Time evolution of a landslide system with time-varying drying rates

Abstract

We implement the self-organized critical (SOC) differential equation model of the sandpile by Hergarten and Neugebauer [1] using time-varying characteristic drying time τ. In the original model, a constant τ is incorporated on the assumption that drying is purely an exponential process, i.e. the rate of drying is proportional to the amount of water present. In real systems, such may not be the case, because external factors like geometry, material composition and porosity and other external factors may come into play. In this paper, we present the results of representative variations of τ. An initial Gaussian mound degrades differently when given the following characteristic drying times: (a) constant, as in the original model; (b) sinusoidal; and (c) thresholded (hyperbolic tangent function).