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Impact force to a rigid obstruction from a granular mass sliding down a smooth incline

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Abstract

The impact force to a rigid obstruction from a granular mass sliding down a smooth incline provides insights into the solid-like and fluid-like behaviors of granular avalanches and useful information for risk assessment and engineering design against landslides. In this study, a series of 2-D flume tests were performed to systematically investigate the effects of inclination angle, sliding distance, and initial relative density on the flow front velocity and impact force on a rigid obstruction. The experimental results show that for inclination angles smaller than the critical state friction angle of sand, an increase in the sliding distance and/or initial relative density results in smaller impact forces; for higher inclination angles, the trend is reversed. Based on the experimental results, an analytical equation is proposed to estimate the flow front velocity and an empirical approach is presented to estimate the maximum impact force based on elastic solid and hydrodynamic methods. The proposed equations are found to provide more accurate predictions for the maximum impact force than similar equations in the literature.

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Acknowledgements

Support of this study is provided by the US National Science Foundation under Award # CMMI-1453103. This support is gratefully acknowledged.

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  1. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, 16802, USA

    Amir Ahmadipur & Tong Qiu

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Correspondence to Tong Qiu.

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Ahmadipur, A., Qiu, T. Impact force to a rigid obstruction from a granular mass sliding down a smooth incline. Acta Geotech. 13, 1433–1450 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11440-018-0727-5

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