IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/nathaz/v60y2012i3p971-989.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A prototype experiment of debris flow control with energy dissipation structures

Author

Listed:
  • Zhao Wang
  • Lijian Qi
  • Xuzhao Wang

Abstract

Large-volume debris flow events are defined when the volume of solid materials exceeds 1 million m 3 . Traditional engineering measures, such as check dams, diversion channels, and flumes, are effective for normal debris flow control but are not sufficient to control large-volume debris flows. Experiments were conducted with an artificial step-pool system on the new Wenjiagou Gully to mitigate large-volume debris flows. The old Wenjiagou Gully was buried by 81.6 million m 3 of loose solid material created by a landslide that was triggered by the Wenchuan earthquake on May 12, 2008. The new gully was formed during the scouring process caused by debris flows in 2008. Large-volume debris flows were initiated by rainstorm flood with high kinetic energy. The artificial step-pool system was constructed with huge and big boulders on the new Wenjiagou Gully in 2009. The step-pool system dissipated flow energy in steps and hydraulic jumps. Analysis proved that the step-pool system dissipated two-third of the kinetic energy of flow; thus, the critical discharge for triggering debris flow increased threefold. Due to the step-pool system maximized the flow resistance and protected the bed sediment and banks from erosion, the rainstorm floods in 2009 did not trigger debris flows. In 2010, the step-pool system was replaced with 20 check dams. Huge boulders were broken into small pieces of diameter less than 0.5 m and were used as building materials for the 20 dams. Without the protection of the step-pool system, a rainstorm flood scoured the base of the dams and caused failures for all of the 20 check dams in August 2010. The flow incised the gully bed by 50 m. The loose bank materials slid into the flow mixed with water and formed a large-volume debris flow with a volume of 4.5 million m 3 . Many houses were buried by the debris flow, and 12 people were killed. Comparison of the two strategies proved that energy dissipation structures are necessary for controlling large-volume debris flows. Check dams, if they are stable, may reduce the potential of bank failures and control debris flows. The step-pool system dissipates flow energy and control gully bed incision and bank failure. A combination of check dams and step-pool systems may be the most effective for mitigating debris flows. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2012

Suggested Citation

  • Zhao Wang & Lijian Qi & Xuzhao Wang, 2012. "A prototype experiment of debris flow control with energy dissipation structures," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 60(3), pages 971-989, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:nathaz:v:60:y:2012:i:3:p:971-989
    DOI: 10.1007/s11069-011-9878-5
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s11069-011-9878-5
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11069-011-9878-5?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. R. Brighenti & L. Spaggiari & A. Segalini & R. Savi & G. Capparelli, 2021. "Debris flow impact on a flexible barrier: laboratory flume experiments and force-based mechanical model validation," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 106(1), pages 735-756, March.
    2. Sen Tian & Xuanyan Dai & Guangjin Wang & Yiyu Lu & Jie Chen, 2021. "Formation and evolution characteristics of dam breach and tailings flow from dam failure: an experimental study," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 107(2), pages 1621-1638, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:nathaz:v:60:y:2012:i:3:p:971-989. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.