Absorbing boundary conditions in material point method adopting perfectly matched layer theory

TL;DR

This paper integrates Perfectly Matched Layer (PML) theory into the Material Point Method (MPM) to effectively absorb outgoing elastic waves, reducing reflections and improving dynamic simulation accuracy in geotechnical applications.

Contribution

It introduces a novel absorbing boundary condition in MPM using PML theory, enabling better wave attenuation and large deformation simulation in earthquake and landslide modeling.

Findings

Effective wave absorption demonstrated in benchmark tests

Enhanced simulation of large deformation and failure in soils

Improved accuracy in earthquake-induced landslide modeling

Abstract

This study focuses on solving the numerical challenges of imposing absorbing boundary conditions for dynamic simulations in the material point method (MPM). To attenuate elastic waves leaving the computational domain, the current work integrates the Perfectly Matched Layer (PML) theory into the implicit MPM framework. The proposed approach introduces absorbing particles surrounding the computational domain that efficiently absorb outgoing waves and reduce reflections, allowing for accurate modeling of wave propagation and its further impact on geotechnical slope stability analysis. The study also includes several benchmark tests to validate the effectiveness of the proposed method, such as several types of impulse loading and symmetric and asymmetric base shaking. The conducted numerical tests also demonstrate the ability to handle large deformation problems, including the failure of elasto-plastic soils under gravity and dynamic excitations. The findings extend the capability of MPM in simulating continuous analysis of earthquake-induced landslides, from shaking to failure.