Default Groundwater Method
The Default Groundwater Method on the Groundwater page of the Project Settings dialog, allows you to pre-select the desired Groundwater Method for your model. Choosing the Default Groundwater Method simply sets the Groundwater Method for each material in the Material Properties dialog, to the selected method. There are three Groundwater Methods:
- Water Surfaces
- Ru Coefficients
- Water Grids
The purpose of the Default Groundwater Method is to allow you to pre-set the Groundwater Method for all materials to the most common method which is applicable to most or all materials in your model so that you do not have to select it for each material.
However, it is important to note that the Groundwater Method can be customized independently for each material in the Material Properties dialog, regardless of the default setting in Project Settings.
Example
If most of the materials in your model use Water Surfaces to calculate pore pressure, but you also have some materials for which Water Grid data is available, then you should do the following:
- In Project Settings, set the Default Groundwater Method = Water Surfaces
- In the Material Properties dialog, enter the Water Surface information for the applicable materials.
- For the material(s) which require a water grid, set the Groundwater Method = Water Grids and choose the grid type: total head, pressure head or pore pressure.