Research on rockfall impact process based on viscoelastic contact theory

Rockfall collision is the most complex and unpredictable movement pattern in rockfall movement. By examining the rockfall collision process, it will be possible to accurately forecast the route of the rockfall and direct the selection of protective measures. There is no unified quantitative theoretical solution, and the primary research approaches for determining rockfall collision characteristics are experiments and numerical simulation. In this paper, the rockfall is simplified as a sphere, and the rockfall impact mechanics model is constructed based on the viscoelastic contact theory. The time history solution method of the rockfall collision parameters is theoretically obtained by the differential equation solution method in combination with the initial conditions of the rockfall collision. Further research results show that the rockfall impact acceleration, impact velocity and impact displacement time history solutions derived in this paper are close to the logistic method. Finally, the results demonstrate that the results of this study are accurate when compared to the widely used rockfall maximum impact force algorithm. In conclusion, in this study, the rockfall collision process is theoretically quantified, and the general solution form of the time-history law of rockfall impact load is obtained, which has engineering applications.