Abstract

The surface roughness of geological discontinuities plays an important role in influencing the stability of rock masses. Several approaches can be adopted for its determination. This paper presents a simple approach whereby two polynomial approximations have been derived to correlate the peak friction angle, f_peak of discontinuity planes of fresh as well as slightly weathered schist bedrock with the Joint Roughness Coefficient, JRC. These polynomial approximations are f_peak= -0.022JRC² + 3.21JRC + 28.1 for fresh discontinuities and f_peak= -0.025JRC² + 3.24JRC + 26.6 for slightly weathered discontinuities, both with coefficient of determination (R²) of 0.98. These results offer an alternative method for estimation of the peak friction angle, f_peak by measuring the JRC values in a field survey and employing these equations for the estimation of the peak friction angles of the discontinuity planes of cut rock slopes.

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