Effect of crushing on rock avalanches: constitutive approach

Frank avalanche, which took place in Canada in 1903, is analyzed to understand the mechanisms involved in the processes of propagation using of advanced simulation tools allows to estimate the landslide propagation path, its velocity and the height of the deposits. The scope of the present approach focuses in the influence of the rheological and fragmentation laws in the evolution of the avalanche. The main contribution of the paper is (i) the development of a rheological model coupled with a fragmentation model, and (ii) its application to a real avalanche. We have made a study of sensitivity for different models and rheological parameters, which has helped us to optimize the approximation.