Manuel Rocha Medal Recipient Shear Strength of Rock Joints Based on Quantified Surface Description

One of the primary objectives of this work is to improve the understanding of the frictional behaviour of rough rock joints under shear loads, and to relate its shear strength to the “shape” of the joint interface (roughness). Discontinuities have, indeed, an important influence on the deformational behaviour of rock systems. The choice of a general criterion to determine the shear strength of rough rock joints is a problem that has been...