Contact Force Generated by Impact of Boulder on Concrete Barriers

Landslides and rockfalls are major hazards in mountainous regions. The level of hazard tends to be on the rise amid climate change. Rockfall barriers are constructed as protective measures to protect lives and built infrastructure. Landslide hazard can be accentuated by the impact of boulders on protective installations such as reinforced concrete barriers. Impact action can be divided into localised and global actions. Localised actions are controlled by the amount of contact force generated by the impact. Contact force can be many times higher than quasi-static force which can cause permanent damage to the structure. A large scale experimental investigation was carried out on a reinforced concrete barrier with 280 and 1020 kg hemispherical headed steel impactors. Localised effects on concrete barrier at different impact locations have also been investigated. Experimental data recorded from large scale test will be presented in this paper. It is observed that the amount of contact force at different impact locations are not the same although the amount of delivered impact energy is the same. At high velocity of impact and hence high rate of loading shear failure can be the dominating failure mechanism.