Rockfall net fences are multicomponent protection devices for mitigating rockfall hazard. As passive measures, they are used to intercept and stop rock blocks propagation after their detachment from a cliff or a slope. During their design working life, net fences subjected to ageing phenomena, corrosion and impact loads, causing their efficiency loss or even their effectiveness. A multi-matricial procedure for the assessment of the damages, already proposed for drapery mesh systems, is adapted and tailored for these structures. Treating net fences as multicomponent systems and, besides the individuation on the possible failure mechanisms, the effects of each potential damage on the overall behaviour are deeply investigated. Applications on real cases are presented.

Rockfall net fences are multicomponent protection devices for mitigating rockfall hazard. As passive measures, they are used to intercept and stop rock blocks propagation after their detachment from a cliff or a slope. During their design working life, net fences subjected to ageing phenomena, corrosion and impact loads, causing their efficiency loss or even their effectiveness. A multi-matricial procedure for the assessment of the damages, already proposed for drapery mesh systems, is adapted and tailored for these structures. Treating net fences as multicomponent systems and, besides the individuation on the possible failure mechanisms, the effects of each potential damage on the overall behaviour are deeply investigated. Applications on real cases are presented.