The construction process with the material point method

The material point method has become a powerful tool in the geomechanical modelling of large deformation problems and it has been successfully applied in a large number of single and multiphase geotechnical problems involving excavations, changes in mechanical and hydraulic boundary conditions, as well as structure interaction. This paper presents the implementation of the construction process in a material point-based open-source code (Anura3D). The construction process is solved by activating the material points located in the volume under construction and gradually increasing the gravity assigned to those material points during the construction stage. The deformation of layers during construction, which, in practice, is compensated in the field to ensure the designed geometry, but generally neglected in modelling with the standard finite element method, is addressed in the implementation proposed. With this purpose, the method includes the option of filling with added material points the grid elements that become empty during the construction stage. The procedure is applied to the construction of an oedometric column build with a highly deformable elastic material. The effect of the number of layers is discussed and compared with the analytical solution.

The authors acknowledge the support of the Anura3D MPM Research Community. The second author, Serra Húnter associate professor, thanks to the financial support received from the Serra Húnter Program put forward by the Department of Enterprise and Knowledge of the Secretariat for Universities and Research of the Generalitat de Catalunya. The authors also acknowledge the financial support of the project RTI2018-097365-B-I00 funded by CIN/AEI/1013039/501100011033 and, as appropriate, by ‘ERDF A way of making Europe’, by the European Union or by the ‘European Union Next Generation EU/PRTR’.

Postprint (published version)