×
INTELLIGENT WORK FORUMS
FOR ENGINEERING PROFESSIONALS

Log In

Come Join Us!

Are you an
Engineering professional?
Join Eng-Tips Forums!
  • Talk With Other Members
  • Be Notified Of Responses
    To Your Posts
  • Keyword Search
  • One-Click Access To Your
    Favorite Forums
  • Automated Signatures
    On Your Posts
  • Best Of All, It's Free!
  • Students Click Here

*Eng-Tips's functionality depends on members receiving e-mail. By joining you are opting in to receive e-mail.

Posting Guidelines

Promoting, selling, recruiting, coursework and thesis posting is forbidden.

Students Click Here

Jobs

Soil analysis - error when varying k0 with depth

Soil analysis - error when varying k0 with depth

Soil analysis - error when varying k0 with depth

(OP)
In my offshore drained clay analysis, I have been trying to vary k0 with depth in the clay to model overconsolidation. I am using the porous elasticity and modified cam clay constitutive models. However, when I run the geostatic step, even before the input file is processed, the following error is generated 'the sum of the initial pressure and elastic tensile strength for a porous elastic material in element xx in instance soil must be positive'. This error is generated for more than half of the elements. My initial model was 3D but I constructed a 2D column of soil to test this but the same error was obtained.

The pore pressure was prescribed to be 40kPa at the surface of the soil and 600kPa at the base of the soil (depth of 56m). A uniform pressure of 40 kPa simulating pressure due to water head of 4m was applied to the soil surface to generate the required pore pressure distribution.

When I increased the effective stress by 40kPa at all the soil layers, the analysis runs. However, this is incorrect as effective stress should be zero as the pressure of 40kPa is taken by the pore fluid.

Anyone with any ideas on what the cause of this error could be?

Many thanks.

Red Flag This Post

Please let us know here why this post is inappropriate. Reasons such as off-topic, duplicates, flames, illegal, vulgar, or students posting their homework.

Red Flag Submitted

Thank you for helping keep Eng-Tips Forums free from inappropriate posts.
The Eng-Tips staff will check this out and take appropriate action.

Reply To This Thread

Posting in the Eng-Tips forums is a member-only feature.

Click Here to join Eng-Tips and talk with other members!


Resources