Publisher's Synopsis
This book provides a new and much-needed systems approach to all rock engineering problems. The methodology has application to any structures built on or in rock, and hence will be of major interest to everyone involved in the subject - engineers, researchers, students and teachers.;Following an introduction describing the advantages of a systems approach, the author explains from first principles how this new and original methodology is developed. The subjects encompass a unique "atlas of rock engineering mechanisms", a method of establishing the importance of each parameter and mechanism in any rock engineering project, the energy and entropy contexts, how to implement the approach in engineering practice, and all the benefits accruing from "systems thinking" - with examples ranging from assessing candidate schemes to systems auditing of rock engineering projects.
