EXPERIMENTAL STUDY ON THE EPS-BASED SHOCK ABSORBER FOR ROCK-SHED

Abstract

Shock absorber made of piled up expanded polystyrene (EPS) placing above the roof of rockshed is commonly use to advance the impact capacity against rockfall, but the require thickness increases with
the accompanying rockfall energy and results in high construction cost or leads to the decrease of building
amount. A new type of EPS-based shock absorber that composed of two EPS-blocks, surrounded by cage wire
netting, then a steel grid placed onto was tested under a series of static and impact load tests in this study to
find out its properties. Test results of static load tests show that strength increased about 20 % at the later stage,
and force diffused more uniform due to the stiffness of steel grid. The results of impact load tests indicate that
the limit capacity of impact energy in the EPS-based shock absorber is around 502.3 - 627.2 kJ, which is 50 %
less than the empirical formula suggested by a rockfall mitigation code.