An experimental comparison of half-scale rockfall protection sandwich structures

A. Heymann (1) , Stéphane Lambert (1) , E. Haza-Rozier (2) , G. Vinceslas (2) , P. Gotteland (3)

1 UR ETGR (ETNA) - Érosion torrentielle, neige et avalanches
2 CER ROUEN
3 3SR - Laboratoire sols, solides, structures - risques [Grenoble]

Protection against falling rocks often requires the building of civil engineering structures such as soil reinforced embankments. A recent development consists in building a sandwich cellular structure for this purpose. Cellular structures are efficient technological solutions widely used in civil engineering for various applications. These structures also appear to be well suited to resist rockfall and to act as protective structures against impacts. This paper investigates the behaviour of three sandwich structures based on half-scale experiments. The 1.5 m high cellular sandwich structures were leaned against a concrete wall with the facing made of geocells filled with a coarse granular material. Three different granular materials were used for the kernel part of the sandwich (between the facing and the wall). The experiments were carried out with dead load pendular impacts by a 260 kg spherical boulder with maximal impact energy of 10 kJ. The aim was to evaluate the ability of each kernel material for reducing the stress on the concrete wall.

Mots clés: CHUTE DE PIERRES; STRUCTURE DE PROTECTION; RESISTANCE MECANIQUE; GABION; SCRAPPED-TYRES

Domaines: Ingénierie de l'environnement

A. Heymann, Stéphane Lambert, E. Haza-Rozier, G. Vinceslas, P. Gotteland. An experimental comparison of half-scale rockfall protection sandwich structures. 11th International Conference on Structures Under Shock and Impact (SUSI), Jul 2010, Tallinn, France. p. 15 - p. 26. ⟨hal-00523389⟩