CALCULATION OF COMPACT PRESSURE OF ROCK-FALL ON SHIELD STRUCTURES

Rock-fall is a frequent disaster in western mountainous regions. Engineering practice shows that the compact pressure of rock-fall can be reduced effectively through setting cushion materials on the rock-fall shield structure. The compact pressure of rock-fall is the governing loading in the design of rock-fall shield structures, which, nevertheless, cannot be calculated accurately, resulting in a haltered application of the rock-fall shield structure. Taking a typical rock-fall shield structure as a prototype, based on the rigid sphere punch half-space theory and perfectly elastic-plastic assumption, the paper studied the compact characteristics of cushion materials and deduced the formula to calculate the compact pressure of rock-fall. The study provided a reasonable compact pressure calculation formula for the shield structure design. Results showed that: considering the structure’s elastic-plastic properties, the actual normal impact pressure was far less than the rock-fall impact pressure calculated under the full elastic impact theory; the cushion materials on the rock-fall shield structure could reduce the compact pressure effectively.