Design a rock cutting from the joints up. Enter the joint sets or drag their poles on the stereonet, and the studio tells you which blocks can move, works out the factor of safety of the planar block and the 3-D wedge, sizes the rock bolts, runs rockfall trajectories to pick the barrier, classifies the rock mass by RMR, Q and GSI with Hoek–Brown strength, and checks rock sockets, footings and blasting — with an A3 drawing set, Excel workbook and report.
Scope & limitations
For preliminary design and education. Rock slope behaviour is controlled by the actual discontinuities and groundwater: confirm orientations and strengths by face mapping and testing, and have the design reviewed by an engineering geologist or geotechnical engineer.
What the rock engineering studio does
Describe the rock: intact strength and Hoek–Brown mi from the rock type, joint sets with dip, dip direction, friction, cohesion and Barton–Bandis parameters, and the slope face.
Classify the rock mass by RMR89 (with orientation adjustment), the Q-system with its support category and unsupported span, and the quantified GSI chart you click to pick a value; the generalised Hoek–Brown criterion gives mb, s and a, the global strength, equivalent c′ and φ′ for the slope or tunnel stress range, and the rock mass modulus.
Kinematics on an equal-area stereonet: drag any pole or the face and the Markland planar and wedge tests and the Goodman toppling test update as you drag, with the friction circle, daylight crescent and lateral limits shaded.
Stability: planar sliding by Hoek and Bray with a tension crack, water and an earthquake coefficient, and a full 3-D tetrahedral wedge solved by vectors with water pressure, cohesion on both planes and loss of contact; the bolt force for the code factor of safety, bolt rows, lengths, bond and proof loads.
Rockfall trajectories on a profile you drag, with energy and bounce height at the barrier and the barrier class; rock-socketed piles, footings on rock, excavatability and a blast design with vibration against the code limit. Outputs: an A3 drawing set, an Excel workbook with live Hoek–Brown, planar, wedge, bolt, socket and blasting formulas, and JSON.