RIVISTA ITALIANA DI GEOTECNICA 4/2005 Discrete Element Modelling of a Reinforced Concrete Structure Submitted to a Rock Impact

The use of a three dimensional Discrete Element Method (DEM) is proposed to study concrete submitted to rock-fall impacts. The model has already been validated through quasi-static, as well as dynamic simulations (SHPB tests). The simulation of four-point beam bending tests has validated the introduction of the reinforcement in the model. With this approach all the local parameters can be identified through a well defined procedure: thus, computations are real predictive simulations. This paper shows how rock-fall impacts have been simulated and compared with experimental results. The numerical and experimental results agree quite well both qualitatively and quantitatively, which confirms that the proposed approach can be used reliably.