We are proud to announce that Lisa Eberhardt has received an award from the Artur Fischer Foundation for her M.Sc thesis entitled "Simulation of rigid convex polytopes with hard frictional unilateral constraints: Application to rockfall protection nets ". The thesis was conducted at the Institute of Nonlinear Mechanics (INM) in close cooperation with the WSL Institute for Forest Snow and Landscape Research SLF.
The Artur Fischer Foundation (Artur-Fischer-Stiftung) is a German non-profit organization named after its founder, Artur Fischer. The foundation is dedicated to promoting and supporting scientific research, innovation and education in various fields, especially in the areas of technology, engineering and invention.
For efficient further development and for a more comprehensive understanding of rockfall mitigation measures, the simulation of rockfall protection nets is of growing relevance. Current simulation software considers simplified models in which stones are modeled as spheres and friction effects are partially neglected.
In the M.Sc thesis of Lisa Eberhardt, a model is developed with the focus being on the description of the rock as rigid body, whereby its shape is described by an arbitrary convex polytope. This allows for investigation of the influence of the rock shape, its rotation and friction effects between rock and net. Furthermore, the development and implementation of a simplified net model is additionally described. Set-valued force laws are used to describe the non-smooth dynamics in terms of impacts and contacts between the stone and the net. The developed model is simulated using Moreau's time-stepping method. Different simulations are performed for a given choice of parameters, demonstrating by example the capabilities of the developed model. Thereby, the thesis of Lisa Eberhardt contributes to safety in alpine regions.