Collapse of granular-liquid mixtures over rigid, inclined beds

This work deals with the propagation of granular-liquid waves over rigid beds, originated by the sudden removal of a sluice gate in a rectangular, inclined flume. In particular, we experimentally investigate the role of the initial volume ratio of granular material-monodispersed plastic cylinders-to water, the flume width, and the bed roughness on the time evolution of the granular front. Due to the presence of the interstitial liquid, we observed previously unreported types of collapse: (i) discontinuous flows, where the granular material stops after an initial spreading, and then flows again when the liquid, initially slower than the particles, reaches the front and remobilizes it; (ii) flows evolving into uniformly progressive waves at an angle of inclination of the flume well below the angle of repose of the dry granular material. We also noticed an unusual influence of the lateral confinement on the wave propagation. Indeed, the constant front velocity in the uniformly progressive state decreases when the channel width increases. We claim that the latter observation and the presence of discontinuous flows, strongly support the idea that only two-phase, stratified mathematical models can predict the behavior of unsteady, granular-liquid mixtures at high concentration, such as debris flows.