MANUAL OF PLAXIS

CONTENTS

I. INTRODUCTION
II. PRELIMINARIES ON MATERIAL MODELLING
III. THE MOHR- COULOMB MODEL (PERFECT – PLASTICTIY)
IV. THE JOINTED ROCK MODEL (ANISOTROPY)
V. THE HARDENING SOIL MODEL (ISOTROPIC HARDENING)
VI. THE HARDENING SOIL MODEL WITH SMALL-STRAIN STIFFNESS
VII. SOFT SOIL CREEP MODEL (TIME DEPENDENT BEHAVIOUR)
VIII.THE SOFT SOIL MODEL
IX. MODIFIED CAM- CLAY MODEL
X. APPLICATIONS OF ADVANCED SOIL MODELS

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I. INTRODUCTION
The mechanical behavior of soils may be modelled at various degrees of accuracy.
1. On the use of different models
Mohr – Coulomb (MC)
The linear- elastic- perfectly – plastic Mohr- Coulomb model involves five input
parameters
- E and v for soil elasticity.
-  and c for soil plasticity
-  as angle of dilatancy.
- Besides the model parameters mentioned above, the initial soil conditions play an
essential role in most deformation problems. Initial horizontal soil stresses have to be
generated by selecting proper Ko- values.

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I. INTRODUCTION
Hardening Soil model (HS)
- As for the Mohr – Coulomb model, limiting states of stress are described by means of
the friction angle, , the cohesion, c, and the dilatancy angle, .
- Soil stiffness is described much more accurately by using three different input
stiffness:
+ The triaxial loading stiffness, E50.
+ The triaxial unloading stiffnesses, Eur .
+ The Oedometer loading stiffness, Eoed.
- The Hardening Soil model also accounts for stress- dependency of stiffness moduli.
This means that all stiffnesses increase with pressure. Hence, all three input stiffnesses
relate to a reference stress, being usually taken as 100 kN/m2.
- Besides the model parameters mentioned above, the initial soil conditions, such as
pre-consolidation, play an essential role in most soil deformation problems. These can
be taken into account in the initial stress generation.

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I. INTRODUCTION
Hardening Soil model with small- strain stiffness (HS Small)
- The HS small model is a modification of the above Hardening Soil model that
accounts for the increased stiffness of soils at small strains.
- At low strain levels most soils exhibit a higher stiffness than at engineering strain
levels, and this stiffness varies non-linearly with strain.
- HS small model using an additional strain- history parameter and two additional
material parameters: Grefo and 0.7
+ Go is the small – strain shear modulus
+ 0.7 is the strain level at which the shear modulus has reduced to 70% of the small –
strain shear modulus.

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I. INTRODUCTION
Soft soil model (SS)
- The Soft soil model is a Cam- clay type model especially meant for primary
compression of near normally – consolidated clay – type soils.
- The modelling capabilities of this model are superseded by the HSsmall, the SS
model us still retained in the current version.
Modified Cam- clay model (MCC)
- It is meant primarily for the modelling of near normally – consolidated clay-type
soils.

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I. INTRODUCTION
2. Limitations
Linear Elastic model
- Soil behaviour is highly non-linear and irreversible.
- The linear elastic model is insufficient to capture the essential features of soil.
- The use of the linear elastic model may, however, be considered to model massive
structures in the soil or bedrock layers.
Mohr- Coulomb model
- The M-C model does neither include stress – dependency nor stress-path dependency
of stiffness or anisotropic stiffness.
- In general, stress states at failure in drained conditions are quite well described using
the Mohr- Coulomb failure criterion with effective strength parameter ’ and c’.
- Care must be taken in undrained conditions, since the effective stress path that is
followed by the Mohr – Coulomb model may not be realistic.

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I. INTRODUCTION
- Alternatively, the M-C model may be used with the friction angle  set to 0 and the
cohesion c set to cu (su) to enable a direct control of undrained shear strength. In that
case note that the model does not automatically include the increase of shear strength
with consolidation.
HS – model
- It is a hardening model that does not account for softening due to soil dilatancy and
de-bonding effects.
- In fact, it is an isotropic hardening model so that it models neither hysteretic and
cyclic loading nor cyclic mobility or anisotropic behavior.
- In order to model cyclic loading with good accuracy one would need a more complex
model.
- As a final remark, the use of the Hardening Soil model generally results in longer
calculation times, since the material stiffness matrix is formed in each calculation step.

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I. INTRODUCTION
HS small – model
- It does not incorporate a gradual softening during cyclic loading, so is not suitable for
cyclic loading problems in which softening plays a role.
- The use of the HS small- model will generally result in calculation times that are even
longer than those of the HS – model.
SSC – model
- All above limitations also hold true for the SSC model.
- In addition this model tends to over predict the range of elastic soil behavior. This is
especially the case for excavation problems, including tunneling.
SS- model
- The same limitations (including these in the SSC- model) hold in the SS – model. In
fact, the SS- model is superseded by the HS- model, but is kept for users who are
familiar with this model.
- The utilization of the SS- model should be limited to the situations that are dominated
by compression.
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I. INTRODUCTION
MCC – model
- The same limitations (including those in the SSC- model) hold in the MCC-model.
- The MCC- model may allow for unrealistically high shear stresses. This is
particularly the case for over-consolidated stress state where the stress path crosses the
critical state line.
- The use of the MCC model in practical applications is not recommended.
II. PRELIMINARIES ON MATERIAL MODELLING
- A material model is a set of mathematical equations that describes the relationship
between stress and strain.
- Material models are often expressed in a form in which infinitesimal increments of
stress (or ‘stress rate’) are related to infinitesimal increments of strain (or ‘strain rates’)
- All material models implemented in the PLAXIS are based on a relationship between
the effective stress rates 𝜎′ and the strain rates 𝜀 .
1. General definitions of stress

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- Stress is a tensor which can be represented by a matrix in Cartesian coordinates:

- In plane strain condition: yz = zx = 0

- According to Terzaghi’s principle, stresses in the soil are divided into effective
stresses and pore pressures:

- Pore pressures are generally provided by water in the pores. Water is considered not
to sustain any shear stresses. As a result, effective shear stresses are equal to total
shear stresses.
- Material models for soil and rock are generally expressed as a relationship between
infinitesimal increments of effective stress and infinitesimal increments of strain.
2. General definitions of strain

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- Strain is a tensor which can be represented by a matrix with Cartesian coordinates as

- Strains are the derivatives of the displacement components, i.e. ij =𝜕ui/ 𝜕 i where i is
either x, y or z.
- The volumetric strain is defined as negative for compaction and as positive for
dilatancy.
- For elastoplastic models as used in PLAXIS program, strain are decomposed into
elastic and plastic components

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3. Elastic strain
Material models for soil and rock are generally expressed as a relationship between
infinitesimal increments of effective stress (effective stress rate) and infinitesimal
increments of strain (strain rate). This relationship may be expressed in the form:

M is a material stiffness matrix. PWP are explicitly excluded from the stress- strain
relationship.
The simplest material model in PLAXIS is based on Hooke’s law for isotropic linear
elastic behavior. This model is available under the name Linear Elastic model, but it is
also the basis of other models.

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According to Hooke’s Law, the relationship between Young’s modulus E and stiffness
moduli, such as the shear modulus G, the bulk modulus K, and the oedometer modulus
Eoed is given by:
G = E/[2+(1+v)]
K = E/[3(1-2v)]
Eoed = (1-v)E/[(1-2v)(1+v)]
4. Undrained effective stress analysis with effective stiffness parameters
Water is supposed not to sustain any shear stress, and therefore the effective shear
stresses are equal to the total shear stresses.
xx (yy, zz) = ’xx (yy, zz) + pw
xy = ’xy
yx = ’yz
zx = ’zx

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pw = psteady +pexcess
- Steady state pore pressure are considered to be input data, i.e generated on the basis
of phreatic levels of groundwater flow. Excess PWP are generated during plastic
calculation for the case of undrained material behavior or during a consolidation
analysis.

Considering slightly compressible water, the rate of pore pressure is written as:
(K is bulk modulus of the water, n is the soil porosity).

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The inverted form of Hooke’s law may be written in terms of the total stress rates and
the undrained parameters Eu and vu .

Where
Eu = 2G(1+vu)
vu = [v’ + (1+ v’)]/[1+2(1+v’)]
 = 1/(3n) * Kw/K’
K’ = E’/[3(1-2v’)]

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- In order to void numerical problems caused by an extremely low compressible.
- Consequently, for undrained material behavior a bulk modulus is automatically added
to the stiffnes matrix.

At least for v’ ≤ 0.35.

Skempton B – parameter
- When the Material type (type of material behavior) is set to Undrained, PLAXIS
automatically assumes an implicit undrained bulk modulus, Ku, for the soil as a whole
(soil skeleton + water) and distinguishes between total stresses, effective stresses and
excess pore pressure.
Total stress Δp = Ku Δεv

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Effective stress: Δp’ = (1-B)Δp = K’Δεv
Excess pore pressure: Δpw = BΔp = Kw/n . Δεv
The rate of excess pore pressure is calculated from the (small) volumetric strain rate,
according to:

In such situations measured undrained Young’s moduli can be easily converted into
effective Young’s moduli by

For advanced models there is no such direct conversion possible.

5. Undrained effective stress analysis with effective strength parameters.
- Undrained shear strength, however, can not easily be used to determined the effective
strength parameters ’ and c’. Moreover, even if one would have proper effective

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strength parameters, care has to be taken as to whether these effective strength
parameters will provide the correct undrained shear strength in the analysis.
- When using the Mohr- Coulomb model with the Material type set to Undrained, the
model will follow an effective stress path where the mean effective stress, p’, remain
constant all the way up to failure.

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- The soft soils will follow an effective stress path in undrained loading where p’
reduces significantly, the maximum diviatoric stress that can be reached in the model is
over-estimated.
6. Undrained effective stress analysis with undrained strength parameters.
- It is difficult to use undrained shear strength to determine the effective strength
parameter ’ and c’.
- As an alternative for undrained analyses with effective strength parameters, PLAXIS
offers the possibility of an undrained effective stress analysis (Material type =
Undrained) with direct input of the undrained shear strength, i.e =u = 0 and c = cu

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This option is only available for the MC model, HS model, HSsmall model, but not for
SS model, SSC model, MCC model.
- Further note that whenever the Material type parameter is set to Undrained, effective
values must still be entered for the stiffness parameters (Young’s modulus E and
Poisson ratio v in case of the MC model or the respective stiffness parameters in the
advanced models).
7. Undrained total stress analysis with undrained parameters
- One may simulate undrained behavior using a total stress analysis with undrained
parameters. In that case, stiffness is modelled using an undrained Young’s modulus Eu
and undrained shear strength cu (su) an  = u = 0o , vu = 0,495, Non-porous for
Material type (not Undrained).
- No distinction is made between effective stresses and pore pressures. Effective stress
interpreted as total stress, all PWP are equal to zero.
- If one does want graphical output of stresses one should select Drained instead of
Non-porous for the type of material behavior.

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8. The initial pre-consolidation stress in advanced models

- In the engineering practice it is common to use a vertical pre-consolidation stress, p
- PLAXIS needs an equivalent isotropic pre-consolidation stress, peqp to determine the
initial position of a cap-type yield surface.
- OCR is ratio of the greatest vertical effective stress previously reached p and the in-
situ effective vertical stress, ’0yy OCR= p / ’0yy
- Pre- overburden pressure (POP) is defined POP = | p - ’0yy |

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- The pre-consolidation stress p is used to compute peqp which determines the initial
position of a cap-type yield surface in the advanced soil models.
’1 = p and ’2 = ’3 = KoNC p
Where:
KNCo is the Ko –value associated with normally consolidated states of stress which is an
input parameter for the advanced soil models.
- For the Hardening soil model, the default parameter setting is such that we follow the
Jaky formula KNCo ~ 1- sin’.
- For the Soft soil creep model, the default setting is slightly different, but differences
with the Jaky correlation are modest.
9. On the initial stresses
- In over-consolidated soils the coefficient of lateral earth pressure is larger than for
normally consolidated soils.
- For NC state

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- For OC soil sample (is only valid in the

elastic domain, because the formula was
derived from Hooke’s law of elasticity).

- The use of a small elastic Poisson’s ratio

will lead to a relatively range ratio of lateral
stress and vertical stress.
- If a soil sample is unloaded by a large
amount, resulting in a high degree of over-
consolidation, the stress ratio will be
limited by the Mohr-Coulomb failure Over-consolidated stress state obtained
condition. from primary loading and subsequent
unloading

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III. THE MOHR- COULOMB MODEL (PERFECT – PLASTICITY)

- Plasticity is associated with the development of irreversible strains and it limits
allowable stress states.
- A yield function, f, is introduced as a function of stress and strain, plastic yielding is
related to the condition, f = 0.
- For stress states represented by points within the yield surface, the behavior is purely
elastic and all strains are reversible.
1. Elastic perfectly – plastic behaviour
- The basic principle of elasto-plasticity is that strains and strain rates are decomposed
into an elastic part and a plastic part

- Hooke’s law is used to relate the stress rates to the elastic strain rates.

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(PERFECT – PLASTICITY)
- According to the classical theory of
plasticity (Hill, 1950), plastic strain rates
can be represented as vectors perpendicular
to the yield surface.
2. Formulation of the Mohr- coulomb model
- The full Mohr- Coulomb yield condition
consists of six yield functions when
formulated in terms of principal stresses.

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III. THE MOHR- COULOMB MODEL

(PERFECT – PLASTICITY)

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III. THE MOHR- COULOMB MODEL (PERFECT – PLASTICITY)

- The two plastic model parameters appearing in the yield functions are the well-
known friction angle  an the cohesion c.
- The condition f = 0 for all yield functions together represent a hexagonal cone in
principle stress space.
- In addition to the yield functions, six plastic potential functions are defined for the
Mohr – Coulomb model

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III. THE MOHR- COULOMB MODEL (PERFECT – PLASTICITY)

- In Plaxis, however, the exact form of the full Mohr- Coulomb model is implemented,
using a sharp transition from one yield surface to another (Koiter, 1960, Van langen &
Vermeer, 1990).
3. Basic parameters of the Morh- coulomb model
- A total of five parameters are listed below:
E: Young’s modulus (kN/m2)
v: Poisson’s ratio [-]
: friction angle [o]
c: cohesion [kN/m2]
ψ: dilatancy angle [o]
Young’s modulus (E)
- For materials with a large linear elastic range it is realistic to use Eo, but for loading
of soils one generally uses E50.
- Considering unloading problems, as in the case of tunneling and excavations.

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Dilatancy angle (ψ)
- The dilatancy of sand depends on both the density and on the friction angle
- A small negative value for ψ is only realistic for extremely loose sands. For further
information about the link between the friction angle and dilatancy (Bolton 1986).
- A positive dilatancy angle implies that in drained conditions the soil will continue to
dilate as long as shear deformation occurs. This is clearly unrealistic, as most soils will
reach a critical state at some point and further shear deformation will occur without
volume changes.
- In undrained conditions a positive dilatancy angle, combined with the restriction on
volume changes, leads to a generation of tensile pore pressure. In an undrained
effective stress analysis therefore the strength of the soil maybe overestimated.
Tension cut-off
- In some practical problems an area with tensile stresses may develop.
- For the MC model and HS model, the tension cut-off is by default, select with a
tensile strength of zero.
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V. THE HARDENING SOIL MODEL (ISOTROPIC HARDENING)

- The yield surface of a hardening plasticity model is not fixed in principal stress
space, but it can expand due to plastic straining.
- Two main type of hardening, namely shear hardening and compression hardening in
the present model:
+ Shear hardening is used to model irreversible strains due to primary deviatoric
loading.
+ Compression hardening is used to model irreversible plastic strains due to primary
compression in oedometer loading and isotropic loading.
- The HS model is an advanced model for simulating the behavior of different types of
soils, both soft soils and stiff soils, Schanz (1998).
- When subjected to primary deviatoric loading, soil shows a decreasing stiffness and
simultaneously irreversible plastic strains develop.
- In the special case of a drained triaxial test, the observed relationship between the
axial strain and the deviatoric stress can be well approximated by a hyperbola.

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- A hyperbola relationship was first formulated by Kondner (1963) and later used in the
well-known hyperbolic model (Ducan & Chang, 1970).
- The HS model supersedes the hyperbolic model by far. Firstly, by using the theory of
plasticity rather than the theory of elasticity. Secondly by including soil dilatancy and
thirdly by introducing a yield cap.
1. Hyperbolic relationship for standard drained triaxial test
- A basic idea for the formulation of the Hardening- soil model is the hyperbolic
relationship between the vertical strain, 1 and the deviatoric stress, q, in primary
triaxial loading. Standard drained triaxial tests tend to yield curves that can be
described by:

- qa is the asymptotic value of the shear strength and Ei the initial stiffness, which is
equal to:

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- The ultimate deviatoric stress, qf and the quantity qa in Eq (5.1) are defined as:

q = qf, the failure criterion is satisfied and perfectly plastic yielding occurs as described
by the Mohr – Coulomb model.

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2. Approximation of hyperbola by the hardening soil model
- Plastic strains:
- This stems from a shear strain yield function of the form:

- Where 𝑓 ̅ is a function of stress and p is a function of plastic strains:

- In hard soils, plastic volume changes (pv ) tend to be relatively small and this leads
to the approximation p ≈ -2 p1
-f=0

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- Elastic strain
- Plastic strains develop in primary loading alone, but elastic strains develop both in
primary loading and unloading/ reloading.
- For drained triaxial test stress paths with ’2 = ’3 = constant, the elastic Young’s
modulus Eur remains constant and the elastic strains are givens by the equations:

Where:
- vur is the unloading/ reloading Poisson’s ratio. Here it should be realized that
restriction is made to strains that develop during deviatoric loading, whilst the strains
that develop during the very first stage of the test (isotropic compression with
consolidation) are not considered.
- For the deviatoric loading stage of the triaxial test, the axial strain is the sum of an
elastic component given:

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3. Plastic volumetric strain for triaxial states of stress
- m is the mobilised friction angle

- At failure, the mobilized friction angle equals the failure angle , it is found from Eq.
(5.12) that:

- One has to provide input data on the ultimate friction angle, , and the ultimate
dilatancy angle , ψ.
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4. Parameters of the hardening – soil model
- Failure parameters as in Mohr- Coulomb model
c : effective cohesion (kN/m2)
 : effective angle of internal friction (o)
ψ : angle of dilatancy (o)
- Basic parameters for soil stiffness
Eref50 : secant stiffness in standard drained triaxial test (kN/m2)
Erefoed: tangent stiffness for primary oedometer loading (kN/m2)
Erefur: unloading/ reloading stiffness (default Erefur = 3Eref50)
m : power for stress – level dependency of stiffness (-)
- Advanced parameters (it is advised to use the default setting):
vur : poisson’s ratio for unloading – reloading (default vur = 0.2) (-)
pref: reference stress for stiffnesses (default pref = 100 stress units) (kN/m2)
Knco: Ko- value for normal consolidation (default Knco = 1- sin’) (-)
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Rf: failure ratio qf/qa (default Rf = 0.9)
tension: tensile strength (default tension = 0 stress units) (kN/m2)
cincrement: as in Mohr – Coulomb model (default cincrement = 0) (kN/m2)
Stiffness moduli Eref50, Erefoed & Erefur and power m
- The advantage of the Hardening soil model over the Mohr- Coulomb model:
+ The use of a hyperpolic stress – strain curve instead of a bi-linear curve.
+ The control of stress level dependency.
- Within Hooke’s law of isotropic elasticity conversion between E and G goes by the
equation E = 2 (1 + v) G.
- Eur is a real elastic stiffness, Eur = 2(1+v)Gur, where Gur is an elastic shear modulus.
- In contrast to Eur, the secant modulus E50 is not used within a concept of elasticity. As
a consequence, there is no simple conversion from E50 to G50.
- In contrast to elasticity based models, the elastoplastic Hardening soil model does not
involve a fixed relationship between the (drained) triaxial stiffness E50 and the

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(ISOTROPIC HARDENING)
Oedometer stiffness. Instead, these stiffness
can be inputted independently.
Advanced parameters
- Realistic values of vur are about 0.2.
- Konc = 1- sin’, users do have the
possibility to select different values.
Dilatancy cut- off
- As soos as the volume change results in a
state of maximum void, the mobilized
dilatancy angle, ψm is automatically set
back to zero.

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- The void ratio is related to the volumetric strain, v by the relationship

- (v – einitv) = ln[(1+e)/(1+einit)]
Where an increment of v is positive for dilatancy.
- The initial void ratio, einit is the in-situ void ratio of the soil body.
- The selection of the dilatancy cut-off is only available when the Hardening Soil
model has been selected. By default, the dilatancy cut-off is not active.

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VI THE HARDENING SOIL MODEL WITH SMALL – STRAIN STIFFNESS

(HSSMALL)
- The Hardening Soil model assumes elastic material behavior during unloading and
reloading. However, the strain range in which soils can be considered truly elastic.
With increasing strain amplitude, soil stiffness decays nonlinearly.
- It turn out that at the minimum strain which can be reliably measured in classical
laboratory tests, i.e. triaxial tests and Oedometer test without special instrumentation,
soil stiffness is often decreased to less than half its initial value.

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(HSSMALL)
- The HSsmall model implemented in Plaxis is based on the Hardening Soil model and
only two additional parameters are needed to describe the stiffness behavior at small
strains:
+ The initial or very small – strain shear modulus Go
+ The shear strain level 0.7 at which the secant shear modulus G is reduced to 70% of
Go .
1. Describing small-strain stiffness with a simple hyperbolic law.
- A inertia forces and strain rate have only little influence on the initial soil stiffness,
dynamic soil stiffness and small- strain stiffness can in fact be considered as synonyms.
- The probably most frequently used model in soil dynamics is the Hardin- Drnevich
relationship.
- The hyperbolic law was proposed by Hardin & Drnevich.

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(HSSMALL)
Where the threshold shear strain r is quantified as

max being the shear stress at failure

Santos & Correia suggest to use the shear strain r = 0.7 at which the shear modulus Go
is reduce to 70% of its initial value.

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(HSSMALL)

2. Applying the hardin – drnevich relationship in the hs model

- The stiffness reduction curve defined in Eq. (6.3) reaches far into the plastic material
domain.

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(HSSMALL)
- In the Hardening soil and HSsmall model, stiffness degradation due to plastic
straining is simulated with strain hardening.
- The lower cut-off is introduced at the unloading reloading stiffness Gur which is
defined by the material parameters Eur and vur.
- The cut-off shear strain cut-off calculated as:

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(HSSMALL)
3. Virgin (initial) loading vs unloading/ reloading
- Masing described the hysteretic behavior of materials in unloading/reloading cycles
in the forem of the following rules:
+ The shear modulus in unloading is equal to the initial tangent modulus for the initial
loading curve.
+ The shape of the unloading and reloading curves is equal to the intial loading curve,
but twice its size. In terms of the above introduced threshold shear strain 0.7, Masing’s
rule can be fulfilled by the following setting in the Hardin – Drnevich relation

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(HSSMALL)
4. Model parameters
- Compared to the standard HS model, the Hssmall model requires two additional
stiffness parameters as input: Grefo and 0.7
- Grefo defines the shear modulus at very small strains ( < 10-6) at a reference minor
principal stress of –’3 = pref .
- Poisson’s ratio vur is assumed a constant, as everywhere in Plaxis, so that the shear
modulus Grefo can be also calculated from the very small strain Young’s modulus as

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(HSSMALL)
5. On the parameters G0 and 0.7
- In the HSsmall model, the stress dependency of the shear modulus Go is taken into
account with the power law:

- Hardin & Black

- Alpan empirically related dynamic soil stiffness to static soil stiffness (Figure 6.6).
The dynamic soil stiffness in Alpan’s chart is equivalent to the small- strain stiffness Go
or Eo.
- Estatic defined by Alpan equals approximately the unloading/ reloading stiffness Eur

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(HSSMALL)
in the HSsmall model, Alpan’s chart can be used to guess a soil’s small-strain stiffness
entirely based on its unloading/ reloading stiffnes Eur.
- Alpan suggests that the ratio Eo/Eur or Go/Gur permitted in the Hssmall model is
limited to 10.

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(HSSMALL)
- In the absence of test data, correlations are also available for the threshold shear strain
0.7.
- Using the original Hardin – Drvich relationship, the threshold shear strain 0,7 might
be also related to the model’s failure parameters.

Where Ko is the earth pressure coefficient at rest and ’1 is the effective vertical stress
(pressure negative)

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- Up to version 6, Plaxis material models had consisted of Mohr- Coulomb model, SS
model, HS model.
- In version 7, however, the idea of using separate models for soft soil and hard soil has
been excluded, as a result, the SS model can be substituted by the new Hardening soil
model or the Soft soil Creep model.
- To keep SS model in version 8 for user’s preferences.
Some features of the Soft soil models are:
- Stress dependent stiffness (logarithmic compression behavior)
- Distinction between primary loading and unloading – reloading.
- Memory for pre-consolidation stress.
- Failure behavior according to the Mohr- Coulomb criterion.
1. Isotropic states of stress and strain (’1 = ’2 = ’3 )
- In the Soft soil model, it is assumed that there is a logarithmic relation between the
volumetric strain, v and the mean effective stress, p’, which can be formulated as:

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- Minimum p’ is set equal to a unit stress.
- * is the modified compression index, which determines the compressibility of the
material in primary loading.
- Isotropic unloading/ reloading can be formulated as:

- Minimum p’ is set equal to a unit stress.

- * is modified swelling index, which determines the compressibility of the material in
unloading and subsequent reloading.
*/ * is equal to / . The elastic behavior is described by Hooke’s law.

Note that effective parameters are considered rather than undrained soil properties.

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- vur and * are used as input constants for the part of the model that computes the
elastic strains.
- During unloading and reloading, value of the isotropic pre-consolidation stress pp
remains constant.
- In primary loading, however, the pre-consolidation stress increases with the stress
level, causing irreversible (plastic) volumetric strains.

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2. Yield function for triaxial stress state (’2 = ’3)
- The Soft soil model is capable to simulate soil behavior general states of stress.
- The yield function of the Soft soil model (’2 = ’3 ) is defined as:

- The yield function f describes an ellipse in the p’-q plane.

- The parameter M in Eq. (8.5) determines the height of the ellipse. The height of the
ellipse is responsible for the ratio of horizontal to vertical stresses in primary one –
dimensional compression.

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- The tops of all ellipses are located on a line with slope M in the p’-q plane. In the
Modified Cam- clay model (Burland 1965, 1967) the M-line is referred to as the
critical state line and represents stress states at post peak failure. The parameter M is
then based on the critical state friction angle.

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- The value of pp is determined by volumetric plastic strain following the hardening
relation, this equation reflects the principle that the pre-consolidation stress increases
exponentially with decreasing volumetric plastic strain (compaction).
- The deformation of PoP is treated in section 2.8. According to Eq. (8.6) the initial
volumetric plastic strain is assumed to be zero.
- To model the failure state, a perfectly- plastic Mohr- Coulomb type yield function is
used. This yield function represents a straight line in p’-q plane as shown in Figure 8.2.
The slope of the failure line is smaller than the slope of the M- line.
- Stress paths within this boundary give only elastic strain increments, whereas stress
paths that tend to cross the boundary generally give both elastic and plastic strain
increments.
- For general states of stress, the plastic behavior of the Soft soil model is defined by a
total of six yield functions; three compression yield functions and three Mohr-
Coulomb yield functions.

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3. Parameters of the soft soil model
- The Soft Soil model requires the following material constants:
Basic parameters:
*: modified compression index [-]
k*: modified swelling index [-]
c: cohesion [kN/m2]
: friction angle [o]
Ψ: dilatancy angle [o]
Advanced parameters (use default settings):
vur: poisson’s ratio for unloading/reloading [-]
KNCo : coefficient of lateral stress in normal consolidation [-]
M: KNCo – parameter [-]

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M is calculated automatically from the coefficient of the lateral earth pressure, KNCo.
Note that, physically, in the current model M differs from that in the Modified Cam-
clay model where it is related to the material friction.
Modified swelling index and modified compression index
- These parameters can be obtained from an isotropic compression test including
isotropic unloading.

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- The void ratio, e, is assumed to be constant. In fact, e will change during a
compression test, but this will give a relatively small difference in void ratio.
Cohesion
- Effective cohesion may be zero, for standard setting the cohesion is set equal to 1
kPa.
- The isotropic pre-consolidation stress pp has a minimum value of c x cot. This means
that entering a cohesion larger than zero may result in a state of ‘over –
consolidation’. Depending on the magnitude of the cohesion and the initial stress state.
A stiffer behavior is obtained during the onset of loading.
- It is not possible to specify undrained shear strength by means of high cohesion and
friction angle of zero.
- Input of model parameters should always be based on effective values.
Friction angle
- The effective angle of internal friction represents the increase of shear strength with

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effective stress level. Zero friction angle is not allowed.
- It is often recommended to use cv, the critical state friction angle, rather than a
higher value based on small strains.
Dilatancy angle
- For the type of material, which can be described by the Soft Soil model, the dilatancy
can be generally be neglected. A dilatancy angle of zero degree is considered in the
standard setting of the Soft- soil model.
Poisson’s ratio
- In the Soft soil model, the Poisson’s ratio  is the well- known pure elastic constant
rather than the pseudo- elasticity constant as used in the Mohr- Coulomb model.
- Standard setting for the Soft soil model parameters is selected, then ur = 0.15 is
automatically used.
- Poisson’s ratio should not be based on the normally consolidated KNCo – value.

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- KNCo – parameter

- The influence of KNCo is dominant can be approximated by

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IX MODIFIED CAM- CLAY MODEL

- In the MCC model, a logarithmic relation is assumed between void ratio e and the
mean effective stress p’ in virgin isotropic compression, which can be formulated as:

- The model, as implemented in the Plaxis program, uses a slightly different

formulation internally, namely

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Where * and * are the modified compression index and the modified swelling index,
respectively. These indices are determined from the user input as:

- The yield function of the MCC model is defined as:

- The yield surface is the boundary of the elastic stress states. Stress paths within this
boundary only give elastic strain increments, whereas stress paths that tend to cross the
boundary generally give both elastic and plastic strain increments.
- In p’-q plane, the top of the ellipse intersects a line that we can be written as:

M is the tangent of the critical state line and determines the extent to which the
ultimate diviatoric stress, q, depends on the mean effective stress, p’. Hence, M can be

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regarded as a friction constant. M determines the shape of the yield surface (height of
the ellipse) and influences the coefficient of lateral earth pressure KNCo in a normally
consolidated stress state.

- pc determines the size of the ellipse. In fact, an infinite number of ellipses exist, each
corresponding to a particular value of pc .

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- The left hand side of the yield ellipse (often described as the “dry side” of the critical
state line) may be thought of as a failure surface. In this region plastic yielding is
associated with softening, and therefore failure. The values of q can become
unrealistically large in this region.
- In conclusion, the MCC model is based on five parameters:
vur : Poisson’s ratio
: Cam – clay swelling index.
: Cam- clay compression index.
M: tangent of the critical state line.
e: void ratio.
Poisson’s ratio
Poisson’s ratio vur is a real elastic parameter and not a pseudo- elasticity constant as
used in the MC model. Its value will usually be in the range between 0.1 and 0.2.
Compression index and swelling index

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- These parameters can be obtained from an isotropic compression test including
isotropic unloading.
Tangent of the critical state line
- In order to obtain the correct shear strength, the parameter M should be based on the
friction angle .
- The parameter M has an important influence on the value of the coefficient of lateral
earth pressure, KNCo, in a state of normal consolidation. In general, when M is chosen
such that the model predicts the correct shearing strength, the value of KNCo is too high.
Warning
- The modified CC model may allow for extremely large shear stresses, in particular
the case for stress paths that cross the critical state line.
- Without special regularization technique, softening behavior may lead to mesh
dependency and convergence problem of iterative procedures.
- The use of the MCC model in practical applications is not recommended.

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