An implicit material point-to-rigid body contact approach for large deformation soil-structure interaction

TY - JOUR

T1 - An implicit material point-to-rigid body contact approach for large deformation soil-structure interaction

AU - Bird, Robert E.

AU - Pretti, Giuliano

AU - Coombs, William M.

AU - Augarde, Charles

AU - Sharif, Yaseen

AU - Brown, Michael

AU - Carter, Gareth

AU - Macdonald, Catriona

AU - Johnson, Kirstin

N1 - © 2024 The Author(s)

PY - 2024/10

Y1 - 2024/10

N2 - Modelling the interaction between rigid and deformable bodies holds significant relevance in geotechnical engineering, particularly in scenarios involving stiff engineering objects interacting with highly deformable material such as soil. These processes are challenging due to the combined nonlinear mechanisms including large deformation, elasto-plasticity, and contact with friction. For highly deformable material, the Material Point Method is a natural choice over the Finite Element Method due to its ability to handle large deformations without remeshing by carrying material information at points. This paper uses the Implicit General Interpolation Material Point Method (GIMPM) to demonstrate a new approach for modelling this type of interaction, and exploits the GIMPM’s inherent definition of the boundary of a deformable domain to formulate a consistent contact formulation, negating the need for boundary reconstruction. The formulation is demonstrated through validations and comparisons to alternative methods for simulating contact. The combination of the contact formulation with an implicit framework is shown to be an efficient method for modelling geotechnical problems. The proposed method exhibits optimal convergence for contact problems, accurately captures stick-slip Coulomb friction, and ensures consistent stress fields at the contact surface of a rigid body.

AB - Modelling the interaction between rigid and deformable bodies holds significant relevance in geotechnical engineering, particularly in scenarios involving stiff engineering objects interacting with highly deformable material such as soil. These processes are challenging due to the combined nonlinear mechanisms including large deformation, elasto-plasticity, and contact with friction. For highly deformable material, the Material Point Method is a natural choice over the Finite Element Method due to its ability to handle large deformations without remeshing by carrying material information at points. This paper uses the Implicit General Interpolation Material Point Method (GIMPM) to demonstrate a new approach for modelling this type of interaction, and exploits the GIMPM’s inherent definition of the boundary of a deformable domain to formulate a consistent contact formulation, negating the need for boundary reconstruction. The formulation is demonstrated through validations and comparisons to alternative methods for simulating contact. The combination of the contact formulation with an implicit framework is shown to be an efficient method for modelling geotechnical problems. The proposed method exhibits optimal convergence for contact problems, accurately captures stick-slip Coulomb friction, and ensures consistent stress fields at the contact surface of a rigid body.

KW - material point method

KW - contact

KW - implicit

KW - soil-structure interaction

KW - large deformation mechanics

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85195203456

U2 - 10.1016/j.compgeo.2024.106646

DO - 10.1016/j.compgeo.2024.106646

M3 - Article

SN - 0266-352X

VL - 174

JO - Computers and Geotechnics

JF - Computers and Geotechnics

M1 - 106646

ER -