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November 2006 |
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In this issue:
Hong Kong SLOPE/W 2004 Approval
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SLOPE/W Approved for Use in Hong Kong
We are pleased to announce that
SLOPE/W 2004 (version 6.20) has officially received pre-approval,
and can now be used to support geotechnical design for submissions under the Buildings
Ordinance. Please
contact GEO-SLOPE for reference numbers and validity periods.
GEO-SLOPE Day - Seoul, Korea
Our partner in Seoul recently hosted a successful one day seminar on GEO-SLOPE software products. More than forty participants from the government
sector, private industry, and academic institutions attended the seminar to discuss
topics of interest to geotechnical engineers in the local area.
Check Your Error Messages in SLOPE/W
Did you know that even when SLOPE/W SOLVE can't compute a converged
or valid solution, you can still review the error messages associated with the slip
surfaces?
In CONTOUR you can select Draw Slip Surfaces, and scroll through the list of slip surfaces to review any error messages
associated with the slip surfaces analysed. You can also sort the slip surfaces
by Slip # or F of S by clicking on the header at the top of each column. The example
shown below indicates that none of the ten slip surfaces analysed were considered
valid and describes the error messages associated with each slip surface.
Reviewing the error messages at the end of an analysis can be especially helpful in trying to determine why a solution was not possible for a particular slip surface, and to point you in the right direction of what can be done to get a valid solution. Sometimes the error message indicates that there were convergence difficulties, in which a 999 is stored instead of the real factor of safety. Quite often, the invalid slip surface is due to the position of the trial slip surface, the location of the slip surface extents, the pressure line definition, the direction of the sliding mass, the thickness of the sliding mass, the existence of an overhanging bedrock layer or even an air gap between adjacent regions.
Even when the solver finds a valid critical slip surface, it is still good modeling practice to review any error messages in CONTOUR that may exist. This is to ensure that you are not restricting your search for the critical slip surface due to poorly defined geometry or slip surface extents. For example, if you have inadvertently created an air gap in your geometry, you will not be able to analyse slip surfaces that pass through this portion of the profile. Since deliberately inserting air gaps between regions is a valid approach to use for some analyses, the Tools Verify/Optimize command does not check for air gaps before the solver is run. If you have not intentionally inserted an air gap, but you see an error message stating that one exists, the best approach is to go back into DEFINE and select KeyIn Regions. When you select a region with your cursor, the points assigned to the region are highlighted in red and will appear in the list box. If you find a point is not associated with a region, such as Point # 7 shown in the figure below, the point can be added by highlighting the next point in the list box (i.e., point #14) and using the insert button to create a duplicate point which can then be edited to represent the missing point.
Your modeling practice for each SLOPE/W analysis should include reviewing any error messages that may exist as well as reviewing computed factors of safety, slice force information and strength/pore-water pressures across the slip surface.
Back issues of Direct Contact are available online in our
newsletter archive.
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