PLAXIS 2024.2 New release is out! Featured

This latest PLAXIS release includes two new user defined materials models, one that helps improving the process of designing tailings dams and the other for the design of tunnels in swelling rocks or soils. Some smaller usability improvements and new capabilities have also been added across PLAXIS 2D, 3D and Monopile Designer.

New UDSM: Clay And Sand Model (CASM)

The Clay And Sand Model (CASM) has been developed by Yu (1998) in the framework of Critical State Soil Mechanics (Schofield and Wroth, 1968) as a versatile constitutive model able to simulate the behaviour of both clays and sands. CASM can simulate the stability of and static liquefaction in, for example, tailings dams, and has been successfully employed to analyse the Brumadinho (Arroyo and Gens, 2021) and Merriespruit dam failures (Mánica et al., 2022). The user can choose to use it as either a rate-independent plastic model or as an elasto-viscoplastic model (CASM-Visco) accounting for time-dependency (Manica et al., 2021). With the CASM-Visco formulation users can capture the potential contribution of undrained creep to a higher apparent strength, working to reduce the tailings material’s susceptibility to flow liquefaction, an effect not captured by the standard CASM nor the NorSand model. CASM has been implemented as a User-Defined Soil Model (UDSM) in PLAXIS 2D and 3D and requires the Advanced or Ultimate licence tier and a valid Geotechnical SELECT Entitlement.

Enhanced capabilities UDSM: Swelling rock

The Swelling rock model was originally implemented by Prof. Thomas Benz of NTNU and further developed by Bert Schädlich of TUGraz for PLAXIS 2D a User-Defined Soil Model (UDSM) several years ago. The model is based on previous work by Wittke-Gattermann & Wittke (2004), Anagnostou (1993), and Heidkamp & Katz (2002) and can account for the stress- and time dependency of swelling deformations. The model has now been made available with a full 3D implementation allowing users to incorporate the effects swelling in their 3D modelling. Recent advancements have further refined the Swelling rock model which both PLAXIS 2D and 3D benefit from, enhancing its capabilities to accurately simulate swelling behaviour. A novel swelling model has been developed based on the work of Hawlader et al. (2003) and Carvalho (2015), offering an alternative representation of swelling behaviour over time, linear in log(t) scale. This enhancement provides improved prediction for coupled swelling behaviour of certain rock types common in North America. The user can now select between the original formulation and the new Log(t) version of the Swelling rock model during the material creation to select the most suitable swelling behaviour to confidently model tunnelling or excavation projects with better accuracy. Using this UDSM requires the Advanced or Ultimate licence tier and a valid Geotechnical SELECT Entitlement. 

Improved Fully coupled flow-deformation calculation

For the Fully coupled flow-deformation calculation type, a new setting called Include reference flow analysis is introduced. By default, this setting is unchecked and automatically excludes the calculation of a steady-state groundwater flow reference solution, as was normally done in previous releases. In some cases, the calculation of this steady-state groundwater flow reference solution would not converge and therefore block the entire fully coupled flow-deformation calculation from proceeding, this is now automatically prevented, improving the user experience when for example modelling tailings dams or other types of dams of levees. The excess pore pressures are also no longer calculated under this new default setting. By enabling the checkmark for Include reference flow analysis, users will be able to reproduce the behaviour as seen in previous releases where the steady-state groundwater flow reference solution was still calculated. The Fully coupled flow-deformation calculation type is only available for the Ultimate license tier.  

Loading materials from another PLAXIS project

With this release it’s now possible to easily reuse the materials definition of another PLAXIS project when working on a new project. When inspecting the global material database, users now have the option to switch modes between the “Global database file” and “PLAXIS file”. When the “PLAXIS file” option is chosen the user can hit the Select button and navigate to a pre-existing PLAXIS project. All defined materials sets like soil, rock or different structural elements are loaded into the secondary database, kept separate from the global material database. The chosen external project is remembered, so each time a new project is started, one can quickly access the materials, convenient if multiple models on a specific work site need to be made.

Small enhancements, fixes and changes

• The PLAXIS Python Environment that is installed alongside the PLAXIS software has been upgraded from Python 3.8 to use Python 3.12, in line with Python 3.8 becoming End of life in October 2024.
• In PLAXIS 2D, users can now input separate Np values for compression and tension for elastoplastic plate and elastoplastic embedded beam material sets to better model for example concrete walls or piles, that have much lower strength in tension versus compression.
  
  
  
• Assigned materials, dynamic multipliers, groundwater and thermal flow and movement functions can now be removed by selecting the new option “None” from the selection explorer.
  
  
  
• Performance improvements on command line execution for projects with many commands. Measured performance speed up factor is between 1.5 to 5 times, varying based on the number of objects and number of commands in the model.
• Performance improvements in calculation data preparation for 3D projects with large number of interfaces. In an extreme case a performance speed up factor of 252 was measured with 2000 interfaces, 2000 soil clusters and ~4 million nodes.

PLAXIS Monopile Designer

Improvements to modal analysis (Technology Preview)

This Technology Preview adds the possibility to calculate natural vibration frequencies and vibration modes for the monopile-tower-nacelle system. With this release, we have adjusted and improved this Technology Preview in response to your feedback. 

Small enhancements, fixes and changes

• The PLAXIS Python Environment that is installed alongside PLAXIS Monopile Designer has been upgraded from Python 3.8 to use Python 3.12, in line with Python 3.8 becoming End of Life in October 2024.
• Fixed an issue that over-estimated the capacity of rule-based API p-y curves above the reduced resistance zone
• Charts have been resized and axes have been rescaled for better visualization.
• Improved copying and pasting from tables.
• Calibration models from multiple soil profiles can now be multi-selected for parameterisation. Independent depth variation functions for each profile will be queued and processed in sequence.

So, update to our latest editions to benefit from these new features and software improvements using either the CONNECTION Client or by downloading the software yourself today!

Direct downloads and access to full release notes with all added features: