The Art of Numerical Modelling in Geomechanics
Numerical modeling is widely used in Geomechanics for design and diagnostic purposes, but there is an art to using the software tools correctly. It's not just a case of plugging in the data, and hitting "run". We need to understand the underlying physics, and whether the model properly represents it.
The following presentation comes from many years of helping users of Itasca codes: UDEC, 3DEC, FLAC, FLAC3D, PFC, and XSite. The observations should apply equally to other codes: e.g., finite elements.
This presentation by Dr. Peter A. Cundall was given on Thursday, February 27 plenary of the 68th University of Minnesota Geotechnical Conference, held at Geo-Congress 2020 in Minneapolis.