Die klimawandelinduzierten Beeinflussungen der Umwelt stellen für die Bewertungen von fließähnlichen gravitativen Massenbewegungen eine zunehmende Bedeutung und Herausforderung dar. Extreme Bedingungen für Siedlungsräume im alpinen Raum ergeben die Notwendigkeit, Schutzbauwerke zu errichten. Gravitative fließähnliche Massenbewegungen führen dabei für die Siedlungs‐ und Wirtschaftsräume in alpinen Regionen vermehrt zur Bedrohung von Menschen und Infrastrukturbauwerken. Mithilfe von empirischen Modellen können Einflussgebiete, Ablagerungsort sowie die Fließtiefe grob abgeschätzt werden. Bei den verschiedenen numerischen Programmen, die auf der Grundlage der Kontinuumsmechanik beruhen, sind sehr unterschiedliche, meist unbekannte Eingangsparameter notwendig. Zur genaueren Definition der maßgebenden Parameter werden oft Modellversuche durchgeführt, um die verschiedenen Bemessungsmodelle zu validieren. Grundlage des vorliegenden Modellversuchs stellen der Versuchsaufbau und die Untersuchungen an der Universität British Columbia dar, die an der Universität Innsbruck repliziert und erweitert wurden.

Rock avalanches and landslides lead to gravitational flow into their runout areas, which poses increasing danger to settlement areas and infrastructure in the Alpine region as a result of climate change. In recent years, a significant increase in extreme events has been registered in the Alps due to climate change. These changes in the threat to settlement areas in the Alpine region have resulted in the need for the construction of sustainable protective structures. Many structures are rigid, but others are now also increasingly flexible, e.g., net and dam structures, which are mainly earth dams with geogrids. In this study, empirical model experiments and numerical simulations were carried out to estimate the flow depth, the deposition forms and the effects on protective structures. Numerical programs usually require unknown input parameters and long computation times for a realistic simulation of the process. This study shows the results of model tests with different granular materials. Furthermore, different design approaches of different authors are presented. Finally, a design model based on the model tests of the University of Innsbruck for rigid barriers, nets and dams due to rock avalanches is presented.

Gravitational mass movements such as rockfalls, landslides, rock avalanches, or debris flows are increasingly endangering settlement areas and infrastructure facilities in the Alpine region as a result of climate change. An essential component of counteracting the dangers of such events is the construction of suitable protective structures. However, the dimensioning of these protective structures requires in-depth knowledge of the impact process on the structure. Measurements of real large mass movements such as rock avalanches fail due to the large impact forces involved. For this reason, model tests have been carried out by different institutions in different countries in recent decades. An essential aspect of the study of gravitational mass movements using model experiments is scaling experimental results to real events. Therefore, in this study, a model experiment carried out at the University of Innsbruck was recalculated in the first step using the discrete element method (DEM). Subsequently, the experimental results and the numerical DEM model were scaled to a real event using scale factors and then compared again. The aim was to show how well the results of the model tests can be scaled to describe real events of rock avalanches.