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Small scale impact on rigid barrier using transparent debris-flow models
Sanvitale, Nicoletta Bowman, Elisabeth Cabrera, Miguel Angel
Sanvitale, Nicoletta
Bowman, Elisabeth
Cabrera, Miguel Angel
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2019
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Abstract
Fast landslides, such as debris flows, involve high speed downslope motion of rocks, soil and water. Their high flow velocity, high degree of runout and potential for impact make them one of the most hazardous gravitational mass flows. While the estimation of the pressure generated by the impact of debris flows on civil engineering structures has been widely investigated, the state of the knowledge is still insufficient to accurately describe the dynamics and load evolution of the impact process. Both fluid and solid forces influence the dynamics of debris flows but existing design approaches for barrier or mitigation structures tend to treat these geophysical flows as a single continuum, neglecting the solid fluid-interactions. Hence in the literature, impact models are yet largely semi-empirical. This paper presents the first results of experiments using transparent debris flows in a small-scale flume aiming at investigating the mechanism of impact on rigid barriers. The use of a transparent debris-flow model allows the movements of particles and fluid within the medium to be probed. We examine flows consisting of uniform and well graded particle size gradings at two different fluid contents. The evolution of the impact load, bed normal pressure and fluid pore pressure for the different flows are measured and analysed in order to gain a quantitative comparison of their behaviour before and after impact.
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