National Cheng Kung University

Department of Civil Engineering

Master’s Thesis

利用 PFC3D 探討基於 5M 與 20M 數值地形模型

之崩塌地形三維數值模型

Investigation on Three-Dimensional Numerical Modeling

of Landslide based on 5M and 20M Resolution of Digital

Elevation Model using PFC3D

Student: Febi Satria Gumanta

N66087101

Advisor: Ph.D. Ching Hung

July 2020
中 華 民 國一百零九年七月
 ABSTRACT

The complex establishing process of numerical model of landslide under three-

dimensional condition using discrete element analysis (DEA) was presented. Particle
flow code (PFC3D) based on DEA was utilized to explore the numerical landslide
models which derived from two different resolutions of digital elevation model (DEM)
from real topographical map located in Taiwan. Possible scenario of post-failure of
kinematic runout behavior and deposition process of the landslide, considering
influenced parameters (i.e. ball friction coefficient and wall friction coefficient,
respectively) were also investigated. The constitutive model used was linear parallel
bond contact model in which the uniaxial compression test was carried out as the
calibration approach to obtain the micro-properties in PFC3D. The construction of
landslide model requires two main components, the slip surface (modelled by wall
elements) and sliding mass (modelled by ball elements), respectively. Two different
DEM resolutions of 5 meters (finer) and 20 meters (coarser) were then carried out to
simulate the slip surface. The wall elements of the slip surface generated from finer
DEM model were approximately 16 times greater than those in the coarser DEM model.
The BFM (brick filling method) logic was also utilized to estimate the capacity of
sliding mass. The progressive process of landslide movement showed different
behavior during deposition process with the same set real-time for both finer and
coarser models. As the results, landslide model with coarser DEM could faster fit the
deposition area within 468 seconds than using finer DEM model. A good agreement
was shown by smaller wall and ball friction in which this circumstance show that
decreasing the wall and ball friction coefficient would result the sliding mass to easily
slide down along the slip surface and resulted particles to reach farer position of
deposition area. In conclusion, the comprehensive analysis and results suggest that
considering finer resolution of DEM model might be conducted in terms of more
distributed area required, more realistic and fit the deposition area better compared to
real post-event investigation but require longer of computational time. Coarser
resolution of DEM model might perform kinematic energy less, less of computational
time. However, the selection of which DEM resolution was probably dependent on the
how large the investigated area was, considering the affected area, etc. The study
demonstrates that a difference of 5M and 20M DEM resolution can be used to
investigate the different behavior on kinematic runout and deposition process of the
numerical model of landslide together with the influenced parameters also lead to
satisfactory agreement with the related studies.

Keyword: numerical landslide, digital elevation model, discrete element method,

particle flow code, deposition process, velocity.