Abstract
Wangxia rock mass was situated in Three Gorges around Yangtze River and considered to be one of largest unstable rock mass in China. The present study aims to investigate the damage of Wangxia rock mass and protect the lives of people and shipping from rockfall phenomenon. Mohr–Coulomb model in Universal Distinct Element Code was built to find out the rockfall initiation position. RocFall 4.0 program has been used to calculate horizontal location of rock end-points, maximum bounce heights, total kinetic energy, and translational velocities of the falling blocks of different weights and the input parameters were obtained by back analysis. The results show that the maximum value of bounce height and total kinetic energy is 3.63 m and 2819 kJ respectively at the horizontal location of 152.4 m, where proper protection measures should be adopted to minimize the risk of the damage of the Wangxia rock mass. Finally, the results of simulation indicate that a barrier of 5 m height and 3000 kJ absorption capacity is enough to resist the falling stones.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grant number 51139004], [Grant number 51009085]; Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province of China [Grant Number ZR2010EQ033]; Shandong Province Postdoctoral Special Funds for Innovative Projects [Grant Number: 201002032]; National Natural Science Foundation of China (General Program) [Grant Number 51479106]; the Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province of China [Grant Number 2014ZRE27303]. Great appreciation goes to the editorial board and the reviewers of this paper.
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Sun, Sq., Li, Lp., Li, Sc. et al. Rockfall Hazard Assessment on Wangxia Rock Mass in Wushan (Chongqing, China). Geotech Geol Eng 35, 1895–1905 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10706-017-0203-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10706-017-0203-2