Experimental Study on the Influence of Coarse Particle on the Yield Stress of Debris Flows

Abstract

Former studies show that the coarse particle plays a very important role in the determination of the yield stress of fluid-solid mixtures such as debris flows. The characteristics of the coarse particle in these mixtures include particle size, gradation, shape, and type of material. To assess the influence of these coarse particles on the yield stress the concept of equivalent volumetric solid concentration C is introduced. The equivalent concentration can be derived from the volumetric solid concentration by considering the particle size, gradation, shape, and type of material. Laboratory experiments to determine the yield stress of various mixtures were conducted to calibrate the coefficients of these coarse particle characteristics. A yield stress phenomenological expression is proposed using the refined volumetric solid concentration (equivalent concentration), which could be calibrated by the experiments in this study. The validation of this phenomenological expression with data from literature shows good agreements, especially for higher volumetric concentrations of the sediments.

Keywords

• yield stress
• coarse particle
• gradation
• size
• shape