Welcome to the Getting Started with GeoStudio video series.
This tutorial guides new users through the basics of creating a simple stability analysis in SLOPE/W.
This video will cover how to set up the properties of a SLOPE/W analysis in the Definition view,
use the Solve Manager to solve the numerical analysis,
interpret the solved analysis in Results view,
and view and print the analysis in Page Layout mode.
The project definition involves selecting the basic analysis properties,
drawing the model geometry,
creating and assigning material properties,
defining the trial slip surfaces, and establishing the pore water pressure conditions.
This tutorial uses the Morgenstern-Price limit equilibrium method to determine the minimum factor of safety and the critical slip surface,
for a slope comprised of two different materials.
The entry and exit slip surface method defines the trial slip surfaces.
A piezometric line defines the pore water pressures throughout the domain, including a submerged toe.
We will begin on the GeoStudio start page, where you can create a new project, open an existing project, or click on the appropriate links to
view the examples, tutorial videos, or engineering books for each GeoStudio product available on the GEOSLOPE website.
When creating a new project, you can select the default units and project page size from a range of standard sizes.
After clicking on the new button, I will select the metric units with the letter-sized page, and create an analysis.
Once the new project is created, the Define Analyses window opens, where we can add a title to our analysis tree,
add an author, or add comments for future viewers.
Under the Settings tab, we can change the viewable units or set a project start date.
We will add our SLOPE/W analysis to the analysis tree by selecting a limit equilibrium analysis.
Here we can change the name of our analysis and select the analysis type.
We will keep the default Morgenstern-Price analysis type.
A description about the analysis may be added to help future users.
We will make sure that the Half-Sine function is selected for the Side Function
and that the pore water pressure conditions are taken from a piezometric line.
Next, we will go to the Slip Surface tab to define the slip surface properties. The slip surface in this example will move from left to right,
and we will use the Entry and Exit slip surface option with only one critical slip surface.
No tension cracks will be considered in this analysis.
The factor of safety Distribution tab allows the user to define probabilistic or sensitivity parameters
but for this tutorial we will conduct a deterministic analysis.
Lastly, the Advanced tab offers additional options for SLOPE/W analyses.
In this case, the default values for the minimum slip surface depth and number of slices will be used.
The factor of safety convergence settings are set to a maximum number of 100 iterations,
with a tolerable factor of safety difference of 0.001.
The solution settings are automatically set to use the Root Finder lambda search method.
We will leave the default settings for the Root Finder method and close the Define Analyses window.
We are currently in the Definition view of our analysis.
The red and green lines in the model space represent the x and y axes, respectively, and the grid is activated.
Both of these may be turned off by going to View | Grid.
The grid spacing and snap to grid option may also be modified here.
The base units of the analysis are found under View | Units.
Both the base units and the derived units may be modified; however, we will use the default units for this analysis.
The zoom options along the bottom bar of the screen provide various options for adjusting the analysis view.
We can also go to View | Zoom to change the display scale and current zoom percentage, or zoom to the extents of the modeled domain.
We can add axes to the working area to help visualize the drawing extents of our domain.
Under Sketch | Axes, we will specify the titles for each axis,
as well as the x and y axis extents. The x axis extent will be 40 m and the y axis extent will be 15 m.
You can also modify the axis increments by toggling off the Auto Increment Size button and changing the increment size for each axis.
It can be helpful to first sketch the problem prior to defining the geometry of the domain.
For developing a polygon, we can use the Sketch Polyline button and draw the outer dimension of our domain.
The escape button or right mouse click deactivates the draw polyline command.
As this example will include two materials, we will create two sections to represent the two layers.
Lines can also be drawn to indicate objects that are not included in the analysis, as well as arrows, circles, and arcs as visualization tools.
These sketches are not included in the domain or the analysis, and can be moved, modified or deleted using the Modify Objects command.
Let us now set up the domain geometry by going to Draw | Regions and ensuring the polygonal region type is selected.
We will draw the two soil regions to follow the slope sketch.
Points are automatically generated when we click on the working area,
and lines are created between these points.
To stop the Draw Regions command, click the right mouse button or press Escape.
We can also create regions by using the keyboard to input the point coordinates
in the coordinate entry box at the bottom of the window.
Additional points can be added to the domain if required, but for this example, only the two regions are needed.
After defining the model geometry, the next step is to create and assign the material properties.
To establish the two materials, we will go to Define | Materials.
We will click on the Add button to create a new material,
give this material a name,
and enter the basic properties for the Mohr-Coulomb material model.
We will not change the remaining tabs from their default settings.
Next, we will add a second material for the lower soil layer.
We can use the Add button again to create a new material or we can clone the first material and
adjust the soil properties to represent the lower layer.
After defining the materials, go to Draw | Materials and add each material to the corresponding region.
We will now add a piezometric line to define the pore water pressure conditions in both of the soil layers.
Go to Define | Pore Water Pressure and add a new piezometric line.
We define the piezometric line by adding x and y coordinates.
The line appears on the domain as each point is added.
The defined piezometric line goes through the slope, with a reservoir of water present above the toe of the slope.
Under the Materials tab, we can see that the piezometric line is assigned to both materials.
Alternatively, the piezometric line may be defined by going to Draw | Pore Water Pressure
and using the mouse to draw the location of the piezometric line.
Since we are modeling a partially submerged slope, the weight of the water will automatically be included in the analysis.
The corresponding water force arrows indicate that the resulting water force is applied normal to the ground surface line.
The final step for setting up a SLOPE/W analysis is to define the slip surface properties with the selected entry and exit method.
We will go to Draw | Slip Surface and select the Entry and Exit option.
In this window, we can manually enter the coordinates defining the zones where the
trial slip surfaces will enter and then exit the ground surface line.
However, we will use the cursor to define these zones.
The green triangles on either side of the domain indicate where the ground surface line begins and ends.
When using the cursor to define the entry and exit zones, click and hold the mouse button, only releasing it once the zone is drawn.
Now the problem definition is complete and we can check that the software correctly recognized the input parameters.
The Draw | Contours option may be used in Definition view to indicate the material properties of each soil layer.
These contours can be modified in the Draw Contours command, where you can change the coloring scheme, add a legend,
change the increments of the contour values or add new properties to view.
Since a piezometric line defines our pore water pressure conditions, we can view the pore water pressure contours of the domain.
The pore water pressures are hydrostatic below and above the water table when a piezometric line is used in SLOPE/W.
The Preferences toolbar along the right side of the window allows for easy selection of the properties visualized on the domain.
For example, we can choose to see the material colors for each region, remove the contour lines,
remove the piezometric line drawing, and so forth.
The viewing preferences may also be changed in the View | Preferences window, which includes
other options such as font size of the region labels.
Now we will ensure the analysis is activated in the Solve Manager window
and solve the analysis by clicking on the Start button.
Once solved, the window will automatically change to the Results view.
By default, the critical slip surface is shown, with the factor of safety result for that slip surface.
As we did in Definition view, we can draw contours by going to Draw | Contours, or using the drop down menu in the top toolbar.
The Slip Surfaces window allows the user to view other slip surfaces analyzed in the simulation.
To return to the critical slip surface, we can simply click on the Auto Select Critical option.
The Draw Graph window offers a wide range of options for plotting the model results.
The most important graph to check when looking at limit equilibrium stability results is the
factor of safety vs. lambda plot, which includes both the moment and force factors of safety.
The converged factor of safety for each slip surface is found at the intersection of the moment and force factor of safety vs. lambda plots.
To view the factor of safety vs. lambda plot for other slip surfaces, we may select any of the
slip surfaces listed in the Slip Surfaces window while the graph window is open.
In the Draw Graph window, we can also examine how parameters vary across a slip surface.
We can plot slice data from the current slip surface, given a comprehensive list of available parameters.
For example, we can plot pore water pressure vs. the slice number.
This plot shows the resulting pore water pressure values for each slice of the selected slip surface.
The More button in the Draw Graph window provides the following options:
to copy the graph as an image so it can be pasted as a picture in another program,
to copy the graph data as tab-delimited columns, which can be pasted into other software like Microsoft Excel,
or to export the data to a comma-delimited file.
Under Options, we can change the visualization of each plot by customizing the labels, changing the scale of each axis,
rotating the graph 90 degrees, adding or removing the legend, or changing the line style.
Individual slice information for the selected slip surface is available in View | Slice Information.
To view the free body diagram and force polygon of a particular slice, simply click on it.
Alternatively, use the arrow buttons to cycle through the slices.
The slice information on the right side of this window can be copied and pasted directly into a report or spreadsheet.
There are other options available for viewing result information.
View | Object Information provides information on each geometry item.
For example, if we select the upper soil layer we can see the material properties assigned to that region.
A report of the analysis may be generated by going to View | Report.
The report is an HTML file summarizing the input data,
domain geometry, and other information from the analysis.
So far we have only viewed one slip surface at a time; however, we can activate multiple slip
surfaces by going to Draw | Slip Surface Color Map and selecting Show All.
In this window, we can also choose to view the color map for the computed factors of safety.
This color map helps to visualize a failure zone composed of slip surfaces with a similar factor of safety.
The properties of the slip surface color map may be adjusted in the second tab.
If any time you are unsure in your understanding of a dialog box, select the Help tab or press F1 on your keyboard to access the online help.
If you would like to view the engineering book for the product you are using and do not want to
return to the GeoStudio Start Page, you can simply click on the home button in the online help.
Once we are finished interpreting the results, we can turn on the Page Layout layer to set up the printing properties of the project file.
The Page Layout toolbar allows for the selection of the paper size, margins, and orientation,
the portion of the page in which the model appears, called the viewport, and the positioning and size of the model within the viewport.
We may also create, modify, or import a printing template.
A basic template was created when we selected the page size while setting up our project file at the beginning of this tutorial.
That concludes our Getting Started with SLOPE/W tutorial video.
Please see the online help, supporting documentation for SLOPE/W,
and other tutorial videos available on the GEO-SLOPE website for more information.
Thank you for watching.