PLAXIS LE 2D CONNECT Edition V21 and PLAXIS LE 3D CONNECT Edition V21 offer flexible solutions for geotechnical analysis involving Limit Equilbrium (LE) type of calculations.
PLAXIS 2D LE
PLAXIS 2D LE is software with a leading comprehensive set of functionality for limit equilibrium method slope stability analysis. Predict design outcomes considering numerous soil models, support types, loading conditions, and design standards. Back analyze efficiently using probabilistic methods and parameter sensitivity methods. Determine material properties from site test data or search the database of 40,000+ soils. PLAXIS 2D LE also provides finite-element analysis that can be performed with popular use cases such as unsaturated groundwater flow, large-strain consolidation, and multi-year climatic effects, either as distinct models or combined with slope stability analysis.
PLAXIS 3D LE
PLAXIS 3D LE is software with all the same advantages as PLAXIS 2D LE for use when the site geotechnical conditions or project requirements demand a 3D analysis. Consider layer-cake geology, irregular volumes, anisotropic bedding, and complex engineered earth structures. Analyze open-pit stability, mine tailings capacity calculation, dam seepage, and many more infrastructure applications. Assess risk by rapidly solving extensive road, rail, riverbank, or urban areas.
PLAXIS Designer
PLAXIS Designer is a 3D conceptual model builder used to significantly reduce model creation times by visualizing, optimizing, and merging engineered earth structures, staged construction and excavation, topology, borehole, piezometer, and field instrumentation geotechnical data into a well-defined design model for subsequent numerical analysis. Use data from OpenGround and numerous other sources and input formats. Analyze designs with PLAXIS 3D LE, PLAXIS 2D LE, and PLAXIS 2D.
Geotechnical SELECT Entitlements
With a SELECT subscription on PLAXIS products, users gain access to many specific and extended features in the PLAXIS program as part of Geotechnical SELECT Entitlements [GSE].
For a full overview of all the Geotechnical SELECT Entitlement from V21 and onwards, please visit Overview of Geotechnical SELECT Entitlement features.
Are you using SOILVISION CONNECT Edition V10 and want to upgrade to PLAXIS LE CONNECT Edition V21?
Please see this article how the license upgrade is handled. how the licenses transition and what you can do:
PLAXIS CONNECT Edition V21 licensing changes for PLAXIS LE
Overview of functionality
In the tables below, you can find on overview of the features offered in the different Tiers, for e.g.:
- Geometry
- Material models
- Supports
- Groundwater input
- Seismic methods
- Probability & Sensitivity Methods
- Analysis methods
- Searching options
- More features
- FEM extention to PLAXIS LE
| Geometry | PLAXIS LE 2D | PLAXIS LE 3D |
|---|---|---|
| Import Full Model Geometry from PLAXIS Designer | ||
| Import Model Objects from External File Formats: OBJ, DXF, DEM, DTM, ESRI GRID, 3DS, CSV |
||
| Bedding Guides | ||
| Block Models2 | ||
| Material Volume Meshes (MVM)2 | ||
| Blast Disturbance Zones for material strength reduction |
2 Requires PLAXIS Designer
| Material models | PLAXIS LE 2D | PLAXIS LE 3D |
|---|---|---|
| Mohr-Coulomb | ||
| Curved Surface Envelope - Mohr-Coulomb | ||
| Anisotropic Strength | ||
| Generalized Anisotropic Function | ||
| Bilinear | ||
| Power-Curve 1 & 2 | ||
| Undrained Strength (Phi=0) | ||
| Depth-Dependent Undrained | ||
| Undrained Strength Ratio | ||
| SHANSEP | ||
| Frictional-Undrained | ||
| No Strength (Water) | ||
| Infinite Strength (Bedrock) | ||
| Shear Normal Function | ||
| Hoek-Brown | ||
| Hoek-Brown Generalized | ||
| Barton-Bandis | ||
| Anisotropic Linear Model (ALM1/ALM2/ALM3/ALM4) | ||
| Unsaturated-Phi-b | ||
| Unsaturated-Vanapalli | ||
| Unsaturated-Fredlund | ||
| Unsaturated-Vilar | ||
| Unsaturated-Khalili | ||
| Unsaturated-Bao | ||
| Unsaturated User Defined |
| Supports | PLAXIS LE 2D | PLAXIS LE 3D |
|---|---|---|
| End-Anchored Bolts | ||
| Grouted Tiebacks | ||
| Grouted Tiebacks with Friction | ||
| Soil Nails | ||
| Geotextiles | ||
| Piles and Micropiles | ||
| User-Defined Support Model | ||
| Active vs Passive Anchors | ||
| Hong Kong Soil Nails | ||
| Back Analysis |
| Groundwater input | PLAXIS LE 2D | PLAXIS LE 3D |
|---|---|---|
| Ru | ||
| B bar | ||
| Water Table and Piezometric Levels | ||
| Grid of Pressure Heads | ||
| Phreatic Correction | ||
| Rapid Drawdown - Duncan & Wright method | ||
| Rapid Drawdown - Effective Stress (Finite Element Input) | ||
| Rapid Drawdown - B-bar Effective Stress (Finite Element Input) | ||
| Steady-State | ||
| Transient-State | ||
| Climate |
| Seismic methods | PLAXIS LE 2D | PLAXIS LE 3D |
|---|---|---|
| Horizontal and Vertical Pseudo-Static Loads | ||
| Spectral Pseudo-Static Loads | ||
| Yield Coefficent (Ky) Method | ||
| Newmark Permanent Displacement Method | ||
| Finite Element Input for Newmark Method |
| Probability & Sensitivity Methods | PLAXIS LE 2D | PLAXIS LE 3D |
|---|---|---|
| Monte Carlo | ||
| Latin Hypercube | ||
| APEM | ||
| Distributions: Normal, Uniform, Triangular, LogNormal | ||
| "Floating" Critical Slip Surface | ||
| One-way sensitivity | ||
| Two-way sensitivity |
| Analysis methods | PLAXIS LE 2D | PLAXIS LE 3D |
|---|---|---|
| Ordinary/Fellenius | ||
| Bishop Simplified | ||
| Janbu Simplified | ||
| Corps of Engineers - 1 | ||
| Corps of Engineers - 2 | ||
| Lowe-Karafiath | ||
| Spencer | ||
| Morgenstern-Price | ||
| GLE (Fredlund) | ||
| Sarma | ||
| Sarma Non Vertical Slices | ||
| Kulhawy (Finite Element Stress-Based Input) | ||
| SAFE-DP (Finite Element Stress-Based Input) |
| Searching options | PLAXIS LE 2D | PLAXIS LE 3D |
|---|---|---|
| 2D Circular | ||
| Grid and Tangent | ||
| Entry and Exit | ||
| Fully Specified | ||
| Slope Search | ||
| Auto Refine Search | ||
| Cuckoo Search | ||
| Focus Line | ||
| Focus Point | ||
| Focus Tangent | ||
| 2D Non-Circular | ||
| Block Search Point | ||
| Block Search Line | ||
| Block Search Window | ||
| Path Search | ||
| Cuckoo Search | ||
| Greco | ||
| Dynamic Programming | ||
| 3D | ||
| Grid and Tangent | ||
| Entry and Exit | ||
| Cuckoo Search | ||
| Slope Search | ||
| Moving Wedges | ||
| Fully Specified Wedges | ||
| Fully Specified Weak Surfaces | ||
| Fully Specified Ellipsoid | ||
| Fully Specified Combinations | ||
| Slip Shape | ||
| Circular | ||
| Non-Circular | ||
| Composite | ||
| Optimization | ||
| 3D Hybrid Ellipsoid | ||
| More features | PLAXIS LE 2D | PLAXIS LE 3D |
|---|---|---|
| 1D Spatial Variability | ||
| 2D Spatial Variability | ||
| Tension cracks | ||
| Water Loads | ||
| Point, Line and Distributed Loads | ||
| Reinforcement | ||
| Slice 3D models to 2D cross sections | ||
| Design Standards (Eurocode 7, British Standard 8006, User-Defined) | ||
| Multi-Plane Analysis (MPA) | ||
| Orientation Analysis | ||
| Automatic Critical Slip Direction Determination (Orientation Analysis) |
||
| Batch Analysis of Groups of Models | ||
| Multi-Core CPUs, Multi-Threading & 64 bit Supported |
| FEM Analysis types | PLAXIS LE 2D | PLAXIS LE 3D |
|---|---|---|
| Groundwater Flow | ||
| Small-strain saturated consolidation (SSC) | ||
| Large-strain saturated consolidation (LSC) | ||
| Pseudo-3D LSC analysis technique | ||
| LEM Slope Stability Combination |
| More FEM features | PLAXIS LE 2D | PLAXIS LE 3D |
|---|---|---|
| Import from SoilVision Soils database | ||
| Steady-state and Transient scenarios | ||
| 1D, 2D, and 3D simulation | ||
| Staged Construction / Excavation / Boundaries | ||
| Pumping Wells and Injectors | ||
| Particle tracking | ||
| Batch Analysis of Groups of Models | ||
| Multi-Core CPUs, Multi-Threading & 64 bit Environments Supported |
| Groundwater material properties | PLAXIS LE 2D | PLAXIS LE 3D |
|---|---|---|
| Saturated | ||
| Saturated-Unsaturated (Unsaturated Fits) | ||
| • Fredlund-Xing fit | ||
| • van Genuchten fit | ||
| • van Genuchten & Mualem fit | ||
| • Gardner fit | ||
| • Brooks & Corey fit | ||
| • Gitirana & Fredlund fit | ||
| • Fredlund bimodal fit | ||
| Saturated hydraulic conductivity - 4 estimations | ||
| Unsaturated Hydraulic Conductivity | ||
| • Fredlund, Xing and Huang estimation | ||
| • Modified Campbell estimation | ||
| • van Genuchten & Mualem estimation | ||
| • Leong & Rahardjo estimation | ||
| • Brooks & Corey estimation | ||
| • Fredlund 2-point estimation | ||
| • Gardner fit | ||
| Anisotropy |
| Consolidation material properties | PLAXIS LE 2D | PLAXIS LE 3D |
|---|---|---|
| Linear-Elastic | ||
| Logarithmic Function | ||
| Weibull Function | ||
| Extended Power Function | ||
| Saturated hydraulic conductivity - 4 methods |
| Groundwater boundary conditions | PLAXIS LE 2D | PLAXIS LE 3D |
|---|---|---|
| Newman & Dirichlet | ||
| Staged boundary conditions | ||
| Precipitation and Runoff | ||
| Evaporation |
| FEM Initial conditions | PLAXIS LE 2D | PLAXIS LE 3D |
|---|---|---|
| FEM Analysis Output | ||
| Head or Pore-Water Pressure | ||
| Water Table | ||
| Grid | ||
| Assign by Region |
| Meshing | PLAXIS LE 2D | PLAXIS LE 3D |
|---|---|---|
| Fully-Automatic Generation | ||
| Manual Mesh Refinement | ||
| Unstructured finite element meshes | ||
| Triangular element shape | ||
| Quadrilateral element shape | ||
| Exact control over maximum element size | ||
| Linear 4-node tetrehedral elements | ||
| Multi-core mesh generation | ||
| Mesh element quality reporting | ||
| Exact control over maximum element size | ||
| Exact control over maximum element size |
| FEM Equation Solvers | PLAXIS LE 2D | PLAXIS LE 3D |
|---|---|---|
| Galerkin finite element method | ||
| Parallel processor support | ||
| GPU processor support |