Back Analysis in Rock Engineering


Book Description

This book provides practicing engineers working in the field of design, construction and monitoring of rock structures such as tunnels and slopes with technical information on how to design, how to excavate and how to monitor the structures during their construction. Based on the long-term engineering experiences of the author, field measurements together with back analyses are presented as the most powerful tools in rock engineering practice. One of the purposes of field measurements is to assess the stability of the rock structures during their construction. However, field measurement results are only numbers unless they are quantitatively interpreted, a process in which back analyses play an important role. The author has developed both the concepts of “critical strain” and of the “anisotropic parameter” of rocks, which can make it possible not only to assess the stability of the structures during their construction, but also to verify the validity of design parameters by the back analysis of field measurement results during the constructions. Based on the back analysis results, the design parameters used at a design stage could be modified if necessary. This procedure is called an “Observational method”, a concept that is entirely different from that of other structures such as bridges and buildings. It is noted that in general, technical books written for practicing engineers mainly focus on empirical approaches which are based on engineers’ experiences. In this book, however, no empirical approaches will be described, instead, all the approaches are based on simple rock mechanics theory. This book is the first to describe an observational method in rock engineering practice, which implies that the potential readers of this book must be practicing engineers working on rock engineering projects.




Back Analysis in Rock Engineering


Book Description

This book provides practicing engineers working in the field of design, construction and monitoring of rock structures such as tunnels and slopes with technical information on how to design, how to excavate and how to monitor the structures during their construction. Based on the long-term engineering experiences of the author, field measurements together with back analyses are presented as the most powerful tools in rock engineering practice. One of the purposes of field measurements is to assess the stability of the rock structures during their construction. However, field measurement results are only numbers unless they are quantitatively interpreted, a process in which back analyses play an important role. The author has developed both the concepts of “critical strain” and of the “anisotropic parameter” of rocks, which can make it possible not only to assess the stability of the structures during their construction, but also to verify the validity of design parameters by the back analysis of field measurement results during the constructions. Based on the back analysis results, the design parameters used at a design stage could be modified if necessary. This procedure is called an “Observational method”, a concept that is entirely different from that of other structures such as bridges and buildings. It is noted that in general, technical books written for practicing engineers mainly focus on empirical approaches which are based on engineers’ experiences. In this book, however, no empirical approaches will be described, instead, all the approaches are based on simple rock mechanics theory. This book is the first to describe an observational method in rock engineering practice, which implies that the potential readers of this book must be practicing engineers working on rock engineering projects.




Discontinuity Analysis for Rock Engineering


Book Description

Engineers wishing to build structures on or in rock use the discipline known as rock mechanics. This discipline emerged as a subject in its own right about thirty five years ago, and has developed rapidly ever since. However, rock mechanics is still based to a large extent on analytical techniques that were originally formulated for the mechanical design of structures made from man made materials. The single most important distinction between man-made materials and the natural material rock is that rock contains fractures, of many kinds on many scales; and because the fractures - of whatever kin- represent breaks in the mechanical continuum, they are collectively termed 'discontinuities' . An understanding of the mechanical influence of these discontinuities is essential to all rock engineers. Most of the world is made of rock, and most of the rock near the surface is fractured. The fractures dominate the rock mass geometry, deformation modulus, strength, failure behaviour, permeability, and even the local magnitudes and directions of the in situ stress field. Clearly, an understanding of the presence and mechanics of the discontinuities, both singly and in the rock mass context, is therefore of paramount importance to civil, mining and petroleum engineers. Bearing this in mind, it is surprising that until now there has been no book dedicated specifically to the subject of discontinuity analysis in rock engineering.




Applications of Computational Mechanics in Geotechnical Engineering


Book Description

The development of constitutive relations for geotechnical materials, with the help of numerical models, have increased notably the ability to predict and to interpret mechanical behaviour of geotechnical works. These proceedings cover the applications of computational mechanics in this area.




Rock Engineering and Rock Mechanics: Structures in and on Rock Masses


Book Description

Rock Engineering and Rock Mechanics: Structures in and on Rock Masses covers the most important topics and state-of-the-art in the area of rock mechanics, with an emphasis on structures in and on rock masses. The 255 contributions (including 6 keynote lectures) from the 2014 ISRM European Rock Mechanics Symposium (EUROCK 2014, Vigo, Spain, 27-29 Ma




Design Analysis in Rock Mechanics


Book Description

In a straightforward manner and with plenty of illustrations, this textbook approaches important design issues in rock mechanics from a mechanics of materials foundation. It addresses rock slope stability in surface excavations, shaft and tunnel stability, and entries and pillars. The book also covers three-dimensional caverns with an emphasis of b




Rock Engineering in Difficult Ground Conditions - Soft Rocks and Karst


Book Description

Rock Engineering in Difficult Ground Conditions – Soft Rocks and Karst contains the Proceedings of the Regional Symposium of the International Society for Rock Mechanics (ISRM), which was held 29 to 31 October 2009 in Cavtat near Dubrovnik, Croatia. It is a continuation of the successful series of regional ISRM symposia for Europe, which began in 1992 in Chester, UK. EUROCK 2009 was organized by the Croatian Geotechnical Society. Rock Engineering in Difficult Ground Conditions – Soft Rocks and Karst contains 7 keynote lectures and 129 papers classified in 7 themes as follows: - Geological and hydrogeological properties of karst regions; - Rock properties, testing methods and site characterization; - Design methods and analyses; - Monitoring and back analysis; - Excavation and support; - Environmental aspects of geotechnical engineering in karst regions; and - Case histories. Rock Engineering in Difficult Ground Conditions – Soft Rocks and Karst will be of interest to professionals, engineers, and academics involved in rock mechanics and rock engineering.




Discontinuous Deformation Analysis in Rock Mechanics Practice


Book Description

The numerical, discrete element, Discontinuous Deformation Analysis (DDA) method was developed by Dr. Gen-hua Shi while he was working at the University of California, Berkeley, under the supervision of Prof. Richard E. Goodman in the late 1980s. Two-dimensional DDA was published in 1993 and three-dimensional DDA in 2001. Since its publication DDA has been verified, validated and applied in numerous studies worldwide and is now considered a powerful and robust method to address both static and dynamic engineering problems in discontinuous rock masses. In this book Yossef H. Hatzor and Guowei Ma, co-chairs of the International Society for Rock Mechanics (ISRM) Commission on DDA, join Dr. Shi in authoring a monograph that presents the state of the art in DDA research. A comprehensive discussion of DDA development since its publication is provided in Chapter 1, followed by concise reviews of 2D and 3D DDA in chapters 2 and 3. Procedures to select geological and numerical input parameters for DDA are discussed in Chapter 4, and DDA validation and verification is presented in Chapter 5. Applications of DDA in underground and rock slope engineering projects are discussed in chapters 6 and 7. In Chapter 8 the novel contact theory recently developed by Dr. Shi is published in its complete form, for the first time. This book is published within the framework of the ISRM Book Series and is the contribution of the ISRM DDA Commission to the international rock mechanics community.




Rock Slope Engineering


Book Description

Rock Slope Engineering covers the investigation, design, excavation and remediation of man-made rock cuts and natural slopes, primarily for civil engineering applications. It presents design information on structural geology, shear strength of rock and ground water, including weathered rock. Slope design methods are discussed for planar, wedge, circular and toppling failures, including seismic design and numerical analysis. Information is also provided on blasting, slope stabilization, movement monitoring and civil engineering applications. This fifth edition has been extensively up-dated, with new chapters on weathered rock, including shear strength in relation to weathering grades, and seismic design of rock slopes for pseudo-static stability and Newmark displacement. It now includes the use of remote sensing techniques such as LiDAR to monitor slope movement and collect structural geology data. The chapter on numerical analysis has been revised with emphasis on civil applications. The book is written for practitioners working in the fields of transportation, energy and industrial development, and undergraduate and graduate level courses in geological engineering.




Assessment and Prevention of Failure Phenomena in Rock Engineering


Book Description

First published in 1993. This volume is a collection of papers addressing the issue of the failure of rock engineering structures. This phenomenon occurs in different forms depending on the geometry of structure, material properties of intact rock, structure of rock mass, environmental conditions and initial state of stress.




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