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Spreading and Deposit Characteristics of a Rapid Dry Granular Avalanche Across 3D Topography: Experimental Study

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Abstract

Aiming to understand the propagation and deposit behaviours of a granular avalanche along a 3D complex basal terrain, a new 3D experimental platform in 1/400 scale was developed according to the natural terrain of the Xiejiadianzi rock avalanche, with a series of laboratory experiments being conducted. Through the conduction of these tests, parameters, including the morphological evolution of sliding mass, run-outs and velocities of surficial particles, thickness contour and centre of final deposit, equivalent frictional coefficient, and energy dissipation, are documented and analysed, with the geomorphic control effect, material grain size effect, drop angle effect, and drop distance effect on rock avalanche mobility being discussed primarily. From the study, some interesting conclusions for a better understanding of rock avalanche along a 3D complex basal topography are reached. (1) For the granular avalanche tested in this study, great differences between the evolutions of the debris along the right and left branch valleys were observed, with an obvious geomorphic control effect on avalanche mobility presented. In addition, some other interesting features, including groove-like trough and superelevation, were also observed under the control of the topographic interferences. (2) The equivalent frictional coefficients of the granular avalanches tested here range from 0.48 to 0.57, which is lower than that reached with a set-up composed of an inclined chute and horizontal plate and higher than that reached using a set-up composed of only an inclined chute. And the higher the drop angle and fine particle content, the higher the equivalent frictional coefficient. The effect of drop distance on avalanche mobility is minor. (3) For a granular avalanche, momentum transfer plays an important role in the motion of mass, which can accelerate the mobility of the front part greatly through delivering the kinetic energy of the rear part to the front.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 41530639, 41502289, 41172260, 41372292), Opening Fund of State Key Laboratory of Geohazard Prevention and Geoenvironment Protection (Chengdu University of Technology) (No. SKLGP2015K012), Program for Changjiang Scholars and Innovative Research Team in University (IRT13092). We are grateful to Jian-lei Cao, Qiang Guo, and Jin-cun Zhang for their great help in the conduction of this tests and data processing. And we also gratefully acknowledge the editing of America Journal Experts and both reviewers for their constructive and detailed comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geological Engineering, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, 610031, Sichuan, China

    Yu-Feng Wang, Qian-Gong Cheng, Yan Li & Zhong-Xu Luo

  2. State Key Laboratory of Geohazard Prevention and Geoenvironment Protection, Chengdu University of Technology, Chengdu, 610059, Sichuan, China

    Yu-Feng Wang & Qiang Xu

  3. Key Laboratory of High-Speed Railway Engineering, Ministry of Education, Chengdu, 610031, Sichuan, China

    Qian-Gong Cheng

  4. State-Province Joint Engineering Laboratory of Spatial Information Technology of High-Speed Rail Safety, Chengdu, 610031, Sichuan, China

    Qian-Gong Cheng

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  1. Yu-Feng Wang
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  3. Qian-Gong Cheng
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Correspondence to Qian-Gong Cheng.

Appendix

Appendix

1.1 Part I

In order to provide more information on the propagation and deposit features of granular avalanche along a natural 3D topographical terrain, some results of other tests are supplemented in this part.

See Figs. 20, 21, 22 and Table 5.

Fig. 20
figure 20

Final deposit of the rest tests to show the main accumulated areas of the granular avalanches. a Test No. I, b test No. II, c test No. IV, d test No. V, e test No. VI, f test No. VII

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Fig. 21
figure 21

Support materials for the conclusions reached from Fig. 15a

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Fig. 22
figure 22

Support materials for the conclusions reached from Fig. 15b

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Table 5 Parallel test conditions and corresponding tested data of mass centre
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1.2 Part II

Calculation of the bulk mechanical energy variations in the No. 1 and No. 3 particles shown in Fig. 16.

As mentioned in this paper, three digital video cameras were used to record videos of the propagation of the granular avalanche, which allows us to obtain the data on the run-outs and velocities of the No. 1 and No. 3 particles (Fig. 11). In addition, a three-dimensional laser scanner was employed to acquire the final deposit of the granular avalanche. According to the positions of the particles recorded by cameras at any moment (Fig. 23a), we projected their positions on the map obtained using the three-dimensional laser scanner (Fig. 23b) and calculated their vertical drops. With this method, the vertical drops of the No. 1 and No. 3 particles at any moment we reached are listed in Table 6. Here, considering that the thickness of the debris at any moment is greatly smaller than the vertical drops of the No. 1 and No. 3 particles, so we neglected it in the calculation of the particles’ drops. With the data listed in Table 6 and the velocity variations in the particles exhibited in Fig. 11, the bulk mechanical energy variations in the No. 1 and No. 3 particles were reached as shown in Fig. 16.

Fig. 23
figure 23

Introduction for the calculation of particles’ vertical drops at any moment (a photograph recorded by camera, b scanned data)

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Table 6 Data of the vertical drops of the No. 1 and No. 3 particles at any moment
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Wang, YF., Xu, Q., Cheng, QG. et al. Spreading and Deposit Characteristics of a Rapid Dry Granular Avalanche Across 3D Topography: Experimental Study. Rock Mech Rock Eng 49, 4349–4370 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00603-016-1052-7

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