Landslides, which are the sources of most catastrophic natural disasters, can be subaerial (dry), submerged (underwater), or semi-submerged (transitional). Semi-submerged or transitional landslides occur when a subaerial landslide enters water and turns to submerged condition. Predicting the behavior of such a highly dynamic multi-phase granular flow system is challenging, mainly due to the water entry effects, such as wave impact and partial saturation (and resulted cohesion). The mesh-free particle methods, such as the moving particle semi-implicit (MPS) method, have proven their capabilities for the simulation of the highly dynamic multiphase systems. This study develops and evaluates a numerical model, based on the MPS particle method in combination with the μ(I) rheological model, to simulate the morphodynamic of the granular mass in semi-submerged landslides in two and three dimensions. An algorithm is developed to consider partial saturation (and resulting cohesion) during the water entry. Comparing the numerical results with the experimental measurements shows the ability of the proposed model to accurately reproduce the morphological evolution of the granular mass, especially at the moment of water entry.
