Effect of different wall roughness on the frictional behavior of rock joints

Abstract

Rock discontinuities play a crucial and critical role on the deformational and failure behavior of the rock mass. In most investigations, both the surfaces of the rock joints are considered to have same roughness. But, in nature, the walls of a fresh joint is only expected to be complimentary and to have same roughness. Weathered and water percolating rock joint is most likely to develop different surface roughness on the two opposite walls. So, the shear strength and frictional response behavior derived from the single joint roughness coefficient (JRC) assumption cannot be used in such a condition. To address this shortcoming, we have prepared sandstone blocks with different surface roughness and conducted experiments in a tribometer. The static friction, shear stiffness and coefficient-of-friction of the joint surfaces were calculated and their changes with increasing normal load were noted. One of the major findings of this paper is that, shear strength of the joints may not have a direct correlation with the increasing JRC value of the individual joint walls. Hence, some of the joint walls having higher cumulative JRCs were found to show lower shear strength than those with lowers roughness. This is because, the opposing walls of such joints are not anymore complementary and the frictional resistance is completely controlled by the height and contact area of the asperites.