Rock Mechanics and Tunneling Engineering (DE-624) Work sheet for chapter three

Q1. Circle those orientations that are impossible (i.e., a bed with the indicated strike can not possibly dip in
the direction indicated).

Q2. What are the trend and plunge of the poles of the joint planes with orientation?
a) 1100/500
b) 3200/600?

Q3. A preliminary borehole investigation of a sandstone produced 30 m of core that contained 33 drilling
breaks, 283 iron-stained joints and 38 other discontinuities of uncertain origin. Calculate the
bandwidths within which the overall mean discontinuity spacing in the direction of the borehole axis.

Q4. If the vertical and the horizontal principal stresses in the in situ rocks are 100MPa 20MPa respectively,
determine the normal and shear stresses on a fault plane cut the rock by dipping 320 . (Hint: Use the
Mohr Coulomb Criterion of strength for rock masses)

Q5. The following results were obtained in a series of direct shear tests carried out on 100mm square
specimens of granite containing clean, rough, dry joints.

a) Determine the basic friction angle and the initial roughness angle for the joint surfaces
b) Determine shear stiffness and the normal stiffness in (MPa/mm)

Q6. A triaxial compression test is to be carried out on a specimen of granite referred to in question 5 with
the joint plane inclined at 350 to the specimen axis. A confining pressure of 3 = 1.5 MPa and an axial
stress of 1=3.3 MPa are to be applied. Then a joint water pressure will be introduced and gradually
increased with 1 and 3 held constant. At what joint water pressure is slip on the joint expected to
occur?

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Rock Mechanics and Tunneling Engineering (DE-624) Work sheet for chapter three

Q7. Using the Hoek-Brown strength criterion and the data given in table 2 and table 3 determine the strength
of rock mass:
(a) For Granite rock mass, with rock material uniaxial strength 150 MPa.
(b) For Sandstone rock mass, with rock material uniaxial strength 85 MPa
(c) For Siltstone rock mass, with rock material uniaxial strength 65 MPa
(d) If the safety factory is given by strength divided by stress, which rock mass is competent to carry
the building with vertical stress of 30MPa? Why?

Table 2 : Summary of RQD, Q, and GSI for the three rock masses

Table 3: Values of constant mi for intact rock in Hoek-Brown criterion

Q8. The three categories of rock mass are studied for estimation of strength and deformation modulus. All
the strength parameters and deformation modulus of intact rock for the three categories of rock mass is
given in table 4 below. Determine:
a) The Hoek-Brown strength parameters for each category of rock masse, i.e., mb, s, a.
b) The unconfined compressive strength for each category of rock mass, i.e., cm (MPa)

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Rock Mechanics and Tunneling Engineering (DE-624) Work sheet for chapter three

c) The tensile strength for each category of rock mass, tm (MPa)
d) The deformation modulus for each category of rock mass, i.e., Em (MPa)
e) The most competent rock mass

Table 4: Strength and deformation parameters of rock material for three categories
Parameters Category I Category II Category III
c (MPa) 105 70 40
GSI 73 62 7
mi 29 29 29
D 0 0 0.5

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