Stereographic Projection

Stereographic Projection

Graphical solutions to problems involving the relative

orientations of lines and planes in space.
Direction of principal stress is decided by the inclination
measured from vertical axes
Direction and magnitude of normal stress and shear stress
is defined as dip and strike
Stereographic projection is a further development of Mohr
circle in 3D, developed by Wulff and Schmidt.
Equatorial projection and polar projection
 The movement of rock plate
Dip and Strike
Pole

Inclined plane

Strike Rock layer

Dip direction
(artificial)
a

Horizontal plane

Dip direction
(actual)
a = dip inclination
 Problem Definition

Strike : the direction of rock discontinuity at horizontal

plane, as the angle measured from the North (N)
Dip : maximum inclination of rock discontinuity plane,
measured by the positive angle (+) from the horizontal
line/plane
Pole : show the intersection of the line perpendicular of
inclined plane at the sphere plane
Example : 250/25 dip direction 250 from the North (N)
clockwise with dip 25.
 N

Strike 250
W E
250 25 S
Horizontal Dip
plane

250/25 dip direction 250 from the North (N) clockwise

with dip 25.
Strike N 250 E and dip 25
Dip direction could be up or down synclinal and
anticlinal
 Principal of Stereographic Projection

Sphere
Projection

Stereographic
projection of
dip plane

Plane
Projection
Strike
Dip
Great circle

Dip plane at
Sphere projection
Equal angle
equatorial net
 Draw the following plane :
1. 250/30 or N 250 E (N 110 W) dip 30
2. 065/90 or N 065 E dip 90
3. 350/75 or N 350 E (N 10 W) dip 75
4. 176/15 or N 176 E dip 15

- As a plane on the great circle

- UH (upper hemisphere)
LH (lower hemisphere)
Kinematics Analysis of Slopes
 Modes of Failure of Slopes in Hard Rock

Mode of failure to evaluate the probability of failure, or

factor of safety and to engineer a remedy if degree of risk is
unacceptable

Failures involving movement of rock blocks on

discontinuities combine one or more of three basic modes:
1. Plane sliding
2. Wedge sliding
3. Topping failure
 Plane sliding
Plane slide form under gravity alone when a rock block rests on an
inclined weakness plane that daylights into free space
Inclination of the slip plane must be greater than friction angle of plane
Movement of the a block restraint to sliding has been overcome not
only along the surface of sliding but along lateral margins of the slide too
Soft rock : rupture inclined if base of sliding > friction angle
Hard rock : discontinuities or valleys transverse to the crest of slope
 Wedge slides
Wedge slide occur when two planes of weakness intersect to define
a tetrahedral block.
Slip can occur without any topographic of structural release features if
the line of intersection of two discontinuities daylights into the
excavation
 Topping Failure
Topping failure : involves overturning of rock layers like a series of
cantilever beams in slates, schists and thin-bedded sediments inclined
steeply into hillside
Each layer tending to bend downhill under its own weight transfers force
downslope
 Kinematic Analysis of Slopes

Kinematics the motion of bodies without reference to

the forces that cause them to move
Approach to slope design making use mainly of the
directionality of the discontinuous rock mass to insure that
there is always rock in the way of potential failure
blocks.
Minimal reference is made to the strength parameters of
the rock for the principal consideration are the orientations
of planar weakness in relation to the orientation of the
excavation.
 Stereographic projections of line elements
relevant to analysis of rock slopes

Three basic elements of a rock mass:

) pointed down the dip of a weakness plane
1. Dip vector ( Di

2. Normal vector ( N i ) (or Pole) pointed in the direction

perpendicular to the plane of weakness
3. The line of intersection ( Ii j ) of weakness plane i and j.

The dip vector is a line bearing at right angles to the strike and
plunging with vertical angle below horizontal
LH stereographic projection will be used, so the dip vector
always plots inside the circle representing horizontal plane
The lower hemisphere normal ( N i ) plots 90 from the dip
vector in the vertical plane containing the dip vector
The line of intersection Ii j of two planes i and j can be found as
the point of intersection of the great circles of each plane
Ii j the line perpendicular to the great circle containing
normals N i and N j
, N , I are plotted for a rock mass, the
All line elements : D
kinematic requirements for possible slope failure can be
examined for a rock slope of any strike and dip.
Consider plane sliding under gravity. Any block Plane Sliding
tending to slide on a single plane surface.
parallel to the dip of weakness plane D i
If the slope cut at angle a slide, if D be
pointed into free space of excavation and plunge
at an angle less than a

Determining the limiting safe angle (steepest safe slope) corresponding
to a cut of assigned strike
Strike 1 max safe angle a1 = dip of great circle passing through strike
1 and D
i

Cut orientation nearly parallel to dip direction of the weakness plane will
be stable even nearly vertical
 A discontinuity plane N 10 E dip 35. By using
stereographic projection, evaluate the direction of cut
slope below :
1. N 45 E dip 60
2. N 45 E dip 10
3. If the cut slope at the strike direction N 350 E, determine
the maximum cut slope so that the rock mass still in
stable condition
Sliding of a wedge along the line of intersection of
two planes
Wedge Sliding
Maximum safe angle for slopes of assigned strike
if in place of the line element D
Example of kinematic analysis of wedge failures
for a rock mass comprised of three sets of joints
Strike of cut

Only wedges formed planes 1 -

3, or 1 2 could potentially slide

If cut is inclined a (at dip of great

circle passing through I1 , only
3
wedge of plane 1 2 is capable
of sliding.

Since I12 plunges at low angle, it

is unlikely to cause trouble
 Strike and dip of a strike of cut N 10 E dip 35.
Discontinuity planes :
1. N 75 E dip 20
2. N 350 E dip 30
3. N 220 E dip 80

- Determine the intersection line so that the wedge failure

can occur and calculate the maximum safe angle of
slope
 Topping Failure
Interlayer slip must occur before large
flexural deformations can develop
If the layers have angle of friction fj, slip will
occur only if the direction of applied
compression makes an angle > fj with
normal to the layers

A precondition for interlayer slip

normals be inclined less steeply than
a line inclined fj above the plane of
the slope

Toppling failure can occur if:

90 f j a
 In Stereographic Projection, toppling can occur only if the normal
vector ( N ) lies more than fj degrees below the cut slope.
Toppling can occur only if the layers strike nearly parallel to the
strike of the slope, say within 30

90 f j a
 In case of multiply of discontinuities and many individual dip vectors,
normal vectors and lines of intersection
Reduce the number of lines to a manageable number for analysis
two simple overlays
In case of plane sliding under self weight alone failure occurs
only if the surface of sliding dips steeper than fj.

All lines plunging

less than fj.

Retain I13 D 3 D 1
for sliding
 In case of toppling failure occurs only on discontinuities whose
normal plunge at an angle less than 90 fj.
So all N vectors inside the ruled area can be eliminated from
further analysis. The area is inside a circle of radius fj about the
center of projection.

Retain N 1 N 3 for toppling

 Task Rock Mechanics (Goodman, 1980)

Item Stud Name

Kinematic analysis for design of 1 Alfian

circular open pit mine in rock mass (p
307)
Analysis of plane sliding on the 1 Dani
stereographic projection (p. 312)
Analysis of wedge sliding using the 1 Ida
stereographic projection (p. 319)
Problem 1 & 2 (p. 335) 1 Umron

Problem 3, 4 & 5 (p. 336) 1

Problem 6 & 7 (p. 336-337) 1