Chapter 3: Kinematic Analysis of Structures:
3.1 Rigid-body and non-rigid-body deformations;
3.2 Measurement of strain;
3.3 Strain ellipse and strain equations;
3.4 Pure shear and simple shear;
3.5 Stress-strain relationships in rocks;
3. Determination of strain in rocks;
Introdution To Kinematic Analysis of Structures
Ø Kinematic Analysis concerned how rock body as a whole or rock
particles have moved during deformation and interprets deformational
movement that formed the structures.
• Given enough differential stress (Sigm1-Sigma 2), a material responds
by deforming.
• Deformation is the change in shape, volume, orientation or position of
a body due to an applied stress.
• It refers to the structural changes that take place in the rocks as a result
from stresses that exceed a rocks strength.
vThre are two types of deformation:
1. Rigid body deformations
2. Non-Rigid body deformation
Rigid body deformations
Ø Rigid body deformation is when the position and orientation of
points in a rock body relative to an internal reference frame are not
changed. Particles in a body do not change relative positions.
Ø It involves Deformation of body by:
ü Translation and
ü Rotation
Rigid body translation
v Translation is variety of rigid body deformation, which involves a
change in position of rock body.
v Translation is displacement without change in shape and size and angle.
v A body of rock is displaced in such a way that all points within the
body move along parallel path.
o It translates along the plane where the
cohesion of the body is lost.
o It can be at lattice scale to continental
scale.
o Geological surfaces include:
ü Faults,
ü Bedding planes
o It is expressed in terms of displacement
vector using three parameters:
ü Distance (in mm-km),
ü Direction (trend and plunge) and
ü Sense polarity (e.g. NE, SW)
Rigid body translation: Example 1- Dyke
ØNote that the displacement has path (which may be through different
direction) and the vector points to the finite strain.
Example 2: Fault
ØThe displacement
magnitude is
measured along the
last recorded path.
Ridged body rotation
In rigid body rotation:
ü Rock body rotate without changing its
relative position (intact movement)
without changing size and shape.
ü Rotation is another rigid body operation
that changes the configuration of points
relative to some external reference frame
in a way best described by rotation about
some axis.
ü Rotation takes place about common axis.
ü Expressed in terms of:
ü Axis of rotation (trend and plunge);
ü Sense of rotation ( clock wise etc.) and
ü Magnitude of rotation (angle in degrees).
ü Examples include:
§ Bending of beds from horizontal by
folding
Non-Rigid Body Deformation:
Ø Non-rigid body deformation is when the position and orientation of points within a rock
body are changed relative to both an internal and external reference frame.
Ø It involves Deformation of body by:
ü Distortion and
ü Dilation
a. Distortion is a non-rigid body operation that involves the change in the spacing of points
within a body of rock in such a way that the overall shape of the body is altered with or
without a change in volume.
b. Dilation is a non-rigid body deformation involving a change in volume.
Ø In pure dilation (without no change in shape) internal points spread apart or come closer
to each other (over all shape remain the same).
Ø During distortion: the overall shape of the body is destorted with or without change in
size.
Ø Change by dilation and distortion result from change in Configuration of points in a body
during deformation (ether closely packed or extended and widely spaced at the end).
Coaxial and non-coaxial strain
ØDuring dilation (distortion), the
axis of strain ellipse may not be
fixed to portray the strain at each
stage of deformation
=>they commonly rotate (e.g. see
the card deck and reference circle
deformed to ellipse with axis's
rotated from the origin.
ü Such strain are called non-
coaxial strain
ü When the finite stretch axis is
fixed, then
üit is said to be coaxial strain
Measurement of Strain
Ø Similar to stress, strain can be divided into normal and shear
components.
Ø The magnitude of strain can be evaluated using several measures
based on the type of deformation occurring in a material:
ü Change in length (Longitudinal strain): represented by
e (normal strain)
ü Change in angle (Angular or shear strain): represented by
γ (shear strain)
ü Change in volume (Volumetric strain): represented by
eᵥ (normal strain)
1. Change in length of line
Folded quartz vein, an example of An extended belemnite, an example of
negative elongation positive elongation
[Link] in Angle
3. Change in Volume
§ Based on the diagram, determine the extension, stretch and quadratic
elongation.
Based on relationship between ‘S’ and ‘e’
STRAIN STATES
The Strain ellipse and Ellipsoid
• In a deforming body, material lines
will deform, rotate and change shape.
• We want to be able to characterize the
rotation and elongation of any arbitrary
line.
• A circle (sphere in 3D) allows us to Distortion of material lines
keep track of all possible orientations and strain markers
of lines.
• Any homogenous strain turns a circle
into an ellipse and a sphere into an
ellipsoid.
Strain Ellipsoid…
• Consider a circle of unit radius, deformed into an ellipse oriented
such that the major and minor semi-axes are parallel with the
coordinate axes (x and Y).
• The elongation, stretch and quadratic elongation of the major semi-
axis are given by:
Strain Ellipsoid…
• More generally, the semi-axes of the
strain ellipse (ellipsoid in 3D) are
the principal strains, analogous to
the principal stresses we saw earlier.
• The length of the sem-iaxes (S1,S2,S3)
are the magnitudes of the principal
strains.
• The strain ellipsoid can have various
shapes, corresponding to uniaxial,
biaxial or triaxial strain.
Ø Circular sections through biaxial
strain ellipses will be undistorted;
Ø In triaxial strain they will be distorted, though equally shortened or
lengthened in all directions.
• Geological Examples of reasonably nice spherical strain markers
are oids or (perhaps) pebbles in a conglomerate.