The Swelling rock model was originally implemented by Prof. Thomas Benz of NTNU and further developed by Bert Schädlich of TUGraz for PLAXIS 2D a User-Defined Soil Model (UDSM) several years ago.

The model is based on previous work by Wittke-Gattermann & Wittke (2004), Anagnostou (1993), and Heidkamp & Katz (2002) and can account for the stress- and time dependency of swelling deformations.

The model has now been made available with a full 3D implementation allowing users to incorporate the swelling effects in their 3D modelling. Recent advancements have further refined the Swelling rock model which both PLAXIS 2D and 3D benefit from, enhancing its capabilities to accurately simulate swelling behaviour.

A novel swelling model has been developed based on the work of Hawlader et al. (2003) and Carvalho (2015), offering an alternative representation of swelling behaviour over time, linear in log(t) scale. This enhancement provides improved prediction for coupled swelling behaviour of certain rock types common in North America.

The user can now select between the original formulation and the new Log(t) version of the Swelling rock model during the material creation to select the most suitable swelling behaviour to confidently model tunnelling or excavation projects with better accuracy. 

 

Status August 2024

A new version of the Swelling Rock Model is released with PLAXIS 2D 2024.2 and PLAXIS 3D 2024.2.

The model has now been made available with a full 3D implementation allowing users to incorporate the swelling effects in 3D modelling. Recent advancements have further refined the Swelling rock model which both PLAXIS 2D and 3D benefit from, enhancing its capabilities to accurately simulate swelling behaviour.

 

Status May 2015

Added support for undrained calculation types:

• In previous versions the user defined soil model for swelling rock was only implemented for Plastic calculations using a Drained material set. Using this constitutive soil model for other types of calculations (consolidation, fully coupled flow) was not yet allowed. With the version from May 2015 (version 2015.257.0.0), these calculation types can now also be used.