New software programmes to help solve civil, environmental and mining engineering challenges

1st October 2020

New software programmes to help solve civil, environmental and mining engineering challenges

New software programmes from Seequent aim to help solve civil, environmental and mining engineering challenges

Software company Seequent has announced the release of GeoStudio Core, a software programme that combines updated versions of its SLOPE/W and SEEP/W products with a new, reformulated SIGMA/W product.

The upgrades are designed to allow geotechnical engineers to understand and tackle major engineering challenges for infrastructure and mining projects – from dams and levees to tunnelling and the stability of cuts in underground and openpit mines.

The company states that GeoStudio Core 2021 is its most significant release in the past five years. It explains that the new Strength Reduction Stability analysis in SIGMA/W complements the solutions in SLOPE/W to provide a rigorous understanding of slope failure mechanisms, allowing engineers to design effective stabilisation measures. The products integrate with SEEP/W to include the impact of changing groundwater conditions, with the objective of providing a comprehensive solution for stability problems.

The combined GeoStudio Core solution runs in a single integrated environment and aims to speed up the project workflow and scale with the user's needs. All project data and analyses can be combined into a single project file, to facilitate smooth data exchange and simpler data management.

GeoStudio Core, with SIGMA/W’s expanded material model library and new analysis types, is said to allow for comprehensive modelling of a wider range of soil and rock behaviour. For example, simulating the strain-softening behaviour of brittle clays enables stability control of a tailings dam or roadway cut. 

The new GeoStudio multi-physics solver enables SIGMA/W to offer improved solver performance and enhanced modelling of rapid reservoir drawdown, openpit mine dewatering effects on highwall stability, and solute transport from tailings ponds.