This is a typical arrangement (although note here the post is mounted to the front). This is for construction site perimeter fencing.
The connection between rail and post would be the critical point in resisting rotation. Unfortunately the narrow face of the post means high leverage giving...
Thanks haruspex. Block spacing (and therefore number of blocks) has a significant impact on cost as it's not just the blocks themselves, its transporting them, fixing posts to them etc. so there is motivation to find the upper bound to achieve maximum spacing!
The responses have confirmed my feeling the behaviour is very complex, and the best way to verify sliding resistance is to do some FE modelling on something like Solidworks, but I don't have such software. It would be good to have a hand-calc idea of what one should expect to verify the...
The block is concrete, so I don't envisage much deformation. You have touched upon the complexities of the problem when including overturning effects, hence why I simplified it initially, just to get a sense for the effect of eccentricity.
Yes. It's a solid fence, and block spacing needs to be as efficient as possible, so understanding the exact sliding force (or a reasonable approximation of it) is necessary.
Yes, you are visualising it correctly. I'm glad you agree it isn't a trivial question, it's been taxing me for some time! It isn't a homework question, I'm a Structural Engineer, but the moderators moved the question to here.
The real life scenario is temporary fence posts bolted to the side...
Summary:: What is the sliding resistance of an eccentrically loaded block on a flat surface?
If a 1000kg block is placed on a flat surface (say coeff. of friction = 0.4), what force does it take to slide if it loaded eccentrically, i.e. at the far edge of the block?
My thinking is there is...