To characterize the hypermobility mechanism of rock avalanches, a series of rotary shear tests at different shearing velocities (Veq) ranging from 0.07 m/s to 1.31 m/s and at a normal stress of 1.47 MPa were carried out on soil sampled from the basal facies of the Yigong rock avalanche that occurred in the Tibetan plateau in China. Through conducting these tests, the macroscale and microscale features of the deformed samples were analyzed in detail with the following valuable conclusions being reached: (1) soil subjected to rotary shear exhibits a clear velocity‐dependent weakening characteristic with an apparent steady state friction of 0.13 being reached at Veq ≥ 0.61 m/s, (2) high‐temperature rises and layers with high porosity were observed in the samples sheared at Veq ≥ 0.61 m/s, and (3) the cooperation of thermal pressurization and moisture fluidization induced by friction heating plays an important role in explaining the marked frictional weakening of the soil. In addition, the appearance of nanoparticles due to particle fragmentation should facilitate the weakening of the soil but is not the key reason for the marked frictional weakening.

Rockfalls and rockslides often occur in mountainous areas, and they may develop into rock avalanches because of fragmentation. A series of laboratory experiments were conducted to study the contributions of rock mass structure to the emplacement of fragmenting rockfalls and rockslides. In these experiments, we considered the process of breakable analog blocks with different structures sliding along an inclined plane, impacting at the kink point with a horizontal plane where deposition occurs. The results show that the initial geometrical subdivision (i.e., the rock mass structure) of the source rock can greatly influence the impact of the fragmentation process and total runout, while the degree of fragmentation controls the travel distance of the center of mass. The occurrence of transversal discontinuities enhances the momentum transfer efficiency from the rear to the front part of the rock mass. A negative correlation between the apparent friction coefficient (linked to the total runout) and equivalent friction coefficient (linked to the center of mass runout) was found, which appears to be induced by fragmentation. We proposed a new fragmentation-spreading model to describe this negative correlation. This simple physical model supports the importance of fragmentation in rock fragment trajectories and the runout of rockfalls and rockslides. Fragmentation is an energy-sinking process that will shorten the runout of the center of mass. Thus, we suggest that impact fragmentation does not fully account for the long runout of large rockfalls and rockslides.

No abstract

Knowledge on the interactions between granular flows and their boundaries is essential for understanding granular flow dynamics. In this study, a series of experiments designed with different conditions were conducted using a flume configuration to investigate the granular flow behaviors and dynamics by particle image velocimetry analysis and basal normal stress measurements. The results demonstrate that the velocity profiles and depth‐averaged shear rates of the granular flows significantly vary with grain size, but display insignificant changes with flow volume. For granular flows with higher content of coarse particles, high magnitude fluctuating stresses with values much greater than the mean normal stress are observed. The particle agitation of the granular flow, which is quantified by the normalized standard deviation of the fluctuating stress from the mean normal stress, exhibits a positive correlation and a negative correlation with the solid inertial stress and the equivalent friction coefficient, respectively. This indicates that the enhanced particle agitation related to the high magnitude fluctuating stress should contribute to the mobility of the granular flows. The generation of the high magnitude fluctuating stress is attributed to the high‐frequency and intensive particle collisions in grain‐scale, which is mainly determined by grain size. In this study, the increase of flow volume mostly resulted in an increase in the fluctuating stress related to the mean normal stress, which exhibits a minor effect on particle agitation and has no contribution toward the mobility of the granular flows.

No abstract