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SUMMARY:EESS talk on "Unified modeling of snow and avalanche mechanics usi
 ng the material point method"
DTSTART:20180227T121500
DTEND:20180227T131500
DTSTAMP:20260916T042518Z
UID:99f2e2096923e8543df94122d32f0efd03b7a05af8386f06179b5245
CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars
DESCRIPTION:Dr Johan Gaume\, Research & Teaching Associate\, CRYOS\, EPFL\
 n  Short biography:\nDr. Johan Gaume is a research and teaching associate
  in the CRYOS laboratory of EPFL and a scientist at the WSL Institute for 
 Snow and Avalanche Research SLF in Davos. His research is focused on the n
 umerical modeling of snow fracture and avalanche mechanics in order to imp
 rove avalanche forecasting. Last summer\, he was Visiting Scholar in the D
 epartment of Mathematics of UCLA where he worked on a new snow avalanche m
 odel in the research group of Joseph Teran who contributed to the snow sim
 ulations in the Disney movie “Frozen”.\nAbstract:\nAs a snow scientist
 \, the realism of snow deformation in the Disney movie Frozen was a great 
 source of wonder. Behind the magic scenes\, UCLA / Disney mathematicians a
 nd computer scientists developed a snow model called "Matterhorn" based on
  the hybrid Eulerian-Lagrangian Material Point Method (MPM) with a simplif
 ied snow mechanical model. I was convinced that working together and combi
 ning our skills in mathematics and snow physics could improve the original
  model to simulate the complex fracture processes required for the release
  and flow of slab avalanches in view of ultimately improving avalanche for
 ecasting and risk management.\nDangerous snow slab avalanches start with t
 he failure of a weak snow layer buried below a cohesive snow slab. After f
 ailure\, the very porous character of the weak layer induces its volumetr
 ic collapse and thus closing of crack faces. This complex process\, genera
 lly referred to as anticrack\, explains why avalanches can be remotely tri
 ggered from flat terrain. Based on Critical State Soil Mechanics\, we deve
 loped the first constitutive model accounting for mixed-mode failure and 
 weak layer collapse. In particular\, our model is able to accurately repro
 duce the onset and propagation dynamics of anticracks observed in snow fra
 cture experiments using particle tracking velocimetry.\nFinally\, we simul
 ated the release and flow of slab avalanches at the slope scale triggered 
 either artificially (bombing) or accidentally (remote triggering by a snow
 man).
LOCATION:GR A3 32 https://plan.epfl.ch/?room==GR%20A3%2032
STATUS:CONFIRMED
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