Particle shape effect of granular column collapse on an erodible bed: A superquadric DEM study
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https://doi.org/10.15625/0866-7136/23723Keywords:
erosion mechanism, erodible bed, granular collapse, particle shape, runout distanceAbstract
Granular flows are common phenomena observed in natural disasters such as landslides and rock avalanches. These geophysical mass flows commonly exhibit inherently complex behavior due to the interplay of multiple impact factors, especially the particle shape effect and the underlying erodible bed. In this work, we systematically study the effects of particle shape on granular column collapse on an erodible bed using the superquadric discrete element simulations. The non-spherical particle shapes are accurately defined utilizing the aspect ratio A and blockiness B, resulting in a change from elongated to platy and cubic shapes. The granular column is composed of different superquadric grains; meanwhile, the erodible bed is kept constant in a weak binary-size mixture of spherical grains for simply describing and quantifying the erosion behavior of erodible grains. The results show that the degrees of erosion slightly increase with decreasing elongation of superquadric grains. The runout distance of the granular columns changes complicatedly with the increase of the particle aspect ratio, while it declines significantly with increasing blockiness. The blockiness of superquadric grains also reveals significant impacts on the erosion behavior of granular materials. These findings may improve the understanding of more general scenarios of granular mass flows on complex surfaces such as an erodible bed.
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National Foundation for Science and Technology Development
Grant numbers 107.01-2025.106
