GGU-UNDERPIN: "Excavation" menu item

A dialog box opens for defining the excavation:

In the upper group box, enter the depth of the excavation level and the groundwater levels. If you want to use the program to analyse a footing in which it is not necessary to consider support for a terrace, enter 0.01 for the excavation base.

If you checked the "Use absolute heights" box when defining the system, an additional entry, "Top of wall", appears in the dialog box for specifying the absolute position. In this case, all heights are measured in m AD or m site zero, i.e. the y-axis is positive upwards. You can then enter a value, for example, of 86.42 [m AD] in the "Top of wall" field. All further input must then be with reference to this value.

If the height of a previously defined system is subsequently set to absolute heights, a query follows after leaving the dialog box above asking for confirmation of whether soil strata and defined elements such as anchors, for example, should be adapted to the new wall. Adaptation would mean that the depth of a soil layer entered as a positive value would be converted from, for example, 7.5 m to an absolute height of -7.5 m AD. If, then, you only convert your system to [m AD], do not select any elements in the query box and press the "OK" button.

Moreover, a distributed load can be defined. Using the global safety factors, you will see here the "Distributed load as live load" check box. This is only of interest for verification of deep-seated stability. If the distributed load is defined as a live load, this load will only be adopted for verification of deep-seated stability if it acts excitingly. Additionally, you can define a distributed load on the passive side.

If you are working with the partial safety factors used in DIN 1054 (new), decide whether the distributed load is "Permanent", "Changeable" or the "Component above 10.0 kN/m² changeable" (see the following dialog box). "Component above 10.0 kN/m² changeable" means, for example, that for an input of 13.5 kN/m², 10 kN/m² are adopted as permanent and 3.5 kN/m² as changeable in the analysis.