THE SHEAR-STRENGTH COMPONENTS OF A ROUGH ROCK JOINT

A non-linear failure envelope of hyperbolic type in terms of effective stresses for rock discontinuities is described by a simple three para meter expression, which contains the basic angle of friction, the roug hness angle and the median angle pressure. The components of friction, dilation and breakage of asperities are derived. The proposed express ions are related to the winery used failure law of a logarithmic type proposed by Barton and the simple correspondence of two sets of parame ters derived Comparison with the power type expressions and possibilit ies for conversion is presented. Several experimental results are used for verification of the proposed relations. It is shown that the prop osed hyperbolic relation has significant advantages. Copyright (C) 199 6 Elsevier Science Ltd