DLO limit analysis technology advances

Two recent academic papers show that the discontinuity layout optimization (DLO) limit analysis procedure currently used by LimitState:GEO has the potential to be applied to an even greater range of problems in the future. The articles have appeared in internationally renowned journals Proceedings of the Royal Society A and Géotechnique 

Identification of rotational failure mechanisms in cohesive media using discontinuity layout optimization

This article, appearing in the November 2013 issue of Géotechnique, demonstrates that DLO can be extended to identify curved (rather than straight) slip-lines in cohesive media, thereby providing a more efficient means of identifying rotational failure mechanisms. It is planned that this functionality will be made available in a future version of LimitState:GEO.

Application of discontinuity layout optimization to three-dimensional plasticity problems

This article, appearing in the July 2013 issue of the Proceedings of the Royal Society A, shows that DLO can be extended to model fully three-dimensional problems. Further research is being undertaken to enhance the computational efficiency of the method, to enable larger-scale problems to be solved.