Water Pressure Grid

Groundwater conditions are most accurately modelled by a grid of water pressure data, from which the pore pressure at any point in the soil can be determined. The grid could be based on field measurements or could be the output from a groundwater seepage analysis program, for example.

The Water Pressure Grid option is only enabled if the Groundwater Method in Project Settings is set to one of the three Water Pressure Grid options available in Slide2:

• Grid (Total Head)
• Grid (Pressure Head)
• Grid (Pore Pressure)

To define a Water Pressure Grid:

1. Set the desired Water Pressure Grid type in the Project Settings dialog.
2. Select Water Pressure Grid from the Boundaries menu.
3. Grids can be imported (see below for details), or entered manually as described in steps 4 to 5.
4. Each point is defined by x and y coordinates, and a value, corresponding to the Water Pressure Grid type (total head, pressure head, or pore pressure) selected in Project Settings.
5. Enter the data in the grid. When finished select OK, and the location of each grid point will be marked by a blue triangle on the model.

Importing Water Pressure Grid Files

The Import button in the Water Pressure Grid dialog allows you to import an existing Water Pressure Grid file, into the current Slide2 model. The following file formats can be imported:

• .PWP files (Pore Water Pressure file) – a .PWP file is a simple text file, where each row of the file has the format (x, y, value). The type of the value must correspond to the Groundwater Method in Project Settings (total head, pressure head or pore pressure)
• .DXF files – Water Pressure Grids can also be imported into Slide2 from a .DXF file (this is useful if for example, a flow net has been digitized from a drawing using AutoCAD).
• .SLW files (Slide2 Groundwater Analysis file) – if you have performed a finite element groundwater analysis with Slide2, then the results can be imported back into Slide2 as a Water Pressure Grid file, if desired. The data at each node of the finite element mesh will be imported, in the form of either Total Head, Pressure Head or Pore Pressure, according to the selection of the Groundwater Method in Project Settings.
• SEEP/W Total Heads – SEEP/W is a groundwater analysis program produced by GEO-SLOPE Inc. To import a grid of Total Head data from a SEEP/W file, use the .SEP file option. Note that this is only enabled if the Groundwater Method in Slide2 is set to Grid (Total Head) in Project Settings.

Exporting Water Pressure Grid Files

The Export button in the Water Pressure Grid dialog allows you to export the current data in the Water Pressure Grid dialog to a .PWP file (see above for the definition of a .PWP file). This is useful if you wish to later import the same Water Pressure Grid into another Slide2 model.

Using a Water Table with Pore Pressure Grids

If a Water Pressure Grid is being used for pore pressure calculations, a Water Table can still be defined for the following purpose:

• A Water Table can be defined in combination with a Water Pressure Grid, if you want to ensure that the region above the Water Table is assigned zero pore pressure. This will ensure that even if a non-zero (positive) pore pressure value is calculated from the Water Pressure Grid at some point above the Water Table, it will automatically be set to zero.

This may be useful at times, for example, if a Water Pressure Grid is defined by an insufficient number of points, you can add a Water Table to ensure that zero pore pressure is always used ABOVE the Water Table, although the Water Pressure Grid interpolation procedure will still be used to calculate pore pressure at all points BELOW the Water Table.