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Low friction coefficient (approximately tan1°) of subaqueous debris flow in rotating flume tests and its mechanism

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Abstract

To reproduce a subaqueous debris flow with a friction coefficient of approximately tan1° in field, material with a huge volume may be involved. In this research, a steady subaqueous debris flow with a friction coefficient of approximately tan1° was produced by using the rotating flume experiment apparatus (Debris Flow Maker, DFM) with only 40 g of silicon powder. Subsequently, the mechanism of the low friction coefficient was interpreted with the hypothesis of dense agglomeration hitting (DAH). DAH means hitting of the dense agglomeration of dense flow on the flume's bottom plane. The following issues on DAH are considered: (I) the high velocity of the flume's bottom plane induces a strong hitting of particles; (II) the hitting elevates the liquid pressure near the boundary between the agglomeration and the flume's bottom plane; (III) the energy loss due to collision inside the particle agglomeration is limited. The experimental results provide an alternative method of producing subaqueous debris flow and an alternative measurement method of its friction coefficient; the hypothesis provides an alternative interpretation on the mechanism of low friction coefficient of subaqueous debris flow.

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Acknowledgements

The research work described herein was funded by the National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program: 2015CB057806) and the Key Project of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 41630633). This research was also supported by Specialized Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education of China (No. 20120073120020). These financial supports are gratefully acknowledged. Constructive suggestions were proposed by Prof. Bin YU in Chengdu University of Technology, China.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 800 Dong Chuan Road, Minhang District, Shanghai, China

    Jianliang Deng

  2. Shanghai Urban Construction Design & Research Institute, 3447 Dongfang Road, Pudong District, Shanghai, China

    Xiangxia Zhang

  3. Collaborative Innovation Center for Advanced Ship and Deep-Sea Exploration (CISSE) and State Key Laboratory of Ocean Engineering, Department of Civil Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 800 Dong Chuan Road, Minhang District, Shanghai, China

    Shuilong Shen

  4. Department of Civil Engineering, University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113-8656, Japan

    Junichi Koseki

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  1. Jianliang Deng
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Correspondence to Jianliang Deng.

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Velocity of flume bottom plane v = 0.015 m/s recorded with a moving video camera (MP4 4237 kb)

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Deng, J., Zhang, X., Shen, S. et al. Low friction coefficient (approximately tan1°) of subaqueous debris flow in rotating flume tests and its mechanism. Bull Eng Geol Environ 77, 931–939 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10064-017-1081-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10064-017-1081-9

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