Title: Numerical simulation of landslide motion based on thermo-plastic mechanics

Authors: Zhongfu Wang; Wei Liu; Dongdong Li; Zhiqing Dai

Addresses: North China University of Water Resources and Electric Power, Zhengzhou 450046, China ' Key Laboratory of Mountain Hazards and Surface Process, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu 610041, China ' North China University of Water Resources and Electric Power, Zhengzhou 450046, China ' Engineering Research Institute, China Energy construction Group Co. Ltd., Beijing 100029, China

Abstract: Landslides with long run-out and high velocities pose severe threat to infrastructures and lives in mountain areas. Frictional heating has long been considered a mechanism responsible for some remarkable characteristics of natural landslides such as surprisingly long travel distances and high velocities. In order to study the influence of this mechanism on the motion of such landslides, one method considering the thermo-plastic mechanics was combined with a depth-averaged model for simulating the long run-out motion of landslides in the condition of deformation. The effects of several key parameters on thermo-plastic mechanics were discussed by several numerical tests through the processes of landslide motion, heat production and diffusion, pore-fluid pressure generation and dissipation, and thermo-plastic collapse of the soil skeleton at the shear zone. Then the effectiveness of the model was verified by comparing the numerical results with the field investigation of Sanxicun landslides.

Keywords: landslide motion; long run-out; frictional heating; numerical simulation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJESMS.2020.111271

International Journal of Engineering Systems Modelling and Simulation, 2020 Vol.11 No.4, pp.235 - 244

Received: 10 Oct 2019
Accepted: 23 Mar 2020
Published online: 17 Nov 2020 *

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