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Experimental study of the dissipative efficiency of a multilayered protective

structure against rockfall impact

Article in Revue européenne de génie civil · March 2006

DOI: 10.1080/17747120.2006.9692829

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Experimental study of the dissipative
efficiency of a multilayered protective
structure against rockfall impact

Julien Lorentz* — Frédéric Victor Donzé* — Pascal Perrotin** —

Pierre Plotto***

* Laboratoire Sols, Solides, Structures

CNRS/Université Joseph Fourier
BP 53, 38041 Grenoble cedex 9
{Frederic.Donze, Julien.Lorentz}@hmg.inpg.fr
** Laboratoire du LOCIE
Université de Savoie
73376 Le Bourget du Lac
Pascal.Perrotin@univ.savoie.fr
*** Bureau d’étude IMS RN
Parc Pré Millet
rue Aristide Bergès
38330 MONTBONNOT

ABSTRACT. An experimental investigation of impact test is carried out to study a new

multilayered protective structure against rockfall. This structure is composed of a concrete
slab and a gravel layer. In order to determine which gravel material should preferably be
used between pozzolana and sand small scale experimental impact tests are performed..
Realistically scaled experiments show that coupling tires which contain geotextile socks
filled with gravel and a thin concrete slab can be an interesting solution to dissipate the
impact energy.
RÉSUMÉ. Une étude expérimentale de tests d’impact est entreprise pour étudier un nouveau
type d’ouvrage de protection multicouches contre les chutes de blocs rocheux. Cet ouvrage se
compose d’une dalle en béton et d’une couche de matériau granulaire. Dans un premier
temps, une étude à échelle réduite permet de choisir la composition de la couche granulaire
entre la pouzzolane et le sable. Ensuite, une étude à l’échelle de l’ouvrage montre que des
pneus contenant des chaussettes de geotextile remplies de tout venant couplés à une dalle en
béton armé peut présenter une solution intéressante pour dissiper l’énergie d’impact .
KEYWORDS: protective structure, rockfall impact, experimental impact test, dissipative
efficiency.
MOTS-CLÉS : structure de protection, impact de blocs rocheux, essai expérimental d’impact,
dissipation.

Revue. Volume X – n° x/année, pages 1 à X

Rockfall impacts on multilayer protective structures 2
 Rockfall impacts on multilayer protective structures 3

1. Introduction

Rockfall barriers are required when it is necessary to stop rocks which are rolling
down a slope. The common passive protection structures against rockfall are net
fences which are mainly used for rockfall energy levels ranging up to 3000 kJ
(Heierli and al., 1981), whereas embankments are designed for higher energy
ranges, up to 50000 kJ (Descoeudres and al,. 1999). The role of these structures is
to stop the rockfall by transferring kinetic energy to elastic and plastic deformation
but also to keep a satisfactory performance in time while not requiring maintenance.
In view of new regulations which will potentially limit the use of metallic nets,
smaller soil or concrete barriers designed to stop rockfall for low ranges of energy
must be “reviewed”. The increasing land pressure in urban areas becomes so high,
that there is a real need to built compact and efficient protective structures. The
effectiveness means a maximum dissipation of the impact energy by the structure
with a minimal influence on the ground. Moreover, this kind of structures must deal
with an optimal weight to avoid destabilizing the ground. Thus, the objective of this
work is to develop a simple, long lasting and low cost structure with a maximum
impact dissipative action when stopping the rockfall.
Instead of simply developing a highly reinforced protective concrete wall, a
multilayered structure is considered. The dissipative process takes place in two steps
(Fig. 1): the first layer made of a regular concrete slab is impacted. In this case, the
destruction of this slab is accepted because a part of the impact energy is dissipated
within the plastic deformation of the reinforcement steel bar (Perrotin, 2002)
(Mougin, 2005). Simultaneously, the slab spreads the load on a second layer which
is made of granular material conditioned in specific manners. It is the deformation
of this granular material which will dissipate the major part of the impact energy
(Montani, 1998).
The present work is divided in two parts. First, small scale experimental impact tests
are carried out, to compare the efficiency of different granular material in dissipating
the impact energy. The transmitted impact force directly gives the level of
dissipation: the lower the recorded impact force, the more the energy is dissipated.
Results are shown for two kinds of geomaterials: Hostun sand and Pozzolana.
Real scale experimental impact tests are studied. A concrete spherical block is
dropped on the horizontal dissipative protective structure. In this configuration, a
gravel like material has been used as the dissipative layer. The choice of this
material has been suggested by the results obtained from the small scale
experiments. Finally, the coupling effect of the concrete slab with the gravel layer is
investigated.
To verify the validity of the measurement device, a reference case made of a single
layer of gravel is studied. The impact loading which depends on various parameters,
 Rockfall impacts on multilayer protective structures 4

such as the height of the rock drop is well known (Montani, 1998). Comparisons can
thus be set up. Then, multi-layer devices, coupling a concrete slab with a gravel
layer are tested. The study focuses on how to contain the gravel material, which has
been noted to be crucial for the efficiency of energy dissipation.

Studied part

Concrete layer Concrete layer

Granular layer

Figure 1. Multilayered protective structure

2. Small scale experimental impacts tests

2.1 Material and composite structure

In this first investigation, the following geomaterials are tested in terms of their
dissipative effects:
–Hostun sand; the sand material used to dissipate impact loading has already
been tested at the LRM laboratory at the EPFL (Montani & aland al., 1996),
providing a set of comparable data.
–Pozzolana; this material has been chosen because of its physical properties.
Pozzolana is a porous and abrasive volcanic rock,. In this experiment, its granular
size ranges from 7 to 12 mm with a dry density less than one, inducing an important
crushing capacity.
After impacting these two geomaterials directly, a concrete slab is added. This slab,
which is on top of geotextile socks filled with sand, will be impacted.
 Rockfall impacts on multilayer protective structures 5

2.2. Experimental set-up

PVC pipe

4m Steel ball

Concrete
slab Support
Wood case
Granular material

Load sensor

Figure 2. Experimental setup

A steel ball is dropped from a measured height and the transmitted impact force on
the structure is recorded with a load sensor (Fig. 2). As its position is on the center
of the holding device, the PVC pipe guiding the steel ball is centered as well. Hence
the impact occurs along the axis of the load cell.
The holding device is made up of a 50 cm wide steel plate with a 1 cm thickness
which lies over a 5 cm thick reinforced concrete slab. The studied structure is
contained in a 30 cm high wood case, which lies directly on the load cell (Fig. 2).
The mechanical link between the wood case and the sensor is not a threaded metal
stem, thus only the compressive load can be measured. With this set up, the
controlled parameters are the following:
– Drop height: 0 to 4 m,
– Steel ball mass: 13.6 kg, 15 cm diameter,
– Material thickness: 10 to 15 cm,
 Rockfall impacts on multilayer protective structures 6

2.3 Results

2.3.1 Tests on granular materials

sand pozzolana comparison

100
Transmitted impact
force/Static force

80 pozzolana10cm

60 pozzolana15cm
sand 10 cm
40
sand 15 cm
20

0
0 1 2 3
drop height m

Figure 3. Sand pozzolana comparison

To compare the dissipative effect of the different materials, a dynamical

amplification factor is used. It is the ratio between the transmitted impact force and
the static force which is only created by the weight of the steel ball.
The granular material has been tested for different drop heights and two
thicknesses (10 and 15 cm). Figure 3 shows that the transmitted load from the
material increases if the drop height increases as expected. Moreover, it is observed
that for the same drop height, the smaller the gravel thickness, the greater the
transmitted impact loading force. Indeed, for a 10 cm thickness layer of sand and a 2
m drop height, the amplification factor is 55 versus 45 for a 15 cm layer.
With regards to the pozzolana, its dissipative action is smaller than for sand.
With a 15 cm thickness and a 2 m drop height, the amplification factor is 55, versus
45 for sand . It should be noted that the evolution of the transmitted impact force as
a function of drop height evolves similarly for the two materials (Fig 3).
After these first tests and for an energy range of 400 J, the advantages related to
the use of pozzolana are not obvious. For higher kinetic energies, the results should
be the same because evidence of crushing is already seen during these low energy
impact tests. Finally, pozzolana seems to be less efficient in dissipating the impact
load than the sand. Thus, for future tests, sand or gravel will only be used.
 Rockfall impacts on multilayer protective structures 7

2.3.2 Impact spreading loading effect

An initial test was performed on a concrete slab lying on a 15 cm thick sand
layer. The amplitude of the transmitted force was 3 times that of the observed one
for a 15 cm thick sand layer alone. Thus, if the sand is confined between the
impacted slab and the edges of the wooden case, a major part of the impact loading
is directly transmitted from the slab to the force cell. This confining effect seems to
decrease the possible displacements between grains, which reduces the frictional
dissipative process.
It is now clear that to decrease dramatically the transmission of the impact force,
the granular material must be able to greatly deform. Hence, the chosen solution is
to fill geotextile extensible socks with sand, and setting them in a loose manner. In
Japan, socks are already used for embankments.

Figure 4. Top view on 4 layers of geotextile filled with sand

For the small scale experiments, the diameters of the extensible geotextile socks
increases from 50 to 120 mm once filled and their lengths are 50 cm. The socks are
filled with 1 litre of sand. The experimental set up uses four layers of five socks
regularly spaced. The layers are perpendicular to one another to allow a large
deformation during impact (Fig. 4). The total thickness of the four layers is 15 cm,
such that it can be compared with the sand layer. These socks are not directly
impacted, since a concrete slab overlies them so as to spread the impact force.
The results show that for a 1 m drop height, the amplification factor is about 80
for a concrete slab lying on a sand layer while this value decreases to 40 when socks
are used to contain the sand (Fig. 5).
Thus, these first results suggest that using a loose arrangement of geotextile
socks can be a good solution to allow the granular material to highly dissipate the
transmitted impact force by favouring the dissipative friction process.
 Rockfall impacts on multilayer protective structures 8

socks and concrete slab effect

Transmitted impact force/Static

90 concrete slab+15cm
80 sand
70 4 socks layers
60

concrete slab+4 socks

force

50

40
layers
30

20

10

configurations

Figure 5. Socks and concrete effects for a 1m drop height

To confirm the important role of the concrete slab, it has also been observed that
directly impacting the geotextile socks amplifies the transmitted impact loading by
65, as compared to the ratio of 40 when in the presence of the concrete slab, (this
comparison was made for a 1 m drop height). Thus, coupling the concrete slab
which spreads the impact force on the sand filled geotextile socks induces a larger
frictional dissipation between the sand grains.

3. Structure scale experimental impact tests

3.1 Experimental set-up

Figure 6. Sandwich structure and ductal concrete impacting block

In order to simulate a rockfall impact, a reinforced concrete slab is impacted by a

spherical block, made of “ductal” concrete, dropped from a given height. The
 Rockfall impacts on multilayer protective structures 9

density of the impacting block is close to that of a rock. The spherical block’s
weight is 650 kg and it has a 80 cm diameter. During these first tests, it is dropped
from 1 to 5 m heights. The dimensions of the concrete slab are 1.5 m in width by 2
m in length with a thickness of 0.7 m (Fig. 6).
3.1.1 Tested structures

Figure 7. On the left, an impact occurring on car tires totally filled with gravel; on
the right, an impact on a concrete slab covering tires filled with gravel

The first impact tests were carried out on a simple 40 cm thick gravel layer . This
configuration has been chosen in reference to the previous tests done by the LMR
laboratory (Montani, 1996), in order to validate the present measurements.
The second configuration that is studied is a layer made of twenty-one car tires
totally filled by the same kind of gravel material. Tires are used because when
integrated in rockfalls barriers, they will stand vertically as containers of the
dissipative gravel layer.
Finally, several impact tests were performed on a concrete slab covering tires
half filled with gravel. It was shown previously in the small scale experiments, that
it was better to store the sand in a loose manner in order to avoid a confining effect
while increasing the dissipative frictional process. To do so, geotextile socks were
introduced in piles of tires filled with gravel. This resulted in empty flank spaces in
the tires.
The impacted concrete slab is 10 cm thick and built with a 30 MPa compressive
strength concrete, reinforced with a strong density of steel bars (20 kg of steel for
0.3 m3 -> pas d’unité plus aisée, ex : en %?).
3.1.2 Instrumentation
 Rockfall impacts on multilayer protective structures 10

The structure was equipped with a set of sensors connected to a data acquisition
station whose sampling rate is 7000 Hz; the following sensors were installed:
– An accelerometer (± 5000 g vertically) in the impacting block to measure
impact deceleration. (Frequencies range between 1 and 10 000 Hz),
– Three load sensors (capacity 1000 kN) positioned under the concrete slab
support to record the transmitted impact force,
– Two accelerometers (± 500 g vertically) under the concrete slab support to
measure vibration (frequencies range between 1 and 10 000 Hz),
– Two high-speed cameras (1000 frames per second) to record the impact.

3.2 Results

3.2.1 Impact on a single gravel layer

Several impact tests were performed for different heights on a single gravel
layer. The granular size of the 40 cm thickness gravel layer is 1 to 31,5 mm. For
every tests, the gravel layer was mixed to avoid post impact compaction effects. In
addition, the penetration depth was measured.
For different impact tests, when the drop height increases the impact loading
time decreases (see Table 1) Moreover, the evolution of the transmitted impact force
versus the drop height is quite comparable to the one observed by Montani during
tests in EPFL (Montani, 1998), which tends to validate the experimental setup.
Drop height (m) Transmitted impact Weight impact penetration depth Impact duration
force (kN) force (kN) (cm) (ms)
2 315 214 12 33
3 400 237 16 32
4 540 326 16 28
5 560 357 18 27
Table 1. Gravel layer results
 Rockfall impacts on multilayer protective structures 11

3.2.2 Impacts on tires filled with gravel

Figure 8. The transmitted impact force recorded during impact on tires filled with
gravel for a 2m drop height

The impact tests were performed on 21 tires arranged in 3 piles totally filled with
gravel. The drop heights ranged from 2 to 5 m. When impacting this configuration,
the impact time was about 50 ms, which was longer than the one observed for the
single gravel layer. It was also observed that the impactor bounced back. A
maximum value of 234 kN for the transmitted impact force was observed (see
Figure 8) which is associated with structure vibrations after the first peak.
Configuration Transmitted impact force (kN) Duration time (ms)
Tires without compacting 308 49
Compact tires 679 30

Table 2. Gravel layer results for 3 m drop height

Several tests have been carried out on the same structure. It has been shown that
the compaction has a dramatic effect on the transmitted force, as shown in table 2.
For impact tests on previously-impacted tires, the transmitted impact force can
double from 308kN to 679kN for intact tires. Hence, when using intact tires the
impact loading dissipation is more efficient.
 Rockfall impacts on multilayer protective structures 12

3.2.3 Concrete slab coupled with gravel-filled tires

Figure 9. Transmitted impact force recorded during impact on a concrete slab on

top of piles of tires filled with gravel, for 2m drop height

Figure 10. On the left, a view of geotextile extensible socks filled with gravel
introduced in 3 piles of tires,, on the right, damage on the concrete slab after
impact.

Tests have been performed on this composite structure for 2 and 5 m drop
heights. During the impact, the concrete slab was highly damaged but not perforated
(see Fig. 10). The time history of the transmitted impact force for a concrete slab on
top of tires filled with gravel (see Fig. 9) shows a difference if the tires are totally or
half-filled. Note that when the tires are totally filled with gravel, the total mass is
1406 kg, whereas, when using geotextile extensible socks,the total mass is about 730
kg. Increasing the deformation capability of the tire sets induces a longer impact
 Rockfall impacts on multilayer protective structures 13

signal in time (from 50 ms to 100ms). This is associated to a decrease of the

transmitted impact force (from 233 kN to 95 kN).
When using geotextile extensible socks a larger deformation can occur in the
gravel layer which favours the efficiency of the frictional dissipation effect.

3.3. Discussion

These results are quite preliminary. However, they show that when impacting a
simple layer from different drop heights, the evolution of the impact forces is similar
to the one observed by other authors, which strengthens the present results. The use
of a concrete slab on top of piles of tires which are partially filled with gravel seems
to decrease the value of the transmitted impact force. A part of the impact energy is
involved in the fracturing process with plastification of the rebars in the concrete
slab (Perrotin, 2002) and concrete compaction (Burlion and al, 2001). In addition to
this process, the slab spreads the loading force on all tires, thus increasing the
dissipative efficiency.

4 Conclusion

The aim of the small scale experimental investigation was to give some
indications about the energy dissipation capabilities of different material and
structure combinations. The experimental results have shown that the sand layer
produces a better dissipative effect than the pozzolana. However, one must be
careful about these experimental results because the impact energy ranges are only
about 400 J.
With regards to the real scale experiments, several configurations were tested to
study their capability to dissipate the impact energy. Recall that in these tests the
energy level remains low.(30 kJ). For the tests done on tires filled with gravel, it has
been seen that the compaction process has a major effect on the peak value of the
transmitted impact force. This force can be two times larger when tires are
compacted.
The best results in terms of efficiency are obtained when using a concrete slab
which is allowed to break and which spreads the loading force on piles of tires
which contain geotextile socks filled with gravel. This multilayer configuration can
be an interesting solution to dissipate the impact energy of the falling or rolling
block.
 Rockfall impacts on multilayer protective structures 14

4. Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to the IMS-RN company for its financial support, as
well as the “Pôle Grenoblois d’Etudes et de Recherche pour la Prevention des
Risques Naturels”. The authors acknowledge the “Léon Grosse” company for the
experimental test site. Thanks are also extended to Pascal Perrotin for his help for
instrumentation acquisition.

5. Bibliographie

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