The Rosetta Stone Project – Integrating experimental results on debris flow mechanics across the scales: Next results

¹ Department of Civil & Structural Engineering, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, United Kingdom
² Department of Civil Engineering, Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada
³ Institute of Mountain Risk Engineering, University of Natural Resources & Life Sciences, Vienna, Austria
⁴ Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu, China
⁵ Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL), Birmensdorf, Switzerland
⁶ Department of Earth Sciences, Durham University, Durham, United Kingdom
⁷ Department of Civil, Chemical, Environmental, and Materials Engineering, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy

^* Corresponding author: e.bowman@sheffield.ac.uk

Abstract

We present the combined efforts of a research network designed to address the many challenges in the experimental modelling of debris flow phenomena. The approach has been to use apparatuses of different functional arrangement and at different scale with identical and commonly sourced flow materials from the highly idealised (dry, coarse and uniform) to the highly complex (well graded, segregating, fluid saturated). Here we briefly present some key findings of the network and point to the research questions that are currently being addressed. This complementary view of experimental debris flows helps to constrain methodological artefacts/scale effects and to identify key processes responsible for the diverse appearance and often high mobility of debris flows.