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Mechanical energy evolution in the propagation of rock avalanches using field survey and numerical simulation

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Abstract

Rock avalanches often cause many casualties and considerable property damage due to hypermobility. To better understand the propagation process of rock avalanches, the mechanical energy evolution was investigated based on numerical simulation method and field investigation. Taking the well-known Jiweishan landslide as an example, the kinetic, potential, and dissipation energy elements were extracted from the kinematics parameters, and effective collisions were determined by calculating the local peaks of velocity. The lower velocity regions were observed in the middle portion of the sliding mass. Blocks in these regions were the medium through which the energy was transferred from the back portion of sliding mass to the front portion, acting like the stationary spheres in Newton’s Cradle. The entire sliding mass followed the law of conservation of energy, while the energy evolution of the individual blocks varied by their locations. Considering that more collisions occurred in the front portion of the sliding mass, blocks in this area received more energy during propagation, thus they traveled a longer distance. Furthermore, the energy transfer became more obvious with the increase in the volume of sliding mass, causing a larger travel distance for the rock avalanche.

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Availability of data and material

The data and materials that support the findings of this study are available from the first and corresponding author, Yunfeng Ge, upon reasonable request.

Code availability

The codes that support the findings of this study are available from the first and corresponding author, Yunfeng Ge, upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to Mr. Ross Haselhorst and Mrs. Lea Hickerson in Missouri University of Science and Technology for language editing.

Funding

This work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (No. 2017YFC1501303 & 2018YFC1507200) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 42077264).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Engineering, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, 430074, China

    Yunfeng Ge, Huiming Tang & Changdong Li

  2. Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering, Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rolla, MO, 65409, USA

    Yunfeng Ge

  3. Three Gorges Research Center for Geo-Hazard, University of Geosciences, Wuhan, 430074, China

    Huiming Tang

Authors
  1. Yunfeng Ge
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  2. Huiming Tang
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Contributions

Yunfeng Ge: conceptualization, data curation, formal analysis, investigation, methodology, resources, software, supervision, validation, visualization, and writing original draft. Huiming Tang: conceptualization, funding acquisition, project administration, and supervision. Changdong Li: data curation, software, visualization, project administration, and writing-original draft.

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Correspondence to Yunfeng Ge.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Ge, Y., Tang, H. & Li, C. Mechanical energy evolution in the propagation of rock avalanches using field survey and numerical simulation. Landslides 18, 3559–3576 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10346-021-01750-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10346-021-01750-1

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