ROCK STRENGTH PROPERTIES

Rock Strength Properties

• In analysing the stability of a rock slope, the most important factor to
be considered is the geometry of the rock mass behind the face.
• After geology, the next most important factor governing stability is
the shear strength of the potential sliding surface.
Scale Effects
• Determination of reliable shear-strength values is a critical part of slope
design.
• The small changes in shear strength can result in significant changes in the
safe height or face angle of a slope.
• The choice of appropriate shear-strength values depends not only on the
availability of test data, but also on a careful interpretation of these data in
the light of the behaviour of the rock mass that makes up the overall slope.
• these shear test results could not be used directly in designing a slope in
which a complex failure process involving several joints and some failure of
intact rock is expected.
• The term rock mass is used for rock materials in which this complex failure
process occurs.
Idealised diagram
showing transition
from intact rock to
jointed rock mass
with increasing
sample size.
Based on this relationship between sample size and rock strength
characteristics examines methods of determining the strength of the
following three classes of rock:
1. Discontinuities – single bedding planes, joints or faults. The properties of
discontinuities that influence shear strength include the shape and
roughness of the surfaces, the rock on the surface which may be fresh or
weathered, and infillings that may be low strength or cohesive.
2. Rock mass – the factors that influence the shear strength of a jointed
rock mass include the compressive strength and friction angle of the
intact rock, and the spacing of discontinuities and the condition of their
surfaces.
3. Intact rock – a factor to consider in measuring the strength of the intact
rock is that the strength could diminish over the design life of the slope
due to weathering.
 (a) Shallow slope movement in closely jointed, (b) Weathered basalt
randomly orientated rock mass
Classes of rock strength
Based on the scale effects and
geological conditions discussed in the
previous sections, sliding surfaces can
form either along discontinuity
surfaces, or through the rockmass.
Relationship between shear and normal stresses on sliding surface for five different geological
conditions (Transportation Research Board, 1996).
Definition of cohesion and friction
• In rock slope design, rock is assumed to be a Coulomb material in which
the shear strength of the sliding surface is expressed in terms of the
cohesion (c) and the friction angle (ϕ).
• Assume a number of test samples were cut from a block of rock containing
a smooth, planar discontinuity. Furthermore, the discontinuity contains a
cemented infilling material such that a tensile force would have to be
applied to the two halves of the sample in order to separate them.
• Each sample is subjected to a force at right angles to the discontinuity
surface (normal stress, s), and a force is applied in the direction parallel to
the discontinuity (shear stress, t) while the shear displacement (d) is
measured
Surface roughness
All natural discontinuity surfaces
exhibit some degree of roughness,
varying from polished and
slickensided sheared surfaces with
very low roughness, to rough and
irregular tension joints with
considerable roughness. These
surface irregularities are given the
general term asperities, and
because they can have a significant
effect on the stability of a slope.
Surface roughness

where JRC is the joint roughness

coefficient, JCS is the compressive
strength of the rock at the fracture
surface and s' is the effective
normal stress.

Effect of surface roughness and normal stress on friction angle of discontinuity surface
(Transportation Research Board, 1996).
Division of filled discontinuities into displaced and undisplaced, and N–C and O–C categories
(modified from Barton, 1974).
 Laboratorium Testing of Shear Strength

For diamond drill core in an

inclined hole, the fracture surface
is in the shape of an ellipse, and
the formula for calculating the
contact area is as follows
(Hencher and Richards,1989):
Results of direct shear test of filled discontinuity showing measurements of shear strength, roughness (i) and normal stuffiness
(kn) (modified from Erban and Gill, 1988)
Shear Strength of Rock Masses by Back
Analysis of Slope Failures

Typical ranges of friction angles for a variety of rock types

Geological Strength
Index (GSI)
Data entry stream for using
the Hoek-Brown system for
estimating rock mass
parameters for numerical
analysis.
Definition of JCond89, after Bieniawski (1989)
The original Hoek–Brown
Strength Criterion
The Rock Mass Modulus of Deformation

• The principal use of the rock mass modulus of deformation is in

numerical analysis to calculate strain in rock slopes, and in foundation
design.
The Mohr–Coulomb failure criterion
• The analysis of slope stability involves examination of the shear
strength of the rock mass, expressed by the Mohr–Coulomb failure
criterion, on the sliding surface.
• There, it is necessary to determine friction angles and cohesive
strengths that are equivalent between the Hoek–Brown and Mohr–
Coulomb criteria.
• These strengths are required for each rock mass and stress range
along the sliding surface.
• The fitting process involves balancing the areas above and below the
Mohr–Coulomb plot. This results in the following equations for the
angle of friction ϕ' and cohesive strength c':
• Non-linear Mohr envelope for
fractured rock mass defined by
Equations; best fit line shows
cohesion and friction angle for
applicable slope height. Rock mass
parameters:
• sc = 30 MPa (4350 psi), GSI = 50,
• mi = 10, D = 0. 7, H = 20 m, γr =
0.026 MN/m3.
Rock Mass Strength
• The concept of a global ‘rock mass strength’ and hoek and brown (1997) proposed
that this could be estimated from the mohr–coulomb relationship:

• With C’c and f’ determined for the stress range st < s’3< sci/4 giving the following
value for the rock mass strength s’cm
Determining of s’3max
Relationship for the calculation of
s’3max for equivalent Mohr–Coulomb
and Hoek–Brown parameters for
slopes.