Abstract
Block size heterogeneity affects the propagation of landslides, particularly rock avalanches; however, it remains difficult to simulate with existing modeling tools. This paper presents a novel model that can explicitly represent block size heterogeneity in landslide propagation simulations. Monte Carlo simulation is used to compute a large number of blocks with different sizes. Two major processes based on two types of elements are applied to model the landslide propagation. The stress field of the landslide is calculated based on columns, whereas the movement is calculated based on blocks. We adopted a fluid model to establish the governing equations for the stress field and, then, applied a finite difference method to obtain the numerical solution. For the movement calculation, the model uses the motion equations of the blocks based on a Lagrangian description. Inverse Distance Weighting (IDW) interpolation is applied to reconstruct the column elements. The model was validated against experimental results from Manzella and Labiouse and the Xinmo landslide. Our simulations demonstrate that the duration and velocity of the landslides are consistent with observations, particularly that large blocks are more likely to scatter whereas small blocks tend to form a depositional fan.
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Acknowledgments
We thank Mr. Chongjian Shao for providing the Xinmo landslide data, Prof. Macciotta Renato for providing some suggestions, Dr. Langping Li for providing the data about the rock size distribution of southwest of China, and the anonymous reviewers for their careful reading of our manuscript and their many insightful comments and suggestions.
Funding
This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NO. 41525010, 41701458, 41790443, and 41421001), the Youth Science Fund of LREIS, CAS, the Innovation Project of LREIS, CAS (O88RAA02YA), the Scientific Research Foundation of IGSNRR (Y6V60205YZ), and the Strategic Priority Research Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) (Grant NO. XDA23090301 and XDA19040304).
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Wu, Y., Lan, H. Landslide Analyst—a landslide propagation model considering block size heterogeneity. Landslides 16, 1107–1120 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10346-019-01154-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10346-019-01154-2