Gravity wall modelling problem

[hsafti]

Dear all

I want to construct a vertical monolithic breakwater model, which is simply a gravity wall resting on rubble mound or directly on soil. I have started with a "concept" model that consists of 4 elements that represent the massive structure and 12 elements that represent the subsoil (as shown in attached figure). I would model the caisson (wall) using the equalDOF to constrain the wall to rigid body motion, and therefor the material model would be indifferent. Upon modeling the subsoil alone, all is well, the problem starts as the wall is introduced. The analysis fails! I have tried deactivating equalDOFs and defining the caisson as isotropic elastic; however, still failure.

I use only quadUP elements.

I attach the Tcl script and a sketch for the concept problem. I appreciate any help possible.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/106W ... y=CMbq66YG
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid= ... 0&hl=en_US


Best regards,