Comparison between methods for calculating the volume of rock blocks

Abstract

Abstract Many methods for calculating the volume of rock blocks have been developed in the last decades. The first attempts to estimate such crucial quantity produced analytical equations to calculate the mean and variance of volume, considering blocks created by three discontinuity sets with a certain spacing probability distribution. From then, the research community followed three kinds of approaches for calculating block volume: the fully analytical one (e.g., Palmstrøm’s formula), the fully probabilistic one (e.g., Discrete Fracture Network generators), and the mixed one (e.g., In Situ Block Size Distribution). In this paper, a comparison among the different methods is presented, supported by numerical examples, highlighting their strengths and disadvantages in terms of reliability and repeatability.