Laboratory and Field Testing of Rock Masses for Civil Engineering Infrastructures

Abstract

AbstractSeveral types of relevant civil engineering infrastructures, such as the foundations of large buildings, bridges and dams, rock slopes, tunnels and caverns, encompass construction of structures on or in rock masses. Rock masses, specifically those within a few hundreds of meters from the surface where civil infrastructures are implanted, being composed of intact rock and discontinuities (e.g., faults, joints, schistosity and bedding planes), often behave as discontinuum media, with the latter determining their behaviour. The assessment of rock mass properties and conditions is crucial for the design of rock engineering structures, and for assuring safety during their life-time exploration. Since the development of rock mechanics as a distinct engineering discipline in the 1950s and early 1960s, the importance of laboratory rock testing emerged. Additionally, the recognition that tests on small size specimens could not be representative of the behaviour of the rock mass led to the emergence and development of specific in situ tests, where comparatively large rock mass volumes are tested in order to estimate engineering properties suitable for design. This chapter presents laboratory and in situ tests currently used to estimate the relevant parameters required to model the behaviour of rock mass—a naturally occurring material with unknown in situ stresses—at a scale compatible with the dimensions of engineering infrastructures.KeywordsRock massIntact rockDiscontinuityLaboratory testingIn situ testing