Introduction to Plaxis 3D

1 | © 2022 National Geotechnics Center, ITENAS PT Delta Sigma Nusantara © 2022 National Geotechnics Center, ITENAS
 Plaxis 3D Input

General Toolbar

Selection Explorer Mode Switches

Model Explorer

Toolbars
Drawing Area
Command Line

2 | © 2022 National Geotechnics Center, ITENAS

 Plaxis 3D Input : Modes

Definition of soil stratigraphy Definition of structural

elements, loads, and boundary
conditions

Soil Structures

Creation of the mesh Definition of pressure Definition of construction

distribution stages

Mesh Flow conditions Staged construction

3 | © 2022 National Geotechnics Center, ITENAS

 Model and Selection explorer

• The Model Explorer provides a

graphical overview of the complete
model and the objects that it contains.
• The Selection Explorer provides the
same functionality as the Model
Explorer, but only for the current
selection of objects

• For managing any objects created in the model:

– shows number of materials, loads
– Showing, hiding or deleting model items
– Renaming model items
– Changing properties of model items
(load values, water height, material sets, …)

4 | © 2022 National Geotechnics Center, ITENAS

 Command line

• All the actions carried out using either the mouse or the explorers are
translated into commands.
• Alternatively, PLAXIS 3D allows to carry out actions using keyboard input by
directly typing the corresponding commands in the command line.
–The Session tab displays the commands executed in the active session
–The Model history tab displays all the commands executed in the project

5 | © 2022 National Geotechnics Center, ITENAS

 Other functionality

• Selection by either clicking individual objects or at once by defining a selection box in the draw
area. Criteria can be applied to the type of items to be selected.
• Group creation for fast model creation when the same operations have to be undertaken over
a large number of objects

6 | © 2022 National Geotechnics Center, ITENAS

 Soil Mode

7 | © 2022 National Geotechnics Center, ITENAS

 Soil mode

• Definition of soil volumes and initial water levels

• Based on the concept of boreholes
• Offers import geometry facilities
• Boreholes
–Locations in the draw area where the information on
soil layering and location of the water table is
specified
–For multiple boreholes, PLAXIS 3D will
automatically interpolate the soil layers between
boreholes
–Each defined soil layer is used throughout the whole
model.

8 | © 2022 National Geotechnics Center, ITENAS

 Borehole definition

• Defining soil layer heights in the Soil layers tabsheet

• Defining water conditions in the
Water tabsheet:
– Specific Head
– Hydrostatic distribution,
– Interpolate from adjacent layers
– Dry
– User-defined pore pressures
• Defining Initial Soil conditions in the
Initial conditions and Preconsolidation tabsheet
– Specify OCR, POP, K0x and K0y for the K0 procedure
• Defining Ground Surface in the Surface tabsheet
• Defining Soil layers from CPT data in the field data tabsheet
9 | © 2022 National Geotechnics Center, ITENAS
 Material Sets

• Definition of material sets and parameters for

representing the soil layers and structural
elements
• Same method of input as Plaxis 2D

10 | © 2022 National Geotechnics Center, ITENAS

 Structure Mode

11 | © 2022 National Geotechnics Center, ITENAS

 Default Movement Limitation

• Defining 3D geometry using mouse input is cumbersome considering the fact that the location in the
direction perpendicular to the draw view cannot be precisely defined. By default:

– mouse will enable movement in the – holding <Shift> while moving the
XY plane mouse will enable movement in Z
direction only

12 | © 2022 National Geotechnics Center, ITENAS

 Changing Movement Limitation Settings

• Selecting one the six sides

view of the default views gives
access to the Movement
limitation dialog boxes

• The Movement limitation dialog

box can be closed by selecting
the Perspective view option of
the default views.

13 | © 2022 National Geotechnics Center, ITENAS

 Defining the geometry

• Points
– Generated by clicking the Create point button.
– Used for Point loads, Point prescribed displacements and Fixed-end anchors.
• Lines
– Generated by clicking the Create line button.
– Used to define Beams, Line loads, Line prescribed displacements, Node-to- node anchors and Embedded piles.
• Surfaces
– Generated by clicking the Create surface button.
– Used to define Plates, Geotextiles, Interfaces and Surface loads.
– The first three created points define the surface plane by default.
– Existing surfaces can be edited from the Surface points dialog box of from the pop-up submenu of Create
surface button

14 | © 2022 National Geotechnics Center, ITENAS

 Defining the geometry: Extrude

• Extrusion of Lines and surfaces in order to create surfaces and volumes

respectively:
–From the Extrude dialog box
–By dragging and dropping the bottom surface to the top surface location

15 | © 2022 National Geotechnics Center, ITENAS

 Defining the geometry: Array

• Generate multiple copies of a selection, arranged in a rectangular or polar pattern

16 | © 2022 National Geotechnics Center, ITENAS

 Defining the geometry: Other functions

Decompose into surfaces: creates outer surfaces of selected volumes

Decompose into outlines: creates contour of selected surfaces
Intersect and recluster: splits selected geometric objects along their intersection
Combine: combines selected geometric objects of the same kind
Merge equivalent geometric objects: merges selected geometric objects
Snap: snap points to objects within a given tolerance
Invert normal: flip surface normals
Create rigid body: make rigid selected objects

These functionalities are accessible from the RMB context menu on the draw area and the
command line

17 | © 2022 National Geotechnics Center, ITENAS

 Loads

• Generated by clicking the Create

load button or by right-clicking on
any geometric objects in the draw
area

• In a similar way it is possible

create Prescribed displacements.

Point load

Line load

Surface load

18 | © 2022 National Geotechnics Center, ITENAS

 Default Boundary Conditions

• Default boundary conditions are

–All displacements fixed for the bottom surface
of the soil contour
–Perpendicular displacement fixed for lateral
surfaces of the soil contour

→ Default boundary conditions can be

overwritten by specifying Prescribed
displacement surfaces on the soil contour

19 | © 2022 National Geotechnics Center, ITENAS

 Structures

• Generated by clicking the Structure Fixed-end anchor

button Beam
• Can also be created by right-clicking on selected: Node-to-node anchor
–points Embedded beam
(fixed-end anchor) Plate
–lines Geogrid
(beam, node-to-node anchor or embedded beam)
Positive interface
–surfaces
Negative interface
(plate, geogrid, interfaces, discontinuities)
Discontinuities

20 | © 2022 National Geotechnics Center, ITENAS

 Importing Geometry

• Possibility to import from external sources in different formats like

Import structures

Import point cloud

data

Import super element

21 | © 2022 National Geotechnics Center, ITENAS

 The Mesh Mode

22 | © 2022 National Geotechnics Center, ITENAS

 From Geometry Modes To Mesh Mode

• Automatic intersection/clustering of objects performed

Structure mode

Mesh mode

23 | © 2022 National Geotechnics Center, ITENAS

 Mesh Density in Plaxis 3D

• Global coarseness:
– Defines an average element size based on model dimensions and relative element size factor re
(Very coarse / Coarse / Medium / Fine / Very Fine)
– Average element size (Ie) or Target element dimension
Ie = 0.05 ∗ 𝑟𝑒 ∗ 𝑥𝑚𝑎𝑥 − 𝑥𝑚𝑖𝑛 2 + 𝑦𝑚𝑎𝑥 − 𝑦𝑚𝑖𝑛 2 + 𝑧𝑚𝑎𝑥 − 𝑧𝑚𝑖𝑛 2

• Local refinement (Coarseness factor):

– Element size can be locally refined or coarsened
– Element size = (Coarseness factor) * (Avg. elem. size)
• Colour code
– Depending on their degree of local refinement, geometric objects are displayed in different color in
the Draw area (gray for Coarseness factor of 1, green with lighter colour when getting more refined
otherwise in yellow)

24 | © 2022 National Geotechnics Center, ITENAS

 Local mesh refinement

• By clicking the toolbar

buttons refine mesh
or coarsen mesh and
selecting desired
items in the draw area
• From the selection
explorer by entering
the desired
coarseness factor
value
• By invoking RMB
context menu after
item selection

25 | © 2022 National Geotechnics Center, ITENAS

 Generate Mesh

• Can be done by clicking the Generate

mesh button from the Mesh Toolbar or the
right mouse button popup menu

• While the mesh is being generated, the

possibilities are offered to either pause,
resume or cancel the process

26 | © 2022 National Geotechnics Center, ITENAS

 The Water Levels Mode

27 | © 2022 National Geotechnics Center, ITENAS

 Water Levels

• Borehole water level is created by specifying a Head in the boreholes (in the Soil mode)
and is the default water level
– A single borehole can be used to create a horizontal water surface that extends to the
model boundaries.
– When multiple boreholes are used, a non-horizontal water surface can be created by
combining the heads in the various boreholes
– Non hydrostatic distribution in the soil may be specified in the Water tabsheet of the Modify
soil layers dialog box
• User water levels are available in the Flow conditions mode and can be used as a
alternative to the Generated water level.

28 | © 2022 National Geotechnics Center, ITENAS

 Water conditions in soil volumes

• Water levels can be specified for each

individual volume
• Available options are:
– Global level (default)
– Custom level
– Head
– User-defined
– Interpolate
– Dry
– Unsaturated
• Can be done from
– The WaterConditions feature in the
Selection explorer.
– Right-clicking the mouse

29 | © 2022 National Geotechnics Center, ITENAS

 The Staged Construction Mode

30 | © 2022 National Geotechnics Center, ITENAS

 Calculation phase definition

Phase explorer

Change and/or (de)activate objects per

phase by means of the model explorer,
selection explorer or directly in the draw
area

31 | © 2022 National Geotechnics Center, ITENAS

 The Phase explorer

• For creating and editing the calculation phases

Insert phase Delete phase

Add phase Calculation type indicator:

Calculation type : Pore pressure calculation type :

K0 procedure (initial phase) Phreatic
Calculation status indicator: gravity loading (initial phase) Steady state ground waterflow
to be calculated plastic Use pressures from previous phase
not to be calculated dynamic
calculation successful consolidation
calculation failed safety
Fully coupled flow deformation
Dynamic with consolidation
Loading type :
Stage Construction
Degree consolidation (Consolidation analysis)
Minimum Excess pore pressure (Consolidation analysis)

32 | © 2022 National Geotechnics Center, ITENAS

 Defining Phase settings

• Calculation phase settings

can be edited:
–General
–Deformation control parameters
–Numerical control parameters

33 | © 2022 National Geotechnics Center, ITENAS