The Mohr–Coulomb Criterion for Intact Rock Strength and Friction

Hackston and Rutter examine the applicability of the Mohr–Coulomb failure criterion to intact rock. Laboratory testing on multiple lithologies reveals that linear Mohr–Coulomb fits underestimate strength at low confinement and overestimate it at high confinement. They compare MC with Hoek–Brown and propose guidance on selecting strength envelopes.