Large deformation dynamic analysis of progressive failure in layered clayey slopes under seismic loading using the particle finite element method

Abstract

This paper presents the failure analysis of layered clayey slopes with emphasis on the combined effect of the clay’s weakening behavior and the seismic loading using the particle finite element method (PFEM). Diverse failure mechanisms have been disclosed via the PFEM modelling when the strain-weakening behavior of clay is concerned. In contrast to a single layered slope exhibiting either a shallow or a deep failure mode, a layered slope may undergo both failure modes with a time interval in between. Seismic loadings also enlarge the scale of slope failure in clays with weakening behavior. The failure of a real layered slope (i.e. the 1988 Saint-Adelphe landslide, Canada) triggered by the Saguenay earthquake is also studied in this paper. The simulation results reveal that the choice of the strain-softening value controls the slip surface of the landslide and the amplification effect is important in the triggering of the landslide.

Overcoming volumetric locking in stable node‐based smoothed particle finite element method with cubic bubble function and selective integration

“…For Mohr‐Coulomb soil, Young's modulus E = 100 MPa, Poisson's ratio $$$ \upsilon =0.499 $$$, initialized cohesion $$$ {c}_0=10\ \mathrm{kPa} $$$, and frictional angle $$$ {\varphi}_0=20 $$$. The material properties are taken from Zhang et al and Wang et al 1,18 The horizontal displacement at the left and right edges and both the horizontal and vertical displacements at the bottom edge are fixed. The soil weight is applied using 20 uniform load steps.…”

Study on the slope dynamic stability considering the progressive failure of the slip surface under earthquake

“…The progressive failure of the slope is closely related to the strain-softening characteristics of geotechnical materials. The strain-softening constitutive model can effectively simulate the progressive failure process of the slope and has been the most commonly adopted model (Wang et al, 2021). The cyclic shear action of seismic loads leads to the dynamic deterioration of the mechanical properties of the rock mass structure, which will inevitably affect the stability of the seismic slope.…”

“…Using the dynamic load mechanism, many scholars have examined the numerical relationship between the slope failure mechanism and strain-softening features and suggested the strain-softening model, which successfully captures the progressive slope failure features (Di et al, 2017;Wang et al, 2021). These results show that considering the strain-softening features of a rock-soil mass can provide a reasonable simulation of the slope failure process.…”

A three-dimensional particle finite element model for simulating soil flow with elastoplasticity

“…By doing so, the PFEM inherits both the solid mathematical foundation of the traditional FEM and the flexibility of particle-based approaches for handling large deformations. To date, the PFEM and its variants have been extensively developed and applied to study various geomechanical and geotechnical problems including (but not limited to) soil-structure interactions [3,10,25,40,46,66], granular flows [9,14,28,35,64,73], progressive soil slope failures [57,63], debris flows [21], cliff erosion [39], landslide events [65,70] and landslide-induced waves [47,69]. Despite its substantial development, most of the existing PFEM models for geomechanical/geotechnical engineering applications can only deal with two-dimensional (2D) problems, whereas very limited work has been conducted for three-dimensional (3D) modelling, reviewed as follows.…”