Stochastic Analysis of Rockfall Along a Himalayan Slope

Abstract

Rockfall is a geological hazard for highways and areas located in mountainous terrain. Analysis of rockfall is of major importance due to its effect on the transportation system, buildings, and various other infrastructure facilities. It is caused in the regions of high seismic activity or heavy rainfall. Determination of bounce height, kinetic energy, and translational velocity of a falling rock are necessary for the design of mitigation systems. This research work is carried out using numerical simulation program Rocfall 6.0 to determine the effect of rockfalls at four different sites in the Theng slope situated in Sikkim. The deterministic analysis is not able to incorporate the wide variability of the different geotechnical properties. Hence, considering the pitfalls of deterministic analysis, a stochastic analysis is implemented using Monte-Carlo simulation technique, considering the velocity of the moving block and coefficient of restitution as its input parameter. In this simulation technique, the truncated normal distribution is used and the coefficient of variation is considered approximately 10%. Finally, a sensitivity analysis of barrier system is performed. From this sensitivity analysis, the location, height, and inclination of the barrier are obtained.