Publications de Bertil Trottet

Supershear Crack Propagation in Snow Slab Avalanche Release: New Insights From Numerical Simulations and Field Measurements

The release process of dry-snow slab avalanches begins with a localized failure within a porous, weak snow layer beneath a cohesive slab. Subsequently, rapid crack propagation may occur within the weak layer, eventually leading to a tensile fracture across ...

COPERNICUS GESELLSCHAFT MBH2025

A theoretical framework for dynamic anticrack and supershear propagation in snow slab avalanches

Bertil Trottet

Snow slab avalanches release after the failure and collapse of a weak layer buried below a cohesive snow slab. The initial failure is induced by local overloading of the slab, such that the passage of a skier. This results in the propagation of a subsidenc ...

PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD2023

Using video detection of snow surface movements to estimate weak layer crack propagation speeds

Bertil Trottet, Johan Alexandre Philippe Gaume, Alec van Herwijnen

Dry-snow slab avalanches release due to crack propagation in a weak snow layer under a cohesive snow slab. Crack propagation speeds can provide insights into the potential size of avalanches and inform fracture and avalanche release models. Despite their i ...

CAMBRIDGE UNIV PRESS2023

A Depth-Averaged Material Point Method for Shallow Landslides: Applications to Snow Slab Avalanche Release

Bertil Trottet, Johan Alexandre Philippe Gaume, Denis Aloyse Joseph Steffen, Lars Kristoffer Uhlen Blatny, Louis Marie Cédric Guillet

Shallow landslides pose a significant threat to people and infrastructure. Despite significant progress in the understanding of such phenomena, the evaluation of the size of the landslide release zone, a crucial input for risk assessment, still remains a c ...

AMER GEOPHYSICAL UNION2023

Towards a predictive multi-phase model for alpine mass movements and process cascades

Bertil Trottet, Johan Alexandre Philippe Gaume, Lars Kristoffer Uhlen Blatny, Xingyue Li, Alessandro Cicoira

Alpine mass movements can generate process cascades involving different materials including rock, ice, snow, and water. Numerical modelling is an essential tool for the quantification of natural hazards. Yet, state-of-the-art operational models are based o ...

2022

Transition from sub-Rayleigh anticrack to supershear crack propagation in snow avalanches

Bertil Trottet, Johan Alexandre Philippe Gaume, Alec van Herwijnen, Grégoire Bobillier

Avalanches can occur when a porous snow layer lies beneath a dense cohesive snow slab. Field experiments and simulations now reveal different crack-propagation regimes in slab avalanches, similar to rupture propagation following an earthquake. ...

NATURE PORTFOLIO2022

Crack propagation speeds in weak snowpack layers

Jürg Schweizer, Bertil Trottet, Johan Alexandre Philippe Gaume, Alec van Herwijnen, Grégoire Bobillier

For the release of a slab avalanche, crack propagation within a weak snowpack layer below a cohesive snow slab is required. As crack speed measurements can give insight into underlying processes, we analysed three crack propagation events that occurred in ...

CAMBRIDGE UNIV PRESS2021

Modeling snow and avalanches with the Material Point Method and finite strain elastoplasticity

Bertil Trottet, Johan Alexandre Philippe Gaume, Lars Kristoffer Uhlen Blatny, Xingyue Li

Snow is a complex and fascinating material which can sustain stresses like a solid or flow like a fluid depending upon the load it is subjected to. The transition from solid to fluid state can lead to catastrophic snow slab avalanches. Modeling large defor ...

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