Rockfall Galleries

Rockfall Defence provides its competences to designers and companies and help them optimize interventions where rockfall security is guaranteed through the design of rockfall galleries (i.e. Rockfall Sheds).

The galleries are rockfall defensive works widely spread in mountainous and coastal territories. They are used to solve the problem of falling rocks by mainly diverting the trajectory of the boulder, and often by also stopping its fall. An artificial tunnel designed for these purposes can be tentatively described as a concrete structure covered with a layer of material (cushion) with a damping function. Rockfall Sheds can be distinguished in: traditional arched galleries (slab and pillars downhill); shelf tunnels (embossed slab); polycentric galleries (tunnels).

Rockfall Defence is collaborating with the Department of Structural Engineering at the Politecnico di Milano for the development of a new software for an accurate analysis of the behavior of Rocklfall Sheds in relation to the characteristics of the shock-absorbing cushion. For more details please download the paper BEHAVIOUR OF ROCKFALL SHELTERING STRUCTURES (Abstract RocExs 2011).

The collaboration includes the development of innovative models for the assessment of loads courting tunnels subjected to impacts of blocks of rock. The basic objective is to optimize the tunnel as a whole considering the phenomenon of decoupling between the overburden and the underlying structure. Such an approach often leads to solutions allowing a more efficient, high-performance, economic and aesthetically satisfying job. Knowing the behavior of the cushion that includes the shock-absorbing layer is a necessary condition for evaluating the loads and frequency response of the slab.

According to the information available, Rockfall Defence is able to provide specific solutions rather than optimizing existing projects, providing new technologies for all the structural components (slab, columns, tie rods, roofing material etc.) thus optimizing the entire structure.

Available documentation

Designing Rockfall Galleries - New Approaches

BEHAVIOUR OF ROCKFALL SHELTERING STRUCTURES (Abstract RocExs 2011)

Check also on Slideshare for the Rockfall Sheds presentation

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