Publisher's Synopsis
Rock mechanics is the subject concerned with the response of rock to an applied disturbance, which is measured here as an engineering, i.e. a man-induced, disturbance. For a natural disturbance, rock mechanics would apply to the distortion of rocks in a structural geology context, i.e. how the folds, faults, and fractures developed as stresses were applied to the rocks during orogenic and other geological processes. Over those periods, innovations and improvements in engineering practice in mining and mining rock mechanics, and advances in the engineering science of rock mechanics, have been extraordinary. One of the key drivers for many significant developments in fundamental rock mechanics over the period has been the mining industry's recognition of the economic returns of better understanding and more rigorous application of the governing sciences embedded in its industrial operations and processes. The result has been some notable advances in mining engineering practice, involving improvements in mining methods in particular. The scope of developments in mining rock mechanics science and practice has been as impressive as that in mining engineering. Perhaps the most significant advance has been the resolution of some longstanding issues of rock fracture, failure and strength and their relation to the modes of deformation and degradation of rock around mining excavations. Some remarkable developments in computational methods have supported these improvements in rock mechanics practice. Many mining rock mechanics problems are effectively four-dimensional, in that it is the evolution of the state of stress over the time scale of the mining life of the orebody which needs to be interpreted in terms of the probable modes of response of the host rock mass. This volume entitled "Transit Development in Rock Mechanics: Recognition, Thinking and Innovation" focuses on the transit development in rock mechanics research from surface to underground mining and from shallow to deep rock excavations, and on the change of knowledge, thinking and innovation from reformers to the young generation. It covers the experimental and theoretical aspects of rock mechanics, including laboratory and field testing, methods of computation and field observation of structural behavior. This book will be of interest to engineers and academics dealing with rock mechanics, geotechnical engineering, mine engineering and underground engineering.
