Analytical representation of Mohr failure envelope approximating the generalized Hoek-Brown failure criterion

The latest version of the Hoek-Brown criterion, referred to as the generalized Hoek-Brown (GHB) criterion, is an empirical failure condition for rock mass that correlates the rock mass strength with the data collected from the laboratory tests and field observations by use of GSI values. A shortcoming of the GHB criterion is that it does not provide an explicit relation between the shear and normal stresses on the failure plane, which limits …