scholarly journals A Numerical Study on Impacts of Sediment Erosion/Deposition on Debris Flow Propagation

Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (12) ◽  
pp. 1698
Author(s):  
Abiola Abraham Adebiyi ◽  
Peng Hu

Debris flows tend to erode sediment from or deposit sediment on the bed, which changes their volume and, thus, in turn, affects their rheological properties. However, previous modeling studies on debris flows mostly ignore sediment erosion/deposition. Here, three models are presented: a debris model without bed deformation, which is similar to traditional models in that it does not consider sediment erosion/deposition but uses the Herschel–Bulkley formulation to describe the non-Newtonian nature; a debris model with bed deformation, which is better improved than the traditional model in that it considers sediment erosion/deposition; and a turbidity current model, which is further simplified from the debris model with bed deformation by ignoring the non-Newtonian nature. These models, formulated in the same modeling framework, are solved by a shock-capturing finite volume method. These models were firstly validated against three laboratory experiments, which indicated that the debris models with and without bed deformation with reasonably well-specified parameters can give satisfactory agreements with the measurements, whereas the turbidity current model overestimated the experimental result due to its lack of yield stress and dynamic viscosity. Moreover, a hypothetical field application was used to explain the difference between a turbidity current and debris flows with and without bed deformation. It was shown that debris flows and turbidity currents are capable of impacting the bed significantly. However, turbidity currents have thinner tails, less shear stress, and form horizontal deposits on the bed, while debris flows have a thicker tail, high shear stress, and form vertical deposits on the bed. Finally, sensitivity analyses were carried out to study the impact of sediment size, bed slope, concentration, and porosity on the deformation of the bed after debris flow where they all showed a positive correlation.

Water ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 2314 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shu Wang ◽  
Anping Shu ◽  
Matteo Rubinato ◽  
Mengyao Wang ◽  
Jiping Qin

Non-homogeneous viscous debris flows are characterized by high density, impact force and destructiveness, and the complexity of the materials they are made of. This has always made these flows challenging to simulate numerically, and to reproduce experimentally debris flow processes. In this study, the formation-movement process of non-homogeneous debris flow under three different soil configurations was simulated numerically by modifying the formulation of collision, friction, and yield stresses for the existing Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) method. The results obtained by applying this modification to the SPH model clearly demonstrated that the configuration where fine and coarse particles are fully mixed, with no specific layering, produces more fluctuations and instability of the debris flow. The kinetic and potential energies of the fluctuating particles calculated for each scenario have been shown to be affected by the water content by focusing on small local areas. Therefore, this study provides a better understanding and new insights regarding intermittent debris flows, and explains the impact of the water content on their formation and movement processes.


Author(s):  
Hervé Vicari ◽  
C.W.W. Ng ◽  
Steinar Nordal ◽  
Vikas Thakur ◽  
W.A. Roanga K. De Silva ◽  
...  

The destructive nature of debris flows is mainly caused by flow bulking from entrainment of an erodible channel bed. To arrest these flows, multiple flexible barriers are commonly installed along the predicted flow path. Despite the importance of an erodible bed, its effects are generally ignored when designing barriers. In this study, three unique experiments were carried out in a 28 m-long flume to investigate the impact of a debris flow on both single and dual flexible barriers installed in a channel with a 6 m-long erodible soil bed. Initial debris volumes of 2.5 m<sup>3</sup> and 6 m<sup>3</sup> were modelled. For the test setting adopted, a small upstream flexible barrier before the erodible bed separates the flow into several surges via overflow. The smaller surges reduce bed entrainment by 70% and impact force on the terminal barrier by 94% compared to the case without an upstream flexible barrier. However, debris overflowing the deformed flexible upstream barrier induces a centrifugal force that results in a dynamic pressure coefficient that is up to 2.2 times higher than those recommended in guidelines. This suggests that although compact upstream flexible barriers can be effective for controlling bed entrainment, they should be carefully designed to withstand higher impact forces.


2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel D. Parkinson ◽  
Simon W. Funke ◽  
Jon Hill ◽  
Matthew D. Piggott ◽  
Peter A. Allison

Abstract. Turbidity currents are one of the main drivers for sediment transport from the continental shelf to the deep ocean. The resulting sediment deposits can reach hundreds of kilometres into the ocean. Computer models that simulate turbidity currents and the resulting sediment deposit can help to understand their general behaviour. However, in order to recreate real-world scenarios, the challenge is to find the turbidity current parameters that reproduce the observations of sediment deposits. This paper demonstrates a solution to the inverse sediment transportation problem: for a known sedimentary deposit, the developed model reconstructs details about the turbidity current that produced these deposits. The reconstruction is constrained here by a shallow water sediment-laden density current model, which is discretised by the finite element method and an adaptive time-stepping scheme. The model is differentiated using the adjoint approach and an efficient gradient-based optimisation method is applied to identify turbidity parameters which minimise the misfit between modelled and observed field sediment deposits. The capabilities of this approach are demonstrated using measurements taken in the Miocene-age Marnoso Arenacea Formation (Italy). We find that whilst the model cannot match the deposit exactly due to limitations in the physical processes simulated, it provides valuable insights into the depositional processes and represents a significant advance in our toolset for interpreting turbidity current deposits.


2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haixin Zhao ◽  
Lingkan Yao ◽  
Yong You ◽  
Baoliang Wang ◽  
Cong Zhang

In this study, we present a new method to calculate debris flow slurry impact and its distribution, which are critical issues for designing countermeasures against debris flows. There is no unified formula at present, and we usually design preventive engineering according to the uniform distribution of the maximum impact force. For conducting a laboratory flume experiment, we arrange sensors at different positions on a dam and analyze the differences on debris flow slurry impact against various densities, channel slopes, and dam front angles. Results show that the force of debris flow on the dam distributes unevenly, and that the impact force is large in the middle and decreases gradually to the both sides. We systematically analyze the influence factors for the calculation of the maximum impact force in the middle point and give the quantitative law of decay from the middle to the sides. We propose a method to calculate the distribution of the debris flow impact force on the whole section and provide a case to illustrate this method.


Water ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 328 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dong Nam ◽  
Man-Il Kim ◽  
Dong Kang ◽  
Byung Kim

Recently, human and property damages have often occurred due to various reasons—such as landslides, debris flow, and other sediment-related disasters—which are also caused by regional torrential rain resulting from climate change and reckless development of mountainous areas. Debris flows mainly occur in mountainous areas near urban living communities and often cause direct damages. In general, debris flows containing soil, rock fragments, and driftwood temporarily travel down to lower parts along with a mountain torrent. However, debris flows are also often reported to stream down from the point where a slope failure or a landslide occurs in a mountain directly to its lower parts. The impact of those debris flows is one of the main factors that cause serious damage to structures. To mitigate such damage of debris flows, a quantitative assessment of the impact force is thus required. Moreover, technologies to evaluate disaster prevention facilities and structures at disaster-prone regions are needed. This study developed two models to quantitatively analyze the damages caused by debris flows on structures: Type-1 model for calculating the impact force, which reflected the flow characteristics of debris flows and the Type-2 model, which calculated the impact force based on the topographical characteristics of mountainous regions. Using RAMMS a debris flow runoff model, the impact forces assessed through Type-1 and Type-2 models were compared to check reliability. Using the assessed impact forces, the damage ratio of the structures was calculated and the amount of damage caused by debris flows on the structures was ultimately assessed. The results showed that the Type-1 model overestimated the impact force by 10% and the Type-2 model by 4% for Mt. Umyeon in Seoul, compared to the RAMMS model. In addition, the Type-1 model overestimated the impact force by 3% and Type-2 by 2% for Mt. Majeok in Chuncheon, South Korea.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlo Gregoretti ◽  
Matteo Barbini ◽  
Martino Bernard ◽  
Mauro Boreggio

&lt;p&gt;Many sites of the Dolomites are threatened by channelized debris flows: solid-liquid surges initiated by the entrainment of large quantities of sediments into the abundant runoff at the head of channel incised on fans, can dramatically increase their volume along the downstream routing. This is the case of the Rovina di Cancia site where solid-liquid surges forming in the upper part of the basin can increase their volume up and over 50000 m&lt;sup&gt;3&lt;/sup&gt;, seriously impacting the downstream village of Borca di Cadore. The debris-flow channel ends just upstream the village that in the past was hit by four debris flows (three in the recent years) that caused victims and destructions. Control works built until now are not sufficient to protect the village from high magnitude debris flows and a definitive solution calls to be planned. Present works are a flat deposition area, 300 m downstream the initiation area, an open dam under construction downstream it, and &amp;#160;two retention basins at the end of the channel. Between the open dam and the upstream retention basin, there are the rest of eight check-dams made of gabions, built in the 60s and progressively damaged or destroyed by the debris flows occurred after their construction. This series of check-dams limited the entrainment of solid material and the occurrence of localized scours. The initial plan is the substitution of the check-dams with concrete structures and the widening of the dowsntream retention basin through the raising of high elevation embankment downstream it and the following demolition of the actual dyke. Finally, a channel crossing the village and national route on the valley bottom will deliver the fluid phase from the widened basin to the Boite river. All these control works have a very high cost for construction and maintenance and severely impact the village with the presence of a non-negligible residual risk. These drawbacks call for an alternative solution that is searched looking at to the morphology. Downstream of the open dam and on its right side, there is a deep impluvium that ends on a large grass sloping area. The novel solution requires the construction of a channel through the right high bank that deviates the debris flow into the impluvium. The impluvium, widened through the excavation of the surrounding slopes, is closed at the outlet by &amp;#160;an open dam. Downstream the open dam, a channel will lead to a retention basin, where most of storage volume is obtained from the excavation of the grass sloping area, limiting the elevation of the dykes At the end of this basin an open dam will deliver the debris-flow fluid part to a channel passing under the national route and joining the Boite river. Such a solution composed of a deviatory channel, two retention basins (the deep impluvium and that excavated on the sloping grass area) and the channels between and downstream them, has quite a lower costs of construction and maintenance, eliminating the impact on the village because occupying uninhabited areas without interrupting the main roads.&lt;/p&gt;


Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (16) ◽  
pp. 2201
Author(s):  
Jinn-Chyi Chen ◽  
Wen-Shun Huang

This study examined the conditions that lead to debris flows, and their association with the rainfall return period (T) and the probability of debris flow occurrence (P) in the Chenyulan watershed, central Taiwan. Several extreme events have occurred in the Chenyulan watershed in the past, including the Chi-Chi earthquake and extreme rainfall events. The T for three rainfall indexes (i.e., the maximum hourly rainfall depth (Im), the maximum 24-h rainfall amount (Rd), and RI (RI = Im× Rd)) were analyzed, and the T associated with the triggering of debris flows is presented. The P–T relationship can be determined using three indexes, Im, Rd, and RI; how it is affected and unaffected by extreme events was developed. Models for evaluating P using the three rainfall indexes were proposed and used to evaluate P between 2009 and 2020 (i.e., after the extreme rainfall event of Typhoon Morakot in 2009). The results of this study showed that the P‒T relationship, using the RI or Rd index, was reasonable for predicting the probability of debris flow occurrence.


2008 ◽  
Vol 45 (12) ◽  
pp. 1778-1783 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam B. Prochaska ◽  
Paul M. Santi ◽  
Jerry D. Higgins

Estimation of the impact forces from boulders within a debris flow is important for the design of structural mitigation elements. Boulder impact force equations are most sensitive to the inputs of particle size and particle velocity. Current guidelines recommend that a design boulder should have a size equal to the depth of flow and a velocity equal to that of the flow. This study used video analysis software to investigate the velocities of different sized particles within debris flows. Particle velocity generally decreased with increasing particle size, but the rate of decrease was found to be dependent on the abilities of particles to rearrange within debris flows.


2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 139-149
Author(s):  
Norifumi Hotta ◽  
Tomoyuki Iwata ◽  
Takuro Suzuki ◽  
Yuichi Sakai

ABSTRACT It is essential to consider the fluidity of a debris flow front when calculating its impact. Here we flume-tested mono-granular and bi-granular debris flows and compared the results to those of numerical simulations. We used sand particles with diameters of 0.29 and 0.14 cm at two mixing ratios of 1:1 and 3:7. Particle segregation was recorded with a high-speed video camera. We evaluated the fronts of debris flows at 0.5-second intervals. Then we numerically simulated one-dimensional debris flows under the same conditions and used the mean particle diameter when simulating mixed-diameter flows. For the mono-granular debris flows, the experimental and simulated results showed good agreement in terms of flow depth, front velocity, and flux. However, for the bi-granular debris flows, the simulated flow depth was less, and both the front velocity and flux were greater than those found experimentally. These differences may be attributable to the fact that the dominant shear stress was caused by the concentration of smaller sediment particles in the lower flow layers; such inverse gradations were detected in the debris flow bodies. Under these conditions, most shear stress is supported by smaller particles in the lower layers; the debris flow characteristics become similar to those of mono-granular flows, in contrast to the numerical simulation, which incorporated particle segregation with gradually decreasing mean diameter from the front to the flow body. Consequently, the calculated front velocities were underestimated; particle segregation at the front of the bi-granular debris flows did not affect fluidity either initially or over time.


2010 ◽  
Vol 34 (5) ◽  
pp. 625-645 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michelle Bollschweiler ◽  
Markus Stoffel

The sudden and unpredictable occurrence of debris flows poses major problems in many mountain areas in the world. For a realistic hazard assessment, knowledge of past events is of crucial importance. As archival data is generally fragmentary, additional information sources are needed for an appraisal of past and contemporary events as well as for the prediction of potential future events. Tree rings represent a very valuable natural archive on past debris-flow occurrence as they may record the impact of events in their tree-ring series. In the past few years, dendrogeomorphology has evolved from a pure dating tool to a broad range of applications. Besides the reconstruction of frequencies, tree rings allow — if coupled with spatial positioning methods — the determination of spread and reach of past events. Similarly, the wide field of applications includes the identification of magnitudes and triggers of debris-flow events. Besides demonstrating recent developments in the use of tree rings for debris-flow research, this contribution also provides a short overview on the application of tree rings for other mass-movement processes and highlights further possibilities of the method. Established techniques can be applied to related processes such as debris floods, flash floods or lahars. Data obtained can also be used to calibrate modeling approaches. The impact of past and future climatic changes on debris-flow occurrence is furthermore an important aspect where tree rings can be of help.


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