Hoek - Brown Failure Criterion

 

The criterion starts from the properties of intact rock and then introduced factors to reduce these properties on the basis of the characteristics of joints in a rock mass. The rock mass shear strength is estimated using the Hoek and Brown failure criterion (edition 2002), where rock mass is considered as homogeneous material and an average value is determind by fitting a linear Mohr - Coulomb relationship by least squares method.

In the above example a rockmass of conglomerate is considered, and taken into account the variation of data and parameters (upper and lower bound).