Assessment of weathering effects on rock mass structure

Abstract

This paper presents an assessment of weathering effect to the rock mass structure by studying the joint characteristics of tropically weathered granite. Joint survey was performed by scanline method and the results were analyzed statistically by stereographic projection plots. The overall trend of mean joint spacing followed a sharp decrement from fresh to moderately weathered zone and then a slight increment to highly and completely weathered zones, whereas the overall trend of mean joint trace length showed a gradual decrement over progress of weathering. In addition, the degree of joints inclination and weathering zones revealed an increasing trend in the percentage of horizontal joints from fresh to completely weathered rocks, while no specific relation was found between the numbers of major joint set and different weathering zones. The results of this study may contribute to understanding the behavior and better classification of weathered granitic rock mass as a heterogeneous mass in engineering works.