Anura3D MPM Research Community

Large deformation and soil–water–structure interaction problems exist in many environmental and civil engineering problems, such as landslides and slope instabilities, installation of piles in saturated soils, settlement due to consolidation processes, fluidisation and sedimentation processes in submerged slopes, internal erosion in dykes, and scouring around offshore structures.

The material point method (MPM) is a numerical approach capable of modelling large deformations and, within the framework of the Anura3D MPM Research Community, it has been further developed to cope with soil–water–structure interaction.

The Anura3D v2017.2 MPM software uses a dynamic explicit MPM formulation. It is capable of simulating 1- and 2-phase materials and free surface water. A fully coupled hydro-mechanical approach is implemented to model the interaction between soil and water phases in saturated porous media. Contact problems can be solved using a contact algorithm. A library of constitutive laws is included as well as an interface for external user defined soil models.

Tutorials
Course participants will gain experience as users of the Anura3D v2017.2 MPM software. During training lectures, the attendees will learn first-hand capabilities of MPM by means of a set of practical exercises that will be undertaken following a tutorial specially designed for the course. The tutorial will include the following exercises:

Large deformation and soil–water–structure interaction exists in many environmental and civil engineering problems, such as landslides and slope instabilities, installation of piles in saturated soils, settlement due to consolidation processes, fluidisation and sedimentation processes in sub-merged slopes, internal erosion in dykes, and scouring around offshore structures. Modelling these processes is challenging due to hydro-mechanical coupling, large deformation, and contact problems.

The material point method (MPM) is a numerical approach capable of modelling large deformations and recently, within the framework of the MPM Research Community, it has been extended to cope with soil–water–structure interaction.

The Anura3D v2017.1 software uses a dynamic explicit MPM formulation based on a single set of material points. This is capable of simulating 1- and 2-phase materials and free surface water. A fully coupled hydro-mechanical approach is implemented to model the interaction between soil and water phases in saturated porous media, which is understood as a continuum mixture of solid skeleton and pore fluid. Additionally, contact problems can also be solved since a contact algorithm is available. Finally, a library of material constitutive laws is included as well as a umat style interface for external user defined soil models subroutines.