The
GeoStudio Basic Edition is a feature-limited version of seven
products: SLOPE/W for slope stability analysis, SEEP/W for
groundwater seepage analysis, SIGMA/W for stress & deformation
analysis, QUAKE/W for dynamic earthquake analysis, TEMP/W
for geothermal analysis, CTRAN/W for contaminant transport
analysis and AIR/W for air flow analysis. The Basic Edition
is ideal for use in routine engineering practice for the analysis
of problems with limited geometric complexity. While primarily
intended for analyzing the stability of natural and man-made
earth slopes, you can also use GeoStudio Basic for the analysis
of confined and unconfined steady-state seepage problems,
for the analysis of linear-elastic settlement and stress distribution
problems, for the tracking of contaminants within ground water
flow and for the analysis of freeze-thaw problems.
The Basic Edition does not contain all of the features found
in the full product editions. For example, each product in
GeoStudio Basic is limited to 2 multiple/staged analyses within
one file, 10 material types, 10 geometric regions, and 500
finite elements.
Modeling Practice
A common tendency when using powerful modeling software is
to build numerical models that are geometrically too complex.
The geometric complexity is usually not required to obtain
meaningful results. In fact, we at GEO-SLOPE strongly advocate
that a numerical model should be a simplified abstraction
of the actual field conditions. Adopting this modeling principle
makes GeoStudio Basic a very powerful analytical tool for
use in practice in spite of its geometric limitations.
Evaluation and Upgrading
GeoStudio Basic allows you to evaluate a very high-end geotechnical
software package with a minimal investment. Starting with
GeoStudio Basic is an excellent strategy. Once you are comfortable
with using the software and you find that your projects dictate
analyzing more complexity, you can upgrade to the full-featured
version. Everything that you have learned and done with the
Basic Edition will be directly usable in the full-featured
edition. Nothing will be lost by first acquiring the Basic
Edition and subsequently acquiring the full-featured edition.
Each
GeoStudio product (except for VADOSE/W) runs with a limited
set of features when using a GeoStudio Basic license.
SLOPE/W Basic
The slope stability analysis features
and capabilities in GeoStudio Basic are more than adequate
for conventional analysis of most natural slopes and man-made
cut slopes that may be encountered in routine engineering
practice. The 10-region and 10-material limit in GeoStudio
Basic is more than sufficient to describe the geometry and
stratigraphy of common slope stability problems.
Methods that can be used to compute safety factors include
the Ordinary, the Bishop Simplified, the Janbu Simplified,
the Spencer and the Morgenstern-Price method. As well, the
advanced General Limit Equilibrium (GLE) method is available,
which is sometimes useful for helping with interpreting the
results of the various methods.
Key features available in SLOPE/W Basic include:
Trial
slip surface shapes can be circular or non-circular. Non-circular
shapes can be formed from arcs of a circle together with
linear segments or just with straight line segments.
Trial
slip surface positions are controlled by specifying a
traditional grid of rotation centers together with a range
of radii or by specifying a range of entrance points along
the crest and a range of exit points in the slope toe
area. Block shapes are formed by specifying two grids
of points at the break locations along the three-piece
linear slip surface.
The
shape of the critical slip surface can be refined and
the factor of safety optimized with a special statistical
random walk technique based on a Monte Carlo method.
Mohr-Coulomb
strength parameters C (cohesion) and Ø (phi) are available
to describe the soil strength. The parameters may be total
or effective depending on the pore-water pressure conditions
specified. Undrained strengths are specified by making
Ø zero.
Pore-water
pressures can be described with a piezometric line with
an optional phreatic correction when there are sharp downward
curves in the piezometric line.
Surcharge
loads as can be included as concentrated line loads or
as surface pressures.
Water
impounded up against a slope (partial submergence) can
be considered in an analysis by including the water as
a no strength material.
Tension
cracks can be considered by specifying a constant tension
crack depth or by specifying a slip surface inclination
angle. When a slice base inclination near the crest exceeds
the specified angle, a tension crack is formed as part
of the slip surface shape.
Earthquake
and seismic effects can be considered as pseudostatic
forces by specifying horizontal and vertical seismic coefficients.
Reinforcement can be simulated in a simplistic
way with the use of concentrated line loads. This is an adequate
and acceptable approach for determining the forces the reinforcement
needs to provide to achieve a design factor of safety against
the possible slip of the retained soil wedge. Once the required
force is known, the details of the reinforcement can be selected
and designed independent of the stability analysis.
The full-featured SLOPE/W edition is required for:
Highly
complex geometric and stratigraphic conditions
Irregular
and non-hydrostatic pore-pressure conditions
Pore-pressures
that are a function of overburden or surcharge loads
Non-linear
and anisotropic soil strengths
Soil
strength variations with depth in a stratum
Soil
strength variations related to soil suction and air pressure
Rigorous
and more direct consideration of specific reinforcements
such as anchors, nails, geo-fabric, dowels and piles.
Probabilistic
and sensitivity analyses
Auto
locating the position of the critical slips surface and
auto locating possible tension cracks.
SEEP/W Basic
The SEEP/W Basic Edition can be used for
the analysis of confined and unconfined steady-state seepage
problems. The features available are more than adequate for
the analysis of classical problems such as confined seepage
flow below a structure with a cutoff and unconfined flow through
an earth embankment.
An important component of flow in unconfined
problems is the unsaturated flow above the water table. Unlike
many other software products, SEEP/W correctly considers the
unsaturated flow as well as the saturated flow.
For unconfined flow problems it is necessary
to define a hydraulic conductivity function that describes
the reduction in the conductivity or permeability as the soil
de-saturates. A typical function is shown below. In SEEP/W
Basic, conductivity functions are defined by simply specifying
the conductivity at two points as illustrated in the right-hand
diagram. These two specified conductivity points are used
in SEEP/W Basic to approximate the conductivity function such
as shown by the left-hand diagram.
A two-point conductivity function approximation is adequate
for most practical steady-state seepage problem where there
is a significant component of lateral flow as through an embankment
for example.
The SEEP/W Basic computed seepage results can be used directly
in a SLOPE/W Basic slope stability analysis if a piezometric
line is not adequate to describe the pore-pressure conditions
of a particular problem.
The full-featured edition of SEEP/W is required for transient
analyses and for problems with time-dependent boundary conditions.
SIGMA/W Basic
SIGMA/W Basic is particularly useful for
estimating the immediate or elastic settlement of multilayered
systems. A typical case is the immediate settlement of a round
fluid storage tank as illustrated here.
Loads can be applied incrementally to simulate the placement
of fill during the construction of an embankment, for example.
Similarly, the elastic heave associated with the construction
of an excavation can be computed by simulating the removal
of the soil in stages.
SIGMA/W Basic can also be used to perform saturated consolidation
analyses. Consolidation analyses of a multilayered system
are nearly impossible to do with hand-calculations even if
it is a one-dimensional analysis. Such 1-D analyses can be
done with relative ease with SIGMA/W Basic.
Excess pore-pressures that may develop in a foundation due
to surface loading can be estimated based on total stress
changes together with specified Skempton’s A and B pore-pressure
parameters.
The full-featured edition of SIGMA/W is required for non-linear
deformation analyses and stage (time) dependent boundary conditions.
QUAKE/W Basic
QUAKE/W Basic is included in the GeoStudio
Basic package primarily for illustrative purposes. QUAKE/W
Basic is restricted to linear-elastic material properties
which limits its use in actual field problems. Using only
linear-elastic material properties tends to over estimate
the dynamic response of earth structures to earthquake shaking.
This can lead to unrealistic motions and excessive dynamic
stresses.
Dynamic linear-elastic analyses however are useful for investigating
and demonstrating how QUAKE/W analyses are performed, what
material properties are required and how the results can be
visualized. In addition, QUAKE/W Basic is useful for demonstrating
how the QUAKE/W results can be used in SLOPE/W to do a Newmark-type
permanent deformation analysis and for determining how the
factor of safety varies during an earthquake.
TEMP/W Basic
TEMP/W Basic is intended primarily for the analysis of ground
freezing and thawing problems with limited geometric complexity
and with constant thermal boundary conditions.
CTRAN/W Basic
CTRAN/W uses the flow velocities from
SEEP/W to model the migration of contaminants. So the CTRAN/W
Basic limitations are primarily the limitations inherent in
SEEP/W Basic.
CTRAN/W uses the flow velocities from SEEP/W to model the
migration of contaminants. So the CTRAN/W Basic limitations
are primarily the limitations inherent in SEEP/W Basic.
In addition, CTRAN/W Basic is a useful tool for investigating
pure dispersion and advection-dispersion problems, particularly
one-dimensional problems.
The
GeoStudio Student Edition is a free product designed as an
aid to learning geotechnical numerical modeling. It is an
ideal teaching tool for university professors both at the
undergraduate and graduate levels. The Tutorials book includes
student edition problems that can be used as a guide for developing
class exercises. The software contains limited versions of
SLOPE/W, SEEP/W, SIGMA/W, QUAKE/W, TEMP/W and CTRAN/W.
Pentium
III with Microsoft Windows 2000, XP, or Vista
Intel dual-core processor with 1 GB of RAM recommended
800x600 display (1024x768 or higher is recommended)
Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 or higher
.NET 1.1 (.NET 2.0 included on the CD)
| 
The slope stability analysis features
and capabilities in GeoStudio Basic are more than adequate
for conventional analysis of most natural slopes and man-made
cut slopes that may be encountered in routine engineering
practice. The 10-region and 10-material limit in GeoStudio
Basic is more than sufficient to describe the geometry and
stratigraphy of common slope stability problems. 
Reinforcement can be simulated in a simplistic
way with the use of concentrated line loads. This is an adequate
and acceptable approach for determining the forces the reinforcement
needs to provide to achieve a design factor of safety against
the possible slip of the retained soil wedge. Once the required
force is known, the details of the reinforcement can be selected
and designed independent of the stability analysis. 
The SEEP/W Basic Edition can be used for
the analysis of confined and unconfined steady-state seepage
problems. The features available are more than adequate for
the analysis of classical problems such as confined seepage
flow below a structure with a cutoff and unconfined flow through
an earth embankment. 
An important component of flow in unconfined
problems is the unsaturated flow above the water table. Unlike
many other software products, SEEP/W correctly considers the
unsaturated flow as well as the saturated flow. 
For unconfined flow problems it is necessary
to define a hydraulic conductivity function that describes
the reduction in the conductivity or permeability as the soil
de-saturates. A typical function is shown below. In SEEP/W
Basic, conductivity functions are defined by simply specifying
the conductivity at two points as illustrated in the right-hand
diagram. These two specified conductivity points are used
in SEEP/W Basic to approximate the conductivity function such
as shown by the left-hand diagram. 
SIGMA/W Basic is particularly useful for
estimating the immediate or elastic settlement of multilayered
systems. A typical case is the immediate settlement of a round
fluid storage tank as illustrated here. 
QUAKE/W Basic is included in the GeoStudio
Basic package primarily for illustrative purposes. QUAKE/W
Basic is restricted to linear-elastic material properties
which limits its use in actual field problems. Using only
linear-elastic material properties tends to over estimate
the dynamic response of earth structures to earthquake shaking.
This can lead to unrealistic motions and excessive dynamic
stresses. 
CTRAN/W uses the flow velocities from
SEEP/W to model the migration of contaminants. So the CTRAN/W
Basic limitations are primarily the limitations inherent in
SEEP/W Basic.