Modes of Rock Failure

Most engineering structures are placed against rock leading to the importance of
determining the maximum limit of stress that a rock can handle. There are different modes of
rock failure that can be utilized which presents their own results and standards.

1. Flexural failure – can occur in rock slopes with steeply dipping layers as the layers
overturn toward the free space or toppling failure.
2. Shear failure – this refers to formation of a surface of rupture where the shear stresses
have become critical, followed by release of the shear stress as the rock suffers a
displacement along the rupture surface. This is common in slopes cut in weak, soil-like
rocks such as weathered clay shales and crushed rock of fault zones.
3. Direct tension failure – happen in occasionally set up in rock layers resting on convex
upward slope surfaces and in sedimentary rocks on the flank of an anticline. It is also
refers to the mechanism of failure in rock slopes with nonconnected, short joint planes,
the formation of tension cracks severs the rock bridges and allows a complete block of
rock to translate downward en masse.
4. Crushing or compression failure – this occurs in intensely shortened volumes or rock
penetrated by a stiff punch.