Analytical solution for rock discontinuity prediction without stereonet

Abstract Stereographic projection has been used in Rock Engineering for decades to represent rock mass discontinuities in graphical form and to carry out further stability analysis. Currently, there are computer programs available for this purpose. The objective of this technical note is to present some closed form expressions related to stereographic projections such as the prediction of a possible joint set. These solutions can be implemented in spreadsheets or in computer programs and would benefit stability analysis of rock masses with discontinuities. This helps to reduce the work load with hand solutions and enhance the analysis in modern computational tools with stereonet, where the rotation and snap features are not available yet.