Three-dimensional material point method modeling of runout behavior of the Hongshiyan landslide

Abstract

This study presents a field-scale simulation of the Hongshiyan Landslide in China. It uses an advanced numerical approach (material point method or MPM) and a constitutive model (the Drucker–Prager model + rheological relation) for the 3D simulation. The performance of the developed MPM model is validated with laboratory-scale experimental data on granular collapse before being applied to field-scale analyses. ArcGIS data are used to create a 3D MPM model of the soil body with complicated geometry. Although the developed model can describe the multiple phases of granular flow, it focuses on the runout behavior of the landslide in this work. The landslide is assumed to have occurred suddenly due to an earthquake, and global sudden failure rather than progressive failure is modeled. The MPM simulation results match reasonably well with the measured post-earthquake topography (e.g., deposit height of about 120 m and stretch length of about 900 m in the river) and landslide duration of about 1 min. The veloci...