Deltaressystems design and analysis tools

Embankment design and soil settlement prediction

Peat and clay layers will compress significantly after embankment construction, site preparation or other loading. A final magnitude of several metres is not unusual in The Netherlands. Natural settlements take many years to develop, due to slow pore water dissipation and creep. Vertical drains are therefore often applied to speed up the consolidation process. Temporary preloading and enforced dewatering are also applied to reduce the residual creep after the construction period. Uncertainty and spatial variation will cause the actual measurements to deviate from the initial prediction within bounds. Under these complex circumstances, D-Settlement, (previously known as MSettle), supplies all necessary means to get to grips.

General

D-Settlement is practical and easy-to-use software. D-Settlement quickly predicts the transient settlement and its bandwidth during the design stage. D-Settlement can automatically improve this prediction during the construction stage by employing measurements. D-Settlement offers accurate and robust models, capturing consolidation, creep, submerging, drains, staged loading, and unloading and reloading. The dedicated graphical user interface supports convenient data input and easy interpretation of results. Reliability is guaranteed by well-established solution methods, thorough validation, high-level expertise of the developer and a large user-base. The user documentation includes comprehensive tutorial examples, to get you started at a glance. Some specific features in D-Settlement are:

• Design
  Automatic determination of the extra soil volume required for settlement compensation.
• Vertical drains
  Input of strip drains, columns and sand walls, based on real project parameters and layout. Practical options for enforced dewatering. Automatic conversion to model parameters.
• Consolidation period
  Easy determination of the consolidation period for different vertical drain configurations.
• Safety
  Determination of the minimum period required for safe and stable construction, with the aid of coupled D-Geo Stability.
  

• Settlement stress
  Output of settlement, stress components and water head components along verticals and along time, as a result from staged construction and other types of loading (2D/3D).
• Temporary preloading and dewatering
  Analysis of the effect of temporary preloading and/or enforced dewatering on settlements and pore pressures.
• Bandwidth
  Output of total bandwidth and residual settlements.
• Fit for settlement plate
  Settlement plate fit (automatic or manual), affecting settlements and bandwidth.
• Horizontal deformation
  Output of approximate horizontal deformation along verticals.

D-Settlement comes as a standard module, which can be extended further with other modules to fit more advanced applications:

DGS.03.00 D-Settlement Standard module (1D)
DGS 03.01 2D Geometry module
DGS 03.02 Darcy module
DGS 03.03 Vertical Drains module
DGS 03.04 Fit for settlement Plate module
DGS 03.06 Reliability Analyses module
DGS 03.08 Horizontal Deformations module.

Interaction with other Deltares systems tools

D-Settlement is part of the Deltares systems product suite. Therefore, D-Settlement can import soil parameters from a central project database. D-Settlement can also share its (deformed) geometry with other Deltares systems programs. Finally, D-Settlement can directly generate input for the D-Geo Stability program, including excess pore pressures and deformed geometry.

Support

Deltares Systems tools are supported by Deltares. A group of 70 people in software development ensures continuous research and development. Support is provided by the developers and if necessary by the appropriate Deltares experts. These experts can provide consultancy backup as well.

On-line software (Citrix)

Besides purchased software, Deltares Systems tools are available as an on-line service. The input can be created over the internet. Heavy duty calculation servers at Deltares guarantee quick analysis, while results are presented on-line. Users can view and print results as well as locally store project files. Once connected, clients will be charged by the hour.