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ASSIGNMENT 01
Rock Mechanics
Department of Earth Resources Engineering
Sameer S.T.M
110839N
July 2015
engineering works. Choosing a proper type of aggregates to a concrete mixture is an important part
in any construction project. Concrete is primarily comprising rock materials and it is advised to have
rock materials with certain properties. In those situations rock tests would be essential part seeing
that there is no alternative ways to identify rocks properties unless we do tests on them.
And rocks are playing a vital role in geotechnical engineering field as well. Because there are
most of the projects dealing with rocks. It is important to investigate the project site and it is mainly
done by geological engineers and they would give sufficient description about the site including all
geological data. When a construction project is to be commenced, the proposed site has to be
investigated in order to evaluate the suitability of the particular land to the construction and to
propose a proper foundation type to the construction. Rock core drilling is done during the site
investigation and those cores are carried to a geotechnical laboratory and various types of rock tests
are done for them in order to examine the certain rock properties. By doing the rock tests such as
strength tests, impact tests, tensile strength, elasticity tests etc, to the rock core, an idea about the
hard rock layer in the particular area can be gained and it helps to identify the stability and the
bearing capacity of the ground before constructing the proposed building structure. But these rock
tests are not the only thing to be concerned when doing a geotechnical investigation in a given area.
Some other facts may also have to observe during this investigation. But rock properties of the area
play a major role. Foundation design and all the developments depend on the quality of the rock
present in the area. Therefore rock test are being as a fundamental source for those works.
When we talk about mining engineering field, rock is being as one of significant figures,
since that field is related to extraction of minerals economically. Rocks cannot be extracted without
considering their engineering properties which were mentioned above. Before commence a quarry
site it is important to identify those characteristics. Because extracting rock masses would tend to
huge invest at its initial stage with lack of profit. There identification would be even more helpful to
reduce cost as well. And also it is essential need of having an idea about distribution of the rock mass
in that particular area. Then only extraction would be profitable and the quarry site would last for
several years. It could be found using thorough investigation done on that rock samples such as rock
cores. And also analyzing dip and strike also would help to get those details.
Furthermore when we write about underground mining, Safety is a major thing in
underground works. In tunnel projects, great care is given to the properties of the surrounding rocks.
When the cycle of drilling, blasting, mucking is completed, support systems are used to ensure the
safety of the area. The tunnel construction also needs supports according to the strength of the
surrounding rock type. There are several types of mining methods present. Each of them needs the
supporting systems according to their rock properties. So those required rock properties would be
checked out by doing proper tests on rocks and analyzing results obtained. Finally it can be
concluded that rock tests govern civil field from excavation to finishing and mining field from
investigation to extraction of rocks.