A Study of Debris Flow Behaviors According to Rheometer Properties: Focused on the Hwangnyeong Mt. and Umyeon Mt.

A debris flow, a mass movement of soil and water mixture, is generally occurred by heavy rainfall during the rainy season in Korea. Because of climate change, the amount and frequency of rainfall has continually increased these days. Populated areas located in debris flow-prone mountainous areas are commonly subject to debris flow hazards. For this reason, it is necessary to analyze the characteristics of the debris flow behavior for the hazard mitigation. In this study, for two samples from Hwangnyeong Mt. and Umyeon Mt. in Korea, the vane-type rheometer test were performed to estimate the rheological property such as viscosity and yield stress and small-scale flume experiment was carried out to evaluate the characteristics of debris flow behaviors such as front velocity, runout distance and deposition volume. From the experimental results, rheological properties decrease with decreasing volumetric sediment concentration, and debris flow behavior gradually increased with decreasing rheological properties in the experiment. Additionally, in case of Hwangnyeong Mt. which has a high silt and clay fraction, the experimental results show that the amount of the front velocity, runout distance and deposition volume tend to increase higher than Umyeon Mt. as viscosity and yield stress decreased.