Coupled Drawdown Analysis

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Coupled Drawdown Analysis with

Slope Stability
In this tutorial, RS2 is used to simulate slope drawdown to determine its
effect on slope stability, specifically the change in slope factor of safety.
Furthermore, this problem considers different drawdown rates for fully
drained, drained, and undrained conditions.
The completed models can be found in the Tutorial 38 Coupled
Drawdown Analysis folder. All tutorial files installed with RS2 9.0 can
be accessed by selecting File > Recent Folders > Tutorials Folder from the
RS2 main menu.
Topics covered

Drawdown

Shear strength reduction

Staged groundwater analysis

Transient groundwater

Coupled Analysis

Fully drained, drained, and undrained loading conditions

Definition of Drainage Conditions

The drainage conditions used in RS2 are defined as follows:

Drained Fluid can move into and out of the model, total volume
(voids and soil skeleton) can change. Drainage is a function of
time. Excess pore pressures can exist. Transient pore pressure
state.

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Undrained Fluid cannot move into or out of the model. Zero

volume change. Excess pore pressure is a function of applied
loads.
Fully drained Zero excess pore pressure. Drained analysis at
infinite time. Steady-state result.

In this tutorial, a fully drained example and undrained example are

analyzed. A drained example is also analyzed, with the different
drawdown rates of R=0.1m/day, 0.25m/day, 0.5m/day, 0.75m/day, and
1m/day. For the overall analysis of the problem, the drawdown ratios
used were L/H = 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, and 1.0 (where L is the external water
level drop from the initial water level, and H is the slope height or initial
water level).

Model
Start the RS2 9.0 Model program. Import the geometry for the model.
From the File menu, under Import, select Import DXF. In the DXF
Options dialog, make sure External Boundary is checked and click
Import. Navigate to the Tutorial 38 folder in the Examples > Tutorials
folder, and open the file Tutorial 38 Drawdown Analysis.dxf. The
imported external boundary should look like the following model:

Note the model has a slope height, H, of 7m and a slope ratio of 3:1.

Project Settings
Open the Project Settings dialog from the Analysis menu and select
the Groundwater tab. Set the Method = Transient FEA and Initial
Pore Pressures = Steady State FEA.
Select the General tab. Select Solid-Fluid Interaction: Coupled (Biot)
to simulate the different drainage conditions to accurately determine
slope stability. The stability of a slope is dependent on the internal and
external forces applied, including pore pressure and surface water. A
change in the water level causes seepage induced pore pressures and
stress induced excess pore pressure to develop, which dissipates over time
resulting in consolidation, and thus potentially decreasing slope stability.

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Make sure the Units option is set to Metric, stress as kPa, the time
units to Days and the permeability units to centimeters/second.

Next, select the Strength Reduction tab. Check Determine Strength

Reduction Factor, and then check Coupled Formulation, as shown
below.

Click on the Advanced setting, and select User-Defined Convergence

Parameters and change the convergence type to Absolute Force &
Energy, as shown in the figure below.

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Fully Drained
For the fully drained example, select the Stages tab and change the
number of stages to 2. Change the staging information to the following:

Close the dialog by clicking OK.

Boundaries
Using the imported DXF geometry file, the external boundaries have
already been established.
We need to add a vertex representing the drawdown level on the slope.
Select Edit under Boundaries, and select Add Vertices. Input the
coordinate points 10.2, -1.4 and hit Enter. The slope should look like the
model below.

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Materials
Next we will move to the Materials and Staging tab to assign materials
and properties to our model. From the Properties menu select Define
Materials. Change the unit weight, Poisson's ratio, Young's Modulus,
Tensile strength, Friction angle, and Cohesion to the following shown in
the figures below. In order to conduct a slope stability analysis, ensure
that the material type is Plastic and Apply SSR is checked.

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These properties will remain the same for all three drainage examples.

Hydraulic
Next we will define the hydraulic properties. From the Properties menu
select Define Hydraulic. For each material, change the model to
"Constant". Change the hydraulic conductivity (Ks) to 1e-6 cm/s.

This property will also remain the same for all three drainage examples.

Mesh
Next we move to the Mesh tab. Here we may specify the mesh type and
discretization density for our model. For this tutorial, we will use a 6noded finite element mesh type.
From the Mesh menu select Mesh Setup.
This dialog allows you to customize parameters of your mesh. We want to
use a uniform, 6-noded element mesh. We must change the Mesh type to
Uniform, the Element type to 6 Noded Triangles and the Default Number
of nodes to 1000 as shown:

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Click the Discretize button and then the Mesh button. Click OK to close
the dialog. The mesh will look like this:

Groundwater
Since there are no liners or additional reinforcement in our model, we
will skip the Support tab and move on to the Groundwater tab. We will
now model the drawdown along the slope between the two stages.
From the Groundwater menu select Set Boundary Conditions.
The Add Groundwater Boundary Condition dialog appears. Follow the
steps below to create the water table drawdown:
1. Ensure you are on Stage 1 tab. From the BC Type drop down menu,
select Total Head (H).
2. Enter a Total Head Value (m) of 0 meters.
3. You are now in selection mode. Ensure that Apply at this stage only
is checked. We want to apply the Total Head boundary condition to all
boundaries, so select over the entire model.

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When your selection looks similar to the model above, click Apply from
the Add Boundary Conditions dialog and then close the dialog.
4. Now move onto the next stage and select the Stage 2 tab. From the
From the BC Type drop down menu, select Total Head (H) and enter a
Total Head Value (m) of -1.4 meters.
5. Select the right vertical boundary, the adjacent horizontal boundary,
and the slope segment as shown in the model below:

Click "Apply" and then close the dialog.

The two stages of your model should have groundwater conditions shown
in the following models
Stage 1:

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Stage 2:

Notice the change in water level from an elevation of 0m to -1.4m,

corresponding to L = -1.4m, with regards to the drawdown ratio (L/H) of
0.2.

Restraints
By default, all segments of the external boundary are fixed. Since the top
of this model represents a free surface we need to free the top surface. Go
to the Displacements menu and select Free. Click on the four sections
that make up the top external boundary and hit Enter. You will see that
the fixed boundary conditions have disappeared from the top external
boundaries, shown in the figure below

We need to re-establish the fixed boundary condition on the top corners.

Select Restrain X,Y from the Displacements menu, select the left and
right vertical boundaries and hit Enter. Your model should now look like
this:

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Loading
Due to drawdown, we will need to apply a ponded water load to the slope.
Click on the tab for Stage 2. From the Loading menu, select
Distributed Loads and then select Add Ponded Water Load. Ensure
the orientation is Normal to boundary then check Stage Load.

Select Stage Total Head and the dialog should appear.

Enter the Total Head values for the two stages according to the dialog
shown below and then click OK to close the dialog.

Click OK to close the Add Ponded Water Load dialog. You will now be
prompted to select a boundary on which to apply the load. Select the
horizontal and slope sections on the top of the boundary as shown below:

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Hit Enter and your model should now have a load that looks like this:

Next, select the Stage 1 tab. Repeat the previous steps until you reach
the Stage Total Head dialog. Uncheck "Apply" for Stage 2 to account for
the change in load with drawdown. The dialog should now look like this:

Click OK to close the Add Ponded Water Load dialog. Select the top slope
section on the boundary as shown below:

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Hit Enter and your model should now have a load that looks like this:

Field Stress
Because the top of the model represents the true ground surface, we want
to use a gravity field stress. Go to the Loading menu and select Field
Stress.
For Field Stress Type select Gravity and click the check box for Use
actual ground surface. Leave the values as the default values given.

Click OK to close the dialog.

You have completed the definition of the fully drained model. Save the
model specifying it as the Fully Drained Example using the Save option
in the File menu.

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To create the models for the other drawdown ratios, simply change the
vertex location to the corresponding depth as well as the groundwater
boundary conditions and loading, outlined in the table below:
Drawdown Ratio
(L/H)
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1.0

Drawdown Depth
(m)
-1.4
-2.8
-4.2
-5.6
-7

Additionally, to determine the slope factor of safety for initial condition

(L/H = 0), simply take any of the drainage models and delete the second
stage to conduct shear strength reduction for the initial stage.

Drained
To model the drained example all steps remain the same as that of the
fully drained example, except for the change in time and the change in
drainage condition.
The following outlines the drainage conditions and time for each
drawdown ratio depending on the drawdown rate.
R = 0.1m/day:
Name
Initial Conditions
L/H = 0.2
L/H = 0.4
L/H = 0.6
L/H = 0.8
L/H = 1.0

Time (days)
0
14
28
42
56
70

Drained?
Drained
Drained
Drained
Drained
Drained
Drained

Time (days)
0
5.6
11.2
16.8
22.4
28

Drained?
Drained
Drained
Drained
Drained
Drained
Drained

R = 0.25m/day:
Name
Initial Conditions
L/H = 0.2
L/H = 0.4
L/H = 0.6
L/H = 0.8
L/H = 1.0

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R = 0.5m/day:
Name
Initial Conditions
L/H = 0.2
L/H = 0.4
L/H = 0.6
L/H = 0.8
L/H = 1.0

Time (days)
0
2.8
5.6
8.4
11.2
14

Drained?
Drained
Drained
Drained
Drained
Drained
Drained

Time (days)
0
1.867
3.733
5.6
7.467
9.333

Drained?
Drained
Drained
Drained
Drained
Drained
Drained

Time (days)
0
1.4
2.8
4.2
5.6
7

Drained?
Drained
Drained
Drained
Drained
Drained
Drained

R = 0.75m/day:
Name
Initial Conditions
L/H = 0.2
L/H = 0.4
L/H = 0.6
L/H = 0.8
L/H = 1.0
R = 1.0m/day:
Name
Initial Conditions
L/H = 0.2
L/H = 0.4
L/H = 0.6
L/H = 0.8
L/H = 1.0

Undrained
For the undrained example, select the Stages tab and change the number
of stages to 2. Change the staging information to the following:

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Close the dialog by clicking OK.

All other steps, including Materials, Mesh, Loading, and Restraints,
follow those outlined for the Fully Drained example, except the
groundwater boundary conditions.

Groundwater
From the Groundwater menu select Set Boundary Conditions.
To simulate undrained conditions, groundwater boundaries are only
applied to the first stage, outline below:
1. Ensure you are on Stage 1 tab. From the BC Type drop down menu,
select Total Head (H).
2. Enter a Total Head Value (m) of 0 meters.
3. You are now in selection mode. Ensure that Apply at this stage only
is checked. We want to apply the Total Head boundary condition to all
boundaries, so select over the entire model.

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When your selection looks similar to the model above, click Apply from
the Add Boundary Conditions dialog and then close the dialog. Your
model for both stages should now look like this
Stage 1:

Stage 2:

Compute
Run the models using the Compute option in the Analysis menu. The
analysis should take several minutes to run.

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Interpret
Once the model has finished computing (Compute dialog closes), select
the Interpret option in the Analysis menu to view the results.
The Interpret program starts and reads the results of the analysis.
Displayed should be the Maximum Shear Strain.

Maximum Shear Strain

The Fully Drained Maximum Shear Strain contours and Critical SRF
values for the different drawdown ratios are shown in the figures below:
L/H = 0.2:

L/H = 0.4:

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L/H = 0.6:

L/H = 0.8:

L/H = 1.0:

The Drained Maximum Shear Strain contours and Critical SRF values
for the different drawdown ratios are shown in the figures below:

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L/H = 0.2:

L/H = 0.4:

L/H = 0.6:

L/H = 0.8:

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L/H = 1.0:

Additionally, the Undrained Maximum Shear Strain contours and

Critical SRF values for the different drawdown ratios are shown in the
figures below:
L/H = 0.2:

L/H = 0.4:

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L/H = 0.6:

L/H = 0.8:

L/H = 1.0:

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Strength Reduction Factor

To analyze the change in Strength Reduction Factor due to drawdown,
the following graph was developed based on model results for the three
different drainage cases.

As can be seen, the factor of safety values for the Fully Drained model are
higher than the other two drainage conditions due to the slow drawdown.
The undrained model has the lowest factor of safety values as this
boundary condition simulates rapid drawdown causing a decrease in
slope stability, as outlined at the beginning of this tutorial.

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Finally, it can be seen the factor of safety values for the Drained models
for the different drawdown rates are all within the envelope of the two
extreme drainage conditions, Fully Drained and Undrained. The factor of
safety values decrease, closer to that of the Undrained example, as the
drawdown rate increases, concluding that the more rapid the drawdown
rate along a slope, the less stable the slope becomes.
This concludes the Drawdown Analysis Tutorial.

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