With the help of Tarcisio Barreto Celestino and Antonio Bobet, our MIDAS Expert Osvaldo Paiva Magalhães Vitali took on a new approach using midas GTS NX on tunnels with complex ground and loading conditions. In their recent publication in the Soils and Rocks Journal, we can see how they used the features in midas GTS NX to impose body forces to the 3D finite elements; this is done by providing components of the Cauchy stress tensor.
Throughout their research, the engineers found that to capture 3D face effects of complex scenarios such as the behavior of tunnels in anisotropic rock masses. In the new approach they presented, the engineers found that by imposing both the boundary conditions and far-field stresses on 3D numerical models of tunnels under complex ground and loading conditions, they can easily simulate any tunnel orientation in regards to the main directions of stress and material anisotropy. Download the full article below!