Multiphysics simulation of freezing and thawing granular media using material point method

Abstract

In this paper, a fully coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical material point method, applicable to liquid-saturated porous systems undergoing large deformations and phase transitions, is presented. A mathematical framework was established based on multiphasic mixture theory and fundamental physical conservation laws, rather than using phenomenological or semi-empirical equations. A fractional-step-based semi-implicit solution scheme was proposed to solve the coupled formulations within the framework of the generalized interpolation material point method. The proposed method was validated using several benchmark examples, including the talik closure and thaw consolidation. Its performance in simulating climate-driven large deformation problems was further demonstrated by simulating the settlement of a rigid footing on thawing ground. This paper presents an innovative and rigorous framework for predicting the impact of climate change on engineering practices.