Date: |
25 Mar 2025, 5.15PM – 7.00PM |
duration: |
1 hr 45 mins |
Venue: |
LDE |
Address: |
Level 1, 15 Hardinge Road Napier |
Cost: |
Free event |
Recent advancements in rock engineering design have been driven by improvements in numerical modeling, particularly through the increased use of synthetic rock mass models and discrete fracture network modeling. However, these advancements are often accompanied by limited progress in enhancing geologic base data. As a result, there is an increasing need for reliable estimates of the strength and deformation characteristics of rock masses that serve as the foundation for engineering structures such as tunnels, foundations, or slopes.
Assessing rockmass strength for engineering analysis has been a challenge for decades, mainly due to inherent natural rockmass variability. The Geological Strength Index (GSI), coupled with Hoek-Brown strength criteria, has become a widely adopted method among engineers and geologists involved in the design and construction of such structures.
The GSI chart plays a crucial role in defining rock mass properties for numerical analysis, particularly for challenging rock masses, including weak and complex formations. Back-analyses of tunnel, slope, and foundation behavior have demonstrated the reliability of the GSI system in rock engineering designs. As the GSI system continues to be applied globally, its evolution highlights the need for better understanding in defining input constants, particularly for establishing GSI and intact rock properties. GSI chart formulation considered not only rockmass quality but also rocktype and geological provenance. This presentation addresses the need for improved geological evaluation, especially considering how tectonism, weathering, and alteration impact GSI.
Additionally, key engineering geological characteristics that distinguish igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary rocks are discussed, with examples from various rock units, including gneisses, granites, ophiolites, limestones, schists, siltstones/mudstones/shales, and molassic and flysch formations. The lecture illustrates how geological differentiation influences the variability in geotechnical properties of common rock masses. GSI was envisaged not just as a number that could be used for estimating rockmass strength but also as an index that could be projected across the chart for predicting neighbouring characteristics, based on the geological model.
Join the New Zealand Geotechnical Society Hawkes Bay Branch for this event on Geotechnical classification of weak and complex rock masses. Preserving the Geological Reality using the GSI system. Presented by Dr. Vassillis Marinos.
Recent advancements in rock engineering design have been driven by improvements in numerical modeling, particularly through the increased use of synthetic rock mass models and discrete fracture network modeling. However, these advancements are often accompanied by limited progress in enhancing geologic base data. As a result, there is an increasing need for reliable estimates of the strength and deformation characteristics of rock masses that serve as the foundation for engineering structures such as tunnels, foundations, or slopes.
Assessing rockmass strength for engineering analysis has been a challenge for decades, mainly due to inherent natural rockmass variability. The Geological Strength Index (GSI), coupled with Hoek-Brown strength criteria, has become a widely adopted method among engineers and geologists involved in the design and construction of such structures.
The GSI chart plays a crucial role in defining rock mass properties for numerical analysis, particularly for challenging rock masses, including weak and complex formations. Back-analyses of tunnel, slope, and foundation behavior have demonstrated the reliability of the GSI system in rock engineering designs. As the GSI system continues to be applied globally, its evolution highlights the need for better understanding in defining input constants, particularly for establishing GSI and intact rock properties. GSI chart formulation considered not only rockmass quality but also rocktype and geological provenance. This presentation addresses the need for improved geological evaluation, especially considering how tectonism, weathering, and alteration impact GSI.
Additionally, key engineering geological characteristics that distinguish igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary rocks are discussed, with examples from various rock units, including gneisses, granites, ophiolites, limestones, schists, siltstones/mudstones/shales, and molassic and flysch formations. The lecture illustrates how geological differentiation influences the variability in geotechnical properties of common rock masses. GSI was envisaged not just as a number that could be used for estimating rockmass strength but also as an index that could be projected across the chart for predicting neighbouring characteristics, based on the geological model.
