You may also have a look at the following alternatives:

http://download.gna.org/getfem/html/homepage/

http://www.oofem.org/en/oofem.html

http://www.nemesis-project.org/

Of course, in any case, your question on the best open source FEM software is not so easy to be given.

I know that giving precise answer to my question is not possible. "The best" is too subjective. I just wanted to know how many open source FEM software for geotechnical applications can be recommended. Thank you!

OpenSees is probably the most robust and versatile software framework you can find nowadays.

We are organizing an OpenSees workshop in Portugal that will take place in Porto in July.

For more details:

http://lese.fe.up.pt/OSDPt2014

Filipe, unfortunately July is too soon, but thank you anyway. Next time - for sure.

I think you better look for plaxis

Plaxis is not open source software. Anyway, I am Z_Soil user.

GEO-FEM

http://geofem.tokyo.rist.or.jp/

Abaqus is not an open source

Oofem is an alternative

You can try Code_Aster

http://www.code-aster.org/V2/spip.php?article747

Maybe you can try Diana

Thank you all. Let me notice Diana is not open source.

Is Code Aster written for Windows or Linux/Unix? If it is originally created for Linux - how does it operate under Windows?

It seems that the source codes are provided and that you have to compile the code by yourself, so that you can choose your platform. Therefore you will need Fortran and C++ compilers. If possible I advise you to work on Linux/Unix platforms because code_Aster uses several softs (homard, gmsh and gibi) precompiled for Linux.

Merci Julien! Actually you answered the question I should have been asked, e.g. about the platform for periferial software.

I don´t have problems with diana under Windows

If you nee dynamics or earthquake simulation maybe you'd like to try OpenSEES

http://opensees.berkeley.edu/

pls try Code-Aster

As open source software, I think Code_Aster is a good tool for geomechanical applications. Some example are showed on the website:

http://www.code-aster.org/V2/spip.php?rubrique18

 please pass the link for diana wandyne.I could not find it online

Which one did you end up going with?

I use commercial Z_Soil for the moment.

In this website you can find side by side comparison chart of 78 Finite Element Analysis (FEA) programs and their sorting by features:

http://feacompare.com/sortbyfeatures.html

Nice website, very helpful

https://www.researchgate.net/project/ADONIS-A-Free-Nonlinear-Finite-Element-Program-for-Geo-Engineers

Igor,

Thank you. I have already visited the site you recommended.

I recommend You contact Roozbeh Mikola Geraili

Try matlab and Abaqus

Thank you Dr BP Naveen. I know this web site. From the comparison that has been made there it follows that Code Aster is probably the best open source FE code for geomechanical applications. Who knows what "Units aware" means?

Unfortunately Matlab nor Abaqus are not free software. Thank you for your contribution!

Dear Krzysztof ;

Units aware: Some FEA programs require you to use any consistent system of units. This can be more flexible, allowing unusual units but also involves doing a lot of conversions by hand and has the risk of choosing the wrong the units. Other programs are aware of engineering units such as inches and millimeters so they can accept input in a mixture of inconsistent units and give output expressed with similar units.

Dear Krzysztof:

Based on following website, CalculiX is best "open source" Finite Element Analysis (FEA) program, even better than Code_Aster :

http://feacompare.com/sortbyfeatures.html

But pay attention: most of these programs are general-purpose codes, not geotechincal codes and may have many weaknesses in geotechnical modelling.

MASTODON, a MOOSE based application, was open sourced in September of 2017. It is a highly-parallelizable, finite-element analysis code capable of three-dimensional nonlinear soil-structure analysis including the simulation of source-to-site wave propagation. MASTODON is being developed to be a probabilistic risk assessment framework that enables not only deterministic analyses, but also probabilistic simulations for the purpose of risk assessment. http://mooseframework.org/mastodon/

have you looked at DUNE https://www.dune-project.org/ ?

Thank you Susan! This site and the project seem very promising.

starting in 4 days:

DUNE/PDELab Course at Heidelberg University (February 26 - March 2, 2018)

The Interdisciplinary Center for Scientific Computing at Heidelberg University will host its annual DUNE and PDELab course on February 26 - March 2, 2018.

This one week course provides an introduction to the most important DUNE modules and especially to DUNE-PDELab. At the end the attendees will have a solid knowledge of the simulation workflow from mesh generation and implementation of finite element and finite volume methods to visualization of the results. Topics covered are the solution of stationary and time-dependent problems, as well as local adaptivity, the use of parallel computers and the solution of non-linear PDEs and systems of PDEs.

Dates

February 26, 2018 - March 2, 2018

Registration Deadline

Friday, February 16, 2018

For further information, see the course homepage. https://conan.iwr.uni-heidelberg.de/events/dune-course_2018/

Dear Susan, thank you for the information. Unfortunately this time I cannot attend the course for it concides in time with the local Polish conference I participate. I will keep in touch for the future events.

Go for the plaxis 2D to start with, as it gives the user the possibility of incorporating an UDM (user defined model) the procedure is not simple bur it gives an idea about the performances of your UDM compared to the elastic or MC coulomb.

Dear Krzysztof, usually that course is held yearly, so check for next-year's dates - usually only advertised in the beginning of the year on their web page. I went this year for the second time and understood more than last time but still only scraps and pieces. It is a very flexible modelling environment but therefore also very complex to start with. But I have the impression that the documentation (not easy to find sometimes) is getting more extensive.

MOOSE (Multiphysics Object Oriented Simulation Environment) is an finite element based code for solving coupled multiphysics problems from Idaho National Laboratory. Moose is open source allowing you to create your own application and constitutive models.

Cast3m and Aster are excellent free codes (though I largely prefer Cas3m http://www-cast3m.cea.fr), but Lagamine (Liège University) is a code specifically developed for geomechanics

You can find multiple examples by googling "lagamine geomechanics"

Thanks

Try TOCHNOG

In this link there are some geotechnical examples:

http://tochnog.sourceforge.net/examples.html

You can try COMSOL.

https://www.comsol.de/blogs/analyzing-triaxial-testing-methods-for-geomechanics/

Go for the PLAXIS.

 Please, friends, give the link for Diana.

I recommend Julien's answer

Best Regards

Hi , how are you? I have a link for you:

http://geowizard.org/

I have recommended this program before

http://lc.kubagro.ru/aidos/index.htm

http://lc.kubagro.ru/aidos/_Aidos-X.htm

http://lc.kubagro.ru/__AIDOS-X.txt

ERES Institute is working on an APP that establishes an Empirical Realtime Education System (AnswerQuestion.IT.MyWay = HowWay) giving well-formed questions real-time answers based upon privilege (Dictum) as defined by a Community of Interest (23 Approved and Ranked Peer Reviewers form the basis for a sanctioned QuestionAnswer) to be written in "R" (iterative to associate personal-public-private context) so that it learns and scales. it would be used similar to social media in professional and university settings, having three (3) levels constituting User/GROUP INPUTs according with "fact" as it is known at the time of publishing, including caveats and historical (epistemological) references # https://drive.google.com/open?id=1O4ckxgnIhdCYIHdGsPv4HHyw9a-uoTYe1Lg6WGRLo_U

Muy bien!

True, code bright is best opensource code for THM modeling and Code_Aster for general geotech problems.

In my opinion Abaqus is a good option for you. With this software you can make a parametric study, but its necessary understand Python language. For easy geomechanical problems you can use others comercial software ( ex: Plaxis, Midas, etc..).

Abaqus, I suppose is NOT open source

An older version of FLAC (with FISH interface) may do what you need.

FLAC too is not open source, the question is very plain.

Abaqus maybe

Plaxis 2D or other option is Abaqus

Try GEO 5

IT'S FEM BASED OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE.

Abaqus is a very good software for FEM based analysis in any field

....but according to the question IT IS NOT open source.

So please stop to give answers not connected to question title, giving exposure to prorietary software when some asks for the more ethical, from a scientific point of view, counterpart open-source

what type of simulation you want to do ?

you can practically build your own software using :

http://www-cast3m.cea.fr/index.php

and of course you can also just use it....

Try to look at http://ksm.fsv.cvut.cz/~sifel/

Good question.. Please share me the best answer might you trust...

Regards…

Sir you can use Abaqus, Ansys and may be plexis 3D specialy if you are modeling soil as well.if you please share your idea for what you want to use we can suggest it more clearly

The question is on OPEN SOURCE FEM code. Abaqus is an excellent but commercial software as well as Plaxis or ANSYS.

Dear Krzysztof Sternik

I would better address the difference in the way they share the software.

Open-source software can be as well "commercial" but they respect the right of the user and of the whole scientific community by sharing the source code and allowing for a faster improvement of the quality of the software and of the collective knowledge.

The two above goals are at the heart of any "scientific community".

There are a lot of commercial succesful open-source project

Propietary software share only the machine readible code not allowing the scientific community to check the logic inside it to improve the code and the collective knowledge.

As the answers to your question show there is very little understending, in the current scientific community, about this two pillar supporting the development of the science

I suggest to use code_aster. It is quite difficult to handle but very powerful. Despite large library of constitutive models, there is a possibility to use external libraries, e.g. hypoplastic models. Performance and ability to perform calculations on multiple cores (which still is not available by some very popular commercial codes!) is another important aspect giving possibility to solve complex and well-meshed problems.

Krzysztof Sternik@ I think you are searching for computational geometrical programming software. If you are able to give some idea, actually which type of geometry you want to create or what type of analysis you want to do, then I will be able to help you.

Since I am working on similar project.

The thing that I didn't find in code_aster (but I only tried to found this for a month or so, so maybe its is because I didn't go deep enough) is modeling of interfaces. I also didn't find any anisotropic geotechnical model, but maybe it is because i didn't try hard enough (and I don't have idea where the external libraries can be found except when you write it yourself). In 2D there is not yet open but free (of charge) software ADONIS witch has the basic geotechnical properties. It is probably not what you looking for yet but maybe it will be in the future.

Dear Krzysztof Sternik ,

I f you need an opensource integrated FEA package the best answer is what has been given by @Maciej Ochmański and @Julien Gaze. Salome/code_aster is the closest thing you can find to ANSYS/COMSOL/ABAQUS in the open source ecosystem.

Kind regards,

Julian

Dear Shoaib,

You can use GeoStudio software as well other than Abaqus and ANSYS...

Thanks

Well Wisher,

Afnan Ahmad

OpenSees - UC Berkeley

you can use (Geo-5 software- Abaqus )

Abaqus

Geostudio software

Lets Make it from nothing.. on your Mark Start

OpenSees, the Open System for Earthquake Engineering Simulation, is an object-oriented, open source software framework. It allows users to create both serial and parallel finite element computer applications for simulating the response of structural and geotechnical systems subjected to earthquakes and other hazards. OpenSees is primarily written in C++and uses several Fortran and C numerical libraries for linear equation solving, and material and element routines. The framework WILL BE covered in the developers section.

ADONIS for FEM

Software has special feature for scripting in Notepad++

http://www.geowizard.org/

Only for Windows Users

Opensees

Optum is not open system.

If you are looking for open source then go with code aster

If you do not want a black box, then Code-aster (or Salome-Meca, i.e. Code-aster with integrated Salome and Paraview for pre and post processing respectively) is the best. It has huge number of validation tests, very extensive documentation (though English versions are difficult to follow at times) and a responsive user forum. Coupled Hydro-mechanical and Hydro-thermo-mechanical studies with saturated/partially saturated soil is possible, though it is not easy to set up such studies. (My personal opinion only). Soil-structure interaction studies with Contact is also possible. User defined Constitutive models can be implemented through MFRONT interface. However, some geotechnical capabilities like staged construction, excavation etc. are not so user friendly. CONS: The learning curve is relatively steep.

For geotechnical earthquake engineering applications, OpenSees (or pyOpenSees, if you are familiar to python) are also quite good. But reference documentation are not as easily available as Code-aster.

Another good one is tochnog but you need to use external pre/post processors, viz. GiD or gmsh and paraview. Personally I do not have any experience with tochnog, but they have good tutorial manual showing use for Seepage analysis etc. Another big advantage is availability of very recent hypoplastic constitutive models.