Investigation of Rock Mass Structural Similarity in Two Islands in Vietnam

In a rock mass, the joint geometry pattern may change from one area to another. Rock masses having similar joint geometry patterns are known as structural domains in the engineering geology literature (also termed as structural similar regions in this paper). Geometrical properties of joints control the geomechanical behavior of jointed rock masses. Therefore, the demarcation of structural domains should be the first step in working with field jointed rock mass geomechanical behavior. To investigate the structural similarity of the rock masses of two islands in Vietnam, three procedures are implemented in this paper. The results indicated the possibility of obtaining somewhat different structural similarities for the investigated rock masses for each of the applied procedures. It indicates that the conclusions made on structural similarity of rock masses based on only one procedure can lead to poor or low reliability. The paper illustrates how to arrive at better judgements on rock mass structural similarity by combining the results coming from all the applied procedures.