Unloading effect of the shear resistance of rock joints

To investigate the stress path dependent of rock joints, a series of tangential loading tests and normal unloading tests were conducted using 32 cement mortar replicas of artificially split rock joints with 4 different joint roughness coefficients (JRC). The critical normal stresses of the unloading tests were recorded, and a comparative study was conducted by referencing the results under different loading paths and joints conditions. The test results indicate that the shear resistance has a distinct unloading effect, which is mainly influenced by the morphologic characteristics, normal stress levels and stress paths. By analyzing the results, it can be concluded that the variation trend of shear/normal stress ratio against the normal stress and JRC of the two test conditions were identical. However, under low normal stress condition, the stress ratio of the joints under normal unloading stress path is the higher one; while under higher normal stress, the relationship becomes converse. Compared to that of the tangential loading condition, shear/normal stress ratio of the unloading stress path reduces rapidly as the increasing of normal stress, and the influence of the morphology is masked under lower normal stress.