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ITS MEASUREMEI{T

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Professor, Department of Ciail, Enaironmental and Architecturnl Engineering,

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Oae Stephansson
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Roynl Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden
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 CO}.ITENTS
''4Y

Preface xiii
Acknowledgements xv

X Introduction 1

1.1 Stress at a point 1,

1.2 Importance of rock stress J

1.3 History 11
1.4 Classification of rock stresses 12
1.5 Content of the book 1,4
1.6 General observations 1,6
References 17
Conferences and workshops onin situ stresses 20
Major sessions in conferences 20

2 Estimatingin situ stresses 23

2.1 Introduction 23
2.2 Yaiationof in sifz stresses with depth )q
2.3 Vertical and horizontal stresses as principai stresses 30
2.4 Limits of in sita stresses with depth 32
2.4.1 Intactrock Strength model 32
2.4.2 Effectof planes of weakness 34
2.4.3 Geophysical models 35
2.5 Effect of anisotropy 36
2.6 Effect of stratification 41,
2.7 Effect of geological structures and heterogeneities 45
2.8 Effect of topography
51
L 2.8.1 Modeling the effect of topography 51
2.8.2 Symmetric ridges and valleys under gravity only 53
2.8.3 Asymmetric ridges and valleys under gravity only 59
2.8.4 Ridges and valleys under gravity and tectonic loading 60
2.8.5 Tensile stresses in valley bottoms 61,
2.9 Tectonic and residual stresses 64
2.9.1 Tectonic stresses 64
2.9.2 Residual stresses 65
2.10 Effect of erosion, overconsolidation, uplift and glaciation 68
2.11 High horizontal stresses 69
2.12 Spherical shell models of stresses in the Earth 77
2.13 Effect of boundary conditions and time onin situstress 74

L
viii Contents

2.14 Estimating stress orientation 76

23,41 Stress orientation from geological structures 76
2.14.2 Stress orientation from fault-plane solutions 79
2.1"4.3 Breakouts B1
82 .J
2.15 Summary
References 82

3 Methods of in situ stress measurement 95

3.1 Introduction 95

3.2 Hydraulic methods 97

3.2.1 Hy draulic fracturing 97
3.2.2 Sleeve fracturing 97
3.2.3 HTPF method 98

3.3 Relief methods 98

3.3.1 Surface relief methods 99
3.3.2 Borehole relief methods 99

3.3.3 RelieJ of large rock volumes 100

3.4 jacking methods 101

3.5 Strain recovery methods 101

3.6 Borehole breakout method 102

3.7 Other methods 102
3.7.1 Fault-slip data analysis 1,02

3.7.2 Earthquake focal mechanisms 103

3.7.3 Indirect methods 103

3.7.4 Inclusions in time-dependent materials 104

3.7.5 Measurement of residual stresses 104
3.8 Rock volume in stress measurements 104
3.9 Accuracy and uncertainty in stress measuremenB 105

3.9.1 Natural (intrinsic, inherent) uncertainty 106

3.9.2 Measurement-related uncertainty 107

3.9.3 Data analysis-related uncertainty 108

3.9.4 Understanding and reducing uncertainties 110

3.9.5 Expected uncertainties 113

References 11,6

4 Hydraulic methods 121

4.1 Introduction 721,

4.2 Hy dr aulic fracturing 121

4.2.L History 121
4.2.2 Techniques, equipment and procedures 130

4.2.3 Theory of hydraulic fracturing 1,41,

4.2.4 Data analysis and interpretation 162

4.3 Sleeve fracturing 176

4.3.1 History 177

4.3.2 Techniques, equipment and procedures 178
4.3.3 Theory of sleeve fracturing 180
 Contents ix
4.3.4 Recordings and interpretation
4.3.5 Data analysis and presentation 182
184
4.4 HTPF
186
4.4.1 History
187
\t? T:rtuiques, equipment and procedures
4.4.3 Theory 187
189
4.4.4 Recordings and interpretation
190
4.5 Integrated stress determination method
193
4.6 Technical information
193
References
194

5 Relief methods
201.
5.1 Introduction
201,
5.2 History
201.
5.2.1 Surface relief methods
207
5.2.2 Borehole relief methods
203
5.2.3 Rock mass relief methods
5.3 Techniques, equipment and procedures 270
217
5.3.1 Basic steps in borehole overcoring
211
5.3.2 USBM gage
212
5.3.3 Cells of Bonnechere and Kanagawa
\- 5.3.4 CSIR Doorstopper 275
216
5.3.5 CSIR triaxial strain cell
21,8
5.3.6 CSIRO HI ceil
223
5.3.7 Biaxial testing
226
5.3.8 Borehole slotting
227
5.3.9 Stress relief.by center hole
5.4 Theory 230
230
I f assrimptio.llll rhe analysis of overcoring tests
] 230
5.4.2 Analysis of USBM gage measurements
234
Analysis of CSIR Dooistopper measurements
24.3 244
5 4 4 Analysis of measurementi with
CSIR-type triaxial strain cells
246
5.4.5 Analysis of measurements with the CSinO
HI cell 249
5'4.6 Measurement oJ erastic properties on
overcore sampies 250
5'4.7 Anarysis of surface reriei by undercoring measurements
a Analysis of borehole stotting measurements
253
l- __ l !
5.5 Statistical analysis of overcoring ileasurements 254
5.5.1 Least squares analysis 256
5.5.2 Remarks 256
L, 5.6 Effect of nonlinearity on overcoring results 257
5.7 Effect of anisotropy on overcoringiesults 258

5.7 .7 Literature review

260
260
\- 5.7.2 Laboratory and field studies
262
5.7.3 Numerical examples
5.8 Technicai information 265
References 267
268

\-
L,
L,
 x Contents

6 |acking methods 277

6.1 Introduction 277
6.2 History 277
6.3 Techniques, equipment and procedures 279
6.4 Theory 284
6.5 Technical information 287
References 287

7 Strain recovery methods 289

7.1 Introduction 289
7.2 History 290
7.2.1 ASR method 290
7.2.2 DscAmethod 292
7.3 Techniques, equipment and procedures 293
7.3.1 ASR 293
7.3,2 DSCA 294
7.4 Theory 295
7.4.1 ASR 295
7,4,2 DSCA 297
7.5 Data analysis and interpretation 298
7.5.1 ASR 298
7.5.2 DSCA 300
References 301

8 Borehole breakout method 303

S.L Introduction 303
8.2 History 304'.
8.2.1 Observations 304
8.2.2 Theories of breakout formation 305
8.2.3 Laboratory studies 306
8.2.4 Recent developments 307
8.3 Techniques, equipment and procedures 308
8.3.1 Dipmeter 309
8.3.2 Televiewer 309
8.3.3 FMS 310
8.4 Theory 311
8.5 Data analysis and interpretation 317
8.5.1 Analysis of four-arm dipmeter logs 318
Analysis of borehole televiewer and FMS logs
_ .8.5.2
References
327
323
L-,
9 Case studies and comparison between different methods 327
9.1 Stress measurements at the URL project 327
(
9.1.1 Geological setting 327
9.1.2 Stress measurements 329

U
U
 Contents xi

9.1.3 Observations 334

9.1.4 Summary 339
9.2 Comparison between different overcoring techniques 339
9.3 Comparison between hydraulic fracturing and overcoring techniques 347
9.4 Comparison between hydraulic methods 346
9.4.1 Hydraulic fracturing and HTPF methods 346
9.4.2 Hydraulic fracturing, sleeve fracturing and the HTPF method 351
9.4.3 Cyclic hydraulic testing 352
9.5 Comparison between hydraulic fracturing and borehole breakout methods 353
9.5.1 The Auburn Geothermal Well, New York 354
9.5.2 Hanford Test Site, Washington 355
9.5.3 Cajon Pass scientific drill site, California 356
References 358

1"0 Monitoring of stress change 361.

10.1 Introduction 361

10.2 Techniques and applications 364
10.2.1. Deformation gages i 365
10.2.2 Strain cells 367
10.2.3 Stiff cylindrical inclusions 367
a-o
70.2.4 Solid and hollow deformable inclusions J/J
10.2.5 Fiat jack and hydraulic borehole pressure cells 375
10.3 Technical information 380
References 381

1L The state of stress in the Earth's crust: from local measurements to the
World Stress Map 387

11.1 The World Stress Map 387

11.1.1 The WSM database 387
17.7.2 Determination of stress regimes and global stress patterns 394
11.1.3 Brief summary of stress patterns in continents 397
11.2 Effect of scale onin situ stresses: fact or fiction? 406
11..2.1. Effect of scale on stress 408
11.2.2 Effect of scale on stress measurements 410
i 11.2.3 Effect of scale on rock properties involved in the analysis of stress
measurements 413
References 415

12 Using stresses in rock engineering, geology and geophysics 479

12.1 Introduction 419

12.2 Stresses in civil rock engineering 420
12.2.1 Role of in situ stresses in the behavior of underground excavations 421,
12.2.2 Importance of in situ stresses for pressure tunnels and shafts 429
72.2.3 Importance of in situ stresses for underground storage of fluids 433
12.2.4 Role of in situ stresses in the behavior of surface excavations 434
12.3 Stresses in mining engineering 436

L
xii Contents
441,
12.4 Stresses in geology and geophysics
441
12.4,1 Emplacement of igneous intrusions
443
12.4.2 Salt diaPirs
444
12.4.3 Dome structures
447
12.4.4 Single laYer buckling
449
12.4.5 Neotectonic or postglacial faulting
450
12.4.6 Fault slip
452
12.4.7 Intraplate stresses in the upper Earth's crust
456
References

461,
Appendix A AnalYsis of stress
461,
A.1 Cauchy stress PrinciPle
461.
A.2 State of stress at a Point
462
A.3 State of stress on an inclined plane
463
A.4 Force and moment equilibrium
463
A.5 Stress transformation law
inclined plane 465
4'.6 Normal and shear stresses on an
465
A.7 Principal stresses

Appendix B Displacements, stresses and strains around a circular hole: anisotropic

467
solution
467
B.1 General expressions for displacement components
to a
B.2 Expressioni for displacement components when hole axis z is perpendicular
468
plane of elastic sYmmetrY
medium 468
8.3 itadial displacement induced by drilling a hole in an infinite anisotropic
470
B.4 Radial displacement induced by application of in situ stress field
471
B.5 Total radiai displacement around the borehole contour
473
8.6 Gdneral expressions for stress cornponents
under a
B.7 Stresses around a circular hole drilied in an infinite anisotropic medium
473
3D state ofstress acting at infinity
476
8.8 Strain components
477
Author index
483
Subject index
 PREFACE
Rock masses are initially stressed in their
natural state. Whether one is interested in the
formation of geological structures (folds, faults,
intrusions, etc.), the stability of artificial struc-
tures (tunnels, caverns, mines, surface excava-
tions, etc.), or the stability of boreholes, a
l,knowledge of the in situ or virgin stress field,
/falong with other rock mass properties, is
Ineeded in order to predict the response of rock
I masses to the disturbance associated with those
I structures. Stress in rock is usually described
J
within the context of continuum mechanics. It is
defined at a point and is represented by a
second-order Cartesian tensor with six compo-
I nents. Because of its definition, rock stress is an
{f
enigmatic and fictitious quantity creating chal-
lenges in its characterization, measurement and
application in practice. Stresses in rock cannot
be measured directly and can only be inferred
by disfurbing the rock. Furthermore, rock stres-
ses cannot be determined accurately due to the
complex nature of rocks and rock masses. At
best, and in good to very good rock conditions
where the rock is essentially linearly elastic,
homogeneous and continuous, and between
well-defined geological boundaries, rock
stresses can be determined with an error of
+ 10-20% for their magnitude and an error of
+ 10-20" for their orientation. On the other
hand, in poor (weathered, weak, soft and
heavily fractured) quality rocks, the measure-
ment of rock stresses is extremely difficult. In
such rocks the success rate of stress measure-
ments is usually low.
This book focuses on the problem of in situ
stresses in the Earth's crust, the methods for
measuring and monitoring those stresses, and
their importance in rock engineering, geology
and geophysics. The emphasis is mostly on the
current in situ state of stress and to a lesser
extent on the monitoring of stress change.
The subject of paleostresses is only briefly
discussed.
The last 30 years have seen a major advance
in our knowledge and understanding of rock
stress. A large body of data is now available on
the state of stress in the near surface of the
Earth's crust (upper 34km of the crust).
Various theories have been proposed regarding
the origin of in situ stresses and how gravrty,
tectonics, erosion, lateral straining, rock fabric,
glaciation and deglaciation, topography, curva-
ture of the Earth and other active geological
features and processes contribute to the current
in situ stress field. The techniques of stress
measurement have evolved over the years,
starting with the surface relief methods of the
1930s and 1940s, the flat jack method in the
1950s, the borehole relief methods of the 1950s
and 1960s, and the engineering applications of
hydraulic frachring in the 1970s. Today, innova-
tive methods are available for measuring rock
stresses within the upper 3-4 km of the Earth's
crust. At greater depths, very specialized tech-
niques need to be used. The deepest reliable
stress measurements ever made were reported
in 1995 by scientists at the KTB (German Con-
tinental Deep Drilling Project) hole in Germany.
Successful hydraulic fracturing stress measure-
ments at a depth of 9 km gave maximum and J
minimum horizontal in situ stress values of 285 \
andl47MPa, respectively. ln general, the *.rr- |
urement of in situstresses at depths below 9 km J\
remains an unexplored territory where, in the
future, new techniques will have to be devel-
oped and/or existing ones greatly improved.
Today, a large body of literature is available
on the subject of in situ stresses. In writing this
 xiv Preface
book we have made a special attempt to refer to
as many relevant publications and authors as
possible. In general, the reader will find a
comprehensive list of references spread over a
total of 12 chapters, including the most recent
contributions presented at the 8th Congress of
the International Society for Rock Mechanics
[SRM) in Tokyo in September199l.
This book is directed toward graduate
students, teachers and practitioners in civil,
mining and petroleum engineering, geology
and geophysics. It can be used as a textbook in
advanced graduate courses in rock mechanics
and rock engineering, structural geology and
geophysics. This book can also be used as a
reference manual by practitioners who are faced
with the challenge of rock stress. Actual case
studies presented in this book should be of great
interest to sfudents, teachers and practitioners.
The book has been written for someone who is
familiar with the basic concepts of mechanics,
geology and rock mechanics.
The 12 chapters in this book are presented in
a logical order starting with the methods for
estimating in situ stresses, followed by the
techniques for measuring and monitoring rock
stresses, and finally the importance of rock
stresses in rock engineering, geology and geo-
physics. Several ca5e studies of comparison of
shess measurements are also presented, rangu:tg
in scale from local measurements to the World
Stress Map. Throughout this book we have
emphasized the role of geology when estimat-
ing and analyzing the results of stress measure-
ments. We have also emphasized that the
disciplines of engineering, geology and geo-
physics share many complementary similarities
when it comes to understanding the state of
stress in the Earth's crust.
This book satisfies the need to complement
and update the information presented at the
International Symposium on Rock Stress and
Rock Stress Measurements organized by the
second author and held in Stockholm on 1-3
September 1986. The conference revealed the
broad range of interest in rock stress and its
measurement in both the scientific and
engineering communities. Despite its enigmatic
nature, rock stress was recognized as a critical
factor in a wide range of activities in rock
engineering, geology and geophysics. Follow-
ing the Stockholm meeting, the late 1980s and
early 1990s witnessed an explosion in the
number of publications deaiing with the subject
of rock stress and its measurement. The research
program conducted at the Underground \_-
Research Laboratory (URL) in Canada and the
stress compilation of the World Stress Map
Project were instrumental in our understanding
of the state of stress and its variation in the
upper part of the Earth's crust. It was therefore
decided that a book complementing the pro-
ceedings of the Stockholm meeting was timely
and that an in-depth discussion of rock stress
would be of great benefit to rock engineers,
geologists and geophysicists, and others inter-
ested in that subject. Although this book deals
mostly with the in situ or virgin stress field and
its measurement, we have included one chapter
(Chapter 10) dealing with the monitoring of
stress change. We feel that such a chapter
should be included as many of the techniques
used for monitoring stress change are similar to
those used for measuring virgin stresses. Fur-
thermore, stress monitoring plays a crucial role
in the different phases of development of
nuclear waste repositories that are now being
considered in different countries in the world.
Most of the chapters in this book have a lead \-,
author. The first author was responsible for the
development of Chapters 2 (except section
2.1.4.2),3,5,6 and 10, and the appendices. The
second author was responsible for Chapters 4, 7
and 8, and section 2.1,4.2. Chapters L,9,11, and
12 were jointly written. Questions and com-
ments from the reader should be directed to the
appropriate author(s). U
In writing this book we have made every (
attempt to be comprehensive in our literature
search. However, we may have inadvertently (-
omitted some references. We hope that the
reader will forgive such a transgression.
t*
I
(
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The writing of this book could not have been
possible without the help of several of our
iolleagues. The first author is grateful to
Russell Jernigan for reading the entire manu-
script. The financial support of the US
l.lational Science Foundation under NSF grant
no. MS-9215397 contributed to the develop-
ment of several sections in Chapter 2 dealing
with the role of rock fabric and topography on
stress. The second author is grateful to the
Swedish National Science Research Council
for financial support under grant P3447-331.
Both authors would like to thank Professor
John A. Hudson for reviewing this book. His
illuminating and inspiring comments are
greatly appreciated. Many thanks go to
Robert Walton from MINDATA (Australia),
Jean-FranEois Cappelle and Pierre Choquet
from ROCTEST (Canada), and Helmut Bock
from INTERIELS, (Germany) for providing
photographs and tdchnical documentation.
'w
Discussions with Derek Martin were of great
help in understanding the URL stress results
and the nature of rock stress in general. We are
grateful to ]. Lauterjung for sending us a pho-
tograph of the KTB drilling site, to Mary-Lou
Zoback and Birgir Mi.iller for providing us
with originals of maps of the World Stress
Map Project, to Maria Ask for providing stress
data from the Danish sector of the North Sea,
and to David Ferrill for sending us illustra-
tions regarding slip-tendency analysis and its
application at the Yucca Mountain project in
Nevada. A first draft of this book was used in a
doctoral course at KTH in the fall of 1994.
Valuable comments from the participants are
acknowledged. Ann-Charlotte Akerblom is
acknowledged for typing the first version of
Chapter 4. The iilustrations in this book were
made by William Semann at the University of
Colorado in Boulder and by Mathias Lindahl
at KTH in Stockholm.
L INTRODUCTION
.1.,7
STRESS AT A POINT
Unlike artificial materials such as concrete and
steel, natural materials such as rocks and soils
are subject to natural (virgin) stresses called in
slfa stresses. Stress is an enigmatic quantity
which, according to classical mechanics, is
defined at a point in a continuum and is
independent of the constitutive behavior of
the medium. The concept of stress used in rock
mechanics is consistent with that formulated
by Cauchy and generalized by St Venant in
France during the 19th century (Timoshenko,
1983). A summary of the continuum mechan-
ics description of stress is presented below.
More details can be found in Appendix A or in
Mase (1970).
In continuum mechanics, stress is a ficti-
tious quantity that is defined through a limit-
ing process by considering the interaction
between two phrts of a continuum across a
small oriented surface at a point. Consider for
instance, the continuum shown in Fig, 1.1
occupying a region R of space and subjected to
body forces b and surface forces f. Let x,y,z
be a Cartesian coordinate system with unit
L v
Fig. 1.1 Material continuum subjected to body and surface forces.
1
vectors €1,€2,e3. Consider a volume V in the
continuum, an infinitesimal surface element
AS located on the outer surface S of 7, a point
P located on AS, and a unit vector r normal to
AS at P.
Under the effect of the body and surface
forces, the material within volume V interacts
with the material outside of IZ Let Lf and Lm
be respectively the resultant force and
moment exerted across AS by the material
outside of V upon the material within IZ The
Cauchy stress principle asserts that the aver-
age force per unit area Lf I LS tends to a iimit
t6y: df /dS as AS tends to zero, whereas Lm
vanishes in the limiting process. The limit f1,y
is called the stress vector and has three compo-
nents in the x,y,z coordinate system which are
expressed in units of force per unit area (MPa,
psi, psf, etc.). It is noteworthy that the compo-
nents of the stress vector depend on the ori-
entation of the surface element AS which is
defined by the coordinates of its normal unit
vector r.
The stress vector f1,y at point P in Fig. 1.1 is
associated with the action of the material out-
side of V upon the material within V.Lett6n1
lb
is
i
2 Introduction

be the stress vector at point P corresponding to
the action across AS of the material within V
upon the material outside of iZ By Newton's
law of action and reaction, t1-tr) = -ftr). This
remark implies that the stress vectors acting
on opposite sides of a same surface are equal
in magnitude but opposite in direction.
The state of stress at point P in Fig. 1.1 can be
defined by calculati.g ft,l for all possible infin-
The reader should be aware that hvo sign
conventions are used in engineering stress
analysis. For rock mechanics problems, and
throughout this book, normal stresses are
taken as positive when compressive, and the
direction of positive shear stresses is as shown
in Fig, 1.2a. Note that this convention is
opposite to that adopted in classical
mechanics. I

itesimal surfaces AS having point P as an

interior point. Another alternative is to con-
sider the stress vectors tpg, tpzl and f1ral acthg
on three orthogonal planes normal to the x-,y-
and z-axes and with normal unit vectors \, e2

and 4, respectively.The three planes form an

infinitesimal stress element around point P
(Fig. 1.2a). Vector flrry has components ox, Txcy
and rrr, vector flrzy has components to*, oo and
'"ll
ryz, dfld vector f1.s1 has components
and or.
rr'
The nine components of vectors t1rty, t1,21
Tro

zi*
and f1,ay form the components of a second-
order Cartesian tensor also known as the stress
tensor oii. The components consist of three
(a)
normal stresses oyl oyr orand six shear stresses
Txy, Tyx, Txz, Tzx, Tyz r Tzy. As shown in Appendix
A, the force and moment equilibrium yield the
equations of equilibrium. and symmetry of the \-
streiss tensor with Trr=Tyxr Txz:Tzx and
ryz: rzy. Thus three normal stresses and three
shear stresses define the state of stress at a (

point in a continuum. Alternatively, the state

of stress can be represented by three principal
stresses o7, oz and o3 and their orientation in
the x,y,z coordinate system (Fig. 1.2b), which
represent the eigenvalues and eigenvectors of
the stress tensor. The principal stresses act on
three principal planes on which shear stresses
vanish.
Y
As shown in Appendix A, knowing
the stress tensor representing the state of stress
(-
at a point P, the components of the stress
(b) U
vector on any plane passing by P, and of
known orientation with respect to the x-, y- Fig. 1.2 (a) Infinitesimal stress element defining the a
and z-axes can be determined by using coor- state of stress at a point; (b) principal stress element.
dinate transformation laws for second-order Direction of positive normal and shear stresses used
tensors. in rock mechanics.

1.2 IMPORTANCE OF ROCK STRESS
Knowledge of the in situ state of stress in the
Earth's crust is very important in many prob-
lems dealing with rocks in civil, mining and
petroleum engineering and energy develop-
ment, as well as in geology and geophysics. A
list of activities for which in situ stresses play a
critical role is given in Table 1.1. An overview
of these activities is presented below. A more
detailed discussion is given in Chapter 12:
L In civil and mining engineering, in situ
I stresses control the distribution and magni-
fude of the stresses around underground
openings such as tunnels, mines, shafts or
caverns (Hoek and Brown, 1980). Stress
concentrations in the excavation walls may be
I large enough to overstress the rock, mobilize
the strength of the rock mass locally or at
t large, and create failure. They can also induce
Table 1.1 Activities requiring knowledge of in situ
stresses
Ciail and mining engineering
Stability of underground excavations (tunnels,
mines, cavems, shafts, stopes, haulages)
Drilling and blasting
Pillar design
Design of support systems
Prediction of rock bursts
Fluid flow and contaminant transport
Dams
Slope stability
Energy deaelopment
Borehole stability and deviation
Borehole deformation and failure
Fracturing and fracture propagation
Fluid flow and geothermal problems
,l Reservoir production management
. Energy extraction and storage
Geology/geophysics
Orogeny
Earthquake prediction
Plate tectonics
Neotectonics
Structural geology
Volcanology
Glaciation
Importance of rock stress 3
excessive deformation in the form of roof clo-
sure, sidewall movement and/or ground sub-
sidence. On the other hand, tensile stresses in
excavation walls may open existing fractures
or create new ones which could result in block
stability problems.
In general, stress-related stability problems I
1l
increase with depth but can also be found in
I
T
I
excavations at shallow depths (0-200 m) due
to high horizontal in situ stresses such as in
southern Ontario and upper New York State
(Adams and Bell, 1991.; Franklin and Hungr,
7978;Lee,1981; Lee and Lo, 1976;Lo,1978;Lo
and Morton, 1976), Fennoscandia (Carlsson
and Olsson, 1982; Hast, 1958 ; Myrvang, 1993;
Stephansson, 1993; Stephansson, Siirkkd and
Myrvang, 1986) and Australia (Enever, Walton
and Windsor,1990). High stresses can also be
found when conducting underground excava-
tion in mountainous regions near steep valley
walls (Myrvang,7993). In general, excavation
in highly stressed roc,k is more difficult and
special strategies need to be followed to mini-
mize the impact of high stresses. Potential
stability problems associated with the relief of
high stresses may include floor buckling, spal-
ling, squeezing, inward movement of excava-
tion walls and rock bursts. Detrimental effects
of high stresses can be found in canals,
bridges, surface excavations, shafts, tururels
and mining excavations. Furthermore, drilling
in highly, stressed rock is more difficult.
Myn ang, Hansen and Sorensen (1993) found,
for instance, a significant negative correlation
between the rate of penetration in rotary drill-
ing with increasing stress. A positive aspect of
high stresses, however, is that the rock is
tighter, which implies less water inflow in
underground works and shorter pathways for
contaminant transport.
In the engineering of underground con-
struction, in situ stresses enter into excavation
design and critical decision making. The dis-
tribution and magnitude of in situ stresses
affect the geometry, shape, dimensioning,
excavation sequence and orientation of under-
ground excavations. They also help in the
I

4 Introductiott
and are limited
systems. From concentrated in sharp corners
selection and design of support
in extent (Fairhurst, 1968)'
a practical polnt oi^uiini, *h.n designing
ih: Figure,'3showsacasestudywherestresses
wher:^
underground openln*, lr'. rocks a penstock mani-
virgin stresses ur. rffiriiprr.u * ,".0
*,iil were criticar in the layout of
project in
rtr.,"o"t""*- fold for the Helms pumped storage
strength, the goai is to minimir. 1g77, 1984)' rn
a compress*.";,; the sierra Nevada lHui*ro.,,
tration problems, create branch
ttris rr,ory_c],'i'r. pr"rtock.bifurcation
I

field as uniformly distributed u, porrrut.-ir', orientation of

,harmonic hore, con- was iotateiq0" rro* its original
the excavation walls (the of disconti
stress regio"'' ro' N30"8 in order to avoid opening
cept) and avoid tensile nuities in a direction paiarler
to the major
excavation is better suited (by
instance, a circurar in situ stress os^u* measured
in a hydrostatic stress fierd than in u^1Jtno ^1i!;1,ll
horizontal
-ihl,
*t,il 1.'g; rtacturing) in the N25"E direction'
fields. Horao"tri-.uu.r.,, (1986)
stress
,o.rr., t igt o uimaki (toiol unaftunaki and Matsuo
spans require h"ri;;;;;i of large under-
an illustrative example, give two examples of design (-,
the vertical stress. As it was decided
the 61m span,91* t;; ;;l [r*1d.ru.r"J*]apan*1*t (-
the feasibility of
itt ftSttuy 6 the caverns with their long axes
24m high rna.'g'o"tJ Oiympic ':it"l
parallel to the maximum horizontal
in situ
hall in Lillehammer, Norway, ** *r;;;;;- in rocks
I

geoloq,:ti*tli"g it'ess' In general' aligning

^caverns to the
sible due to not only a good long axis perpendicular (

but also because of the existence of rutg"."h;'i ytll :t:{ should be

zontar stresses in the order of at
4-5frpa largest in situ stress component

shallow depths ranging between

m
ai and 100 uuoidtd (Broch' 1993)'
mechanics has
ili;h; Over the past 10 years' rock \-,
(Myrvang, 199ay. ir i! noteworthy
a piactical tool for surface
and
,harmonic hoie, concept is not recommended become *"r'. "r The acceptance
in".t underground mine operators'
when the virgin"'r:;li;";r.-i.,tgrr-
case, the t*tuuJon of
roci *ttnunitt techniques in underground
Brown, 1980). In that in r \.-,
and
iiigl:irrgely due to ripid advancement
shape should be seiected in zuch ;:;ti*i
.
nu"'itul-"ioathg techniques' the use
of
ot rock are I

the zones overstressed

I

I
Range of
hydrofractures I

Translormer vault
1

Powerhouse

L
i

Original
layout {

Concrete-lined I

penstock manifold
Access tunnel
(
and the redesigned penstock
complex showing the original .t
Fie. 1.3 Plan of Helms project powerplant
(After Haimson, 1984')
^Ltifotat. (

(
 t\

6 lntroduction

(a) z(r
(m) selection and characterization and the reposi-
tory design and construction (Kim ,1992;Km
et a1,,1986). As an example, Fig. 1.5 shows the
,*l layout of the underground nuclear waste
facility that was proposed (and later aban-
:;l doned) at Hanford, Washington (Rockwell
Hanford Operations, 1982). Based on the
results of hydraulic fracturing tests conducted
ill at the depth of the proposed repository (about
1000 m), it was decided to align the place-
*J ments rooms in a direction parallel to the
minimum horizontal in situ stress and the
,;l storage holes parallel to the maximum hori-
(b) I-\ -r+ zontal stress (Kim ef n1.,1986).
tri)- **
Trt ,\,.Y
\ -T
One of the most comprehensive and best
IL
i Z=5oo o
documented case sfudies on rock stress and its
measurement was conducted at the Under-
ground Research Laboratory (URL) in the Lac
du Bonnet granite batholith on the western
edge of the Canadian Shield in the province of
Manitoba in Canada. This research facility is
used by Atomic Energy of Canada Limited
/b. (AECL) to investigate the permanent disposal
# of nuclear waste fuel in plutonic rock. The
z=6!0.0 field studies conducted at the URL since the
0--t_90,
early 1980s have been used to answer many of
(c) the fundamental questions with regard to rock
stress in hard and competent rock (Martin and
Simmons, 1993), e.g. are in situ stresses
dependent on the scale of the method used;
what is the effect of geological structures on ir
sila stresses; what is the importance of resid-
ual stresses; do different methods yield com-
parable in situ stress fields? The four questions
were answered by using a wide range of meth-
ods of in situ stress measurements.
The performance of unlined pressure
tunnels, shafts and storage caverns is also
9 102pm
strongly dependent on the magnitude and
Fig. 1.4 Stress measurements at the Zinkgruvan orientation of in situ stresses. Pressure tunnels
mine in central Sweden. (a) Stress measurement and shafts which are unlined over most of
sites with overcoring technique, ft).results of stress
their lengths have been used in various hydro-
measurements at site no. 1 in the roof of stope
44/650, (c) results of stress measurements at site no.
electric schemes around the world and have
3 in the roof of stope 44/500. ,L: stress perpen- bedn called upon to perform under increas-
dicular to the local strike of the orebody, oH : stress ingly higher heads, now approaching 1000 m
parallel to the local strike of the orebody and (Benson, 19BB). The first and foremost
oy = vertical stress. (After Borg et a1.,1984.) consideration in the safe design of unlined

l
Uq
(-
L
rock mass classification systems and more re-
liable methods for rock stress measurements.
The state of the art in rock engineering for
underground mine use is presented by Brady
, and Brown (1985). ln situ stresses form the
flf toaaing system for the underground excava-
[l tions (Bawden, 1993).It is the redistribution of
lf tt uru stresses due to mining activity that
It causes deformation and failure of the rock
I
t
mass. The adverse effects of mine failure are
fatalities, injuries and damage to equipment
which overall translate into a loss in produc-
tion. In room and pillar mining, stresses in
pillars affect the overall mine extraction ratio
and control the overall mine stability and
layout. Enever (1993) discussed the impact of
in situ stresses in Australia for deciding on
the location of new coal mine developments
and mine layouts as well as the location and
stability of coal seam methane extraction
wells.
Several mining factors, including the depth
of mining, mine geometry and the rate and
volume extracted, can influence the redistribu-
tion of stresses and hence the occurrence of
rockbursts and mine seismicity (Cook, 79/6;
McGarr and Wiebols, 1977).
Jvline seismicity is
essentially;ock f!,rlure due to the alteration of
the virgin shessstate'b@n
rock. Over the years, mining engineers have
had to deal with higher in situ stress fields
associated with increasingly deep mines. A
combination of deeper mines and larger mine
openings has increased the occurrence and
severity of mine seismicity and collapse of
mine openings. An a priori knowledge of the
characteristics of pre-existing zones of weak-
ness in rock masses and the in situ stress field
can assist mining engineers in identifying
areas where large mining-induced failure and
seismic events are likely to occur. Several case
histories which emphasize the importance of
seismological analyses to characterize the
sources of mine seismicity and the effects of
geological discontinuities and in situ stresses
are discussed by Gay and Van der Heever
(1982) and Wong (1993).
(
Importance of rock stress 5
Rock stress measurements are often per-
formed to provide input to numerical model-
ing of mine design and deformability, strength
and reinforcement of mine openings. For mine
design applications, the common practice is to
locate the measuring sites remote from the
mining stopes, so that the measured stresses
are unaffected by the mining activity. In old
underground mines, where mining occurs at
great depths below the ground surface, stress
measurements have to be made in disturbed
rock masses. As an illustrative example, in the
design of the Zinkgruvan mine in central
Sweden, an approach was adopted in which
the stress measurement sites were located in
the roofs of open stopes in different mine
panels (Borg et a1.,1984). The location of the
sites is shown in Fig. 1.4a and the results of the
or.ercoring stress measurements in the roof of
tw,o stopes are presented in Fig. 1..4b,c. No
stress gradients were found in the vicinity of
the stopes, and very small differences in mag-
nitude and direction of stresses were recorded
for the measuring points at each site. The
a\rerage value of the major principal stress
was found to be equal to 40 MPa, and to be
oriented perpendicular to the tabular ore-
body. These results were used in the design of
mining sequences and rock reinforcement of
the stopes. Stress data from the stopes together
with stress measurements in an undisturbed
region at the deepest point accessible in the
mine (site no. 4 in Fig. 1.4a) were used by Borg
et al. (1984) to estimate the variation of the
virgin vertical and horizontal stresses with
depth. Then, the estimated stresses were
applied in the numerical modeling for design
and stability prediction of mining at depths
below 800m.
Knowledge of in situ stresses is also
critical for the storage of nuclear waste in rock.
The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission
(10CFR60), Sections 60.10 and 60.27, specifies
thattn slfa stresses should be measured at the
site, before and during the construction of a
repository (Kim, 1992). ln situ stresses are
taken into account in repository site suitability,
 Importance of rock stress 7

Placement room
Crown

Virgin stresses:

Maximum horizontal
6'l MPa.:

26 MPa

Fig. 1.5 Suggested layout of underground nuclear waste disposal facility at Hanford, Washington. The
virgin stress values, shown in the insert, were determined by hydraulic fracturing on the candidate
repository horizon at a depth of about 1000 m. (Adapted from Rockwell Hanford Operations, 1982.)

pressure tunnels and dhafts is to avoid water
leakage by hydraulic opening (also called
l hydraulic jacking) of the rock mass. Water
leakage may lead to disastrous and costly
consequences, as illustrated in many case
I studies (Brekke and Ripley, 7993; Broch,
1984a,b; Sharma et a1.,1991). Hydraulic jack-
i ing of the rock mass can be prevented by
positioning unlined pressure tunneis and
I shafts in competent rock and under enough
rock cover to provide adequate confinement
and watertight conditions. One criterion used
for positioning unlined pressure tunnels and
shafts in valiey sides is that nowhere along the
opening alignment should the internal water
pressure exceed the minimumin situ principal
\il
stress in the surrounding rock mass (Selmer-
Olsen, 7974). Large enough in situ stresses can
I
help in reducing the need for liners in pressure
tunnels and shafts, thus creating substantial
cost savings. {
Myrvang (1993) discussed the importance of
having sufficiently high rock stresses for the
storage of gas in unlined rock caverns in
Norwalr The minimum in situ principal stress
must be large enough" to prevent leakage
under minimum gas pressures of the order
of 8-10 MPp. Construction cost of storage
caverns can be reduced if confinement due to
large enough horizontal stresses can be found
at shallow depths. The importance of in situ
stresses in critical decision making for gas
storage was illustrated by Enever (1993)
.regarding a horizontal abandoned coal mine
in Australia which was considered for storage.
Horizontal fractures obtained during hy-
draulic fracturing tests in the rock above the
mine showed lower yertical stresses than
expected, indicating cracking of a large part of
the overburden rock, thus making the site
M.
unsuitable for gas storage. Tightness of a-rock
mass due to large enough in situ stresses is also
important for the storage of compressed air,
cryogenic liquids (LNG, LPG), oil, etc.
 i

B lntroduction

The effective utilization of oil and gas are trying to gain knowledge of the role piayed
resources on land and offshore and the by in situ stresses in the overall understanding
applications of diverging wellboring technol- of the mechanism of plate movement, collision
ogy have increased over the past 20 years. In and divergence, the dynamics of faulting
particulal, in order to determine the direction along plate boundaries and intraplate regions,
of a wellbore and reduce borehole deviations mountain building, basin formation, earth- .:V
and breakouts, a clear understanding of in situ quakes and other active geological processes
stresses is vital. Borehole stability, which is of (M. D. Zoback,1993). For that purpose, ultra-
major concern to petroleum engineers, is con- deep continental drilling programs have been
trolled by stress concentrations along borehole initiated in various parts of the world. For
walls. Overbreaks due to mobilization of the
rock strength may create large borehole
stability problems (Maury, 1987). Knowledge
of the in situ stress field is also important for
the fracturing of formations of oil and gas
fields to stimulate production (Teufei, 1986).
-..-Re.servoir
management also requires that
changes in the in situ stress field be known
during resen oir depletion. For instance, in
the Ekofisk field (which is the largest of nine
thalk reservoirs in the southern part of the
Norwegian sector of the North Sea), Teufel,
,v
Rhett and Farrell (1991) reported a27-24MPa
reduction in reservoir pore pressure and
changes in the total minimum horizontal
stress of about 80% of the changes in pore
pressure, as a follow-up of 20 years of petro-
leum production., As the pore pressure de-
creases, more of the overburden load has to be
carried out by the weak chalk matrix, which in
turn may cause reservoir compaction and sea-
floor subsidence. Such subsidence may require
t}Max. hor.
oil and gas platforms to be jacked up in order
r Borehole
to prevent breaking of sea waves. Figure 1.6 l,-
Fault
shows a plan view of the Ekofisk field, and the ;- ,t
Depth (ft)
role played by natural fractures and the dome
shape of the reservoir on the in situ stress
Fig. 1.6 Structure contour map for top of the Eko-
distribution. In this figure, the maximum hor- fisk formation in the North Sea showing the azi-
izontal stress is parallel to the long axis of the muth of the maximum horizontal stress determined
reservoir near the dome crest. It becomes per- from anelastic strain recovery measurements of ori-
pendicular to the dome structural contour and ented cores from nine wells'in the Ekofisk field. On
parallel to a radial fracture pattern on the the crest of the dome structure, located at a depth of
flanks of the structure (Teufel and Farrell, about 9500 ft (2.9 km), the maximum horizontal
stress is parallel to the long axis of the reservoir. It
1ee0).
becomes perpendicular to the dome structural con-
The new global geology and plate tectonics tour and parallel to a radial fracture pattern on the
form the fundamentals of modern Earth flafiks of the structure. (After Teufel and Farrell,
sciences. Here, geologists and geophysicists 1ee0.)

I
U

I instance, in situ stresses have been measured
/7 in the mid-crust at depths ranging between 0.8
/[ and 9.0 km at the KTB (German Continental
/l Deep Drilling Project) hole in Germany
ll (Baumgiirtner et al,, i993; Brudy et a\.,1995;Te
I I Kamp,
Rummel and Zoback,1995), and in the
ll vicinity of the San Andreas fault at depths
fltf ranging between 0.9 and 3.5 km at the
Cuion Pass drill site (Baumgdrtner et n1.,1993;
Zoback and Healy, 1992). Deep stress meas-
urements were also reported by Batchelor and
Pine (1986) and Pine and Kwakwa (1989) at
depths up to 2.6 km in the Carnmenellis gran-
ite in Cornwall, England. Other deep stress
lneasurements were conducted by Haimson
(1978) at depths ranging between 3 and 5 km
in the Michigan Basin.
Analysis of over 7300 data points collected
as part of the World Stress Map Project has
revealed some major stress patterns and siress
regimes in the Earth's crust (Zoback et nl,,
1989; M. L. Zoback, 1992). Multiple broad-
scale regional stress provinces with uniform
horizontal stress orientation have been identi-
fied. Also, there is clear evidence that the
directions of plate movement for several major
plates seem to coincide with the directions of
maximum horizontal stresses. Other findings
from the World Stress Map Project include
dominant compressive stress regimes (thrust
or combined thrust and strike-slip faulting)
in most mid-plate or intraplate continentai
regions, and continental extensional stress
regimes (normal or combined normal and
t strike-slip faulting) in topographically high
areas. 4s an example, Fig. 1.7 shows the
stress directions for Europe as compiled by
Mriller et al. (7992), Note the consistent NW-
SE horizontal stress orientation in Western
Europe.
In situ stresses are important to geologists in
order to understand various geological proces-
ses. Over the years, several theories of faulting,
folding, thrusting, tectonic fabrics, boudinage
and pinch-and-swell strucfures, inkusions, sub-
sidence and so on have been proposed. The
formation, emplacement and extent of such
Importance of rock stress 9
structures depend largely on the in situ stress
field that existed prior to their existence.
ln situ stresses are usuaily determined along
with rock mass properties such as deform-
ability, strength and perrneability. ln situ stress
measuring techniques can be seen as provid-
,
ing samples of the stress field over a certain (
volume of interest. Like many rock mass
properties, in situ stresses may vary from point
to point in a rock mass and may have different
values when measured over different
volumes. Such variations are inhinsic and
-should not always be seen as anomalies
or
errors rn the measurements themselves.
-Tiitu stresses are rarely uniform in a7o-ck
mass. Their distribution depends largely on
the rock mass structure (discontinuities, heter-
ogeneities, folds, faults, dikes, fabric, etc.) and
on the loads applied to the rock mass through-
out its entire geological history. For instance,
competent rock layers tend to carry largei
stresses than weak layers. A strong correlation
has also been observed between rock fabric
and stresses. The stress distribution in a rock
mass can be so complex that local stresses may
be quite different from the average stress.
ln situ stresses interact with other rock mass
properties. For instance, rock mass strength
increases with ii sifu. confinement. Stress fields
alter the permeability of rock masses since
compressive stresses tend to close natural
fractures whereas tensile stresses tend to open
them. The coupling existing between stress
and flow and pressure in fractures is particu-
larly important in understanding fluid flow
and contaminant transport in rock masses,
and in predicting the effectiveness of hy-
draulic injections which are common in the
exploitation of hydrocarbon formations and
geothermal energy systems and for liquid
waste disposal (Evans, 1966; Grant, Donald-
son and Bixley, 1982; Pine and Batchelor, 1984).
On the other hand, rock mass structures such
as joints or foliation planes affect the distribu-
tion of in situ stresses. In some recent papers,
Hudson (7997, 1992a) presented compilations
of rock engineering mechanisms showing the
 10 lntroductiotr

400

00 1oo 200 300

Fig. 1.7 Generalized stress map of Europe showing maximum horizontal compression directions in
regions of dominantly compressive stress regimes (inward directed arrows) and leasi horizontal stresses in l

regiols of extension (outward directed arrows). Thick arrows are shown for average stress directions
which are based on at least ten stress observations with uniform orientations, open irror^,,, are usecl for
means based on five to ten consistent orientations and thin arrows are for au"rug. direciions based on less
than five observations. (After Mriller et aI,,1992.)

importance of in situ stresses in the stability of mass properties. ln situ stress is an integral
underground excavations and rock slopes and part of the theory of rock engineering systems
how in sifu stresses interact with other rock (Hudson, 7992b;Jiao and Hudsory 1995).

U 1.3 HISTORY
\* The previous discussion shows clearly that
modern rock mechanics engineers, geologists
and geophysicists have to be well acquainted
t- with the basics of rock stresses and roik stress
measurements. The need to understand in situ
stresses in rocks has been recognized by
geologists, geophysicists and engineers for a
long time and many methods to measure those
stresses have been proposed since the early
1930s. The most common methods today
L- include hydraulic and relief methods. The
growing interest tn in situ stresses and stress
measurements has been reflected in the
number of meetings dealing with the subject,
The first international meeting devoted to iru
situ stresses was held in Santa Monica,
California, in 1963 and was organized byJudd.
This meeting took place at the time of the
\ establishment of the lnternational Society for
Rock Mechanics (ISRM) and the lnternational
lournal for Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences.
Overcoring and flat jack methods were the
most popular and reliable methods at that
time. Since then, overcoring methods have
been improved and are now used on a
. standard basis in both mining and civil
engineering.
The subject of in sifu stresses received quite
a large amount of attention at the first ISRM
congress held in Lisbon in7966 with a special
session on in sifz stresses (see Theme 4:
Residual stresses in rock masses). Various
methods were presented and a iot of discus-
sion was conducted on what in situ stresses
actually are and their classification. Many of
\*
the questions raised in Lisbon in 1966 were
\- further explored at another meeting in 1969
devoted exclusively to in situ stress ,r-td rpor-
\- sored by the ISRM and the Laboratorio Nacio-
nal de Engenharia Civil (LNEC)in Lisbon.
Hydraulic fracturing research activities fol-
lowed later in the mid-1960s. One of the first construction.
opportunities to test the method in the field
came with the Rangely oil field (Colorado) turing Stress Measurements (HFSM
experiment where water injection could be held in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1988
\_/
History 1l
correlated with low-level earthquakes in the
area, and the crustal stresses could be deter-
mined (Haimson, 1973). Soon after its intro-
duction, hydraulic fracturing was used to
measure rock stresses from tunnels and shafts
as well as holes drilled from the ground sur-
face for the design of underground structures
and to increase our understanding of rock
stresses in gas and oil fields. By the late l970s
the hydraulic fracturing method was also
used in geophysical and geological research,
for hot dry rock geothermal extractiory and
for the design of potential repositories for
storage of radioactive wastes. A state-of-the-
art review of the in situ stress methods avail-
able in the mid-1970s can be found in the
Proceedings of the ISRM Symposium on
Investigation of Stress in Rock and Advances
in Stress Measurement organized by the
Australian Geomechanics Society in Sydney
in1976.
Another meeting dedicated to rock stress
and rock stress measurements was the First
Workshop on Hydraulic Fracturing Stress
Measurement held in Monterey, California, in
1981 and organized by Zobackand Haimson.
This workshop brought together the experts in
the field of hydraulic fracturing. .Existing
equipment, test procedures and data inter-
pretation were discussed. Borehole breakouts
and pressurization of existing fractures for
rock stress determination (HTPF method)
were two new stress determination techniques
introduced at the workshop.
The next meeting dealing with in situ
stresses was held in Stockholm in 1986 and
organized by Stephansson. That symposium
was sponsored by the ISRM and its major
themes concerned the state of stress in the
Earth's crust, the methods for rock stress
measurements, the interpretation of rock
stresses, and the applications of stress
measurements in mining and underground
The Second Workshop on Hydraulic Frac-
'88) was
under
12 lntroductiotr

the auspices of the US National Science Foun- organized by NTH and SINTEF. This last
dation and the Gas Research lnstitute and was workshop was held in response to the needs
organized by Haimson. This workshop was for continuous development of the oil and gas
unique in that it
convened scientists and fields in the North Sea.
engineers specializing in both hard rocks and
permeable rocks found in oil and gas reser- I.4 CLASSIFICATION OF ROCK STRESSES
voirs. The major objective of the workshop
was to review the progress made in the last
Stresses in rockcan be divided into in situ
shesses and induced stresses. In situ stresses,
decade in the interpretation of the data
also called natural, primitive or virgin stresses,
obtained during hydraulic fracturing testing.
are the stresses that exist in the rock prior to
About 30 contributions were presented,
any disturbance. On the other hand, induced
including results from laboratory testing and
stresses are associated with artificial disturb-
field experience on granitic and sedimentary
ance (excavation, drilling, pumping, loading,
rocks.
etc.) or are induced by changes in natural
A workshop dealing with stresses in the
conditions (drying, swelling, consolidation,
Earth's crust was held at the 7th ISRM Con-
etc.).
gress in Aachen in1991, and was organized by
In general, the curent in situ stresses in a
Stephansson. The workshop was divided into
rock mass are the cumulative product of
three sessions: stress measurements in deep
events in its geological history. A rock mass
boreholes, stress measurements from under-
may have experienced several cycles of phys-
ground openings and new methods and
icochemical, thermal and mechanical geolog-
techniques.
ical processes which have all contributed to
Another workshop on rock stress measure-
the current in situ stress fieid, some more than
ment at great depth was held in conjunction
others.
with the recent 8th ISRM Congress in Tokyo in
Several authors have proposed different
L995. The workshop was organized by
classifications for in situ stresses and the
Matsuki and Sugawara. Eleven contributions
terminology currently used to describe those
were presented covering a wide variety of
stresses shows some diversity. Voighl (1966)
topics such as rock stress and rock stress tv
classified in situ (virgin) stresses into trrro
1

measurements in Japan and South Korea,

groups: gravitational and tectonic. The tec-
borehole breakouts and core disking, com- :

tonic stresses were themselves decomposed

pressive and tensile failure in boreholes, inte-
into current and residual components. Obert
gration of hydraulic data and focal plane
(1968) divided in situ stresses into external
solutions, and comparison of core base stresses composed of gravitational and tec-
methods of stress measurements with over-
tonic stresses, and internal stresses composed
coring methods.
of residual stresses. External stresses have also
ln situ stress has often been the subject of
been called regional stresses (Fairhurst, 1968).
technical sessions in recent US Rock Mech-
We present in Fig. 1.8 a terminology for rock
anics Symposia and other rock mechanics
stresseswhich is based on those proposed by
specialty conferences or workshops. In situ
Bielenstein and Barron (1971),'Hyett, Dyke
stresses were of particular interest at the 1990
and Hudson (1986) and more recently by Price
ISRM-sponsored meeting on Rock at Great
and Cosgrove (1990).'For instance, we have
Depth in Pau (France), Eurock '94 in Delft
retained the following definitions proposed by
(Holland) co-sponsored by the ISRM and the
Bielenstein and Barron (1977):
Society of Petroleum Engineers, and more
recently at the 1995 Workshop on Rock Stres- lnduced stresses are man made stress
ses in the North Sea in Trondheim (Norway) components due to removal or addition of
 Classification of rock stresses 13

material. They are superimposed on natural tectonic stresses (due

stresses which exist prior to excavation. The
natural stress field can be composed of
grauitational stresses (due to mass of over-
burden); tectonic stresses and residual stres-
ses (a much used and abused term, taken to
mean'stress components that remain in the
strucfure if external forces and moments are
removed'). Tectonic stresses may be actiae
to active present day
straining of the Earth's crust) or remnant
tectonic stresses (due to past tectonic events
which have only been partially relieved by
natural processes).
In Fig. 1.8, induced stresses have been
broadened to include artificially induced
stresses as well as those stresses induced by

Rock stresses

/n slfu (virgin) stresses lnduced stresses

(Mining, excavation, drilling, pumping,
injection, energy extraction, applied
loads, swelling, etc...)

Gravitational Flesidual Terrestrial

stresses stresses stresses
(Flat ground surface and . Diagenesis . Seasonal tp" variations
topography effect) . Metasomatism . Moon pull (tidalstresses)
. Metamorphism . Coriolis force
. Magma cooling . Diumalstresses
. Changes in pore
pressure

Active tectonic Remnant tectonic

slresses ,"" stresses

Same as residual but tectonic

,/\ activity is involved, such as
Broad scale Local folding, faulting, jointing
. Shear traction . Bending and boudinage
. Slab pull . lsostatic compensation
. Ridge push . Downbending of
. Trench suclion lithosphere
. Membrane stress . Volcanism and heat flow

Fig. 1.8 Proposed streis terminology.

1.4 Introductiotr

changes in natural conditions such as in our knowledge and understanding of in situ

swelling, consolidation and other physico- stresses in rock. A large body of data is now
chemicil phenomena. We have also added a available on the state of stress in the near
list of broad-scale and local plate tectonic phe- surface of the Earth's crust (the uPper 3-4km
nomena that could induce active tectonic of the crust). Various theories have been
stresses such as ridge push, slab pulI, trench proposed regarding the origin of in situ
suction, mantle drag, membrane stress, vol- it uit.tand innovative techniques have been
canism and heat flow and stress migration' developed for their measurement. As a
These phenomena are in accordance with .ons.qr.tce, a large body of literature is
what aie thought to be the driving mechan- available on the subject of. in situ stresses' In
isms of plate movement in the World Stress writing this book, we have made a special
Map Project (Zoback et a1.,1989). The remnant attempt to refer to as many relevant publi-
tecfonic stresses are defined here as residual cationi and authors as possible. In general,
stresses for which tectonic activity is involved the reader will find a comprehensive list of
through folding, faulting, jointing or boudi- references spread over a total of 12 chapters,
nage. Finally, in our classification, we have including the most recent contributions Pre-
included terrestrial stresses as a distinct group sented uith. 8th Congress of the International
among in situ stresses. They are induced by Society for Rock Mechanics in Tokyo in Sep-
diurnal and seasonal variations of tempera- tember 1995.
tures, Moon pull, and the Coriolis force. The This book is directed toward graduate
contribution of these stress components to in students, teachers and practitioners in civil,
sifu stress measurements is often neglected but *ir,it g and petroleum engineering, geoiogy
canbe important, in particular, for stress meas- and geophysics. It canbe used as a textbook in
urements at shallow to very shallow depths advanced graduate courses in rock mechanics
(Berest, Blum and Durup, 1992; Clark and and rock engheering, structural geology and
Newman, 1977; Hooker and Duvall, 1971'; geophysics. The book can also be used as a
Sbar, Richardson and Flaccus,1984; Scheideg- iefeience manual by practitioners who are
faced with the challenge of rock stress' Actuai
U
ger, 1982; Swoifs,'pe,rs. comm.; Swolfs and
Walsh, 1990; Voigh t, 1966). case sttidies.presented in this book should be
of great inierest to students, teachers and
pru.titio.t rs. The book has been written for
1.5 CONTENT OF THE BOOK io*.on. who is familiar with the basic
geology and rock
This book focuses on the problem of in situ concepts of. mechanics,
stresses in the Earth's crust, the methods for mechanics.
measuring and monitoring those stresses and The 12 chapters in this book are presented in
their importance in rock engineering, geology a logical order starting
with the methods for
foliowed by th9
and geophysics. The emphasis is mostly on the estimating in situ sttesses,
monitoring rock
current in situ state of stress and to a lesser techniquei for measuring and
extent on the monitoring of stress change. The stressei, and finally
the importance of rock
subject of paleostresses, i,e. in sifu stresses stresses in engineering,
geology and geo-
of comparison of
previously active in rock and no longer in physics. Several case studies
existence, is only briefly discussed in Chapter stress measurements
are also presented,
2 (section 2.14) asit could be, in itself, the topic ranging in scale
from local measurements to
Throughout this book,
of a separate book. The reader interested in the tne Woild Stress Map.
geology when esti-
topic of paleostresses may want to consult the we emphasize the role of
recent book by Engelder (1993). mating and analyzing the results of stress i
The last 30 years have seen a major advance *uur*.*unts. We also
emphasize that the

I
I

t\,
]L

disciplines of engineering, geology and geo-
physics share many complementary similar-
ities when it comes to understanding the state
of stress in the Earth's crust.
Chapter 2 presents various methods to esti-
mate the in situ stress field. This can be done,
for instance, from stress versus depth relation-
ships or observations obtained from stress
measurements made in the past in the region
of interest, or by extrapolation from regions
with similar geological and tectonic settings.
Information can also be derived from the
topography, the geology, the rock fabric, the
rock loading history, the first motion analysis
of earthquakes, the occurrence of stress release
phenomena, breakouts in boreholes, tunnels
and shafts, and the presence of stratification,
heterogeneities or geological structures, Esti-
mating in situ stresses should be the first step
when determining the state of stress in situ as
it is useful in the early stage of engineering
design, for planning process and when select-
ing stress measuring methods and the location
of those measurements.
Chapter 3 gives an overview of the various
techniques available for measuring in situ
stresses in rock. The advantages and dis-
advantages and the range of application of
'outfined,
each technique are This chapter
'of
also addresses the accuracy in situ stress
measurements, the sources of uncertainty in
stress determination, and the range of rock
volumes involved in stress measurements.
This chapter gives the reader a quick tour
of the techniques available for measuring
in situ stresses and an appreciation of the
margins of error associated with stress
measurements.
The various methods of in situ stress
measurements are covered in Chapters 4_8.
Chapter 4 focuses on hydraulic methods such
as the hydraulic fracturing method, the sleeve
{
fracturing method and the hydraulic tests on
t-lt
*i pre-existing fractures (HTPF) method. Chap-
ter 5 focuses on a large body of methods called
relief methods. These methods are divided
into three groups: surface, borehole and rock
Content of the book 15
mass relief methods. Chapter 6 deals mostly
with the flat jack method. Chapters 7 and 8 are
concerned respectively with strain recovery
core base methods and the borehole breakout
methods, two groups of techniques that have
been used for the measurement of stresses at
large depths. After abrief history, each method
is described with regard to techniques, equip-
ment and procedures. Theories for the analysis
of test results are presented. When appro-
priate, data presentation and analysis are
discussed.
Several case studies of stress measurements
are presented in Chapter 9. The objective of
this chapter is to show how different tech-
niques in the same rock environment may or
may not yield different stress measurements
and how some techniques may be comple-
mentary to each other. It is shown that for
medium to good rock conditions, various
techniques are able to give comparable stress
pictures of a rock mass (within the uncertainty
expected in stress measurements). In poor
(weak, weathered and fractured) rock condi-
tions, however, the agreement is usually not as
good.
Chapter 10 deals with the monitoring of
stress'change in civil and mining engineering.
In this chapter various techniques are pre-
sented. Their respective advantages and
disadvantages are discussed and several
examples of stress monitoring are presented.
Stress monltoring is important when assessing
the performance of engineering structures and
the rock response to loading and unloading
with time. Over the past 15 years, stress moni-
toring has also received considerable interest
with regard to the storage of nuclear wastes in
rock.
Chapter 11 presents first the 'big picture,of
the state of stress in the Earth's crust with a
summary of the recent findings of the Worid
Stress Map Project. The effect of scale on in situ
stresses and in siful stress measurements is also
addressed, and in particular the relationship
between local stress measurements and the
global stress field.
 j
16 Introduction
^reserrts several long as we accept that the principal
stresses
Finally, Chapter - !i.*i"g
12 the role can deviate from the verticil and
horizontal
examples of application",Liril and mining directions by as much as 30o. The
magnitude
played by in situ stresset .")"u"Iopment and of the vertical stress can be explained
* in most
!u_r9r by the overburden weight only
rock engineering, enet%Y, nit is shown how
rr"-
geology and geophysks. ul part in design (although localized departures f;,r* this
in situ stresses are an ,fl.t'1nd how they can assumption are common). This is not
true for
and stability assessmefl!, of vari- horizontal stresses where the
^*inrmation uniform
help in understand^g tfl.'.)rr. Kg=v/(1-v) assumption is rarely lound in
ous basic geological s&uctrtt'"' situ. Many phenomena other than tectonics
couid result in high and unequal horizontal
stresses, in particular near the ground
7,6 GENERAL OBSERVATIONS t I surface.
_^ngd in
tntS DOOK/ Such phenomena include resfrual
and ther_
From the information Pte," ^onbe made with mal stresses, erosion, laterai straining, aniso_
several general observati@ ii.- part of tropy, glaciation and deglacia ti
on, topJgraphy,
regard to in situ stresses. "ppu
!_pasurements. curvature of the Earth and other ,.tiuu
g.o_
the Earth's crust and the'r "'- ,usured directly logical features and processes. This
is not to
In situ stresses cannot o'r,)'rupting the rock. say that tectonic stresses do not
exist, but
but can be measuredby "l),,ird wirhin the simply that their contribution to the measured
Today, stresses can be frfi"" rlrutt. At greater I stress.fields may not be as large as previously
upper 3-4 km of the Edflt',", specialized tech- thought.
The World Stress Map project provides
ffiJl: It:x,: n',Sl'rr :;mx.'*:l today the most comprehensive'survey
sifu stresses at depths below.' the future, new slla stress data in the upper lithospheiic
of in
part
and / or of the Earth's crust. The it..r,
measurements
Hffi#;Tit"#Il ::;^*ed TI carried out in various parts of the world
have
existing ones greatl y irlPt::r":i in situ stresses been found to be consistent with plate
move_
An accurate measurelrt""^o und in good to ment and within the framework of phte
tec_
is an overstatement. At Dl'!^,t rre the rock is tonics. The World Stress" Map project
shows
very good rock conditiont nnmogeneous and clearly the existence of broid_r.ri. tectonic
essentially linearly elastltl,^,eil-defined geo- stress provinces and various first_ and
second_
continuous, and beflveel),,, stresses can be order stress patterns in the upper and middle
logical boundaries, in t'li *10-20"/" for their part of the Earth's crust.
u'r'+10-20"
determined with an error for their only comprehensive study on the effect
.The
magnitude and an errct ::n|:in poor quality of scale onin situstresses was conducted
at the
orientation. On the old;'lt t^ff, u,1ti heavily frac- Undergroilnd Research Laboratory
site in
rocks (weathered, weak,*')i, sifz stresses is Canada and involved rock volumes
ranging
tured), the measurernentot r*rc ,t. sucffis beh.veen 0.1m3 and iOsm3. This study
shows
extremely difficult. In sutj^ ;. usually low. that for a similar rock condition and
*iti,ir, u
rate of stress measurefll€Y-, u"a rock mass well-defined geologicai domain,
different
Knowledge of site g,Ylirt.critical when stress measurement techniques give
(on
structure at all scales is ex,,"'- when planning average) comparable stress uulr'r., ,.iithin
th.
estimating in situ stress'"'^ s, and in the uncertainty expected in stress measurements.
stress measurement probr"|,' ,ment results. The non-uniformity of in situ stresses
in rock
interpretation of shess rneab"ii.n.. of topog- masses at various scales creates, in
itself, a
In most cases, and in ln'.iTitirul and hori- natural local scale effect which is independent
raphy, the assumption that *.*.r is good as of the method of stress measurement
,nJl,
zontal stresses are pttflclPdt ""-
 References l7
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t ^.1o,,:.1uT,
ineasurements such as the Young's modulus, Ut:11'*.]1, H.U' and Barron, K. (L971) In-situ stres-
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\- must be taken into account is it h,, p"t;;i;i Effil;I}'il:i ilff":?:T:;t;::B[TTi
for influencing the interpretation of various r".rg|, Mines and Resources, Mines Branch,
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tJ..y!: ayd Performance of undergtound
assuming that sufficient reliable tests are con- ?i?'siry
iurprisingry simlar results
,c.uctgd, .;.;; {"i?![i'Ti;rli}i:'fl?:r,British
Geotechnical

obtained (again within the uncertainty B.;y;;hi. andBrown,E.T. (1985) RockMechnnics

expected in stress measurqments) despite dif-
foillnrlerground Mining,Allen & Unwin, London.
^
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Ripley, iln. lrooay Design of pres-
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sure tunnels and shafts, in Comprehinsiae-Rock
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t1g-inee.ry| (ed,,l.A. Hudson), Pergamon Press,
open to question \ 8,3;f,";f i;:^33lxifillxl;iffi,
pressure
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 }!

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Engineering (ed. i.A. Hudson), Pergamon press,
Oxford, Chapter 17, Yol. 3, pp. 445-59.
Stephansson, O., Siirkkii, P, and Myrvang, A, (1986)
State of stress in Fennoscandi a, inProc. lnt. Symp.
on
Rock Stress and Rock Stress Measurementq
Stockholm, Centek Publ., Lule6, pp.2112.
Swolfs, H.S. and Walsh,l,B. (1990) The theory and
prototype development of a stress-monitoring
system. Seism. Soc. Am. Bull., 80, 197)08.
Te Kamp, L., Rummel, F. and Zoback, M.D. (1995)
Hydrofrac stress profile to 9 km at the German
KTB site, tn Proc. Workshop on Rock Stresses in the
NorthSen, Trondheim, Norway, NTH and SINTEF
Publ., Trondheim, pp. 147-53.
distribution at depth in the Piceance Basin,
Colorado: implications to
stimulation and
production of low permeability gas reservoirs, in
Proc. 27th US Symp. Rock Mech., Tuscaloosa,
SME/AIML,pp.ioz-L.
,
and Natural Fracture Distribution in the Ekofisk
Field, North Sea. Sandia National Labs. Report
No. SAND-90-1058C.
Teufel, L.W., Rhett, D.W. and Farrell, H.E. (1991)
Effect of reservoir depletion and pore pressure
drawdown on in-situ stress and deformation in
the Ekofisk Field, North Sea, in Proc. 32nd US
Synry, Rock Mech., Norman, Balkema, Rotterdam,
pp.63-72. ..
Timoshenko, S.P. (1983) History of Strength of
Mat er ials, Dover Publications.
Voight, B. (1966) Interpretation of in-situ stress
measurements, in Proc. lst Cong. Int. Soc. Rock
Mech, (ISRM), Lisbon, Lab. Nac. de Eng. Civil,
Lisbon, Vol. III, pp. 33248.
Wong, I.G. (1993) The role of geological disconti-
nuities and tectonic stresses in mine seismicity, in
Comprehensiae Rock Engineering (ed. l.A. Hudson),
Pergamon Press, Oxford, Chapter 15, Vol. 5, pp.
393-410.
Zoback, M.D. (1993) In situ stress measurements
and geologic processes, in Lecture Notes, Sftorf
Course on Modern ln Situ Stress Mensurement
Methods, University of Wisconsin, Madison.
Zoback, M.D. and Healy, I.H, (1992) In-situ stress
measurements to 3.5 km depth in the Cajon Pass
scientific research borehole: implications for the
mechanics of crustal faulting. l. Geophys. Res.,97,
5039-57.
Zoback, M.L. (1992) First- and second-order
a
20 lntroduction
patterns of stress in the lithosphere: The World
Stress Map project. l. Geophys. Res,,97,11709-29.
.l Zoback,M.L. et al. (1989) Global patterns of tectonic
:i stress. N ature, 341., 291.-8.
Conferences and Workshops 0n In Situ
Stresses
International Conference on State of Stress in the
Earth's Crust, Santa Monica, California, ]une
13-14, 1963. Proceedings published by American
, . . .!
Elsevier Publishing Company, New york, 1964.
Intemational Symposium on the Determination of
Stresses in Rock Masses, Lisbon, portugal, May
19-27,1969. Proceedings published by Lab. Nac.
de Eng. Civil (LNEC), Lisbon,1971.
ISRM Symposium on Investigation of Shess in
Rock: Advances in Stress Measurement, Sydney,
l\r Australia, August 11-13, 197 6. Proceedings pub-
ii) lished by The Institution of Engineers, Austialia,
' 'iL
lst 1976.
\1- -' Workshop on Hydraulic Fracturing Stress Measure-
,. :.1:.i
:} ments, Monterey, California, December 2-5 ,lgg!,
l) US National Commission on Rock Mechanics,
... r() Washington, DC. Proceedings published by
'1
National Academy Press, 1983.
International Symposium on Rock Stress and Rock
'l Stress Measurements, Stockholm, Swedery Sep-
. t,) tember 1-3, 1986. Proceedings published 6y
Centek Publishers, Luled, Sweden, 1986.
Second lnternational Workshop on Hydraulic
: ,:.
Fracturing Stress Measurements (HFSM,gg),
. ,i
Minneapolis, Minnesota, ]une 15-18, 1988. pro-
,' ,..'i
ceedings published by Pergamon press in fuf.
i,r:l /.
::i: Rock Mech. Min. Sci. E Geonrech, Abstr,, 26(6),
. .; ,:_ri t 1989.
,]..i::
Specialty Conference on Stresses in Underground
i l'{ Structures, October 2-3, 1990, Ottawa, Canada.
Proceedings available through Canada Center for
,: Mineral and Energy Technology (CANMET),
j';'+ Ottawa, Canada,1990.
Workshop on Stresses in the Earth,s Crust, Aachen,
GgTlly, 1991. Published in Vol. 3 of proceedings
of 7th ISRM Congress, Balkema, Rotterdam, 1993.
Workshop: Seminaire Formation: Mesure des
Sollicitations et des Contraintes dans les
Ouvrages et dans les Terrains (in French). Ecole
des Mines, Nancy, France, September 12-1.6,
1994.
Workshop on Rock Stresses in the North Sea,
Trondheim, Norway, February 13-1.4, 1995. pro-
ceedings published by NTH and SINTEF publ.,
Trondheim, Norway, 1995.
Workshop on Rock Stress Measurements at Great
Depth, Tokyo, Japan, September 30,
t,
Published in Vol. 3 of Proceedings of 8th LSRM
Congress, Balkema, Rotterdam, in press.
Major Sessions in Conferences
Session on Residual Stresses in Rock Masses
(Theme 4) at 1st ISRM Congress, Lisbon, 1966.
See Vol. III of Proceedings of the Congress.
Session on Rock Pressure Measurements and
lnterpretation of the Results at the Int. Symp. on
Underground Openings, Luzern, tgTZ. In
proceedings published by the Swiss Society for
Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering.
Session on Basic Considerations for Field
Instrumentation at the Int. Sy*p. on Field
Measurements in Rock Mechanics, Zurich,1977.
In proceedings published by Balkema,
Rotterdam.
Session on ln-Situ Stateof Stress at the 20th US
Sym!. Rock. Mech., Austin, 1979. Inproceedings
published by Center for Earth Sciences aiia fn[.,
Austin.
Session on Stress Measurements at the 13th
Canadian Rock Mechanics Symp., Toronto, 1980.
'.J
In proceedings published by the Canadian Inst!
tute of Mining and Metallurgy, CIM Volume 22.
Session on Stresses at the 23rd US Symp. Rock
Mech., Berkeley, 1982. In proceedings published
by SME/AIME, Colorado.
Session on Fundamentals of Field Instrumentation
at the 1st krt. Symp. on Field Measurements in
Geomechanics, Zurich, Switzerland, 1983. In Vol.
1 of the proceedings published by Balkema,
Rotterdam.
Session on In-Situ Stress at the 25th US Symp. Rock
Mech., Evanston, 1984. In proceedings published
by SME/AIME, Colorado
Sessions on Hydraulic Fracture and New Stress
Measurement Methods at 26th US Symp, Rock
Mech., Rapid City, 1985. In proceedings pub-
lished by Balkema, Rotterdam.
Session on Hydrofracture and Borehole Stability at
28th US Sy*p. Rock Mech., Tucson, 1987. In
proceedings published by Balkema, Rotterdam.
Session on Fundamentals at the 2nd Int. Symp. on
Field Measurements in Geomechanics, Kobe,
]apan, 1987.1n Vol. 1 of the proceedings pub-
lished by Balkema, Rotterdam.
Session on Estimating Regional Stress Fields at Int. L
Sy*p. on Rock at Great Depth, Pau, France, 1989.
In Vol. 2 of the proceedings published by
Balkema, Rotterdam.
Sessions on Assessment of Stress and Hydro-
1gg1. fracturing at the 30th US Sy.p. Rock Mech.,
 I

References 21

Morgantown, West Virginia, 1990. In proceedings Rock Mech., Madison, Wisconsin, 1999. In
published by Balkema, Rotterdam. proceedings published by Pergamon Press in /r/.
Session on ln-Situ Stresses at 32nd US Symp. Rock Mech. Min. Sci. €t Geomech. Abstr,,30(T).
l. Rock
Mech., Norman, Oklahoma, 199i. In proceedings Session on In-Situ Stresses at 1st North American
published by Balkema, Rotterdam. Rock Mechanics Symposium, Austin, Texas, 1994.
Origin of Stresses in the Lithosphere at
Session on In proceedings published by Balkema,
33rd US Sy*p. Rock Mech., Santa Fe, New Rotterdam.
Mexico, 1992. In proceedings published by Session on In-Situ Measurement at Eurock '94:Int.
Balkema, Rotterdam. Sy*p. on Rock Mechanics in
Petroleum
Sessions on In-Situ Siress Measurements and Bore- Engineering, Delft, The Netherlands, 1994. In
hole Instability and Breakouts at 34th US Symp. proceedings published by Balkema, Rotterdam.

-l

\_.r

I
I

I
 ESTIMATING IAT SITU STRESSES
2.I INTRODUCTION
\-
Before measuring virgin stresseswith some of
the methods discussed in the following chap-
ters, an attempt should be made to obtain an
estimate of the in situ stress field. This can be
done, for instance, from stress versus depth
relationships or observations obtained from
\-i ,
stress measurements made in the past in the
. region of interest or by extrapolation from
(
,
regions with similar geological and tectonic
settings. Information can also be derived from
the topography, the geology, the rock fabric,
\-_ the rock loading history, the first motion
analysis of earthquakes, the occurrence of
i,-:
stress release phenomena (squeezing, pop-
ups, buckling, etc.), breakouts in boreholes,
i
j
tunnels and shafts, rock bursts, and the pres-
ence of stratificatiory heterogeneities or geo-
logical struetures (faults, folds, shear zones,
t-l
tt
uncomformities,' volcanic vents and dikes).
t Estimating in situ stresses can be useful in the
early stage of engineering design, for the plan-
L. ning process and when selecting stress meas-
uring methods and the location of those
measurements.
An exact prediction of. in situ stresses in rock
and their spatial variation is very difficult and
for all practical purpose impossible, since, as
discussed in the previous chapter and as
shown in Fig. 1.8, the current stress state is the
end product of a series of past geological
{ events and is the superposition of stress com-
ponents of several diveise types. Further, since
rock masses are rarely homogeneous and con-
tinuous, stresses can be expected to vary from
place to place in a rock mass. In slfu stresses
not only vary in space but also with time due
i
L
2
to tectonic events, erosion, glaciation, etc. The
problem is further complicated in that the
present rock fabric may or may not be corre-
lated at all with the current in situ stress field
(Terzaghi, L962), Further, assumptions can
only be made about the load history and the
rock's constitutive model. This limitation can
best be summarized as follows: 'In any case, it
seems clear that it is impossible to know all the
events in sufficient detail to ascertain the in
slfu stress state from a knowledge of geology'
(Voight,1971).
To date, no rigorous methods are available
to predict in situ stresses exactly. Virgin stres-
ses can be estimated to the best of our knowl-
edge or determined using various techniques
discussed in this book. It is noteworthy that
the process of estimating in situ stresses
should not be considered as a substitute for
their measurement.
In general, estimating in situ stresses
requires a detailed characterization of the site
geology and considerable judgement. Models
(physical or numerical) can be developed to
explore the effect of parameters such as the
constitutive model of the rock, its loading
history, critical geological structures, the
topography and the boundary conditions on
in situ stresses. In this chapter we explore
different natural processes that can generate in
slfu stresses in rocks and give a review of
various models that havebeenproposed in the
literature to predict those stresses.
It is common practice to make two basic
assumptions when estimating the state of
stress at any depth, z, in a rock mass. The first
assumption is that the state of stress can be
described by two components: a vertical
 9,.

24 Estimating in situ stresses

component,6,, dLLe to the weight of the over-
lying rock at that depth and equal to 7z (where
y: p&is the average unit weight of the rock in
N/m'), and a uniform horizontal component,
oh= oH equal to K times ou. The second
assumption is that both ou and o6 are principal
stresses. In general, ou and o.5 dr€ taken as total
stresses*.
Different expressions have been proposed in
the literature for the coefficient K. Talobre
(1967) suggested that K could be taken (as a
working hypothesis) equal to unity, a proposal
that has come to be known in the literature as
Heim's rule (based on the work published by
the Swiss geologist Heim in 1878). A state of
the rock mass, vary with depth and have
different values in different horizontal direc-
tions at a given depth. For instance, Terzaghi
(1962) suggested that for columnar basalts
with vertical open joints, K should be equal to
zero since the rock mass is free to deform
laterally. He also suggested that in a granitic
intrusion, K is initially equal to unity until
most of the substance is solidified, after which
K is less than unity and larger than K6. In a
basin, one can expect K to vary during the
process of sedimentation, diagenesis and
erosion (Voight, 7966a).
In general, the assumptions that K = 1 or
K= Ka and that K is uniform in the horizontal j

stress where all three principal stress comPo- plane, have been found inadequate to describe \/
nents are equal to yz is often referred to as properly in situ stress fields in rock when
compared with actual field measurements
I

lithostatic in the literature.

Another expression that is often used in the
literature for the coefficient K is Ko v l(1 - v) :
where v is the rock's Poisson's ratio. This
expression was derived assuming (1) that the
(Hast, 1958). An exception to this observation
is for salt domes for which stresses have been
found to be essentially hydrostatic to within .v
2MPa (Eriksson and Michalski, 1986). For
other rocks, measured horizontal stresses have
I

rock mass is an ideal, homogeneous, linearly

isotropic continuous half-space with horizon- been found to differ substantially from those 5

tal surface, (2) that the rock mass is under predicted by the aforementioned assumptions.
gravity alone with vanishing horizontal dis- Indeed, measured horizontal stress levels at
placements, and (3) that the loading history the surface of the Earth have been found to
has no influence ort how in situ stresses build have an average maximum value of about
up. It also implies that horizontal and vertical' 10 MPa (Swolfs, 1984). According to Aytmatov \-,
stresses vanish at the Earth's surface. The (19'36), stress measurements conducted in dif-
'(-
coefficient K6 is often called in the geotechnical ferent parts of the world show that for 65-70%
iiterature the coeficient of Enrth pressure at rest. of the cases, the horizontal stresses exceed the
Terzaghi and Richart (1952) suggested that vertical stress. Non-uniform horizontal
the K6 condition may be approximately satis- stresses have been found in most parts of the
fied 'for strata of sedimentary rocks in geo- world. Li (1986) reported that in China 70% of
logicalty undisturbed regions, provided these the stress measurements show a ratio between
strata have never carried a heavy temporary maximum horizontal stress and minimum
load'. They also emphasized that many condi- horizontal stress ranging between 1.4 and
tions in nature do not correspond to the K6 3.3.
condition and suggested that K may depend The differences between predicted and
on the rock fabric and the geological history of measured stresses were first attributed to
tectonic stresses. The effect of other equally
*
Throughout this book, ou or Su denotes the vertical shess;
important phenomena has been inferred,
oH, os*u, or S6ou* denotes the maximum horizontal
SH, such as residual and thermal stresses, erosion,
i
stress; and oh, Sh, o.666 or Sn i,, denotes the minimum lateral straining, anisotropy, glaciation and
horizontal stress. The major, intermediate and minor ln
slfu principal skesses are denoted ds o1, o2 and o3,
deglaciation, topography, curvature of the
respectively. Earth and other active geological features and

!
i
I
l
 Vnriatiott o/in situ stresses uith depth 25

processes (Engelder, 7993; Engelder and Sbar,
1984; Fairhurst, 1986; Jaeger and Cook,7976;
McQarr, 1988;,McGarr and Gay, 197 8; Sheorey,
199a)-everdl of these different phenomena
are discussed in this chapter. The reader
should be aware that no agreement has yet
been reached with certainty on this matter and
that there is still room for discussion.
parts of the world. As an illustrative example,
Figs 2.ia and 2.1b show, respectively, the
variations of the vertical stress and the ratio
beh,rreen the mean horizontal stress and the
vertical stress witi depth for different regions
of the world, as proposed by Brown and Hoek
(1e78).

I a
a

2.2 VARIATION OF IN S/ru STRESSES

q
500 v \-r
WITH DEPTH a
ov=0.027 z
a
-o^at
va f \I^a
a \rt
1 000
Several authors have propoied expressions for E ! rrl oo'
the variation of the magnitude of the vertical q)
o
lo
(!
and horizontal in silrr stresses with depth at E 1 500
o
specific sites or for different regions of the 3
world. Most data are for depths of less than _9
o 2000
-o . AUSIRALIA
3000 m. Examples of stress profiles and stress c, V UNITED STATES
o- I
variations w-ith depth can be found in Hast o
o CANADA
^O SCANDINAVIA
2500 I
(1958, 1967, 1969, 1973, 1974). Voight (1966a), I SOUTHERN AFRICA
O OTHER REGIONS
Bulin (1971), Kropotkin (1972), Herget (7974,
1980, 1986, 1987,1993), Oru (7975), Jaeger and 3000
10 20 30 40 50 60
Cook (1976), Worotnicki and Denham (1976), (a) Vertical stress ou(MPa)
Van Heerden (1976), Lindner and Halpern
\1977), Haimson and Voight \1977), McGarr
and G6y (7978), Brown and Hoek (1978),
Blackwood (1979),Zaback and Zoback (1980), l--l-f'ol
i -r .t^l
t. l. I I
..' o--^t'roJr
!n I a..F an
a I]
Lee (1981), Haimson (1977,1980, 1981), Haim- V

.^ ao
,''tY].FL aY-
,,'',Yr'.F'^.,1 ^o .O-^i it;

son and Lee (1980), Doe ef al. (7981), Swolfs I 1 ' ".J O
iii

(1984), Stephansson, Siirkkii and Myrvang ' . .-t^ :o.tor _gc."' il

E orol )v o .' iit

(1986), Aytmatov (7986), Batchelor and Pine o .j a o or' jir
o 1 000
at-
o aa a ar'
(1986), Li (1986), Rummel, Hohring-Ermann G 'ara

and Baumgiirtner (1986), Cooling, Hudson

t
o
! ' :?'\'K3 1500
500 I f'
and Tunbridge (1988), Pine and Kwakwa 3
o
1
.tz at I
0) taa -qQ.g
(1989), Arjang (1989), Herget and Arjang -o
!
(1990), Adams and Bell (1997), Zoback and o-
0)
2000
Healy (1992), Baumgdrtner et al. (1993), Ste- o
phansson (1993), Burlet and Cornet (1993), K=
100
z
Haimson, Lee and Herrick (7993), Sugawara
vl
I -16.3 \
and Obara (7993),Martin and Simmons (1993),
Engelder (7993), Te Kamp, Rummel and 0 0.5 1.0 't.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5
Zoback (1995) and Lim and Lee (1995),among (b) K= o1a/6v
many others. Rummel (1986) presented an
Fig. 2.1. (a) Plot of vertical stress against depth, z,
extensive literature review of stress variations
below surface, (b) variation of average horizontal to
with depth from deep hydraulic fracturing vertical stress ratio with depth, z, below surface.
stress measurements conducted in various (Adapted from Brown and Hoek, 1978,)
 r-

26 Esfimating in situ stresses

Tables 2.1 and 2.2 give several stress magni-
tude versus depth relationships reported in
the literature for various regions of the world'
The stress variations with depth are given for
the vertical stress, ou, the maximum and mini-
mum horizontal stresses, os and o6, the mean
horizontal stress on,=(os +oh)/z, and/or
the horizontal to vertical stress ratios
:
KH = ou /ou, Kt',: ot /o, and Ksu oHa/o''
A11 stressesare total stresses. In some recent
papers, the variation of in situ stresses with
h.ptt has also been presented in terms of

Thble 2.1 Variation of horizontal stress components with depth

Variation of os, oy, os^(MPa) andK Location and depth

wifidepthz(m) range (m)
References

osu:8'0+0'0432 World data (0-1000)

Voight (1966a)
Herget (1974) osn = (8.3 * 0.5) + (0.0407 t 0.0023)z World data (0-800)
KHu = 0.448 + 24812 (r = 0.85) Southern Africa (0-2500)
Van Heerden(1976)
Worotnicki and Denham (1976) osu=7.7 + (0.021 + 0.002)z (r : 0'85) Australia (0-1500)
os:
4.6 + 0.0252 Michigan Basin (0-5000)
Haimson (i977)
r,6= 7.4 + 0.0182 (r = 0.95)
Lindner and Halpern (1977) t
os^: (4.36 0.815)+ (0.039 !0.0072)z NorthAmerica (0-1500)
Ks" varies between 0.3 + 100/z and World data (0-3000)
Brown and Hoek (7978)
0.5 + 1500/z
(os * o6) between 9-5 + 0'0752 World data (mostlY
Aytmatov (1986) .x
and 5.0 + 0.0582 former USSR) (0-1000)
o11u:0'72 + 0.041'z; Ksu between China (0-500)
Li (1e86)
0.3 +100/z and 0.5 + 440/z
Ku = 0.98 + 250 / z;Kn = 0.65 +150 / z World data (500-3000)
Rumrnel (1986)
osa=9'86 + 0'03772 Canadian Shield (0-900)
Herget (1987)
osu=33'41' + 0'01112 (e00-2200)
Ksu= 1'25 + 267 /z (0-2200)
K:g= 7.46 + 357 /z
Kn = 1.1'0 +16712
os:75 + 0'0282 Cammenellis granite
Pine and Kwakwa (1989)
on:6 + 0'0122 Comwall, UK (0-2000)
on:8.8+0.04222 Canadian Shield
Arjang (1989)
on= 3'64 + 0'02762 (o-2ooo)
osu=591+ 0'0M92
(7993) os= 30.4 + 0.0232; or. = 16.0 + 0'011-z KTB pilot hole (800-3000)
Baumgiirtner et al.
o1:1'75 + 0'01332 Cajon Pass hole (80G-3000)
osu=25 0'0132
+ japanese Islands (0-1200)
Sugawara and Obara (1993)
os:9.1 + 0,07242 (r = 0.78) Fennoscandia overcoring (0-1000)
Hast (in Stephansson, 1993)
o'1= 5'3 + 0.05422 (r = 0.83)
Fennoscandia
Stephansson (1993)
os= 10.4 + 0,04462 (r = 0.61) Leeman-Hiltscher
o'n = 5 + 0.02862 (r = 0.58) overcoring (0-700)
os= 6.7 + 0.04442 (r = 0'61) Leeman-tYPe .-
(

or = 0.8 + 0.fr3292 (r = 0'91) overcoring (0-1000)

os= 2.8 + 0.03992 (r = 0.79) Hydraulic fracturing .l
06:2.2+ 0.02402 (r = 0.81) (0-1000)
oH:15.83+0.03022 KTB hole (0-9000)
Te Kamp, Rummel and I

Zoback (1995) on: 6.52 + 0.015722

Lim and Lee (1995) osu: 1.858 + 0.0182 (r = 0.869) South Korea overcoring (0-850)
osu : 2.657 + 0.0322 (r = 0'606) Hydraulic fracturing (0-250)
 Variation o/in situ stresses uith rlepth 27
Table 2.2 Variation of vertical stress component with depth

Variation of aerticnl stress Location and depth

Ret'erences o, (MPa) with depthz(m) range (m)

Herget (1974) (1.9 !1..26) + (0.0266 + 0.0028)z World data (0-2400)

Lindner and Halpem (1977) (0.942! 1.31) + (0.0339 + 0.0067)z NorthAmerica (0-1500)
Brown and Hoek (1978) 0.0272 World data (0-3000)
McGarr and Gay (1978) 0.02652 World data (10G-3000)
Herget (1987) 0.02624.03242 Canadian Shield (0-2200)
Arjang (1989) (0.0266 + 0.008)z Canadian Shield (0-2000)
Baumgiirtner et al. (1993) (0.02754.0284)z KTB pilot hole (800-3000)
Herget (1993) 0.02852 Canadian Shield (0-2300)
Sugawara and Obara (1993) 0.0272 ]apanese islands (0-1200)
Te Kamp, Rummel and Zoback (1995) (0.02754.0284)z KTB hole (0-9000)
Lim and Lee (1995) 0.233 + 0.0242 South Korea (0-850)

principal stresses, in particuiar when the
stresses are determined by techniques other
than hydraulic fracturing or when the
principal in situ stress components are not in
the vertical or horizontal directions. Table 2.3
gives, for instance, the major, intermediate and
minor in situ stress magnitude versus depth
relationships for the Canadian Shield (Herget,
1993) and Sweden (Stephansson, 1993). In
, Tables 2.7-2.3, r indicates the accuracy of the
f fit. tt snould be noted that it is common prac-
fl nce' "us,r*.-thrt s-
ll ses-with Jepth, to uach stress
cdffiFonent increasss liriGrlilwith th;ISn,
[\
Y z, and that
the horizontal to vertical stress
ratios depend onl/2.
The unit weight y = pg of rocks varies, in
i
general, between 0.025 and 0.033 MN/m3.
Thus the gravitational vertical stress 7z should
increase linearly with depth with a gradient
ranging between 0.025 and 0.033MPa/m. An
average value for the rock unit weight of
0.027MN/m3 (quartzhas a specific graiity of
2,65) is often assumed, giving an average ver-
tical stress gradient of 0.027MPalm. Taking a
value for the Poisson's ratio y:0.25 gives
: :
Ks v / (7 - y) 1/3. In other words, if the K6
condition were true, the horizontal stress
should increase with a gradient of 0.009 MPa/
m. Note that Ke can only vary behveen 0 and 1
as the Poisson's ratio t, varies between 0 and
0.5.
Comparison of the vertical stress gradient of
0.027MPa/m with those reported nTable2.2
and in the literature shows that, in most cases,
the magnitude of the vertical stress can be
explained by the overburden weight ortry.
Localized departures from this assumption are

Thble 2.3 Variation of major, intermediate and minor principal stress components with depth
l

Variation of o1, o2and q (MPa) Location and depth

References with depth z (m) range (m)

Herget (1993) o1= 12.1+ (0.0403 + 0.002)z (r = 0.84) Canadian Shield (0*2300)
02= 6.4 + (0.0293 + 0.0019)z (r = 0.77)
os:1.4 + (0.0225 + 0.0015)z (r = 0.75)
I
Stephansson (1993) o1 = 10.8 + 0.0372 (r : 0.68) Sweden (0-1000)
o2= 5.1+ 0.0292 (r : 0.72)
I

o3 = 0.8 + 0.0202 (r:0.75)

I
I

i
I
f
t
 28 Estimating in situ stresses
not uncommon, however, and have been present and that both maximum and mini-
observed due to local geological features or mum horizontal stresses often exceed the ver-
active tectonic zones (Herget, 1980, 1986). tical stress at the depth of measurement. Also,
Bulin (1971) reported values of the vertical within the Canadiln Shield the difference
stress measured at depths of 600 and 900 m (in between the maximum and minimum princi-
the Donets-Makeyekva area in the former pal stresses seems to increase with depih and
Soviet Union) three to four times higher than the major and intermediate principal stresses
those predicted by gravity due to complex tend to be aligned in the horizontal plane
geological structures. Localized departure can (Herget, 1993; Martin and Chandlea i993).
also be due to shear stresses as suggested by Rummel (1986) concluded that the maximum
Voight (1966a) and Howard(1966). shear stress in the upper crust of the Earth is
Comparison of the hoiizontal stress gradi- determined by the two horizontal in situ stres-
ent of 0.009MPa/m with those reported in ses; however, at shallow depths the maximum
Table 2.1 and in the literature shows much shear stress is determined by the maximum
more discrepancy. The shess ratio, K, horizontal stress and the vertical stress. He
measured in the field is rarely equal to ], also concluded that stike-slip faulting would
especially at shallow depths, and is often be the dominant fault mechanism in a ran-
larger than unity. For instance, Herget (1974) domly fractured Earth's crust if the empirical
noted that71% of his world stress data (at the friction law proposed by Byerlee (197ti) was
time) showed higher horizontal than vertical satisfied.
stresses. Table 2.1 also shows that within a The conclusions reached by Rummel (1986)
r
single region of the world, such as Fenno- reveal that the ordering of in situ stresses (i.e.
scandia, several distributions of horizontal the stress regime) is not necessarily constant
I

stress with depth can be obtained with differ- with depth. Adams and Bell (1991) reported
ent stress measurement methods (Stephans- stress measurements conducted
I Beaufort Sea showing a change in
in the
i

son,1993). stress I

Generic stress versus depth relationships regime from strike-slipfaultin g

G"> ou ) o6)
I

\
such as those reported in Tables 2.1e.3 can be to thrust faulting (os) o,n) o,) at a depth of i-
I
tiseful in estimating' the magnitude of the 3 km. A similar obsen ation was made by Dey I

|
stress field at a given depth. They also provide and Brown (1986) in a deep borehole at the r
I

an overall idea of the stress regime (normal, Hot Dry Rock Project in New Mexico. They
strike-slip, thrust) in a given area of interest, found using the differential strain curve l

and how the stress regime varies with depth. analysis method a change of stress regime
I

For instance, in Fennoscandia one can expect from normal faulting (ou ) os ) o6) at a depth i

the maximum and minimum horizontai stres- of Z.Bkm to strike-slip faulting (ou > ou) o6) -
I
I

ses to exceed the vertical stress (Stephansson, at a depth of 3.8 km. In a 5110 m ultradeep oil !

1993). The hydraulic fracturing tests at the well near the center of the Michigan Basin, I

KTB hole in Germany revealed a strike-slip hydraulic fracturing tests conducted by Haim- l-
stress regime at depths ranging between 800 son (1977) revealed a change in stress regime
I

t-
and 3000m (Baumgiirtner et al., 1993). This with depth: thrust faulting (or, > o6 ) ou) from I

conclusion has recently been extended to a 0 to 200 m,-strike-slip faulting (o, > ou ) o6)
depth of 9000m by Te Kamp, Rummel.and from 200 to 4500m and normal faulting f

Zoback(1995). For more information about the (o,)oslo6) at depths larger than 4500m.
KTB hole, the reader is referred to section Finally, using a recent survey of 1000 measure-
r
12.4.7. ments of the least principal stress measured by r
Adams and Bell (1991) concluded that for hydraulic fracturing, Plumb (1994) concluded
Canada, high horizontal stresses are widely that in sedimentary basins, thrust faulting l-
l-
 l
seems to be dominant in the upper 1km, but
changes to strike-slip or normal faulting at
greater depths.
It must be emphasized that the generic
stress versus depth relationships presented in
Tables 2.1-2.3 should be used with caution as
they are usuaily associated with scatter. Loca1
O . o, stresses can vary locally due, for instance, to
/ stratification and heterogeneities (section2.6),
,n" geological structures such as faults, dikes,
shear zones and folds (secti on 2.7) or topog-
raphy (section 2.8). When the effect of these
\-- I
i
i
parameters is important, assuming a linear
variation of stress components with depth can
be misleading. As an illustrative example,
hydraulic stress measurements conducted
adjacent to a postglacial fault at Lansjiirv,
Sweden, gave a maximum horizontal in situ
stress of 12 MPa and a minimum horizontal
stress of 6 MPa at a depth of 500 m
(Stephansson, 1993). Using the best-fit stress
versus depth relationships for hydraulic frac-
turing in Table 2.L at that depth would give
values of 22.8 and 14.2MPa for the maximum
and minimum stresses, respectively, As dis-
cussed by Stephansson (1993), the discrepancy
between predicted and observed stresses can
be attributed to stress relief associated with
10 m of displacemeirt along the fault about
8000 years ago (section iZ.+.51, Large varia-
tions in the horizontal stress that did not fit the
model of linear increase with depth were also
found at the URL site in Canada and were
attributed to major thrust fauits (Martin and
Chandler, 1993). For more information about
the URL project, the reader is referred to sec-
tion 9.1.
Stress measurements have also revealed
that, within a given stress regime, the orien-
tation of in situ stresses may or may not
change with depth. Stephansson (1993) gives
examples of stress measurements by hydraulic
fracturing in a deep well where the maximum
horizontal stress was found to be approx-
imately E-W from the surface down to 200m
depth and to rotate by 30" to N60"W from 200
to 500 m. Variations in the orientation of the
Variation o/in situ stresses with depth 29
maximum horizontal stress of 60" over a dis-
tance of 500 m were observed by Haimson and
Rummel (1982) in lava flows in lceland.
Martin and Chandler (1993) reported a 90o
rotation of the maximum in situ stress compo-
nent across fault zone no. 2 at the URL site.
This large rotation was attributed in part to
stress release associated with slip along the
fault. At the Cajon Pass well in California, the
direction of the maximum horizontal stress
determined by breakouts was found to vary
widely over depths ranging between 2700 and
3500m (Shamir and Zoback, 1992). On the
other hand, Pine and Kwakwa (1989) found a
relatively consistent orientation of the princi-
pal stresses measured by hydraulic fracturing
at depths up to 2.6 km in the Carnmenellis
granite in Cornwall, England. Adams and Bell
(1991) reported that in Canada, most wells
shor,r, breakouts implying little changes in
stress orientation with depth, rock type or rock
age. An example of breakout orientation in an
offshore well in eastern Canada reported by
Adams and Bell (1991) is shown in Fig. 2.2.
This figure shows consisterrcy in the orienta-
tion of the breakout azirhuths over a depth
ranging from 800 to 5000 m and in rocks rang-
ing in age from Jurassic to Miocene.
Some measured variations of stresses with
depths have also revealed that over the'length
of a vertical ho1e, stresses at shallow depths
may be entirely different (in magnitude,
orientation or both) from those at deeper
to as 'stress
menon, sometimes refe
y indicates sep-
'*!
stress regimes with depth and has been
found at several sites (Haimson, 1979, 1980;
Haimson and Lee, 1980). For instance, the
hydraulic fracturing tests conducted by Haim-
son and Lee (1980) at depths up to 303 m in
southwestern Ontario, have revealed that the
anomalously high stresses measured in the
overlying Paleozoic sedimentary rock units
(30-210 m in depth) were not necessarily con-
tinuous in the underlying Precambrian granite
gneiss (220-300m in depth). There the stress
distributions were markedly different in the
a

v
30 Estimatingin situ stresses
be' seen as a
Breakout
stress decoupling should of the'stress field
reminder that extrap"olation
Age
Breakout poPulation
or geological unit to
from one depth
.L'
azimuth mean azimuths caution'
another must be usejwith
'ul--------------'''gt
1 35" 1 B0'

2.3 VERTICAL AND HORIZONTAL

srREssES
iiorJtut As PRIN.IPAL

topograghYl-ll^li "t*" Y
In areas of smooth
.' - \'rro*o'l - assumed that horizo"l^l,'"i-:::t'l^:[:t;
czooo{*"---
i7 '*- l- |
I
? 'ooo1",.,..uorrl :
- . \I
tsa'+ts'+
II
ii'l:i"'i:";;;;;i"cipa1 to*pont'ltt
com
stresses' McGarr
are princtpal str'
zsoo-l I
*gzsoo'] I .\ I IlXl,ffitJi;;fid;:T'-f';i"#Il#::
tisii''*:1'1'lilX]itl::i:l:
and c^v

'*o
,1.].,:*::,,\ .'l
141.1+5.6'
ii:ffifiit''"''*3^""th'"^1':^l}1tffi::
\'o".so'l 1,t^.t[a1'stresselt'm:1;:;?:r.cluster
Africa' TheY found
a loo

+o.oluppel
asoo-{
,,*.1
iHJ.
I \r ;..
F:m
.{.
\I
145e'iuv
I I
f;ttntrTl,1J1',,ii*Ul{iii.,;,{
radtus oI ru .vvs! '---
::?f'"i"!0f",0".**
'[;"-"thtt"
,::':^l#,?",11}1
,o,,,ffi I I| . , -. +
: ^r[ :]N-s
E-w NW-sE
. ' ano
, inJi.uting
lndlcatmB
':T:
norrzu';til;h;i
horizontal assumptl?..
n the vertical
brrrrrL u"'----^ 'iil"u,,
*:1|t *dcGarr
'lr.^*,oA
and Gay
and ccater scatter
(19i8) t'9t't;;; j the observed
of 64 breakouts meastr
red in ' t"*pitx' geology in the
Fie'Z'2Mean azimuth east- '" ih'v il'o
th! sachem D-76 welr,;:ffi;ilr, orrshore
::Ij: SiilX;;;;;surements. "g-
:fiffi;. (er,.,Ad; and Bell,1ee1) r* ,.ir*entary basins the scatter

Ot tlirlrrons
;:rl#;i
units' wiih a shift ^ ihould reached by McGarr
and
Paleozoic and Precambrian
stresses The concluslTt,jtll"tl#t*t
{' with the
in direction ir, tr',. t ori"^i^iftr"tipal (1978) seem to be
consr

of about 45". In iti, u*u*ple,-stress'i.-

l""V '
u' u"o'iut'a *iit'-til t;;ji{it:
coupring was rikervto iJ%,il:1":itlili:i':li'}:il.11
fii #;;*:5r' I
il:l;:.'1
r ihe m ai'r'

ilil*i1"1ilffi#'l'.'l:,Trl;l.TiiTi:1H
have t rtlrerlrttrL,.ru been oi
urr.^
an
u," attotrpfinf d,e ti,
decoup,ing di: to l"h:p?I-:ffi-i:;T
.tllf,otoSV I lrH:i;tr*mru!fff'fiffi]fl
it'tt fo*tt
dia-
t
hemisphere
contour
.rt-* i:nn:il:thoilweirsouu.,,ingsedimentar, I AU,:,'.:"1'.',tn'.;;;;,,ion
can arso be due ,"[ ;i;y:::"1'"T::ll*ff ;i:[1T'T'Ti3il
stress decoupling
- / r^^^-ro,"hrr effects where the shailow stresses z}a a7!1,11',1e}*u.
concentration
*u*i*"*concentration
ffiJff;;;';",",',h' maximum of is'5% for a
v" w#u- :11,.^"f.H::iliT'#li*iliili[]"H1fi ior the-maio' p'i"^t-inut stress'
[ (and away from regionr.o."*,;i#"'t(. ;:;' ili:li:T
stresses ui 1q,g.,
depths arign them''"::.i* J#:Ti]';Jl" itii-
*' ;; i';o t 00-340 / 0. a 3 " 0

i*,,;ruffi::. il1:and; iniTl^ Tx',.'#$T ffil':"'JJil'l;i p,i*ipur.'.'.''.,.,1],,

shows a

Haimson (lg7g),
in particular ,t'.,, u,,a .r... minor
i;;'il the vertical direction
,,JJ .1?; K.r.kgffi
;;;;';ti"" of scatter' As pointed
measurements at the ;iliht
project showing aliglmlr,t
;; ;;;;r.d shai smallest
'*"",'t
(1ee3)' the direction
ot or seems
;;;;; N.uuau ;;;fi Httget
low stress., *ith .r... i"."i
maximum
o1 ;;'t"il.;; *itft ittt *n to ENE
In general, the pheno*.r,or,
topography.

Y
i
\-,
-i I

Vertical and horizontal stresses ns principal stresses 31

horizontal stress direction in North America

reported by Sbar and Sykes (1973), and more
recently by M.L. Zoback et al, (1989) and
I Zoback (1992) in the World Stress Mrp
-1 I Project.
I

Bulin (1971) analyzed a large amount of in

-i
I slfu stress measurements conducted around
the world at depths ranging between 25 and
2700m (with many measurements in the
former Soviet Union). He found that for over
165 OBSEBVATIONS
FO/ 60o/o of the cases, the principal stresses were
F= 2% | I
per 1a/o d'e? inclined at less than 30o to the horizontal and
-l
T:lil l./. ) (a) or
l
Li:jiJ vertical directions. Similar conclusions were
reached for the stresses measured in various
i
parts of China (Li, 1986). Myrvang (1993)
-, reported that, in Norway, the horizontal and
I vertical stresses coincide relatively well with
I
/\ the principal stress directions and that at
I
depths down to 500 m the vertical stress is the
minor principal stress. Stephansson (1993)
!
i
i/ conciuded that for the majority of test sites in
Fennoscandia, one of the intermediate or
minor principal stresses is vertical and its
I
magnitude is equal to the weight of the over-
i
I 165 OBSERVATIONS burden. Klein and Brown (1983) also con-
5%t
I cluded that the principal stress directions in
*'1Yo area
I
I
l::::::l i!;j (b) oz the UK are near verticai and horizontal with
I .'t{ the maximum principal stress being hori-
zental and hending NW-SE, the minimum
I
principal stress being horizontal and the inter-
mediate principal stress being vertical (Klein
I

ri:-:i:i:ir and Bar, 1986). Observation of crustal earth-

i
t,-.'',',.,,-.,',...!

l::n: i::1 quake focal mechanisms around the world -, .l{

seem also to support the assumption of verti- "
,.lT_*:::il
.r.{,1.
-l
i
I

ti,ffi.i
'i:.::.:,\-1:
a:.:t-"t
'i.:Efi:|
ii
cal and horizonial stresses as principal stresses
(Zoback et n1.,1989). Finally, Worotnicki and
€4' .-l-

Walton (1976) concluded, from stress measure-

-I ments in Australia, that the assumption that
I

1 E u* vertical and horizontal stresses are principal

I
I
u*
I 16s oBSERVAT|oNS
stresses is quite good with horizontal stresses
: I 0., 1o/o ated 7
I 3%l' in excess of the vertical stress'with a stress
v,
I

m ,r") (c) oe ratio of about 1.5:1. The major horizontal stress

I
was found to be close to the E-W direction for
f
Fig. 2.3 Orientation of principal in situ stresses
\-r
based on 165 overcoring measurements in the most of the Australian continent, except in the
t
Canadian Shield. Lower hemisphere projection, southern-central portion where it was found
t
equal area net. Orientation of. o1, o2ando3 in (a)-(c), to be N-S. More recent in situ stress data
t
respectively. (After Herget, 1993.) analyzed by Brown and Windsor (1990) have
I
-i
t

I
 c
lv

32 Estimating in situ stresses

revealed that, in Australia, the stress orienta- tion of the greatest principal stress (Jaeger and
tion may not be as consistent as originally Cook, 1976). For the Mohr-Coulomb criterion,
described by Worotnicki and Walton (1976) the major and minor principal stresses at
and shows more scatter (section 11.1.3). failure, o,1 and o3, dt€ related as follows (Good-
man,1989):
2,4 LIMITS OF IN SIru STRESSES WITH
DEPTH o,_ oz= co * *["*(; I1)_,] (2.1)

The domains of variation for horizontal in situ

stress components are restricted by
the where Co is the unconfined compressive
strength equal to
strength of the rock mass. Stresses in the I

Earth's crust may build up until failure occurs,

This failure could occur either by the forma- cs = 2s6 (2.2)

tion of new faults or by reactivation and slip

on pre-existing discontinuities. Limits on crus-
tal stresses have been proposed using different
models based on various assumptions regard-
ing the brittle or ductile behavior of rocks at
""(t^-!)
Equation (2.1) indicates that, in this model, the
maximum shear stress is proportional to the
minimum principal stress o3.
Let us assume that at a given depth, z, the i

depth. As pointed out by Rummel (L986),
'. . . there is no consensus whatsoever among
Earth scientists about the magnitude of shear
stress, its variation with depth or about the
depth of brittle-ductile transition in crustal
deformation behavior. Stresses at depths
greater than 3 km can only be estimated from
empirical results of rock mechanics laboratory
fracture and deformation studies, or by
extrapolating existing stress data measured at
shallow depth'. Since 1986 the deep stress
measurements in the KTB boreholes in
Germany, down to a depth of 9 km, have
revealed that stress magnitudes are limited by
the frictional equilibrium on pre-existing opti-
mally oriented faults (Brudy et a1.,1985).
state of stress consists of a vertical stress com-
ponent, ou: lz and two non-equal horizontal
stresses. Due to straining of the rock mass, the
horizontal stresses may increase or decrease
(at different rates or not) until failure of the
rock mass takes place. Three cases can be
considered at failure (Anderson, 7957):
. case 1: ou ) os> oy, (normal dip-slip
faulting);
o case 2; qg) ou) o1,(horizontal-slip l.v
faulting);
o case 3: os ) 06 ) o,, (reverse dip-slip
faulting);
where os ond 0'6 dre the maximum and
minimum horizontal stress components,
I

respectively. I
I

2.4.1 INTACT ROCK STRENGTH MODEL

Consider an intact rock mass whose strength (a) Case L
I

can be described by a Mohr{oulomb criter- This case corresponds to normal faulting l

ion with internal cohesion, 56, and internal

I

which is characteristic of an extensional tec-

friction angle /. In selecting this failure criter- tonic environment. Substitutin1 ou= 01 and :

ion, we are assuming here (1) that the rock

I

oh: o3 into equation (2.1) and rearranging I

I

strength is independent of the intermediate gives the following expression for the l-
principal stress, and (2) that fracture takes minimum horizontal to vertical stress ratio t,

place in one or both of a pair of conjugate Kmi., : on/ou'.

planes which pass through the direction of the
intermediate principal stress and are equally
inclined at angles of less than 45o to the direc-
K*i,, = ."*(; -
l) -2 -r(;- !) (2.3)

I
I

I
 Limits o/in situ stresses with depth 33

In this case, fracturing of the rock will be equation (2.1) and rearranging grves the fol-
parallel to the largest horizontal stress com- lowing expression betweJn -the horizontal
ponent, o11, ds shown in Fig. 2.4a. stress ratios Kr, = oh /o, and (s = oH f o" at
failure:
ft) Case 2 c^
rn d\
I This case corresponds to a strike-slip stress =:9 * Kr,' KH Q.4)
I regime. Substitutl g ou:o1 and oh: o3into W ""'\;-;)
,-
.t / Fracturing of the rock will be parallel to the
.,ou ll * stress
(a)
..ov
vertical "-- component, o,r, as shown in Fig.
;;;
ll '="
-i
-i i
ffill (c) Case 3

I-l This case corresponds to a thrust faulting

stress regime which is characteristic of a com-
'i
pressional tectonic environment. Substituting
av: o3 and op1 = o1 into equation (2.1) and
rearranging gives the following expression for
the maximum horizontal to vertical stress ratio
K-u* : og f or:
\

(b)
K..,u* =
"r(;-!)-2 (2 s)

p Fracturing of the rock will be parallel to the

smallest horizontal stress component, o1.,, ds
fi
o,1 fl short'n in Fig.2.4c.
tl The fwo stress ratios K,r.,u, and K-6 repre-
-q sent the two extreme values for the horizontal
to vertical stress ratio, assuming that the rock

I
behaves in a brittle manner. They are
analogous to the coefficients of passive and
active pressure in soils (Lambe and Whitman,
(c) 1969). In general, the domain of variation
K*i., ( K ( (n-,u* is quite large. As an illus-
trative example, consider a rock mass with
0=40o, 56=SMPa and y:0.027MPa/m.
This gives Co= 21,44MPa. According to equa-
06 tion (2.3), K,,,1,, is positive at depths larger than
794m. At a depth of 10 m, - 16.83 < K < 84.00
and at a depth of 2000 m, 0.13 < K < 4.99.It is
noteworthy that in view of the expression of
K^6 &nd K,,,u, in (2.3) and (2.5), an increase in
Fig.2.a Rock fracturing under ov, oH and o6 load- the rock mass cohesion would result in a
ing. (a) Case 1: o,)> os) o1, norrrral dip-slip fault- wider domain of variation for K at a given
1g, (b) case 2: oH) ou) oh, hoiizonial-slip depth.
faulting; (c) case 3: o11) oh) o,, reverse dip-slip Note that the analysis conducted above can
faulting. also be done with other rock failure criteria
 !
i

34 Estimating in situ stresses

such as the Hoek and Brown (1980b) criterion
or more complex criteria that involve all three
principal stresses (Lade, 1993).
2,4.2 EFFECT OF PLANES OF WEAKNESS
Compared with intact rock, fractured rock has
reduced shear strength and essentially zero
tensile strength. In general, planes of weak-
ness will reduce the possible range for K due
to joint slip or joint opening. The effect of joint
slip on in situ stresses is illustrated below for a
regularly jointed rock mass with the geometry
of Fig. 2.5a. The rock mass is assumed to be
subject to an axisymmetric and compressive
state of stress 41, o3. The joints are oriented at
an angle d with respect to or. The intact rock
shear strength is assumed to be described by

(a) o1

I i-

<- 0i3

\-

(b)

o
O
b

0 10 20 3040 50 6070 80 90
6 (degrees)

Fig. 2.5 (a) Regularly jointed rock mass subject to an axisymmetric state of stress o1, os. (b) Variation of
ot / Co with d showing joint strength for different values of oz / Co. The intact rock strength is shown as a
series of horizontal lines.
 i

.\
i

Limits o/in situ stresses with depth 35

the Mohr-Couiomb criterion with expression more and more the rock mass strength.
given in equation (2.1). On the other hand, the Sugawara and Obara (1993) give a good exam-
joint shear strength is defined by a Coulomb ple of a tunnel project in japan for which the
\*
criterion with zero cohesion and a friction joint system was found to play an important
L angle (i. In terms of principal stresses (ot, os), role in the magnitude and distribution of the
the joint shear strength takes the following in situ stress field, In particulaq, they showed
form (Goodman,1976): how rock bursts, created by joint slip and
tan(, + /i) monitored in situ, could be predicted knowing
Ot:Oa (2.6) the in sifu stress field and the joint orientation
\_ tan d
and by assuming a simple Coulomb criterion
Equations (2.1) and (2.6) have been plotted for joint slip.
l

i
on the same diagram (a1lC6 versus d) in Fig.
I

2.5b for d = 40o, So = 5MPa and

$i: 30o. It can 2.4.3 GEOPHYSICALMODELS
be seen that for values of the orientation angle
I
i d ranging essentially between 15 and 45", siip Equation (2.1) was derived using a simple
I
along the joints takes place before the intact model for intact rock strength assuming brittle
rock strength is mobilized, This, in turn, response and no effect of strain rate or tem-
decreases the possible domain of variation for perature on rock behavior. Many researchers
K. Starting with an initial state of stress in the geophysics literature have proposed
I
*I
(ou: yz, oL) and using equation (2.6), K,,.,i,., and upper limits to the stresses in the Earth's crust
K,,..u, are independent of the depth z and are
now equal to
based on laboratory experiments conducted
on intact core samples at very large confining
{
pressures (up to 1000 MPa) and high tem-
tan d
K*i., : peratures (up to 900"C); (Brace and Kohlstedt,
tan(6 + $1)' 1980; Goetze and Evans, 1979; Krby, I98B;
McGarr, 1980; McGarr,1988;McGarr and Gay,
,,\max tan(d + /,)
a (2.7) 1978; Meissner and Strehlau, 1982; Smith and
tan d
Bruhn, 1984). Rummel (1986) concluded that
Equations (2.6) and (2.7) indicate that the most experimental data on rock stren$th
smallest domain of variation for K always reported in the literature could be fitted by an
occurs when 6: n/4- ii/2. For instance, for equation of the form
0i= 30o, 0.33 < K < 3.00 when 6 : n/4 -
di/2:30'. (or- os),=A+ B(oi)'/' (2.g)
Expressions for the maximum and mini-
mum values of K can also be derived if the where oj is the effective confining stress,
joint planes are located in a non-axisymmetric (ot - o), is the peak differentiai strength, and
stress field. In that case the joint failure criter- A and B are constants which depend on the
ion is more complex, as discussed by Amadei temperature. By substituting ov, oHor o6 for o1
and Savage (7989,7999),and involves all three ot o3, Rummel (1986)was able to derive limits
principal stresses. Also, expressions for the for 6H- ou (reverse faulting) and ou - o6
limiting values of K can be derived for other (normal faulting) as a function of depth for dry
joint failure criteria, such as that of Barton or wet conditions and for a normal geothermal
(1976) as demonstrated by pine and Batchelor gradient in the upper 30 km of the crust (Fig.
(1e84). 2.6). As mentioned by Rummet (1986), equa-
Note that if several joint sets exist in a given tion (2.8) can be applied for strain rates of the
rock mass, the possible range for K will be order of 1.0-b /s. For smaller strain rates, he
further reduced as joint strengih dominates suggested that rock creep could create in situ
 t
IJ
I

36 Estimating in situ stress es

assumed
STRESS, ov-o6 and oH-ov (MPa) tionai and intact rock strengths were
with
to be described by a Couiomb criterion
0 500 1 000
cohesion and friction. Strain rates
were related
to stresses assuming associated plasticity' It
in situ
was found that rockitrength constrains
become
oH- ou
stresses and that those stresses
ov-oh
independent of strain rates once failure
has
during plastic flow of the crust' The
-L 10
".."i*a
piasticlty modei ilso predicted non-zero
hori-
5 zontal in situstresses it tttt Earth's
surface for
E wet\ \drY wet dry
cohesion'
t- plastically deforming rocks having
0-
ul
ozo
2,5 EFFECT OF ANISOTROPY

The expression for the horizontal to

vertical
t*tt ratio Ko : v /(1- v) applies to a semi-
homo-
infinite continuum with linear elastic'
Fie. 2.5 Differential stresses required for
normal
seneous and isotropic properties'
In this
?rii,*g -
(ou oi') and reverse fautting (os - o") in
iection we will explore the effect of
anisotropy
;ilici dry and wet granitic crust r'r'ith normal ." if't. value of in the absence of
K
temperaturegradient' (After Rummel'
1986')
topograPhY.
#"y rocks are anisotropic, meaning that
This vari
their properties vary with direction' I
to relax with time and proposed an
stresses of weli-
ation is often related to the existence
u*piti.rf power law equation where the defined rock fabric elements in the
form of v
*u*i*rr* ihear stress is a nonlinear function foliation'
bedding, layering, schistosity plane.s'
of the creeP rate.
In the geophysics'literature, the limits on
ilttrti"g *a loiiti"g' Anisotropy is a.general
rocks
by slip along dis- .t',uru.tJrittic'of folLted metamorphic
crustal ,tiutt.t'induced strati-
(schists, slates, gneisses and phyllites)'
continuities are usually derived assuming
(1978) empirical friction law' Experi-
iied sedlmentary rocks (shales' limestones'
Sy.rl..', cut by one or
sandstones and ioal) and rocks
n{ental results obtiined by Byerlee revealed t-
that at normal stresses o,,(200MPa' the
r.r.t.f regular, closely spaced joint sets'.Ali
these rocki display clear evidence
ot anlso- I

critical shear stress r to initiate slip is equal direc-

t-
tropy and showone or several apparent I
to 0.85o,.,, and that. at normal stresses tioni of symmetry (Turner and Weiss' 1963)'
I

200 < o^ < 2000 MPa, t = 0'5 + 0'6o" '

In gen-
'eral, Byerlee's law applies for temperatures Mostly, orihottopy and transverse
isotropy are l:
less than 400"C and itrain rates less
than ii describe ih. ty*tnttry of anisotropic
"t.a
rocks. The discussion below is limited
to in situ
I

io-'/t. Examples of application of-Byerlee's stresses in transversely isotropic

rock masses' I
law can be iound in- Brace and Kohlstedt to-describe
Healy Transverse isotropyis often used
lilaO;, Rummel (1986), Zoback-and et aL the symmetry of iocks with one dominant
I
(1993) and Brudy
itggz),, Zoback et al.
tytr.- of layers, such as foliated and sedi- I
(1ee5). one joint
' rientary ro.k, o, rock masses with
Mor. recently, Savage, Swolfs and Amadei
(1gg2) proposed a two-dimensional plasticity
r.i. f" ihut .rr., five elastic constants are used I

to describe the rock deformability in a

coor-
in
moaet io predict the limit of in situ stresses
I
t,

(assumed
dinate system attached to the layers
brittle crustal rock. In this model' both fric-
t

I
 Effect of anisotropy 37
to coincide with the plane of transverse iso-
L tropy). These constants will be called E,E, ,v,1,
and G' with the following definitions: (1) E
and E' are Young's moduli in the plane of
transverse isotropy and in the direction
i
normal to it, respectively, (2) u and y, are
Poisson's ratios characterizing the lateral
strain response in the plane of transverse iso-
tropy to a stress aqting parallel or normal to it, ,).
\_
'\
respectivelf, and (3) G' is the shear modulus in
planes normal to the plane of transverse iso-
*l
tropy. The shear modulus G in the plane of
Fig, 2.7 Stress determination in anisotropic rock

I
"l
transverse isotropy is equal to 0.5El(1 + u).
In general, rocls are not too strongly
anisotropic compared with wood or compo-
mass with inclined layers. Layers are parallel to
plane P. (After Amadei :rnd P an, 1992.)

site materials. For most transversely isotropic

and intact rocks, E lE' and G f G' vary between
1 and 3 and the Poisson's ratios i, and r,' l,ary
between 0.15 and 0.35 (Amadei, Savage and
Swolfs 1987; Gerrard, 7975). For regulariy
jointed rock masses, the ratio of anisotropy can
be much larger and in general depends on the
\*-t stress level across the joint planes. Consider
I for instance a joint set with spacing S and
r,_l
normal stiffness k.,. As shown by Duncan and
I
The effect of anisotropy on gravitational
stressesin homogeneous rock masses with a
horizontal ground surface has been addressed
by Amadei, Savage and Swoifs (1982) and
Amadei and Pan (1992). They proposed
expressions for the coefficient K in trans-
versely isotropic, orthotropic and generally
anisotropic rock masses. Consider, for
instance, the geometry of Fig. 2J where a rock

-l Goodman (7968),the ratio E / E' isequal to mass is assumed to be transversely isotropic in

a plane P. Let n, s, t be a coordinate system
-i EE r attached to P and inclined with respect to a
(2.e)
E' -1
k"S global x, y, z coordinate system such that the x-
and y-axes are horizontal and the z-axis is
vl Using the expression for the normal stiffness, r.ertical downward. Plane P dips at an angle r4
I
I
kn, proposed by Bandis, Lumsden and Barton and strikes parallel to the y-axts, The rock
(1983), equation (2.9) becomes mass is subject to gravity only and the dis-
placement components in the r and y diec-
E +-.r
E lk^,v^
"' '^' \,I tions are assumed to be independent of x and y
(2.10)
=:1
E' kniS + \o^ k"1V*/ and to depend on z only. This assumption
leads to a condition of no lateral strain where
\-"1
where k.,1 is the initial normal stiffness of the the normal strains er, t, andthe shear strainyro
\-i i joint planes and V. is the maximum closure. vanish.
At zero normal stress (o,., : 0), E /E' is equal to
I

1 As shown by Amadei and Pan (7992),for the

1+E/(k"iS) and can be large for joints with
small values of the spacing and/or initial stiff-
ness. As *o.. .o*pression is applied across
the joints (due for instance to an increase in
confinement with depth), the ratio E/E,
approaches unity and the joint-induced aniso-
tropy decreases.
geometry of Fig. 2.7 and the condition of no
lateral strain, the stresses in the x, y and z
directions are principal stresses with o, : pgz,
o, = Krpgz and or: Kopgz.In general, the two
stress ratios (, and K, are not equal and
depend on the dip angle ry andthe ratios E/E' ,
G /G' , v and v' .If y : 0" (horizontal plane of
 rlv
:

38 Estirnating in situ stresses

transverse isotropy), (, and K, take simpler 0.80

forms and reduce to
0.70
ox oy
Kt : Kr=-=-
" pgz pgz 0.60

N
E1, (2.11)
o)
o
x
0.50
=yt_ b
E', 1.-v
0.40

If the plane of transverse isotroPy is vertical

(/ :9Oo), equation (2'11) is replaced by 0.30

ox v'(1 * v) 0.20 ul
K': pgz:T-iT/E); 0,50 1.00 '1.50 2.00 2.50 3.00 3.50
E/E'
1.00 i
!v
I
I

0.80
l\J
I

For an isotropic rock mass, equations (2.11)

and, (2.12) reduce to K, = Ky= Ko= v l(1- v)'
0.60
N
o
When t4 = 0 or 90o, it can be shown that the
shear strains y* and 7y, vanish in addition to b o.4o
tx, ty and y* and that the condition of no
lateril strain reduces to a condition of no
0.20
lateral displacement.
As a numerical example, Figs 2.8a-c show
respectively the variations of Kr: orf pgz, 0

Ky = oy / pgz and o, / oy for a transversely iso-

0, so 1.00 1.50 2.00 2.50 3.00 3-50
E/E'
tropic rock mass withElE' andGlG' ranging 1.80
between L and 3, r: Y' :0.25 and for a diP
angle r4 equal to 30o. Compared with the iso- 1 .60

tropic solution, e.B. o, / pgz = o, I Pgz: 0'333,

1.40
which is represented by point I in Figs 2.8a and
2.8b, both o, and o, increase with E/E' and
>1.20
G /G' .For a fixed value of G lG' , the stresses b
increase as EIE' iricreases, that is, as the rock bx 1.oo
mass becomes more deformable in directions
normal to the plane of transverse isotropy. 0. B0

Note that for a fixed value of E I E' , the stress o,

parallel to the dip direction of the plane of 0.60

iru.sr.tte isotropy depends strongiy on the

value of G lG' . On the other hand, the stress o, 0.40
o.so 1.00 1.50 2.OO 2's0 3.00 3'50
parallel to the strike of the plane of transverse E/E'
isotropy is not much affected by the value of Fig. 2.8 Variation of (a) o,/pgz, (b) oo / pg_z and
@l o,/o, wlth E/E', G/G' for Y=v'=0'25
and
G / G' .An increas e of G / G' indicates that the
rock mass becomes more deformable in shear r7/ : 30o. (After Amadei and Pan,1992.)

in planes normal to the plane of transverse
isotropy. For a fixed value of G/G,, the stress
ratio o* f o, decreases as E / E, increases.
The models of Amadei, Savage and Swolfs
(1987) and Amadei and pan (1992) show that
for anisotropic rock masses, the gravity-in-
duced stress field is multiaxial and is strongly
correlated to the rock mass strucfure. The ver-
tical stress is always a principal stress and is
equal to the weight of the overlying rock. Its
magnitude is independent of anisohopy. The
two horizontal principal stress components
are, in general, not equal and their magnitude
and orientation in the horizontal plane depend
on the anisotropic character of the rock mass.
Note that the solutions of Amadei, Savage and
Swolfs (1987) and Amadei and pan-(1992)
should not be used to estimate gravitational
stresses in rock masses with rigrd lateral
L boundaries (no horizontal lateral displace-
ment) when the dip anglery is not equal to 0 or
90". For those cases it has been shon,n by
Dolezalova (1974), using the finite element
Effect ofanisotropy 39
(; ?)"'(v,((;?),
(2.15)
Considering only the positive part of the
domains of variations for the poisson,s ratios y
and v', the inequaiities (2.13) to (2.15) provide
constraints on the types of stress fields that
are admissible in transversely isotropic rock
masses. Figure 2.9 shows, for instance, the
variation of the horizontal stress ratio
on / pgz = o, / pgz :
o, / pgz defined in equa-
tion (2.11) with v'E /E' and y for a horizontaily
transverse isotropic rock mass. The horizontal
stress can vary over a large region compared
to the isotropic solution since the domains of
variation for y and v' in inequalities (2.13) to
(2.15) are not as restrictive as the domain of
variation for v in the isotropic model. The
region is bounded by a curve that depends on
the value of E/E' and whose equation is
Oh

method, that the principal stresses are inclined ps.

with respect to the vertical and horizontal
directions. The analyses of Dolezalova (1974)
and Amadei and Pan(1992) show the import-
ance of lateral boundary conditions when esti-
mating gravitdtional in situ stresses, which
\- will be discussed ftirther in section 2.13.
Compared with the isotropic solution, the
range of permissible values of gravity-induced
l
horizontal stresses in transversely isotropic
rock masses is much wider. Indeed for iso-
tropic elastic rock, since v ( 0.5, K= v /(1 - t)
is always less than 1. Thus horizontal stresses
larger than the vertical stress are not possible
under gravity loading only. On the other hand,
for a transversely isotropic rock mass, the five
elastic properties E, E', v, v, and G, must
satisfy the following thermodynamic con-
straints (Amadei, Savage and Swolfs, l9g7; 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 v,E/E,
Pickering, 1970):
Fig. 2.9 Variation of the horizontal stress ratio
ptz = or/pgz = oo / pgz with v'E/E, and y for a
on /
E,E',G'>0 (2.13) horizontally transverse isotropic rock mass
(f = 0"). The isotropic solution is ihown as a dotted
-1(v<1" (2.14) line. (After Amadei, Savage and Swolfs, 1987.)
40 Estimating in situ stresses
EIE'
respectively. In this numerical example'
obtained by combining the positive part
of
uuri., between 1 and 4,v = 0'25, Q /Q'
1 :
and
inequality (Z.tS) *ltf, equation (211)' Figure
than v' varies between 0.1 and 0'4' In Fig' 2'10a-d
Z.g shows that horizontal stresses larger part
the constraint associated with the positive
the vertical stress are admissible for horizon- as dotted
of- ir',.qrutity (2.15) is indicated
tally layered rock masses. indicate that the
dashed liner. Thut. figures
ngrr.t 2.10a-d show for comparison' the to the
stress component o, actrng parallel
domiins of variation of. o*lpgz and orlPgz
plane of transverse" isotropy is in
general
wrth E/E' and v' for transversely isotropic values
t*
iurn., than or. However, as t4 increases'
rock masses with planes of transverse isotropy
oiI, than o, become possible for values
turg., l-
dipping at anglei y of 30, 45, 60 and 90o' I

; v

v' - 0.3
!v'

1.0
1.0
N
N o} 0.8
o' 0.8 o
o.
b
b 0.6
o.o

0.4 0.6 0.8

-0.2 o 0.2 0.4 0.6 0'8 1.0
orl Pgz
o*/Pgz

I
I
I
I
I

1.2 v'=0.4/
)tl
'1.0
1.0
N
N
o)
o
o 0.8
0.8
o
b b 0.6
0.6

0
-0.2 o 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2
0.4 0.6 ' 0.8
orl Pgz
1.0 l"
P
o*/Pgz
I

isotropic rock
or/.p?zw-ith^ElE,',"and" v' for transversely
Fig. 2.10 Domains of variation of o,lpgz and, EIE' vaties I,
masses with inclined layers dipping ut rr,gr.,
,/ 6f i0,45,60_and90'in (a)-(d), respectively'
with the
between 1 and 4, y = 0.25, Gf G' =1 and v'
uu.i.tu.t*ten 0'l' and 0'4' The constraint associated
aottta dashed lines' (After Amadei and Pan'
1992')
positive part of l.ruqrutit-y Afll i5 indicated ,,
I

r
I
I

I
 I

l
Effectofstratit'ication 4t
of E/E' behveen 1 and 2 and for Poisson's Holditch, 1987) andvolcanic rocks (Haimson
ratio v' larger. than 0.3. Compared with the and Rumm eI, 79BZ; Warpinski and Teufel,
isotropic solution represented by point I, hor- 19gI). As an example, Fig. 2.71a
shows the
izontal stresses larger than the vertical stress variation of the minimuni horizontal
in situ
pgz arc thermodynamically admissible. How- stress with depth measured
by hydraulic frac-
ever, this becomes less admissible as r4 increa- turing ttuouffr perforationr
\- Uy Wurpinski,
ses, that is, as the plane of transverse isotropy BranJgan u.,I Wh.r (1985)
at the DOE,s
becomes_ steeper. Note also that for low values Multiwell Experiment
site in the Mesaverde
of v'and large values of E/E',tensile stresses sedimentary ?ormation of western Colorado.
can develop in the r direction. As shown by This figure shows higher stresses in the
11 shale
AmadeiandPan (1992),thetrendsobservedin hyersiompared witf, the surrounding
If sand-
Fig' 2.10a-d can also be found for larger values stones and iiltstones. Similar
lf conclusions were
of G /G' . However, the likelihood of having t[ reached by Teufel (1986) who measured sharp
tensile stresses in the r direction when E / {' ' differences in the in situ stress field in sand-
ranges between 1 and 4, diminish es as G / G' stone and shale layers at depths of about 2 km
increases. Also, it was found that for values using both hydraulic fractuiing
tests and ane-
ranging between 0.15 and 0.35, the Poisson's lastii strain rl.or.ry tests on oriented
cores. In
ratio v has little effect on the shess variations the sandstone layeis the average ratios
of the
shown in Fig' 2'10a-d. minimum and maximum horizontal stresses
to the overburden stress were found to be
2.6 EFFECT oF STRATIFICATI,N equal to 0.82 and 0.96, respectively. On the
other hand, the shale formations bounding the
:
Th9 expressions for K, = o, /pgz and .K, sandstone were found to be under a lithostatic
/ Pgz proposed by Amadei, Savage and stress field (see also Warpinski, 1989; Warpin-
lv
Swolfs (1987) and Amadei and Pan (1992) ski and Teufel, 1g}7).'Another interesiing
apply only to rock masses that are homogen- observation made by Teufel (1986) is
I thaj
eous. Stratification, which is common in sed- major joint sets in the sandstone layers
I
were
imentary as well as volcanic rock masses, found to be aligned with the maximum hori-
r
l

I
Depending .on the zontal stress direction. Another example,
:.I:rt.t heterogeneities.
I

ll the relative stiffness between the shown in Fig. z.llb,corresponds to hydraulic

I
ll lll"l"ry.rnd
d.ttr:lu|, layers, in situ stresses may vary sub- stress measurements conducted by Haimson
/i stantially from one layer to another, In general, and Rummel (1982) in lava flows in Iceland.
ll abrupt changes in horizontal shess can take Here, both horizontal stress components vary
lf plu.. across contacts between strata with dif- from one lava flow to the next.
ll
I
I ferent properties. Stress measurements by hydraulic fractur-
The influence of lithology on the distribu- ing conducted by Warpinski ind Teufel (1991)
tion of horizontal stresses at depth has been in welded tuff in Rainier Mesa at the Nevada
I

I
I
demonstrated by numerous measurements in Test Site have also revealed large stress con-
.-, sedimentary ,o.kt (Burlet and Ouvry, 1989; trasts due to changes in materiai
I
properties,
Enever, Walton and Wold, 1990; Evans,1989; beddings and faults. Such
I
contrasts were
-i Evans,EngelderandPlumb,Tg}g;Hansenand found t-o o..r. sometimes on a
scale of less
j
Purcell, 7986; Jeffery and North, 1993; Lo, than 1m if the contrast in rock properties was
I

I
1978; Plumb, 1994; Plumb, Evans and sufficient. The minimum hoiizontal stress
Engelder, 1991; Swolfs , 1984; Szymanski and determined from the instantaneous
,
shut-in
I Harper, 1979; Teufel, 7986_; Warpinski, 1989; ^ pressure of hydraulic fracturing tests was
I
Warpinski, Branagan and Wlmer,1985; War- iound to be io*., in layers ,iitt-,
u f,lgr,
I

J
I
pinski and Teufel, l987;Whitehead, Hunt and Yourg's modulus and low iroisson,s ratio
/ and
I
'l

I
 !

t,
l

42 Estimating in situ stresses

STRESS (Psi)

) Ir
GAMMA EE HB #
o 7300 . r)
l ":/
)
coAL--
o-
7400 g 2250
ESTIMATED OVER-
o BUHDEN STRESS
a (1.05 Psi/lt)
z 7500
o {)
,lIJ 2300
(a)
o
SILT tr 7600 o
0
I
au 7700 I 2350
Ol
SHALE
99 0
<o
>F 7800
-- ru-
fISAND I- r
? 2400
tI
,N 7900
Bo
.N
lo o
IO
t-
aw 8000 oit
Of 2450
o(, L)r
zz
,
I
o_ 00
-*P-
F
B1 I
I

tc MPa

STRESS (MPa) or*o* DIRECTIoN GEoLoGtcAL

10 15 20 25 N 30o 60o g SECTION

tRDP-REYDABF JORDUR ,

RUB UW ]

a A oHrtt,
n o 6Hro*
, o oHro,
c DIRECTION
N
o (b)
x3
I
F
I
tu
o4

BASALT DIKE @
onin situstress distribution' (a) variation of the
Fig. 2.L1 Two examples showing the influence of lithology
fracturing tllgygh t"lforations in
minimum horizontal in situstress with a.pin.".rt"..f;'Uy hydraulic
and Wilmer' 1985') (b) In situ sttess
lower Mesaverae formution. (Adapted from Warpinski, Bru,ugutt
and Rummel, 1982')
measurements in layered laua flo*s in Iceland. (Afier Haimson

a
 !

lt
lll higher in layers with a lon, young,s modulus
I I and high Poisson's ratio.
ll Swolfs (1984) compiled data on the varia-
tion of ratio of the minimum horizontal stress
to vertical stress with depth measured by
hydraulic fracturing in sedimentary basins.
He concluded that, at depths greater than
600 m, the effect of lithology in basins is
important and that at shallower depths, other
near-surface phenomena may predominate in
affecting the stress distribution. In a recent
survey of 1000 least principal stress measure-
ments in various sedimentary basins in the
world, Plumb (1994) found high values of the
ratio of minimum horizontal stress to vertical
stress for depths less than 1km. He found that
the effect of lithology varied with the type of
basin. For relaxed-state basins, values of the
stress ratio for softer rocks such as shales rvere
found to be 4 to 15% higher than stiffer rocks
such as sandstones. On the other hand, in
compressed-state basins, stiffer rocks were
found to show higher values of the stress ratio
with values in carbonate rocks 40o/o greater
than in sandstones and values in sandstones
20% higher than in shale. plumb (1994) also
concluded that, despite its importance,
lithology has less influence on stresses than
changes in rock pore pressure. Finally, analysis
v.l
I
of overcoring and hydraulic fracturing stress
l
Et'fectofstratiJication 4g
rock layers have sometimes been found to
carry higher stresses. This remark must be
taken with caution as several phenomena may
be responsible for that observation. For
instance, Franklin and Hungr (1978) attributed
that trend to the fact that weaker rocks are
more difficult to sample, tend to deteriorate
more quickly and therefore appear to be softer
when tested in the laboratory. Another poss-
ible explanation is that the modulus of the
apparently stiffer rock units may not be as
large in situ as it is when measured in the
laboratory, due to natural fractures or other
planes of weakness present in the field. Also,
the range of elastic behavior for weaker rocks
is more limited than for stiffer rocks. Non-
linear, time-dependent and pore pressure-
related phenomena may occur as the rock is
disturbed during in situ measurements. Such
phenomena are not necessarily accounted for
in the analysis of the field tests.
As a possible explanation for the role of
lithology on in situ stresses, Amadei, Savage
and Swolfs (1988) proposed analytical solu-
tions based on the theory of linear elasticity for
the stresses in horizontal strata under a condi-
tion of no lateral displacement. In the model,
each stratum can be isotropic or horizontally
layefed with moduli E1, E!,, Gi and Gi ani
Poisson's ratios y1 and vi. For the geometry of

\*- r
measurements conducted by Enevel, Walton Fi9.2.12, and assuming continuity along the
I
and Wold (1990) in the northern coalfields of
-l New South Wales in Australia revealed higher
X,Y
Ground surface
stresses in the stiffer sedimentary strata.
i

l
Figure 2.11a,b and the examples mentioned
I

above clearly indicate that when lithology

-l {
affects the distribution of in situstresses, stress
differences (sometimes large) should be expec-
ted across layers of different rock types. Thus,
i-th unit
I

I
for such geological environments, using linear
regression analyses to describe the variation of
individual streSs components with depth
(Tables 2.1).3) becomes meaningless. The 9n
I

-T i hn n-th unit
I
field measurements of stress in stratified rock
i
masses also indicate that, although higher
l

modulus rocks are more likely to carry higher

,rr ass with dif-
ferent strata. (After Amadei, Savage and Swolfs,
i
I
than average stresses (Voight, 1966a), softer 1e88.)

l
I

44 Estimating in situ stresses
stratum contacts, the state of stress at depth z
in the lth stratum is given bY
E, 1
ori: vii,'7--'ozi
l-vi
Li (2.16)
i For regularly jointed rock masses the stiffness
o,i: pigz+ L @i- il9hi
l=t
In each stratum (as for a homogeneous hori-
zontally layered rock mass), the nature and
magniiude of the stress field depend on the
anisotropic character of the stratum deform-
ability. fr*pt in the magnitude of the hori-
zontal stress occur across stratum contacts due
to contrasts in deformability from one stratum
to the next. The ratio o6; f or;canbelarger than,
less than or equal to unity. If a stratum is
isotropic, that ratio can only vary between 0'
and 1. If a stratum is layered and a representa-
tive sample consisting of mlayerc can be iden-
tified, ttren the ratio o1",;f o,; in that stratum is
equal to
: i.
on'
a,ri1,.:- e.t7)
ozi i=t ' 'Ei 1- vi
In equation (2.U) Ai=hilL where h7 is equal
to the thickness of layer i in a representative
sample of edge dimension L' In writing equa-
tron (2.17) it ii assumed that the multilayered
stratum can be replaced by an equivalent
anisotropic continuum using the model
proposed by Salamon (1968)'
-
tlis noteworthy that if all strata inFig' 2'12
are isotropic, according to equation (2.16), the
horizontal stress in each stratum depends only
on the Poisson's ratio of the stratum and not
on its elastic modulus. It is then clear that the
model of Amadei, Savage and Swolfs (1988)
aione is not enough to explain some of the
observed variations of horizontal stress with
lithology.
Equitions (2.11) and (2.12)were derived for
transversely isotropic rock masses with aniso-
tropic elastic properties that are constant'
Laboratory and field tests have shown that
rock anisotropy is affected by confinement'
Thus the degree of rock mass anisotropy must
i-
decrease with depth as more confinement
takes place in the rock mass. For intact aniso-
tropic rocks the increase in confinement may
cloie preferred oriented microcracks and
make tlhe material more isotropic with depth'
of theloints that create the rock mass aniso-
tropy increases with the normal stress acting
u.ioit their surfaces. As shown in equations
(2.9) and (2.70), the ratio E/E' approaches a
value of unity as the normal stress increases'
Thus as the elastic properties change with the
state of stress, so does the state of stress change
because of the reduction in rock mass aniso-
tropy. This closely interrelated phenomenon
*ui-in uttigated by Amadei and Savage
(1985) for the stress distribution in horizon-
tally and vertically regularly jointed rocks' i-
Using the equivalent concept proposed by
i
I
:
Duncan and Goodman (1968) and the expres-
sion for the variation of joint normal stiffness
with stress proposed by Bandis, Lumsden and
Barton (1983), it was shown that stress dis-
tributions similar to those observed by Brown
and Hoek (1978) and others could be gen-
erated. For instance, for a iointed rock mass cut
by horizontal joints with spacing S, combining
e(uations (2.10) and (2.11) with on = pgz, the
horizontal to vertical stress ratio can be
expressed as follows:
on= r' [1
pgz 1-rL
.*Hffiv-)] (218)
As z approaches infinity, the stress ratio
defined in equation (2.18) approaches its value
for the isotropic case (assuming that v' con-
verges toward v)' As a numerical example, Fig'.
]0/
2.1ishows the variation of o1 /pgzwith depth
z for Vrr.,k',i =\.77MPa, v=v'--0'25 and
Elk^is varying between 0 and 20' The iso-
tropic case corresponds to Elk*S:0' As
E lk^,S increases, or in other words as E
increases or k.,1 and/or S decreases, the joints
affect the stress field near the ground surface
only. Stress distributions similar to those
shown in Fig. 2.13 could also be obtained by
v
 Effect of geological structures and lrcterogeneities 45
\t-

o6 / pgz

234
Cooling (198S) identified several cases
depending on the relative stiffness of the
material in the discontinuity versus the mat_
erial in the surrounding rock: (1) if the dis_
continuity is open, the major principal stress is
diverted parallel to the discontinuiiy, (2) if the
discontinuity is made of a materiai with sim_
ilar properties as the surrounding rock, the
principal stresses are unaffected, and (3) if the
material in the discontinuity is rigid, the major
t
principal stress is diverted perpendicular to
I

the discontinuity. In general, geological ,t*._

\ f
tr/
tures and heterogeneities disturb the reeional
l/
shess field and make the local stress fielJquite
l/

l Fig. 2.13 Variation of oy / pgz with depth z

y^k,i = 1.71,MPa, y: v' 0.25 for
different from the regional stress field.

- Many cases of stress jumps and .on_ 'Nr2

homogeneous stress fields ociurring while \"
I

= and f /hiS varying

between 0 and 20. The isotropi. .uru .or."rpo"jr-t8 crossing or due to the vicinity of disconti_
nuities, dikes, faults, shear zones, uncomform_
E/k^S = 0. Jointed rock mass cut by horizontal
joints with spacing
S. ities, heterogeneities, orebodies and folds have
been reported in the literature.
I
Judd (1964)
I cites severai examples of underground cavern
making the moduli E and E, appearing in projects, such as the picote
power station in
equation (2.11) functions of depth Linear Portugal and the Snowy
Mountain Authority
variations of modulus with depth were pro- T1 power station in
I Australia, where major
posed by Gibson (1974) for soils and could be faults resulted in asymmetric
stresses meas_
applied to rock masses as well. ured in the walls of the underground caverns.
Large stress jumps of theprdei of tensof Mpa
measured in Fennoscandia aeross faults and
2.7 EFFECT OF GEOLOGICAT STRUCTURES shear zones were reported by Stephansson,
AND HETEROGENEITIES
and Myrvang (1986) and Stephansson
?_r:$a
(1993). A survey of stress
Y Rock masses are rarely uniform, in particular -.^rr.u*.nts con_
I ducted in salt domes in the southeastern USA
in the continental crust. Variationi in rock by Eriksson and
Michalski (1986) revealed
mass geology and the existence of geologic
generally hydrostatic in situ stresses. Locally,
s.truc.lures and heterogeneities may affect
rI the deviatoric stresses were found to occur due
distribution and mugnitrde of in iitu stresses io
u , the. presence of layers of impure salt, geo_
and contribute, in part, to the scatter often logical
\ryE
' -
observed in field measurements (Fairhurst,
structures and other heterogeneities.
Aleksandrowski, lnderhaug and inapstad
I
1986). For instance, as discussed in the
pre_ (1992) found that structuraf features ranging
vious section, the horizontal in situstress may
behreen small faults and major fault systems
vary substantially from one layer to the next in
could cause some major deflection of borehole
strltifie{ rock formations due to changes in breakouts,
thus making local measurements of
'
rock stiffness. When crossing a persisterit dis_
stress orientation different from regional stress
continuity, local changes in the in situ stress
trends. Enevel, Walton and Wold (1990) pre_
field can be expected (Hudson and Cooling,
sented various case studies of stress measure_
I tg8g; pollard una s.git , 19g,7). Hudson
and ments with the overcoring and hydraulic
j
l

'l

i
I
46 Estimating in situ stresses

fracturing methods in Australia that showed
how geological strucfures at various scales
(ranging between regional and local scales)
interact wrthinslfu stresses. Other instances of
stress anomalies due to discontinuities have
been reported by Herget (1973,1980), Tinchon
(1987), Evans (1989), Haimson (1990a), Teufel
and Farrell (1990), Teufel, Rhett and Farrell
(1991) and Obara et nl. (1995).
It is not uncommon f.or in slfu stresses and
the rock fabric to align. Sugawara and Obara
(1993) give an example of overcoring measure-
ments conducted 1.25 km from the
coring on t\q other hand. Overcoring meas-
urements conducted iu fr4lffr, pender and
Depledge (1e86Iil;;rii",i"., i" New Zealand
revealed close ulinr,*..t of the rneasured
horizontal tt.urr., i"rtn ,.,.urUy faults and the
major cleat sy.1fi in the coal. Other cases of
alignment of in^ritu ,t*rr* *irf., faults and
joint sets have bee^ reoorted by Preston
(1968), t-ee, \1.1,o1,
un4 A[.iOgOg;, Eisbacher
arrd Bielentt.ilil;ii). u.u itgtzj, Lee, Abel
and Nichol. (1976). K,;*J s*i,r-, (980), Gay
r-
1nd
va1.
!" rl..".t riqazl, Leijon $986)'
Enevgr, Walton and Winds or'('1990i and Wong l

Atotsugawa fault in Japan showing the effect (1ee3).

of the fault on the in slfu stress field (Fig.
2.1,4a). There, the measured major and inter-
mediate in situ stresses were found to be paral-
1

Mt
,q-fl2
lkelo V_rooo

ffi
lel to the fault plane and the minor principal t -{eoor' l!
stress was found to be normal to the fault
plane and strongly reduced in magnitude
compared with the other two principal stress
components (Fig. 2.14b). Multiple in situ sttess
determinations conducted in the granite at the
Underground Research Laboratory (URL) in
Pinawa, Manitoba, Canda, have also revealed
the strong dependence of the in situ stress field 0 1 2t
2km

on rock geological structures ranging in scale

from microcracks in the intact rock to major
thrust faults (Martin and Simmons, 1993).
Martin and Chandler (1993) give an example (b)
of reorientation of in situ stresses in the vicin-
ity of a discrete fracture near room 209 at the
URL site (Fig. 9.9), The minimumin situptrn- / a \
Pg = 4.4
cipal stress was found to be subhorizontal and
perpendicular to the fracture, and to rotate V\-
Great circle of
= 14.1'MPa
and become vertical over a short distance of E
30 m. Clear domain boundaries (separated by
major faults) in which stresses are uniform
were observed (section 9.1). The alignment of
in situ principal stresses with rock fabric was
also reported by Carlsson and Olsson (1982)
regarding the state of stress at the site of the S
Forsmark power plant in Sweden. There, a
Fig' 2'14 (a) ou.r.o.ins measurements near the
clear correlation was found between joint Atotsugawq fault in Ta"orn. (b) relation between
orientation, joint opening and foliation principal in tit, ,tr.r# una irrtt plane' Lower
orientation on one hand, and the directions of ;;;;;"r-ph"'-pr";..li.^. (After
the principal stresses measured in situby over-
femisnhll
bugawara and OUara, t993.)
 Effect of geological structures andheterogeneities 47

At a much larger scale, Engel der et al, (197g),
Sbar et al. (7979), Mount and Suppe (1987) and
Zoback et al. (1987) have reported clear evi-
dence of stress reorientation near and across
the San Andreas fault (Fig. 2.15). Similar
phenomena have been identified near faults in
Canada by Adams and Bell (1991). Stress
l
distortions near plate margins are believed to
be due to slip occurring along the faults defin-
I
l
ing those boundaries (Zoback, l9B9; Zoback,
1991). On a very large scale, the distribution of
tectonic stresses in Europe was found to be
affected by geological structures such as the
western Alps (Mriller et a1.,1992). As part of
their study, Mtiller et nl. (1992) also found that
not all major geological structures can be
expected to affect stress distributions. For
instance, the distribution of the maximum

l
I

l
t
,+ o
7o
CALIFOBNIA

I ,) o
+ ,o
(o
,) 71"o
l_ +)
l
I
\,, ,"n o
I

l
i
I

I
I

I
-"rrf,rN
I

y'
I

"'tu *o,
\' ,/ 'o-\+ /
\o,
l
l
I
COALINGA
i
I
I
I

L^.tot*
I

l
i

nl\ SAN LUIS OBISPO

I
I
IOJTYT O€tEFI
I

CAJON PASS
I
I
l
I
tRAItVERtt
rAtoE!

Y- tl '
I
I
i

2/ro"^rrEcH^xrsr
I| *arrro'T.rNGLEwooo
l

r...-- i.---"---
l

ororon,"^.' I o *u
I

\-1 ,)l roo | ,oo a^l,l o,ano

I

I
320
1240 1220 12oo
I 1 1go 1 160 1 140
Fig' 2'15 Generalized geological map of California with data points showing
I the direction of maximum
horizontal compression in the crust. (After Zobacket al.,1gB7.)
I

i
 48 Estimating in situ stresses

horizontal stress was found to be continuous was conducted by Stephansson, Ljunggren

in the near vicinity of the Rhine Graben rift
zone.
Figure 2.16 shows an example of stress dis-
tribution in a 6000 m X 4000 m rock mass con-
sisting of three distinct blocks. The analysis
and Jing (1991) using the two-dimensional
distinct element method. It indicates clearly
that, despite uniform stresses applied on the
boundaries of the domain, non-uniform
stresses develop in each block of the rock mass

-T-

i
I

E
25 MPa
o
o
o r
I

II

')-
l-
I

6000 m

1'
i-

f +1, +U .-l/ -r1, +-tf -t-il X

t-
* -+ /+ -r /+-r /-+- + ,/-r-r /+ +,t-+- rq.
\4/ ,.+./ /'*./ A/ Ar{ /4.r'4
+ )t/ x -y -ry'. -r't +- .# t
/ * ,r ,. *- x ,'+- X /-+-+-.
+r{ 4.{ At,.*/ 4 +.+
. -tL
, -+.'i iL
+ ),f * +z \-+
I
I
I

141?2'T+
-t +,, +'-Vr'+-,\
412r-Z:;,r1
-t ,, +'+t' - Prt x
*'t.**- a:***i
rl
t1
lr
)r.,ZZ'; X,r"k 4,+*
/xy|**
xX-.r +** ***i.1:****ili*;.i.t+
*-'+ .T+--r'; .-+"j
)

+), -p+, *-'.I. *_*_ . n***_-+. -r*_l-'

I

Z;)*; 2f 1tt$.---..:-i-;i;'*
-y *' I

** .'Jii : l;:: lLfi ** :

*-' -*
*: *{T

x
I ii:+x.+,'.: i"i;1*-**:i*l*:tL: i-i
:
1,
X X u' .'^ ,4' r.t.
tr+'+-+++. i**
-.-F -.+i:Lr-
-+ :
-F -t-
+ +" +{x+x!-
.+'-l: + I + -t. . ****-,-' . -t -{. '
x x x + -t- -t -+ -{-

0 500m 0 200 MPa

lrrrrl lrl
DISPLACEMENT STRESS
_F
'l
1\
\i9.2-t6 Displacements and stresses in a distinct element model with three blocks. (After Stephansson, -l
Ljunggren and ]ing, 1991.)
\-i

Effect of geological structures andheterogarcities 49

and stress discontinuities occur due to sliding As an example, Fig.2.17 shows the stress
along the block boundaries. Similar conclu- concentration in a circular inclusion perfectly
sions were reported by Brown, Leijon and bonded to an infinite isotropic plate subjected
I
Hustrulid (1986) in their numerical analysis of to uniaxial compression (Leeman,1964).It can
block tests conducted at the Colorado School
I

be seen from this figure that the vertical stress

of Mines experimental mine in Idaho Springs,
Colorado, and by Martin and Chandter (1993)
\-l in their numerical analysis of the granite at the
URL site in Canada. The non-uniformity of
load distribution in granular assemblies was
I clearly demonstrated by Cundall and Strack
"l I
(1979) using the discrete element method. All
these examples show that stresses in rock
i
depend on the boundary loading conditions
'l J
and the rock structure and that, even though
the boundary conditions may be well defined,
the local stress field can be quite complex.
In addition to discontinuities, stresses in
rock masses can also change due to local
heterogeneities such as strata, dikes and ore-
bodies. Arjang (1989) conducted a suruey on
the orientation of the maximum and minimum
in the inclusion can be as large as 1.5 times that
in the host material provided the inclusion has
a modulus four to five times that of the host
material. A detailed study on stress concen-
trations in single inclusions of elliptical,
ovaloid and rectangular shapes under uni-
axial and biaxial loading and their applica-
tions to mining problems can be found in
Oudenhoven, Babcock and Blake (1972) and
Babcock (1974b).Inclusions also have a zone
of influence on the encapsulating medium. For
instance, work conducted by Stephen and
Pirtz (7963) revealed that an inclusion with a

-r horizontal in situ stresses in mines near several

vertical orebodies in the Canadian Shield. It
was found that the maximum horizontal stress
often acts perpendicular to the strike of ore-
bodies whereas the minimum stress acts paral-
lel to their strike. Alignment of principalin sittr
,1il stresses with orebodies'has also been reported
by Enever, Walton and Wold (1990) for various
Ir mines in Australia.
Disturbance of the in situ stress field due to
e( heterogeneities can be understood using the
analogy of a solid inclusion embedded into an
-r infinite medium. It can be shown, using the
2
-l theory of elasticity, that the stresses in a solid
I

f/t incluiion perfectly bonded to a continuum b-

<=T-TI
-l ' , '
I

differ from those in the surrounding host b1 \\y=y'=0 |

-\r=0.25; v'=0.25
material (Coutinho, 1949; Donnell,
'i 1941;
Sezawa and Nishimura, 1931). In particular, if
the medium is infinite (isotropic or aniso-
\-r I 56
i
tropic), the stresses and strains in the inclusion E'lE
-i
I

are uniform (Amadei, 1983; Babcock, 1974a;

Fi9.2.17 Stress concentration in a circular inclusion
Eshelby, 1957; Niwa and Hirashima, 1977).
'r On the other hand, if the medium is finite,
(with elastic properties E',v') perfectly bonded to
an infinite isotropic plate (with elastic properties
-i stresses in the inclusion vary from point to E, v) subjected to uniaxial compression. (After
I point. Leeman,1964.)
-l
'-l
"{
50 Estimating in situ stresses

modulus four times that of the surrounding

material has an area of influence roughly one
diameter from the edge of the hole in which
J'
the inclusion is placed. i

Gry (1979) gives an example of stress

measurements in a quartz dolerite dike in
South Africa showing much higher stresses in
the dike than in the host quartzitic rock. Gay
(1979) invoked residual tectonic and thermal
stresses to explain the observations. The differ-
ence in stiffness between the dike (the inclu-
Y
sion) with a Young's modulus of 916pu *4
that in the surrounding rock (the host
medium) with a modulus ranging between 75
and 86 GPa may well be responsible, in part, il: i ffi, :ffi"H# :ilf.T*T?,iTIfi:li ::::[ I
I

for the observed stress concentration. The r,ji = t, N)'

inclusion analogy was also used by Germain
and Bawden (1989) to explain the stress dis_ .rr6raop stress, and that it is controlled by the
tribution near a sulfide orebody in an under- ;;il? ,he rnodulus in that element' Stiffer
Y
ground mine in Quebec. The softer rrature of ;;;r give higher stresses whereas softer Y
stresses' Il for instance'
I

the orebody compared to the stiffer andesite/ ;il;;; [ive lower Y

rhyolite surrounding rock was believed to be ;iil;;6ents in Fig'2'l8are horizontal and i

responsible for the observed diversion of the ,r.'i".ri.a at a depth z with 6av: TZ, excava- Y
in situ stresses away from the orebod! and for ,i* rnr"rgh those elements canbe expected to
stress concentrations in the surroundurg rock. ;;;;.; under a changing vertical stress Y
In general, and from a practical point oI view ;;J-;rgnitude depends on the local rock V I

heterogeneities may create stress concentra_ stiffness' -t

""O"orfrut 'l-
tions that could lead to rockbursts and local example showing that-the vertical
stability problems during excavations. ".,*-" .tress at a given depth may not
The effect of heterogeneities on stresses in ,*r??U. representative at the local level is I

rock can also be illustrated using the simple ;#; in Eig. 2'19 and is associated with 'v
model of Fig. 2.18. Here, a medium consisting ;"td"; (Goodman ' 1989)' Here we consider
I

of N juxtaposed and connected elernents with ;;;lid at two different depths z (defined as I

Young's moduli Ei (i:1, A,) is subject to a il';ilBB' in Fig' 2'19) in.a.folded sedi- \-'
normal force F. The force is applied over an *.^,rru rock formation consisting of stiffer I

area A:I,i.i= L X 1 where Ai:wrX 1 is the ;;;;;"*petent) beds such as sandstone or

area of each element l. Using the basic strength i#il. zurrounded by softer beds. such as
r
the two right and left anti-
of materials and assuming uniforrn displa'ce_ ,'f,#. afrn 'rr"utlg AA' l"
ment over the area A (or length L), the average .ffi; shielding and divert the stresses
stress o; in each element is equal to syncline' The local vettical I

;""*J the centervanish below the anticlines

I

il;;;; alrnost )*
EiL
Oi= -fr-, above the average value (o': yz)
(2.1e) ,"i i*r.rte
I

6uu \--
-*n.line,
. L w*Er *'li" Along BB' the shielding still I
I in
k:L
;il;,i'u, tt-t. vertical stress the trough of
where o,.,, is the average stress and is equal to in. ,i*f*e is now higher.than for AA' due to
F /A. Equation (2.19) shows that ths
"lJairirnal weight oJ the stifle.r layers'
r
t-,
1.sni ,i.
stress in each element can differ from the iig"r. Z.fl illustrates that in folded rock
I
iv
I
I
tr

t*
 Effectoftopography 51
I

\.lS--\YZZ,'
l

S\\\i:=-,jiZ7 ,a
l\N., .Ns-!=:=:;;-Z
\':-==: /4::;,El
l^ 1\1\\\rlTff-.WZ7ilz
B
\\\il\\.,;\\\ Z://',la,l:
z-</-./l=/;-

N\.\\\^\:i:=_;? jj-?7i277
I

L1

J
N

Y l2
b
_AN,.-'/---\----
,{

v i
1

4/ Fig. 2.20 Rock mass with a complex topography

0
--l consisting of a series of hills and valleys and no
I
Fig, 2.19 Variation of vertical stress along tunnel surface loads.

-
alignment at tr,tro different depths along AA, and
BB' in a folded sedimentary rock formation consist-
ing of stiffer beds surrounded by softer beds. (After
regions, near valley slopes or near large open
Goodman,1989.)
pit mines. Slopes and valley walls create
t11
(' masses, the in sifrl stress field at a given depth unbalanced stress concentrations in the walls

tr il should not be expected to be uniform even

though the ground surface is horizontal
/. (Voight, 1966a).
F
I
of nearby underground excavations (Chaplow
and Eldred, 1984; Haimson, 1984; Judd, l9G4),
which may result in overstressed phenomena
such as rockbursts, spalling, squeezing or frac-
turing. Examples of such phenomena have
i

2.8 EFFECT OF TOPOGRAPHY been reported by Brekke and Selmer-Olsen

I

(1966), Broch and Sorheim (i984), Martna and

2,8.1 MODELING THE,EFFECT OF
i Hansen (1986), Martna (1988), Ahola (1990),
TOPOGRAPHY
i
l Myrvang, Hansen and Sorensen (1993) and
The simplifying assumption that the principal Myrvang (1993), among others.
1

l
I

)
stresses are vertical and horizontal with depth The effect of topography on in situstresses is l
I
breaks down when the ground surface is not also very important when selecting the safe
i
horizontal. Consider, for instance, a semi- position of pressure tunnels and shafts near
I
I
I

infinite isotropic, homogeneous rock mass slopes and valley walls (Broch, 1984). The aim \
with a complex topography consisting of a in pressure tunnel and shaft design is to maxi-
\
{
series of hills and valleys and no surface loads, mize the opening length which stays
as shown in Fig. 2.20. The rock mass is under with a minimum risk of water leakage.
unlined /
Selmer- L
gravity aione with no lateral displacements. Olsen (1974) proposed a criteriory which uses
Because of the traction-free boundary condi- the finite element method, to determine
the in
tions, the principal stresses are parallel and situ state of stress in valley sides. Then, the
normal to the ground surface. With depth pressure tunnel or shaft location is aligned
t, A

the principal stresses approach the same such that the internal water pressure is always I i-t
directions as when the ground surface is less than the minimum in situ principal stress
fl '
l'
horizontal. in the surrounding rock mass. ' €
Knowledge of the effect of topography on Other examples of the effect of topography
stress distributions is of particular interest on in silu stresses can be found in Hooker,
when conducting excavation in mountainous Bickel and Aggson (1972), Briickl and
 52 Estimating in situ stresses

Scheidegger (7974), Myrvang (7976), Clark problems. A third approach for two- and
and Newman (1977), Scheidegger (7977), three-dimensional problems in isotropic
White, Hoskins and Nilssen (1978), Haimson media is the perturbation method discussed
(7979), Bauer, Holland and Parrish (1985), by McTigue and Mei (1981, 1987), McTigue
Swolfs and Savage (1985) and Kanagawa et al. and Stein (1984), Srolovitz (1989), Gao (1991),
(1986), among others. For instance, before con- and Liu and Zoback (1992). Liao, Savage and
struction of the Eisenhower Memorial Tunnel Amadei (1992) also used the perturbation
in Colorado, White, Hoskins and Nilssen method for two-dimensional problems in
(1978) found that the measured principal stres- anisotropic rock masses. The advantage of the
ses were essentially paraliel and perpendicu- perturbation method is that it can handle any
lar to the continental divide ridge crossing the smooth topographic features. However, the
tunnel axis. Similar examples of alignment of solutions derived with that method are
measured stresses at shallow depth with the restricted to topographies with slopes not
topography can be found in Haimson (1979). exceeding 10%.
Finally, Bauer, Holland and Parrish (1985) and In spite of their limitations, allthe solutions
(1985) showed that the I derived with the bipolar coordinate transfor-
^Swolfs aldjayqge
ffi topography, stratigraphy ) mation method, the exact conformal mapping
and rock mass structure needs to be con- ) method and the perturbation method cleariy
sidered when predicting in situ stresses at thei show that topography can have a major effect
Yucca Mountain site in Nevada. (
on the magnitude and distribution of in situ
It is difficult to determine analytically the in stresses. For instance, the expressions in
slfu stress field in a rock mass with an irregular Savage,'swolfs and Powers (1985) for gravita-
surface using the theory of elasticity. The effect tional stresses in long, symmetric, isotropic
of surface irregularities on stresses has been ridges and valleys clearly depend on the
addressed in the literature using different ana- geometry of the topography and on the
lytical methods. Ling (1947) used a bipolar Poisson's ratio of the rock. It was found that
coordinate transformation method to deter- non-zero horizontai compressive stresses
mine stresses in an elastic and isotropic con- develop at and near ridge crests and that
tinuum with a notch in the form of an arc of a $rorizontal tensile stresses develop under val-
.-\_d-..-"--y=----,_

circle (representing a valley or a hill) and leFThe horizonJdl compressive stresses in

subjected to lateral loading only. Another ridge crests decrease and the horizontal tensile
method is the exact conformal mapping stresses in valleys become more compressive
method as studied by Akhpatelov and with increasing Poisson's ratio. Also the ten-
Ter-Martirosyan (1971), Ter-Martirosyan, sile region under valleys increases laterally as
Akhpatelov and Manvelyan (1974), valleys broaden. Savage, Swolfs and Powers
Ter-Martirosyan and Akhpatelov (1972), (1985) also found that broader ridges affect the
Savage, Swolfs and Powers (1985)andlavage stress field to greater depths. On the other
. "(1994) for gravity loading only, and by Savage hand, for valleys the topography-induced
\,'- and Swolfs (1986) for gravity and tectonic stresses were found to approach the far-field
loading. Chiu and Cao (tgga) also used that stresses more rapidly.
method to predict stress concentrations in an As shown by Savage and Swolfs (1986),
elastic continuum with a cycloid rough surface superposing the effect of a uniaxial tectonic
sgbject to lateral loading only. The exact con- compression acting normal to the axial pianes
formal mapping method is limited to isotropic of isolated symmetric ridges and valleys on
media, to a very few smooth topographic pro- the gravitational stresses results in a slight
files for which conformal mapping functions increase in the lateral component of the com-
. can be found exactly, and to two-dimensional pressive stresses at the ridge crests. Under the

t?
L
L
valley bottoms, this superposition results in a
t_
decrease in the tensile stresses. The opposite
effects occur when a far-field tectonic tension
is superposed on the gravitational stress field.
\-; McTigue and Mei (1981,, 1987) and Liao,
I
Savage and Amadei (1992) showed that topog-
raphy affects gravitational stress distributions
even in areas of low regional slopes of less
than 10%. Liao, Savage and Amadei (1992)
*1 also concluded that the magnitude of the
(." I
horizontal stress in transversely isotropic and
-l orthotropic ridges and valleys depends
-l strongly on the rock's elastic properties and
the orientation of the rock mass fabric with
'r respect to the ground surface. For instance, for
horizontally layered rock masses, the hori-
'r zontal stress at a given ciepth below a ridge
'iLl was found to increase with the ratio of hori-
zontal to vertical Young's moduli En/E, (or, in
other words, as the rock mass becomes more
I
deformable in the vertical direction). For a
given value of. En/E" ) 1, the horizontal stress
I
I and valleys (Pan, Amadei and Savage, 7995).
'.- i is the greatest for ridges that are horizontally
.l layered and the smallest for ridges that are
vertically layered. For valleys with horizontal
-l iayers, it was found that the tensile region
I
at the bottom of the valleys decreases as
tr the ratio of horizontal to vertical moduli in-
Ll creases (or, in other words, as the rock mass
becomes more deformable in the vertical
I
direction).
Because of the limitations of the conformal
mapping and perturbation methods, numeri-
cal methods such as the finite element and
boundary element methods were, until
recently, the only other alternative to deter-
mine ln slfu stresses in rock masses with com-
plex topographies. As an example, Fig. 2.21,
shows the results of a finite element analysis
conducted for the Hochkonig massif in
\_i
I
I
Austria by Sturgul, Scheidegger and
(_l
I
Greenshpan (1976). Another example of finite
I
i element analysis to study the effect of topog-
i
raphy onin situ stresses was reported by Kohl-
beck, Scheidegger and Sturgul (1979).
Recently, the limitations of the conformal
mapping and perturbation methods have been
Effectoftopography 53
overcome with a new analytical method pro-
posed by Pan and Amadei(1994) to determine
the stress field in homogeneous, general aniso-
tropic and elastic half-spaces subject to grav-
ity, surface loads and far-field uniform stresses
associated with tectonic loading under a con-
dition of generalized plane strain and limited
by an irregular (but smooth) outer boundary
such as that shown in Fig. 2.22.In the ana-
lytical solutions, the stresses are expressed in
terms of three analytical functions that can be
determined using a numerical conformal
mapping method and an integral equation
method. The solutions have been used to
determine the stresses induced by gravity in
long symmetric and asymmetric ridges and
valleys (Pan and Amadei, 1993; Pan and
Amadei, l994;Pan,Amadei and Savage ,1994),
and the stresses induced by gravity or com-
bined gravity and uniaxial horizontal tectonic
loading in symmetric and asymmetric ridges
Parametric studies were conducted for trans-
versely isotropic ridges and valleys with
planes of anisotropy striking parallel to the
ridge or valley axis. The effect of (1) topog-
raphy, (2) orientation of anisotropy and (3)
degree of anisotropy on the magnitude and
distribution of gravitational stresses was
investigated. A summary of the parametric
study is presented below.
2.8.2 SYMMETRIC RIDGES AND VALLEYS
UNDER CRAVITY ONLY
Consider a long, isolated, symmetric ridge
with the geometry of Fig. 2.23a.The medium
in the half-space is assumed to be linearly
elastic, homogeneous, anisotropic and con-
tinuous with a uniform density p. An x, A,z
coordinate system is attached to the half-space
such that the x- and z-axes are in the horizontal
plane and the y-axts points upward. The half-
space geometry and the medium's elastic
properties are assumed to be independent of
the z direction. The medium is assumed to
deform under a condition of generalized plane
 o
U)
,p 0,)

EE E
oo
oo
o
o
|oo to E
NN o
c (U
\a
i;Pctifr
U
U-
Er mg ilg u.q
CP O
: O\O
(/]N
.-(Oro\
H: 5u au L O_
rO(U U
o.: o- boE
N
('
lo
NNN .!:o c _-:
^(E ^
N
=9s
gPu
O c'E
(L(do 8,?
* 2=2= ; a8
vk
dEE9H9
<? <o )o E 6\J
cEi rEo oo E
0)*
Cg li
NffiN E
(!
..(E
-!
EqJ
qbO
g=g ,,,5
6v6 E; -a)
Eet X 3 V.t
:OJ
?E9E=X
fl cif >o
E
'6' U)d{
?-r
mEE g
;b0
o^
-o P!
=,
6- (n .il

i*
uJ
J \y
C!H
_.:
lN
.;r
!.a \i<
lE
z el.E 3,;
6'6
olo
olc
olo
trx
rl
lr .ibo9
le G(E
Op
l.<

3d
E0)
HE
6 ;FOJ a.)
6
c
o
o^,
? E P.i
2 o Htr
Ii l

E"r 6O
o> .d€
2l FO
P< o'r
r_l o(!
oo u-
5t
tl Eoi
;i:
OD;
.Uo)

UH
/= "J os-
Tn
z- (,'E
tO
.eb
(r!
;3i
o-
!oo
=lE.tf
ol (Ev
6'- olc (' l,

;5E,
O
ol(! (gH
) o.9;6
9t
Fl
l!
I L
l(^
tro)

l'
g E.o lol 0J lr
E
o=-O:
F(,
Es3 OJ.l
66=
(U

tJ< O.
riO
N.v
oi ,-:.
.(s
b0-

Fig. 2.22 Half-space limited by a boundary curve
y = y(x) and subject to gravity.
t:
\*
strain, e.g. all planes normal to the z-axis are
assumed to warp identically with e, = 0. As
x --+ + m, the lateral horizontal strains 6, and
yxz approach zero. The boundary curve of the
L
Fig.2.23 (a) Symmetric ridge of height b; (b) sym-
metric valley of depth lbl.
-i
Effectoftopograplry 55
half-space is defined by an analytic function
y = y(x) or in parametric form
x(t) :f (-*<r< +*) (2.20)
y(t):a'b11t'+a')
where b is the ridge height and is assumed to
be positive. If b is negative, equation (2.20)
corresponds to a long, isolated, symmetric
valley where lbl is the depth of the valiey (Fig.
2.23b). The parameter a in equation (2.20) is
defined by the inflection points of the bound-
ary curve. They are locaied at x: * a/(g)1/2
and y = at which the slopes are equal to
* 13b(3)'9,75b
' ') /(Bn). For instance, for a / lbl: 0.5, 1
ardZ, the slopes at the inflection points of the
ridges and valleys are equal to + 1.30 (52.4"),
+ 0.65 (33.0") and + 0.32 (18"), respectively.
Using the analytical solution of Pan and
Amadei (1994), the stresses can be determined
at each point (x, y) in the ridge and valley of
Figs 2.23a and 2.23b, respectively. The rock
mass can be orthotropic or transversely iso-
tropic in an n, s, f coordinate system inclined
with respect to the x-, A- and z-axes. The
orientation of the n, s, t coordinate system with
respect to the x-, y- and z-axes is defined by a
dip azimuth B and a dip angle 14 as shown in
Fig.2.24. The f-axis is located in tire x, zplane.
PLANE OF
sl. SYMMETRY
n
(\ \',
il\i
w
t'\ \
l2
z
RIDGE OR
VALLEY
AXIS
Fig.2.24 Orientation of planes of symmetry with
respect to the r, y,
z coordinate system attached to
the ridge or valley.
56 Estimatfug in situ stresses
As shor,r,n by Pan and Amadei (1994) and Pan,
Amadei and Savage (1994),the ratios between
the six stress components oii(i, j : x, U, z) and a
characteristic stress pglbl depend on the
dimensionless ratios of elastic constants such
as Ef E', G/G' , v and v' for transversely iso-
tropic rocks. The stress ratios o4 /pglbl also
depend on (1) the orientation angles B and r4 of
the planes of anisotropy with respect to the x-,
y- andz-axes attached to the ridge or valley, (2)
the coordinates (x/lbl, yllbl) of the points at
which the stresses are calculated and (3) the
ratios sllbl andb/lbl describing the geometry
of the ridge or valley.
ln general, at each point in the ridge and
valley of Figs 2.23a, b, the stress field is three-
dimensional and the principal stress compo-
nents are inclined with respect to the x-,y- an!
z-axes attached to the ridge or valley. For the
special case when there is a plane of elastic
symmetry normal to the z-axts ofFigs2.23a,b,
it can be shown that two of the three principal
stresses induced by gravity are located in the
x, y plane normal to the ridge or valley axis
and that the longitudinal stress o,, is the third
principal stress. This special case takes place
(1)when the dip azimuth/ in Fig. 2.24is zero
and the dip angle 14 varies between 0 and 90o,
or (2) when both B uld ,Z are equal to 90".
As a numerical example, Figs 2.25a-h show
the gravitational stress regime for a ridge and
a valley with a/lbl:1 in a transversely iso-
tropic rock mass with EfE':GfC'=3,
v :0.25 and v' : 0.15 with vertical anisotropy
(rr :90"). in this example, the geometry of
Figsl.Z3a,b and Z.2lrsadopted with planes of
transverse isotropy parallel to the ridge or
valley axis (B : 0o). In Figs 2.25a-f the stress
distributions are presented using trajectories
and contours of dimensionless stresses
o, / pglbl and o2 / pglbl wher€ 01 and o2 are the
maximum and minimum in-plane principal
stresses in the x,y planenormal to the ridge or
valley axis. Only the right halves of the plots of
stress trajectories and contours are presented
because of symmetry. As expected, the
principal stresses in Figs 2.25a,b are no longer
horizontal and vertical as for flat ground but
are oriented parallel and normal to the ground
surface along the boundary of the ridge and
valley and gradually turn to become hori-
zontal and vertical with depth. Figure 2.25c
indicates that the largest value of the maxi-
mum compressive principal stress o1/oglbl is
reached on the sides of the ridge (0.33 at
xllbl: t 0.94). For the ridge, the contours of
the minimum compressive stress o2 / pglbltend
to foilow the ridge shape (Fig. 2.25d). For the
valley, Figs 2.25e-f indicate that there is a
concentration of tensile stress o, / pglbl at the
valley bottom (- 0.51 at x/lbl: 0) and that the
maximum stress or l pglbl is compressive with
contours that follow the valley shape. Figures
2.259, h shorr,, the variation of the vertical
stress o* lpglbl and the horizontal stresses
or,/pglbl and o,,lpglbl with ylbl along the
ridge and valley centerline (x/lbl:0). The
short dashed lines in those two figures repre-
sent the variation of the standard vertical and
I-
I
lr
horizontal stresses for the case when b = 0; I!-
that is, when the ground surface is flat. The
I
topographically induced stresses in the ridge
and valley become, with increasing depth,
asymptotic to the standard stresses. The stress
regime is or, ( orrl o*. v
Several major trends were observed by Pan,
Amadei and Savage (1994) after conducting a
parametric study withE lE' and G / G' varying U
between 1 and 3, Y= 0.25 and v' ranging
between 0.15 and 0,35. The topographic ratio
allblwas taken equal to 0.5, L or 2, correspond-
ing to ridges and valleys with slopes at their
inflection points equal to + 1.30 (52.4"), + 0.65
(33.0") and * 0.32 (18"), respectively. The dip
angle ry varied betr,veen 0" (horizontal aniso-
tropy) and 90" (vertical anisotropy).
i
(a) Effect of dip angle and degree of
anisotropy
At a given depth, the horizontal stress o,, /
pglbl decreases as the dip angle t4 increases.
This stress is the greatest for ridges and valleys
with horizontal anisotropy and the smallest
\.-
 I

I
Effectoftopography 57

o/psb = t (a)
+\ H
I
tt \\
I

\\ -0.5
l

\
I
I
I \ E
\\ }-r.o
i
j

I
I

I
I

-2.0
1
1
i
I
xlb x/lbl
I

1.0
l

I
L
o1lpglbl (c) o2lpslbl (d)
0.5 qD
I
I

,'
-o
0 0
!s
I
.o
I
-0.5 -0.5

I 0.28

-1.0 0.32

"l
t' -1.5
0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0
l xlb xlb
i
I
0 0
i

(e) o,/pstbt (f) o2lpgtbt

)

-0.5 0.2
-0.5
l
l OA

0.6
-1.0 -1.0
0.8
E o
1.0

-1.5 1.2 -1.5

1.4

1.6
-2.0
't.8

2.0

-2.5
0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2,0
x/lbl x/lbl
 58 Esthnating in situ stresses

1.0
(h)
I

(g)
I

I
I

I I

____t -1.0
I
----- Flat ----- Flat
\
_ oxx oxx
ayy
-1.0 -"- oyy -2.0
\\.
--"-
--- 6zz --- 6zz
-o .o \\
\r '\.
-2.0 -3.0 \\ \\
\'\
-3.0 -4.0

-4.0 -5.0 I I l\.

1012345 -1 01234
o/pgb o/pglbl

Fig. 2.25 Gravitational stress regime for a ridge and a valley with a/lbl= 1 in a strongly transversely
iso"tropic rock mass (E /E' = G /G' = 3, v = 0.25,i' = 0.15 and p/ = 90"). Stress trajectories for the ridge in
(a)

and the valley in (b), or / pglbl and, o, / pglblstress contours for the ridge in (c) and (d) and for the valley in.(e)
\,
and (0, and variation of i* l pglbl, o,,7 pglbl and o* lpglblwithy /lbl along the ridge and valley centerline
variation of the standard
@/lul=g) in (g) and (h). ine"rno.t daJhed lines"in (g) and (h) represent the
stresses in the ibsence of topography for this case of inisotropy. The shaded region in (b) represents the
extent of the tensile region at the valley bottom. (After Pan, Amadei and Savage, 1994.)

for ridges and valieys with vertical anisotropy. vertical direction). For vertical anisotropy the
The principal stresses adjust to the horizontal effect of E/E' onthe magnitude of o,r I pglblis
0
and vertical directions more rapidly with small. For inclined planes of anisotroPY, an
f,\ depth for vertical planes of anisotropy increase in E /E' results in a decrease in o** f
(tt :90") than when the planes of anisotropy pillbl.
are horizontal(y = 0o), For rocks with inclined
planes of anisotropy, the principal stiess tlajec- (b) Effect of ridge and valley geometry
tories and the tensile region are no longer The maximum value of o1/ pglbl along the
symmetric with respect to the vertical axial
ground surface increases with a/lbl The loca-
planes of the ridge and valley. For a fixed
tion where the stress maximum is reached on
value of E /E' , the value of the ratio G/G' has
the sides of the ridge moves farther away from
no effect on the variation of o*, /pglbl with the ridge axis as allbl increases or, in other L

depth for rock masses with horizontal and

words, as the ridge broadens. Also, the vari-
vertical anisotropy. On the other hand, for
ation of o, /pglbl along the ground surface
inclined planes of anisotropy, the ratro G/G'
becomes gentler as allbl increases. The lateral
has a strong effect where an increase in G /G'
extent of the tensile region at the valiey bottom
(as the rock mass becomes more deformable in
increases with allbl or, in other words, as the
shear in planes normal to the planes of trans-
valley slope decreases.
verse isotropy) results in an increase tn orrf
pglbl and a decrease of the tensile region at the
(c) Depth of influence of topography
valley bottom. For a fixed value of G/G' ,ElE'
affects the value of o,,lpglbl the most for Broader ridges and vaileys affect the stress
horizontal anisotropy where o,,/pglbl in- field to a greater depth and to a wider area. For
creases with E/E' (or in other words as the a given ridge geometry, the effect of the topog-
rock mass becomes more deformable in the raphy on the stresses at depth is the strongest
\*- i

\-i Effect oftopography 59

I
for ridges and valleys in rock masses with Equations
\-l (2.21) and (2.22) correspond to the
vertical planes of anisotropy.
geometric superposition of i = 1, N symmetric
or valleys x(t), yi(t) centered ui r = r,.If
lidges
(d) Tensile region at valley bottoms D1|s nosi1iv9, equation (2.22) corresponds
to a
i" ridge with height bi.If biis negative, equation
maximum tensile stress is at the valley
1 Ih:
bottom and
Q.22) corresponds to a valley with deptn
lb;1.
/ for isotropicthe zone of tension is symmetric The parameter ai controls the lateral extent
of
rocks and for transveiseiy iso-
I tropic rocks with vertical and horizontal
each ridge or valley with inflection points
I :
located at x = xi * ai /(3)1/2, y 0.75b; at which
planes of anisotropy. It the planes of aniso_
J tropy are inclined, the tension zone is no
the.slopes are equal to t 3b;(3)1/2/(ga11.Thus
\ \9nge\ s;nrrrte\rtc and ex\ends on the
different complex and smooth topographies
I
\ side ol can be obtained by choosin g d ifferint'
p ositive
I
( the valley that is dipping in the same
direction or negative values of a;, bilnd x; for i
= 1, N.
I
as the planes of anisotropy. The
'1 the other side of
valley experiences a compressive state
As an example, Figs2.26a,b show asymmetric
of topographies obtained by superposition
I
of
i
stress. For a given valley geometry
and a given N: 2 symmetric ridges - oi valleys,
value of the dip angll ry, the extent
I
of the respectively.
tensile region depends on the value
I
I of the _
For geometries such as those of Fig sZ.26a,b,
I
elastic properties. For a fixed value
of G/G,, Pan and Amadei (1999) have show"n
that the
the size of the tensile region decreases
as E / E, ratios between the six stress components
increases, It also decreaies as G o4
i /G, increases (i,j= x,y,z) and a characteristic stress pgldj
I
for a fixed value of E / E, .The size of the (where ldl is a characteristic elevation)
tensile dep;d
I
region decreases significantly as v, increases.
on the dimensionless ratios of elastic
For given values of the rock Llastic constants
properties such as E/E', G/G,, y and y, for transversely
I
and the dip angle of the planes of transverse isotropic rocks. The stress ratios oi1/pgldl
isotropy, the extent of the tensile abL
region depend on (1) the orientation anglesf ind
ra of
decreases as the topography ratio a/lblae&e*
the planes of anisotropy with relpect
ses, that is,
to the r_,
I
valley beiomes narrower. y- and z-axes attached to the ridge or valley
i:an. (Fi9.2.24), (2) the coordinates
it
lxilal, Vtlal)
2,8,3 ASYMMETRIC the points at which the stresses are caiculaied,
RIDGES AND VALLEYS
and (3) the ratios ai/ldl, biAdl and xi/ldl
UNDER GMVITY ONLY foi
i =.ry describing the geometry of the asym_
As shown by pan and Amad ei (1993, I9g4), metric ridge or valley.
asymmetric topographies can be obtained As a numerical example, Fig. 2.27a shows
by
superposition of the topography of the contours of maximum piincipal stress
several
\ symmetric_ridges and valleys. ft e topography o, / pgldl (with , : Ur) for the ridge
l of Fig.
! I
is assumed to be smooth and to be
in parametric form as follows:
expressed 2.26a and for a rock mass with E/E,
GfG':3, v:0,25, y,:0.15 and
:i,
V=90o.
Figure 2.27b shows the variation of o,
I x(t):t (-*<f <+co)
along the ground surface for E/E,
/ pgldl
N
(2.21) =7,2 and
3. We note from Fig. 2.27a that near the
-:'
= l:L.y,(t)
I ground surface, the distribution of o1/ pgldl
is
'G) complicated with local maxima and minima.
i
with As shown in Fig. 2.27b, the 1ocation of those
I

extrema is controlled by the surface topog_

v,(il=#;i (2.22) luphy
and their magnitude decreases u, E/E,
mcreases.
60 Estimating in situ stresses
2,8.4 RIDGES AND VALLEYS UNDER GMVITY
AND TECTONIC LOADING
The effect of horizontal tectonic loading on lru
slla stresses in rock masses with smooth and
irregular topographies constructed by the
superposition of multiple long and symmetric
ridges and valleys was analyzed recently by
Pan, Amadei and Savage (1995). It was found
that addition of a horizontal uniaxial compres-
sion to gravity increases slightly the horizontal
compression at the crests of ridges and dimin-
ishes the horizontal tension in valley bottoms.
Let oirbe a uniform tectonic stress acting in
the r direction of Fig.2.22.For the geometry of
Figs 2.26a, b, the ratios between the six stress
components oii (i, j : x, y, z) and a character-
istic stress pgldl (where ldl is a characteristic
Y=Yl+Yz
Yr
Yz
tf,>"b, .)r <-
=::--.L'-''I
x1 i 0 t.
x1-a1i!3 x1+a1l!3
Fig. 2.25 Asymmetric topographies obtained by superposition of two separate symmetric ridges and
ualleys (a) b, / ldl= 0.5 and bz / ldl = 1, b) b' / ldl = - 0.5 and bz I ldl =
x, /ldl: - 1 and xz/ldl= 1. (After Pan and Amadei, 1993')
elevation) depend on the ratio oi, lpgldl n
addition to the same parameters as under
gravity alone.
As a numerical example, Figs 2.28a-f show
stress contour diagrams below a complex
(asymmetric) topography similar to that
analyzed by Swolfs and Savage (1985). Here,
y(0) is the characteristic height equal to the
elevation of the topography at x = 0. The rock
is transversely isotropic with planes of trans-
verse isotropy striking parallel to the z-axis of
Fig. 2.24 (/ = 0") and dipping at an angle
V =30o in the *r direction. The rock mass
elastic properties are such that Ef E' :2,
G /G' :1 and Y = v' = 0.25.
The contour diagrams ol o,,lpgy(0), orr/
pgy(O) and o* /pg(O) in Figs 2.28a-< were
obtained assuming that the rock mass is under
I
b2
I
xz I
x2-a21tr3 " x2+a2113
lb,l
- 1. In (i) and (b) at lldl= L, az /ldl = 1,
 Effect of topography 61.

gravity alone. For comparison, Figs 2.2gd-f
show the corresponding stress contour dia-
grams when the rock mass is now subjected to
combined gravitational loading and far-field
horizontal tectonic loading o7,: pgy(0). The
contours of oo, /pW\ nearly follow the ridge
and valley shape (Figs 2.28b, e). Also, concen-
I trations o{ cornprcssive skess o*, (pgy(t\ urr(
shear stress o*/lg!(0) can be seen in the
L
effect on the magnitude of the vertical stress
o* / pgy(O) (Fig. 2.28b, e).
2.8.5 TENSILE STRESSES iN VALLEY BOTTOMS
Al1 the aforementioned analyticai solutions
pre(\$ \er's\\e s\rrsses rn .va\\ey bo\\oms.
There is field evidence to support that predic-

valley atx/y(0) = 1.6 in FigsZ.Zga,2.2gc,2.2gd
?\l??sl.Comparing Figs 2.28a-c wirh Figs
l 2.28d-f shows that addition of a far-field hoii-
l zontal tectonic stress pye) increases the mag_
I
tion. For instance, Knill (1968) found thit there
is usually a zone near the valley surface in
which the rock mass is loose and discontinu-
ous. Because of this, Knill (1968) suggested

nitude of o*/pWQ) near the ground surfaie that underground excavation, tunneling or
I
I
I
and, to a greater extent, increaies the magni_ dam foundation should be carried out well
tude of the horizontal stress o* /pglbl. for below this zone. Another piece of evidence for
instance at x/y(0) = 1.6, the magnitude of the r,,alley bottom tensile stress is rebound near
concentration of o,,/pye) is about 0.g6 valley bottoms and valley walls, as noted by
l

under gravity alone and is 2.5 if horizontal Matheson and Thomson (1973). This
I
tectonic loading is added. Also, addition of the up-warping phenomenon may be considered
far-field horizontal tectonic stress has little as a result
I
of tensile stresses (Matheson and

1.50

I
1.00

0.50 il\rTt\3i=
I
E0
I
> -0.50

-1.00
i

l -1.50

-2.00
I -3

E/E'=1
i

- ' EtE'=2 (b) I

l
I
T(,, + E/E'.= 3 I
I

--- Topo y/ldl I

b E
i
l
0

x/ldl
I
Fig.2.27 (a)Contours of.or/1glr.l,fortheridge oftig.2.26awith1r :90o,E/E,=1,G/G,=3,v=0.25and
I

v' = 0'15' (b) Variation of o, /pglalalong the

[round"surface. (After pan and Amadei, 1993.)
i

l
 62 Estimating in situ stresses

1.0 1.0

0.5 0.5

0.0 0.0

o
:= -----------o.o
\ -0.5
-o.o -0.5

-1.0

-2.0
-2.5 -2.0 -0.5 0.0 2.5 3.0
x/y(0)

1.0

0.5

0.0 0-0

o
-0.5

-1.0 -1.0

-1.5

-2.4
-0.5 0.0 0.5 1.0 1 .5 2.0

x/y(0) Y

1.0 1'

0.5 0.5

0.0 0.0

o
-0.5 -0.5

-1.0 -1.0

-2.5 -2.O - 1 .5 - 1 .0 -0.5 0.0 0.s 1 .0 1 .5 2.A 2.5 J.0

x/v(o)

Fig.2.28 Contour diagrams of o,, / pgy(O), oo I pgy(O) and o*, / pgA(0) in a transversely isotropic rock mass
(ElE' :2, G/G' =1,y=v'=0.25, f =0o andry = 30") under gravity onlyin (a), (b)and (c), respectively,
and under combined gravitational and tectonic loading with oL = pgy$) in (d), (e) and (f), respectively.
Topography obtained by superposition of N=4 ridges and valleys with ai/y(0):1 for i:1.4,
h/yQ) =0.8983, bz/yQ)=7.2657, bs/yQ)= -2.1186, bn/yQ)=1.3438, x1/y(0):0, xz/y$)=L.35,
xs /yQ) = 1.6, xa /y(0) = 2.1. (After Pary Amadei and Savage ,7995.)
 I

I
Effect oftopography 6g
I
1;0

i
I

i
a.,

,rI
t
I G-z--'*
t/.
<
\----------/
,/ L1.4
0.5

0.0
l
o
-05 l-
I -0.5

I
,rI -1.0
I

- 1.5

I
-r., I
-J.0 -0.5 0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0
-2.0
I
I

I
x/y(0)

I
1.0
1.0
I
I
i
0.5
0.5

0.0
0.0
-i
I
o
l
> -0.5
-0.5

-1.0
-1.0
I

I
-1.5
-1.5

-2.0
-3.0 -2.5 -2.A 0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0
-2.O

x/y(0)

1.0
1.0
I

0.5
0.5

0.0
0.0
I o
I > -0.5
> -0.5

l
- 1.0
-1.0

I
- t.5
- I-)
i

0.0 0.5 I .O 1.5 -2.0

2.0
:
x/y(0)
l

Fig.2.28 Continued
l

Thomson, 1973; Silvestri and Tabib, 19g3a, b).

l
on the nature and frequency of coal mine roof
James (1997) also described the evidence of failure beneath valleys, Molinda et al. (1992)
i
tensile stresses near valley bottoms, such as found that 52% of the unstable roof cases in
bed separation and bedding fractures at the
the surveyed mines occurred directly beneath
toes of deep_valleys and open (tension)joints
l
the bottom-most part of the valieys. The
deep into valley sides. By conducting a survey
suruey also showed that broad, flat-bottomed

t
1
64 Estimating in situ stresses

valleys were more likely to be sites of hazard- ridges and trench suction; and (2) local tec-
ous roof conditions than narrow-bottomed tonic stresses related to bending of the litho-
valleys. sphere due tosurface loads, isostatic fl

compensation and downbending of oceanic (

2.9 TECTONIC AND RESIDUAT STRESSES
2.9,1, TECTONICSTRESSES
Current geological structures and their obser-
vations provide incontestable evidence of past
and current tectonic activities. Several mech-
anisms related to plate tectonics have been
lithosphere. Tectonic stresses related to plate
tectonics are typically yery uniform over areas
larger than 10 000 km' (Herget, 1993). Voight
(1966a) also suggested classifying (in a
broader sense) stresses due to erosion and
overconsolidation as tectonic; the rationale
being that such stresses can be responsible for i

proposed to model tectonic stresses (Solomon,
Richardson and Bergman, 1980; Solomon,
Sleep and Richardson 1975; Sykes and Sbar,
1973; Turcotte, 1973; T[rrcotte and Oxburgh,
1973; Yoight, 1971.; Voight and Hast, 1969).
More recently, the World Stress Map Project
was able to outline some global patterns of
tectonic stresses in the lithosphere (Zoback,
1992; Zoback,1993; Zoback et a1.,7989). TWo
groups of forces shown in Fig. 2.29 were iden-
tified as being responsible for tectonic stresses:
(1) broad-scale tectonic forces acting on litho-
the formation of deformational elements such
as fractures.
ln general, it is difficult to differentiate
between active and remnant tectonic stresses
by looking at geological structures alone.
Although this distinction may not be of major
concern to engineers, it is important to geol-
ogists and geophysicists. The current state of
stress in an area may not always be related to
the geological structures that we see today. It is
likely that it has changed during past tectonic
events such as folding and faulting. This iU
I

spheric plate boundaries such as shear trac- emphasizes the importance of stress history l-
I

tions at the base of the lithosphere, slab pull at which can be inferred, only in part, from i

f.,
i

subduction zones, ridge push from oceanic kinematic analysis. iv

I

!i-
I

. SOURCES OF TECTONIC STRESS I

DIRECTION
OF MOTION +

-@- @o

@ttt BBOAD.SCALE TECTONIC FORCES

1. SHEAR TRACTION AT BASE OF LITHOSPHERE
2. NET SLAB PULL AT SUBDUCTION ZONES
3. RIDGE PUSH FROM OCEANIC RIDGES
4. TRENCH SUCTION ON OVERRIDING PLATE
LOCAL TECTONIC STRESSES
5. BENDING DUE TO SURFACE LOADS
6. ISOSTATIC COMPENSATION
7. DOWNBENDING OF OCEANIC LITHOSPHEBE

Fig.2.29 Forces responsible for tectonic stresses. (After Zobacket al',1989.)

 Tectorric and residual stresses 65
It is noteworthy that normal horizontal tec_
tion, drilling or coring, some of the residual
tonic stresses do not have to be necessarily
stresses contribute to instantaneous deforma_
equal on opposite sides of a region. If this
T
is tion and the rest to time-dependent deforma_
the case, boundary shear stresri, ur. needed
'l in order to satisfy static equilibrium. This
create rotation of the principal stresses
may
tion (Voight, 1966a; Nichols an d Sav age, 1976;
Bielenstein and Barron ,7971).In ordeito
sepa_
in the rate the short-term deformations associated
region of interest (Voight, tiOOay.
with residual stresses from the short_term
deformations associated with active tectonic
vi
I

2.9,2 RESIDUAL STRESSES and gravitational stresses, overcoring or

undercoring of overcored or undercored slpeci_
Residual stresses are ,self equilibrating stres_
mens or specimens cut from a rock mass can
ses that remain in a structure if externui
l
for.es be carried out (Bielenstein aird Barron,
and moments are removed, (Voight, 1966a).In l97l;
I
Friedman, 1972; Gentry, 1973; Lang,
rock mechanics they are also caliea internal
or Thompson and Ng, 19g6; Nichols, 1975;
'locked-in' stresses. Residual stresses appear
Nichols and Savage, 1976; Russell and Hos_
to be related to a system of balanced (and
-'t
not kins, 1973; Sbar et al., 1979),
l
necessarily zero) tensile and compressive
Residual stresses can remain in rock masses
forces which are contained in domui.,
,ung_ which have been subject in the past to higher
..l
ing from the micro-scale (grains and crystali)
stresses than they are subject to today or
to the macro-scale. The piese.,ce of residual different to
I
conditions. As fhose rock masses
stresses and strains leads to the existence
of tend to relax under reduced load (due
internal residual strain energy which can to
be erosion or uplift, for instance) or temperature
l
critical for the stability of underground open_
I

I
changes (due to cooling), restraints are created
ings and surface excavations in ick. Residual
by the interlocking fabric of the rock itself. The
stresses are believed to be responsible (in
part) rock then reaches a new equilibrium
for phenomena such ,, ,o.kbrrsts, rock with
sur_ balanced internal (tensile ,r,l .o*p.essive)
I
face spalling and sheet jointing (Varnes,
1920) forces. For instance, Savage (1g7g) was able
and time-dependent, mpvements of excava_ to
gh9*, using a thermoelaitic bisphere model
tions such as those encountered in the Niagara
'
(spherical inclusionsurrounded by un infinite
Fal1s area (Lo et a1.,7975).
host material), that residual stresses of the
I

Although there is a large amount of evi_ order

. of 23 MPa could be induced in granitic
dence for residual stresses In metals (McClin_
magmas during cooling from 300oC io 0"C.
tock and Argon, 1966; Orowan, 194g), their
l
I Haxby and Turcotte (1976) have shown that
existence and contribution to the virgin
stress large residual thermal stresses
field in rock is still the subject of Extensive induced could be
in rocks by changes in the ambient
disc.ussion iy geologists, geophysicists and temperature.
engineers. The terms ,residuai siresses,
and For metals, Orowan (1949) distinguishes
'residual strains' are often used interchange_
two types of residual stresses: (1) stresses
ably in the literature.
associated with inhomogeneous external
Hyett, Dyke and Hudson (1,986) have sug_ conditions
(mostly at the macroscopic scale),
gested three fundamental requirements
l for and (2) stresses associated with inh-omogene_
generating residual stresses in rock: ,(1)
a ities within the material itself (mostly
change in the energy 1evel, e.g., a at the
stress or microscopic scale). Similar mechanisms
temperaturu...!hrng., (Z) pro_
{ a heterogeneity ducing residual stresses in
rock were sug_
caused by different constituent parts
of ttre gested by Russell and Hoskins (1973) and
materiai, and (3) compatibiiity (at ieast
partial) were classified as macro- and
of these constituent parts,. Upon rock micro_
i
excava_ mechanisms.
I

I
 66 Estimating in situ stresses

An example of the micro-thermoelastic As the load is removed and because of the

mechanism is when a rock containing min-
erals with different coefficients of thermal
expansion undergoes a uniform change in
temperature resulting in non-uniform strains.
Residual stresses can also be created at the
microscopic level by elastic deformation when
grains in a sedimentary rock, for instance, are
cemented under load and then unloaded. This
can be modeled as shown in Fig. 2.30a. Two
springs (grains) with different elastic con-
stants are subject to a same load,P,and deform
by different amounts. Following deformation,
bond that now exists between the two springs,
the springs cannot regain their original posi-
tion. Residual tension develops in one spring
and compression is created in the other spring.
Another example of micro-mechanism is
when an undisturbed sample of saturated rock
or soil is taken from the ground (Voight,
1966a). The external load vanishes and the
intergranular stress becomes equal to the fluid
pressure according to the effective stress
principle. Figure 2.30b shows an example of a
l
lv
micro-elastoplastic mechanism where loading i

the two springs are connected by a bar of a frictional element oeates sliding. Upon
(cement) that can only move parallel to itself. unloading, residual tension and compression
|
I
\-,
I

,r P

l; I
I

i
i!

c c
.9
.9 a
o a
c o
P o
E
o
o
Loaded and Loaded and Unloaded and
unattached attached attached
-spring forces
locked in

(a) I.
t\-

Compression I
J-.-
I

i-
I

Loaded until Unloaded-spring

block slides forces locked in

(b) I

Fig. 2.30 Models of residual stresses. (a) Micro-elastic mechanism and (b) micro-elastoplastic mechanism.
(After Russell and Hoskins ,1973.)
I
l

t-
l
 !
deveiop in the springs. If the frictional element
is replaced by a viscous element, time-
dependent residual strain recovery can be
modeled. Numerical simulations of locked-in
stresses created by non-recoverable slip along
disconnected (non-continuous) discontinuities
were proposed by Brady, Lemos and Cundall
(1986) using a couple discrete element*
boundary element program. A physical model
explaining the concept of residual stresses in
rock was proposed by Varnes (1970).
Figure 2.31 shows an example of the macro-
mechanism that could take place in a sedi-
Senlary layer upon bending and folding.
Residual tension and compression remain in
the layer because yielding has taken place
I
during the loading phase. Another example of
macro-mechanism iswhen several sedi-
mentary layers, some stiff and others soft, are
I cemented together under load. Upon un-
loading, residual compression and tension
develops in the softer and stiffer layers,
respectivelf, andlarge shear stresses are likely
I
to develop at the layer interfaces (Holzhausen
and Johnson,1979). A similar phenomenon is
\ found in 'pre-tension' reinforced concrete
I beams where the steel is in tension and the
concrete in compression (Engel der, 1993),
I
Strain Stress
I
Compression
Partially yielded plate under load
\ I
Residual compression
Partially yielded plate unloaded
i
Fig. 2.31 Macro-mechanism of residual stresses.
(After Russell and Hoskins,l97B.)
I
Tectonic and residual stresses 67
There seems to be a consensus in the litera-
ture that the importance of residual stresses in
rock engineering is related to the size of the
volume of rock in which the residual stresses
are locked in (i.e. the volume of rock for which
equilibrium is reached) versus the size of the
problem of interest (Bielenstein and Barron,
1977; Holzhausen and Johnson, 1979; Hyett,
Dyke and Hudson, 1986; Nichols and Savage,
1976; Russell and Hoskins, 1973; Tullis,1977;
Varnes and Lee, 1972). According to Hyett,
Dyke and Hudson (7986), the amount of resid-
ual stress should increase as the volume of
rock decreases from the macro- to the micro-
scale. This trend can be attributed to the fact
that as the volume increases, discontinuities
are more likely to be found and those dis-
continuities are not able to transmit the
residual stresses if they are in tension.
As discussed by Cuisiat and Haimson
(1.992), various authors have used different
terms to define the volume of rock over which
residual stresses are stored, such as equilib-
rium volume, self-equilibrium volume, lock-
ing domain, residual stress domain or strain
energy storage volume. The volume depen-
dency of residual strains was clearly empha-
sized by Swolfs, Handin and Pratt (1974) who
measured residual strains on blocks of-.quartz
diorite freed from their surroundings. The
strains were found to range between
1400 x 10-6 (expansion) in small"conventional
overcores and -700x 10-6 (contraction) on
large blocks with volumes of up to 15 m3.
How significant are residual stresses com-
pared with other in situ stress components?
The answer to that question varies. For
instance, Lang, Thompson and Ng (1936)
measured residual stresses of less than
1,0MPa, and ranging between 1.5 and 25% of
the total stresses, in the granitic rock at the
URL in Pinawa, Canada. Sbar et al. (1979)
found no significant residual stresses near the
San Andreas fault. Lindner (1985) measured
residual stresses of the order of + 2 Mpa in
sedimentary rocks in the southeastern part of
Lake Ontario. These stresses were found to be
68 Estimating in situ stresses
relatively small compared to the high hor-
izontal stresses (up to 12 MPa) measured at
shallow depths in that area. Finally, Bock
(1979) measured significant residual stresses
up to 15.2MPa in compression and 12.6MPa
in tension in a plane across a single basaltic
column using the central hole drilling method.
This study is interesting in that Bock was able
to show concentric zoning of the residual
stresses in the cross-section of the column,
with compression in the inner and outer parts
of the column and tension in the intermediate
part. He also showed that the measured resid-
ual compressive and tensile stresses were
approximately balanced.
2.10 EFFECT OF EROSION,
OVERCONSOLIDATION, UPLIFT AND
GLACIATION
Erosion or denudation was proposed by
Voight (1966b) as a mechanism that could be
responsible for high horizontal stresses at
shallow crustal levels. As summarrzed by
Goodman (1989), let K6 be the initial hori-
zontal to vertical stress ratio at a point located
at a depth zs tn d rock mass. The rock mass is
subjected to unloading by removal of a iayer
of thickness Az. Using the theory of elasticity,
it can be shown that the new stress ratio at
depth z= zo - Az is equal to
[ ,'1 Lz
.'u
L^\u 1 - ,_l zs - Lz
As an example, let K6:0.8, v = 0.25 and -I
z6 : 5000 m. For values of. Lz larger than
a
o
o
1500 m, K is larger than unity. For instance, for
Lz:2000m,K:1.11.
Voight and St Pierre (1974) included the
combining mechanical and thermal effects
associated with removal of rock by erosion.
They concluded that for normal thermal gradi-
ents the thermal effect predominates, resulting
in a reduction and not in an increase in the
horizontal stress. Haxby and Turcotte (1976)
showed that the state of stress induced by
erosion comprises three components: a com-
ponent due to the reduction in the overburden
pressure, a component due to the associated
uplift by isostatic readjustment and a thermal
component due to a temperature decrease'
They also found that the net effect is a reduc-
tion instead of an increase in the horizontal
stresses which could result in dominantly ten-
sional stresses.
Overconsolidation of sediments was also I
proposed by Voight (1966a) as another
phenomenon capable of creating high hori-
zontal stresses. For soils, it has been observed
that the stress ratio .G depends on the past
history of loading and unloading of the soils,
and can be related to a so-called overconsoli-
dation ratio, OCR, which is the ratio of past
maximum horizontal stress to vertical stress
(Kulhawy, Jackson and Mayne, 1989; Lambe
and Whitman, 7969; Skempton, 1961). Both
Steiner (1992) and Kim and Schmidt (1992) I
invoked overconsolidation to explain large Ks
values measured in sedimentary rocks in Ger-
many and Texas, respectively. Voight (1966a)
used the results of uniaxial strain tests con-
ducted by Brooker (1964) on shale to demon-
strate that large K6values canbe induced upon
unloading. The test results are shown in Fig' I
2.32. I{, in this figure, the radial and axial
stresses are taken as the horizontal and verti-
cal stress components respectively, the slope of
the unloading curve indicates an increase in
1600
rzoo
a /
E
o
800
)
(! I
t
0
,
0 400 800 1200 1600 2000 2400
Axial stress (psi)
Fig.2.32 Radial stress versus axial stress for Bear-
paw shale tested under uniaxial strain condition by
Brooker. (After Voight, 1966a.)
 Highhorizontalstresses 69
the stress ratio K6 during unloading. A1so, it (Bulin, 1971). Palmer and Lo (7976), Lo (192g)
shows that K6 can be large near the srirface
and and Lee (198i) also reported high horizontal
decreases with increasing depth. stresses ranging between 5 and 15 Mpa
Price (7966, lg74) presented at
another depths less than 25 m in sedimentary pale_
explanation for the development of high hori_
ozoic rocks in southern Ontario. ThL hori-
zontal stresses in sedimentary basins "using a
zontal to vertical stress ratio was found to be
complex geological history consisting of first
large at shallow depths (0-100m), sometimes
accumulation of sediments, downwirp and
reaching values as high as 10: 100 (Franklin
burial followed by uplift and concomitant and Hungr, l97B), Similar trends were
dewatering
observed in upper New york State and the
.
It has been suggested that hrgh in situ southeastern shore of Lake Ontario (Lindner,
stresses could be induced in rocki by
i a se_ 1985). Figure 2.33 shows some of the high
quence of glacier loading, isostatic movlments
\_1
horizontal stresses measured around Lake
po;fSlacial uplifr (Adams and Bell, 1991;
1d
Artyushkov,lg7l;
Ontario.
Asmis and Lee, 1980; Has! High horizontal stresses can usually
1958; Rosengren and Stephansso n, 1990, be
1993; inferred from field and core observations. In
Stephansson, 1988; Tuicotte and Schubert,
the field, high horizontai stresses can manifest
1982). Here, bending stresses in the litho_
themselves in different ways. For instance,
sphere stresses are created by subsidence thrust faulting might be dominant. Franklin
Y under ice loads. Following the melting of the
and Hungr (1978) reported that in southern
I
ice and gradual rebound, locked.in ltu.rr., Ontario and in the northern part of New york
remain because of
incomplete isostatic State, natural evidence of high horizontal
recovery.
I
2.11 HIGH HORIZONTAL STRESSES Canada

Unusually high horizontal stresses have been

observed in certhin regiond of the world. High
horizontal stresses were first measured 6y
Hast in Fennoscandia in granite,leptite, lime_
,S. . -t Lake Ontario
9_t9ne
and quartzite in the period 1957_1966 ^
(Ha st, 79 58, 197 g, 1974) . Has i f
ound horizontal
pressures as large as 1.5_3.5 times the over_
burden stress. Locally, values as great as eight
times the vertical stress were obtalned. Hooker
and Duvall (1966) reported high horizontal
stresses ranging between 3.5 and 21Mpa
I at
depths of only a few meters in a rock outcrop
near Atlanta, USA. More recent stress
measurements in Fennoscandia have been 0 40 80km
Stephansson, Ljunggren and
i-el:_rJed _by Jing
\!e?\), (1ss3) IraMyrvang P/Q are maximum/minimum 0 10 MPa
-stephansson
(1993). High horizontal stresses
horizontal stresses were also
found in northern Ontario, Canada, by Herget
(7974, 1980, l9B7), Australia (Enever, Fig. 2.33 Stress measurements around Lake
Walton Ontario showinghigh horizontal stresses. (Adapted
and Windsor, 1990) and the Soviet Union from Lindner,1985.)
i
L
 70 Estimating in situ stresses

stresses has been in the form of post- Pleisto- zontal stresses. Recent work has shown that
cene folds and fauits in near-surface founda- the morphology of the disks could be used as
uons and
tions ano quarry floors;
iloors; both Pnenomena I an indicator of the direction and approximate
Dom phenomena
having been documented as early as 1886. in f, ratio of the horizontal stresses, and as a way to
addition, features such as heave of quarry f i check whether the vertical stress is a principal
floors, natural pop-ups, rock squeeze, rock-fl1, stress (Dyke,1989). Natau, Borm and Rockel
bursts and cracking of tunnel concrete linings ll (1989) and Haimson and Lee (1995) found
and/or movement of the walls of unsuppor- that the trough axis of saddle-shaped core
ted excavations (tunnels, shafts and canals) disks is essentially aligned with the direction
can be observed. Such phenomena were of the maximum horizontal in situ stress.
observed, for instance, in Ontario by Coates The problem of core disking can be enhanced
(1964) and in the Niagara Falls area by Lee and in the case of layered, bedded or foliated
Lo (1976),Lo and Morton (1976) and Lo (1978). rocks where the disks tend to follow the rock
,A Rockbursts can also occur as reported by fabric.
Carlsson and Olsson (1982) for some shallow The mechanism of disking has been a sub-
tunnels at the Forsmark power plant in ject of discttrssiory in particular failure initia-
southern-central Sweden where horizontal tion (on the exterior or interior of the core) and
stresses as large as 20 MPa were encountered the mode of failure (tension/extension versus
for rock covers of only 5 to 15 m. Note that shear). Experimental work by Jaeger and Cook
I
rockbursts depend on many parameters (1963) showed that (1) the failure surfaces of
i
\
i beside in situ stresses such as excavation rock disks are clean, indicating tension break-
I geometry, rate of excavation and rock proper- age instead of shear, (2) the thickness of the
tili ties. They are not always indicative of high disks is inversely proportional to the stresses,
t: (3) fracturing of the disks starts at the center of
horizontal stresses (Herget, 1980). In Norway,
tiii
ii evidence of high horizontal stresses can be the core and not on the outside, and (4) the
\l\ seen on rock surfaces in the form of exfolia- failure surfaces are convex toward the top of
tiory spalling and buckling (Myrvang, 1993) the core. Obert and Stephenson (1965) sug-
or, in the form of rockbursts in tunnels, in gested that disking is initiated by, or is com-
particular in mountainous areas (Myrvang, pletely the result of, shear stresses. Hast (1979)
1e76). also suggested that the disks are formed in
High horizontal stresses are often accom- shear and that failure starts on the exterior of
panied by horizontal core disking, as noted by the core. Stacey (1982) emphasized the dis-
Hast (i958). The core breaks up into disks that crepancy befween the experimental observa-
are usually curved (saddle shaped) with a tions of Jaeger and Cook (1963) and the
center of curvature being towards the collar of assumption of shear failure. He postulated
the hole. The size of the core disks can be a that disking is the result of extension fractur-
crude measure of the magnitude of horizontal ing that can be predicted using a criterion of
stresses. For instance, Obert and Stephenson extension-strain fracture. Numerical analysis
(1965) showed from laboratory triaxial tests on carried out by Ingraffea (7984, personal com-
six different rock types that core disking munication) using fracture mechanics seems
occurs if the radial stress exceeds half the to indicate that an alternate hypothesis for
compressive strength of the rock. They also disking is a combination of microcrack forma-
found a linear relationship between the axial tion parallel to the horizontal stress and
and radial stresses required for disking. Obert unloading of the core in the vertical direction.
and Stephenson (1965), Hast (1979) and more Based on recent experimental results in the
recently Haimson and Lee (1995) suggested laboratory, and analysis of disk surfaces with a
that thinner disks are indicative of higher hori- scanning electron microscope, Haimson and

Lee (1995) concluded that core disking is the
result of subhorizontal extensile cracks devel-
oping at the root of drill cores.
It should be emphasized first, that core disk-
ing is just an indicator of high horizontal
stresses and that disking does not automati-
cally imply high horizontal stresses. Disking
depends on many parameters, such as the
situ state of stress, the strength properties of
the rock and the stress parallel to the borehole
(Stacey, 19BZ). Second, the information
I
! inferred from core disking is only qualitative
"i
I
(i.e. the potential for having high horizontal
I
stresses). Third, core disking can also occur
due to poor drilling when, for instance, too
much thrust is applied to the drill bit and the
rock (Kutter,L993).
In general, core disking makes overcoring
difficult and thus creates a depth thresholJ
beyond which stresses cannot be measured.
According to Hast (1979),'it would appear
that the highest stress that can at present be
recorded in competent rock is of the order of
100MPa; for rocks of greater strengths it is
somewhat higher'. Herget (19S0) reported suc-
cessful stress determinations in the Canadian
-'j
Shield at stresses up to 130 Mpa and at a depth
of 2100m.
High horizontal stresses may ,lso ,esrlt ir.,
difficulties in drilling, excavation and shaft
sinking and may create borehole stability
problems such as borehole breakouts and
I
I borehole collapse. Breakouts can be used to
estimate the orientation of in situ stresses, as
discussed in Chapter 8.
2.I2 SPHERICAL SHELL MODELS OF
STRESSES IN THE EARTH
A more global approach for the analyticai
prediction of in situ stresses in rock has been
suggested in the literature by modeling the
Earth as a self-gravitating spherical shelf con-
sisting of one or several concentric slices or
layers (McCutche n, 1982; Sheorey, 1994).
I
t
McCutchen (1982) considered an isotropic
spherical shell (representing the Earth,s ..uit;
I
Spherical shell models of stresses in the Earth Tl
of outer radius R consisting of material with
unit weight y and subject to gravity g. The
shell was assumed to be situated on an
unyieiding massive interior body. Using the
equations of equilibrium, the stress-strain
relations and the constitutive equations, the
radial stress o, (also equai to the vertical
ii stress), the tangential skess o6 (assumed the
same in all tangential directions and equal to
the horizontal stress), and the tangential strain
u/r (wherc a is the outward radial displace-
ment)were found to be equal to
[
7R 4pB1
o,= -f)x+(3- 4p)A-:r:)
4 L-nf,
7R I onpl
o,=?l -zfz-zlt)x+
/ (3\- - 4{t)A++l
-r/" xt
4L )
u_sRi . Bl
-:-:-l-r+A+-l
r 4P'L x'l
(2.23)
In equations (2.23) x is the ratio between the
distance r from the center of the sphere and the
sphere's outer radius R and is also equal to
7-r/n where z is the depth below the sur-
face. The constant fr is equal to
0.5(1 - 2v) / (1- v) and to (S /p)2 where S is the
velocity of secondary seismic waves and p the
velocity of primary seismic waves. Finally, A
and B are two constants of integration that can
be determined from the boundary condition
d, = 0 at x = L and by assuming that at a
distance rs (or a depth zs), corresponding to
the crust-mantle interface, the tangential
strain is equal to zero. Substituting these two
conditions into equations (2.23a) gives a hor-
:
izontal to vertical stress ratio K o6 f o, that
varies in a nonlinear manner between
Ks = 1-28 : v / (1- v) at z : z0 and infinity at
z = 0. McCutchen (1982) showed that, by using
the upper and lower bounds for K proposed
by Brown and Hoek (1978) and shown in Fig.
Z.lb,the depth Zs corr€sponding to the base of
the crust would vary between 33.73 and
138.37km, which is considerably greater than
 72 Estimating in situ stresses
the accepted value of about 15 km over young
oceanic areas and 40-50km over shield areas.
An interesting aspect of the model of
McCutchen (1982) is that, despite its relative
simplicity, the model leads to a predicted vari-
ation of K with depth which is consistent with
the expressions reported in the literature. in
particular, at shallow depths (less than 3 km),
K is found to be proportional to 1, /2. Also, the
model assumes that the tangential (horizontal)
strain u / r does not vanish. Finally, the model
shows that the horizontal stress depends on
the depth z6 of the base of the crust, producing
larger stresses in a thicker crust. The main
drawback of the model of McCutchen (1982) is
that the elastic constant and density of the rock
in the crust do not vary with depth and the
model does not account for the effect of the
geothermal gradient.
Sheorey (1994) extended McCutchen's
model to account for the effect of the geo-
thermal gradient, the variations of the coeffi-
cient of thermal expansion, the unit weight
and the elastic properties with depth, and
possible displacementwithin the mantle, on ln
sifa stresses. Figure 2.34a shows the geometry
of the Earth modeled by Sheorey (1994). It
consists of a series of ,12 annular slices, six in
the mantle and six in the crust. The crust has
an average thickness of 35 km and the radius
of the Earth is equal to 6371km, No displace-
ment is allowed to occur at the mantle-core
interface located at a depth of 2900km. The
state of stress in the mantle is assumed to be
hydrostatic. Table 2.4 gives the values of the
coefficient ofthermal expansion Gi, the
Young's modulus E;, the radius R; and the unit
weight yi for each slice i:1,,
12. The tem-
perature in the Earth is assumed to vary
between 0"C at the ground surface and 3961"C
at the base of the mantle, with three tem-
perature gradients of 0.0008"C/m (for slices
1-5),0.0003oC/m (for slice 6) and 0.024"C/m
(for slices 7-12). The mantle is assumed to
have a uniform Poisson's ratio vr, equal to 0.27
and the crust has a uniform Poisson's ratio u.
equal to 0.2.
Figure 2.34b shows the variation of the
stress ratio K : /o,with depth and Fig. 2.34c
oo
shows the variation of the horizontal stress oB
and the vertical stress o. with depth predicted
by Sheorey's model. Figures 2.34b, c indicate
that the model predicts large values of K at
shallow depths and a value of 11MPa for the
horizontal stress at the ground surfacg which
is in agreement with maximum in situ stress I
l\/
values of about 10 MPa measured at the sur-
face of the Earth (Swolfs, 7984).
A parametric study conducted by Sheorey
(1994) revealed several important trends. First,
the magnitude of the horizontal stress
depends on the elastic modulus, with softer
slices producing less horizontal stresses than l\*
harder slices. Variations in the modulus of the
I
top slice of Fig. 2.34a showed that the stress
ratio K in that slice is essentially proportional
iv
to the value of the modulus. This finding is in I
I
perfect agreement with the finding of large-
magnitude horizontal stresses in old shield t.
areas with hard competent rocks, as reported
tv
,
l --
i
by Stephansson (1988) and Mriller et al. (1992). !
'.-
Another trend found by Sheorey (1994) is that I
i-
I
inclusion of the thermal gradient keeps the 1!,
magnitude of horizontal stresses within t'
:'g
reasonable limits. For instance, if the coeffi- I
I
I
cient of thermal expansion is'assumed to
j_
i\-
vanish, the model of Sheorey (1994) gives an !
unrealistic horizontal stress of 732.4MPa at the ,.v
I
t*
ground surface. Inclusion of the coefficient of I
thermal expansion reduces that stress compo- i
nent to a more reasonable value of 11MPa.
Finally, the model of Sheorey (1994) seems to
indicate that larger horizontal stresses could
be expected in areas where the crust is thicker,
e.g. in the continental crust.
The models of bothMcCutchenand Sheorey l-
i\-
l
reveal that the curvature of the Earth could be t,.
I
responsible for large values of K and large
values of the horizontal stress near the Earth's
surface, particularly in old granitic shield
areas. The model of Sheorey (1994) predicts
that horizontal stresses vary between zero if
the curvature of the Earth is ignored and
11MPa if the curvature is taken into account. f.
 l

Spherical shell models of stresses

in the Earth 73

\Fl
a
I

I -R,
r,,

I
- Fl,

-Rs
-Ro

-R,
Liquid core
-R'
(a)

0
I
I

!
I
:
I

1000
I
1000
l
E
E

\-
:
c.
o
q)
o
,,( *= S +o.s .c
o-
o
I
o
i
2000 )( rheoreticar
i
r model 2000
I
I
i
I K=
I
S+o.s i:

3000
l

020406080 1

( = o6/o.y
Stress (Mpa)

(b) (c)
Fig' Ha spherical shell model of sheorey. (a)
Geometry of the Earth.consisting
of 12 annular slices;
predicted variation of K with
dtPth,
predicted variation or
t;;e
comparison,rlrtn rpp.. and rower
bounds of Brown and Hoek
ft)
\tr{fl'(c) "*ii.ri rrru* o, and horizontar stress os withdepth, (After sheorey,

In a recent contribution, sugawara and

obara ment of 2.0km and i3.0 km, constant
(1995) extendedMcCutchen'J*oauito u..o.,.rt thermal
expansion, geothermal gradient poisson,s
for the geothermal gradient and and
the vertical ratio, and a stress-dependent young,s
displacement of the ground modulus,
surface due to sugawara and
tectonic forces' By assuming obari pgg5)were able to predict
a vertical displace- ,#;;;lower limits for the variation of the
74 Estimating in situ stresses
Table 2.4 Values of coefficient of thermal expansion models yield different in slfl stress distribu-
a;, the Young's modulus E;, the radius R; and the tions and magnitudes'
unit weight for each slice i = 1-12 in the spherical
I
shell model of Sheorey (1994). Slices l: 1-6 corre-
spond to the mantle and slices i=7-12 correspond 2.1gEFFECT OF BOUNDARY CONDITIONS
to the crust
AND TIME ON IN SITTI STRESS
Radius lJnit weight
Slice t( x 105 aix 10-5 Ei Ti Little is known about the precise nature of
no. fu) (C) (GPa) (MPa/m) lateral restraints to be found at the geological
scaie. A large amount of discussion has been
placed on the validity of the no lateral
1 3.470 2.4 760 0.052
1.9 700 0.048
displacement assumption. Some authors have
2 3.870
J 4.370 L.6 510 0.045
1.35 520 0.043 argued that since rocks are deformable, the
4 4.870
5 5.370 1..25 360 0.040 hy"pothesis of no horizontal displacement is
6 5.958 1,.2 200 0.037 n'on-realistic (Cornet, 1993; McGarr, 1988)'
7 6.335 017 20 0.027 It is well known that the stress fieid within a
8 6.340 0 30 0.027
certain volume of rock will depend on the
0.027
9 6.436 2.2 40
applied loads (body and surface.forces), and
45 0.027
the constitutive model of the rock, as well as
10 6.352 1.5
6.358 0.9 50 0.027
the boundary conditions applied along the
11
72 6.364 0,6 50 0.027
boundaries of the domain under considera-
tion. In fact, by varying these parameters,
various in situ stress regimes can be predicted
(Denkhaus,1966). This can be demonstrated
using numerical methods for complex rock
stress ratio K with depth. They observed that -uri., (e.g. Figs 2.16 and 2'21) ot analytical
most stress observations inJapan fell inbetween solutions for simPler cases.
those limits, which led therh to conclude that Consider, for instance, the simple case of a .l
near-surface shesses inJapan are sensitive to the homogeneous isotropic rock mass with l-
I

vertical displacement (upheaval) caused by the
plate tectonics at the collision boundaries of
merging plates.
Tlie reader should be aware that more
complex spherical and multilayered models of
^Earth-
the that include the crust, core and
mantle rheology have been ProPosed in the
geophysics literature. A review of these
modeli can be found in a recent paper by
Aydan (1995), who used the finite element
method to predict in situ stresses for the fol-
lowing models of the Earth: (1) the crust and
mantle are elastic solids and the core is in a
liquid state, (2) the crust and mantle are
elistoplastic solids and the core is in a liquid
isothermic state, and (3) the crust and mantle
are thermo-elastoplastic solids and the core is
in a non-isothermic state. AIl these different
Young-'s modulus E and Poisson's ratio v, and
unit ieight y = pS,subject to gravity only' The
rock mas=s has the geometry of Fig' 2'7 with the
r- and y-axes being horizontal and the z-axrs
vertical downward. The vertical stress at
depth z is equal to o, = pgz.If the rock mass is
free to defoim laterally with no lateral stress,
the state of stress will be uniaxial in the
vertical direction and the horizontal stresses
will be zero. This condition could take place
for instance in rock masses with vertical and
open joints. Consider now another special case
where the rock mass is under gravity and is
also strained (due to tectonics) in the x and y
directions by an amount e, and e, respectively'
As shown by Savage, Swolfs and Amadei
(7ggl), and assuming Hooke's law, the hori-
zontal stress components are equal to
 I

Effect of boundary conditions and time

on in situ stress 75
E
*| or: rock response to those loads is elastic. This
I
GA@,tvtr)*fir* cannot be the case for tectonic processes
of
E -' (2'24) relatively long durations. Failure may occur
in
o,=6j@o*vq)*fir* brittle rocks either by creating new fault
I
planes ol by slip along existingf fractures as
These expressions for the horizontal
stress discussed in section 2.4. Stress -relaxation
by
components include the combining effect creep may also occur in more ductile rocks
of
gravity and horizontal straining due to tec_ (Rummei, 1986; Savage, Swolfs and Amadei,
I

tonics. They also predict,,on_r.io horizontal 19e2).

stresses at the Earth,s surface. Various Since rocks show some form of viscoelastic
three_
dimensional stress regimes can be predicted behavior (Goodman, 1989; jaeger
and Cook,
depending on the vanishing o,.,or,_urnishing T976), stresses might be expected to relax
over
character of the lateral itrains and theii time in the more ductile parts
of the crust
respective values. If the horizontal strains when subject to a constant level
of strain. This
vanish, equations (2.24) reduce to the K6
condi_ phenomenon was modeled by Savage, Swolfs
tion mentioned at_the beginning of this chap_ and Amadei (1992), assuming
that tie crustal
ter. As shown by Savage, Swolfs and
Amadei rock is isotropic and behaves elastically under
(1992), equations (2.24) can be
generalized to hydrostatic loading, and as a Maxweil visco_
anisotropic rock masses. Foi horizontally elastic substance (a spring and
a dashpot in
layered rock masses modeled as transversely series) under deviatoric loading.
The short_
isotropic, equations (2.24) arereplaced by term Young's modulus and poision,s ratio
of
EEv,
6'=flTfr@r*vq)*i
the rock are E6 and v6 and the relaxation
time is
denoted as ry. For a Maxwell substance, the
\ n-rrr* time-dependent young,s modulus E(f) and
i
E E y, Q'25) Poisson's ratio v(f )are equal to
(e, t vt,) *
ov =
( -f; *= 1, _ rr
r* E(t1: Es s-(t/'i'
It is noteworthy that the strains e, and e, v(f ) : 0.5(1 - u-(t/1)1 * vo s-(t/,t) Q'26)
entering into equations (2.24) and (2.25) musi
be small since the theory of elasticity is used Note that, in this model, the modulus
in derivrng these equitions. According to approaches zero and the poisson,s ratio
Savage, Swolfs and Amade i (l9gl), equations approaches 0,5 for large times. The crust
is
(2.24) and (Z.ZS) would apply foi assumed to be strained uniformly in the hori_
strains as
large as l to 5% which .ould trku place zontaT x, y plane by an amount q=
during tr=Et
tectonic processes of relatively shbrt duration where e is a constant strain rate. Also, the
and- with strain rates of the order of initial strains in the x and y directions at time
1.0 X
/ = 0 are assumed to vanish. For these
\9-" tt n/year) to 1.0 x tO:iiZ,
(0.03 p-stra
ditions, Savage, Swolfs and Amad ei (1992)
con_
(0.32p-strain/year). Such strain rates
have
been reported by Savage (1933) and found that the vertical stress at depth z is
Savage, equal
Proscott and Lisowski (19g7) in geodetic to yz and that the horizontal stresi dependi on
measurements in various parts of the"western the time f and is equal to
United States. ob, : [2r1EsE + yz]fl - e-]
Equations (2.24) and (2.25) and other elastic
models presented in this chapter for the U6
'f 7-
pre_ e (2.27)
diction of the effect of anisotropy, stratification r-vo )tz
and.topography on in situst.esses imply
that where t=t/[2r1$-v6)] is a dimensionless
Ioads in situ are applied instantly and
ihat the time. Equat ion (2.27) consists of a gravitational
76 Estiruating in situ stresses

part and a strain rate-dependent part. For parison, the elastic model would give a hor-
t10, izontal stress of 50 MPa after 238 095 years.
As mentioned by Savage, Swolfs and
)rg Amadei (7992), the time-dependent model
onl:- lz (2.28)
summarized above applies for strain accumu-
I-Yo
lation in a homogeneous isothermal visco-
which corresponds to a K0 condition before elastic irust subjected to non-deviatoric strain
initiation of lateral straining in the crust. On rates. It does not apply when large tempera-
the other hand, for f -co ture gradients exist, nor does it apply near
major active faults where shear strain rates are
on- tz + Zr1EEs (2.29)
dominant.

For large times, the gravitational part of the

stress field becomes hydrostatic and the strain 2.I4 ESTIMATING STRESS ORIENTATION
rate-dependent part becomes constant. Note
Various methods have been proposed in the
that, in that case, a purely hydrostatic stress
literature to estimate the orientation of in situ
state (lithostatic stress field) would exist when
stresses. These methods can be divided into
the strain rate or the relaxation time is zero. A
three major groups: (1) methods based on the
similar conclusion was reached by Jaeger and
orientation, distribution, deformation and
Cook (1976) in the modeling of a continuum
fracturing of geological features ranging in
which behaves elastically under hydrostatic
size between rock crystals and mountain
loading and as a Maxwell viscoelastic sub-
ranges, (2)methods that rely on the analysis of
stance in distortion, and is subject to a vertical
first motion of earthquakes, and (3) breakout
stress at time f = 0 and no lateral displace-
methods. Other methods that use geomorpho-
ment. Furthermore, this conclusion is in agree-
logical features will not be discussed here and
ment with the hypotheses of Heim (1878) and
can be found, for instance, in the books of
Anderson (1951) that long-term rock creep
Scheidegger (1987) and Mattauer (1973). :

could lead to a hydrostatic state of stress in the '!

Earth's ctust. l

At the Earth's surface the variation of the 2.74.1. STRESS ORiENTATION FROM
horizontal stress with time is obtained by GEOLOGICAL STRUCTURES
taking z=}inequation (2'27)'whichgives
lf Geological structures such as faults, folds,
joints, dikes, sills, volcanoes, fault striations or
o1_,= ZryEsE(1 - e-') (m0)
' ' ll etc. have been used by geologists
ll slickensides,
For large times, relaxation causes the hori-f l and geophysicists as indicators of paleostres-
zontal stiess to approach a constant valuell ses, i.e. shesses previously active and no
equal to 2r1EEs. This is in contrast with the\\ longer in existence (Anderson,1951'; Arthaud
elistic model where stresses would continue
I and Mattauer, 1969; Buchnet,1981.; Engelder,
to increase linearly with time if a constant 1993;Ode,1957;Parket,1973;Price,1966,1974;
strain rate was applied. Using a value of Price and Cosgrove, 1990; Scheidegger, 1982).
10 MPa for b\EEs(Swolfs, 1984),Eo : 0.5 GPa, a Friedman (1964) presented various petro-
strain rate of 1.0 x 10-14/s (0.32p-strain/ graphic techniques that could be used to
year), the relaxation time ry is found to be equal determine the direction of in sifu stresses at the
to 31.746 years. Assuming that 16 :0.25, equa- time of deformation. Some of these techniques
0,
tion (2.30) gives a horizontal stress of 0 at f = range between analysis of orientation and
a stress of +.BZMpa att:31,746 years, and a distribution of fractures and folds at the
stress of 9.9MPa at t :238095 years. In com- macro-scale, and intercrystalline gliding,
\-
Estimating stress orientation
77
rotation phenomena such as
kink bands and urlg more recently Nakamura (1927)
micro_scale.
recrystallization at the
Nutr*rrr,lrJ and
,i, prui., (lg,T)suggested
using petrographic techniques -ori.ntation
to estimate using tne
of flank voicanoes
$ffi'#:1",1::.'r;
stresses
;lf,'l,'Jrr,***: r*ir **1:*,rmgn:
that created the geological structures
may have been modifiel ove'r
time due
-'of
y::":!:
*in. tn. orientation insifa ,il
stresser. (
to .utio,ule i, rrt *rriiile propagation of dikurl" \
i
'!
:,|l]!':}ii :i:':ffi.'J,?':i?:i'.',""1q1i1i"i"", 'l*pu,uur.;;i;;;;vdrauric rracturing tel? i'
not be correrated ut u, *itr,
stress field (Terzaghi, 1962).
tr,.'.#:lfiHI }#[T:f]:,Tili:il".,"
r*,;:[,fl iTL:l/
ry
necessary to seek out the
is
Therefore, it ,io.r .,or*ul to the *i.,i.r,r* in
situprincipal
most recent geo_ stress,
logical structure.s (Parker, 1g73).A -
study"on ir'ru use of slickensides (striae)
the relationship between
geologicut rtrr.irr.l pt*., on fault
and hydrofracture direciion to determine not only the orientation
ty Towse and frirtro the magnitude
of the in situstress field
Heuze (1983)' for tight gu, ..rlrroirs
in the has recei'ed a iot of attention
usA' concluded thaigeiogical structures in the geology
helpful but not alwayl sufflcient.in
are and geophysics literarrr" ouu, the past 15
predictihg y.*r. methoJ
hydrofracture
orieniation and theiefore thE $ was rirst tro*.ri*., calred fiurt-slip
orientation of th9 horizontai
l"riyrirl- proposed by Carey and
principal stresses. n.ur,*, (lg14)una
when inferring both the orientation .itiaed by others such as
nitude of in situ stresses from 3rg;; a^!.r,*' 1toil, log+',,' tos91. Etchecopaq, vas-
seologicat strul- ,.u?..u.3-.Daignieres
tures, a model of rock beh"avioi (79g1), Angelier et al.
must be ooar1, y,:Fa
$gB4), Reches (1gg7) and
rric-
I#fr jff3:j*:^^r,:1*,fil 11
',
mole
r\;.,* "".'-',*l!*,Xlffi,cou.mu
{^ '!rvrr/ rYrurr'r-r'yPe rracturmg' etc')'
v ' Examples of determiniio" or paleostresses The methodorogy recentiy numerical tech,niques
have been used.
consists, first, of recordins
/I
iflJ#,1,;1,:",::,^r-l^.,:ul.^1.
r1^a , tn.- ori.ntrrion and direcrion of motio,, j
Friedman (1e6a)^Grelserh
(1973)' spicak (1988),
ogzit,
irili
zobtacket ni,'(tgsri *a
ff.ilJ;':l :T#,i.iHHi#'J'lJI
zoback(1993)'Therationaleisthatiheorder- prr.il.r'rrult pranJs. suu'.rut basic assump-
ing and orientation of in situ iionr rr. made in the analysis of the
field
' nents can be inferred uy st ess compo- measurements: (1) ali the slickensides on
I to,,puri'g a given faults in the popiutior.,
ur.
the
I fault with one of the ir'tt. rl"itl""g rnodes
and uniforrn but unknown stress
Lrurua to a given
I
shown in Fig' z'+' iht.;Hffi it in situ *"rr*'", each faurt prane is para,er
tensoq, (2)

sets ;il;h.rr stress on that plane, and to rhe

shesses has also been estimated
I* from joint
(3) fautt
| assumed
' Srven area' The principal stresses are
motions are independent and there
to be orientedin directions bisecting is no fault
the angles between majo_ri9i"t
,"*ir.iior. These.assumptions are important
1973;scheidegger, u.ai,oos1.
\-"
r.t,- lMuttrr.i ;;i. ,*, somewhat limit
the range of appli_
cation oi the method. fr*--ini.a
step in rhe
,,,11.,11,:il:,i::;i:*::,:::1,::1, such as ;d;j;, to assume Couromb rriction rhis
ffi ffil:: trilfi:;T3#;iliill;ffX
,, dikes and silrs has arso been
"'.il;;r".;ff
principai stress directions (Eisbacher,
and ,i, .;;p;;ents
Bielenstein, 7971; Mull:_. pril*'i) Dn; an uru,iirury of the insifu stress field in
3nd'
Pollard, 1978). parker (1973) coordinate system using the
r"jg.r,;a ,hri .-p il ior the ,,or*ri,ur,a
shear stress
i ;;il;: rff:fHdt,$*Ti,ffi1ii{t
,1:tr;:*:ff:.J1ffi::,f::i,T* ;"*:;;;;s
,

follow the path of least

li,:,r on
fiqi,""1.,iur,
each
xl
prane
a:l; gti",:ffi
(see ror instance
oa. 1usil Fffii;;
{ "titir"... using a rarge number of faults (10
to
 78 Estimating in situ stresses
100), the in situ stress field that best fits the
field measurements is determined by least
squares. Figure 2.35 gives an example of in situ
(a)
ooo
'.€
a
a same asfllmptions. Hayashi and Masuoka
& (1995)applied that technique to determine the
o
o state of stress in two different geothermal
qs"
r Normal
o Slip axis
(b)
Fig. 2.35 Example of stress determination from
fault slip data, Dixie Valley, Nevada. (a)Normal to
22 faults and direction of striations, (b) orientation
of in situ principal stress components. The circles
around the principal stresses indicate the standard
deviations of orientations of the principal stresses.
The stresses were determined assuming a co-
efficient of Coulomb friction equal to 0.8 (friction
angle = 38.6"). (After Reches,1987.)
stress determination proposed by Reches
(1987) and obtained by analysis of slickensides
on 22 faults in Dixie Valiey, Nevada.
The orientation of slickensides on fracture
surfaces in oriented core samples can also be
used to determine the in sifa stress field. This
method was suggested in a recent paper by
Hayashi and Masuoka (i995). It is essentially
an extension of the method of Angelier and
co-workers (1982) to fractures on core samples
instead of rock outcrops, and relies on the
fields in Japm. The results were found to
compare well with anelastic strain recovery
stress measurements.
Some recent geoiogical structures can be
used to infer the orientation of in situ stresses,
in particular in regions where horizontal stres-
ses are known to be high. For instance, Frank-
lin and Hungr (1978) noted that in Ontario,
post- Pleistocene folds and faults tend to align
themselves in directions perpendicular to the
NE-E trending maximum principal stress.
They also observed that there were many
exceptions to that trend.
TWo very good examples showing how
geological shuctures and in sifa stress meas-
urements can be combined to determine the in
silu stress field in underground mines were
reported by Allen, Chan and Beus (1978) and
Bunneli and Ko (1986). Allen, Chan and Beus
(1978) used a combination of CSIR Door-
stopper measurements and detailed geological
mapping of faults, folds and joint and fracture
patterns to determine the in silu stress field at
the Lucky Friday mine in the Coeur d'Alene
mining district in Idaho. It was found that the
current stress field measured with the Door-
stopper paraileled the older stress field which
was thought to be responsible for the existing
geological structures.
Bunnell and Ko (1986) presented a clear
description on how they estimated the in situ
stress orientation from geological structures
such as faults, dikes and photolineation for an
 l

I
Estirnating stress orientation 79
--1
I
I
underground coal mine in central Utah. Data In general, a second (auxiliary)plane can be
collected on the faults included fault strike found, besides the fault plane, giving exactly
and dip, fault slickenside orientation and slip the same P-wave radiation patterry i.e. identi-
i
i
1
direction. In general it was found that high cal sets of recorded compressions and dilata-
I
stresses existed in the mine area in the recent tions. In Fig. 2.36b, for example, the auxiliary
geological past with a strong horizontal stress plane is the hatched nodal plane assuming
I
component in the E-W direction. A good left-lateral displacement. The supplementary
I

correlation was found between that trend and information needed to discriminate between
l
the results of overcoring stress measurements. the true fault plane and the auxiliary plane
(which has no geoiogical significance) can be
mapped in the field or determined from the
I

2.14.2 STRESS ORIENIATION FROM FAULT-

distribution of several earthquake foci on the
I
PLANE SOLUTIONS
same fault surface.
I , By careful study of earthquake waves recorded The most convenient faullplane solution
\ I
by seismographs, it is possible to tell the direc- uses the stereographic projection of the seis-
tion of motion of the fault that caused an mic ray path as they emerge from the hypo-
\ I
earthquake. The information that is needed is center of an earthquake. This method assumes
-1 contained in the arrival records of the seismic that the earthquake hypocenter is located at
body waves. Construction of the fault-plane the center of the stereographic projection rep-

lY solution is based on the principle that motion on resenting the focal sphere. Following the
a fault controls the pattern of seismic wave methodology presented by Engelder (1993), a
I
radiation, particularly the first motion of the faultplane solution is constructed from a
\-1 compressional P-wave recorded at distant seis- stereographic projection which shows where
I
I
mographs. Because earthquakes are essentially the ra1, paths to distant seismic stations cut the
I
stress release phenomena, seismologists have focal sphere. The so-called extended position
l

I
suggested that the preferred orientation of of a seismic station is determined from data
I
I
earthquake faults over a large region could be about the azimuth of the earthquake, the
i
used as a tool to determine the stress orientation travel time for the wave and the so-called
I
in that region. By analyzing the earthquake angle of emergence. The extended positions
l
I
fairlt-plane solutions in the region, a best-fit for a number of stations recording the same
t

regional stress tensor can be determined by earthquake are plotted in either lower or
l means of an inversion technique. Sometimes the upper hemisphere projection. Compressional
l
term 'earthquake focal mechanism' is used first arrivals of P-waves are plotted as solid
l
instead of fault-plane solution. circles and dilational first arivals are plotted
l

Consider a P-wave record from an earth- as open circles (Fig. 2.37). The two nodal
quake (Ft9,2.36a). If the first arrival is a com- planes that distinguish compressional from
l
pressive pulse, the stress release and the fault extensional regimes are drawn and geological
i
I
motion must be toward the seismograph. It data or distribution of aftershocks are used to
i
on the other hand, it is a dilational pulse, the identify the actual fault plane. When the main
fault motion must be away from the seismo- shock is small, so-called 'composite fault-
J

graph. The effect of an earthquake caused by plane solutions' are constructed by super-
I

displacement on a strike-slip fault is presented imposing data from aftershocks associated

I
in Fig. 2.36b. The model for earthquake motion with microearthquakes. Alternative techni-
has two nodal planes separating the four ques for fault-plane solutions consist of using
quadrants. One nodal plane is the fault plane surface waves and the amplitude of free oscil-
itself and the other is an auxiliary plane lations (Engelder, 7993).
having no geological significance. Fault-plane solutions are a representation of
80 Estimating in situ stresses

(a) First arrival of expansion First arrival of compression

Arrival of
P-wave P-wave

(b) All stations record Allstations record

I
a dilation a compression
I

D
I

Fault
\ I
Flelative
(nodalplane) fault motion
- Focus
^it ,// I I
I

V/
I

Allstations record I

I
a compression All stations record
a dilation
Nodal Plane
(b)
Fig. 2.36 Fault-plane solution of a strike-slip fault. (a) Motion of a P-wave detected by a seismograph,
1-
I

ptlt of the first motion detected at a numbei of seismograph stations (arrows) and determination of right- l!

lateral displacement of the fault.

slip on a fault and the pressure (P) and tension
(T) axes represent the axes of maximum
shortening and maximum extension. The
P-axis is located in the middle of the quadrants
the proposed model of using P-, T- and B-axes
as the directions of principal stresses did not
apply to earthquakes associated with slip
along pre-existing faults. Hence, according to i
lv
McKenzie (7969), the fault-plane solution
I

with dilations and the T-axis is in the middle

of the quadrants with compressions. The method could not be used to infer precisely l"
so-called B-axis is located at the intersection of stress orientations inthe crust. In
fact,
l-
the fault plane and the auxiliary plane. McKenzie (1969) showed that the only restric- I

An early assumption made by seismologists tion for mapping stress orientation based on lV
1

was that earthquakes were due to the failure of fault-plane solutions is that o.1 rrltlst lie in a
r\_
intact rock, which justified using the P-axis as quadrant associated with dilations, whereas o3 I

the direction of ot, T ds o3 and B ds 02 must lie in a quadrant related to compression.

(Engelder, 1993). However, laboratory and
field data have shown that stress drops accom-
panying fracture of intact rock can be more
l\-
In order to activate slip along a fault, the shear
stress along the fault must exceed a critical
stress. In an area of pre-existing faults, the
:

.l

than ten times higher than those associated fault planes oriented such that they have the
with earthquakes. McKenzie (1969) noted that highest resolved shear stress will slip.

P,/ o o T world, more and better-constrained fault
5 plane solutions or focal mechanisms are now
/ o o
I
a available. The data form the major input (54%)
a a
o
o (Zoback, 1992; Zoback et a1.,1989) most of
oo B a
o
ooo
o o
oo/
a ^/
u well conshained or not. The highest ranking is
T
o
r/,
a mean P- and T-axis orientations or formal
Fig. 2.37 Stereographic projection of fault_plane
solutions presented in Fig. 2.36. Compressional first
arrivals of P-waves are plotted us solid circles and
dilational first arrivals as open circles. The p_, T_
and B-axes are shown.
Nevertheless, despite those limitations, fault_
plane solutions are important components in
our understanding of regional stress fields
(Engelder, 1993).
From the field of structural geology and
tectonics, and in particular the constraint that
fault slip occurs' in .the direction of the
maximum resolved shear stress, Gephart and
Forsyth (1984) proposed an averaging tech_
nique which was more quantitative ior the
determination of stress orientation from fault-
plane soiutions. An inversion method similar
to that proposed by Angelier (1979) for the
analysis of fault-plane striations (section
2.14.1) was applied to search for all possible
stress tensors which could satisfy the fault_
plane solution over a region. The method
allows for an error analysis and the establish_
ment of confidence limits for the preferred
it
regional stresses. also uses an objective
means{or identifying which of the two possi_
ble nodal planes corresponds to the plane that
has slipped (Engelder, l99g).
Largely as a result of seismic waveform
modeling made possible by digital seismic
\-
Estimating stress orientation g1
acquisition neh.vorks placed all over the
to the establishment of the World Stress Map
o them in the depth range 5-20 km. Because of
the uncertainty in inferring stress directions
from fault-plane solutions, no single-event
focal mechanism receives the highesi ranking
in the World Stress Map project, regardless of
the magnitude of the event and whether it is
reserved for stress directions determined from
inversions for best-fitting stress axes of groups
of moderate-size earthquakes occurring
within close geographical proximity, and with
a variety of focal mechanisms (Chapter 11).
2,14,3 BREAKOUTS
The rock around circular excavations such as
boreholes, funnels or shafts may not be able to
sustain the compressive stress concentration
associated rvith the process of excavation
itself. Breakage of the rock results in two
diametrically opposed zones of enlargement
called 'breakouts'. There is experimenlal evi-
dence that breakouts occur along the direction
of the \east in sifu stress component. They can
therefore be an indicator of in situ stress ori-
entation. Several attempts have been made in
the literature to use the depth and width of
borehole breakouts in order to determine the
magnitude of in situ stresses (see review by
Haimson and Lee, 1995).
Borehole breakouts for the purpose of stress
determination were first reported by Leeman
0964). They have been used extensively to
determine the orientation of horizontai in situ
stresses in the World Stress Map project
(Zoback,1992; Zoback et al,,19Bg), ind other
more specific projects such as the KTB hole in
northeastern Bavaria, Germany (Baumgdrtner
et al., 7993; Te Kamp, Rummel and Zoback,
1995), the Cajon Pass hole in the vicinity of the
82 Estimating h situ stresses
San Andreas fault in southern California
(Shamir and Zoback, 1992; Vernik and Zoback,
1992), the borehole for deep-Earth gas in the
Precambrian rocks of Sweden (Stephansson,
Savilahti and Bjarnason, 1989), and the Ocean
Drilling Program (Kramer et nl., 1994; Moos
and Zoback, 1990). Borehole breakouts give
information about the stress field at depths
ranging between 1 and 4km (and in some
cases as deep as 5-7 km), and provide a valu-
able link between overcoring and hydraulic
fracturing data and focal mechanism data
(Zobacket a1.,1989).
Breakouts in galleries, tunnels and shafts
have also been reported in the literature (Hoek
and Brown,1980a; Ortlepp and Gay, 1984). In
some cases they have been used to determine
the orientation of in situ stresses such as at the
URL site in Canada (Martin, Martino and
Dzik,1994) and elsewhere (Maury, 1987). The
breakout method is discussed further in
Chapter 8.
2.15 SUMMARY
This chapter shows that many phenomena can
contribute to the build-up of in situ stresses in
rock. In particular, rock mass structure asso-
ciated with discontinuities, anisotropy and
heterogeneities may result in complex stress
regimes, and scatter and perturbation in the
stress field at all scales. As pointed out by
Hudson and Cooling (1988), study of the
scatter should assist in understanding better
possible variations in the in situ stress field
rather than being regarded as a nuisance.
Furthel, for a given rock mass, different
boundary conditions may result in different
stress regimes. Likewise, for given boundary
conditions, different stress regimes can be pre-
dicted for different rock mass constitutive
behavior. Finally, topography can create rota-
tion of the in slfu stress field that is far from
being negligible.
In general, the process of estimating in situ
stresses in rocks requires a large amount of
judgement and is very much site specific. The
relative importance of various phenomena
when estimating the in situ stress field at a
given site can be assessed by carrying out
parametric studies using analytical or numer-
ical models. Predictions can also be improved
by combining the results of previous or cur-
rcntin sifa stress measurements.
This chapter also emphasizes that many
phenomena other than tectonics could result
in high horizontal stresses, in particular near
the ground surface. This is not to say that
tectonic stresses do not exist but simply that
their contribution to the measured stress fields
may not be as large as previously thought.
In general, this chapter shows how critical it
is to have a clear picture of the geology of a site
before estimating in situ stresses and before
embarking on any stress measurement pro-
gram. A clear description of the rock mass will
help in developing an optimal stress sampling
strategy and in the inteqpretation of field
measurements (Hudson and Cooling, 1988). It
will also help in selecting the techniques that
best fit the geological environment of interest.
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mechanics of crustal faulting. l. Geophy* Res.,97,
5039-57.
Zoback,M.D. et aL (1987) New evidence of the state
of shess of the San Andreas fault system. Science,
238, 1105-11.
Zoback, M.D. et al. (1993) Upper-crustal strength
inferred from stress measurements to 6 km depth
in the KTB borehole. Nature,365, 633-5.
Zoback, M.L. (1989) State of stress and modern
deformation of the Northern Basin and Range
province. l, Geophys. Res., 94, 7105-28.
Zoback., M.L. (1992) First- and second-order pat-
terns of stress in the lithosphere: The World Stress
Map project . | . Geophy* Res., 97 ,11703-28.
Zoback, M.L. and Zoback, M.D. (19S0) State of
stress in the conterminous United States. /,
Geophy s. Res., 85, 6113-56.
Zoback, M.L. ef al. (1989) Global patterns of tectonic
stress. A/afare, 341, 297-8.
I
l-
I
!
!
i.:
I
l
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t.J
l
L
METHODS OF IAI SIIU STRESS
MEASUREMENT
3.1 INTRODUCTION
Compared with other rock mass properties,
rock stress is a difficult quantity to measure.
Aspointed out by Leeman (1959),,It is impos-
sible to measure stress directly since, in fait, it
is a fictitious quantity. It is only possible to
deduce the stresses in a solid body from the
results of measurements using some indirect
method'. Since stress can be represented by a
secondorder Cartesian tensor, determination
of the complete in situ stress field in three
dimensions requires at least six independent
pieces of information.
In general, all in situ stress measuring tech-
I
niques consist of disrupting the rock. The
response associated with the disfurbance is
measur€d (in the form of strain, displacement
or hydraulii pressure record) and analyzed by
making several assumptions about the rockrs
constitutive behavior, etc. The process of dis-
turbance itself is usually accounted for in the
analysis. A prerequisite when measuring the
virgin stress field is that the rock,s response to
disturbance must be measured in refions far
away from natural or artificial excavation
I
boundaries. For underground openings, a dis-
I
tance of at least 1.5-2 times the opening span
or diameter is suggested. Also,_,it is recom-
mg1fled that'the measurdril6nts should be
i
!
carried out away from major rock mais hut.ro-
geneities or fault zones unless the measure-
ments are intentionally carried out to study
the stress disturbance associated with such
features.
Several factors need to be considered when
a
,*,
J
planning a program of in situ stress
measurements.
(1) The site geology and environmental
aspects (and their variations) must be properiy
identified including topography, rock type,
geological structures, anisotropy, heterogenei-
ties and the likelihood of high stresses. Such
factors are important since they will help,
among other things, in selecting the methods
of stress measurement that are the most suit-
able and the location of the measurements.
They will also help in the interpretation of the
measurements themselves. Other important
factors involved in
the decision process
include the presence of water, the temperafure
of the rock and the water, and the possible
influence of external conditions.
(2) The objectives of the stress measure-
ments must be clearly identified and in par-
ticular how they will be integrated into the
project of interest. This affects the selection of
the stress measurement technique, the location
of the measurements, how many measure-
ments need to be carried out, and in what
directions and depths.
(3)Equipment and personnel needs have to
be assessed. (4) Available access and services
need to be identified. (5) The budget and time
available for stress measurements must be
assessed.
(6) Finally, it must be kept in mind that, for a
given project, stresses can be determined using
several (direct or indirect)methods at the same
location or at different locations. This approach
is highly recorunended since it will provide a
measure of consistency and retiability. The
96 Methods o/in situ stressmenxtrement
data obtained with each method may be ana-
lyzed separately and checked to see if the
simplifying assumptions associated with each
method are met. The data from different meth-
ods may also be combined in order to impose
more rigorous constraints on the in slf u stres-
ses. The combination of data is also vital when
a limited number of tests from each method is
available. Also, stress measurements can be
ment of the in slftt shess field. The benefits of
using hybrid stress methods are discussed in
Haimson (1988), Cornet (1993) andBrudy et al.
(1ee5).
Over the past 30 years, various techniques for
measuring in situshesses have been developed
and improved. As shown in Table 3.1, these
techniques can be divided into six main groups:
i
hydraulic methods, relief methods, jacking i
I

methods, strain recovery methods, borehole 1.v

done in several'stages with one or several ,.]
I

methods. The idea here is to use the best breakout methods and others. This chapter gives i '-

attributes of different methods for a given
project. For instance, Enever (1993) recom-
mends using hydraulic fracturing for the
initial planning of engineering projects and
then conducting overcoring measurements to
obtain a more refined description of the in situ
state of stress. In general, combining several
methods based on their respective attributes
can help in obtaining a more reliable assess-
an overview of the different methods and
presents a summary of their respective advan-
tages and disadvantages and their range of
application. Each one of the first five techniques
is a subject of a chapter in this book. This
chapter also presents a discussion on the volume
of rock involved in the different methods of rock
stress measurement and reviews the sources of
uncertainties in stress determination.

Table 3.1 Methods of in situ stress measurement and estimates of rock volume involved in each method

Method Volume (m3)

Hydraulic methods Hydraulic fracturing 0.5-50 iv

Slleve fracturing 10' i

l!
Hydraulic tests on pre-existing fractures (HTPF) 1-10
t

Relief methods Surface relief methods 1,-2 I

Undercoring 10'
Borehole relief methods (overcoring, borehole
slotting, etc.)
a
10 "-10 '
_1

Relief of large rock volumes (bored raise,

under-excavation technique, etc.) 102-103

]acking methods Flat jack method 0.F2

Curved jack method 10'
I

Strain recovery methods Anelastic strain recovery (ASR) 10"

Differential strain curve analysis (DSCA) 10'
Borehole breakout method Caliper and dipmeter analysis 10 '-10'
Borehole televiewer analysis i0 '-10'
Other methods Fault slip data analysis 108

Earthquake focal mechanisms 10e

lndirect methods (Kaiser effect, etc.) 10*4-10-s

Inclusions in time-dependent rock 10*2-1
Measurement of residual stresses 10-s-10 -3

i
 Hydraulic methods 91
I

3.2 HYDRAULIC METHODS case, the least

horizontal stress is inferred from
-l Hydraulic methods measure the state of stress the pressure (also called shut-in pressure) at
in situ in boreholes. Pressure is applied along a which the induced fractures close in the
section of a borehole isolated by packers and is pressure-time record. Several interpretation
I

I
increased until existing fractures are open or procedures have been proposed on this sub-
l
new fractures are created. The fluid pressure ject. The largest horizontal stress is deter-
l required to open, generate, propagate, sustain mined from the pressure-time record, the
and reopen fractures in rock at a given depth is stress concentrations around a circular hole in
measured and is related to the existing in situ an isotropic medium and knowledge of the
i

stress field. The direction of the in situ stresses rock tensile strength. Various interpretation
:

is inferred by observing or measuring the procedures have been proposed in the litera-
orientation of the hydraulically induced or ture with regard to what value of the tensile
T open fractures. strength should be used, the type of stress
Hydraulic methods can be divided into analysis (Kirsch solution or fracture mech-
I

three subgroups: the hydraulic fracturing anics) to be employed for different rock types,
method, the sleeve fracfuring method, and the and the effect of temperature, fluids and poro-
}
oL_.pr_e:9{is!te _fia_cJs#f elasticity. Both horizontal stress components
i

I
!r4l:-s!. lqs
(HTPF)method All three types hive the miln are determined by hydraulic fracturing if the
advanlage itraf tney do noiiequire advanced measurements are made in vertical open
I

knowledge of the rock deformability proper- holes. In cased holes with perforations, which
ties and that they can be carried out without are more popular in the oil and gas industry,
much difficulty below the water table. only the minimum horizontal stress can be
Hydraulic methods are discussed in more determined accurately.
detail in Chapter 4. In general the interpretation of hydraulic
fracturing tests in very porous rocks can be
difficult. Also, in sedimentary rock formations,
I 3.2,1 HYDRAULIC FMCTURING
hydraulic fracturing requires relatively thick
Hydraulic fracturing is by far the most popu- formations of at least 2-3 m and preferably
lar of the three hydraulic'methods. Fairhurst larger. The applicability of hydraulic fractur-
(1964) was the first to recommend such a ing under hostile conditions
such as under
method for stress measurement. The method- very high stresses and very high temperatures
ology has been tested in deep to very deep (above 200"C), which are found in ultradeep
vertical holes and in various (but continuous) boreholes, is very limited.
Jh:ere_it-is*diffieult.
rock conditions, The deepest hydraulic frac- tq-sa-ck the [ock and
Ep-ecial eqg-ipIent
turing tests conducted to date have been at (valves, tubings and packers)isrequiled. Also,
depths between 6 and 9 km (Te Kamp, the-rock may show nonlinear as well as ductile
Rummel and Zoback, 1995). The vertical and behavior with possible borehole
wall
horizontal stresses are assumed to be principal breakouts.
stresses and the vertical stress is assumed to be
due to the weight of the overburden rock. The
rock is cracked by pumping water or drilling 3.2.2 SLEEVE FRACTUzuNG
mud in a section of a borehole. The orientation Sleeve fracturing is similar to hydraulic frac-
of the resulting fracture is obtained using tele- turing except that it has the major advantage
viewers or impression packers. By far the larg- that no fluid penetrates the rock upon fractur-
est proportion of in situ stress measurements irg. The method was first proposed by
by hydraulic fracturing has been obtained Stephansson (1983). A neoprene (hard rubber)
when vertical fractures are formed. In that membrane is inserted into the borehole and
 98 Methods o/in situ stress measurement
pressurized. As in conventional hydraulic
fracturing, a fracture is initiated at the bore-
hole wall once the pressure exceeds the rock
tensile strength and the fracture propagates in
the direction perpendicular to the least
horizontal in situ stress. The maximum and
minimum principal stresses in the plane per-
pendicular to the borehole are determined
from the breakdown and reopening pressures
of an induced single or double fracture at the
borehole wall, and by using Kirsch solution.
The fracture orientation is determined using
impression packers. Until fracturing, the test is
essentially a dilatometer test which can be
used to determine the rock mass modulus of
deformation, by assuming a value for the
rock's Poisson's ratio. A drawback of the
sleeve fracturing method is that, compared
with hydraulic fracturing, the breakdown
pressure is not well defined, thus complicathg
the interpretation of the field test results.
Another limitation is that the induced frac-
tures do not propagate far from the borehole
wall.
3,2,3 HTPFMETHOD
The HTPF method is the only hydraulic
method and the only in sifu stress determina-
tion method at great depth, where the bore-
hole does not have to be assumed to be vertical
and perpendicular to a princip al in situ stress
component. The method was first proposed by
Cornet (1986) and consists of reopening an
existing fracture of known orientation that has
previously been isolated in between two pack-
ers. From that point of view, it is the opposite
of hydraulic fracturing where sections of bore-
holes with competent rock are sought. By
using a low flow rate of injection, the fluid
pressure which'balances exactly the normal
stress across the fracture is measured. The
method is then repeated for other non-parallel
fractures of known orientation. Since the
normal stress across a fracture depends on the
six components of the in sifl.r stress field and
the orientation of the fracture with respect to
:
that stress field, a system of equations can be
created to determine the six in sifu stress
components without making any assumption
with regard to the orientation of the principal
stresses and the rock's constitutive behavior.
The system can account for the lateral and
vertical variations of the in situ shess field in
the volume of rock involved in the HTPF tests.
Further, the method does not require determi-
nation of the rock's tensile strength and is
independent of pore pressure effects. The
HTPF method requires the same equipment as
the hydraulic fracturing method. However,
when conducting HTPF tests, special attention
must be placed on the fracture itsell as it must
be of a size for which the normal stress can be i',
assumed to beuniform and its geometry must
be planar. The HTPF method riquires alarge
number of tests on fractures of various dips
and strikes in a region where the stress field
can be assumed to be continuous. Furthel, the \-
rock mass cannot be too fracfured since each
fracture needs to be isolated. Finally, it has
been found that the HTPF method does not
work well in heterogeneous (stratified) rock
i
formations, but works well in homogeneous
J.v
rock formations (Burlet, Cornet and Feuga, 1
le8e).
't -
l!
3.3 RELIEF METHODS I,
The main idea behind relief methods is to
isolate (partially or wholly) a rock sample lv
!
from the stress field in the surrounding rock
mass and monitor its response. This can be
done by different methods such as over- or
undercoring holes, cutting slots or under-
excivation. The stresses are not related to
applied pressures such as in hydraulic meth-
ods. Instead, the stresses are inferred from
strains or displacements created by the relief
(unloading) process and measured on isolated
rock samples, in boreholes or on the surround-
ing rock associated with the relief process. The i
successful interpretation of stress relief tests
depends to a great extent on the ability (1) to
establish a stress-shain (or displacement)

relationship for the rock, (2) to be able to
determine rock mass properties from tests on
samples, and (3) to have instrumentation
sensitive enough to capture small strains or
displacements. It is common practice to relate
strains or displacements to the in situ stress
components through equations derived from
the theory of linear elasticity. Borehole and
surface relief methods require rock volumes to
be fracfure-free. Other techniques, such as
under-excavation, do not have those limita_
tions. In general, relief methods originally
developed for hard rocks have been tested for
use in less ideal materials such as weak and
soft rocks, as well as evaporitic rocks such as
rock salt and potash. The success rate in such
rock conditions has been found to vary a lot.
I
Several stress relief methods have been
i
proposed since the early 1930s. They can be
divided into three major groups: (1) the
methods that involve strain or displacement
l measurements on rock surfaces in under_
ground or surface excavations , (2) the
methods that use instruments in boreholes,
and, (3) the methods that involve the response
of large volumes of rock. Relief methods are
discussed in more detaii in Chapter 5.
3.3.1 SUMACE RELIEFMETHODS
Surface relief methods were the very first tech-
niques used to determine in situ itresr., on
underground excavation walls. Rock surfaces
are first instrumented with gages or pins.
Then, the rock response to stress rellei (by
cutting or drilling) is obtained by recording
the gages and pins before and after the re[e]
process. A well-known surface relief method
is
that of stress relief by center hole or under_
coring of Duvall (7974), where a hole 6 inches
(152mm) diameter is drilled at the center
of a
circle lOinches (254mm) in diameter along
which six pins have been installed 60" apart.
Tfe p1n displacements induced by drilling are
related to the in situ stress components in
the
plane of the rock surface.
Surface relief methods suffer from many
Relief methods 99
ii*itrtions.First, the performance of the gages
or pins can be affected by humidity and dust.
Second, the strains or displacements are
measured on a rock that may have been
disturbed and damaged by weathering and
the excavation process itself. Third, stress con_
centration factors have to be assumed in order
to relate the stresses measured locally in the
walls of the excavation to the far-fieid stress
components.
3,3,2 BOREHOLE RELIEF METHODS
The methods that use instruments in bore_
holes, also known as overcoring methods, are
by far the most commonly used relief meth_
ods. They can be classified as total relief meth_
ods. First, a iarge-diameter hole is drilled to
the required depth in the volume of rock in
which stresses have to be determined.In some
techniques, a small pilot hole is drilled at the
end of the previous hole. An instrumented
device that can measure strains or displace_
ments is inserted into the pilot hole. Then,
drilling of the large-diameter hole is resumed
and resulting changes of strain or displace_
ment n ithin the instrumented device are
recorded. A variety of instrumented devices
are available. Devices that seem to have had a
high success rate in the field include the South
African CSIR triaxial strain cell (Leeman and
Hayes, 7966), the Australian CSIRO Hollow
Inclusion (HI) Cell (Worotnicki and Walton,
7976), and the US Bureau of Mines (USBM)
gage (Merrill, 1967). Most of these devices
work well at distances not exceeding 10_50m_
from existing free surfaces and in
food rock
conditions. They usually require unbroken
cores at least 150 to 300 mm in iength. Several
modified versions of the CSIR triaxial strain
cell-and USBM gage have been proposed in
the literafure and some of them have recently
been tested in vertical water-filled boreholei
down to a depth of 500-1000m.
Another technique consists of attaching an
.instrumented
device at the bottom of the
large-diameter hole which is then overcored.

100 Methods o/in situ stress measurement
This approach does not require a pilot hole
and has been used with the South African
CSIR 'Doorstopper' (Leeman, 1971) at dis-
tances from free surfaces not exceeding 60 m.
Furthermore, the overcore does not have to be
long as for the other overcoring methods. A
length of core of as little as 50 mm is required
for successful overcoring, thus making this
instrument very useful for measuring stresses
in weak and broken ground and in rocks
under high stresses for which core disking is
common.
A thfud and more recent technique was devel-
oped in Japan and consists of attaching
spherical or conical strain cell to the bottom of a
pilot hote which is then overcored (Kobayashi
et a1.,1991-; Sugawara and Obara, 1995). After
dritling the hole, its bottom surface is reshaped
into a spherical or conical shape using special
drill bits. Thereafter, the bottom surface is
ground and polished before the strain cell is
bonded onto the rock. During the overcoring
operation, changes in strain are recorded con-
tinuously. Like the CSIR Doorstopper, a small
volume of rock is required for overcoring.
Depending on the instrument used to moni-
tor the rock during overcoring, the complete
state of stress can be determined in one, two or
three non-phrallel boreholei. No assumption
needs to be made regarding the in slfa stress
field as with the hydraulic fracturing method.
Some problems may arise, however, with the
installation of some of the instrumented de-
vices ln situ, in particular in wet and dusty
environments and poor rock conditions. How-
ever, many of those problems seem to have
been remedied over the past 5 to 10 years.
Furthermore, when using more than one bore-
hole, the stress field needs to be somewhat
homogeneous throughout the volume of
interest.
The success rate with overcoring methods
rarely exceeds 50% (Herget, 1993). The over-
coring method is also limited by the magni-
tude of the in sifil stresses themselves. It can
only be used at depths for which the strength
of the rock in the wall and bottom of
l.-
borehole is not exceeded. Phenomena such as
core disking or shearing off of thin flakes of
rock may make strain ordisplacement
measurements during overcoring very diffi-
cult and the analysis meaningless. Hast (1979)
suggested that with overcoring, and because i-
of these phenomena, the maximum recordable
stress is about 100 MPa. Herget (1986) repor-
ted measured stresses in high-strength rocks
in the Canadian Shield as high as 130MPa,
and at a depth of 2100 m.
An innovative but different borehole relief
method called 'borehole slotting' was pro-
a posed by Bock and Foruria (1983) and Bock
(1986). It consists of cutting three longitudinal
slots, 120o apNt, into the wall of a borehole.
i'-
Tangential strains induced by release of tan-
l-
l
gential stresses are measured on the borehole l\-
l
surface in the near vicinity of each slot. This is i
a partial relief method which does not require
any overcoring. The method is fast, and the
instrument is reusable and is self-contained in
both its stress release operations and strain !,.
measuring capabilities. However, the method
is limited to two-dimensional anaiysis.
3.3.3 RELIEF OF LARGE ROCK VOLUMES
The main drawback with surface and borehole
relief methods is that they involve small rock
volumes. Thus the measured stresses can be
sensitive to changes in the mineral composi-
tion of the rock and to the rock grain size.
Relief methods involving much larger rock
volumes have been proposed. One method
consists of overcoring several strain gages on
the surface of a large-diameter bored raise and
at different levels in the'bored raise (Brady,
Friday and Alexan der, 197 6; Br ady, Lemos and
Cundall, 1976; Chandler, 1993). The data can
be analyzed to determine the local stresses or
to determine the average stress over the entire
volume of rock involved in all the
measurements.
Other techniques consist of using measure-
ments made while excavating an under-
the ground opening. This approach was proposed
 Strain recovery methods l0l
simultaneously by Zajic and Bohac (19g6) and
to be carried out to obtain the complete in situ
Sakurai and Shimizu (1986). The rationale
of stress field.
this approach is to measure dispiacements
in The flat jack method represents one of the
one or several cross-sections of an opening
first techniques used in rock mechanics for
following excavation. The displacements are meazuring in situ stresses (Mayea Habib and
related to the in situ stress field using ana-
Marchand, 1951). It was very popular in the
lytical methods or numerical methodsltirritu
i950s and 1960s. The main advantage of the
element or boundary element method). flat jack method is that
it does noi require
Simplifying assumptions are usually made knowledge
of the elastic constants of the rock
about the mechanical properties of tire rock.
in order to determine the tangential stress at
Another back-analysir approach, called the points
in the wall of an excavation, and the
under-excavation technique by Wiles and
stresses are measured directly. Furthermore,
Kaiser (1994), uses measurements in the near
the_equipment used in flat jack tests is rugged
vicinity of an advancing excavation. Com_ and stable.
Also, relatively iarge rock volurires
bined measurements, suih as strains from can
be involved in the tests ind the stresses
CSIR or CSIRO HI cells and displacements
can be determined over large areas. Never_
measured with convergence gages, extensom_
thele-ss, flat jacks have many disadvantages
eters, closure meters, tiltmeteri or inclinom_
and limitations that limit their range of uppti
eters, are used simultaneously to determine
cation. Jacking methods are discussed more
the three-dimensional in situ,tr.r, field. The
extensively in Chapter 6.
in situ stress field is determined (using a
three_
dimensional boundary element me"thod) as
the stress field that gives the ,best fit, to the 3.5 STRAIN RECOVERY METHODS
measured displacements and strain changes
Strain recovery methods are based on moni_
associated with the advancing excavation.
,:liig the response of core samples following
drilling. ln many ways they cin be seen as
3,4 IACKING METHODS relief methods.
One method, called the anelastic strain
]acking methods are sometimes called ,stress recovery (ASR)
-t method, consists of instru_
compensating methods,. The equilibrium of
a menting an oriented core sample following its
rock mass is disturbed by cutting slots (planar
removal from a borehole and monitorinf its
I
or circular) on rock surfaces. This in turn strain response
as it continues to ,e.or.i
i creates deformations that are measured 1o.
with relax) from the in situ state of stress (Teufei,
reference pins or strain gages placed in
the 1982).It is assumed that the direction
near vicinity of the slots. Equilibrium is principal of the
recovery strains coincides with the
restored by inserting a device srih as a jack
in direction of the in situprincipal stresses. Deter_
the- slots. Then the jack is pressurized
I

until all mination of in situ stress magnitudes using

deformations have vanished. ln situ stresses the
ASR method requires a viscoelastic model for
are determined from the rock response
during the rock response to unloading. In the analy_
I I pressurizing assuming the rock response to be
sis, the vertical stress is usually assumed.
elastic.
Another technique, called the differential
The flat jack method is by far the most
strain curve analysis (DSCA)method, consists
of all jacking methods. When using of applying a
flf.ul1
flat jacks, the cancellaiion p.essure is used
hydrostatic pressure to a cubic
as a sample cut from an oriented drill core follow_
direct estimate of the stress normal to the jack.
ing its removal from the ground (Strickland
i
Since each flat jack test yields one component
I and Ren, 1980). Microcracks which developed
of the in situ stress field, a total of six tesis
need during drill core removal and its
expansion

'
I

I
702 Methods o/in situ stress measurement
are then closed under pressure. The response
of the cubic sample to hydrostatic loading is
monitored using strain gages previously
attached to its surfaces. Using a minimum of
six strain gages, the principal strains due to
microcrack closure and their orientation can
be determined. The principal directions of the
current in situ stress field and ratios between
the three principal in situ stresses can be deter-
mined assuming (1) that most of the micro-
cracks in the core samples are due to the relief
of the current in situ stress field, (2) that the in
slfu stress tensor has the same orientation as
the strain tensor due to crack closure, and (3)
that the cracks are proportional volumetrically
to the in situ stress magnitude in any
direction.
Strain recovery methods have been found to
be very well suited for stress measurements in
deep to very deep wells for which many of the
other techniques do not work and for which
only small core samples are available' Several
examples proposed in the literature have
shown that those methods can give reasonable
measurements of in situ stresses, especially
when combined with hydraulic methods.
Strain recovery methods are discussed in more
detail in Chapter 7.
3,6 BOREHOLE BREAKOUT METHOD
The rock around boreholes may not be able to
sustain the compressive stress concentration
associated with the process of drilling itself'
Breakage of the rock results in two dia-
metrically opposed zones of enlargement
called 'breakouts'. ln verticai boreholes, the
smallest horizontal in situ stress component is
assumed to coincide with the breakout direc-
tion. When logged in vertical boreholes, using
tools such as dipmeters or borehole teleview-
ers, breakouts can give an estimate of the
orientation of the maximum and minimum
horizontal principal stresses and the variation
of that orientation with depth.
Breakouts have been used as an indicator of
in situ stress orientation in boreholes several
kiiometers deep and in all rock types. The
deepest breakouts analyzed have been at a
depth of about 11.6km in the Kola Peninsula
hole in the former Soviet Union (Zoback,
Mastin and Barton, 1986). In general, break-
outs have helped to bridge the gap between
near-surface stress indicators and deep stress
indicators from earthquake focal mechanisms.
They are useful as stress indicators at large
depths for which it is difficult to conduct
direct measurements of stress.
In general, it is difficult to use borehole
breakouts to estimate the magnitudp of in situ
stresses (although several attempts have been
proposed using the breakout geometry).
Several models have been proposed for the
formation of breakouts. In these models the
, principal in situ stresses are assumed to be
horizontal and vertical. A conventional
approach is to assume that breakouts are
formed in shear and that their location can be
predicted using the Kirsch solution for the
stresses around a circular hole driiled in a
linear elastic, isotropic and homogeneous con-
tinuum subject to a three-dimensionai stress
field at infinity. A Mohr-Coulomb failure cri-
terion is superimposed on the elastic stress
field in order to determine where failure takes
place. This theory may have iimited value if
the rock is anisotropic or time dependent and/
or yielding of the borehole wall takes place.
Despite these limitations, borehole breakouts
have played a major role in defining stress
provinces in the World Stress Map Project, and
are reliable indicators of the direction of hor-
izontal principal stresses in vertical boreholes.
The borehole breakout method is discussed
further in Chapter 8.
3.7 OTHERMETHODS
3,7.1. FAULT.SLP DATAANALYSF
As discussed in section 2.14.1,measurement of
slickensides on a population of faults can be
used to determine the orientation as well as
the magnitude of the in slfa stress field. This
method, which involves large rock volumes

(at the outcrop scale), is based on three
assumptions: (1) all the slickensides on the
faults in the population are related to a given
but unknown stress tensor, (2) motion on each
fault plane is parallel to the acting shear stress
on that plane, and (3) fault motions are inde-
pendent. These provisos are important since
they somewhat limit the range of application
of the method.
This method has the main advantage that
advance knowledge of the rock deformability
properties is not required. However, Coulomb
friction and the aforementioned assumptions
are implied in the analysis. If the method is
used to determine the current in situ stress
field, there must be enough evidence that the
striations used in the analysis are related to
that stress field only. The same limitations
apply if striations on fractures in core samples
are used instead of striations on outcrop frac-
tures, as suggested by Hayashi and Masuoka
(i995). It is noteworthy that using striations on
oriented core samples to determine in situ
stresses has great potential in rock
engineering.
3,7.2 EARTHQUAKE FOCAL MECHANISMS
As discussed in section2.\4.2, the first motion
analysis of earthquakes can provide the sense
of faulting, and the relative magnitudes of the
three in situ prtncipal stress components and
their orientation. It is the only method that
provides data about in situ stresses at mid-
crustal or greater depths (5-20 km) and
involves very large rock volumes. The method
is most effective for large earthquakes that
occur deep within the crust at plate bound-
aries, but is also applicable to small earth-
quakes within the interior of lithospheric
plates and in the vicinity of mines and oil and
gas fields.
3.7,3 INDiRECTMETHODS
I
I
Indirect methods measure stresses by looking
at changes in some physical, mechanical or
Other methods 103
other rock properties as a result of a change in
stress. Beside relief methods that use strains
and displacements, other techniques include
monitoring of opening displacemeni and
convergence measurements (Martin ,1989), the
acoustic method (Rivkin, Zapolskiy and
Bogdanov, 1956), seismic and microseismic
methods (Bridges et a1.,1976;Martiry Read and
Lang, 1990; Swolfs and HandirU 1976; Talebi
and Young,l9B9), sonic and ultrasonic meth-
ods (Aggson,7978; Mao et a1.,1984; Pitt and
Klostermary 1984; Sun and Peng, 1989), the
radioisotope method (Riznichank o et al., 19 67),
the atomic magnetic resonance method (Cook,
1972) and electromagnetic methods (Petu-
khoV Marmorshteyn and Morozov,1961). The
in situ state of stress can also be measured by
using holographic methods (Smither, Schmitt
and Ahrens, 1988; Smither and Ahrens,1997;
Schmitt and Li, 1993) where displacements
induced by the drilling of a small (stress-
relieving) hole at three different locations in
the wall of a borehole are measured using
double-exposure optical holograms. The
reader should note that these various tech-
niques are listed here for completeness but
will not be the subject of discussion in this
book since they have not yet gained much
popularity in practice.
Some ,.*aiks need to be made, however,
about a method called the Kaiser effect
method which has been investigated over the
past 10 years as a potential method for deter-
mining in situ stresses. Research originally
conducted by Kaiser (1950) on the acoustic
emission of metal revealed that when the
stress on metal is relaxed from a certain level
and then increased, there is a significant
increase in the rate of acoustic emission as the
stress exceeds its previous higher value.
Several attempts have been made to use this
observation, also known as the Kaiser effect, as
a method for determining in slfu stresses in
rock. In particular, it has been hypothesized
for a long time that the stress experienced by a
rock in situ could be inferred by monitoring
acoustic emission on core samples cut from
704 Methods o/in situ stress measurement

different directions and ioaded cyclically in 3.7.5 MEASUREMENT OF RESIDUAL

uniaxial compression in the laboratory. An STRESSES
extensive review of the different studies con- As discussed in Chapter 2, residuai stresses
ducted on the Kaiser effect can be found in represent a class on their own. There seems to
Holcomb (1993). Despite encouraging results ,\;
be a consensus in the literature that they exist
obtained by several authors showing a fairly on at least two different scales: the microscopic
i

good correlation between stresses determined scale and the macroscopic scale. Depending on
with the Kaiser effect and with other methods, the scale that is being considered, the methods . v
research carried out by Holcomb (1993)
:

used for the measurement of residual stresses j'v

revealed that using the acoustic emission emit- are different. At the microscopic scale (crystal
ted during uniaxial compression laboratory or grain scale), possible methods include the !v
tests to infer in slfu stresses could not be calorimetric technique, the X-ray technique .

justified. and the spot-drilling or center hole-drilling ; v

technique. A review of these methods can be

3.7.4 INCLUSIONS IN TIME-DEPENDENT found, for instance, in Voight (1966) and Bock !'

MATERIALS (1979).It is noteworthy that all these methods :\J

i

were borrowed from the study of residual

Inserting and casting an inclusion in a bore-, stresses in metals. At the macroscopic level l

hole drilled in an already stressed material (specimen to rock mass), overcoring of over-
' v
with creep properties can theoretically be a cored specimens (double overcoring) or
technique to measure in situ stresses in rock. undercoring of undercored specimens is
Indeed, viscoelasticity theory tells us that with highly recommended.
time the steady state of stress in the inclusion
will approach the absolute stress in the rock
(Peleg, 1968). Thus if the creep characteristics
3.8 ROCK VOLUME IN STRESS
MEASUREMENTS
of the rock are known, stresses can be deduced
from inclusion readings over shorter periods All the techniques mentioned above involve
of time (Berry and Fairhurst, 1966; Leeman,. rock volumes that differ by several orders of
' magnitude. A list of volume estimates is given
7e71). l-
This concept has been used in the literature in Table 3.1. According to this table, very few of
I

i_

for measurng in sifu stresses in viscoelastic the stress measurement methods involve large
I
i.\/
rocks such as rock salt or potash for which volumes of rocks. The earthquake focal mecha-
other methods of stress measurements have nism method provides stress information at |-
I

had a limited amount of success. Inclusions mid-crustal or greater depths and includes by I

',v
such as the vibrating wire stressmeter, flat far the largest rock volumes, of the order of
jacks and other borehole pressure cells such as 10e m3. The fault-slip data analysis method I
I

the Glotzl (or Gloetzl) cell have been installed comes next with slightly smaller rock volumes, 1

in rock masses or in boreholes to measure of the order of 10rm3, because of its surface I
t-
absolute stresses, and thereafter monitor stress nature. This is followed by the large rock
t-
:!

changes. An interesting application of this volume relief methods. For instance, the overall i
I,
!'
l

method was demonstrated by Natau, Lempp volume of rock involved in the bored raise tests
and Borm (1986) in Germany and by Lu (1986) of Brady, Lemos and Cundall (1986) has been {- I

from the US Bureau of Mines in Denver, estimated to be about 100 m3 (Fig. 3.1a). Accord- I

Colorado. Lu (1986) used a system of three ing to Zou and Kaiser (1990) and Wiles and j

: 'J

pressure cells (one cylindrical cell and two flat Kaiser (199 4), the under-excavation technique
!--
cells) to determine absolute stresses and stress involves several hundred or thousand cubic
changes in salt and coal. meters of rock (Fig. 3.1b). All these methods
 I

Accuracy and uncertainq, ir., stress

measureruents 105
Rosette overcoring in
Conventional overcore
raise boring Most other stress measurement methods,
testing in
particular those that use borehole
devices,

6s ('4-\
involve small rock volumes and
pointwise measurements of the
provide only
in siiu stress

HE
field (Leijon, lg}g). For instance, overcoring
methods involve rock volumes ranging
between only 10-3 and 10-2m3,
dependin[ oi
I
the size of the overcore diameter.

H€
HydrJu[c
tests, and.in particuiar hydraulic
fracturing
tests, involve somewhat lirger
rock volumes
(0.5-50m3) than- the ou...[rinj
iechniques
since the borehole is pressuriz.i
ou., a dis_
tance of the order of ten borehole
diameters.
Flat jacks and other surface relief
I
1800 mm methods can
3g mm involve volumes as large as 0.5_2*L
reco\rery methods *a rU the
il;
:,^.1T techniques
(a)
ffi StanOarO rosette of shain
gages
based on measurements on small.or.
,u_pla,
involve small rock volumes not
exceeding
)

10-3m3. Finally, borehole Ur.uf.ort,

involve
rock volumes 110-2_102m3; i"t..*.aiui.
between those of the deep ,tr.r,
*.thods and
A those of the near-surface itress
Y\ methods.
In general, the methods that involve
Strain gage
small
Stress cell volumes are more likely to capture
rosettes locai dis_
tortions of the regional stress field.
Mth such
methods, wide variations in stress
magnitude
and orientation among closely spaced
measurements are common. Due
to thelocal_
ized nature of the measurements,
the meas_
Opening ured stresses can be sensitive to
changes in the
advance
mineral composition of the rock,
tlie micro_
structures of the rock and the rock
grain size
(Leijon, 1989).
(b)

I]8 :1 Examples of stress measurement methods 3.9 ACCURACY AND UNCERTAINTY

IN
rnvolvmg rarger rock vorumes than conventionar STRESS MEASUREMENTS
overcoring. (a) Bored raise method
where strain
rosettes are installed on the
wall of a 1.g m diameter A basic question that is often raised
in practice
bored raise (adapted fro- is: can we measure stresses in
1990); and (b) under-excavation
rrlu.itrr, n.rjl^a f*g, rock wiih sufti_
rock mass deformation or strain
l..h"iq;
where cient accuracy? In the literature there
is a
is measured in the general consensus that stress measurements
near vicinity. of an ug::l:ing
from Zou and Kaiser,1990.)
ope"inj. v I
--'o' laiuptea
\'^' are seldom accurate. Accuracy, being
a
measure of deviation from a known
value
(Holman, l9B9), becomes meaningless
give average values of the insifu
stress field and
when
we jo nothave
measuring stresses in situsince
eliminate the effect of local ,o.t
*rm l.r.grr_ beforehand a known value with
larities on the stress measurements. which tt com_
pare the measurements. The accuracy
of an

706 Methods o/in situ stress mensurement
instrument to measure stresses can only be
assessed by controlled laboratory tests where
the measured stresses are compared with the
applied stresses.
It is common practice to present in situ stress
measurements with a plus or minus range or
confidence interval which relates to the uncer-
tainty in the measurements. Three types of
uncertainty are considered below: (1) natural
(intrinsic, inherent) uncertainty, (2) uncer-
tainty related to the process of stress measure-
ment itself, and (3) uncertainty associated with
the analysis of the stress measurement data.
3.9.1. NATURAL (TNTRTNSIC, INHERENT)
UNCERTAINTY
Natural (or intrinsic, inherent) uncertainty
stems from the fact that, by definition, in sita
stresses vary from point to point in a rock
mass, can change over short distances, are
volume dependent and depend on the
mechanical properties, the geological struc-
Poo
-30
a
(o20
[rJ
Fro
F
a
DRIFT
ffi LEPTITE
Fig.3.2 Random variations of principal stresses measured along a borehole in uniform rock conditions.
(Source:_Lerjon, B.A., Copyright 1989, with kind permission from Elsevier
Langford Lane, Kidlington, UK.)
lv
i
I
tures and the fabric of the rock mass (Chapter
2). As discussed in section 2.6, the local stres-
ses in a rock mass consisting of different units
with different elastic properties can be quite
different from the average stress. Contrast in
stress with depth in a single hole or laterally
from one hole to the next can be expected in
most sedimentary rock formations and lava
flow deposits. They can also be found ran-
domly in uniform hard rock conditions as
shown in Fig. 3.2 (Leijon, 7989). Such local
variations are intrinsic and should not always
be seen as anomalies or errors in the measure-
ments themselves.
Rock properties entering into the analysis
of stress measurements can themselves vary
throughout a rock mass, along the length
of a borehole, or even over the length of an
overcore. Enevel, Walton and Wold (1990)
reported variations in Young's moduius of
sedimentary rocks in a coal field in New South
Wales, Australia by a factor of up to 2 within a
core length of 0.2m. Such extreme variations
i
:'-'
l\?
Science Ltd, The Boulevard,
l!
1
 Accuracy and uncertainQ in stress measurements 107

were found to be critical in the analysis of 3.9.2 MEASUREMENT-RELATED

overcoring tests. Figure 3.3 shows, for UNCERTAINTY
instance, the variation in the Young's modulus
of a granitic rock, over a borehole length of Uncertainty when measuring in situ stresses .,:,:

5 m, reported by Aytmatov (1986). Here the may be associated with errors due to blunders t,,

modulus shows cyclical variations and varies
by 20 to 25% over short distances. If this
modulus enters into the calculation of the
stresses, such as in overcoring, one would
expect large variations in the calculated
stresses. In overcoring, the Young's modulus
enters as a multiplier betweenin situ stresses
and measured strains or displacements. Thus
a 5% error in the Young's modulus would
result in a 5% error in all the stress compo-
nents provided all other factors are constant.
As far as the Poisson's ratio is concerned, the
problem is more complicated. For the CSIR
cell, Van Heerden (1973) found that errors in
l
the Poisson's ratio yielded much smaller
errors in the stresses compared with errors in
the Young's modulus.
I
Uncertainty can also be created by rock
anisotropy, heterogeneities and grain and
pore size (Cyrul, 1983). Local stresses at
the grain size level can be quite different from
the average stress. This needs to be taken
under consideration, in particular if the scale
of the measurements (such as with strain
gages) is comparable to the average grain
size.
in the construction of the apparatus or instru-
ment used to measure stresses. Errors may
also come from the experimental procedure
itself.
In overcoring tests, possible errors may arise
due to creep of the glue or creep of the instru-
ment itself, malfunctions and idiosyncrasies of
strain gages or other sensing elements, move-
ment of the measuring cell in the pilot hole,
poor instrument installation, breaking of over-
core samples due to inherent cracks, tempera-
ture of drilling water, heat generated by
drilling, humidity effects, electrical problems,
borehole eccentricity, borehole oversize, etc. At
the Underground Research Laboratory (URL)
site in Canada, it was estimated that an error
of +5o in the installation of overcoring measur-
ing devices would result in principal stress
trend errors of +15o (Martin, Read and Chan-
dler, 1990).
The accuracy of instruments which use
strain gages as measuring devices depends
greatly on changes in temperature (rock, drill-
ing water or environment). This is a complex
problem because of the transient nature of the
temperature gradients in the overcore

au
0-

v12
o
x
;10
tr . '::

E8
E
:!!

',:

ii
.9
o,
co :ti
L

.i:
o
'

Length (m) :;
i:
,:l
Fig. 3.3 Variation of modulus of elasticity along a borehole in granitic rock. (After Aytmatov, 1986.) :,ll

ll

-'':i i::l
:|:

,i
,l
'i
ii

i
108 Methods o/in situ stress measurement
samples. Martin, Read and Chandler (1990)
concluded that temperature variations of less
than 2oC do not significantly affect the over-
coring test results. On the other hand, varia-
tions of 8"C can change principal stress
magnitudes by as much as25%. The accuracy
of the instruments can also vary with the type
of temperature compensation scheme used
(Cai, 1990) and if a quarter-bridge, half-bridge
or full bridge is used (Garritty, Irvin and
Farmer,1985).
Tsur-Lavie and Van Ham (7974) investi-
gated different sources of error when measur-
ing stresses with the undercoring method.
They found that errors in the readings of the
pin displacements of 0.001 mm would result in
small errors in the calculated stresses if the
stresses are high. They also found that hole
eccentricity and effors in measuring pin
location would only result in small errors
when calculating the stresses. The conclusions
of Tsur-Lavie and Van Ham (1974) should
probably apply to other surface methods as
well.
All the problems mentioned above are even
more critical when conducting measurements
at shallow depths, for which the measured
strains or displacements,are in general small
and the measuring instruments work near
their limit of resolution. In such conditions,
slight changes in the experimental conditions,
such as changes in temperature during over-
coring, could drastically affect the measure-
ments (Cooling, Hudson and Tunbridge, 19BB;
Garritty, Irvin and Farmer, 1985), Furthermore,
as discussed in Chapter 1, stresses at shallow
depths may also be affected by phenomena
such as diurnal and seasonal variations in
temperature, and Moon pull, which may add
to the observed scatter.
When using more than one borehole to
determine the in situ state of stress such as
with the USBM gage or the CSIR Doorstopper,
errors may arise if the volume of rock involved
with all the boreholes is too large. The volume
must be kept to a minimum and within the
size of the stress domain. On the other hand,
when measuring in situ stresses, we want a
volume large enough to obtain a representa-
tive sample of the in situ stress field.
In hydraulic fracturing tests, errors may
arise if the borehole is inclined and is not
vertical. Even if it is vertical, hydraulic frac-
tures may initially (or not) propagate in the
vertical direction and then turn to become
parallel to most favorably oriented pre-
existing natural cracks, joints or partings in the
rock. This phenomenon can create a major
source of error in the analysis of hydraulic
fracturing tests (Brown, 1989). According to
Haimson (1988), the conventional theory for
the analysis of hydraulic fracturing tests
assuming a vertical fracture gives reliable esti-
mates of the in situ stress field as long as the
, fracture deviates only several degrees from the
vertical (less than 20"). Additional sources of
uncertainty when measuring in situ stresses
with hydraulic fracturing might be related to
the malfunction of packers, valves and pumps
or to the use of cased instead of open holes. \./
3.9.3 DATA ANALYSIS-RELATED
UNCERTAINTY
Uncertainty can be associated with errors in
the selection of data to be analyzed)'such as
strains or deformations in overcoring tests. For
instance, neglecting strain gage length when
analyzing overcoring results may create some
error. Natau (1974) and Amadei (1986)
reported errors of 2 and 5% for the CSIR and
CSIRO HI cells placed in 38 mm diameter
holes. Mills and Pender (1986) recommended
using smaller strain gages of the order of 5 mm
in length rather than 10mm. They found that
for longer gages, the average strain could be
quite different from the strain at the middle of
the gage. When analyzing strains obtained in
overcoring, special attention must be placed
on the size of the strain gages with respect to
the size, shape and distribution of rock grains
and pores (Cyrul, 1983). It has been found that
consistent strain readings in rock are usually
obtained when strain gages have a length
 Accuracy and uncertainty
in stress measurentents 109
greater than or equal to ten times
the average lic fracturing tests. As discussed
(Garritty,Irvin and FarmJr, determination in Chapter 5,
||ltti'dimension of
the elastic properties
Inhvdraulic rracturins, uncertainty may
arise in the interpretation of the
H;1nrltlli,.Tii:"t#J"?::l# *';
fluid.pressure complex cells such as the
versus flow behavior during crack - cslRo HI cell
initiation (woiotnicki, 1993). The ottrer alternative,
and propagation (Fairhursi 1986). For
stance' errors may arise when selecting
in- which is to test rock cores, may also yield
the errors. Tests on overcore samples containing
shut-in and reopening pressures, and
the rock
>- tensile strength' using the results
of hydraulic
either a CSIRO HI cell o, u tru
gage con-
ducted by Leijon and stillborg (19g6)
fracturing tests at the Basalt waste revealed
isolation that markedly different rock properties
Project in Hanford, washington, could
Aggson and be determined by using biaxial tests
Kim (1987) compared five diiferent,iltnoas or triaxial
determining the shut-in pressure
or tests lbiuxiar_Rlus longitudinal loading)
on the
and ana- ou.r.tr.r. Triaxial testing was
Iyzed their effect on stress determination. found to
increase the values of the y8ung,s
They found that for their specific modulus by
set of data, as much as 2[%compared
and depending on the methbd used, with biaxial load-
the calcu- ing. ALso, the biaxial test
lated minimum and maximum horizontal values for the pois-
soi's ratio were found to be on average more
stresses could vary as much as 4.9
MPa (14%) than twice as large and more
and 14'7MPa(23%)'respectively' scattered than
those obtained by triaxial testing. It
Errors may arise is note-
assumptions asso- worthy that this
ltren
ciated with individual measuring techniques discrepancy in the elastic
prop.iti., must come from the rock since
are not fulfilied or are partially luffilled.
For t.,fi;;; stlruorj 1igs6) ;p"oed that biax-
instance' overcoring tests are often
analyzed ial and triaxial testl on unalrminum
by assuming that the rock is a linearly.elastic, cylinder
yi.rJ.a ,r-il1r properties. As remarked by
isotropic and homogeneous continuum.
Luqon rna stinrors
Errors may be created due to nonlinear trqgoj, rr.h dir.,"epu.,.iu,
inelastic response,.time-dependent
or in fhe elastic properties have a strong
effect on
response, the in-situ stresses, as illustrated in
overstressing (yielding) of the rock Fig. 3.4.
aftei drill- This figure shows the effect
ing' anisotropy, and inhomogeneities at of varying the
the Poissori's ratio on the magnitude of the princi-
scale of the overcore sample. pal stresses. It can be seen that the effect
Errors may arise in theinalysis of hydraulic is
moderate io, ro* values of the poisson,s
fracturing tests by assuming that the ratio
vertical and rncreases as the poisson,s ratio approa-
\- stress is a principar stress. Foi flat jack
tests the ches the rimiting value of
0.5.
stresses across the jacks may not
be uniform, Another source of error
as is often assumed' using flat jacks can be created when
high stress gradients or in seitions
of
in areas analyzing the results of stress measurements
of under- .onir.t.? at several locations
ground openings that have been disturbed and when
determining the average principal stresses
may yield erroneous stress measurements, for
the rock shows a viscous behaviol
If a certain ,."gio, or irrtirJrt. ,L ,u-urked
by
errors may arise by analyzing field
substantial Hudson ,lt Cooling (1gg8) and walkel,
test results Martin and Dzik
1rw"o;,'tne ilagnitude and
using the theory of linear elaiticity' orientation of the average principal
stresses
Another source of uncertainty ls associated
cannot be determined by simply calculating
with errors in the mechanical properties
enter- the average of the magnitirae, u'r-,a anu average
ing into the calculation of the stresses
such as of the orientations of the
the Young's modulus and Poisson's principai stresses.
overcoring tests or tensile strength
in
ratio rr',is apfrouch may lead to non-orthogonal
in hydrau- ,r;;r;;;;cipal stresses. All stress tensors

i
 110 Methods o/in situ stressmeasurement
/,
</ X\,
\ / Y / /.
--r-'*'

6
0-

o
o
o | | RocK
L

om I___
ot t----
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4
I

0.5
Poisson's ratio, v

Fig. 3.a Effect of the value of Poisson's ratio on Fig. 3.5 Schematic example illustrating sampling
magnitude of in situ stresses determined by over- bias due to variable rock conditions. Diagram
coring. (After Leijon and Stillborg,1986) shows variation of the rock mass stiffness S and the
mean stress o. In this diagram, o* and os denote the
measured and true borehole averages, respectively.
must first be expressed in the same coordinate
(Source: Leijon, B.A. Copyright 1989, with kind
system. Then the average stress tensor is calcu-
permission from Elsevier Science Ltd, The Boule-
lated by determining the average of each of vard, Langford Lane, Kidlington,
UK.)
the six stress components. Finally, the average
principal stresses and their orientation are rocks, such as shales or other clay-bearing
determined from the eigenvalues and eigen- rocks, which are included in
the analysis of
vectors of the average stress tensor. overcoring tests. When subject to unloading,
It must also be kept in mind that most stress such rocks often expand and deteriorate
rela-
measurements are carried out in good and tively quickly. Thus the rocks
tested later in the
competent rock conditions. Among engineers, laboratory will appear
softer than in situ.
geologists and geophysicists there is a maxim According to Franklin and
Hungr (1928), this
that in sllu stresses cannot be determined in phenomenon may be responsible for
the
fractured or weak rocks. Since, as discussed in observation made by some
authors that softer
sections 2.6 and 2.12, stiffer and harder rocks rocks carry higher horizontal
stresses. In
seem to be able to carry higher than average in general, effors
in stress determination with
sifl.r stresses, a significant error in measuring ln methods such as overcoring can be expected
sifu stresses may result (Voight, 1966), with a even in medium-
to good-quality rocks due to
bias toward an overestimation of in situ the sampling process itself and possible
altera-
stresses (Leijon, 1989). This is illustrated sche- tion associated
with coring and core
matically in Fig. 3.5 for a borehole traversing a handling.
series of porous, fractured and sound rock
sections with different stiffnesses. Thus sig- i

nificant errors may arise due to indiscriminate 3.9.4 UNDERSTANDINGAND REDUCING I

selection of sites for stress measurements. UNCERTAINTIES I

Another source of bias is associated with the Many of the uncertainties listed above
can be
determination of elastic properties of weak overcome or at least understood (or
even
I
Accurocy and uncertainty
quantified) by using one or several of the
following steps.
(1) Conduct laboratory tests where instru-
ments are subjected to known stress fields and
simulated field conditions. The orientation
and magnitude of the measured stresses are
then compared with those applied. Such
laboratory experiments can help, among other
things, in identifying the limitations of the
I
instruments, their performance and accuracy,
and their suitability in various geological
i
I environments. They can also help in assessing
I
if the rock responds during overcoring in i irregularities in the strain or displacement
I linearly elastic manner or if it has any non-
linear or time-dependent characteristics
i
requiring the rock to be treated as viscoelastic
I
or with more complex constitutive behavior.
I
An example of an extensive experimental
I
I study conducted to verify the suitability of the
USBM gage, the CSIRO HI ceil, the CSIR cell
and a solid inclusion cell for rock stress
I
v I
measurements was reported by Cai (1990).
Full-scale overcoring tests under biaxial loads
were carried out in rock (coal, sandstone and
)* marble) and rock-like materials (cement
I
mortar and cement concrete) with Young's
moduli ranging between 3 and 40 Gpa. Such
tests were able to reveal the performance of
various instruments in materials ranging
l
l
I from ideai linearly elastic, homogeneous and
isotropic continua to less ideal nonlinearly
I
I
elastic, heterogeneous and anisotropic discon-
i
tinua. All the tests on ideal media revealed
that all the instruments were reliable with a
i difference between applied and measured
l
stresses of less than 10%. On non-ideal materi-
i
I als, the differences were found to be much
larger (Cai, Qiao and Yu, l99S).
I
Simulated field conditions can also be done
l
l by conducting block tests lr situ, a good.
example of which can be found in Gregory ef
al. (1983) in reiation to the Near-Surface Test
V Facility at the Basalt Waste Isolation project in
I
Hanford, Washington. There, five overioring
techniques were tested and all were found
unsuitable for the closely jointed rock found at
the site.
in stress measurements I I I
(2) Discard bad (erroneous) data resulting
from obvious blunders in the measurements.
Bad data points that fall outside the range of
normally expected random deviations may be
discarded, based on statistical analysis,
response to loads or simple compatibility tests.
This must be done in a consistent and
unbiased manner. For instance, in overcoring
tests, strain gage readings may be discarded
because of obvious debonding (partial or com-
plete), low sensitivity or core breakage. Such
phenomena usually create anomalies and
relief curves recorded during overcoring. Such
curves can therefore be used as a diagnostic
tool to evaluate the quality of the measure-
ments (Blackwood,1978). Good relief curves
are usually regular and stabilize after the
depth of overcoring is beyond the plane of
measurement. Compatibility checks between
the strains in a given strain rosette or in
between separate rosettes may also hetp in
eliminating bad data. Biaxial (radial) tests or
uniaxial tests on the overcore after core
recovery may also indicate deficient and mal-
functioning strain gages. Another simple test
that can be used with USBM-type gages and
the CSIR Doorstopper (in order to identifybad
data) is to check if the'bum of two normal
strains or tw,o diametral deformations in two
orthogonal directions is close to being invar-
iant. In hydraulic fracturing tests the absence
of a distinct breakdown pressure in the
pressure-time record may indicate reopening
of an existing fracture or joint.
(3) Compare stress measurements in the
same borehole obtained with the same method
or compare parallel measurements obtained
with different methods. Such comparisons
provide a measure of consistency of the stress
measurements. Repeating tests a number of
times along one, or occasionally more than
one hole, can be used to quantify and smooth
out apparent scatter of the results obtained.
Multiple boreholes can also be used as a
crosscheck. In general, it is believed that
using hybrid stress methods can reduce
 I !/

712 Methods o/in situ stress measurement

:

uncertainties in stress determination (Brudy ef example of continuous monitoring of in situ

aI.,7995; Cornet, 1993; Haimson, 1988).
(a) Anaiyze the results of stress measure-
ments using statistical techniques (Cornet and
Valette, 7984;Dey and Brown ,1986; Gray and
Toews, 19 68, 797 5 ; Panek, 19 66 ; W alker,
Martin
and Dzik, 1990; Worotnicki, I99g). Methods
such as ieast squares and Monte Carlo analysis
can be used to determine the magnitude and
orientation of mean principal stresses, as well
as their domain of variation for different con-
fidence intervals.
(5) Monitor (if possible) as many in situ and
laboratory test conditions as possible, such as
humidity, rock and air temperatures, and drill-
ing fluid temperature. Figure 3.6 shows an
conditions obtained with a data logger during
overcoring of a CSIR-type of triaxial strain cell
at the URL site. The advantage of monitoring
test conditions is that adjustments can be
made to reduce uncertainties. Also, correc-
tions can be applied to the various measure-
ments. Discussion of the importance of
appiying corrections to account for the effect
of temperature in the analysis of strain
measurements with a modified CSIR Door-
stopper can be found in Corthesy, Gill and
Nguyen (1990).
(6) Investigate whether the observed
scatter in stress measurements can be related
to the effect of topography, anisotropy,

o
0)
L
26 t-
E l
o 16
o lv !

E 6
o
F lv
I

I
l-

P=
I

J(L 600

" E'5 400 -__--t_/-\v-JV/

Water pressurez-
zofia
L'E
f!(/}'o
o0) 200 10 P: I
i
!

oo_ 'cE j:
do 0 0 0-
L
I

c
.G c
'(U
L
o position
"--t---

A
L
o
o
L o
L
.9 .o

100 200 300 400 500

Overcore distance (mm)

Fig..3.5 Typical gryrmple of continuous monitoring of in situ conditions during overcoring

of a CSIRtype
strain cell at the URL site in Canada. (After Martin, Read and Chandler, 1990.)
 Accuracy and uncertainty in stress meastrements 113

heterogeneities or any geological structures. the site geology and the difficulties encoun-
Such effects can be simulated using analytical tered when conducting measurements in the
or numerical techniques. geological environment of interest. According
to Goodman (1989), results are usually con-
sidered satisfactory if they are consistent and
3.9.5 EXPECTED UNCERTAINTIES
give stress values to within about 0.3MPa.
Although the accuracy varies with the method Leijon (1986) found that four to five overcoring
employed, a natural scatter in in situ stress tests with the LuH gage in a homogeneous
measurements should be expected as for any granite in the Malmberget mine in Sweden
other rock properties. According to Gonano were sufficient to determine the principal
and Sharp (1983) for borehole strain devices, stress magnitudes with an accuracy of 1,4%
'. . . confidence intervals of the order of +20% (t3 MPa) at a depth of 600 m. For five tests, the
are generally the limit of accuracy obtainable, accuracy on the stress orientation was about
even with rock masses that can be described as 15". The same number of tests conducted in a
linear elastic'. Herget (1986) mentioned that highly foliated and jointed leptite at the same
errors of +10-15% for stress components are depth, but at a different location in the mine,
common. Rocha (1968) concluded that in situ increased the uncertainty to 35% (tB MPa) for
stresses could be determined rrn ith flat jack the stress magnifude and 40o for the stress
tests with an error of less than 10%. When orientation. In the granite it was found that the
estimating in situ stresses at large depths in the confidence was not improved by conducting
Carnmenellis granite, Pine and Kwakwa additional tests. On the other hand, for the
(1989) reported errors of the order of +11o/o leptite it was found that the confidence could
for the maximum horizontal stress, +5-10fo be somewhat improved by doubling the
for the minimum horizontal stress, and +5% number of tests.
for the vertical stress. The results of hydraulic In general, it is recommended that the
fracturing tests by Haimson (1990) in the Sioux presentation of stress measurement data in-
Falls quartzite were presented with errors of cludes error bars or confidence intervals (with
+10% for the vertical stress, and +15% and mean
value and standard deviation) for both.
+25% for the minimum and maximum hori- stress magnifude
and stress orientation. For
zontal stresses, respectively. The orientation instance, Fig. 3.7 gives the orientation and
of the latter was measured with an error of magnitude of the three mean principal stresses
+15o. This is comparable with the 5-20" varia-
based on the results of six measurements con-
tion in hydrofracture orientation reported by ducted in a single borehole at the URL site in
Baumgdrtner et al. (1993) and Brudy et al. Canada (Walker, Martin andDzrk,1990). The
(1995) for the KTB and Cajon Pass holes. 90% confidence intervals for stress magnitude
Finally, Warpinski and Teufel (1991) suggested and orientation obtained using a Monte Carlo
that in hydraulic fracturing, the minimum analysis are also shown. As a second example,
in situ principal stress determined from the Figs 3.8a, b show the uncertainty on the mag-
shut-in pressure could be determined with an nitude and orientation of principal stresses
accuracy of 0.1-0.2MPa in clear pressure determined with the DSCA method obtained
records and 1-2 MPa for more obscure by Dey and Brown (1986) down to a depth of
pressure records. 4km at the Fenton Hill Hot Dry Rock site in
The answers to what can be considered an New Mexico. These figures indicate rotation of
acceptable in situ stress measurement and how the principal stresses with depth and depth-
many reliable stress measurements need to be dependent uncertainty. Finally, as a last illus-
carried out are somewhat subjective. They trative example, Figs 3.9a,b show the
largely depend on the type of technique used, magnitude of the horizontal principal stresses