When examining a rock mass, joint sets and their orientations can play a signiicant role with regard to how the rock mass will behave. To identify joint sets present in the rock mass, measurements of the orientation of individual fractures can be measured on exposed rock faces and the resulting data examined for heterogeneity. In this paper, the EM algorithm is utilized to t mixtures of Kent co...

wall displacements and ground pressure acting on the lining of a tunnel increase with time. these time-dependent deformations are both due to face advance effect and to the time-dependent behavior of the rock mass.  viscoelastic materials exhibit both viscous and elastic behaviors. thorough this study, the effect of different linear viscoelastic models including maxwell, kelvin and kelvin-voigt...

Data on discontinuities are always necessary for design, characterization and analysis of rock structures. The time honored method of manual measurements with Brunton compass is both time consuming and often inconvenient given issues such as restricted access to measurement areas, introduction of erroneous data due to sampling difficulties and human bias, considerable safety risks since measure...

In view of the broken rock mass in surrounding large underground caverns, 3D distribution model joints is obtained through on-site investigation and digital imaging technology, image processing software. Based on analysis mutual cutting degree geometric shape block, concepts calculation methods fragmentation bite are proposed, quantitatively described. Furthermore, multi-factor method used to e...

Intact rock properties together with rock mass characteristics should be well investigated for selection of proper tunnel boring machine (TBM) for tunneling in various ground conditions. This is due to the significant impact of rock mass characteristics on machine performance. TBMs are site specific and designed for optimal performance in given ground conditions. When selected and put to work a...

The purpose of this study was to develop a model for the estimation of rock mass classification of Sarvak limestone in the Bakhtiari dam site, south-west (SW) Iran. Q system had been used as the starting point for the rock mass classification. This method was modified for sedimentary rock mass which is known as Qsrm. Because Qsrm considers a wide range of rock mass propert...