MohrCoulomb and Hoek-Brown Failure Criteria

Strength Criteria: MohrCoulomb and Hoek- Brown
Introduction to Numerical Modelling Exam

Preparation Course (c) OHMS 2011
Describe the difference between

Rock Engineering design
parameters and failure criteria
Design parameters are used by rock engineers as guidelines to
design support, mining layouts etc. These will typically quote a
number or an envelope to be achieved or not to be exceeded.
The design process will typically involve testing various layouts
etc. against the design parameter.
A failure criterion is a methodology that is used to determine
when a rock or an excavation will fail.

Strength (Failure criterion)

Empirical and attempts to describe the stress
environment at failure without necessarily
explaining why failure takes place.

Failure Parameters and derivation

Failure criterion
How it is derived
Hoek Brown Failure Criterion
From tri-axial lab tests or empirical

observations
Mohr Coulomb Failure Criterion
From tri-axial lab tests
Coulombs Shear Strength Criteria
From lab tests
Barton Brandis
From lab tests and discontinuity

surface observations.
Griffiths Failure Criterion
Empirically with formulae

Failure Parameters and application

Failure criterion
Application
To determine under what stress

conditions will failure occur

conditions will failure occur

conditions will shear failure occur

Failure Parameters and application
Failure criterion
Application
Barton Brandis Shear Strength Criteria

conditions will shear failure occur
To determine when failure of a solid will

occur

Failure parameters and what is derived

from it?
What is derived from it
Failure criterion
Rock mass failure
Rock mass failure
Shear Failure
Barton Brandis
Shear Failure
Crack initiation

Mohr Coulomb Criterion

Figure 1 shows tri-axial test results plotted in the form of a Mohr diagram . The Mohr
circle is a very convenient way of plotting the principal stresses - the two principal
stresses are plotted on the x-axis, and the radius of the circle is the maximum shear
stress (1 - 3)/2. The plot is therefore one of shear stress against normal stress. The
Mohr circle plot can be used to determine stress magnitudes at different orientations.
As shown in Figure 1, the Mohr-Coulomb shear strength failure criterion is a linear

envelope to the Mohr circles. The equation of the line is given by:
=Si + tan
Since rock is weak in tension, the criterion is incorrect to the left of the ordinate axis,
and a tension cut off is usually used, as shown in Figure 1.

M-C

The Mohr-Coulomb criterion is also commonly used to represent the residual

strength of the rock as shear failure continues to take place on the failure surface
that has been created in the failure of the intact rock.
The criterion is commonly written as:

= C + n tan
where C is the cohesion, and n is the normal stress.
It can also be expressed in two forms:

1 = [2Ccos + 3(1 + sin)]/(1 -sin)
where C and are the cohesion and angle of friction respectively.

Since:
c = 2Ccos/(1-sin)
then first equation can be rewritten as:
1 / c = 1 + C. 3/ c.
where C = (1 + sin)/(1 -sin) and c is the UCS.
The orientation of the predicted shear failure plane is (45 + /2)
degrees, where this angle is measured in the 1-3 space from the 3
axis.

It is difficult to judge the appropriate location of an tangent line (envelope) to Mohr

circles especially when it does not clearly define a straight line envelope.
It is easier to plot the results in the form of an apex point plot, as shown in Figure 2, or
a 1 vs 3 graph, as shown in Figure 3.
The cohesion and friction values can also be obtained from these graphs.

Figure 2

DETERMINATION OF THE MOHR COULOMB

PARAMETERS with apex method
max = K + n tan() , is a best fit straight line which is fitted to the
apex values of the Mohr circles by means of linear regression.
The formulae below are applied to calculate the Mohr-Coulomb
parameters using the slope () and Y intercept (K) of the apex line.
= sin [tan()]
C = K sec[]
Resulting in the Mohr-Coulomb Equation
= C + n tan()
where: is the internal angle of friction
C is the apparent cohesion
is the resulting shear stress
n is the normal stress

Figure 3 : 1 vs 3 plot for norite

M-C Limitations
The Mohr-Coulomb criterion is not a particularly satisfactory criterion for
rock, since :
it implies that a major shear fracture occurs at peak strength. The
criterion is likely to give incorrect results if the failure mechanism is not
shear.
it implies a direction of shear failure which often does not agree with
observations, particularly in brittle rock;
it is linear and peak strength envelopes determined experimentally
are usually non-linear, as shown in Figure 4 below.
It assumes that friction and cohesion are acting in unison
It will be noticed that only or 1 and 3 are used and that 2 is ignored
in this criterion.


Hoek-Brown failure criterion

Hoek and Brown developed an empirical criterion for
rock and rock mass failure based on tests on intact rock
and on rock mass models (Hoek et al, 2002). The
generalised form of the Hoek-Brown failure criterion is:
where
mb is the Hoek-Brown constant m for the rock mass, s
and a are constants which depend on the rock mass
characteristics . ci is the UCS of the intact rock

For intact rock, the above equation simplifies to
To use the Hoek-Brown criterion for intact rock it is necessary to know

values for m, and ci . Laboratory determined values of m, for a range
of rock types are shown in Figure 5 (in this figure, the whiskers show
the range of test results, the box the upper and lower quartiles, and
the bar the median value).
For rock masses, rock mass classification values are required as well,
from which mb, s and a can be calculated from the equations below
(Hoek et ai, 2002).
mb = mi exp{(GSI - 100)/(28 - 14D)}
s = exp{(GSI - 100)/(9 - 3D)}
a = + {exp(-GSI/15) - exp(-20/3)}/6


H-B Limitations
The Hoek-Brown criterion is also a shear based criterion and
therefore has similar limitations to the Mohr-Coulomb criterion.
Only 1 and 3 are used and 2 is ignored.
It also only applies to the "central" range of rock masses, ie welljointed rock masses in which the joints control behaviour rather than
the rock material or individual significant planes of weakness.
In brittle rock failure will initially develop as damage of the rock,
followed by spalling failure and then ultimately transition to shear
failure. The criterion has recently been modified to cater for both high
strength brittle rock conditions and low strength weak ground
conditions. The modified relationships are shown below.


Extension strain criterion

The extension strain criterion (Stacey, 1981) is a simple criterion which
appears to work quite well for brittle massive rocks. It automatically takes
into account the three dimensional stresses. The minimum principal strain
may be negative (extension) as a result of the stresses acting, and the
criterion simply states that fracture of the rock will initiate when the
extension strain exceeds a certain value characteristic of the rock.
The minimum principal strain is calculated from the three dimensional strainstress relationship:
3 = [3 v(1 +2)]/E
For failure, the criterion is:
3 cr , where cr is the critical value of extension strain.

End
Session 1.4
Strength Criteria


MohrCoulomb and Hoek-Brown Failure Criteria

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Strength Criteria: MohrCoulomb and Hoek- Brown

Introduction to Numerical Modelling Exam

Describe the difference between

Introduction to Numerical Modelling Exam

Strength (Failure criterion)

Introduction to Numerical Modelling Exam

Failure Parameters and derivation

Hoek Brown Failure Criterion

From tri-axial lab tests or empirical

Mohr Coulomb Failure Criterion

From tri-axial lab tests

Coulombs Shear Strength Criteria

From lab tests

From lab tests and discontinuity

Griffiths Failure Criterion

Empirically with formulae

Introduction to Numerical Modelling Exam

Failure Parameters and application

Hoek Brown Failure Criterion

To determine under what stress

Mohr Coulomb Failure Criterion

To determine under what stress

Coulombs Shear Strength Criteria

To determine under what stress

Introduction to Numerical Modelling Exam

Failure Parameters and application

Barton Brandis Shear Strength Criteria

To determine under what stress

Griffiths Failure Criterion

To determine when failure of a solid will

Introduction to Numerical Modelling Exam

Failure parameters and what is derived

Hoek Brown Failure Criterion

Rock mass failure

Mohr Coulomb Failure Criterion

Rock mass failure

Coulombs Shear Strength Criteria

Griffiths Failure Criterion

Introduction to Numerical Modelling Exam

Mohr Coulomb Criterion

As shown in Figure 1, the Mohr-Coulomb shear strength failure criterion is a linear

Introduction to Numerical Modelling Exam

Introduction to Numerical Modelling Exam

The Mohr-Coulomb criterion is also commonly used to represent the residual

The criterion is commonly written as:

where C is the cohesion, and n is the normal stress.

It can also be expressed in two forms:

Introduction to Numerical Modelling Exam

Introduction to Numerical Modelling Exam

It is difficult to judge the appropriate location of an tangent line (envelope) to Mohr

Introduction to Numerical Modelling Exam

Introduction to Numerical Modelling Exam

DETERMINATION OF THE MOHR COULOMB

Introduction to Numerical Modelling Exam

Figure 3 : 1 vs 3 plot for norite

Introduction to Numerical Modelling Exam

Introduction to Numerical Modelling Exam

Introduction to Numerical Modelling Exam

Hoek-Brown failure criterion

Introduction to Numerical Modelling Exam

For intact rock, the above equation simplifies to

To use the Hoek-Brown criterion for intact rock it is necessary to know

Introduction to Numerical Modelling Exam