ANSYS 6.0

ANSYS is one of the multipurpose software based on finite element, that has numerous abilities including static and dynamic analysis of elastic, plastic and elasto-plastic environments.
One of the capabilities of the ANSYS 6.0 has the ability to consider the interactional behavior of fluid and solid environments together. Consistent with the vast range of presented elements and the ability of defining various material models alongside each other, ANSYS is a suitable software for special structural analysis as well as rock environment analysis.

One can also take advantage of capabilities of this software in the analysis of water and heat distribution with the purpose of evaluating the water distribution circumstances in pervious environments. In other words, by use of this software two-dimensional and occasionally three-dimensional analysis of underground water flow in rock environments are possible.
One of the most important capabilities that ANSYS presents, concerning the analysis pertinent to the contact surface between soil and structure, is its ability to consider the contact surfaces between soil and structure as well as non-linear springs. By the assistance of these abilities, one can accurately evaluate the behavior of the contact surface of soil and structure, such as retaining walls and tunnel linings in two and three dimensions.
In ANSYS, one can construct complicated models, using a programming language named APDL (ANSYS Parametric Design Language) and eliminate all the difficulties in repetitive calculation procedures due to the existence of logical operators.

COSMOS/M is a software that can simultaneously consider water and structure elements in two and three dimensions. In spite of its directness and limitation in comparison with ANSYS, it is a suitable software for faster analysis, because it takes less time to prepare the model.
This software has the ability to analyze water flow, presuming homogeneous permeability in all directions.
In addition one can use it for analyzing contact surfaces. Material models available in this software are similar to those of ANSYS, except the models involving plastic material models or complicated calculations. At these occasions COSMOS/M 2.0 can reveal its limitations.
COSMOS/M enables us to construct complicated models as well as defining logical operators, using the programming language CPL (COSMOS Parametric Language). Thus, for defining complicated boundary conditions or loadings, this software is very useful.
The main advantage of this software over others is its remarkable abilities in presenting various outputs, and the integrity of parts concerning post processing.

ADINA is an analytical and multipurpose software based on finite element that is able to consider soil, structure and water parameters altogether. This software is consisted of three separate parts with names of ADINA, ADINA-T, and ADINA-F that are applied for structural and soil analysis, water heat distribution analysis, and channel and tunnel flow analysis, respectively.
Among the main capabilities of this software, its ability to analyze the interaction between water, structure and soil, that is carried out by ADINA-FSI, is the most remarkable one.
Additionally, by taking into account the ability of considering water, soil and structure parameters altogether, one can examine the common behavior of these three in special problems.
By utilizing contact elements, this software has the complete ability of modeling the contact surface of soil and structure. The mentioned ability along with its ability of considering two-dimensional or three-dimensional porous environments make us capable of analyzing two-dimensional or three-dimensional underground structures.
 

The geotechnical software "PLAXIS" is a finite element program that has been developed to analyze the deformations and stability of soil and rock projects. One can easily model complicated projects such as dams and tunnels due to its powerful graphical interface.
This software uses 15-noded triangular elements. Besides the two dimensional elements used for modeling soil and rock, one can also model beams, anchor rods, tunnel linings and geotextile layers. There is also a possibility to define hinges or fixed ends for beam elements. While assuming interaction among 2D elements and other elements, by taking advantage of contact surfaces, one can decrease the characteristic coefficient of the material.
This software has the ability of modeling various behaviors of soil, such as elasto-plastic, hardening, softening and creep behavior, as a function of time. Among other analysis's, this software can carry out the two dimensional consolidation and flow analysis.
Other than static analysis, PLAXIS is able to carry out dynamic analysis, by applying energy absorbent boundary conditions on the edges of the model for each excitation in the time domain.
The displacement and stress fields that is produced in soil and rock environment and the axial force, shear force and bending moment diagrams for the beam elements are among the useful outputs of PLAXIS.
 

One of the powerful software in analyzing soil and rock environments is FLAC, that belongs to the series of programs published by Itasca Co.
This consulting engineers owns both two dimensional and three dimensional versions, FLAC 2D V4.00 and FLAC 3D V2.00 and has vastly used them in large and small projects such as water transportation tunnels, subway tunnels, and slope stability analysis.
One of the most important characteristics of this software is the ability to model different steps of construction such as phased excavation and the sequence of activating soil and structure elements, that is valuable feature in geotechnical problems. It also contains geotechnical material models such as the non-linear Mohr-Coulomb, Drucker-Pruger, Cam-Clay, softening and hardening models. Among other capabilities of this software are abilities to consider water and soil (two-phased media), analyze water flow in the soil, variations of pore-water pressure, consolidation analysis, dynamic and thermal analysis, and creeping of soil elements.

In addition, this software is able to analyze a combination of structural elements such as beam, cable and shell along with soil elements. Thus, one can easily analyze problems such as tunnels, retaining walls reinforced with geotextiles, Nailing systems and earth fill dams.

This geotechnical software is a finite differences program for analyzing the deformation and stability of developed soil and rock environments. This consulting engineers is taking advantage of both two-dimensional and three-dimensional versions.
This software has the ability of modeling different elasto-plastic, hardening, softening and time-dependent behaviors, as well as carrying out non-linear dynamic analysis by the time history method.

Additionally, one can consider the distribution of heat in soil and rock media by activating the heat option. The software can also be used to analyze problems such as slope stability and tunnel construction in rock media. This software can also carry out water flow analysis.
Note that this software has the ability to model driving of piles and sheet piles into soil, and consider the variations of pore-water pressure and skin friction of pile and sheet piles.

In tunnel designs, due to the complications of modeling the construction phases, the three-dimensional effects are usually neglected and this will result in development of some errors in calculation. In fact, the design is performed by making simple presumptions on the safety side. Therefore, in important projects in which three-dimensional effects control the design, three-dimensional computer software will bring up designs that are more accurate. The three-dimensional FLAC software is one of the most popular numeric programs in the field of tunnel and underground structure design.