PLAXIS Assignment Report

Advanced Geotechnical Analysis

CE 444

Submitted by:
Surendar Jaipal
110040027

Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai

April 16, 2016

Contents

Problem Statement

Engineering properties of the deposits obtained from field and laboratory tests are
shown in Table 1.

A circular water tank is placed at 1m depth. The tank rests on 1.5m thick reinforced
concrete raft of 10m diameter. Empty weight of the tank is 1500kN. If the height of the

water in the tank is 3.5m, determine the factor of safety against failure. Discuss any one
way to improve the safety factor. Re-run the above problem using this improvement.
You have to model the axi-symmetric tank using PLAXIS and submit a report on the
Foundation design. The report should also include the time taken by the tank to reach
95 percent settlement. This settlement would include settlement of the clay and sand
Layers.
Solution Steps
Step 1: Soil
Defining the soil layers by creaking borehole and assigning the soil properties to soil
layers.

Figure 1: Defining soil layers

Figure 2: Assigning Soil Properties

Step 2: Structures

Figure 3: Defining structural elements and loadings

Step 3: Mesh

Figure 4: Generated Mesh

Figure 5: Selecting Nodes for calculation

Step 4: Water Conditions

Figure 5: Water conditions specified

Step 5: Staged Construction
Initial phase

Figure 6: Defining Initial Phase

Excavation Phase

Figure 7: Defining second phase with imposed loading conditions

Safety Phase

Figure 7: Defining third phase for factor of safety determination

PLAXIS Output

Figure 8: Initial Phase output

Figure 9: Excavation Phase

Figure 10: Safety Phase

Figure 11: Factor of Safety calculation =1.189

Improvement of factor of safety
The upper layer of soil is a soft clay, which has very low cohesion value. The factor of
safety against failure of the soil can be improved by modifying the soil shear strength.
There are several ways to stabilize a soil. Lime stabilization is most common technique
which is used in the industry.
I am assuming that using lime stabilization cohesion of soft clay increases from 3 kPa to
5 kPa and friction angle in this remains constant for this case.
After modifying the cohesion value of soft clay and keeping all other parameters
constant and then running the model again, we obtained the following result.

Figure 12: Increased factor of safety = 1.248

After modifying the cohesion value to 7 kPa and re-running the model we obtained the
following results.

Figure 13: Increased factor of safety = 1.302

Calculations
Concrete slab calculations
Grade of concrete for footing=M 25

Elasticity Modulus ( E ) :5000 ( 25 )

5000 ( 25 ) =25000 N /mm

Area ( m2 )=11.5=1.5 m2
EA=250001.5=3750010

I=

kPa
m

11.53
m3
=0.28125
12
m

EI =250001030.28125=7031.25103 kPa m 3
Volume of slab=11.510=15 m3

Density of concrete=2500

kg
3
m

Mass of concrete=250015=37500 kg
Load of the concrete=3750010=375000 N

Load per unit length=

375000
=37.5 kN
10

Water tank calculations

Grade of steel for water tank=Fe 415
Elasticity Modulus ( E ) :210 GPa
Area ( m2 )=0.0104=4102 m2
EA=2104104 =840104

I=

kPa
m

0.01043
m3
=53.33103
12
m
6

EI =21010 53.3310 =11199.310 kPa m

Empty weight of thetank=1500 kN

Depth of water tank=3.5 m

Diameter of thetank=10 m
2

10
volume of thetank=
3.5=274.89 m3
4

Density of water =1000

kg
3
m

Mass of the water =1000274.89=274889 kg

Weight of water=2748899.8=2693915.7 N

Total Load=2693.9157+1500=4193.9157 kN
Load per unit length=419.39157

kN
/m
m