High-speed debris-flows generating 2D impulse waves: Experimental analysis

Abstract

When a landslide or a debris-flow falls in a water body, a big wave, known as impulse wave or landslide tsunami wave, can be generated. That phenomenon can be highly destructive and unlikely predicted, involving dams and shorelines. Disastrous past events have been extensively analyzed and experimental studies have been carried out by different authors, but do not fully account for the description of the phenomenon. In the present study we introduce a new experimental set up installed in the fluvial-morphodynamic laboratory of the GITS team in the Technical University of Catalonia. The experimental device consists of a wheeled box sliding on a steep slope flume, releasing granular material, which enters a 2D basin. Defining a set of governing parameters and after several run of experiment, a description of the behavior of the waves was attempted. First results are here presented and analyzed.