The kinematics and the shear-induced alignment of elongated particles in confined, heterogeneous flow conditions are investigated experimentally. Experiments are conducted in an annular shear cell with a rotating bottom wall and a top wall permitting confinement of the flow. Flow kinematics and particle orientation statistics are computed by particle tracking using optical imaging. Translational velocity profiles show an exponential decay, and surprisingly, only the slip velocity at the bottom is influenced by the particle shape. Rotations are highly frustrated by particle shape, more elongated particles showing, on average, a lower angular velocity. In addition, a clear shear-rate dependency of the proneness of a particle to rotate is observed, with a stronger inhibition in low shear zones. The average orientation of the particles does not correspond to the main flow direction, they are slightly tilted downwards. The corresponding angle decreases with the particles’ elongation. Orientational order was observed to increase with particles’ elongation, and surprisingly was not affected by the applied confinement. A weak but systematic decrease of the orientational order was observed in regions of higher shear rate. At the particle-scale, angular velocity fluctuations show a strong correlation with local particle orientation, particles being strongly misaligned with the preferential particles’ orientation rotating faster. This correlation becomes stronger for more elongated particles, while is almost unaffected by the applied confinement.

In this work, the mechanical response of a steel wire mesh panel against a punching load is studied starting from laboratory test conditions and extending the results to field applications. Wire meshes anchored with bolts and steel plates are extensively used in rockfall protection and slope stabilization. Their performances are evaluated through laboratory tests, but the mechanical constraints, the geometry and the loading conditions may strongly differ from the in situ conditions leading to incorrect estimations of the strength of the mesh. In this work, the discrete element method is used to simulate a wire mesh. After validation of the numerical mesh model against experimental data, the punching behaviour of an anchored mesh panel is investigated in order to obtain a more realistic characterization of the mesh mechanical response in field conditions. The dimension of the punching element, its position, the anchor plate size and the anchor spacing are varied, providing analytical relationships able to predict the panel response in different loading conditions. Furthermore, the mesh panel aspect ratio is analysed showing the existence of an optimal value. The results of this study can provide useful information to practitioners for designing secured drapery systems, as well as for the assessment of their safety conditions.

Monitoring surface displacements of landslides is essential for evaluating their evolution and the effectiveness of mitigation works. Traditional methods like robotic total stations (RTSs) and GNSS provide high-accuracy measurements but are limited to discrete points, potentially missing the broader landslide’s behavior. On the contrary, laser scanner surveys offer accurate 3D representations of slopes and the possibility of inferring their movements, but they are often limited to infrequent, high-cost surveys. Monitoring techniques based on ground-based digital photogrammetry may represent a new, robust, and cost-effective alternative. This study demonstrates the use of multi-temporal images from fixed and calibrated cameras to achieve the 3D reconstruction of landslide displacements. The method presented offers the important benefit of obtaining spatially dense displacement data across the entire camera view and quasi-continuous temporal measurement. This paper outlines the framework for this prototyping technique, along with a description of the necessary hardware and procedural steps. Furthermore, strengths and weaknesses are discussed based on the activities carried out in a landslide case study in northeastern Italy. The results from the photo-monitoring are reported, discussed, and compared with traditional topographical data, validating the reliability of this new approach in monitoring the time evolution of surface displacements across the entire landslide area.

In this article, we investigate the behaviour of a cohesive granular material in a rotating drum. We use a model material with tuneable cohesion and vary the dimension of the drum in the radial and axial directions. The results show that the geometry of the drum may play a crucial role in the material dynamics, leading to significant changes in the surface morphology and flow regime. We attribute this behaviour to the fact that an increase in cohesion causes the grains to feel the sidewalls at a greater distance. Finally, we rationalize the results by introducing two dimensionless characteristic lengths, defined as the ratio of the drum dimensions to a cohesive length, which allow for the interpretation of the variation in the surface morphology and of the different flow regimes observed experimentally.

In this work we discuss a scaling law for wall friction weakening in three-dimensional, dense, fully confined granular flows made of shape anisotropic particles. Using particle-based simulations, we observe a rich variety of kinematics and wall stress profiles by varying the particle-wall friction coefficient and the cell width. We show that in this peculiar flow configuration: (i) particle shape has a negligible influence on translational velocity and granular temperature profiles while the angular motion is strongly hampered for elongated particles and (ii) the mobilization of friction at the sidewalls is affected by both particle shape and flow pattern. Associating data on wall stress and particles kinematics, we find that wall friction mobilization is well described by a scaling law based on a balance between sliding and rolling motion of the grains. We show that the proposed scaling law seems to be very robust, being independent of the main system parameters, e.g., particle-particle friction, particle-wall friction, channel width, vertical confinement, particle elongation, and flow configuration (shear driven or gravity driven). This result highlights the importance of angular motion of the particles for the understanding of the behavior at flat boundaries and may reignite the debate about the relevant variables in theories for dense granular flows.