• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2001.03a
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• pp.73-80
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• 2001

The shear strength of jointed rock is influenced by effective normal stress, joint wall compressive strength, joint roughness and so on. Since joint roughness makes considerable influences on shear strength of jointed rock, many studies tried to get quantitative joint roughness parameter. Until now, Joint Roughness Coefficient, JRC proposed by Barton has been prevalently used as a rock joint roughness parameter In spite of its disadvantages. In this study, a quantification of rock joint roughness is performed using surface roughness parameter, Rs. Proposed method is applied to rock core specimens, field joint surfaces, and JRC profiles. The scale of fluctuation is introduced to extend the suggested method to the large scale field joint surface roughness. Based on the quantification of joint surface roughness, joint shear tests are performed with the portable shear box. The relationship between joint surface roughness and joint shear strength is investigated and finally, a rock joint shear strength equation is derived from these results. The equation has considerable credibility and originality in that it is obtained from laboratory tests and expressed with quantified parameter.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2005.03a
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• pp.1205-1210
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• 2005

The behavior of rock mass and solute(e.g. groundwater, radioactivity) flow in fractured rock can be directly influenced by joint roughness. The characteristics of joint roughness is also a main factor for the rock classification(e.g. RMR, Q system) which is usually used in tunnel design. Nevertheless, most of JRC estimation has been carried out only by the examination with the naked eye. This JRC estimation has a lack of objectivity because each investigator judges JRC by his subjective opinion. Therefore, it will be desirable that the assessment of JRC is performed by a numerical analysis which can give a quantitative value corresponding to the characteristics of a roughness curve. Meanwhile, roughness curves for joint surfaces which are observed in drill cores have been obtained only along linear profiles. Although roughness curves are measured in the same joint surface, they can frequently show diverse aspects in a standpoint of roughness characteristics. If roughness curves can be measured along the elliptical circumferences of joint surfaces from core scanning images or Televiewer images, they will certainly be more comprehensive than those measured along linear profiles for roughness characteristics of joint surfaces. This study is focus on dealing with (1) extracting automatically roughness curves from core scan image or Televiewer image, (2) improving the accuracy of quantitative assessment of JRC using fractal dimension concept.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.106-119
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• 2012

Roughness of rock joint has generally been characterized based upon geometrical aspects of a two-dimensional surface profile. The appropriate description of joint roughness, however, should consider the features of roughness mobilization at contact areas under normal and shear loads. In this study, direct shear tests were conducted on the replicas of tensile fractured gneiss joints and the influence of the shear direction on the shear behavior and effective roughness was examined. In this procedure, a joint surface was represented as a group of triangular planes, and the steepness of each plane was characterized using the concepts of the active and inactive micro-slope angles. The contact areas at peak strength which were estimated by a numerical method showed that the locations of the contact areas were mainly dependent on the distribution of the micro-slope angle and the shear behavior of joint was dominated by only the fractions with active micro-slope angles. Therefore, a three-dimensional coefficient for the quantification of rock joint roughness is proposed based on the distribution of active micro-slope angle: active roughness coefficient, $C_r$. Comparison of the active roughness coefficient and the peak shear strength obtained from the experiment suggests that the active roughness coefficient is the effective parameter to quantify the surface roughness and estimate the shear behavior of rock joint.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.261-273
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• 1994

Direct shear tests were carried out on the rock joints and artificial discontinuities to investigate the influence of joint roughness on the shear strength and deformation behaviour. Single direct shear testing apparatus used in experiment was designed and manufactured. Its capacity is 200 tons of shear load, 20 tons of normal load and 50$\textrm{cm}^2$ of maximum shear area. Test samples were cement mortar with artificial discontinuity and sandstone with natural joint. Peak shear strength was increased as joint roughness or normal stress was increased, especially, linearly increased with roughness angle in cement mortar. If joint roughness angle was constant at low normal stress, shear strength was not affected by width and height of joint roughness in cement mortar. Peak shear strengths obtained from tests were larger than the values calculated by Barton's equation, and shear stiffness was increased with joint roughness coefficient.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.29-42
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• 2018

This paper presents the results of an empirical study in which square rock-like blocks containing two parallel pre-existing rough non-persistent joints were subjected to uniaxial compression load. The main purpose of this study was to investigate uniaxial compressive strength and deformation modulus of jointed specimens. Response Surface Method (RSM) was utilized to design experiments and investigate the effect of four joint parameters, namely joint roughness coefficient (JRC), bridge length (L), bridge angle (${\gamma}$), and joint inclination (${\theta}$). The interaction of these parameters on the uniaxial compressive strength (UCS) and deformation modulus of the blocks was investigated as well. The results indicated that an increase in joint roughness coefficient, bridge length and bridge angle increased compressive strength and deformation modulus. Moreover, increasing joint inclination decreased the two mechanical properties. The concept of 'interlocking cracks' which are mixed mode (shear-tensile cracks) was introduced. This type of cracks can happen in higher level of JRC. Initiation and propagation of this type of cracks reduces mechanical properties of sample before reaching its peak strength. The results of the Response Surface Methodology showed that the mutual interaction of the joint parameters had a significant influence on the compressive strength and deformation modulus.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.52-63
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• 2009

This is a study on large-scale rock joint roughness measurements using LIDAR (light detection and ranging) and the Split-FX point cloud processing software. The large-scale rock Joint Roughness Coefficient (JRC) is calculated using the maximum amplitude of joint asperities over the profile length on large-scale Joint surfaces of rock. As the profile length increases, JRC decreases due to scale-effects of rock specimens and is non-stationary. Also JRC shows anisotropy depending on the profile direction. The profile direction is measured relative to either dip or strike of the large-scale joint.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.561-577
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• 2021

The ten standard roughness profiles suggested by Barton and Choubey (1977) were extended to make three-dimensional (3D) joint models whose profiles were identical at any cross section. Replicas of joint models were produced using plaster of Paris, and direct shear tests were performed to verify the joint roughness coefficients (JRC) of the standard roughness profiles. Joint shear strengths measured by direct shear tests were compared with those predicted by the shear failure criterion suggested by Barton (1973) based on JRC, joint compressive strength (JCS), and joint basic friction angle (𝜙_b). Shear strengths measured from joints of the first and fourth standard roughness profiles were close to predicted values; however, shear strengths measured from the other joint models were lower than predicted, the differences increasing as the roughness of joints increased. Back calculated values for JRC, JCS, and from the results of the direct shear tests show measured shear strengths were lower than predicted shear strengths because of the JRC values. New JRC were back calculated from the measured shear strength and named JRC_m. Values of JRC_m were lower than the JRC for the standard roughness profiles but show a strong linear relationship to JRC. Corrected JRC_m values for the standard roughness profiles are provided and revised relationships between JRC_m and JRC, and new shear strength criterion are suggested.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.1-13
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• 2011

Joint roughness is one of the most important parameters in analysis of rock slope stability. Especially in probabilistic analysis, the random properties of joint roughness influence the probability of slope failure. Therefore, a large dataset on joint roughness is required for the probabilistic analysis but the traditional direct measurement of roughness in the field has some limitations. Terrestrial LiDAR has advantagess over traditional direct measurement in terms of cost and time. JRC (Joint Roughness Coefficient) was calculated from statistical parameters which are known from quantitative methods of converting the roughness of the material surface into JRC. The mean, standard deviation and distribution function of JRC were obtained, and we found that LiDAR is useful in obtaining large dataset for random variables.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.494-507
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• 2011

Rock joint surface roughness is one of the most important parameters in shear behavior analysis of rock joint surface. Until now, estimation of joint surface roughness has been conducted by various statistical methods with two-dimensional analysis. In this study, standard roughness profile suggested by Barton and Choubey (1977) was expanded into a 3D surface and its surface roughness was analyzed by surface angularity parameter. And the validity of quantification based on surface angularity was secured through comparison with $Z_2$ and Ai parameter. Also the surface angularity parameter was compared with shear strength by joint shear test using the replicated specimen.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.81-91
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• 1994

There has been considerable research dealing with the influence of surface roughness along surfaces of rock discontinuities in relation to the peak shear strength of rock masses. Concepts accepted recently for measuring such strength include estimation of a roughness coefficient such as developed by Barton's studies. The method for estimation the Joint Roughness Coefficient (JRC) value of a measured roughness profile is subjective. The aim of this research is to estimate the JRC value of the roughness of a surface profile in a rock mass system using an objective method. The study of roughness of surfaces has included measurement of fractal geometric characteristics. Once the irregularity of the surface has been described by the fractal dimension, the spatial variation of the surface irregularities can be described using variogram and drift analysis. An empirical relationships between the roughness profiles of selected JRC ranges and their fractal dimension with variogram and drift were derived. The application of analyses of fractal dimension, variogram and drift was novel for the analysis of roughness profiles. Also, an empirical equation was applied to experimental data.