Basic study on uncertainty related to failure phenomenon by MPS method or DEM

MPS (Moving Particle Semi-implicit) method or DEM (Discrete Element Method) is useful to simulate strong nonlinear phenomenon like slope failure. The calculated result, however, is often affected by very small difference of model or material property, even difference of computation environment. It is shown that the variation of the response does not depend on the variation of model stiffness when the nonlinearity is strong, through numerical simulation of slope failure by MPS. It is also shown that the distribution of moving distance of falling rock does not affected by variation of initial position in DEM simulation though the individual response is highly sensitive to the position.