Introduction to Rock Mechanics

CE - 425

Lecture 8
Planes of weaknesses in Rocks

Dr. Rana Muhammad Asad Khan

masadkhan87@gmail.com
03314438163
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Planes of weaknesses in rocks
Impacts on strength
Compressibility
&
Hydraulic conductivity

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Introduction
• Rocks are heterogeneous and quite often discontinuous
• Naturally occurring planes of weakness
• Traversing the rock mass and separates it into perfectly
fitting blocks
• Small cracks fissures
• Joints (separated by several cm to 10 m)
• Set parallel to bedding
• At least two other sets
• Igneous and metamorphic rocks may have regular joint
system, joints with three or more sets
• Faults
• There is a full range of planar weaknesses in rock masses
with a statistical distribution of discontinuities of spacing and
orientations

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Discontinuities in rocks

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Rock material and rock mass
• Rock material is the term used to describe
the intact rock between discontinuities; it
might be represented by a hand specimen
or piece of drill core examined in the
laboratory.
• The rock mass is the total in-situ medium
containing bedding planes, faults, joints,
folds and other structural features.
• Rock masses are discontinuous and often
have heterogeneous and anisotropic
engineering properties.
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Rock mass Properties
• Rock mass properties are comprised of
features generally observed, measured, and
documented in the field for in-place rock.
• Discontinuities are distinct breaks or
interruptions in the integrity of a rock mass that
convert a rock mass into a discontinuous
assemblage of blocks, plates, or irregular
discrete rock particles.
• Rock material properties are measurable or
describable lithological properties of rock
material that can be evaluated in hand
specimens or tested in the laboratory.
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Discontinuities in rocks
• Terms such as "wide", "narrow" and "tight" are used to
describe the width of discontinuities

• For the faults or shears that are not thick enough to be

represented on the boring log, the measured thickness
is recorded numerically in millimeters.

• Surface shape of the joint and the roughness of its

surface.

• Filling is the term for material separating the adjacent

rock walls of discontinuities. It is characterized by its
type, amount, width (i.e., perpendicular distance
between adjacent rock walls) and strength.
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Rock Joints?
Joints are the most
common rock discontinuity.
• They are normally in
parallel sets.
• They are generally
considered as part of the
rock mass.
• The spacing of joints is
usually in the order of a
few to a few ten
centimeters.
• For engineering, joints
are constant features of
the rock mass.

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Rock Joints?
• Rock masses that fracture in such a way that there is
little or no displacement parallel to the fractured
surface are said to be jointed, and the fractures are
called joints.
• Joints characteristically form planar surface.
• Joints vary greatly in magnitude, from a few feet to
thousands of feet long.
• Joints develop during the exhumation of rocks
following erosion of the overburden.
• Joints result from contraction and expansion due to
cooling and decompression respectively.

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Rock Joints?

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Rock Discontinuities

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Faults
• A fault is a fracture across which two blocks
have slipped; the displacement of adjacent
blocks is parallel to the fault plane.
• Faulting corresponds to the brittle failure of an
undeformed rock formation or, alternatively,
involves frictional sliding on a pre-existing fault
plane.
• Faulting occurs when the maximum stress
exceeds the shear strength of an intact rock
formation, or the frictional strength of a pre-
existing fault.
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Faults

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Faults
• Faults are planar rock fractures which show evidence of
relative movement.
• Faults have different scale and the largest faults are at
tectonic plate boundaries.
• Faults usually do not consist of a single, clean fracture,
they often form fault zones.
• Large scale fault, fault zone and shear zone, are large
and localized feature.
• They are often dealt separately from the rock mass.
• Three types of faults. ① Normal faults, ② Reverse
faults, ③ Strike-slip faults

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Faults

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Faults

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Faults
Normal Fault: faults along
which the hanging wall has
been displaced downward
relative to the footwall.
They are common where the
earth’s surface is under
tensional stress so that the
rock bodies are pulled apart.
Also called as gravity faults
and usually are characterized
by high-angle fault planes.
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 Faults
Reverse Fault: The
hanging wall has been
displaced upward relative
to the footwall.
Reverse faults are
frequently associated with
compressional forces that
accompany folding.
Low-angle reverse faults
are called over thrust
faults. 18
 Faults
Strike-Slip Fault:
are characterized
by one block being
displaced laterally
with respect to the
other.
There is little or no
vertical
displacement.

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 Folds
• Fold is the bended originally flat and planar rock
strata, as a result of tectonic force or movement.
• Folds are usually not considered as part of the
rock mass.
• They are often associated with high degree of
fracturing and relatively weak and soft rocks.
• Folds are common in sedimentary rocks in
mountainous areas, where their occurrence may
be inferred from ridges or durable rock strata
that are tilted at opposite angles in nearby rock
outcrops.

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Folds

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Folds

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Bedding planes

• Bedding plane is the interface between

sedimentary rock layers.
• Bedding planes are isolated geological features
to engineering activities.
• It mainly creates an interface of two rock
materials.
• However, some bedding planes could also
become potential weathered zones and
groundwater pockets.

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Anisotropy
• From a mechanical point of view,
anisotropic nature of rocks causes
differences in rock strength with respect to
the orientation of loading and inherent
planes of weakness (β is the angle
between plane of weakness and direction
of maximum principal stress)
• Variation of compressive strength
according to the direction of the principal
stresses is termed “Strength Anisotropy.”

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Anisotropy
• Strong anisotropy is characteristic of rocks
composed of parallel arrangements of flat
minerals like mica, chlorite, and clay, or
long minerals like hornblende.
• The metamorphic rocks, especially schist
and slate, are often markedly directional in
their behavior.
• Anisotropy is defined as properties are
different in different direction.

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Anisotropy
• It occurs in both rock materials and rock mass.
• Inherent anisotropy is considered as a major
characteristic of rocks, in particular for
metamorphic rocks because of foliation and
schistosity, and sedimentary rocks because of
bedding planes
• Rock with obvious anisotropy is slate.

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Anisotropy
• Metamorphic rocks
Phyllite and schist
• Sedimentary rocks
Shale
Rock mass anisotropy is controlled by
i. joint set
ii. sedimentary layer

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30
Anisotropy

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Prime parameters governing rock mass property

Joint parameters Material parameters Boundary

conditions
• Number of Joint sets • Compressive strength • Ground water
• Orientation • Modulus of elasticity pressure and
• Spacing • In situ stress flow
• Aperture
• Surface roughness
• Weathering and
alteration

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Roles of rock joints in rocks mass behavior
• Cuts rock into slabs, blocks and wedges, to be free to fall
and move
• Acts as weak planes for sliding and moving
• Provides water flow channel and creates flow networks;
• Gives large deformation
• Alters stress distribution and orientation

Rock mass behavior is largely governed

by joints
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Discontinuities in rocks

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Effect of discontinuities on rock mass

• Rock mass become weaker

• More deformable
• Highly anisotropic
• Reduction in shear strength
• High permeability (parallel to
discontinuities)

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Planar weakness Effects on rock mass

Foundation on Significant settlement as joint

jointed rocks close even though the rock is
stiff

Dam underlain by
discontinuities
May initiate slip of rock blocks
along one or more weak
surfaces

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Planar weakness Effects on rock mass
Rock slope

Will probably fail when

excavation is deepened to the
dash line
Tunnel roof collapse

• Shows how rocks might fall from the roof of a

tunnel
• Intersecting joint sets
• At larger scale (whole chamber can collapse)
• Another behavior of jointed rock is bending of rock
blocks under stresses
• Bending can be followed by the flexural cracking
and rock falls 37
 Planar weakness Effects on rock mass
Rock cut

• Subjected to flexure and cracking

• Created by steeply dipping joints and
contacts

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Planar weakness Effects on rock strength
• Application of shear stress parallel to the joint on a block containing
joint plane
• Both shear Δu and normal displacement Δv produce
• If compressive pressure is normal to joint it will shorten the joint
opening
• And if it is pull apart block will be divided into two blocks

Planar weakness Effects on permeability

• Most of the igneous and metamorphic rocks are very dense
with interlocked texture.
• The rocks therefore have extremely low permeability and
porosity.
• Some clastic sedimentary rocks, typically sandstones, can be
porous and permeable
• Weathered rocks can also be porous and permeable. 39
Effects of Ground water and pressure

Groundwater is important to rock mechanics

I. Water pressure contributes to the stress field
II. Water changes rock parameters, e.g., friction
III. When water is present, it increases the
complexity of rock engineering, e.g., more
difficult to tunnel with water inflow and high
water pressure.
Planar weakness Effects on permeability

• Joints obey the effective stress principle

𝜎 = 𝜎′ + 𝑢
• Water present in joints directly counteracts the
strengthening effect of normal stress applied to
the joint
• The water pressure required to cause a fault or
joint slip can be determined using Mohr columb
circle.
• By shifting current state of stresses to left
Planar weakness Effects on permeability

• This calculation is slightly more complex than

for the case of unjointed rocks
• As initial stresses and strength parameter
along with orientation of joint plane needs to be
considered