Analysis of landslides employing a space–time single-phase level-set method

Abstract

Landslide dynamics are characterized by a phase transition from a solid like behavior to a fluid one. Since the material is moving through space special discretization techniques are required. Four-dimensional space–time finite elements for fluid–structure interactions are applied together with the single-phase level-set method to investigate the dynamics of 3D landslides interacting with flexible walls. The wall is modeled as a geometric nonlinear solid with elastic–viscoplastic material behavior, whereas the liquefied soil is described with the Navier–Stokes equations for incompressible Bingham fluids. Between fluid and solid advanced coupling conditions are taken into account incorporating friction. In order to solve the governing equations of the multi-field problem, the weighted-residuals method is applied, which is discretized by time-discontinuous space–time elements. Within the monolithic solution procedure for the coupled problem, the kinematics of both solid and fluid are described using velocities as primary variables. A pseudo-structure adapts the coordinates of the fluid mesh to the deformations of adjacent structures. The single-phase level-set method describes the motion of the free surface of the sliding material. To accurately transport the free surface a pde-based extrapolation is used for the velocities. Various effects in 3D landslide dynamics are investigated.