Geological Engineering Department Faculty of Engineering

Introduction to Rock Mechanics

Geological Engineering Department Faculty of Engineering

ROCK STRENGTH
In a very general sense, rock strengths are related to origin; e.g., dense igneous rocks are stronger than dense sedimentary rocks Rock strength is also related to:
Texture (interlocking textures are stronger) Anisotropy (the existence of preferred failure planes) Mineralogy (e.g., quartz is stronger than calcite) Moisture Content (dry rocks tend to be stronger than saturated rocks) Degree and Type of Cement (e.g., quartz is stronger than calcite and complete cementation makes rock stronger than just partial cementation)

Rocks are much stronger in compression than tension Rocks deform elastically, plasticaly, brittlely Deformation style in part a function of heat, pressure, and time
(strength is inversely proportional to all three)

Geological Engineering Department Faculty of Engineering

ROCK CLASSIFICATION
Rock Type Sedimentary, Metamorphic, or Igneous Grain or Particle Size Very Coarse = >60 mm Coarse = 2 - 60 mm Medium = 60m - 2 mm Fine = 2m - 60m Very Fine = <2m Weathering Fresh -- No visible signs of weathering Slightly Weathered -- Discoloration Moderately Weathered -- Less than half the rock is decomposed or disintegrated Highly Weathered -- More than half the rock is decomposed or disintegrated Completely Weathered -- All rock is decomposed or disintegrated; original structure still intact (Saprolite) Residual Soil -- All rock material is converted to soil and the original structure has been destroyed
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Geological Engineering Department Faculty of Engineering

Geological Engineering Department Faculty of Engineering

Geological Engineering Department Faculty of Engineering

Geological Engineering Department Faculty of Engineering

Geological Engineering Department Faculty of Engineering

Geological Engineering Department Faculty of Engineering

Geological Engineering Department Faculty of Engineering

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Geological Engineering Department Hutchinson, Faculty of Engineering 2000

Rockmass Strength
Hutchinson and Diederichs, 1996

Relative Properties Strong Massive

Stope

Fair Discrete Joints

Weak Low Integrity

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Geological Engineering Department Faculty of Engineering

ROCK CLASSIFICATION (cont.)

Strength of Rock Pieces (extremely weak to extremely strong) Discontinuity Spacing (extremely close to extremely wide) Aperture Width (very tight to cavernous) Rock Quality Designation (Sum of the lengths of pieces greater than 4 inches long as a
percentage of the total length cored

Roughness (joint roughness coefficient) Infilling (use Uniform Soil Classification System) Moisture (dry, damp, moist, wet) Staining and Alteration Rock Mass Rating (a system to describe in-place rock characteristics)

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Geological Engineering Department Faculty of Engineering

Classification of rock strength

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Geological Engineering Department Faculty of Engineering

Soil and Rock Strength

Unconfined compressive strength (MPa)

Steel
250 750

Concrete
20 100

0.001

0.01

Soil

0.1

1.0

10

Rock

100 250
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Geological Engineering Department Faculty of Engineering

Intact rock strength

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Geological Engineering Department Faculty of Engineering

Grade *

Term

R6 R5

Extremely strong Very strong

R4

Strong

R3

Medium strong

R2

Weak

R1

Very weak

R0

Extremely weak

Table 11.2: Field estimates of uniaxial compressive strength UCS Point Field estimate of strength Examples (MPa) Load Index (MPa) > 250 > 10 Specimen can only be chipped with a Fresh basalt, chert, diabase, gneiss, geological hammer granite, quartzite 100 to 250 4 to 10 Specimen requires many blows of a Amphibolite, sandstone, basalt, geological hammer to fracture it gabbro, gneiss, granodiorite, limestone, marble, rhyolite, tuff 50 to 100 2 to 4 Specimen requires more than one Limestone, marble, phyllite, blow of a geological hammer to sandstone, schist, shale fracture it 25 to 50 1 to 2 Cannot be scraped with a pocket Claystone, coal, concrete, schist, knife, specimen can be fractured with shale, siltstone a single blow from a geological hammer 5 to 25 ** Can be peeled with a pocket knife Chalk, rocksalt, potash with difficulty, shallow indentation made by firm blow with point of a geological hammer 1 to 5 ** Crumbles under firm blows with point Highly weathered or altered rock of a geological hammer, can be peeled by a pocket knife 0.25 to 1 ** Indented by thumbnail Stiff fault gouge

* Grade according to Brown (1981). ** Point load tests on rocks with a uniaxial compressive strength < 25 MPa are likely to yield highly ambiguous results.

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Geological Engineering Department Faculty of Engineering

Discontinuity

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Geological Engineering Department Faculty of Engineering

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Geological Engineering Department Faculty of Engineering

Geological Strength Index: GSI

Strength of jointed rockmass depends on: properties of intact rock pieces, and upon the freedom of these pieces to slide and rotate under different stress conditions, controlled by the geometrical shape of the intact rock pieces as well as the condition of the discontinuities separating the pieces

Hoek, 2000

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Geological Engineering Department Faculty of Engineering

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Hoek, 2000

Geological Engineering Department Faculty of Engineering

Post-failure Behaviour: Very Good Quality Hard Rockmass

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Hoek, 2000

Geological Engineering Department Faculty of Engineering

Post-failure Behaviour: Average Quality Rockmass

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Geological Engineering Department Faculty of Engineering

Hoek, 2000

Post-failure Behaviour: Very Poor Quality Rockmass

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Geological Engineering Department Faculty of Engineering

Practical Examples of Rockmass Property Estimates: Massive Weak Rock, Braden Breccia, El Teniente Mine Hoek, 2000

Hoek, 2000

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Massive Strong Rockmasses, Rio Grande Pumped Storage Scheme

Geological Engineering Department Faculty of Engineering

Hoek, 2000

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Geological Engineering Department Faculty of Engineering

Average Quality Rockmass, Nathpa Jhakri Hydroelectric

Partially completed 20 m span, 42.5 m high underground powerhouse cavern of the Nathpa Jhakri Hydroelectric Project in Himachel Pradesh, India. The cavern is approximately 300 m below the surface.

Hoek, 2000

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Geological Engineering Department Faculty of Engineering

Average Quality Rockmass, Nathpa Jhakri Hydroelectric

Hoek, 2000

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Geological Engineering Department Faculty of Engineering

Poor Quality Rockmass at Shallow Depth: Athens Metro

Hoek, 2000

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Poor Quality Rockmass at Shallow Depth: Athens Metro

Geological Engineering Department Faculty of Engineering

Hoek, 2000

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Poor Quality Rockmass under High Stress

Geological Engineering Department Faculty of Engineering

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