Relations between the shear strength of rock joints and rock material

Relations entre Ie resistance au cisaillement d'un joint rocheux et du rnatenau rocheux

VerhAltnis zwischen der Schertestigkeit von FelskJOftenund des Gesteinsmaterials

C.GERRARD, CSIRO Division of Building Research, Melbourne, Australia

L.MACINDOE, CSIRO Division of Building Research, Melbourne, Australia

ABSTRACT: At hi&h levels of noraal stress, an 'equality point' is reached when the shear stren&th of a rock
joint approaches that of the rock aaterial. This point can provide a valuable reference in the develo~ent of
eapirical relations for rock joint stren&th. Several writers .have riven aethods of estiaatine this 'equality
point'. The different results produced froa the application of these aethods are coapared froa the viewpoint
of practical consequences.

RESUME: Au niveau eleve de contrainte noraal un 'point d'eealite' est atteint quand la resistance au
cisailleaent d'une diaclase rocheuse se rapproche de celIe d'une aatrice rocheuse. Ce point peut fournir une
reference precieuse dans Ie developaent des relations eapiriques de·la puissance de la disclase rocheuse.
Plusieurs ecrivains ont dejA donne Ie procede de calculer ce 'point d'eealite'. Les differents resultlts
provenant de l'application de cette aethode sont d'un point de vue coapares aux consequences pratiques.

ZUSAMMENFASSUNG: Wenn die Noraalspannune"hohe Werte andeutet wird eine 'Gleichheitspunkt' erreicht wobei die
Scherfest~ekeit einer Felakluft diejeniee des ursprUnglichen Festeestein annihert. Dleser Punkt kann eine
wertvolle Rolle spielen bei der Entwicklune von eapirischen Verhiltnissen fUr die Festiekeit der Felskluft.
Methoden fUr die Bewertune dieser 'Gleichheitspunkt' werden schon von aehreren Experten beschrieben. Die
praktischen Konsequenzen. die aus einea Vereleich der verschiedenen Ereebnissen bei der Anwendune der
obereennanten Methoden foleen. werden eezeiet.

1 INTRODUCTION prerequisite to the further develo~ent of eapirical

relations for the shear streneth of rock joints.
In developing eapirical relations for the shear
streneth of rock joints. Gerrard (1986) has eaphasised 2 ROCK MATERIAL STRENGTH
the need to incorporate the physical constraints that
apply at very low and very hieh levels of noraal A coaprehensive analysis of the data for the shear
stress. When the noraal stress approaches zero, the strength of rock aaterial has been conducted by Hoek
peak anele of dilation will be aaxiaal and the total and Brown (1982). They found that. to a reasonable
peak friction angle will consist of the sua of this deeree of approxiaation. the ranee of rock types could
dilation anele (.) and the basic friction anele (4b). be erouped into five cateeories. referred to here as
At the other extreae, when the noraal stress reaches a Groups I to V. Por each eroup the shape of the failure
SUfficiently hieh value. Ladanyi and Archaabault envelope is independent of the uniaxial coapressive
(1970. 1980) sue&est that the shear streneth of the streneth. c.
joint will approach that of the rock aaterial at the Expressed in teras of shear stress and noraal
'equality point'. This hieh level of noraal stress is stress, the Hoek and Brown equation is given as,
referred to as the 'equality stress'. The 'equality
stress' falls well outside the stress ran&e of Tic - q (olc + t/c)P,
interest in practical rock aechanics applications. in OR
T
* - q (0* + t*)p,
(1)
.ost cas~s beine well in excess of the' uniaxial
cO.pressive stress(c). However. it does enable the
POsition. and to a laree extent the slope, of the T-O where 0 < P < 1. t is the uniaxial tensile streneth,
stren&th envelope for the rock joint to be fixed for and the starred quantities indicate division by c and
the extreae case of hiehly elevated stress. In hence they becoae relative to c. For exaaple, t* is
addition. when taken together with the constraints referred to as the relative uniaxial tensile streneth.
that apply to the location and slope of this envelope
at very low levels of noraal stress. it provides the r 'EQUALITY POINT'
oPPortunity to aake an 'educated' interpolation into
the practical stress ranee.
This is shown in Fi&Ure 1 where the 'equality point'
and the correspondine 'equality stress', f, for the
shear streneth envelope of a typical rock aaterial
(T.) are aarked. In addition. the constraints for 0 •
o are shown to&ether with the interpolated shear
stren&th envelope for the rock joint (Tj)'
The estiaation of the position of the 'equality
Point' can be approached in two stages: (a) definition
01 the line that represents the shear streneth
envelope for the rock aaterial. and (b) deteraination J
of the location alone this line that represents the 'EQlJAU1Y a
'equality point'. These two staees are discussed in STRESS'
SUbsequent sections of this paper.
By drawine attention to the location of the Fi&Ure 1. 'Equality point' and strength envelopes for
'equality point' this paper provides a necessary rock aaterial and rock joint.

911
Haek and Brown suggest that the paraaeters q, p, and ~t = 0.8 a. (2)
t depend only on the Rock Group that a particular
rock belongs to. For carbonate rocks, Mogi suggests lower 'transition
The physical significance of the quantity q is that stresses' apply, thereby giving the plot of the loci
it is equal.to the value of the relative shear of 'transition points' a concave downwards
strength ~~ ) corrssponding to a relative nor.al characteristic. Byerlee (1968), in analysing test
stress (a ) of I-t . The exponent p has the effect of results with noraal stress levels up to 700 MPa,
altering the curvature of the shear strength envelope, concludes that this concave downwards characteristic
with increases in p producing an increased tendency applies to all rocks.
toward linearity. The above points ate illustrated in In order to aake use of this curved plot of Byerlee
Figure 2 where the values of q and t are fixed and (1968), a curve fitting technique has been used. Over
the effect of varying the exponent p is shown. the range of nor.al stress froa 0 to 500 MPa, a cubic
Group I rocks consist of carbonate rocks with well relationship is used, with a straight line taking over
developed crystal cleavage (e.g. doloaite, liaestone when the noraal stress exceeds 500 MPa. Hence,
and atrble) and have the values of q(0.816), p(0.858),
and t (0.140). At the other extreae, Group V rocks are ~t 1.058a - 0.001026a2
+ 0.000000708a3,
represented by coarse-grained polyainerallic igneous for 0 < a < 500 MPa (3)
and aetaaorphic crystalline rocks (e.g. aaphibolite, ~t = 79.5 + 0.563a, for a > 500 MPa.
gabbro, gneiss, granite, norite, and quartzdiorite).
The corresponding values af the paraaeters are This fit of the curved characteristic of Byerlee is
q(1.220), p(0.705), and t (0.040) .. shown as 'Byerlee A' in Figure 4, for the ranges of
It has been shown by Gerrard and Macindoe (1986) noraal stress 0-500 MPa (Figure 4a) and 0-2000 MPa
that a relationship ex£sts between the three (Figure 4b).
paraaeters q, p, and t so that only two of thea can In a later study, Byerlee (1978) conducted a
be considered independent. Hence, in subsequent detailed exaaination of the frictional properties of
analysis only the exponent, i' and the relative rocks. He iaplies that the characteristic for aaxi.u.
uniaxial tensile strength, t , are considered as friction is equivalent to the loci of 'transition
variables. In these analyses the expanent, p, varies points' applicable to the rock aaterial. The wide
over the range of 0.5 to 0.9 while t varies between scatter in the frictional data that occurred at low
0.04 and 0.20. levels of noraal stress, i.e. up to 5 MPa, was
attributed to the effects of differing degrees of
3 COMPARISON OF METHODS OF ESTIMATING 'EQUALITY POINTS' surface roughness. At aoderate to high levels of
stress, i.e. up to 100 MPa, and for extreaely high
Based on the work of previous authors, there are levels of stress, i.e. up to 2000 MPa, the scatter was
several aethods of estiaating the position of the significantly reduced and there seeaed to be little
'equality point' along the shear strength envelope of dependence of friction on rock type. Byerlee qualified
the rock aaterial. Each of these aethods will have his conclusions by indicating that the friction would
different influences on the interpolation of the shear
strength envelope for the rock joint since this r*
depends on the 'equality point' position.
Ladanyi and Archaabault (1970, 1980) suggest that
the position of the 'equality point' for a rock joint
will be approxiaately the saae as the position of the
'transition point' for the rock aaterial within which
the joint lies. The concept of a 'transition point',
and a corresponding level of noraal stress known as
the 'transition stress', has been developed by Mogi
(1965) and Byerlee (1968) to describe the point at
which the failure of the rock aaterial changes in
character fro. brittle to ductile. At the 'transition
stress' the rock aaterial will undergo shear
deforaation without significant change in shear
resistance. Such deforaation can be continued until a
continuous fracture is foraed. This sensible equality
between the shear strengths of the rock aaterial and
the rock fracture (joint) is the basis of the
assertion that the 'equality point' is equivalent to
the 'transition point'. In this context it is of
interest to note that peaked behaviour in the shear Figure 2. Paraaeters describing the shear strength of
strength of rock joints disappears as the 'equality rock aaterial.
stress' is approached and, siailarly, peaked behaviour
for rock .aterial disappears as the 'transition
stress' is approached.
The analyses of 'transition points' by Mogi (1965)
and Byerlee (1968) were based on the results of exten-
sive testing over the full range of rock aaterial
types. They concluded that all the 'transition points'
can be represented by a line that is therefore refer-
red to as the loci of 'transition points', ~t. On the
basis of each 'transition point' corresponding to the
'equality point' for that particular rock, it follows
that all the 'equality points' will lie on a line,
i.e. the loci of 'equality points', ~e' will be equi-
valent to the loci of 'transition points', ~t. This
concept is illustrated in Figure 3 where the equival-
ence of the respective loci, ~e and ~t' is shown
together with the shear ~trength envelopes for the
aaterial (~a) and the joint (~j)of two rock types.
In the analysis of 'transition stress' by Mogi
(1965), it was found that for silicate rocks, the loci
of 'transition points' was given by the straight line, ,Figure 3. Loci of 'equality points'.

912
 't"
IHPoI
200
100
soo 1000 1500
ci II1PcII
(bl
Figure 4. Suggested loci of 'equality points':
(a) 0-500 MPa range; (b) 0-2000 MPa range.
be .uch lower in cases where the sliding surfaces were
separated by large thicknesses of gouge .aterial.
Byerlee (1978) expresses his .axi.u. friction
characteristic, and, by i.plication, the loci of
'transition points', in the following bi-linear for.,
~t ~ 0.85u. o < u < 200 MPa
~t = 50 + 0.6u. 200 < u < 2000 MPa.
This is shown in Figure 4 as 'Byerlee B'.
For so.e analyses it is desirable to have a
continuous function to represent the Byerlee results
over the range of nor.al stresses 0-2000 MPa. Hence, a
hyperbola was fitted to approxi.ate to the Byerlee A
characteristic at low levels of nor.al stress and to
the Byerlee B characteristic at high levels of nor.al
stress.
I 0.005608u + 0.00003505u2 1 values of exponent p and t have been chosen so that
~t = 74 i----------------------------1+0.585u.
(I + 0.005608u + 0.OO003505u2J
This hyperbola is shown as 'Byerlee C' in Figure 4.
One of the features of this curve is that its gradient
is unity when u • O. This co.pares with a gradient in
excess of unity for Byerlee A and a gradient of 0.85
for Byerlee B.
Magi's (1965) esti.ate of the loci of 'transition
Paints', and hence loci of 'equality points'. is given
by Equation (2). When used in conjunction with the
•aterial strength relation. Equation (1). predictions
Ctn be .ade of the relatlve transition stress.
f (. f/c). Contours of f • for ranges of the exponent
p fro. 0.5 10
0.9 and of the relative uniaxial tensile
strength. t , fro. 0.04 to 0.20 are shown in Figure 5.
In the corner correspoRding to low values of exponent
p and high values of t , the relative 'equality
-C
GI
IS
w
~
006
Relative Uniaxial Tensile Strength WI
Figure 5. Esti.ates of relative 'equality stress' (f·)
based on Mogi (1965) .
stress' If • ) is .ini.al and less than ~nity. In the
opposite corner, i.e. high p and low t , the relative
'equality stress' (f ) is .axi.al with values in
excess of 100. This is unrealistically high an~
suggests an i.practical co.bination of p and t
values.
Because of the linear nature of the Mogi
relationsh£p. the values of the relative 'equality
stress' (f ) depend only on the expon;nt p and the
relative uniaxial tensile strength (t ). They are
independent of the uniaxial co.pressive strength (c).
On the other hand. the esti.ates of the relative
2000
'equality stress' provided by Byerlee (1968. 1978) are
functions of c. This results fro. the curvilinear
(lines A and C on Figure 4) or bi-linear (line B on
Figure 4) nature of the Byerlee characteristic.
Bsti.ates of the relative 'equality stress' (f·)
based on Byerlee, have been provided in the for. of
contour plots in Figure 6 for c values of 50. 100, 200
and 400 MPa. Values of exponent p ranging fro. 0.5 t~
0.9 and of the relative uniaxial tensile strength (t )
ranging fro. 0.04 to 0.20 have been used in these
plots. The bi-linear for. of the Byerlee
characteristic. i.e. Equation (4). was assu.ed.
(4) In general, in Figure 6. the contours fall into two
regions, separated by a discoitinuity. The position ~f
this discontinuity is alon, f • 4 for c ~ 50 MPa. f
• 2 for c • 100 MPa, and f • 1 for c • 200 MPa. The
discontinu£ty arises because of the relative 'equality
stress' (f ) being specified by the intersection of
two downwardly concave curves. i.e. the .aterial
strength curve and the 'equality point' curve. The
lower curve. i.e. the 'equality point' curve.
undergoes a .axi.al change of gradient at a value of
about u = 200 MPa. thereby producing an a.biguity
regarding the intersection, and hence causing the
discontinuity. This can be.seen fro. Figure 7 where
(5)
the shear strength envelope of the rock .aterial Just
touches the 'knee' in the bi-linear 'equality stress'
curve. For a very s.all increase in exponent p the
rock .aterial envelope will clear the 'knee'. with the
intersection occurring at a relatively large distance
above the 'knee'. For a very s.all decrease in
exponent p the rock .aterial envelope will have one
intersection below the 'knee' and two above it. For
further decreases in exponent p there will be only one
intersection and this will occur below the 'knee' .
It is i.portant to note how very s.all changes in
exponent p can result in very large changes in the
'equality Itress' (f) and hence the 'relative equality
stress' (f ).
By co.paring Figures 5 and 6, it can be seen that.
below the discontinUity in th~ contours of the
relative 'equality stress' (f ), the Byerlee esti.ates
913
 0-9

e ••100MPa

o-oe 0·12 0·16 0020 0008 0012 0,16 0·20

Relative Uniaxial Tensile Strengthdtel Relative Uniaxial Tensile Strength WI

lal lbl
009

e••400MPa
e ••200MPa

o-oe 0012 0·16 0020 o-oe 0·12 0·16

Relative Uniaxial Tensile Strength WI Relative Uniaxial Tensile Strength WI

leI ldl
.~. __ I _

Pieure 6. Eltiaatel of relative 'equality Itress' (f ) based on Byerlee (1978).

of f- are lower than those tor Moei. This tends to Table 1 shows that the ranee of f- values varies
occur for relatively low valuel of c, relatively low froa 1 up to about 11. with h!eher'values'applyine to
valuel of exponent P. and relatively hieh valuel of Rock Group V and. 'in the case of Byerlee (1968. 1978).
t . Thil phenoaenon is liaply due to the eradient of to hieber valuel of uniaxial coaprelsive streneth. c.
0.8 in Equation (2) (Moei) beine lower than the The estiaation of the 'equality stress' froa Moei's
eradient of 0.85 in Equation (4a), (Byerlee). and Byerlee's results is based on the alsuaption of
The relults shown in Pieurel 5 and 6. whilst cover- equivalence between the 'transition stresl' and the
ine eeneral ranees if exponent p and relative uniaxial 'equality strell'. A different approachJh'as been
tensile Itreneth. t • can be applied to those values adopted by Goodaan (1976) who sueeested that the
relevant to thS Hoek and Brown (1982) Rock Groups. Por 'equality stress' will be approxiaately the saae
these. p and t both vary aonotonically froa 0.658 and aaenitude as the uniaxial coapressive strength (c). In
0.14 for Group I to 0.705 and 0.04 respectively for contralt with the Moei and Byerlee estiaates of
Group V. The corresP2ndine values of the relative 'transition stresl'. which are independent of rock
'equality strel.' (f ) are shown in Table 1. type. this assuaption directly links the 'equality
point' with the strength of the particular rock type.
Table 1 Values of Relative 'Equality Stress' (f-) Por the Goodaan approach. Ipecification of values
for exponent p and the relative uniaxial tensile
------------------------------------------------------
Rock Group I Rock Group V streneth (t ) will aean that the 'equality points' for
different values of unaxial coapressive streneth will
------------------------------------------------------
1.3 4.3 lie on a straieht line of gradient ~G' Thil grad~ent
Moei (1965)
(lee Pieure 5) chanees for different values of exponent p and_t . Por
the ranees of exponent p froa 0.5 to 0.9 and t froa
Byer lee '(1968. 1978) 0.04 to 0.20. contours of Ilo are plotted in Pieure 8.
It can be seen that the valuel vary froa about 0.7 to
(lee Pieure 6)
C· '50 MPa 1.1 3.5 about 2.0 and. for aOlt cales. tend to predict lower
c • 100 MPa 1.2 7.5 values of the 'equality Itress' thag either Moei or
1.5 10.0 Byerlee. Por exponent p • 0.7 and t • 0.08 the
c - 200 MPa
c'· 400 MPa 2.1 11.0 'typical Goodaan' estiaate of a line of 'equality
------ -------------------------------------------------
914
 600
500
100
o
o 400 600 100
sr tI'lI
Figure 7. Inter8ection regiae between the 8hear
8trength envelope for the rock aaterial (~al and the
loci of 'equality stre88es' (~el.
point8' is shown in Figure 4, corre8ponding to Po •
1.04.
In con8idering Goodaan'8 e8tiaate of 'equality
pOint8' it i8 of intere8t to note that an 'equality
8tre88, in exce88 of the uniaxial coapre88ive 8trength
can only be approached when there i8 8ignificant
lateral con8traint on the rock joint.
4 PRACTICAL CONSEQUENCES
(a) In general, difference8 in the e8tiaate8 of the
'equality 8tre88' (f) will have little effect on the
e8tiaated rock joint 8trength in the civil engineering
range. i.e. up to 5 MPa. Here, the strength i8 aainly
controlled by a coabination of basic friction and
dilation.
(b) However, for the aining engineering range. i.e. up
to about 100 MPa, differences in the estiaation of the
'equality stre88, will have a 8ignificant effect on
the e8tiaated rock joint strength.
(c) The larger the estiaate of the 'equality 8tre88,
(fl. the lower the estiaated rock joint 8trength will
be at these interaediate to high values of noraal
8tress. i.e. higher e8tiaated values of f corre8pOnd8
to aore con8ervative estiaate8 of rock joint 8trength.
(d) Goodaan'8 estiaate of 'equality stress' i8 alwaY8
le88 than Mogi'8 or Byerlee'8, except in the zone of
low value8 of the exponent p and high value8 of the
relative uniaxial ten8ile 8trength (t·). In the ca8e
of Byerlee, thi8 zone di8appear8 when the uniaxial
Coapre88ive 8trength (c) i8 large.
(e) For relatively low value8 of c. the Byerlee
e8tiaate of f is alwaY8 lower than the Mogi e8tiaate.
However. for relatively high value8 of c. the reverse
is true.
(f) For the Hoek and Brown (1982) Rock Groups I to V
thl estiaated value8 of the relative 'equality stress'
(f ) are 1.3 to 4.3 for Mogi (1965) and 1.1 to 11 for
915
HI .12 ••
Relative Uniaxial Tensile Strength W>
Figure 8. Gradient8 of line8 of 'equality point8'
ba8ed on Goodaan (1978).
Byerlee (1988, 1978). Higher values of f· are
a8sociated with Rock Group V and. in the case of
Byerlee. with higher value8 of c.
(g) In general. the consequences of the estiaation of
the 'equality 8tre88' (f) on the estiaation of the
rock joint strength (r.j.s.) will be.
r.j.s. based > r.j.s. ba8ed > r.j.s. based
on Goodaan on Mogi on Byerlee
However. for the special case when the exponens p is
low, the relative uniaxial ten8ile 8trength (t ) i8
high. and the uniaxial coapressive strength (cl i8
low. the above order is reversed.
RBFBRBNCES
Byerlee. J.D. 1988. Brittle-ductile transition in
rocks. J. Geophys. Res .• 73(14):4741-4750.
Byerlee, J.D. 1978. Friction of rocks. Pure Appl.
Geophys .• 116:615-626.
Gerrard. C. 1986. Shear failure of rock joints:
appropriate constraints for eapirical relations.
Int. J. Rock Mech. and Min. Sci. (in press).
Gerrard, C .• L. Macindoe 1986. Eapirical relations
linking the shear strength of rock joint8 and rock
aaterial. CSIRO Division of Building Research.
Internal Paper No. 86/40.
Goodaan. R.E. 1976. Methods of geological engineering
in di8continuous rocks. We8t. New York.
Hoek. B .• E.T. Brown 1982. Underground excavation8
in rock. 2nd Ed. In8t. of Mining' Metallurgy.
London.
Ladanyi. B .• G. Archaabault 1970. Siaulation of
8hear behaviour of jointed rock aa88. Proc. 11th
Syap. on Rock Mech .• California. 105-125.
Ladanyi. B .• G. Archaabault 1980. Direct and
indirect deteraination of shear 8trength of rock
aass. Preprint 80-25. Soc. of Min. Engrs of AIMB.
Annual Meeting.
Mogi. K. 1985. Pressure dependence of rock strength
and transition froa brittle fracture to ductile
flow. Bull. of Earthquake Re8. Inst. 44:215-232.