Experimental Study of Structural Strategy on Debris Brake Performance

Abstract

We performed an experimental study to investigate the effects of structural strategy for improving the debris brake performance. The stony debris flow was generated by releasing water discharge from a tank that contained gravel material. The efficiency of debris brake, debris accumulation pattern and its position parameters was used to evaluate the performance of the debris brake structure. The influences of debris brake slope, opening size and nonuniformity in deck opening size parameters that have not been studied before were investigated for different debris flow conditions. The results showed that the slope of debris brake was the most important factor on debris brake performance. The suitable slope was found to be a function of the debris flow velocity, and it can increase debris brake efficiency up to 10%. The analysis of the experimental data suggests the optimum opening size ratio (i.e., the ratio of opening size to median diameter of debris) smaller than or equal to one. Experimental data indicated that the nonuniformity in opening size of the debris brake cannot improve the debris brake efficiency.