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Model and analyze geo-engineering projects with finite element analysis in 2D

PLAXIS 2D is a user-friendly, finite-element package that provides you with the ability to model diverse geotechnical problems from a single, integrated application. You can analyze the deformation and stability of projects ranging from excavations, embankments, and foundations to tunneling, mining, and geomechanics.

We offer various versions of PLAXIS 2D, so you can choose which one is best for you:

PLAXIS 2D

PLAXIS 2D includes all the essential functionalities to perform everyday deformation and safety analysis for soil and rock that do not require the consideration of creep, steady state groundwater or thermal flow, consolidation analysis, or any time-dependent effects.

PLAXIS 2D Advanced

PLAXIS 2D Advanced includes everything that is included in PLAXIS 2D, plus it offers more advanced features and material models to consider creep, flow-deformation coupling through consolidation analysis and steady state groundwater or heat flow. It also solves your problems faster with the multicore solver.

Model diverse geotechnical problems
Create FE models quickly and efficiently
Simulate various types of soil and rock behavior
Achieve consistently accurate results
Conduct powerful and versatile post processing

PLAXIS 2D Ultimate

Extend the capabilities of PLAXIS 2D Advanced with additional capabilities for analyzing the effects of vibrations in the soil, such as earthquake and traffic loads; simulate complex hydrological, time-dependent variations of water levels, or flow functions on model or soil boundaries; and assess the effect of transient heat flow on the hydraulic and mechanical behavior of soil.

Dynamic Modeling
Groundwater Flow Analysis
Thermal Modeling

PLAXIS 2D WorkSuite

PLAXIS 2D WorkSuite is the most comprehensive option of PLAXIS 2D which includes PLAXIS 2D Ultimate and PLAXIS 2D LE. PLAXIS 2D WorkSuite integrates the powerful and user-friendly finite element and limit equilibrium analysis capabilities of PLAXIS applications for the design and analysis of soil, rock, and associated structures.

“Having one all-encompassing software like PLAXIS is prudent when you are analyzing multiple interactions and structural components. Having one domain helps limit your input, as well as reducing any associated errors in your output.”

Technical Capabilities

Modeling Material Models Calculations Results Usage Subscription Entitlement Service Supports

Modeling

Spatial variation of preconsolidation
Tunnel deconfinement
CAD export
Nonlinear geogrids: Elastoplastic (N-ε) and Viscoelastic (time-dependent)
Cross and parallel permeability in interfaces
Polar and rectangular array
Nonlinear embedded beam row (M-ĸ diagrams)
Easy definition of rock bolts in Tunnel Designer
Unlimited combinations of point forces and distributed loads

Material Models

Anisotropic Clay Models: S-CLAY1 and S-CLAY1S
Concrete
Masonry
Mixed Isotropic-kinematic Hardening Elastoplastic Models for Structured Clay
N2PC-Salt
Hoek-Brown with parameter guide
Generalized Hardening Soil
OC-Clay
PM4Sand
Soft soil (with and without creep)
Sekiguchi-Ohta, viscid and inviscid
SHANSEP MC
SHANSEP NGI-ADP
Swelling Rock
NGI-ADP
Jointed rock
UDCAM-S with cyclic accumulation and optimization tool
UDCAM-S
User-defined soil models
Visco-elastic perfectly plastic
CLoE Hypoplastic

Creep-SCLAY1S

Frozen and Unfrozen Soil
Material Models
MIT S1
Mohr-Coulomb (Linear Elastic Perfectly Plastic)
Modified Cam-Clay
Hoek-Brown (rock behavior)
Hoek & Brown model with softening
Hypoplastic model with inter-granular strain
Hardening Soil (Isotropic hardening)
Hardening Soil with small-strain stiffness (HSSmall)
Isotropic Jointed Rock with Mohr-Coulomb Failure Criterion
Joined Rock (anisotropy)
UBC3D-PLM (based on UBCSAND)
Soft Soil
Soft Soil Creep (time dependent behavior)
Sekiguchi-Ohta
NGI-ADP (anisotropic undrained shear strength)
NorSand
PM4Silt
Fluid

Calculations

Field stress initial calculation type
Well-proven and robust calculation procedures
Multicore computing
Include or exclude soil clusters and/or structural elements in safety analysis
64-bit calculation kernel
Facilities for steady-state groundwater flow calculations, including flow-related material parameters, boundary conditions, drains, and wells
Distinguish between a plastic calculation, consolidation, and safety analysis
Automatic regeneration of construction stages

Results

Load-displacement curves
Use the Output command line to display plots, or save plots with user-defined resolution
Select number of significant digits displayed
PLAXIS 2D Viewer
Automatic centerline extraction for structural forces plots
Structural forces in Volumes (Tunnel lining, retaining wall)
Resulting Force View
Preview Calculation results
Plot Annotations

Usage

Rock-mass response and surface settlements due to tunneling, mining, or reservoir depletion
Slope stability and seepage analysis for large earth dams, tailing dams, embankments, and pit mines
Predicting differential settlements of buildings adjacent to excavation pits
Stability of and seepage into excavation pits, lateral displacements of diaphragm walls
Calculate necessary consolidation time for pore pressure dissipation in undrained loading problems
Bearing capacity and foundation settlement analysis for high-rise buildings, LNG tanks, and other structures

Subscription Entitlement Service Supports

Provides a universal ID to link together all activity within Bentley applications
- Manage license entitlements at a user level, without requiring activation keys or hardware dongles
- Access personal learn material, paths and history, timely product related news, automatic product updates, and notifications

Modeling

Spatial variation of preconsolidation
Tunnel deconfinement
CAD export
Nonlinear geogrids: Elastoplastic (N-ε) and Viscoelastic (time-dependent)
Cross and parallel permeability in interfaces
Polar and rectangular array
Nonlinear embedded beam row (M-ĸ diagrams)
Easy definition of rock bolts in Tunnel Designer
Unlimited combinations of point forces and distributed loads

Material Models

Anisotropic Clay Models: S-CLAY1 and S-CLAY1S
Concrete
Masonry
Mixed Isotropic-kinematic Hardening Elastoplastic Models for Structured Clay
N2PC-Salt
Hoek-Brown with parameter guide
Generalized Hardening Soil
OC-Clay
PM4Sand
Soft soil (with and without creep)
Sekiguchi-Ohta, viscid and inviscid
SHANSEP MC
SHANSEP NGI-ADP
Swelling Rock
NGI-ADP
Jointed rock
UDCAM-S with cyclic accumulation and optimization tool
UDCAM-S
User-defined soil models
Visco-elastic perfectly plastic
CLoE Hypoplastic

Creep-SCLAY1S

Frozen and Unfrozen Soil
Material Models
MIT S1
Mohr-Coulomb (Linear Elastic Perfectly Plastic)
Modified Cam-Clay
Hoek-Brown (rock behavior)
Hoek & Brown model with softening
Hypoplastic model with inter-granular strain
Hardening Soil (Isotropic hardening)
Hardening Soil with small-strain stiffness (HSSmall)
Isotropic Jointed Rock with Mohr-Coulomb Failure Criterion
Joined Rock (anisotropy)
UBC3D-PLM (based on UBCSAND)
Soft Soil
Soft Soil Creep (time dependent behavior)
Sekiguchi-Ohta
NGI-ADP (anisotropic undrained shear strength)
NorSand
PM4Silt
Fluid

Calculations

Field stress initial calculation type
Well-proven and robust calculation procedures
Multicore computing
Include or exclude soil clusters and/or structural elements in safety analysis
64-bit calculation kernel
Facilities for steady-state groundwater flow calculations, including flow-related material parameters, boundary conditions, drains, and wells
Distinguish between a plastic calculation, consolidation, and safety analysis
Automatic regeneration of construction stages

Results

Load-displacement curves
Use the Output command line to display plots, or save plots with user-defined resolution
Select number of significant digits displayed
PLAXIS 2D Viewer
Automatic centerline extraction for structural forces plots
Structural forces in Volumes (Tunnel lining, retaining wall)
Resulting Force View
Preview Calculation results
Plot Annotations

Usage

Rock-mass response and surface settlements due to tunneling, mining, or reservoir depletion
Slope stability and seepage analysis for large earth dams, tailing dams, embankments, and pit mines
Predicting differential settlements of buildings adjacent to excavation pits
Stability of and seepage into excavation pits, lateral displacements of diaphragm walls
Calculate necessary consolidation time for pore pressure dissipation in undrained loading problems
Bearing capacity and foundation settlement analysis for high-rise buildings, LNG tanks, and other structures

Subscription Entitlement Service Supports

Provides a universal ID to link together all activity within Bentley applications
- Manage license entitlements at a user level, without requiring activation keys or hardware dongles
- Access personal learn material, paths and history, timely product related news, automatic product updates, and notifications

PROJECT AND MODEL PROPERTIES

Selection of imperial and SI units for length, force, etc.

Select between plane strain and axi-symmetric models

Select between 6-noded and 15-noded element types

Constants tab in Project properties

GEOMETRY CREATION

Create Borehole Tool

Select, Move and Array Tools

Create Soil Polygon, Soil Rectangle Tools

Create Point & Line Load Tools

Create Point & Line Prescribed Displacement Tools

Create Embedded Beam Row, Plate, Geogrid, Fixed-End Anchor, Node-to-node Anchor, Interface Tools

Create Line Contraction Tool

Create Well, Drain and Groundwater Flow Boundary Conditions Tools

Create Thermal Flow Boundary Condition Tool

Create Added Mass Tool

Tunnel Designer

Reinforcement (Rockbolts) Definition in Tunnel Designer

SOIL MATERIAL MODELS

Linear elastic

Mohr-Coulomb

Hardening Soil

Hardening Soil Small Strain Stiffness

Modified cam-clay

Jointed Rock model

NGI-ADP

Hoek-Brown, with Parameter guide

Soft soil

Soft Soil creep

Sekiguchi Ohta (Viscid)

Sekiguchi Ohta (Inviscid)

UDCAM-S and Cyclic Accumulation tool

Concrete

User Defined Soil Models

UBC3D-PLM (liquefaction)

SOIL MATERIAL DRAINAGE TYPES

STRUCTURAL ELEMENT MATERIAL TYPES

DYNAMIC, GROUNDWATER AND THERMAL FLOW MATERIAL PROPERTIES

INITIAL CALCULATION TYPES

DEFORMATION CALCULATION TYPES

Plastic

Safety

Consolidation

Dynamic

Dynamic with consolidation

Fully coupled flow-deformation

PORE PRESSURE CALCULATION TYPES

THERMAL CALCULATION TYPES

MISCELLANEOUS FEATURES, TOOLS AND INTEROPABILITY

Spatial variation of preconsolidation

Tunnel deconfinement

Create cluster field stress

Staged construction & automatic regeneration of construction stages

Multicore and parallel calculation

Design Approaches

Pseudostatic analysis

Generate Stratigraphy from imported CPT Logs

SoilTest and parameter optimization tool

Sensitivity analysis and Parameter variation

PLAXIS 2D Classic to PLAXIS 2D CONNECT Edition project converter

PLAXIS 2D LE model import

PLAXIS 2D to 3D Converter

Calculation Manager

CAD Import and Export

Command line input (Input, Output & SoilTest)

Command line autocomplete (Input, Output & SoilTest)

Commands runner (Input, Output & SoilTest)

Macro library and running macros (Input, Output & SoilTest)

Remote scripting for Input, Output and SoilTest

Scripting reference

1D Site response analysis tool

ProjectWise integration, loading from and saving to ProjectWise server

Bentley Cloud Services: personal & project portal, project association

TIME DEPENDENT FUNCTIONS

Time dependent groundwater flow components for water levels, groundwater flow boundary conditions and soil clusters

Definition of groundwater flow functions to specify time dependent changes in head or discharge, etc.

Time dependent thermal components for thermal flow boundary conditions and soil clusters

Definition of thermal flow functions to specify time dependent changes in temperature or heat flux, etc.

Dynamic components in x and y direction for point and line loads or prescribed displacements

Definition of Dynamic multipliers to create vibration and earthquake signals

Scaling tools, Fourier, response spectra & Arias intensity plots and drift correction for input earthquake signals

DYNAMIC BOUNDARY CONDITIONS

POSTPROCESSING & RESULTS

Various ways to display forces, displacements, stresses and strains in contour, vector, and iso-surface plots

Tables of results with copy, sorting and filter options

Curve manager to plot graphs of various results across a selection of calculation phases

Load-Displacement curves

Cross-section tools and cross-section curves

Automatic and manual centerline extraction for structural forces plots of volume plates

Resulting forces view

Plot annotations

Animations

Report generator

Printing and saving plots & curves

Plots & Curves of accelerations, velocities, structural forces envelopes for Dynamic phases

Curve plots of Pseudo Spectral Acceleration, relative displacements and switching between time & frequency representations

Plots and curves of pore pressures for phreatic level calculations

Plots and curves of pore pressures, saturation, suction, and Darcy flux for steady state groundwater flow calculations

Plots and curves of pore pressures, saturation, suction, and Darcy flux for transient groundwater flow or fully coupled flow deformation calculations

Plots and curves of temperature, ice saturation and heat flux for steady state thermal flow calculations

Plots and curves of temperature, ice saturation and heat flux for transient thermal flow or full thermo-hydro-mechanical coupled calculations

Export of results to Paraview

Featured Training

Browse a variety of upcoming training and previously recorded courses taught by our in-house, industry experts.

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Webinars

Explore our Geotechnical webinars for best practices and engage with Virtuosity and Bentley industry experts.

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Blogs

Read our Infrastructure Insights blog to find tips and tricks and Geotechnical user success stories from around the world.

What is PLAXIS 2D?

PLAXIS 2D is a finite-element software application used to model and analyze geotechnical problems.

What does PLAXIS mean? What is PLAXIS used for?

Plaxis is a computer application that performs finite element analyses (FEA) within the realm of geotechnical engineering, including deformation, stability and water flow. The name PLAXIS comes from PLastic and AXISymmetry, indicating the geometric types handled in the original code of the software application.

What is the difference between the various PLAXIS 2D products?

View comparison matrix.

Where can I find PLAXIS 2D tutorial?

Whilst lots of PLAXIS 2D tutorials can be found on Bentley Communities, here are some FREE PLAXIS 2D learning resources available at Virtuosity, a Bentley Company.

What is the interface in PLAXIS?

By applying interface elements PLAXIS users can simulate the interaction between a structure and soil. While without an interface no relative displacement (slipping/gapping) will be possible between structure and soil.

When interface applied, node pairs will be created at the interface of structure and soil. Each node pair consists of two nodes – one belongs to the structure and the other belongs to the soil. The interaction between these two nodes consists of two elastic-perfectly plastic springs. One elastic-perfectly plastic spring to model the gap displacement and one elastic-perfectly plastic spring to model slip displacement.

Where can I get PLAXIS 2D training or PLAXIS course?

If you want to receive tailored training or attend a PLAXIS 2D course that is specific to your project requirement, Virtuosity offers extra training and mentoring services. You can choose from tailor-made training, on-demand learning, consulting services, mentoring and more. Learn more about Expert Services at Virtuosity here.

What is the price of PLAXIS 2D? How much does PLAXIS cost?

A practitioner license of PLAXIS 2D costs $3,200 USD, PLAXIS 2D Advanced costs $4,000, PLAXIS 2D Ultimate costs $5,700 and PLAXIS 2D WorkSuite costs $6,150 USD at Virtuosity.com. Prices vary per region. While there are various types of licensing available, a common choice is the 12-month practitioner license offered through Virtuosity, Bentley’s eCommerce store. When you purchase through Virtuosity you get a Virtuoso Subscription which means you get both the software AND the training, expert services, and custom mentoring you need to get started quickly.

System Requirements

Operating System

Supported: Windows 8 Professional 64-bit, Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
Recommended: Windows 10 Professional 64-bit (all with latest service packs applied)

Graphics Card

Required: GPU with 256 MB OpenGL 3.3
Bentley strongly recommends avoiding simple onboard graphics chips in favor of a discrete GPU from the nVidia GeForce or Quadro range with at least 128-bit bus and 1 GB of RAM, or equivalent solution from ATI/AMD.

Processor

Required: Dual Core CPU, Recommended: Quad Core CPU

Memory

Recommended for 2D: minimum 4 GB. Large projects may require more.

Hard Disk

Minimum 2 GB free space on the partition where the WindowsTEMP directory resides, and 2 GB free space on the partition where projects are saved. Large projects may require significantly more space on both partitions.

For best performance, ensure that the TEMP directory and the project directory reside on the same partition.

Video

Required: 1024 x 768 pixels, 32-bit color palette, Recommended: 1920 x 1080 pixels, 32-bit color palette

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