In mountainous areas, channelized rock avalanches swarm downslope leading to large impact forces on building structures in residential areas. Arrays of rock avalanche baffles are usually installed in front of rigid barriers to attenuate the flow energy of rock avalanches. However, previous studies have not sufficiently addressed the mechanisms of interaction between the rock avalanches and baffles. In addition, empirical design approaches such as debris flow (Tang et al., Quat Int 250:63–73, 2012), rockfall (Spang and Rautenstrauch, 1237–1243, 1988), snow avalanches (Favier et al., 14:3–15, 2012), and rock avalanches (Manzella and Labiouse, Landslides 10:23–36, 2013), which are applied in natural geo-disasters mitigation cannot met construction requirements. This study presents details of numerical modeling using the discrete element method (DEM) to investigate the effect of the configuration of baffles (number and spacing of baffle columns and rows) on the impact force that rock avalanches exert on baffles. The numerical modeling is firstly conducted to provide insights into the flow interaction between rock avalanches and an array of baffles. Then, a modeling analysis is made to investigate the change pattern of the impact force with respect to baffle configurations. The results demonstrate that three crucial influencing factors (baffle row numbers, baffle column spacing, and baffle row spacing) have close relationship with energy dissipation of baffles. Interestingly, it is found that capacity of energy dissipation of baffles increases with increasing baffle row numbers and baffle row spacing, while it decreases with increasing baffle column spacing. The results obtained from this study are useful for facilitating design of baffles against rock avalanches. 相似文献
In nature, soils are often composed of varying amounts of clay, silt and sand. Variation of the percentage of these compositions can affect the final strength of the soils when stabilised with cement. In this study, focus was placed on clayey soils with different gradation of sand impurities up to 40% in mass. An extensive study of such clayey soils treated with cement was investigated. For the results, it is noted that water:cement ratio was a major influence of strength development of cement-treated clayey soils. In contrast, the soil:cement ratio was found to have minor effects on the strength development. The presence of sand impurities has a significant reduction on the strength development of the cement-treated clayey soil mixture due to more free water available for hydration. The use of free-water:cement ratio is adopted which was shown to be capable of adjusting for such change in amount of free water and water holding capacity of the clay which is determined with Atterberg’s liquid limit tests. The effects of gradation (fine, coarse and well-graded) of the sand impurities were found to affect strength development minimally, owing to similarities in their liquid limits when mixed with clay. Ordinary Portland cement (OPC)-treated clayey soils produced a more rapid gain in strength but lower final strength at 28 days of curing as compared with Portland blast furnace cement (PBFC). This is found to be persistent for different gradation of sand impurities. A linear correlation can be established based on the log of the unconfined compressive strengths developed at different curing age, with slopes of these linear trends found to be similar for PBFC and OPC-treated clayey soil specimens. Finally, a strength prediction model comprising of these findings is developed. The parameters adopted in this model coincide with values proposed by past studies, thereby validating the robustness of the model. The practical benefits from this study offer a quality control scheme to forecast long-term performance of cement-treated clayey soils as well as optimise cement dosage in cement stabilisation to produce a more cost-effective and less environmental-invasive usage of the technology in geotechnical applications.
Acta Geotechnica - Suffusion is a typical form of internal erosion for gravel soils in which fine particles are detached by seepage and transport by water through pores. The prediction of erodible... 相似文献
