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Water Surfaces Overview

Water Surfaces are used for the following purposes in Slide3:

  • Pore Pressure - if the Groundwater Method = Water Surfaces then you can assign a water surface (e.g. water table, piezo surface) to calculate the pore pressure for a material. Pore pressure is proportional to the vertical distance from the water surface.
  • Ponded Water - if a Water Table or a Drawdown Surface is defined above the slope surface, then ponded water is automatically created. The weight of ponded water is accounted for in the stability analysis.
  • Unit Weight - if the Saturated Unit Weight checkbox is selected for a material, then different unit weights will be applied above and below a Water Table.
  • Rapid Drawdown analysis - for the Rapid Drawdown Analysis option a Water Table must be defined, and an optional Drawdown Surface can also be defined.
  • Strength above water surface - if the Alternate Strength Above Water Surface checkbox is selected for a material, then you can assign a different strength criterion above a Water Table.
  • Tension Crack - a Water Table can be used to define the water level in a tension crack

Water surfaces are created and assigned as summarized below.

Adding Water Surfaces

Water surfaces are created with the Add Water Surface or Add Water by Location options, and may represent a water table, piezo surface or drawdown surface.

Assigning Water Surfaces

Water Surfaces are assigned to materials under the Water Parameters tab of the Material Properties dialog, or with the Hydraulic Assignments dialog.

Types of Water Surfaces

There are three different types of Water Surface:

The Water Surface Type is selected when you create a Water Surface with the Add Water Surface or Add Water by Location options. For details about the properties of each water surface type see the above links.

Ponded Water

If a Water Table or a Drawdown Surface is defined above the slope surface, then ponded water is automatically created between the water table and the ground surface. The weight of ponded water is accounted for in the stability analysis. See the Ponded Water topic for more information.

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