ROCKS

UNIT 5: BEARING CAPACITY OF

ROCKS
GUIDED BY- DR.AJAY BINDALESH
SUBMITTED BY-SHIVANI NEHRA
Sunday, August 28, 201
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INTRODUCTION

BEARING CAPACITY OF INTACT

ROCKS,JOINT ROCKS.
SINGH AND RAO METHOD
RAMAMURTHY AND ARORA METHOD

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BEARING CAPACITY

DEF:
Bearing capacity is the capacity of soil
and rocks to support the loads applied to
the grounds.
The bearing capacity of rock is the
maximum average contact pressure
between the foundation and the rock which
should not produce failure in the rock.

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BEARING CAPACITY DEPENDS

ON:

Modes of failure of discontinuous

rocks
Strength of rock masses or c and
parameter of triaxial test
Applied loads
Orientation and spacing of
discontinuities

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BEARING CAPACITY FAILURE

MODES

The effect of discontinuities was recognized

by SOWERS(1979) and discussed five basic
modes of failure of discontinuous rocks for
bearing capacity.
For vertical joints ,the discontinuities
classified as :
1. open joints
2. close joints

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VERTICAL JOINTS
OPEN JOINTS :
In this case
the rock will act as
individual columns
The ultimate bearing capacity
is given by formula 1
Where
qu=UCS of rock mass,
c & are cohesion and
friction of the rock mass

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CLOSE JOINTS:
In this a
general wedge zone is
developed.
The ultimate bearing
capacity was obtained
from by Bells solution as
by formula:
Where
D=Depth of foundation
B= Width of foundation
y=Unit wt of rock mass

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WIDE JOINT, THICK RIGID

LAYER, THIN RIGID LAYER

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CORRECTION FACTOR FOR

sQUARE,CIRCULAR AND RECTANGULAR

NGS(SOWERS,1979)

FOOTI

For a footing resting on

the ground
surface,D=0 and the
last term (DNq) the
equation becomes
zero.
The second term in the
eq.(1/2BN)is normally
small when compared
to cNc and hence
neglected.

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FOUNDA Nc
TION
CORREC
TION
SHAPE

N
CORREC
TION

Square 1.25

0.85

Rectan
gular
1.12

.90
.95

L/B =2
L/B=5

1.05

Circular

1.2

.70
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RAMAMURTHY AND ARORA

(1994)

Arora (1987) and Ramamurthy and Arora(1994) provided

solution for determination of ultimate bearing capacity
through concept of joint factor.
They give max. importance to joint frequency,joint
inclination and joint strength for joint rock.
A factor called a joint factor (Jf) was been defined as:

Jf=Jn/nr

where :Jn=no.of joints per meter in the direction of major

principal stress,
n=inclination factor which depends on orientation of
joints with rescept to loading direction,
r=joint strength parameter(tanj),
j=discontinuity friction angle.
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For the value of Jn(joint frequency):

Jn

is taken as number of jointsper

meter length in the direction of
loading.
The strength of rock mass decreases
with increase in joint intensity.

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JOINT INCLINATION PARAMETER(n):

n is the second imp.

Parameter affecting rock
mass strength
Arora(1987) observed that
if , is the angle of joint
plane with the loading
direction.
the effect on the strength
of the single inclined joint
oriented at =30 degree is
approx equal to the effect
of 24 no. of joints per
meter oriented at =90
degree

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The values of n for

different values of
are shown in
table .
The variation of n
with .

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JOINT STRENGTH PARAMETER

r represents the shear strength of rock

along the critical joint.
Direct shear tests between the mating
joint surfaces, at low normal stress,
were recommended to compute the
above parameter.
The parameter is given as :
r=tan
where, is the joint friction angle at low
normal stress range.
In the absence of laboratory direct
shear tests, approximate values of the
parameter

UCS of
intact
rock,ci(
Mpa)

Joint
Remar
strengt ks
h
param
eter,r

2.5

0.30

Fine
grained

5.0

0.45

micaceou
s

15.0

0.60

to

25.0

0.07

coarse

45.0

0.80

grained

65.0

0.90

r may also be assigned based on

joint condition and infilled gouge
material as presented in table.
IN this table suggested values of
joint strength parameter ,r,for
different values of ci

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Joint strength parameter ,r,for filled

joints (after Ramamurthy,1993)

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SINGH AND RAO(2005)

Singh and rao suggested a procedure

to estimate the ultimate bearing
capacity of shallow foundation in
anisotropic rock masses.
The approach considers the strength
properties of the mass as a
whole,which depends both on joint
properties and intact rock properties.

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The uniaxial compressive strength of jointed rock mass,

which is an input parameter to the strength criterion,is
determined using the joint factor concept .as per this
approach ,the active and passive zones develop in the rock
mass under a smooth strip footing.
The major principal stress for the active zone,i.e. just
beneath the footing ,acts in vertical direction.
For the passive zone ,the major principal stress acts in the
horizontal direction and the effective surcharge acts as the
minor principal stress.
At the time of failure ,equilibrium of two adjacent elements
of rock prisms is considered.

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One just beneath the edge

of the footing (Element 2)
and the other just outside
(Element 1).
Foe element 1(adjacent
element ), at the time of
failure:
z
z
And

s1-1f

unit wt. of the rock

mass
Z =depth of the foundation
confining stress
acting on element 1 at the
time of failure.
major principal
stress at element 1 at the
time of failure.

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