OPTIMAL DESIGN FOR HIGH RESISTANT ROCKFALL BARRIERS

Abstract eng:
Rockfall barriers are key protection systems in mountainous regions worldwide. They are composed of a netting intercepting structure connected to steel posts by means of wire-rope cables anchored to the ground. Additional energy dissipating devices can be attached to the cables. Rockfall barriers are designed to intercept and capture falling rocks with kinetic energies from 100 to about 10000 kJ. They dissipate rock kinetic impact energies by friction and plasticity. The accurate prediction of the dissipation rate, forces transmitted to the anchors and wire-net deformations depends on the approximation of contact interactions among the different structural components of the system. To treat the complex contact interactions occurring in a rockfall barrier in an efficient and accurate manner a computational scheme relying on a general contact algorithm has been developed in previous work. An issue that arises pertains to the tensile and bending coupling taking place at the connections of the chain-link netting. We considered tensile quasi-static laboratory tests to derive FE models that adequately describe such a behavior. In order to deliver a more resistant connection design, a local enhancement is proposed herein. The modified setup is optimally configured via a numerical optimization procedure and its benefits against the standard design are illustrated by means of numerical simulations. The developed modeling tools prove to comprise a versatile platform for enhancing existing designs of rockfall barriers, thereby extending the efficacy and performance of industrial solutions.

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