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Lythos Rock ​

Rock engineering

Rock mass strength after Hoek–Brown

mb, s and a by the generalised Hoek–Brown criterion; the equivalent c′ and φ′ of a tunnel, a slope or a general case; the rock mass modulus; GSI from five classifications; σci and mi fitted to triaxial tests; residual strength.

$ pip install lythosrock
Run
lythos-rock
Default port
8784
Python
3.10+
Version
0.1.0
Licence
AGPL-3.0

What is known about a rock mass — the strength of the intact rock, the Geological Strength Index, how much the excavation disturbed it — is turned into the parameters an analysis needs, after the generalised Hoek–Brown criterion (Hoek, Carranza-Torres & Corkum 2002). Every application and every estimate is reported side by side, so the effect of each choice is in plain view.

What it computes ​

  1. Intact rock — σci and mi entered, or picked from typical values (mi and the modulus ratio MR for 41 rock types, σci from the ISRM field strength grades R0–R6), or fitted to triaxial tests (Hoek & Brown 1980) with r² and a check on the range of confinement.
  2. GSI — entered, read from the chart's classes, or converted from JCond89 and RQD, RMR89, Q′, or block volume and joint condition (Cai et al. 2004).
  3. Hoek–Brown — mb, s and a; the tensile, uniaxial and global strength of the rock mass; the disturbance factor D with Hoek's guidance for tunnels, slopes and open pits.
  4. Equivalent Mohr–Coulomb — c′ and φ′ fitted over σt < σ3 < σ3max for a general case, a tunnel, a slope or a custom range — every application side by side.
  5. Instantaneous strength — φi and ci of the tangent to the envelope at any σ3 (Balmer 1952).
  6. Deformability — the rock mass modulus by Hoek & Diederichs (2006), generalised and simplified, and by Hoek et al. (2002).
  7. Residual strength — GSIr, the residual constants and c′, φ′ (Cai et al. 2007).

On top of it, a parametric or probabilistic study sweeps any input as a range or a distribution and reports the statistics of every output, the characteristic values (5 % fractiles) of c′, φ′, σcm and Erm, and Spearman sensitivities.

Screenshots ​

Quick start ​

bash
pip install lythosrock
lythos-rock                                   # interface: http://127.0.0.1:8784/

In the 1 · Rock mass tab enter the intact rock, the GSI, the disturbance and the application, and press Analyse. Results appear under Summary, Results and Figures; the 2 · Study tab runs parametric and probabilistic studies. The report menu in the header writes PDF, HTML or Word.

The same from the command line:

bash
lythos-rock example -o project.rock           # a starter project
lythos-rock run project.rock -o report.pdf
lythos-rock study project.rock -o samples.csv

Figures ​

The failure envelopes, σ1–σ3 and τ–σn side by side (Hoek–Brown, the fitted Mohr–Coulomb line, the residual envelope, σ3max, σt and the tangent at the chosen σ3) · the quantified GSI chart with the rock mass on it · mb/mi, s and a against GSI · c′ and φ′ against GSI · Erm against GSI by every estimate · the effect of D · the triaxial tests with the fitted envelope. Study figures: one-at-a-time sweep, histogram with the 5 % fractile, scatter, tornado.

Next steps ​

  • Examples — the starter project, a blasted tunnel, GSI five ways, a triaxial fit and a probabilistic study.
  • Reference — the expressions, inputs, modules and limits.
  • Where one discontinuity governs rather than the rock mass as a whole, use Lythos Kinematic. The c′ and φ′ found here go straight into LythosFEA, Lythos LE and the rock methods of Lythos Bearing.

Lythos is an independent open-source project for geotechnical and rock engineering, developed by Hasan Deniz Altuntaş. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to any other company or product using a similar name.
Released under the AGPL-3.0 licence.