Water Parameters

For each material in the Define Material Properties dialog, Water Parameters can be defined. The Water Parameters determine the method of pore pressure calculation and other related options as described below.

Groundwater Method

The Groundwater Method determines the method of pore pressure calculation for a material. Groundwater method options include Water Surfaces, Ru Coefficient or Water Grids. The Groundwater Method can be specified independently for each material. See the Groundwater Method topic.

Strength Type Above Water Surface

If your model includes a Water Surface (e.g. Water Table or Piezo Surface), then you can specify a different strength type to be used ABOVE the assigned Water Surface for any given material. See the Strength Above Water Surface topic.

Negative Pore Pressure Cutoff

The Negative Pore Pressure Cutoff option allows you to define a maximum value for negative pore pressure calculated above a water table. See the Negative Pore Pressure Cutoff topic.

Initial Pore Pressure / Excess Pore Pressure

If you are using the B-bar method to calculate excess pore pressure due to undrained loading, then the Groundwater Method defines the Initial Pore Pressure for a material. Excess pore pressure is calculated using the B-bar method (see the Excess Pore Pressure topic for details). The final pore pressure used in the stability analysis is the sum of the Initial Pore Pressure + Excess Pore Pressure.