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A Multivariate Technique for Evaluating the Statistical Homogeneity of Jointed Rock Masses

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Abstract

Various approaches have been developed for identifying statistically homogeneous regions or structural domains in a jointed rock mass based on joint orientations or the other joint parameters; however, few studies have been conducted by integrating both. In this paper, nine parameters are considered for this identification, namely: orientation, spacing, aperture, roughness, trace length, trace type, filling, groundwater condition, and weathering. A statistical parameter, known as the correlation coefficient, is used to quantify the degree of the similarity between the joint parameters collected from four adjacent adits at the Songta dam site on the upper reaches of the Nu River in southwest China. Based on the analytic hierarchy process, the weights of the parameters are obtained. The overall homogeneity of the rock mass around the studied regions is determined based on the homogeneity index.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the State Key Program of National Natural Science Fund of China (Grant No. 41330636), the National Natural Science Fund of China (Grant Nos. 41402242 and 41402243), and Graduate Innovation Fund of Jilin University (Grant No. 2014062). We thank the editor and two anonymous reviewers for excellent reviews that helped to improve the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Construction Engineering, Jilin University, 130026, Changchun, China

    Yanyan Li, Qing Wang, Jianping Chen, Shengyuan Song, Yunkai Ruan & Qi Zhang

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  1. Yanyan Li
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  2. Qing Wang
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  3. Jianping Chen
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  4. Shengyuan Song
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  5. Yunkai Ruan
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  6. Qi Zhang
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Correspondence to Jianping Chen.

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Li, Y., Wang, Q., Chen, J. et al. A Multivariate Technique for Evaluating the Statistical Homogeneity of Jointed Rock Masses. Rock Mech Rock Eng 48, 1821–1831 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00603-014-0678-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00603-014-0678-6

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