Impact of saturated granular masses against rigid obstacles: the role of fluid compressibility and front inclination

In recent years, the impact of saturated granular flows against rigid obstacles has been studied by using different numerical approaches. The very low compressibility of water causes numerical instabilities when impact problems are simulated. In this work, a sensitivity analysis has been done by using a Material Point Method code to assess the influence of fluid compressibility and front inclination on numerical results. When the mass front is inclined, fluid bulk modulus does not significantly affect the solution and can be reduced to speed up the computations and reduce spurious numerical oscillations.