Abstract: The discontinuities in rock mass could directly affect the strength, deformation and fracture patterns. Investigation of the distribution information and the orientation of discontinuities in jointed rock mass is the fundamental part for rock engineering. This paper proposed a fast identification and analysis method of joint traces information based on the Hough detection method. The orientation information of the joint traces could be automatically recognized and analyzed based on the image edge detection of rock mass image. The research results show the feasibility of the proposed method when detecting the left-inclined, right-inclined lines and crossing straight lines. Extraction of the joint traces of discrete fracture network model and in-situ case were analyzed and compared. The information of orientation and dip angle of the joint traces was effectively identified. The feasibility of the proposed method in identifying the joint traces was discussed by analyzing the sensibility of the identifying parameter of k. The proposed Hough detection method could provide a novel application method for the identification of joint traces information of rock mass.

Key words: rock mechanics, rock joints, Hough detection, trace recognition, orientation identification