Experimental study on impact force due to collision of rockfall and sliding soil mass caused by seismic slope failure

Abstract

A series of the experiments was conducted to understand the effect of weight, size, shape, stiffness, material of collision object, and type of movement of collision object on mobilization characteristics of impact force. Results from the element rockfall test, rockfall test using slope model, are introduced in the paper. The relationships between the maximum amplitude of the impact force and the momentum were highly scattered depending on the shape, stiffness, constituent material, and type of the movement of the collision object. On the other hand, the results obtained from the tests indicated that the relationships between force product and momentum of the impact load can be expressed by single linear equation with high coefficient of determination although the test conditions were largely different. The knowledge obtained from the reduced scale tests, which are element rockfall test and rockfall test using slope model, extended to the prototype scale by referring to the results of the dynamic centrifuge model test and pendulum test conducted by authors and others. By reflecting these knowledges, a concept of the energy-based design approach, which makes it possible to rationalize the design of the protection wall for rockfall and sliding soil mass, is also proposed.