Analysis of strength and moduli of jointed rocks

This paper deals with two aspects of jointed rock mass behavior, first the finite element modeling of a jointed rock mass as an equivalent continuum, second the comparison of empirical strength criteria of a jointed rock mass. In finite element modeling the jointed rock properties are represented by a set of empirical relationships, which express the properties of the jointed medium as a function of joint factor and the properties of the intact rock. These relationships have been derived from a large set of experimental data of tangent elastic modulus. It is concluded that equivalent continuum analysis gives the best results for both single and multiple jointed rock. The reliability of the analysis depends on the estimation of joint factor, which is a function of the joint orientation, joint frequency and joint strength.Empirical strength criteria for jointed rocks, namely Hoek and Brown, Yudhbir et al., Ramamurthy and Arora, Mohr–Coulomb have been incorporated in a nonlinear finite element analysis of jointed rock using the equivalent continuum approach, to determine the failure stress. The major principal stress at failure, obtained using Ramamurthy's criteria, compares very well with experimental results.