• Computers and Concrete
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.235-266
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• 2016

A rock mass containing non-persistent joints can only fail if the joints propagate and coalesce through an intact rock bridge. Shear strength of rock mass containing non-persistent joints is highly affected by the both, mechanical behavior and geometrical configuration of non-persistent joints located in a rock mass. Existence of rock joints and rock bridges are the most important factors complicating mechanical responses of a rock mass to stress loading. The joint-bridge interaction and bridge failure dominates mechanical behavior of jointed rock masses and the stability of rock excavations. The purpose of this review paper is to present techniques, progresses and the likely future development directions in experimental and numerical modelling of a non-persistent joint failure behaviour. Such 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. This paper is divided into two sections. In the first part, experimental investigations have been represented followed by a summarized numerical modelling. Experimental results showed failure mechanism of a rock bridge under different loading conditions. Also effects of the number of non-persistent joints, angle between joint and a rock bridge, lengths of the rock bridge and the joint were investigated on the rock bridge failure behaviour. Numerical simulation results are used to validate experimental outputs.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.431-446
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• 2017

Rock bridges in rock masses would increase the bearing capacity of Non-persistent discontinuities. In this paper the effect of ratio of rock bridge surface to joint surface, rock bridge shape and normal load on failure behaviour of intermittent rock joint were investigated. A total of 42 various models with dimensions of $15cm{\times}15cm{\times}15cm$ of plaster specimens were fabricated simulating the open joints possessing rock bridge. The introduced rock bridges have various continuities in shear surface. The area of the rock bridge was $45cm^2$ and $90cm^2$ out of the total fixed area of $225cm^2$ respectively. The fabricated specimens were subjected to shear tests under normal loads of 0.5 MPa, 2 MPa and 4 MPa in order to investigate the shear mechanism of rock bridge. The results indicated that the failure pattern and the failure mechanism were affected by two parameters; i.e., the ratio of joint surface to rock bridge surface and normal load. So that increasing in joint area in front of the rock bridge changes the shear failure mode to tensile failure mode. Also the tensile failure change to shear failure by increasing the normal load.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Rock Mechanics Conference
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• 2000.09a
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• pp.201-210
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• 2000

Rock bridge in rock masses can be considered as one of several types of opening-mode fractures, and also it has been known to have a great influence on the stability of structures in rock mats. In the beginning of researching a rock bridge it used to be studied only in characteristics of its behavior, as considering resistance of material itself. However the distribution pattern of rock bridges, which can affect the stability of rock structures, is currently researched with a fracture mechanical approach in numerical studies. For investigating the effect of rock bridges on the development pattern of hydraulic fractures, the author analyzed numerically the stress state transition in rock bridges and their phenomena with a different pattern of the rock bridge distributons. From the numerical studies, a two-crack configuration could be defined to be representative of the most critical conditions for rock bridges, only when cracks are systematic and same in their length and angle. Moreover, coalescence stresses and onset of propagation stresses could be known to increase with decreasing s/L ratio or increasing d/L ratio. The effect of pre-existing crack on hydraulic fracturing was studied also in numerical models. Different to the simple hydraulic fracturing modeling in which the fractures propagated exactly parallel to the maximum remote stress, the hydraulic fractures with pre-existing cracks dial not propagate parallel to the maximum remote stress direction. These are representative of the tendency to change the hydraulic fractures direction because of the existence of pre-existing crack. Therefore s/L, d/L ratios will be identical as a function effective on hydraulic fractures propagation, that is, the $K_{I}$ vague increase with decreasing s/L ratio or increasing d/L ratio and its magnification from onset to propagation increases with decreasing s/L ratio. The scanline is a commonly used method to estimate the fracture distribution on outcrops. The data obtained from the scanline method can be applied to the evaluation of stress field in rock mass.s.

• 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.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.447-456
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• 2000

Rock bridge in rock masses can be considered as one of several types of opening-mode fractures, and also it has been known to have a great influence on the stability of structures in rock mass. In the beginning of researching a rock bridge it used to be studied only in characteristics of its behavior, as considering resistance of material itself. However the distribution pattern of rock bridges, which can affect the stability of rock structures, is currently researched with a fracture mechanical approach in numerical studies. For investigating the effect of rock bridges on the development pattern of hydraulic fractures, the author analyzed numerically the stress state transition in rock bridges and their phenomena with a different pattern of the rock bridge distributions. From the numerical studies, a two-crack configuration could be defined to be representative of the most critical conditions for rock bridges, only when cracks are systematic and same in their length and angle. Moreover, coalescence stresses and onset of propagation stresses could be known to increase with decreasing s/L ratio or increasing d/L ratio. The effect of pre-existing crack on hydraulic fracturing was studied also in numerical models. Different to the simple hydraulic fracturing modeling in which the fractures propagated exactly parallel to the maximum remote stress, the hydraulic fractures with pre-existing cracks did not propagate parallel to the maximum remote stress direction. These are representative of the tendency to change the hydraulic fractures direction because of the existence of pre-existing crack. Therefore s/L, d/L ratios will be identical as a function effective on hydraulic fractures propagation, that is, the K$_1$ value increase with decreasing s/L ratio or increasing d/L ratio and its magnification from onset to propagation increases with decreasing s/L ratio. The scanline is a commonly used method to estimate the fracture distribution on outcrops. The data obtained from the scanline method can be applied to the evaluation of stress field in rock mass.

• 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.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2010.03a
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• pp.14-25
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• 2010

The Yi Sun-Sin grand bridge is the suspension bridge which connects Myodo and Gwangyang. It is over the main navigation channel of Gwangyang Harbor. South anchorage(AN1, Myodo side) of the bridge is designed as rock anchored type. It sustains using the resistance of the underground rock's mass in Myodo. As this type of anchorage can minimize the exposure of the structure, It is economically efficient and environmentally friendly. North anchorage (AN2, Gwangyang side) is designed as the gravity type. This anchorage is 68 meters in diameter and use its own weight to support. Instead of normal rectangular diaphragm wall, the circular shape diaphragm wall is adopted to the north anchorage. It doesn't need to use internal temporary facilities, so it can significantly improve the constructability of the structure.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2008.10a
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• pp.629-640
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• 2008

South anchorage(AN1, Myodo side) of supension bridge between Myodo and Gwangyang is designed as rock anchorage with 36m anchor length using the resistance of rock mass in Myodo. Checking the overall stability of the anchorage, we considered rock joints, bedding planes, fault zones and condition of rock structure in situ by analysis results for photo-lineaments, aerial photograph interpretation and drill-hole logs are considered. This anchorage consists of an access shaft, adit, and the upper and lower concrete bearing plate to introduce pre-stressing force into rock mass.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.217-224
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• 2001

Rock masses are usually discontinuous in nature due to various geological processes and contain rock joints and bridges. Crack propagation and coalescence processes in rock bridge mainly cause rock failures in slopes, foundations, and tunnels. In this study, we focused on the crack initiation, propagation and coalescence process of rock materials containing two pre-existing open cracks arranged in different geometries. Specimens of 120${\times}$60${\times}$25 mm in size, which were made of Yeoman Marble, were prepared. In the specimens, two artificial cracks were cut with pre-existing crack angle ${\alpha}$, bridge angle ${\beta}$, pre-existing crack length 2c and bridge length 2b. Wing crack initiation stress, wing crack propagation angle, and crack coalescence stress were measured and crack initiation, propagation and coalescence processes were observed during uniaxial compression. Crack coalescence types were classified and analytical study using Ashby and Hallam model (1986) was performed to be compared with the experimental results.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2005.10a
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• pp.221-228
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• 2005

The economic growth brought the demand of bridge connected to island and land increasingly in Korea. Therefore, Civil engineer has faced a lot of problem to be considered such as structural stability, economic feasibility and constructional method. At the bridge site to be constructed, the depth of water is about 24m, the thickness of weathered rock overlaying bed rock is thicker than 36m. If open caisson foundation is supported in bed rock, the hight of foundation is about 60m. It is difficult to construct in these conditions. If open caisson foundation is supported in weathered rock, the size of the foundation should be increased. And If we apply the pile foundation, the higher construction cost will be needed. Under the circumstances, we need a new foundation type-composite foundation that is consisted of open caisson and cast-in-place piles. Because the design concept of composite foundation is not presented in Korea Bridge Design Standard, we are willing to clear the bearing behavior of composite foundation by numerical analysis in this paper.