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The assesment of rockfall analysis near a railroad: a case study at the Kızılinler village of Eskişehir, Turkey

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Abstract

Rockfalls from basaltic lava flow hills and the rockfall hazard for the railroad passing along the Kızılinler village (Odunpazarı/Eskişehir) were investigated in this study. Rockfalls are detected between 14 + 000 and 18 + 750 km on the Eskişehir-Kütahya railroad. This part of the railroad is controlled daily in case of rockfall, and the falling blocks on the railroad are cleared by workers. The rapid weathering of the tuff litology under the basaltic lava flows is the cause of the rockfalls. As a result of the weathering tuff unit, the basalt rock particles fall along the discontinuity surfaces due to the gravity forces. The geology of the rockfall region, the properties of the falling rock blocks, and the length to the railroad were investigated during the field study. During field studies, the rock blocks, greater than 5 m diameter that had passed to the other side of railroad, were recorded. In order to define the geologic properties of the rock mass and joint properties, two scan-line surveys were performed in the study area. A series of the rock block falling simulation studies were held with a computer program. The hazard for the train railroad was determined. A series of simple regression analysis was carried out between the fall height, the horizontal length of the rockfall, and the volume of falling rock blocks, and new empirical equations were determined. The evaluation of the estimation performances of some existing empirical equations for the determination of the runout distance of the rockfall using this study data was also performed. However, the prediction performance of the equations proposed in this study and the previous studies was not significant, except empirical equations derived between the fall height and the horizontal length of rockfall. The Rockfall Risk Rating system was applied at the selected slope sections along the study area. Consequently, the study area was classified as under medium risk. Active and passive protective measures were suggested for the study area.

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Funding

This study was funded by the Commission for the Scientific Research Projects of the Eskişehir Osmangazi University (Project ID No: 2017-1343).

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  1. Department of Geological Engineering, Eskisehir Osmangazi University, 26480, Eskisehir, Turkey

    Ali Kayabaşı

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  1. Ali Kayabaşı
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Highlights

• This paper related with the assesment of rockfall hazard near a railroad: a case study at Kızılinler village of Eskişehir, Turkey

• The series of empirical relationships has been developed between rockfall size, height of slope, horizontal length of slope, height of the fall on the talus slope, and the horizontal length of the talus slope.

• But the development of an equation with higher performance is not possible due to that every instability has different special properties, such as geologic structure, surface roughness, vegetation cover, permeability of slope surface.

• In order to define the potential risk of the rockfalls, a rating system for natural rock slopes (Saroglu et al. 2012) was used and maximum risk is defined. Slope 1 and slope 3 having high risk and slope 2 having medium risk in this study. Combinations of active (bolts, anchors) and passive (such as nets active wire rope cable, buttress walls, fences removal of unstable) blocks were suggested under high risk of rockfalls.

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Kayabaşı, A. The assesment of rockfall analysis near a railroad: a case study at the Kızılinler village of Eskişehir, Turkey. Arab J Geosci 11, 800 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-018-4175-1

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