A block particle coupled model and its application to landslides

Abstract

ABSTRACT: To simulate the progressive failure of slope, a block particle coupled model is introduced. Particle oriented cell mapping (POCM) algorithm is used to enhance the search efficiency, and particle-point, particle-edge, particle-face contact detecting method is adopted to establish contact pair between particles and blocks precisely. Strain softening Mohr Coulomb model with tensile cutoff is adopted for blocks, and brittle Mohr Coulomb model is used for particles. The particle-block replacement approach is used to describe the fracture and fragmentation process of continuum media. Once the cohesion or tensile strength of one block reaches zero, the block will be deleted, and particles are generated at the same place with all information inherited from the deleted block. Some numerical cases related to landslides demonstrate the precision and rationality of the coupled model. Keywords: Finite element method, Discrete element method, Fracture, Fragmentation, Landslide