Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment (IMHE), CAS

Research Group of Prof. Zhou Gongdan

KAHLIL FREDRICK ERMAC CUI (崔剑)

Position: Associate Professor Institution: Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment, Chinese Academy of Science Research Area: Fluid-Particle Dynamics | Granular Segregation | Debris flows | Rock-ice avalanches Office Address: No. 189 Qunxian South Street, Tianfu New Area, Chengdu
Email: kfcui@imde.ac.cn Website: kahlilcui.me
ORCID: 0000-0002-4249-0330

About Me

Write 5–8 concise sentences describing:

granular flows: particle segregation granular rheology geophysical mass flows`

Education

Academic Appointments

Research Interests

  1. Segregation, diffusion, and drag in solid-fluid flows When grains of different sizes are mixed and are driven to flow, they tend to arrange themselves according to size. This process involves the interplay of complex processes such as segregation, diffusion, and drag. While well-studied in dry granular flows, their behaviors are largely unexplored when their is ambient fluid. My research has been focused on how these three granular processes evolve across a wide range of fluids.

  2. Size, density, and surface friction-driven segregation
    Geophysical mass flows are composed of particles that have different material properties. This is more so for the case or rock-ice avalanches, a dangerous alpine hazard, where the constituent rocks and ice are different not only in size, but also in density and surface friction. One branch of my research is to study and predict what patterns emerge resulting from these material discrepancies and how this re-arrangement affects the run-out.

  3. The breakage-segregation connection Rocks and ice are also different in their shear strength. Ice being the 'softer' material is expected to break easier than rock under similar loading conditions. While particle fragmentation is a well established branch of research, fragmentation behaviors when only one particle breaks while the other does not is, surprisingly, underexplored. In this work, various preferential breakage behaviors and conditions are explored, as well as its impact on the runout and segregation.

Honors and Awards

Research Grants

Selected Publications

Representative Publications (Recent Five Years)

  1. Cui, Kahlil F.E.; Zhou, Gordon G.D.; Man, T.; Huang, Y; Zhang, Y.S.; Lu, X.Q.; Zhao, T. ; Modeling the Dense Granular Flow Rheology of Particles With Different Surface Friction: Implications for Geophysical Mass Flows, Journal of Geophysical Research - Earth Surface, 2025, 130

  2. Zhou, Gordon G.D.; Cui, Kahlil F.E.; Jing, Lu; Mangeney A.; Cui Y.F.; Huang Y.; Chen X.Q.; Segregation-induced flow transitions in rock-ice mixtures : implications for rock-ice avalanche dynamics, Journal of Geophysical Research - Earth Surface, 2024, 129

  3. Cui, Kahlil F. E.; Zhou, G.G.D; Jing, L.; Particle segregation and diffusion in fluid-saturated granular shear flows, Physical Review Fluids, 2022, 7

  4. Cui, Kahlil F. E.; Zhou, Gordon G. D.; Jing, L.; Viscous Effects on the Particle Size Segregation in Geophysical Mass Flows: Insights From Immersed Granular Shear Flow Simulations, Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, 2021, 126(8)

  5. Zhou, Gordon G.D.; Cui, Kahlil F.E.; Jing, Lu; Zhao T.; Song D.R; Huang Y.; Particle size segregation in granular mass flows with different ambient fluids, Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, 2020, 125

Conference Presentations

Segregation-induced flow transitions in rock-ice mixtures : implications for rock-ice avalanche dynamics 10th World Congress on Particle Technology Osaka, Japan (2026) Oral, Rising Star Lecture

Transitions in the size sorting of sheared bidisperse mixtures immersed in fluid, Society of Engineering Science (SES) Annual Meeting, Hangzhou, China (2024), Oral, Invited speaker

Potential segregation and mobility feedback in rock-ice avalanches AGU Annual Meeting Washington D.C., USA (2024) Poster

Particle size segregation and diffusion in saturated granular flows: implications for grain sorting in debris flows. 8th International Conference on Debris Flow Hazard Mitigation, Torino, Italy (2024) Poster

Alliance of International Science Organizations (ANSO) Young Scientists Forum, Chongqing, China (2023), Oral, Invited speaker

Particle size segregation in debris flows: insights from simulations of immersed sheared granular flows. EGU General Assembly, Vienna, Austria (2022) Oral Online

Mechanisms of size segregation in granular flows with different ambient fluids. Powders & Grains 2021, Buenos Aires, Argentina (2021) Oral, Online

Patents / Software

Contact Information