An instability mechanism for the sliding motion of finite depth of bulk granular materials (Q1357303)

A model using a finite depth of elastic sliding bulk granular materials riding on a basal granular shear flow layer is established to represent the sliding motion of large volume of bulk granular materials. The balance and the stability of this sliding system are investigated under the perturbation of internal pressure waves. The generated instability waves will force favorable phase shifts between the overburden pressure and the sliding velocity, leading to a net reduction in the total power loss due to friction. The depth of sliding mass will affect the generation of this type of instability waves. Both analytical and numerical results show that smaller depth slides can induce stronger instability waves than larger depth slides do.