• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• 제35권4호
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• pp.333-366
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• 2023

Rock as a mass generally exhibits discontinuities, commonly witnessed in rock slopes and underground structures like tunnels, rock pillars etc. When these discontinuities experiences loading, a new crack emerges from them which later propagates to a macro scale level of failure. The failure pattern is often influenced by the nature of discontinuity, geometry and loading conditions. The study of crack growth in rocks, namely its initiation and propagation, plays an important role in defining the true strength of rock and corresponding failure patterns. Many researchers have considered the length of the discontinuity to be fully persistent on rock or rock-like specimens by both experimental and numerical methods. However, only during recent decades, there has been a substantial growth in research interest with non-persistent discontinuities where the crack growth and its propagation phenomenon were found to be much more complex than persistent ones. The non-persistence fractures surface is generally considered to be open and closed. Compared to open flaws, there is a difference in crack growth behaviour in closed or narrow flaws due to the effect of surface closure between them. The present paper reviews the literature that has contributed towards studying the crack growth behaviour and its failure characteristics on both open and narrow flaws subjected to uniaxial and biaxial compression loading conditions.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• 제13권4호
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• pp.535-570
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• 2017

There are only few cases where cause and location of failure of a rock structure are limited to a single discontinuity. Usually several discontinuities of limited size interact and eventually form a combined shear plane where failure takes place. So, besides the discontinuities, the regions between adjacent discontinuities, which consist of strong rock and are called material or rock bridges, are of utmost importance for the shear strength of the compound failure plane. Shear behaviour of persistent and non-persistent joint are different from each other. Shear strength of rock mass containing non-persistent joints is highly affected by mechanical behavior and geometrical configuration of non-persistent joints located in a rock mass. Therefore investigation is essential to study the fundamental failures occurring in a rock bridge, for assessing anticipated and actual performances of the structures built on or in rock masses. The purpose of this review paper is to present techniques, progresses and the likely future development directions in experimental testing of non-persistent joint failure behaviour. Experimental results showed that the presence of rock bridges in not fully persistent natural discontinuity sets is a significant factor affecting the stability of rock structures. Compared with intact rocks, jointed rock masses are usually weaker, more deformable and highly anisotropic, depending upon the mechanical properties of each joint and the explicit joint positions. The joint spacing, joint persistency, number of rock joint, angle of rock joint, length of rock bridge, angle of rock bridge, normal load, scale effect and material mixture have important effect on the failure mechanism of a rock bridge.

• 지질공학
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• 제34권2호
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• pp.317-327
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• 2024

대규모 암반 사면에서 비연속성의 절리계가 발달할 때, 계단상 활동면에 의한 사면 파괴가 발생할 수 있다. 계단상 활동면은 절리-절리 활동면 또는 절리-암교 활동면으로 구분할 수 있으며, 절리-암교 활동면에서 암교는 절리와 평행한 전단 저항과 절리에 수직인 인장 저항을 제공한다. 계단 경로 파괴는 활동 암괴의 하중에 의해 암교의 파괴가 발생하여 암교 양단의 두 절리가 연결되며 발생한다. 암교의 길이가 동일하다면 암석의 인장강도가 전단강도에 비해 낮으므로 절리에 수직으로 형성된 암교가 파괴에 취약하며, 불연속면 간격/길이의 비가 작을수록 계단 경로 파괴의 가능성이 커진다. 비연속성의 절리가 발달하는 암반 사면의 계단상 활동 파괴 위험에 대한 평가를 위해서는 체계적인 불연속면 조사 및 분석을 통해 계단 경로 파괴면을 구성하여 한계 평형 해석 또는 수치 해석 등의 안정성 평가를 수행하여야 한다.

• Computers and Concrete
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• 제17권6호
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• pp.723-737
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• 2016

In this paper an approach was described for determination of direction of sliding block in rock slopes containing planar non-persistent open joints. For this study, several gypsum blocks containing planar non-persistent open joints with dimensions of $15{\times}15{\times}15cm$ were build. The rock bridges occupy 45, 90 and $135cm^2$ of total shear surface ($225cm^2$), and their configuration in shear plane were different. From each model, two similar blocks were prepared and were subjected to shearing under normal stresses of 3.33 and $7.77kg/cm^{-2}$. Based on the change in the configuration of rock-bridges, a factor called the Effective Joint Coefficient (EJC) was formulated, that is the ratio of the effective joint surface that is in front of the rock-bridge and the total shear surface. In general, the failure pattern is influenced by the EJC while shear strength is closely related to the failure pattern. It is observed that the propagation of wing tensile cracks or shear cracks depends on the EJC and the coalescence of wing cracks or shear cracks dominates the eventual failure pattern and determines the peak shear load of the rock specimens. So the EJC is a key factor to determine the sliding direction in rock slopes containing planar non-persistent open joints.