Joint Tutorial 2-1

Joint Tutorial

10 MPa

10 MPa

- 27.5 , 3.5 27.5 , 3.5

- 2.5 , 0 2.5 , 0

This tutorial involves a circular opening of 2.5 meter radius, to be

excavated close to a horizontal plane of weakness (joint), located 3.5
meters above the center of the circular opening.

For this analysis, the rock mass is assumed to be elastic, but the joint will
be allowed to slip, illustrating the effect of a plane of weakness on the
elastic stress distribution near an opening. This example is based on the
one presented on pg. 193 of Brady and Brown, Rock Mechanics for
Underground Mining, 1985 consult this reference for further
information. See Phase2 Tutorial 05 for an equivalent finite element
analysis of the same model.

The finished product of this tutorial can be found in the Tutorial 02

Joint.exa file. All tutorial files installed with Examine2D 8.0 can be
accessed by selecting File > Recent Folders > Tutorials Folder from the
Examine2D main menu.

New File

If you have not already done so, start the Examine2D program by
selecting Programs Rocscience Examine2D 8.0 Examine2D from
the Start menu.

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 Joint Tutorial 2-2

Project Settings

The Project Settings option is used to configure the main analysis

parameters for your model (e.g. Units, Field Stress Type, Strength
Criterion etc). Select Project Settings from the toolbar or the Analysis
menu.

Select: Analysis Project Settings

You will see the Project Settings dialog.

Under the General tab in Project Settings, make sure the following
options are selected:

Units = Metric, stress as MPa

Field Stress Type = Constant

Elastic Properties = Isotropic

Strength Criterion = Mohr-Coulomb

Select the Analysis tab in Project Settings. We will use the default
options, which should be as follows:

Number of Boundary Elements = 100

Boundary Element Type = Constant

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Analysis Type = Plane Strain

Matrix Solver Type = Jacobi Bi-Conjugate Gradient

Note: see the Examine2D Help topics for information about these options.

Select OK to close the Project Settings dialog, and save the selections you
have made.

Add Excavation Boundary

First create the circular excavation as follows:

Select: Boundaries Add Excavation

1. Right-click the mouse and select the Circle option from the popup
menu. You will see the Circle Options dialog.

2. Select the Center and radius option, and enter a radius of 2.5.
Enter Number of segments = 64 and select OK.

3. You will be prompted to enter the circle center. Enter 0, 0 in the

prompt line, and the circular excavation will be created.

Now add the joint to the model.

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Add Joint Boundary

Now create the joint boundary as follows:

Select: Boundaries Add Joint

Enter the following coordinates defining the joint.

Enter vertex [t=table,i=circle,esc=cancel]: -27.5 3.5

Enter vertex [...]: 27.5 3.5
Enter vertex [...,enter=done,esc=cancel]: press Enter

The joint is now added to the model.

Joint Properties
We will adopt the Mohr-Coulomb Strength Criterion for the joint. To do
this, click on the drop down arrow to the right of the Joint Properties sub-
header in the sidebar and select Mohr-Coulomb Joint Strength as shown.

Now let's enter the joint properties used in this analysis.

Enter the following Elastic parameters in the Sidebar.

Kn (joint Normal Stiffness) = 250000

Ks (joint Shear Stiffness) = 100000

Tensile Strength = 0

Cohesion = 0

Friction Angle = 20

Go to Advanced Joint Properties under the Analysis menu. Turn OFF the
Initial Joint Deformation by clearing the checkbox. Select OK to close the
dialog box and accept the changes.

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 Joint Tutorial 2-5

Stress Grid

By default, Examine2D automatically generates a Stress Grid, and

computes the boundary element analysis, as soon as the first excavation
is created. We will resize this grid using the Edit option in the StressGrid
menu.

Select: StressGrid Edit Resize

Select the top left corner and hit Enter. You will be prompted to select a
starting point used to move the top left corner. Select the top left corner
again. Now enter the following coordinates defining the final coordinate
location.

Move to point [esc=quit]: -27.5 27.5

Repeat this process for the bottom right corner, but enter 27.5,-27.5 for
the final coordinate location.

You can also right-click any corner of the stress grid and select Move To
to directly enter the final coordinate location.

We must now define Field Stress and Material Properties.

Field Stress

Now lets enter the in situ stress values for this example. The Field Stress
Type is Constant, which means that the in situ stress is assumed to be
constant (i.e. does not vary with depth or location in the model).

Enter the following values in the Sidebar at the right of the screen:

Sigma 1 = 10
Sigma 3 = 10
Sigma Z = 10
Angle = 0

NOTE: the stress contours are automatically re-computed as you entered

the new Field Stress values. In general, Examine2D automatically re-
computes the analysis whenever input data is changed, so that the
displayed contours always correspond to the current input data.

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 Joint Tutorial 2-6

Material Properties

Now lets enter the elastic and strength properties for the rock mass.
Enter the following Elastic parameters in the Sidebar.

Em (rock mass Youngs modulus) = 20000

Poissons Ratio = 0.25

Enter the following Strength parameters in the Sidebar.

Tensile Strength = 0

Cohesion = 10.5

Friction Angle = 35

Strength Factor

Now lets view the Strength Factor contours for this model.

Select Strength Factor from the drop-list in the toolbar. You should see
the following contours.

Lets zoom in so that we can get a better look at whats going on near the
excavation.

Select: View Zoom Zoom Excavation

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 Joint Tutorial 2-7

That zooms us in a bit too close, so select the Zoom Out button on the
Zoom toolbar 3 times, to zoom back out a bit (or press the F4 key three
times).

Select: View Zoom Zoom Out

(Note: we could have used Zoom Window to achieve the same result. The
advantage of the above procedure, is that it gives us an exactly
reproducible view of the model each time we use it.)

Observe the effect of the joint on the Strength Factor contours. Notice the
discontinuity of the contours above and below the joint. The effect of the
joint is to deflect and concentrate stress in the region between the
excavation and the joint. Now view the Sigma 1 contours.

Notice the discontinuity of the Sigma 1 contours above and below the
joint.

Total Displacement

Now view the Total Displacement contours.

Select Total Displacement from the drop-list in the toolbar. You should
see the following contours:

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The discontinuity of the displacement contours is not apparent. However,

if you experiment with different contour options (e.g. try the Filled (with
Lines)) mode, the discontinuity of the displacement contours can be seen.
This is left as an optional exercise.

TIP: the appearance of contour plots, and your interpretation of them, can
change significantly if you use different Contour Options. The contour
style, range, and number of intervals, can all affect your interpretation of
the data.

Joint Yielding

Now lets check for yielding of the joint. Select the Yielded Joints button
in the toolbar. Also select the Joint Slip Directions button underneath the
Yielded joints button.

The yielded joint elements are highlighted in red on the model, and the
joint slip direction is indicated by small shear arrows on each side of the
joint. Notice the reversal of joint slip direction over the center of the
excavation.

Two separate zones of yielding in the joint can be seen, to the right and
left of the excavation. View the Strength Factor and Sigma 1 contours,
and notice that the region of joint slip corresponds to the region of
contour discontinuity, above and below the joint.

Yielded joint elements above excavation.

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Remember that the joint is allowed to slip because when we defined the
joint properties, we used the Mohr-Coulomb slip criterion, with a friction
angle of 20 degrees. Lets quickly verify the number of yielded elements.
Right-click the mouse and select Display Options.

In the Display Options dialog, select Show Element Discretization and

select OK.

You can now count the yielded joint elements, and there are 6 in the left
yielded region and 6 in the right. Toggle off the display of Discretizations
in the Display options dialog.

Query Joint Data

Queries for normal displacement, normal stress, shear stress, and shear
displacement for joints can be easily obtained using the Query Boundary
option.

Select: Query Query Boundary

Select the joint boundary and hit Enter. You will be prompted to select
the type of data you wish to query. Select Normal Stress and hit OK. As a
shortcut, you can also right-click the joint boundary and select Query
Boundary. You can now see the Normal Stress plotted along the joint
boundary in Excavation View. We can now graph the joint data.

Graphing Joint Data

Graphs of normal stress, shear stress, normal displacement and shear
displacement can be easily obtained for joints after a Query Boundary has
been created.

Select: Query Graph Material Queries

Use the mouse to select the query along the joint and hit Enter. You can
also right-click on the joint query and select Graph Data.

You will see the following plot:

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Normal stress along joint.

As expected, there is a sharp drop in normal stress where the joint passes
over the excavation. Close the graph view.

Now right-click on the joint boundary and select Change Query Data from
the popup menu. In the Joint Data dialog select Shear Stress. Right-click
on the joint again and select Graph Data to create a graph of shear stress
along the joint.

Shear stress along joint.

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Notice the reversal of the shear stress direction over the excavation. It is
this sense of slip which produces the inward displacement of rock on the
underside of the plane of weakness. This is consistent with the display of
the Joint Slip Direction discussed earlier (shear arrows on either side of
the joint).

It is left as an optional exercise to create graphs of normal displacement

and shear displacement for the joint and verify that the shape of the
graphs correspond to the normal and shear stress plots. (Normal and
shear displacement for joints refers to the relative movement of opposite
sides of the joint).

Additional Exercise

Critical Friction Angle for Slip

Calculations in Brady & Brown indicate that if the angle of friction for
the plane of weakness exceeds about 24, no slip is predicted on the plane,
and the elastic stress distribution can be maintained. As an exercise, run
the analysis using angles of friction for the joint of 20 to 24 degrees, and
then use the Yielded Joints option (as described above), to check the slip
on the joint. You should find the results below:

Number of yielded joint

Angle of friction for joint
elements

20 12
21 10
22 8
23 6
24 0

Effect of joint friction angle on joint slip.

The results above confirm that the critical angle for joint slip in this
example is around 24 degrees.

Phase2 Joint Tutorial

This Examine2D tutorial is based on Phase2 Tutorial 05. If you have the
Phase2 program you can run a finite element analysis on the same model
and compare results with Examine2D. You should find that the results
are virtually identical.

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Note: if the number of yielded joint elements is different in Examine2D

and Phase2, it is probably because of a different discretization of the
boundaries. If you use uniform meshing and custom discretization in
Phase2 to obtain a uniform distribution of elements on the joint
boundary, you should be able to get exactly the same results with
Examine2D and Phase2.

Reference

Brady, B.H.G. and Brown, E.T., Rock Mechanics for Underground

Mining, George Allen & Unwin, London, 1985, pp193-194.

Examine2D v.8.0 Tutorial Manual