Collapse process and impact effect of viaduct demolition based on centrifugal model

It is well known that prototype and model behave differently under the conventional gravity field when the influence of gravity cannot be ignored such as the collapse of viaducts. In this paper, we derived a similarity relations that takes gravity effects into account and simulated the viaduct collapse process and the impact effect on underground tunnel under collapsing vibration through a prototype and a scaled model. The results show that when the gravity expands n times in the model which scaled ration is 1/n, the prototype and model are similar. This study provides a theoretical basis for research on viaduct collapse vibration based on the centrifugal model. •We derived the centrifugal similarity criteria of the collapsing viaduct.•The finite element model of the blasting demolition of viaduct was simulated.•The model and prototype of collapsing viaduct were simulated.•The gravity of the model should be expanded N times when the size reduces N  times•The process and impact effect of collapsing viaduct meets the centrifugal similarity.