Remote Sens.
2020, 12, 3994 8 of 17
The subsampled point cloud has been transferred into the CAD software where the points have
been triangulated in surfaces. The triangulation of points has been carried out also comparing the
individual frames of local sectors that have a low point density due to the presence of vegetation or a
non-optimal exposure at the time of acquisition. In these sectors, some points have been added by
interpolating the neighboring ones, in order to avoid “holes” between the surfaces. In fact, the union
of all created triangular surfaces outlines the TIN surface, which must be continuous in order to be
imported into the Plaxis 3D FEM code.
The numerical analyses required the geometric construction of the volumes of the calculation
model. The TIN surface has been incorporated in a parallelepiped with length and width equal to
about five times those of the TIN surface while the height of the volume is about six times that of
the cliff. In the resulting model the vertical side boundaries and the base of the model are located,
respectively, at a distance of about 200 and 120 m from the cliff surface under study (in the numerical
analyses is a commonly used practice to keep the boundaries of the model at a large distance from
the study area, in order to avoid computational errors due to the impossibility of redistributing both
the stress and deformation state). Kinematical boundary conditions were imposed by assuming zero
displacements in the horizontal direction for the vertical boundaries, whereas the base of the model
has been completely fixed (prevented movements in all directions).
3.2.2. Mesh Discretization and Calculation Phases Settings
The calculation model was discretized with a very fine mesh in the area representing the coastal
cliff, while a coarsen mesh was adopted for the remaining parts, thus reaching a good compromise
between numerical accuracy and computational time costs. The mesh, composed by 487,580 elements
with 725,004 nodes, is shown in pictures (a) and (b) of Figure 7, for the pre- and post-rock block
detachment model. The light blue volume, discretized in 737 elements, identify the detached rock
block as a result of the erosion processes.
Remote Sens. 2020, 12, x FOR PEER REVIEW 9 of 18
(a)
(b)
Figure 7. Three-dimensional (3D) Fem discretization meshes: (a) Pre- and (b) post-rock block
Figure 7. Three-dimensional (3D) Fem discretization meshes: (a) Pre- and (b) post-rock block detachment.
detachment.
Figure 7 shows that the erosive process is mainly concentrated in the calcilsiltite layer and,
Figure 7 shows that the erosive process is mainly concentrated in the calcilsiltite layer and, in
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The 3D FEM analyses have followed an Initial Phase in which the initialization of the stress state
of the model is carried out by means of a Gravity Loading procedure, i.e., the gravitational forces are
applied to the model under elastic conditions of the materials. A hydrostatic water level has been
imposed at a distance of 14 m from the crest of the coastal wall, in accordance with the recorded
average sea level [27]. Later on, the plastic behavior has been applied to the rock materials and the
corresponding calculation phase has been split into two sub-phases in order to compare the stability