Modeling unconfined seepage flow in soil-rock mixtures using the numerical manifold method

Recently, fruitful results of geotechnical problems solved by the NMM (abbreviated form for the numerical manifold method) have been gained. In the present work, a free surface updating strategy is implemented into the NMM to simulate unconfined seepage flow in the soil-rock mixtures (SRMs). Several examples are employed to validate the effectiveness and correctness of the proposed numerical model. Results from the numerical examples indicate that the proposed model can predict the location of free surface with high accuracy, as well as capture the main feature of the unconfined seepage flow. In addition, the influence of rock blocks on the seepage flow in the SRMs can be captured.