Shear Behavior Characteristics of Rock Joints Considering Roughness Parameters

Abstract

Both the roughness measurement tests and the multi-stage shear tests were carried out on the 110 rock joint samples in order to investigate the influences of rock type, joint roughness and normal stress on the shear behaviour of rock joints. Test samples were composed of quartz porphyry, dacite, granite and gneiss, which were classified into three detailed groups according to their JRC values. Roughness parameters of rock joints were analyzed by roughness measurement tests, and shear characteristics were also investigated by multi-stage shear tests. Both peak shear strength and shear stiffness were increased as both joint roughness and normal stress were increased, whereas dilation angles showed lower values at the lower roughness and higher normal stress conditions. Besides, shear characteristics obtained from all tests of four different rock types with different rock strengths showed irrelevant details, therefore the influences of both joint roughness and normal stress on shear behaviors were found to be more considerable than the strength of intact rock. The results obtained from both multi-stage shear tests and direct shear tests were finally compared, where the dilation angles obtained from multi-stage shear tests were found to be valid only for the first normal stress conditions.