Estimating total resisting force in flexible barrier impacted by a granular avalanche using physical and numerical modeling

Flexible barriers are a promising tool for protection against extremely rapid landslides such as debris flow and debris avalanches. With landslide impacts of any size, the total force induced within the barrier and transferred to the anchorage is a fundamental question to design. Current practice limits the investigation to flow parameters, neglecting the behavior of the structure, which can vary significantly. This paper describes steps taken to quantify the total force induced within a flexible barrier. It describes laboratory experiments of dry granular flow against rigid and flexible barriers with observations of resisting force and other filling processes that provide an understanding of the behavior and possible flow–structure interaction for larger scale rapid landslides. Results from the experiments suggest that for granular flows with high discharge the current practice sufficiently quantifies the total force, and for those with lower discharge, the total force is better characterized by active lateral earth pressure calculations. Test results were also used to validate an adaptation to an existing depth-integrated numerical model for landslide mobility to quantify the total force. This model was then used to estimate the resisting forces induced within a full-scale flexible barrier impacted by a controlled debris flow.