Chapter 6- Engineering rock classification and

index (engineering) properties rocks

•Engineering classification of rocks

•Physical and Mechanical properties of
rocks
 Engineering classification of rocks
¾For the engineering use the rocks classified in to
two classis
1, Intact rocks (rock material)
9They are the rocks those do not containing the
discontinuities such as joint, bedding plane and etc
9The intact rocks can be described by standard
geological terms such as rock name, mineralogy,
texture, degree and kind of cementation, density,
porosity, strength, hardness, modulus of elasticity,
swelling and slake durability and weathering
condition.
 
                   2, Rock mass 
9 it is a mass of rock that interrupted by
discontinuities plane. The rock block within the
discontinuities plane has the intact rock properties
9The quality or properties of rock mass depend on
the strength of the intact rock, and discontinuity
condition such as spacing, roughness, filling
material, sets , and orientation of the
discontinuities . 
 Engineering importance of rock
classification
• To study the foundation condition
• To develop the excavation criteria
• For the tunneling work
• To maintaining the stable slope
• To study the quality of the construction material

Some common index properties of intact rocks

Rock type, Grain size, Texture and fabric, Weathering, 
Alteration, Hardness, Specific gravity, Porosity, 
Density Durability, Primary permeability, Strength 
 Rock type
¾Each genetic classes of the rocks has their own
engineering properties
¾Igneous rocks: they have silicate mineral
composition and interlocked textures, therefore
they have high strength and excellent elastic
deformation characteristics
¾Sedimentary rocks: since theirs source is from
different environment, they show variety of
physical properties which cause many challenges
to the different of engineering works
¾Metamorphic rocks   
• Metamorphism can causes the textural,
mineralogical and structural change to the
original rock
• It results in the modification of the physical
properties of the rock
• E.g quartzose sandstone Îmassive quartzite
limestone Î massive marble
• Theirs engineering properties can be varied based
on the absence and presence of foliation
 
 Grain size, texture and fabric
• They are the physical properties of rocks those
provide important information on strength and
deformability characteristics of rocks
• The crystalline rocks such as granite, basalt, marble
are form interlocking fabric with very little or non
pore space
• The clastic rocks formed from sub spherical
particles and form more pore space, the more pore
space reduce the strength of the rocks.
• Crystal size inversely influence the strength of the
rocks
 Weathering condition of the rocks
• Weathering can affect the engineering properties
of intact rocks and rock mass
• It affect all rocks, but its degree is depend on rock
type, type of weathering process, the climate or
environment to which the rock is subjected and the
time
• It can be Physical and chemical weathering
 Alteration and Hardness
• Alteration is the geological process that change the
chemical composition and structure of the rocks, which
resulted due to the magmatic activity and hydrothermal
effect
• This change also affect the strength and deformability
condition of the rocks
• The hardness of the rock is depend on the relative hardness
of its mineral constituent and the cementing material
• Shale is a weak rock because it formed from soft mineral
(clay mineral).
• Sandstone is formed from strong mineral (quarz) but due to
weak cementation material it can form weak rock
 Specific gravity
• It is the ration between density of rock and unit
weight of water
• It can be define by the following relation
• G= apparent (bulk) specific gravity
• Wo= weight of the dried rock (for 24 hr at 105
oC)
• Ww= weight of fully saturated rock (fully
immersed for 48 hr)
• Ws= weight of water suspended rock

A= Ww-Wo
A= the amount of water filling in the pore space of
the sample
• The amount of water must be deducted from the
saturated weight to get the true specific gravity of
the rock

Apparent specific gravity of some important rocks

Material Specific Gravity
Basalt 2.8 - 3.0
Granite 2.6-2.7
Limestone 2.3-2.7
Marble 2.4-2.7
Sandstone 2.2-2.8
Quartzite 2.6-2.8
 Porosity  
• It is the ratio of volume of void to the overall volume of the
rock and its value is given in percentage
• It can be define by the following relation
n= porosity
V=the volume of the rock specimen
Wo= weight of the dry specimen
Ww= weight of the saturated specimen

Rock type Porosity %

Granite 0.5 – 1.5
Sandstone 5.0 – 25.0
Limestone 5.0 – 20.0
Quartzite 0.1 – 0.5
Shale 10.0 – 30.0
 Density
• It is the ratio of mass of rock per its unit volume
• It is the important engineering properties of rock
that use to determine the weight of the rock mass
that is helpful for different design purpose
Density of some important rocks 
Rock type Density (KN/M3)
Hard igneous rock (granite, basalt) 25 – 30
Metamorphic rocks (quartzite, gneiss, slate) 25 – 28
Hard sedimentary rocks (limestone, 23 – 28
dolomite, sandstone )
Soft sedimentary rocks (sandstone, shale, 17 – 23
coal)
 Durability  
• It is the ability of the rocks to resist the external
impact and stay for long period of time with its
engineering quality
• It is determined by the physical and chemical
properties of the rocks
• The rocks with high durability have good
engineering properties
 Slake durability
• It is the index properties that use to determine the
alterability condition of the rocks
• It use to check the abundance of clay in the rocks
                     Primary permeability
• It is the important index properties that use to give
information about the degree of interconnection
between the pores or fissures
• It is determined in the laboratory by measuring the
time for calibrated volume of fluid to pass through the
specimen when the constant air pressure act on the
fluid
 Strength
• It is the fundamental quantitative engineering
properties of the rocks specimen
• It show the amount of applied stress at the rock
failure or rupture
• This applied stress can be compressive, shear
or tensile stress
 Compressive strength
• It is the stress required to break a loaded sample
of rock
• It is directly proportional to the confining stress,
shape of sample, moisture content of sample and
stress application rate
• It classified into two:
9 Unconfined (uniaxial) compressive strength
9Confined compressive strength
Unconfined compressive strength (UCS)
• It is the compressive strength without
confinement of the specimen
• E.g, If we have the applied load (P) on the
sample with cross sectional area of (A) the
UCS of the rock is given by the following
expiration
 
UCS= P/A
 Methods use us to measure the UCS
of the intact rocks
• The UCS of the rock can be determined both in the
laboratory and in the field
• In the laboratory to test the UCS of rocks we use
the UCS testing machine if the core samples are
available
• It comprise two steel plates one fixed and other
movable with pressure oil.
• It also has the gauge that measure the pressure
In the field to determine the UCS of the rocks we
use the point load index method or the schmidt
hammer test
The point load is the portable instrument that can be
used for both core and lump sample
Is= P/d2 qu = 24Is

Is=point load index, P= applied load, d= the

distance between two points at the time of first
crack appear qu= uniaxial compressive strength
 Determination of UCS by using
Schmidt hammer
• It is the portable instrument that use to
determine the UCS of the intact rocks at the
field

R=rebound number of Schmidt hammer

 Confined compressive strengthen
• It is the strength of the rocks when the sample is
tested under confining condition
• The rock sample is subjected to both the vertical
stress and horizontal pressure which provide the
lateral support to the rock
• The most commonly used method to determine
the confine compressive strength is triaxial
compression test
• The device that use for this test is the heavy steel
cylinder filled with semi viscous liquid
 
Physical and Mechanical properties
of rock mass
• It is mostly important for large engineering
structures such as dams, tunnels, underground
power house, road and etc
• The rock mass contains discontinuity plane in
the form of joint, fault plane, bedding plane
and foliations
• These discontinuity planes can control the
physical properties of the rocks
Characteristics of the discontinuities
• The important discontinuity characteristics
those influence the physical properties of the
rock mass are
• Orientation: this discontinuity condition is
important for slope rock stability
• Spacing: it affect the overall strength of the
rock mass. If the spacing is less the strength is
less and if it is more the strength will be more
• Continuity: the continuity of the discontinuity
plane influence the stability of rock mass
• If the continuity of the discontinuity plane is
more the strength of the rock mass is less
• Surface characteristics: the surface condition of
discontinuity plane can influence the physical
properties of the rock mass
• There are three factors those control the surface
condition
9Waviness or undulation of the surface
9Roughness which provide the friction between
the blocks
9Physical properties of the infilling material
• Waviness has greatest influence on the rock mass
strength than the roughness, because it enforces the
block to displaced normal to the surface
• Separation of the joints: the separation of joint
surface and presence of filling material in between
has great influence on the strength of jointed rock
mass
• High separation cause less shear strength less
separation has high shear strength
 Mohr’s Diagram
• It use to determine the shear strength of the rocks
• It use the repeated triaxial test result to plot mohr’s
circles
• By plotting the tangent line to the Mohr's circles we
construct the mohr’s envelop
• This mohr’s envelop is help us to determine the
cohesion (c) of the rocks and its angle of friction (ᶲ)
Radius =σ1-σ3/2
Center = σ1+σ3/2
 Shear strength of discontinuity
• It is the ability of rock mass to resist sliding along the
discontinuity plane
• It increasing with increasing normal stress (σ)
• It also controlled by the angle of friction (ᶲ), roughness
and cementation condition of the surface which result in
cohesive strength (c) and water pressure
• Cohesive strength is the shear stress required to slide the
block when the normal stress is zero
• The relationship between the shear stress (τ) and normal
stress (σ) for typical rock surface can be expressed as
• τ = c + σ tanᶲ
σ = 1/2(σ1 + σ3) + 1/2(σ1 - σ3) cos2θ
Influence of water on shear strength
• The water in the discontinuity reduces the
shear strength of the rock mass by reducing the
effective normal stress as the result of water
pressure (u)
• Here the relation between shear strength and
normal strength is given by the following
expiration
• τ = c + (σ-u) tanᶲ
Rock Quality Designation (RQD)
• It is use to determine the qualitative estimation
of rock mass quality from the drill core log
• It is define as the percentage of intact core
pieces longer than 10cm in the total run
 Volumetric count
• It is the method that use to determine the RQD
when the core samples are not available
• It is expressed by the following formula
• RQD = 115 - 3.3 Jv
• Where, Jv is the total numbers of
discontinuities more than 10cm long in 1m x
1m exposed rock face