Fractures prevail mechanical behavior of a rock mass and confer an overall anisotropic response. Engineering analyses in the elastic regime often use transverse isotropy to model fractured rock masses with a single fracture set. An alternative implicit joint-continuum model combines the mechanical response of the intact rock and fractures by adding their compliance matrices. It can accommodate multiple fracture sets and non-linear fracture response. While the transverse isotropic model is inadequate to model fractured rock media because of its inherent assumptions on the continuity for all stress components, the implicit joint-continuum model is verified against the exact solutions of internal stress distributions and displacement field. The analysis of strip foundations using the implicit joint continuum approach shows that the maximum settlement and tilt will take place when the fracture set strikes quasi-collinear with the strip direction (θ^J ≈ ±15°) and the fracture dip angle is either β^J ≈ 40° ± 10° or β^J ≈ 140° ± 10°.

裂缝主导岩体的力学行为并赋予整体各向异性响应。弹性状态下的工程分析通常使用横向各向同性来模拟具有单个裂缝组的裂缝岩体。另一种隐式联合连续体模型通过添加它们的柔量矩阵来结合完整岩石和裂缝的力学响应。它可以适应多个断裂组和非线性断裂响应。虽然横向各向同性模型由于其对所有应力分量的连续性的固有假设而不足以模拟破裂的岩石介质，但隐式节理连续体模型已针对内部应力分布和位移场的精确解进行了验证。^J  ≈ ±15°)，裂缝倾角为 β ^J  ≈ 40° ± 10° 或 β ^J  ≈ 140° ± 10°。