Experimental Research on the Movement Patterns of Flat-Shaped Block in Debris Flows

Geological disasters occur frequently in China, and large-scale debris flow events have caused serious threats to people’s lives and property. Debris flow has the characteristics of high density and high velocity, especially the presence of large block in debris flow, which makes debris flow a great threat to engineering structures. In order to investigate the movement patterns of flat-shaped block in debris flow, a small-scale flume experiment with precise control was carried out. In the experiment, the flow characteristics of debris flow were measured by distributed sensors, and block model simulated by metal block. At the same time, the triaxial acceleration and angular velocity changes of debris flow block were measured by an embedded inertial measurement unit (IMU). The experimental results show that the movement patterns of block in debris flow is mainly represented by sliding and rotating on the flow plane, and the movement pattern is closely related to the solid volume concentration of debris flow and the density of block. The higher the solid volume concentration and the higher the density of the block, the smaller the peak value and amplitude of the acceleration and acceleration of the block, and the block’s movement pattern tends to slide.