THIS PROJECT PROPOSES TO CONDUCT A LIMITED NUMBER OF MUCK FLOW EXPERIMENTS USING A CONTROLLED MUCK MATERIAL AND A SPECIALLY FABRICATED CHUTE SYSTEM.

THIS PROJECT PROPOSES TO CONDUCT A LIMITED NUMBER OF MUCK FLOW EXPERIMENTS USING A CONTROLLED MUCK MATERIAL AND A SPECIALLY FABRICATED CHUTE SYSTEM. THE PROJECT WILL ATTEMPT TO DETERMINE HOW SOME OF THE FLOW FACTORS INTERACT WITH ONE ANOTHER TO INFLUENCE MUCK FLOW RATE. MEASUREMENTS OF MASS FLOW RATE IN TERMS OF THE RATE OF MUCK ACCUMULATION AT THE END OF THE CHUTE WILL BE MADE FOR 2 CHUTE ANGLES AND 3 CHUTE LENGTHS. RESULTS WILL BE COMPARED WITH INDEPENDENT COMPUTER SIMULATION OF MUCK CHUTE FLOW USING A DISCRETE ELEMENT COMPUTER PROGRAM. THE PROPOSED WORK IS PLANNED AND ORGANIZED AS A FIRST STEP IN THE CONTEXT OF A MAJOR EFFORT DIRECTED TOWARDS DEVELOPING AN OVERALL UNDERSTANDING OF MUCK AND DEVELOPMENT OF A CURRENT MANUAL OF PRACTICE SUITABLE FOR USE BY INDUSTRY AND GOVERNMENT AGENCIES INVOLVED IN UNDERGROUND AND EXCAVATION TECHNOLOGY.