Engineering Faculty Document   2-06

                                                            May 9, 2006

 

 

 

MEMORANDUM

 

TO:                 The Faculty of the Schools of Engineering

 

FROM:           The Faculty of the School of Civil Engineering

 

RE:                 New Graduate Level Course

 

The faculty of the School of Civil Engineering has approved the following new course. This action is now submitted to the Engineering Faculty for a recommendation for approval.

 

CE 685            Rock Mechanics

 

                        Sem. 1, Class 3, Lab 0, Cr. 3

 

                        Prerequisite: 580 or instructor consent

 

                        Mechanical properties governing rock behavior, from intact rock to

                        fractured rock masses.  Laboratory experiments and field tests.  Failure

                        criteria.  Linear Elastic Fracture Mechanics.  Rock mass deformability.

                        Analytical and empirical approaches for the design and construction of

                        civil engineering structures in rock masses.  Slope stability.  Bearing

                        capacity of shallow and deep foundations.

 

Reason:          To provide students with the fundamental knowledge and skills to

                        design and build civil structures on intact rock and on fractured rock

                        masses.  The course builds on the geotechnical fundamentals of CE 580

                        or similar

 

 

 

____________________________

M. Katherine Banks, Interim Head

School of Civil Engineering

 

 

 

 

 

 

Supporting documentation

 

1.  Justification:  Traditionally the geotechnical specialty in Civil Engineering has

     focused on the behavior of soils; however, this is only a small set of the

     geomaterials that a geotechnical engineer will encounter in his or her professional

     career.  About 15% of the continental surface area is occupied by transported soils

    (i.e. alluvial, glacial, wind deposits).  The other 85% is occupied by rocks.  The

     course exposes students to the behavior and problems associated with rock

     materials and rock masses.

 

2.  Level:  Graduate Level

 

3.  Prerequisites:  CE 580 or instructor consent

 

4.  Instructor:  Antonio Bobet

 

5.  Course objectives:  Students who complete the course should be able to:

 

  • Understand and predict the behavior of intact rock under complex loading
  • Predict failure mechanisms and critical stress of intact rock and rock masses
  • Design laboratory and field tests to investigate mechanical properties of rock masses
  • Understand fundamental concepts of Linear Elastic Fracture Mechanics
  • Design excavations in rock mass
  • Design shallow and deep foundations in rock masses

 

 

6.  Course Outline:

            Lectures         Topics

                 3                 Introduction to intact rock and rock classification systems

                 6                 Strength and deformation of intact rock

                 3                 Failure criteria:  Tresca, Coulomb, Hoek-Brown

                 5                 Linear Elastic Fracture Mechanisms: Principles and applications

                 4                 Discontinuities within a rock mass.  Analytical and empirical

                                    failure criteria

                 9                 Slope stability: planar, wedge and toppling failure

                 9                 Foundations on rock: shallow and deep foundations

                 3                 Monitoring

 

7.  Text:  Class notes and other materials distributed in class