Issue with PDMY Material and UpdateMaterialStage in SSI Model
Posted: Tue Jun 24, 2025 8:50 pm
Hi STKO Team and Forum,
I hope you are all doing well.
I’m opening this thread to kindly ask for your assistance in resolving an issue I’m encountering with the use of the PDMY material in an SSI model. Below, I’ve attached my model along with the corresponding error message.
To model the soil, I’m using SSPQuad elements, zeroLengthContactASDImplex, ASDAbsorbingBoundary and the InitialState material wrapper.
For this, I have included both auxiliary analyses required when using InitialStateAnalysis OFF and UpdateMaterialStage -stage 1, following the guidelines provided in previous threads and webinars.
Regarding the issue, I’ve read through the forum and, as far as I understand, there should be no problem using UpdateMaterialStage in combination with SSPQuad elements. However, OpenSees returns an error stating that it is not possible to update the stage of my materials.
Could this issue be related to something else—perhaps one of the analysis steps I’m running?
Additionally, I’m currently treating all gravity load steps as transient analyses, but for example, in STAGE3 (Settlement Analysis), there are some spurious accelerations concentrated in the structure, which then, in STAGE4 (Transition to Plastic Analysis), are eliminated. But my question is, since I'm modelling the superstructure using MVLEM with nonlinear materials for Concrete and Steel (further to be changed to SteelMPF and Concrete02/CM), this spurious accelerations generate damage in the materials? In that case, how can I fix this?
I would greatly appreciate any guidance or suggestions you may have on this matter.
Best regards
I hope you are all doing well.
I’m opening this thread to kindly ask for your assistance in resolving an issue I’m encountering with the use of the PDMY material in an SSI model. Below, I’ve attached my model along with the corresponding error message.
To model the soil, I’m using SSPQuad elements, zeroLengthContactASDImplex, ASDAbsorbingBoundary and the InitialState material wrapper.
For this, I have included both auxiliary analyses required when using InitialStateAnalysis OFF and UpdateMaterialStage -stage 1, following the guidelines provided in previous threads and webinars.
Regarding the issue, I’ve read through the forum and, as far as I understand, there should be no problem using UpdateMaterialStage in combination with SSPQuad elements. However, OpenSees returns an error stating that it is not possible to update the stage of my materials.
Could this issue be related to something else—perhaps one of the analysis steps I’m running?
Additionally, I’m currently treating all gravity load steps as transient analyses, but for example, in STAGE3 (Settlement Analysis), there are some spurious accelerations concentrated in the structure, which then, in STAGE4 (Transition to Plastic Analysis), are eliminated. But my question is, since I'm modelling the superstructure using MVLEM with nonlinear materials for Concrete and Steel (further to be changed to SteelMPF and Concrete02/CM), this spurious accelerations generate damage in the materials? In that case, how can I fix this?
I would greatly appreciate any guidance or suggestions you may have on this matter.
Best regards