Environmental Sustainability: Managing the risk of landslides in the context of climate change

The objective of this GRA is to recreate high mobility debris flows in the laboratory to create the novel observations of landslide shear behaviour during flow needed to further refine predictive models of landslide mobility. Specifically, this collaboration is aimed to unlock the synergy between advanced sensor technologies developed by the team at the Technion led by Professor Mark Talesnick, which the intern (Shay) is part of, with our world class large-scale experimental facilities at Queen’s to explore the fundamental mechanics of soil materials in a wide range of processes including liquefaction and landslide flow. The research focus will be to combine the novel sensor technology which Shay familiar for the measurement of shear and normal stresses and strains within the soil in a granular material with our ultra-highspeed imaging (>100,000 frames per second) to permit hypotheses regarding the role water content to define and control the available friction observed at the base of a landslide. Once armed with this data for a range of different moisture contents, the research team will work with the landslide numerical modelling community to collaborate towards improving the accuracy of our predictions needed to better quantify risk in a changing environment.

Faculty Supervisor:

Andy Take

Student:

Partner:

Technion – Israel Institute of Technology

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Education

University:

Queen's University

Program: