atkinson, 1992) is used for the
Carse clay, and a nominal cohesion value of 1 kPa is
used for numerical stability. A slightly higher cohesion
value of 3 kPa was used for the weathered crust layers.
Nash et al. (1992a) report the variation of yield stress
ratio, which is equivalent to the overconsolidation ratio
(OCR) measured in an oedometer, and in situ lateral
earth pressure coefficient (K0 ) with depth, suggesting
that the stress state of the Carse clay may have been
influenced by erosion of material, a relative drop in sea

833
Table 1. Parameters for Bothkennar soil model.

Upper Lower Stone

Crust Carse clay Carse clay backfill

Depth (m) 0.01.5 1.52.5 2.514.0

(kN/m3 ) 18.0 16.5 16.5 19.0
 ( ) 34 34 34 45
( ) 0 0 0 15
c (kPa) 3 1 1 1
OCR () 1.0 1.0 1.5
POP (kPa) 15 15 0
K0 () 1.5 1.0 0.75 0.3
1 ref
E50 (kPa) 1068 506 231 70000
Eref
ur (kPa) 5382 3036 1164 210000
pref (kPa) 13 20 30 100
m () 1.0 1.0 1.0 0.3

1 ref
E50 assumed equal to Eref
oed (i.e. Elshazly et al., 2009).

level and fluctuating groundwater levels (summing to

a 15 kPa drop in vertical effective stress).
In choosing the friction angle of the stone back-
fill, reference was made to McCabe et al. (2009) who
used measured settlement improvement data from the Figure 1. Validation of soil profile and parameters for a
field to suggest that the conventionally- used value footing on untreated Carse clay.
of  = 40 may be conservative for columns in soft
cohesive soils constructed using the bottom feed sys- between soil stiffness (E) and the corresponding con-
tem. Subject to adequate workmanship, the value of fining stresses (p) according to eqn (1).
 = 45 shown in Table 1 should be readily achiev-
able. The angle of dilatancy () was calculated based
on the relationship =  30 .

The reference stiffness moduli were chosen from the

2.2 Hardening soil parameters
The advanced elastic-plastic Hardening Soil (HS)
model in PLAXIS 3-D Foundation was chosen to sim-
ulate the behaviour of the weathered crust, Carse clay
and stone backfill. The HS model is an extension
of the hyperbolic model developed by Duncan and
Chang (1970). Creep behaviour is not considered in
this model.
Nash et al. (1992b) report the variation with depth
of the initial voids ratio (e0 ), compression index (Cc )
and swelling index (Cs ) of the Carse clay. These param-
eters were entered into PLAXIS, which uses standard
relationships to convert these one-dimensional param-
eters to three-dimensional quantities for the HS model;
Youngs modulus at half the maximum deviator stress
(E50 ) and the oedometric modulus (Eoed ) are derived
from Cc while the unload-reload Youngs modulus
(Eur ) is derived from Cs . The stiffness parameters
adopted for the stone backfill are less certain, and thus
are subject to parametric study in section 4.3. The ref-
erence stiffness (Eref ) is the stiffness corresponding
to the confining pressure (pref ); pref is the horizontal
effective stress in the case of Eref ref
50 and Eur , and is the
vertical effective stress in the case of Eref
oed .
An important feature of the HS model is its abil-
ity to capture the stress dependence of soil stiffness.
The parameter m is used to control the relationship
aforementioned Nash et al. (1992b) tests at the values
of pref quoted in Table 1. This data also indicates that
m = 1 is appropriate for the Carse clay. The value of
m = 0.3 for the stone backfill is assumed based upon
Gab et al. (2008) and others.
3 FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS
3.1 Validation of soil model
A well-documented field test on a pad footing at the
Bothkennar site (no stone column support), see Jar-
dine et al. (1995), was simulated using PLAXIS 3-D
Foundation in order to substantiate the use of the
parameters in Table 1. The footing, which was 2.2 m
square and 0.8 m thick, was loaded to failure over
3 days using kentledge blocks, with loading pauses
overnight and whenever settlement rates exceeded 8
mm/h. The Carse clay is modelled as undrained due to
the short duration of the load test; concrete is mod-
elled as a linear elastic material (Youngs Modulus
Econc = 30 GPa; Poissons ratio conc = 0.15).The load-
settlement response of the footing recorded by Jardine
et al. (1995) is shown in Figure 1 together with the
PLAXIS 3-D prediction. It is clear that both curves
are in good agreement, affirming the selection of the
adopted soil profile and material parameters.

834
 Table 2. Details of parametric study.

Test Ftg size k s F E50,col

name (m) () (m) () (MPa)

A 22 4 1.0 3.5 70
B 33 4 1.0 8.0 70
C 33 4 1.5 8.0 70
D1 33 4 2.0 8.0 70
D2 33 4 2.0 8.0 50
D3 33 4 2.0 8.0 30
E1 33 5 1.0 6.4 70
E2 33 5 1.0 6.4 50
E3 33 5 1.0 6.4 30
F1 33 9 1.0 3.5 70
F2 33 9 1.0 3.5 50
F3 33 9 1.0 3.5 30
G 44 16 1.0 3.5 70

This approach was also adopted by Guetif et al. (2004)

and others.

3.4 Parametric study details

Figure 2. Influence of column length, arrangement and
drainage analysis type upon settlement performance of stone
columns.
3.2 Modelling of drainage
PLAXIS 3-D enables the long-term behaviour to be
modelled in two ways: (i) drained analysis, using effec-
tive stress parameters and (ii) undrained analysis, using
effective stress parameters, followed by consolidation.
Figure 2 shows that for a 3 m 3 m footing, loaded
to 50 kPa and supported by various configurations of
stone columns (depicted in the inset, refer also to Table
2), approaches (i) and (ii) produce quite similar (if not
perfectly consistent) results. On this basis, the para-
metric study in Section 4 is based on a comparison of
type (i) analyses only. Type (ii) analyses take longer to
perform but these analyses are underway and will be
published at a later date.
3.3 Other modelling issues
The stone columns in this study have been wished-
in-place, i.e. the ground properties have not been
modified to reflect changes induced by installation of
the columns. Some authors (i.e. Watts et al., 2000,
Kirsch, 2008) have reported increases in total stress
after column installation, but as noted by McCabe et
al. (2009), it is the equalized effective stresses around
columns (once pore pressures have dissipated) which
influence column performance under load, and these
have not been measured.
The interaction between the stone column and the
surrounding soil is simulated using elastic-plastic
interface elements. Owing to the process of column
construction, the stone is tightly interlocked with
the surrounding soil and it is assumed that a per-
fect bond (total adhesion) occurs along this interface.
Settlement rather than bearing capacity criteria gen-
erally govern the design of stone columns in soft
soils. Key variables in the settlement design of stone
columns to support footings include footing size (B),
column length (L), column spacing (s), number of
columns (k), column arrangement and stiffness of the
column material (E50 ). The various parametric com-
binations considered in this paper are labelled A-G in
Table 2.The footing, which is 600 mm thick, is founded
600mm below ground level. Column diameter is not
normally a significant variable in design as the poker
is of fixed diameter and the final column size is a
function of soil consistency. A diameter of 600 mm
is assumed here for soft soils constructed using the
instrumented bottom feed system.
In Table 2, the quantity F = Af /kAc is referred to
as the footprint replacement ratio, and is a measure of
the extent to which the soil area under the footing is
replaced by stone (Af is the footing area, k is the num-
ber of supporting columns andAc is the cross-sectional
area of each column). Since each footing is square (of
width B) and all columns are 600mm diameter, the
expression for F can be simplified to:
F is an adaptation for footings of the area replace-
ment ratio (A/Ac , A is the total loaded area) used by
Priebe (1995) for unit cells / infinite grids. For each
configuration A-G outlined in Table 2, at least 9 differ-
ent lengths were investigated; covering various extents
of partial depth treatment and full depth treatment to
14.5 m below ground level. The effect of varying the
E50 value of the column material is assessed for cases
D1-3, E1-3 and F1-3.
In subsequent plots, the extent of settlement
improvement is quantified by means of the settlement

835
improvement factor (n), defined as the ratio of the
settlement of the footing without treatment to the cor-
responding settlement with treatment (with the same
stress applied to the footing in each case).

4 PARAMETRIC STUDY

4.1 Influence of column length and footprint

replacement ratio
The type (i) data for the 3 m 3 m footing shown in
Figure 2 is revisited, which shows the influence of col-
umn length (L) and footprint replacement ratio (F)
upon the predicted value of settlement improvement
factor (n) for a column stiffness E50,col = 70 MPa. In
all cases, it is clear that n increases with L. Settle-
ment improvement is not observed until columns are
installed beyond L/d 3, as the weathered crust, which
extends to 1.5 m, is already competent.
The classical Boussinesq solution for vertical stress
distribution under a footing would suggest that the
stress increment applied to the footing is no longer
perceived at L/B = 2, which is equivalent to L/d = 10
in this instance. The PLAXIS output indicates that Figure 3. Effect of column spacing (or position in relation
improvement can still be achieved by constructing to the edge of the footing) on settlement performance.
columns longer than L = 10d. McKelvey et al. (2004)
suggest that while no benefit to bearing capacity stress distribution beneath rigid footings in clay is such
was achieved by extending columns beyond L/d = 6, that higher stress concentrations develop towards the
additional benefit to settlement was achieved up to edges, so columns placed here have the potential to
L/d = 10, the maximum length of the partial depth absorb more load and develop improved n values.
columns. Also, the stress concentrations that develop decay
The length effect in this study is most pronounced rapidly with depth and this may explain why the influ-
for the 9 column group (F = 3.5) which also appears to ence of column spacing is restricted to short columns.
benefit greatly from end bearing (onto a boundary at A finite element study by Wehr (2006) to examine the
14.5 m, modelled as rigid), suggesting that the applied group behaviour of stone columns demonstrates that
load in this case is being transmitted to great depth. shear zone develop at the edges of a pad footing and
This tendency is also noted in the model test data of extend to a depth beneath the centre of the footing.
Black et al. (2010) with similarly low F values. This Positioning the columns closer to the edge of the foot-
would indicate that the benefit of lengthening columns ing, and thus closer to these shear zones, may also
is greatest when they are already closely spaced. How- explain the enhanced settlement performance.
ever, the F values for the 4 column (F = 8.0) and 5
column (F = 6.4) groups are more representative of
practice. 4.3 Influence of column deformability
Muir Wood et al. (2000) conducted a series of Figure 4 demonstrates that the stiffness (E50 ) of the
laboratory scale model tests to investigate the influ- stone backfill has an influence on the settlement
ence of column diameter, length and spacing upon the improvement behaviour of stone column reinforced
mechanisms of stone column behaviour. The authors foundations. A reduction in the stiffness of the col-
observed that as the replacement ratios increased, the umn leads to a reduction in settlement improvement,
columns bulged in the upper zones of the soil layers which is similar to findings from finite element mod-
and transferred the load to greater depth. elling on an embankment (Domingues et al., 2007)
with columns having A/Ac 5.
4.2 Influence of column position beneath footing Interestingly, from Figure 4, the effect of column
deformability on settlement appears to be much more
The column spacing for a given footprint replacement
pronounced for the 9 column group (F = 3.5) than for
ratio (or alternatively thought of as the position of
the two groups with higher F values.
the columns in relation to the edge of the footing)
is seen in Figure 3 to have a minor influence on the
behaviour of the footing. It appears that small ben-
4.4 Column confinement
efits can be gained by keeping the columns closer
to the footing edge, although these benefits become Figure 5 compares three footings sizes, with the num-
negligible beyond L/d 15. It is well known that the ber of columns chosen to maintain equal footprint

836

Figure 4. Effect of column stiffness upon settlement perfor-
mance.
Figure 5. Effect of column confinement upon settlement
performance.
replacement ratios (F = 3.5). The settlement perfor-
mance of the footings improves as the footing size and
the number of supporting stone columns increases.
It is well documented that an isolated column will
tend to bulge when loaded. This bulging tends to occur
near the ground surface, where the overburden stresses
are at their lowest. Figure 6 (which is a diagonal cross
section through the 4 m 4 m group G) highlights that
the outer columns beneath the pad footings tend to
837
Figure 6. Mode of deformation for 4 m 4 m group G.
bulge outwards from the footing centre and towards
the unconfined side; the inner columns appear to bulge
less and more uniformly. This behaviour was also
observed by McKelvey et al. (2004), who examined
the interaction between stone columns beneath strip
and pad footings. As the number of columns beneath a
footing increases, so does the number of columns with
full confinement on all sides and therefore the aver-
age settlement performance of a group column will
improve.
It should be noted that an increased footing size will
stress the soil to a greater depth, which should induce
more settlement. However, Figure 5 indicates that this
effect is more than offset by the positive effects of
column confinement.
5 CONCLUSIONS
A parametric finite element study with an advanced
soil model was carried out to assess the effect of a
number of key design variables on the settlement per-
formance of rigid pad footings supported by stone
columns. The following conclusions may be drawn,
which are specific to a type (i) drained analysis for the
ground profile modelled:
The PLAXIS 3-D output suggests that settlement
performance continues to improve beyond L/d = 10,
and this improvement is more pronounced for groups
with a low footprint replacement ratio. End bearing is
also significant for the F = 3.5 case, but this may be
related in part to the assumption of a rigid layer.
Columns closer to the footing edge perform better
for short column lengths (L/d < 10) than for columns
closer to the centre, but the n values converge with
depth and long stone columns are relatively insensitive
to column spacing.
The stiffness of the stone backfill has a significant
influence on the settlement performance of a footing
supported by a large number of stone columns. How-
ever, as the number of supporting columns reduces, so
does the influence of column stiffness.
For a given footprint replacement ratio, an increased
number of columns supporting a footing leads to an
increase in the proportion of group columns that have
full confinement (i.e. behave like a unit cell) resulting
in enhanced settlement performance of the footing.
It is acknowledged that more definite conclusions
from the finite element work are pending upon the
outcome of the type (ii) analyses (undrained loading
followed by consolidation), and the output from the
modelling in general can only be satisfactory validated
by full scale field testing. The long term settlement
behaviour of footings on soft soils must also consider
creep.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors wish to acknowledge the support of the
Irish Research Council for Science, Engineering and
technology EMBARK Initiative for funding the first
authors research. The support of by the Geotechni-
cal Trust Fund (engineers Ireland) is also appreciated.
Finally, the authors are extremely grateful for the input
of Keller Foundations (UK) to this study.
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 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Calibration and verification of numerical model of ground improved

by dynamic replacement

S. Kwiecien
Silesian University of Technology, Gliwice, Poland

ABSTRACT: Dimensioning of driven stone columns on the basis of the existing methods may raise certain
doubts. It is due to underestimation of their load capacity and overestimation of their settlement. The alternative
solution could be a computational numerical model of subsoil strengthened with the use of dynamic replacement
method, which is presented in this paper.

1 INTRODUCTION

More and more often we are forced to set build-

ings and engineering structures on weak and strongly
deformable soils. Indirect footings, like piles, can be
applied in such a situation. However, this type of foun-
dation is often very costly. Direct footings can also be
successfully applied, but only after strengthening of
the weak subsoil. One of the many methods of sub-
soil strengthening is a dynamic replacement method,
called driven stone columns.
Dimensioning of driven columns requires checking
of two limit states. The existing methods of calculating
the load capacity and settlements cause underestima-
tion of the former (Kwiecien 2007) and overestimation
of the latter (Kwiecien 2004). The alternative solution
is a numerical analysis with the use of the finite ele- Figure 1. Trial load test stand.
ments method (FEM) and selection of appropriate soil
constitutive models. It shall be based on field tests, (Brauns 1978). A group of ten I-sections I500,
e.g. broad range of trial load testing of columns. anchored with the use of piles of diameter 75 and
In the paper the author proposes a computational 150 cm and respectively 15.8 and 10 m, constituted
model of subsoil strengthened with stone columns and the retaining beam.
calibrated in the course of semi-reverse analysis based The trial load test of the column was carried out by
on a trial load test of a driven column. means of a constant load steps method. Each load step
was maintained until the columns settlement veloc-
ity was lower than 0.05 mm/15 min. The loading was
conducted with the use of three hydraulic jacks of the
2 TRIAL LOAD TEST OF THE STONE
range 0-1300 kN. Three electronic sensors of the range
COLUMN
0-100 mm and accuracy of reading 0.01 mm enabled
the measurement of settlements.
The tested stone column was formed at a test site in
The final load amounted to q = 1373 kPa (Fig. 2).
Lubien close to Myslenice (Kwiecien 2007). The sub-
ject of the strengthening here were the top layers of
aggraded mud of the thickness reaching up to a few
3 CALIBRATION AND VERIFICATION
meters underlaid by gravels. The column was formed
OF THE COMPUTATIONAL MODEL
from crushed rock of fraction 0/400 with the use of a
OF THE STRENGTHENED SUBSOIL
tamper weighting 11.5 t and dropped from the height
of 13.5 m
3.1 Selection of soil constitutive models
Trial load test stand (Fig. 1) has been designed for
the strength equal to 1.5-times the anticipated load Consideration of the problem of strengthening cohe-
capacity, determined by means of Brauns method sive (organic) soils with grainy material (stone column

839

Figure 2. Results of the load plate test of stone column.
aggregate) suggests the use of specific soil models in
the computational analysis.
In case of grainy low compressible soils form-
ing a column the elastic-perfectly plastic model with
the Coulomb Mohr failure surface can be success-
fully used. Unfortunately one of the deficiencies of
this model, which may cause some numerical com-
plications, is the presence of sharp corners in the
yield surface. When the stress path achieves the yield
surface at that point, there appears the problem of
determination of the appropriate direction of the plas-
tic strain increment vector (Cudny & Binder 2005).
The alternative solution may be the use of a modi-
fication suggested by Menetrey and Willam (1995)
(M-W) with a smooth single-surface approximation
of the Coulomb Mohr yield surface that is free from
the singular points. There are four parameters to be
determined in this model: modulus of elasticity E,
Poissons ratio , internal angle of friction and
cohesion c.
The weak, strongly deformable soil surrounding the
column, that is to be strengthened, is generally poorly
preconsolidated. Plastic strains will dominate in this
region. To simulate the specificity of the process of
column driving, models joining plastic strengthening
and weakening with the porosity changes, i.e. com-
paction and loosening of soil, have to be used. In the
described method the compaction of the surrounding
soil is considerably more intensive than in some other
technologies, thanks to the strong dynamic consolida-
tion. A high hydraulic gradient appears in the weak
surrounding soil as a result of dynamic expansion of
great energy after tamping, causing water flow from
pores of the fine-grained soft soil to the column. The
heterogeneity of compaction during column forming
may be simulated by introduction of different material
zones in the numerical analysis. The appropriate com-
putational model should be also capable of simulating
further compaction and strengthening caused by load-
ing of structure. Critical state models are preferred
here and especially the Modified Cam-Clay (MCC)
model as the one that is well known and implemented
Figure 3. Construction of cylindrical unit.
to most of the FEM programs. The model requires five
material constants: slope of the critical state line M,
slope of the normal consolidation line , slope of
the swelling line , Poissons ratio and specific
volume of the critical state line at unit pressure .
3.2 The essence of calibration and verification
The criterion of the computational model adequacy is
the accuracy of fitting the load-settlement charac-
teristic obtained with the use of the model with the
results of the trial load test carried out within the wide
range of loading - from zero to 1.5 times the subsoil
load capacity according to the Braunsconception. The
calibration of the computational model involves such
an estimation of all the nine parameters of the consti-
tutive models used for description of column material
and weak subsoil, to ensure the best fit. The process of
optimization is realized in the course of semi-reverse
analysis, where some of the parameters are estimated
in the laboratory tests and treated as given constant
data.
Due to the complexity of constitutive models, the
optimal set of parameters is determined with the use of
direct search techniques with multiple FEM analyses
simulating the process of the trial load test.
Verification of the computational model comes
down to a visual or statistical evaluation of dis-
crepancies between experimental data and theoreti-
cal predictions with the use of the optimal set of
parameters.
3.3 Geometrical model of stone column weak
subsoil system
The trially loaded stone column was surrounded by
a group of columns formed in the net of equilateral
triangles of 3 m long sides. Therefore, in the numer-
ical analysis the problem came down to the concept
of cylindrical unit cell, in which the equilibrium of
individual stone column surrounded by weak soil is
considered (Fig. 3).
To identify the stone column geometrically, the col-
umn was carefully measured in field (Fig. 4), in an
excavation dug right after the trial load test had been
finished. The soft soil (aggradate mud) samples were
840

Figure 4. Results of investigation of stone column.
Figure 5. Geometrical model of stone column weak
subsoil system.
then also taken for the laboratory tests to determine
the physical properties as well as parameters of the
Modified Cam-Clay constitutive model.
The investigated stone column was barrel-shaped
along its height and based on the load bearing layer
consisting of medium compacted gravel with cobbles.
The unit cell modelled in Z_Soil.PC software as
axially symmetric and taking into account the actual
shape of the column has been shown in Figure 5.
3.4 Estimation of soil models parameters
of strengthened subsoil
Estimation of parameters values of the soil models
used in the analysis was done concurrently. In case
of the aggradate mud, represented by MCC model, the
parameters were determined on the basis of laboratory
triaxial and oedometric tests on undisturbed specimens
collected after the trial load test.
The fraction size of the crushed rock (0/400) used
for forming of columns made the laboratory tests in
direct shear box or oedometric apparatus impossi-
ble. Field tests (except for trial load test) couldnt be
done neither. Therefore, it was decided that parameters
841
Figure 6. Results of oedometer tests.
Figure 7. Dermining of CSL slope (M).
of the M-W model representing the column material
will be estimated on the basis of a reverse analy-
sis, provided the earlier estimation of the aggradate
muds parameters according to the above mentioned
procedure.
The M-W model parameters for the gravel under-
lying the soft soil were determined on the basis of
the standard PN-81/B-03020 knowing that the density
index ID = 0.5.
The parameters of a concrete slab, modelled as
linearly elastic, were assessed based on the standard
PN-B-03264 as for concrete C12/15.
The MCC parameters: and were estimated in
standard oedometric tests conducted in cycles: ini-
tial loading (0200 kPa), unloading (20012.5 kPa)
and secondary loading (12.5400 kPa) (Fig. 6). They
equalled = 0.087 and = 0.0028.
The slope of the critical state line (CSL): M = 1.48,
was determine on consolidated specimens in triaxial
tests with enabled drainage. The tests were conducted
on three specimens subjected to cell pressures 40,
140 and 240 kPa respectively. The experiments were
carried out until the specimens achieved 10% of the
relative strains. The stress paths p q for the tested
specimens of aggradate mud, including CSL, have
been shown in Figure 7. The line has been determined
based on the first two tests (40 and 140kPa). It turned
out that the third test has been conducted for too small
range of strains.
Figure 8. Results of FEM analysis.
Figure 9. Deformed Finite Element Methods mesh.
Knowing the value of the initial voids ratio e0 as
well as the slope of the normal consolidation line
we can determine the value of  = ecs + 1, where ecs
is determined at unit pressure p = 1 kPa.
The Poissons ratio was assumed as = 0.3 within
the range ( = 0.23 0.45) suggested by Lechowicz
and Szymanski (2002) for organic soils.
The tested stone column was formed with the use
of crashed rock (sandstone) of big fraction 0/400.
Due to the reasons mentioned above, estimation of its
parameters was done by means of semi-reverse FEM
analysis for the whole stone column weak subsoil
system.
The analysis carried out with the use of heuristics
method (trial and error) was based on the assumption
842
Figure 10. Vertical displacement.
of employing only the commonly accepted values of
the geotechnical parameters.
The issue of determining the strength parameters of
coarse-grained soils was widely dealt with by Pisar-
czyk (2000). Internal friction angles obtained in the
tests varied from 30 to 60 . It depended on the test-
ing method (triaxial or direct shear), material graining,
compaction and moisture content. For the material of
driven, heavily compacted stone column internal fric-
tion angle shall be close to the upper boundary. This
optimistic evaluation however has to be slightly low-
ered due to the presence of a thin film of irrigated
binding agent between grains.
In case of modulus of elasticity E, as recommended
by Pieczyrak (2001), the output value in semi-reverse
analysis is the tangent of the slope of the initial
experimental curve load settlement.
In the analysed case (Fig. 2), within the rage 0120
kPa, it equals E = 76 MPa.
Value of Poissons ratio was estimated after
Jurik (Wilun 2003): = 0.2. Also Pieczyrak (2001)
employed similar value of Poissons ratio in his tests
during investigation of the stone column parameters
with the use of reverse analysis method.
3.5 Numerical simulation of trial load test
As the result of dozens of full numerical analyses,
the investigated columns M-W strength parameters
have been determined as: = 43.5 , c = 5 kPa. The
numerical load settlement curve fits best the curve
obtained in the field test (Fig. 8). The determinant of

Figure 11. Total vertical stress.
the good fitting was the high value of the modified
determination coefficient (R2 = 0.9982).
Results of adjustment shown in Figure 8 positively
verify the proposed model.
Deformed mesh is presented in Figure 9.
Vertical displacement have been shown in Fig-
ure 10.
Figure 11 shows total vertical stress.
4 FINAL COMMENTS
The trial load of the driven stone column was the
basis for creation, calibration and verification of the
proposed computational model of the subsoil strength-
ened with driven stone columns.
843
Numerical analysis the problem came down to the
concept of cylindrical unit cell.
The process of calibration of the employed con-
stitutive soil models was based on a semi-reverse
analysis.
Such a calibration as well as the use of the real
shape of the column allowed to obtain very good con-
vergence of the curves referred above. The value of
the modified determination coefficient (R2 = 0.9982),
very close unity, is the best proof. However, it needs
to be noted that this verification refers only to one
case/example. Further research and comparisons are
inevitable.
Author didnt test influence of boundary conditions
on results. It will be next authors step.
REFERENCES
Brauns, J. 1978. Initial bearing capacity of stone column and
sand piles. Proc. Symp. Soil Reinforcing and Stabilizing
Techniques in Engineering Practise, Sydney.
Cudny, M. & Binder, K. 2005. Criteria of soil shear strength in
geotechnics problems. Marine engineering and Geotech-
nics, 6: 456465.
Kwiecien, S. 2004. Comparative analysis of calculated and
measured settlements of stone columns strengthening
weak subsoil., 5th Civil Engineering Departments PhD
Students Scientific Conference, 102: 273282.
Kwiecien, S. 2007. Trial load of driven stone column. Field
tests results. Scientific Conference on the Occasion of
Professor Maciej Gryczmanskis Seventieth Birthday, 111,
Gliwice: 267274.
Lechowicz, Z. & Szymanski, A. 2002. Strains and stability of
the embankments on the organic soils. SGGW Publishing
house, Warsaw.
Menetrey, Ph. & Willam, K.J. 1995. A triaxial failure criterion
for concrete and its generalization. ACI Journal 92(3):
311318.
Pieczyrak, J. 2001. Determination of the selected soil models
parameters based on trial load tests. Habilitation thesis.
Silesian University of Technology, 91, Gliwice.
Pisarczyk, S. 2000. Strength of thick-cluster soils from
upper Vistula river basins used in the embankments of
hydrotechnical structures. Scientific works of Warsaw
University of Technology, 32: 551.
Wilun, Z. 2003. Outline of the Geotechnics. Communication
Publishing House, edition. IV, Warsaw.
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Identification and quantification of the mechanical response of soil-wall

structures in soft ground improvement

X. Liu, Y. Zhao & A. Scarpas

Section of Structural Mechanics, Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, Delft University of Technology,
Delft, The Netherlands

Arian de Bondt
Ooms Avenhorn Holding bv, Scharwoude, The Netherlands

ABSTRACT: The extensive surface deposits of clay/peat in the Netherlands cause difficulties in the field of
construction and maintenance of infrastructure. One of the main concerns is long term settlement due to the
high compressibility and low strength of the soil. Of the various available vertical reinforcing techniques for
in-situ ground improvement, reinforcing elements using cast-in piles/walls have received increasing popularity
in the recent past. In this investigation, by means of 3D non-linear finite element analyses, the interaction of the
components of pavement/soil-wall structures on soft soils and the internal mechanisms that lead to damage have
been addressed. The emphasis is placed not on the manifestations of damage but on the actual causes.

1 INTRODUCTION thoroughly. The efficiency of load transfer is deter-

For a soft ground without sufficient bearing capa-
city, the available techniques for ground improve-
ment include compaction, stabilization, replacement,
consolidation and reinforcement. Although ground
reinforcement can be achieved either vertically or hor-
izontally, the vertical reinforcement method is more
popular because of easier installation compared to
horizontal elements.
Of the various available vertical reinforcing tech-
niques for in-situ ground improvement, reinforc-
ing elements using cast-in piles/walls have received
increasing popularity in the recent past. The piles/walls
can be constructed out of different materials such as
stone or gravel, with or without cement, sand mixed
with cement, local soil stabilized with cement and oth-
ers. The selection of a suitable material requires con-
siderations of the existing ground condition, material
availability and cost. The piles/walls carry substan-
tially greater proportion of the applied loads with a
relatively smaller amount of deformation as compared
to the in-situ soft soil deposits. They also help to speed
up consolidation process in the soft ground and hence,
as a consequence, the post construction settlements of
the structure built on them are smaller.
The cast-in-place piles/walls in the soft ground
together with the cushion form a composite foun-
dation, which supports the pavement. For the devel-
opment of a rational design method for this type of
structure, the load transfer from the pavement through
the cushion to the pile/walls, for a specific mate-
rials/loading combination, needs to be understood
mined by the interaction between the soil-walls and
the overlying structure. Modern finite element analysis
techniques provide a powerful tool for understanding
this interaction. According to the literature survey, it
becomes apparent that most studies until now have
been conducted by using simplified assumptions for
the geometry, soil properties and wall/soil interac-
tion mechanisms. As a result, they have only provided
limited information about the response of individual
components. Because of the great potential of pave-
ment soil-wall structures to increase bearing capacity
and to reduce settlement, there is a strong need for
a balanced construction and maintenance strategy for
this type of structure in an integrated, objective and
reliable way.
In this paper, the governing equations for the
description of the motion of a porous medium and
the material constitutive model for describing the non-
linear behaviour of soil material are presented. By
means of 3D non-linear finite element analyses, the
interaction of the components of pavement/soil-wall
structures on soft soils and the internal mechanisms
that lead to damage have been addressed. The empha-
sis is placed not on the manifestations of damage but
on the actual causes.
The findings of this project will enable the road
authorities to set up acceptance criteria for the mate-
rials and the components of this type of construc-
tion and, also, provide to the manufacturers/suppliers/
construction industry the necessary numerical infor-
mation for the development of design guides and
guidelines.

845
2 GOVERNING EQUATIONS FOR POROUS
MEDIA
Geomaterials, in particular soils, show an internal pore
structure that consists of a solid phase and a number
of fluid phases, e.g. gas, water, oil. The solid phase
and the fluid phase in the void space have different
motions. Due to these motions and due to the different
material properties, there is interaction between these
phases. This makes the description of the mechanical
behavior of the porous material more difficult. Hence,
a theory that can account for the behavior of the soil
skeleton, the pore fluids, and the interaction between
the two, becomes necessary. The governing equations
for the description of the motion of porous medium
are formulated on the basis of modern mixture theory,
see Bowen (1976), Lewis and Schrefler (1998) and
Liu (2003). The porous medium is postulated to be a
mixture, consisting of two basic continua, solid and
water, superimposed in time and space.
The balance of momentum equation for the whole
two-phase medium is expressed by:
where a is the acceleration vector of the solid phase,
g is the gravity, = (1 )s + w is average mass
density in which the subscripts s, w indicate solid and
water phase, represents the porosity. represents the
total Cauchy stress tensor consisting of the  effective
stress tensor and excess water pressure pw :
in which I is the identity tensor, is Biots constant.
The mass balance equation for the solid-water
mixture is expressed as:
where D/Dt is the material time derivative operator.
vws is water velocity relative to the solid phase. vs
is the velocity of the solid phase.
Qw = (
K
)
+ Kw , K and Kw are the bulk modulus
of solid and water respectively.
Eq (1), (2) and (3) constitute the general govern-
ing field equations that can be utilized to simulate the
saturated soil in the numerical analyses.
3 CONSTITUTIVE MODEL
To capture the main features of the mechanical beha-
vior of geotechnical materials under complex states of
stress, is very important for the type of finite element
analysis. In this contribution, the yield function which
was proposed originally by Desai (1980) is utilized to
simulate nonlinear characteristics of soil material.
846
The chosen form of the model yield function is
given by:
where I1 and J2 are the first and second stress invari-
ants, pa is the atmospheric pressure with units of stress,
parameter m controls the nonlinearity of the ultimate
surface, Liu et al. (2004a), R represents the triaxial
strength in tension, Fs is the function related to the
shape of the flow surface in the octahedral plane.
The isotropic hardening/softening of the material
is described by means of parameter . Parameter is
related to the ultimate strength of the material. Parame-
ter n is related to the state of stress at which the material
response changes from compaction to dilation.
For simulation of the hardening response of the
material, parameter of the yield function in Eq.
(4) is expressed as a function of both volumetric and
deviatoric hardening components, V and D :
where the ratio h = v +
v
denotes the contribution of
d
volumetric hardening to the overall material hardening
response. Details of the development of mathematical
expressions for v and D including the determina-
tion of the corresponding hardening parameters are
presented in Liu et al. (2004a).
Simulation of the material softening phase can
be achieved by means of specifying the variation of
parameter , after response degradation initiation, as
an increasing function of the monotonically varying
equivalent post fracture plastic strain pf :
in which s = e1 pf , u and R are the values of
corresponding to material ultimate stress response
and residual stress state respectively. The parameter
1 is a material parameter that determines the material
degradation rate.
4 NUMERICAL INVESTIGATION OF THE
PAVEMENT / SOIL-WALL STRUCTURE
RESPONSE
In this investigation, the results of the numerical simu-
lations in Zhao (2009) are presented and analyzed. The
finite element analyses are made under a wide range
of influencing factors such as soil-wall end-bearing
conditions, soil-wall rigidity, friction ratio between the
soil-wall and the soil, and load positions.
4.1 Finite element example
For the numerical analyses, a 3D mesh represented a
pavement supported on cement stabilized soil walls
 Table 1. Clay modeling parameters.

E kx = ky = kz
(MPa) R n (m/s)

4.0 0.35 0.0765 0.13 9.0 1.0 0.053 1.2e-07

a1 b1 c1 d1
3.05e-04 74.3 3.0e-06 0.012

Table 2. Crushed subbase modeling parameters.

E (MPa) R n

250.0 0.35 0.075 0.01 5.79 1,0 0.05

a1 b1 c1 d1
2.1e-04 60.3 3.6e-04 0.03

Table 3. Elastic material modeling parameters.

Figure 1. Schematic of the finite element mesh. E kx = ky = kz

(Mpa) (m/s) (kg/m3 )

Asphalt 2000 0.35 2350

concrete
Cement 400 0.3 1750
treated mix
Stabilized 100/200 0.3 1.0e-8 1400
soil wall 1.0e-10

of two adjacent walls is 2 m. Because of symmetry,

Figure 2. The components of the finite element mesh.
is built by using finite element system CAPA-3D
(Scarpas & Liu, 2000). The mesh consists of compo-
nents with specific properties which represent specific
construction materials. In the regions between the soil-
wall structure and the soil, contact interface elements
are implanted to capture the interaction characteristics.
The geometric characteristics of the 3D finite ele-
ment mesh are shown in Figure 1. The depth of the
soil-wall varies between 4 m and 7 m, with a wall
thickness of 0.35 m. The width between the centers
only quarter of the pavement is simulated. The finite
element mesh is composed of 1580, 20-noded brick
elements and 76, 16-noded contact interface elements.
The physical meanings of the components of the mesh
are denoted in the Figure 2.
It needs to be pointed out that the subsoil consists
of two layers in the mesh composition. The upper
soil layer down to the depth of 7 meter consists of
soft clay, while the property of the underlying layer
is case dependent. For floating wall, the material stiff-
ness equals to that of the soft clay. In end-bearing cases,
the material stiffness is taken as that of the bedrock.
The self-weight of the materials is taken into account
in the analyses. In correspondence with the construc-
tion sequence, the staged-construction is utilized to
simulate the actual construction process.
Table 1 summarizes the model parameters for clay
material. The explanation of physical meaning of each
parameter can be found in Liu et al. (2004a). The
parameters of crushed subbase material are listed in
Table 2. The parameters for other materials involved
in the simulations are summarized in Table 3.
4.2 Performance analysis
The analyses are categorized into two basic groups
listed in Table 4: pavements without soil-walls (coded
as NW) and pavements with soil-walls. Then, the
cases of pavements with soil-walls are further divided
into two sub-categories: end-bearing walls (coded as

847
 Table 4. Cases for the parametric analysis.

Wall/soil contact interface

properties
Soil-wall
Case stiffness Adhesion Skin friction Wheel load location
code Soil-wall type (MPa) ca (kPa) angle (o) (to the soil-wall)

NW1 Without soil-wall

FW1 Floating (7 m) 100 3.94 13.6 Directly on the top
FW3 4.64 17.0 Directly on the top
FW5 5.51 20.4 Directly on the top
FW7 200 3.94 13.6 Directly on the top
FW9 4.64 17.0 Directly on the top
FW11 5.51 20.4 Directly on the top
FW13 Floating (4 m) 100 3.94 13.6 Directly on the top
FW17 5.51 20.4 Directly on the top
FW19 200 3.94 13.6 Directly on the top
EW1 End Bearing 100 3.94 13.6 Directly on the top
EW3 4.64 17.0 Directly on the top
EW5 5.51 20.4 Directly on the top
EW7 200 3.94 13.6 Directly on the top
EW9 4.64 17.0 Directly on the top
EW11 5.51 20.4 Directly on the top

Figure 3. Ground settlements during pavement construc-

tion.

EW) and floating soil-walls (coded as FW). For each

group, two soil-wall stiffness values (100/200 MPa)
and three surface roughness parameters are chosen.
Furthermore, two different wheel loading locations are
simulated.
Figure 3 shows the in-time settlement of the ground
surface in groups. It can be observed, for each con-
struction phase, the settlement rates of the sub-soil
slow down due to the dissipation of the ground water.
The influence of the soil-walls to the settlement is
apparent. Because the soil-wall transfers the overbur-
den load to the deeper parts of the foundation, the
ground surface settlement is substantially reduced. It Figure 4. The distribution of excess pore pressure along
is also observed that presence of the soil-wall not only depth in various construction phases for three cases.
minimize the settlements of the pavement, but also
increase the consolidation rate of the soil. The reason virtually subsidence-free, therefore more sustainable
for this phenomenon is that the soil-wall changes the and requires less maintenance.
load transmission mechanism and hence enhances the In order to gain more insight into ground water dis-
dissipation of the excess water pressure in the soil. As sipation during construction, the in-time distribution
a result the constructed structure can be completely or of excess pore water pressure along the depth in the

848
Figure 5. Skin friction distribution along the soil-walls.
underlying soil is plotted in Figure 4, for four repre-
sentative cases: NW1, FW1, FW13 and EW1. At early
stages of construction, high excess pore water pressure
is generated in the soil for all cases. In the process of
time, excess pore water pressure decreases due to the
drainage of water. Because the load from the overbur-
den is transferred to the deep underlying soil via the
floating soil-wall, it can be seen that, at the foot of the
soil-walls (about 7 m and 4 m deep), higher excess
pore water pressure is generated.
In Figure 5 the negative skin frictions along the
soil-walls are presented. Note that in the figure the
skin friction distribution is plotted against the origi-
nal wall. As expected, for end-bearing soil-walls, the
skin friction firstly increases up to a certain depth then
tends to decrease in magnitude reaching the value zero
at the bedrock level. The difference between the end-
bearing soil walls and floating soil-walls is significant.
From the graph it can be seen that the skin friction is
negative on the upper portion but becomes positive
(i.e. it acts upwards) after a certain depth. The eleva-
tion at which this change in sign of the skin friction
takes place is known as the neutral depth. It can be
seen from Figure 4 that, with other soil and geometric
parameters kept same, the increase of soil-wall surface
roughness induces increased magnitude of shear. The
849
Figure 6. Vertical stress distribution along the soil-walls.
present analysis clearly demonstrates the influence of
factors such as soil-wall roughness, stiffness, bearing
status on the skin friction distribution on the soil-wall.
Figure 6 shows the influence of the bearing type
on the final vertical stress profile. The vertical stress
on the end-bearing soil-walls increases continuously
with depth. This increase shows slightly concave cur-
vature because of the mobilized negative skin friction
at the wall-soil interface. For the floating soil-walls,
due to the presence of a negative and positive fric-
tion, the vertical stress decreases after reaching the
neutral point. Same as for the settlement, the surface
roughness of the soil-wall has a greater influence in
the case of floating soil-wall compared to the case of
end-bearing soil-wall.
Figure 7 shows the stress distribution inside pave-
ment with floating soil-walls. It can be observed that
sharp transit from compression to tension of bending
stress forms on top of the fixed head of the soil-walls,
while elsewhere in the pavement it is nearly bending
stress free. High stress concentration zones forms near
the fixed head of soil-walls. Obviously it is induced
by the transition of the weights to the lower strata via

Figure 7. Stress (MPa) distribution for case FW1.
Figure 8. Stress (MPa) distribution for case EW1.
soil-walls. Judged from the pattern of xy in the cross
section, bending momentum establishes on the bot-
tom of the pavement around the fixed heads of the
soil-walls. It can be concluded that, it is caused by the
supporting function performed by the soil-walls. Con-
tour of the principle stress is also plotted, to illustrate
the location and extent of the arch actions within the
pavement.
Figure 8 shows the stress distribution inside pave-
ment with end-bearing soil-walls. It can be observed
that the bending stress xx is largely reduced. The
pavement is nearly bending stress free. Compared to
pavement with floating walls, even higher concentra-
tion zones of yy form on top of the fixed head of
soil-walls. Stronger bending momentum establishes
850
on the bottom of the pavement around the fixed
heads of the soil-walls, as shown in xy distribution,
the supporting function performed by the soil-walls
becomes more significant compared to floating soil-
walls. Trajectory of the principle stress is also plotted,
to illustrate the location and extent of the arch actions
within the pavement.
5 CONCLUSIONS
From the analysis, the supporting function of the soil-
walls to the pavement is apparent. This improvement
of the loading capacity is more prominent with end-
bearing soil-walls.
The magnitude of bending stress in the cement
treated layer of pavement is reduced by the presence
of soil-walls, due to the fact that the soil-walls dis-
tribute the loads to the lower strata. High level of stress
concentration forms in the cement treated layer of the
pavement around the fixed heads of the soil-walls. This
phenomenon becomes more significant with wheel
loads applied. These areas are the critical areas that
require special attention from a design point of view.
The influence of the soil-walls to the settlement is
apparent. Because the soil-walls transfer the overbur-
den load to the deeper parts of the foundation, the
ground surface settlement is substantially reduced. It
is also observed that the presence of soil-wall also
increases the consolidation rate of the soil. These
effects are more significant with increased soil-wall
length, stiffness and surface roughness.
The present analysis clearly demonstrates the influ-
ence of factors such as soil-wall roughness, stiffness,
bearing status on the performance of the structure.
REFERENCES
Bowen, R.M. 1976. Continuum physics. Academic Press,
New York, San Fransisco. London. vol. III. 1127.
Desai, C.S. 1980. A general basis for yield, failure and
potential functions in plasticity. International Journal for
Numerical and Analytical Methods in Geomechanics 4,
361375.
Lewis, R.W. and Schrefler, B.A. 1998. The finite element
method in static and dynamic deformation and consolida-
tion of porous media. 2nd edition, John Wiley, Chichester,
U.K.
Liu, X. 2003. Numerical modeling of porous media response
under static and dynamic load conditions. Ph.D. The-
sis, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Delft University of
Technology, The Netherlands.
Liu, X., Cheng, X.H., Scarpas, A. and Blaauwendraad, J.
2004a. Numerical modelling of non-linear response of
soil, Part 1: Constitutive Model. International Journal of
Solids and Structures 42(7), 18491881.
Scarpas, A. and Liu, X. 2000. CAPA-3D finite element
system-Users Manual, Part I, II and III, Section of
Structural Mechanics, Delft University of Technology, the
Netherlands.
Zhao, Y., 2009. Integral pavement/soil-wall structures: a
numerical study. Ph.D. Thesis, Faculty of Civil Engineer-
ing, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands.
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Modelling embankments on floating stone columns

D. Kamrat-Pietraszewska & M. Karstunen

Department of Civil Engineering, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK

ABSTRACT: The paper investigates the quantitative improvement in predicted total settlements of a stone
column supported embankment on soft soil through a comprehensive parametric study using 3D finite element
analyses. To account for the complexity in the behaviour of natural soft deposit, the analyses use the advanced
constitutive model S-CLAY1S, which takes account for plastic anisotropy and interparticle bonding. Several
factors are considered, such as the stiffness and the compaction of the granular material, the diameter and the
spacing of columns and the thickness of the deposit.

1 INTRODUCTION subsequent loading history (Casagrande & Carrillo

1.1 Design of stone columns
As population is increasing and the boundaries of the
cities are expanding, there is an increasing need to
construct on soils of marginal quality, such as very
soft soils. The mechanical properties of soft soils can
be improved with ground improvement techniques,
such as stone columns. These can be used for all
types of civil constructions to reduce the settlement
and to increase the bearing capacity of the soil. Stone
columns rely on the lateral resistance of the hosting
soil, and therefore reliable modelling of surrounding
material through appropriate constitutive modelling of
the column material and the soft soil is required.
There are several proposed design methods for
stone columns. The most common methods for bearing
capacity consideration follow the ideas by Baumann &
Bauer (1974) and Hughes & Withers (1974). For settle-
ment calculations, Priebes approach (1995) is exten-
sively used in Europe, but alternatively the method by
Baumann & Bauer (1974) can be adopted. All these
include a number of simplifying assumptions that limit
their applicability.
The 3D finite element method (FEM) allows recent
developments in constitutive modelling of soft soils to
be used in the context of complex soil-structure inter-
action problems, such as stone column supported
foundations. Whilst 3D finite element analyses are
time consuming and require more expertise from the
user than corresponding 2D analyses, it is a very useful
tool in understanding the intricacies of soil-structure
interactions. 3D parametric studies can also help in
design optimization, as demonstrated in this paper.
1.2 Soft soil and its complexity
There are number of geological processes influenc-
ing the stress-strain behaviour of natural soft soils.
Anisotropy of soils is produced by sedimentation and
1944). The yield characteristics of the natural soil
can give an indication of the anisotropy of the mate-
rial (Graham & Houlsby 1983), which is demon-
strated via apparently inclined yield surfaces in stress
space. Because most sedimented soils have experi-
enced consolidation under their own self weight, they
are inherently anisotropic.
Structure, which is described as the combination of
the soil fabric and interparticle bonding, is a result
of clay mineralogy, depositional environment and
post-depositional processes. Bonded soils have often
stiffer elastic response than unbonded materials (Gra-
ham & Li 1985). Moreover, they exhibit greater peak
strength than the equivalent unbonded soil (Leroueil &
Vaughan 1990) and have additional resistance to yield-
ing. Destructuration of these bonds as a result of plastic
straining may lead to dramatic collapse settlements in
high sensitivity clays, such as Canadian or Scandina-
vian quick clays, but even a moderate sensitivity can
have major impact on soft soil response.
1.3 Bothkennar clay
The 3D benchmark problem considered in this paper
looks at a soft soil deposit improved by floating stone
columns underneath embankment fill. This represents
a typical application of the stone columns for settle-
ment reduction of earth structures. The parameters for
the soft soil used in the simulation have been chosen
to represent Bothkennar clay, soft clay from Scot-
land (UK). The site is situated between the cities of
Edinburgh and Glasgow, on the Forth River estuary.
The slightly over-consolidated Bothkennar clay, which
is overlain by a dry crust, is soft recently deposited
marine sediment. It has been strongly influenced by
the changes in relative sea level over past 13000 years.
Bothkennar clay has a significant organic content, as
indicated by loss of ignition, and it is classified as a
silty clay.

851
 Table 1. State parameters and soil constants: Bothkennar
clay and dry crust.

Material
Dry crust Bothkennar clay
Depth [m] 01 130

[kN/m3 ] 19.00 16.50

k [m/s] 1 109 2.89 109
 [-] 0.20 0.20
e0 [-] 1.37 2.00
K0 [-] 0.70 0.50
POP [-] 30.00
OCR [-] 1.50

where: POP is the pre-overburden pressure.

Table 2. Additional soil constants: Bothkennar clay and dry

Figure 1. Geometry of the problem and assumed soil
crust.
profile.
Material
Determination of the yielding characteristics of Dry crust Bothkennar clay
Bothkennar clay concluded in high degree of aniso- Depth [m] 01 130
tropy, see Smith et al. (1992) and McGinty (2006).
Moreover, isotropic loading/unloading/reloading tests M [-] 1.51 1.51
on vertically and horizontally orientated samples con- [-] 0.02 0.02
ducted by McGinty (2006) showed evidence of cross- i [-] 0.15 0.15
[-] 1.00 1.00
anisotropy of elastic behaviour. Oedometer tests done [-] 30.00 50.00
to study interparticle bonding by comparison of natu- 0 [-] 0.59 0.59
ral and reconstituted soil samples show that the yield a [-] 9.00 9.00
stress for natural sample is 1.5 times greater than for b [-] 0.20 0.20
the reconstituted soil at the same void ratio (Smith et al. 0 [-] 4.00 8.00
1992). Additionally, triaxial tests conducted on natural
samples showed that the breakdown of the bonding is where: M is the slope of the critical state line, and i are
progressive (Clayton et al. 1992, McGinty 2006). the gradients of the elastic swelling line and intrinsic normal
compression line, 0 is the initial inclination of the yield
surface, and govern the rotation of the yield surface, a
2 NUMERICAL MODELLING and b control the rate of destructuration, and 0 is the amount
of bonding.
2.1 Geometry of the problem
been chosen. This model accounts for both plastic
The geometry of the embankment considered is shown anisotropy and destructuration of interparticle bonds
in Figure 1. Due to the symmetry conditions just using the concept of intrinsic yield surface. The elas-
half of the geometry is considered in the simula- tic part of the model is isotropic. In the case of
tions. The embankment is 2 m high with a gradient of Bothkennar clay, ideally one should also account for
embankment slope of 1:2. The underlying deposit con- time-dependency; however, this feature of soft soil
sists from two layers: over-consolidated dry crust and behaviour is not considered in S-CLAY1S formula-
slightly over-consolidated soft Bothkennar clay. The tion. This would be of great importance if one were
groundwater table is assumed to be located at depth of trying to attempt to account for installation effects.
1 m. The state parameters and soil constants describing
For all simulations the PLAXIS 3D Foundation the deposit are shown in Tables 1 and 2 (for determina-
v.2.2 FE code has been used, taking advantage of tion of the parameter values see Kamrat-Pietraszewska
3D modelling, to which the advanced constitutive et al. (2008) and McGinty (2006)).
model S-CLAY1S (Karstunen et al. 2005) has been The construction of the embankment has been sim-
implemented as user-defined model. Mesh sensitivity ulated in two stages; two layers of 1 m embankment
studies have been done before performing the para- fill each are placed within 5 days. The elasto-plastic
metric studies in order to reduce the influence of the Mohr Coulomb model is used to represent the granular
mesh on the results of the simulations. fill and the material is assumed fully drained.

2.2 Constitutive models used to represent soft 2.3 Constitutive models used to represent column
deposit and embankment fill material
To simulate the complexity of natural soft clay For reference analysis (labelled REF) floating stone
the S-CLAY1S model (Karstunen et al. 2005) has columns are assumed to be installed in a square grid

852
Table 3. Soils constants for stone columns. Table 4. Numerical simulations: summary.

Material Stone columns Parameter

3
[kN/m ] 19.00 Eoed ref  DSC SSC dSS
ur [-] 0.30 Simulation [kN/m2 ] [ ] [m] [m] [m]
E50 ref = Eoed ref [kN/m2 ] 80000
Eur ref [kN/m2 ] 260000 REF 80000 42 0.6 2.0 30.0
k [m/s] 1.97 104 M1 80000 40 0.6 2.0 30.0
c [kN/m2 ] 0 M2 80000 44 0.6 2.0 30.0
 [ ] 42 M3 80000 50 0.6 2.0 30.0
 [ ] 12 M4 100000 42 0.6 2.0 30.0
m [-] 0.30 M5 120000 42 0.6 2.0 30.0
P1 80000 42 0.7 2.0 30.0
P2 80000 42 0.8 2.0 30.0
with spacing between the columns SSC equal to 2 m. P3 80000 42 0.6 1.7 30.0
P4 80000 42 0.6 2.3 30.0
The diameter of the columns DSC is 0.6 m and the
T1 80000 42 0.6 2.0 20.0
length LSC is 10 m. A representative slice of the full 3D T2 80000 42 0.6 2.0 10.0
geometry can be modelled with strip having a width
equal to the centre-to-centre spacing of the columns. SC = stone column, SS = soft soil, dSS = thickness of soft
In the FE analyses the stone columns are wished-in- soil layer.
place as an undrained process without considering
installation effects. In fact, the installation of stone
columns on structured soils reduces the amount of requirements regulated by the various standards, see
bonding (and sometimes also strength of the soil) next e.g. BS EN 14731:2005. As the column is formed
to the columns, as well as changes anisotropy and using different types of gravel, the mechanical prop-
the coefficient of earth pressure at rest, as shown by erties of the stone column will vary depending on the
Castro & Karstunen (in press), in line with the field mechanical properties of the material used. Numerical
observations by Guetif et al. (2007) and Kirsch (2006). simulations have been performed to asses the influence
The Hardening Soil Model is used to model the of the compaction and the stiffness of the stone column
granular material of the stone columns and the val- material on settlement predictions.
ues for material parameters are listed in Table 3. The friction angle plays a crucial role in the calcu-
Throughout the parametric studies, the reference mod- lations of the bearing capacity of a soil improved with
ulus E50 ref has been assumed to be the same as the stone columns and the dilatation, the volume increase
reference oedometer modulus Eoed ref , whereas the ref- of the granular material at yield, has a significant effect
erence unloading/reloading modulus Eur ref is assumed on the settlement reduction.As the columns are usually
to be 3.25 times greater than the E50 ref . designed to yield, friction and dilatancy angles of gran-
ular material will influence the overall behaviour of
the system. Thus, a parametric study to investigate the
3 NUMERICAL SIMULATIONS impact of those two factors on the numerical predic-
tions has been carried out. The degree of compaction
Many researches have tried to identify the optimum of the granular material is investigated by varying the
stone columns parameters in order to develop a design angles of friction  and dilatancy  only. The rela-
approach which allows for the maximum improve- tionship between the friction and dilatancy angle is
ment performance at the minimum economical costs, assumed to be:
see e.g. Ambily & Gandhi (2007), Herle et al. (2007)
and Watts et al. (2000). This process-based knowledge
(either via experimental model tests or via numerical
The most compacted stone column material is assumed
modelling) can give some recommendations for the
to have an angle of friction  of 50 and results
industry. In this study, first the influence of the ref-
in relatively high angle of dilatation ( = 20 ). All
erence moduli and friction angle of the columns is
performed simulations are listed in Table 4.
studied. Next, the effect of column diameter and spac-
The importance of the degree of compaction is evi-
ing is assessed. Finally, the impact of thickness of the
dent looking at the plot of the settlement reduction ratio
soft deposit on the settlements is investigated. Due to
sr in relation of the angles of friction and dilatancy of
the space limitations this paper focuses on settlement
the stone column material, see Figure 2. The settlement
analysis only.
reduction ratio sr is determined as the ratio between
the settlement with stone columns and settlement in
case of no ground improvement. Great reduction of
3.1 Influence of the mechanical properties of stone
settlement is evident in columns, which allow high
column material
concentration of stresses. Recent research indicates
For the construction of stone columns a gravely that in most cases the conventional design value of
material is usually used, which meets the specified angle of friction of 40 is far too conservative, as in

853
Figure 2. Effect of friction and dilatancy angles on settle-
ment reduction ratio.
large scale shear box tests in dense samples of granu-
lar material very high friction angles (above 50 ) have
been measured at low normal stresses, see Herle et al.
(2007).
The stiffness of the granular material used for stone
column construction varies dependant on the origin
of the material and the stiffness of the surrounding
soil. The influence of the stone material has been
explored using three sets of stiffness parameters for
the columns, see Table 4, which represent a typical
possible range. The effect was found to be almost neg-
ligible (settlement reduction ratios of 0.837, 0.828 and
0.821 for REF, M4 and M5, respectively), so in terms of
design, the friction and dilatancy angles of the columns
and the properties of the surrounding soil are more
influential than the stiffness of the column material.
3.2 Effect of diameter and spacing of stone
columns
The stone columns installed in Europe have usually a
diameter of 0.61.2 m and a centre-to-centre spacing
of about 2 m. In most cases the length of the granular
columns does not exceed 15 m, although in extreme
situations the stone column length can be in excess of
60 m (Bell 2009).
The geometry of the area improved with stone
columns has been changed in numerical simulations,
by varying column diameter and spacing (see Table
4). The results by the elastic solution (Balaam &
Booker 1981) and the solution for plastic columns
(Priebe 1995), as well as some laboratory data are
compared with the numerical predictions in Figure 3,
as a function of the area replacement ratio Ar . The
area replacement ratio Ar is the proportion of the total
area of the improved soil in which the stone columns
have been installed. Experimental data is based on end-
bearing columns. The advanced model predicts similar
854
Figure 3. Effect of column diameter: parametric study and
comparison with simple solutions and lab data (after Charles
& Watts 2002).
settlement reduction ratio for the floating columns than
the simple design methods for end bearing columns,
demonstrating how conservative the latter are.
The evolution of the surface settlement at three
chosen points (the centreline, crest and toe of an
embankment) as a function of the centre-to-centre
spacing is shown in Figure 4. The column spacing has
major effect at the centreline of an embankment, but
with the distance from the symmetry axis its signifi-
cance reduces, most likely due to the flexibility of the
system.
The results for the whole set of parametric stud-
ies dealing with the geometry of stone columns is
summarised in Figure 5, by plotting the impact of
SSC /DSC on the settlement reduction ratio. Addition-
ally, the results for selected field data (all end bearing
columns) and the experimental tests conducted on
floating stone columns constructed in soft clay in a
cylindrical tank by Ambily & Gandhi (2007) have been
plotted. Ambily & Gandhi used reconstituted clay and
an angle of friction for the stone column of 43 .
The ratio SSC /DSC has significant influence on the
obtained settlement reduction ratio, as seen in Figure 5.
One should note that the numerical simulations con-
sidered different loading mode at ground level, and
different parameters for granular material than used in
the experiments, therefore only the general tendencies
can be compared. The trends look very similar, and
both the numerical simulations and the experiments
suggest that there is a certain SSC /DSC ratio, beyond
which improvements become marginal. The numerical
Figure 4. Evolution of the surface settlement with column
spacing.
Figure 5. Effect of SSC /DSC on settlement reduction factor.
simulations suggest that the optimum ratio is about
2.7. . .2.8, beyond which the rate of increase on the
benefit reduces.
3.3 Impact of thickness of soft deposit
As the stone columns in practice are installed either
as floating inclusions or end-bearing columns, anal-
yses with varying thickness of the soft deposit have
855
Figure 6. Effect of thickness of soft deposit: a) Total
settlements; b) Consolidation time.
been conducted (considering thickness from 10 to
30 m), see Table 4. For the case with 10 m deep
deposit, the columns are end bearing. Figure 6a shows
that although the thickness influences the total settle-
ment, from practical point of view, the differences are
marginal. However, in terms of consolidation time, the
thickness of the deposit is an important factor (Figure
6b). Consequently, although floating columns can be
very effective in overall settlement reduction, in a case
of a thick deposit, column lengths might need to be
extended in order to reduce consolidation time.
4 CONCLUSIONS
3D FE simulations of an embankment on floating stone
columns have been performed to study the influence
of stone columns material and geometry to the pre-
dicted settlement. Finally, the effect of the thickness
of the deposit was studied. The non-linearity of the
stone columns material was modelled with the Hard-
ening Soil model and for the surrounding soil, the
advanced elasto-plastic S-CLAY1S model (Karstunen
et al. 2005) was used.
The parametric studies reveal that the key design
parameters are the friction and dilatancy angle of the
stone columns and the spacing (SSC ) to diameter (DSC )
ratio. For the latter, the numerical simulations and field
data collected from literature suggest typically a value
SSC /DSC about 2.72.8, as with higher ratios the differ-
ences in settlement reduction ratio are rather marginal.
The actual stiffness of the column material has little
influence on the numerical results.
In terms of settlement reduction, floating columns
appear to work as well as end bearing columns. Indeed,
the results are very similar to those predicted by simple
design methods for end bearing columns. This demon-
strates how conservative the simple design methods
are. However, as the thickness of the deposit increases,
so does the time required for consolidation. Therefore,
in deep deposits the length of the columns needs to be
optimised to achieve a desired rate of consolidation.
In all simulations conducted, the columns have been
wished in place. The installation of stone columns
changes the structure of the soil and causes increase
in excess pore pressures. Provided these excess pore
pressures are allowed to dissipate before construction,
the installation effects are likely to be very beneficial.
Accounting for installation effects will be a subject for
further studies.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The research was carried out as part of a GEO-
INSTALL (Modelling Installation Effects in Geotech-
nical Engineering), supported by the European
Community through the programme Marie Curie
Industry-Academia Partnerships and Pathways (Con-
tract No PIAP-GA-2009-230638).
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Casagrande, A. & Carrillo, N. 1944. Shear failure of
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 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Numerical investigation of the mechanical behaviour of Vibro

Replacement stone columns in soft soils

T. Meier, E. Nacke & I. Herle

Institute of Geotechnical Engineering, Technische Universitt Dresden, Germany

W. Wehr
Keller Holding GmbH, Offenbach, Germany

ABSTRACT: Vibro Replacement is a ground improvement technique commonly used in practice. The instal-
lation of gravel or stone columns leads to an improvement of the mechanical properties of the subsoil in terms
of bearing capacity and more important stiffness, thus settlements can be reduced. For the design of vibro
replacement a procedure by Priebe is often employed in practice. It contains some major simplifications and
assumptions, e.g. the soil surrounding the column behaves linear-elastically with Poissons ratio = 1/3 or the
earth pressure coefficient after the installation process K = 1.0.
By means of comprehensive laboratory tests and a finite element model using advanced hypoplastic consti-
tutive equations, the mechanical behaviour of vibro replacement columns in soft soils was investigated. With the
aid of such a model it is possible to analyse the simplifications of Priebes theoretical model mentioned above.

1 INTRODUCTION The design method by Priebe (Priebe 1995) is

In this study the mechanical behaviour of so-called unit
cells (Fig. 1) consisting of very soft soil and a granular
replacement column supported by a rigid underlying
stratum are investigated. Considering such unit cells
with oedometric boundary conditions corresponds to
an infinite (large-area) grid of replacement columns.
The design of a vibro replacement measure con-
sists of the choice of the spacing, the diameter and the
depth of the columns. In the following the spacing is
expressed as the area ratio A/Ac , where A is the area
of the complete cell (soil plus column) and Ac is the
area of the column.
an analytical method based on the cylindrical cav-
ity expansion problem in a linear-elastic half-space.
It contains several major simplifications and assump-
tions:
Linear-elastic behaviour of the column and the soil.
Design charts are given only for one constant
Poisson ratio = 1/3 of the soil to be improved.
Uniform radial strains r = rc /rc0 of the column
due to loading (cylindrical cavity expansion).
Earth pressure coefficient of the soft soil K = 1.0
due to the column installation process.
The aim of the presented study is to compare
improvement factors n (Eq. 1) obtained from this sim-
ple analytical model with those from finite element
analyses using two advanced hypoplastic constitutive
models.

where s0 settlement of untreated ground

simp settlement with replacement columns
Furthermore, the results of the finite element anal-
yses allow an insight into deformations of the system
column/soft soil due to loading.

2 CONSTITUTIVE MODELS

Two hypoplastic constitutive equations were employed

Figure 1. Unit cell. for the mathematical description of the mechanical

857
Table 1. Material parameters of the soft soil.
c N r c
26.1 0.086 0.018 0.9894 0.33
Table 2. Index properties of the soft soil (with s grain den-
sity, wL/P liquid/plastic limit, CCclay content, ILignition
loss).
s wL wP CC IL
2.752 g/cm3 43.4% 20.9% 50% 3.1%
behaviour of the soft soil to be improved and the gran-
ular material of the column. The main advantage of
these equations is a clear distinction between mate-
rial parameters (e.g. critical friction angle) and state
variables (stress and density), i. e. for one set of mate-
rial parameters, which are determined by means of
standard laboratory tests on disturbed or remoulded
samples, respectively, it is possible to simulate the
mechanical behaviour of soils over a wide range of
stress states and densities. In the following subsec-
tions the two constitutive models are briefly described
with respect to the incorporated parameters.
2.1 Soft soil
For the description of the soft soil a model proposed by
Man (Man 2005) was used. It contains five material
parameters:
Critical friction angle c : The critical friction angle
c determines the resistance of a soil subjected to
monotonic shearing in critical state, i.e. when = 0
and the volumetric strain rate v = tr() = 0 hold.
Drained or undrained triaxial tests, simple shear or
direct shear tests on initially very loose specimens
are appropriate for the determination of c .
Compression and swelling index and of
Butterfields compression law (Eq. 2) (Butterfield
1979)
where p = tr()/3 is the effective mean pressure
and p0 together with the void ratio e0 define the
normal consolidation line. Determined by means of
isotropic or oedometric compression tests. In case
of swelling is replaced .
N = ln (1 + e0 ), an expression for the reference void
ratio e0 at isotropic effective stress ii = 1 kPa of a
normally consolidated sample, (OCR = 1.0) Deter-
mined by isotropic or approximated by oedometric
compression tests.
Stiffness ratio r = Ki /Gi , where Ki is an incremental
bulk modulus for isotropic compression and Gi is an
Table 3. Material parameters of the rockfill.
hs n ed0 /ec0 /ei0
40.7 41 GPa 0.24 0.50/0.82/0.93 0.10 1.53
incremental shear modulus for undrained shearing
at the same isotropic stress state with OCR = 1.0.
Determined by means of CU triaxial tests.
For this numerical study the material parameters
(Tab. 1) of a natural clay (CL, index properties cf. Tab.
2) were used.
2.2 Stone column
The column material was modeled using a hypoplas-
tic equation for granular soils (Wolffersdorff 1996). It
contains eight material parameters:
Critical friction angle c (see above).
Limit void ratios at zero stress ed0 , ec0 , ei0 :
ed0 = emin is a lower bound void ratio of a grain
skeleton at zero pressure, ec0 = emax is the void ratio
in the critical state at zero pressure. Both, emin and
emax are determined through standard index tests
(e.g. according to ASTM D4254 and D4253). ei0 is
an upper bound void ratio of a simple grain skele-
ton at vanishing pressure (without macropores).
ei0 1.15emax and ed0 0.6ec0 are simple estimates
(Herle 1997) which have been used successfully for
more than a decade.
Granulate hardness hs and exponent n: In the case
of an isotropic compression of a very loose sam-
ple (e0 = emax ) the hypoplastic constitutive equation
reduces to the compression law by Bauer
where a reference pressure, the so-called granulate
hardness hs , together with the exponent n govern
the compression for an increasing effective mean
pressure p .
Exponents and : The exponent controls the
peak friction angle of the material, and hence
also the dilatancy behaviour. The stiffness of a
grain skeleton with e < ec can be adjusted via the
exponent .
A comprehensive step-by-step description of the
calibration procedure can be found in (Meier
2009).
The parameters were calibrated from special labo-
ratory tests with rockfill (d50 15 mm, dmax = 40 mm,
CU = 2.7, CC = 1.0, s = 2.77 g/cm3 ). The result-
ing parameters are given in Table 3. Figure 2
shows the comparison between oedometric compres-
sion tests and the corresponding results obtained by
hypoplasticity.
858
Figure 2. Oedometric compression tests on rockfill.
Figure 3. Layout of the FE model.
3 FINITE ELEMENT MODEL
Figure 3 depicts a layout of the axisymmetric FE
model. To allow for the influence of the geostatic stress
state, which leads to an increase of stiffness of both
materials with depth, a 5 m long column was mod-
eled. It is assumed that the influence of the length of
the column on the improvement factor is negligible,
as has been shown numerically e.g. by (Borges and
Domingues 2009).
The analyses were performed with the FE code
Tochnog (version 5.0) using evenly spaced first oder
crossed triangle elements. The top nodes (rigid
plate) were constrained to have all the same vertical
displacement and the loading was done by a uniformly
distributed load linearly increasing with time (mixed
boundary conditions). In case of non-linear calcula-
tions both spatial and time discretisation can have a
strong impact on the calculation results. Hence both
were refined until no change in the results due to this
refinement could be observed anymore.
The initial conditions were:
Stress State: bulk density of both materials
= 18 kN/m3 , v0 = z, r0 = K v0 Priebe assumed an earth pressure coefficient K = 1.0
Density: Column e0 = 0.6, soft soil OCR = 1.05
(stress dependent void ratio e)
859
Figure 4. Improvement factor n vs. area ratio A/Ac for dif-
ferent Poissons ratios and constrained moduli Es of the soft
soil.
With the aid of this model the influence of the
following quantities on the improvement factor was
studied:
area ratio A/Ac
magnitude of superimposed load
initial stress state in terms of the earth pressure
coefficient K = r /v (r radial and v vertical
stress)
relative density of the column
4 RESULTS
4.1 Influence of Poissons ratio
As mentioned earlier, the design charts given by Priebe
are based on calculations with Poissons ratio = 1/3
of the soft soil. To study the influence of this quantity
on the improvement factor n = f (A/Ac ) the method
was programmed and comparative calculations were
carried out. The results are depicted in Figure 4. As can
be clearly seen, the influence of on the improvement
factor n is negligible.
4.2 Influence of the load magnitude
Figure 5 shows the influence of the load magnitude
on n as obtained from the Priebe method and from the
finite element analyses. Both methods show a decrease
of n with increasing load. The effect is more pro-
nounced for small area ratios and in general in case
of the FE method. For loads p 125 kPa the Priebe
method is conservative compared to the FE results.
4.3 Influence of the stress state
The stress state always plays a key role as it directly
influences stiffness and shear resistance of soils.
for the soft soil, which is higher than the at-rest value
K0 1 sin (Jaky 1944) for granular and normally
Figure 5. Improvement factor n vs. area ratio A/Ac for
different loads.
Figure 6. Distribution of the earth pressure coefficient K
along the interface (cross symbols initial values, boxes
after loading).
consolidated soft soils. This is justified by the con-
struction process, which can be seen as a cylindrical
cavity expansion in the ground, where the magnitude
of the radial stress is increasing until a limit state is
reached eventually.
In our FE calculations only the initial stress state
can be varied as the evolution of K is governed by the
constitutive equations during loading. Figure 6 depicts
the distribution of K along the interface between the
column and the soil for different initial values and with
a superimposed load of 125 kPa. Independently from
the initial values K tends to 1 during loading.
Figure 7 shows the influence of the initial stress
state on the improvement factor.As expected n strongly
depends on the initial stress state. The higher the con-
fining pressure on the column from the soft soil, the
stiffer the system reacts to loading.
The resulting improvement factor after Priebe lies
between the FE results for K = 0.5 and K = 1.0 Extra
FE simulations of the cylindrical cavity expansion
under drained conditions yield K > 1 in the vicinity of
the cavity (Fig. 8). Therewith it can be concluded from
the numerical results that the assumption K = 1 made
Figure 7. Improvement factor n vs. area ratio A/Ac for
different initial stress states.
Figure 8. Change in radial stress due to cylindrical cavity
expansion (vertical stress kept constant) for different initial
stress states.
by Priebe is physically sound and conservative for typ-
ical loads 125 kPa. For loads p 250 kPa both the
Priebe method and the FE analyses yield very similar
results and for higher loads the Priebe method overes-
timates the improvement factor compared with the FE
results.
4.4 Influence of the columns relative density
The second key factor influencing stiffness and
strength of soils is density. The results presented
above were obtained from simulations with dense
columns (void ratio e0column = 0.6, i. e. relative density
ID = 69%). To judge the effect of the column density
on the improvement factor an extra series of calcula-
tions with e0column = 0.8, i. e. ID = 6%, was conducted.
The results shown in Figure 9 represent a lower bound
of the improvement factor and correspond to unden-
sified drainage columns. Figure 10 depicts the ratio
nlc /ndc (lc/dc loose/dense column) as a function of
the area ratio.
The resulting improvement factors are markedly
lower for columns with ID = 6%. In the Priebe method
density is taken into account using Equation (4) for
860

Figure 9. Improvement factor ratio n vs. area ratio A/Ac for
insufficiently densified columns.
Figure 10. Improvement factor ratio nlc /ndc vs. area ratio
A/Ac for different loads.
the determination of the constrained modulus Es of
the column.
where v is the vertical effective stress and

= de/d ln (  /ref ) is the compression index. In
case of the loose columns the Priebe method over-
estimates the improvement factor compared to the
FE results. While for typical loads (p = 125 kPa) the
results are only slightly higher, this effect is much more
pronounced for higher load magnitudes.
4.5 Deformation behaviour
Figure 11(a) shows the radial strain of the columns
after applying a surcharge of 125 kPa for differ-
ent area ratios. The lateral deformations are clearly
concentrated in the upper part of the column.
The contour plot of the void ratio in Figure 11(b)
reveals a deformation mechanism with shear local-
ization. At the top of the column a cone of very
dense material forms and is pushed into the underly-
ing column material which is loosened and displaced
downwards and radially.
Figure 11. (a) Radial strains r of the columns vs. depth t
(b) contour plot of void ratio (ranging from 0.57 (dark blue)
to 0.76 (dark red)) in the unit cell under load.
5 CONCLUSIONS
The influence of the Poissons ratio of the soft soil
on the improvement factor determined according to
the design method of Priebe is negligible.
The improvement factor n depends on the super-
imposed load. The higher the load, the lower the
improvement factor n. The Priebe method clearly
underestimates this influence compared to the FE
results.
For typical loads (p 125 kPa) the FE calculations
yield n = f (A/Ac ), which for small area ratios is up
to 50% higher than according to Priebe. Here, using
the Priebe method is conservative.
The density of the replacement columns has a strong
influence on n, which is more pronounced for low
area ratios and loads.
The deformation mechanism of the column accord-
ing to the FE analyses is different to Priebes
assumption of a uniform cylindrical deformation.
The numerical calculations revealed shear localiza-
tion in the upper part of the column, resulting in a
cone of very dense material which is pushed into
the underlying part of the column.
6 OUTLOOK
In the actual second phase of this research and develop-
ment project, model tests in a large oedometer (30 cm
in height and diameter) will be conducted to inves-
tigate qualitatively the dependence of the achievable
column density on the consistency of very soft soils.
The FE model will be validated with unit cell model
loading tests. Further investigations of the deforma-
tion behaviour will be carried out with the validated
model and materials parameters of three different nat-
ural soft soils. Another main objective will be the
numerical examination of the installation process with
respect to the transient development of the effective
stress state in the vicinity of the replacement col-
umn, which essentially influences the stiffness of the
system column/soil. Based on the numerical results
improvements of the Priebe design procedure may be
proposed.
861
REFERENCES
Borges, J. L. and T. S. Domingues (2009). Embankments on
soft soil reinforced with stone columns: Numerical analy-
sis and proposal for a new design method. Geotech. Geol.
Eng. 27, 667679.
Butterfield, R. (1979). A natural compression law for soils.
Gotechnique 29(4), 469480.
Herle, I. (1997). Hypoplastizitt und Granulometrie ein-
facher Korngerste. Ph. D. thesis, Verffentlichungen des
Instituts fr Bodenmechanik und Felsmechanik/Universitt
Karlsruhe. Heft 142.
Jaky, J. (1944). The coefficient of earth pressure at rest. J.
Soc. Hungarian Architects and Eng., 355358.
862
Man, D. (2005). A hypoplastic constitutive model for clays.
Int. J. Numer. Anal. Meth. Geomech. 39, 311336.
Meier, T. (2009). Application of Advanced Constitutive
Soil Models for Geotechnical Problems. Ph. D. thesis,
Verffentlichungen des Instituts fr Bodenmechanik und
Felsmechanik/Universitt Karlsruhe. Heft 171.
Priebe, H. J. (1995). The design of vibro replacement. Ground
Engineering 28(10), 3137.
Wolffersdorff, P. v. (1996). A hypoplastic relation for granu-
lar materials with a predefined limit state surface. Mech.
Cohes.-Fric. Mater. 1, 251271.
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Numerical modelling of consolidation around stone columns

J. Castro & C. Sagaseta

University of Cantabria, Santander, Spain

ABSTRACT: Coupled finite element analyses of the consolidation around stone columns are performed to
assess the accuracy of different analytical solutions. The numerical model reproduces the hypotheses and assump-
tions made in the closed-form solutions. Therefore, a rigid load is applied to a unit cell, formed by a fully
penetrating column and its surrounding soil, and simple elastic or elasto-plastic soil models are used. The surface
settlement, the dissipation of pore pressure and the vertical stress concentration on the column are studied. The
important influence of the radial and plastic strains in the column is highlighted. On the other hand, the sur-
rounding soil does not yield for usual conditions, which reasonably justifies the elastic soil behaviour assumed
in the analytical solutions. The comparison of the numerical results with the closed-form solutions shows the
implications of the assumptions made in each solution.

1 INTRODUCTION

Stone columns, either by the vibro-replacement or

vibro-displacement methods, are one of the most
common improvement techniques for foundation of
embankments or structures on soft soil. A consider-
able number of stone columns are usually involved in
a problem, what implies a complex modelling process.
There are mainly five different alternatives:
Unit cell. Only a unit cell, i.e. one column and
its surrounding soil, is modelled in axial symmetry
(e.g. Balaam & Booker 1981).
Plane strain. The cylindrical columns are converted
to gravel trenches (e.g. Van Impe & De Beer 1983).
It is commonly used under long loads, such as
embankments.
Axial symmetry. The cylindrical columns are con-
verted to gravel rings when columns are used under
circular loads, such as tanks (e.g. Elshazly et al.
2008).
Homogenization technique. The soil and columns Figure 1. Unit cell.
are modelled as a homogeneous soil with improved
properties (e.g. Schweiger 1989). on a unit cell model in axial symmetry, with a rigid load
A full 3D modelling using complex numerical and a fully penetrating column (Figure 1).
models (e.g. Weber et al. 2008). The study is focused on closed-form solutions
because they still form the basis of methods of cal-
The unit cell concept is generally used by analytical culation commonly used in practice, and even in those
solutions, while the other four options are common complex cases where numerical modelling is required,
in numerical analyses. In this paper, numerical analy- closed-form solutions allow a preliminary study of the
ses are performed to assess the accuracy of different problem and are useful for identification of the relative
analytical solutions that study the consolidation pro- influence of the different parameters.
cess around stone columns (Barron 1948, Han & Ye The main features of a stone column treatment, such
2001) and are especially focused on the validation of an as the dissipation of excess pore pressures, the set-
analytical solution recently developed by the authors tlement reduction and the stress concentration on the
(Castro & Sagaseta 2009).All these solutions are based columns, are compared with the numerical results.

863
 Table 1. Main features of some analytical solutions.

Balaam & Castro &

Barron Han & Ye Booker Sagaseta

Column behaviour Not included

Oedometric
Elastic
Elasto-plastic
Soil behaviour Oedometric
Elastic
Applied load Rigid
Flexible
Study Consolidation
Settlement

2 REVIEW OF ANALYTICAL SOLUTIONS

As the results of the numerical model will be compared

with some analytical solutions, a brief review of those
solutions is here presented.
Barron (1948) developed an analytical solution to
study the radial consolidation around vertical drains
and hence it does not consider the column stiffness,
which is included by Han & Ye (2001) and Castro &
Sagaseta (2009) by means of a modified coefficient of
consolidation. Barrons approach is based on the use
of the average value of the excess pore pressure along
the radius. As the presented numerical analyses will
later illustrate, the exact distribution along the radius
may well be different from that assumed by Barron for
the first stages of the consolidation process.
Soil and column behaviour is usually assumed as
elastic in the analytical solutions. Han & Ye (2001)
further assume the soil and the column in laterally con- Figure 2. Numerical model.
fined conditions, neglecting the radial displacement of
the soil/column interface. Castro & Sagaseta (2009)
include the lateral deformation of the column and its
The column reaches a rigid substratum because the
possible yielding using the Mohr-Coulomb yielding
influence of the column length in floating columns
criterion and a non-associated flow rule for the plastic
(e.g. Barksdale & Bachus 1983) is beyond the scope
strains.
of the paper.
Castro & Sagaseta (2009) study not only the consol-
A rigid load is applied by means of a rigid plate and
idation process but also the settlement improvement,
simple elastic or elasto-plastic soil models are used.
which for an elastic column agrees with that of Balaam
For plastic strains, the Mohr-Coulomb yielding crite-
& Booker (1981), who analytically solved the elastic
rion and a non-associated flow rule are adopted. Roller
problem of soil and column with simultaneous consid-
boundaries are used but for the upper boundary, where
eration of the horizontal and vertical components of
a rigid plate is located and then the horizontal displace-
the deformation. However, Balaam & Booker (1981)
ments are restricted. For that reason, the results of the
solve the consolidation process numerically.
upper part (more or less the first meter) are not used
A summary of the commented features of each
to compare with the analytical solutions.
analytical solution is shown in Table 1.
The closed-form solutions that are the purpose of
the study do not consider a finite permeability of the
3 NUMERICAL MODEL column or a smear zone, and therefore those aspects
are not included in the model.
Coupled numerical analyses were performed using the Only one load step is applied in undrained condi-
finite element code Plaxis v8.6 (Brinkgreve 2007). tions and the excess pore pressures generated in the
The same assumptions and boundary conditions of soil are subsequently assumed to dissipate towards the
the closed-form solutions are chosen for the numerical permeable column.
model. Therefore, a unit cell model in axial symmetry The geometry of the problem and the soil and col-
(Figure 2) is used. umn properties are chosen to be in typical ranges used

864
in the field. Some of them are varied to perform para-
metric studies. The specific values are detailed for
each case.

4 ELASTIC SOLUTION

This is the simplest case and the soil and column

behaviour is assumed as elastic. The results only
depend on the problem geometry and the relation
between the elastic parameters of soil and column.
Consequently, the results are independent of the load
level and the stress paths followed.
Balaam and Booker (1981) developed a numeri-
cal model to study this case and obtained the exact
analytical solution of the initial (undrained) and final
(drained) states. Their results were used to vali-
date the numerical model and good agreement was
reached. Only minor concerns about the undrained soil
Poissons ratio and the time steps arose.
The undrained Poissons ratio of the soil was chosen
to be 0.499 because a value of 0.495 leads to minor dif-
ferences in the initial state. The automatic time steps
used by the code give a slightly slower consolidation
than if the time steps are triggered to be smaller. How-
ever, the differences in both cases are not relevant for
practical purposes.
The numerical analysis allows an accurate evalu-
ation of the total principal stresses and the excess
pore pressure (Figure 3). A thorough analysis of these
parameters and their evolution with time helps to
understand the column behaviour and its interaction
with the surrounding soil.
Initially, the soil deforms in undrained condition,
and hence, with a relatively high stiffness (constant
volume). So, the vertical stress is higher on the soil than
on the column and the soil pushes the column radially
inwards, leading to higher hoop stresses than radial
stresses in the soil. During consolidation, excess pore
pressures start to be dissipated in the soil close to the
column, which gradually reduces the volume of the soil
and consequently its apparent stiffness also reduces
towards its drained value. This causes a reduction of
all the total principal stresses, especially of the total
hoop stress.
As consolidation progresses, the outer parts follow
Figure 3. Results of the elastic case: (a) Total vertical
the same process that has already happened in the soil stress; (b) Total radial and hoop stresses and (c) Excess pore
close to the column. Finally, there are not any excess pressure.
pore pressures and the column supports considerably
more vertical stress than the soil because the column
is stiffer and pushes the soil radially outwards, with for two usual cases (Figure 4). As it is visible, con-
higher radial stresses than hoop stresses in the soil. solidation under constant load (Barrons solution) is
In Figure 3 (a), the vertical stress on the soil much slower than in the numerical analysis. On the
decreases monotonically but this may not happen for contrary, the assumption of variable load with lateral
other cases. For instance, the vertical stress on the soil confinement (Han & Ye 2001) results in a too fast pro-
close to the column may quickly decrease and part of cess, particularly for consolidation rates above 40%.
this decrease is later recovered for lower area replace- Another drawback is that immediate settlements are
ment ratios (ar < 0.11). The Mandel-Cryer effect in not considered.
the outer part of the surrounding soil is only observed The solution by Castro & Sagaseta (2009), which
for those cases where the column supports little load. assumes a variable load and includes the radial
The settlement rate obtained with the numerical displacement of the soil/column interface, shows a
model is compared with different analytical solutions better agreement with the numerical results. The

865
 Figure 5. Initial value condition in Barrons solution.

Figure 4. Elastic settlement with time.

differences are greater for degrees of consolidation

below 40%. However, this also happens with all the
other approaches.
Balaam & Booker (1981) explain that in Barrons
solution the distribution of the initial excess pore
pressures is not uniform, as it should be (Figure 5).
That assumption causes some differences that are
particularly important in the initial part of the consol-
idation process. The same comment is also applicable
to Han & Ye (2001) and Castro & Sagaseta (2009)
because they use Barrons solution as the reference
solution.
The differences between the real initial excess pore
pressure, which is constant with radius, and the ini-
tial excess pore pressure assumed by Barron, which
Figure 6. Stress concentration factor with time.
varies exponentially with radius, are very small for
high diameter ratios (N > 20), which are common for
vertical drains (Figure 5). However, stone columns the stress concentration factor, zc /zs , and its variation
have lower diameter ratios (N < 5) and then, the effects with time for the same two cases shown in Figure 4.The
of Barrons assumption get visible at the beginning of values predicted by Castro & Sagaseta (2009) agree
the consolidation process. very well with the numerical solution because lateral
The analytical solutions predict different settlement deformations are included. On the contrary, if the col-
rates because they assume different distributions of the umn is assumed to be laterally confined (Han & Ye
vertical load between soil and column. Figure 6 shows 2001), the final SCF is overestimated. Similar results

866

Figure 7. Dissipation of pore pressure at different depths.
are obtained for the settlement reduction, as it depends
directly on the SCF.
The initial and final values of the SCF and the settle-
ment reduction predicted by Castro & Sagaseta (2009)
are equal to those of the exact solution by Balaam &
Booker (1981) and therefore equal to those of the
numerical analysis.
5 YIELDING OF THE COLUMN
The simplification of an elastic column can only be
considered as a first rough estimation because plas-
tic strains develop in the column even for low loads.
Hence, the next step is to include an elastic-perfectly
plastic behaviour of the column. As previously men-
tioned, the Mohr-Coulomb failure criterion and a
non-associated flow rule are used for this purpose.
An initial geostatic state (K0s , s , c ) is considered
and the effects of column installation are neglected. As
column yielding starts at the surface and it progresses
downwards with time, now the results depend on the
depth. For the sake of simplicity, the groundwater table
is assumed to be at the ground surface.
As an example of the numerical analyses that are
still in progress, Figure 7 shows the dissipation of the
excess pore pressure at different depths. Note that the
excess pore pressure varies along the radius but its
average value is used. These results confirm that the
consolidation slows down when the column yields. As
for the elastic case, the numerical results agree rea-
sonably well with Castro & Sagaseta (2009) but for
degrees of consolidation below 40%. The results are
analyzed at different depths (z = 1, 5, 10 m) to high-
light the differences between them. The depth of 1 m
is used instead of the values at the surface (z = 0 m)
because the upper rough contact slightly alters the
values at the surface.
The column yields as the excess pore pressures are
dissipated. Plastic points start to appear at the surface
for low degrees of consolidation and the whole column
is at its active state at the end of consolidation.
867
Figure 8. Time-settlement curves for different cases.
The rough upper boundary in the numerical model
and the fact that the analytical model does not consider
shear stresses cause only some subtle differences.
Because a rigid plate is located on top of the unit
cell, the surface settlement is uniform. The variation of
the surface settlement with time is plotted in Figure 8.
As mentioned above, Castro & Sagaseta (2009) agrees
very well with the numerical analyses for degrees of
consolidation higher than 40%.
6 YIELDING OF THE SURROUNDING SOIL
Most of the theoretical analyses (Pulko & Majes 2005;
Castro & Sagaseta 2009) justify that plastic strains are
limited to the column and therefore the assumption of
an elastic behaviour for the surrounding soil is valid.
Finite element analyses of the unit cell demonstrate
that this is true for usual conditions of the problem
(Pulko & Majes 2005) but when the surrounding soil
is very soft and the applied load is high, plastic strains
appear in the soil close to the column (Tan et al. 2008).
A preliminary result of the ongoing numerical anal-
yses is that the differences between an elastic soil and
an elastic-plastic one are important for very limiting
cases, which are hardly ever admissible. So, for dis-
tributed loads, a suitable stone column design should
not cause a considerable yielding of the soil that sur-
rounds the column, and therefore, an elastic behaviour
of the soil is a reasonable assumption of the analytical
models.
CONCLUSIONS
Coupled finite element analyses of a unit cell were
performed to study the consolidation around stone
columns. The computed values of the most impor-
tant parameters, such as the settlement reduction, the
stress concentration factor and the dissipation of the
excess pore pressure, agree very well with an analytical
solution recently developed by the authors (Castro &
Sagaseta 2009) for degrees of consolidation higher
than 40%. The discrepancies in the first part of the
consolidation process are inherent to the assumptions
of Barrons solution.
When the column yields, dissipation of excess pore
pressure slows down in a similar way to the analytical
solution (Castro & Sagaseta 2009).
The elastic behaviour of the soil assumed in most
of the analytical solutions is a reasonable hypothesis
for common cases.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The work presented was part of a research project
on stone columns for the Spanish Ministry of Pub-
lic Works (Ref.: 03-A634). The first author received
also a Grant from the Spanish Ministry of Education
(Ref.: AP2005-195).
REFERENCES
Balaam, N.P. & Booker, J.R. 1981. Analysis of rigid rafts
supported by granular piles. Int. Journal for Numerical
and Analytical Methods in Geomechanics 5: 379403.
Barksdale, R.T. & Bachus, R.C. 1983. Design and con-
struction of stone columns. Report FHWA/RD-83/026.
Springfield: Nat. Tech. Information Service.
Barron, R.A. 1948. Consolidation of fine-grained soils by
drain wells. Transactions ASCE 113: 718742.
Brinkgreve, R.B.J. 2007. Plaxis finite element code for soil
and rock analysis, 2D, version 8. Rotterdam: Balkema.
868
Castro, J. & Sagaseta, C. 2009. Consolidation around stone
columns. Influence of column deformation. Int. Journal
for Numerical and Analytical Methods in Geomechanics
33: 851877.
Elshazly, H. Elkasabgy, M. & Elleboudy, A. 2008. Effect of
inter-column spacing on soil stresses due to vibro-installed
stone columns: interesting findings. Geotechnical and
Geological Engineering 26: 225236.
Han, J. & Ye, S.L. 2001. A simplified solution for the
consolidation rate of stone column reinforced founda-
tions. Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental
Engineering 127(7): 597603.
Pulko, B. & Majes, B. 2005. Simple and accurate prediction of
settlements of stone column reinforced soil. 16th Int. Conf.
on Soil Mechanics and Foundation Eng.: 14011404.
Rotterdam: Millpress.
Schweiger, H.F. 1989. Finite element analysis of stone column
reinforced foundations. PhD Thesis, University of Wales,
Swansea.
Tan, S.A. Tjahyono, S. & Oo, K.K. 2008. Simplified plane-
strain modeling of stone-column reinforced ground. Jour-
nal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
134(2): 185194.
Van Impe, W.F. & De Beer, E. 1983. Improvement of settle-
ment behaviour of soft layers by means of stone columns.
8th Int. Conf. on Soil Mechanics and Foundation Eng.:
309312. Rotterdam: Balkema.
Weber, T.M. Springman, S.M. Gb, M. Racansky, V. &
Schweiger, H.F. 2008. Numerical modelling of stone
columns in soft clay under an embankment. In Karstunen
& Leoni (eds), Geotechnics of Soft Soils-Focus on Ground
Improvement: 305311. London: Taylor & Francis.
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Numerical modeling of inertial soil-inclusion interaction

X. Zhang, Ph. Gotteland & P. Foray

L3S-R, UJF-INPG-CNRS, Grenoble Universits, Grenoble, France

S. Lambert & A. Hatem

Keller Fondations Spciales, KELLER-France, Duttlenheim, France

ABSTRACT: The ground reinforcement by Mixed Module Columns allows a high increase in bearing capacity
and a reduction in settlement. With its high flexibility, the upper part of the Mixed Module Columns (CMM)
can absorb most of seismic energy. Numerical modeling was conducted on a shallow foundation lying on a soft
clay reinforced by four CMM subjected to static and dynamic horizontal cyclic loading. The numerical results
indicate that strength of CMM decreases with increasing height of stone columns. The inertial effect is well
demonstrated in the dynamic analyses in comparison to the static ones.

1 INTRODUCTION

Vertical Rigid Inclusions network associated to a gran-

ular layer (IR) is widespread in France as a means of
ground reinforcement for soft soil. Less used but also
highly efficient as ground improvement system, Mixed
Module Columns (CMM) present significant advan-
tages for the construction in seismic areas. A short
Stone Column in the upper part with the length usu-
ally less than 2 m is associated to a rigid inclusion in
down part of CMM (Bustamante et al. 2006). Both
CMM and IR systems allow a high increase in bear-
ing capacity and a reduction in settlement. However,
CMM have the advantage that the upper part of the
system which is more flexible works as a plastic hinge
and less seismic energy is transmitted upwards and
downwards to and from the superstructure.
Many studies have been carried out on vertically
loaded shallow foundations lying on soft soil rein-
forced by vertical rigid inclusions and on vertically
and laterally loaded pile foundations (Chenaf 2006,
Georgiadis et al, 1992, Li & Byrne 1992, Remaud
1999, Rosquot et al, 2007). However, little research
has been performed on the CMM reinforcement and
the IR systems in seismic areas. In Laboratory 3S-
R, earlier experimental work has been performed in
a large visualization tank (Figure 1) in order to anal-
yse the mechanisms of the CMM and the IR system
under horizontal loadings applied to the foundation
(Zhang et al, 2010). Two dimensional reduced mod-
els were examined in these experiments under both
quasi-static and dynamical horizontal cyclic loadings.
The reduced physical models consisted of a 20 cm
wide and 2 cm thick square footing made from alu-
minium alloy AU4G, lying on soft clay reinforced by
the CMM. CMM were modeled by two stone columns
with a rectangular section (20 cm*9 cm) for the upper
Figure 1. Photo of two-dimensional CMM experimental
model.
part and two pieces of aluminium plate with a rectan-
gular section (20 cm*0.3 cm) for the lower part (rigid
inclusions) instead of four cylindrical columns for both
parts in real foundation. Between the upper part and
the lower part, two PVC plates with the same rect-
angular section as the stone columns were installed
horizontally in order to support the gravel and also to
simulate the transition zones in real CMM. It was con-
firmed that upper part of CMM absorbed more energy
than that of the IR system. Horizontal displacement
of heads of the rigid inclusions was observed in the
dynamical tests due to the inertial effect. While no hor-
izontal displacement of heads of the rigid inclusions
was observed during the static tests.
With mechanism and behavior clarified by the
experiments, this paper presents a numerical study on
the CMM system. Numerical modeling was carried
out on a four CMM system under a square footing.
A dynamical horizontal cyclic loading was applied to

869
the square footing with a nominal static vertical load-
ing after the maximum static vertical and horizontal
loading had been determined. The length of the upper
part of the CMM varied to illustrate its influence on
the response of the rigid inclusions.

2 THE COMPUTER PROGRAM

The computer program used is FLAC3D (Fast

Lagrangian Analysis of Continua in 3 Dimensions).
It is a three-dimensional explicit finite difference
program for engineering mechanics computation
designed by Itasca Consulting Group Inc. It simulates
the behavior of three dimensional structures built of
soil, rock or other materials that undergo plastic flow
when their yield limits are reached.
Figure 2. The configuration and the dimensions of the
The dynamic analysis option permits to resolve numerical models (cm).
the full equations of motion, using the fully non-
linear method embodied in FLAC3D , rather than the
equivalent-linear method which is commonly used
in earthquake engineering for modeling wave trans-
mission in layered sites and dynamic soil-structure
interaction. The fully nonlinear method follows any
prescribed nonlinear constitutive relation, and irre-
versible displacements and other permanent changes
are modeled automatically.

3 NUMERICAL MODELS OF THE FOUR

CMM SYSTEM
3.1 Presentation
The studied foundation system consists of a square
footing 2 m wide and 0.5 m thick. It is totally embed-
ded in soil. Four (2*2) CMM are placed in the soil
under the footing. The upper part of the CMM is a
stone column with 0.9 m diameter and varying length
(0.3 m, 1.0 m and 1.5 m). The lower part of the CMM
is a rigid inclusion made of plain concrete with 0.34 m
diameter, and the length of the rigid inclusion is 5 m.
Between the upper and the lower part is an area called
transition zone which has the same diameter as the
stone column and a length of 0.5 m. The transition
zone is designed to better transmit vertical loading to
the lower part and consists of a mixture of concrete and
gravel. The axial distance between the CMM is 1.2 m,
so it is observed that the area of the CMM exceeds
slightly the square footing.
Two soil layers were taken into account in the
numerical modeling. A soft clay layer and a more resis-
tant gravel layer to obtain the embedment of the rigid
inclusions. The dimensions of the different parts of the
foundation system are illustrated in Figure 2.
3.2 Numerical modeling
Within the numerical models, system composed of
footing, stone columns with the transition zones and
soil media was discretized using predefined 6-node
radial cylinder elements and 8-node brick elements
(Figure 3). In fact, finer meshes could lead to more
Figure 3. The grid of the numerical model of the CMM
system.
accurate results because they provide a better repre-
sentation of high-stress gradients. Numerical studies
by FLAC3D have been found on piles that the finer
meshes hardly improve the results.The mesh employed
here is rather coarse to find a compromise between the
accuracy and the calculation efficiency.
While the rigid inclusions were modeled by three-
dimensional pile elements and each rigid inclusion was
discretized in ten pile elements. In FLAC3D , in addi-
tion to providing structural behavior of a beam, both a
normal-directed and a shear-directed frictional inter-
action occur between the pile and the grid. Each pile
structural element is defined by its geometry, mate-
rial and coupling-spring properties. A pile element is
assumed to be a straight segment of uniform, bisym-
metrical cross-sectional properties lying between two
nodes. For the heads of the rigid inclusions, the nodes
of the pile element were linked rigidly to the transi-
tion zones in the three displacement directions (no
relative displacement between the grid and the node)
and free in the three rotational directions. To form the
embedment of rigid inclusions in gravel layer, the links
between the pile element nodes and the gravel layer
were set rigid in all the degrees of freedom.
Behavior of stone columns, soft clay and gravel
layer was described by an elastoplastic constitutive
model based on the non-associated Mohr-Coulomb
criterion. The Mohr-Coulomb model is the simplest
elastoplastic constitutive law which presents quite

870
Table 1. The material parameters introduced in the numer-
ical models.

Youngs Friction
Modulus Poissons angle Cohesion

MPa ratio kPa

Stone columns 60 0.3 38 0

Clay layer 6 0.3 0 20
Gravel layer 100 0.3 45 0
Transition zones 600 0.3
Rigid inclusions 5285* 0.2
Footing 10000 0.2

* Edyn = 15855 MPa in the dynamic analyses (Edyn = 3*Estat ).

satisfactory results with not many soil parameters
required. Linear elastic model was applied to the
footing, transition zones and rigid inclusions. The
contact conditions between the foundation and the
soil were simulated by interface elements of Mohr
Coulomb type. The properties of the interface ele-
ments were determined according to the type of soil
which they were in contact with. The same type of
interface between the piles and the soil were used via
the pile elements. The cohesion and the friction angle
of the concrete-clay interface were respectively 0 kPa
and 38 , while the values were changed to 20 kpa and
0 for the concrete-gravel interface. All the material
parameters are summed up in Table1. It is noted that
the Young Modulus of the rigid inclusions is twice
as high under dynamic loading than under the static
loading (Edyn = 3*Estat ), which is commonly used in
geotechnical engineering.
The numerical modeling was carried out in three
stages. First of all, a vertical loading was applied to
the footing until the soil collapsed to obtain the bearing
capacity of the foundation. Then, a horizontal loading
was applied to the foundation coupled to a nominal
vertical loading. The maximum horizontal loading was
determined when the footing tended to slide. Finally, a
dynamical horizontal cyclic loading was applied with
the same vertical loading as in the second stage.
In the static analyses, only one half of the soil-
foundation system was modeled thanks to the sym-
metry in order to optimize the calculation duration.
While for the dynamic analyses, the whole system was
required because of the generation of proper bound-
ary conditions. The lateral boundaries of the main grid
were coupled to a free-field grid (Figure 3) by viscous
dashpots to simulate a quiet boundary and to ensure
wave transmission through the lateral boundaries of
the soil mass. The procedure of free-field boundaries
used in FLAC3D aims to absorb outward waves orig-
inating from the structure. The method involves the
execution of free-field calculations in parallel with
the main-grid analysis. This procedure uses only the
p-waves and s-wave speeds at the side boundary. The
damping was considered here using the local damp-
ing defined by FLAC3D which is less time-consuming
than Rayleigh damping and gives good results in the
simple cases, because it is frequency-independent and
Figure 4. Static bearing capacity of the foundation.
needs no estimate of the natural frequency of the sys-
tem being modeled. The values of damping ratio were
0.05 for the soil and 0.02 for the footing and the rigid
inclusions.
The dynamic analyses in FLAC3D are very time-
consuming, especially when the contrast of stiffnesses
between the materials is large as this case. It is induced
by the very small values of critical timestep. The crit-
ical timestep is defined such that elastic waves could
propagate through the smallest dimension of all the
elements and it is given by:
where Cp is the p-wave speed, V is the volume of the
f
element, and Amax is the maximum face area associated
with the element. The min{} function is taken over all
zones and includes contributions from the structural
and interface modules. A safety factor of 2 is used,
because Equation 1 is only an estimate of the criti-
cal time step. Hence, the time step used for dynamic
procedures is:
Here the value of the critical time step is about 4s.
4 BEARING CAPACITY OF THE FOUNDATION
In the first calculation stage, in order to investigate
the ultimate vertical bearing capacity, a static verti-
cal loading was applied to the footing by means of
a very slow continuous displacement. Conventionally,
the ultimate vertical loading is defined when the settle-
ment of the foundation reaches 10% of the foundation
width, which is 20cm here. From the vertical force-
settlement plots shown in Figure 4, it can be seen
that the bearing capacity increases with the decreasing
length of the stone columns.

871

Figure 5. The axial forces in the rigid inclusions
(Q = 320 kN).
Figure 5 shows the axial forces in the rigid inclu-
sions when the footing was loaded vertically with a
nominal vertical loading determined by the maximum
force of the 1.5 m long CMM system with a safety
factor of 3, i.e. 320 kN. The length 0 in the figure corre-
sponds to the heads of the rigid inclusions. Because of
the symmetry, only one rigid inclusion for each case is
studied here. The CMM system with 0.3 m long stone
columns has the bearing capacity much higher than
that of the two others. The length of 0.3 m long stone
columns is so small that their behavior is quite similar
to a pile foundation. While for the two others, the stone
columns are longer and almost all the settlement takes
place inside the soft clay layer and the stone columns
around. Due to the different settlements between the
stone columns and the soft clay, negative friction
occurs on the upper part of the rigid inclusions. In these
cases, the axial forces in the rigid inclusions increase
till a neutral point, then decrease all along to the base.
It was observed that the axial forces in the rigid inclu-
sions decreased with the length increase of the stone
columns.
5 HORIZONTAL RESPONSE OF THE CMM
SYSTEM
At the second calculation stage, with nominal verti-
cal force defined previously (Q = 320 kN), the footing
was subjected to a horizontal loading by means of a
very slow continuous displacement. It can be observed
from the horizontal load-sliding plots (Figure 6) that
the footing did not slide much until reached the shear
capacity, but once it reached the shear capacity it
started to slide. The shear capacity of the CMM system
with 0.3 m long stone columns is much higher than the
two others which have almost the same shear capacity.
The maximum horizontal displacement before slid-
ing was between 10 mm and 15 mm. The nominal
horizontal loading was defined when the displacement
872
Figure 6. The horizontal loading-sliding curves.
attained 4 mm which corresponded to a horizontal
force of about 130 kN.
Figure 7 presents internal forces in the rigid inclu-
sions under the nominal vertical and horizontal load-
ings. The maximum shear forces were obtained at
the heads of the rigid inclusions, while the bend-
ing moments attained the maximum values about 1m
below. It can be seen that all the internal forces have
a decreasing tendency when the length of the stone
columns in the CMM system increases. It is also
observed that the internal forces in the front rigid inclu-
sion are larger than those in the behind one, which
agrees well with the pile-group effect.
6 DYNAMIC ANALYSES OF THE CMM
SYSTEM
The dynamic analyses were performed under a hor-
izontal cyclic loading with a sinusoidal form. The
amplitude of the loading is 4 mm which was deter-
mined beforehand by the static horizontal response in
order to compare their results. The dynamic loading
has a frequency of 1Hz and lasted 10 seconds. The
horizontal displacement was applied to the footing by
means of the velocity imposed through all the dynamic
time steps.
During the dynamic loading, after a transition stage,
no changes were observed in the response of rigid
inclusions from the 3rd cycle to the 10th cycle because
the soil-footing-CMM stabilization has been obtained.
The envelopes of the internal forces in the rigid inclu-
sions during the dynamic loading are illustrated in
Figure 8. Because of the symmetry of the dynamic
loading, only one of the rigid inclusions is studied here.
Note that there is a phase difference of the responses
between the front and the behind rigid inclusions. Due
to the inertial effect, the response of the rigid inclu-
sions in the dynamic analyses is more evident than in
the static calculation. This agrees well with the obser-
vation during the 2D dynamical experiments in the
visualization tank (Figure 1). The movement of the
heads of the rigid inclusions was quite evident, while
it didnt exist at all in the static ones. That means the
 Figure 8. The envelopes of the internal forces in the rigid
Figure 7. The response of the rigid inclusions under the inclusions, 8a) Axial forces, 8b) Shear forces, 8c) Bending
static horizontal loading, 7a) Axial forces, 7b) Shear forces, moments.
7c) Bending moments.

rigid inclusions were much more loaded in the dynam- Finally, the same tendency with respect to the vari-
ical tests, which corresponds to the numerical results. ation of the length of the stone columns is examined:
The maximum bending moment here is almost twice longer are the stone columns, lower is the strength
larger than the static case. reponse in rigid inclusions.

873
7 CONCLUSIONS
Numerical modeling of ground reinforcement by
Mixed Module Columns has been performed follow-
ing the two-dimensional experimental research work
carried out previously. It has been clarified that the
length of the stone columns had an important influence
on the response of the rigid inclusions. The longer the
stone column is, the less the rigid inclusion is loaded.
The comparison of the results between the static anal-
ysis and the dynamic one showed that there was an
important inertial effect on the internal forces of the
rigid inclusions. In a further research program, physi-
cal models in three dimensions will be built to calibrate
the numerical models.
REFERENCES
Bustamante, M., Blondeau, F. & Aguado, P. 2006. Cahier des
charges Colonnes Module Mixte. KELLER Fondations
Spciales.
874
Chenaf, N. 2006. Interaction inertielle et interaction cinma-
tique PhD Dissertation, Ecole Centrale de Nantes.
Hatem, A., Shahrour, I., Lambert, S. & Alsaleh, H. 2009.
Analyse du comportement sismique des sols renforcs par
des inclusions rigides et par des colonnes module mixte.
AUGC.
Li,Y. & Byrne, P. M. 1992. Lateral pile response to monotonic
head loading. Canadian Geotechnical Journal. No. 29, pp.
955970.
Georgiadis, M., Anagnostopoulos, C. & Saflekou, S. 1992.
Centrifugal testing of laterally loaded piles. Canadian
Geotechnical Journal. No. 29, pp. 208216.
Remaud, D. 1999. Pieux sous charges laterals: tude expri-
mentale de leffet de group PhD Dissertation, Ecole
Centrale de Nantes.
Rosquot, F., Thorel, L., Garnier, J. & Canepa, Y. 2007.
Lateral cyclic loading of sand-installed piles. Soils &
Foundations. Vol. 47, no. 5, pp. 821832.
Zhang, X., Foray, P., Gotteland, Ph., Lambert, S. &Alsaleh, H.
2010. Seismic performance of mixed module columns and
rigid inclusions. 7th International Conference on Physical
Modelling in Geotechnics (ICPMG 2010), 8p.
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Performance of geogrid-encased stone columns as a reinforcement

of soft ground

M. Elsawy, K. Lesny & W. Richwien

University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany

ABSTRACT: Stone columns are a very effective technique for improvement of soft soils particularly under
flexible structures. Stone columns are generally used to increase the bearing capacity which depends on the
lateral support. To avoid dispersion of the stones into the clay and to improve the stone columns as reinforcing
elements, geogrids are used as an encasement of the stone columns. In this research the behavior of full scale
stone columns in Bremerhaven clay has been analyzed using the FE program Plaxis. The stone columns are
loaded under undrained and drained conditions to investigate the effect of varying parameters like the geogrid
stiffness and the depth of the encasement on the behavior of the stone columns in short and long term conditions.
When using geogrid as encasement for the stone column, an important increase in its bearing capacity as well
as a significant reduction in the lateral bulging occurs. More improvement occurs in the behavior of the encased
stone columns with increasing encasement stiffness. The bearing capacity of the partially encased stone columns
increases with increasing encasement depth. The increase in the bearing capacity in long term is more significant
than that in short term conditions under working loads.

1 INTRODUCTION Further developments of the stone column tech-

A lot of areas all over the world, particularly along the
rivers and the seas, are covered with thick soft alluvial
and marine clay. As increasing developments on these
areas recently, a lot of buildings and industry structures
are being constructed. Construction on soft natural
soil is considered a risk and poses major problems to
geotechnical engineers due to its low shear strength
and high compressibility. Ground reinforcement by
stone columns solves theses problems by providing
advantage of reduced settlement and accelerated con-
solidation process. Another advantage of this method
is the simplicity of its construction. The stone columns
derive their load carrying capacity from the passive
earth pressure resistance developed against the bulging
of the column which thereby depending on the shear
strength of the surrounding soil.
The stone column technique was adopted in the
European countries in the early 1960s and thereafter
it has been used successfully. Several researches were
published in the past three decades which dealt with
the stone column technique (Balaam & Booker 1985;
Lee & Pande 1998; Wood et al. 2000; Christoulas et al.
2000). Bergado & Long (1994) proved from field mea-
surements and numerical studies that the installation of
stone columns in soft soil increases the bearing capac-
ity and accelerate the consolidation.They also reported
that stone columns imply more reductions in the total
settlement of the soft clay when compared with ver-
tical drains. Ambily & Gandhi (2007) stated that
when the column area only loaded, failure occurs by
bulging.
nique include the reinforcement of the column using
either horizontal layers of reinforcement (Sharma et al.
2004) or encasing the individual stone column by
geosynthetics (Nabil 1995; Murugesan & Rajagopal
2006). The geosynthetic encasement leads to more
increases in the load bearing capacity of the stone
column and reduces its bulging due to the addi-
tional confinement from the encasement (Malarvizh &
Ilamparuth, 2007). The geosynthetic encasement also
prevents the lateral squeezing of stones when the stone
column is installed in some extremely soft soil, lead-
ing to minimal loss of stones and quicker installation.
The published literature on the performance of the
encased stone columns is limited especially in the long
term conditions. Most of researchers also used the
geotextile encasement material in spite of the geogrid
encasement has the more stiffness.
The scope of this study is to understand the behav-
ior of the stone columns in soft soil and to extract
the parameters which play a dominant role in the
bearing capacity increase and in the settlement reduc-
tion in short and long term conditions. Based on this
objective, the influence of the parameters such as the
geogrid encasement, the encasement stiffness and the
encasement depth is analyzed.
2 FINITE ELEMENT SIMULATIONS
In order to make a realistic modeling of the behav-
ior of the geogrid reinforced stone column-soft soil
system, full scale stone columns in Bremerhaven clay

875
Table 1. Properties and parameters of the stone column and Table 2. Properties of the geogrid materials.
the soil.
Secugrid Secugrid Combigrid
Parameter Stone column Bremerhaven clay Property 20/20 Q1 30/30 Q1 40/40 Q1

Model Mohr coulomb Soft soil creep Mass per 155 200 240
conditions drained undrained and drained unit area (g/m2 )
wet (kN/m3 ) 19 15 Axial stiffness, 400 600 800
E (kN/m2 ) 55,000 - J (kN/m)
(-) 0.3 - Aperture size 33 33 32 32 31 31
(-) - 0.203 (mm mm)
(-) - 0.025
(-) - 0,007
c(kN/m2 ) 0 5
43 37,75 stone material which has a bad effect on the drainage
10 0 of the stone column. The geotextile is arranged in such
a way that it would not contribute either to the vertical
or the lateral stiffness of the encased stone column. The
geogrid encasement is modeled as a linear elastic con-
tinuum element. The properties of geogrid materials
are tabulated in Table 2.

3 PARAMETRIC STUDY

In order to evaluate the improvement achieved due

Figure 1. Model of the unit cell (a) Model parts, (b) FEM
mesh.
are analyzed. The Mohr Coulomb model is used for the
stone column material and the Soft Soil Creep model is
used to describe the behavior of the Bremerhaven clay.
The finite element program Plaxis 9 has been used for
the FE analyses. The properties of the stone column
materials and the Bremerhaven clay were adopted from
the study of Ambily & Gandhi (2007) and the study of
Geduhn (2005), respectively. The properties of these
soils are tabulated in Table 1. The stone columns are
installed in a square pattern into the soft soil. The unit
cell analysis has been conducted for a column and the
surrounding soft soil using axisymmetric conditions,
as illustrated in Figure 1. Half of the model has been
used. A medium finite element mesh has been used
with 15 nodes triangular elements.
Three types of geogrid reinforcement with different
stiffness are used as encasement for the stone column,
Secugrid 20/20 Q1, Secugrid 30/30 Q1 and Combigrid
40/40 Q1 (Naue GmbH). The last type is a composite
of geogrid/nonwoven geotextile. The geotextile is used
mainly to prevent the mixing of the clay grains with the
to the encasement, the following cases have been
analyzed.
1. Ordinary stone columns (OSC) installed in soft soil.
2. Geogrid-encased stone columns (ESC) installed in
soft soil.
Initially, the analyses have been performed by
applying uniform load (q, kPa) on the stone column
portion only in undrained and drained condition of the
surrounding soil in order to directly assess the influ-
ence of the confinement effects due to encasement.
Detailed parametric analyses were performed by vary-
ing stiffness of the geogrid encasement (J) and depth
of the encasement from the top of the column (h). All
cases have been idealised through the axisymmetric
modelling. The improved performance has been eval-
uated based on the increase of the bearing capacity and
the reduction in the lateral bulging of the stone col-
umn. The foundation soil in all cases is assumed to be
a 6 m thick Bremerhaven clay layer underlain by rigid
hard stratum. In all cases also, the ordinary and the
encased stone columns have a diameter of d = 0.6 m
and a spacing ratio of S/d = 2.
4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
4.1 Effect of Encasement of Stone Column
and Influence of Encasement Stiffness (J)
4.1.1 Undrained conditions
When the stone column is encased with geogrid mate-
rials, a significant increase in the bearing capacity
occurs. This is due to the increase of the column
confinement with geogrid materials. The encasement
materials provide also a stronger lateral support by
generating radial tension forces. There is a further

876

Figure 2. Effect of the encasement stiffness on the bearing
capacity of the stone column.
Figure 3. Effect of the encasement stiffness on the lateral
bulging of the stone column.
increase in the bearing capacity of the stone column
with increasing geogrid stiffness, as shown in Figure 2.
The stone column confinement increases with increas-
ing geogrid stiffness which leads to an increase of the
overall stiffness of the encased stone columns.
The lateral bulging of the stone column and the hoop
tension forces in the encasement were calculated at a
column load of 180 kPa in undrained conditions. The
load of 180 kPa is the minimum failure load of the
ordinary stone columns. Figure 3 shows a significant
reduction in the lateral bulging of the stone column
with encasement. The lateral bulging decreases and the
confinement increases with increasing geogrid stiff-
ness. It is observed that in the ordinary stone columns
lateral bulging occurs only near the ground surface
up to a depth equal to twice the diameter of the stone
column.
The forces are high within a depth equal to almost
twice the diameter of the stone column, as illustrated in
Figure 4. Then; the forces reduce gradually with depth
to reach zero values below a depth equal to 4 times the
column diameter.
4.1.2 Drained conditions
When the stone column is encased with geogrid mate-
rials and loaded until failure in drained conditions,
a significant increase in the bearing capacity occurs.
877
Figure 4. Effect of the encasement stiffness on the tension
forces of the encasement.
Figure 5. Effect of the encasement stiffness on the bearing
capacity of the stone column.
The bearing capacity of the encased stone column
has further increases with increasing geogrid stiffness
especially at the higher loads, as shown in Figure 5.The
load-settlement relationship of the encased stone col-
umn is approximately linear and no yield point occurs.
When consolidation occurs, the encasement provides a
stronger lateral support for the stone column. The con-
finement of the stone column increases with increasing
geogrid stiffness which leads to an increase in the
overall stiffness of the encased stone columns, too.
The lateral bulging of the stone column and the hoop
tension forces in the encasement were calculated at
a column load of 300 kPa in drained conditions. The
load of 300 kPa is the minimum failure load of the
ordinary stone columns. Reductions also occur in the
lateral bulging when using encasement, as shown in
Figure 6. These are due to the confinement from the
encasement of stone column which provides a stronger
lateral support than that in the ordinary stone column.
It is observed that in the ordinary stone columns lateral
bulging values along the column occur. The encase-
ment makes the lateral bulging distribution along the
column depth more organized due to more stress
transfer within lower depths. The lateral bulging of
Figure 6. Effect of the encasement stiffness on the lateral
bulging of the stone column.
Figure 7. Effect of the encasement stiffness on the tension
forces of the encasement.
the encased stone column decreases with increasing
geogrid stiffness values.
Figure 7 shows the radial hoop tension forces
developed in the geogrid encasement. The hoop ten-
sion forces distribute along the encased stone col-
umn. The forces distribution is similar to that for
the lateral bulging of the stone column. The ten-
sion forces increase with increasing geogrid encase-
ment stiffness. The degree of improvement in the
encased stone column-soft soil foundation behavior
increases with increasing generation of the tension
forces in the encasement material. In comparison with
the undrained conditions, the hoop tension forces in
drained conditions extend to lower depths due to the
stress transfer within downward direction.
4.2 Effect of geogrid encasement depth (h)
The encased stone columns with various encasement
depths have been loaded in undrained and drained
conditions. The analyses have been carried out using
stone columns with a diameter of 0.6 m, a spacing
ratio S/d = 2 and a geogrid stiffness of 800 kN/m.
The encasement depth to column diameter ratios of
h/d = 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8 and 10 have been used.
878
Figure 8. Effect of the encasement depth on the bearing
capacity of the stone column.
4.2.1 Undrained condition
The bearing capacity of the encased stone columns
increases with increasing encasement depth, as shown
in Figure 8. The increase in the bearing capacity is
more at the higher loads. The highest bearing capacity
occurs when the fully encased stone column is used.
Loads have been applied on the partially and the
fully encased stone column up to a load of 300 kPa
which acts as a working load.The encasement beyond a
depth equal to twice the diameter of the column doesnt
lead to further improvement in the bearing capacity of
the stone columns, as shown in Figure 8. Similar results
were stated by Murugesan and Rajagopal (2006).
The lateral bulging of the partly and the fully
encased stone columns is also investigated. The lat-
eral bulging decreases with increasing depth of the
encasement. It is well established from Figure 9 that
the bulging of the encased stone column is predomi-
nant up to a depth equal to 22.5 times the diameter of
the column. Hence, the partly encasement of the stone
columns with a depth of 3 times the diameter of the col-
umn is sufficient to reduce the bulging of the column
to minimum values and to provide the required con-
finement of the column. When the stone columns are
reinforced by encasement depth smaller than h/d = 3,
larger lateral bulging values of the column occur at
the end point of the encasement. Largely differentially
lateral displacements are also generated at the encase-
ment end. This phenomenon is clear especially when
using encasement depth of h/d = 1.
Figure 10 shows the hoop tension forces distribu-
tion along the column for various encasement depths.
The development of the hoop tension forces looks like
that of the column bulging. The distribution of the
hoop tension forces is the same for depths larger than
h/d = 3. At encasement depths shallower than h/d = 3,
there are peak values in the hoop tension forces at the
end point of the encasement where there is a largely dif-
ferentially lateral bulging. The encased stone column
with encasement depth of h/d = 1 implies the highest
peak value of tension forces at the end point of the
encasement, as shown in Figure 10. Because the upper
Figure 9. Effect of the encasement depth on the lateral
bulging of the stone column under a column load of 300 kPa.
Figure 10. Effect of the encasement depth on the hope
tension force of the encasement under a column load of
300 kPa.
zone of the stone column is the more loaded zone.
Hence, the upper zone needs to be confined.
4.2.2 Drained conditions
The partially and the fully encased stone columns
have been also studied in drained conditions. When
using encasement depth ratio of h/d = 1, the stone
columns have a large increase in the bearing capacity.
The increase in the bearing capacity of stone columns
continues with increasing encasement depth, h/d.
The rate of the increase is significant at higher loads,
as shown in Figure 11. Loads have been applied on the
partially and the fully encased stone columns up to a
load of 300 kPa which is a working load. The bearing
capacity of the encased column increases also with
increasing encasement depth.
It was well established that the lateral bulging is
distributed along the stone column when it is loaded in
drained conditions, as shown in Figure 12. Hence, the
encasement is required to a depth that equals the depth
of the stone column. The bulging reduces to minimum
values in all the column depth when the column is
encased completely, h/d = 10. When the stone column
is partially encased, its bulging in the encased zone is
slightly smaller than that of the full encased column
case, while the non-encased zone has so higher values
of the column bulging. The non-encased zone in the
column starts with a maximum value which generates
879
Figure 11. Effect of the encasement depth on the bearing
capacity of the stone column.
Figure 12. Effect of the encasement depth on the lateral
bulging of the stone column under a column load of 300 kPa.
a largely differential bulging at the end point of the
encasement. Below the end point of the encasement,
the bulging values decrease gradually with depth until
it reaches zero at the column base. The shallower the
encasement depth is, the higher the bulging values are
in the non-encased zone of the stone column.
The full encasement induces values of hoop tension
forces along the column and the encasement has also
the larger tension forces in comparison with undrained
conditions. The distribution of the tension forces is
similar to that of the stone column bulging. When the
stone column is reinforced by partially encasement,
the tension forces are implied in the encased part of
the column. The tension forces in the partial encase-
ment of the stone column are smaller than those of
the full encasement. While the end point of the partial
encasement has a peak value of tension force which is
so larger than that of the full encasement at the same
location, as shown in Figure 13. Because the end point
of the partial encasement is free and is subjected to
lateral stress from the stone column where there is a
largely differentially lateral displacement. The shal-
lower the encasement is, the higher the peak value of
the tension force at the end point of the encasement is.

Figure 13. Effect of the encasement depth on the hope
tension force of the encasement under a column load of
300 kPa.
5 CONCLUSIONS
The concept of using geogrid encasement to provide a
stronger lateral support to stone columns installed in
weak soil is considered relatively new. In this research,
the performance of the fully and the partially encased
stone columns with geogrid material was studied.
The results obtained from this study showed that, the
bulging of the stone column disappears below a depth
equal two times the column diameter in undrained con-
ditions. While the bulging implies values along the
column in drained conditions due to the stress transfer.
The load capacity and the stiffness of the stone col-
umn increase by geogrid encasement. When the stone
columns are encased, they are confined and the lat-
eral bulging is minimized. The geogrid stiffness plays
an important role in enhancing the bearing capacity
and the stiffness of the encased column. The stiffer
the geogrid is, the higher is the load capacity of the
column and the smaller is the lateral bulging.
The bearing capacity of the partially encased stone
column increases with increasing encasement depth in
short and long term conditions. When the work load
of 300 kPa is applied on the encased stone column
in undrained conditions, the increase of the bearing
capacity beyond an encasement depth that equals three
times the column diameter is not significant. There-
fore, the encasement depth of three times the column
diameter is sufficient to minimize the values of the
lateral bulging of the stone column.
When the work load of 300 kPa is applied in drained
conditions, the bearing capacity of the encased stone
880
column implies increases with increasing depth of
the encasement. The deeper the encasement of the
stone column is, the more the bearing capacity is
and the smaller the lateral bulging is. Therefore, full
encasement of the stone column leads to the optimum
performance of the encased stone columns.
REFERENCES
Ambily,A.P. & Gandhi, S.G. 2007. Behavior of stone columns
based on experimental and FEM analysis. Journal of
Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, ASCE,
133, No. 4, pp. 405415.
Balaam, N.P. & Booker, I.R. 1985. Effect of stone col-
umn yield on settlement of rigid foundations in stabilized
Clay. International Journal for Numerical and Analytical
Methods in Ceomechanics 9, pp. 331351.
Bergado, D.T. & Long, P.V. 1994. Numerical analysis of
embankment on subsiding ground improved by verti-
cal drains and granular piles. Proceedings of the XIII
ICSMFE, 1994. New Delhi, India, pp. 13611366.
Christoulas, ST., Bouckovalas, G. & Giannaros, CH. 2000.
An experimental study on model stone columns. Soils and
Foundations Journal 40, No. 6, pp. 1122.
Geduhn, M. 2005. Geokunststoffummantelte Vacuumsulen:
Ein Grndungsverfahren fr sehr weiche bindige Bden.
PhD. Thesis of Duisburg-Essen University, Essen, Ger-
many.
Gniel, J. & Bouazza, A. (2009). Numerical modelling of
small-scale geogrid encased sand column tests. Geotech-
nics of Soft Soils-Focus on Ground Improvement-
Karstunen & Leoni (eds). Taylor & Francis Group,
London.
Lee, J.S. & Pande, G.N. 1998. Analysis of stone-column
reinforced foundations. International Journal for Numer-
ical and Analytical Methods in Geomechanics 22, pp.
10011020.
Malarvizhi, S. N. & Ilamparuthi, K. (2007). Comparative
study on the behavior of encased stone column and con-
ventional stone column. Soils and Foundations Journal 47,
No. 5, 873885.
Murugesan, S. & Rajagopal, S. 2006. Geosynthetic-encased
stone columns: numerical evaluation. Geotextiles and
Geomembranes Journal 24, pp. 349358.
Nabil, M.A. 1995. Laboratory and analytical investigation of
sleeve reinforced stone columns. Ph.D Thesis of Carleton
University, Ottawa, Canada.
Sharma, R.S., Kumar, B.P. & Nagendra, G. 2004.
Compressive load response of granular piles rein-
forced with geogrids. Canadian Geotechnical Journal 41,
pp. 187192.
Wood, D., Hu, W. & Nash, D.F.T. 2000. Group effects in stone
column foundations model tests. Gotechnique Journal
50, No. 6, pp. 689698.
Offshore geotechnical engineering
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

A new elasto-plastic spring element for cyclic loading of piles using

the p-y-curve concept

Ole Hededal & Rasmus Klinkvort

Department of Civil Engineering, Technical University of Denmark

ABSTRACT: Modeling the response of large diameter piles subjected to lateral loading is most often done
by means of p-y-curves in combination with Winkler beam models. Traditionally the p-y curves are formulated
as non-linear (elastic) relations between the lateral movement y and the soil response pressure p in terms of
monotonic loading (until failure) as e.g. prescribed by API (2000). However, the cyclic and dynamic performance
is only to a limited degree accounted for. Here the elasto-plastic framework is applied allowing definition of
unloading-reloading branches, hence enabling modeling of cyclic response. The present model can account for
effects like pre-consolidation and creation of gaps between pile and soil at reversed loading. Results indicate that
the model is able to capture hysteresis during loading with full cycles and model the accumulated displacement
observed on piles subjected to half cycles as e.g. seen from centrifuge tests carried out. This article presents
the theoretical formulations, discusses numerical implementation and finally presents simulations.

1 INTRODUCTION

Modeling the response of large diameter piles sub-

jected to lateral loading is most often done by means of
p-y-curves in combination with Winkler beam models.
Traditionally, the p-y curves are formulated in terms of
non-linear (elastic) relations between the lateral move-
ment y and the soil response pressure p in terms of
monotonic loading (until failure). These curves were
established by back-analysis of a series of tests carried
out in the 1950es by Matlock and co-workers. The tests
were primarily static, monotonic load tests, but also a
few cyclic tests were carried out.
Matlock (1970) carried out further cyclic tests on
piles in clay that revealed a general reduction of the
ultimate capacity for piles subjected cyclic loading
compared to monotonic loading. This led to a gen-
eral reduction of the cyclic ultimate capacity compared
to the monotonic ultimate capacity. This reduction or
cyclic degradation as it is commonly denoted is incor-
porated in almost all design codes, e.g. API (2000),
as a formal reduction of the ultimate capacity. Still,
the models does not directly correlate the reduction to
the characteristics of the cyclic loading, i.e. number of Figure 1. Typical loading cyclic for a model pile in clay,
cycles, loading amplitude or frequency. from Mayoral et al. (2005).
Matlock (1970) and later Mayoral et al. (2005) set
up a conceptual model for pile-soil interaction from soil face in the cavity created behind the pile during
these observations, cf. Figure 1. The model consists initial loading. In this phase it may be assumed that
of 3 parts. Firstly, a loading phase where the soil- there exists a drag or friction along the side of piles.
pile interaction follows the virgin curve. Secondly, an Whether or not the gap will develop may depend on
unloading phase that due to irreversible deformations the type of soil type. El-Naggar et al. (2005) assumes
in the soil will imply the development of a gap between that the gap will develop for cohesive soils, whereas
the pile and the soil. Finally, a phase where the pile for cohesionless soils, the soil will cave in and close
moves towards the initial position and into the opposite the gap. Still, centrifuge tests carried out on a pile in

883
dry sand indicate that this cave-in effect may not be
fully developed, Klinkvort (2009), thus there is prob-
ably a need to include the drag effect in a model even
for cohesionless soils. Klinkvort (2009).
One of the first attempts in formulating p-y-curves
that reflected the observed behavior was done by
Matlock et al. (1978). Later, Boulanger et al. (1999)
proposed an elasto-plastic p-y model based on a two
component set-up in which the loading response is
handled by a series connection of springs one spring
handling loading (passive failure mode) and another
spring handling the unloading-reloading properties of
a pile subjected to cyclic loading that is gradually cre-
ating a gap behind the pile. Taciroglu et al. (2006)
further developed these ideas and proposed a macro-
element consisting of three components; leading-face
element, rear-face element and drag-element. The two
face-elements are formulated in terms of elasto-plastic
springs supplemented with a tension cut-off. The drag
element controls the side friction, when the pile is
moving inside the cavity during unloading.
In the present work, the principles of the above-
mentioned models are incorporated in a single spring
element that can be directly incorporated in a standard
finite element code. In the following the elasto-plastic
constitutive relations will be presented. Then follows a
discussion about the implementation and finally some
results from simulations.
2 ELASTO-PLASTIC MODEL
A simple one-dimensional elasto-plastic spring is
defined. The model is expressed in terms of the earth
resistant force p and the associated displacement u.
The standard procedure for development of elasto-
plastic models are used. First the operator split between
elastic and plastic components is assumed.
where due is the elastic part and dup is the plastic part
of the total displacement increment du.
The plastic displacement component is defined in
terms of the gradient to the plastic potential, i.e.
with d as the plastic multiplier. The direction of the
plastic displacement increment is fixed to the loading
plane, implying that the plastic flow potential is by
definition associated to the yield surface, i.e. f = g.
The simplest yield function may be written as
in which pu () is the current strength yield strength
and = (1 , 2 , . . . ) are the hardening parameters (to
be defined later).
884
As mentioned above the flow rule is associated to
the yield function, hence rewriting Eqn. (2) by use of
Eqn. (3), we find
In case of plastic loading f = 0 the consistency
requirement requires the stress point to remain on the
yield surface, hence
where the hardening modulus H is the scalar contrac-
tion of the partial derivatives of the yield function with
respect to . For isotropic hardening, only a single
hardening parameter is needed, i.e. , but since
we need to account for the development of a gap on
the front and on the rear of the pile, respectively, it is
necessary to introduce two hardening parameters as is
presented in the coming sections.
As always the fundamental assumption of common
elastic and plastic stress is used, hence
where k is the elastic stiffness. Combining Eqn.
(5) and Eqn. (6) yields the definition of the plastic
multiplier d,
Here it is used that the displacement increment is
associated to the loading direction, hence p du = 1.
This relation is then entered back into Eqn. (6) to
produce the elasto-plastic tangent stiffness,
This completes the formal definition of the plas-
ticity model. Remaining is now to define the yield
strength as a function of the hardening parameters.
2.1 Yield function
Following the terminology of Mayoral et al. (2005) and
Matlock (1970) we divide the current yield strength
into two parts; one relating to the drag contribution
and one relating to the earth pressure.
drag
The first term pu is the drag capacity, which in this
version of the model is assumed to be constant. Below
this value, the spring is assumed linear elastic with
a stiffness k. The second term must account for the

Figure 2. Schematic drawing of the spring element.
earth pressure when either of the pile faces are in con-
tact with the soil. If there is no contact, this term must
vanish. This can be achieved by introducing a multi-
plier to the virgin curve. The obvious candidate is a
smooth step function,
The parameter defines the curvature and the coordi-
nate x is
A typical value for would be around 1.000.000. The
coordinate x thus defines the current position of the
pile relative to the soil. If the pile is in contact with the
soil x 0 and if there is a gap x < 0. Using Eqn. (9)
we can write the yield function as
The hardening parameters i , i = 1, 2 represents either
loading of the front or rear face of the pile. The virgin
virgin
curve pu () depends on the soil conditions as e.g.
given by API (2000).
2.2 Evolution law for hardening parameters
Referring to Figure 2 it is easily seen that the harden-
ing parameter i is defined as the plastic displacement
accumulated during contact between soil and pile.
Physically is representing the progressive develop-
ment of the gap. Using the experience from contact
mechanics, it is deemed that a formulation of unload-
ing and reloading in terms of a displacement criterion
(rather than the usual stress based criterion) allows us
to keep the formulation simple, even for the discontin-
uous phase when the pile is moving in the developed
cavity.
The evolution law for the hardening parameters
should thus be defined in such a way that they only
885
develop when the pile is in contact with the soil. As
long as the pile is sliding in the cavity created by the
cyclic motion, the model should behave ideally plas-
tic. Introducing once again the step function we may
find
in which the definition of the plastic displacement,
Eqn. (4), is utilized. Having established the evolution
law, it is finally possible to identify the model specific
hardening modulus, H , by revisiting the consistency
equation, Eqn. (5). After some manipulation we find
that
Note that the arguments i and xi has been omitted
in the formula. Analyzing Eqn. (14), it is noted half
of the contributions vanishes if the soil is in contact
with either the front face or the rear face of the pile,
since the for the unloaded face S = 0. Likewise this
relation ensures that H = 0 in the cavity since S = 0
for all terms.
3 IMPLEMENTATION
The proposed spring element is implemented in an in-
house MATLAB based FE code, Hededal and Krenk
(1995). The implementation consists of two parts.
Firstly implementation of the spring element using a
backward Euler integration scheme for integration of
the constitutive relation. Secondly, a Winkler model
based on the proposed model has been defined and
analyzed using a Newton Raphson based non-linear
solver.
For this specific application it has been chosen to
use the (API 2000) definition of the p-y curves for
sand,
Here pult is the ultimate capacity, A is a strength reduc-
tion parameter, k is the subgrade reaction modulus, X
is the depth and u is the total lateral displacement.
Still, in order to implement this relation into the
proposed format, it is necessary to divide the total
resistance into a drag contribution and a face loading
contribution, i.e.
This is not a trivial task, since the hyperbolic func-
tion can not be easily inverted in order to allow

Figure 3. API curve versus the elasto-plastic curve.
Table 1. Pile soil properties.
Pile diameter D 1m
Pile length L 6m
Load eccentricity e 2.5 m
Frictional angle 42
Soil density 16 kN /m3
for a split of elastic and plastic contribution. In the
present situation, it has be chosen to use the following
approximation,
Eqn. (17) is a implicit function in since we have
u = + p/k. This implies that the derivative with
respect to is not trivial. Here we use
as a first order approximation. Comparing the API
curve to the prediction of the model, Figure 3, this
approximation appears to be acceptable.
4 RESULTS
To demonstrate the ability of the model to capture the
pile-soil interaction as observed by Matlock (1970)
and Mayoral et al. (2005), three test simulations have
been carried out.
The material properties used in the three test exam-
ples are shown in Table 1. The three tests have been
performed with a monotonic or cyclic laterally load
applied in the top of the pile.A rather large stiffness has
been used for the sand in order to clearly demonstrate
the capability of the spring element.
886
Figure 4. Overall response on a pile subjected to mono-
tonic loading loading.
Figure 5. Overall response on a pile subjected to one-way
loading.
4.1 Example 1 monotonic loading
The spring element presented here is capable of per-
forming cyclic tests. As demonstrated in Figure 3 the
elasto-plastic element follows the virgin curve recom-
mended by API (2000). Monotonic tests can therefore
also easily be performed with this element. In Fig-
ure 4 the result as pile head deflection versus applied
laterally load from a monotonic test can be seen. The
maximum bearing capacity of the pile is calculated
to Pmax = 1122 kN . Using the theory from Hansen
(1961), the maximum bearing capacity can be calcu-
lated to Pmax = 1152 kN . This results fits very well
with the calculation performed in the model.
4.2 Example 2 one way loading
The second example illustrates a pile that is subjected
to a load varying from zero and to a given value in
the same direction, this is called one-way loading. The
maximum load during the cycles is close to the ulti-
mate capacity, so that the accumulation effect is clearly
seen.
The overall pile response can be seen in Figure 5.
This figure shows the pile top deflection versus the
 Figure 7. Overall response on a pile subjected to two-way
Figure 6. Spring response on a pile subjected to one-way loading.
loading.

applied force. The model simulates a load controlled

test with constant load amplitude in a total of ten
cycles. It can be seen from Figure 5 that the deflection
increases with every cycle. Still, the rate of increase for
every cycle is getting smaller and smaller. This shows
that the model is able to take account for the accumu-
lation of displacement when the model is subjected to
one-way loading.
The response from one of the springs near the soil
surface can be seen in Figure 6. The spring reaches fast
the maximum bearing capacity. This is due to the high
stiffness. It unloads elastically and then the develop-
ment of a cavity can be seen. As described in section
2.2, no hardening occurs when the pile is moving in
this cavity. It can also be seen that after the first cycle
the the spring does not go back to its initial position,
but exhibits a permanent deformation. This is due to Figure 8. Spring response on a pile subjected to two-way
loading.
the accumulation of deflection. The accumulation of
deflections occurs due to the development of cavity
in several springs and the subsequent redistribution of the pile is in a position around the mean deflection.
the force therefore occurs. This is due to the development of a cavity in nearly
all spring elements. In this position the system have
very low stiffness. A simple remedy to this could be
4.3 Example 3 two way loading to include a small amount of kinematic hardening to
In this example the pile is subjected to a given load the drag-term in a manner as proposed by Hededal and
varying between negative and positive values, this is Strandgaard (2008).
called two-way loading. The overall pile response can The response from one of the springs can be seen
be seen in figure Figure 7. The pile is loaded five in Figure 8. It can be seen that a cavity develops as
full cycles. The same maximum force is applied for expected. As for the overall pile response, an increase
both direction. It can be seen from Figure 7 that the in deflection of the single spring for every load cycle
deflection is getting larger and larger from every load is observed. Also here the average deflection for an
cycle. This is valid for both sides and the increase in overall load cycle is constant and equal to zero. There
deflection is also the same for both sides. This means is no degradation of the springs which can be seen in
that the average deflection of the load cycles is con- one-way loading example.
stant and equal to zero. It is though interesting that the
deflection amplitude increases, hence the secant stiff-
ness will decrease as a consequence of cyclic loading. 5 DISCUSSION
This effect is extremely important if we are to model
the cyclic response of monopile foundations for wind The cyclic spring presented in this paper is capable
turbine, since the load here is frequency dependent. of capture physical aspects as seen in tests Matlock
It should be noted that the number of iterations (1970), Mayoral et al. (2005) and Klinkvort (2009).
increases dramatically after the first half cycle when Still, improvements are needed. In this section ideas

887
which will improve the performance of the spring
element and the representation of the physical world.
The presented model operates with the same vir-
gin stiffness as un-/reloading stiffness. This could be
changed and it must also be expected that a soil not will
load and unload with the same stiffness. With a change
like this the model will probeable start to accumulate
displacements in a smaller loading range.
When springs moving in the cavity some sort of
hardening should occur. This can also be seen in the
Figure 1 by Mayoral et al. (2005). As a side effect an
introduction of hardening in the cavity will help the
global iterations to converge faster.
Other effects which should be incorporated in the
future is suction release for clay springs and the fall
back of sand particle when dealing with sand springs.
6 CONCLUSION
An elasto-plastic spring element has been defined. The
spring element embeds two fundamental features of
cyclically loaded piles. It is able to account for preload-
ing of the soil by tracing the virgin curve. Secondly,
the creation of a gap after reloading, which is undeni-
ably developing in cohesive soils, is accounted for by
introducing a smoothed step function that keeps track
of the current position of the pile-soil interfaces. The
element is not only relevant for the quasi-static load-
ing with random time series, but also has a potential
in dynamic analysis, where it will provide a physically
based hysteretic damping.
REFERENCES
API (2000). American petroleum institute. recommended
practice for planning, designing and constructing fixed
offshore platforms- working stress design, api recom-
mended practice 2a-wsd (rp2a-wsd), 21st edition, dallas.
888
Boulanger, R. W., C. J. Curras, B. L. Kutter, D. W. Wilson, and
A. Abghari (1999). Seismic soil-pile-structure interaction
experiments and analyses. Journal of Geotechnical and
Geoenvironmental Engineering 125(9), 750759.
El-Naggar, M. H., M. A. Shayanfar, M. Kimiaei, and A. A.
Aghakouchak (2005). Simplified bnwf model for nonlin-
ear seismic response analysis of offshore piles with nonlin-
ear input ground motion analysis. Canadian Geotechnical
Journal 42, 365380.
Hansen, J. B. (1961). The ultimate resistance of rigid piles
against transversal forces. Danish Geotechnical Institute,
Copenhagen, Denmark Bulletin NO. 12, 59.
Hededal, O. and S. Krenk (1995). FEMLAB matlab toolbox
for the Finite Element Method. Aalborg University.
Hededal, O. and T. Strandgaard (2008). A 3d elasto-plastic
soil model for lateral buckling analysis. In Proc. 18th
International Offshore and Polar Engineering Confer-
ence, ISOPE 2008.
Klinkvort, R. T. (2009). Laterally loaded piles centrifuge
and numerical modelling. Masters thesis, Technical Uni-
versity of Denmark.
Matlock, H. (1970). Correlations for design of laterally
loaded piles in soft clay. In Offshore Technology Confer-
ence, pp. 577594.
Matlock, H., H. C. Foo, and L. M. Bryant (1978). Simulation
of lateral pile behavior under earthquake motion. In Proc.
American Society of Civil Engineers Specialty Conference
on Earthquake Engineering and Soil Dynamics,Volume 2,
pp. 600619.
Mayoral, J. M., J. M. Pestana, and R. B. Seed (2005).
Determination of multidirectional p-y curves for soft
clays. Geotechnical Testing Journal of Computational
Mechanics Vol. 28, No.3.
Taciroglu, E., C. Rha, and J. Wallace (2006). A robust
macroelement model for soil-pile interaction under cyclic
loads. Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental
Engineering, ASCE 132(10), 13041314.
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Behaviour of cyclic laterally loaded large diameter monopiles

in saturated sand

H. Ercan Tasan, Frank Rackwitz & Stavros A. Savidis

Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering Division, Berlin Institute of Technology, Germany

ABSTRACT: Monopiles are suitable foundations for offshore wind energy converters. The monopiles are
highly laterally loaded due to harsh environmental conditions especially from wind and water waves. Therefore
a monopile diameter of up to 7 m in water depth of about 30 m will be necessary to maintain serviceability of the
wind energy converter over several years. A three-dimensional finite element model was developed to investigate
the behaviour of large diameter piles under cyclic lateral loading taking the interaction between the pile and the
surrounding sandy soil into account. The material behaviour of sand is described by a hypoplastic model with
intergranular strain, suitable to account for cyclic behaviour of cohesionless soils. The frictional behaviour in the
interface between monopile and soil is modeled by contact elements. The focus of the investigation is the pore
water pressure accumulation close to the monopile. For this purpose a three-dimensional fully coupled two-phase
finite element were developed and implemented. The two phase material is assumed to consist of a solid phase,
the skeleton, and a fluid phase which fully occupies the pores in the skeleton. The governing equations of the
coupled fluid-structure problem are the equations of pore fluid flow and the equilibrium conditions. The effects
of pile diameter and cyclic loading on pore water pressure accumulation and soil-pile interaction are discussed
on the basis of the numerical results.

1 INTRODUCTION interaction region. Finite element analyses are used to

Increasing importance of sustainable wind energy over
the past years led to the planning of offshore wind
energy converters in the North Sea and the Baltic
Sea as well. The planned constructions require special
foundations due to the site and loading conditions.
Driven monopiles, i.e. single open ended steel pipe
piles with large diameters, are suitable foundations up
to 30 m water depth in mostly sandy soil conditions.
A design pile diameter of up to 7 m is presumably
required to resist the wind and wave loading actions.
It is of great importance to consider possible pore
pressure accumulation due to highly cyclic loading in
the design of monopiles.
Current design of monopiles applies the p-y method
according to the existing guidelines (API 2000, DNV
2004, GL 2005). The p-y method is based on field
measurements with pile diameters d < 1.0 m and load
cycles N 100 (Cox et al. 1974). The straightforward
application of these findings to monopiles under off-
shore highly cyclic loading conditions is still subject
to research.
In recent years, the behaviour of cyclic lateral
loaded offshore pile foundations with focus on pore
pressure generation and its consequences have been
investigated by means of experimental and numeri-
cal analysis (Grabe et al. 2004, Kluge 2007, Tasan
et al. 2007).
The paper focuses on the determination of pore
pressure accumulation in the pile-soil interface and
investigate the influence of monopile diameter as well
as cyclic loading conditions on the rate of accumula-
tion. These analyses require adequate finite element
formulation to account for pore pressure generation
and effective stresses in the soil. For that purpose
a three dimensional two-phase finite element based
on the theory of porous media was developed and
implemented into an existing finite element code.
The finite element fully couples the solid and the
fluid phase of the soil and allows for consideration
of a nonlinear stress-strain relationship. The latter is
described using a hypoplastic constitutive formulation
with intergranular strain. It is capable to account for
the stress and density dependent mechanical behaviour
of sands and the influence of cyclic loading as well.
The important interface between the pile shaft and
the surrounding soil is modelled using a quite simple
Coulomb friction model which enables open gaps too.
2 FULLY COUPLED TWO-PHASE MODEL
Two-phase models are used for investigations of
geotechnical problems in which the mechanical
behaviour of soil is affected significantly by pore fluid.
The used two-phase model is based on the theory of
porous media and described in detail in Zienkiewicz
et al. (1984) and Potts & Zdravkovic (1999). The prin-
cipal equations of the model will be recalled in the
following.

889
 Two phase mixture is assumed to consist of a solid
phase, the skeleton, and a fluid phase which fully
occupies the pores in the skeleton. It is assumed that
the solid and fluid constituents can be modelled as
incompressible.
The problem is formulated in terms of the absolute
displacement of the soil skeleton u and the pore water
pressure p.
The balance of momentum for the mixture can be
written neglecting the accelerations of the relative
movement between water and skeleton and consider-
ing Terzaghis effective stress principle by:
Here, L is the divergence operator, which is formulated
in the following vectorial form:
and  = effective stress vector; = density of the
mixture; b = body forces; = damping ratio and
mT = (1,1,1,0,0,0).
The mass balance of fluid phase is formulated as
with k p = permeability matrix, w = the density of
water and w = the dynamic viscosity of water.
For isotropic problems the permeability matrix can
be written as k p = kp I with unit matrix I. The hydraulic
conductivity kd can be derived from the permeability
kp by
where g = gravity acceleration.
A domain  with boundary  is filled by the mix-
ture. The boundary conditions to be prescribed for
equation (1) and (3) are displacements u on solid dis-
placement boundary u , surface tractions on solid
traction boundary t , pore water pressure p on fluid
pressure boundary p and surface flow q on fluid flux
boundary q .
The equations (1) and (3) are discretized using stan-
dard Galerkin techniques. Thereby the displacement
and pore water pressure fields are approximated as
where Nu and Np are the shape functions, u and p
are corresponding vectors of unknowns. The following
matrix equations are finally determined:
890
and
with
where B = LNu ; Bp = Np ; and Dt = matrix of tan-
gential moduli, which may be determined from a
nonlinear stress-strain relationship.
Generalized Newmark method (Bathe 1996) is used
for time integration of the coupled equations (6)
and (7).
3 HYPOPLASTIC CONSTITUTIVE LAW
Cohesionless soils can be modelled by hypoplastic
constitutive law considering the influence of stress
level and soil density on the soil behaviour. Stiffness,
dilatancy, contractancy and peak friction is followed
by the soil state and the deformation direction. Plastic
deformations are simulated without using potential or
switch functions. A single tensorial equation is used to
describe plastic as well as elastic deformations.
The basic hypoplastic theory (Kolymbas 1988, von
Wolffersdorf 1996) is expanded by Niemunis & Herle
(1998) to model realistically the accumulation effects
and the hysteretic material behaviour under cyclic
loading. An additional state variable, which is the
intergranular strain, is introduced to consider the influ-
ence of changing direction of deformation on the
mechanical behaviour of soil.
A total of eight material parameters are required for
the basic hypoplastic model. The expanded model with
intergranular strain requires five additional parameters
(Niemunis & Herle 1998).
4 3-D TWO-PHASE ELEMENT
A 3-D continuum element u20p8 on the basis of two
phase model is implemented, where the displacement
field is approximated using triquadratic interpola-
tion functions and the pressure field is approximated
using trilinear interpolation functions. A high order
interpolation of the displacement field is required to
overcome unstable tendencies of the finite elements
(Zienkiewicz 1986).
In the following two numerical examples are pre-
sented to verify the two-phase model and implemented
u20p8 element.
Figure 1. Finite element model, boundary and loading
conditions.

Table 1. Material parameters and hydraulic conductivity.

E [kN/m2 ] kd [m/s] Figure 3. Time histories of settlements.

40103 0.0 0.48 2106

Figure 4. Numerical results of cyclic undrained triaxial

compression test.

pressure is beginning to dissipate and the effective

stress is increasing.
The simulated time histories of settlements for
= 0.0, 0.25 and 0.48 are shown in Figure 3. A com-
Figure 2. Contours of pore water pressure for = 0,25. parison with the calculated results by Booker (1974)
shows a good agreement.
4.1 3-D consolidation
The problem of the consolidation of a clay layer sub- 4.2 Cyclic undrained triaxial test
jected to surface loads was investigated by Booker
Cyclic undrained triaxial test with dense Hochstetten
(1974). In his investigation it was assumed that the
sand, whose hypoplastic material parameters are given
soil consists of an isotropic perfectly elastic skeleton
in Niemunis & Herle (1998), is simulated using an
saturated with water.
u20p8 element.
3-D simulations with u20p8 Elements were per-
The simulation is performed for an initially
formed to compare these finite element results with
isotropic pressure of p = 300 kN/m2 and a stress
Booker (1974).
deviator amplitude of q = 30 kN/m2 .
A fully water saturated clay layer resting on a rigid
The results of numerical simulation are presented
base, i.e. fixed boundary conditions, and subject to
in Figure 4. A comparison with the numerical results
circular surface loading is modeled and shown in
by Niemunis & Herle (1998) shows a good agreement.
Figure 1. Due to the symmetric loading condition
only a quarter of the system is considered. The model
surface is assumed to be permeable. The parameters
5 BEHAVIOUR OF MONOPILES DUE TO
Youngs modulus E, Poissons ratio and the hydraulic
CYCLIC LATERAL LOADING
conductivity kd of clay layer are given in Table 1.
The contours of pore water pressure at t = 0.5 s and
5.1 Finite element modelling
t = 100 s for = 0.25 are shown in Figure 2.The results
at the beginning of loading demonstrate that the load is 3-D finite element simulations are performed to inves-
carried by pore water, i.e. an excess pore water pressure tigate the behaviour of monopiles with large diameter
is developed. The load is with increasing time trans- under cyclic lateral, cyclic moment and static vertical
ferred to solid phase, so that the excess pore water loading. The response of monopiles is calculated by a

891

Figure 5. FE mesh of soil-pile system.
steady state analysis. The focus of the investigations is
the quantitative determination of pore water pressure
accumulation close to the monopile.
Because of the symmetry in geometry and load, only
a half of soil-pile system is considered, as shown in
Figure 5. The monopile with an embedded length l
and a diameter d is modelled with 20-node continuum
elements. The u20p8 elements are used for modelling
the soil.
The dimensions of modelled pile-soil system, which
are given in Figure 5, are sufficient for monopiles with
4.0 l/d 9.0, so that the calculated behaviour of pile
is not influenced by the boundaries.
The boundary conditions, which imposed on mesh,
are fixing of nodes at the bottom of the mesh against
displacement in all directions, on the plane of symme-
try against displacement normally on that plane and
on the periphery of the mesh against displacement in
both horizontal directions. Furthermore non perme-
able conditions are assumed on all boundaries except
boundaries on model surface, where pore pressure due
to existing water level must be considered.
The frictional behaviour in the interface between
monopile and soil is modeled by contact elements with
Coloumb friction law. Therefore a wall friction angle
of = 21 is assumed.
A linear elastic material behaviour with E = 2.1
108 kN/m2 and = 0.3 is assumed for the monopile.
The material behaviour of sand is described by
a hypoplastic model with intergranular strain. The
parameters of Berlin Sand, which are given in Table 2,
are used in model.
The modelled Berlin Sand has a dry density in
loosest condition d,min = 1.52 g/cm3 and in densest
condition d,max = 1.88 g/cm3 .
Prior to first phase of the simulation a vertical and
a horizontal effective stress as initial loading must
be defined for soil to determine the required state
variables of hypoplastic model. Therefore, as first a
calculation under gravity loading is performed with a
892
Table 2. Soil parameters for Berlin Sand.
c [ ] hs [MPa] n ed0 ec0 ei0
32.0 3730 0.20 0.41 0.74 0.89 0.14 1.0
R mR mT r
1104 5.0 2.0 0.4 6.0
Figure 6. Characteristic of cyclic lateral und moment load.
coefficient of the at rest value of earth pressure, k0 ,
determined by means of Jakys equation. The static
water pressure is also thereby determined.
5.2 Influence of load cycle number
A monopile with diameter d = 7.0 m, embedded length
l = 35.0 m and steel pipe wall thickness t = 0.09 m
was modelled to study the influence of the number
of load cycles on the pore pressure accumulation.
The pile is subjected to a cyclic horizontal load with
amplitude H = 2.5 MN and bending moment ampli-
tude M = 125 MNm. A static vertical load V = 12 MN
acts additionally. The frequency of cyclic loads is
f = 0.06 Hz. Figure 6 illustrates the cyclic load func-
tion of horizontal load as well as bending moment over
number of cycles.
A water table of +30.0 m over sea bed was chosen
in the model.
Initial relative density ID = 0.92 and hydraulic con-
ductivity kd = 2.0104 m/s represent the in situ sandy
soil conditions.
A maximum time step size of 0.2 s is used for sim-
ulation a load step. The calculated maximum number
of cycles is limited to 5 at the moment because of high
computational costs.
Contour plots of excess pore pressures are shown in
Figure 7 for three different cycle numbers, i.e. N = 1.5,
3.0 and 4.5. In the direction of loading excess pore
pressure develops with increasing cycle number as
can be seen in Figure 7. Furthermore negative pore
pressure occurs opposite to the loading direction.
The magnitude of accumulated pore pressure
increases with the number of cycles as well as the loca-
tion of maximum pore pressure simultaneously moves
into the direction of the pile base

Figure 7. Contour plots of excess pore water pressure for
N = 1.5, 3.0 and 4.5.
The calculated pore water pressures at the pile-soil
interface up to z = 9.6 m depth reach the range of initial
vertical effective soil stresses.
Figure 8 represents the calculated excess pore pres-
sure over the number of cycles N at the pile-soil
interface in depths z = 2.6 m, 6.1 m, 12.0 m and 21.3 m
below sea bed.At z = 2.6 m and 6.1 m depth the change
of excess pore pressure is almost constant after N = 3.0
cycles, whereas at z = 12.0 m and 21.3 m depth the
change of excess pore pressure is almost continu-
ously increasing with cycle number N . The maximum
excess pore pressure was calculated after 5 cycles at
z = 12.0 m depth.
5.3 Influence of monopile diameter
Finite element analyses with cyclic lateral displace-
ment controlled loading of the pile were done to
893
Figure 8. Excess pore water pressure in different depths.
Figure 9. Excess pore pressure evolution versus depth for
different monopile diameters.
investigate the influence of pile diameter on the pore
pressure evolution. The cyclic displacement amplitude
was chosen to be w = d/100 and using the charac-
teristic according to Figure 6 as well as the loading
frequency f = 0.06 Hz too. Steel pipe wall thickness
t in m was determined according to the following
relation (API 2000)
Figure 9 shows calculated maximum excess pore pres-
sure versus depth at the pile-soil interface within the
first loading cycle.
The location of the maximum excess pore pressure
moves in the direction of the pile base with increas-
ing pile diameter. Maximum excess pore pressure
arises with the largest monopile diameter d = 8.0 m,
as expected before, and in a depth of 18.4 m. The rate
of the determined excess pore water pressure to initial
vertical effective soil stress up to this depth is more
than 80%.
6 CONCLUSIONS
The results of finite element simulations with fully
coupled two-phase element and using the constitu-
tive formulation of hypoplasticity with intergranular
strain for sand are offered that due to cyclic loading
of monopile with large diameter a pore water pressure
accumulation can occur. Its shown that the accumu-
lated pore water pressure can reach the range of the
initial vertical soil stress in the pile-soil interaction
region. With increasing number of cycles and increas-
ing diameter, the location of developed maximum pore
water pressure moved in direction to pile tip.
The pile behaviour is affected by pore water pres-
sure accumulation around the pile. Therefore its nec-
essary to consider this accumulation by the design of
monopile foundation to ensure the serviceability of
offshore wind energy converters.
The aim of the numerical, which are presented here,
and experimental investigations (Tasan et al. 2007) is
to propose a practical design method for monopiles
with large diameter in which the effect of cyclic lateral
loading on the behaviour of pile is considered.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The work presented within this paper is the result of a
research project, which is funded by the Federal Min-
istry for the Environment, Nature Conversation and
Nuclear Safety. Its support is gratefully acknowledged.
REFERENCES
API 2000. American Petroleum Institute: Recommended
practice for planning, designing and constructing fixed
offshore platforms working stress design. Recommend
practice design 2AWSD, Washington D.C.
Bathe, K.-J. 1996. Finite element procedures. New Jersey:
Prentice Hall.
Booker, J. R. 1974. The consolidation of a finite layer sub-
ject to surface loading, International Journal of Soils and
Structures, 10(9), 10531065.
894
Cox, W. R., Reese, L. C. & Grubbs B. R. (1974). Field testing
of laterally loaded piles in sand, Proceedings of the Sixth
Offshore Technology Conference, OTC 2079, Houston,
459472.
DNV. 2004. Det NorskeVeritas: Offshore standard DNVOS
J101, design for offshore wind turbine structures, Norway.
GL 2005. Germanischer Lloyd: rules and guidelines, IV
industrial services, Part 2 guideline for the certification
of offshore wind turbines, Hamburg.
Grabe J., Dhrkop J. & K.-P. Mahutka 2004. Monopilegrn-
dungen von Offshore-Windenergieanlagen Zur Bildung
von Porenwasserberdrcken aus zyklischer Belastung,
Bauingenieur 79(9), 418423. (in German)
Kluge K. 2007. Soil liquefaction around offshore pile founda-
tions scale model investigations. Mitteilung des Instituts
fr Grundbau und Bodenmechanik Technische Universitt
Braunschweig, Heft 85.
Kolymbas, D. 1988. Eine konstitutive Theorie fr Bden und
andere krnige Stoffe, Verffentlichung des Institutes
fr Bodenmechanik und Felsmechanik der Universitt
Fridericana in Karlsruhe, Heft 109. (in German).
Niemunis, A. & Herle, I. 1998. Hypoplastic model for cohe-
sionless soils with elastic strain range, Mechanics of
Cohesion-Fractional Materials, 2(4), 279299.
Potts, D. M. & Zdravkovi, L. 1999. Finite element analy-
sis in geotechnical engineering. theory. London: Thomas
Telford.
Tasan, H. E., Rackwitz F. & Savidis, S. A. Modellversuche
in der geotechnischen Versuchsgrube zur Untersuchung
des Tragverhaltens von Offshore-Monopilegrndungen.
Verffentlichung des Grundbauinstitutes der Technischen
Universitt Berlin, Heft Nr. 42, 197213. (in German).
von Wolffersdorff, P.-A. 1996. A hypoplastic relation for
granular materials with a predefined limit state sur-
face, Mechanics of Cohesive-Frictional Materials 1(3),
251271.
Zienkiewicz, O. C. & Shiomi, T. 1984. Dynamic behaviour
of saturated porous media; the generalized Biot formu-
lation and its numerical solution. International Journal
of Numerical Analytical Methods in Geomechanics 8(1):
7196.
Zienkiewicz, O. C. 1986. The patch test for mixed formu-
lations. International Journal for Numerical Methods in
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 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Caisson movement caused by wave slamminga comparison of ABAQUS

and FLAC analyses

L. Andersen, H.F. Burcharth & T. Lykke Andersen

Department of Civil Engineering, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark

A.H. Augustesen
Department of Civil Engineering, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark
COWI A/S, Aalborg, Denmark

ABSTRACT: During wave slamming, caisson movement may occur as a combination of sliding along the
caissonfoundation interface and local failure in the foundation and seabed. The paper presents a comparison
between different techniques applied to the analysis of this movement. Thus, a finite-difference analysis has
been performed by means of the commercial code FLAC. Similarly, ABAQUS has been employed for finite-
element analyses based on linear as well as quadratic spatial interpolations, assuming fully drained conditions
and utilizing an elasticplastic model for the rubble foundation and the seabed. The results of the numerical
codes are compared to an analytical solution in which the deformation of the subsoil has been disregarded.

1 INTRODUCTION

Wave slamming on a caisson breakwater may lead to

movement of the structure. As shown in Figure 1, irre-
versible deformations may occur in different forms
including sliding at the interface between the structure
and the foundation, slip failure between the founda-
tion and the seabed, and local collapse of the quarry
rock constituting the foundation. Typically, a static
design is carried out for breakwater. However, this
demands a static pressure distribution equivalent to the
dynamic pressure stemming from the wave. As indi-
cated by the pressure distribution sketched in Figure 2
and the example results from measurements of the
horizontal force resultant shown Figure 3, defining
a proper level of this equivalent static load may not
be possible. Thus, shock-like peaks exist in the pres-
sure due to wave slamming, and different sampling
frequencies in model tests may lead to very different
conclusions regarding the design. Hence, a dynamic
model is preferred.
Burcharth et al. (2008) proposed a simple model
based on the one-dimensional equation of motion.
Due to its simplicity, the model can be used for life-
time analysis of a caisson; but it only accounts for
sliding along the interface between the caisson and
the rubble foundation. A more realistic modelling of
the subsoil can be achieved by utilization of numer-
ical methods. Employing a nonlinear finite-element
model, Barqun (1998) included a visco-elastic soil
model, and plastic deformation of the foundation and
seabed was considered by Burcharth et al. (2009) as
well as Kudella & Oumeraci (2009). However, the
reliability of such numerical models must be verified
Figure 1. Failure modes for a caisson subjected to wave
impact.
before their application in design. Hence, based on
the commercial codes ABAQUS and FLAC, finite-
element and finite-difference solutions are compared
with focus on their ability to quantify the displacement
of a caisson due to horizontal sliding. The numer-
ical models both employ a Lagrangian formulation
accounting for elastic and plastic material behaviour
as well as geometrical nonlinearity. Finally, a compar-
ison is made with the result of the solution proposed
by Burcharth et al. (2008).
2 COMPUTATIONAL MODELS
The overall geometry of the vertical breakwater is
defined in Figure 4. The wall on top of the caisson
has a width of 5 m at the base and 2.5 m at the top. The
caisson is assumed to consist of reinforced concrete
backfilled with sand. It has been found that the stress
levels will not lead to failure in the concrete. Hence,
the structure is modelled as a linear elastic material
with the properties listed in Figure 4, where E, and

895
Figure 2. Dynamic part of the hydraulic pressure distribu-
tion from wave slamming on a caisson.
Figure 3. Horizontal force resultant from wave slamming
on caisson measured in model scale at Aalborg University.
Figure 4. Geometry and material properties of the conside-
red caisson, rubble foundation and seabed.
signify Youngs modulus, Poissons ratio and the total
mass density, respectively.
The foundation and the seabed are assumed to
consist of quarry rock and sand, respectively. Lin-
ear response is assumed in the elastic regime, and
the Mohr-Coulomb criterion is employed to identify
stresses at initial yielding and strains during plastic
deformation. The material properties are given in Fig-
ure 4, where and are the angles of internal friction
and dilation, respectively, whereas c is the cohesion.
The latter has been introduced to increase stability of
the computational methods.
Finally, an interface exists between the caisson and
the foundation. Sliding occurs along this interface in
accordance to Coulombs friction law. In the present
case, a friction coefficient of = 0.6 is assumed (see
Figure 4) corresponding to an interface friction angle
Figure 5. Simplified distribution of the hydraulic pressure
on the caisson during wave slamming.
of 31 . Initially, contact is assumed between the struc-
ture and the foundation. However, during the dynamic
response slip is allowed to happen in the numerical
models, i.e. the tensile strength and stiffness of the
interface are both zero.
Rayleigh damping is applied, since it is available in
ABAQUS as well as FLAC. The damping ratio = 5%
is assumed at the frequency 1 Hz and only mass propor-
tional damping is used. Added mass is disregarded, and
the water (including the pore fluid in the foundation
and subsoil) has not been modelled directly. Instead, a
pressure is applied on the caisson surface.The transient
part of this pressure is divided into two components as
illustrated in Figure 5. The load time histories assumed
for the components P1 (t) and P2 (t) are shown in Fig-
ure 6. Thus, further to the buoyancy provided by the
hydrostatic pressure P0 , a quasi-static pressure, P1 (t),
is applied with a uniform distribution on the front side
of the caisson and a triangular distribution on its base.
The latter part of the load is assumed to act in phase
with the load on the front side whereas in reality a short
delay occurs due to a finite velocity of the pressure
wave travelling through the pore fluid. Finally, wave
slamming is modelled by a shock load applied as a
pressure, P2 (t), distributed uniformly on the upper half
of the front side. The simplified model should be com-
pared to the measured wave load reported in Figure 3
and the pressure distribution illustrated in Figure 2.
In the present simulations, the maximum value of
P1 (t) is given by Pstatic /P1max = 2, where Pstatic is the
value of P1 leading to sliding failure when applied
statically in the absence of the shock load P2 . Based
on Figure 4, the value Pstatic = 98 kPa is determined,
provided a hydrostatic pressure of P0 = 10 kPa at the
base of the caisson, i.e. at a water depth of 10 m.
In order to study the influence of the peak height
as well as the peak width of the shock load, four wave
load time histories are analysed and compared. Thus,
as listed in Figure 6, the short-term excitation from
wave slamming has a duration of t2 = 0.2 or 0.4 s with
the peak occurring after t1 = 0.1 or 0.2 s. The peak
height is defined by P2max /P1max = 4 or 8.
2.1 ABAQUS models
Two finite-element (FE) models are analysed by
ABAQUS (Simulia 2009). Plane strain is assumed,
utilizing four and eight-node quadrilateral elements
with linear and quadratic spatial interpolation of the
896
Figure 6. Time history of the two components constituting
the simplified wave load on the caisson.
Figure 7. Discretization in the ABAQUS models using
linear (top) and quadratic (bottom) spatial interpolation.
The dark, medium and light shades of grey indicate con-
crete, rubble and sand, respectively. The soil domain is
120 m 40 m.
displacement field, respectively. Figure 7 shows the
mesh in the two models. Thus, the node distance is
the same, whereas the mesh size is doubled in the
second-order elements compared to the linear model.
In order to establish the in situ stresses in the
structure, foundation and subsoil, gravity is applied
incrementally and stepwise. The full mass density is
employed and the gravitational acceleration is set to
g = 5 m/s2 in order to compensate for uplift on the soil
skeleton from the water. This ensures a correct compu-
tation of the effective stresses as well as the dynamic
response. Full gravity with g = 9.82 m/s2 is applied on
the caisson and buoyancy is introduced by a pressure
of P0 = 10 kPa as discussed above.
The FE models are utilized to identify the failure
mode in static loading. Horizontal fixities introduced
897
Figure 8. Deformations (scaled 50 times) at ultimate fail-
ure in the ABAQUS models using linear (top) and quadratic
(bottom) spatial interpolation.
at the vertical edges of the soil domain, whereas ver-
tical and horizontal fixities are employed along the
bottom of the computational model.
As illustrated in Figure 8, static failure occurs as a
combination of sliding at the interface and local soil
collapse at the heel of the caisson. The local defor-
mations behind the heel are slightly different in the
models with linear and quadratic spatial interpolation.
However, the ultimate value of P1 is found as 95 kPa in
either model, i.e. a value below the capacity related to
pure translational sliding, Pstatic . Further, it has found
that a reduction of the foundation height by a few
metres leads to foundation slip failure at a pressure
of the same magnitude.
Thus the failure modes shown in Figure 1 occur at
similar levels of the load. For this reason, the value
Pstatic = 98 kPa is used in the dynamic analysis which
is performed by ABAQUS/Standard, i.e. an implicit
Lagrangian solution scheme is employed.
2.2 FLAC model
A finite-difference method solution is computed by
the commercial code FLAC3D (Itasca 2007). A 1 m
wide strip is constrained in the y-direction to simu-
late plane strain. The model employs the discretization
used in the linear FE model, i.e. the grid shown in
Figure 7. However, the cells are not regarded as ele-
ments. Instead, the terminology zone is introduced
for the space between four adjacent nodes. The vol-
umes and edges of the zones are utilized for application
of external forces and boundary conditions as well as
evaluation of strains and stresses.
Figure 9. Vertical normal stresses due to gravity in the
FLAC model. The dark and light shades of grey indicate high
and low pressure, respectively.

Similarly to the FE model, gravity is applied incre-

mentally. However, since FLAC builds on an explicit
dynamic solver, a ramp function is introduced such
that the load is increased linearly over time slowly
enough to allow static equilibrium between exterior
and interior forces to develop. Alternatively, the entire
gravitational load is applied at once and time integra-
tion is performed until static equilibrium is reached,
i.e. the correct stress distribution has been established.
In this quasi-static part of the solution, mass scaling is
employed to allow the use of larger time increments,
leading to a faster solution.
Figure 9 shows the distribution of the vertical nor-
mal stresses at the end of the gravitational step and
after introduction of buoyancy on the caisson, i.e.
just before the application of the transient load. The
discontinuity of the stresses that can be observed at
the interface between the structure and the foundation
stems from the hydrostatic pressure applied at the base
of the caisson.
The ultimate capacity for static loading cannot be
identified by application of a forced displacement,
since the kinematics of the structure and subsoil at
failure are unknown. It has not been possible to deter-
mine the ultimate capacity of the caisson for a static
load distributed as P1 in Figure 5. However, the main
purpose is to find the magnitude of the displacement
as well as the deformation mode during wave impact.
Thus, only the dynamic analysis has been carried out,
based on the explicit solver with the true mass lumped
at the nodes.

3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Figure 10 shows the final deformations obtained in the
FLAC simulations. A similar deformation is obtained
in the ABAQUS simulations and will not be shown.
For all combinations of t1 and P2max /P1max , a combina-
tion of the three failure modes illustrated in Figure 1
can be observed. Thus, significant plastic deforma-
tion occurs under the heel of the caisson due to the
localized stresses stemming from the high contact
pressure evolving during wave impact. Further, foun-
dation slip failure clearly occurs at some stage during
Figure 10. Final deformation in the FLAC models. Dark
and light shades of grey indicate high and low magnitudes
of the strain, respectively. The displacement is scaled by a
factor 10.
the response. This is different from the response to
static loading where failure occurs as a combination
of local soil collapse and sliding.
Figure 11 shows the results of the ABAQUS and
FLAC models for the different combinations of t1 and
P2max /P1max . The horizontal displacements at the top left

898
Figure 11. Time history of the horizontal displacements at the base and top corners on the front side of the caisson. The peak
of the wave-impact force occurs at the time t1 and the peak height is P1max + P2max . The grey lines indicate the horizontal sliding
obtained by the simple analytical solution proposed by Burcharth et al. (2008).
corner (caisson top) and the lower left corner (caisson
base) are plotted as functions of time. A comparison is
made with the simple analytical solution proposed by
Burcharth et al. (2008). Since the analytical solution
only concerns the horizontal translation, it provides the
same displacement at the top and base of the caisson.
A number of observations can be made by inspec-
tion of Figure 11. Firstly, significantly different magni-
tudes of the horizontal displacement are predicted by
the finite-difference and finite-element models with
FLAC providing the smaller value. Thus, ABAQUS
calculates a final displacement that is about a factor
two higher than the FLAC model when quadratic spa-
tial interpolation is employed. In the case of linear
interpolation, the displacements obtained by the FE
model are even greater. On the other hand the differ-
ence between the displacements at the caisson top and
base is nearly the same in all models, suggesting that
the rotation of the caisson is not influenced by the
choice of model.
The displacements obtained by the numerical mod-
els at the base of the caisson should be compared to the
analytical solution indicated by the grey shaded line
in Figure 11. Evidently, the simple model predicts a
displacement that is much smaller than the values pro-
vided by ABAQUS for all considered combinations of
899
the peak duration and magnitude. In most cases, the
analytical solution is also far below the displacement
given by FLAC. The difference is most pronounced
for t1 = 0.1 s and P2max /P1max = 4. Here the analytical
approach provides a displacement smaller than 5 mm
in contrast to FLAC which predicts a displacement of
approximately 2 cm.
The difference between the analytical and numer-
ical results becomes less significant with increasing
magnitude of the shock load. Especially for t1 = 0.2 s
and P2max /P1max = 8 the results of the simple method
and FLAC are close to being identical. This may be
explained by the fact that all failure modes indicated in
Figure 1 are active in the numerical models, whereas
only sliding is included in the simple model. Thus,
Figure 10 shows that plastic deformations occur at the
foundationsubsoil interface for all load histories
even for the relatively short shock load with low
magnitude (t1 = 0.1 s and P2max /P1max = 4). Apparently
for wave loads with a high peak value, sliding along the
structurefoundation interface becomes the dominant
mode of deformation and the simple model is more
accurate than in the case of low-magnitude forces.
Slightly different formulations of the contact at the
structurefoundation interface in ABAQUS and FLAC
may cause a significant part of the deviation between
the results provided by the two codes. In ABAQUS a
masterslave definition is employed for the interface
with the top of the foundation acting as master surface
and the base of the caisson acting as the slave. Contact
is then identified when a node from the slave surface
lies on or passes the element edges on the master sur-
face. Pressure over-closure is penalized by a spring
with the stiffness 1010 N/m/m2 acting in the normal
direction; but no elastic deformation can occur in the
tangential direction. In FLAC, so-called interface ele-
ments are applied at the base of the caisson. Contact is
established whenever a node from another domain (in
this case the foundation) hits these interface elements.
Then linear elastic springs counteract penetration in
the normal direction and sliding or shear in the tan-
gential direction. In the present analyses, the stiffness
1011 N/m/m2 has been utilized for both stiffnesses. It
has been checked that there is no significant change in
the results if the interface elements are instead applied
on the top of the foundation or if the spring stiffnesses
are changed by one order of magnitude.
Another explanation for the deviation between the
solutions obtained by FLAC and ABAQUS may be a
poor degree of convergence. For this reason, a FLAC
computation has been carried out with one-and-a-half
times as many nodes in each direction. The result is
nearly identical to those presented in Figure 11, indi-
cating that the FLAC model is fully converged. On
the other hand, an ABAQUS model using linear inter-
polation and a mesh size that is two thirds of the
original mesh size provides the same elastic response
but slightly higher displacements at failure. This indi-
cates that the FE solution does not have the same
degree of convergence. Furthermore, there is a great
influence of the element type (interpolation order) on
the outcome. Figure 8 brings some insight into this
by clearly demonstrating that the quadratic and linear
elements treat contact at the heel of the caisson in very
different manners.
4 CONCLUSIONS
Caisson movements due to shock loads from wave
impact have been analysed by the finite-element code
ABAQUS and the explicit finite-difference solver
FLAC3D under the assumption of plane strain and
elasticplastic response of the foundation and subsoil.
It has been found that linear and quadratic interpo-
lation in ABAQUS lead to a significant difference in
the total displacements regardless of the load magni-
tude and load duration. The horizontal displacements
achieved by the ABAQUS models are greater than
the displacements obtained by FLAC. Both codes
900
predict more displacement than a simple solution only
accounting for sliding along the structurefoundation
interface, since a combination of foundation slip fail-
ure, sliding and local soil deformation under the heel
occurs in the refined models. Given that a consis-
tent and fully converged result has been obtained with
FLAC, this code is proposed for further analyses.
However, a comparison with ABAQUS/Explicit simu-
lations and results based on adaptive mesh refinement
within the finite-element analysis may be relevant.
The results presented in this paper are based on
a model of finite extent. In ABAQUS, semi-infinite
elements are available and FLAC allows the use of
absorbing boundary conditions for dynamic analysis.
In both cases, the idea is to provide boundary con-
ditions that more realistically model the behaviour of
unbounded soil. This will be considered in future anal-
yses. Furthermore, it has been assumed that the soil is
fully drained and the dynamic pressure on the base
of the caisson develops immediately when the wave
plunges on the front of the structure. This may not
be realisticin particular not when the foundation
and seabed consist of materials with low permeabil-
ity. Hence, the next step is to include a dynamic
pore pressure model in the numerical simulations.
Finally, accumulated displacement after a series of
wave impacts should be analysed, possibly using a
model that accounts for liquefaction of the seabed.
REFERENCES
Barqun, G.G. 1998. Dynamic analysis of a vertical
breakwaterextension to the Escombreras Basin Port of
Cartagena, Spain. Madrid.
Burcharth, H.F., Andersen, L. & Lykke Andersen, T. 2009.
Analyses of stability of caisson breakwaters on rub-
ble foundation exposed to impulsive loads. In Smith,
J.M. (ed.), Proc. 31st Int. Conf. Coastal Eng., Hamburg,
Germany, 31 Aug. 5 Sep. 2008: 36063618. World
Scientific.
Burcharth, H.F., Lykke Andersen, T. & Meinert, P. 2008. The
Importance of Pressure Sampling Frequency in Models for
Determination of Critical Wave Loadings on Monolithic
Structures. In Proc. COPEDEC VII, Dubai, UAE.
Itasca 2006. FLAD3D Fast Lagrangian Analysis of Con-
tinua in 3 Dimensions Users Guide. Minneapolis,
Minnesota USA: Itasca Consulting Group, Inc.
Kudella, M. & Oumeraci, H. 2009. Experimental and numeri-
cal study of the response of a sandbed beneath a cais-
son breakwater subject to cyclic wave load. In Smith,
J.M. (ed.), Proc. 31st Int. Conf. Coastal Eng., Hamburg,
Germany, 31 Aug. 5 Sep. 2008: 36193631. World
Scientific.
Simulia 2009. ABAQUS Version 6.9 Documentation. Provi-
dence, RI, USA: Dassault Systmes Simulia Corp.
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Comparison of calculation approaches for monopiles for offshore

wind turbines

A.H. Augustesen
COWI A/S, Aalborg, Denmark
Department of Civil Engineering, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark

S.P.H. Srensen, L.B. Ibsen & L. Andersen

Department of Civil Engineering, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark

M. Mller & K.T. Brdbk

COWI A/S, rhus/Aalborg, Denmark

ABSTRACT: Large-diameter (4 to 6 m) monopiles are often used as foundations for offshore wind turbines.
The monopiles are subjected to large horizontal forces and overturning moments and they are traditionally
designed based on the p-y curve method (Winkler type approach). The p-y curves recommended in offshore
design regulations were developed for piles with diameters up to approximately 2.0 m and are based on a very
limited number of tests. Hence, the method has not been validated for piles with diameters of 4 to 6 m. This paper
aims to assess different calculation approaches for monopiles subjected to quasi-static loading. The methods
are: 1) a traditional Winkler model as recommended in the offshore standards; 2) a modified Winkler model
in which the initial stiffness of the p-y curves depends on the pile diameter, depth below mudline as well as
the internal angle of friction; 3) a three-dimensional continuum model established by means of the commercial
program FLAC3D . The approaches are compared based on a monopile used as foundation for a wind turbine at
Horns Rev which is located in the North Sea west of Denmark.

1 INTRODUCTION Briaud et al. (1984) postulate that the soilpile

Large-diameter piles for offshore wind turbines. have
diameters around 46 m and embedded lengths of 20
30 m depending on the magnitude of the loads and
the soil conditions, i.e. the length-diameter ratio is
approximately 5.
Monopiles are traditionally designed based on
p-y curves, i.e. a Winkler approach, cf. Section
3. For piles in sand, the p-y curves proposed in
design regulations such as API (1993) are based
on few full-scale measurements on two steel pipe
piles (diameter = 0.61 m, wall thickness = 9.5 mm
and embedded length = 21 m) leading to a length
diameter ratio equal to 34.4, as discussed by Cox
et al. (1974) and Reese et al. (1974). The piles have
been tested three and four times within a period of
approximately two months after installation.
Both cyclic and static loading tests were conducted.
Further, the proposed p-y curves have been tested
against a database of lateral pile load tests with sati-
sfaction as described by Murchinson and ONeill
(1984). However, they indicate that the assessment of
the p-y curves are based on a small database due to the
unavailability of appropriately documented full-scale
test data.
behaviour is affected by the flexibility of the pile.
Criteria for rigid or flexible behaviour have been
suggested by various researchers, e.g. Poulus and
Hull (1989). According to their recommendations,
the piles used for the development of the p-y curves
behave as flexible piles. In contrast, the monopile con-
sidered in this paper, and generally the monopiles
for offshore wind turbines, behave more like rigid
piles than flexible ones, i.e. they merely rotate
when subjected to large horizontal loads and rock-
ing moments implying a toe kick. Hence, the
deformation behaviour of the piles and thereby the
soil in the case of monopiles for nowadays offshore
wind turbines is very different from the conditions
from which the p-y curves are derived. These scale
effects have not been taken into account in the p-y
curve formulations currently recommended by API
(1993). Commercial finite-element programs such as
PLAXIS (2006) and ABAQUS (Simulia 2009) as
well as the finite-difference program FLAC3D (Itasca
2007) do not suffer from these shortcomings. Fur-
ther, much more complicated models for both soil
and pile can be employed leading to a more accu-
rate estimation of the loaddeformation behaviour of
the pile.

901
 In this paper, results of numerical calculations, con-
ducted by means of FLAC3D , of the loaddeflection
behaviour of a monopile for an offshore wind turbine
are presented and compared to the results obtained
by means of a traditional Winkler-type approach
employing the currently recommended p-y curves
as well as a modified expression of the p-y curves
(Srensen et al. 2010).
The three approaches are compared for a real case,
i.e. a monopile used as foundation for a wind turbine
at Horns Rev located in the Danish sector of the North
Sea. Cyclic degradation and partially drained condi-
tions may be relevant. However, for simplicity, drained
conditions and a static load scenario, corresponding to
the ultimate limit state (ULS), are considered.

2 HORNS REV WIND FARM

The wind turbine considered is part of Horns Rev Off-

shore Wind Farm, built during 2003 and located in the
North Sea west of Esbjerg in Denmark.

2.1 Pile conditions

The steel monopile considered is the foundation for
wind turbine 14, which in the following is denoted
M14. The outer diameter is 4 m, the length is 31.6 m
and the wall thickness WT, and thereby the bend-
ing stiffness, Ep Ip , varies along the pile as shown in
Figure 1. Ep denotes Youngs modulus, and Ip is the
second moment of area around a horizontal axis per-
pendicular to the pile axis. The monopile has been
driven to its final position 31.8 m below the mean sea
level leading to an embedded depth of 21.9 m.
The pile behaviour is investigated in an ultimate
limit state (ULS). It is subjected to the static extreme
loads: the horizontal load H = 4.6 MN and the bend-
ing moment M = 95 MNm, both acting at seabed level, Figure 1. Geometry and properties of the pile.
whereas the vertical load is V = 5.0 MN. Analyses
show that the vertical force V has a negligible effect
(less than 0.1%) on the deflection pattern as well as Table 1. Soil conditions including average values of the
the moments in the pile. Therefore, V = 0 is assumed strength and stiffness parameters for each soil layer.
in the following.
Depth Es
[m] [ ] [MPa] v
2.2 Soil conditions
The soil profile at the location of M14 consists pri- Sand 04.5 45.4 130 0.28
marily of sand with the stratification and properties Sand 4.56.5 40.7 114.3 0.28
summarized in Table 1. Here is the angle of inter- Sand(silty) 6.511.9 38.0 100 0.28
Sand(silty) 11.914.0 36.6 104.5 0.28
nal friction and is the dilation angle. The friction
Sand/silt/Org 14.018.2 27.0 4.5 0.28
angle is determined from CPTs according to the Sand 18.2 38.7 168.8 0.28
procedure proposed by Schmertmann (1978). Apart
from the silt/sand layer with organic material all other
layers have relatively high angles of internal fric-
tion (36.6 < < 45.4 ). Further, it is assumed that the elasto-plastic material behaviour of the soil in the
= 30 . The unit weight and the submerged unit numerical calculations, cf. Section 4. It is assumed that
weight  of the soil are, except in the layer includ- the stiffness of the soil can be represented by the secant
ing the organic material, 20 kN/m3 and 10 kN/m3 , Youngs modulus Es corresponding to an average axial
respectively. In the organic sand layer, /  yields strain of 0.1% as well as Poissons ratio . According
17/7 kN/m3 . to Lunne et al. (1997), this level of strain is reasonably
The classical Mohr-Coulomb criterion and a linear representative for many well-designed foundations. Es
elastic material model have been combined to describe is stress-dependent and it is determined according to

902

Figure 2. Winkler approach and definition of p-y curves.
Lengkeek (2003). Apart from the silt/sand layer with
organic material, all soil layers have relatively high
stiffness (100 MPa < Es < 168.8 MPa).
3 WINKLER MODELAPI METHOD
Laterally loaded monopiles used for wind turbine
foundations are traditionally designed based on a Win-
kler approach. In contrast to a Pasternak foundation,
the soil has no shear stiffness but only lateral stiffness,
represented by nonlinear elastic springs based on semi-
empirical relations between the soil pressure p acting
against the pile wall and the lateral deflection y of the
pile, cf. Figure 2. The spring stiffness Epy employed in
the Winkler model is provided by the p-y curves as the
secant modulus, cf. Figure 2. Generally, Epy increases
with depth x and decreases with increasing deflections
y. Further, Epy depends on the soil conditions, and in
the static loading case, the p-y curves reach a hori-
zontal asymptote corresponding to the capacity of the
soil pult .
The pile is modelled as a Bernoulli-Euler beam in
spite of its relatively small lengthdiameter ratio. In
principle, the Timoshenko beam theory could prefer-
ably be applied. However, in practice the Bernoulli-
Euler beam theory suffices since the pile is very stiff,
behaving more like a rigid pile than a flexible one.
According to API (1993), the p-y relationship for
piles in sand is given by
where pult is the ultimate lateral resistance at depth
x below the surface, ksand is the initial modulus
of the subgrade reaction, dependent on , y is the
lateral deflection, D is the average pile diameter
and A is a factor accounting for cyclic or static
903
loading conditions; A = 0.9 for cyclic loading and
A = (3.0 0.8x/D) 0.9 for static loading.
With reference to Equation 1 the initial stiffness Epy
of the p-y curves is given by
Hence, the initial stiffness is considered indepen-
dent of the pile properties and linearly dependent
on x. Srensen et al. (2009), Lesny & Wiemann
(2006) and Leth et al. (2008) all document that the
initial stiffness of the p-y curves is in general sig-
nificantly overestimated with depth. Hence, Srensen
et al. (2010) propose another formulation for the initial
stiffness Epy :
where xref = 1 m and Dref = 1 m. The depth x and
the diameter D should be inserted in meters and the
friction angle in radians.
The Winkler approach based on the p-y curves pro-
posed by API (1993), cf. Equation 1, will, in the
following, be referred to as the API method whereas
the Winkler approach based on the p-y curves given by
Equation 1 but modified according to the initial stiff-
ness described by Equation 3 is denoted the modified
API method.
The p-y curves are based on tests on piles located in
almost homogeneous soil. The soil profile at Horns
Rev is layered. Therefore, the procedure of Geor-
giadis (1983), which accounts for layered soil within
the framework of the p-y curve method, has been
employed.
In this study, the governing differential equation
for the Winkler approach incorporating the p-y curves
has been solved under the auspices of the finite-
element method by introducing appropriate boundary
conditions. It turns out that the solution converges if
approximately 100 elements are used.
4 FLAC MODEL
A three-dimensional numerical model has been
established in FLAC3D (Itasca 2007) which is a
three-dimensional, dynamic, explicit finite-difference
solver. Due to symmetry, only one half of the pile and
the surrounding soil is considered, cf. Figure 3. The
model has an outer diameter of 40D = 160 m based on
the recommendations by Abbas et al. (2008), and the
boundary at the bottom is placed approximately 18 m
below the pile toe.
The external load in the model is applied as a
horizontal force of H = 2.3 MN (=0.54.6 MN due
to the symmetry) acting at the height h = 20.65 m
above seabed level. This combination of the height
and horizontal force provides a bending moment of
M = 95 MNm at seabed level, corresponding to the
design criterion for the prototype, cf. Section 2.
For both the soil and pile, zone elements are used
to model the geometry. Each zone consists of five
Figure 3. FLAC3D model.
Figure 4. Pile deflections at maximum horizontal load.
first-order, constant-rate-of-strain, tetrahedral subele-
ments. The monopile is assumed to be linear elastic
steel with the parameters Ep = 210 GPa and = 0.3.
However, the pile is modelled as a solid cylinder rather
than an open tubular pile with an internal soil plug.
Youngs modulus is reduced so that the bending stiff-
ness Ep Ip corresponds to that of M14, cf. Figure 1.
Thus, for the equivalent solid pile, Ep is within the
range 12.3 GPa to 21.0 GPa. Poissons ratio is unal-
tered, since the value for the soil is close to that of
steel, cf. Table 1. It should be noted that the shear stiff-
ness of the pile is incorrectly scaled, but it has been
found that the shear deformations of the pile have a
negligible influence on the overall response of the pile
and soil. Similarly to the stiffness, the weight of the
solid monopile is adjusted in such way that it corre-
sponds to that of M14. Here, it is assumed that the
real, open-ended tubular pile behaves in an unplugged
way, assuming that the soil inside the pile is located at
seabed level.
904
Figure 5. Moments in the pile at maximum loads.
The material behaviour of the soil is modelled using
the classical Mohr-Coulomb model. Thus, the soil is
simplified as a linear elastic, perfect plastic material.
The employed material properties are given in Table 1.
The interaction between the monopile and the soil
is modelled using a standard FLAC3D interface. The
interface is one-sided and is attached to the soil. A lin-
ear Coulomb shear-strength criterion is employed for
the interface to limit the shear forces acting at the inter-
face nodes. The wall friction angle, , is determined
according to Equation 4:
Further, the interface elements allow gapping and
slipping between the soil and the pile.
The finite-difference calculations are executed step-
wise. First, the initial stress state is established in the
entire model using the submerged unit weight for both
the soil elements and the elements that later become
the pile. A K0 -procedure, in which it is assumed that
K0 = 1 sin , is employed to establish the initial
horizontal effective stresses. Subsequently the pile is
generated by replacing the soil elements that now
become the pile with the adjusted strength and stiffness
parameters as well as the adjusted weight correspond-
ing to the monopile for M14. Further, the monopile
elements are extended above the ground surface in
order to realize the loading conditions described above.
Between the pile elements and the soil elements, an
interface is established to model the pilesoil inter-
action. The system is brought to equilibrium. Finally,
the horizontal load is applied incrementally and new
equilibrium states are calculated. Combined damping,
which is preferred for uniform motions (Itasca 2007),
is introduced to provide a quasi-static solution. Fur-
ther, different types of grids have been employed to
assure convergence, which has been achieved with the
grid shown in Figure 3.
Figure 6. Soil pressures as function of deflection and depth.

5 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

In Figure 4, the deflections of the monopile for M14

are shown for the case in which the pile is subjected to
the static extreme loads presented in Section 2.1. The
monopile behaves relatively rigid implying that a toe
kick occurs; this is especially pronounced when con-
sidering the deflection behaviour predicted by means
of FLAC3D and the modified API method. The maxi-
mum horizontal deflection at seabed level determined
by means of the API method is significantly lower
compared to the deflections predicted by the modified
API method and FLAC3D , cf. Table 2. Below 14 m the
deflection pattern estimated by the API method and
FLAC3D deviate significantly. FLAC3D estimates, for
example, greater horizontal deflections at the pile toe
compared to the API method, cf. Table 2. The devia-
tion in deflection pattern may be due to the fact that
the stiffness Epy provided by the API method is over- Figure 7. Soil pressures as function of deflection and depth.
estimated at great depths. However, the modified API Table 2. Results obtained by means of FLAC3D , the API
method gives rise to a deflection pattern similar to method and modified API method.
the one predicted by FLAC3D but with a much softer
response at the lower part of the pile. Since the API API FLAC3D mod. API
method overestimates the stiffness with depth com-
pared to FLAC3D and the modified API method, the Max. moment [MNm] 105.4 101.3 105.4
depth for zero deflection predicted by the API method Depth max. moment [m] 3.4 2.1 3.4
Horz. def., seabed [mm] 26.8 41.8 46
is located closer to the seabed, cf. Table 2. Horz. def., toe [mm] 1.6 4.5 13.3
The three approaches predict similar distributions Rotation seabed [] 0.26 0.31 0.35
of the moment with depth, cf. Figure 5. However, Depth to zero def. [m] 9.9 14 11.7
FLAC3D estimates slightly lesser and higher moments
at moderate and deep depths, respectively, compared
to the API method and the modified API method. The p-y curves at different depths are shown in Fig-
The maximum moments determined by the three ures 6 and 7. In connection with FLAC3D , the soil
approaches are almost identical, cf. Table 2. Further, resistance p is calculated by integration of the interface
the depths to the maximum moment are 3.4 m and stresses. Generally, there is a reasonable concordance
2.1 m, respectively, with FLAC3D giving rise to the between the p-y curves estimated by FLAC3D and the
latter value. modified API method. Except for the depth x = 2.1 m

905
the API method has a tendency to overestimate the
soil pressures p at a given deflection y, compared to
the other two approaches. The deviation may be caused
by an overestimation of the stiffness of the sand and/or
there are some shortcomings in the method proposed
by Georgiadis (1983), in which layered soil profiles are
taken into account. The pressures, estimated by means
of FLAC3D , mobilised at the depth x = 7.4 m are less
than the pressures at both x = 2.1 m and x = 3.9 m for
a given deflection y. This is due to the lower angle of
internal friction of the third layer compared to the first
layer, cf. Table 1.
When considering the API method the initial stiff-
ness of the p-y curve for x = 7.4 m is slightly higher
than Epy for x = 3.8 m even though the angle of inter-
nal friction of the third layer is lower compared to the
first layer, i.e. the depth compensate for the differences
in ksand and thereby . This is not the case for the mod-
ified API method. However, it should be mentioned
that Equation 3 has been calibrated based on angles of
internal friction between 30 and 40 and therefore it
may be less reliable for values of beyond 40 .
6 CONCLUSIONS
The behaviour of a monopile used as foundation for
a wind turbine at Horns Rev located in the Danish
sector of the North Sea has been investigated. The pile
is located primarily in sand and it has been subjected
to extreme static loads.
The paper presents a comparison of the results
of 1) numerical calculations conducted by means
of the commercial three-dimensional finite-difference
code FLAC3D ; 2) a traditional Winkler-type approach
employing p-y curves as proposed in current design
regulations for offshore wind turbines as well as 3)
a modified version of the traditional Winkler-type
approach.
All approaches indicate that the monopile behaves
as a relatively rigid pile, implying that only one point
of zero deflection exists. The maximum horizontal
deflection at seabed level determined by means of
the traditional Winkler-type approach is significantly
lower compared to the deflections predicted by the
modified Winkler-type approach and FLAC3D . Fur-
ther, the maximum moments in the pile predicted by
the three methods are almost identical.
Generally, there is a reasonable concordance
between the p-y curves estimated by FLAC3D and
the modified Winkler-type approach as function of
depth. Compared to the two other methods the tradi-
tional Winkler-type method overestimate the stiffness
of the soil. Moreover, extreme care should be taken in
the estimation of the soil stiffness associated with the
constitutive soil models employed in commercial pro-
grams such as FLAC3D . Further research is needed
to develop new p-y curves for large-diameter piles
in sand. This requires the conduction of full-scale
tests and numerical analyses based on more advanced
constitutive soil models.
906
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puting, September 1 to September 4, Funchal, Madeira,
Portugal: paper 244.
Srensen, S.P.H., Ibsen, L.B. & Augustesen, A.H. 2010.
Effects of diameter on initial stiffness of p-y curves
for large-diameter piles in sand. In Proc. of NUMGE,
Trondheim, Norway.
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Effects of diameter on initial stiffness of p-y curves for large-diameter

piles in sand

S.P.H. Srensen & L.B. Ibsen

Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark

A.H. Augustesen
COWI, Aalborg, Denmark
Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark

ABSTRACT: For offshore wind turbines, monopile foundations with diameters of 46 m are often employed.
The Winkler model approach, where the soil resistance is modelled as uncoupled springs with spring stiffness
given by p-y curves, is traditionally employed for the design of monopiles. However, this method is developed
for slender piles with diameters up to approximately 2.0 m. Hence, the method is not validated for piles with
diameters of 46 m.
The aim of the paper is to extend the p-y curve method to large-diameter non-slender piles in sand by
considering the effects of the pile diameter on the soil-pile interaction. Hence, a modified expression for the
p-y curves for statically loaded piles in sand is proposed in which the initial slope of the p-y curves depends
on the depth below the soil surface, the pile diameter and the internal angle of friction. The evaluation is based
on three-dimensional numerical analyses by means of the commercial program FLAC3D incorporating a Mohr-
Coulomb failure criterion. The numerical model is validated with laboratory tests in a pressure tank at Aalborg
University.

1 INTRODUCTION

For modern offshore wind turbines several types of

foundations exist. The choice of foundation depends
on site and loading conditions. An often used founda-
tion concept is monopiles, which are single steel pipe
piles driven open-ended. Recently installed monopiles
have diameters of 46 m and slenderness ratios, L/D,
around 5, where L is the embedded length of the pile
and D is the pile diameter. The maximum forces acting
at the mudline of a foundation for a typical offshore
wind turbine is according to Ubilla et al. (2006) in the
order of magnitude of 4 MN in horizontal load, 6 MN
in vertical load, and 120 MNm in overturning moment.
Hereby, offshore wind turbine foundations are highly
subjected to lateral loads and bending.
When designing laterally loaded offshore monopiles
the offshore design regulations, e.g. API (1993) and Figure 1. Winkler model approach and definition of p-y
DNV (1992), recommend the use of the Winkler model curves.
approach in which the pile is modelled as a beam on an
elastic foundation, cf. Figure 1. The elastic foundation
consists of a number of springs with spring stiffness, e.g. API (1993) and DNV (1992), recommend the p-y
K, given by means of p-y curves. p-y curves describe curve given in Equation 1 for piles in sand.
the relationship between the soil resistance, p, acting
against the pile wall and the lateral pile deflection, y.
Several formulations of p-y curves exist depending
on the type of soil. The offshore design regulations,

907
 A is a factor taking the ratio between depth and pile
diameter into account, pu is the ultimate soil resistance,
k is the initial modulus of subgrade reaction and x is the
depth measured from the soil surface. The initial mod-
ulus of subgrade reaction, k, is determined in terms of
the internal friction angle or the relative density of the
sand and governs the initial slope of the p-y curves. The
initial stiffness of the p-y curves, Epy , recommended
in the design regulations is given in Equation 2.
Hereby, the initial stiffness is considered indepen-
dent of the pile properties and linearly dependent
of x.
The hyperbolic expression, cf. Equation 1, is based
on the testing of two identical instrumented piles
installed at Mustang Island, cf. Cox et al. (1974). A
total of seven load tests were performed on the piles
consisting of two static tests and five cyclic tests.
Both piles had a diameter of 0.61 m, a slenderness
ratio of 34.4 and were installed in similar soil condi-
tions. Due to the limited number of tests, the effects
of a large number of parameters on the soil response
are still to be clarified. Among these is the pile
diameter.
Due to serviceability only small rotations at the
soil surface are allowed for modern wind turbines.
Further, strict demands are set to the total stiffness
of wind turbine foundations due to resonance in the
serviceability mode. Therefore, the initial stiffness of
the p-y curves is of great importance. It seems ques-
tionable that Epy is independent of the pile diameter.
The research within the field gives contradictory con-
clusions. Terzaghi (1956), Ashford & Juirnarongrit
(2003), and Fan & Long (2005) all conclude that the
effect of diameter on the initial stiffness of the p-y
curves is insignificant. In contrast Carter (1984) and
Ling (1988) suggest a linear relationship between Epy
and D. Lesny & Wiemann (2006) postulate that the ini-
tial stiffness of the p-y curves is overestimated at large
depths when employing a linear variation of initial
stiffness with depth. Instead they suggest a parabolic
variation of initial stiffness with depth. However, the
research is based on a limited number of tests and most
researchers consider only flexible piles with slender-
ness ratios larger than 10, which is rarely the case for
modern wind turbine foundations.
In the present paper the effect of pile diameter on the
initial stiffness of the p-y curves is assessed by means
of numerical simulations. At first a numerical model is
calibrated to six laboratory tests conducted in a pres-
sure tank in the Laboratory of Foundation at Aalborg
University, Denmark. After the calibration the numer-
ical model is extended to simulate large-scale offshore
wind turbine foundations. The model is conducted by
means of the commercial program FLAC3D .
908
Figure 2. Three-dimensional mesh employed in the numeri-
cal model.
2 NUMERICAL MODELLING OF MONOPILE
UNDER STATIC LOADING
A three-dimensional numerical model is constructed in
the commercial program FLAC3D which is a dynamic
solver incorporating the finite difference method. The
Mohr-Coulomb material model is employed in the
numerical modelling.
2.1 Construction of numerical model
Due to symmetry only half of the pile and half of the
surrounding soil are modelled. The mesh employed in
the numerical model is shown in Figure 2. In order to
reach convergence the mesh is very fine near the pile.
The pile is modelled as a solid cylinder in contrast to
the hollow pipe piles which are normally employed
for offshore wind turbine foundations. Youngs modu-
lus of elasticity for the solid cylinder, Ep , is therefore
determined so that the bending stiffness, Ep Ip , of a pile
in the numerical model and of a full-scale pile is equiv-
alent. Similarly the density of the pile is determined
requiring equivalence in the total weight of the pile.
The grid is generated of zone elements. Each zone
consists of five 4-noded constant strain-rate subele-
ments of tetrahedral shape.
The interface between the soil and the pile is mod-
elled by means of a linear Coulomb shear-strength
criterion. The interface allows gapping and slipping
between the pile and the soil. The interface is one-sided
and is attached to the soil.
The model is damped using combined damping
which is preferred for uniform motions, cf. FLAC3D
3.1 manual (2006).
The horizontal load is applied as a horizontal veloc-
ity at the centre nodes at the pile head. A number of
calculation steps are prescribed in order to reach the
desired pile deflection. To ensure a static behaviour
of the pile velocities in the order of 106 m/s are
employed. For piles with slenderness ratios smaller
than 10 it is difficult to determine a velocity result-
ing in a stable simulation. Therefore the horizontal
load is applied as a load distributed to all nodes at
the pile head. In order to obtain several points on the
p-y curves, the load is applied in small load steps.
The numerical simulations are executed in steps. At
first the initial stresses in the soil is generated using
the K0 -procedure. Secondly the pile is installed, the
pile parameters are introduced and an equilibrium state
is calculated. Here the soil-pile interface is assumed
smooth. Thirdly the soil-pile interface is given the cor-
rect interface properties and a new equilibrium state is
calculated. After reaching equilibrium the horizontal
load is applied.

2.2 Computation of soil resistance

In order to determine p-y curves from the numerical
simulations the soil resistance needs to be determined.
The soil resistance is calculated by integration of the
interface stresses as described by Fan & Long (2005).
2.3 Calibration of model
The numerical model is calibrated to six laboratory
tests conducted at the Laboratory of Foundation at Aal-
borg University, reported by Srensen et al. (2009).
The tests are conducted in a pressure tank in which the
pressure can be increased. The test setup enables the
possibility of applying an excess effective stress to
the soil leading to increased effective stresses. When
conducting small-scale tests in sand at 1-g an often
introduced source of error is the low stress levels
causing the soil parameters and in specific the inter-
nal angle of friction to vary strongly with depth.
When applying an excess pressure this variation is
minimised.
Quasi-static tests are conducted on instrumented
piles with D = 60 mm and D = 80 mm and a slender-
ness ratio of L/D = 5. When simulating the laboratory
tests, the outer boundaries of the numerical model are
set equal to the inner diameter of the pressure tank.
The load-displacement relationship for the calibra-
tion of the numerical model is shown in Figure 3
for one of the tests. The load-displacement relation-
ships obtained with the numerical model is in good
agreement with the laboratory tests.
2.4 Simulation of large-scale piles
Large-scale steel pipe piles with varying internal fric-
tion angle of 3040 and pile diameter of 17 m are
simulated. For all simulated piles, embedded lengths
of 20 m are employed. The wall friction angle, , for
the interface between the soil and the pile is determined
by Equation 3.
The tangential Youngs modulus of elasticity for the
soil, E0 , is varied with the relative density, ID , and the
Figure 3. Calibrated load-displacement relationships for
D = 0.08 m and an excess effective stress of 100 kPa.
minor principal stress, 3 , on basis of Equation 4 in
which the output is given in kPa. The equation has
been proposed by Ibsen et al. (2009) and is valid for
the sand in used in the laboratory tests. 3ref is the
reference minor principal stress given as 100 kPa.
The internal friction angle for the sand used in the
laboratory tests can according to Ibsen et al. (2009) be
determined by equation (5).
The influence of the minor principle stress is not
taken into account for the numerical simulations and
instead Equation 6 is employed.
In Figure 4 the deflections of the pile is shown for
pile diameters of D = 17 m. An internal friction angle
of 40 is employed. The displacements are shown for
a pile displacement at the soil surface of 0.024 m. As
the wall thickness is held constant for all pile diame-
ters, the bending stiffness varies such that the pile with
D = 7 m has the largest bending stiffness and the pile
with D = 1 m has the lowest bending stiffness.
The pile with D = 7 m behaves very stiff as it
deflects almost as a rigid body. In contrast the pile with
D = 1 m exhibits a very flexible behaviour. The depth
of the point of zero deflection increases for increasing
pile diameter as the depth is approximately 8.5 m for
D = 1 m and 16.3 m for D = 7 m. Further a significant
negative deflection can be observed near the pile toe
for the piles with a low slenderness ratio, L/D. Hereby,
the slenderness ratio, L/D, has a significant influence
on the pile behaviour.
An example on the distribution of soil resistance
along the pile is shown in Figure 5 for D = 4 m and

909
Figure 4. Pile displacement along the pile for pile diame-
Figure 6. Distribution of initial stiffness, Epy , along the pile
ters of D = 17 m and tr = 40 . For all pile diameters a wall for D = 17 m and an internal friction angle of tr = 40 .
thickness of 0.05 m is employed.

Figure 5. Distribution of soil resistance along the pile a
pile diameter of D = 4 m and an internal friction angle of
tr = 40 .
tr = 40 . The soil resistance is zero in a depth of
approximately 14.5 m. This is in good concordance
with the pile displacement shown in Figure 4 where the
point of zero displacement is located at approximately
x = 15.0 m.
From the calculated soil resistance along the pile
and the measured pile deflection, p-y curves can be
determined. From these the initial stiffness, Epy , can
be estimated as the initial slope of the p-y curves, cf.
Equation 2. In Figure 6 the initial stiffness along the
pile for varying pile diameters of D = 17 m and an
internal friction angle of tr = 40 is shown. The initial
stiffness increases non-linearly with depth which is
in contrast to the linear dependency proposed by the
design regulations, e.g. API (1993) and DNV (1992).
Further, the initial stiffness increases for increasing
pile diameter. This observation is also in contrast with
the design regulations, where only the internal friction
angle and the depth below soil surface are taken to
affect the initial stiffness. At depths of approximately
1315 m discontinuities in the initial stiffness can be
Figure 7. Distribution of initial stiffness, Epy , along the pile
for varying internal friction angles. The pile diameter is 4 m.
observed.These discontinuities are caused by the small
pile deflections at these depths, as the points of zero
deflection, are located at these depths, cf. Figure 4.
In Figure 7 the initial stiffness of the p-y curves is
shown for D = 4 m and varying values of the internal
friction angle. The initial stiffness is highly dependent
on the internal friction angle such that an increase in
the internal friction angle results in an increase in ini-
tial stiffness. This observation is in concordance with
the design regulations.
3 MODIFIED EXPRESSION FOR THE INITIAL
STIFFNESS OF THE P-Y CURVES, EPY
Figure 6 and Figure 7 indicate that the initial stiffness
depends on the depth below soil surface, the inter-
nal friction angle and the pile diameter. A modified
expression for the initial stiffness, Epy , is therefore
proposed in Equation 7 in which the initial stiffness
depends on the depth below soil surface, the pile diam-
eter and the internal friction angle. The expression

910
Table 1. Values of the constants given in Equation 7.

a b C d
[kN/m2 ] [] [] []

50000 0.6 0.5 3.6

has been determined on the basis of the numerical

simulations employing the least square method.

In Equation 7 b, c and d are dimensionless con- Figure 8. Normalized initial stiffness with respect to 3.6
stants, xref = 1 m, Dref = 1 m and a is a factor spec- for = 3040 and D = 4 m.
ifying the initial stiffness for D = 1 m, x = 1 m and
tr = 1 rad. Further, x and D should be inserted in meter
and the friction angle in radians. The dependency with
depth is proposed to be a nonlinear dependency as pro-
posed by Lesny & Wiemann (2006) with a factor of
b = 0.6.
On the basis of the numerical simulations the con-
stants a, c and d have been determined. The values of
the factors are shown inTable 1. It should be mentioned
that other results might be obtained for the factor a if
a more advanced material model and a more advanced
description of the interface between the pile and the
soil are employed. Further, the driving of the pile might
also influence a.
Figure 8 shows the initial stiffness normalised with
respect to 3.6 for varying internal friction angles. The
figure shows that when d = 3.6 the proposed expres-
sion for the initial stiffness provides a good description
Figure 9. Normalised initial stiffness, Epy , for varying
of the dependency of the internal friction angle in mod- diameter. The internal friction is 40 and the magnitude of
erate depths. For D = [1;2;3;5;6;7] similar dependency the pile bending stiffness corresponds to a pile diameter of
on the internal friction angle have been observed. 4 m and a wall thickness of 5 cm.
Respectively, a curve with a linear (b = 1) and two
non-linear (b = 0.6; b = 0.3) variation of the initial observed for large depths. The best fit between Equa-
stiffness is shown in Figure 8. All curves have been tion 7 and the numerical simulations is obtained for
forced trough the average normalised initial stiffness internal friction angles of approximately 40 , which
in a depth of 1 m. From the figure it is seen that the is typical for offshore sand. The initial stiffness pro-
linear variation highly overestimates the initial stiff- posed by the design regulations highly overestimates
ness for large depths. Further, b = 0.3, is a lower limit. the initial stiffness in comparison with the numerical
For b = 0.6 a good fit is obtained for moderate depths. simulations.
However a slight overestimation of the initial stiffness
is observed for large depths.
Figure 9 shows the normalised initial stiffness when
4 CONCLUSIONS
employing the proposed expression given in Equation
7. tr = 40 and with D = 17. The pile bending stiff-
This paper presents numerical simulations of large-
ness has been held constant corresponding to D = 4 m
scale monopiles for offshore wind turbines. The
and a wall thickness of 5 cm in order to exclude
numerical model is calibrated to small-scale experi-
minor effects from the pile bending stiffness. The fig-
ments conducted in a pressure tank at Aalborg Univer-
ure shows that the proposed expression for the initial
sity and extended to simulate large-scale monopiles.
stiffness of the p-y curves produces a good fit.
The conclusions that can be drawn are:
Figure 10 and Figure 11 presents a comparison
of the initial stiffness obtained from the numerical Non-slender piles behave as almost rigid objects,
simulations with Equation 7. Equation 7 produces and for these piles significant negative deflections
in general a good fit. However, deviations can be near the pile toe take place.

911

Figure 10. Comparison of the initial stiffness, Epy , for the
nu-merical simulations, Equation 7 and the design regula-
tions. The internal friction angle is 30 .
Figure 11. Comparison of the initial stiffness, Epy , for the
numerical simulations, Equation 7 and the design regulations.
Srensen, S.P.H., Brdbk, K.T., Mller, M., Augustesen,
The internal friction angle is 40 .
The initial stiffness of the p-y curves depends on
the pile diameter, the internal friction angle and the
depth below mudline. A modified expression of the
initial stiffness is proposed.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The research has been funded by the Energy Research
Programme administered by the Danish Energy
Authority. The research is associated with the EFP
912
programme Physical and numerical modelling of
monopile for offshore wind turbines, journal no.
033001/33033-0039.
REFERENCES
API, 1993. Recommended practice for planning, designing,
and constructing fixed offshore platforms Working stress
design, API RP2A-WSD, American Petroleum Institute,
Washington D.C., 21. edition.
Ashford, S.A., & Juirnarongrit, T. 2003. Evaluation of Pile
Diameter Effect on Initial Modulus of Subgrade Reac-
tion, Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental
Engineering, 129(3), 234242.
Carter, D.P. 1984. A Non-Linear Soil Model for Predicting
Lateral Pile Response, Rep. No. 359, Civil Engineering
Dept., Univ. of Auckland, New Zealand.
Cox, W.R., Reese, L.C. & Grubbs, B.R. 1974. Field Testing of
Laterally Loaded Piles in Sand, Proceedings of the Sixth
Annual Offshore Technology Conference, Houston, Texas,
2079.
DNV, 1992. Foundations Classification Notes No. 30.4, Det
Norske Veritas, Det Norske Veritas Classification A/S.
Fan, C.C. & Long, J.H. 2005. Assessment of existing methods
for predicting soil response of laterally loaded piles in
sand, Computers and Geotechnics, 32, 274289.
FLAC3D 3.1 manual, 2006. Fast Langrangian Analysis of
Continua in 3 Dimensions, Itasca Consulting Group Inc.,
Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.
Ibsen, L.B., Hanson, M., Hjort, T.H. & Thaarup, M. 2009.
MC-Parameter Calibration for Baskarp Sand No. 15,
DCE Technical Report No. 62, Department of Civil
Engineering, Aalborg University, Denmark.
Lesny, K. & Wiemann, J. 2006. Finite-Element-Modelling
of Large Diameter Monopiles for Offshore Wind Energy
Converters, Geo Congress 2006, February 26 to March 1,
Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
Ling, L.F. 1988. Back Analysis of Lateral Load Test on Piles,
Rep. No. 460, Civil Engineering Dept., Univ. of Auckland,
New Zealand.
A.H. & Ibsen, L.B. 2009. Evaluation of the Load-
Displacement Relationships for Large-Diameter Piles in
Sand, Proceedings of The Twelfth International Confer-
ence on Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineer-
ing Computing, September 1 to September 4, Funchal,
Madeira, Portugal, 244.
Terzaghi, K. 1956. Evaluation of coefficients of subgrade
reaction, Geotechnique, 5(4), 297326.
Ubilla, J., Abdoun, T. & Zimmie, T. 2006. Application of
in-flight robot in centrifuge modeling of laterally loaded
stiff pile foundations, Physical Modelling in Geotechnics,
Taylor & Francis Group, London, 259264.
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Numerical investigations for the pile foundation of an offshore wind turbine

under transient lateral load

P. Cullar
BAM, Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing, Berlin, Germany

M. Pastor & P. Mira

CEDEX, Centro de Estudios y Experimentacin de Obras Pblicas, Madrid, Spain

J.A. Fernndez-Merodo
IGME, Instituto Geolgico y Minero de Espaa, Madrid, Spain

M. Baeler & W. Rcker

BAM, Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing, Berlin, Germany

ABSTRACT: Numerical analysis can be useful for the investigation of important aspects of offshore foundation
prototypes that otherwise could hardly be studied experimentally, like the evolution of pore-water pressure around
the monopile foundation of an offshore wind turbine under extreme loading. A combination of mixed pressure-
displacement formulations along with a constitutive model for sands based on the Generalized Plasticity Theory
can replicate accurately the soil behaviour in saturated conditions. However, additional issues must be taken into
account in order to perform numerical simulations of offshore piles. Some implications of the Babuska-Brezzi
restriction, as well as considerations about the pile-soil interface and suitable solution strategies are discussed
here. Due to the high cost of the transient analysis, the parallel computation offers a promising perspective, but
can be complex and needs to be implemented carefully in order to avoid a performance deterioration. A brief
overview on current trends and functional software is given here.

1 INTRODUCTION In the frame of the RAVE (Research at Alpha Ven-

Offshore wind energy converters must be able to
resist the loads from the environment, in particular
those arising from extreme weather conditions. Large-
diameter monopiles and tripods can be a suitable
foundation for such structures but their performance
under cyclic and extreme lateral loading has still to
be assessed. The foundation of the structure can be
particularly affected by the passing of an extreme
storm and its stability must be ensured. In saturated
soils, cyclic loading within the extreme regime often
involves a pore-pressure build up that eventually can
lead to liquefaction phenomena and foundation failure.
The numerical simulations offer an insight into the
fundamental behaviour of the system that is normally
not available by means of experimental investigations.
For instance, the opening of a gap at the pile-soil inter-
face and the pore pressure evolution in the vicinities
of the pile, in particular the possibility of liquefaction
around it, are some of the key aspects that can be stud-
ied with a numerical model but are hardly traceable in
model tests or in-situ conditions.
tus) research initiative of the German government for
the first German offshore wind-farm, a number of
experimental and numerical investigations are being
carried out to gain knowledge and ensure the safety of
future offshore wind-parks (Quell et al., 2007; Cullar
et al., 2009). In this paper, some details are given con-
cerning a numerical model for the 3D analysis of the
offshore pile foundation and some preliminary results
are discussed.
The academic finite element code GeHoMadrid has
been properly adapted to meet the requirements for this
specific problem, and the parameters of the constitu-
tive law for the saturated sand (the Pastor-Zienkiewicz
model in the frame of the generalized plasticity) have
been calibrated to reproduce the behaviour of the sand
at the Alpha Ventus site in the North Sea.
Important issues for the transient coupled sim-
ulations, such as pore-pressure oscillations, time
consumption and selection of an efficient solution
strategy, will be addressed in the following sections.
Finally, an outlook to the parallelization of the FE code
for a high-performance computing is also presented.

913
2 BASIC ASPECTS FOR THE SIMULATIONS
2.1 Mathematical model
In order to achieve a realistic representation of the
offshore pile behaviour, the first requisite is to use
a suitable mathematical model to describe the main
physical processes taking place within the saturated
soil, in particular the interaction between the solid
skeleton (the soil grains) and the pore fluid (the
sea water). The equations of dynamic poroelastic-
ity due to Biot have been extended and modified by
Zienkiewicz and coworkers (e.g. in Zienkiewicz &
Shiomi, 1984) in order to broaden their scope and ease
their implementation within numerical models.
The model included in GeHoMadrid is the so-called
u-pw formulation described by Zienkiewicz et al.
(1999), which expresses the governing equations in
terms of only two variables, namely the displacements
u of the solid matrix and the pressure pw of the pore
fluid. These equations, which do not consider convec-
tive terms and are based on the assumption of negligi-
ble relative accelerations between solid and fluid, can
be summarized as follows (Fernandez Merodo, 2001):
(i) Balance of linear momentum for the solid-fluid
mixture:
where  is the vectorial form of the effective stress ten-
sor, vector m represents the second-order Kronecker-
delta, m is the mass density of the solid-fluid mixture,
b is the vector of body forces per unit mass, is the
acceleration of the solid skeleton and S the vectorial
form of the strain operator.
(ii) Combination of the equations for fluid mass
conservation and fluid linear momentum balance:
where kw is the permeability matrix, Q is the coupled
volumetric stiffness of solid grains and fluid, and w
is the specific weight of the pore fluid.
(iii) A suitable constitutive equation for the soil
skeleton (see section 2.3 below):
where Dep is the constitutive operator and is the strain
vector.
(iv) and the kinematic relationships between dis-
placements and strains:
Finally, an appropriate set of boundary conditions
in terms of u and pw needs to be introduced in order
to define completely the problem under consideration
(see, e.g., Mira, 2001).
914
2.2 Numerical model
The continuous partial differential equations presented
above can be converted to ordinary differential equa-
tions in a discrete form using standard Galerkin tech-
niques (see for instance Zienkiewicz & Taylor, 2000).
Introducing two appropriate sets of shape functions
Nu and Np for the spatial interpolation of the displace-
ment and pressure fields, and employing a generalized
Newmark scheme for the time discretization (GN22
for displacements and GN11 for pore pressures), a
non-linear system of equations with discrete variables
(in both time and space) can be obtained out of the
equations above. Then, for the computation of every
time-step t, the non-linear system of equations can
be solved iteratively using an appropriate algorithm,
typically of the Newton-Raphson type, which results
in the following linear system of equations:
where the matrices KT , M , Q, H and C stand for the
usual tangent stiffness, mass, coupling, permeability
and compressibility terms respectively, as defined e.g.
in (Zienkiewicz et al., 1999), and the constants 1 ,
2 and are the parameters of the Newmark scheme
for time integration. The vectors () and (pw )
contain the iterative corrections to the variables, while
u and p are the residuals. The subscripts between
parentheses denote the step of the iterative process,
which is to be continued until a suitable tolerance cri-
terion is fulfilled. Further details about the attainment
of these equations are out of the scope of this paper
and can be found, for instance, in (Pastor & Tamagnini,
2002; Mira, 2001).
At this point it is important to note that, although
the second set of equations in (5) can be multiplied by
a scalar in order to achieve symmetry in the coupling
terms, the overall symmetry of the linear system of
equations will ultimately depend on the symmetry of
the stiffness matrix KT . This matrix is defined as
and it will, in general, be asymmetric whenever a non-
associative constitutive law is used, as is normally the
case for modeling cohesionless soils. The matrix B is
the discrete form of the strain operator.
As it will be shown later, the lack of symmetry
of the linear system of equations carries important
consequences for the choice of a solution strategy.
2.3 Constitutive model
Along with the mathematical and numerical models
described so far, the third main ingredient for the
numerical analysis of the foundations behaviour is
the choice of an appropriate constitutive model for
the sand.
One of the particular features of cohesionless soils
is their tendency to contract when they are subject to
cyclic loading. In saturated soils, this cyclic densifi-
cation can lead to an increment of the pore pressure if
the permeability of the soil is low or the drainage of
pore water is somehow inhibited. Such increments in
pore pressure will reduce the effective stress within
the soil skeleton and eventually can lead to a total
loss of resistance (liquefaction) with potential catas-
trophic consequences (Pastor et al., 2009). Therefore
it is essential that the constitutive model can repro-
duce the real behaviour of sand. In particular, three key
issues need to be considered, namely, a non-associative
flow rule, a hardening law not only dependent on the
soil density, and the possibility of plastic strains upon
unloading. The Generalized Theory of Plasticity, ini-
tially proposed by Zienkiewicz and Mroz (1984) and
later extended by Pastor and Zienkiewicz (1986) offers
a convenient framework for the consideration of such Figure 1. Experimental and computed results of monotonic
features. In its basic form, it relates the increments of undrained triaxial tests with samples of Berliner sand. Test
stress (d) and strain (d) as follows: results taken from (Rackwitz, 2003). Solid lines show the
predictions with the PZ model.
causing immediate failure, and finally (vi) a discrete
memory factor HDM that accounts for the effects of
past events upon cyclic reloading. Additional details
where the first summand provides the elastic strain
can be found in the references mentioned above.
through the use of an elastic constitutive tensor Ce ,
Altogether, a set of 12 parameters needs to be deter-
and the second term introduces the plastic strain in
mined in order to fully characterize the sand at a given
dependence of a scalar H (the plastic modulus) and
pressure and density. A useful extension to the model
the product of two normalized vectors n and ng . The
introducing a new state parameter has been recently
loading direction n discriminates the stress increments
proposed by Manzanal (2008), which permits a uni-
between loading and unloading, and the plastic flow
fied definition of the material parameters valid for the
direction ng defines the direction of the plastic strains.
full range of pressures and densities.
In order to achieve irreversible plastic deformations The estimation of the model parameters can be done
within a closed stress cycle, H and ng need to be by means of representative tests, like monotonic and
defined differently for loading and unloading states, cyclic triaxial tests, as described for instance in (Chan,
and hence the subscript L or U in eq. (7). 1988; Manzanal, 2008).
The Pastor-Zienkiewicz Mark III model (in the fol-
lowing referred to as PZ model) suitably defines the
three directions and the scalar functions in (7) to accu- 3 SPECIFIC REQUIREMENTS FOR THE
rately reproduce the behaviour of sand (see Figure 1). SIMULATION OF AN OFFSHORE PILE
In particular, the definition of the plastic modulus HL , UNDER LATERAL LOAD
here shown in eq. (8), permits the hierarchical con-
sideration of single aspects of sand behaviour, like for 3.1 Pile-soil interface and gapping
instance the existence of a critical line where all the
residual stress states lie or the fact that failure does not In order to model adequately the laterally loaded off-
necessarily occur when this line is first crossed. shore pile, several additional requisites must be met.
Apart from the fact that only a full 3D model can be
used, since the axial symmetry is no longer valid due
to the lateral loading, special care has to be taken when
This way, HL incorporates the following ingredients: modeling the pile-soil interface. An important feature
(i) a pressure dependence through the effective confin- of laterally loaded piles is the possible formation of
ing stress p , (ii) an isotropic plastic modulus H0 , (iii) a gap behind the pile as the loading progresses, and,
a frictional factor Hf that limits the possible stress therefore, the ability to model a discontinuous inter-
states within the sand, (iv) a volumetric strain harden- face has to be somehow included. A natural way to
ing function Hv with a dependence on the mobilized do this is to define the interaction between pile and
stress ratio which makes it zero at the critical state line, soil as a multi-body contact problem, as described
(v) a deviatoric strain hardening Hs , which models for instance in (Belytschko et al., 2000), with the
the material degradation by accumulated strains and introduction of the master-slave surface concepts
permits the crossing of the critical state line without and an efficient contact detection algorithm.

915

Figure 2. Gap formation behind a laterally loaded pile.
Pile-soil interface implemented by means of no-tension joint
elements.
An alternative approach, which can be conveniently
implemented into a FE code without major changes, is
the use of special interface joint elements to allow for
differential movement (slip and separation) between
pile and soil (Potts & Zdravkovic, 1999). The isopara-
metric joint element, described e.g. by Carol and
Alonso (1983), can be suitably adapted to reproduce
no-tension conditions (i.e. gap opening) by simply
defining a non-linear normal stiffness (discontinu-
ous in this case) with different values for tension and
compression. However, joint elements might present
problems of numerical instability and ill-conditioning
and should be handled with care (see e.g. Day & Potts,
1994). The use of such elements for a pile interface in
cohesive soil is shown exemplarily in Figure 2.
3.2 Element technology to avoid pore pressure
instabilities
Due to the high computational cost of the 3D mod-
eling, it appears desirable to use low-order elements
like the classical 8-node hexahedron in order to keep
the total number of degrees of freedom within afford-
able margins. However, the use of such elements
entails some limitations, as poor bending behaviour
or locking phenomena under certain conditions (see
for instance Pastor & Tamagnini, 2002). On the other
hand, the coupling with pore water pressure brings
about an additional restriction, namely the so-called
Babuska-Brezzi condition, which states that the order
of interpolation for the displacement field must be
higher than that for the pressure field if the perme-
ability is very low (nearing undrained incompressible
conditions). In such cases, both the permeability and
compressibility matrices H and C in equation (5) tend
to zero, producing a system of equations in the form of
916
which will be singular and present pore pressure
oscillations unless the number of variables in is
greater than in or special stabilization techniques
are employed (Pastor & Tamagnini, 2002).
This leads to the dilemma of either using the expen-
sive quadratic interpolation for displacements (e.g.
the 20-node hexahedron with 8 nodes for the pressure
field h20p8), or resorting to some special techniques,
like the stabilized elements from fluid mechanics (see
the divergence, fractional-step or alpha methods, e.g.
in Brezzi & Pitkaranta, 1984; Pastor et al., 1996) or
special implementations of enhanced-strain elements
as shown in (Mira et al., 2003). The latter provide the
additional advantages inherent to the enhanced-strain
elements, namely a better performance in bending and
the prevention of locking problems (Mira, 2001).
At this point it is important to stress that the term
very low permeability is a relative one, in particular
relative to the element size. Even high permeability
values typical of clean sands (around 104 m/s) will
cause pore pressure instabilities if the element size
is big enough, like for instance when modeling real
offshore prototypes which might incorporate element
dimensions of half a meter or bigger. Therefore, the
possibility of pressure oscillations should never be
excluded a priori, regardless of the soil permeability.
In this respect, the use of high-order or special element
implementations might be unavoidable for the partic-
ular case of real-size offshore foundation prototypes.
3.3 Solution strategies and computational cost
The main drawback of 3D modeling is normally the
huge amount of degrees of freedom being considered
and the consequent size of the linear system of equa-
tions. The assembled matrices can easily include tens
or hundreds of thousands of rows and columns, and
non-linear transient simulations will usually require
that the system of equations be solved repeatedly, often
involving several iterations for every time step. There-
fore, it is of paramount importance the choice of an
appropriate solution strategy.
A crude and inefficient method for solving the
sparse linear system Ax = b when A is square and
nonsingular is to compute the inverse A1 . This is
numerically unstable when A is ill-conditioned and
very costly, since normally the inverse of a sparse
matrix has no zero entries at all (Davis, 2006).
In principle, iterative solvers like the precondi-
tioned conjugate gradient or the Jacobi methods,
are adequate choices for large problems and can be
programmed easily using Fortran or C (Pastor &
Tamagnini, 2002). However, they are only condi-
tionally convergent and in general cannot deal with
non-symmetric matrices, which makes them unsuitable
for problems with non-associative materials like sand.
In order to solve non-symmetric systems of equations,
special schemes such as the generalized minimum
residual (GMRES) will be required.
On the other hand, direct solvers like the Gaussian
elimination method are in principle unconditionally
stable and require relatively few changes to deal with
non-symmetric systems, but as the size of the sys-
tem grows their computational and storage cost can
become prohibitive. As shown in (Dongarra et al.,
1998), the direct solution of a system of order n
requires O(n2 ) storage and O(n3 ) floating-point oper-
ations. To alleviate this problem, the sparsity of the
matrix can be exploited in order to reduce the storage
and number of operations, for instance with special
storage schemes (like the skyline or the compressed-
column) or by additionally performing suitable row
and column permutations to reduce the amount of
fill-in during factorization. The aim of the sparse
algorithms is to perform the solution in a number of
operations proportional to O(n) + O(), being the
number of non-zero entries of the matrix.
In any case, regardless of the type of solver to
be used, the management of data traffic and mem-
ory locality can have a decisive impact on the overall
efficiency of the algorithms. The performance of a
solver can indeed be dominated by the amount of
data traffic rather than the number of operations
involved (Dongarra et al., 1998). Most computers
nowadays include temporary fast-access blocks of
memory called caches, where frequently-used data is
stored. Since the data flow from the main memory
is very expensive (has a much longer access time),
an efficient use of the caches can be critical for the
performance. This has motivated a restructuring of
existing algorithms and new methods that minimize
the data movement have arisen. Among these, the
BLAS (Basic Linear Algebra Subprograms) constitute
a key building block that provides efficient subrou-
tines for basic vectorial and matrix operations. This
way, it can be very advantageous to organize the cal-
culations so that the matrices are partitioned into small
blocks that fit in the caches and then perform the com-
putations by matrix-matrix operations on the blocks.
This constitutes the basis for the so-called supernodal
and multifrontal approaches for the LU factorization,
which can obtain very high performances and have
been described in (Davis, 2006).
However, this might not be enough in view of the
high cost of the transient calculations proposed here,
where, due to the sensitivity of the constitutive model,
hundreds of time steps and several iterations per time
step might be required for the computation of a sin-
gle load cycle. In this respect, further reductions in
computational time can be achieved by the use of
high-performance multi-processor computing.
3.4 Parallelism
A couple of de facto standards have arisen for the
parallel computation with shared-memory systems
(multi-processor workstations) and distributed-memory
systems (computing clusters), namely the OpenMP
and the MPI standards, respectively. They provide
a robust framework for parallelization that can be
easily incorporated into Fortran and C codes, but
require a careful planning of the task division, since
917
parallel processing does not necessarily imply fast and
efficient computing.
For instance, in a typical FE calculation with tens of
thousands degrees of freedom, more than 97% of the
computing time can be spent in a single loop for the
dot product, which is required for the LU factorization
of the linear system, but a direct parallelization of that
loop will surely be counterproductive, since the work-
load of each dot product hardly justifies the associated
overhead (i.e. the time spent in creating the threads,
synchronizing the jobs and gathering the results at the
end). As the function for the dot product is constantly
being called, the total overhead will by far overshadow
any parallel gains in performance. Therefore, instead
of local parallelization of key loops (fine grain paral-
lelization), a more general division of computational
tasks should be pursued (coarse grain parallelism).
In general, the sparse linear system of equations
can show three inherent levels of parallelism: (a)
Parallelism at a system level, where the underlying
problem (for instance the partial differential equations
or the physical structure) can be divided into a set of
small subproblems through domain decomposition or
substructuring, (b) parallelism at matrix level, where
sparsity can lead to simultaneous operations taking
place in independent parts of the matrix, and (c) paral-
lelism at submatrix level, where the dense submatrices
of the overall sparse system can be treated with the
parallel techniques of the dense linear algebra (level 3
BLAS) (Dongarra et al., 1998).
Parallelization at the system level has normally
the greatest potential for performance gains but is
problem-dependent and usually involves major pre-
processing tasks in order to achieve an efficient divi-
sion of the system. A survey on domain decomposition
techniques and parallel meshing is given, for instance,
in (Chrisochoides, 2005).
On the other hand, parallelization at the matrix and
submatrix levels can be costly and involve complex
algorithms, but in the past years it has been subject of
extensive research and now there exists a number of
efficient packages that can be used as external libraries
for the solution of the linear system (see Davis, 2006,
for a comprehensive summary of parallel packages
with direct solvers for sparse linear systems). In partic-
ular, the non-commercial external libraries SuperLU
(Demmel et al., 2009) and MUMPS (Amestoy et al.,
2009) do include both sequential and parallel algo-
rithms for an efficient LU factorization of non-
symmetric matrices (supernodal or multifrontal meth-
ods) and the subsequent solution of the linear system.
4 A PRACTICAL APPLICATION
Monopiles of large diameter (up to 8 meters in diam-
eter) are being studied as feasible solutions for the
foundation of offshore wind turbines (Lesny, 2008).
In the frame of the RAVE research project, numer-
ical simulations of a laterally loaded monopile with
an embedment length of 30 m and an outer diameter

Figure 3. Excess of pore-water pressure generated around a
monopile under sinusoidal lateral loading. Dark and pale con-
tours denote excess and decrease over the hydrostatic pressure
respectively.
of 8 m are being undertaken by the authors. Figure 3
shows some preliminary results depicting the excess
of pore-water pressure generated around the pile at a
cyclic load peak.
The calibration of the sand model was done with
the triaxial test results presented in (Rackwitz, 2003)
for Berliner sand, which is very similar to the typical
siliceous sands of the North Sea that can be found off
the German coasts.
For the preliminary calculations, inertia effects have
been neglected and the loading produced by an extreme
storm has been introduced as a sinusoidal wave with a
frequency of 0.1 Hz and an amplitude of 5 MN applied
to the pile-head, 30 m above the seabed. It should be
noted that although in this case the cohesionless nature
of the sand prevents the development of a gap behind
the pile, tangential differential displacements between
pile and soil (i.e. slip) do indeed take place at the inter-
face. During a loading peak, maximum pore-water
overpressures ranging 35 kPa can be observed taking
place at a depth around 4 meters under the soil surface.
It can also be observed that the relatively low aspect
ratio of the pile (L/D 4) makes it behave as a short
stiff pile, with a displacement pattern similar to that
of a rigid body. That implies that under extreme lat-
eral load, the pile base also experiences some lateral
displacements, inducing additional pore pressures as
well.
Further details about the pore-pressure evolution
and the danger of soil liquefaction, including a para-
metrical study of the system, are part of an on-going
doctoral project and shall be published soon.
5 CONCLUSIONS
Mixed pressure-displacement formulations provide a
comprehensive description of coupled systems that
can be suitably implemented into a FE code. However,
the quality of the calculations will ultimately depend
on the ability of the constitutive model to reproduce
918
the real behaviour of the soil. A model for sands based
on the Generalized Plasticity Theory and calibrated
with suitable laboratory tests can replicate accurately
the sand behaviour.
Nevertheless, additional issues must be taken into
account in order to perform numerical simulations of
offshore piles. Apart from the element technology to
deal with the Babuska-Brezzi condition and the pro-
vision of an appropriate pile-soil interface model, a
suitable solution strategy must be adopted for the tran-
sient calculations, where the linear system of equations
will have to be solved thousands of times. In this
respect, the parallel computation offers a promising
perspective, but needs to be implemented carefully in
order to avoid a performance deterioration. A brief
overview on current trends and functional software has
been presented here.
Finally, a practical application shows that the
numerical model can be useful for the analysis of
important aspects of offshore foundation prototypes
that otherwise could hardly be investigated.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Special gratitude is due to the research group at the
Geotechnical Laboratory of CEDEX in Madrid, as
well as to Stavros Savidis, Frank Rackwitz and Ercan
Tasan from the Technical University of Berlin for the
insightful discussions and kind provision of experi-
mental data. The German Federal Ministry for the
Environment (BMU) is gratefully acknowledged for
the funding of these investigations.
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 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Numerical study of piping limits for installation of large diameter buckets

in layered sand

L.B. Ibsen
Aalborg University, Denmark

C.L. Thilsted
Dong Energy Power, Denmark

ABSTRACT: The bucket foundations, often referred as suction caissons, are large cylindrical structures,
typically made in steel. The bucket foundations have the potential to be the cost-effective option for offshore
wind turbines, if suction assisted penetration is employed. Suction installation may cause formation of piping
channels, which break down the hydraulic seal and prevent further installation. This paper presents a numerical
study of failure limits during suction installation in respect to both homogenous and layered soil profile. A
numerical flow analysis is performed to determine the hydraulic gradients developing in response to applied
suction and the results are presented as simple closed form solutions useful for evaluation of suction thresholds
against piping. These close form solutions are compared with large scale model test, performed in a natural
seabed at a test site in Frederikshavn, Denmark. These solutions are also valid for penetration studies of other
offshore skirted foundations and anchors using suction assisted penetration in homogeneous or layered sand.
Due to the complexity of the domain and the governing differential equation, the problem is solved numerically.
A numerical solution can be obtained using either finite difference or finite element methods. In this paper, the
problem is solved using the commercial finite difference program FLAC3D (Itasca, 2005).

1 INTRODUCTION The installation of bucket foundation for offshore

This study has been a part of a research project
whose aim is to develop a bucket foundation as a
foundation for offshore wind turbines. The bucket
foundation, often referred to as suction caisson, is
a large cylindrical structure, typically made of steel,
see Figure 1. Depending on the skirt length and diam-
eter, the bucket has a moment resistance equivalent to
a monopile, a gravity foundation or in between. The
bucket is installed using suction assisted penetration
where suction is applied within the caisson after an ini-
tial penetration into the seabed caused by self-weight.
The suction creates a pressure differential across the
caisson lid, effectively increasing the downward force
on the caisson while reducing the skirt tip resistance.
Suction assisted penetration has the potential to signif-
icantly reduce installation costs, since large jack-up,
driving and drilling equipment can be avoided.
At the time of writing, two bucket foundation have
been installed, one at Horns Rev II and the other
located in Frederikshavn, Denmark, (Ibsen (2008);
however, it is likely that there will be more in the
near future. The suction installation technology was
originally introduced by Shell (Senepere andAuvergne
1982) and is currently widely used for suction anchor
piles and skirted foundations within the oil and gas
offshore industry.
wind turbines differs for several reasons. Compared to
oil and gas jackets, the bucket foundation offers less
self-weight to assist penetration and sites for instal-
lation are predominantly located at shallow waters,
<30 m, which reduces the maximum available suction
capacity. The bucket foundation is a large diame-
ter moment resistant structure and its cost efficiency
is significantly improved by increasing the ratio of
skirt length L over diameter D to approximately
L/D 1 while the wall thickness t is kept at a
minimum. The geometric definitions are shown in
Figure 2.
This paper presents a numerical study of the instal-
lation of large diameter thin-walled suction caissons
in sand. The objective is to evaluate suction fail-
ure limits during installation in respect to piping in
both homogeneous and layered sand. Steady-state flow
analyses were performed to determine the flow and the
hydraulic gradients developed in response to applied
suction beneath the caisson lid. The results are pre-
sented as simple closed form solutions, valid for a wide
range of boundary conditions, and useful for evalua-
tion of suction thresholds against piping in homoge-
neous or layered sand. These closed form solutions
are compared with a large scale field test, installed
in a natural seabed at the test site in Frederikshavn,
Denmark.

921

Figure 1. Offshore wind turbine installed on a bucket
foundation.
Figure 2. Definition of dimensions.
2 FIELD TEST DATA
Since installation data from field installation of suction
caissons in sand are limited this project has conducted
a substantial amount of installation tests on 2 2 m
and 4 4 m buckets which have been performed at
the offshore test site in Frederikshavn, Denmark, Ibsen
(2008). One of the focus points for these installation
tests has been to study the critical suction causing
piping.
Failure during suction assisted installation occurs
when certain thresholds are exceeded. The failure
922
Figure 3. The critical suction has been achieved and soil
failure by piping has occurred. The test was performed with
a 4 4 m bucket.
Figure 4. CPT test performed prior to the installation of
the buckets.
may be caused by either formation of piping channels
or cavitation of pore water. The formation of piping
channels occurs when the applied suction increases
and causes an upward flow, reducing the effective
stresses within the caisson, and eventually liquefying
parts of the internal soil matrix. Local piping chan-
nels break down the hydraulic seal and prevent further
installation, as shown in Figure 3.
Three installation tests are studied in this paper.
They are all installed in a 13 m 14 m basin and the
CPT test performed prior to the installation is shown
in Figure 4. The applied suction p needed to install the
2 m 2 m buckets can be seen in Figure 5. In the fig-
ure, the normalized suction p/  D is plotted against
the normalized penetration depth h/D where  is the
submerged unit weight of the soil and D is the diameter
of the bucket. In the figure 5 it is also seen that installa-
tion failure by piping did occur during the installation
of bucket 4, at a depth 1.56 m. The piping channels

Figure 5. The applied suction p needed to install the three
buckets. The diameter and shirt length is 2 m 2 m.
were filled with sand and the outer soil surface lev-
eled, in order to restart the installation. A new failure
occurred at a depth of 1.7 m and the test was stopped.
Figure 5 shows that the suction needed to install
bucket 5 is higher than the suction resulting in piping
during the installation of bucket 4. The only difference
between the installation tests is the presence of silt
layers, see Figure 4.
Bucket 2 is installed in a homogeneous sand layer.
Bucket 4 is installed where one thin silt layer is
present at a depth of 2.7 m.
Bucket 5 is installed in a layered soil profile with
thin silt layers at depth of 1.2, 2.4 and 3.5 m.
It is assumed that these thin silt layers act as flow
boundaries and change the steady-state flow field
around the skirt tip as it approaches the layer. The the-
ory is that the presence of these flow boundaries will
increase the suction thresholds against piping as it was
observed from the installation test with Bucket 5. The
influence of the flow boundary is modeled and studied
in the following sections.
3 NUMERICAL MODEL
Excess pore pressure, as a result of suction p inside
the bucket, causes a steady-state flow field to evolve
in the soil, as shown in Figure 6. This yields a constant
influx of water, which must be pumped out to maintain
a constant level of suction.
Assuming isotropy the seepage problem reduces
to the well-known Laplaces differential equation,
2 h = 0. It may conveniently be expressed in terms
of pore pressure, u = w h and cylindrical coordinates
923
Figure 6. Schematic illustration of the axisymmetric flow
domain during suction installation.
(r, z, ) due to the circular geometry of a suction
caisson:
The term (1/r2 )2 u/2 vanishes due to the axis-
symmetry of the caisson. The differential equation
must be solved with appropriate boundary condi-
tions to determine the hydraulic gradient field which
arises from the pressure difference, between the ambi-
ent seabed water pressure, w hw + pa and the pore
pressure beneath the lid, w hw + pa + p. pa is the
atmospheric pressure.
Due to the complexity of the domain and the gov-
erning differential equation, the problem is solved
numerically. A numerical solution can be obtained
using either finite difference or finite element meth-
ods. In this paper, the problem is solved using the
commercial finite difference program FLAC3D An
axisymmetric model was created with a grid consist-
ing of a total of 5,904 zones and an outer boundary
located, in the distance, 20R the caisson, as shown
in Figure 6. The case where L is simulated as
L = 20R. The boundary conditions along the caisson
skirt, the bottom boundary and the axisymmetric axis
are Neumanns conditions, preventing a flow orthog-
onal to the boundary. The boundary conditions of the
soil surface in the caisson, the free surface and the outer
boundary are Dirichlet conditions with prescribed pore
pressures. The steady-state flow model computes the
exit hydraulic gradient i next to the skirt and that gra-
dient is used to calculate the seepage length s in terms
of the applied suction p as:
The normalized seepage length s/h is a unique func-
tion of the relative penetration length h/D.
4 NUMERICAL RESULTS
The steady-state flow simulations were conducted
for two different cases at various embedment depths
0.1D > h > 1.2D. In the first case, simulations were
conducted to investigate bucket installation in homo-
geneous soil, the results are shown in Figure 7a. The
Figure 7. The results of the FLAC calculation are plotted as normalized seepage length for exit gradient versus relative
penetration. a) Installation in homogenous sand. b) Installation in sand over a flow boundary.
Figure 8. Seepage length for exit gradient versus relative
penetration predicted by equation (5), (6) and (7).
second case simulates a bucket installed in sand over
a flow boundary, located in the depth L . The results
are shown in Figure 7b.
4.1 Installation in homogeneous sand
The following empirical expression is given to approx-
imate the numerical data for the installation in homo-
geneous sand.
Equation (5) is fitted to two boundaries. For a very
small h/D ratio, equation (3) approaches 2.86, a the-
oretical solution for a sheet-pile wall, suggested by
Hansen (1978). For an infinitely long bucket, all the
924
Figure 9. Normalized critical suction versus relative pen-
etration. The critical suction is calculated with different
ratios L /D.
hydraulic head loss occurs inside the bucket with
evenly spaced horizontal equipotential lines. There-
fore, the normalized length tends to unity.
For installation in homogenous sand the internal
hydraulic gradients have been investigated by several
researchers using finite element programs as Plaxis
and SEEP. Senders & Randolph (2009) performed cal-
culations with the finite element program. Plaxis and
propose a similar expression for the exit gradient:
For very small h/D ratio equation (4) approaches
, which is a theoretical solution for a sheet-pile wall,
suggested by Scott (1963).
Figure 10. Installation tests analyzed using equation 12 with the flow boundaries interpret from the CPT tests in Figure 4.
Feld (2001) performed calculations with the finite
element program SEEP and proposed that the seepage
length could be estimated as:
Figure 8 show that these three different formula-
tions predict similar seepage length for penetrations
of practical interest 0.1 h/D 1.
4.2 Installation in sand over a flow boundary
The following empirical expression is given to approx-
imate the numerical data for the installation in layered
sand:
where (s/h)ref is calculated from equation (3). It is seen
that equation (6) approaches equation (3) if the dis-
tance to the flow boundary L is large in comparison
to the diameter of the bucket D.
5 CRITICAL SUCTION
The formation of local piping channels occurs when
the exit hydraulic gradient, next to the caisson wall,
exceeds the gravitational force, and thereby reduces
the effective stresses to zero. The critical gradient is:
925
The exit hydraulic gradient i can also be expressed
in terms of the applied suction p and the seepage length
s as:
where w is the unit weight of water and is the sub-
merged unit weight. The critical suction resulting in
formation of local piping channels are therefore
By combining equation (6) with equation (9) the
critical suction can be expressed as:
Figure 9 shows the critical suction calculated by equa-
tion (10) with different ratios L /D. If L /D is large
then the critical suction approaches the threshold for
penetration in homogeneous sand. It is also seen that
the presence of a flow boundary will increase the
threshold where critical suction will occur.
6 PREDICTION OF FIELD TEST DATA
In Figure 10, the suction needed to install the bucket is
plotted against equation (3) and (10). The figure shows
that suction close to or higher than critical, predicted by
equation (3), can be applied without significant con-
sequences. This is particularly seen in the installation
test with bucket 5.
It is seen that the suction needed to overcome the
resistance during the installation of the bucket 2 never
violated the critical suction predicted by equation (10)
with the flow boundary at 2.7 m. This was not the case
in the installation test with bucket 4. At a depth of
1.56 m the applied suction violated the failure criterion
predicted by equation (10) and piping channels were
formed and observed during the test. At the test with
bucket 5 the flow boundary was at a depth of 1.2 m.
This increases the suction capacity and the bucket was
penetrated with the highest applied suction without
any failure occurring. It is shown that these thin silt
layers act as flow boundaries and increase the suction
thresholds against piping.
7 CONCLUSION
By comparing the numerical studies with the installa-
tion tests it is shown that it is the exit gradient next to
the skirt which controls when piping will occur.
For installation in homogeneous sand, the internal
hydraulic gradients have been investigated by sev-
eral researchers using programs as Plaxis, SEEP and
FLAC. These studies have resulted in different formu-
lations, but the empirical expressions predict similar
critical suctions for skirt penetrations of practical
interest.
However, experience from installation of prototype
foundations have shown that gradients close to critical,
predicted by the expressions for homogenous sand, can
be applied without significant consequences.
The same was observed in the field test reported in
this paper. It is stated that the presence of thin silt layers
will act as flow boundaries and increase the suction
thresholds against piping.
926
The influence of the flow boundary was studied in
this paper. The results are presented as simple closed
form solutions and shown to predict thresholds against
piping in homogeneous or layered sand.
Future studies have to be performed in order to
establish the thresholds against piping when the skirt
penetrates through a flow boundary.
REFERENCES
Erbrich, C. T., Tjelta T. I. (1999) Installation of bucket foun-
dations and suction caissons in sand: geotechnical per-
formance. Proc., Offshore Technology Conf., Houston,
Texas, Paper OTC 10990.
Feld, T (2001). suction bucket, a new innovative founda-
tion concept applied to offshore wind turbines. Aalborg
university, Aalborg.
Hansen, B. (1978). Geoteknik og fundering del II. Laborato-
riet for fundering. DTH. (In Danish).
Ibsen, L.B (2008). Implementation of a new foundations con-
cept for Offshore Wind farms. Proc. Nordisk Geotekniker-
mte nr. 15 NGM 2008, 36 September 2008 Sandefjord,
Norge, 115.
Itasca (2005). FLAC3D Fast lagrangian analysis of con-
tinua: Fluid-Mechanical Interaction, Itasca Consulting
Group Inc., Minneapolis, USA.
Scott, R.S. (1963). Principles of soil mechanics. Addison-
Wesly Publiching Company, Inc.
Senders. M., Randolph M. F.,(2009) CPT-Based Method
for the Installation of Suction Caissons in Sand Jour. of
Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Enginnering.
Senepere, D., Auvergne, G. A. (1982) Suction anchor piles
a proven alternative to driving or drilling. Proc., 14th
Offshore Technology Conf., Houston, Texas, 483493.
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Shallow circular foundations under undrained general combined loading

in three-dimensional space

B. Bienen
Centre for Offshore Foundation Systems, University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia

ABSTRACT: The behaviour of shallow foundations under combined loading has been a topic of geotechnical
research for some time. While the modelling framework has moved away from considering ultimate load only
to treating combined loading through force-resultant models based on plasticity theory, for undrained loading
conditions these have only been developed for vertical, horizontal and moment loading (i.e. the three degrees-of-
freedom) in two-dimensional space. Although an extension to all six degrees-of-freedom in three-dimensional
space has been suggested, to date this has not been validated. As the response is similar in both orthogonal
horizontal and moment planes, only information in the torsional plane is required in order to extend the model
to six degrees-of-freedom. Therefore, only the interaction of vertical and torsional load was considered in the
shallow footing experiments presented here, conducted on over-consolidated clay at 1g. The experimental results
were used to validate the proposed extension to the force-resultant footing model for shallow circular footings
on clay. To conclude, the footing model, integrated into a finite element structural analysis program, was used
to predict the load-displacement behaviour of a mobile offshore drilling rig resting on three shallow spudcan
footings on over-consolidated clay soil.

1 INTRODUCTION

As mobile jack-up drilling rigs (Fig. 1) are not custom-

built for a particular site, the current guidelines
(SNAME 2002) require a site-specific assessment to
be performed for each new location before the plat-
form can be installed. This demonstration of the rigs
capacity to withstand the 50-year return period storm
is typically carried out as a push-over analysis.
Recently, force-resultant (or macro-element) mod-
els based on plasticity theory (Houlsby 2003, Cassidy
et al. 2004) have been developed that, if coupled with a
structural analysis program, enable integrated simula-
tion of the platform and its foundation-soil interaction
to be carried out. To date, similar but separate models Figure 1. Jack-up rig (schematic, after Reardon 1986).
exist for undrained (clay) and drained (sand) response,
respectively. Originally developed for vertical (V ),
horizontal (H ) and in-plane moment (M ) loading expression describing the shape and size of the yield
(Martin & Houlsby 2001, Houlsby & Cassidy 2002), surface in planes including torsion (Q) can be devel-
these models enable analysis in two-dimensional space oped for shallow circular footings on clay soil. Though
only. Though Martin (1994) postulated extension of Yun et al. (2009) included a flat circular footing in their
the foundation-soil interaction model for clay to cater study of combined vertical-torsional loading, only the
for all six degrees-of-freedom in three-dimensional maximum magnitude of sustained torsion of a fully
space, to date only the corresponding model repre- rough footing was provided.
senting the non-linear response of a shallow circular This paper presents results from model physical
footing on sand has been formally extended to six experiments of a flat circular footing and a spud-
degrees-of-freedom based on experimental evidence can on clay under vertical-torsional loading. Based
(Bienen et al. 2006).To the authors knowledge, neither on this evidence, the footing macro-element model is
experimental nor continuum finite element analy- extended to account for all six degrees-of-freedoms.
sis results have been published based on which an Example analyses of a jack-up rig conclude the paper.

927
2 NUMERICAL FORCE-RESULTANT MODEL
2.1 Background
Following the proposition by Butterfield & Ticof
(1979) of utilising interaction diagrams, a number
of models allowing prediction of shallow footing load-
displacement response on both sand and clay have been
formulated within the framework of displacement-
hardening plasticity (including Nova & Montrasio
1991, Gottardi et al. 1999, Martin & Houlsby 2000,
2001, Byrne & Houlsby 2001, Houlsby & Cassidy
2002, Bienen et al. 2006). These models consist of
a yield surface (written directly as a function of the
combined loads) which expands according to a hard-
ening law, a description of elastic behaviour within
the yield surface and a flow rule to describe the
behaviour at yield. The entire footing-soil interaction
is encapsulated into a point element. This frame-
work has the advantage that models can be directly
implemented into finite element programs to integrate
the footing-soil response with the structural response.
Notable examples of this have been in predicting the
response of entire jack-up platform systems under
environmental loading (Thompson 1996, Williams
et al. 1998 and Cassidy et al. 2002 for two-dimensional
simulation and Bienen & Cassidy 2006, 2009 for
three-dimensional simulations on sand).
The clay model (Model B) used in this paper but pro-
posed by Martin (1994) and Martin & Houlsby (2001)
is part of the ISIS family of plasticity models (Houlsby
2003, Cassidy et al. 2004). It was developed based
on an extensive series of experiments on a 125 mm
spudcan footing on soft heavily over-consolidated
Speswhite kaolin clay (Martin & Houlsby 2000). The
tests were carried out on the laboratory floor (at 1g)
and comprised VHM loading combinations in-plane.
However, Martin (1994) postulated the following
expression to describe the yield surface in terms of all
six degrees-of-freedom in three-dimensional space:
where the load components are shown in Figure 2. V0 is
the uniaxial vertical capacity at the current penetration,
D is the footing diameter in contact with the soil and h0 ,
m0 and q0 determine the yield surface size in the hori-
zontal, moment and torsional directions, respectively.
The parameter a determined the ellipse eccentricity in
the HM plane, 1 , 2 and 12 shape the yield surface
in planes including vertical load.
For reasons of symmetry there cannot be any
cross-coupling terms within the horizontal or moment
928
Figure 2. Sign convention (after Butterfield et al. 1997).
Table 1. Kaolin clay properties.
Liquid Limit (LL) 61%
Plastic Limit (PL) 27%
Specific gravity (Gs) 2.60
Angle of Internal Friction  23
planes, nor can there be terms coupling torsion to other
degrees-of-freedom.
2.2 Yield surface in the vertical-torsional plane
The maximum sustainable torsion was derived to
be 0.333ADsu for clay (Martin 1994), based on the
assumption of mobilising the full soils undrained
shear strength, su , along the footing-soil interface. This
was confirmed by small strain finite element analysis
of a flat rough circular footing byYun et al. (2009).This
brings the normalised yield surface size in the torsional
direction, q0 , to about 0.05 for a surface footing. How-
ever, as Martin (1994) pointed out, it is unlikely that a
spudcan under horizontal load (shear) will mobilise the
undrained shear strength in full, which was confirmed
by the experimental results of a model spudcan on
over-consolidated clay published in Martin & Houlsby
(2000).
Similar behaviour is expected under torsional load.
This is confirmed by results obtained from physical
experiments conducted in this study. The tests with
load application in the vertical-torsional plane were
carried out at 1g on two different model footings: (1) a
flat circular footing 60 mm in diameter and (2) a spud-
can 50 mm in diameter. The experimental apparatus
used is described in Bienen et al. (2007).
The undrained shear strength of the over-
consolidated kaolin clay soil (for properties see
Table 1) was determined to be about 10 kPa at the
depth of the tests.
Figure 3 shows results of swipe tests (Tan 1990),
in which the footing is penetrated vertically before
being twisted at no further penetration. If the elastic
stiffness far exceeds the plastic stiffness, the resulting
load path closely traces the yield surface (Tan 1990,
Martin 1994). The envelope at low vertical load may
be traced by unloading the footing vertically before
Figure 3. Yield surface in the vertical-torsional plane.
Figure 4. Numerical model (SOS_3D).
torsion is applied, noting that the load path will initially
Table 2. Jack-up and footing properties.
fall inside the yield surface.
In addition to the experimental results, Figure 3 Leg length 130 m
includes numerical predictions of the swipe tests, Separation of fwd. leg 45 m
which were obtained with the footing macro-model. to centerline of aft legs
The yield surface size in the torsional direction, q0 , was Separation aft legs 50 m
assumed to be 0.0275 as suggested by the experimen- Youngs modulus (E) 200 GPa
tal evidence (corresponding to an interface roughness Shear modulus (G) 81 GPa
coefficient of about 0.5). The shape of the yield surface Iy,hull beams , I z,hull beams 20 m4
is captured well with 1 = 0.764 and 2 = 0.882 (Eqn. J hull beams 350 m4
1) as suggested for the three degree-of-freedom model Ahull beams 10 m2
(Martin & Houlsby 2000), although 1 = 2 = 1.0 Iy,leg beams , Iz,leg beams 2 m4
Jleg beams 35 m4
would provide a slightly better fit in the torsional plane
Aleg beams 5 m2
at low vertical loads. Footing diameter 20 m

Assumed significantly stiffer than the legs.
3 INTEGRATED ANALYSIS

Soil-structure interaction macro-elements, such as the Table 3. Footing model parameters.

clay model discussed in this paper, can be incorpo-
rated into general finite element programs to allow
integrated analyses to be performed. Examples include
not only the simulation of jack-up behaviour using
in-house software as mentioned above but also appli-
cations such as pipeline analysis with commercial soft-
ware such as Abaqus (Tian et al. 2009), for instance.
Integrated analyses are required where the chang-
ing footing stiffness significantly influences the global
response, as is the case in jack-ups. Decreasing footing
stiffness increases the P- effect on such tall flexible
structures. The increased overturning load decreases
the footing stiffness further. Therefore, the systems
ultimate capacity can only be accurately predicted if
this inter-relation is accounted for.
The software employed for the example integrated
analysis presented here is a fluid-structure-soil inter-
action program developed in-house called SOS_3D
(Bienen & Cassidy 2006). The jack-up structure is
modeled using beam-column elements. A footing
macro-element is attached to each of the three bottom
nodes of the structural model.
Though no experimental (or field) data were avail-
able to benchmark the numerical results for the jack-up
system against, a similar comparison for planar condi-
tions only (loading along the axis of symmetry) based
on 1g physical experiments showed good agreement
(Vlahos 2004).
h0 0.127 e1 0.518 1 0.764
m0 0.083 e2 1.180 2 0.882
q0 0.028
Eccentricity (Eqn. 1) a = e1 + e1 (V /V0 ) (V /V0 -1)
3.1 Numerical model
The numerical model is shown in Figure 4. Table 2
summarizes the relevant properties, which correspond
to a generic field jack-up currently in use. As in
the experiments, the spudcan shape was similar in
elevation to that used by Martin (1994).
The clay soil is assumed to be homogeneous with an
undrained shear strength of 50 kPa, submerged unit
weight  = 6 kN/m3 and a rigidity index Ir = 500. As
the previously recommended shape factors provide a
good fit to the data (Fig. 3), all model parameters are
assumed as set out in Cassidy et al. (2004), apart from
q0 = 0.0275 (Table 3). Elastic stiffness coefficients are
assumed according to Doherty & Deeks (2003).
Mimicking the installation procedure employed in
the field, the jack-up is preloaded to twice its self-
weight, which applies a vertical load of 90 MN on each
of the three footings. This corresponds to a bearing
pressure of about 286 kPa, which is within the range
quoted by Osborne et al. (2006).

929
Figure 5. Global load-displacement response.

After preloading, the jack-up is brought back to

its self-weight of 135 MN in total. This was followed
by a quasi-static push-over for the example analyses
presented here, though dynamic fluid-structure-soil
analyses can also be performed in SOS_3D. The anal-
yses were carried out for the loading directions shown
in the inset of Figure 4, i.e. along the rigs axis of
symmetry and at an angle of 30 to it. The former
orientation could be simplified and modeled in two-
dimensional analyses, the latter, however, requires
three-dimensional analysis to be performed.

3.2 Numerical model

In the push-over analyses a horizontal load, applied
at the jack-up hull was monotonically increased until
failure of the system was observed. The global load-
displacement response of the modeled jack-up is
shown in Figure 5. Only resultant magnitudes are
provided, i.e. directionality is not indicated.
In the current example, the systems capacity is
lower when loaded symmetrically than when loaded
at 30 to the axis of symmetry. However, this may not
always be the case as shown previously for jack-ups
on sand (Bienen & Cassidy 2006, 2009). Further, the
planned position of the jack-up on site with respect
to the dominant loading direction may not allow
two-dimensional modelling.
The individual footing load paths, shown in Fig-
ure 6, shed further light on the global system response.
The different orientation of the rig to the push-over
load manifests itself in the footing load paths: When
loaded symmetrically (0 ) the aft spudcans B and C
(Fig. 4) experience the same loads, and part of the over-
turning is resisted by a vertical push-pull mechanism
between the forward and aft legs. In the 30 loading
direction, spudcan A is slightly less heavily loaded
while the vertical load on spudcan B reduces even
stronger than in the symmetrical orientation during
the push-over. The vertical load on spudcan C remains
largely unchanged.
As the response is shown in terms of the different
loading components, visualization of the yield surface
in the respective plane illustrates moment loading as
the dominant load component. Torsion of the system
is mainly resisted by horizontal footing reactions, tor-
sion of each of the legs (and thus the footings) is low
Figure 6. Footing load paths.
even at a loading angle of 30 . However, incorporation
of the torsional component into the footing macro-
element enables full three-dimensional analyses to be
performed.
In all loading planes, a distinct change in response
is visible upon yield of a footing. This is due to the
single yield surface formulation of the model and
thus the sharp transition from elastic to elasto-plastic
behaviour. The influence of the footing stiffness on the
global system stiffness is evident in Figure 5 (note that
the structure itself is modeled as elastic).
The decreasing rotational footing stiffness during
yield is compensated by a stronger vertical push-
pull mechanism between the forward and aft footings
(Fig. 6). While the yield surface expands on the heav-
ily loaded spudcan(s), the model formulation predicts
footing heave and thus a contracting yield surface
on the rear spudcan B. Note that the load paths
of spudcans A and B travel towards the respective
yield surface apex points. Therefore, even though the
yield surface associated with spudcan A continuously

930
increases in size, the available combined capacity at
the current load point (the yield surface cross-section)
decreases.
The numerical analysis suggests failure of the jack-
up system not at first yield of the footings, but predicts
significant additional capacity. Only when the yield
surface corresponding to spudcan A can no longer
expand at a sufficiently fast rate to accommodate for
the increased combined loading does the jack-up fail
in the numerical prediction.
4 CONCLUDING REMARKS
A foundation-soil interaction macro-element for shal-
low circular footings on clay soil has been extended
to cater for all six degrees-of-freedom in three-
dimensional space. The required evidence for the
extension, the interaction in the vertical-torsional
plane, was obtained through model experiments. As
the footing macro-element predicts not only the com-
bined ultimate capacity, but the entire non-linear load-
displacement response, integrated analysis allows for
the prediction of the jack-ups behaviour up to ulti-
mate failure of the system. The extended footing
macro-element enables simulation of the structure-soil
interaction in three dimensions, which is important
when the loading direction does not align with the
systems axis of symmetry, for instance.
It should be noted that the footing model was
developed for shallow circular footings, i.e. the cor-
responding failure mechanisms extend to the soil
surface. On soft soil sites, however, the footings of
jack-up rigs penetrate up to three diameters, with
soil flowing around the edges of the footing, localiz-
ing the failure mechanisms (deep failure mechanism).
Work is currently ongoing at the Centre for Offshore
Foundation Systems (COFS) to establish a similar
footing model that takes into account the increased
combined load capacity of deeply penetrated spudcan
footings.
5 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The work described here forms part of the activities of
the Centre for Offshore Foundation systems (COFS),
established under the Australian Research Councils
Research Centres Program and now supported by Cen-
tre of Excellence funding from the State Government
of Western Australia. The original code for Model B
was written by Dr Chris Martin of Oxford University.
The current version of the SOS_3D program uses the
ISIS computer code originally written in collaboration
between the University of Oxford and The University
of Western Australia. Professor Guy Houlsby has been
instrumental in its development and his contribution
is acknowledged. The author is thankful for the help
of Nick Bennett and Brett McKiernan in carrying out
the experiments.
931
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Yun, G.J., Maconochie, A., Oliphant, J. & Bransby, F.
(2009). Undrained capacity of surface footings subjected
to combined V-H-T loading. Proc. 19th Int. Offshore and
Polar Engineering Conference (ISOPE), Osaka, Japan,
pp. 914.
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Undrained ultimate capacity of suction anchors using an advanced

constitutive model

S. Panayides & M. Rouainia

Newcastle University, Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK

ABSTRACT: This paper investigates the ultimate capacity of suction anchor foundations, using an advanced
constitutive model. The paper explores the effect of several factors on the undrained load-carrying capacity of
the bucket foundations in clay. A parametric study is carried out to assess of the effects of initial structure, the rate
of destructuration and the form of the destructuration strain. Illustrative numerical results for an inorganic clay
of low sensitivity from the Norrkping region in southern Sweden demonstrate the potential of the constitutive
model.

1 INTRODUCTION rise to lateral loads that could be up to one third of

The relative inefficiency of piles in resisting lateral
forces has led the offshore industry to consider alter-
native anchorage systems such as suction caissons.
Suction caissons can be installed very quickly and
precisely at the desired location with less heavy instal-
lation equipment and at lower cost. Therefore they are
considered as a viable anchorage system in a wide vari-
ety of soils ranging from soft clay to dense sands and
overconsolidated clays and for a wide variety of struc-
tures ranging from floating exploration platforms to
permanent production facilities. The development of
suction caissons in recent years has seen them used
around the world in more than 36 fields in the last
decade alone (Andersen, 2002). Suction caissons are
large cylindrical shells, with an open bottom and a
closed top fitted with valves. The aspect ratio of these
piles, defined as the length to diameter ratio, is rela-
tively small when compared with the aspect ratio of
conventional piles, typically six or less (Andersen,
2005). Internal stiffeners are usually added, to resist
buckling during the installation process, since the
caisson walls are relatively thin. They are installed
partly by self weight and partly by differential pressure
between the surrounding environment and the inside
of the skirted foundation. In some cases, dead weights
can be applied on the top of the cap to ensure that
compressive loads are acting on the suction anchors
(Zdravkovic, 2001). Once full penetration has been
achieved, the valve is closed. Any vertical movement
during service will result in the generation of suc-
tion pressure inside the anchor which will mobilize
the reverse end-bearing mechanism, as it is described
by Finn & Byrne (1972). Foundations for offshore
structures, however, experience significant environ-
mental loads from waves, currents and wind giving
the vertical loads. The direct consequence of that is
that resultant loads can be inclined to the vertical. It is
well documented that suction anchors are capable of
resisting both lateral and axial loads as well as inclined
loads.
The ultimate capacity of suction anchors has been
the focus of many investigations in recent years. Fol-
lowing the work of Hogervorst (1980) Keaveny et al
(1994) showed that lowering the load attachment point
at mid depth increased the capacity significantly. Suc-
tion caisson capacity studies based on upper bound
limit analyses from Randolph et al (1998) and a finite
element study from Sukumaran et al (1999) indicate
that the anchor capacity can be maximised when the
load is located at a point which forces the anchor to fail
in a translational mode of failure rather than rotational.
Murff & Hamilton (1993) presented a three dimen-
sional quasi upper bound formulation for predicting
the ultimate capacity of laterally loaded piles. The
three dimensional mechanism which they proposed
comprised of a conical wedge near the free surface
and a flow around zone below the wedge (Randolph &
Houlsby, 1984).
This paper presents a study of the shot-term pull-
out capacity of suction caissons in soft clay using
an advanced constitutive model. The failure envelope
was produced for one reference caisson. The soil was
modelled using the Kinematic Hardening Soil Model
(KHSM) as proposed by Rouainia & Muir Wood
(2000).A parametric analysis was carried out, in which
the initial structure size r0 , the destructuration strain
rate k and parameter A which controls the relative pro-
portions of distortional and volumetric destructuration
were varied. These studies provided a general picture
of the effect of each of these parameters on the ultimate
capacity of suction caissons.

933
2 GEOMETRY

The geometry for the first reference suction anchor

foundation adopted for this study is provided in Fig-
ure 1. It comprises of a cylindrical suction anchor with
closed top with a diameter D of the cylinder of 5 m,
while the skirt length L is set to 7.5 m, giving rise
to an aspect ratio of L/D = 1.5. A wall thickness of
50 mm (or D/100) was used in all cases. The caisson is
embedded with the top cap flush with the surrounding
ground level and the load attachment point, or padeye
location, at a depth zp along the caisson shaft. Loads
are applied at an angle from the horizontal. The cais-
son is considered to be very stiff compared to the soil.
The pullout loads are applied on different points on
the side of the caisson with at an inclination to the
horizontal to produce the failure envelopes. The geom-
etry is extended 3 times the length L around to avoid
influence of the geometry boundaries.
3 FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSES
The cylindrical suction anchor was modelled using the
Plaxis 3D with 15 node wedge elements. The anchor
was modelled by linear elastic wall elements with a
high stiffness making them virtually rigid. Since the
governing failure mechanisms do not involve the soil
plug inside the anchor, this material was modelled
as a stiff, elastic material. The mesh with approx-
imately 13000 elements and 26000 nodes was
found to be sufficiently refined in order to minimize
the discetization error.
For all the FE-models in this study, interface ele-
ments along the outside caisson walls have been
used with a strength reduction factor of the interface
(Rinter) set to 0.65. The interface properties are esti-
mated using the strength reduction factor and the soil
properties as follows:
where i and ci are the interface effective friction angle
the interface effective cohesion, respectively and Eoed
is the constrained modulus of the soil.  and c are the
friction angle and effective cohesion of the soil.
Since pore water pressures or the installation of the
suction anchor is not considered, the phreatic level was
placed at the bottom of the geometry.
4 MATERIAL MODEL
The model used in this study was formulated for natu-
ral clays within the framework of kinematic hardening
with some elements of bounding surface plasticity. It is
a rate independent model and it takes into account the
effects of damage to structure caused by irrecoverable
plastic strains, resulting from sampling or geotechni-
cal loading. KHSM is an extension of the well known
Figure 1. Finite Element geometry for the reference suction
anchor.
Cam-Clay model. The steady fall of stiffness with
strain is controlled by an interpolation function which
ensures a smooth advancement of the elastic domain
(which is enclosed in a small bubble) towards the
bounding surface during loading.
A scalar variable r, which is a monotonically
decreasing function of the plastic strain, represents
the progressive degradation of the material. Accord-
ingly, the following exponential destructuration law, is
proposed
where ro denotes the initial structure and k is a parame-
ter which describes the rate of destructuration process
with strain. The rate of the destructuration strain d
will be assumed to have the following form
where A is a non-dimensional scaling parameter and
p
q and vp are the plastic shear strain and the plastic
volumetric strain, respectively. The governing consti-
tutive relations of the KHSM are summarized in the
Appendix.
5 CLAY PROPERTIES
The parameters required for the analysis correspond to
inorganic clay of low sensitivity from the Norrkping
region in southern Sweden. An effective unit weight
 = 10 KN/m3 was used. The model parameters for
the soil and the interface were taken from Wester-
berg, (1995). An over consolidation ratio (OCR) of
1 was adopted for the analyses. The coefficient of lat-
eral earth pressure (K0NC = 1 sin  ) was taken as
0.5 which corresponds to an effective friction angle 
of 30 . For the soil-structure interface, an oedometric
Youngs modulus (Eoed ) of 1800 KPa and cohesion c
of 2.1 KPa were used. These optimized parameters are
described as reference parameters and correspond to
the KHSM model in all the analyses below.

934

Figure 2. Predicted and measured undrained shear strength
for Norrkping clay.
As with all critical state soil models, the undrained
shear strength is not an input parameter for KHSM.
This issue was resolved, by running undrained triax-
ial compression tests starting from the insitu stress
conditions for several points along the length of the
pile. The intersection between the critical state line
and the undrained stress path is the failure point,
and consequently the corresponding ultimate devi-
ator stress is the difference between the axial and
radial total stresses at the end of each test, (Muir
Wood, 1990). Hence that point is twice the undrained
shear strength of the soil at that depth. The proce-
dure described above, provided the theoretical predic-
tion of the undrained strength profile. The predicted
undrained shear strength distribution has a zero inter-
cept at the surface, linearly increasing with depth at a
rate of 2.6z.
Figure 2 provides a comparison of the predicted
TXC strength profile from KHSM with laboratory
tests and field vane test as well as the empirical rela-
tion for Norrkping clay from Westerberg (1995). As
it can be seen, the predicted shear strength distribu-
tion lies within the range of values provided by the
field and laboratory tests. It is possible to replicate the
exact shear strength distribution, by having an initial
OCR value that is higher than 1 and decreasing with
depth. This process would result in a constant value
of the undrained strength with depth, up to the point
where it starts varying linearly with depth.
6 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
6.1 Failure mechanisms
Figure 3 shows the Incremental Displacement Vector
Plots and Failure Mechanism obtained from the anal-
ysis corresponding to pure horizontal loading, located
at the optimal loading point. A well defined failure sur-
face develops on both the active and passive side of the
caisson. As it can be seen the failure extends to the bot-
tom of the caisson, with no flow around zone visible. It
935
Figure 3. Incremental Displacement Vector plot indicating
the failure mechanism.
Figure 4. Comparison of KHSM and Bubble models with
two analytical methods.
should be noted however that the gradient of the wedge
varies with depth. As the wedge approaches the tip of
the caissons it tends to curve passing tangentially at
the bottom of the caisson.
6.2 Failure envelope comparison
Figure 4 shows the comparison of the failure enve-
lope for non-horizontal loadings for the structured
model (KHSM), the Bubble model and two analyti-
cal methods suggested by Supachawarote (2005) and
Senders & Kay (2002). It is evident that the struc-
tured model predicts the ultimate load for all loading
angles very well. In contrast, the Bubble model, consis-
tently, underestimates the ultimate load by an average
of 12%. This behaviour is as expected, since the Bub-
ble model was formulated to represent the behaviour
of reconstituted material and cannot account for added
strength the natural clay deposits exhibit.
6.3 Parametric analysis
The first simulation of the parametric analyses com-
prised of an investigation of the effect of the measure
of initial structure on the ultimate load. All the model
parameters values were kept the same as in Table 1,
except r0 which controls the size of the structure
surface as seen in equation (3).
Table 1. Soil parameters for Norrkping Clay.

Material constants Value

Slope of swelling line 0.0297

Slope of normal compression line 0.252
Poissons ratio v 0.22
Critical state stress ratio M 1.35
Ratio of size of bubble and reference surface R 0.145
Stiffness interpolation parameter B 1.98
Stiffness interpolation parameter 1.547
Destructuration parameter k 4.16
Destructuration strain parameter A 0.494
Initial degree of structure r0 1.75
Anisotropy of initial structure 0 0.5

Figure 6. Load- Displacement curves for the parametric

analysis on the destructuration strain rate.

Figure 5. Load- Displacement curves for the parametric

analysis on the size of the initial structure.

Increasing r0 by 14% of the reference value

increases the initial degree of structure so that the
load displacement curve, shown in Figure 5 exhibits a
stiffer behaviour at 0.06 m of pile head displacement.
This difference results in an overestimation of the ulti-
mate load by 6%. An identical reduction to r0 has the
consequence of underestimating the ultimate load by
7%. Similarly the deviation from the KHSM curve
is initiated at about 0.06 m of displacement. This gives
a first indication that the stress state up to that point is
situated within the boundaries of elastic domain. Fur-
thermore, the analysis that did not include the effects
of destructuration concluded to an ultimate horizon-
tal load of 3070 kN, which gives rise to a deviation
of 16% from the reference load. It can be said that
the model is not very sensitive to the change in value
of r0 , however the absence of any degree of structure
increases the error significantly.
The next model parameter that was investigated was
k, which controls the rate of loss of structure with dam-
age strain. Figure 6 depicts the effects on varying this
parameter by 50% either way. An increase in this
parameter results to a more rapid loss of structure and
an overall softer behavior as seen in the load displace-
ment curve. This in turn, results in an underestimation
of the ultimate load by 7%. The softer behaviour
Figure 7. Load- Displacement curves for the parametric
analysis on the form of the destructuration strain.
exhibited is as expected, since the reduction of k
allows the structure surface to collapse faster towards
the reconstituted Cam clay surface. As expected, a
decrease of the value of the destructuration parameter
reduces the rate at which structure is lost with contin-
uing strain and hence a stiffer response is observed,
which results in an overestimation of the ultimate load
by 8%. The deviations from the load-displacement
curves using the KHSM parameters, becomes clear at a
pile head displacement of 0.06 m. Parameter A which
controls the relative proportions of distortional and
volumetric destructuration was then investigated. The
two extreme cases have been examined. When setting
A to be equal to 1, it is assumed that the destructura-
tion process is entirely distortional. As a result of this
process the ultimate load is reduced by 7%.
The deviation from the reference value of 0.494
used in the KHSM model increases the rate of loss of
structure and suggests that the suction caisson load-
ing causes largely distortional deformation. On the
other hand, by setting A = 0 and hence presuming

936
that destructuration is produced solely by volumetric
strain, has the effect of slowing down the process of
losing structure and overestimates the ultimate load
by 18%.As for the previous two investigations, the
divergence of the load displacement curves occurs at
0.06 m of pile head displacement. This observation
supports the hypothesis that until that point of loading,
the stress state is situated within the elastic domain.
7 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
With p and s are the effective pressure and the deviator
stress tensor. K and G are the bulk and shear moduli
and is the slope of the swelling line. d and v are
the deviatoric and the volumetric components of the
strain tensor , respectively.
Equation of the reference, bubble and structure
surfaces:

This paper presents the numerical analysis of the

undrained ultimate capacity of a suction caisson, in
a soft structured clay deposit. Two finite element anal-
yses were conducted in order to compute the ultimate
capacity for a variation of load inclinations, to pro-
vide the full failure envelope. In the first analysis of
the study, the clay deposit was modeled with a consti-
tutive model for reconstituted clays (Bubble model),
which cannot take into account the destructuration pro-
cess, whereas, in the second part, the clay deposit was
modeled with an advanced constitutive model for nat-
ural clays, namely the Kinematic Hardening Structure
Model, which can simulate destructuration. Further-
more, a parametric analysis involving the initial mea- where = (p I + s ) denotes the location of the centre
sure of structure r0 , the destructuration strain rate k of the bubble in the stress space, R represents the ratio
and parameter A illustrated the effect these parame- of the sizes of the bubble and the structure surface and
ters have on the ultimate capacity corresponding to r represents the destrucruration law which is a decreas-
pure horizontal loading. ing function of the plastic damage strain and pc is the
The main conclusions that can be drawn from the preconsolidation effective stress. M is the slope of the
comparison of the two analyses are as follows: critical state line function of the Lode angle, and 0 is
a fixed dimensionless deviatoric tensor
Both analyses predict similar failure mechanisms, Isotropic hardening law:
namely a wedge failure on both sides of the caisson
with no flow around zone.
The model for truly reconstituted soils underesti-
mates the ultimate capacities for all load inclinations
by 12%. where is the slope of the normal compression line
p
The failure envelope from the KHSM analysis and v is the plastic volumetric strain.
agrees very well with two simple design equations Kinematic Hardening law
from previous finite element analyses of suction
caissons.
The parametric analysis on parameter A indicates
that the suction caisson loading causes largely
distortional deformation. where is a positive scalar of proportionality and
The results from this study show that the reverse end c is the contact stress on the structure surface.
bearing factor of 10.6. = (rpc I , (r 1)o pc ) is the position of the centre of
The normalized horizontal capacity was found in the structure surface.
this study to be 9.6 Plastic modulus at current stress:

The above conclusions imply that the KHSM model

can predict the undrained ultimate capacity of suction
caissons accurately. The work presented in this paper
shows that an analysis, which ignores destructuration
may underestimate the ultimate capacity of caissons,
which could result to uneconomical designs
8 APPENDIX
Where Hc is the plastic modulus at conjugate stress,
b is a normalized distance b which vanishes when the
bubble and the structure surfaces are in contact and
bmax is its maximum value. and B are two additional
material parameters.

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sis of Suction Anchors in Clay by Plaxis 3D Foundation.
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resistance of suction caison anchors. International Jour-
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undrained resistance of suction caisson anchors. Interna-
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Aubeny, C.P., Han, S.W., and Murff, J.D. 2003. Inclined
load capacity of suction caissons. International Journal
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Numerical methods and Eurocode
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Embedded cantilever retaining wall ULS design by FEA

in accordance with EN 1997-1

A.S. Lees & S. Perdikou

Frederick University, Nicosia, Cyprus
Geofem Ltd.

ABSTRACT: As numerical methods expand into more areas of geotechnical design it is inevitable that confor-
mance to design codes will become more of an issue. The recent introduction of Eurocode 7 EN 1997 provides an
opportunity to develop new modeling methods in accordance with a design code. However, there are many issues
to overcome, particularly in ULS design, including one of partial factoring. While a material factoring approach
is relatively straightforward to implement using numerical methods because the material properties are input
values, factoring geotechnical actions and, in particular, geotechnical resistances, however, is not straightforward
because these values are determined by the analysis itself. This paper proposes a method of factoring Ka and Kp
through manipulation of  and c values in order to factor geotechnical actions and resistances on an embedded
cantilever retaining wall. Credible results are obtained for the example problem studied, particularly for passive
resistance factoring, but more study is needed of the methods on other examples.

1 INTRODUCTION design in accordance with EC7. These include under-

By the time the NUMGE 2010 Conference starts,
the Structural Eurocodes will have superseded exist-
ing design codes in many of the States of Europe.
Eurocode 7 (EC7) (CEN, 2004) covers the geotech-
nical aspects of the design of buildings and civil
engineering works.
While the use of numerical methods in geotechni-
cal design offices has increased enormously in recent
years, arguably their use would be more widespread
if more guidance existed on their use in accordance
with design codes and standards. Introduction of EC7
with its common design framework for all geotechni-
cal structure types provides an opportunity to produce
such guidance.
The Eurocodes provide little guidance on specific
design methods. This is particularly the case with
EC7 for numerical methods although it does con-
tain some recommendations for their use in assessing
deflections in soil-structure interaction problems. The
analysis of such serviceability limit state (SLS) prob-
lems by numerical analysis has become relatively
commonplace but there are also gains to be had from
using numerical methods in ultimate limit state (ULS)
designs, provided one is prepared to invest in the addi-
tional time and expertise that these require. One major
advantage is the checking of multiple failure forms
which are not pre-determined in the analysis, unlike
more traditional design methods which, while robust,
may only provide a check on one pre-determined
failure mechanism.
There are many difficulties to overcome before
numerical methods can be used routinely in ULS
standing the influence of parameters other than those
defining the failure criteria, e.g. stiffness, stress ratio,
dilation angle, even in the most basic constitutive mod-
els. Factoring the Mohr-Coulomb failure criterion in
accordance with EC7 should be relatively straightfor-
ward, but methods of factoring other criteria, such
as a hyperbolic model, are less obvious. A particu-
lar difficulty lies in the application of partial factors
to geotechnical actions and resistances, since these are
not pre-determined values in a numerical analysis.
By using the analysis of a supported embedded can-
tilever retaining wall by the finite element method as
an example, this paper describes the application of
the partial factors and verification of structural and
geotechnical ULSs for all three Design Approaches
(DAs). The methods are shown to provide credible
results for this particular example.
2 FACTORING FOR ULS VERIFICATION
Bauduin et al. (2005) described methods of imple-
menting ULS partial factors in finite element analyses
(FEAs), although no examples were presented. They
proposed a material factoring approach (MFA), which
is applicable to DA1-Combination 2 (DA1(2)) and
DA3 and a load and resistance factoring approach
(LRFA), applicable to DA2. All analyses should be
conducted using characteristic values of all parame-
ters, with parameters changed stepwise to their design
values only to verify ULSs and obtain design values
of structural forces as necessary at each construction

941
Figure 1. Strip foundation example.

stage. Following verification of the ULS, the analysis

should continue from the previous characteristic state
on to the next construction stage. Figure 2. Plotting factors to detect failure in strip foundation
The MFA is straightforward to implement because example.
the material properties are pre-determined parameters.
Factoring of external actions is also straightforward,
but factoring geotechnical actions and resistances in
the LRFA is less so as these values are determined
by the analysis itself. Ultimate resistance values are mobilisation of maximum resistance requires possi-
particularly difficult to determine because failure will bly highly inaccurate manipulation of the FEA. In the
not normally occur in an FEA of a real problem unless following retaining wall example, a method of over-
it is forced in some way. For geotechnical structures coming this difficulty is proposed and implemented
with external loads only (e.g. shallow foundations), in DA2.
this can be achieved by increasing the applied loads to
failure and determining the ultimate resistance value
from a load-deflection graph (Bauduin et al. 2005).
3 EMBEDDED CANTILEVER RETAINING
Both the MFA and LRFA were implemented in an
WALL EXAMPLE
FEA of the strip foundation in clay shown in Figure 1.
The LRFA was implemented by increasing a common
A design example from Frank et al. (2004) was selected
load factor A applied to the DA2 design values of all
for plane strain FEA, to allow a ready comparison
the applied actions on the foundation from 1.0 until
with the published results using more conventional
failure and plotting the load factor against average
design methods. Figure 3 shows the geometry of the
vertical deflection of the foundation, as shown in Fig-
problem: in the FEA the ground anchor was rep-
ure 2. The MFA was implemented firstly by increasing
resented by a horizontal bar element connected to
the applied loads to their DA3 design values and then
the wall at 1.0 m elevation, with spring stiffness
invoking the  c reduction facility in Plaxis v.9
(k = EA/L) of 21 kN/mm per m run. The sheet pile wall
(Plaxis 2008) which steps up the material factor M
was modelled with beam elements with flexural stiff-
( and c equally on tan  and c respectively) until
ness EI = 5 104 kNm2 /m, Poissons ratio = 0.1 and
a failure mechanism is detected. It was found infor-
ultimate moment of resistance Mu,d = 613 kNm/m. To
mative to plot also the MFA against average vertical
model soil-wall friction, elastic perfectly plastic inter-
deflection of the foundation, as shown in Figure 2.
face elements were used with  and c set to 2/3 the
The MFA produces a more definitive failure when
adjacent soil values on both sides of the wall.
plotted (Fig. 2) with a mechanism occurring at
The soil was represented by 15-node triangular
M = 3.0. Due to compression of the soil under the
elements, each typically 0.5 m wide around the wall
increasing applied load, the LRFA produces a less def-
increasing to 10 m at the remote boundaries (50 m dis-
inite failure. The A value at failure would correspond
tant horizontally and 50 m below ground level). The
with the resistance factor R used in DA2 (since it is
soil was modelled with a linear elastic-perfectly plas-
a factor on the design values of the applied loads).
tic Mohr-Coulomb model with the properties shown
Overcoming the difficulty of factoring geotechnical
in Table 1. For the calculation of pore pressures,
resistance in the strip foundation example was rel-
steady-state seepage conditions were established for
atively straightforward because only structural loads
the groundwater levels shown in Figure 3.
were the cause of failure. As Bauduin et al. (2005)
The retaining wall and support were installed in
recognised, in situations where actions from the
the first construction stage, followed by excavation to
ground provide resistance (e.g. passive resistance),
5.4 m level, both using all characteristic values.
942
 Figure 4. Development of passive failure due to material
strength factoring in DA3 and DA1(2) with d = 4.95 m.

Figure 3. Embedded cantilever retaining wall example Once the d value was determined, a further con-
(Frank et al. 2004). struction stage was introduced with  and c factored
by exactly 1.25 to obtain the design values of struc-
tural forces. This avoids the excessively high structural
Table 1. Soil parameters. forces that are predicted following passive failure on
completion of the  c reduction. The design wall
 c E
deg. kPa deg. kPa  bending moment profile is shown as the fourth line in
Figure 5. The maximum value was 288 kNm/m while
Layer A 35 0.1 0 4 104 0.2 the design value of the support force was 202 kN/m.
Layer B 24 5 0 3 104 0.2
3.2 DA1(1)
K0 sat unsat k In DA1, in addition to Combination 2 of partial factors
kN/m3 kN/m3 m/s
on variable loads and material strength, Combination 1
of partial factors on all loads needs to be checked. The
Layer A 0.5 20 18 1 105
Layer B 0.95 20 1 1010 most conservative result of each combination should
be used in design. Usually, Combination 2 provides the
 = internal friction angle, c = cohesion, = dilation critical geotechnical failure state while either of the
angle, E  = drained stiffness,  = Poissons ratio, K0 = stress two combinations may produce the higher structural
ratio, sat = saturated weight density, unsat = unsaturated forces.
weight density, k = permeability (equal horizontally and Factors on actions may be applied either directly
vertically). to actions or to the effects of actions. This is partic-
ularly convenient for geotechnical loads where it is
difficult to apply factors directly in numerical analy-
3.1 DA3 & DA1(2)
ses. It is recommended therefore (Frank et al. 2004)
A design value surcharge of (Q = 1.3) 10 kPa = that variable (external) loads are factored by 1.11
13 kPa was applied to the ground surface on the (Q /G = 1.5/1.35) and design values of structural
retained side. Following this, a  c reduction was forces are obtained by factoring them by the com-
invoked and wall toe horizontal deflection was moni- bined effect of the variable and permanent actions (i.e.
tored. Complete analyses were repeated with different by 1.35).
d values until passive failure was observed to occur An FEA was performed with a surcharge of
at a material strength factor (M ) in excess of 1.25. A 1.11 10 kPa = 11.1 kPa and d = 4.9 m. The result-
graph of toe deflection against material strength factor ing bending moment in the wall both before
is shown in Figure 4 for the adopted d value of 4.95 m. and after multiplying by 1.35 (unfactored and
The graph in Figure 4 highlights the importance of unfactored 1.35) are shown in Figure 5. The maxi-
plotting the response of a critical part of the model to mum design bending moment was 240 kNm/m and the
changing partial factors, rather than simply applying design support force was 168 kN/m. On this occasion,
factors or a  c reduction and relying on the end Combination 2 of partial factors produced the criti-
result as a lower bound failure state. With a shallower cal structural forces, which was also the case using
d, a  c reduction ending with a factor in excess of the limit equilibrium method (LEM) of design (Frank
1.25 could still have been achieved but clearly, failure et al. 2004).
initiates before the  c reduction is complete and The drawback of this method is that the ULS of pas-
this can only be identified by plotting the results in this sive resistance under the factored load is not checked.
way. Where it is obvious that Combination 2 governs the

943

Figure 5. Design value wall bending moment profiles for
DA1(1), except where shown.
design, calculation with Combination 1 need not be
carried out but, in order to investigate a plausible
method for checking Combination 1, the following
analysis was also performed.
The  values of the soil on the retained side of
the wall only were reduced in order to increase the
active earth pressure coefficient Ka by a factor of 1.35,
with the notion of increasing the earth pressure on the
retained side of the wall by the same factor. The appro-
priate  reductions were estimated from the figures in
Annex C of EN 1997-1 (CEN 2004). The  values for
Layers A and B became 27.4 and 16.3 respectively.
Assuming the limitingactive pressure is determined
from a = Ka v 2c Ka , this necessitated a reduc-
tion in c for Layer B to 4.3 kPa in order to reduce a
by a total factor of 1.35.
Figure 6 compares the horizontal effective stresses
(h ) on the retained side of the wall calculated by the
FEA between the unfactored and reduced  (factored
Ka) cases.Also plotted are the unfactored values from
the FEA multiplied manually by 1.35. Down to an ele-
vation of 7.4 m, where the soil was in an active state,
the effect of reducing  was very similar to manual
multiplication by 1.35. At lower elevations where the
soil was not in an active state, the effect of reducing
 was actually to reduce h . Consequently, the over-
all resultant horizontal load on the retained side of the
wall due to h was increased by a factor of only 1.17
rather than 1.35.
The corresponding wall bending moment profiles
are compared in the first three lines in Figure 5. The
unfactored 1.35 profile was obtained by multiply-
ing the unfactored bending moment profile by 1.35
(i.e. factoring the effect of the action as carried out to
944
Figure 6. Earth pressure on retained side of wall for DA1(1).
obtain the maximum value 240 kNm/m above). Down
to 4.0 m elevation there is also a very close match
between the reduced  (factored Ka) and manually
factored profiles. Below this level there is less reversal
of the profile due to the reduced h on the retained
side of the wall near the toe. The maximum bend-
ing moment and support force values of 243 kNm/m
and 170 kN/m respectively match closely with those
obtained from manually factoring the effects of the
actions above.
It appears that the method of reducing  and c
values to simulate Ka reduction and hence load fac-
toring of earth pressures on the retained side of the
wall worked well in this example wherever the soil
was in an active state. However, if the soil has a stress
ratio in excess of 1,  reduction will have the effect of
reducing horizontal earth pressure. However, it could
be argued that since soil strength has been reduced, the
overall effect is conservative. This would need further
investigation.
Incidentally, passive failure of the wall did not
occur, suggesting that d = 4.95 m is adequate for the
load case modelled.
3.3 DA2
DA2 is the most challenging to implement in retain-
ing wall design using numerical analysis because
it involves factoring both geotechnical actions and
geotechnical resistances, neither of which can be deter-
mined with ease, particularly the latter. It is straight-
forward to implement by LEM where the actions and
resistances are pre-determined; ULSs are checked by
moment equilibrium of the factored loads and resis-
tances. Determining moment equilibrium of earth
pressure outputs from numerical analysis is fruitless
because the pressures are already in equilibrium and
the required safety factor on passive resistance can
rarely be achieved.
Figure 7. Development of passive failure due to resistance
factoring for DA2 with d = 5.8 m.
Attempting artificially to force passive resistance
failure (in a similar fashion to the strip founda-
tion example above) creates highly unrepresentative
conditions in the model and is not recommended.
Rather than attempting to factor the mobilised pas-
sive resistance, the most credible results were obtained
by factoring the available passive resistance. This
was achieved in a similar fashion to the Ka factoring
described for DA1(1) above. Using the figures in EN
1997-1 Annex C (CEN 2004),  = 18.3 for Layer B
on the excavated side only of the wall was estimated in
order to reduce the passive earth pressure coefficient
Kp by the resistance factor R = 1.4. A c correction
to 4.2 kPa was also necessary to ensure the limiting
passive pressure (p = Kp v + 2c Kp ) was factored
by 1.4.
In the FEA, a surcharge of 11.1 kPa was applied and
the Ka value increased by a factor of 1.35 to produce
the effect of factoring the horizontal effective stress
on the retained side, as described for DA1(1) above.
The quickest means of determining d was found to
be initially reducing the Kp value by, in equal steps
to, a factor of 1.6 and plotting the resulting horizontal
deflection of the toe of the wall. Passive failure was
determined to occur with a resistance factor in excess
of 1.4 for a d value of 5.8 m, as shown in Figure 7.
The analysis was then repeated with d = 5.8 m but Kp
unfactored in order to obtain the structural forces both
with Ka factored and without Ka factored but with
structural forces multiplied by 1.35 for comparison, as
carried out for DA1(1). The resulting bending moment
plots are shown in Figure 8. Again, there is a close
match between the profiles for the two factoring meth-
ods down to the maximum bending moment value at
4.5 m elevation but with less reversal of the fac-
tored Ka profile below this level due to the reduced
h near the toe on the retained side. There was close
agreement between the maximum design values of the
structural forces: the factored Ka method gave max-
imum bending moment and support force values of
945
Figure 8. Design value wall bending moment profiles for
DA2.
225 kNm/m and 164 kN/m respectively while the man-
ually factored values were 227 kNm/m and 161 kN/m
respectively.
The effect of factoring Kp on h on the excavated
side of the wall is shown in Figure 9. Where the soil
was in a passive state down to 9.3 m elevation with
characteristic unfactored values, the factored Kp
h matches very closely with unfactored h /1.4. Below
this level, the factored Kp h is higher because the
reduced  value has forced the wall to mobilise the
available passive resistance at lower elevations. This
higher h is less concerning than the reduced h on
the retained side in DA1(1) and DA2 because the
available passive resistance has been factored and the
increased h merely provides confirmation that with
factored passive resistance, the wall is approaching
passive failure.
Relatively, the d values obtained in each DA com-
pare well with those obtained by LEM (Frank et al.
2004). In these FEAs, the d = 5.8 m in DA2 is 17% big-
ger than d = 4.95 m in DA1(2) and DA3. Using LEM,
d = 7.89 m in DA2 is 19% bigger than d = 6.62 m in
DA1(2) and DA3. As expected, LEM produces signif-
icantly more conservative d values than FEA, but the
similar relative differences give some credibility to the
FEA methods employed, in this example at least.
An alternative method of verifying the ULS, as
described by Frank et al. (2004) when using a spring
model for this problem, is to apply the load and resis-
tance factors together on the passive resistance, i.e.
1.35 1.4 = 1.89. This was applied in a further FEA
where  and c were reduced stepwise to 12.9 and
3.6 kPa and lower respectively in order to reduce the

Figure 9. Earth pressure on excavated side of wall for DA2.
Figure 10. Development of passive failure due to combined
load and resistance factor on passive resistance for DA2.
available passive resistance by a factor of approxi-
mately 1.89 and above. The Ka value was also factored
as described above. The horizontal deflection of the
wall toe was plotted against the approximate pas-
sive resistance factor and a resistance factor in excess
of 1.89, as shown in Figure 10, was obtained with
d = 6.4 m. This value is approaching the LEM value
for DA3 and is considered an overly conservative result
for an FEA.
946
4 CONCLUSIONS
For the particular embedded cantilever wall example
studied, credible ULS designs were achieved using
FEA following the three different Design Approaches
of EN 1997-1.
The relative differences between the embedment
depths determined showed consistency with the LEM-
derived values.
DA3 and DA1(2) are the most straightforward to
implement in FEA because they involve a material
factoring approach.
A means of factoring the geotechnical action on the
retained side of the retaining wall by indirectly fac-
toring Ka values through manipulation of  and c
of soils on the retained side was successful wherever
active pressures were already mobilised with charac-
teristic values. Where stress ratios exceeded 1 at lower
elevations, the effect of reducing  was to reduce h .
Since the soil strength had been reduced, the overall
effect of the method may be conservative but this needs
more investigation.
For DA2, where the passive resistance must be
factored, the most credible results were obtained by
factoring the available resistance by reducing the Kp
value through manipulation of  and c of soils on the
excavated side of the wall only.
These conclusions are valid for the particular exam-
ple studied only. A considerable amount of study is
needed to test these methods or others on the full range
of geotechnical structures and variables.
REFERENCES
Bauduin, C., Bakker, K.J. & Frank, R. 2005. Use of finite ele-
ment methods in geotechnical ultimate limit state design.
Proc. XVI ICSMGE, Osaka: 27752779.
CEN. 2004. EN 1997-1 Eurocode 7: Geotechnical design
Part 1: General rules. CEN/TC 250/SC7. Brussels: Euro-
pean Committee for Standardization.
Frank, R., Bauduin, C., Driscoll, R., Kavvaddas, M., Krebs
Ovesen, N., Orr, T. & Schuppener, B. 2004. Designers
guide to EN 1997-1: Geotechnical design General rules.
London: Thomas Telford.
Plaxis. 2008. Plaxis 2D Version 9.0 Manual. Delft: Plaxis.
 Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering Benz & Nordal (eds)
2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-59239-0

Ultimate Limit State Design to Eurocode 7 using numerical methods

C.C. Smith & M. Gilbert

Department of Civil and Structural Engineering, University of Sheffield, UK

ABSTRACT: Eurocode 7 has been criticised because the suggested load (or action) factor (Design Approach
1, Design Combination 1) and load/resistance factor (Design Approach 2) methods appear not to readily lend
themselves to numerical analysis. However, although these methods appear somewhat less versatile than Design
Approach 1, Design Combination 2, this paper describes an approach by which they can be applied in conjunction
with numerical analysis methods. Computational limit analysis results obtained using the LimitState:GEO soft-
ware are used to illustrate the points made, and advantages and disadvantages of the various design approaches
are discussed. Ramifications of implementing other features of Eurocode 7 in numerical analysis software are
also briefly discussed.

1 INTRODUCTION 2 THE ULTIMATE LIMIT STATE

Eurocode 7 (BSI 2004) exists within the framework of
the more general structural Eurocodes and, in contrast
with many preceding geotechnical design codes, has
been developed to be as general as possible in applica-
tion. While this results in a number of benefits, such
as apparently straightforward integration with general
purpose numerical analysis methods, it can result in
potential differences in interpretation and application.
Assumptions that were implicit in previous practice
often need to be stated explicitly in Eurocode 7.
Eurocode 7 describes two general approaches for
assessing the ultimate limit state (ULS). In broad terms
these involve one in which material properties are fac-
tored prior to the design assessment and one in which
factors are applied to actions and resistances in the
problem prior to the design assessment.
The former approach generally presents no prob-
lems in application and in integration with general
purpose numerical methods. The latter method, how-
ever requires greater precision in problem definition,
and at first sight is challenging to integrate fully with a
general purpose numerical approach. Addressing this
challenge is the subject of this paper.
Since an ultimate limit state (ULS) design approach
links naturally to a limit analysis or limit equilibrium
analysis, the problem will be studied in the context of
limit analysis. However the broad methodology should
be applicable to all ULS analysis methods.
In this paper the Discontinuity Layout Optimization
(DLO) method (Smith & Gilbert 2007) as imple-
mented in the LimitState:GEO software (LimitState
2009) is utilized to illustrate the application with
numerical limit analysis; however the approach is
applicable to most generic numerical software pack-
ages.
In general any given design is inherently stable and is
by implication nowhere near to its ultimate limit state.
The principle of a ULS assessment is to drive the
system to collapse by some means and assess the
difference between the actual and ULS state. This dif-
ference can be considered a measure of over-design or,
conventionally, Factor of Safety (FoS).
This process can be achieved implicitly or expli-
citly. In many conventional analyses the process it is
typically implicit. In a general numerical analysis it
must be done explicitly. There are three main ways of
driving a system to the ULS:
1. Increase an existing load in the system
2. Reduce the soil strength
3. Impose an additional load in the system
In current numerical limit analysis approaches,
using optimization techniques to identify the collapse
state, increasing an existing load to drive the system
to collapse (i.e. 1. in the list above) is inherent to
the method. A supplementary load factor, henceforth
referred to as an adequacy factor, , is applied to one
or more unfavourable loads and the software identifies
the magnitude of required to achieve collapse.
3 DESIGN TO EUROCODE 7
3.1 Background to Eurocode 7
The Eurocodes bring a unified approach to civil engi-
neering design. Eurocode 7 has undergone significant
change since its original ENV draft form to accommo-
date the differing approaches and design philosophies
used across Europe. There are now three Design
Approaches (DA) that may be utilized. Normally only

947
Table 1. Eurocode 7 partial factors for STR and GEO.

Parameter DA1/1 DA1/2 DA2 DA3

Action/action effect Permanent Unfavourable 1.35 1.0 1.35 1.0/1.35*

Favourable 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0
Variable Unfavourable 1.5 1.3 1.5 1.3/1.5*
Favourable 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
Resistance 1.0 1.0 1.1/1.4 1.0

Soil parameters c 1.0 1.25 1.0 1.25
tan  1.0 1.25 1.0 1.25
cu 1.0 1.4 1.0 1.4

*DA3 values for actions are given for geotechnical/structural actions.

Factors on resistance depend on resistance type.

one is permitted by the National Application (NA)
document of each nation.
Each approach has its advantages and disadvan-
tages and are (broadly) summarized as follows:
DA1 This approach requires two design combinations
to be considered:
DA1/1 Factors on actions
DA1/2 Factors on material strengths
DA2 Factors on actions and resistances
DA3 Factors on material strengths
In this paper they will be considered in the context
of the Eurocode ultimate limit states GEO and STR
which refer to failure in the ground and failure in the
structure respectively. Since the use of DA1/2 (and also
DA3) is generally straightforward, discussion in this
paper will focus on the use of action/resistance type
approaches DA1/1 and DA2 in numerical models.
3.2 Partial factors and the limit state
In Eurocode 7 it is stated that For each geotechnical
design situation it shall be verified that no relevant
limit state is exceeded [EN 1997-1 2.1(1)P]. To
achieve this, the general approach in Eurocode 7 is to
apply factors on uncertainties at their source in the
calculation, rather than being applied to the whole
calculation. Thus factors may be applied to:
1. actions (F)
2. action effects (E)
3. material properties (X )
4. resistances (R)
5. geometrical parameters (a)
in order to obtain design values (designated by a
subscript d). It is these design values that are used in
any stability calculation. Factors to be used on actions,
material properties and resistances are given in Table 1.
Factors on geometry parameters are not addressed
in this paper.
To prevent limit state STR or GEO from occur-
ring, design (i.e. factored) actions or effects of actions
(denoted Ed ) must be less than or equal to the
corresponding design resistance (Rd ) at the ultimate
limit state, i.e.:
This is straightforward in principle but it is neces-
sary to clarify the definition of an action, an action
effect and a resistance.
Note that this key Eurocode equation is an inequal-
ity; it provides no measure of the degree of over-design.
3.3 Actions and resistances
3.3.1 Introduction
In Eurocode 7 there appears to be scope for a range
of interpretations of the designations of actions and
resistances and for the stages at which partial factors
are applied to these. This may be seen by examining
much of the current literature on Eurocode 7, in which
different authors apply factors in different ways.
In this paper the following interpretations are pro-
posed for consistent numerical analysis.
3.3.2 Actions and Action effects
The Eurocode defines an action or action effect as a
force acting on a structure or on a body of soil or within
a soil.
In this paper an action will be taken as a quantity
whose value is explicitly known prior to the analysis.
This generally restricts it to a dead weight or an exter-
nally applied load (and will typically include variable
actions). It cannot therefore be e.g. an active earth
pressure, the calculation of which also involves soil
strength.
In contrast an action effect will be taken as one
that is a function of soil strength and an action, such
as an active earth pressure. While an action may be
favourable or unfavourable (i.e. promoting or oppos-
ing collapse), an action effect is always considered
unfavourable. If it is favourable then it is regarded as
a resistance.
3.3.3 Resistances
Eurocode 7 defines resistance as: capacity of a com-
ponent, or cross-section of a component of a structure

948
to withstand actions without mechanical failure e.g.
resistance of the ground, bending resistance, buckling
resistance, tensile resistance [EN1997-1 1.5.2.7]. It is
assumed that this applies equally to the ground.
This definition can for example be interpreted to
mean: (i) the shear strength of the soil, or (ii) the
combined resistance of soil strength and weight (e.g. a
passive pressure), or (iii) shear/bending resistance of
a structural element.
In this paper two types of resistance are distin-
guished, analogous to the distinction between action
and action effect, a structural resistance e.g. plastic
moment of resistance of a sheet pile wall and a geotech-
nical resistance. e.g. a passive earth pressure that also
involves self weight.
3.3.4 Commentary
In any form of plastic analysis commonly used for ULS
type assessments, actions will be known in advance of
the analysis. However action effects and geotechnical
resistances, being functions of material strengths and
actions, are not known in advance of a calculation.
Strictly they can only be determined after a collapse
analysis has been carried out.
In the Eurocode 7 Design Approaches where factors
of unity are applied to action effects and resistances
this is not an issue since it is not necessary to be able to
quantify these in the design assessment. Such design
approaches include DA1/2 and DA3 where the only
non-unity factors are applied to variable actions and
structural actions, both of which are almost always
externally applied and thus known in advance. DA1/1
can also fall into this category if the pertinent action
effect in equation (1) arises purely from actions, such
as in a simple bearing capacity problem.
For these approaches, overall stability can simply be
assessed by checking if the scenario is stable based on
pre-factored parameters. In a numerical limit analysis
this corresponds to an adequacy factor 1 on any
unfavourable action in the problem.
However in Eurocode 7 Design Approaches where
non-unit factors are applied to action effects and/or
resistances, then it is necessary to be able to quan-
tify these in a design assessment. The means by which
these are determined must therefore be considered
carefully.
4 DETERMINATION OF STABILITY WITH
AN ACTION AND RESISTANCE FACTOR
APPROACH
4.1 Current practice
Consider the ULS design of a retaining wall. This
is typically carried out by assuming active and pas-
sive Rankine pressures on opposite sides of the wall.
These would be designated as an action effect and
resistance respectively in this problem. However the
values are not strictly quantifiable in advance of a
collapse analysis because in assuming these pressure
distributions, there is an implicit assumption of: (i)
949
yielding in the soil adjacent to the wall, and (ii) a
specific failure mode (Rankine earth pressure distribu-
tions are only strictly applicable to certain wall failure
modes).
Such implicit assumptions cannot be made in a
general numerical analysis. Additionally such assump-
tions almost always lead to a system which is not in
equilibrium. To achieve the same effect with a numer-
ical method a specific failure mode must therefore be
explicitly induced. Once the collapse mechanism has
been identified, the actions and resistances are then
available after the analysis. At this stage partial factors
may be applied and equation 1 evaluated.
4.2 Proposed procedure for numerical analysis
In the preceding section, it was argued that a true
Action and Resistance factor approach requires pre-
determination of the collapse mode in order to identify
actions and resistances and thus to enable application
of partial factors.
Rather than considering a specific collapse mode
(such as e.g. wall sliding), it is more correct to consider
loss of equilibrium in a specific direction (in the case
of wall sliding, this might be horizontal equilibrium).
Since equation (1) is cast in terms of forces rather than
energy, it must be evaluated in a specific direction.
In order to drive the system to collapse, and simul-
taneously preserve equilibrium, it is necessary to
apply an unfavourable hypotheticalexternal force (or
moment) H parallel to the equilibrium direction to be
checked, and to then increase this force until failure
occurs.
For example, for a horizontal equilibrium check on
a retaining wall, H would be applied to the centroid of
the wall (to avoid applying additional moments) and
in the direction that would induce the expected failure
(i.e. in the direction of the active pressure). This is a
straightforward calculation for a computational limit
analysis method, and ensures equilibrium is preserved
at all times while generating appropriate soil failure
conditions compatible with the mode of failure being
investigated.
After the numerical analysis the ULS actions and
resistances on the wall are available and can be (post)
factored prior to use in a stability assessment (equation
1). H itself is not directly needed and is discarded.
The disadvantage of this approach is that the mode
of failure must be pre-determined and equation 1 can
only be applied in the sense of the imposed failure
mode e.g. it would not be theoretically correct to
use the values computed for wall sliding to make an
assessment against overturning.
5 SUMMARY OF GENERAL NUMERICAL
ANALYSIS APPROACH
5.1 Problem classification
Eurocode 7 ULS problems can be divided into two
broad classes, those amenable to either pre-factoring
or post-factoring in relation to the stability analysis.
5.2 Pre-factoring approach
Design approaches amenable to a pre-factoring
approach are those that where the factors on action
effects and resistances are 1.0. Actions may have
factors which are non-unity applied to them. Note
that:
1. This generally includes DA1/2, DA3 and also
DA1/1 (where only actions are involved).
2. Designs can be directly analysed using general Figure 1. Simple strip footing on undrained soil, show-
numerical methods. There is no need to explicitly ing typical pattern of slip-lines at collapse. Footing width,
B = 2 m, soil undrained shearing resistance cu = 80 kN/m2 ,
identify matched actions and resistances, or to test
soil unit weight = 20 kN/m3 , applied load, V = 500 kN/m,
a specific failure mode. footing weight = 40 kN/m.
3. The numerical method can be used to automatically
identify the critical collapse mechanism
4. Equation (1) will be identically satisfied if the ade- Table 2. Parameters for the problem shown in Fig. 1 (pre-
quacy factor applied to any unfavourable action factoring approach).
satisfies 1.
Partial
5.3 Post-factoring approach Quantity Type factor

Design approaches that require a post-factoring Pre-analysis

approach are those are those that involve action effects Applied load Unfav. permanent 1.35
and/or geotechnical resistances, and where the factors Footing weight Unfav. permanent 1.35
on actions and/or resistances are not equal to 1.0. Note Soil unit weight Neutral 1.0
that: Adequacy Factor on: applied load
1. This generally includes DA2 and DA1/1 (where Numerical analysis
actions effects are involved). Adequacy factor 1.15
2. Designs can be analysed indirectly using general 1.0 Ed Rd ? true safe
numerical methods. Matched actions and resis-
tances must be identified in advance in conjunc-
tion with a specific equilibrium direction to be
checked. In LimitState:GEO this means applying the ade-
3. The numerical method can be used to identify the quacy factor to the applied load, and results in the
specific collapse mechanism corresponding to a collapse mechanism shown in Fig. 1.
specified equilibrium direction for this case, by
applying a disturbing force (or moment as required) 6.1.2 Numerical stability assessment
in the equilibrium direction. The values of the parameters used in the pre-factoring
4. The result of the numerical analysis will allow analysis are given in Table 2 (unfactored soil properties
actions and resistances to be explicitly determined. are shown in Fig. 1), together with results from anal-
These values may then be factored as appropriate ysis of the problem in LimitState:GEO using a fine
and stability checked using equation 1. nodal density . In this problem the soil self weight has
no effect (i.e. is Neutral). The result indicates that the
design is safe and is overdesigned (over and above the
6 WORKED EXAMPLES Eurocode factors) by a factor of 1.15 on the applied
load.
6.1 Surface footing - DA1/1 pre-factoring approach
6.1.1 Problem statement 6.1.3 Analytical check
It is required to carry out a DA1/1 assessment of The collapse soil resistance R beneath the footing
the vertical bearing stability of the footing shown in may be calculated from the Terzaghi bearing capacity
Fig. 1. Simple bearing capacity problems such as this equation:
do not generally involve action effects and are there-
fore amenable to the pre-factoring approach in DA1/1
(which factors actions but not resistances). In terms of
actions and resistances, the actions in this problem are
clearly the external load on the footing and the weight For an undrained failure with no surcharge,
of the footing itself. The resistance is the resistance Nc = 5.14 and:
of the soil and is experienced by the footing at the
soil/footing interface.
As part of the assessment, the overdesign factor with
respect to applied load will be determined. Hence R = 822 kN/m

950
Table 3. Analytical determination of actions and resistances
in the problem shown in Fig. 1 (Actions in kN/m).

Characteristic Partial Design

Quantity value factor value

Soil properties
cu (kN/m2 ) 80 1.0 80
Actions (F)
Applied load 500 1.35 675
Footing weight 40 1.35 54
sum 540 729
Resistances (R)
Base resistance 822 1.0 822
F R? true true
Figure 2. Simple gravity wall (sliding) problem, show-
ing typical pattern of slip-lines at collapse. Wall height,
4 m, embedment depth, 1 m, wall width, 1.5 m, soil angle
a hand calculated stability assessment is summa- of drained shearing resistance  = 30 , soil unit weight
rized in Table 3. = 16 kN/m3 , wall vertical faces smooth, wall base angle
The over-design factor with respect to the applied of drained shearing resistance  = 30 . Wall sits on a rigid
load is (822 54)/675 = 1.14. The numerical result (in base layer.
terms of adequacy, or over-design factor) is thus 1%
different from the exact theoretical answer. Table 4. (a) Parameters for the problem shown in Fig. 2
(pre-factoring approach).

6.2 Gravity wall sliding DA2 post-factoring Partial

approach Quantity Type factor
6.2.1 Problem characteristics Pre-analysis
It is required to carry out a DA2 assessment of the Retained soil Neutral 1.0
horizontal stability of the gravity wall shown in Fig. 2 Soil on excavated side Neutral 1.0
(i.e. a check against horizontal sliding failure). A DA2 Wall weight Neutral 1.0
analysis could be carried out by factoring the source unit load H Neutral 1.0
actions (i.e. self weight of soil behind the wall) prior to Adequacy Factor on: load H
solving. However this is not conventional practice for Numerical analysis
a load and resistance factor type approach, in which Adequacy factor 64.5
factors are normally applied to the active, passive and Post analysis stability check (horizontal equilibrium)
base shear resultant forces. The problem thus requires Active force Unfav. permanent 1.35
a post-factoring approach and the inclusion of a hypo- Passive force Resistance 1.4
thetical horizontal force H acting in the direction of Base friction Resistance 1.1
failure to be checked, as depicted in Fig. 2. The ade- load H ignore 1.0
quacy factor is applied to this load H , while the b) Post analysis stability check (horizontal equilibrium);
degree of overdesign can be determined by the ratio of all forces in kN/m (taken from output of numerical analysis)
resistance to actions.
Characteristic Partial Design
6.2.2 Numerical stability assessment Quantity value factor value
Pre-factoring settings are given in Table 4(a) (unfac-
tored soil properties are shown in Fig. 2), together Action effects (E)
with results from the analysis of the problem in Lim- Active force 42.7 1.35 57.6
itState:GEO, using a medium nodal density. The Total 42.7 57.6
result indicates that an additional horizontal force Resistances (R)
H = 64.5 kN/m is required to cause failure. Passive force 24 1.4 17.1
Table 4(b) lists the key action effects and resistances Base Friction 83.1 1.1 75.6
Total 107.1 92.7
available after the analysis. The data indicates that the
factored resistances are greater than the factored action Outcome ER Ed Rd

effects. The wall is over-designed (for sliding only) by

LimitState:GEO interconnects nodes laid out across the
problem domain with potential slip-lines, from which the
critical failure mechanism is then identified. Thus the more
nodes that are present, the more accurate the solution is likely
to be. Fine and medium nodal densities correspond to targets
of 1000 and 500 nodes respectively.
a factor of (resistances/actions) 92.7/57.6 = 1.61.
6.2.3 Analytical check
In a conventional factored load and resistance
approach it is implicitly assumed that the soil is

951
yielding either side of the wall. In this case active
and passive Rankine pressure distributions are typi-
cally taken to act on each side of the wall. This is valid
in this case but not necessarily correct in all situations.
For a DA2 analysis soil strengths are unfactored and
d = 30 . Thus the active force A is given by:
and the passive force P is given by:
which matches the numerical analysis.
Since the walls are frictionless, the normal
force on the wall is equal to the wall weight
(144 kN/m) and the base friction is given by
144 tan30 = 83.1. Once partial factors are applied,
the over-design factor is therefore the same as before,
i.e. (24/1.4 + 83.1/1.1)/(42.7 1.35) = 1.61.
7 CONCLUSIONS
1. Eurocode 7 provides a new unified design approach
for geotechnical design, with a clear and explicit
methodology which allows partial factors to be used
to account for uncertainty at source. The unified
approach additionally permits the use of general
purpose numerical methods to be applied across a
broad range of problem types.
952
2. Eurocode 7 DA1/2 and DA3 (and DA1/1 in certain
cases) can generally straightforwardly be assessed
with a numerical model, and have the advantage
that the numerical model can be used to identify
the most critical collapse mechanism.
3. Eurocode 7 DA1/1 and DA2 present more prob-
lems as they require the disturbing action required
to cause collapse to be specified in advance of
the numerical analysis. The design check also then
becomes slightly more involved. This paper has
outlined an approach that allows the use of these
action/resistance factor methods to be carried out in
conjunction with numerical methods, and provides
details of simple examples where these approaches
have been applied.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
All numerical analyses described herein were under-
taken using LimitState:GEO version 2.0c; see:
http://www.limitstate.com/geo
REFERENCES
BSI (2004). BS EN 1997-1:2004 Geotechnical design. Gen-
eral rules.
LimitState (2009). LimitState:GEO Manual VERSION 2.0
(Sept 3 ed.). LimitState Ltd.
Smith, C. C. & M. Gilbert (2007). Application of discontin-
uity layout optimization to plane plasticity problems. Pro-
ceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical
and Engineering Sciences 463, 2086, 24612484.