• As Asse sess ssme ment nt:: 3 ho hour ur ex exam am + 2 pr prac acti tica cals ls
Course structure • Lectures 1-4 – Stress and strain
• Lectures 5-8 – Rock fracture
• Lectures 9-12 – Faults, friction and earthquakes
• Lectures 13-24 – Engineering applications of Rock Mechanics – What can happen? How can we mitigate against it?
Recommended texts • 1st 6 weeks: Rock Mechanics – Mechanics of Earthquakes and Faulting by Chris Scholz (2nd Edition) • Stress and Strain by Win Means • Fundamentals of Rock Mechanics by Jaeger and Cook • Structural Geology textbooks for stress/strain
• 2nd 6 weeks: Rock Mechanics and Engineering Geology – Foundations of Engineering Geology by Tony Waltham – Practical Rock Engineering by Evert Hoek. Available free on the web: • http://www.rocscience.com/hoek/PracticalRockEngineering.asp
Rock Mechanics • •
Mechanics: study of motion and force Emphasis on brittle rock mechanics (top 15 to 20 km of the Earth’s crust) – –
Fracture Friction
Why is Rock Mechanics important? • For understanding how the Earth works – Fault mechanics (earthquakes, etc) – Lithosphere strength – Propagation of seismic waves
• For design and analysis of man-made structures: – Dams – Tunnels – Waste repositories
Scale of observations In order to understand the processes that contribute to the failure process, we need to investigate what occurs on a small scale. Predictions of the macroscopic behaviour is based upon what happens physically at the microscopic scale. Mechanistic rather than phenomenological approach
What can we do with rock mechanics? • Engineering structures • Understand earth processes
Emosson Dam, Switzerland
Mersey tunnels: 1934 (Queensway) and 1971 (Kingsway)
Tunnels meet, 1928
Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco, 1937
Akashi Kaikyo Suspension Bridge, Kobe, Japan, 1998. 1991 m span
What happens when we don’t understand?
City Hall, San Francisco, 1906
Statue of Louis Agassiz, Stanford University campus, 1906
Izmit earthquake,Turkey M7.4, 17th August 1999
“We fundamentally don’t understand how earthquakes work. After all these years, we don’t have a clue.” Mark Zoback, Science, 1992
What happens when we get it wrong? • Roads over landslips, Mam Tor • Vaiont dam disaster, Italy
