Stress Dependency of Deformability Modulus of

Rock Mass
A Semi-Analytical Method

Mahdi Zoorabadi

(BSc, MSc, PhD)

Technical Principal, Tunnels and Geotechnics – SMEC, Australia
Adjunct Associate Professor, UNSW Sydney, Australia
• Deformability modulus is a stress dependent parameter and increases as applied
stress increases.

• All well-known empirical formulations do not consider this property of deformability

modulus.

(Hoek and Diederichs,2006) (Serafim and Pereira, 1983)

Stress Dependency of Deformability Modulus

Applying a normal stress to a rock fracture leads to the closure of the fracture (resulting in
a decrease in aperture) and an increase in its stiffness.

The deformability of a rock mass with

discontinuities varies at various depths or
under different stress conditions.
Stress Dependency of Deformability Modulus

A Semi-Analytical Approach

(Li, 2001)

−2
𝜎𝑛 (Ebadi et al., 2011)

𝑘𝑛 = 𝑘𝑛𝑖 1−
𝑉𝑚 𝑘𝑛𝑖 + 𝜎𝑛
(Bandis et al.,1983)
Stress Dependency of Deformability Modulus

A Semi-Analytical Approach

𝐽𝐶𝑆
𝑘𝑛𝑖 = −7.15 + 1.75𝐽𝑅𝐶 + 0.02( ቇ
𝑎𝑗

𝐽𝑅𝐶 𝜎𝑐 (Bandis et al.,1983)

𝑎𝑗 = (0.2 − 0.1ቇ
5 𝐽𝐶𝑆
𝐷
𝐽𝐶𝑆
𝑉𝑚 = 𝐴 + 𝐵 𝐽𝑅𝐶 + 𝐶
𝑎𝑗 (Milne et al. 1991)

(Barton and Choubey 1977) (Barton 1982)

(Barton and De Quadros 1997)

Stress Dependency of Deformability Modulus

A Semi-Analytical Approach

Input Data:

Magnitude of stress acting on

each joint sets is determined
based of Dip/DipDir of joints and
in-situ stress information

(Zoorabadi et al. 2015)

Stress Dependency of Deformability Modulus

A Semi-Analytical Approach

Output:

This spreadsheet can be used to calculate the rock mass

Modulus for different depth and stress field conditions