Some time ago, Bouchaud et al. [J. Phys. I 4, 1383 (1994)] proposed a basic set of equations to describe surface flows. They assumed in particular that the rate of erosion (or accretion, depending on the slope) was proportional to the local amount R of rolling species. This is natural for thin avalanches, but not for thick avalanches. We discuss here the thick limit and assume that for $R\gg d$ (the grain diameter) the rates become independent of R. This leads to some different features: (i) filling of a silo, for which the steady-state slope is a (decreasing) function of the feeding rate; (ii) avalanches with a sink at the bottom end (“open cells”), for which the profile starts at a certain angle ${\theta }_{\max }$ and ends at the neutral angle ${\theta }_n,$ where ${\theta }_n$ is the angle at which erosion balances accretion and is smaller than ${\theta }_{\max }$ $({\theta }_n={\theta }_{\max }-\delta );$ and (iii) avalanches with a closed end (where the flow stops), for which the angle of repose is not ${\theta }_n$ but ${\theta }_n-\delta ={\theta }_{\max }-2\delta .$ Each avalanche involves a cascade of successive regimes that are described analytically.

• Received 18 March 1998

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.58.4692