

“Tierra Group needed a 3D slope stability analysis to solve a complex slope stability project in highly variable soil conditions. We were able to quickly develop the conceptual 3D model with PLAXIS Designer and PLAXIS LE using topographic data, borehole logs, and 2D geologic cross-sections.”
Technical Capabilities
Perform rapid and comprehensive analysis
Determine the full 3D slip surface at hundreds of locations in extensive models, such as open-pit mines, riverbanks, and road and rail corridors with multi-plane slope stability analysis (MPA). Automatically calculate the slip direction at each location using orientation analysis features. Design with confidence when considering faults, weak planes, and pore-water pressures. Get access to the most available search methods on the market including Greco, Cuckoo, Wedges. Use probabilistic analysis such as Monte Carlo, Latin Hypercube, and the Alternative Point Estimation Method (APEM) to build robust digital twins. Further refine models with sensitivity analysis and spatial variability features.
Analyze slopes with various methods
Calculate safety factors and increase accuracy using 3D analysis of site geology to ensure infrastructure safety and reliability. Perform analysis with limit equilibrium method of slices or stress-based methods. Choose from classic method of slices like Bishop, Janbu, Spencer, Morgenstern-Price, GLE, and Sarma methods. Perform hybrid Kulhawy analysis by importing stress fields in 2D and 3D.
Analyze saturated or unsaturated soils
Provide stable analysis of groundwater flow in saturated or unsaturated soils. Consider staged construction and excavation modeling scenarios.
Coupled consolidation analysis
Solve small and large-strain consolidation
Create models quickly
Featuring a familiar user interface with easy-to-understand icons and functions. The software features behave exactly like how you would expect with a short learning curve. You will be able to start modeling right away.
Select from over 20 different strength models
Advanced material representation, loading, and reinforcements provides the ability to choose the appropriate representation of soil and rock site materials, including Mohr-Coulomb, Hoek-Brown, Undrained, Anisotropic, Bilinear, Frictional-Undrained, Anisotropic Linear Model (ALM), and unsaturated shear strength models. With complex geometry paradigms, you can model challenging geostrata and material zones such as block models, enclosed material volumes (MVM), and bedding guides. PLAXIS LE allows you to model seismically active zones with a variety of methods. Take advantage of extensive support for reinforced slopes including grouted anchors, micro-piles, and geomembranes.
Model boundary conditions in steady-state or transient models
Head, flux, climatic, and cauchy boundary conditions are available in steady-state or transient models. Boundary condition data can be entered as tabled values. Advanced Fredlund-Wilson-Penman climatic boundary condition calculates the actual evaporation based on weather station data.
Generate pore-water pressures for slope stability models
Featuring a familiar user interface with easy-to-understand icons and functions. The software features behave exactly how you would expect with a short learning curve. You will be able to start modeling right away.
Manage model constitutive data for saturated/unsaturated flow
Management of modeling constitutive data for saturated/unsaturated flow, shear strength, compressibility, consolidation, thermal, pore-air flow, and fate and transport material properties.
Visualize digital twins
Deliver high-quality digital twin visualizations of designs. Access state-of-the-art, report-ready graphical presentation of results without additional manipulation. Create and manipulate large, complex models with the 3D immersive graphics engine. Easily integrate with other Bentley design and analysis applications.
Creation of geometry
Create geometrically complex digital twin 3D models with the PLAXIS Designer conceptual model builder. Create 3D models from triangulated surfaces (TINS). Implement multiple 3D model-building methodologies (extrusions, 2D cross-section stitching, 3D layer cake, block models, or material volume method).
Parameter determination methods
Theoretical estimations of
- Soil-water characteristic curve by nine methods
- Saturated and unsaturated hydraulic conductivities
- The Fredlund & Wilson provides a reliable method to estimate the soil-water characteristic curve for sands, silts, and clays
- Estimate thermal conductivities
Digital workflow
Import data from gINT and export material parameters to analysis software to enhance your digital workflow.
Data mining
Our searchable database contains over 40,000 soils with over 50% containing a minimum of a soil-water characteristic curve. Estimate unsaturated soil properties through data mining.
Calculate volume-mass properties
Calculate volume-mass properties of an air-water-soil mixture using any three measured properties.
Estimate soil properties and automatically classify soils
- Automatic soil classification by USCS or USDA methods.
- Premier and unique application for the estimation of unsaturated soils’ behavior in seepage modeling. Methods for managing consolidation, shear strength, triaxial, thermal, and fate and transport properties are also present.
Parameter determination methods
This application has numerous soil-water characteristic curve (SWCC) fitting methods, saturated hydraulic conductivity estimation methods, and unsaturated hydraulic conductivity estimation methods.
Quad/Triangular/Tetrahedral meshing support
This solution allows models of higher complexity to be produced from various 2D and 3D data sources.


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