Large displacement numerical study of 3D plate anchors

Abstract

This paper presents a numerical study carried out in the context of the development of a new application of plate anchors for landslide stabilization. The plates are positioned on the slope's ground surface and linked to a deeper stable layer with a steel grouted bar, thus acting as discontinuous elements constrasting the slope movement. This technique is less expensive compared to standard retaining structures, especially in medium and deep landslides. Moreover, plate anchors can bear large displacements of the unstable moving mass without losing efficiency. Evaluating the stabilizing force and its optimization in relation to the plate shape are of great interest. Numerous studies have investigated the bearing capacity of rectangular and circular thin plates at small strains, but the performance of alternative shapes, such as cones or truncated cones, has never been considered. The numerical study here presented applies the Material Point Method to investigate the behaviour of plate anchors with different 3D shapes at large displacements. The numerical model is validated with the results of some smallscale laboratory tests. The pull-out resistance, the soil stress and displacement fields around the plate, and the group effect have been investigated, thus obtaining preliminary indications for the design of these elements.

Multiple‐GPU parallelization of three‐dimensional material point method based on single‐root complex

“…The explicit updated Lagrangian calculation in each incremental step was based on the uGIMP method 40,54 . Meshes with identical sizes of square elements were used, 18,41 and unstructured elements can be found in References 22 and 23. The definition of the stresses and strains followed finite strain theory taking account of the incremental rotation of the configurations between time steps for objectivity: the stresses were measured with the Cauchy stress and updated with the Jaumann rate, and the strains were calculated with the deformation gradient.…”

“…The MPM, introduced to solid mechanics 5 from computational fluid dynamics, 6 was used to simulate high explosive explosions, 7 propagation of wood cracks, 8 impact between solid bodies, 9–12 fluid–structure interactions, 13 and computer animations 14–16 . In the recent decade the MPM was applied to geotechnical engineering to investigate runout of submarine landslides, 17–20 penetration and pull‐out of structures 21–23 and flow of granular materials 24–26 . Coupling analysis of pore or free water and soil, mainly used in the analysis of slope stability, 27–30 is a new trend of the MPM simulations.…”

An Experimental Study of a Nailed Soil Slope: Effects of Surcharge Loading and Nails Characteristics

“…Several nailed soil-retaining structures were instrumented to establish a database for the evaluation of structure performance and development of reliable design methods. The material point method-based numerical model was developed by Ceccato et al [10] to study the application of plate anchors for landslide stabilization. The numerical model was validated with the results of some small-scale laboratory tests.…”