Tutorial 1 Quick Start

• Applying a circular load

• Immediate and consolidation settlement
• Deformed contours
• Query points and query lines
• Graph query
• Info Viewer
• Drawing tools
Settle3D v.4.0 Tutorial Manual Tutorial 1: Quick Start

Introduction
Before we start the tutorial, you should be familiar with the following general information
about Settle3D.

Program Assumptions
There are several important assumptions and limitations that must be considered when
using Settle3D:
• Settle3D calculates three-dimensional stresses due to surface loads. However,
displacements (settlement) and pore pressures are computed in one-dimension,
assuming only vertical displacements can occur. This is in keeping with general
geotechnical engineering practice and material parameters are specified to reflect the
one-dimensional nature of the analysis.

• In the Horizontal Soil Layers mode, all soil layers are assumed to be horizontal and
continuous. It is not possible to specify non-horizontal soil geometry. In the Multiple
Boreholes mode, non-horizontal soil strata can be defined. The ground surface is
assumed to be horizontal by default, but can be modeled non-horizontal by selecting
the Non-Horizontal Ground Surface option.

• By default, applied loads are flexible, so that the stress at the surface directly below the
load is constant, but the displacement is not. Rigid loading can also be specified, but is
more limited in application.

• The default ground surface is at depth = 0, depth is positive downwards, and

compressive stress is positive.

Program Interface
In order to carry out the various modeling and interpretation tasks, Settle3D provides two
distinct views:
• The Plan View is a top-down view of the ground surface and is used to define load
geometries, queries, drawing tools etc.

• The 3D View enables easy visualization of results in three dimensions.

In addition, the Sidebar at the right of the screen provides a variety of viewing controls and
the contour legend. In general, both views and the sidebar are visible, but their relative
sizes can be scaled as desired.

Model Set-Up
If you have not already done so, run Settle3D by double-clicking on the Settle3D icon in your
installation folder. Or from the Start menu, select Programs → Rocscience → Settle3D 4.0 →
Settle3D.

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Note that when the Settle3D program is started, a new blank document is already opened,
allowing you to begin creating a model immediately.

Project Settings
The Project Settings dialog allows you to enter project information, set the unit system and
specify other general analysis parameters.

Open the Project Settings dialog from the toolbar or the Analysis menu and make sure the
General tab is selected. Set the Stress units = Metric, stress as kPa and the Settlement units
= millimeters.

Click on the Project Summary tab and enter “Quick Start Tutorial” as the project title. Click
OK to save your input and exit the dialog.

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Adding a Load
From the Loads menu, choose Add Circular Load. Alternatively you can click the circular
load icon in the toolbar as shown on the left. For the rest of the tutorial, equivalent toolbar
icons will be shown in the margin beside the relevant text.

In the Define Load dialog, change the circle radius to 7 m. We will use the default load
magnitude of 10 kPa, Load Type = Flexible and depth = 0 (i.e. load is placed on the ground
surface). Click OK to close the dialog.

You will now see a circle that needs to be placed somewhere on the Plan View. You can click
the mouse to place the circular load, or alternatively you can enter the coordinates in the
prompt line at the bottom right of the screen.

Enter 5,5 and hit Enter to place the centre of the circular load at the coordinates 5,5 in the
Plan View.

You should now see the circular load in both the Plan View (left) and 3D View (right). You
can zoom to the extent of boundaries by selecting the Zoom All toolbar button or pressing
the F2 function key.

Your model should now look like this.

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Soil Layers
The 3D view shows a soil layer with a default thickness of 20 meters. It is assumed that rigid
bedrock lies below the soil. In this section we will learn how to change the soil properties
and layer geometry.

Soil Properties
Select Soil Properties from the toolbar or the Soils menu, and enter the following
properties under the first tab of the dialog.

• Change the name of the soil to Medium Clay. Leave the default Unit Weight of 18
kN/m3.

• You can use the checkboxes to enable or disable the input for Immediate Settlement,
Primary Consolidation or Secondary Consolidation. If a checkbox is selected, then the
corresponding settlement type will be computed for that material. By default only the
Primary Consolidation checkbox is selected.

• Select the Immediate Settlement checkbox. The parameters for immediate settlement
determine the instantaneous settlement before consolidation starts. These are
essentially undrained material properties. The parameter Es is the one-dimensional
Young’s modulus commonly used in settlement analyses. Leave the default values for Es
and Esur. See the Settle3D help for detailed information about the input parameters.

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• The Primary Consolidation parameters determine the settlement that occurs as pore
pressure dissipates and the soil compacts over time. In this tutorial, we are not looking
at time-dependent consolidation so these parameters will only influence the long-term
settlement after all excess pore pressure has dissipated (sometimes called ultimate
settlement). Change the Material Type to Linear. For a linear material we only need to
specify mv, which is the one-dimensional compressibility. We will use the default
parameter values (mv =0.0002).

• For most of the material input parameters in the Soil Properties dialog, you will notice a
Pick icon beside the input edit box. If you select this button, you will see a dialog
with published test results for a variety of soil types. This allows you to obtain estimates
of parameter values if you do not have your own analysis data. This is left as an optional
exercise, after completing this tutorial.

We are only defining a one material model, so select OK to save the selections in the Soil
Properties dialog.

Layer Thickness
To define the thickness and sequence of the soil layers select Soil Layers from the toolbar or
Soils menu. Here you can add layers of different material and change their thickness. We
will specify only one layer of material but we will change the thickness to 25 m. The dialog
should look like this.

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Click OK to close the dialog.

Field Point Grid

Stresses and displacements are calculated on one-dimensional strings of points descending
vertically from the ground surface. To compute results in 3D, an array of these 1D strings
are required. The simplest approach is to automatically generate an array of strings by
choosing Auto Field Point Grid from the Grid menu. You will first see the Grid Properties
dialog, select OK to accept the default values.

A grid will be automatically generated and stress and settlement will be automatically
computed throughout the 3-dimensional volume. By default, contours of Total Settlement
will be shown. Your model should now look like this.

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TIP: if you wish to view the location of the field points, go to View → Query Display Options
and under the Field Point Grid tab, choose a symbol other than None.

View Options
Before we proceed to examine the results, we will mention some useful shortcuts for
zooming, panning, rotating and maximizing the views.

Maximize Plan View or 3D View

• Within the Plan/3D View, you can quickly maximize the Plan View or the 3D View by
double-clicking in the desired view.

• To restore the split-screen presentation, double-click again in the maximized view.

• You can also select the toolbar shortcut buttons – Expand Plan View , Expand 3D
View , Split Plan/3D View - to maximize the Plan View, the 3D View, or restore
the split-screen format.

Mouse wheel zoom

You can easily zoom in or out by rotating the mouse wheel forward or backward.

Mouse wheel pan

You can quickly pan the views by holding down the mouse wheel and dragging the mouse.

Rotate 3D View

You can rotate the 3D View by holding down the left mouse button and dragging the mouse
in the 3D View.

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Reset View

If you want to reset the default viewing angle of the model in the 3D View, right-click in the
view and select Reset View from the popup menu.
A variety of other viewing and display options are available through the right-click menu,
the sidebar and other shortcuts, these can be explored after completing this tutorial.

Result Visualization
Total Settlement
You should be looking at contours of total settlement in the Plan view and 3D View. Under
the Contour Legend in the Sidebar you can see that the maximum settlement is 33.2 mm.
You can visualize this displacement in the 3D view by selecting the Deformed Contours
checkbox in the View Controls in the Sidebar. If you rotate the 3D view (hold down the left
mouse button and move the mouse), then you should see a screen like this:

TIP: the deformation of the surface is multiplied by a default scale factor. To change the
scaling of this deformation, go to View > Query Display Options > Field Point Grid > 3D
View and change the deformation Factor.

By default, the settlement at the ground surface (Depth = 0) is shown. You can examine the
settlement at different depths by using the depth control in the Sidebar. The Settlement at
a depth of 5 m looks like this:

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TIP: you can change the contour range, interval and color scheme by choosing Contour
Options from the toolbar, View menu or right-click menu.

Turn off the deformed contour display, and reset the depth control to zero.

Plotting Other Data Types

In the toolbar at the top of the screen, you can change the data type being plotted. As well
as Total Settlement you can select Immediate Settlement or Consolidation Settlement.

For this example, the Total Settlement is the sum of the Immediate Settlement and
Consolidation (long-term or ultimate) Settlement. Therefore plotting either one of these will
show less displacement than the Total Settlement. In this case, the maximum immediate
settlement is 11.1 mm and the maximum consolidation settlement is 22.1 mm. As you can
see from the contours, these values occur at the center of the flexible circular load.

You can also plot the Loading Stress or Total Stress. The Loading stress is simply the stress
due to the load, whereas the Total Stress is the Loading Stress plus the stress due to gravity
(i.e. self-weight of the soil).

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Queries
To obtain results at specific locations, you can add Query Points or Query Lines. These allow
you to graphically plot data versus depth or horizontal distance, at any location in the
model.

Query Points
From the toolbar or the Query menu, select Add Query Point. You will see the Query Point
dialog as shown.

A Query Point is actually a vertical line that divides the soil layer(s) into sub-layers
(divisions). Stress and displacement are calculated for each sub-layer. More divisions
generally produce more accurate results. This dialog allows you to specify the number of
divisions for each layer.

Leave the default choice of Automatic. This will generate subdivisions such that the
discretization is denser near the ground surface where the high stress gradients are likely to
be.

Click OK and the cursor will become a cross-hair in the Plan View. You now need to specify
the location of the Query Point on the surface. You can click the mouse at the desired
location or you can manually enter coordinates in the prompt line at the bottom right of the
screen. Enter the coordinates 5 5 to place the Query Point at the centre of the circular load.
If you are still viewing Total Settlement, your screen should now look like this.

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In the 3D View you can see the Total Settlement plotted along the vertical line represented
by the query point.

To graph the query data select Graph Query from the Query menu. Select the Query Point
using the mouse and hit Enter. You will see the following dialog:

Choose Total Settlement if it is not already selected and hit OK. You should now see a graph
that looks like this:

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As expected the amount of settlement decreases with depth. At the bottom of the soil
layer, the settlement is zero because the soil is assumed to be underlain by rigid bedrock.
You can now easily plot other data by selecting from the list in the toolbar.

Query Lines
Toggle back to the model view by clicking the Plan / 3D View tab at the bottom left of the
screen. From the Query menu select Add Query Line. You are first prompted for the
number of horizontal divisions. Leave the default value of 20. As with a Query Point, you are
also prompted for the number of vertical divisions. This time select Evenly Spaced Divisions
and change the number to 25.

This will generate 20 vertical strings with 25 divisions in each string. Click OK and you will
now be prompted for the start point of the line. With the mouse, select the existing query
point at the centre of the circle. You will now be prompted to enter the second point. Using
the keyboard, enter the coordinates 5 -9. Hit Enter.

The Query line will appear on the Plan View with bars giving the Total Settlement along the
line. The minimum and maximum values are shown numerically. The 3D View will show a
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vertical cross-section with contours of Total Settlement. To see this more clearly, turn off
the Point Query display (clear the checkbox next to Point Queries in the Sidebar under View
Controls), and rotate the model in the 3D View until the screen looks as follows:

You can plot the data by selecting Query → Graph Query and selecting the query line (or by
right-clicking on the line and choosing Graph Query). Choose the data you wish to plot
(Total Settlement) and click OK. You will see a graph showing the Total Settlement versus
horizontal distance along the line, at the current depth.

This is the Total Settlement along a line at the ground surface.

You can change the depth of the line by using the depth control in the Sidebar of the Plan
View. You can also change the data being plotted using the drop-list in the toolbar. Close
any extra windows so that only the Plan View window and query line chart windows are
open. Tile the windows so that they look like the window below.

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Click on the Plan View window, and the depth control sidebar will appear. Change the depth
to 5m. Both the Plan View and Chart View results will change to those at 5m. Click on the
Chart View and change the dropdown results type to Loading Stress. Click on the Plan View
window and do the same. You are now looking at the contour and query line results for
Loading Stress at a depth of 5m. The window should look like the figure below.

TIP: you can export this data to a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet by simply right-clicking on the
graph and choosing Chart in Excel. If you prefer another spreadsheet program, then choose
Copy Data to Clipboard and you will be able to paste it into any Windows program.

Info Viewer
The Info Viewer presents a formatted summary of input data and analysis results.

Select the Info Viewer option from the toolbar or the View menu.

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The Info Viewer Controls in the sidebar allow you to customize the information which is
displayed in the Info Viewer, and the appearance of the information (e.g. fonts, colours,
etc).

The Info Viewer information can be exported in a variety of ways. If you right-click in the
Info Viewer, you can copy, view in browser, or save the information to a file. You can also
print the Info Viewer, and customize the print output using the Page Setup option in the File
menu. This is left as an optional exercise.

Info Viewer
As a final exercise, we will mention the Drawing Tools which allow you to add a variety of
drawing objects to the Plan View. For example, you can add a table of soil properties as
follows:

1. Switch back to the Plan/3D View, and select the Soil Properties Table option from the
toolbar.

2. Click the mouse in the Plan View to add the table, as shown in the figure below.

3. After adding the table, it can be edited, moved or formatted (e.g. double-click on the
table to display the Format Tool dialog). See the help for more information.

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This concludes the Quick Start Tutorial; you may now exit the Settle3D program.

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