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Stability analysis and failure simulation of slope with SPH

Due to the huge loss of properties and human lives caused by landslide every year, the stability and failure of slope has attracted the interests of many geotechnical researchers. Here we present a numerical method to analyse the stability of slope and the possibly subsequent failure process. This method is based on the Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics, which is a meshless and Lagrangian numerical approach. A simple hypoplastic model is applied to model the behaviour of soil. Since water plays a key role in slope safety, we take the effect of soil-water coupling into account by adding the water continuity equation into the governing equation. The resulting system of equations is discretized within the framework of SPH and then solved by marching forward in time.
This method can give a safety factor by strength reduction if the considered slope is stable, and simulate the process of failure if the slope is unstable. Owing to the meshless and Lagrangian nature, it can handle large
deformation without difficulty. Therefore, the progressive evolution of failure, the collapse process, as well as the final runout of the subsequent landslide can be simulated. Numerical simulation of a one dimensional consolidation problem is performed to validate the proposed method. Then it is applied to slope stability analysis and landslide simulation.

Author(s):

Chong Peng    
Institute of Geotechnical Engineering, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU), Vienna
Austria

Wei Wu    
Institute of Geotechnical Engineering, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU), Vienna
Austria

Haisui Yu    
Nottingham Centre for Geomechanics, University of Nottingham, Nottingham
United Kingdom