Effects of Bed Hydrophobicity on Post‐Fire Debris Flow Entrainment and Momentum Growth

Abstract

AbstractForest wildfires leave vast areas with burned topsoil that is water repellent, susceptible to erosion by surface runoff and a potential source of debris flow. To mitigate post‐fire debris flow hazards, debris resisting barriers are usually constructed in the flow path. However, the fundamental interaction mechanisms of debris flow on a water repellent bed and the momentum exchange process that governs the destructive potential of debris flows have yet to be elucidated. This study investigates the influence of bed sediment hydrophobicity on entrainment by debris flows and the impact force on a downstream barrier using a series of physical flume tests. Bed sediment with increasing contact angles (50°–130°) were used to model bed hydrophobicity from wettable to hydrophobic conditions, and volumetric water content (0%–30%) to simulate the natural unsaturated condition after rainfall in fire‐burned hillslopes. Compared to a wettable bed, a hydrophobic bed exhibits a failure pattern with slab‐by‐slab entrainment and en masse failure with a sixfold increase in the average erosion depth. A new dimensionless number is proposed to quantify the effects of contact angle on soil erosion. The flow momentum increases up to 21% after entrainment of hydrophobic bed compared to non‐erodible bed. The peak impact force on the downstream barrier can increase up to 80% for hydrophobic bed as a consequence of momentum gains after entrainment. The hydrodynamic coefficient for estimating impact force reveals the inadequacy of current design criteria of debris resisting barriers for fire‐prone vegetated hillslopes, suggesting further investigations are needed.