A study of the similar material characteristics of fragmenting rock mass physical model

Similar materials in the physical model test of avalanche are the key to the success of the model test. However, the strength of similar materials is high at present, it is difficult to be fractured within the scope of the experiment. The materials can reproduce the clastic process of landslide in the scale model experiment. Thus, we choose five raw materials to formulate similar materials. The five raw materials are barite, quartz sand, gypsum, sodium carboxymethyl cellulose, glycerin and water content. Five influencing factors are analyzed, including the ratio of barite to quartz sand, the ratio of aggregate to gypsum, contents of sodium carboxymethyl cellulose and glycerin, and water content. The aggregate consists of barite and quartz sand. The results show that (1) in all the experiments, the uniaxial compressive strength ranges from 0.12 to 1.47 MPa, the elastic modulus, from 25.51 to 148.12 MPa, the cohesion, from 1.63 kPa to 87.39 kPa, the angle of internal friction, from 22.70° to 35.89°, and the brittleness index, from 0.033 to 0.145. (2) The ratio of barite to quartz sand has the great effect on the angle of internal friction. (3) With the decrease in the ratio of aggregate and cement, the cohesion first increases and then decreases. Sodium carboxymethyl cellulose has the greatest influence on the parameters of the similar materials, especially the uniaxial compressive strength. Therefore, it is important to control the sodium carboxymethyl cellulose, glycerin and water content and adjust the mass ratio of barite to quartz sand and the mass ratio of aggregate and cement. The obtained similar materials can be used to simulate the clastic process of avalanche when the similarity ratio is approximately 1∶600.