BASE FRICTION APPARATUS AND MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF A MODEL MATERIAL - FUNDAMENTAL STUDY ON MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF ROCK STRUCTURES WITH DISCONTINUITY (1ST REPORT).

A new type of a base friction apparatus has been introduced, so that mechanical properties of a model material and the similitude law for the practical rock structures have been studied, and several experimental results are presented. This machine is designed for the study of the effects of gravity using frictional force at the bottom of two-dimensional models, and the pressure is applied to the surface so that the frictional force can be large. The similitude law is considered by introducing the concepts of stress scale and geometric scale. The strength of model material considerably depends on its density and geometric scale is determined by the density. For the behavior of practical rock structures, however, the law is not usually satisfied, the behaviors of these structures can be expressed qualitatively if the model material is properly selected.