A shallow constitutive law-based granular flow model for avalanches

Abstract In this paper, we analyze the constitutive laws of a hydraulic dynamic model, the Savage–Hutter (S–H) model, and the Hungr model. To overcome their limitations, we adopt a frictional viscoplastic constitutive law for dense granular flow and propose a new constitutive law-based dynamic model for avalanches by simplifying the internal stresses for shallow granular flow. The range of the earth pressure coefficient in each model is studied and compared. Finally, we compare the previous experimental results with those obtained from the proposed model and the S–H model, and we find that the new model can capture the flow properties of an avalanche.