Rock Fall Engineering

Rock falls can be a public safety issue. This book provides comprehensive information on identification of these hazards, and design and construction of protection methods.

Rock Fall Engineering describes first, the theoretical background to rock fall behavior in terms of the impact and trajectory phases of rock falls, and second, how this information is applied to modeling of rock falls and the design of ditches, fences and sheds. The theory of rock fall behavior is verified by comparing the calculations with five carefully documented case studies.

The book covers four main topics as follows:

• Describes causes of rock falls, including geology, climate and topography, and provides detailed documentation on rock fall impacts and trajectories at five sites with a wide variety of topographic and geologic features


• Discusses theory of impact mechanics, and its application to velocity and energy changes during impacts and trajectories


• Reviews methods of modeling rock fall events, and presents analyses for the five case studies


• Examines rock fall protection in terms of selecting appropriate method(s) for site conditions, and design principles in which the objective is to absorb impact energy in an efficient manner

This book, which contains many worked examples, is of interest to practitioners and researchers working in the fields of geological engineering and natural hazards.

Duncan C. Wyllie is a principal with Wyllie & Norrish Rock Engineers in Vancouver, Canada, and a registered professional engineer in British Columbia. He has worked on rock fall hazard projects involving the design and construction protection measures since the 1970s. He is the author of Foundations on Rock, Second Edition, and Rock Slope Engineering, Fourth Edition, both published by CRC Press.