ABSTRACT
ABSTRACT: Among many issues to be solved in the engineering structures design, one of the most controversial is estimation the strength and stability of rock masses. Rock mass is a discrete heterogeneous anisotropic medium, which properties are rather difficult to reflect correctly within the used models. In this paper, the possibility of determining the ultimate bearing capacity of foundation resting on naturally discontinuing rock mass with the HoekBrown failure criterion (Hoek, 2007) implemented in the geotechnical software Optum CE (Krabbenhoft, 2016) is presented. Numerical solutions of the bearing capacity are performed by the finite element method with determination of the upper and lower bounds of the ultimate load. The results show good agreement with analytical solution results. Alternatively, an approach to estimate the bearing capacity of rock masses by fitting the linear MohrCoulomb relationship to the curved Hoek-Brown solution is observed.
