- Title
- On the Dynamic Fragmentation of Rock-Like Spheres: Insights into Fragment Distribution and Energy Partition
- Creator
- Guccione, Davide Ettore; Giacomini, Anna; Thoeni, Klaus; Fityus, Stephen; Buzzi, Olivier
- Relation
- ARC.DP160103140 http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DP160103140
- Relation
- Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering Vol. 56, Issue 2, p. 847-873
- Publisher Link
- http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00603-022-03114-0
- Publisher
- Springer
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2023
- Description
- Fragmentation of blocks upon impact is commonly observed during rockfall events. Nevertheless, fragmentation is not properly taken into account in the design of protection structures because it is still poorly understood. This paper presents an extensive and rigorous experimental campaign that aims at bringing insights into the understanding of the complex phenomenon of rock fragmentation upon impact. A total of 114 drop tests were conducted with four diameters (50, 75, 100, and 200 mm) of rock-like spheres (made of mortar) of three different strengths (34, 23 and 13 MPa), falling on a horizontal concrete slab, with the objective to gather high-quality fragmentation data. The analysis focuses on the fragment size distribution, the energy dissipation mechanisms at impact and the distribution of energy amongst fragments after impact. The results show that the fragment size distributions obtained in this campaign are not linear on a logarithmic scale. The total normalised amount of energy loss during the impact increases with impact velocity, and consequently the total kinetic energy after impact decreases. It was also found that energy loss to create the fracture surfaces is a constant fraction of the kinetic energy before impact. The trajectories of fragments are related to the impact velocity. At low impact velocity, the fragments tend to bounce but, as the impact velocity increases, they tend to be ejected sideways. Although testing mortar spheres in normal impact is a simplification, the series of tests presented in this work has brought some valuable understanding into the fragmentation phenomenon of rockfalls.
- Subject
- rockfall; fragmentation; impact; trajectory; fragment size distribution; energy balance
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1480828
- Identifier
- uon:50570
- Identifier
- ISSN:0723-2632
- Rights
- The Author(s) 2022. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
- Language
- eng
- Full Text
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