Abstract: In this paper, systematic analyses are made on the failure criteria for strength failure of disintegrat-ed rock mass. It is shown that such failure criteria as
Hock-Brown, Mohr-Coulumb, Griffith-Meclin-tock, maximum tensile stress, maximum tensile strain, three-parametric octahedral shearing stress,
two- and three- dimensional failure criterion of rock mass with weak planes, are suitable for the fail-ure determination of rock mass. The failure criteria
can be chosen correspondingly, according to the spe-cific conditions ( rock property, degree of disintegra-tion of the rock mass, and stress status, etc. ).

Key words: Disintegrated rock mass, Rock mechanics, Failure, Mechanism, Criteria