Convenient Method for Large-Deformation Finite-Element Simulation of Submarine Landslides Considering Shear Softening and Rate Correlation Effects

Abstract

Submarine landslides pose a serious threat to the safety of underwater engineering facilities. To evaluate the safety of undersea structures, it is important to estimate and analyze the sliding processes of potential submarine landslides. In this study, a convenient model for simulating submarine landslide processes is established by using Abaqus Eulerian large deformation technology with an explicit finite element framework. The VUSDFLD Fortran subroutine is used to consider the strain-softening and rate-dependency characteristics of soil shear strength. The proposed method is validated by comparing its results with experimental data and those of mainstream numerical methods. Then, the results of a dynamic analysis of typical potential submarine landslides in the Shenhu sea area are analyzed using the proposed method. Case studies are carried out under different soil shear strength distributions, and the influence of initial stress is also analyzed. The shear strain-softening and rate-dependency effects are highly involved in the runout process. The simulated landslide’s failure mode is consistent with the geophysical interpretation of existing landslide characteristics.