Experimental Studies of Physics-Driven Segregation Patterns on Alluvial Fans

Axtell, Robert
2024-06
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Experimental Studies of Physics-Driven Segregation Patterns on Alluvial Fans

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2024-06

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Alluvial fans are depositional geomorphologic features often found where an upland drainage basin emerges from a mountain range. They can form due to debris flows, which carry and deposit water, boulders, and sediment from steeper slopes. Debris flows have a tendency to dynamically segregate particles of different sizes as they travel downslope, creating segregation patterns observable on alluvial fans. To study segregation dynamics in debris flows, we build experimental alluvial fan deposits. We independently vary the amount of clay and the grain size distribution of sand to study the effects on the segregation patterns on the resulting deposit. We found that there is a consistent downfan coarsening trend of sediment down the centerline of the resulting deposit for all of our experiments due to the active segregation in debris flows. This was true except for the smallest sand of experiments with high clay contents.

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University of Minnesota M.S. thesis. June 2024. Major: Civil Engineering. Advisor: Kimberly Hill. 1 computer file (PDF); vii, 161 pages.

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Axtell, Robert. (2024). Experimental Studies of Physics-Driven Segregation Patterns on Alluvial Fans. Retrieved from the University Digital Conservancy, https://hdl.handle.net/11299/265106.

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