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Analysis Of Rockfall Trajectories And Evaluation Of Concrete Barrier Efficiency

Marchetty, Srikanth

Abstract Details

2015, Master of Science, University of Akron, Civil Engineering.
Rockfall is the movement of rocks down the slope which can be in the form of freefall, bouncing, rolling, and sliding. The movement of rocks on different inclined slopes attains different amount of energies impacting the barrier with impact energy more than the absorbing capacity of a barrier leading to a hazard for highway users. The solution that is adopted by Ohio department of transportation (ODOT) to prevent this hazard is the placement of 32 inch precast concrete barrier (PCB) or to construct a 42 inch cast in place concrete barriers (CIP) along the edge of the roadway. The objective of this research is to perform a full-scale field testing and to investigate the trajectories of the falling rocks to compute velocities and bounce heights at impact and comparing them with the computer simulation programs called CRSP”, and “Rocfall” RocScience Inc.,(Canada). Test Rocks made of reinforced cement concrete were rolled on three different slopes, allowing the Test Rocks to impact the concrete barrier built at the bottom of the slope. The three slopes were made with an inclination of 29 degrees, 45 degrees, 56 degrees. High speed cameras were used to capture the motion of Test Rocks and the videos thus recorded were converted to images to analyze the Test Rocks motion in a software called “PONTOS”. The velocities and bounce heights of the rolling Test Rocks were found by “Pixel Point Method” using PONTOS software. Analysis of almost 68 rollouts was performed to compute the velocities and bounce heights of the falling Test Rocks and plotted to compare the results with that extracted from the computer simulation programs CRSP, and ROCFALL. The velocities and bounce heights of Test Rocks vary significantly based on a given rock, soil characteristics, initial velocity and many other factors. Velocities, bounce heights from CRSP, and RocFall are compared with those obtained from the PONTOS (Field Tests) and found to be inconsistent for a given rock size as there are a number of factors that change the behavior of Test Rocks during its roll. CRSP and RocFall programs underestimated both bounce heights and velocities at the impact location with the simulations performed considering the coefficients from their respective manuals. Statistical analysis was performed to the results obtained from field tests and computer simulations to develop factors that need to be multiplied to get the design values.
Anil Patnaik, Dr. (Advisor)
Robert Liang, Dr. (Advisor)
Desale Habtzghi, Dr. (Committee Member)
314 p.

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Marchetty, S. (2015). Analysis Of Rockfall Trajectories And Evaluation Of Concrete Barrier Efficiency [Master's thesis, University of Akron]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=akron1431019028

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Marchetty, Srikanth. Analysis Of Rockfall Trajectories And Evaluation Of Concrete Barrier Efficiency. 2015. University of Akron, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=akron1431019028.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Marchetty, Srikanth. "Analysis Of Rockfall Trajectories And Evaluation Of Concrete Barrier Efficiency." Master's thesis, University of Akron, 2015. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=akron1431019028

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)