Boulders entrained in debris flow induce high impact forces on a rigid barrier. In current design practice, the concentrated load from boulders is estimated using the Hertz equation with a load reduction factor ($K_c$ ). Separately, the distributed load from the debris is estimated using the hydrodynamic equation. The existing design practice is simply adding the estimated loads using the two equations. The interaction between debris flow and boulders during the impact process is neglected. In this study, physical tests were conducted using a newly developed $28\text{-}\mathrm{m}\text{-}\mathrm{long}$ flume to shed light on the impact dynamics of debris flows with and without boulders on an instrumented rigid barrier. Contrary to existing design practice in which the boulder and debris impact loads are added together, the debris provided a cushioning effect to attenuate the impact force of the boulders. This cushioning effect was governed by a reflection wave with a length scale $L_R/d$ (where $d$ = boulder diameter), which serves to cushion thickness on impact. $L_R/d$ from 0.4 to 2.0 can reduce the impact load by up to 80% compared with existing design practice ($K_c=0.1$ ).

Some types of barriers are designed with a clearance between the bottom of the barrier and the channel bed. This feature allows small discharges to pass, thereby reducing the maintenance required over the service life of the barrier. Aside from the practical function of a clearance, it influences the impact force, jump height, and discharge. In this paper, a series of physical experiments was conducted using a 6 m long flume to model the interaction between dry granular flow and rigid barrier with a basal clearance. The ratio between the clearance and particle diameter H_c/D was varied from 0 to 10. The channel inclination was varied from 15° to 35° to achieve different Froude numbers before impact. A new impact model for predicting impact force exerted on the barrier with a basal clearance is presented and evaluated. Results reveal that H_c ≥ 3D is capable of reducing the impact force and overflow. Findings from this study highlight the importance of considering the effects of basal clearance on the design of multiple-barrier systems.

Multiple barriers are usually installed to effectively mitigate large-volume debris flows. Existing multiple-barrier design recommendations ignore the effects of solid–fluid interaction and may cause uncertainties in estimating the flow impact force on subsequent barriers. In this study, a fully coupled, two-layer, two-phase material point method with an incompressible fluid phase is implemented and validated using the experimental results of dry sand, water and sand–water mixture flows impacting on rigid barriers. Numerical parametric study is carried out using the validated model to investigate the effects of Froude number (Fr) and barrier spacing on second barrier impact force. A debris flow volume of 500 m³ is modelled, with the Fr ranging from 2 to 6; these are values relevant to the gentle and steep terrains in Hong Kong. Simulation results show the importance of changes in fluidisation ratio, which is the ratio of basal pore fluid pressure and total stress. The debris flow, after impacting the first barrier, overflows and lands on the slope between the two barriers. The fluidisation ratio of debris flow after landing increases by up to 30%, leading to an increase of impact velocity at the second barrier by up to 80%. Consequently, the impact force of debris flows on the second barrier is underestimated by up to 50% compared with existing design guidelines. This implies that neglecting the fluidisation ratio may lead to non-conservative design of multiple barriers.

This paper examines two successive debris flows that deposited a total of 1.4 million m³ of sediment into the Parlung Tsangpo River in China in 2010. As a result of these deposits, a partial-debris dam was formed in the river. This dam rerouted the discharge in the river along one of the riverbanks, which supported a highway. The rerouted discharge eroded the riverbank and the highway eventually collapsed. To enhance our understanding of the threat posed by partial-debris dams, a field investigation was carried out to measure the discharge in the river and to collect soil samples of the collapsed riverbank. Findings from the field investigation were then used to back-analyze fluvial erosion along the riverbank using a combined erosion framework proposed in this study. This combined framework adopts a dam-breach erosion model which can capture the progressive nature of fluvial erosion by considering the particle size distribution of the soil being eroded. The results from the back-analysis were then evaluated against unique high-resolution images obtained from satellites. This case study not only highlights the consequences of the formation of partial-debris dams on nearby infrastructure, but it also proposes the use of a combined erosion framework to provide a first-order assessment of riverbank stability. Unique high-resolution satellite images are used to assess the proposed erosion framework and key challenges in assessing erosion are discussed.

It is well recognised that the rheology of an interstitial fluid has profound effects on debris flow dynamics. Existing design guidelines for multiple resisting barriers, however, do not consider the rheological behaviour of debris flows explicitly while estimating barrier spacing. A modified overflow equation is proposed, considering an improved overflow trajectory and a new yield stress-based velocity attenuation model, to estimate the overflow distance in two-phase flows. This study experimentally investigates the effects of yield stress of an interstitial fluid on the impact behaviour of two-phase flows with similar Froude numbers against dual-rigid barriers. The flow composition is varied to model a wide range of natural flows based on dimensionless yield stress. The results reveal that the hydrodynamic impact coefficient increases with increasing dimensionless yield stress and exceeds the existing international design guidelines by more than 13%. The existing guidelines underestimate the overflow distance by up to 115%. The modified formulation is verified and conservatively predicts overflow distance for water floods to debris flows. It is recommended that the dimensionless yield stress of interstitial fluid together with Froude number should be used to characterise the impact and overflow dynamics of two-phase flow for a conservative design of dual barriers.