ITASCA Software has released version 9.6, featuring a major advancement in large-strain modeling through fully automatic remeshing in FLAC2D. This new capability addresses a persistent challenge in geotechnical simulation where traditional fixed grids become distorted during large displacements, excavation, or collapse, potentially causing simulation failure or accuracy loss. The automatic remeshing logic rebuilds the mesh in regions exceeding user-defined strain thresholds while transferring data like stresses and displacements to maintain simulation continuity, ensuring stable and accurate modeling of very large deformations.
Jim Hazzard, ITASCA Software Manager, explained that this development enables reliable simulation of complex phenomena involving massive strain. For mining engineers, this capability supports modeling of subsidence, progressive failure of open pits, backfill stability, and tunnel or cavern collapse while maintaining mesh quality and improving solution accuracy, including the impact of ground pore pressure. This leads to more robust risk assessments and long-term performance evaluations in complex geomechanical environments. In civil engineering, automatic remeshing helps differentiate between Ultimate Limit State and Serviceability Limit State by providing a complete picture of excessive deformations and their effects on construction, safety, and serviceability, benefiting analysis of active slope failure or tunnel face instability.
Beyond automatic remeshing, version 9.6 includes several other enhancements. A new Structural Concrete Constitutive Model allows engineers to assign concrete-specific behavior directly to structural elements like piles, beams, and liners, enabling realistic soil-structure interaction without computational overhead. The Munson-Dawson Creep model, considered the gold standard for salt rock, accurately predicts primary and secondary creep stages essential for evaluating decades-long stability of evaporite mines, energy storage caverns, and nuclear waste repositories. A circular shell generation tool automates creation of shell elements connected to piles, streamlining modeling of complex foundation systems.
The update also introduces hybrid solvers and large-strain solutions, including MPoint coupling that allows FLAC3D and FLAC2D to be coupled with ITASCA's Material Point Method solver for extreme deformation simulations. This hybrid approach streamlines material point generation and overcomes conventional large-strain modeling limitations. Updated Factor of Safety analysis logic permits engineers to restrict Shear Strength Reduction to specific regions, ignoring localized bench instabilities to focus on critical failure modes while reducing solve times.
Automated workflow improvements include automated domain generation that reduces model setup time from hours to minutes by generating far-field zones around extruded, imported, or generated zones. Enhanced sketch tools with hard nodes ensure mesh nodes are generated at specific coordinates with specified zone sizes, while 3DEC now supports fluid flow analysis through deformable grids imported from Griddle, allowing high-fidelity unstructured meshes to utilize robust flow logic for seepage and pore-pressure analysis. To learn more about these advancements, visit https://itascasoftware.com or request a technical demo.
