Safety assessment method of steel protective structure against large-scale debris flow

Recently, steel pipe open type protective structures (steel open dams) have been damaged because of large-scale debris flow resulting from torrential rainfall based on abnormal climate. This article proposes a safety assessment method for the load-carrying capacity of a steel open dam against large-scale debris flow load (level II load) using the energy constant law. First, the safety assessment method of steel open dams is proposed that the ultimate strength must be larger than the required strength against the level II load, which is determined by using the energy constant law. Second, the load-carrying capacities of three types of steel open dams with different structural shapes against the front and eccentric debris flow loadings are investigated by a push-over analysis. Finally, the safety assessments on load-carrying capacities against the front and eccentric debris flow loading are confirmed and the strength reduction by the eccentric loading is examined for three steel open dams.