Fast or slow? A geomechanical interpretation of sharp changes in landslide velocity
CME Department Seminar
April 12, 2024
11:00 AM - 12:00 PM America/Chicago
Presenter: Giuseppe Buscarnera, PhD, Northwestern University
Location: ERF 1047
Abstract: The life cycle of landslides may involve a wide range of processes, from slow creep-like motion to gradual acceleration due to basal shear failure, or, in extreme cases, fast runout. The simulation of these often-interconnected processes over long timeframes comes with challenges, as it requires computationally expensive techniques, especially if used in conjunction with advanced constitutive laws for the materials in the landslide body. This talk discusses a semi-analytical framework able to resolve the coupled dynamics of pore water pressure development and landslide motion with reference to elastoplastic and viscoplastic constitutive laws, while reducing dramatically the computational cost of the analysis. For simple material models, such as perfectly plastic frictional laws, the framework enjoys closed-form analytical solutions to replicate episodic creep-like events (dilative response) or self-sustained flow-like motion (contractive response). For advanced constitutive laws based on the critical state theory, the proposed framework can be readily integrated numerically to capture phenomena such as catastrophic landsliding, liquefaction, and runaway failure. While in its current form the approach is not meant as a substitute for the simulation of spatially heterogeneous landslide processes, it represents a versatile diagnostic tool prior to full-fledged multi-dimensional analyses. Its potential applications include the rapid assessment of landslide risk across large areas and over time intervals of numerous years, i.e., two essential steps to quantify the potential implications of climate change in densely populated settings.
Speaker Bio: Giuseppe Buscarnera is professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Northwestern University, which he joined in 2011. He received his B.Sc. and M.S. in civil engineering from the Politecnico di Milano, and a PhD in geomechanics from the Politecnico di Torino. During his doctoral and post-doctoral studies, he collaborated with several academic institutions, such as the Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the University of Sydney. Buscarnera's research focuses on the mechanics of soils and rocks, landslide geomechanics, micromechanics of granular materials and the multi-physics of subsurface systems. He is the PI of numerous research projects on these topics, serves as the chairman of the EMI committee on Modeling Inelasticity and Multiscale Behavior, and his research has been awarded with the Faculty Early Career Award of the U.S. National Science Foundation and the Arthur Casagrande Award of ASCE.
Date posted
Apr 9, 2024
Date updated
Apr 9, 2024