Application of Continuous Failure State Direct Shear Test on Discontinuous Rocks

Abstract

In the determination of the shear strength of rocks, a lot of similar specimens are needed to obtain satisfactory results, but the preparation of the specimens of same characters involves great difficulties, especially in the case of discontinuous rocks. It is desirable if the strength envelopes could be obtained from only one specimen.
In this study, we carried out two types of CFS tests, and a series of constant stress shear tests for plaster specimens with regular triangular joint. In addition to these tests, we carried out multi-stage shear tests for rock specimens with artificially generated irregular joint. We made comparison of the results obtained by these tests, and examined the applicability of CFS tests.