“…In recent years, the numerical approach has been widely used due to its low cost, flexible parameter setting, no size constraint, high compatibility, and repeated calculations, among other benefits (Lo et al, 2016). At present, researchers have developed numerical simulation software based on different theories and constitutive models, which can be used to simulate the deformation, failure, movement, and accumulation of landslides, including the common finite element method (Leshchinsky et al, 2015;Mi and Wang, 2021), discrete element method (Tang et al, 2012;Hu et al, 2019;Chen and Song.2020), Lagrangian method (Zaniboni and Tinti, 2014), material point method (Liu et al, 2020;Ying et al, 2020) and smooth particle hydrodynamics method (Hu et al, 2014;Choi et al, 2020) and other new numerical methods. In contrast, the discrete element method (such as the particle flow discrete element method) is not only suitable for simulating large deformation, large displacement, and crack propagation, but also a powerful tool for simulating the mechanical response characteristics of real materials, allowing for further investigation of the failure mechanism and movement induced hazard process of landslides (Wei et al, 2019;Ma et al, 2020).…”