Mechanics Of Jointed And Faulted Rock

This book focuses on the implementation and application of new concepts and methods to modelling, analysis, building, performance control and repair of structures of and in jointed rock and rock masses. It provides a forum for presentation of new research results and discussion for researchers.

Topics covered in this text include: geology and structural geology; mechanics; dynamics of jointed and faulted rock; physical modelling and testing; constitutive modelling; seismicity and tectonics; instrumentation; hydraulics; and applications.

This practical guide describes the stage-by-stage development of a method for predicting the penetration rate (PR) and the advance rate (AR) for tunnel boring machines based on an expanded version of the Q-value, QTBM. The author analyzes 145 TBM tunnels that total 1,000km in length. He then develops simple formulae to estimate PR and AR from the QTBM value and to back-calculate QTBM from performance data. The book quantitatively explains actual advance rates as high as five m/hr for one day or as low as 0.005 m/hr for several months. It also covers logging methods, empirical TBM tunnel support design, and numerical verification of support.

Engineering in Jointed and Faulted Rock aims to provide the background knowledge, necessary tools, and guidelines for rationalized and consistent engineering approaches to design and construction in and on jointed and faulted rock. Three avenues will be exploited to that effect: mechanics, empiricism and analysis (including numerical analysis). The book is uniquely dedicated to the theme of engineering in jointed rock to a much greater degree than earlier texts in rock mechanics and rock engineering, and there will be fundamental treatment and examples of the characterization, strength, deformability and permeability of joints and, in separate chapters, the same for rock masses. These fundamentals will be followed by their application in numerical models, for developing the engineering design for rock slopes, tunnels, bridge foundations, dam abutments, nuclear waste disposal, mine shafts and roadways. Empirical design will be validated and improved by numerical modelling where necessary. The text will be permeated with informative and illustrated case records from the authors’ total of 40 countries sphere of experience. Solutions of every-day problems will be interspersed with experiences from the longest tunnel, the widest cavern, the highest dam, the site of the largest underground power house, and the problems with the deepest TBM tunnels. This much needed text on the mechanics of jointed rock, based on extensive experiments and measurements both in the laboratory and in the field, will be indispensable for the rock engineering and rock mechanics community.

Rock Joints deals exclusively with the mechanical genesis of joints in rocks. It is aimed at a coherent, critical and comprehensible presentation of the underlying mechanical processes of various types of joints and joint systems. Special care is taken to elucidate and quantify the role of high fluid pressures in the formation of joints. The background is an offshoot of the author's courses on "Genesis of Rock Joints" in the Department of Rock Mechanics and Tunneling at the Technical University of Graz, Austria.

Seismic measurements take many forms, and appear to have a universal role in the Earth Sciences. They are the means for most easily and economically interpreting what lies beneath the visible surface. There are huge economic rewards and losses to be made when interpreting the shallow crust or subsurface more, or less accurately, as the case may be.