Groundwater is a powerful and comprehensive finite element application available under PLAXIS LE. It calculates steady-state flow, transient-state flow, and evaporation from the ground surface. Consequently, we can use the results in the slope stability analysis to enhance the understanding of pore pressure and suction effects in factors of safety changes.
Additionally, users will benefit from a knowledge-base of saturated/unsaturated soil property database for estimating the hydraulic properties for flow modeling in unsaturated soils, known as SoilVision Soils, and available under PLAXIS LE. In this post, we will particularly understand how to link SoilVision Soils database with the material properties of a groundwater analysis.
The application of unsaturated soil mechanics in routine geotechnical engineering requires the determination of unsaturated soil properties. In the estimation of unsaturated soil permeability property, the two most important pieces of information required are the Soil-Water Characteristic Curve (SWCC) and the saturated coefficient of permeability (or hydraulic conductivity). SoilVision Soils allows for the theoretical estimation of both properties for the purpose of unsaturated seepage modeling.
Furthermore, SoilVision Soils especially helps engineers with parameters estimation and comparison with a pre-defined database with over 35,000 soil-water characteristic curves, grain size data, and more.
The integration between the features will happen in the material dialog of Groundwater module. Here, saturated/unsaturated material properties from the SoilVision Soils database can be directly imported into the seepage modeling.
Materials Manager
SoilVison customized searches allow the user to find database information based on a specific field or groups of fields.
Database import
Consequently, the selected material from SoilVison Database will be imported with respect to the information available. If we consider Volumetric Water Content, all fitting parameters, laboratory data and fitting method will be included, it will include the SWCC.
Volumetric Water Content: Groundwater
Volumetric water content VS Soil suction
Groundwater Analysis in PLAXIS LE
Groundwater analysis – PLAXIS LE
