Numerical simulation reveals compound damage acceleration in an ancient masonry pagoda subjected to sequential earthquake and rockfall, highlighting severe failure risks from coupled hazards.
Taking the Ming Dynasty Xuantiandong stone pagoda (15 km southwest of Hebi City, Henan Province) as the object, this study investigates its performance under earthquake and rockfall cascading disasters via RocPro3D and ABAQUS. Three load cases and various impact parameters are designed for numerical analysis. Results indicate the pagoda exhibits obvious anisotropic seismic responses, with horizontal responses much larger than vertical ones. Rising peak ground acceleration aggravates structural damage and even causes collapse under major earthquakes. Larger, faster, and higher-positioned rockfalls lead to severer tensile damage and penetrating failure. Pre-seismic damage weakens masonry and accelerates crack extension under subsequent rockfall impact. The coupled disaster produces far greater destruction than individual hazards. This work provides references for the protection of similar ancient stone pagodas.
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Tang et al. (2026) studied this question.
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