Proceedings of the International Symposium on Weak Rock /Tokyo /21-24 September 1981

On shear behaviours of rock

containing weak planes
RYOJI KOBAYASHI & FUMIO SUGIMOTO
Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan

1. INTRODUCTION

comparison with the results of insitu

test on rock mass. The failure lines in
residual sliding are then obtained on the
boring cores collected from rock mass of
a lot of working places, and the relations
between the friction angles measured by
these failure lines and rock types are
investigated.

In designing a dam abutment, a tunnel or

an underground structure in rock, it is
necessary to evaluate the mechanical
properties of rock. However, the rock is
not uniform body, but contains joints,
bedding planes or other weak planes, and
these weak planes in rock reflect on the
mechanical behaviours of rock. Rock
specimens are almost taken from rock
between these weak planes, and the
laboratory tests using the specimens
invariably lead to an overestimate of the
strength of rock.
In order to investigate the mechanical
behaviours of rock, the block shear tests
are performed in field. But, the great
expense and efforts are required to perform the insitu tests. In recent years,
the researches(e.g. Krsmanovi 1967) in
respect to the direct shear test, using
the relatively large specimen which
contains weak planes, have been done.
Nevertheless, it is difficult to investigate the mechanical behaviours of
specimens collected from an arbitrary
portion in rock, because the specimen is
the large rectangular prism. In view of
this point, it seems that the direct shear
test using the boring cores collected
easily from an arbitrary portion in rock
is a rational method.
This study is undertaken for the purpose
.of estimating the shear stiffness of rock
containing weak planes. As basic research
for the above study, the shear behaviours
of rock specimens containing artificial
discontinuous planes are investigated.
Considering the effect of weak planes to
the shear stiffness of the specimen, moreover, the direct shear test is conducted
on the boring cores collected from rock,
and the results of laboratory test make

2. TESTING MACHINE AND TESTING PROCEDURE

The schematic diagram of a direct shear
testing machine which is developed in this
study is shown in Fig.l. In this figure,
the names of main parts of the machine are
as follows ; is a ram which applies
normal load to specimen, is a load cell
for measuring normal load, is a rollar
bearing, is an upper shear box, is a
ram which applies shear load to specimen,
is a load cell for measuring shear load,

Fig. 1 Schematic diagram of direct shear

testing machine.

15

3. FUNDAMENTAL RESEARCH

QG is a lower shear box, is a ram for

lifting the upper shear box QD , and
are the linear variable differential
transformers for measurin normal and
shear displacements, and @I is a steel
frame which supports the main parts of the
machine.
The procedure in the test is as follows
; At first, a specimen is set into the
lower shear box G , and the upper shear
box is descented by operating the ramie

Before carrying out the direct shear test,

a distribution of the principal stresses
in a specimen, which receives the normal
and the shear stresses, is analyzed in
condition of plane strain by F.E.M., using
the physical values of OGINO tuff. Fig.3
shows a distribution of the principal
stresses in specimen at normal stress of
71.2 kg/cm' and shear stress 31.8 kg/cm 2 .

asthepcimnfstoheuprsa
box . When the direct shear test is
conducted, a desired normal load is
applied to the specimen by the ram and
the shear load is then applied by the ram
During the shear test, the normal and
the shear displacements are measured by
the linear variable differential
transformers .
The boring cores collected from rock
mass contain generally weak planes and in
case that the core separates into several
pieces along the weak planes, their weak
planes are bonded by a weak adhesive
agent. The core formed in a rod like shape
puts into a cylindrical mold of 0IOOmm or
055mm, and an equal mixture of rosin and
limestone powder is pured into a space of
about 3mm between core and mold. In this
procedure, the'lateral of core is covered
with rosin mixture and its core is shaped
into a cylindrical specimen of 0100mm x
200mm or 055mm x 110mm. After the rosin
mixture of the lateral of core is removed
with the width of about 5mm along the
shear plane, a process of making shear
specimen is completed, and the specimen is
put into wet condition.
The specimen containing the artificial
discontinuous planes as shown in Fig.2 is
made in following procedure ; The inclined angle ( 6) between the direction of
shear load and the discontinious plane of
specimen is taken from 22.5 to 157.5 at
every angle of 22.5 . . The discontinuities
in specimen are then bonded by the weak
adhesiveagent, and the specimen is
covered with rosin mixture as already
stated method.

xx

xk
rI
f+ l r lI
/ r
/ f
//
x
l//
l
l
l l l l l l l/////// xY
i
0//////1/////////%

l{

}+

Twtl. stress 1004q /c mr

Compressive ,tress

Fig. 3 F.E.M. analysis in condition of

direct shear test.
In this analysis, Young s moduli of the
specimen use the values which change on
the basis of the differential stress
strain curves obtained by the triaxial
compressive test and Poisson s ratio takes
0.2, as a rough estimate.
As shown in Fig.3, the tensile stresses
in the specimen appear near the shear
edges. From this stress distribution, it
is thought that a crack initiation in
specimen is originated by the tensile
stress and the shear stress is concentrated at the tip of the tension crack.
Consequently, the crack may make progress
along the direction of shear load, and
the failure surface becomes undulate.
In order to investigate the effects of
the direction of discontinuties on the
shear behaviours, the direct shear test is
performed on the specimen shown in Fig.2.
3.1 The direct shear test at the controlled normal stress
The shear tests are carried out at normal
stresses of 27.1 kg/cm2 and 40.6 kg/cm 2 .
The shear stressdisplacement curves
obtained by those tests are shown in Fig.
4. In this figure, it seems that the modes
of the curves are different with the
direction of discontinuities in the
specimen.
And also, the peak shear strengths

Fig. 2 Size of specimen and direction of

discontinuities-

16

and by about five times under the condition that normal displacement is restrained.
On the above two methods of the direct
shear test, it is found that the direction
of discontinuities, existing in specimen,
has a great effect on the shear behaviours.
Therefore, it is necessary to take the
direction of discontinuities into
consideration in case of estimating the
shear strength of rock mass. Since it is
also considered that the normal displacement in the process of shear failure of
rock mass is generally restrained in
certain degree, the shear strength obtained by insitu test permitting the normal
displacement takes lower value than the
true shear strength of rock mass. From
this reason, it is a rational procedure
that the shear strength obtained by in
situ test is used in design of rock
construction.

?n.27.1 ke/crrJ
Intact

s
sun
' ^^

..22.6

` eix
. /^:^

/ow ^

^ ^^

--

e157.

4
5
6
3
01sp1ac.m.M (mm)

Fig. 4 Shear stress displacement curves

(OGINO tuff)
obtained in the above shear tests are
expressed in the polar coordinates as
shown in Fig.5. From this figure, it is
clear that the peak shear strength takes
small value in the region of 9=45'. The
results of these tests are in agreement
yaiih the results of Hayashi(Hayashi 1966),
who conducts the direct shear test on
gypsum specimen containing artificial discontinuous planes.

.er
..ns

Dn:

D. : 037.

st-ar

200

100

Peak shear st meth

120

80

0
40
80
Pak shear st ength (kp/cm 2 )
40

100
(ke,cmt)

200

Fig. 6 Anisotropy of peak shear strength

in controlling normal displacement (OGINO
tuff)

120

s 'fe

Fig. 5 Anisotropy of peak shear strength

due to direction of discontinuities (OGINO
tuff)

D. : 0

Dn: 0.57.

3.2 The direct shear test at the controlled normal displaciment

The direct shear tests at controlled
normal displacement are carried out under
following two conditions. One is a condition that normal displacement is restrained and the other is a condition that
normal displacement of 0.5% of specimen
diameter is permitted.
The relations between peak shear
strength and normal stress obtained by
these tests are shown in Fig.6 and Fig.7
respectively. It is apparent that both
peak shear strength and normal stress take
high values in the region of 9=45', In
comparison between the shear strength at
the controlled normal stress and that at
the controlled normal displacement in the
region of 9=45', the shear strength
increases by about four times under the
condition that the normal displacement is
permitted to 0.5% of specimendiameter,

100

100

NormM stress (kgkm , )

Fig. 7 Anisotropy of normal stress needed

to control normal displacement (OGINO
tuff)
4. COMPARISON BETWEEN THE RESULTS OF IN
SITU BLOCK SHEAR TESTS AND THOSE OF
DIRECT SHEAR TESTS IN LABORATORY
Since the number of testing blocks in the
insitu test performed is generally
several, it is not possible to evaluate
the shear strength of rock mass from the
results of insitu test when the strengths
of testing blocks are scattered. Therefore,
it has a significant meaning to conduct
the direct shear test on the boring cores.

17

4.2 Shichigashuku dam

collected from rock mass nearby insitu

testing place for complementing the results
of the insitu test.
In this study, the results of the in
situ tests at the working places of
Tamagawa dam(Tazawako town, Akita
prefecture), Shichigashuku dam
(Shichigashuku town, Miyagi prefecture),
and Akagawa dam(Asahi village, Yamagata
prefecture), are compared with the results
of laboratory test using boring cores
collected from rock mass nearby the in
situ testing place.

In the case of Tamagawa dam, it is possible

to perform the direct shear test on the
representative specimens in many boring
cores. But, in the case of Shichigashuku
dam and Akagawa dam, the number of boring
cores collected from rock mass is not
many. From this reason, the following
procedure of the direct shear test is
taken. ; Namely, at the desired normal
load, the shear load is applied to the
specimen. The failure in specimen takes
place and the shear stress reaches to the
residual shear strength. The normal load is
then increased by the predetermined amount
and the shear load, causing slide between
the failure surfaces of specimen, is
applied.
After repeating such a procedure, a
failure line, which shows the relation
between residual shear strength and normal
stress, is obtained. The multistage
direct shear test is one of advantageous
methods by which the shear behaviours are
studied on a few specimens. The direct
shear test of boring cores collected from
rock mass (tuff) of Shichigashuku dam is
carried out by the above method, and the
results of the test are shown in Fig.10.
The relations between peak shear strength
normal stress and between residual shear
strengthnormal stress are shown in Fig.11.

4.1 Tamagawa dam

The shear stressdisplacement curves
obtained by the direct shear test on the
boring cores collected from rock mass
(tuff breccia) nearby the insitu testing
place are shown in Fig.8. And, the relations between peak shear strengthnormal
stress and between residual shear strength
normal stress are shown in Fig.9. In Fig.
9, the residual friction angle is lower
than the internal friction angle obtained
by the peak shear strength. As shown in
Fig.9, the failure line obtained by in
situ block shear test lies between the
failure lines of peak shear strength and
residual shear strength, and the internal
friction angle obtained by the insitu
test is close to the residual friction
angle.

Fig. 10 Shear
stressdisplacement E 30
curves of specimens

.1 20
collected from
Shichigashuku dam
110

Displacement (mm

4
5
Displacement

(mm)
Fig. 8 Shear stress displacement
curves of specimens collected from
Tamagawa dam

Fig. 11 Relations
between shear
strength and normal aas
""4'4i
stress in direct
to-saw
shear test and in
situ shear test
(Shichigashuku dam)40

toa

fio

Fig. 9 Relations
between shear strength Pe,w
and normal stress in
Residual
direct shear test and a tn-,it
in-situ shear test
(Tamagawa dam)

60

Y'
^

to
)

In Fig.11, the internal friction angle

obtained by peak shear strengths is nearly
equal to the residual friction angle
obtained by residual shear strengths.
Besides, the measuring points of insitu
test lie near the residual failure line,
and the internal friction angle obtained
by failure line of insitu block shear

40

40

3o

Normal stress (kg lcmt

60 ^

x0

Norms) stress (kglcm 2 )

18

In order to evaluate the stability of rock

construction, it is important to analyze
the shear characteristics, namely, the
residual shear strength, the residual
friction angle etc.(Hoek 1977).
Here, the direct shear tests using the
multistage method are performed on the
specimens collected from rock mass of a
lot of working places in Japan. The shear
characteristics in residual sliding are
moreover obtained in these tests, and the
relations between the rock types and the
residual friction angles are investigated.
Jaeger(Jaeger 1971) has been proposed a
following equation in the relation between
residual shear strength (Tr) and normal
stress (on).

test is nearly equal to the angles of

residual failure lines.

4.3 Akagawa dam

The direct shear test is conducted on the
boring cores collected from rock mass (tuff
breccia ) of Akagawa dam, and some of the
shear stressdisplacement curves are shown
in Fig,12. The relations between peak
shear strengthnormal stress and between
residual shear strengthnormal stress are
shown in Fig.13. It seems that the failure
line obtained by insitu test lies near
the failure line of the peak shear
strengths as shown in Fig.13, and that the
internal friction angle obtained from
those results is nearly equal to the
residual friction angle.

Displacement (mm

Tr = c (1e44" ) + ontanOr
In the above equation, Or is residual
friction angle, c is cohesion, and b is
constant.
The specimens used in this study can be
classified into following rock types,
namely, tuff breccia, sandy tuff, mudstone,
sandstone, limestone, schalstein, granite,
and crystalline schist. On each rock type,
the relations between residual shear
strength and normal stress are shown in
Fig.14. Working places where the specimens
are collected, Or, c, and b for each rock
type are then summarized in Table 1.

Fig. 12 Shear stress displacement

curves of specimens collected from
Akagawa dam.

ss^

MO 1
,0

,DD

^V

1
lao

20

400

SOO

Mount)

(b) Sandy tuff

!OD

200

.0

Normal stress (

Normal stress (0g icm')

(a) Tuff breccia

e0

60
00
20
Norm& stress (Nq/cm')
ND

.o

MO

(c) Mudstone

As mentioned above, it is recognized

that the insufficient data to design the
rock construction are supplemented by the
results of the direct shear test in
laboratory, and it is possible to evaluate
the internal friction angle of rock mass
by the residual failure lines.

KO

MO
.00
MO
ltemrt eN.r laolue')

(e) Limestone

1M
Normal

Normalsln.s (aofem')

Fig. 13 Relations between shear strength

and normal stress in direct shear test and
insitu shear test (Akagawa dam).

t,0

a0

.0

Hm. (.olcm')

(d) Sandstone

.00

1M
M0
MB
NormY alnss (Ip(.mt)

(f) Schalstein

Fig. 14 Relations between residual shear

strength and normal stress for various
rock types.

5. SHEAR CHARACTERISTICS ACCOMPANIED WITH

RESIDUAL FRICTION

19

^.^
^ao ^
...
lO 70 W 50 .0 m20 i0
Marie Wm(Wl.&)

WO
<.
twne .w. ^(a,..r)

(h) Crystalline schist

(g) Granite

Fig. 14 Relations between residual shear

strength and normal stress for various
rock types(continue).
Table 1 Constants for various rock types
Rock

type

Tull brecou

Sandy

tuff

Mudstone

+r
C
b
(degree) Ooykmt% (era/ kg )

Place

Machimantai , Mukaiyama,
Surigami, Aka gawa ,
Tsuruga

34.1

23.6

0.0205

IrWmaanr,GQkoh

25.7

56

0.1691

24.1

1.1

>3

Hi mono Mat sudi

Oguni,Yohkau

00474

Sandstone

Shinji

22.8

30.0

Limestone

Bukoh

35.6

22.9

>2

Sclalstein

&koh

29.2

47.0

0.0743

Granite

Adachi

31.5

6.6

03416

The experimental values showing the

relations between residual shear strength
and normal stress are scattered, because
the specimens classified into the same
rock type are collected from the different
working places and the specimens which are
collected from the same working place are
not homogeneous. However, it is recognized
in Fig.14 that the values of Or show a
similar tendency with each rock type.
Byerlee(Byerlee 1975) states that the
residual shear strength for both failure
surface and saw cut surface is independent
of lithology, and the relation between
residual shear strength and normal stress
is expressed by the same equation for
various rocks. But, it seems in this study
that fabric and texture of rock, the rock
forming minerals etc. concern the formation of the failure surface, and they have
an effect on the residual shear strength.

value in region of O =45'as shown in Fig.5.

On the other hand, the peak shear strength
and the normal stress take high velues in
region of e=45' when the normal displacement is controlled as shown in Fig.6 and
Fig.7. From these results, it is clear
that the angle between direction of shear
load and that of the artificial discontinuities has a great effect on the
shear behaviours.
2. In order to supplement the results
obtained by the insitu test, the direct
shear test is conducted on the boring
cores collected from rock mass nearby the
insitu testing place. Since the failure
line obtained by insitu test lies between
both failure lines of peak shear strengths
and residual shear strengths obtained by
the direct shear test in laboratory, the
direct shear test which uses the boring
cores collected from rock mass is useful
for estimating the shear strength of rock
mass.
3. The direct shear test is conducted on
the specimens which are collected from
rock mass in a lot of working places in
Japan. As a result of investigating the
relation between the residual shear
strength and the normal stress for each
rock type, it is recognized in Fig.14
that the mechanical behaviours in residual sliding show a similar tendency with
each rock type.
7. REFERENCES
Byerlee, J.D. 1975, The fracture strength
and frictional strength of Weber sandstone, Int.J. Rock Mech. Min. Sci. &
Geomech. Abstr. 12,1 : 1-4.
Hayashi, M. 1966, Strength and dilatancy
of brittle jointed mass The extreme
value stochastics and anisotropic
failure mechanism, Proc. 1st Congress
Int. Society Rock Mech. 1 : 295-302.
Hoek, E. et al. 1977, Rock slope engineering, London, The Institution of Mining
and Metallurgy.
Jaeger, J.C. 1971, Friction of rocks and
stability of rock slopes, Geotechnique
21 : 97-134.
Krsmanovi6, D. 1967, Initial and residual
shear strength of hard rocks,
Geotechnique 17 : 145-160.

6. CONCLIISION
The results in this study are summarized
as follows.
1. The direct shear test is conducted on
the specimen containing the artificial
discontinuities as the basic test. When
the normal stress is controlled, the peak
shear strength takes remarkably small

20