Quantitative Parameters for Rock Joint Surface Roughness

Summary The morphologies of two artificial granite joints (sanded and hammered surfaces), one artificial regularly undulated joint and one natural schist joint, were studied. The sanded and hammered granite joints underwent 5 cycles of direct shear under 3 normal stress levels ranging between 0.3–4 MPa. The regularly undulated joint underwent 10 cycles of shear under 6 normal stress levels ranging between 0.5–5 MPa and the natural schist replicas underwent a monotonous shear under 5 normal stress levels ranging between 0.4–2.4 MPa. In order to characterize the morphology of the sheared joints, a laser sensor profilometer was used to perform surface data measurements prior to and after each shear test. Rather than describing the morphology of the joints from the single profiles, our characterization is based on a simultaneous analysis of all the surface profiles. Roughness was viewed as a combination of a primary roughness and a secondary roughness. The surface angularity was quantified by defining its three-dimensional mean angle, θ_s, and the parameter Z2_s. The surface anisotropy and the secondary roughness were respectively quantified by the degree of apparent anisotropy, k _a, and the surface relative roughness coefficient, R _s. The surface sinuosity was quantified by the surface tortuosity coefficient, T _s.  Comparison between the means of the classical linear parameters and those proposed shows that linear parameters underestimate the morphological characteristics of the joint surfaces. As a result, the proposed bi-dimensional and tri-dimensional parameters better describe the evolution of the joints initial roughness during the course of shearing.