Shear sliding failure of the jointed roof in laminated rock mass

The jointed roof in laminated rock mass may be capable of self-support and sustaining transverse load and can be analysed by the voussoir beam notation. There are three main failure modes of a voussoir beam structure: crushing in the high stress areas, buckling without localised material failure and shear sliding along the joints. Previous studies on the voussoir beam have concentrated on the crushing failure mode, assuming that the voussoir beam would not fail by shear sliding prior to reaching its crushing strength. However, the possibility exists that the voussoir beam may collapse by shear sliding along the joints with a strength much lower than that predicted by the estimation method for crushing failure, depending upon the joint properties. Hence the stability analysis of a jointed roof without considering the shear sliding failure may lead to disastrous consequences. In this paper a numerical and experimental study has been carried out to analyse the shear sliding failure of voussoir beams containing vertical and inclined joints with one or more mid joints. Equations for verification of shear sliding are proposed and effects of the voussoir beam geometry and material properties on the shear sliding failure are also discussed.