Landslide Failure Process Simulation with Automatic Remeshing in FLAC3D

Abstract

Landslide is a serious geologic disaster, which remarkably influences the safety of lives and engineering activities. Numerical simulation is the most universal method to analyze the stability and influence of landslides. For the continuous mechanical modeling of deformation based on a mesh, most landslide deformation failures of a slope are based on the small strain mode instead of the large strain mode to avoid mesh distortion. However, the failure process and the morphological characteristics of different stages cannot be reflected. In this study, an automatic remeshing technology in Fast Lagrangian Analysis of Continua in 3 Dimensions (FLAC3D) is developed to overcome this problem. With the built-in Python in FLAC3D, the mesh of the landslide is automatically updated with deformation. The strain and stress of the adjusted mesh are remapped from the old mesh to maintain the consistency of results. This method is extended to simulate the extremely large deformation in FLAC3D for the landslide failure process. With this strategy, 3D slopes with and without a large strain mode and automatic remeshing technology are compared to understand the failure process and eliminate or reduce threats of a landslide.