Kinetic Energy Model of Two-Phase Debris Flow

A numerical model for two-phase debris flows is developed in this paper, on the basis of understanding of the physical characteristics of debris flows from field investigations and experiments. Employing a moving coordinate, the kinetic energy equation of gravel particles in unit volume in debris flow is developed by considering the potential energy of the particles, energy from the liquid phase, energy consumption due to inner friction-collision between the particles, energy dispersion through collisions between particles, energy for inertia force, energy consumption due to the friction with the rough bed and energy consumption at the debris front. The model is compared with measured results of two-phase debris flow experiments and the calculated velocity profiles agree well with the measured profiles. The gravel’s velocity at the debris flow head is much smaller than that of particles in the following part and the velocity profile at the front of the debris flow wave is almost linear, but the profile in the main flow shows an inverse ‘s’ shape. This is because the gravel particles in the main flow accelerate as they receive energy from the gravitational energy and flowing liquid and decelerate as they transmit the energy to the debris flow head and consume energy due to collision with the channel bed.