Discussion on “A Peak Dilation Angle Model Considering the Real Contact Area for Rock Joints” Liren Ban, Weisheng Du and Chengzhi Qi, Rock Mech Rock Eng, DOI:10.1007/s00603-020-02193-1

Excerpt

Ban et al. (2020) proposed a new peak dilation model which considered the real contact area of three-dimensional rock joints. The work was mainly developed based on the studies of Chen et al. (2019) and Johansson and Stille (2014), which had been cited in the paper under discussion. However, similar to the mistake of Johansson and Stille (2014), the mathematical derivations that linked the potential contact area ratio in the shear direction to the normal stress, namely, Eqs. (24)–(26) in Johansson and Stille (2014) and Eqs. (23) and (24) in Ban et al. (2020) are incorrect. The manuscript aims to present correct formulations for the sake of the wide readership in rock joint mechanics, and discusses consequences of the corrections. All the notations in this discussion are strictly consistent with those in Ban et al. (2020). …