Time Effects In Rock Mechanics

The world requires an increasing number of underground facilities for applications such as storage, waste repositories and traffic. Accurate prediction of the stability and deformation of these facilities is essential, and calls for model calculations using reliable and comprehensive constitutive equations describing the mechanical behaviour of the rocks involved, particularly the time-dependent effects. Here the authors combine their knowledge and personal experience in this field to encourage the practical use of material laws based on a sound physical and mathematical basis. Further discussion and research on the time-dependent behaviour of rocks and related materials is supported in the text by more than 200 figures. The text covers elasticity, creep, dilatancy, creep failure and short term failure, experimental techniques and test results, micromechanical deformation mechanisms, viscoplasticity and computation using appropriate constitutive equations, including many fundamental model calculations. Rock mechanics incorporates aspects of many disciplines including structural geology, soil mechanics, material sciences, civil, mining and petroleum engineering, seismology and geophysics. This book will therefore find a wide appreciation amongst engineers, researchers and graduate students in these and other related areas.

This book is concerned with time-dependency in rock mechanics and rock engineering, whose spectrum is very wide. While the term “time-dependency” involves time-dependent behavior/rate-dependent behavior of rocks in a conventional sense, this books attempts to cover the spectrum as much as possible including coupled processes of thermal, hydrological and diffusions in rocks. It presents theoretical formulations, experiments, numerical formulation and examples of applications. Of paramount concern is the long-term response and stability of rock engineering structures, including for instance man-made and natural slopes and underground facilities such as tunnels and powerhouses.

Rock as a material; Analysis of stress and infinitesimal strain; Friction; Elasticity and strength of rock; Linear elasticity; Laboratory testing; Effects of size and stress gradient; Fluid pressure and flow in rocks; Behaviour of ductile materials; Further problems in elasticity; Time dependent effects; Crack phenomena and the mechanism of fracture; Strain waves; The state of stress underground; Underground measurements; Granular materials; Geological application; Mining and other engineering applications.

Petroleum Rock Mechanics: Drilling Operations and Well Design, Second Edition, keeps petroleum and drilling engineers centrally focused on the basic fundamentals surrounding geomechanics, while also keeping them up-to-speed on the latest issues and practical problems. Updated with new chapters on operations surrounding shale oil, shale gas, and hydraulic fracturing, and with new sections on in-situ stress, drilling design of optimal mud weight, and wellbore instability analysis, this book is an ideal resource. By creating a link between theory with practical problems, this updated edition continues to provide the most recent research and fundamentals critical to today’s drilling operations. Helps readers grasp the techniques needed to analyze and solve drilling challenges, in particular wellbore instability analysis Teaches rock mechanic fundamentals and presents new concepts surrounding sand production and hydraulic fracturing operations Includes new case studies and sample problems to practice

This book offers a practical reference guide to soft rock mechanics for engineers and scientists. Written by recognized experts, it will benefit professionals, contractors, academics, researchers and students working on rock engineering projects in the fields of civil engineering, mining and construction engineering. Soft Rock Mechanics and Engineering covers a specific subject of great relevance in Rock Mechanics – and one that is directly connected to the design of geotechnical structures under difficult ground conditions. The book addresses practical issues related to the geomechanical properties of these types of rock masses and their characterization, while also discussing advances regarding in situ investigation, safety, and monitoring of geotechnical structures in soft rocks. Lastly, it presents important case histories involving tunnelling, dam foundations, coal and open pit mines and landslides.

This volume summarizes the results of experimental investigations on the mechanical behaviour of rock. These experiments have been conducted over a 40 year period in the Laboratory for the Physics of Rocks at High Pressure.

Engineering rock mechanics is the discipline used to design structures built in rock. These structures encompass building foundations, dams, slopes, shafts, tunnels, caverns, hydroelectric schemes, mines, radioactive waste repositories and geothermal energy projects: in short, any structure built on or in a rock mass. Despite the variety of projects that use rock engineering, the principles remain the same. Engineering Rock Mechanics clearly and systematically explains the key principles behind rock engineering. The book covers the basic rock mechanics principles; how to study the interactions between these principles and a discussion on the fundamentals of excavation and support and the application of these in the design of surface and underground structures. Engineering Rock Mechanics is recommended as an across-the-board source of information for the benefit of anyone involved in rock mechanics and rock engineering.

This new edition has been completely revised to reflect the notable innovations in mining engineering and the remarkable developments in the science of rock mechanics and the practice of rock angineering taht have taken place over the last two decades. Although "Rock Mechanics for Underground Mining" addresses many of the rock mechanics issues that arise in underground mining engineering, it is not a text exclusively for mining applications. Based on extensive professional research and teaching experience, this book will provide an authoratative and comprehensive text for final year undergraduates and commencing postgraduate stydents. For profesional practitioners, not only will it be of interests to mining and geological engineers, but also to civil engineers, structural mining geologists and geophysicists as a standard work for professional reference purposes.

Engineering Rock Mechanics Part II: Illustrative Worked Examples can be used as an independent book or alternatively it complements an earlier publication called Engineering Rock Mechanics: An Introduction to the Principles by the same authors. It contains illustrative worked examples of engineering rock mechanics in action as the subject applies to civil, mining, petroleum and environmental engineering. The book covers the necessary understanding and the key techniques supporting the rock engineering design of structural foundations, dams, rock slopes, wellbores, tunnels, caverns, hydroelectric schemes and mines. There is a question and worked answer presentation with the question and answer sets collated into twenty chapters which match the subject matter of the first book.