ANALYTICAL STUDY ON APPLICABILITY OF REPLICA SIMILARITY LAW TO ROCKFALL PROTECTION FENCES SUBJECTED TO LOW-VELOCITY IMPACTS OF STEEL BALLS

Abstract

 Determining the response of a rockfall barrier with a chain link wire netting as the impact surface against falling rocks by means of model experiments could be economical. Previous study conducted by the authors revealed that the replica law is valid for model experiments where the chain link wire netting is subjected to static loads. On the other hand, its validity to low-velocity impacts was not clear. In this study, out-of-plane steel ball impact analyses were performed for full-scale and model chain link wire nettings with and without gravitational acceleration in order to analytically investigate the mechanical similarity of rhombic wire mesh. Then, similar out-of-plane steel ball impact tests with and without gravitational acceleration were conducted for a protective fence configuration with rhombic wire mesh as the block face and steel bars as supports, to analytically investigate the mechanical similarity of the chain link wire netting with and without gravitational acceleration.