Lectures on Rock Mechanics

• SARVESH CHANDRA
Professor
D
Department
t t off Civil
Ci il E
Engineering
i i
Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur
KANPUR, 208016 India
email: sarv@iitk.ac.in
sarv@iitk ac in
The problem in mathematics is black and white but the real
world
ld iis grey –Albert
Alb t Einstein
Ei t i
 Rock Mechanics Problems
• How will rock react when p put to men’s use?
• What is the bearing capacity of rock on surface an at
depths?
• What is the shear strength of rocks?
• What is the response of rocks under dynamic /
earthquake type loading?
• What is the modulus of elasticity of rock and how to get
it?
• What are the effects of rock defects (jointing bedding
planes, schistocity, fissures, cavities and other
discontinuities) on its strength?
• What are the mechanisms of failure of rocks?
Rock as a Construction Material
• For laying structural foundations to support
structures
• For constructingg Underground
g openings
p g
• For protecting slopes
• For supporting railway tracks – Ballasts
• As base and sub-base for roads and runways
• As aggregate in concrete
• Making facia for buildings.
 Era Period Epoch Time Boundaries
(Years Ago)
Holocene - Recent
Quaternary 10 000
10,000
Pleistocene

Geolo Cenozoic
Pliocene
Miocene
2 million
5 million
26 million
gic Tertiary
y Oligocene
g
Eocene
38 million
ll
54 million

Time
Paleocene
65 million
Cretaceous
130 million
M s z ic
Mesozoic Jur ssic
Jurassic

Scale Triassic
Permian
185 million
230 million
265 million
Pennsylvanian
Carboniferous 310 million
Mississippian
355 million
Paleozoic Devonian
413 million
Silurian
425 million
Ordovician
475 million
Cambrian
570 million

Precambrian 3.9 billion

Earth Beginning 4.7 billion

Greenland
What are we calling a rock?
Grade Description Lithology Excavation Foundations

VI Soil Some organic content, May need to Unsuitable

no original structure save and re-use

V Completely Decomposed soil, some Scrape Assess by soil

weathered remnant structure testing

IV Highly Partly changed to soil, Scrape NB Variable and

weathered soil > rock corestones unreliable

III Moderately Partly changes to soil, Rip Good for most

weathered rock > soil small structures

II Slightly
g y Increased fractures and Blast Good for
weathered mineral staining anything except
large dams
I Fresh rock Clean rock Blast Sound

Engineering classification of weathered rock

 Primary Rock Types by Geologic
Origin
Sedimentary Types Metaphorphic Igneous Types
Grain Clastic Carbonate Foliated Massive Intrusive Extrusive
Aspects

Coarse Conglomerate Limestone Gneiss Marble Pegmatite Volcanic

Breccia Conglomerate Granite Breccia

Medium Sandstone Limestone Schist Quartzite Diorite Tuff

Siltsone Chalk Phyllite Diabase

Fine Shale Calcareous Slate Amphibolite Rhyotite Basalt

Mudstone Mudstone Obsidian
Index Properties of Intact Rock
• Specific Gravity of Solids, Gs
• Unit Weight, γ
• Porosity, n
• Ultrasonic Velocities ((Vp and Vs)
• Compressive Strength, qu
• Tensile Strength, T0
• Elastic Modulus, ER (at 50% of qu)
Specific Gravity of Rock Minerals
galena
it
pyrite
barite
olivine
dolomite
calcite
chlorite
feldspar
quartz Common Minerals
serpentine Average Gs = 2.70
gypsum
halite
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Reference Value
(fresh water)
Specific Gravity of Solids,
Solids Gs
 Unit Weights of Rocks
28

γsat = γwater [ Gs(1-n) + n]

Saturated Unit Weightt, γT (kN/m )
3

26

24

22

20

18 Dolostone Granite
Graywacke Limestone Gs =
Mudstone Siltstone 2.80
16 Sandstone Tuff
2.65
2.50
14
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6

Porosity n
Porosity,
Geologic Mapping of Rock Mass
Features
INHERENT COMPLEXITIES
1
1. R k ffracture
Rock t
─ under compressive stresses
2. Size effects
─ response of rock to loading affected by the size of
th loaded
the l d d volume”
l ” (j
(joints
i t & ffractures)
t )
3. Tensile strength
─ is low (similar to concrete); HOWEVER a rock mass
can have even less tensile strength
 COMPLEXITIES….

4. Groundwater effects
─ water in joints: if under pressure, reduces
normal stress (less resistance along joints)
─ water in permeable rocks (e.g. sandstone) → soil
like response
─ softening of clay seams & argillaceous rocks (e.g.
shales)
 COMPLEXITIES….
5. Weathering
─ chemical/physical alteration, reduction of engineering
p p
properties
─ limestone caverns, sinkholes: ”Karst”
─ basic rocks with olivine ((e.g.
g basalt)) and py
pyroxene
minerals are reduced to montmorillonite by hydrolysis
 Cavernous limestone

Coffin
Bay
 STRUCTURAL FEATURES or
DISCONTINUITIES
1) Bedding planes
2) Folds
– tension joints at the crest of a fold (strike, dip
& shear
s ea jojoints)
s)
– folding may cause shear failure along
bedding planes (axial
plane or fracture cleavage)
Folding
 DISCONTINUITIES
3) Faults
– shear displacement zones - sliding

Faults may contain

– Fault
F lt gouge (clay)
( l ) – weakk
– Fault breccia (re-cemented rock) – weak
– Rock flour – weak
– Angular fragments – may be strong
Defects
Defects
 DISCONTINUITIES

4) Shear zones
– bands of materials - local shear failure
5) Dykes
– igneous intrusions (near vertical)
– weathered dykes, e.g. dolerite weathers to
montmorillonite
– unweathered dykes attract high stresses
6) Joints
– breaks with no visible displacement
 Joint Patterns

sedimentary rocks usually contain 2 sets of

joints orthogonal to each other and the
joints,
bedding plane
 JOINTS
1)) Open
p
Filled
Healed (or closed)
2) Stepped
Undulating
Pl
Planar
2B) each of the above can be Rough
Smooth
Slickensided
JOINT CLASSES
(AS 1726-1993)
I St
Stepped
d Rough
R h
II Smooth
II Slickensided
IV Undulating Rough
V Smooth
VI Slickensided
VII Planar Rough
VIII Smooth
IX Slickensided
Order of Description of Rocks
(AS 1726-1993)

rock name
ROCK MATERIAL
grain size ((Table A6))
g
COMPOSITION
texture and fabric (Table A7)
colour

e.g. Basalt, fine, massive, vesicular, dark

grey to black
Order of Description of Rocks
(AS 1726-1993)

ROCK MATERIAL strength (Table A8)

CONDITION
weathering (Table A9)

e.g. VL strength, XW
OR EH strength, FR
Order of Description of Rocks
(AS 1726-1993)

ROCK MASS structure

PROPERTIES defects (much information required)
weathering of joints

Structure:
sedimentary
sed e ta y rocks
oc s – bedded, laminated
a ated
metamorphic – foliated, banded, cleaved
igneous rocks – massive,
massive flow banded
DEFECTS – information needed
† tightness
ti ht
† cementation or infill
† smoothness or irregularity of surfaces
„ class of joint
† water in joints
† joint orientation
† joint spacing
 DESIGN IN ROCK
Take into account:
• Local geological structure
• Shear strength of the rock mass
• Impact of water on stability
• Rock
R k anchoring?
h i ?
• Drilling and blasting procedures
• Monitoring of stability
– the observational method
 Intact Rock
• Heterogeneous
H t
• Anisotropic (soils less so)
• Spatial variability (soils the same)
• Yield mechanisms are non-linear & depend on
stress level and rock type
• Failures are often brittle (soils strain
soften or harden past the peak strength)
 Rock Masses

• C
Contain
t i di
discontinuities
ti iti with
ith littl
little ttensile
il
strength
• Scale effect
─ response is dependent on stressed volume
• Affected by groundwater & weathering
• In-situ stresses difficult to estimate
Rock Masses
 DEFINITIONS

• Dip angle, βw:

the acute angle measured in a vertical plane between the line
of maximum dip in a non
non-horizontal
horizontal plane and the horizontal
plane
i e 0°
i.e. 0 ≤ βw ≤ 90
90°
• Dip direction, αw: the geographical azimuth measured in a
clockwise direction from north ((0°)) of the vertical plane
p in which
the dip angle is measured i.e. 0° ≤ αw ≤ 360°
 Dip Angle

North

Horizontal

βw

Line of maximum dip

 Dip direction
Azimuth is the direction of an object, measured clockwise around the
observer's horizon from North, i.e. an object due north has an azimuth of 0°
 Dip Direction
N th
North

Horizontal

αw

Line of maximum dip

Quantitative Classification of Rock
Mass
• Description of Joints:
Orientation, Persistence, Roughness, Wall
Strength Aperture
Strength, Aperture, Filling
Filling, Seepage
Seepage,
Number of sets, Block size, spacing.
ISRM commission’s
i i ’ reportt
Classification of Rock Material
Based on Uniaxial Compressive Strength
Uniaxial Compressive Ranges for some
Strength Common Rock
Material
Term Kg/cm2 Schist, Silt stone
y Weak- VW
Very < 70 VW-W, Sand
Stone, Lime stone
Weak- W 70-200
–VW-M,Granite,
Medium Strong-MS
Strong MS 200
200-700
700 Basalt,
Basalt Gneiss,
Gneiss
Strong- S 700-1400 Quartzite, Marble
Very Strong-
Strong VS > 1400 –MS-VS
MS VS

|
Classification for Rock Material
Strength
 Intact Rock Classification
• Rock Type
• Geologic Formation and Age
• Indices:
I di
– Specific Gravity, Porosity, Unit Weight,
W
Wave Velocities
V l iti
– Strength (compressive, tensile, shear)
– Elastic Modulus
• What is Rock
Mechanics?
R k mechanics
Rock h i is i a
discipline that uses the
principles
p c p es o
of mechanics
ec a cs to
describe the behaviour of
rock of engineering scale.
• How to correlate the properties of rock studied in
the laboratory with in-situ properties?
• What in-situ test methods will pprovide actual in-
situ conditions and properties of rock?
• What designg pparameters are to be used for rock
slope design?
• How to stabilize slopes and underground
openings?