Log in

Predicting the velocity and trajectory of a rockfall after collision considering the effects of slope properties

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Natural Hazards Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Rockfall events are a common geological hazard in the mountain areas of western China and frequently occur on unstable slopes. The purpose of this study was to establish a statistical model of random rockfall–slope collision using the impulse moment theorem considering that the impacted stones are moving. The rebound velocity of rockfall is random because the microstructure of the ground and slope can be described with statistical properties. The analytical solutions of the rebound particles are obtained as formulas for the incident velocity, incident angle, impacted rock movement, slope angle, and ground surface microstructure. The means and standard deviations of rebound velocity are fitted with slope angle to calculate formulas based on probability theory, which agrees with the previous results. The probability distribution functions of the horizontal distance and vertical distance follow a Gaussian distribution and a negative exponential distribution under the given slope angle, respectively. A formula of trajectory is also given.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
EUR 32.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or Ebook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8

Similar content being viewed by others

Data availability

Data availability regarding this study should be obtained from the corresponding author.

References

Download references

Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant no. 12262021). The authors would like to express their sincere appreciation for this support.

Funding

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant no. 12262021).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Contributions

S-ZD contributed to conceptualization, methodology, funding acquisition, and writing—original draft. G-LL provided software and was involved in data curation, validation, formal analysis, and writing—review and editing. XY contributed to investigation, data curation, project administration, and visualization. X-RW provided software was involved in data curation and project administration.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Shao-Zhen Duan.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Duan, SZ., Li, GL., Yang, X. et al. Predicting the velocity and trajectory of a rockfall after collision considering the effects of slope properties. Nat Hazards 120, 2057–2072 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-023-06278-2

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-023-06278-2

Keywords

Navigation