RocFall
RocFall
When your slope is at risk for rockfalls, RocFall is there for you. Explore the energy, velocity, and bounce height of falling rocks and model remedial measures like barriers. See falling rocks in static reports or animate the rock path for a clear visualization of the rockfall.
Applications
RocFall is a 2D statistical analysis program designed to assist with assessment of slopes at risk for rockfalls. Energy, velocity and "bounce height" envelopes for the entire slope are determined by the program, as is the location of rock endpoints. Distributions of energy, velocity and bounce height are also calculated along the slope profile. Distributions can be graphed, and comprehensive statistics are automatically calculated. RocFall allows the user to perform both lumped mass and rigid body rockfall analyses.
RocFall can also assist in determining remedial measures: the material properties of each slope segment can be changed allowing for comparison of results. Information about the kinetic energy and location of impact on a barrier can help determine the capacity, size and location of barriers. RocFall also provides commercial flexible barrier information. Users can define a custom barrier or select one of the predefined barriers. Barrier sensitivity analysis allows the user to automatically vary the location, height, angle or capacity of barriers.
RocFall allows you to create faster and easier high-quality output. Graphs can be exported to Excel with one click and the slope and rock-paths can easily be exported to a DXF file for import into a CAD program. The Drawing toolkit has been improved to include importing of bitmap files, multi-line text-boxes that can be auto-filled with relevant simulation data, axes that can be dragged-and-dropped to show coordinates on a printed page and much more.
Software Screenshots
Applications
What’s New in RocFall v6.0
Polygonal rock shapes, custom polygons
In addition to the smooth rounded shapes (e.g. ovals, ellipses, etc) from previous versions of RocFall, you can now also define polygonal rock shapes with sharp corners. In the Rock Type Library dialog, smooth or polygonal shapes are selected in separate dialogs, but you may combine both smooth and/or polygonal rock shape within the same analysis.
Barrier sensitivity analysis
Barrier Sensitivity allows you to automatically vary the location, height, angle or capacity of rockfall barriers. Results are plotted as sensitivity plots, allowing you to determine the optimum location, height, angle or capacity of rockfall barriers without the need to edit and re-compute multiple files.
Forest damping for treed slopes
An often-requested feature is now available in RocFall v6.0 – forest (tree) damping. When rockfalls occur on a forested slope, impacts of rocks with trees or vegetation can reduce the speed and energy of rocks traveling down the slope.
Variable friction according to sliding distance
New friction options allow you to model the phenomenon of increase in friction with sliding distance, which may occur when a rock slides on soft ground and builds up material in front of the rock as it slides. This creates a “scar” in the ground and effectively increases friction with distance, which may result in the rock coming to a stop or flipping the rock back into the air.
Other Improvements
- Adding property tables to the model view
- Upgraded Crest Loss option
- Expanded Display Options dialogue
Model Creation
Model creation in RocFall is simple and straightforward for even the newest user. To begin, select the analysis type (lumped mass or rigid body). Then the slope can either be drawn manually with the cursor by inputting vertex coordinates, or be importing from .csv or .dxf files. Subsequently, you can use Seeders to determine the drop location for rocks. Finally, the user defines rock types (round, smooth, and polygonal) and material properties to be assigned to the slope.
You’re now ready to view the results of your analysis, either in static form, or using the Animate Path function from the toolbar to view animated rock paths.
Lumped Mass Method
RocFall offers several analysis methods for rockfall simulation, including the Lumped Mass approach, wherein:
- each rock is modeled as a very small spherical particle
- the rocks are not considered to have any size, only mass (used to calculate the kinetic energy for graphs and results)
The lumped mass approach is detailed in the Lumped Mass Theory document. The lumped mass engine uses a particle analysis with three sections: the particle algorithm, the projectile algorithm, and the sliding algorithm.
The particle algorithm makes sure that the simulation parameters are valid, sets up the initial conditions, and starts the projectile algorithm. The projectile algorithm is used to calculate the movement of the rock while it is in the air. The sliding algorithm is used to calculate the movement of the rock while it is in contact with the slope.
Rigid Body Mechanics
RocFall allows users to perform both lumped mass and rigid body rockfall analyses. The rigid body mechanics option comes with an extensive Rock Type Library, where users can choose the rock shape from the build-in library or create a custom polygon by inputting the coordinates or importing from a .csv or .dxf files.
Rock types and properties are defined in the Rock Type Library. The rock properties that users need to define are mass and density. Statistical distributions can be assigned to each parameter.
Users can use the Mass Calculation Tool to quickly calculate the mass of rocks based on the geometry of a sphere, cube, or block.
The rock shape is defined in the Shapes pop-up window in the Rock Type Library. Users can easily preview each shape by clicking on the shape name. Using the checkboxes beside each shape, multiple shapes can be selected for each rock type.
Barrier Design
A "barrier" is a line segment (with one end on the slope surface) that can be placed anywhere along the surface of the slope to stop falling rocks or absorb some of their energy as they travel down the slope. The number of barriers users can place on a RocFall slope is not restricted. Barriers, however, cannot cross other barriers and cannot cross slope segments.
Barriers can be added graphically, by entering the exact coordinates in the prompt line, or by entering the barrier height and angle in the prompt line.
Several commercially available flexible rockfall barriers are available in RocFall, including eight Macafferri and thirty-one Trumer Schutzbauten barriers. Users can also define custom rockfall barriers.
RocFall also features a Barrier Design Report, where users can specify design coefficients according to ETAG027 and validate the barrier design.
