A Morphological Visualization Method for Removability Analysis of Blocks in Discontinuous Rock Masses

Block theory has been successfully applied to solve practical problems in rock engineering associated with the stability of discontinuous rock masses. Traditional methods of block theory, which have not proposed detailed schemes for characterizing geometric features of arbitrary blocks with complex geometries, are difficult to simultaneously visualize the locations of blocks. To overcome the shortcomings of these traditional methods, this paper introduces the concept of block morphology to systematically represent the morphological characteristics of blocks. Morphological visualization analysis involves the classification, characterization and visualization of various blocks and the determination of their removability using the stereo-analytical method. The proposed morphological visualization method provides a basis for computer modeling and mechanical calculations of large-scale rock mass systems. Furthermore, examples are presented in this paper to verify the validity and demonstrate the exceptional performance of this method.