Modelling post-failure behaviour of chalk cliffs with the Material Point Method

This work evaluates the use of the Material Point Method (MPM) with continuum damage plasticity to model fracture for the use of a combined pre- and post-failure simulation. MPM is used to allow for large deformations and geometry changes without mesh distortion and damage diffusion. An integral non-local continuum damage model is used to model brittle fracture, which avoids the mesh dependency issues exhibited by local models. The modelling approach is demonstrated on chalk cliff collapse problems, where the final state of the rock formation after the failure is of importance and critically linked to further failure processes.