Large deformation finite element analyses in geotechnical engineering

Abstract

a b s t r a c tGeotechnical applications often involve large displacements of structural elements, such as penetrometers or footings, in soil. Three numerical analysis approaches capable of accounting for large deformations are investigated here: the implicit remeshing and interpolation technique by small strain (RITSS), an efficient Arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian (EALE) implicit method and the Coupled Eulerian-Lagrangian (CEL) approach available as part of commercial software. The theoretical basis and implementation of the methods are discussed before their relative performance is evaluated through four benchmark cases covering static, dynamic and coupled problems in geotechnical engineering. Available established analytical and numerical results are also provided for comparison purpose. The advantages and limitation of the different approaches are highlighted. The RITSS and EALE predict comparable results in all cases, demonstrating the robustness of both in-house codes. Employing implicit integration scheme, RITSS and EALE have stable convergence although their computational efficiency may be low for high-speed problems. The CEL is commercially available, but user expertise on element size, critical step time and critical velocity for quasi-static analysis is required. Additionally, mesh-independency is not satisfactorily achieved in the CEL analysis for the dynamic case.

Catastrophic failure in planar landslides with a fully softened weak zone

“…The modified unique element method (MUEM) was adopted for this work, the robustness of which has been validated by Hu & Randolph (1998) and Wang et al (2013aWang et al ( , 2015. The field variables, such as stresses, plastic shear strains and material properties are recorded at deformed integration points, which are triangulated via Delaunay triangulation after the Lagrangian calculation of each incremental step.…”

“…Here a brief description of the numerical process is provided, and more details may be found in Wang et al (2010Wang et al ( , 2013bWang et al ( , 2015.…”

Optimal transportation meshfree method in geotechnical engineering problems under large deformation regime

“…40 Other meshfree methodologies that have applied contact mechanics in geotechnical applications are the arbitrarian Lagrangian-Eulerian formulations (ALE) such as the so-called remeshing and interpolation technique by small strain developed by Randolph et al, [41][42][43] the so-called efficient ALE approach developed by Nazem et al, 44,45 and the successive built-in implementation of ALE in Abaqus/Explicit, currently known as the coupled Eulerian-Lagrangian. 46 A comparative review of these ALE methods has been recently presented by Wang et al 47 Finally, the particle finite element method, 67 an updated Lagrangian approach that avoids mesh distortion problems by frequent remeshing, seems suitable to address geotechnical insertion problems. 17,48 The aforementioned OTM 2 is based on the principle of maximum entropy, 49 with the shape functions developed by Arroyo and Ortiz.…”

Large Deformation Finite Element Analysis of Vane Shear Tests

“…These numerical methods have been successfully applied in solving challenging boundary value problems in geotechnical engineering-pile penetration analysis (Henke et al 2011;Dijkstra et al 2011), spudcan penetration analysis (Gütz et al 2013) are some examples. Moreover, the CEL method has been used by a number of researchers to investigate the penetration of spudcan foundations in various soil stratigraphies (Qiu and Grabe 2012;Tho et al 2012Tho et al , 2013Pucker et al 2013;Hu et al 2014), penetration of cone (Wang et al 2015;Gupta et al 2015) and uplift capacity of rectangular plates (Chen et al 2013). Numerical simulation of common laboratory and field tests not only improve soil characterization for construction projects, but also provide a tool for cross verification analysis in more complicated boundary value problem.…”