Excavation, Support and Monitoring

Comprehensive Rock Engineering: Principles, Practice, & Projects, Volume 4: Excavation, Support, and Monitoring focuses on rock mechanics research and engineering, including excavation, drilling, blasting, and collapse mechanisms of boreholes. The selection first offers information on the construction process, mechanisms of rock fragmentation by blasting, and methods of improving blasting operations. Discussions focus on excavation, support, monitoring, stress wave mechanics, crater blasting, applications in construction and quarry blasting, fragmentation, damage, and environmental aspects. The text also ponders on the regulations, methods, and control techniques of blast monitoring and blast vibration monitoring for rock engineering. The publication takes a look at computer modeling and simulation of percussive drilling of rocks, mechanics of rock cutting, theoretical and practical rules for mechanical rock excavation, and use of water jets for rock excavation. Topics include drag pick cutting, excavating machines, adaptation of mechanical excavation to a harsh environment, abrasive water jets, and combined use of high pressure jets and mechanical cutting tools. The manuscript also examines design of support for underground excavations; development of tunnel support philosophy; and an overview of tunnel, underground excavation, and boreholes collapse mechanisms. The selection is a valuable reference for readers and rock engineering practitioners interested in pursuing research on rock engineering.