Deformative Response of Sheltering Structures Under the Debris Flow Impact

Abstract A relevant issue in the development of disaster risk reduction strategies is played by design of mitigation measures aimed at reducing risk to acceptable values. For rapid landslides, such as debris flows, sheltering structures are very common mitigation measures realized in exposed areas that allow to protect elements at risk and to stop flowing mass. For the design of these works, the debris flow–structure interaction mechanism is very important. The paper focuses on the evaluation of debris flow–structure interaction mechanism in earth reinforced embankments based on an uncoupled analysis of the interaction in two flow cases (dominant static and dynamic). In particular, a novel approach to evaluate the horizontal stress distribution at different time of the impact phenomenon along the upstream face height of deformable sheltering structures considering the dominant flow component has been proposed. First, impact force over the time against structure is calculated. Subsequently, assuming that debris flow is completely stopped by embankment according to a scheme of accumulation of material behind the obstacle, the deformative response of different geometrical types of embankment is obtained by FEM numerical analysis for considered flow cases. The results of numerical analyses are discussed in terms of horizontal displacements in different control points in sheltering structures. The analysis showed that the deformative response of two geometries of embankments depends on dominant static or dynamic components of impact force.