A case study and implication: particle finite element modelling of the 2010 Saint-Jude sensitive clay landslide

Abstract

Modelling of landslides in sensitive clays has long been recognised as a challenge. The strength reduction of sensitive clays when undergoing plastic deformation makes the failure proceed in a progressive manner such that a small slope failure may lead to a series of retrogressive failures and thus to an unexpected catastrophic landslide. The clay in the entire process may mimic both solid-like (when it is intact) and fluid-like (when fully remoulded, especially for quick clays) behaviours. Thereby, a successful numerical prediction of landslides in sensitive clays requires not only a robust numerical approach capable of handling extreme material deformation but also a sophisticated constitutive model to describe the complex clay behaviour. In this paper, the particle finite element method (PFEM) associated with an elastoviscoplastic model with strain softening is adopted for the reconstruction of the 2010 Saint-Jude landslide, Quebec, Canada, and detailed comparisons between the simulation results and available data are carried out. It is shown that the present computational framework is capable of quantitatively reproducing the multiple rotational retrogressive failure process, the final run-out distance and the retrogression distance of the Saint-Jude landslide. Furthermore, the failure mechanism and the kinematics of the Saint-Jude landslide and the influence of the clay viscosity are investigated numerically, and in addition, their implications to real landslides in sensitive clays are discussed.