RS3 Quick Start

1.0 Introduction
This tutorial introduces some of the basic features of RS3. The model used in this tutorial
analyzes the effect of a foundation being constructed near a sloped underground tunnel. We
will create a multi-stage model using stages so that we may observe how the soil behaves at
each specific step of the foundation's construction and compare the results. The stages that
will be considered are:

1. Initial Conditions

2. Excavate Tunnel
3. Excavate Foundation

4. Pour Concrete Foundation

5. Loading Foundation

Note

All tutorial files installed with RS3 can be accessed by selecting File > Recent >
Tutorials folder from the RS3 main menu. The finished product of this tutorial can be
found in the Quick Start file in the Tutorials folder.

2.0 Starting a Model

Open RS3. You will see a blank workspace.

Select: Analysis > Project Settings.

Our first step is to configure the analysis parameters for the model. Always check that you
are working with the right units.

Units
Select the [Units] tab.

Note
 By default, the project settings dialog will be displaying the [Units] tab.

Set Units to Metric, stress as kPa and keep everything else as default. The dialog should
look as shown below:

Now we will be adding additional Stages to our analysis.

Stages
Select the [Stages] tab. Enter Number of Stages = 5 and input each stage name as shown
in the table below:

Stages Stage Name

1 Initial

2 Excavate Tunnel
 3 Excavate Foundation

4 Pour Concrete Foundation

5 Loading Foundation

Note

We will be applying different procedures at each stage, so it is important to keep track

of the stages by labeling them with relevant names.

After inputting the stage names, the dialog should look as follows:

For this model, we will NOT be including any groundwater in the analysis so we must indicate
this in the project settings.

Groundwater
Select the [Groundwater] tab. By default the Method is set to Phreatic Surfaces. Change
Method to None.

Note

More details on this feature are provided in Online Help (Keyword search: Project
Settings/Groundwater). We will be covering this topic in more detail with the Transient
Dam tutorial.

The dialog should look as follows:

Select OK to save and close the project settings dialog.

3.0 Defining the Materials

RS3 is designed with an intuitive workflow to help guide the user through the required steps
in creating a model. Under each tab, the toolbars and menus are customized to provide the
user with the functions they will need in each step of creating their model.

We will begin with the Geology tab.

Select: Materials > Define Materials.

The Define Materials dialog has several tabs that are used to assign different material
properties.

Note

By default, RS3 assigns “Material 1” to all entities created in the Geology tab. You can
save some time assigning materials by defining "Material 1" as the material you want the
majority of your model to have.

Enter the following properties for “Material 1” and “Material 2” in the [Initial Conditions] and
[Stiffness] tab. Leave the other options with default settings.
 Name Initial Loading Unit Weight Young's Poisson's
(kN/m3) Modulus (kPa) Ratio

Material 1 Soil Field Stress & 20 20000 0.3

Body Force

Material 2 Concrete Body Force 27 280000 0.3

Only

The Material Properties dialog for Soil should look like the following:

Select OK to save and close the Material Properties dialog.

4.0 Creating Geometry

Ensure the Geology tab is still selected from the workflow.

Note

RS3 uses an external box to act as the boundaries of the model; only objects contained
within or a part of the external box will be considered in the calculations. As such, when
creating a model, it is important to realize the model’s bounds before setting up the
external box
 Select: Geometry > Create External Box.

A Create External dialog will open.

Enter First Corner (x, y, z) = (0, 0, 0), Second Corner (x, y, z) = (30, 30, -20)

Select OK.

The external volume geometry should now be displayed in the viewports. Under the visibility
pane on the left, select the 'External' volume and re-name it to 'Soil' using properties pane
below. Your screen should look like the following:
 Note

When creating geometry keep in mind that RS3 uses the Z direction as the default for
the direction of gravity. Orient your model accordingly.

5.0 Excavation
Select the Excavations tab from the workflow at the top of the screen.

5.1 CREATING A CYLINDER FOR THE UNDERGROUND TUNNEL

We will now define a cylinder to represent the underground tunnel.

Select: Geometry > 3D Primitive Geometry > Cylinder.

Enter the following axis and properties:

Axis Start Point (x, y, z) = (10, 0, -10),

Axis End Point (x, y, z) = (10, 30, -10),

Radius = 1

Subdivisions = 25

Role = Excavation

Select OK to save and close the dialog.

The model should now look like the following:

Next, we are going to represent the foundation by creating an extruded circular polyline.

Note

We could easily create the foundation through defining another cylinder as we did
above for the tunnel, but for the purpose of demonstrating the draw polyline feature of
RS3, this cylinder will be created through a different (more lengthy) process.

5.2 EXTRUDING A CIRCLE FOR THE FOUNDATION

Select: Geometry > Polyline Tools > Draw Polyline.

A Draw Polyline pane will open on the left side of the screen.
Set Plane Orientation = XY

Now input the following:

XY Origin (x, y, z) = (17.5, 15, 0)

Path Definition = Circle

Circle Definition = Center and Radius

Radius = 5

Coordinate Input U, V = 0, 0 (make sure to press enter),

Now select the green checkmark located at the top-right corner to close the pane.

Note

You can click the grey arrow beside Discretization Settings to enable the Number of
Segments and Segment Length options. With these two options you can input the
 number of straight-line segments (that define the circle) and the approximate segment
length, respectively. For the purposes of this tutorial the default is fine.

The model should look as shown below:

Note

If you want to rotate the 3D perspective model, select the counterclockwise arrow in the
3D viewport or select the viewcube and rotate the box to your liking.

Select Polyline in the visibility pane.

Select: Geometry > Extrude/Sweep/Loft Tools > Extrude

Note

You can also extrude the polyline by selecting the Extrude icon in the toolbar

An Extrude Geometry dialog will appear as shown below.

Under Direction keep (x, y, z) = (0, 0, 1) and change Depth = -0.5,

Select OK.

Note

Notice only the external layer is locked from the visibility tree. This is because the layer
is defined as an external volume and the geometry CANNOT be modified.

The other entities (Cylinder and Polyline_extruded) in the visibility pane are geometry
objects that are currently not interacting with the external volume.

In order to integrate these objects into the external volume of the model, we need to use the
Divide All Geometry function to convert the geometry objects to sub-volumes in the main
model.

5.2.1 Divide All Geometry

Now that we’ve defined the external box and the objects to be cut into it, we can use the
Divide All Geometry function.

Note

Make sure none of the geometries in the visibility pane are selected so the function can
be applied throughout the whole model. If you want to divide specific geometries
separately, select the geometry of interest and apply the Divide All Geometry function.

Select: Geometry > 3D Boolean > Divide All Geometry.

The Divide All Parameters dialog helps users to fine-tune the behaviour of the Divide All
function. Setting Quality to the Default option is suitable for a wide range of models in
general, however, there are cases where changing the setting is required to successfully
intersect every geometry with the external volume.

For more detail about each option under Divide All Parameters, please refer to Divide / Un-
Divide All Geometry.

We will keep everything default for now. Select OK to begin dividing.

Your model should now look similar to the one below.

If you look at the visibility pane you will notice that the names of each geometry are labelled
with numbers. You can remove the numbers by simply selecting each and changing the
names in the properties pane.

Select each geometry and name them according to the table below:

Geometry Entity Name

Cylinder_1 Underground Tunnel

Soil_2 Soil

Polyline_extruded_3 Foundation

6.0 Staging
6.1 STAGING THE TUNNEL EXCAVATION
The Underground Tunnel is excavated at Stage 2. Therefore in Stage 1 it should still be
modeled as “Soil”. While still in the Initial stage, make sure for Underground Tunnel that the
Applied Property in the properties pane is set to Soil.

Note

RS3 separates stages through tabs at the bottom of the window. As you select each
stage the viewports will update the loads, materials, and other elements that were
 assigned that specific stage. This feature makes it easy to view the different states of
the model at each stage.

Now we will move to the Excavate Tunnel stage.

Select the underground tunnel in the visibility pane and in the properties pane change the
Applied Property = No Material.

Note

Once you change the property of a body, RS3 will automatically carry over that property
to all subsequent stages (e.g. if a body was excavated in Stage 1, indicated with Applied
Property = No Material, the body will have an applied property of No Material for all
subsequent stages).

6.2 STAGING THE FOUNDATION

Now we do the same thing for the foundation as we completed for the tunnel, but starting
from the Excavate Foundation stage.

Select the stage tab Excavate foundation.

Select the foundation volume from the visibility pane and in the properties pane, change
Applied Property = No Material.

Now select the Pour Concrete Foundation stage, and in the properties pane change the
Applied Property = Concrete.

Note

RS3 also provides a quick visual summary of the currently selected object’s state in
each stage. For example, if you select the foundation in the visibility pane, on top of the
stage tabs, you’ll notice stage 1 and 2 have a purple line above (indicating it is material
1), stage 3 is white (indicating it is defined as no material), and stage 4 and 5 are both
light green (concrete).

7.0 Adding Stress Loading

7.1 APPLYING A SURFACE LOAD TO THE MODEL
Select the Loads tab.
This tab allows you to edit the loading conditions. We will be applying a uniformly distributed
load onto the foundation surface.

Select: Edit > Selection Mode > Faces Selection

Select the top face of the foundation either using the XY-plane modeler view or the 3D
modeler view. When selected the 3D modeler view should look similar to the following:

Select: Loading > Add Loads to Selected.

Enter the following:

Magnitude = 200 (kN/m2)

Install at Stage = Loading foundation

For all other options keep the default values.

Note

Notice that by default the Load Type is set to Uniform Load. This will allow the users to
apply uniformly distributed load on the area of interest.

Select OK to save and close the dialog. Before closing you can check to see if your dialog
looks like the one below:
7.2 APPLYING A FIELD STRESS
The Field Stress option allows you to edit the field stress loading conditions.

Select Loading > Field Stress.

Leave the settings as their default values (e.g. Field Stress Type is set to Gravity). Select OK.
 Note

Field Stress is applied to elements where initial element loads are defined with field
stress. If the elements do not have field stress assigned (i.e. initial element loading set
to Body Force Only) this stress will NOT be used at all. Since we have soil with initial
element load set to Field stress & Body Force, this load will be applied in our model.
Please refer to RS2 online help for more information about initial element loading.

8.0 Setting Boundary Conditions

Move to the Restraints tab to assign restraints to the external boundary of the model.

RS3 has a built-in "Auto Restrain" tool for use on underground models. For the purpose of
this tutorial we will use the Auto Restrain (Surface) option.

Select: Restraints > Auto Restrain (Surface). The model should look as the following:
This completes the construction of our model's geometry.

9.0 Meshing
Next, we move to the Mesh tab.

Here we may specify the mesh type and discretization density for our model. For this
tutorial, we will use the default settings.

Select: Mesh > Mesh Settings

Make sure that Element Type = 4-Noded Tetrahedra and Mesh Gradation = Graded.

Note

For Element Type there are two types available; 4-noded tetrahedra and 10-noded
tetrahedra. The 10-noded tetrahedra has mid-side nodes and has more computational
points. Using the 10-noded tetrahedra generally yields more accurate result at the cost
of computation time. For more accurate results, it is recommended that you use the 10-
noded tetrahedra type and 4-noded tetrahedra if computational efficiency is a priority.

Select Mesh to mesh the model. Select OK to close the dialog.

Note

In case if you selected OK before Mesh, your model will not have a mesh. You can
simply select Mesh > Mesh to mesh the model.

10.0 Computing Results

Next, we move to Compute tab.

From this tab, we can compute the results of our model. First, save your model: File > Save
As.

Use the Save As dialog to save the file. Next, you need to save the compute file: File > Save
Compute File.

You are now ready to compute the results. Select Compute.

Note
 The RS3 Compute engine will perform the required finite element calculations. This
computation may take a few minutes; however, more complex models may take longer
to compute. Once the computation is complete, the dialog will close.

11.0 Interpreting Results

11.1 DISPLAYING THE RESULTS
Next, we move to Results tab.

From this tab, we can analyze the results of our model. First, let's refresh the results.
 Select: Interpret > Refresh All Results.

Note

Refreshing the result allows us to plot new results of the model. Although we did not
have any previous results from this model, it is good practice to refresh results before
we view new contour plots.

On the top right corner of the screen you should see two drop-down menus; Element =
Solids and Data Type = Sigma 1 Effective by default.

Note

The “Element” drop-down menu allows you to view the results for solids, bolts, and
liners. For this tutorial, we can only view results for Solids.

We will analyze a number of different “Data Type” results. Let’s turn on the exterior contours
so we can see some results.

Select: Interpret > Show Excavation Contour.

Select: Interpret > Show Data on Plane > XZ Plane

Enter the following origin (x, y, z) = (18, 15, -10).

Select Add and then Close. You should now see a contour plot in the XZ plane.

XZ Plane Contour in Stage 2 (Excavate Tunnel)

11.2 DISPLAYING THE PRINCIPAL STRESS RESULTS
In order to compare each stage against each other visually, the contour colour scheme
should be standardized across all stages. We can do this by:

Select: Interpret > Contour Legend > Contour Options

Select the checkbox Auto Range (All Stages) as also shown below. Select OK

The Sigma 1 Effective results for stages 4 and 5 are shown below in different views:

Sigma 1 effective at Pour concrete Sigma 1 effective at Loading

foundation (Stage 4) foundation (Stage 5)

2D
view
3D
view
 Legend

As shown in the contour plot, we can see the changes in the stress distribution across the
soil model as a load of foundation is applied at stage 5. Next, we will investigate the change
in the displacement across stages 2 to 5.

11.3 DISPLAYING THE DISPLACEMENT RESULTS

In the top right corner of the Results tab, ensure Element = Solids, and change Data Type =
Total Displacement
Similar to principal stress result comparison, we will also use auto range across each stage
for contour options.

Select: Interpret > Contour Legend > Contour Options.

Select the check box Auto Range (All Stages).

The Total Displacement results for stages 2 through 5 are shown below in 3D view:
Excavate Tunnel
(Stage 2)

Excavate
Foundation
(Stage 3)

Pour Concrete
Foundation
(Stage 4)
 Loading
Foundation
(Stage 5)

This concludes RS3's Quick Start tutorial.