A generalized interpolation material point method for modelling coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical problems

This paper proposes a Generalized Interpolation Material Point Method (GIMP) for modelling coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical (THM) processes within unsaturated porous media. The governing equations for the coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical problems are derived based on the conservation laws of mass, momentum and energy, and are discretized within the framework of the explicit three-phase single-point GIMP. The proposed THM-coupled GIMP is validated against available analytical solutions and FEM-based numerical solutions, and is used for simulating a climate-driven slope failure process involving both temperature variation and rainfall infiltration. The proposed THM-coupled GIMP is proved to be capable to capture the fully coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical process within unsaturated porous media associated with large deformations.