A combined method for modeling the triggering and propagation of debris flows

Abstract

This study describes a combined method for rainfall-induced debris flow initiations (landslides) and propagations including a series of numerical analyses. In this study, the debris is assumed as a mixture of soils and water which is physically non-Newtonian fluid. The emphasis is placed on applying the effect of the combination of rainfall-induced landslides and debris flows to the numerical analysis. An analysis of rainfall-induced landslides is conducted to identify the thickness and location of the initial volume of debris flow. The movement of debris flow is subsequently simulated considering entrainments affected by the initial wetting condition (wetting front) estimated from the rainfall-infiltration analysis. The proposed method can simulate a sequential process from the initiation of the debris flows to the deposition based on the prediction of slope failure by rainfall, fluid dynamics based on Navier–Stokes equation, and the analysis of entrainments by considering the effect of the weight of debris and the wetting condition of soil beds. Based on the numerical results of this study, the proposed method could be applied to the analysis of regional-scale landslides and debris flows.