Validation and application of a coupled hydro-mechanical CEL method for large-deformation analysis of saturated soils

A range of continuum and dis-continuum based numerical methods have been developed for geotechnical analysis that involves large deformations. However, the wide application of these methods for modelling practical boundary value problems is often restricted by the complexity of the methods, availability and accessibility of software, computational resources, and the representation of soil behaviour. Conventional Coupled Eulerian-Lagrangian (CEL) method, available in commercial software packages, has been proven to be a robust tool for tackling large-deformation problems, but its application is largely constrained in total stress analysis. This paper reviews the formulation and implementation of a coupled hydro-mechanical CEL method for effective-stress analysis of saturated soils, based on the analogy between the governing equations for water flow and thermal conduction in two-phase media. The accuracy and performance of the coupled CEL method is assessed by three classical cases of one-dimensional (1-D) to three-dimensional (3-D), including Terzaghi’s consolidation problem, short- and long-loading of a surface footing and variable rate cone penetration, applying both simplified and advanced constitutive soil models. The numerical predictions are benchmarked rigorously against outcomes from analytical solutions, standard Finite Element (FE) analyses, other large-deformation approaches, and physical modelling. Further discussions are presented on mesh configuration and sensitivity, model dimension effects, computational costs and method limitations. The paper aims to present a detailed roadmap for research and practical application of an advanced large-deformation method utilising commercially available software package and accessible computation facilities.