Lecture 2

In situ Rock Stress

1
Why do we need to know the
in situ stresses
• How our structures will respond,
• Other factors being equal, the
direction in which the groundwater
will flow.
• To provide the boundary conditions
necessary for stress analyses
conducted in the design phase of rock
tunnels and underground excavations.

2
In situ Vertical Stress
• General relationship between depth
and in situ vertical stress
sv = gz
Where g = unit weight overlying the
rock mass
And z = depth

3
In situ Vertical Stress

After Hoek & Brown, 1980

4
Example
If we excavated a tunnel at a depth of
1000 m below ground level in a sandstone
with a Uniaxial Compressive Strength (UCS)
of 25 MPa, what is likely to happen to the
walls of the tunnel?

5
In situ Vertical Stress
• Vertical stress at a given point below
ground level is a function of depth and the
density of the overlying soil and rock.
• Density of rock varies due to variations: in
the mineralogy, percentage of porous
space, volume of open fractures, volume of
other voids.
• Specific gravity of quartz = 2.65
• Specific gravity of olivine = 3.3 to 3.5

6
In situ horizontal stresses
• In situ horizontal stresses vary due to the
following factors:
• Tectonic activity – close to plate boundaries
horizontal stresses are greater.
• Topographic features – top of mountains have
higher tensile stresses and in valley bottoms there
are higher compressional stresses.
• In folded strata higher compressional stress act
towards the axes of synformal structures and
higher tensile are present at the axes of
antiformal structures.

7
In situ horizontal stress
• The two major in situ horizontal stresses may not
be equal.
• Horizontal stresses are more difficult to estimate
than vertical stress.
• The ratio of the average horizontal stress to
vertical stress is :
sh = k sv = kgz
Where g = unit weight of the rock mass
z = depth
v where v = Poisson’s ratio
k =
1 v
8
 Worldwide in situ Stress Data Average horizontal stress
k=
Vertical stress
asured vertical stress, sv (MPa)
0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5
70 0

k = 0.3 + 100 z -1
Ty
Depth below ground surface, z (m)

pi
ca
l sp

z -1
re
ad

00
of

15
da

After Hoek & Brown, 1980

+
ta

5
+/

0.
- 50

=
s 0

k
M
v = Pa
0.
02
7
z

3000

9
 In situ horizontal stress
Sheorey (1994) developed an elasto-static
thermal stress model of the earth. This model
considers curvature of the crust and variation
of elastic constants, density and thermal
expansion coefficients through the crust and
mantle.

10
In situ horizontal stress
 1
k = 0.25  7Eh  0.001  
 z
where z (m) is the depth below surface and Eh (GPa)
is the average deformation modulus of the upper
part of the earth’s crust measured in a horizontal
direction.
This direction of measurement is important
particularly in layered sedimentary rocks, in which
the deformation modulus may be significantly
different in different directions.

11
12
Sheorey pointed out that his work does not explain
the occurrence of measured vertical stresses that
are higher than the calculated overburden pressure,
the presence of very high horizontal stresses at
some locations or why the two horizontal stresses
are seldom equal. These differences are probably
due to local topographic and geological features that
cannot be taken into account in a large scale model.

Where sensitivity studies have shown that the in situ

stresses are likely to have a significant influence on
the behaviour of underground openings, it is
recommended that the in situ stresses should be
measured.
13
World Stress Map

www.world-stress-map.org
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15
Global Horizontal Stresses
The World Stress Map demonstrates that tectonic
activity is a significant factor in determining the
amount of horizontal stress.
High horizontal stresses are seen at areas of:
• Destructive (compressive) plate boundaries.
• Past tectonic activity e.g. SW England where
higher than expected horizontal stresses were
discovered during the early research for the
Camborne School of Mines Hot Dry Rock
geothermal project.

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World Stress Map
Each stress data record is assigned a quality
between A and E, with A being the highest quality
and E the lowest. A quality means that the
orientation of the maximum horizontal compressional
stress SH is accurate to within ±15°, B quality to
within ±20°, C quality to within ±25°, and D quality to
within ±40°. For the most methods these quality
classes are defined through the standard deviation
of SH. E-quality data records do not provide
sufficient information or have standard deviations
greater than 40°.

17
 www-wsm.physik.uni-karlsruhe.de/pub/stress_data/stress_data_frame.html
18
 Measuring in situ stress
y syy
s xx  xy  xz 
  yx
 yx s yy  yz  yz xy
  zx sxx
  zy s zz  zy
xz x
szz zx

The representation of any stress state involves a

minimum of six independent measurements.

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Failure caused by high in situ stress
and low strength rock

Practical_Rock_Engineering-Hoek
20
Induced Stresses

21
Induced Stresses

22
Induced Stresses

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In situ stress measurement
• There are three main methods of in
situ stress measurement
• Flatjack
• Overcoring
• Hydraulic

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The Flatjack Test
Two pins are fixed into the excavation
so wall at a distance d apart. The distance
is measured accurately. A slot is cut into
oil the rock between the pins. If the normal
d stress is compressive, the pins will move
together as the slot is cut. A flatjack is
then grouted into the slot and
pressurised with oil or water forcing the
pins apart again. It is assumed that,
when the distance d reaches the value it
had before the slot was cut, the force
exerted by the flatjack on the walls of
the slot is the same as that exerted by
the pre-existing normal stress.

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The Flatjack Test
• Major disadvantage with the system
is that the necessary minimum
number of six tests, at different
orientations, have to be conducted at
six different locations and it is
therefore necessary to distribute
these around the boundary walls of an
excavation.

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The Flatjack Test
For a successful in situ stress determination using
flatjacks there are three prerequisites:
1) A relatively undisturbed surface of the opening
constituting the test site.
2) An opening geometry for which closed-form
solutions exist, relating the far-field stress and
boundary stresses.
3) A rock mass which behaves elastically, in that
displacements are recoverable when the stress
increments inducing them are reversed.

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The Flatjack Test
• The items 1) and 3) in the list given above virtually
eliminate the use of a test site of an excavation
developed by conventional drilling and blasting.
• Cracking associated with blasting and other
transient effects may cause extensive disturbance
in the stress distribution in the rock.
• It may also give rise to non-elastic displacements
in the rock during the measurement process.
• Item 2) restricts suitable opening geometry to
simple shapes, ideally a circular opening.

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Overcoring

29
Overcoring
• This method of in situ stress determination is
based on the determination of strain in the wall of
a borehole, or other deformations of the borehole
induced by overcoring that part of the hole
containing the measurement device.
• If sufficient strain or deformation measurements
are made during the stress-relief operation, the
six components of the field stress tensor can be
obtained directly from the experimental
observations.

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 Overcoring Method

31

http://dc-app3-14.gfz-potsdam.de/pub/guidelines/WSM_analysis_guideline_overcoring.pdf
 Overcoring Method

32

http://dc-app3-14.gfz-potsdam.de/pub/guidelines/WSM_analysis_guideline_overcoring.pdf
Disking in cored granite

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Overcoring strain devices
• A range of devices for direct and indirect
determination of in situ stresses are used in over
coring tests and include:
• Photoelastic gauges
• USBM borehole deformation gauges
• Biaxial and triaxial strain cells
• Triaxial strain (soft inclusion cell) developed by
CSIRO is shown on the next slide.

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 Overcoring Stress Cell

35

http://www.epccn.com/en/productinfo597.html
Overcoring Stress Cell

The hollow cylinder on

the left is filled with
adhesive which is
extruded when the
piston, on the right, is
forced into the
cylinder. The cell is
glued in the borehole
prior to it being
overcored.

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 Strain Measurements

37

http://dc-app3-14.gfz-potsdam.de/pub/guidelines/WSM_analysis_guideline_overcoring.pdf
The Hydraulic Fracturing Test
• Hydraulic fracturing is a process where water is
injected into a section of a borehole isolated by
two packers.
• When the pressure is increased, the state of
stress around the borehole boundary is modified
by the hydraulically-induced stresses.
• If the field principal stresses in the plane
perpendicular to the hole axis are not equal,
application of sufficient pressure induces tensile
circumferential stress over limited sectors of the
boundary.

38
The Hydraulic Fracturing Test
• When the tensile stress exceeds the rock material
tensile strength, fractures initiate and propagate
perpendicular to the hole boundary and parallel to
the major principal stress.
• As the fractures open, simultaneously the water
pressure falls in the test section.
• Typically the water pressure is applied to the test
section in a series of cycles.

39
Hydraulic
Fracturing Test

After B.C. Haimson, F.H. Cornet. 2003.

ISRM Suggested Methods for rock stress
estimation—Part 3: hydraulic fracturing
(HF) and/or hydraulic testing of pre-existing
fractures (HTPF). International Journal of
Rock Mechanics & Mining Sciences, 40,
p1011–1020

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The Hydraulic
Fracturing Test
The two measurements taken
are the water pressure when
the fracture occurs and the
subsequent pressure required to hold the fracture open,
known, respectively, as the breakdown (PB) and shut-in (Ps)
pressures. The pressure required to reopen the fracture
(Pr) is assumed to differ from PB by the tensile strength of
the rock. The shut-in pressure is assumed to give the minor
principal stress, s3, whilst the major principal stress, s1, is
given via the breakdown pressure, the value of s3 and the
magnitude of the tensile strength of the rock (st).

41
The minimum boundary stress for a circular opening
(from Kirsch equation) is,
smin = 3 sh - sH.
If a pressure (Po) is applied within the borehole, the
tangential stress at the wall is given by, sqq = -P0
By superimposition, the minimum tangential boundary
stress is, smin = 3 sh - sH - P0
At the point where the crack reopens, Pr = Po and
smin = 0, hence sH = 3 sh – Pr
By inspection, sh = Ps and st = PB - Pr

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 Example
The following plot illustrates a typical set of data obtained from a
hydraulic fracturing experiment. Determine the tensile strength of the
rock and the in situ stress profile.
Pressure (MPa)

20

10

0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Time (minutes)
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Solution
Pressure (MPa) PB=20.5 MPa
20

Pr=8.5 MPa
10 Ps=6.5 MPa

0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
s h = Ps = 6.5 MPa Time (minutes)
s t = PB  Pr = 20.5  8.5 = 12 MPa
s H = 3s h  Pr = 3x6.5 - 8.5 = 11 MPa

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Tell-tale indicators of the
stress state…

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• Borehole breakouts - damage to a borehole indicating
principal stress orientations;
• Fault plane solutions - back analysis of principal
stresses causing faults;
• Acoustic emission - the rock emits low-intensity ‘noise’
when it is stressed;
• An elastic strain relaxation - core exhibits
expansion/contraction on removal from the borehole;
• Differential strain analysis - pressurising a piece of
rock indicates its previous stress state through
differential strain effects;
• Core discing - geometry of stress-induced core
fracturing indicates stress components;
• Observations of discontinuity states, e.g. open
discontinuities are not transmitting stress across the
gap.

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