A New Representative Sampling Method for Series Size Rock Joint Surfaces

The greatest variability in both shear strength and roughness exists for joint samples with smaller size, which underscores the necessity of performing representative sampling. This study aims to provide a representative sampling method for series size joint surfaces. The progressive coverage statistical method is introduced to provide the sufficient sample capacity for series sampling sizes by setting different propulsion spaces. The statistical law of the joint surface morphology at different sampling sizes is measured by the 3D roughness parameter with [Formula: see text] . Through an application in nine natural large-scale rock joints, nine consecutive sampling sizes from 100 mm × 100 mm to 900 mm × 900 mm are selected and 121 samples are successfully acquired from each sampling size. According to the frequency distribution of roughness statistics, a new sampling method combining the layering principle and K-medoids clustering algorithm is proposed to screen representative joint samples for each sampling size. The sampling results that meet the test accuracy requirements suggest the possibility of realizing an intelligent sampling method. In addition, the representative of the interlayer cluster center is validated. Finally, the comparison results with the traditional stratified sampling method prove that the proposed method has better stability.