Abstract
Debris-flow breakers have advantage not only to reduce the energy but also to create suitable narrow area, cost-efficient, simply designed, easily repaired and maintained. It is known that two phenomena occur when a debris flow crosses the debris-flow breaker. First, infiltration happens as the process of deposition in the debris flow due to water drains through the permeable deck. Second, the pore water pressure changes on the debris-flow breaker. In this paper, fundamental experiments and numerical simulation are conducted to investigate debris-flow breakers. In addition, a methodology is proposed to assess the suitability of a variable deck shape and change of pressure on the deck according to separation of water. Numerical model to calculate travel length and deposit thickness of different sediments depends on opening size and blocking size. As a result, the optimum opening sizes for sediment A, B and C are 0.3cm, 0.3cm and 0.4cm for blocking size 1cm. Furthermore, the simulated results of the travel length and deposit thickness on the deck are also compared with experimental results.
