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Stability of volcanic ash aggregates and break-up processes

Mueller, Sebastian B.; Kueppers, Ulrich; Ametsbichler, Jonathan; Cimarelli, Corrado; Merrison, Jonathan P.; Poret, Matthieu; Wadsworth, Fabian B.; Dingwell, Donald B.

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Authors

Sebastian B. Mueller

Ulrich Kueppers

Jonathan Ametsbichler

Corrado Cimarelli

Jonathan P. Merrison

Matthieu Poret

Donald B. Dingwell



Abstract

Numerical modeling of ash plume dispersal is an important tool for forecasting and mitigating potential hazards from volcanic ash erupted during explosive volcanism. Recent tephra dispersal models have been expanded to account for dynamic ash aggregation processes. However, there are very few studies on rates of disaggregation during transport. It follows that current models regard ash aggregation as irrevocable and may therefore overestimate aggregation-enhanced sedimentation. In this experimental study, we use industrial granulation techniques to artificially produce aggregates. We subject these to impact tests and evaluate their resistance to break-up processes. We find a dependence of aggregate stability on primary particle size distribution and solid particle binder concentration. We posit that our findings could be combined with eruption source parameters and implemented in future tephra dispersal models.

Citation

Mueller, S. B., Kueppers, U., Ametsbichler, J., Cimarelli, C., Merrison, J. P., Poret, M., …Dingwell, D. B. (2017). Stability of volcanic ash aggregates and break-up processes. Scientific Reports, 7(1), Article 7440. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-07927-w

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Jul 5, 2017
Online Publication Date Aug 7, 2017
Publication Date Aug 7, 2017
Deposit Date Mar 20, 2018
Publicly Available Date Apr 18, 2018
Journal Scientific Reports
Publisher Nature Research
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 7
Issue 1
Article Number 7440
DOI https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-07927-w

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Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Copyright Statement
This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.





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