Evaluation of a Gauss integration scheme in MPM for strain-dependent soils

1. Home
2. Publications
3. Online Library
4. Evaluation of a Gauss integration scheme in MPM for strain-dependent soils

A realistic quantification of the probability of flooding for dike assessment requires the calculation of the complete failure process after slope instability, which can be modelled using for example the Material Point Method (MPM). For the assessment of realistic cases, complex geometries must be modelled, and strain-softening behaviour must be taken into account. The MPM formulation proposed by Martinelli and Galavi (2022) is capable of modelling complex geometries, but it has limitations when strain-softening constitutive models are adopted. In this formulation, the state variables are averaged within each computational element, and softening is distributed among material points as result of the element averaging. Therefore, softening can occur in material points which did not experience high deviatoric strains. In this paper, a new MPM integration scheme is proposed, developed within the same framework, but it does not modify state variables in the material points due to element averaging. An example of soil column collapse is illustrated in this paper, which develops multiple failure mechanisms (progressive failure), and it highlights that the new formulation indeed prevents distribution of softening behaviour. This MPM approach can, in a following study, be used to assess the failure process of a real dike

10th European Conference on Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering (NUMGE2023)

7. Dams, embankments and slopes