• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.333-366
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• 2023

Rock as a mass generally exhibits discontinuities, commonly witnessed in rock slopes and underground structures like tunnels, rock pillars etc. When these discontinuities experiences loading, a new crack emerges from them which later propagates to a macro scale level of failure. The failure pattern is often influenced by the nature of discontinuity, geometry and loading conditions. The study of crack growth in rocks, namely its initiation and propagation, plays an important role in defining the true strength of rock and corresponding failure patterns. Many researchers have considered the length of the discontinuity to be fully persistent on rock or rock-like specimens by both experimental and numerical methods. However, only during recent decades, there has been a substantial growth in research interest with non-persistent discontinuities where the crack growth and its propagation phenomenon were found to be much more complex than persistent ones. The non-persistence fractures surface is generally considered to be open and closed. Compared to open flaws, there is a difference in crack growth behaviour in closed or narrow flaws due to the effect of surface closure between them. The present paper reviews the literature that has contributed towards studying the crack growth behaviour and its failure characteristics on both open and narrow flaws subjected to uniaxial and biaxial compression loading conditions.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.535-570
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• 2017

There are only few cases where cause and location of failure of a rock structure are limited to a single discontinuity. Usually several discontinuities of limited size interact and eventually form a combined shear plane where failure takes place. So, besides the discontinuities, the regions between adjacent discontinuities, which consist of strong rock and are called material or rock bridges, are of utmost importance for the shear strength of the compound failure plane. Shear behaviour of persistent and non-persistent joint are different from each other. Shear strength of rock mass containing non-persistent joints is highly affected by mechanical behavior and geometrical configuration of non-persistent joints located in a rock mass. Therefore investigation is essential to study the fundamental failures occurring in a rock bridge, for assessing anticipated and actual performances of the structures built on or in rock masses. The purpose of this review paper is to present techniques, progresses and the likely future development directions in experimental testing of non-persistent joint failure behaviour. Experimental results showed that the presence of rock bridges in not fully persistent natural discontinuity sets is a significant factor affecting the stability of rock structures. Compared with intact rocks, jointed rock masses are usually weaker, more deformable and highly anisotropic, depending upon the mechanical properties of each joint and the explicit joint positions. The joint spacing, joint persistency, number of rock joint, angle of rock joint, length of rock bridge, angle of rock bridge, normal load, scale effect and material mixture have important effect on the failure mechanism of a rock bridge.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.317-327
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• 2024

When a non-persistent joint system is formed in a large-scale rock slope, slope failure may occur due to presence of a the stepped sliding surface. Such a surface can be divided into joint-to-joint sliding surfaces or joint-to-rock bridge sliding surfaces. In the latter case, the rock bridge provides shear resistance parallel to the joint and tensile resistance perpendicular to the joint. The load of the sliding rock can lead to failure of the rock bridge, thereby connecting the two joints at each ends of the bridge and resulting in step-path failure of the slope. If each rock bridge on a slope has the same length, the tensile strength is lower than the shear strength, resulting in the rock bridges oriented perpendicular to the joint being more prone to failure. In addition, the smaller the ratio of discontinuity spacing to length, the greater the likelihood of step-path failure. To assess the risk of stepped sliding on a rock slope with non-persistent joints, stability analysis can be performed using limit equilibrium analysis or numerical analysis. This involves constructing a step-path failure surface through a systematic discontinuity survey and analysis.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.723-737
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• 2016

In this paper an approach was described for determination of direction of sliding block in rock slopes containing planar non-persistent open joints. For this study, several gypsum blocks containing planar non-persistent open joints with dimensions of $15{\times}15{\times}15cm$ were build. The rock bridges occupy 45, 90 and $135cm^2$ of total shear surface ($225cm^2$), and their configuration in shear plane were different. From each model, two similar blocks were prepared and were subjected to shearing under normal stresses of 3.33 and $7.77kg/cm^{-2}$. Based on the change in the configuration of rock-bridges, a factor called the Effective Joint Coefficient (EJC) was formulated, that is the ratio of the effective joint surface that is in front of the rock-bridge and the total shear surface. In general, the failure pattern is influenced by the EJC while shear strength is closely related to the failure pattern. It is observed that the propagation of wing tensile cracks or shear cracks depends on the EJC and the coalescence of wing cracks or shear cracks dominates the eventual failure pattern and determines the peak shear load of the rock specimens. So the EJC is a key factor to determine the sliding direction in rock slopes containing planar non-persistent open joints.