Experimental investigation on the interaction between the rapid sliding body and exposed element

Laboratory experiments play a key role in establishing rapid sliding models, as they are conducive to providing similar conditions to those in actual mass movement processes and, most importantly, can be conducted repeatedly. In order to elucidate the mass movement mechanisms and assess the landslide intensity as well as the risk of exposed elements following rapid sliding body, laboratory experiments consisting of releasing dry rigid grains or ceramsite debris onto an oblique chute were designed. The intensity and the vulnerability values were evaluated for sand and ceramsite sliding body that impact a single building, a row of buildings, and a group of buildings, respectively. In addition, the sliding characteristics of the mass and the interaction process mechanisms between sliding solid debris and buildings were also able to be obtained. The results show that the velocity of the front-end sliding mass decreases with increasing of the number of buildings. In addition, the vulnerability value of exposed element and the safety distance could be calculated from the recorded data. However, detailed geological factors of the mass, which are also important factors in this experiment, were not taken into account in the model presented in this paper. Nonetheless, this model can be used as a powerful tool for evaluating landslide instability propagation mechanisms.