LATERAL EARTH PRESSURE AND RETAINING WALLS IN ABAQUS

Calculation of at-rest and active lateral earth pressure using a Finite ElementModel – an ABAQUS tutorial

Professor: Dr.-Ing. William Fuentes

Student: Melany Gil Rueda

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Universidad del Norte

Barranquilla, Colombia

2018

Problem

A 3-m-high backfill sand is supported by a concrete retaining wall and is subjected to a 10 kPa surcharge pressure onthe top. Calculate the at-rest and active lateral earth pressure acting against the wall using a Finite Element Modelbuilt in Abaqus.

30

Overview of the model: ‘Active failure’

• At rest U1 = 0

• Active U1 = - 0.005 m

Soil-structure

interaction

2 steps will be set: First, the Geostatic step and then the Displacement step (Active). After the first step, the at-restlateral earth pressure is obtained. After the second step, the Active lateral earth pressure is obtained.

Module: Part1- From the Module

list select theModule: Part

2- Click on theCreate Part tool

3- Fill the dialog box to create the firstpart: Soil

123

Module: Part1- Click on the

Create Lines: Rectangle (4 Lines) tool

2- Enter the firstcoordinates (0,0) and press enter. Enter the secondcoordinates (10,-3) and press enter.

1

2

Module: Part1- Click on the red

cross to end theprocedure

2- Click on Done

1

2

Module: Part1- Click on the

Create Part toolagain

2- Fill the dialog box to create thesecond part: Wall

12

Module: Part1- Click on the

Create Lines: Connected tool

2- Enter thecoordinates. Pressenter after entering each pairof coordinates.

Coordinates:( 0, 0)(-1, 0)(-3,-3)( 0,-3)( 0, 0)

1

2

Module: Part1- Click on the red

cross to end theprocedure

2- Click on Done

1

2

Module: Property1- From the Module

list select theModule: Property

2- Click on theCreate Material tool

12

Module: Property1- Fill the dialog box

to create the firstmaterial: Soil. In this case, a Drucker Prager/cap modelwill be used.

2- Click on General and then onDensity

3-Enter the densityas 1.7 kg/m3

1

2

3

Module: Property1- Click on

Mechanical, Elasticity and then on Elastic

2-Enter theparameters:

Young’s Modulus, E = 10000 kPa

Poisson’s Ratio,v = 0.3

1

2

Module: Property1- Click on

Mechanical, Plasticity and then on Mohr Coulomb Plasticity

1

Module: Property1- Enter the

parameters1

Module: Property1- Click on the

Create Material tool again

11

Module: Property1- Fill the dialog box

to create thesecond material: Concrete.

2- Click on General and then onDensity

3-Enter the densityas 2.4 kg/m3

1

2

3

Module: Property1- Click on

Mechanical, Elasticity and then on Elastic

2-Enter theparameters:

Young’s Modulus, E = 20∙106 kPa

Poisson’s Ratio, v = 0.2

1

2

Module: Property1- Click on the

Create Sectiontool

2- Fill the dialog box to create the firstsection (Soil) as anHomogeneousSolid section. Click onContinue

3- In the Edit Sectiondialog box, choose‘Soil’ as thematerial and clickon OK.

1

2 3

Module: Property1- Click on the

Create Sectiontool

2- Fill the dialog box to create thesecond section(Wall) as anHomogeneousSolid section. Click onContinue

3- In the Edit Sectiondialog box, choose‘Concrete’ as thematerial and clickon OK.

1

2 3

Module: Property1- Click on the

Assign Sectiontool

2- Name the new set as ‘wall’

3- Click inside theregion of the walland it will turnred

4- Click on Done

5- In the Edit SectionAssigment dialogbox, choose ‘Wall’ as the section and click on OK.

1

2

3

4

5

Module: Property1- From the Part List

select the Part: Soil

2- Click on theAssign Sectiontool

3- Name the new set as ‘soil’’

4- Click inside theregion of the soiland it will turnred

5- Click on Done

6- In the Edit SectionAssigment dialogbox, choose ‘Soil’ as the section and click on OK.

2

3

4

5

6

1

Module: Assembly1- From the Module

list select theModule: Assembly

2- Click on theInstance Parttool

3- In the CreateInstance dialogbox, Click on Soiland on OK

4- Repeat the firsttwo steps and in the dialog box, click on Wall and on OK

12

3 4

Module: Assembly

Module: Step1- From the Module

list select theModule: Step

2- Click on theCreate Step tool

3- In the Create Step dialog box, namethe first step as ‘Geostatic’ and select ‘General’, and ‘Geostatic’. Click onContinue

1

23

Module: Step1- In the Edit Step

dialog box, select‘Automatic’ as theIncrementation Type. Then, clickon OK

1

Module: Step1- Click on the

Create Step tool

2- In the Create Step dialog box, namethe second step as ‘Displacement’ and select ‘General’, and ‘Static, General’ as theProcedure Type. Click onContinue

1

2

Module: Step1- In the Edit Step

dialog box, select‘Automatic’ as theIncrementation Type and complete the dialog box. Then, click on OK1

Module: Interaction1- From the Module

list select theModule: Interaction

2- Click on theCreateInteractionProperty tool

3- In the dialog box, name theinteractionproperty as ‘IntProp’ and select ‘Contact’’. Click onContinue

12

3

Module: Interaction1- Click on

Mechanical and on TangentialBehavior

2- Select Penalty as the FrictionFormulation and set the FrictionCoefficient astan(2/3 30°) = 0.36

1 2

Module: Interaction1- Click on

Mechanical and on Normal Behavior

2- Click on OK

1

2