The effects of grain size and different multi-stage shearing techniques on shear strength along rock discontinuities

The effects of grain size and different multi-stage shearing techniques on shear strength along discontinuities were analyzed in this study. Laboratory direct shear tests were carried out on plaster mortar with maximum grain sizes of 0.5 mm and 1.0 mm. All specimen surfaces were essentially similar, copied from the same natural, Hungarian coarse-grained sandstone joint with a low joint roughness coefficient (JRC = 8). Tests within two different normal stress ranges (σn = 0.25–0.5 and 0.5–1.5 MPa) were performed simultaneously. Specimens tested using the technique involving modified shearing with repositioning were sheared three times while being subjected to the same degree of normal stress (shearing sequence n = 1, 2, 3) and those with multi-stage technique without repositioning were subjected to shearing once at three different degrees of normal stress. The changing values of the peak friction angle calculated from the resulting peak shear strength-normal stress data pairs (τp − σn) were examined. Failure curves were estimated using linear regression, according to the Mohr–Coulomb failure criterion. The differences between the various peak friction angles obtained from experiments in which different multi-stage shearing techniques were used tend to increase in significance with the increasing number of shearing sequences. Peak friction angle values vary according to grain size of the material, though further investigations using more grain sizes are required to establish the extent of the effect on shear strength along discontinuities.