Engineering Geology 157 (2013) 33–38

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Engineering Geology
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/enggeo

Technical Note

Influence of humidity conditions on shear strength of clay rock discontinuities

F.L. Pellet a,⁎, M. Keshavarz b, c, M. Boulon b
a
INSA — University of Lyon, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Villeurbanne, France
b
University of Grenoble, Laboratory 3SR, Grenoble, France
c
University of Payam Nour, Faculty of Science, Zanjan, Iran

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The shear strength of rock discontinuities strongly depends on the water content especially when the rocks
Received 14 September 2012 contain clay materials. To assess the decrease in the mechanical properties of clay-infilled discontinuities due
Received in revised form 20 January 2013 to water saturation, a series of direct shear tests was performed using an advanced shear box that allows the
Accepted 5 February 2013
injection of water into the discontinuity. Results show that both the friction coefficient and the cohesion de-
Available online 14 February 2013
crease when the discontinuity is saturated. Overall, the shear strength of the discontinuity is considerably re-
Keywords:
duced to approximately 50% of its original value. This reduction has to be accounted for when conducting
Rock discontinuity stability analyses of rock slopes, dam foundations or underground openings.
Clay infill material © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Direct shear test
Water saturation
Shear strength reduction
Lubrication

1. Introduction In this framework, a testing program based on direct shear tests

The stability of rock masses is largely affected by the humidity
conditions which are, for example, responsible for landslides that
occur after heavy rains. This is particularly true for stratified rock
masses with clay-infilled discontinuities, because most of clay minerals
are highly sensitive to water.
Beside the change of pore pressure distribution within the rock
mass, an increase in the water content modifies the consistency of
the clay and therefore its mechanical properties. Several landslides
were caused by a sudden drop in the mechanical properties of the
material associated with an increase in the water content. This was
the case, for example, in the catastrophic events of the Vaiont Dam
failure, where a landslide caused the sudden emptying of the reser-
voir (Hendron and Patton, 1987).
Despite some recent studies on this subject (Nara et al., 2011,
2012; Li et al., 2012), the mechanical behavior of clay-infilled rock
discontinuities under direct shear test has not yet been fully investi-
gated. Several loading conditions may be encountered, from static
loading leading to creep (Zhang et al., 2012) to cyclic loadings that in-
duce degradation of the rock discontinuities (Jafari et al., 2003). In
terms of failure criteria, Indraratna et al. (2010) recently proposed
an approach to account for discontinuity characteristics (roughness,
thickness, etc.). However, it has to be remembered that, in order to
extend laboratory results to the field, scale effects have to be taken
into account (Vallier et al., 2010; Fujii et al., 2011).
⁎ Corresponding author. Tel.: +33 683229945.
E-mail addresses: frederic.pellet@cfmr-roches.org, frpellet@orange.fr (F.L. Pellet).
has been carried out on rock discontinuities in order to determine
how much the shear strength is changed when the water content
increases.
2. Testing program
2.1. Rock under study
The rock under study is a marl from the Dogger geological period,
made up of approximately 50% clay, 30% carbonate and 20% quartz. The
clay minerals are mostly illite with some smectite and some interstratified
minerals. The natural water content of the rock specimens lies between 4
and 7% (Fabre and Pellet, 2006).
The main average physical and mechanical properties of this rock,
reported in Table 1, were determined in previous studies, including
sonic velocity measurements (Pellet and Fabre, 2007). Time depen-
dent properties, shrinkage and swelling characteristics of intact rock
specimens as well as hydro-mechanical properties and permeability
have been also extensively investigated (Buzzi et al., 2007; Cariou et
al., 2009).
2.2. Testing equipment and specimen preparation
Tests were carried out using a 3D shear box developed by Boulon
(1995) in order to control stresses and displacements in the three
spatial directions. The originality of this device is to make shearing
possible by moving the two half boxes in opposite directions. This
allows the normal stress to remain centered on the discontinuity,

0013-7952/$ – see front matter © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.enggeo.2013.02.002
34 F.L. Pellet et al. / Engineering Geology 157 (2013) 33–38

Table 1
Average values of mechanical and physical properties of the marl under study.
After Fabre and Pellet (2006) and Pellet and Fabre (2007).

Density Water content Porosity Saturation degree P-wave velocity UCS

kN/m3 % % % m/s MPa

23.7 5.9 15.5 87 4200 26

therefore avoiding half box rotation. The tests can be performed with
a Constant Normal Load or by imposing a Constant Volume with no
joint dilation and no joint compaction. This equipment also allows
the hydro-mechanical behavior of rock discontinuities to be studied
using fluid injection into the center of the specimen. An extensive de-
scription was given by Hans and Boulon (2003) and by Buzzi et al.
(2007). The overall dimensions of this equipment, which is shown
in Fig. 1, are 1.2 m × 1.2 m.
The specimens used were marl cores retrieved from borehole.
They were 79 mm in diameter and 80 mm in height. These specimens
were then sawed in half; consequently the artificially created disconti-
nuities were perfectly smooth. Afterwards, the two parts of the speci-
men were sealed in the steel half boxes using a cement mortar made
up of a mixture of fast-curing cement and Vicat ordinary cement pre-
pared with an optimal ratio to obtain maximum strength for a mini-
mum curing time. Fig. 2 shows the two half boxes before and after
assembly, ready to be tested. The external dimensions of a half box
are 140 mm× 140 mm.

2.3. Testing program

The main part of the testing program was the direct shear tests
that were performed on the marl discontinuities in parallel to the
joint surface. Additionally, in order to fully characterize the rock dis-
continuities under study, a few swelling tests and some compression
tests were performed prior to the direct shear test.
Direct shear tests were carried out under two different humidity
conditions. The first series of tests were conducted on dry discontinu-
ities and the second on discontinuities that had been saturated with
water. The objective of these tests was to determine the effect of
the humidity conditions on the mechanical properties including the
friction coefficient and the cohesion of the discontinuities.
Direct shear tests were carried out with a shearing rate of 0.05 mm/s.
They were performed with either a Constant Normal Load (CNL) or at a
Constant Volume (CV). Both types of tests are able to determine if the
Place for boxes
Fig. 2. Specimen preparation: marl specimen sealed with a mortar in one half box (top
picture); the two half box assemblies ready to be installed in the shear box (bottom
picture); dimensions of the boxes are 140 mm × 140 mm.
discontinuity tends to dilate or to contract during shearing. The testing
conditions of the performed tests are summarized in Table 2.
3. Test results and discussion
3.1. Swelling test
To measure the swelling of the marl discontinuities, water was
injected into the center of the specimen after having applied a little
normal stress of about 0.1 MPa. Water injections were performed
twice a day, 5 to 12 h apart. During the test, the normal displacement
was kept at almost zero. Fig. 3 shows results for test TW-CV-21, where
the displacement was controlled and the increase of normal stress with
respect to time was recorded. After three days of water injection
(4300 min), the normal stress stabilized to 0.58 MPa. We can therefore
conclude that this clay is moderately susceptible to swelling due to the

Table 2
Shear test program and testing conditions: Constant Normal Load (CNL) and Constant
Volume (CV).

Test Joint conditions Loading conditions Stages of initial normal stress

[MPa]

TD-CV-02 Dry CV 2
TD-CNL-03 Dry CNL 2, 5, 10, 16
TD-CNL-04 Dry CNL 5
TD-CV-05 Dry CV 5
TD-CV-06 Dry CV 16
TD-CV-17 Dry CV 5, 10, 12
TW-CNL-07 Saturated CNL 2, 5, 10,16
Fig. 1. Photograph of the shearing equipment (BCR3D).
TW-CV-21 Saturated CV 5, 10, 12
After Hans and Boulon (2003), reproduced with the permission of John
TW-CV-23 Saturated CV 2, 5, 10
Wiley Ltd.
 F.L. Pellet et al. / Engineering Geology 157 (2013) 33–38 35

0.6 0.06 Table 3

Normal stress
Normal stiffness Kn [MPa/mm] for different normal stresses (2, 5, 10, 16 MPa) deter-
0.5 Swelling > 0 0.04 mined on the unloading path for dry and saturated discontinuities.
Normal stress [MPa]

Water injection
2 MPa 5 MPa 10 MPa 12 MPa 16 MPa
0.4 0.02
–

Swelling [mm]
Dry discontinuity TD-CV-02 10.8 14.0 18.2 22.8
TD-CNL-03 14.3 – – – –
0.3 0
TD-CNL-04 11.9 – – –
Mean value 12.3 14.0 18.2 – 22.8
0.2 -0.02 Standard. dev. 1.8 – – – –
Saturated TW-CNL-07 18.1 13.9 12.1 – –
0.1 -0.04 discontinuity TW-CV-21 14.8 10.1 8.7 6.4 –
Mean value 16.5 12.0 10.4 6.4 –
Standard. dev. 2.3 2.7 2.4 – –
0 -0.06
0.1 1 10 100 1000 10000
Time [minutes]
discontinuity test TW-CV-21 are presented in Fig. 4b; the values of
Fig. 3. Normal stress as a function of time for a displacement-controlled swelling test
the normal stiffness are less, as the rock material is softer due to
(test TW-CV-21).
the presence of water.
The secant normal stiffness kn of the discontinuities are summarized
presence of smectite, as it was previously demonstrated by Sato et al. in Table 3. They were computed on the unloading path of each cycle.
(1992). This indicates that for each stress level, the normal stiffness modulus
is the difference between the maximum normal stress attained and
3.2. Compression test zero (complete unloading) divided by the corresponding displacement
increment. Despite the fact that the values of the moduli are slightly
Fig. 4 shows the results of compression tests. Test TD-CV-02 was scattered, it can be seen that the normal stiffness substantially increases
performed with four different levels of normal stress (2, 5, 10 and with normal stress for the dry discontinuity. On the contrary, for the sat-
16 MPa) and the results are shown in Fig. 4a. After the first loading– urated discontinuity there is a slight decrease in stiffness.
unloading cycle (2 MPa), an irreversible displacement of about 0.2 mm These opposite trends can be explained by the fact that although the
was measured. The subsequent cycles lead to a larger irreversible discontinuities were considered to be smooth from a rock engineering
displacement, up to 1.2 mm for 16 MPa. Results for the saturated point of view, the specimen sawing left tiny marks rather like micro as-
perities. Therefore, the surface of the dry discontinuity is less even and a

a 18

16
a 8
σn = 16MPa
Normale stress [MPa]

14 6
σn = 10MPa
12
4 σ n = 5 MPa
Shear Stress [MPa]

10
2 σ n = 2 MPa
8
6 0

4 -2
2
-4
0
-3.5 -3.0 -2.5 -2.0 -1.5 -1.0 -0.5 0.0 -6
Normal displacement [mm] -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Shear displacement [mm]

b 18 b
0.0
16 Βn = 2 MPa

14
Normal displacement [mm]
Normal stress [MPa]

-0.2
Βn = 5 MPa
12
10 -0.4
Βn = 10MPa
8
-0.6 Βn = 16 MPa
6

4
-0.8
2

0 -1.0
-3.5 -3.0 -2.5 -2.0 -1.5 -1.0 -0.5 0.0 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Normal displacement [mm] Shear displacement [mm]

Fig. 4. Normal stress versus normal displacement for compression tests performed Fig. 5. Shear test TD-CNL-03 performed on a dry discontinuity under Constant Normal
prior to the shear test, a — dry discontinuity (test TD-CV-02), b — saturated interface Load (2, 5, 10 and 16 MPa): a — Shear stress versus shear displacement, b — normal
(TW-CV-21). displacement versus shear displacement.
36 F.L. Pellet et al. / Engineering Geology 157 (2013) 33–38

Table 4 a
Shear stiffness Ks [MPa/mm] and maximum shear stress τpeak [MPa] of dry discontinu- 8
ities for different normal stresses (2, 5, 10, 12, 16 MPa). σno = 12MPa
6 σno = 10MPa
2 MPa 5 MPa 10 MPa 12 MPa 16 MPa
σ no =5 MPa
4

Shear stress [MPa]

ks τpeak ks τpeak ks τpeak ks ks τpeak

TD-CV-02 6.1 0.8 – – – – – – – – 2

TD-CNL-03 7.2 1.0 5.9 2.4 12.7 4.2 – – 8.2 6.2
0
TD-CNL-04 – – 3.2 2.3 – – – – – –
TD-CV-05 – – 4.8 2.9 – – – – – – -2
TD-CV-06 – – – – – – – – 5.8 6.9
TD-CV-17 – – 4.7 2.6 5.8 5.3 9.2 6.1 – – -4
Mean value 6.6 0.9 4.6 2.6 9.2 4,7 9.2 6.5 7.0 6.6
Standard ±0.7 ±0.1 ±1.1 ±0.2 ±4.8 ±0.8 – – ±2.3 ±0.5 -6
deviation
-8
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Shear displacement [mm]
higher normal stress is required to ensure perfect contact. On the other
hand, for saturated discontinuities, the contact between the two parts of b 0.0
the specimen is perfect, even under a low normal stress, because, as pre-
viously stated, the rock material is softer. -0.2
-0.4

Normal displacement [mm]

-0.6
3.3. Direct shear test on a dry marl discontinuity -0.8 6 no = 5 MPa

-1.0
Six direct shear tests were conducted on a dry marl discontinuity.
-1.2
The shear test results giving the shear stress versus shear displacement 6 no =10MPa

and shear displacement versus normal displacement are shown in -1.4 6 no =12MPa

Figs. 5 and 7. The test results are summarized in Table 4. -1.6

For an applied normal stress, the shear displacement is increased
until the maximum shear stress is reached. Then, the normal stress
is increased to the next level and the shearing process is resumed.
At the end of the actuator stroke, the shearing direction is reversed
so that shearing is run in the opposite direction. At this stage, some
slight decays may be observed due to the backlash compensation
that occurs when the shearing direction is changed.
Fig. 5 shows the results of Test TD-CNL-03 performed under Con-
stant Normal Load conditions (CNL). The shear tests were performed
at different levels of constant normal stress ranging from a minimum
stress of 2 MPa to a maximum stress of 16 MPa. During the shearing,
the shear stress increases with the shear displacement to reach a
maximum value of 6.1 MPa and then remains stable (Figure 5a). A
very slight change in vertical displacement is observed during the shear-
ing (Figure 5b) which indicates a tiny amount of contraction. However,
during the reverse path, the joint tends to dilate due to gouge production.
A slight decrease in the shear stress is observed, which confirms the dis-
continuity damage.
By analyzing the shear stress–shear displacement curve, the shear
stiffness can be determined. Their mean values lies between 4.6 and
9.2 MPa/mm, but no clear dependency on the normal applied stress
has been evidenced.
-1.8
-2.0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Shear displacement [mm]
Fig. 7. Shear test TD-CV-17 performed on a dry discontinuity with Constant Volume
(initial normal stress: 5, 10, and 12 MPa): a — Shear stress versus shear displacement,
b — normal displacement versus shear displacement.
Photographs of the dry surface discontinuity after testing are
presented in Fig. 6. Gouge (little pieces of rock) is clearly visible indicat-
ing that joint damage is responsible for the joint contraction–dilation.
Fig. 7 shows the curves for the test TD-CV-17 carried out under
Constant Volume conditions (CV) with an initial normal stress of 5,
10 and 12 MPa. The shear stress increases with the shear displace-
ment (Figure 7a) whereas the normal displacement remains constant
(Figure 7b). In Fig. 8, it is shown that the normal stress tends to decrease
during the shearing process, for both the forward path and the reverse
path. This clearly indicates a decrease in the shear strength due to dis-
continuity damage.
14

12

10
Normal stress [MPa]

0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Shear displacement [mm]

Fig. 6. Photos of the dry discontinuity after testing (test TD-CNL-03). Left: lower part; Fig. 8. Normal stress versus shear displacement — test TD-CV-17 performed on a dry
right: upper part. discontinuity with Constant Volume (initial normal stress: 5, 10, and 12 MPa).
 F.L. Pellet et al. / Engineering Geology 157 (2013) 33–38 37

Table 5
Shear stiffness Ks [MPa/mm] and maximum shear stress τpeak [MPa] of saturated dis-
continuities for different normal stresses (2, 5, 10, 12, 16 MPa).

2 MPa 5 MPa 10 MPa 12 MPa 16 MPa

ks τpeak ks τpeak ks τpeak ks τpeak ks τpeak

TW-CNL-07 15.0 0.9 14.1 1.5 12.0 2.3 – – 9.1 4.4

TW-CV-21 – – 7.6 1.5 4.5 2.2 3.0 2.4 – –
TW-CV-23 2.6 0.8 4.1 1.4 5.1 2.4 – – – –
Mean value 9.0 0.8 7.6 1.5 7.3 2.2 3.0 2.4 9.1 4.4
Standard ±8.7 ±0.1 ±3.5 ±0.1 ±1.2 ±0.1 – – – –
deviation Fig. 10. Photos of the discontinuity after testing (test TD-CNL-07). Left: lower part;
right: upper part.

3.4. Direct shear test on a saturated marl discontinuity

The photographs in Fig. 10 show the saturated marl discontinuity after
Three tests were performed on saturated marl discontinuities testing. Damage is more severe than in the dry condition (Figure 6). In ad-
(Table 5). Prior to testing, water is injected over three days while the dition to solid debris (gouge), some muddy areas are clearly visible.
discontinuity is subjected to a small normal stress (0.1 MPa). The evolu- When shearing in the opposite direction (reverse path) this gouge
tion of the normal stress with respect to time was shown in Fig. 3 for material is rearranged; this can lead to extra dilation or contraction of
test TW-CV-21. the discontinuity (Figure 9b). In conclusion, for a saturated disconti-
Fig. 9a shows the shear stress–shear displacement curves for a test nuity, the reverse path provides less reliable results.
performed at Constant Normal Load (Test TW-CNL-07). The results The results of a test performed under Constant Volume conditions
show almost the same shape than those obtained under dry condi- (TW-CV-23) are shown in Fig. 11. The shear stress increases with
tions but the maximum shear stress is considerably reduced. In the shear displacement as the normal displacement is kept constant dur-
reverse path the normal stress was lowered from 16 MPa to 8 MPa, ing the shearing process. For the last stage of shearing (when the nor-
in order to avoid excessive damage to the discontinuity. This leads to mal stress reaches 10 MPa) the shear stress drops due to damage to
a drop in the shear stress for a shear displacement of about 4.3 mm. the discontinuity and rock matrix. In Fig. 12, a significant decrease
Fig. 9b, shows the normal versus the shear displacement curve. It in the normal stress is observed. This observation is consistent with
is clearly evident that when the sample is saturated, the discontinuity the results of test TW-CNL-07 where a substantial contraction of the dis-
contraction is much more important at high normal stresses due to the continuity was observed. In the present test (TW-CV-23), the normal
higher compressibility of the saturated clay material. The shear stiffness stress is adjusted to prevent compaction (Constant Volume conditions).
has approximately the same magnitude as that observed in the dry
discontinuities.

a 6
σn= 16 MPa a 4

4
σn= 10 MPa σno= 10 MPa
σn = 5 MPa
Shear stress [MPa]

2 σn = 2 MPa 2 σno= 5 MPa

Shear stress [MPa]

σno = 2 MPa
0 σno = 1 MPa

0
-2

-4
-2
-6

-8
-1 -4
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
-1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Shear displacement [mm Shear displacement [mm]

b 0.0
σn= 5 MPa
b 0.0
σno = 1 MPa
σn= 2 MPa σno = 2 MPa
-0.5
Normal displacement [mm]
Normal displacement [mm]

σn= 10 MPa -0.5

-1.0
σno= 5 MPa
σn= 16 MPa
-1.5 -1.0

-2.0
σno = 10 MPa
-1.5
-2.5

-3.0 -2.0
-2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Shear displacement [mm] Shear displacement [mm]

Fig. 9. Shear test TW-CNL-07 performed on a saturated discontinuity with initial nor- Fig. 11. Shear test TW-CV-23 (Constant Volume) performed on a saturated discontinu-
mal stresses of 5, 10, and 16 MPa: a — Shear stress versus shear displacement, b — normal ity with initial normal stresses of 2, 5, and 10 MPa: a — Shear stress versus shear dis-
displacement versus shear displacement. placement, b — normal displacement versus shear displacement.
38 F.L. Pellet et al. / Engineering Geology 157 (2013) 33–38

12
Despite the fact that additional tests would be needed to investi-
gate the effect of different water content and saturation ratios, the
10
strength reduction of the discontinuities, evidenced before, explains
Normal stress [MPa]

why the rock slope stability could be critical during the rainy season
8
or after the snow melting period. Moreover, the changes in stiffness
moduli enhance the acceleration of movements recorded in rock slopes
6
that are monitored. In this respect, some interesting correlations could
be achieved on case histories.
4

5. Conclusions
2

0
0 1 2 3 4 5
Shear Displacement [mm]
Fig. 12. Normal stress versus shear displacement — test TW-CV-23 performed on satu-
rated discontinuity with Constant Volume (initial normal stress: 2, 5, and 10 MPa).
4. Discussion on the effect of water content on the shear properties
The observations described above outline a significant difference
between the behavior of dry and saturated discontinuities.
In terms of shear strength, the maximum shear stress versus normal
stress is presented in Fig. 13a for dry discontinuities and in Fig. 13b for
saturated discontinuities. In both cases, it seems that the Mohr–Coulomb
failure criterion is relevant, at least up to a normal stress of 10 MPa. Due
to the lubricant effect of water, the friction angle is much lower for the
saturated discontinuities with a substantial drop from 22° for a dry dis-
continuity to 12° for the saturated discontinuity. At the same time cohe-
sion slightly decreases from 0.41 MPa to 0.32 MPa. Additionally, both
normal and shear stiffness moduli change considerably in the presence
of water.
a 8
Mohr-Coulomb
7 Hans, J., Boulon, M., 2003. A new device for investigating the hydro-mechanical proper-
Maximum shear stress [MPa]
The mechanical properties of infilled-clay discontinuities are sub-
6 7 8 9 stantially changed by the humidity conditions (i.e. water content).
Overall, the shear strength is considerably reduced when the water
content increases. Even if this conclusion is not surprising, it is impor-
tant to accurately determine how much the strength of the material is
reduced when its water content is increased. In the present study, the
shear strength of a dry discontinuity in a marl specimen is reduced by
approximately 50% when the discontinuity is saturated. This conclu-
sion should help when performing stability analyses of rock slopes,
dam foundations or underground openings by taking into account
more realistic discontinuity shear strength parameters. Therefore in
the future, safer and more reliable designs could be achieved.
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Cohesion = 0.32 MPa
1 Friction angle = 12 °

0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18
Normal stress [MPa]

Fig. 13. Normal stress versus maximum shear stress, a — dry discontinuities, b — saturated
discontinuities.