Experimental characterization of the overturning of three-dimensional square based rigid block

• Experimental characterization of the overturning events of 3D rigid blocks.
• Analytical model describing the rocking motion of a square based rigid block.
• One-sine impulsive base excitations.
• Linear electromagnetic motor used as small mono-dimensional shaking table.

The main objectives of this paper are the experimental characterization of the overturning events of a block in the shape of parallelepiped and the experimental validation of the results obtained by an existing 3D model of rigid block. The analytical results have been obtained by numerical integration of the equations of motion. The conservation of the angular momentum before and after the impact has been imposed to describe impacts between the base and the ground. The body is chosen with a slenderness for which bouncing and sliding between the base and the ground are not triggered. The experimental tests have been conducted using a linear electromagnetic motor that has been used to realize a small mono-dimensional shaking table. A preliminary investigation has been performed to experimentally identify the nature of the impact between the base of the block and the support. One-sine impulsive base excitations, with different frequencies, have been used to characterize the overturning of the body.