Rock Mechanics. 3 credits, 3 contact hours

Catalog description

Prerequisites: Permission of instructor for approved undergraduate or graduate course in soil mechanics or geology or construction engineering within the last seven years or equivalent. The integrity of large buildings, dams, tunnels, bridges, and many other forms of engineering infrastructure is vitally dependent upon the rock behavior under loading conditions that impact their foundations. This course focuses on theoretical and experimental rock mechanics and rock engineering; review of laboratory and field rock testing; empirical and analytical methods for describing strength; deformability and conductivity of intact rock and rock masses; fracture mechanics and mechanics of discontinuous media, including fluid flow through discontinuous media; and design and analysis of rock slopes/rock fall, underground engineering structures in rock and foundations on rock. Includes numerical modeling software training and a term paper/design project.