Rockfall impacts with a flexible barrier include both translational and rotational kinetic energy. Traditionally rotational energy is not included in barrier design. Furthermore, the dissipation of translational kinetic energy has been considered only in idealized conditions, such as free-fall experiments.
To study how rockfall barriers absorb rotational and translational energies in realistic conditions we performed a series of full-scale rockfall tests in natural terrain. The test were performed on the 13th of September and 4th of October, 2019, at the WSL rockfall test site located at Chant Sura, near Davos. Exhaustive block tracking as well as internal measurement devices in the barrier provides fundamental data to describe the physical processes detailing rock motion and its impact interaction against protection solutions.
The presented methodologies pave the way to a comprehensive understanding of rock-ground and rock-net interaction, a key requirement to improve the design of flexible barriers that account for the role of rock shape, spin and eccentric impacts in rockfall protection.