Study on the Coefficient of Recovery of Impact-Resistant Cushions for Rockfalls on Highways with Different Materials

Highways in the western mountains are often threatened by avalanches and rockfalls in mountainous areas with intricate geologic. It is an effective measure to prevent and control rockfall-threatening highways by installing shed holes in rockfall-threatening areas and laying a cushion layer on top. However, existing rockfall impact force calculations are dominated by semi-empirical calculation models, so it is difficult to determine the calculated values of rockfall recovery coefficient under different impact factors of different cushioning materials, making an accurate calculation of the impact force impossible. Through the impact test of different cushion layer materials and thicknesses, as well as different forms and masses of rockfall models, we obtained the dissipation law of different cushion layer materials on various forms of rockfall impact force, and converted the dissipation efficiency into the cushion layer recovery coefficient, thus realizing a more accurate theoretical calculation of the impact force of rockfall that affected the cushion layer. It is expected that the research results will contribute to the anti-impact design of cushioning layers in rockfall disaster prevention and control.