You are reading the online version of the LimitState:GEO manual, which is also available as a pdf.

Post-Analysis Functions

Animation

LimitState:GEO provides a useful facility to animate any failure mechanism to facilitate interpretation. To animate the mechanism following solve, use one of two options:

• Use the slider bar
• Click on the animate button

The animation may also be saved as a .gif file or as a series of still images. The Animation dialog (as shown below) may be accessed via the menu Animation - Settings and provides full control over the output.

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Slip-lines

Following Solve and display of the solution, individual slip-lines may be interrogated by selecting them with the mouse for the following information:

• Normal displacement
• Stress displacement
• Normal force (per unit width into the diagram)
• Shear force (per unit width into the diagram)
• Normal stress
• Shear stress

This information is displayed in the Property Editor for any selected slip-line (as depicted in Slip-lines) . Note that any given slip-line may be split into contiguous small segments. Forces and stresses are displayed as total (not effective) values i.e. inclusive of water forces (or pressures).

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Pressure distributions

Following Solve and display of the solution, in addition to interrogation of individual slip-lines, it is possible to display the pressure distributions around any rigid block (i.e. blocks delineated by slip-lines). This is achieved by left-clicking with the mouse on the chosen block. The normal stress distribution is then displayed (by default) in the manner illustrated in the below figure. To display the shear stress distribution, right click on any block to display the context menu (see the below figure) and select ‘Shear Stress’. An option in this menu also allow the stress distribution to be exported as a .csv file. Note that it is necessary to animate the mechanism first before a pressure distribution can be displayed.

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The distribution is displayed as a bar plot with each bar indicating the magnitude of the normal stress on the boundary of the block in the collapse mechanism. The bar width is defined by the nodal spacing on that boundary. Specific values of normal stress and shear stress corresponding to each bar may be viewed by hovering the mouse over the bar as shown in the above figure. Note that compressive stresses are displayed as negative.

Also note that in some cases apparently erratic stress distributions may be displayed by the solver. This is not an error but results from the nature of the solution method. For further discussion of this issue refer to here.