The coupled hydro-mechanical behaviour of rock joints is an important field of study for many engineering applications, including tunnels and cavern excavations, dam foundations, geothermal energy plants, radioactive waste repositories, oil and gas reservoirs (Olsson and Barton, 2001). As a result of engineering works in rock masses, deformations can occur in the form of normal and shear displacements due to stress changes in the rock. Shear failure is a common feature of rock masses and most deformations occur in the rock joints, thus an accurate determination of the shear strength of rock joints is crucial for ensuring the stability of rock masses.
CITATION: Zhang, J, Oh, J, Si, G and Roshan, H, 2019. Investigation of nature-like rock joint shear behaviour using 3D printing, in Proceedings Future Mining 2019, pp 149150 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).