Bearing Capacity of Rocks

Intact Rock Mass A rock mass with joint spacing greater than 4 to 5 times the width of the footing. Local and General shear failure is associated to brittle and ductile rock respectively.

Jointed Rock Mass

General Shear Failure

Local Shear Failure

 Compressive Failure: A case characterized h t i db by poorly l constrained t i d columns of poor rock.

Splitting Failure For widely spaced and vertically oriented discontinuities, failure generally initiates by splitting beneath the foundation.

 The ultimate bearing capacity is given by:

Guideline properties of Rock Mass Classes Cl

Allowable Bearing Stresses on Rock Masses

Foundations on Fr actur ed Rock For mation

30

Allo owable Be earing Str ress qa (M MPa)

25 20 15 10 5 0
0

Note: Use maximum qa < q u wher e q u = compr essive str ength of intact r ock specimens

q ALLOWABLE ( MPa ) 1 +
NOTE: 1 MPa = 10 tsf

( RQD / 16 ) 1 ( RQD / 130 )

Peck, et al. ( (1974) ) Approximation

10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

Rock Quality Designation, RQD

In case of rock mass with favorable discontinuities, the net allowable bearing pressure may be estimated from: q a = qc * N j Where qc = average uniaxial compressive strength of rock cores Nj = empirical coefficient depending on the spacing of the discontinuities

3+ S / B = 10 [1 + 300( / S )]
= thickness of discontinuity S = spacing of discontinuities B = width of footing The above relationship is valid for a rock mass with spacing of continuities > 0.3 m, < 10 mm (15 mm if filled with soil) and B >0.3 >0 3 m m.

Pile Foundations:
The allowable bearing capacity of socketed piles is given by: qa = qc * N j * N d Where Nd = 0.8 + 0.2 h/d h = depth of socket in rock d = diameter of socket

Determination of Net Allowable Bearing Pressure from P Pressuremeter t T Test: t 1 qa = [D f + K d ( Pl D f )] 3

Where qa = allowable bearing pressure in t/m2 Pl = limit pressure determined by the Pressuremeter in t/m2 Df = overburden pressure in t/m2

Values of Kd
Depth of footing Load at rock surface Load at radius/width of foundation unit Load at 4 times radius/width of foundation unit Load at 10 times radius/width of f foundation d ti unit it Kd 0.8 2.0 3.6 5.0

Plate Load Test

Correction Co ect o Factors acto s : ( (Not ot required equ ed for o RMR) )

Ground Water Table: (a) Rock with discontinuous joints with opening less than 1mm wide 0.75 (b) Rock with continuous joints with opening 1 to 5 mm wide id fill filled d with ith gouge 0.7 07t to 0 0.5 5 (c) Limestone/ Dolomite deposit with major cavities filled with soil 0.66 to 0.5. Cavities: Major cavities inside limestone - 0.5 Slope and orientation of joints: ( ) Fair (a) F i orientation i t ti of f continuous ti joints j i t i in th the slope l 1 to 0.5 (b) Unfavorable orientation of continuous joints in slope 0.5 to 0.33.