Numerical study of the runout behavior of the Kamenziwan landslide in the Three Gorges Reservoir region, China

The evaluation of landslide runout behavior plays a vital role in the risk assessment of landslides. In this study, the runout behavior of a landslide that occurred on December 10, 2019, in the Three Gorges Reservoir region, China, known as the Kamenziwan landslide, is studied with the discrete element method. A field survey is first conducted to study the geological characteristics and failure mechanism of this landslide. The survey results indicate that this landslide is possibly caused by the long-term fluctuation of the reservoir water level. Then, a three-dimensional (3-D) numerical model of this landslide is constructed on the basis of the terrain data obtained before and after the landslide occurrence. The critical input parameters to the numerical model, in terms of the contact micro-parameters among particles, are calibrated with the machine learning method and uniaxial compression tests. To depict the effectiveness of the built numerical model, the simulation results are compared with the video snapshots taken by a local resident. Finally, the runout behavior and the energy transformation of the landslide are analyzed based on the validated numerical model.