Module 1 - Introduction to PLAXIS 2D modelling workflow

Exercise: Elastoplastic Drained Analysis of a Footing using PLAXIS

2D

EXERCISE 1- ELASTOPLASTIC ANALYSIS OF A

FOOTING USING PLAXIS 2D

1 INTRODUCTION

This exercise aims to present the workflow to set up a shallow foundation in 2D Plane-strain model.
This exercise has been set up using PLAXIS 2D V22 Update 2.

The foundation is assumed to have a width of 2 meters and a length that is sufficiently long enough to
assume plane strain conditions. The foundation it assumes to be sited on top of a 4m thick clay layer. The
clay layer has a saturated weight of 18 kN/m3 and an angle of internal friction of 20 degrees.

V=50 kN/m
H=20 kN/m

Figure 1 - Geometry of the shallow foundation and proposed SLS load takedown

For simplicity, a small rise building vertical SLS ( Service Limit State) load takedown will be modelled as
a single vertical point force. Also, any horizontal loads acting on the building i.e., wind loads will be
introduced as a single horizontal point.

The goal of this exercise is to determine the Ultimate shallow foundation bearing capacity, to determine
how much load, the foundation can carry before its failure load is reached (i.e., determine how many
floors may be added to the building in the future). For the determination of the failure pressures of a
strip footing analytical solutions are available e.g., Vesic, Brinch Hansen and Meyerhof

From these analytic solutions, failure pressures of 117 kN/m2 (Vesic), 98 kN/m2(Brinch Hansen) or 97
(kN/m2) are determined respectively.

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Exercise: Elastoplastic Drained Analysis of a Footing using PLAXIS
2D

Table 1 presents the assumed material properties of the clay layer and the concrete footing in this
exercise.

Table 1 – Material properties of the clay layer and the concrete footing

Parameter Symbol Clay Concrete Unit

Material model Model Mohr-Coulomb Linear elastic -

Type of behaviour Type Drained Non-porous -

Unit Weight above phreatic level ( “Dry”) γunsat 16.0 24.0 𝑘𝑁/𝑚3

Unit Weight above phreatic level ( “Wet”) γsat 18.0 - 𝑘𝑁/𝑚3

Young’s modulus E′ 5.0 𝑋 103 2.0 𝑋 107 𝑘𝑁/𝑚2

Poisson’s Ratio 𝜈′ 0.35 0.15 -

′
Cohesion 𝑐𝑟𝑒𝑓 5.0 - 𝑘𝑁/𝑚2

Friction angle 𝜑′ 20 - °

Dilatancy angle 𝜓 0 - °

Also in this exercise, the user will have the opportunity to define a parallel construction sequence, defined
in two separate branches ( one for SLS conditions and other to determine the ultimate failure load)

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Module 1 - Introduction to PLAXIS 2D modelling workflow
Exercise: Elastoplastic Drained Analysis of a Footing using PLAXIS
2D

2 INPUT
2.1 PROJECT PROPERTIES

Start PLAXIS 2D by double-clicking the icon of the PLAXIS 2D Input program. The Quick select dialogue
box will appear in which you can select to start a new project or open an existing one. Choose Start a
new project (see Figure 2).

Figure 2 – Quick select dialogue

Now the Project properties window appears, consisting of the two tab sheets Project and Model (see
Figure 3 and Figure 4).

In the Project tabsheet enter “Exercise 1 - Elasto-plastic analysis of a drained footing” in the Title box.
Additional comments can be added in the Comment box if the user desire.

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Exercise: Elastoplastic Drained Analysis of a Footing using PLAXIS
2D

Figure 3 – Project tabsheet in the Project properties window

In the Model tabsheet, several model-specific parameters can be specified:

• In the Countour box, set the model dimensions of the project as

o 𝑥𝑚𝑖𝑛 = 0 𝑚, 𝑥𝑚𝑎𝑥 = 14 𝑚
o 𝑦𝑚𝑖𝑛 = 0 𝑚, 𝑦𝑚𝑎𝑥 = 4.25 𝑚

• Set Model Type as Plain Strain and keep the default option of basic element type ( Element) as
15-node
• In the Units box, the user can specify the units to be used in the project. Keep the default units
for this project.

Press the <OK> button to close the Project proprieties window and go back to the PLAXIS 2D input
window

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Exercise: Elastoplastic Drained Analysis of a Footing using PLAXIS
2D

Figure 4 – Model tabsheet in Project Properties

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Exercise: Elastoplastic Drained Analysis of a Footing using PLAXIS
2D

2.2 SOIL MODE – BOREHOLE AND LAYER GEOMETRY GENERATION

Once the project proprieties are set up, the user can start to define the soil model defined in Figure 1 in
the Soil mode. The steps to do that are the following:

• Select the Create borehole button and insert a borehole at (x y) = (0 0)

• In the Modify soil layers window that appeared, press one times to add one
distinctive soil layers. Assign 4 m and 0 m as Top and Bottom values for layer 1
• The phreatic level can be specified in the Head field located at the upper left corner. Set this
value as 4 m
• Press the <OK> button to close the Modify soil layers window.

The drawing area now shows the subsoil consists of 1 soil layer in grey colour (Figure 5)

Figure 5 – Adding borehole information and outcome of layer generation

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Exercise: Elastoplastic Drained Analysis of a Footing using PLAXIS
2D
2.3 MATERIAL SET CREATION AND ASSIGNMENT

The next step is to define the soil (Clay) and concrete footing material set that will be used in this
exercise:

• Select the Show materials button( ) so that the Materials windows open (Figure 6)

Figure 6 – Empty Material set window

• Click on the New button at the lower left side of the Material set window. This will open a default
Soil and interface material set window. This new window has 6 tab sheets: General, Mechanical,
Groundwater, Thermal, Interface and Initial (Figure 7)

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Exercise: Elastoplastic Drained Analysis of a Footing using PLAXIS
2D

Figure 7 –General tabsheet of the Soil & Interface material set

• In the Material set box in the General tabsheet, write “Clay” in the Identification box
• Select Mohr-Coulomb from the Material model combo box and Drained from the Material type
combo box.
• Enter the proper values for Clay’s unit weight in the General proprieties box according to the
material properties listed in Table 1.
• If the user desired, the material set colour can be defined in the Colour field.
• Click on Next button ( or click in the Mechanical tabsheet) to proceed with Clay’s parameter
input. The input parameters that appear in these tab sheets vary with the selected constitutive
model selected before ( in this case, the Mohr-Coulomb model)
• Enter the remaining input of Clay’s parameters in Table 1 in the corresponding edit boxes on the
Mechanical tabsheet
• Keep the parameters assigned in the remaining tab sheets unchanged, confirm that no Warning
messages are visible and click the OK button to confirm the input of the current material set.

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Exercise: Elastoplastic Drained Analysis of a Footing using PLAXIS
2D

Figure 8 – Mechanical tab sheet parameter input for Clay’s material set

• Repeat the same process to create and input the concrete footing material set ( as defined in
Table 1)

• Going back to the Material set windows, drag the Clay material set with the mouse over the grey
layer in the Soil mode in the PLAXIS 2D Input window and drop it. This action will tell the
program to assign the clay material to this layer geometry and the colour will change with the
colour of the material set (Figure 9)

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Exercise: Elastoplastic Drained Analysis of a Footing using PLAXIS
2D

“Drag and drop” the Clay material in the

layer geometry in the Soil mode

Figure 9 – Assignment of the material set on the soil geometry

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Exercise: Elastoplastic Drained Analysis of a Footing using PLAXIS
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2.4 STRUCTURES MODE

2.4.1 SNAPPING OPTIONS

After completing the soil geometry setup, it is time to move to the structure mode to define the concrete
footing geometry as well as the point load acting on top of it.

Before starting to model the geometry of the footing, it is recommended first to change the snapping
options and intervals from 1 m (default) to 0.25 m. This is to allow the user to easily define the 0.25 m
thick footing "point and click" method with the mouse. The steps are the following:

• From the grid options below the drawing area, make sure the option Snap to the grid is activated
( Figure 10)

Figure 10 – Snap to grid button location

• Next, select the Snapping options button ( ) from the grid option. A window called Snapping
window will open
• Keep the default value of 1 in the Spacing field.
• Assign the value 4 in the Number of snap intervals. This will assure a snapping distance of ¼ =
0.25 m
• Click the OK button to confirm the new settings and close the window

2.4.2 CREATE FOOTING

Now that the snapping options have been dealt with, it is time to model the spread footing structure:

1. Select the Create soil polygon button ( ) and from the drop-down list that opens now select

the Create soil rectangle button ( )

2. Move the mouse cursor to the coordinates (x y) = (6 4) and single-click the left mouse button

3. Move the mouse cursor to the coordinates (x y) = (8 4) and single-click the left mouse button

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Exercise: Elastoplastic Drained Analysis of a Footing using PLAXIS
2D
4. Move the mouse cursor to the coordinates (x y) = (8 4.25) and single-click the left mouse button

5. Now move the mouse cursor to the coordinates (x y) = (8 4.25) and single-click the left mouse
button, following by entering the keyboard button "Enter". The spread footing boundary
geometry is now modelled

6. Select the Show materials button ( ), the Material sets window will open

7. Drag-and-drop the Concrete material set onto the footing (Figure 11)

Figure 11 – Footing geometry with material set Concrete assigned

2.4.3 CREATE LOAD

1. Select the Create point button ( ) and from the drop-down list that opens select the

Create point load option ( )

2. Move the mouse cursor to the coordinates (x y) = (7 4.25) and single-click the left mouse
button to insert the point load (Figure 12)

This concludes the creation of the footing and loads. By clicking on the Mesh tab sheet now

move to Mesh mode ( )

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Exercise: Elastoplastic Drained Analysis of a Footing using PLAXIS
2D

Figure 12 - Footing + Point load geometry

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Exercise: Elastoplastic Drained Analysis of a Footing using PLAXIS
2D

2.5 MESH MODE

With the soil and structure geometry already defined, it is time for the user to generate the finite
element mesh that is going to be used in the analysis.

Before generating the meh in the Mesh mode, the user can specify necessary mesh local refinements. In
this exercise, no additional mesh refinement will be used.

• Select the Generate mesh button ( ). The Mesh options window will open (Figure 13)

Figure 13 – Mesh options window

• Leave the Element distribution to Medium and press <OK> to start mesh generation

• If mesh generation finished successfully this will be confirmed in the Command explorer
with the message "Generated XX elements, YY nodes" where XX and YY stand for the
the number of elements and nodes respectively.

• Select the View mesh button ( ) to view the generated mesh ( Figure 14)
• Pro Tip: It is always a good modelling practice to check always the generated mesh
quality. This is to assure that bad mesh elements haven't been generated and to reduce
the risk of potential numerical issues during calculations! This can be checked in the
Output program on Mesh → Quality

• Close the mesh window by selecting the green <Close> button. This ends the Mesh mode and
the user can move to the Staged construction.

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Exercise: Elastoplastic Drained Analysis of a Footing using PLAXIS
2D

Figure 14 – Generated finite element mesh in the Output window

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Exercise: Elastoplastic Drained Analysis of a Footing using PLAXIS
2D

2.6 STAGED CONSTRUCTION

When moving to the Staged construction mode, the user can define the construction phases for this
exercise. The entire construction sequence in this exercise consists of 5 phases divided into two parallel
sequences (SLS and Failure load branches), as shown in Figure 15.

Figure 15 – Stage construction tree sequence modelled in this exercise

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Exercise: Elastoplastic Drained Analysis of a Footing using PLAXIS
2D

2.6.1 INITIAL PHASE

The initial phase represents the field conditions that exist at the moment our project starts.
This means that only the subsoil exists in the initial conditions whereas the footing should be
deactivated, which is the default situation.

Figure 16 – Geometry configuration for the initial phase

2.6.2 PHASE 1: CONSTRUCTION OF THE FOOTING

• In the Phase, the explorer selects the Add phase button ( ) so that a new phase called
Phase_1 will be added. Double-click on the name to open the Phases Window

• In the ID field in the General section, change the name of the construction phase to Phase 1:
Construction of the Footing ( see Figure 17)

• In the geometry window, right-click on the footing geometry (in wireframe) and from the drop-
down menu that appears select the option Activate to activate the footing (Figure 18)

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Exercise: Elastoplastic Drained Analysis of a Footing using PLAXIS
2D

Figure 17 – Phases window and Name change

Figure 18 – Phase 1: Construction of the footing

2.6.3 PHASE 2: APPLY VERTICAL LOAD

• In the Phase, explorer select the Add phase button ( ) so that a new phase called Phase_2
will be added.

• Change the Phase name to Phase 2: Apply Vertical Load

• Click on the point on which the load acts so that it becomes red. Once selected, the point's
attributes will appear in the Selection explorer window on the left side

• Check the PointLoad_1_1's box to activate the Point load. Set 𝐹𝑦 , 𝑟𝑒𝑓 to -50 kN/m ( Figure 19)
o Note: negative signal means vertical load pointing downwards

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Exercise: Elastoplastic Drained Analysis of a Footing using PLAXIS
2D

Figure 19 – Activation of the load and vertical load assignment

2.6.4 PHASE 3: APPLY HORIZONTAL LOAD ( SLS LOAD)

• In the Phase, explorer select the Add phase button ( ) so that a new phase called Phase_3
will be added.

• Change the Phase name to Phase 3: Apply Horizontal Load (SLS load)

• Click on the point on which the load acts so that it becomes red. Once selected, the point's
attributes will appear in the Selection explorer window on the left side

• Check the PointLoad_1_1's box to activate the Point load. Set 𝐹𝑥 , 𝑟𝑒𝑓 to 20 kN/m (Figure 20).
Note that the Point load vector is now inclined (Figure 21). This represents the resultant of the
vertical and horizontal loads
o Note: Positive signal means horizontal load moving from left to right

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Exercise: Elastoplastic Drained Analysis of a Footing using PLAXIS
2D

Figure 20 – Activation of the load and vertical load assignment

Figure 21 – Resultant of the vertical and horizontal loads in the point load

2.6.5 PHASE 4: VERTICAL FAILURE LOAD

In this last phase, the goal is to determine the maximum vertical load that the foundation can take
before its bearing capacity limit is reached. This means that this phase must be a continuation of Phase
2: Apply vertical load

• In Phase explore, select Phase 2: Apply vertical load so that it will show in bold letter type

• With Phase 2 selected, select the Add phase button ( ) so that a new phase called Phase_4
will be added that follows on phase 2 rather than on phase 3( Figure 22)

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Exercise: Elastoplastic Drained Analysis of a Footing using PLAXIS
2D

Figure 22 – Parallel stage construction

• Change the Phase name to Vertical FAILURE load (Phase 4)

• Click on the point on which the load acts so that it becomes red. Once selected, the point's
attributes will appear in the Selection explorer window on the left side

• Check the PointLoad_1_1's box to activate the Point load. Set 𝐹𝑦 , 𝑟𝑒𝑓 to -500 kN/m and assure
that 𝐹𝑥 , 𝑟𝑒𝑓 =0

This concludes the definition of the calculation phases for this exercise

2.7 CALCULATION

2.7.1 SET PRE-CALCULATED NODE FOR LOAD-DISPLACEMENT CURVES

By default, when running a calculation, PLAXIS only stores the results of the last calculation step of each
phase. Since one of the desired outputs of this exercise is to draw the load-displacement curve of the
footing, it is important that the program stores also the relevant intermediary calculation steps result at
least on the node where the point load is applied. To do so, the user has to select the nodes, before the
calculation, for which he desires PLAXIS to store all the calculation steps. This can be accomplished by
the following steps:

• In the Stage Construction mode, press the Select Points for Curves ( ) on the left bar. The
Output program showing the generated mesh with all the nodes (in red) will appear)

• Select the node in the middle underneath the footing, hence at or very close to (x y) = (7 4) The
node will appear in the Select points list ( Figure 23)

• Click Update ( )to close the Output

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Exercise: Elastoplastic Drained Analysis of a Footing using PLAXIS
2D

Figure 23 – Selection of pre-calculation points for node displacements curves

2.7.2 CALCULATE

Press the Calculate ( ) button to start the calculation

Note that the last calculation phase will fail. This intentional outcome is a way to force the footing to reach
its ultimate bearing capacity.

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Exercise: Elastoplastic Drained Analysis of a Footing using PLAXIS
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3 OUTPUT
3.1 INSPECTING THE OUTPUT IN PLAXIS OUTPUT PROGRAM
After calculation, select Phase 4: Vertical failure load in the Phases explorer and press the View

calculation results ( ) to inspect the results. Plaxis Output will open, showing the calculation results of
Phase 4: Vertical failure load

By default, Plaxis Output will show the Deformed mesh, (Figure 24). The output result is also accessible
via Deformation → Deformed mesh |u|.

Figure 24 – Deformed mesh output for Phase 4: Vertical failure load

Now choose the menu option Deformations → Incremental displacements → |Δu| (Figure 25Figure 24)

The incremental displacements are the change in displacements in the current calculation
step (here that is the last calculation step of phase 4). Under working conditions, the
change of displacement per calculation step is quite small, but in case of failure, the change of
displacements can be large inside the failure zone. Therefore, the Incremental displacements
graph can be very suitable for detecting whether the failure occurs and what the failure zone may
look like. Figure 25 shows the typical Prandtl-like failure zone.

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Exercise: Elastoplastic Drained Analysis of a Footing using PLAXIS
2D

Figure 25 – Incremental displacements and failure mechanism in Phase 4

To visualize the Load-displacement curve and determine the failure load, the following steps need to be
followed:

• Press the Curve Manager ( ) in the top bar of the PLAXIS Output window. A new window will
appear
• In the Curve Manager window, press the New button. A new window will appear
• In the Curve Generation window, select the following options as shown in Press OK to continue
and a graph with the load-displacement curve will appear (Figure 27)

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Exercise: Elastoplastic Drained Analysis of a Footing using PLAXIS
2D

Figure 26 - Curve generation window

Phase 1, Phase 2, Phase 3

∑MStage Phase 4 failure = 0.38

Phase 4 - Vertical failure load

Figure 27 – Load-displacement curve and determination of ∑MStage failure

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Exercise: Elastoplastic Drained Analysis of a Footing using PLAXIS
2D

In a Plaxis calculation, any change made in a construction phase (e.g load activation, soil add or
removed…) leads to a so-called unbalance, which is a disturbance between the total of the internal
stresses and the external load. This unbalance is gradually solved using the ∑Mstage multiplier. The
∑Mstage multiplier indicates how much of the unbalance has been solved:
• where ∑Mstage = 0 indicates that no unbalance
• When ∑Mstage = 1, this means that the full unbalance has been solved

In the curve shown in Figure 28, the lines at the left indicate the variation of ∑Mstage for the first
three calculation phases and the long-curved line is the same variation for Phase 4.

In the first three phases, the unbalance has been solved, hence ∑Mstage has been reached in these
phases. However, in phase 4, the ∑Mstage didn't reach 1 and stopped at 0.38, which means that only
38 % of the unbalance force in Phase 4 was solved.

Note: The exact value of the ∑Mstage multiplier can be inspected by moving the mouse cursor over the
plotted line. A tooltip box will show up with the data of the current location.

The amount of unbalance force applied in Phase 4 was the in as the increase of the vertical load from 50
kN/m to 500 kN/m. Hence, at failure the total load applied is the load at the beginning of the phase (50
kN/m) plus 38% of the change of load that could be applied: 𝐹𝑚𝑎𝑥 = 50 + 0.38 (500 − 50) = 𝟐𝟐𝟏 𝒌𝑵/𝒎.

The numerical ultimate bearing pressure of footing ( 𝑃𝑚𝑎𝑥 ) can be calculated as:

𝑭𝒎𝒂𝒙
𝑷𝒎𝒂𝒙 = + 𝜸𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒄𝒓𝒆𝒕𝒆 ∗ 𝒅
𝑩

Since the footing width B= 2m, 𝛾𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑐𝑟𝑒𝑡𝑒 = 24 𝑘𝑁/𝑚3 and d= 0.25 m, then:

221
𝑷𝒎𝒂𝒙 = 2
+ 24 ∗ 0.25 = 𝟏𝟏𝟕 𝒌𝑷𝒂

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Exercise: Elastoplastic Drained Analysis of a Footing using PLAXIS
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3.2 COMPARISON WITH THE ANALYTICAL SOLUTION AND THE MESH REFINEMENT
INFLUENCE.

The comparison between the numerical ultimate bearing pressure of footing obtained in this exercise
with typical analytical solutions is shown in Table 2. From this table, it is possible to conclude that the
numerical prediction is very close to the analytical solutions, especially with the Vesic solution ( in this
case is identical)

Table 2 – Comparison between numerical prediction obtained in this exercise against typical analytical solutions

Ultimate bearing analysis Type 𝑷𝒎𝒂𝒙 ( 𝑘𝑃𝑎)

Vesic Analytical 117

Brinch Hansen Analytical 98

Meyerhof Analytical 97

PLAXIS ( 15-noded Medium mesh) Numerical FE 117

In addition to the mesh used in this exercise calculations were performed using a very coarse
mesh with a local refinement at the bottom of the footing and a very fine mesh. This is presented in Table
3

Table 3 – Numerical ultimate bearing capacity using different global mesh sizes and element type

Global Mesh option Element type Nr. of Max 𝑷𝒎𝒂𝒙 ( 𝑘𝑃𝑎)

elements load
(kN/m)
Medium mesh 15-noded 212 221 117

Very coarse mesh 15-noded 84 224 118

Very fine mesh 15-noded 626 221 117

Medium mesh 6-noded 212 246 129

Very coarse mesh 6-noded 84 281 147

Very fine mesh 6-noded 626 245 129

Usually, fine meshes will normally give more accurate results than coarse meshes. Instead of refining the
whole mesh, it is generally better to refine the most important parts of the mesh, to reduce computing
time. Here we see that the differences are small (when considering 15-noded elements), which means
that we are close to the exact solution. The accuracy of the 15-noded element is superior to the 6-noded
element, especially for the calculation of failure loads.

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Exercise: Elastoplastic Drained Analysis of a Footing using PLAXIS
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From the above results, it is clear that fine FE meshes give more accurate results. On the other
hand, the performance of the 15-noded elements is superior to the performance of the lower
order 6-noded elements. Needless to say that computation times are also influenced by the number and
type of elements.

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