Experimental study on rockfall drapery systems for open pit highwalls

This study presents in situ experiments carried out at an open cut mine in New South Wales (Australia). The research intends to improve the current knowledge on draperysystems for rockfall hazard management in mining environments. Blocks were released from the top of two different sections of the highwall: with and without a rockfalldraperysystem installed on the highwall. The trajectories of the blocks were recorded by using synchronised stereo pairs of high speed cameras. Velocities were derived from the trajectories and used to gather rockfall motion parameters (restitution coefficients) and various energies. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.