Analysis of large-scale guiding flexible rockfall barriers of steel wire-ring nets using an improved truss equivalent method

Optimizing guiding flexible rockfall barriers (GFRBs) requires understanding how slope topography influences energy attenuation and system loads, a task often hindered by the high computational cost of conventional models. This study develops an improved truss equivalent method (TEM) for steel wire-ring nets, featuring a mechanically-informed exponential hardening constitutive model. Panel-level and full-scale field test validations confirmed the TEM's high accuracy, yielding prediction errors below 10% for key structural parameters and under 5% for the rockfall energy attenuation rate (REAR). Crucially, the TEM achieves a 12-fold computational efficiency increase over the conventional circular beam model (CBM). Subsequently, the TEM was applied to systematically evaluate GFRB performance across varied slope angles (30°–90°) and shapes (straight, convex, concave, stepped, composite). The parametric analysis reveals a strong negative linear correlation between REAR and slope angle under protected conditions. Furthermore, slope shape dictates overall system performance: GFRBs exhibit maximum efficiency on stepped (100% REAR), composite type II (93.7%), and concave (92.8%) slopes. However, these highly effective topographies simultaneously generate the highest structural loads, with peak net impact forces and support rope tensions reaching 84.2 kN and 68.3 kN, respectively. The established TEM offers an efficient approach for large-scale analysis and a quantitative basis for the optimized design of GFRBs under site-specific topographical and structural conditions.