Abstract

Fluidisation problems in granular soils are of great interest in areas such as geophysics, engineering applications and industrial processes. Numerical modelling is very important to understand the mechanics and to predict failures that involve fluidisation. It is difficult to use mesh based methods such as the finite element method which is widely used in geotechnical engineering to model dynamic behaviour of these failures. However recent advances in particle methods that are derived in continuum mechanics framework allow us to model large deformations inherent to fluidisation problems.

This presentation will describe how the Material Point Method (MPM), a recent numerical method which combines the best aspects of Lagrangian and Eulerian discretisations, has been applied to model dry granular flows. This talk will also cover the proposed coupled consolidation formulation for MPM to model saturated soil with particular attention to seepage failures. Results from MPM will be discussed along with the results obtained from experimental, analytical and other numerical methods.