Effects of entrainment phenomenon on the rapid and long-runout movement of landslides in Wenjia gully, Sichuan, China

Abstract

As a common phenomenon in landslides, entrainment of loose bed material along the sliding path can enhance both the volume and mobility of the sliding mass, posing a great threat to the life and property safety of people in the affected area. For the purpose of revealing the mechanism of entrainment phenomenon of sliding material in the runout process, a dynamic slice-based model was firstly proposed in the present study. In this model, the motion of landslide body is assumed to follow the rheological law proposed by Voellmy. Additionally, through Voellmy model, the increase in kinetic energy, mass and volume of landslide body and entrainment depth caused by the entrainment phenomenon were taken into consideration. Subsequently, on the basis of the dynamic slice-based model, back-analyses were performed on the Wenjia gully landslide. The effect of entrainment phenomenon on the post-failure motion was analyzed. The calculated results shows that the travel distance obtained from proposed model is closer to field data than that resulted from Scheidegger’s empirical method. Moreover, the peak value of the maximum velocity calculated by this model is in good agreement with that get from the dynamic analysis model (DAN3D). When considering the entrainment phenomenon, the volume of sliding mass increases greatly in post-failure motion. This paper provides a new method for analyzing the entrainment phenomenon in landslide motion.