Tutorial 5 Excavation Tutorial

• Staging the water table

• Excavations
• Reference stage
Settle3D v.4.0 Tutorial Manual Tutorial 5: Excavation Tutorial

Model Set-up
If you have not already done so, run Settle3D by double-clicking on the Settle3D icon in your
installation folder. Or from the Start menu, select Programs → Rocscience → Se!le3D 2.0 →
Settle3D.

Project Settings
Open the Project Settings dialog from the toolbar or the Analysis menu and make sure the
General tab is selected. Set the Stress units = Metric, stress as kPa, and the Settlement units
= Millimeters.

Click on the Stages tab. Set the Number of Stages = 4, and enter the following names for
each stage.

1-2
Settle3D v.4.0 Tutorial Manual Tutorial 5: Excavation Tutorial

Click on the Groundwater tab. Turn on Groundwater Analysis.

Click OK to close the Project Settings dialog.

Setting the Water Table Depth

In this tutorial we will drop the water table before adding the excavation.

Select Groundwater > Add Piezometric Line. Keep the default value of 0 m, and click OK.
Click OK to close the Assign Piezometric Line to Soils dialog that pops up.

Select Groundwater > Add Piezometric Line. Enter a depth of 2 m, then click OK. Click OK to
close the Assign Piezometric Line to Soils dialog that pops up.

Select Groundwater > Soil Groundwater Properties. Click on the Stage Piezo Lines
checkbox. For Stage 1, select Piezo Line #1 from the dropdown. For all other stages, select
Piezo Line #2. Click the Apply to All button.

The dialog should look like this:

Click OK to close the dialog.

Adding the Excavation

In the first stage, nothing happens. The first stage is only required to set up the initial water
table. In the second stage, the water table is dropped two meters. The excavation will be
added in the third stage.

1-3
Settle3D v.4.0 Tutorial Manual Tutorial 5: Excavation Tutorial

Click on the tab for Excavation (Stage 3). To add the excavation, select Add Excavation from
the Loads menu. You will see a warning explaining that full 3D displacement computations
and 3D fluid flow analyses are not done for excavations. The excavation in Settle3D is
modeled by applying a negative load at depth, equal to the weight of the excavated
material.

Click OK to close the warning box. Now you must enter the coordinates to define the
excavation. You can use the mouse to graphically enter the points, or enter them in the
prompt line. We will build a rectangular excavation so enter the following points:

0,0
10 , 0
10 , 20
0 , 20
c

You will now see a dialog for entering the excavation properties. Set the depth of the
excavation to 2 m. We want to add a load to the bottom of the excavation, so click the
check box for “Add Load to Bottom of Excavation”. Set the load magnitude to 40 kPa and
the Installation stage to “Load”. The dialog should look like this:

Click OK. Your model should now appear as shown for the Excavation stage.

1-4
Settle3D v.4.0 Tutorial Manual Tutorial 5: Excavation Tutorial

Soil Layers
The 3D View shows a soil layer with a default thickness of 20 m. It is assumed that rigid
bedrock lies below the soil. In this section we will change the soil properties and layer
geometry.

Soil Properties
Select Soil Properties from the Soils menu. The top soil type is normally consolidated soft
clay. Fill in the following soil properties:

• Set the name to Soft clay

• Change unit weight to 16 kN/m3

• Set Cc = 1.2, Cr = 0.2, e0 = 1.6

The dialog should look like this:

1-5
Settle3D v.4.0 Tutorial Manual Tutorial 5: Excavation Tutorial

Click on the tab for Soil Property 2. Change the name to “Stiff clay” and leave all of the
other default parameters as shown.

Click OK to close the dialog.

Layer Thickness
1-6
Settle3D v.4.0 Tutorial Manual Tutorial 5: Excavation Tutorial

To change the thickness of the soil layers select Soil Layers from the Soils menu. Here you
can add layers of different material and change their thickness. Click the Insert Layer Below
button to create a second layer, and enter the thickness of the two layers as shown:

Click OK to close the dialog.

Field Point Grid

Select Auto Field Point Grid from the Grid menu. Enter the Number of grid points = 500 and
expansion factor = 2. Click OK. A grid will be generated and stress and settlement will be
automatically computed throughout the 3-dimensional volume. By default, contours for
Total Settlement will be shown. Your model for Stage 1 should now look like this:

1-7
Settle3D v.4.0 Tutorial Manual Tutorial 5: Excavation Tutorial

Results Visualization
You will see that there is no settlement in Stage 1 as expected. If you click on the tab for
stage 2 (Water table drop) you will see that the settlement is 484 mm everywhere. This is
because the dropping water table causes a drop in pore pressure and therefore an increase
in excess stress. The increase in excess stress causes a significant amount of settlement.

Now click on the tab for stage 3 (Excavation). You will not see any contours in the area that
has been excavated because we are looking at the surface and there is no soil here! In the
Depth box on the right hand side, scroll down through the soil by increasing the depth,
either by changing the number in the depth box or by clicking and dragging on the soil
profile. At a depth of 2.1 m (just below the excavation), the total settlement should look like
this:

Under View Controls, select the Deformed Contours checkbox. Rotate the 3D view to obtain
a view like this:

You can see that there is a “pop up” below the excavation since material has been
1-8
Settle3D v.4.0 Tutorial Manual Tutorial 5: Excavation Tutorial

removed causing a stress decrease.

The plot looks odd because of the large downward settlement in Stage 2 caused by the
water table drop. To see the displacement caused by the excavation only, we can set Stage
2 to be the reference stage and plot all displacements relative to Stage 2. To do this, select
Reference Stage from the View menu. In the Reference Stage dialog, choose “Water table
drop” as the reference stage.

Click OK, and your plot for Stage 3 (Excavation) should now look like this:

You can now clearly see the uplift in the excavation.

Click on the tab for the final stage (Load). You will see that the soil has been pushed back
down by the applied load.

1-9
Settle3D v.4.0 Tutorial Manual Tutorial 5: Excavation Tutorial

To observe the settlement due to the load only, you can set the reference stage to Stage 3
(Excavation) and you will get a plot like this.

TIP: you can also set the reference stage by right-clicking on a stage tab and choosing Set as
Reference Stage.

Query Point
To examine the settlement in more detail we will add a query point to the centre of the
excavation.

From the Query menu, select Add Query Point. You will see the Query Point dialog as
shown.

1 - 10
Settle3D v.4.0 Tutorial Manual Tutorial 5: Excavation Tutorial

Leave the default choice of Automatic. Click OK and the cursor will become a cross-hairs in
the plan view. You now need to specify the location of the Query Point on the surface. Enter
the coordinates 5 10 and hit Enter to place the Query Point at the centre of the excavation.

Now right-click on the query point and select Graph Query. For Plot Type choose Depth vs.
Data. For Data to Plot choose Total Settlement. For Stages to Plot choose Select All. Now
change the reference stage back to Default.

Click OK to draw the graph. The graph should look like this:

1 - 11
Settle3D v.4.0 Tutorial Manual Tutorial 5: Excavation Tutorial

You can see the large settlements after the water table drop, and then uplift when the
excavation is added and further settlement when the load is applied.

It appears that the water table drop causes a significant amount of settlement, especially in
the top soft layer. If we want to examine the settlement caused by the excavation only, we
can set the second stage as a reference stage.

Close the graph window. In the Plan View, right click on the query point and select Graph
Query as before. This time only check stages 3 and 4, and for the Reference Stage choose “
Water table drop”.

1 - 12
Settle3D v.4.0 Tutorial Manual Tutorial 5: Excavation Tutorial

Click OK and you should see a graph like this:

It is now clearly shown how the excavation causes ~150 mm of uplift and the subsequent
load produces a settlement of ~ 70 mm.

Repeat the above steps setting the Excavation stage as the reference stage and you will see
that the settlement due to the applied load alone is ~220 mm as shown.

This concludes the Excavation tutorial; you may now exit the Settle3D program.

1 - 13