Considerations Relevant to the Stability of Granite Boulders
| Autor: | Adrián Riquelme, M. Muñiz-Menéndez, Gabriel Walton, Leandro R. Alejano, Ignacio Pérez-Rey |
|---|---|
| Přispěvatelé: | Universidad de Alicante. Departamento de Ingeniería Civil, Ingeniería del Terreno y sus Estructuras (InTerEs) |
| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Rok vydání: | 2021 |
| Předmět: |
0211 other engineering and technologies
Granite boulders Geology Terrain 02 engineering and technology 010502 geochemistry & geophysics Geotechnical Engineering and Engineering Geology 01 natural sciences Stability (probability) Instability Ingeniería del Terreno Rock mechanics Spheroidal weathering Geological hazard Point (geometry) Geotechnical engineering Contact area Sliding and toppling Joint (geology) Stability 021101 geological & geomatics engineering 0105 earth and related environmental sciences Civil and Structural Engineering |
| Zdroj: | RUA. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Alicante Universidad de Alicante (UA) |
| Popis: | Granite boulders are characteristic geomorphological structures formed in granitic terrains. Due to their formation process associated with typical spheroidal weathering phenomena, they tend to show more or less ellipsoidal shapes prone to instability, and they often lie on small contact surfaces. Analyzing the stability of these boulders is not a straightforward task. First, these boulders may topple or slide. Additionally, their typically irregular geometry and uneven contact with the surface where they lie makes the analysis more complex. The authors have identified some critical issues that are relevant to characterize these boulders from a rock mechanics point of view, with the aim of estimating the stability of boulders. In particular, an accurate description of the geometry of the boulder is necessary to perform accurate toppling calculations. Additionally, the contact area and the features of the contact plane need to be known in detail. The study is intended to serve as a guideline to address the stability of these granite boulders in a rigorous way, since standard rock mechanics approaches (planar failure, toppling stability, standard rock joint strength criteria, etc.) may not be directly applicable to these particular cases. The first author acknowledges the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities for financial support of a related project awarded under Contract Reference No. RTI2018-093563-B-I00, partially financed by means of ERDF funds from the EU. The first author also gratefully thanks the Commission for Cultural, Educational, Scientific Exchange between the USA and Spain of the Fulbright Program for financing a Scholar Visit to Colorado School of Mines, where part of this study was completed. The fourth author acknowledges funding of part of his research in association boulder geometry acquisition from EU FEDER under Project TEC2017-85244-C2-1-P and by the University of Alicante (vigrob-157 and GRE18-05). |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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