To study the weakening mechanism of the shear characteristics of water-bearing rock joints, four types of artificial saw-tooth joints (including tooth inclination angles of 0°, 15°, 30° and 45°) were prepared in sandstone with four moisture content (0%, 1.55%, 3.1% and 4.65%). This work adopted the non-destructive water intrusion, X-ray diffraction (XRD), acoustic emission (AE) and direct shear tests

Analyzing variations in rock pore structure under high-temperature thermal cycles is of great significance for the development of deep resource. In this paper, red sandstone from Linyi, Shandong Province, was heated to 200 °C, 400 °C, 500 °C, and 600 °C, followed by five cold thermal cycles. The transverse relaxation times (T2) of red sandstone treated at various temperatures were observed using nuclear

Curing temperature has been reported to have significant effect on the early and long-term strength development of cementitious systems such as concrete, mortar, cement-stabilised granular soil, and cement-stabilised clay. For cement-stabilised clays, elevated curing temperature is reported to enhance both early and long-term strength, which is different from that of concrete, mortar, and cemented

Soil-rock mixture (S-RM) exerts a major control on slope stability. Baidian County in southeastern China was selected as a case study to better understand the effect of S-RM on potential slopes. The developed slope deposits in Baidian County mainly consist of different fractions of soil and fragmented rocks with random structure and poor sorting, which is characteristic of a typical S-RM. A series

Various studies have described upon importance of the performance of multilevel slug tests to assess hydraulic conductivity of aquifer sediment. For this study, slug tests were performed at 33 locations in 107 numbers of observation wells under six physiographic divisions in the Bengal Basin, Bangladesh. The objective of this paper is to evaluate the potential of multilevel slug tests to determine

In this study, uniaxial compression testing was carried out to investigate the response of quartz mica schist to water in terms of strength and energy anisotropy. The micromechanism and water action mechanism of the anisotropic properties of the schist were further discussed based on microscopic observations of the rock fabric and analysis of the mineral composition of the solid precipitant after immersion

The presence of the groundwater level (GWL) at the rock mass may significantly affect the mechanical behavior, and consequently the bearing capacity. The water particularly modifies two aspects that influence the bearing capacity: the submerged unit weight and the overall geotechnical quality of the rock mass, because water circulation tends to clean and open the joints. This paper is a study of the

Knowledge of the mechanical properties of coal seams is important for the coalbed methane extraction. Cleats are widely existing in coal reservoirs and play a significant role in the mechanical properties of coal. In this study, the effect of cleat distribution on strength and failure characteristics of coal under uniaxial compression was investigated using a COMSOL with MATLAB numerical method that

Rammed earth (RE) material as inexpensive and sustainable material attracts the attention of owners, engineers, and contractors. Traditional stabilization materials such as Portland cement and lime are used to stabilize RE material. However, these stabilizers might result in adverse environmental effects. The purpose of this study is the utilization fly ash and granulated blast furnace slag (GBFS)

In this paper, the characteristics of microscopic failure and macroscopic mechanics of gritstone are studied experimentally under geothermal conditions. Different hydrothermal and cooling treatments are conducted to simulate geothermal environments. Permeability and triaxial compression tests of treated gritstone specimens are employed to obtain complete stress–strain curves and permeability and to

The microstructure of rock is one of the most important factors that affect its mechanical behaviors. In order to study the effects of grain size on the strength and failure behaviors of granites, a breakable polygonal grain–based discrete-element model is developed to simulate the microstructure of rocks. In the model, mineral grain types, grain size distributions, and mineralogical composition are

Historically, industries were in harbour areas of cities for easy access to transportation of resources. Today, transforming former industrial areas into living spaces has become an attractive business. However, this transformation has often been challenged by high levels of soil contamination caused by the industrial use. Remediation measures are mandatory to ensure the public safety in the redeveloped

The impact of debris flow is not only limited to the source area but it is also significantly governed by the runout. It is evident in many parts of the world, and it is also a usual phenomenon in the Himalayan environment. Even though a significant body of scientific work was concentrated on landslide susceptibility in this region, studies focused on the debris flow runout assessment are still scarce

The processing and interpretation of microseismic (MS) signals are the basis for obtaining source information of MS events in rock engineering. However, MS signal processing is subjective and time-consuming, in which different strategies have to be empirically adopted to cope with different issues. To facilitate MS signal analysis, this study proposes an entirely data-driven method based on local mean

The post-seismic history of the 2008 Mw7.9 Wenchuan earthquake shows that marginally stable deposits of large co-seismic landslide dams can pose persistent debris flow hazards for the downstream areas. Here, we combine analyses of single-station recordings of ambient noise with electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) surveys to explore the potential of drawing information on structure and geometry

The locked section is a kind of geological structure that is commonly found in natural slopes. The instability criterion of the slope with a locked section structure is not yet studied. In accordance with the mechanical properties of this type of slope, the rock mass is divided into several rock blocks along its joint distribution, and the upper limit method of plastic limit analysis is introduced

The artificial ground freezing (AGF) method has been widely used in underground engineering construction. As the main load-bearing elements of the AGF method, the strength of frozen walls is expected to play a crucial role in engineering stability. To improve the accuracy of quantitative evaluations of engineering stability, it is necessary to grasp the strength characteristics of frozen rock during

As a kind of problematic soil, collapsible soils can withstand relatively high stress in an unsaturated state. Still, upon wetting and being saturated, such soils show a significant sudden reduction in volume, causing damage to the structures. One of the environmentally friendly materials used to treat collapsible soils is the nano-clay as potential stabilizers. The present study investigates the nano-clay

A systematic study with regard to the effects of heat treatment on the physical properties and microstructure of mylonitic gneiss was conducted. The analysis temperatures were 400 °C, 750 °C and 1100 °C, except for the control group, which was kiln-dried at 100 °C. The physical properties associated with uniaxial compression, wave propagation, mercury porosimetry and dilatometric measurements were

Bedding slope is one of the most common forms of landslides, and determining the shear strength parameters of the sliding surface is essential for the slope stability analysis and engineering design. Due to the different values of shear strength parameters of different sliding surfaces and the existence of the interlayer shear effect during sliding, it is difficult to determine the shear strength parameters

Contact metamorphism and metasomatism are imposed on granitic rocks by late intrusions. This study shows the consequences of this phenomenon on the pedogenesis of granitic rocks and on the geotechnical properties of granitic residual soils. This study comprises two saprolitic soils formed from the same granitic body in a site located in the Southern Brazil Coast. A biotite-rich residual soil (BR soil)

Many studies describe soil samples by their grain/particle size distribution (GSD/PSD). Most samples are poly-disperse collections of solids. The paper reviews earlier methods to describe or fit a GSD: usually, their R2 value is in the 0.5–0.9 range. A modal decomposition method (MDM) was developed to extract from a GSD its sub-populations or modes, proportions, and specific surface area. This new

Reliability analysis of slope considering the spatial variability of soil properties may be subjected to the curse of high dimensionality, which leads to the traditional slope reliability analysis method cannot effectively carry out. This paper aims to propose a sliced inverse regression (SIR)-based multivariate adaptive regression spline (MARS) method for slope reliability analysis in spatially variable

Conventional, manual methods of surveying unstable bedrock promontories on high and steep slopes are very risky and time-consuming due to problems regarding steep terrain and traffic inconvenience. This paper describes an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-based method for the identification of unstable bedrock promontories. The first step is the spatial position identification of bedrock promontories,

A key issue in ensuring the stability of transportation infrastructure in permafrost regions of the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau (QTP) is to prevent the degradation of the underlying permafrost. Therefore, several cooling methods (such as sun sheds, duct-ventilated embankment, thermosyphon, crushed-rock embankment, and dry bridge) have been developed to stabilize the underlying permafrost and mitigate thaw

To overcome the problems existing in the application of the traditional stability control method of the surrounding rock of deep shafts, in this paper, a stability control method for the surrounding rock of deep shafts is presented based on the New Austrian Tunnelling Method (NATM) and the Norwegian Method of Tunnelling (NMT), and a support design method of deep shafts is also proposed. In addition

To clarify the effects of compactness and stress level on the strength and deformation characteristics of coral sand in the reclaimed foundation of island reefs in the South China Sea, consolidated-drained triaxial shear tests were conducted on coral sand with four different relative densities under a constant confining pressure range. Brittleness index and dilatancy coefficient were introduced to

This article aims to present GAMAH-R as a new mining rock slope classification system, which was applied on three iron mines located in the western Quadrilátero Ferrífero, Brazil. This system allows to determine the slope performance concerning drainage, geometry and deformation aspects based on visual inspection, using a classification chart. Additionally, it was possible to represent all slopes evaluated

Rock mass deformation failure and its mechanical characteristics in actual environment were basic research subjects in the current research field of rocks in cold regions. Mechanical characteristics of mode-I sandstone were investigated and analyzed under freeze thawing cycle, failure properties, and modes of the rock-like cracked mortar sample were measured and analyzed. Meanwhile, the finite element

Due to the perennial influence by west wind climate, the loess in Ili, China, is obviously different from that in the loess plateau of the monsoon area, showing the characteristics of large collapsible deformation and high soluble salt content. During the operation of hydraulic structures such as canals, the distribution of soluble salt content in the surrounding unsaturated soil is uneven due to the

This study establishes a multiple degrees-of-freedom structural dynamics analytical model to analyse the influence mechanism of different factors on blasting tight bottom and shape of muckpile. The structural displacement response and distribution of internal forces in the bench rock mass are analysed based on several factors including blasting parameters, explosion load, initiation condition, and

Water is one of the most effective agents that weaken the physio-mechanical properties of rock, trigger significant construction delays, endanger the construction operation, and lead to rock failure. Therefore, an early failure point (EFP) prediction of rock under such conditions is imperative for the robust and reliable implementation of underground engineering. In this research, an EFP of sandstone

Deep aquifers are a common geological disaster source in coal mines and they can lead to water and mud inrush disasters. Grouting is the most effective method to reinforce aquifers and block water. However, grouting only at the water inrush area cannot obtain a stable effect. A combination of groundwater runoff analysis and grouting keyholes optimization was adopted to solve the problem of water inrush

Cutting tool wear in tunnel boring machine (TBM) affects the construction safety, time, and cost in tunneling engineering. To accurately calculate the wear of TBM cutting tools used in heterogeneous grounds, the wear coefficient was studied theoretically and using field experiments based on the tool wear model proposed by the Japanese Tunnelling Society (JTS). A trajectory weight-based wear coefficient

Thermal shock on tensile behaviour of granite is highly important for understanding of fracturing mechanism in hot dry rock. The effects of heating and water-cooling treatment (HWCT) on tensile behaviour of granite were investigated in this work. The granite samples were first heated to different predetermined temperatures and then rapidly cooled by water. The Brazilian split tests were carried out

During rainfall infiltration and fluctuations in the water level, the seepage process of a landslide changes between a saturated and unsaturated state. The resulting landslide deformations do not occur immediately, but experience a time development with typical rheological properties. Slip-surface soil is a special kind of soil formed during the sliding process of a landslide, and its creep properties

Many studies describe soils by their grain/particle size distribution (GSD/PSD). Most samples are poly-disperse collections of solids. A companion article has reviewed earlier methods to fit a GSD: usually, their R2 value is in the 0.5–0.9 range. A modal decomposition method, MDM, was developed to extract from a GSD its sub-populations or modes, proportions, and specific surface area. This new MDM

Slopes with fabric anisotropy widely exist in nature due to complex geological depositions and the inherent spatial variability of geomaterials. The soil with fabric anisotropy is herein characterized by a random field, and the factor of safety (FS) of an anisotropic soil slope is calculated by the finite element method. By virtue of Monte Carlo simulations, the statistical characteristics of FS of

A case study is reported in this paper, where a combination of seismic refraction and electrical resistivity surveys is used to investigate the cause of excessive water loss in Asa Dam, Nigeria, West Africa. Excessive water loss in the dam has been the reason for the shortage in water supply being experienced by the people of Ilorin, especially in the dry season, in the last 7 years. The study aims

The ancient ruins of Djemila, located in northeastern Algeria, represent the most important Roman archaeological site in North Africa. Originally named “Cuicul” in 96 or 97 A.D./C.E. when the Roman emperor Nerva built and established it as a Roman colony, Djemila (“beautiful” in Arabic) has been included on the UNESCO World Heritage list since 1982. The primary research objective at these ruins was

The pressurized water-rock coupling has a great influence on the long-term stability of rock engineering. In order to study the effect of axial and hydraulic pressure coupling on the creep behaviors of rock, a multi-channel fluid-solid coupling rock rheology system was used to carry out multi-loading creep experiments on the creep behaviors of sandstone. In view of the creep behaviors of the studied

This study explored the effect of microbially induced carbonate precipitation (MICP), a natural bio-geotechnical process, on mitigating the uneven settlement in electro-osmotic consolidation of soft soil. The real-time drainage and settlement were measured, and the control behavior of drainage to settlement was discussed. MICP solution components were also selected as the different additives to determine

The rolling indentation abrasion test (RIAT) is a recently developed method for measuring rock abrasivity. In this study, RIAT tests were performed on 17 plutonic rock samples and the weight lost by the mini-disc cutter (mg) after testing (RIATa), the mean value of 10 evenly distributed measurements of the cutter penetration depth into the rock in 1/100 mm (RIATi), abrasion-penetration rate (APR),

The large deformation of deep soft rock roadways and the corresponding support technology are important to the coal mining industry. This study investigated the large deformation mechanism and the concrete-filled steel tubular support technology of a ventilation shaft roadway (VSR) on the basis of a well-documented engineering case. The mechanical parameters of the rock surrounding the VSR were evaluated

Accurately determining geomechanical parameters and rock mass deformation are key components of slope stability assessment as well as structural design and safe construction. Numerical models are therefore commonly applied to these issues as a component of back analysis, which provides a practical tool for determining geomechanical parameters in rock engineering. Although once quantified, rock mass

The anchor prestress loss is one of the main factors influencing the stability of deep anchored rock masses, and the shear damage law of prestressed anchored rock masses should be thoroughly studied. To examine the shear law of prestressed anchored jointed rock masses, stress–strain curves of jointed, anchored, and prestressed anchored jointed rock masses of different rock strengths were analysed through

The post-peak response of elasto-plastic material is dependent upon the stress path it is subjected to. This paper analyses and compares the stress path and strain response of advancing tunnel, using two-dimension:1al plane strain (2D PS) and full three-dimensional step by step excavation and support (3D SBS) finite difference numerical model (FDM). Stress paths for 3D SBS model indicate higher stress

An experimental system, which consists of a digital camera and a loading system, is designed to investigate the failure mechanism of anti-dip rock slopes subjected to external loading. The modeling material is made by mixing sand, plaster, barite, glycerin, and water at a mass ratio of 44.4:30:22.5:2:32. Fine sand is evenly filled between the rock layers to simulate the joints of the anti-dip rock

The influence of three-dimensional (3D) rotated anisotropy on the stability of soil slope is investigated. Random field theory is employed to model the heterogeneity of soil shear strength parameters, and finite element analysis is conducted to compute the slope response. In addition, Monte Carlo simulations are carried out to compute the probability of the 3D slope failure. Based on the simulation

This paper presents three comparative in situ grouting tests for long-term settlement treatment of a cut-and-cover tunnel of Nanjing Metro Line 10. The characteristics of the tunnel settlement and induced structural damage are described in detail. Comparative grouting tests were conducted to identify the effects of the grouting sequence and grouting material on the tunnel settlement treatment. The

Loess tunnels are prone to collapse during construction. The risk assessment of loess tunnel collapse is therefore of great significance to prevent collapse accidents. An attribute recognition model of loess tunnel collapse risk assessment is established based on attribute mathematical theory. Several risk assessment indexes, including surrounding rock lithology, topography, excavation span, burial

The formation of geological disasters, such as earthquakes and rock bursts, is a process similar to avalanches. These sudden disasters are closely related to a series of discontinuous cracks. In this study, the relationship between the damage process and the jerk phenomenon (sharp change in stress during loading) of rocks was revealed by evaluating the acoustic emission (AE) characteristics of sandstone

A major challenge that TBM performance is requested to deal with for a successful and effective progress is tunnelling through lithologically and geomechanically heterogeneous rock masses. Such heterogeneous environments are common and recent tunnel examples in the UK include the Hinckley Point C offshore cooling tunnels being driven through interbedded carbonaceous mudstone/shales and argillaceous

The shear behavior of rock is markedly affected by the presence of water. To study the influence of water on the shear behaviors of rock, a series of direct shear tests were conducted on intact sandstone specimens with different water soaking durations (from dried to saturated) under three levels of normal stresses. Before direct shear tests were performed, water absorption experiments were conducted

Long-term material dependency on natural resources has caused a heavy toll on the environment and biodiversity of natural systems. To explore the effectiveness of the usage of unconventional materials in geotechnical applications, an attempt is made towards the application of calcium lignosulphonate, a by-product of the paper industry in soil stabilization techniques in the place of conventional additives

The application of MICP (microbial-induced calcite precipitation) to clays has been restricted due to their low permeability and small pore size, which limit bacterial mobility. The authors proposed an injection method for introducing solutions into a silty clay for MICP in the pore space. Test results showed that injecting equal volumes of bacterial solution and cementation solution resulted in 200%

Little attention has been paid to investigating borehole deformation characteristics during drilling in soil and rock mixtures commonly encountered in the construction of ground anchors, micropiles, etc., raising questions as to the pile quality. This unique study investigates the deformations of micropile boreholes during rotary drilling in a compacted soil-limestone mixture (S-LM) by developing model

Carbide lime is a by-product obtained during the manufacturing of acetylene from the reaction of calcium carbide and water. A major portion of carbide lime is dumped in waste deposition areas, creating an environmental problem. Carbide lime and fly ash have possible applications in slope stabilization, subgrade improvement of roads, and soil treatments under shallow foundations. A series of Atterberg

Naturally occurring rock mass have rough surface with irregular geometry and highly unpredictable material properties, making them almost impossible to mathematically represent in computer-aided design (CAD)–based modeling. Simulating the responses of irregular geo-objects under naturally occurring loading conditions is a matter of extensive research. In this context, the contribution of this research

The mechanisms and characteristics of earthquake-triggered anti-dip rock landslides remain largely unknown. In this study, the dynamic response characteristics and failure process of anti-dip layered rock slopes are investigated under strong earthquake conditions using shaking table model tests and numerical analysis. The test model uses a slope angle of 60° and steep dip angle of 75° and considers