Effects of rockfall shape on deformation performance of ground reinforced embankments subjected to lateral impact
a. State Key Laboratory of Geomechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, Institute of Rock and Soil Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, 430071, China
b. School of Civil Engineering, Chongqing University, Chongqing, 400045, China
c. Key Laboratory of New Technology for Construction of Cities in Mountain Area of Ministry of Education (Chongqing University), Chongqing, 400045, China
d. College of River and Ocean Engineering, Chongqing Jiaotong University, Chongqing, 400074, China
e. University of Fukui, Fukui, 9108507, Japan
Abstract: Ground reinforced embankment (GRE) is an economical and efficient protection measure against rockfalls. In various design guidelines of ground reinforced embankments, the impact force of the rockfall is the principal factor, which is significantly affected by rockfall shape. This article conducts real scale tests and numerical tests to observe the external deformation behavior and the internal dynamic response of GREs subjected to lateral impact. Five shapes of the rockfalls corresponding to three contact types are set up in the tests. The experimental results show that the impact surface shapes of the rockfalls govern the penetration deformation patterns of the embankments, and the deformation extent of the disturbed soils. For different contact types between rockfalls and construction materials, the failure mode of the geosynthetics and the displacement distribution of the disturbed soils are distinguishing. The disturbed soils can be divided into two parts, the part surrounds the rockfall mainly expands laterally, and the rest is extruded and slips backward. Basically, the sharpness of the rockfall results in the deeper penetration and the smaller impact force. The influence of the rockfall shape needs to be carefully considered in the design of ground reinforced embankments.
Keywords: Geosynthetics; Ground reinforced embankment; Rockfall shape; Deformation performance; Real scale test; MatDEM
Fig.13. The results of the simulated tensile tests and pullout tests.
Fig.15. The deformation of the simulated Test.2 (a: the uphill face, b: the downhill face).
Fig.16. The slices of the soil displacement field (the simulated Test.2).
Fig.22. The deformation of the geogrids on the uphill face.
Fig.23. The deformation within the ground reinforced embankment.
Liang Xiao, Liang Lu, Lanxing Li, Zongjian Wang, Katsuhiko Arai, Effects of rockfall shape on deformation performance of ground reinforced embankments subjected to lateral impact, Geotextiles and Geomembranes, Volume 52, Issue 5, 2024, Pages 841-859, ISSN 0266-1144.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geotexmem.2024.04.009.