Antonia Larese De Tetto

Numerical and experimental study of overtopping and failure of rockfill dams

This paper aims to present and validate a numerical technique for the simulation of the overtopping and onset of failure in rockfill dams due to mass sliding. This goal is achieved by coupling a fluid dynamic model for the simulation of the free surface and through-flow problems, with a numerical technique for the calculation of the rockfill response and deformation. Both the flow within the dam body and in its surroundings are taken into account. An extensive validation of the resulting computational method is performed by solving several failure problems on physical models of rockfill dams for which experimental results have been obtained by the authors.

Numerical modelling of landslide-generated waves with the particle finite element method (PFEM) and a non-Newtonian flow model

Landslide-generated impulse waves may have catastrophic consequences. The physical phenomenon is difficult to model due to the uncertainties in the kinematics of the mobilised material, and to the intrinsic complexity of the fluid-soil interaction. The Particle Finite Element Method (PFEM) [1] is a numerical scheme which has successfully been applied to fluid-structure interaction problems. It uses a Lagrangian description to model the motion of nodes (particles) in both the fluid and the solid domains (the later including soil/rock and structures). A mesh connecting the particles (nodes) is re-generated at every time step, where the governing equations are solved. Various constitutive laws are used for the sliding mass, including rigid solid and Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluids. Several examples of application are presented, corresponding both to experimental tests and to actual full-scale case studies. The results show that the PFEM can be a useful tool for analysing the risks associated to landslide phenomena, providing a good estimate to the potential hazards even for full-scale events. Copyright c