Item: RECENT ADVANCES IN MODELING SNOW AND AVALANCHES WITH THE MATERIAL POINT METHOD AND PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS
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Title: RECENT ADVANCES IN MODELING SNOW AND AVALANCHES WITH THE MATERIAL POINT METHOD AND PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS
Proceedings: International Snow Science Workshop Proceedings 2023, Bend, Oregon
Authors:
- Johan Gaume [ Institute for Geotechnical Engineering, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland ] [ WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF, Davos, Switzerland ] [ Climate Change, Extremes, and Natural Hazards in Alpine Regions Research Centre CERC, Davos, Switzerland ]
- Lars Blatny [ Swiss Federal Institute of Technology EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland ]
- Grégoire Bobillier [ WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF, Davos, Switzerland ] [ Climate Change, Extremes, and Natural Hazards in Alpine Regions Research Centre CERC, Davos, Switzerland ]
- Louis Guillet [ Univ. Grenoble Alpes, Inria, CNRS, Grenoble INP, Institute of Engineering, LJK, Grenoble, France ]
- Michael J. Kohler [ WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF, Davos, Switzerland ]
- Michael Kyburz [ Institute for Geotechnical Engineering, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland ]
- Xingyue Li [ Department of Geotechnical Engineering, College of Civil Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, China ]
- Francis Meloche [ WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF, Davos, Switzerland ] [ Université du Québec à Rimouski, Canada ] [ Center for Nordic studies, Université Laval, Canada ]
- Betty Sovilla [ WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF, Davos, Switzerland ]
- Bertil Trottet [ Swiss Federal Institute of Technology EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland ]
- Louis Védrine [ Univ. Grenoble Alpes, Université de Toulouse, Météo-France, CNRS, CNRM, Centre d’Études de la Neige, Grenoble, France ]
Date: 2023-10-08
Abstract: The Material Point Method (MPM) is an Eulerian-Lagrangian numerical technique used to solve partial differential equations in continuum mechanics. It was initially introduced by Sulsky and co-authors in 1994 (Sulsky et al., 1994) as an extension of the Particle-In-Cell method, and has since then mainly been used and further developed in the geomechanics and graphics communities. MPM can deal with problems involving large deformations, collisions, fractures and can naturally handle freesurface flows, concepts which require specific treatments in mesh-based methods like the finite volume or finite element method. In recent years, MPM has received a growing attention in snow and avalanche science. On the one hand, it was used to animate snow in a mesmerizing manner in the Disney movie Frozen, and on the other hand it has been used to simulate avalanche release and flow at the slope scale, in 3D with unprecedented physical details. Since then, the model has been continuously improved and used to simulate and better understand various important processes related to snow and avalanche mechanics and we review here these applications and discuss practical implications. These processes include 1) snow microstructure deformation and failure; 2) avalanche release; 3) avalanche dynamics over complex topography; 4) interaction between avalanches and obstacles, forests or lakes; 5) erosion and entrainment. Although it has mostly been used in research so far, we believe that MPM has a strong potential for engineering applications, especially related to impact problems and the design of sustainable artificial or natural mitigation measures. Finally, because capturing specific physical processes such as snow entrainment require significant computational resources, we developed a novel approach based on a depth-averaged version of MPM (DAMPM) for efficient avalanche release and flow simulations.
Object ID: ISSW2023_P1.48.pdf
Language of Article: English
Presenter(s): Grégoire Bobillier
Keywords: snow, avalanches, material point method, simulation, avalanche formation, avalanche dynamics
Page Number(s): 408 - 414
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