Numerical simulation of soil–water interaction using smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) method

An application of smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) to simulation of soil–water interaction is presented. In this calculation, water is modeled as a viscous fluid with week compressibility and soil is modeled as an elastic–perfectly plastic material. The Mohr–Coulomb failure criterion is applied to describe the stress states of soil in the plastic flow regime. Dry soil is modeled by one-phase flow while saturated soil is modeled by separate water and soil phases. Interaction between soil and water is taken into account by means of pore water pressure and seepage force. Simulation tests of soil excavation by a water jet are calculated as a challenging example to verify the broad applicability of the SPH method. The excavations are carried out in two different soil models, one is dry soil and the other is fully saturated soil. Numerical results obtained in this paper have shown that the gross discontinuities of soil failure can be simulated without any difficulties. This supports the feasibility and attractiveness of this a new approach in geomechanics applications. Advantages of the method are robustness, conceptual simplicity and relative ease of incorporating new physics.