SIGMA/W Stress and deformation analysis

Stress History

In Situ stresses can be established using gravity activation, field stresses, or the K0 procedure, which consider the volumetric water content function to determine effective stresses in the unsaturated zone. Pore-water pressures can be defined using a variety of sources.

Coupled Consolidation

The coupled stress and pore-water pressure formulation can handle complex analyses with saturated or unsaturated soils. This is useful for construction sequences involving fill placement, excavation, and soil-structure interaction.

Load-Deformation

Unloading or loading activities can be simply and accurately modelled, including submerged fill placement, dam and tailings embankment construction, deep excavations, and open pit mine construction. Pore-water pressure changes can be incorporated by defining the initial and final water conditions.

Stress Redistribution

The stress redistribution algorithm is capable of doing stress correction for any material model with a failure criteria. Strength Reduction Stability is also available as an alternative to the limit equilibrium stability method.