Phase2 Model > Project Settings > General
The following options are available under the General tab in the Project Settings dialog.
Analysis Type
There are two general types of models which can be created and analyzed in Phase2:
Plane Strain
In most cases your Phase2 model will represent a Plane Strain analysis. A Plane Strain model assumes that the excavations are of infinite length in the out-of-plane direction, and therefore the strain in the out-of-plane direction is zero.
Axisymmetric
An Axisymmetric analysis allows you to analyze a 3-dimensional model which is rotationally symmetric about an axis (for example, the end of a circular tunnel). Although the input is 2-dimensional, the analysis results apply to the 3-dimensional problem.
For more information, see the Plane Strain and Axisymmetric Analysis topics.
Solver Type
The Solver Type determines how Compute solves the matrix representing the system of equations defined by your model. Three methods are available:
Gaussian Elimination
Conjugate Gradient Iteration
Pre-Conditioned Conjugate Gradient Iteration
The default method is Gaussian Elimination, but note:
For solving large problems, you may have to use one of the Conjugate Gradient solution techniques, since disk swapping (swapping between disk and memory during the analysis) is enabled with the Conjugate Gradient methods. Disk swapping is NOT available with Gaussian Elimination.
If all your materials are Elastic, the solution time will be faster with the Conjugate Gradient techniques.
Measurement Units
A variety of metric and imperial measurement units are available in Phase2. The units used for a model are determined by selecting the desired unit of stress measurement in the Project Settings dialog. You may select one of the following options:
Metric units (stress) - MPa, kPa, tonnes/m2
Imperial units (stress) - ksf, psf, tons/ft2
All input parameters in the program (e.g. material properties, field stress) will correspond to the selected stress measurement unit. The units of length, force, stress and unit weight are indicated in the Project Settings dialog, just below the Units drop-list. A more complete listing of input parameters and the corresponding units, can be obtained by hovering the mouse over the listing of units in the dialog - you will see a popup tooltip with a more complete list of input parameters and units.
NOTE: whenever the Unit system is changed in the Project Settings dialog, the currently selected units automatically become the default Unit system for all NEW files.