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Rheological properties of simulated debris flows in the laboratory environment

Chi-Hai Ling·Cheng-lung Chen·Chyan-Deng Jan
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Abstract

Steady debris flows with or without a snout are simulated in a 'conveyor-belt' flume using dry glass spheres of a uniform size, 5 or 14 mm in diameter, and their rheological properties described quantitatively in constants in a generalized viscoplastic fluid (GVF) model. Close agreement of the measured velocity profiles with the theoretical ones obtained from the GVF model strongly supports the validity of a GVF model based on the continuum-mechanics approach. Further comparisons of the measured and theoretical velocity profiles along with empirical relations among the shear stress, the normal stress, and the shear rate developed from the 'ring-shear' apparatus determine the values of the rheological parameters in the GVF model, namely the flow-behavior index, the consistency index, and the cross-consistency index. Critical issues in the evaluation of such rheological parameters using the conveyor-belt flume and the ring-shear apparatus are thus addressed in this study.

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Chi-Hai Ling, Cheng-lung Chen, Chyan-Deng Jan. 1990. Rheological properties of simulated debris flows in the laboratory environment. https://pubs.usgs.gov/publication/70016379

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