Asperity (geotechnical engineering)
In Geotechnical engineering the term asperity is mostly used for unevenness (roughness) of the surface of a discontinuity, grain, or particle with heights in the range from approximately 0.1 mm to many decimeter. Smaller unevenness is normally considered to be a material property (often denoted by material friction or basic material friction).
Dilation
An often used definition for asperities in geotechnical engineering:
Uneveness of a surface are asperities if these cause dilation if two blocks with inbetween a discontinuity with matching asperities on the two oposing surfaces (i.e. a fitting discontinuity) move relative to each other, under low stress levels that do not cause breaking of the asperities.
Difference with Asperity (materials science)
In material science asperities ranging from sub-visual (normally less than 0.1 mm) to atomic scale (also) are considered to be asperities.
See also
References
- Patton, F.D. (25 Sept-1 Oct 1966). "Multiple Modes of Shear Failure in Rock". In Rocha, M.. Proc. 1st Congress of International Society for Rock Mechanics (ISRM). 1. Lisbon, Portugal: Laboratório Nacional de Engenharia Civil, Lisboa, Portugal. pp. 509–513. OL19662608M.
Further reading
Retrieved from : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asperity_(geotechnical_engineering)
