Impact of dry granular masses on rigid barriers

This work concerns the impact of dry granular masses on rigid artificial obstacles. The authors approached the problem by performing an extensive campaign of numerical analyses with a commercial code based on the discrete element theory. The standard approaches employed to design sheltering structures are exclusively based on the assessment of the Maximum Impact Force (MIF) exerted by the soil mass on the obstacle, and the sheltering structure is usually designed according to simplified pseudo-static approaches. In a previous paper the authors considered the dependence of MIF on the Froude number and on a large series of both geometrical and mechanical parameters. Indeed, the impulsive nature of the force exerted by the soil onto the structure has to be considered in order to optimize the design of this type of structures. For this reason in this paper the evolution with time of the impact force and the mechanics of the phenomenon are investigated.