Lecture 2

Introduction
Dr. Azealdeen Salih Al-Jawadi

Importance of Rock Mechanics and its history

Components used in any system are subjected to various actual or
probable forces. It can be the lithospheric pressure that acts on the
Tunnels, or the tension that acts on the borehole or any other application
where a form of force acts on the system. While designing such
components, it is important to make sure that it serves the function
without adding extra material. Extra material adds unwanted expense and
weight to the component, both of which are undesirable. Rock Mechanics
uses analytical methods for determining the stiffness, strength and
stability of any component which are subjected to various loads.
The history of mechanics of solids where the rock mechanics is a part of
this art dates back to the days of Leonardo da Vinci and Galileo Galilei.
Significant contributions to this field of engineering or science have come
from Coulomb, St. Venant, Navier, Poisson and Cauchy. Mechanics of
Solids has numerous applications in the domains of Civil, Architectural,
Nuclear, Mechanical, Chemical and Petroleum engineering.
Rock mechanics is the theoretical and applied science of the mechanical
behavior of intact rocks and rock masses. Rock mechanics deals with the
mechanical properties of rock and the related methodologies required for
engineering design.
The subject of rock mechanics has evolved from different disciplines of
applied mechanics. It is a truly interdisciplinary subject, with applications
in geology and geophysics, mining, petroleum and geotechnical
engineering.
What is rock mechanics and rock engineering?
Rock mechanics: involves characterizing the intact strength and the
geometry and mechanical properties of the natural fractures of the rock
mass.
Rock engineering: is concerned with specific engineering conditions, for
example, how much load will the rock support and whether reinforcement
is necessary.
What is the Intact Rock and Rock Mass?
Intact Rock: refers to the rock material within the framework of
discontinuities. In other words, this is the smallest element of rock block
not cut by any fracture. There are always some micro fractures in the rock
material but these should not be treated as fractures. Rock Mass: refers to
insitu rock together with its discontinuities and weathering profile.

The differences among Pressure, Stresses and Loads

The three terms refer to force, while each one acts on the different state of
material or body.
• Pressure: A liquid or gas contains a pressure, which acts equally in all
directions and hence is a scalar quantity.
• Stresses: On a real or imaginary plane through a material, there can be
normal forces and shear forces. These forces create the stress tensor. The
normal and shear stress components are the normal and shear forces per
unit area.
• Loads: The force tensor applied on a real or imaginary plane through a
solid material.
Stress, Strain, Young’s Modulus and Poisson’s Ratio
When external forces act on a body, internal forces arise within the body
to resist the deformation. A measure of this internal resistance is stress
(𝝈). The deformation induced on the body due to the action of such
external forces is called strain (ϵ). Further, stress can be categorized as
various types on the manner in which it acts on the object in
consideration. Consider a cylindrical rod of any material, let’s say rock
specimen. Fix one of the ends and then pull the other end along its central
axis. On doing so, you are putting the object in a state of tension and
thereby you are inducing tensile stress within the body. If you are pushing
the end which is not fixed along its central axis, then you are putting the
object in a state of compression and thereby inducing compressive stress
within the body. Strain is the ratio of the linear change in length, ΔL to
the original length L. This happens in a scenario where a load P acts on
any specimen with a cross sectional area of A, which results in a stress σ.
Stress is defined as the average force per unit area that some particle of a
body exerts on an adjacent particle, across an imaginary surface that
separates them. Consequently, strain occur when changes in volume,
shape or position of a rock body.
Young’s modulus E is the modulus of elasticity, the modulus of elasticity
connects axial stress σ to axial strain є. Poisson’s ratio ν is defined as
ratio of lateral strain to axial strain:

An elastic material is one where the stress is a unique function of the

strain and vice versa. An elastic solid has the following properties:
 The displacements and strains are independent of the history of loading
 When we remove the applied loads, the body returns to a unique
relaxed state.
Types of Stresses
Stress is the force that acts on a rock unit to change its shape and/or its
volume that causes strain or deformation. There are three general types of
stresses classified according to their directions:
 Compression Action of coincident oppositely directed forces acting
towards each other.
 Tension Action of coincident oppositely directed forces acting away
from each other.
 Shear Action of coincident oppositely directed forces acting parallel to
each other across a surface, the shear stress is acting in two different
actions, right lateral movement and left lateral movement.
Deformation and strain
Deformation is the displacement field for tectonically driven particle
motion and involves the processes by which the particle motions are
achieved. When deformation occurs in large scale of the earth’s crust, the
science field of study is Plate Tectonics. The smaller scale deformation
deals with structural geology. Finally, the large scale and the smallest one
concern the engineers how are studying the rock mechanics. Brittle
deformation is occurring in an elastic manner, while ductile deformation
is occurring in a plastic manner. Elastic deformation is a temporary
change in shape or size that is recovered when the deforming force is
removed. The inelastic deformation causes permanent deformation.
Ductile deformation leads to permanent change in shape or size that is not
recovered when the stress is removed. The ductile deformation occurs by
the slippage of atoms or small groups of atoms past each other in the
deforming material, without loss of cohesion. The rocks may transform
from elastic behavior to plastic depending on many factors i.e.
temperature, pressure, strain rate, stress manner, rate of loading and rock
type. The variation of these factors determines if a rock will fault or fold.
The brittle deformation lead to loss of cohesion of a body under the
influence of deforming stress and it is usually occurs along sub-planar
surfaces that separate zones of coherent material. Rocks are elastic and
brittle near the earth's surface and more plastic and ductile deeper in the
crust because of the increasing temperature and pressure. Some rocks are
stronger than others so the competent rocks deform only under great
stress, while the incompetent rocks deform under moderate to low
stresses. The types of deformation are:
 Continues: lines are not broken.
 Discontinuous: lines are broken.
 Distortion: change in shape.
 Rotation: change in orientation.
 Translation: change in position.
There are only two types of strain:
Homogeneous strain: lines that are straight and parallel before the
deformation remain straight and parallel after deformation.
Inhomogeneous strain: lines that are straight and parallel before
deformation don’t remain parallel or straight and may be broken.
Material Behavior Assumptions
There is a very wide range of materials in nature, with radically different
behavior. In addition the same material can go through different response
regimes: elastic, plastic, viscoelastic, cracking and fracture. As noted
above, we will restrict our attention to a very specific material class and
response regime by making the following behavioral assumptions.
1. Macroscopic Model: The material is mathematically modeled as a
continuum body by ignoring the features at the meso, micro and nano
levels such as crystal grains, molecules, and atoms.
2. Elasticity: This means the stress-strain response is reversible and
consequently the material has a preferred natural state. This state is
assumed to be taken in the absence of loads at a reference temperature.
By convention we will say that the material is then unstressed and
undeformed. On applying loads, and possibly temperature changes, the
material develops nonzero stresses and strains, and moves to occupy a
deformed configuration.
3. Linearity: The relationship between strains and stresses is linear.
Doubling stresses doubles strains, and vice versa or extrusive relation.
4. Isotropy: The properties of the material are independent of direction.
This is a good assumption for materials such as metals, concrete, plastics,
etc. It is not adequate for heterogenous mixtures such as rocks, which are
anisotropic by nature.
5. Small Strains: Deformations are considered so small that changes of
geometry are neglected as the loads are applied. Violation of this
assumption requires the introduction of nonlinear relations between
displacements and strains. This is necessary for highly deformable
materials such as rubber (more generally, polymers). Inclusion of
nonlinear behavior significantly complicates the constitutive equations.