Dynamic process simulation of rainfall-induced Sanxicun landslide based on a thermo-poro-elastic approach

The Sanxicun landslide occurred on July 10, 2013, in Sanxicun Village, which is located in Dujiangyan City, Sichuan Province, China. It travelled up to 1200 m, destroyed 11 houses, and killed 166 people in the village. To explain how this landslide could travel such a large distance and cause such serious damage, this study used a thermo-poro-elastic approach coupled with the Savage–Hutter model to simulate the dynamic process of the Sanxicun landslide. The simulated results were compared with the actual results, as well as those of other researchers. It showed that the simulated results for the landslide profile and mass accumulation scope were basically consistent with the actual results. The simulated landslide runout was 1242 m, which was quite close to the actual value. The simulated maximum mass accumulation thickness was 16.4 m. The maximum velocity was 32.6 m/s, which was between those calculated by Yin et al. (J Eng Geol 22(2):309–318, 2014), Yin et al. (Landslide 13:9–23, 2016), and the various trends were found to be consistent. The temperature change and the pore water pressure evolution in the shear zone during sliding are also obtained by simulation. This study had recreated the Sanxicun landslide motion process from the view of thermo-poro-elastic coupling within the shear zone.