Stress Analysis on Levees made of dirt or sand

[galaxydrums]

I am a student using Inventor 2013 Professional. I'm working on a project for school comparing levees made of different materials. I've created multiple levees from different materials. I can perform stress analysis on some of the levees, but when I try to do the simulation on levees made with dirt or sand, I get an error stating "Some materials are not defined correctly. Please assign a valid override material in the Assign Materials dialog." Does anyone know how I can create levees with these materials and perform the stress analysis on them like I can with metal and concrete levees?

[JDMather]

Probably not a correct use of Inventor (FEA limited to anisotropic materials) but edit your material and assign some relative Yield Strength and other appropriate material properties as needed.  Might be able at least get some comparisons even if not "perfect"

You aren't going to actually build these are you?

Attach your file here if you can't figure it out.

[blair]

The MatWeb site might help with the materials. As JD posted, this in not what Inventor was designed for. Since Inventor doesn't have calculate hydrostatic loads, you would have to use the Split-Surface tool to allow for different loads along your Levy at different heights.

[galaxydrums]

JD and Blair,

Thank you for your replies and suggestions. I am not planning on actually building these. I am taking a modeling class in school and learned how to use Inventor in class. I thought it might be a good tool to model and use for simulations for my science project on levees. I hadn't thought as deep as the hydrostatic pressure and how to specfically simulate it, at least, not yet. 

Is there a different Autodesk application you would reccomend for simulating stress and pressure on a levee?

I'm a student, and still learning, but I pick up things pretty fast.

Thanks again to both of you.

[blair]

Good question, you might look at Autodesk Simulation Mechanical, it handles Hydrostatic pressure. Never used it for dirt/sand and Levees.