2012/09/24 by Gianluca Martelloni, Martelloni, Gianluca, Franco Bagnoli +1
Engineering · Environmental Science · #FOS: Physical sciences #Geophysics (physics.geo-ph) #Granular flow and fluidized beds #Landslides and related hazards #Soil and Unsaturated Flow #Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1209.5256
openalex publication_date 2012/09/24 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
In this paper we propose a two-dimensional (2D) computational model, based on\na molecular dynamics (MD) approach, for deep landslides triggered by rainfall.\nOur model is based on interacting particles or grains and describes the\nbehavior of a fictitious granular material along a slope consisting of a\nvertical section, i.e. with a wide thickness. The triggering of the landslide\nis caused by the passing of two conditions: a threshold speed and a condition\non the static friction of the particles, the latter based on the Mohr-Coulomb\nfailure criterion (Coulomb 1776; Mohr 1914). The inter-particle interactions\nare through a potential that, in the absence of suitable experimental data and\ndue to the arbitrariness of the grain dimension is modeled by means of a\npotential similar to the Lennard-Jones one (Lennard-Jones 1924), i.e., with an\nattractive and a repulsive part. For the updating of the particle positions we\nuse a MD method which results to be very suitable to simulate this type of\nsystems (Herrmann and Luding 1998). In order to take into account the\nincreasing of the pore pressure due to the rainfall, a filtration model is\nconsidered. Finally we also introduce in the model the viscosity as a term in\nthe dynamic equations of motion. The outcome of simulations, from the point of\nview of statistical and dynamic characterization, is quite satisfactory\nrelative to real landslides behavior and we can claim that this types of\nmodeling can represent a new method to simulate landslides triggered by\nrainfall.\n