A new integrated method to design of rock structures

Abstract

Rockmass parameters are used in the design of engineering structures built in rock and soil. One of the most important of these parameters is the rockmass Emass (Emass). Determination of the Emass of rockmass is a long, hard and expensive job. Therefore, empirical formulas developed by different researchers are used. These formulas use the elastic modulus of the material as a parameter. This value is a constant value in the design. However, engineering structures remain under different loads depending on many factors, such as topography, geometry of the structure, rock / soil properties. Time is other important parameter for rock/soil structure. With the start of the excavation, the loads that the structure is exposed to will change and remain constant at one level. In the new proposed method, the use of different Emass calculated from empirical formulas using the different material elastic modulus, which has different values under different loads as time dependent, was investigated in rock/soil structures during design. The performance of the stability analysis using different deformation modules was questioned by numerical modeling method. For this query, a sub-routine which can be integrated into the numerical modeling software has been developed. The integrated sub-routine contains the formula for the Emass, which is calculated from the material elasticity modules under time dependent and different constant loads in the laboratory. As a result of investigations conducted in 12 different field studies, the new proposed method is very sensitive.