This software I created for Institute of Geotechnical and Tunnel Engineering at University of Innsbruck. It consists from several lessons from geotechnic engineering explained with help of schematic 3D animations. Everything you need to work with is web browser with JavaScript.

Demoversion can be found here.

FAME is a program to analyze limit states with the kinematical method. The considered failure mechanism is a chain of rigid blocks (bodies) that slide relatively to each other. The blocks are separated with planar surfaces that correspond to shear bands in reality. The restriction to planar surfaces implies that the individual blocks undergo translations but not rotations. As a consequence, only force equilibrium but not moment equilibrium can be considered. The considered failure mechanisms have only one degree of freedom, i.e. the motion of one block determines the motion of all other blocks. The considered motions do not include formation of gaps or interpenetration of bodies. Note that edges are allowed to squeeze. The motion of the blocks relative to each other mobilizes shear resistances (due to friction and cohesion) at the interfaces. A limit state is obtained when the interface forces are equal (and opposite) to the fully mobilized shear resistances (i.e. shear strength). If a configuration is stable, then the shear resistances will not be fully mobilize. To achieve full mobilization of shear resistance we need to apply an additional force. This is the force which will cause collapse of the structure. The orientation of this force has to be determined by the user. FAME will then calculate the value of this force ("F_limit"). This value can be compared with the actual force ("F_actual") to give the factor of safety (FOS):

           FOS = F_limit / F_actual

The user-defined failure mechanism (i.e. the geometry of the individual blocks) has to be varied to find that mechanics which gives the minimum limit load F_limit. Future version of program will contain an algorithm to search minimum of F_limit. The program is able to display the failure mechanism and the calculation results in 3D using OpenGL library.

FAME is developing with support and in cooperation with Institute of Geotechnical and Tunnel Engineering at University of Innsbruck. More information, source and binaries you can find here on institute homepage.