www.isrm.net

Internationella bergmekanikföreningen

NEWS J URNAL
ISRMInternational Society for Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering

ANNUAL REVIEW 2022
• PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS• SECRETARY-GENERAL'S REPORT• AWARDS• CONFERENCE REPORTS
SURVEY RESPONSESTECHNICAL PAPERS• FRANKLIN LECTURE• ROCHA MEDAL LECTURE• JOHN HUDSON ROCKENGINEERING AWARD
ISRM COMING EVENTS

Volume 25 December 2022

15th ISRM International
Congress
Challenges in Rock Mechanics
and Rock Engineeirng

15th ISRM INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS AND
72nd GEOMECHANICS COLLOQUIUM 2023
OCTOBER 9th TO 15th 2023

9-15 October 2023
Salzburg, Austria

The Austrian Society for Geomechanics
has the pleasure to invite you to the15th ISRM International Congress 2023
to be held in conjunction with the 72nd
Geomechanics Colloquium in Salzburg,
the city where the International Society
for Rock Mechanics (ISRM) was founded
in 1962.
The Geomechanics Colloquium in Salzburg
since its initiation in 1951 has always beena perfect and distinguished meeting place
for researchers and practitioners. The
success of this concept not only shows in
the continuous meetings over more than
70 years, but also in the attendance ofregularly around 1000 participants.
We have put some effort in preparing
an interesting and attractive scientificprogram. Interesting site visits to tunnel
and rock engineering projects will beorganized. The Congress will be precededby interesting short courses, workshops
and seminars.
Salzburg is famous for its unique historicalcity center, and the wonderful Alpine
landscape in the vicinity, as well as foroutstanding music festivals. Mozart wasborn in Salzburg and spent a good dealof his life here. Traditionally a chamberconcert is organized for the participants.
The accompanying persons’ program will
include city tours, and tours to scenic andinteresting places in the vicinity of the city.
www.isrm2023.com
salzburg@oegg.at

Themes include:

Deep geothermal energy
Underground storage for liquid and gaseous media
Geological risks and natural hazards
Long term behaviour of underground structures
Challenging rock engineering projects
Digitalization & Automatisation
Monitoring
Numerical methods in rock engineering
Geological investigation and characterization
New developments in rock support
NATM versus TBM
Comparison of international tunnelling contracts
Hydropower projects and dams
Rock and rock mass properties
Deep mining and tunnelling
Petroleum engineering and carbon sequestration
Rock slope engineering
Preliminary planned workshops, seminars, short courses:

Planetary rock mechanics
Rock slopes stability analyses - from photogrammetric 3D models
to stability assessment
Eurocode 7
Up to date sealing and grouting systems in civil and undergroundengineering; systems, function, sustainability, practical examples
Numerical Modeling Assisted Risk Quantification in Rock Masses
The rock engineering challenge

Important dates:

Full paper submission deadline

January 31st 2023

Final paper submission deadline May 31st 2023
Early bird registration deadline

June 30th 2023

NEWS J URNAL
ISRMInternationella bergmekanikföreningen

NEWS J URNAL
ISRMInternational Society for Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering

EDITORS

ISRM SECRETARY-GENERAL

PROF. REŞREŞAT ULUSAY

DR JOSÉ MURALHA

DR LUÍS LAMASISRM President
resat@hacettepe.edu.tr

LNEC, Portugal
jmuralha@lnec.pt

LNEC, Portugal
secretariat@isrm.net

LETTER FROMTHE EDITORS
Though it seems a lifetime, it was just a couple of years
ago that the COVID-19 pandemic struck as preparations
for scientific events were well underway and organizers
had to adapt and do everything they could and switch
to new complete virtual events. In the past years, some
ISRM sponsored conferences and scientific eventswere cancelled or postponed, but at the end many
were successfully staged online. A number of aspects
relating with virtual conferences exceeded expectations:speakers rehearsed better and stuck to time, while
moderators were able to select the most relevant
questions, talks ran smoothly, discussion sessions
enabled broader participation, and audience numbers,
especially for young members, were encouraging.
However, despite these accomplishments, some crucial
features were missing, as the pleasures of meeting oldfriends and making new acquaintances, the gatherings in
the halls, the interaction with the exhibitors, the fruitfulface-to-face discussions and exchange of know-how.
So it is not surprising that lots of people wanted toget back to together and attend in-person meetings.
After two successive years, the ISRM Council meeting
was held face-to-face again before the International
Symposium in Asunción, Paraguay. To mark thisoccasion the cover photo of this year’s News Journal
issue shows the participants in the Council meeting; itmakes a meaningful difference with the mosaic images
on the previous issues, which tried to portray the virtual
activities that were carried out in the past two years.
In 2022 ISRM activities returned to regular operation.
The ISRM Council meeting was once more held faceto-face in Asunción, Paraguay. It followed previous
online Council meetings in 2020 and 2021, and the lastface-to-face meeting in 2019 on occasion of the 14th
ISRM International Congress in Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil.
Seven other ISRM regional, specialized or sponsoredmeetings were also held all over the world, fromAfrica (TuniRock2022) to Australasia (AusRock2022),
going through Europe (5th Macedonian Symposiumand Eurock2022), Asia (RocDyn4 and ARMS12),
Latin-America (Cobramseg 2022) and North-America(CouFrac2022).

00
In the past years, ISRM took advantage of virtual lectures andtraining courses, as they can reach larger and new audiences, orthey can be downloaded and watched at leisure. In addition to theusual four Online Lectures, in 2022 two more video courses andthe presentations delivered at the Workshop of the Commission on
Testing Methods, held during Eurock 2022, in Helsinki, were added
to the ISRM website.
“Going virtual” is something that attracted the participation ofyounger members, which are essential to the renewal of the ISRM.
Following the International Webinars on Rock Mechanics, the ISRM
Young Members’ Seminar Series was established in November
2021 to provide a platform for young members to collaborate andshowcase their achievements. In 2022, the organizing committeedelivered 11 live seminars with 22 speakers from all over the world.
The recordings of these presentations are available on the ISRM
Young Members YouTube channel.
The 2022 Members Survey revealed some contrasting facts:
on one hand, our society is aging and the rate of attracting newmembers is too low (only 13% of the respondents were withless than five years into rock mechanics and rock engineering
profession, whilst 23% of respondents had over 30 years ofexperience), and on the other, respondents rated ISRM good tovery good in achieving its goals, and they were also positive with
the ISRM engaging in promoting the profession amongst public andnext generations, and activities related to sensitive environmental
topics. Respondents also forwarded their views regarding thefuture of the ISRM, namely concerning the easier, inexpensive
access to materials and conferences, or new innovative topics,
which will certainly be responded by the Board.
This year demonstrated that people were eager to meet again,
re-establish human contacts and return to in-person activities, but
recent surveys suggest that a majority of researchers in various
scientific domains would like to see virtual conferences, online
courses and remain after the effects of the pandemic vanish. These
past years taught us that there are pluses and minuses in face-toface and virtual activities. It is up to us to take the best out of bothof them.
Reşat Ulusay and José MuralhaNews Journal Editors

1

December 2022

ISRM Specialized Conference
IV NROCK2023
24-26 May 2023
Reykjavik, Iceland

The Icelandic Geotechnical Society
and the Icelandic Tunnelling Society
are Organizing the IV Nordic
Symposium on Rock Mechanics
and Rock Engineering in Reykjavik,
Iceland, 24 - 26 of May 2023.
This symposium gathers Nordic rockmechanics and engineering geology
experts to discuss the current stateof research, infrastructure, rockcaverns, tunnelling, mining, useof underground space for energy
recovery and storage, and casehistories. Use of undergroundspace for various purposes is anatural choice in Nordic countries
and it has made the understandingof rock mechanics and rockengineering vital.
www.nrock2023.com
jardtaeknifelagid@gmail.com

THE IV NORDIC SYMPOSIUM ON
ROCK MECHANICS AND ROCK ENGINEERINGREYKJAVIK ICELAND
24 - 26 MAY 2023

ISRM

BERGMEKANIKK I NORDENThe Nordic Rock Meeting was established by the Norwegian Rock MechanicGroup and the first meeting was held in Norway in 2010, followed by meetings
in Sweden and Finland. The next meeting, the 4th, is planned in Reykjavik,
Iceland in 2023.
The Nordic Rock Meetings
2010 Kongsberg - Norway
2013 Göteborg - Sweden
2017 Helsinki - Finland
2023 Reykjavik - Iceland​
The aim of the symposium is to strengthen the relationships between
practicing engineers, researchers and scientists within the fields of RockMechanics and Engineering Geology with special emphasis on, but not limited
to, the Nordic region.
All are invited to share their experience and knowledge with their Nordic
colleagues by participating in the technical program as well as in the social one.

ISRM Sponsored Conference
3rd JTC1 Workshop
7-10 June2023
Oslo, Norway

The Joint Technical Committee on
Natural Slopes and Landslides (JTC1)of FedIGS is inviting all to join at
the 3rd JTC1 Workshop on Impact of
global changes on landslide hazard
and risk, to be held in Oslo, Norway,
on June 7th – 10th, 2023.
Anthropogenically induced climatechange is unquestionably changing
landslide hazard and risk, andimpacting how we assess andmanage them.

https://jtc1-2023.com
amanda.johansen.dibiagio@ngi.no2

The aim of the Workshop is to promote discussion among scientists, engineers,
decisionmakers and other stakeholders on whether we are capable ofpredicting and quantifying the expected changes in landslide hazard and risk
and how we could implement the knowledge gained from academic research on
landslide risk management into practice. The advanced topics in focus for the
discussions include:
Rock mass degradation and landslide initiation
Climate and anthropogenic impact on landslide risk in various geographic
regions, including the Arctic
Prediction of landslide mobility and inundation, including landslides initiated atmine tailings storage facilities
Application of modern remote sensing technologies to landslide risk assessment
Landslide risk reduction strategies: risk mitigation, including early warningand nature-based solutions
Applications of new technologies like machine learning for landslide
susceptibility and landslide hazard mappingNEWS J URNAL
ISRM

01

TABLE OFCONTENTS
00
01
02
03

Letter from the Editors
Table of Contents
President’s Address
ISRM President visited the Vietnamese NG
The ISRM 2019-2023 Board

04
05
06
07

ISRM Board Activities
Report of the ISRM Secretary-General 2022
Membership in October 2022
Rocha Medal 2025
The 2022 ISRM Year
Online Lectures Series
ISRM Commissions
ISRM Video Courses

1
3
6
8
9
10
12
15
16
17
18
20
21

AwardsJohn Hudson Rock Engineering Award
ISRM Science Achievement Award
Young Rock Engineer Award
ISRM Book Series
Online Activities
In Memory of Álvaro González Garcia
FedIGS
2022 ISRM Member’s Survey

08
09

Forthcoming ISRM Sponsored Conferences
Reports of ISRM Conferences
IX LARMS, Asunción, Paraguay
EUROCK 2022, Helsinki, Finland
ARMS 12AUSROCK 2022
TUNIROCK 2022
5th Symp. Macedonian Association of Geotechnics, Ohrid, Macedonia
RockDyn-4, Xuzhou, China
9th Brazilian Rock Mechanic Symposium, Campinas, Brazil
COUFRAC 2022, Berkeley, USA

10
11
12
13

22
22
23
24
24
25
25
26
33

ISRM Technical Oversight Committee 2022 Annual Report
ISRM Educational Fund Committee 2022 Annual Report
ISRM Young Members Committee 2022 Annual Report

34
35
37
38
39
40
41
43
44
46
51
52

2022 Reports of ISRM Vice-Presidents
AfricaAsia
Australasia
EuropeLatin-America
North-America
Vice-Presidents at Large

14
15
16
17

Franklin Lecture – Werner Bilfinger
Rocha Medal Lecture – Radhika De SilvaJohn Hudson Rock Engineering Award
ISRM Corporate Members in 2022

55
56
58
60
62
64
66
77
86
92
3

December 2022

ISRM Specialized Conference
10th Nordic Grouting
Symposium
11-13 September 2023
Stockholm, Sweden

The Swedish Rock Engineering Association is organizing the 10th Nordic Grouting Symposium, which will be held at
the Stockholm City Conference Center. The symposium gathers experts to exchange experiences and discuss the latest
developments and achievements in the field of rock grouting. It continues the tradition of the Nordic Grouting Symposiathat started in Gothenburg, Sweden in 1992.
The symposium themes include a range of topics, as well as a workshop as part of the program. Environmental aspects, grouting
cases, novel methods for grouting execution and hydraulic tests are just a few of the topics this symposium aims to present.
https://www.ngs2023.se
info@svbergteknik.se

ISRM Specialized Conference
1st Chilean Congress on
Rock Mechanics
22-24 November 2023
Santiago, Chile

The 1st Chilean Rock Mechanics Congress, organized by the Chilean Rock Mechanics Society and the Mining
Engineering Department of the University of Santiago, seeks to create a space where both industry and universities canpresent experiences and research in different areas of rock mechanics, promoting the formation of ties and networks
between experts, suppliers, students, and stakeholders.
This congress will be held between November 22 and 24, 2023, at the Marina las Condes Hotel, Santiago, where, in
addition to technical presentations, different events will be prepared to share with all those who are passionate aboutrock mechanics.
www.congresomecanicarocas.cl/
alejandravillouta@gmail.com

ISRM Specialized Conference
1st SLRME Conference
2-7 December 2023
Colombo, Sri Lanka

The Sri Lankan Rock Mechanics and Engineering Society (SLRMES) invites you to participate in the 1st SLRMES
Conference on Rock Mechanics for Infrastructure and Geo-Resources Development to be held in Colombo, Sri Lanka,
during December 2-7, 2023. The first two days are allocated for the short courses and workshops. The plenary andtechnical lectures of the conference are planned for the next two days, and the last two days are allocated for thetechnical and sightseeing tours.
The conference will cover advances in all areas of rock mechanics and rock engineering encompassing the fields ofmining, civil, geological, and petroleum engineering, and geophysics and Hydrogeology focusing on the theme “RockMechanics for Infrastructure and Geo-Resources Development”. Three keynotes are expected to be delivered to cover
the state-of-the-art on several important topics. Each session is expected to start with a Session Lead Lecture given by
an expert on the session topic. The plenary and technical lectures, short courses, workshops, technical tours, and trade
exhibition programs are organized to provide conference supporters maximum exposure and interaction with participantsfrom universities, industry, government, and exhibitors. Visits are also planned to tourist attractions in Sri Lanka.
http://www.slrmes.org
kulatila@u.arizona.edu
4NEWS J URNAL
ISRM

ISRM Regional Symposium
Eurock 2024
15-19 July 2024
Alicante, Spain

The Alicante University and the
Spanish Society for Rock Mechanics(SEMR) are organizing the Eurock
2024, the ISRM European Regional
Symposium, to be held in Alicante,
Spain, during July 15-19, 2024.
The conference title is New
challenges in rock mechanics androck engineering, and the following
topics will be addressed:

Rock properties, testing methods and site characterization
Rock mechanics for infrastructures
Mining rock mechanics and rock engineering
Design methods and analysis
Rock mechanics for heritage
Geophysics in rock mechanics
Numerical modelling and back analysis
Monitoring and back analysis
Underground excavation and support
Risk and hazard
Applicability of EUROCODE-7 in rock engineering
Geomechanics for the oil and gas industry
Ores, building and industrial rocks
Application of artificial intelligence to problems of rock mechanics
Remote sensing in rock mechanics
Geothermal technology
Rock Mechanics education and training

www.eurock2024.com
eurock2024@csidiomas.ua.es

ISRM International Symposium
ARMS1324-28 September 2024
New Dehli, India

The ISRM Asian Regional
Symposium will be organized by
the ISRM NG from India, in New
Dehli, from 24 to 28 September.
It will host the ISRM Council
meeting, since it is also the ISRM
International Symposium.
The conference title is Advancesin Rock Mechanics - Infrastructure
Development, and the following
themes will be addressed:_

Advancement in Site Investigations and Characterisation of Rocks & Rock Masses
Application of Advance Geophysical Investigation Techniques
Constitutive Modelling of Rocks and Soils
Rock and Dump Slope Stability and Foundation Analysis
Rock Supports, Instrumentations and Ground Improvement
Design Methods and Analysis – Analytical and Numerical Modelling
Preservation and Restoration of Ancient Monuments
Deep Underground Mining Methods and Instrumentation
Underground Space Development for Storages and other purposes
Innovations and Applications of IoT in Rock Engineering
Structural Health Monitoring and Rehabilitation
Advancement in Laboratory Testing Techniques.
Geo-hazards and Risk Management
Green Technologies for Zero Waste Generation and Sustainable Development
Case Studies

sunil@cbip.org

5December 2022

02 PRESIDENT'S
ADDRESS

Dear Colleagues,
A new year has begun and it is a great
pleasure for me to address all of you
again to summarize our activities during2022. Although 2020 and 2021 weremarked by Covid19 lockdowns and travel
restrictions and we had to comply with
the new living circumstances and adjust
ISRM activities to the new situation, 2022
was a chance to start the normalizationof the ISRM activities as they were before
2020 to continue our performance,enhance ISRM services and to grow. This
year all ISRM conferences, workshops,
Board and Council meetings weresuccessfully organized as face-to-faceevents and we had the opportunity to seeeach other again in these events after two
years. In 2022, ISRM also continued to pay
attention to the use of web-based tools,
such as video conferences, webinars,
and online conferences. In this message,
I would like to make a brief retrospectiveof the ISRM activities during 2022.

ISRM Meetings

All ISRM meetings in 2022 were held as scheduled. One
on-line interim meeting and the physical annual meetingof the Board were held in May and October, respectively.
The 2022 ISRM Council meeting was also held in
October as a face-to-face meeting just before the ISRM
International Symposium (LARMS 2022) in Asunción,
Paraguay, with the participation of the representativesof 45 National Groups, one ISRM Past President (Dr.
Eda Quadros) and several past ISRM Vice Presidents. In
addition, the 2022 European and Asian Council meetings
were also successfully held as face-to-face meetings
in October during LARMS2022 and ARMS12 in Hanoi(Vietnam), respectively.
ISRM Commissions

Fifteen ISRM Commissions submitted their annual
reports to the ISRM Technical Oversight Committee(TOC). An extensive report describing the activitiesof the ISRM Commissions in 2022 was prepared by
the TOC, which is presented in this issue with details
and comments of the objectives and products of theCommissions. The 2022 annual meetings of the ISRM
Commissions were mostly held online. The majority of
the Commissions have held workshops or organizedsessions at major conferences on their topic of interest
and a book written by the Commission on Underground
Nuclear Power Plants will be published soon. Eleven
new ISRM Suggested Methods are in preparation and
the Commission of Testing Methods will also publish
a book when around 15 new Suggested Methods are
published. Based on the TOC report, I am very glad
to inform our society that the majority of the ISRM
Commissions are performing at a high level or at a
sufficient level with no major concerns. I sincere thankour Commissions and TOC members.
ISRM Sponsored Conferences

On the contrary to those held in the last two years, in
2022 eight face-to-face and one hybrid ISRM SponsoredConferences were successfully organized with the close
cooperation of ISRM National Groups. These eventswere TuniRock2022 (Tunisia), 5th MAG Symposium(Macedonia), RocDyn4 (China), Cobramseg 2022
(Brazil), EUROCK2022 (Finland), LARMS2022 (ISRM
International Symposium, Paraguay), CouFrac2022(USA), ARMS12 (Vietnam) and AusRock2022(Australia). I attended four of these events. Although
the pandemic conditions have not yet fully passedin the world, I am very glad with the increase in thenumber of face-to-face successful ISRM sponsoredconferences. I congratulate the organizing committees
of all these events and all participants.
ISRM Awards

Among four nominations Prof. Derek Martin from Canada
was selected by the IRSM Council, at its meeting in
Asunción, Paraguay, to receive the 9th Müller Award.
He will deliver the Müller Lecture during the 15th ISRM
6

NEWS J URNAL
ISRMInternational Congress in Salzburg, Austria, in 2023.
The Board analyzed 23 candidate theses and Radhika de
Silva from Sri Lanka (Monash University, Australia) was
selected as the winner of the Rocha Medal 2022 anddelivered the Rocha Lecture in LARMS2022. Two runnerup certificates were also given to Masoud Rahjoo, from
Iran, (Univ. of British Colombia, Canada) and Xiaofeng
Li from China (Inst. Rock Soil Mechanics). The 2022
Science Achievement Award and Young Rock Engineer
Award were given to Prof. Jean Sulem (France) and Dr
Yota Togashi (Japan), respectively. Dr Christine Detournay
from the USA was selected for the John Hudson RockEngineering Award 2022, and Dr Werner Bilfinger from
Brazil was selected for the 2022 Franklin Lecture anddelivered his lecture in LARMS2022. I congratulate all
winners and wish continuation of their successes.
ISRM Online Lectures

In 2022, the ISRM organized four ISRM Online Lectures,
which were delivered by Prof. Yuzo Ohnishi (Japan),
Dr Yingxin Zhou (China), Emeritus Prof. Bruce
Hebblewhite (Australia), and Dr José Delgado
Rodrigues (Portugal). I sincerely thank all lecturers
for their time to prepare lectures and for their verykind contribution to the ISRM. Currently, a total of 40
Online Lectures are available in the ISRM website.
ISRM Book Series

We are doing our best for the publication of new books in
the ISRM Book Series. I am glad that a new book, writtenby the ISRM Commission on Underground Nuclear
Power Plants, chaired by Prof. Shunsuke Sakurai, wassubmitted to the publisher and will be published soon.
Another book written by Prof. Ömer Aydan entitled“Abandoned Room and Pillar Mines and Remediation
Measures” will also be published in 2023. A third bookentitled “Flow of Water in Fractured Rock Masses: Basic
Theory & Practical Applications” is in preparation by Dr
Eda Quadros and Dr Philippe Vaskou. As the Co-editorsof the ISRM Book Series, Prof. Xia-Ting Feng and I kindly
invite our Commissions and colleagues to send theirreports and books, respectively, to be published in the
ISRM Book Series.
Video Courses

This year two new video courses on “Rockburst in
deep tunnels” (Prof. Xia-Ting Feng) and “Crustal Stress
Assessment and its Application in Engineering andEarthquake Research” (Profs. Furen Xie and Jiayong
Tian) were added to the list of ISRM videos. We thank thehard work of the experts who prepared these courses. In
addition, we expect that two new video courses will beavailable on our website in 2023.
ISRM Survey

Only once in 2008 a survey to ISRM members wasdone. The new ISRM survey was sent to National
Groups for distribution to all their ISRM members andnon-members between March and April 2022. The
responses from 737 respondents were analyzed andthe results and conclusions are given in the Survey
Report that is also available in this journal. Many of theresults from the Survey were very useful for guiding
the direction for the Society. I thank the ISRM Young
Members Committee for their kind efforts for the
preparation and evaluation of this most recent survey
and to all respondents for their very kind interestsand contributions.
ISRM Memberships

ISRM reached almost 9000 individual members. Although
our target in 2020 and 2021 was to bring new members,
the pandemic affecting the entire world did not allow us
to increase this number. With the last National Group
that joined us in 2022, which was the National Group of
Sri Lanka, our Society has now 59 National Groups. In
addition, Bangladesh also prepares application documents
for the membership to ISRM in 2023. I am glad to informthat our Vice Presidents are in contact with colleagues
from other countries for the establishment of new
National Groups and have been actively encouraging
National Groups to organize events in their rockmechanics and rock engineering communities.
ISRM Early Carrier Forums

This program started its activity during the AfriRock2017 Symposium in Cape Town, financially supportedby the ISRM Education Fund and continued regularly
ever since. This year the forum was successfully held
in LARMS2022 in Asunción, Paraguay, and nine young
speakers selected from eight ISRM Latin America
countries delivered their presentations. In addition,
in AusRock2022, other Early Carrier Forum was alsoorganized by its Organizing Committee. I congratulate all
young speakers in these forums and thank the organizers
of both events and the ISRM Education Fund Committee.
New Initiatives

I am very glad to inform our society that the most recent
ISRM initiative - the “ISRM Young Members Seminar
Series”, developed by the members of ISRM Young
Members Committee - started on January 2022. It isa series of monthly virtual seminars, with the goal ofproviding a global platform for ISRM young members toshare knowledge, experiences, and ideas. Until the endof 2022 these monthly seminars have been regularly andsuccessfully organized. I kindly invite young colleagues,
who wants to give a seminar, to contact the ISRM Young
Members’ Seminar Series Organizing Committee. ISRM
European Rock Mechanics Debates, started in 2021, also
successfully continued in 2022.
Cooperation with Sister Societies

The online FedIGS Board meeting was held on 21
September 2022 with the participation of its Board
members representing ISSMGE, IAEG, IGS and ISRM.
The meeting was chaired by its new President, Prof.
Chungsik Yoo. In this meeting, ISRM was represented
by me, our Immediate Past President Eda Quadrosand our Secretary General Luis Lamas. Preparation
702

December 2022

a proposal for a new ‘Joint Technical Committe on
02 ofEnvironment
and Geo-sustainability, and interaction
between member societies (such as FedIGS Plenary
Session / FedIGS Keynote/ FedIGS WhatsApp Group/
FedIGS Forum/ FedIGS Lectures) were accepted as
new initiatives in this meeting.
Other Issues

Added to all the reported activities, the organizationof the next ISRM International Congress on RockMechanics, which will be held in Salzburg, Austria, in
October 2023, is going ahead with great energy, under
the guidance of the Chairman and Co-chairmen of
the Organizing Committee. I greatly thank their workand commitment as well as of all the members of theOrganizing Committee. The decision concerning thevenue of the 16th ISRM Congress to be held in 2027
was taken in the 2022 Council meeting and among
the three excellent proposals the Korean proposal
was selected. I congratulate the Korean NG and wish
them successes. Unfortunately, in 2022, Prof. Álvaro
González García (Colombia), who was the VP for SouthAmerica between 2007-2011, and Emeritus Prof. Pierre
Berest (France) passed away. We will never forget theirkindness and great contributions to Rock Mechanics andRock Engineering and the ISRM, and we will keep theirmemories alive for the next generations.
Finally, I would like to sincerely thank the strong
involvement of the ISRM Vice Presidents and ISRM
Secretary-General, the Chairs and members of the
ISRM Commissions and of the three ISRM Committees,
our Past Presidents and Fellows, our Secretariat, theWebmaster and the Co-editor of the ISRM News Journal
in Lisbon, and the contributions given by our National
Groups and our individual members for the successof ISRM, as well as the National Laboratory for Civil
Engineering (LNEC) in Lisbon for providing the ISRM
Secretariat facilities since its foundation.
I wish all of you a Happy New Year 2023 with full of
good health, success and peace, hoping to meeting youin the 15th ISRM Congress and other ISRM activities innext year.
Reşat Ulusay
ISRM President

ISRM PRESIDENT VISITED THE
VIETNAMESE NG
The ISRM President attended the 12th Asian RockMechanics Symposium (ARMS12) held in Hanoi, Vietnam,
between 23 and 24 November, and, in the previous day,he visited the Vietnamese Society for Rock Mechanics(VSRM), the Vietnamese ISRM National Group.
Prof. Ulusay thanked the VSRM
board members for the past ISRM
events organized in Vietnam by
VSRM and their kind efforts forthe organization of ARMS12 asan ISRM in-person event after theundesirable circumstances causedby the Covid 19 pandemic. He alsoemphasized that the ISRM Board will
be very glad with the participationof VSRM members in future ISRM
symposia and congresses and other
ISRM activities and commissions.
The VSRM Board members
mentioned that they desired tobe more active in ISRM, and theirmembers can contribute in the fieldof petroleum geomechanics, andthat the organization of an ISRM
Lecture Tour in Vietnam would bevery useful.

8

ISRM President and VSRM Board in front of theInstitute Geological Sciences, of the Vietnam Academyof Science and Technology, in Hanoi.

From left to right: Dr Pham Quoc Tuan (Secretary-General), Prof. Do Nhu Trang (VSRM Vice),
Prof. Resat Ulusay, Prof. Nguyen Sy Ngoc (VSRM President), and Assoc. Prof. Tran Thu Hang
(Board Member of VSRM)

NEWS J URNAL
ISRM

03

THE 2019-2023
ISRM BOARD

REŞAT ULUSAYREŞ
TURKEYMICHAEL DU PLESSISSOUTH AFRICA

SUSENO KRAMADIBRATAINDONESIASEVDA DEHKHODAAUSTRALIA

LEANDRO ALEJANOSPAINJOSÉ PAVÓN MENDOZAPARAGUAYLAURA J. PYRAK-NOLTEUNITED STATES OF AMERICAQIANG YANG
CHINAÖMER AYDAN
JAPANVOJKAN JOVIČIĆ
JOVIČIĆSLOVENIALUÍS LAMASPORTUGALSEOKWON JEON
KOREAPresident
Prof. Reşat Ulusay
Haceteppe University
Dep. of Geological Engineeringresat@hacettepe.edu.tr

Vice-President for Australasia
Dr Sevda Dehkhoda
sdehkhoda@beck.engineering

Vice-President for North America
Prof. Laura J. Pyrak-Nolte
Purdue University
Department of Physics & Astronomy
ljpn@purdue.edu

Vice-President at Large
Dr Vojkan Jovičić
Institute for Mining, Geotechnology
and Environment
vojkan.jJovicic@irgo.si

Vice-President for Africa
Dr Michael du Plessis
dupiesam1@gmail.com

Vice-President for Europe
Prof. Leandro Alejano
Escuela de Ingeniería de Minas yEnergía
Universidad de Vigoalejano@uvigo.gal

Vice-President at Large
Prof. Qiang Yang
Dept. of Hydraulic Engineering
Tsinghua University
yangq@tsinghua.edu.cn

Secretary-General
Dr Luís Lamas
LNEC
secretariat@isrm.net

Vice-President for Asia
Dr Suseno Kramadibrata
Bumi Resources Minerals
suseno.kramadibrata@brm.co.id
soeseno.kramadibrata@gmail.com

Vice-President for Latin America
Prof. José Pavón Mendoza
José Pavón & Asociados
jose.pavonm@gmail.com

Vice-President at Large
Prof. Ömer Aydan
University of the Ryukyus
Department of Civil Engineering
aydan@tec.u-ryukyu.ac.jp
omeraydan@hotmail.co.jp

President-Elect
Prof. Seokwon Jeon
Dep. Energy Systems Engineering
Seoul National University
sjeon@snu.ac.kr
9

December 2022

04 ISRM BOARD
ACTIVITIESFollowing the experience gained in previous years with
virtual events, the Board decided to hold an interim
virtual meeting on 12 May, besides the in-person meeting
held on 14 October during the IX LARMS symposium, in
Asunción, Paraguay.

Interim Board Meeting on 12 May

The current, on-going affairs of the society
were addressed in both meetings, all board
members and committees chairs presented
their recent activities and the organizers of
the forthcoming ISRM conferences provided
brief presentations of the status of theorganization of the events. In these meetings,
several relevant decisions were taken.
The Board, acting as Rocha Award
Committee, screened the 19 candidate
theses and selected Jun Zhao, from
China, as the winner of the Rocha
Medal 2023, with his thesis presented
at the Northeastern University, China,
and supervised by Xia-Ting Feng. The
Board also decided to award two run up
certificates to Rupesh Verma, from India,
for a thesis presented at the Universityof Adelaide, Australia and supervised by
Giang D. Nguyen, and to Cyrille Couture,from Canada, for a thesis presented at the
Université Grenoble Alpes, France andsupervised by Pierre Bésuelle.
Minor revisions were introduced to the
Guideline for Allocation of Page Quotas
to National Groups for ISRM Congress
Proceedings updating the criterion for
determination of contributions and the10

Board meeting on 14 and 15 October in Asunción, Paraguay

number of pages allowed for the proceedings given the changes
that digital proceedings have introduced, to the Guideline for theJohn Hudson Rock Engineering Award allowing more space forthe descriptive report of the candidates, and to the Guideline on
the Science and Technology Awards also allowing more space andrequesting a video presentation during the award ceremony and thepaper to be published in the ISRM News Journal.
Following the presentation of the application of the NG Norway for
Eurock 2025 as an ISRM Regional Symposium, to take place inTrondheim, Norway, in June 2025, by Leandro Alejano on behalf of
the Organizing Committee, the Board approved Eurock 2025 as an
ISRM Regional Symposium.

NEWS J URNAL
ISRM

04

The ISRM Council meeting, held on 16 October 2022
in Asunción, Paraguay, was attended by 45 National
Groups, the Board members, the Past President Eda
Quadros and observers from the National Groups.
The Council approved by acclamation the proposalof the National Group of India to host the 2024 ISRM
International Symposium in New Delhi, since it was
the only application received.

The 2022 ISRM Survey was released between March andApril to ISRM members and non-members, and received 737
replies (84% members and 16% non-members).
The survey allowed to characterize the ISRM
membership, namely in what regards demographics,
member education and fields of work, experience andlongevity. It enquired the reasons for joining ISRM andthe member’s engagements, and asked to rate the ISRM
goals and achievements, services and offerings. The
final open questions concern the future; they enquired
about the top most important issues in Rock Mechanics
and Rock Engineering still to answered, the newest
innovations and technologies, the changes that ISRM
should implement, among others.
The answers of the respondents and respective analysis
is presented in this issue of the News Journal.
The National Groups of China, New Zealand and Korea
presented excellent proposals to host the 16th ISRM
International Congress on Rock Mechanics in Beijing,
Christchurch, and Seoul, respectively. After voting,
the Council selected the Korean proposal, and thus theCongress will take place between 17 and 23 October
2027, in Seoul.

The Müller Award is the most prestigious distinction of
the ISRM, awarded once every four years at the ISRM
Congress, in recognition of distinguished contributions to
the profession of rock mechanics and rock engineering.
The Council appraised the four nominations received –Derek Martin from Canada, Manchao He from China,
Marc Panet from France and Nielen van der Merwefrom South Africa – and Prof. Derek Martin was
selected to receive the award. He will deliver the Müller
Lecture during the 15th ISRM International Congress in
Salzburg, Austria, in October 2023.
Several awards were announced in the Council meeting:
The John Hudson Rock Engineering Award 2022
conferred on individual or corporate members of the
ISRM in recognition of achievements in engineering
practice given to Dr Christine Detournay, USA
The Science Achievement Award 2022 in recognition foroutstanding contributions to science and technology in thefield of rock mechanics and rock engineering conferred on
Prof. Jean Sulem, nominated by the NG France
The Young Rock Engineer Award 2022 acknowledging
excellence in the field of rock engineering by ISRM
members who are in early stages of their career conferredon Dr Yota Togashi, nominated by the NG Japan

11

December 2022

05 REPORT OF THE ISRMSECRETARY-GENERAL
2022
1 - NATIONAL GROUPS AND MEMBERSHIPThe number of individual members (ordinary andcorresponding) and of corporate members on theoccasion of the Council meeting in October 2022 ispresented in the following table. The National Groupof Iran having been excluded on 31 December 2021,
the current number of ISRM National Groups – alsopresented in the table – is 58.
Individual Members

Corporate Members

National Groups

Africa

549

1

3

Asia

3795

72

12

Australasia

655

6

2

Europe

3070

81

30

Latin America

406

3

9

North America

498

4

2

TOTAL

8973

167

58

From the total number of 8973 individual members, 8903
are registered through their respective National Groups
and 70 are corresponding members. When comparedwith the figures from the previous year, they correspondto an increase of 344 individual members (4%). The
number of corporate members has decreased by 3. The
main increase in the number of individual members was
registered in China.

In November, the Sri Lankan Rock Mechanics andEngineering Society – SLRMES was approved as
the new ISRM National Group of Sri Lanka, with 10
ordinary members.
The following graphic shows the evolution of thenumber of individual members in each geographic
region since 2003.

Individual members per region
4000
3500
3000
2500
2000
1500
1000
500
0
2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
Africa12

Asia

Australasia

2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
EuropeLatin America

2019 2020 2021 2022
North America

NEWS J URNAL
ISRM

2 - ADDITIONAL ISRM BOARD VIDEOCONFERENCES

5 - ROCHA MEDALOn 12 May the Board held one 3-hour videoconference
to complement the annual Board meeting and to discuss
important issues for the Society.

For the Rocha Medal Award in 2023, 19 applications
were received. The Rocha Medal Committee selected thewinner of the Rocha Medal 2023 prize and two Proxime
Accessit (runner-up) certificates.

3 - ISRM BOARD, COUNCIL, AND COMMISSIONSMEETINGS OF 2022

5th Symposium of the Macedonian Association for
Geotechnics, 23-25 June, Ohrid, Macedonia

Submission of applications for the Rocha Medal 2025 isopen until 31 December 2023.
. Rocha Medal 2023:Jun Zhao, from China, was selected
as the winner of the Rocha Medal 2023, with the thesis
entitled “Study on time-dependent failure mechanism
and long-term stability of hard rock in deep buried
tunnels” presented at the Northeastern University,
China, and supervised by Xia-ting Feng.
. Runner-up certificate: Rupesh Verma, from India,
was awarded a runner-up certificate for the thesis “A
combined theoretical-experimental-numerical approach
to characterization and modelling of rock fracture androck burst” presented at the University of Adelaide,
Australia and supervised by Giang D. Nguyen.
. Runner-up certificate: Cyrille Couture, from Canada,
was awarded a runner-up certificate for the thesis“Mechanical characterization of porous sandstonesin true triaxial conditions: diffuse and localized
deformation, effect of anisotropy” presented at the
Université Grenoble Alpes, France and supervised by
Pierre Bésuelle.

RocDyn-4, 17-19 August, Xuzhou, China

6 - ISRM AWARDS

Despite the difficult times the world is living due to thepersistence of the Covid-19 pandemic and the economic
constraints observed in 2022, the Board, Council andCommissions of the ISRM met in Asunción, Paraguay,
during the ISRM International Symposium LARMS2022.
. Prof. Derek Martin, from Canada was selected as therecipient of the 9th Müller Award and will receive theaward and deliver the Müller Lecture during the 2023
ISRM International Congress, in Salzburg, Austria.
. Seoul, Korea was selected as the venue for the 16th
ISRM International Congress, in 2027.
4 - ISRM SPONSORED MEETINGS

Since the last Council meeting on 17 November 2021 as avideoconference, the following conferences took place:
TuniRock 2022; 26-28 March, Hammamet, Tunisia

SBMR – 9th Brazilian Rock Mechanics Symposium, 2326 August, Campinas, Brazil
Eurock 2022, 12-15 September, Helsinki, Finland
LARMS2022 – an ISRM Regional Symposium – 16-19
October 2022, Asuncion, Paraguay
CouFrac 2022 – an ISRM Specialized Conference – 1416 November 2022, Berkeley, USA
ARMS12 – an ISRM Regional Symposium – 22-26
November 2022, Hanoi, Vietnam

In 2022 the following awards were conferred:. John Hudson Rock Engineering Award awarded to
Dr Christine Detournay, from the USA. Science and Technology Awards - Science
Achievement Award, awarded to Prof. Jean Sulem,
from France. Young Rock Engineering Award awarded to
Dr Yota Togashi, from Japan

AusRock 2022 – an ISRM Regional Symposium – 29
November-1 December 2022, Melbourne, Australia
The following ISRM sponsored conferences arescheduled:
NROCK2023: The IV Nordic Symposium on Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering – an ISRM
Specialized Conference, 24-26 May 2023, Reykjavik, Iceland
3rd JTC1 Workshop on Impact of global changes on landslide risk, 7-10 June 2023, Oslo, Norway
10th Nordic Grouting Symposium – an ISRM Specialized Conference – 11-13 September 2023,
Stockholm, Sweden
15th ISRM International Congress on Rock Mechanics, 9-14 October 2023, Salzburg, Austria
Eurock 2024 – an ISRM Regional Conference, 15-19 July 2024, Alicante, Spain
ARMS13 – an ISRM Regional Conference, 24-28 September 2024, New Delhi India

1305

December 2022

05 7 - INDUCTION OF ISRM FELLOWSFive new ISRM Fellows, selected by the Board,
were inducted during the International Symposium
Eurock2021, and the corresponding medals andcertificates were handed over during the ISRM
International Symposium LARMS2022, in October 2022,
in Asunción, Paraguay.
Manchao He, from China
Eda Freitas de Quadros, from Brazil
Luís Ribeiro e Sousa, from Portugal
Doug Stead, from CanadaHåkan Stille, from Finland
8 - ISRM MULTILINGUAL GLOSSARY ON ROCKMECHANICS

The multilingual glossary of rock mechanics technicalterms is available on the ISRM website since March
2015, under the item “Products and Publications. The
translation into 19 different languages has been achieved,
Mongolian being the most recent language available.
9 - ISRM NEWS JOURNAL

The electronic version of the ISRM News Journal, Vol.
24, December 2021, edited by the ISRM President,
Prof. Reşat Ulusay and Dr José Muralha, was uploadedon the ISRM website, where it can be read anddownloaded. The Secretariat sent info-mails to allmembers, advertising it. 450 hard copies were printed for
distribution during the ISRM sponsored conferences. This84-page issue of the News Journal contains the annual
review of the Society’s activity along 2021 and technicalarticles related to the ISRM awards.
10 - ISRM NEWSLETTER

Since the 2021 Council meeting, five quarterly
Newsletters, prepared by the Secretary General, were
published: in December 2021, in March, June, September
and December2022. As usual, all ISRM members andall those that subscribed to the Newsletter on thewebsite received them by email. The Newsletters arealso available on the website. ISRM National Groups
and individual members are welcome to submit to theSecretariat contributions on rock mechanics topics ofinterest to our technical community.
11 - ISRM WEBSITE

The website of the ISRM (http://www.isrm.net), launchedon 1 April 2005, is the main means of information of the
ISRM and the main channel for communication with themembers. Most benefits being offered to the members
are available in the password protected members’ area.
The information on the website has been continuously
updated during the period corresponding to this report.
12 - ISRM YOUTUBE CHANNEL

The ISRM YouTube channel was launched in October
2021. It allows streaming of live events organised by
14

the ISRM with Zoom, Teams, etc.; Storage of videos
and several types of channels can be created. The 1st
and 2nd European Rock Mechanics Debate have been
included in the channel.
Two new YouTube channels were created, linked to themain ISRM channel: the ISRM Commission on Deep
Mining channel and the ISRM Young Members Channel.
13 - DIGITAL LIBRARY

The ISRM Digital Library started in October 2010 andis part of OnePetro.org, a large online library managed
by the Society of Petroleum Engineers. ISRM individual
members are allowed to download, at no cost, up to
100 papers per year from the ISRM conferences. ISRM
corporate members can download 250 papers.
Papers from the ISRM Congresses and sponsored
Symposia have been gradually introduced in the library.
Currently, the papers from 68 ISRM sponsored events
are available, totalling around 11.250 papers and 91,450
pages.
14 - ISRM ONLINE LECTURES

Since February 2013 the ISRM broadcast 40 ISRM Online
Lectures, from the ISRM website, all given by prominent
scholars. All lectures are kept in an appropriate page of
the ISRM website. The December lecture by Prof. Charlie
Chunlin Li was the last to be broadcast in 2021. In 2022
four other lectures were broadcast, by Prof. Prof. Yuzo
Ohnishi, Prof. Zhou Yingxin, Emeritus Prof. Bruce
Hebblewhite and Dr José Delgado Rodrigues.
15 - SUPPORT AFFORDED

As usual, the Secretariat made ample use, at no charge,of a number of facilities available at the Portuguese
National Laboratory for Civil Engineering – LNEC. This
included use of office rooms and other facilities offeredto the Secretariat and telephone, as well as use of
LNEC’s computer network, namely for internet access.
This support has long been instrumental to the wellbeing of the Society and is very much appreciated.
16 – FINAL REMARKSISRM activities were conditioned by Covid-19, but most ofthem did not stop. The life of the Society and the activityof the Secretariat during the period corresponding to thisreport were marked by:. continuation of the increase in the number of membersof the Society;. update of the website;. continuation of the upload of conference proceedingsin the ISRM Digital Library;. expansion of the activities through the Internet;. maintenance of a sound financial situation.
Luís Lamas
ISRM Secretary-General

NEWS J URNAL
ISRM

05

MEMBERSHIP IN
OCTOBER 2022
REGIONAFRICANATIONAL GOUPS/ Countries
Botswana

1

FRANCE

124

Ghana

1

GERMANY

Kenya

2

Morocco1

SOUTH AFRICA

518

TUNISIA

10

3 NGs

5

INDIA

230

3

INDONESIA57

1

ISRAEL

20

JAPAN

304

27
EUROPE
36

3
180

8
3

54

MONGOLIA

24

NEPAL

11

1

Philippines

2

Saudi Arabia

1

SINGAPORE110

SOUTH EAST ASIA

11

1
TOTAL

1

Un. Arab Emirates

EUROPE

1

1

1

316

4

4

GREECE38

2

HUNGARY18

ICELAND

12112

MACEDONIA

10

NETHERLANDS

27

NORWAY242

Poland

1

15
1

17

2

RUSSIA

235

4

SERBIA

17

SLOVAKIA

6SLOVENIA

34

1

SPAIN

277

1

5
13

SWEDEN

117

18

SWITZERLAND

146

9

TURKEY

116

1

UKRAINE

8

UNITED KINGDOM

355

5

3

30 NGs

3.043

27

81

ARGENTINA

21

BOLIVIA

24

BRAZIL

71

3

CHILE

82

1

21

72

AUSTRALIA

415

5

6

NEW ZEALAND

235

2 NGs

650

ALBANIA

11

PARAGUAY

39

AUSTRIA

378

PERU

95

BELGIUM

58

BOSNIA AND
HERZEGVINA

14

BULGARIA

32

CROATIA105

CZECH REPUBLIC

26

DENMARK

15

COLOMBIA

11

COSTA RICA

21

MEXICO

32

VENEZUELA
TOTAL

2

86

3.774

2

1

ROMANIA

13 NGs6

1

PORTUGAL

11

5

9

3

VIETNAMLATIN
AMERICA

Corr. Corp.
1

ITALY
6

2.762

MALAYSIA

91

Ireland

CHINA

Thailand

TOTAL

1

15
543

Korea DPR

AUSTRALASIAMembers
Ordin.

FINLAND

KOREA

TOTAL

NATIONAL GOUPS/ Countries

1

Kazakhstan

ASIA

REGION

AngolaZIMBABWETOTAL

Members
Ordin. Corr. Corp.

2

1
3

1

2

9 NGs

396

10

3

CANADA

112

1

1

USA

385

TOTAL

2 NGs

497

1

4

TOTAL ISRM

58 NGs

8.903

70

167

NORTH
AMERICA

3

15

December 2022

06

ISRM

ROCHA MEDAL 2025
Since 1982 a bronze medal and a cash prize
have been awarded annually by the ISRM for an
outstanding doctoral thesis in rock mechanics
or rock engineering, to honour the memory of
Past President Manuel Rocha while stimulating
researchers.
In addition to the Rocha Medal award to the winning submission, one or two runner-up certificates may also be awarded.
An invitation is now extended to the rock mechanics community for nominations for the Rocha Medal 2025.
Full details about the Rocha Medal are provided in ISRM By-law No. 7, and all relevant information can be obtained
from the ISRM website - isrm.net.
Application
To be considered for an award the candidate must be
nominated within two years of the date of the official
doctorate degree certification.
Nominations shall be by the nominee, or by thenominee’s National Group, or by some other person ororganization acquainted with the nominee’s work.
Nominations shall be sent electronically, addressed to
the Secretary-General, and shall contain:. a one page curriculum vitae, including nationality
information;. a written confirmation by the candidate’s National
Group that he/she is a member of the ISRM;. a thesis summary, written in English, with between
5,000 and 10,000 words, detailed enough to convey thefull impact of the thesis and accompanied by selectedtables and figures, and information on word count;. one copy of the complete thesis;. one copy of the doctorate degree certificate;. a letter of copyright release, allowing the ISRM to
copy the thesis for purposes of review and selection
only;. an undertaking by the nominee to submit an article
describing the work, for publication in the
ISRM News Journal.
Application Deadline
The nomination must reach the ISRM SecretaryGeneral by 31 December 2023.

Past Recipients
1982
1983
1984
1985
1986
1987
1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
16

A.P. Cunha
PORTUGAL
S. Bandis		
GREECE
B. Amadei
FRANCE
P.M. Dight
AUSTRALIA
W. Purrer		
AUSTRIA
D. Elsworth
UK
S. Gentier		
FRANCE
B. Fröhlich
GERMANY
R.K. Brummer
SOUTH AFRICA
T.H. Kleine
AUSTRALIA
A. Ghosh		INDIA
O. Reyes W.
PHILIPPINES
S. Akutagawa
JAPAN
C. Derek Martin CANADA
M.P. Board
USA
M. Brudy		
GERMANYF. Mac Gregor
AUSTRALIA
A. Daehnke
SOUTH AFRICA
P. Cosenza
FRANCE
D.F. Malan
SOUTH AFRICA
M.S. Diederichs CANADA

2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023

L.M. Andersen
G. Grasselli
M. Hildyard
D. Ask		H. Yasuhara
Z.Z. Liang
G. Li		J.C. Andersson
D. Park		
M.T. Zandarin
M. Pierce
M.S.A. Perera
A.L. Bradley
C.W. Boon
Bryan Tatone
M. du Plessis
Q. Lei		J. Shang		
Y. Yasuhiro
R.S. De Silva
J. Zhao		

SOUTH AFRICA
ITALY
UK
SWEDEN
JAPAN
CHINA
CHINA
SWEDEN
REP. OF KOREA
ARGENTINA
CANADA
AUSTRALIA
ITALY
MALAYSIACANADA
SOUTH AFRICA
CHINA
CHINA
JAPAN
SRI LANKA
CHINA

2022
THE 2022
ISRM YEAR
January- 1st Young Members’ online Seminar

February- 2nd Young Members’ online Seminar

NEWS J URNAL
ISRM

06
EVENTS- Launching of the ISRM Survey 2022
- ISRM Specialized Conference TuniRock 2022, in Hamammet, Tunisia

March- 37th ISRM Online Lecture by Prof. Yuzo Ohnishi: “Evolution of numerical methods for coupled problems in rockmechanics and engineering”- Publication of the 2021 issue of the News Journal and of the e-Newsletter No. 57- 3rd Young Members’ online Seminar

April- Meting of the FedIGS Board- 4th Young Members’ online SeminarMay- Interim meeting of the ISRM Board- 5th Young Members’ online Seminar

June- ISRM Specialized Conference 5th Symposium of the Macedonian Association for Geotechnics, in Ohrid, Macedonia- 38th ISRM Online Lecture by Prof. Yingxin Zhou: “The Rock Engineering Process (for Cavern Construction)”- Publication of the e-Newsletter No. 58- 6th Young Members’ online SeminarJuly- 7th Young Members’ online Seminar

August- ISRM Specialized Conference RocDyn-4: 4th International Conference on Rock Dynamics, in Xuzhou, China- ISRM Specialized Conference SBMR2022: 9th Brazilian Rock Mechanics Symposium, in Campinas, Brazil- 8th Young Members’ online Seminar- ISRM Regional Symposium Eurock 2022: Rock and Fracture Mechanics in Rock Engineering and Mining,in Helsinki, Finland
September - 39th ISRM Online Lecture by Prof. Bruce Hebblewhite: “Non-conventional surface subsidence – a challenge for an
improved fundamental understanding”- Publication of the e-Newsletter No. 59- ISRM International Symposium LARMS2022:Chalenges in Rock Mechanics: Towards a Sustainable Development ofInfrastructure• Dr Radhika De Silva, from Sri Lanka, delivered the 2022 Rocha Lecture• Dr Werner Bilfinger, from Brazil, delivered the 2022 Franklin Lecture• Doug Stead, Eda Quadros, Håkan Stille, Luís Ribeiro e Sousa and Manchao He received the 2021 ISRM Fellows
medals and certificates• 9 young members from the Latin American region were invited to make presentations in the 7th edition of the ISRM
Early Career Forum• 8 international teams participated in the RockBowl competition
October- ISRM Board and Council meetings• Dr Jun Zhao, from China, was selected as recipient of the Rocha Medal 2023
• The audited accounts of 2021 and budget for 2023 were approved by the Council• Prof. Derek Martin, from Canada, was selected as the recipient of the 9th Müller Award.
• New Delhi, India, was selected as the venue for the 2024 ISRM International Symposium• Seoul, Korea, was selected as the venue for the 16th ISRM International Congress, in 2027
• Salzburg, Austria, was confirmed as the venue for the 2023 16th ISRM International Congress- 10th Young Members’ online Seminar- ISRM Specialized Conference CouFRac 2022:International Conference on Coupled Process in Fractured GeologicalMedia: Observation, Modeling and Application, in Berkeley, USA
November- ISRM Regional Symposium ARMS12: 12th Asian Rocke Mechanics Symposium, in Hanoi, Vietnam- 11st Young Members’ online Seminar- ISRM Regional Symposium AusRock 2022: 6th Australasian Ground Control in Mining Conference,in Melbourne, Australia- 40th ISRM Online Lecture by Dr José Delgado Rodrigues: “Stone in Cultural Heritage - From the rock mass to theDecemberstone piece”- Publication of the e-Newsletter No. 60- 12nd Young Members’ online Seminar17

December 2022

07 ONLINE LECTURE
SERIES

The ISRM Online Lectures Series have been running in a trimestral basis uninterruptedly since
February 2013. In 2022 another four high-level lectures were broadcast from the ISRM website at apreannounced date and time. The complete series of online lectures remain available for all interested
to watch in the ISRM website (isrm.net/page/show/138?tab=1104)

Evolution of numerical methods for coupledproblems in rock mechanics and engineering

Natural rock masses consist of solid and fluid materials(water, air, others). In rock mechanics and engineering,
researches have made an effort to understand rockmass behavior under different mechanical and hydraulicconditions. The study of rock and fluids interaction isextremely diverse and forms a typical interdisciplinaryarea. For example, the rock slope fails due to heavy rain,
which is the typical interaction between rock and water(coupling). In this stress-flow coupling problem, thebasic equations for the water flow and for the stressdeformation are solved simultaneously, using a conceptof “effective stress principle”. As a result, flow andstress deformation has been integrated, and the coupling
solutions can be applied in practice.
The advancement of (Thermal)H(Hydraulic)M(Mechanical)C(Chemical) analyses is largely due to the
DECOVALEX project, a collaborative research host on
the geological disposal of high-level radioactive wastes.
Fully coupled THM analysis becomes common andchemical and time effect is under consideration.

18

Risk Management

DIGITALIZATION

The major problem of THMC for rock mass is its
modeling and analysis method. The analysis methodchanges greatly depending on how to model the rockand the fluid present in it. Numerical methods (mainlyFEM) to handle the coupled problems keep on evolving.
While changing from continuum to discontinuous medium
analysis, discrete methods such as DEM, DDA etc. weredeveloped and DFN models have been introduced.

38th ISRM online lecture, June 2022
Prof. Zhou Yingxin
The Rock Engineering Process (for Cavern
Construction)

Rock engineering is highly empirical due to the inherent
geological uncertainties, and our limited ability tounderstand, test, and measure rock mass properties
and rock mass behaviour at scale. It is argued that thegreatest risk in rock engineering is not geology – it ispeople (studies suggest more than 80% of the tunnel
failures are due to human errors). The best approachto minimising human errors and risks and ensure
consistent quality and safety is to follow a systematicengineering process.
This process begins with the big picture – the geologicalmodel, which guides the site investigations and risk
management. In turn, site investigations help validate
and improve the geological model. Site investigations
are planned and carried out during different phases

Geological modelling
Site investigations at various phases
Preliminary design by rock mass classification (Q-method)
Final support design based on tunnel mapping after excavation
Support by numerical analysis and digital information system
Instrumentation and monitoring
Updating geological model, re-modelling based on new data, and refinement in design

Feedback loop

Prof. Yuzo Ohnishi

Collaboration

37th ISRM online lecture, March 2022

The quality of input data in analyses is also important.
In numerical analysis, modeling (geometrical features)of the target medium and physical property values
are crucial. As models become more complex, input
parameters increase, and advanced experimentand proper judgment are required to determine theparameters. The importance of monitoring has been
particularly strong. Various high-performance measuring
devices have been developed, and real-time dataacquisition has become possible through the Internet.
Developing the analysis and measurement methods
in cooperation with each other will create synergetic
effects, and further understanding of coupling behaviorof rock mass will be achieved.

NEWS J URNAL
ISRM

of the project. Support design is based on rock massclassification such as the Q-system, and supported
by numerical modelling, instrumentation andmonitoring. The geological and numerical models arecontinually updated with new mapping data, and thedesign is optimised. Collaboration and feedback are39th ISRM online lecture, September 2022
Emeritus Prof. Bruce Hebblewhite
Non-conventional surface subsidence – achallenge for an improved fundamental
understanding

The lecture deals with issues related with subsidence
above underground coal mines. Subsidence is awell-known phenomenon that causes deformationof the ground mass, including all mining-induced
displacements. It can be related to several parameters,such as vertical and horizontal strata deformation,
strata failure, shearing, strata unit bending, bedding
plane shear, tensile and compressive strains, tilt, andsubsidence effects within the angle of draw. Subsidence
impacts are the physical changes to the ground and its
surface, and they may lead to serious environmental
consequences: loss of surface water flows, loss ofstanding pools, groundwater quality, adverse surface, cliff
falls or rock falls, development of iron bacterial mats.

essential, with risk management permeating the entire
process. The collaborative process involves all key
stakeholders and ensures open and timely discussion
and communications, and integration of the design andconstruction issues, which include client’s requirements,
quality control, and safety management.

Though widely understood, an adequate assessment
requires a well defined terminology, and so thedefinitions of anomalous, systematic, conventional andnon-conventional subsidence are defined.
The main topic of the lecture is non-conventional
subsidence, which is defined a particular behaviour,
normally associated with irregular surface topography,
resulting in effects and impacts that can be systematic innature, but are not described by conventional subsidence
models, and include far-field movements, valley closureand valley-floor upsidence. An extensive body ofevidence of these phenomena has been gathered in the
Soutern Coalfield of New South Wales, Australia.
The lecture features a number of interesting, illustrative
examples: the Tower Colliery and Nepean Cataract
Gorges, the Dendrobium mine and Sandy Creekwaterfall, the Ryerson Station reservoir, and theBroadmeadow Punch longwall.
The lecture concludes that there is an extensive sitspecific data that permits reasonable prediction ofsubsidence behaviour, but a more rigourous anduniversally applicable mechanism model that explains the
behaviour and leads to better predictions is still needed.

40th ISRM online lecture, December 2022
Dr José Delgado Rodrigues
Stone in Cultural Heritage - From the rockmass to the stone pieceRocks and rock masses have long been associatedwith Humans. They provided the first shelters, wereused in the first weapons and were integrated into thefirst constructions. The long durability of the stonematerials allowed to preserve and transmit the firstsigns of Human creativity to reach us, and many of thebest examples of cultural manifestations of the past are
inscribed in stone.
Rock masses provide materials for Human undertakings,
either for common constructions as rock fill dams andtransportation infrastructures, but also for building
imposing cathedrals and sculpting delicate art works.
The same or similar material can be used in them,but the significance that the works have for thecommunity to which they belong makes a difference. The
Geotechnical field deals with the utilitarian values of theundertaking, while the cultural values are dealt with by
the professional field of Conservation and Restoration.
In Geotechnical works, materials are understood in
statistical terms, while in Cultural Heritage objects
each piece matters and the elements have their own“identity”.
Examples will be presented to show that material
properties impact differently in both fields and toillustrate that adaptation of common technologies
needs to be done to deal with the specifics of Cultural
Heritage problems.
19

07

December 2022

07 ISRM

COMMISSIONSThe objective of ISRM Commissions is to study
scientific and technical matters of interest to theSociety. In recognition of the critical role of the ISRM
Commissions, the ISRM Board created a committee – theTechnical Oversight Committee (TOC) to coordinate thecommission’s work, report on their performance andto act as oversight for the Commissions. Since ISRM
Commissions are appointed by the Board for each 4-year
period between ISRM Congresses. Establishment of new
Commissions or the continuation of pre-existent ones isdecided by the new Board following proposal by the TOC.

By the end of 2022 there were 15 ISRM technicalcommissions involving 266 commission members from36 different national groups working arduously. Various
kinds of activities conferences, meetings, workshops,
courses, forums, publication of relevant journal special
issues and ISRM Suggested Methods are planned by theCommissions for the next years.

COMMISSION		ESTABLISHED

Coupled Thermal-Hydro-Mechanical- Chemical Processes in Fractured Rocks 2018
Crustal Stress and Earthquakes

2011

Deep Mining

2019

Design Methodology
Discontinuous Deformation Analysis

2011

Planetary Rock Mechanics

2019

Radioactive Waste

2010

Rockbursts

2019

Rock Dynamics

2007

Rock Grouting

2019Soft Rocks

2019

Sorptive Rocks

2021

Testing Methods

circa 1970

Underground Nuclear Power Plants
Based on the assessments done by TOC on the performanceof the commissions showed that the majority of thecommissions are performing at a high level or at a sufficientlevel with no major concerns. Following the suggestion of
the TOC, the ISRM Board decide to end the appointment of
the Commission on the Preservation of Ancient Sites.
Dealing with topics of mutual interest, three Joint TechnicalCommittees work under the umbrella of the Federation ofInternational Geo-Engineering Societies - FedIGS, which
joins the efforts of the Sister Societies IAEG, IGS, ISRM and
ISSMGE. The current list of JTCs is the following:
JTC 1 - Joint Technical Committee on Natural Slopes and Landslides
JTC 2 - Representation of Geo-engineering Data in Electronic Form
JTC 3 - Education and Training20

pre 2004

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07

ISRM VIDEOCOURSES
Following the rapid increase in the use of virtual toolsthat took place in previous years, two new video
courses were made available to the general public on
the ISRM website.
“COURSE ON CRUSTAL STRESS ASSESSMENT
AND ITS APPLICATION IN ENGINEERING AND
EARTHQUAKE RESEARCH”
by members of the ISRM Commission on Crustal
Stress and Earthquakes

In order to improve the methods and techniques ofborehole-based stress-strain observatory, especially forcalibration technology, promote experimental studies
on deep-borehole stress measurement, and advanceresearch collaboration associating the crustal stresswith seismicity, seismogenesis, and rock failure process,the ISRM Commission on Crustal Stress and Earthquakes
invited five commission members to present a video
course. This course includes two parts on the technology
of in-situ stress measurement and its applications inengineering, two parts on the technology of boreholetensor strainmeter and its calibration, and one part on theapplication of the crustal stress in Earthquake research:
Part 0 - Furen Xie - Course Presentation (15 minutes)
Part 1 – Hong Li - Realization of multi-component
and 3-D borehole strain-meter observation
technology (30 minutes)
Part 2 - Takatoshi Ito - Core deformation: A new stressindicator applicable in a wide range of depth andtemperature (45 minutes)
Part 3.1 - Zhongqi Quentin Yue - Methane gas refined fault
theory for cause of tectonic earthquakes (two hours)
Part 3.2 - Zhongqi Quentin Yue - Methane gas refined fault
theory for cause of tectonic earthquakes (two hours)
Part 3.3 - Zhongqi Quentin Yue - Methane gas refined
fault theory for cause of tectonic earthquakes (twoand a half hours)
Part 4 - Qunce Chen - In situ stress measurements
around Eastern Himalayan syntaxis (30 minutes)
Part 5 - Jiayong Tian - Dynamic calibration of
borehole tensor strainmeters (45 minutes)"ROCKBURST"ROCKBURST IN DEEP TUNNELS"
by Xia-Ting Feng

Prof. Xia-Ting Feng (ISRM President from 2011 to2015) presents this three and a half hours video course
on Rockburst in Deep Tunnels. In order to improvethe understanding of the rockburst in deep tunnels, itconsists of nine parts, specifically addressing the types,
intensity, influencing factors, microseismic monitoring,mechanism, dynamic warning, and rockburst risk
mitigation. Finaly, typical scenarios are provided fromthe viewpoint of deep engineering practice.
Part 1 - Introduction to Rockbursts
Part 2 - Types and Intensity of Rockbursts
Part 3 - Factors Influencing Rockbursts
Part 4 - Microseismic Monitoring of Rockburst
Development Process
Part 5 - Mechanism of Rockbursts in Deep Tunnels
Part 6 - Dynamic Warning of Rockbursts in Tunnels
Part 7 - Rockburst Risk Mitigation in Deep Tunnels
Part 8 - Application in Deep Headrace TBM Tunnels
Part 9 - Application in Deep Railway Drill andBlast Tunnels

21

December 2022

07 AWARDS
JOHN HUDSON ROCK ENGINEERING AWARD

The John Hudson Rock Engineering Award was given
to Dr Christine Detournay, from the United Statesof America. It is an award instituted to honour the
memory of Professor John Hudson,
ISRM President from 2007 to 2011. Thisaward is conferred by the ISRM President
in recognition of achievements inengineering practice, such as developing
an outstanding rock engineering,project, designing and/or completing an
outstanding rock engineering project,contributing to solving important practicalrock engineering problems, effectively
introducing to current rock engineering
practice new and important technologies,
promoting good practices with innovativetechnologies and management to reducetime and cost of a rock engineering
project, or promoting good practices with
innovative technologies and management
to enhance healthChristine Detournay started working as a consultant
for Itasca in 1993, where she is now a Principal
Engineer. She holds a Geoengineering degree fromthe University of Liège, Belgium and a MSc and PhD
degrees in Civil Engineering from the University of
Minnesota. Her expertise is in the development of
numerical models for application to coupled fluidthermo-mechanical problems. She has contributedin the development of several Itasca codes, including
FLAC, FLAC3D, 3DEC, and XSite. She is a principal
developer for the groundwater-flow and thermal logic
in FLAC3D and has been involved in the implementationof several of the constitutive models available with
Itasca continuum codes. She has worked in consulting
and development for various projects related to theoil and gas industry, including hydraulic fracturing, as
well as on projects pertaining to underground waste
repository, geothermal applications, slope stability, soilliquefaction and CO2 sequestration. She has co-authoredmore than 65 publications, including conference papers,
journal papers, and book chapters. She is co-editor ofProceedings Int. FLAC/DEM symposia.
Recently, she delivered the 35th ISRM online lecture
entitled “Findings from Numerical Modeling at the site ofa High Dam on the Jinsha River”, and as recipient of the
ISRM John Hudson Rock Engineering Award 2022 she
contributed with a technical paper entitled “Contributing
to solving important practical rock engineering
problems” to this issue of the News Journal.

22

SCIENCE ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

The Science Achievement Award was conferred toProf. Jean Sulem, from France. It is an award by the
ISRM President, on a bi-annual basis, in recognitionof contributions to the progress of the science of rockmechanics by making an important advancement ofknowledge or by proposing and confirming a new theory
to explain certain phenomena.
Jean Sulem is presently Professor of Rock Mechanics
and Research Director at the École des Ponts –ParisTech, Director of the Laboratoire Navier, Université
Gustave Eiffel, CNRS, Editorin-Chief of Rock Mechanics andRock Engineering, member of
the Steering Committee of the
M/HM Underground Laboratory(ANDRA), and member of theBoard of Directors of the ALERT
Geomaterials network. He has
more than 240 publications
including two books and threepatents, edition of two collective
books, four special issues of international scientificjournals, 120 journal papers or book chapters, and 123
papers in proceedings of international conferences.
He has delivered several keynote lectures in majorrock mechanics conferences, such as the 13th ISRM
International Congress 2015, in Montreal (Canada),
Eurock 2010, in Lausanne (Switzerland), and Eurock
2017, in Ostrava (Czech Republic). He was the Presidentof the French NG of the International Society of RockMechanics from 2016 to 2020, and he contributed to the
ISRM Online Lecture Series with its 10th edition entitled“Multiphysics Couplings and Stability of Fault Zones”.

NEWS J URNAL
ISRMJean Sulem provided major scientific contributions in all
research fields he has worked, namely Rock mechanics
experimental and constitutive modelling, strain
localization and bifurcation phenomena in geomechanics,
thermo-hydro-mechanical couplings in geomaterials,
and petroleum geomechanics. He has brought seminal
contributions in the analysis of time dependent behavior
of deep tunnels and in the understanding and modellingof failure and instabilities of rocks as a bifurcation
phenomenon. The convergence law proposed in his
PhD thesis has allowed distinguishing between theeffect of the face advance and of the delayed behaviorof the rock mass on the time-dependent convergenceof tunnels. Together with late Professor Vardoulakis,
they published pioneering works on the analysis ofstrain localization phenomena in rock mechanics. Jean
Sulem’s contributions in the domain of fault mechanics
mainly concern the effect of multi-physics couplings on
seismic slip. They highlight the important role of thermal
effects in pore fluid pressurization and onset of mineraldecomposition as weakening mechanisms of the fault.
Such phenomena enhance strain localization inside thefault core and subsequent stronger strength softening
and slip acceleration. In the domain of petroleum
geomechanics, Jean Sulem and co-authors have broughtsignificant contributions in constitutive modellingof cement paste from hydration to hardened state inorder to assess the cement sheath integrity in oil andgas wells.

07

YOUNG ROCK ENGINEER AWARDThe Young Rock Engineer Award wasconferred to Dr Yota Tagashi, fromJapan. It is intended to acknowledge
excellence in the field of rock engineeringby ISRM individual members under
40 years old in early stages of theircareers, in recognition of achievements
in rock engineering practice, such as
contributions to solve engineering
problems or develop original design solutions, tosustainable engineering practices, to the promotion of
the engineering profession, or the pioneering use ofmaterials and/or methods.
Yota Tagoshi graduated in 2008 from the Yokohama
National University, and got his Masters in 2011, which
was followed by his Ph.D. in the School of Urban
Innovation, with the highest honors, in 2014. He started
his professional career at the Road Improvement Divisionof the Kanagawa Prefecture, between 2014 and 2018he was a researcher at the Railway Technical ResearchInstitute, and since 2018 he is Assistant Professor at theRock Mechanics Laboratory, in the Saitama University.
He has published 60 peer-reviewed papers, he delivered
seven invited lectures he got 13 patents, and he has
participated as a member of 15 rock engineering society
committees, such as the editorial board of JapaneseSociety Rock Mechanics, organizing committees of ISRM
symposiums (YSRM & REIF 2019 and RMEGV 2021). He
has been awarded several
distinctions, among which
stand out the Technology
Award from the JapaneseSociety of Rock Mechanics,
and the Best Paper Award of
the Japanese GeotechnicalSociety, both in 2016, theBest Paper Award forYoung Professionals fromthe Japanese GeotechnicalSociety in 2028, and theYoung Scientists’ Prize,
Commendation for Science andTechnology by the Minister of
Education of Japan in 2019.
In recent years, he has been
dedicating his research
to the relevant topic ofevaluating the elastic constantof anisotropic rocks fromcompression tests. He has
paid particular attention to the determination of theelastic constants of transversely isotropic rocks using asingle triaxial test, and to the influence of end restraints
on the strain responses of anisotropic rocks during
triaxial compression.

23

December 2022

07 ISRM

BOOK SERIESThe aim of the ISRM Book Series is to promote thescientific output of Rock Engineering topics. The Series
is published according to the emergence of noteworthy
scientific developments. Each volume in the Series isprepared independently and focuses on a topical theme.
Since 2020 Profs. Xia-Ting Feng and Resat Ulusay act
as Co-Editors-in-Chief. In 2021, the Series had one
more release and the total number of books publishedin the Series became seven.

Most recently, a new book entitled “Underground
Nuclear Power Plants, which was written by the
ISRM Commission on Underground Nuclear Power
Plants chaired by Prof. Shun Sakurai, was submitted
to the publisher and will be published soon. The bookconsists of 18 chapters. Another book, written by
Prof. Ömer Aydan entitled “Abandoned Room and Pillar
Mines and Remediation Measures”, was also submitted
to the publisher and will be available in 2023. A thirdbook concerning “Flow of Water in Fractured Rock
Masses: Basic Theory & Practical Applications” is inpreparation by Dr.Eda Quadros and Dr. Philippe Vaskou.

ONLINE ACTIVITIESIn addition to the Online Lecture Series, which is an
initiative that has been going on continuously overthe past 10 years,
online activities are
one of the key meansof dissemination andcommunication between
ISRM and its members,either by the YouTube
Channel, or via thewebsite. In 2022, theInternational Webinar
on Rock Mechanics
organized by young
members of ISRM
National Groups, which
is described in detail in this issue in the Young Members
Committee report, and the European Rock Mechanics
Debates.
EUROPEAN ROCK MECHANICS DEBATESThe European Rock Mechanics Debates aim at
stimulating communication among academics andpractitioners of rock mechanics and rock engineering inEurope. The debates are held online as zoom meetings
and they are broadcast on the ISRM YouTube channel,
where they can still be revisited. Each debate features
two opponents with different perspectives on a hot rockmechanics topic or on a specific technical aspect of rockengineering.
The second European Rock Mechanics Debate on "Whatmodel for what application in rock mechanics" took
place online on 9 June 2022 and was streamed to the
ISRM YouTube channel, where it can be watched. It waschaired by Philippe Vaskou from France and featured
the participation of Heinz Konietzky from Germany,talking about "From State-of-the-Art in Science towards
Engineering Practice" and Jonny Sjöberg from Sweden
talking about "Principles, Capabilities, and Strategies
for Choosing Models". A flyer with the contents andindicative rules of these debates can be downloaded
24

here. This second debate can be considered a success,with over 100 attendants. Other debates will follow andwill be announced on the ISRM website.

NEWS J URNAL
ISRM

IN MEMORY OF

Á L V A R OGONZÁLEZ
G A R C Í A
1 9 3 7 - 2 0 2 2

It is with great sadness that the
ISRM informs that Prof. Álvaro
González García passed away on
9 February 2022, in Bogota. Prof.
Álvaro González's professional
career developed as ageotechnical engineer in projects
related to roads, railways,hydroelectric projects, aqueducts
and sewers, irrigation, mining,foundations, tunnels, sanitary fills,
pavements and risks assessment.
Alvaro Gonzalez graduated in
Civil Engineer at the National
University of Colombia andhe was Master of Science at
the University of London withvarious specialization courses.
Besides working as a consultant
in Análisis Geotécnicos

Colombianos AGC Ltda, he was Emeritus Professor of the
National University of Colombia, published more than 120
papers and was member of the scientific committees ofseveral international congresses.
Prof. González was active in the ISRM up until recently.
In 2007 he was elected VP for South America and, very
deservedly, he was appointed a Fellow of the ISRM in
2017. Prof. Álvaro González was a frequent participant
in the ISRM Symposia, where he will be missed, andkept many friends in our Society, which remember hiskindness, his joyful
attitude towards
life and his greatknowledge.
He was an excellent
Engineer, Professor
and remarkable Human
Being who leaves us
an important legacy.

FEDIGSISRM is one of the four international societies of theFederation of International Geo-Engineering Societies(FedIGS). FedIGS is a collaborative forum within whichlearned societies or associations involved in engineering
with, on, or in geo-materials can meet and interact. The
purpose of the Federation is to facilitate interaction among
the member societies, explore opportunities to promote
their common interests and provide a unified response
to common issues through effective collective actions
that are more effective than individual responses of themembers. The four members of the federation are theInternational Society of Soil Mechanics and GeotechnicalEngineering (ISSMGE), the International Society for RockMechanics and Rock Engineering (ISRM), the International
Association of Engineering Geology and the Environment(IAEG) and the International Geosynthetics Society (IGS).
The Board of FedIGS consists of the President, Immediate
Past President and Secretary General of the four sistersocieties, and the President of the Federation is elected
at every four years. Prof. Chungsik Yoo from Korea waselected this year as the new President of FedIGS; he took
over the mission from Prof. Xia-Ting Feng, who was the
ISRM Past President for the term 2011-2015.
The FedIGS Board created a number of Joint TechnicalCommittees (JTC) and approved the JTC Guidelines.
Current JTCs operating under the umbrella of the FedIGS
are: JTC 1 – Natural Slopes and Landslides, JTC 2 –Representation of Geo-Engineering Data, and JTC 3 –Education and Training.
The 2022 annual meeting of the FedIGS Board washeld on 21 September 2022 as an online meeting and
ISRM was represented by its President, Immediate Past
President and Secretary General. in this meeting. After the
introduction by the FedIGS President, the Board members

Online meeting of 2022 FedIGS Board meeting

discussed the JTC reports presented by their respective
chairmen. Regarding the report of JTC 1, it was suggested
that the criteria for selecting lectures could be improvedin the next actions. For JTC 2 it was agreed that all
documents, reports and standard systems of JTC should be
written in English and distributed to the societies, and that
the JTC2 website should be linked to the FedIGS website.
In this meeting, it was acknowledged that FedIGS isthe appropriate, common voice to suggest policy suited
to provide sustainable development approaches toinfrastructure development. Then it was decided that two
Board members would develop a detailed proposal for a
new Commission to be called “JTC on Environment andGeo-sustainability” and circulating it to the board. New
initiatives of interaction between the member societies
were accepted, namely FedIGS Planery Sessions, FedIGS
Keynotes, FedIGS WhatsApp Group and FedIGS Forums.
It was also decided to merge the event calendars of eachsociety and respective website links, and place them on
the FedIGS website. The next FedIGS meeting will beheld in Salzburg, Austria, in October during the 15th ISRM
Congress in 2023.
25

07

December 2022

07 2022 ISRM

MEMBER’S SURVEY
Sevda Dehkhoda, ISRM Vice-President for Australasia and YMC Chair

Only once in 2008 a survey to ISRM members was carriedout. In 2021 the Young Members Committee prepared a
new survey. It was released between March to April 2022
and distributed to ISRM members and non-members in
3 languages – English, Spanish, and Chinese. Overall,
737 people responded to the survey, 84% of which weremembers and 16% were non-members.
The goals of the survey were to understand the compositionof the memberships, connect with the members and gauge
their view of the society and gather thoughts on society’s
direction into the future. The survey also targeted to hearthoughts of younger demographics on how the society should
respond for their needs.
This report provides an overview of the survey responses.
The main conclusions are presented below.
MEMBER DEMOGRAPHICS
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%

91% 88%

2008
2022

7%

Male

11%
2%

Female1%Prefer no to say

35%
30%

27%

29%

30%

2008
2022
23%

25%
20%
15%

15%
10%

21% 20%

12%

10%

13%

5%

. There has been slight improvement in female participation.
. The society is aging.

26

over 65

over 60

55-65

50-59

45-55

40-49

35-45

30-39

below 35

below 290%NEWS J URNAL
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07

MEMBER EDUCATION
What is your highest level of education in general?

3%What is your highest level of education in Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering?

4%

10%
5%

13%

PhD
Master's
Bachelor's
Diploma
Other

50%
31%

14%

PhD
Master's
Bachelor's
Diploma
Other

44%

28%

28%

. ISRM serves highly educated members. 81% of the respondents had Master’s or higher degree education.

FIELD OF WORK AND STATUS
In which sector do you work?

In which field do you work?

Who are you employed by?

7%

5%

4%

8%

13%

9%

5%
5%

48%
35%

40%

44%
43%

35%

Industry
Academia
Research § development
Government agency

Civil Infrastructure
MiningOil and Gas
Unconventional energy resources
Environmental
Other

Public sector
Private sector
Self employedotherWhat is your role in the organization?
Other

8%

Design Engineer

8%Management

8%

Engineering Geologist

10%

Researcher

12%

Consultant

14%Rock Engineer

14%

Lecturer / Professor

27%

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

Majority of the members worked for industry (48%) in civil infrastructure and mining fields in roles such as
rock engineer and consultant.
• 35% of members worked in academia.
•

27

December 2022

07 EXPERIENCE AND LONGEVITY

How long have you been working in Rock Mechanics andRock Engineering?

If you have been working in Rock Mechanics for more than
30 years, how would you define your working arrangements?

30%
5%
10%

23%

Full time
Part time

17%

17%

21%

11%

Honorary and volunteering

65%

positions
Retired2%

up to 1 year

1-5 years

6-10 years 11-20 years

21-30 years Over 30 years

How many more years do you expect to be actively working
in Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering?

How many more years do you expect to be actively
working in Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering?

Over 20 years
Yes

31%

86%

11-20 yearsNo29%

6-10 years

3%

24%

1-5 years

Maybe

11%

Up to1 year

13%
2%

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

. Whilst society is aging, rate of attracting new members is too slow. Only 13% of the respondents were with lessthan 5 years into rock mechanics and rock engineering profession. This is whilst 23% of respondents had over
30% of experience.
50%

Maybe

No

Age breakdown of respondents
with "Maybe" and "No" Answer
21%

9%

9%

26% 27%

26%

55-65

Over 6519%
9%5%

Bellow 35

35-45

45-55

. Respondents with intention of not remaining in the profession expect to leave in the next 5 years. Majority of these
respondents are in ‘above 65’ age group. 30% of below 45 years old respondents are also unsure if they would remain in the profession

28

35%

NEWS J URNAL
ISRM

07

ISRM - MEMBER ATTRACTION
19%

National Group activities

7%

2%

At work

7%
21%

At school
ISRM Suggested Methods

1%

9%

ISRM events
ISRM website or e-Newsletters
Internet search

5%37%Social Media. National Groups are how people mainly learn about ISRM, followed by word of mouth at work and school
MEMBER'S REASONS FOR JOINING ISRM
Why are you a member of the ISRM?
Other (please specify)

1%

Required by employer

1%

Was required to select a box when registering to be a member of a National Group1%

To achieve recognition of my dedication to the discipline

5%
6%

A sense of colleagueship

10%

Automatic membership as part of national group regstration

12%

Find it useful to participate in ISRM activities

13%

Feel a duty to support the profession
Opportunity to establish contacts within the disciple15%

Benefits given to members: ie free downloads, Suggested Methods and others...

15%
21%

General interest in the disciple

General interest in Discipline seems to drive ISRM memberships.
Given benefits and opportunity to build network are also big drivers to join the society• Other reasons mentioned by respondents are:••

MEMBER ENGAGEMENTS
Are you member of any international society (incl. ISRM sister societies)?
19%

IAEG - International Association of Engineering Geology and the Environment
ISSMGE - International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering

14%International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association

14%

IGS - International Geosynthetics Society

12%

ICOLD - International Commission on Large Dams

13%

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

How would you like to get ISRM related information?

7%

15%

78%

19%

65%

7%

16%

7%

7%

29

December 2022

07

How do you rate your level of engagement with ISRM?
8% 4%
16%

Very active
Active27%

SomeNegligible
None

46%

What has been the nature of your engagements with ISRM?

Attendance to ISRM sponsored conferences

33%

Regular access to ISRM website content and members' area resources

27%

Participation in the organization of ISRM sponsored conferences

13%

Participation in the activities of ISRM Commissions or Working Groups

9%

Attendance to ISRM Commission meeting

7%

Have held administrative responsibilities in ISRM Council or Board

4%

Have applied for the Rocha medal or other ISRM awards

2%

Other

5%
0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25% 30% 35%. Majority of the respondents prefer e-newsletter for receiving ISRM related information. Only 20% of the respondents considered themselves active in ISRM
. Attendance to ISRM sponsored conferences and regular access to ISRM website content and resources are the top
engagement methods.

ISRM RATING ACHIEVING ITS GOALS

What other objectves should the society focus on?
Branding and recognition of the profession amongst young
generations (teens and undergraduate students).

60%

50%
Promoting our profession to the general public and informing thegeneral public about the relevance of Rock Mechanics and RockEngineering to the World Economy and Industry

40%

30%
Engaging with general public to address sensitive environmental
topics, which are relevant to sustainability of the planet: (e.g. CO2
underground sequestration, underground storage, fracking, rare earth
mining, Oil exploration etc.)

20%

10%

0%

Promoting practical Rock Mechanics applications for practicing RockEngineering practitioners
Very good

good

Neither goodnor badpoor

very poor

Encourage internayional collaboration and exchange of ideas andinformation between practitioners of Rock Mechanics and RockEngineering
Encourage teaching, research, and advancement of knowledge in RockMechanics and Rock Engineering
Promote high standards of professional pratice among rock engineers

Branding and recognition of the profession and the society across all
engineering disciplines

Branding and recognition of the ISRM to the Rock Engineering
discipline across all continents.

. Overall, the respondents rated ISRM good to very good in achieving its goals. Respondents were also positive with ISRM engaging in promoting the profession amongst public and next generations
and activities related to sensitive environmental topics

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RATING OF ISRM SERVICES AND OFFERINGSAre the services and the information provided
by the ISRM useful for your work or study?
8%
8%

1 (not useful)

28%
24%

2
3
4
5 (very useful)38%

Top 5 choices for additional benefits
Increase the currently existing acess to digital databases of technical papers and articles
Access to educational material (e.g. online education, courses and training)
Virtual lectures and workshops by experts on particular topics using video conferences
Enable global networking opportunity with other Rock Mechanics professional using virtual platforms
Monthly webinars on pratical rock mechanica and tock engineering application focused on pratitioners

Increase the currently existing access to digital databases of technical papers and articles

15%

Access to educational material (e.g. online education, courses and training)

13%
10%

Virtual lectures and workshops by experts on particular topics using video conferences

8%

Enable global networking opportunity with other Rock Mechanics professionals using virtual platforms
Monthly webinars on practical rock mechanics and rock engineering applications focused on practitioners

8%

Low-cost access to articles in online journals (non-research)

7%

Site visits and technical tours

7%

Specialized online courses for practitioners, with attendees’ evaluation and issuing of a diploma, possibly incollaboration with specialized organizations.
Organization of hybrid events (seminars, lectures, conferences) that can be accessed in person and online

6%
6%
5%

Integration of national group activities / meetings into ISRM via digital platforms

5%

Significant reductions in attendance fees at ISRM sponsored events

4%

Include on the ISRM website highlights of the conferences (e.g. key-note lectures) to wider audience
Organization of fully virtual conferences

3%

Generous discounts on 3rd party supplied products and/or services (e.g. equipment, ISRM event
accommodation, books, etc.)3%
1%

Other (please specify)

0%

2%

4%

6%

8%

10%

12%

14%

16%

. Over 60% of the respondents’ rates ISRM offerings useful to very useful.
. Majority of the respondents also asked for increased access to digital database, additional
educational materials, virtual events such as webinars, online lectures, and workshops.

31

December 2022

07 RESPONSES TO OPEN QUESTIONS

Top three most important open questions in Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering still to be answered?
. Deep rock mechanics. Environmental protection. Numerical modelling. Induced seismicity. Characterization and constitutive models. Hazards and disaster prevention
What changes would you like to see implemented that would increase your satisfaction with your membership in the ISRM
. Easier (free) access to material, ie suggested methods. Collaborative events, ie industry collaboration. Greater dissemination of information, timely correspondence
What can the ISRM do to improve/boost the engagement of young engineers and researchers with the society?
. Inexpensive conferences and workshops, sponsored attendances. Better online presence. Free online events and specialized courses
Name the newest innovation that you regularly use in your field of work?
. Photogrammetry. Numerical simulation. Monitoring: insar, lidar, drones, laser scanning. Artificial intelligence, machine learning, and virtual reality
Name any new technology/innovation in your field of work that you would like to hear more about in ISRM events?
. Numerical modelling and analyses. Monitoring techniques. Artificial intelligenceHow should the ISRM respond to possible long-term restrictions of international travel?
. Respondents would like ISRM to maintain online activities such as virtual conferences and online
meetings post pandemic.
. Webinars and online lectures are more preferred than fully virtual conferences.
Which aspect of use of digital technologies would you llike to see more used in ISRM?
Rank optionsFirst choice

Last choice

1. More webinars and online lectures
2. Development of professional
3. More virtual events
4. Fully virtual conferences

Desired general topics for expert lectures of courses to be given in online ISRM courses or in ISRM Lecture Tours. Slope stability. Numerical modelling. Induced seismicity

32

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08

FORTHCOMING
ISRM SPONSORED
CONFERENCES
2023
24-26

May

NROCK2023: The IV Nordic Symposium on Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering
Reykjavik, Iceland

7-10

June

3rd JTC1 Workshop: Impact of global changes on landslide risk
Oslo, Norway

11-13

September10th Nordic Grouting Symposium
Stockholm, Sweden

9-14

October

15th ISRM International Congress on Rock Mechanics
Salzburg, Austria

22-24

November

1st Chilean Congress on Rock Mechanics
Santiago, Chile

2-7

December

1st SLRMES Conference: Rock Mechanics for Infrastructure and Geo-Resources Development
Colombo, Sri Lanka

15-19

July

Eurock 2024: New Challenges in Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering - an ISRM Regional
Symposium
Alicante, Spain

24-28

September

ARMS13 - 13th Asian Rock Mechanics Symposium: Advances in Rock Mechanics - Infrastructure
Development - an ISRM Regional Symposium
New Dehli, India

-

June

Eurock 2025: Expanding the undergroung space. Future development of the sub-surface an ISRM Regional Symposium
Alicante, Spain

17-23

September16th ISRM International Congress on Rock Mechanics
Seoul, Korea

2024

2025

The ISRM holds International Congresses on RockMechanics and Rock Engineering, at four year intervals,
on themes of general interest to the majority of themembership, and sponsors a co-ordinated programof International Symposia, Regional Symposia andSpecialized Conferences organised by National Groupsof the Society.
The annual ISRM International Symposium is chosenfrom the ISRM Regional Symposia that take place in thatyear and is the venue for the annual meetings of theCouncil, Board, and Commissions of the Society. ISRM
Specialized Conferences are events of a smaller nature,
usually focused on a specific theme.

National Groups seeking to host an ISRM Regional
Symposium or Specialized Conference shall submit
a written proposal to the Secretariat, at least one, butpreferably two to three years before the date of theevent. Their organization is ruled by By-law No. 5, andapplication forms are included in specific Guidelines
prepared by the Board, and available on the ISRM
website (https://www. isrm.net/conferencias/submit.
php?show=conf). Since 2018 no financial contribution to
the ISRM is due from ISRM Specialized Conferences.
Proceedings of ISRM conferences are stored in the
ISRM digital library available in the OnePetro platform(onepetro.org).

33

December 2022

09 REPORTS OF ISRM
CONFERENCESIX LARMS
Asunción, Paraguay
The 2022 ISRM International Symposium,
IX Latin-American Rock Mechanics
Symposium (LARMS2022), was held
as a face-to-face event between 16 and19 October 2022 in the Bourbon Hotel,
Asunción, Paraguay. The Symposium wasorganized by the Paraguayan GeotechnicalSociety and chaired by José Pavon (ISRM
Vice-President), co-chaired by Roberto
Andrada (President of the Paraguayan
Society of Geotechnics), Eda Quadros (ISRM
Immediate Past President) was the Honorary
Chairman of the event. It was a very niceconference that followed the previous one
held in South America, back in 1994, in Chile,and after the pandemic issues.
The symposium gathered 170 guests, coauthors and participants, coming from 31
countries from all continents. It started with
an opening address by the ISRM President
Openning speeches by the ISRM President Reşat Ulusay, theProf. Reşat Ulusay, followed by the 2022
conference Honorary Chairwoman Eda Freitas de Quadros, andRocha Medal presentation by Dr. Rhadika De
conference Chariman José Pavón
Silva “Host rock pre-conditioning using nonexplosive demolition agent for in-situ recovery
applications” and the 2022 Franklin Lecture presentation
by Dr Werner Bilfinger “Rock strength degradation intunneling”, which can be found in this News Journal issue.
The main theme of LARMS2022 was “Challenges inRock Mechanics: Towards a Sustainable Developmentof Infrastructure”. In the symposium, consistingof 10 technical sessions, a total of 71 papers were
presented, divided into 10 technical sessions, and sevendistinguished experts delivered the following seven
keynote lectures:

Rocha Medal presentation

Antonio Bobet (Spain USA): Frictional Discontinuities: The Mechanics and Imaging of Slip
Antonio Samaniego (Peru): Experiences and Lessons Learned in Geomechanical Studies for Narrow Vein Underground Mining
Doug Stead (Canada): Progress Toward Understanding Complex Rock Slope Failure Mechanisms
Ismet Canbulat (Australia): Time to Failure of Pillars – a Limited Equilibrium Analysis (virtual presentation)
Nick Barton (Norway): Continuum or Discontinuum – that is the Question
Norikazu Shimizu (Japan): Monitoring Ground Surface Displacements Using Satellite Technology (GPS/GNSS and SAR)
Xia-Ting Feng (China): Rock mechanics for deep engineering (virtual presentation)
The Early Career Forum was a special part of thisevent that involved all the young attendees. In thisforum, nine young speakers selected from eight ISRM
member countries in Latin America (Argentina, Bolivia,
Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, Paraguay,
and Peru) delivered presentations. It was an excellent
opportunity for young researchers and professionals
to interact with distinguished experts. The speakers
34

received their certificates from the ISRM President.
The Rock Mechanics game between university students"RockBowl" had its seventh international edition during
LARMS2022, involving eight teams from different
countries (Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, Peru, andSouth Africa). This exciting competition created an
atmosphere of friendship. The winning team came fromSouth Africa.

NEWS J URNAL
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Winners of the Best Paper Awards
and colleagues

Before LARMS2022, the ISRM Board meeting, twocourses, and ISRM Council meeting were also held in thesame venue between 14-15 October and on 16 October
2022, respectively. Since the majority of the annual
meetings of the ISRM Commissions were held online,
only the meeting of Commission on Testing Methods washeld physically on 16 October in Asunción.
At the Closing Ceremony, the Award for Best Papers(both for General and Youth Categories), and theMilton Kanji Award from the Paraguayan GeotechnicalSociety were delivered to the winners selected by therespective award committees.
During the Welcome Reception Cocktail and Banquet
Gala Dinner, where the ISRM Awards are given as usual,the participants had an excellent opportunity to interact
with each other and establish new relationships. During

the dinner, the new five ISRM Fellows were inductedhonouring them with a wide acknowledgement fromthe rock mechanics and rock engineering society. The
medals and certificates of the new Fellows were handed
to them by the ISRM President. Since some new Fellows
were not able to attend the symposium, the distinctions
were given to colleagues who will deliver them.

EUROCK 2022
Helsinki, Finland

The EUROCK 2022 Symposium with the theme “Rockand Fracture Mechanics in Rock Engineering and Mining”
took place in the Dipoli Conference Center in Espoo,
Finland, on 12-15 September 2022. The conference was
jointly organized by the Finnish National Group of ISRM
(Kalliomekaniikkatoimikunta) and the Finnish Associationof Civil Engineers (RIL). The EUROCK symposia belong
to ISRM regional symposium series organised annually
except every fourth year when ISRM Congress takes
place. The first EUROCK symposium was held in
1992, in Chester, United Kingdom. This was thesecond time the EUROCK Symposium was held in
Finland, the first one wasorganized in 2001, in Espoo.
ISRM actively supported
the symposium with thepresence of Reş at Ulusay(ISRM President), Leandro
Alejano (Vice President
for Europe), Ömer Aydan(Vice President at Large)
and Seokwon Jeon (ISRM
President-Elect). The
opening and closing
speeches were given by the
ISRM President and VP for
Europe, respectively.

35

December 2022

symposium had 312 registered participants from 36
09 Thecountries covering most European countries but also
USA, Canada, China, India, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan,
Australia, Indonesia, United Arab Emirates, Kazakhstan,Israel, Brazil, and Venezuela.

et al. and Ö. Aydan, best paper by a student award to
B. Powlay et al. for their paper “The effect of notcheson breakdown pressure during Hydraulic Fracturing at
various stress regimes” and a runner-up award was given
to A. Kumar A. and Tiwari G.

EUROCK 2022 included 183 presentations of which
128 were oral presentations and 51 were poster
presentations. Presentations were accepted from bothscientific and from technical topics. Scientific topics
allowed longer elaboration and were peer-reviewed by
two reviewers. Technical topics expanded the scopeof the symposium and allowed for a briefer written
reporting. The presentations were delivered over twodays in four parallel sessions. Each day began with two
keynote speeches given by Sanna Mustonen, Caroline
Darcel, Michael Di Giovinazzo, and John Harrison on
geological disposal of nuclear waste, inputs of discrete
fracture networks, practical rock engineering, andEurocode 7, respectively.

On the day prior to the conference four short courses
were arranged on current topics such as 2D/3Dmodelling of fracturing processes, photogrammetry
for rock mass characterization, and modern rockengineering principles; a workshop on “Recent ISRM
Suggested Methods and Future Prospects” wasalso organized by the ISRM Commission on Testing
Methods. On the day after the Symposium four technicalexcursions were arranged to the Sulkavuori undergroundwater purification facility and the Sandvik test mine in
Tampere, the Underground Research Laboratory of Aalto
University (URLA) and the VTT underground researchtunnels, the Katri Vala underground heating and coolingplant and the Merihaka civil defence shelter.

The proceedings consist of 132 accepted scientificpapers that were evaluated and reviewed with the
ExOrdo management system under themes ranging
from Field and laboratory investigations to Rock mass
characterization to Modelling to Rock mass behaviour
including Support, Drilling, Geological disposal of
spent nuclear fuel, Geophysics and Education as well
as Case studies.

The ISRM Commission on Testing Methods organizeda workshop on “Recent ISRM Suggested Methods
and Future Prospects” on 12 September 2022, before
EUROCK2022. With the aid of nine presentations,the aim of the workshop was to provide a forum of
discussion on the contents of some selected new andrevised ISRM Suggested Methods, the procedures which
can be future prospective Suggested Methods and thepractical implementation, feedback analysis and paths
for improvement of the ISRM Suggested Methods. The
workshop was chaired by the Commission President
Resat Ulusay and was attended by 41 participants from17 countries. All presentations were recorded in video
and are available in the ISRM website(https://isrm.net/page/show/1652).

A total of five awards were issued: best paper award to
L. Jacobsson and M. Godio for their paper “Measuring
the hydraulic transmissivity of a rock joint under varying
normal load”, two runner-up best papers to S. Morajev

Participants in the ISRM Commission on Testing Methods Workshop

Best paper award
Visit to the Sulkavuori wasterwater treatment plant36NEWS J URNAL
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09

ARMS12
Hanoi, Vietnam

Under the ISRM sponsorship, the 12th Asian RockMechanics Symposium ARMS12was jointly organized by
Vietnamese Society for Rock Mechanics (VSRM), PetroVietnam University (PVU) and ISRM, and co-supported by
the Vietnam Institute of Geological Sciences. It was held
between 23 and 24 November at the Army Hotel, locatedin the imperial citadel of Thang Long (world’s heritage),in Hanoi, Vietnam. The symposium was supported by six
companies. ISRM also actively supported the symposiumwith the presence of Reşat Ulusay (ISRM President),
Suseno Kramadibrata (ISRM Vice President for Asia) and
Seokwon Jeon (ISRM President-Elect).
The symposium theme was “Rock Mechanics andEngineering - Contemporary Issues”. About 100
participants from 15 countries located in Asia, Europe,
North America and Australia attended the event. A totalof 66 abstracts were received and 35 papers were
presented in the symposium and published in the hardcover symposium proceedings that were distributed toparticipants during the event. The opening ceremony of
the Symposium was chaired by Reşat Ulusay, Suseno
Kramadibrata and Prof. Do Nhu Trang (President of VSRM)
and the opening speech was given by the ISRM President.
In this symposium, six parallel sessions on the topics ofrock properties and testing methods, rock mechanics
and engineering in mining, tunnel and undergroundconstruction, geohazards (landslides, debris flows) androck slope stability, rock mechanics and engineeringin drilling and rock properties-numerical simulations
were held. In addition, five keynote lectures weredelivered by Reşat Ulusay on Future trends in rocktesting and characterization, Suseno Kramadibrata on
Geomechanics risk management system in Indonesianmining, Seokwon Jeon on Advances on rock excavation
technology, Manchao He on Material innovation
to engineering revolution, and Pinnaduwa H.S.W.
Kulatilake on Stability and rock support assessment foran underground mine.

After the closing session, chaired by the ISRM President
and ISRM VP for Asia; the Asian Council Meeting washeld with the participation of the presidents and/or
representatives of the national groups from Asia andchaired by Suseno Kramadibrata and then a city tour in
Hanoi city was organized for the participants.

ARMS12 opening session

ISRM President opening speech

ARMS12 opening session

Group photo37

December 2022

2022
09 AUSROCK
Melbourne, Australia
The Conference had 354 registered delegates from19 countries, including Brazil, Canada, Chile, China,
Germany, India, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, Japan, Kazakhstan,
New Zealand, Norway, Singapore, South Africa, Turkey,
the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia.
It is noted that this is a record number of all AusRock
Conference Series.
There were over 80 papers presented in parallelsessions during the conference. The session topics
were ground control and support, dynamic eventsand managing large deformations, geotechnicalinstrumentation and monitoring, data management,laboratory experimentation, planetary rockmechanics, slope stability, mine design – geotechnicalconsiderations, and numerical modelling.
The AusIMM President Dave Clark and President-Elect
Nicole Brook, and ISRM VP At Large Prof Ömer Aydan
also attended the Conference. Ismet Canbulat andSerkan Saydam from the University of New South Wales,
Australia co-chaired the Conference.
The Conference opened by Ismet Canbulat welcoming
the delegates. The AusIMM CEO Stephen Durkin also
welcomed the delegates on behalf of the AusIMM. Reşat
Ulusay, the President of the ISRM, officially opened theConference with a video message. Serkan Saydam thenintroduced the first keynote speaker. Keynote speakers
and respective talk titles are listed below.

Ismet Canbulat and Serkan Saydam, AusRock 2022 Co-Chairs

Rigoberto Rimmelin from the Practice Lead Global Geotechnical and Resource Centre of Excellence of
BHPH: “Slope performance monitoring - Predictive tools to enable business continuity”
Rae O’Brien, Executive General Manager of Mining Excellence of Centennial: “Resources today, resources
tomorrow”
Bruce Hebblewhite from UNSW: “Mining geomechanics – A retrospective look toward the future”
Robert Anderson from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory: “Characterizing the geomechanical properties ofplanetary objects”
Charlie Li from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology: “Evolution of ground support andissues in the current rockburst support systems”
Alison McQuillan, Director of Rocscience Australia: “Does a FOS of 1.2 mean your slope will be stable?”38

NEWS J URNAL
ISRM

The panel discussion was organised before the closing
session. The panel topic was “Future of GroundEngineering” and was moderated by Murat Karakus fromthe University of Adelaide. The panellists were Sarah
Webster, Diana Carroll, Patrycja Sheffield and Joung Oh.

The AusRock 2022 Conference had two awards. The
Best Paper Presentation Award was won by Matthew
Woods from Newcrest Mining Ltd. Matthews paper titled“Measuring the influence of a sub-level cave on open
stoping at Telfer”. The Conference also had the Best
Early Career Paper Presentation award, which was won
by Dr Honghao Chen from UNSW. His paper titled “Studyof prevention methods for stress corrosion cracking inunderground coal mines”.

TUNIROCK 2022
Hammamet, Tunisia

The Second International Conference on “Advances inRock Mechanics” TuniRock 2022, an ISRM Specialized
Conference, was held in the very nice city of Hammamet,
Tunisia, from 25 to 27 March. This is the Second
International Conference organized by the TunisianSociety for Rock Mechanics (http://www.atmr.tn/)
since its creation in 2012 and affiliation within ISRM
as a National Group in 2013. In total, 28 papers were
included in the TuniRock 2022 proceedings coming from
Cameroun, China, France, Lebanon, Madagascar, Russia,
Tunisia and Turkey. Papers dealt with rock mechanics
and rock engineering research and applications. Mining,

Civil and Petroleum Engineering industries were also
included. The main topics of the conference wereSite Investigation Technology, Laboratory and in-Situ
Testing, Rock Mechanics in Civil, Mining and Petroleum
industries, Analytical and Numerical Modeling of RockMechanics Problems and finally, Risks and Hazards.
Reginald Hammah, Director RocScience Africa, delivered
one Short one-day courses on “Fundamentals of Rock
Slope Stability Analysis using Numerical Methods”. In
total, 17 engineers and PhD students from administration,
phosphates national company, university and consulting
firms attended the course.

Rock Characterization and Testing and Future Trends: Highlighting the ISRM Suggested Methods, by Prof.
Reşat Ulusay, Hacettepe University, Department of Geological Enginering; Ankara (Turkey)
Advanced Techniques for deep hard rock geothermal drilling, by Prof. Hédi Sellami, Mines Paris – PSL (France)Stress, Structures and Deformations: The case of the occidental Mediterranean Sea and Surrounding Area,by Prof. Farhat Rekhiss, National Engineering School at Sfax (Tunisia)

3909

December 2022

three Keynote lectures were delivered during
09 Moreover,
the TuniRock 2022 Conference:
A Best Paper award was delivered to Hajer Bannour
on “Waste Disposal Facility on Limestone Deposit:
case of study and how to reinforce it for Environmental
Considerations?”.

The Tunisian Society for Rock Mechanics is grateful tothe organizing and scientific committees as well as tospeakers and keynote lecturers for taking time to share
their knowledge within this major event. Thanks are also
due to the President of ISRM, Reşat Ulusay and to the
ISRM Secretary General Luis Lamas for their support.

Best Paper Award to
Hajer Bannour.
TuniRock 2022 group photo

5th SYMPOSIUM OF THE
MACEDONIAN ASSOCIATION OF
GEOTECHNICS
Ohrid, Macedonia

The first ISRM event fully to be realized in-situ after
the one in Ljubljana in January 2020 was again in
the Balkans. After several postponements due to thepandemic in the past two years, the Fifth Symposiumof the Macedonian Association for Geotechnics (MAG)has ultimately took place between 23 and 25 June, inthe Metropol Resort on the shore of the Ohrid Lake, oneof the oldest and deepest European tectonic lakes, withnumerous sites to explore, not just from a geotechnicalpoint of view, since the city of Ohrid and its region are
UNESCO’s World Natural and Cultural Heritage.
From the very beginning of its planning (already in2019), it was supported by the ISRM, so it took theform of the ISRM Specialized Conference, entitled“Engineering problems in soft rocks”. At the sametime, it was the Second Conference of the regional
geotechnical societies (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia,
Macedonia, Serbia and Slovenia) and was promotedby the International Society for Soil Mechanics andGeotechnical Engineering (ISSMGE). As such, it wasrecognized as an excellent opportunity to get acquainted
with the activities of a solid number of associations,and also among the sister societies, so the presidents of40

ISRM, Reşat Ulusay, and of ISSMGE, the recently elected
Marc Ballouz, participated and, besides delivering
opening speeches and keynote lectures, practicallyestablished their first contact. On the sidelines of thesymposium, they met also with high officials of othersocieties as well, such as of Bulgaria, Albania, Hungary,
Poland, Kazakhstan, which representatives were alsopresent in Ohrid.
The past pandemic conditions led to a strong interestin participating. Thus, 94 papers were published in
the proceedings (also available online), including one
introductory, four keynote and six invited lectures byMilorad Jovanovski; Marc Ballouz, Nick Barton, Heinz
Brandl, Resat Ulusay, Anna Maria Ferrero, Radomir Folic,Vojkan Jovicic, Ahmet Saglamer, Ivan Vrkljan and Askar
Zhussupbekov. 220 guests, co-authors and participants
came from 30 countries from all of the continents.
The papers were presented, either in one of the nineoral sessions, or in a poster session, followed by vivid
discussions in a friendly atmosphere.
The ambient of the conference hall was enriched withbooths of several domestic, regional and international
companies, who, together with the sponsors, generously
supported the organizers in their plans to have an
attractive event. The cultural program was based onmusic as there were traditional songs at the Opening
ceremony, while folklore dance and music wasscheduled for the initial warming up of the participantsNEWS J URNAL
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at the Conference dinner, after which – as could
be guessed – rock music was played and followedby many, not necessarily young, participants.
The conference program also included a boat trip
along Ohrid Lake, with guided tour to Ohrid andsightseeing of one of the several settlements overwooden pile structure built above the lake about3000 years ago.
This event also gave opportunity to deliver plaquesfor Honorary members of MAG to Resat Ulusay, Ivan
Vrkljan and Radomir Folic. Later, Resat Ulusay, andtwo ISRM Past Vice Presidents, Ivan Vrkljan andNorikazu Shimizu, had a meeting with the Dean of theFaculty of Civil Engineering in Skopje.
All these numbers and realization encourage
the hosts to apply for organizing events of ahigher category. But what made all the guests
especially happy is the new dimension of thesymposium. Namely, as a special benefit fromit, the opportunities that were served to theyoung colleagues should be pointed out: several
companies, institutions and firms offered financial
and material support for the preparation of diploma
theses, seminar works and master theses, andcovering registration fees for participation atinternational conferences. It was an additional value
and motivating for further gatherings, especiallyafter the very complex period which – we believe– we have left back in the history, as “there isnothing stronger on Earth than the rock; only – thehuman being”.

ISSMGE and ISRM Presidents

41

December 2022

09 ROCDYN-4
Xuzhou, China

The Fourth International Conference on RockDynamics and Applications (RocDyn-4), a
specialized symposium of the International
Society for Rock Mechanics and RockEngineering (ISRM), was held on 17-19 August2022 in Xuzhou China. The conference was organizedby China University of Mining and Technology in Xuzhou
and Southeast University in Nanjing, in association
with ISRM Commission on Rock Dynamics. It was

The conference received over 200 abstracts
and finally accepted 152 papers from morethan 20 countries. The topics covered range
from theories, testing and modelling toengineering, reflecting the progress and theprospect of rock dynamics as suggested by
the title of the conference.
RocDyn-4 attracted more than 300 participants, witha hybrid on-site and on-line attendance format. The
program included 9 keynote lectures, 7 Young Scholars
Plenary Presentations, and 66 presentations in four

RocDyn-4 international conference on-site venue and some of the more than 100 online delegates

supported by Nanyang Technological University, Chinese
Society for Rock Mechanics and Engineering (CSRME),
State Key Laboratory for Geomechanics and Deep
Underground Engineering, Yunlong Lake Laboratory of
Deep Underground Science and Engineering, and an
International Advisory Committee overseeing the RocDyn
conference series.
The main theme of RocDyn-4 is“Rock Dynamics:
Progress and Prospect”, with the aim to take stock of
the significant progress that rock dynamics has madesince the formation of the ISRM Commission on RockDynamics in 2008, examine new research areas andapplications, and look to the future of rock dynamics.

Awards for the YSPS winners handed by Jianchun Li (left) andYingxin Zhou (right)

42

parallel sessions, namely, experimental testing andtechniques, analysis and theoretical development,
numerical modelling and methods, and rock engineering
applications. The 9 keynote speakers were: Ömer Aydan
on Earthquakes, Manchao He on Rockburst support,
Jonny Rutqvist on fault activation and seismicity,
Yulong Li on electromagnetic Hopkinson bar, Alexander
Spathis on blasting, Larisa Nazarova on mining-induced
seismicity, Gaofeng Zhao on rock dynamic modelling,
Petr Konicek on destress blasting, and Zhanguo Ma on
longwall mining support. For the first time, RocDyn-4
featured a Young Scholars Plenary Session (YSPS),
with the speakers selected based on submitted papers
and recommendations by the Scientific Committee.
Significantly, most of the 66 oral presentations weremade by students and young researchers and engineers.
At the end of the conference, a short visit to the mountainin-situ experiment base of Yunlong Lake Laboratory wasscheduled for all the on-site delegates.

Visit to the mountain in-situ Yunlong Lake Laboratory in Xuzhou

NEWS J URNAL
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09

9th BRAZILIAN ROCK MECHANICSSYMPOSIUM
Campinas, Brazil

The 9th edition of the Brazilian Rock Mechanics
Symposium (IX SBMR) was held in August 23-26th 2022
in the city of Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil. The central
theme of the event was “Innovation and Technology inRock Engineering”.
This event represents
the most importantBrazilian meeting forthe presentation anddiscussion of scientific andtechnological research,
projects and works in
Rock Mechanics, andoccurs in parallel with the20th Brazilian Congressof Soil Mechanics andGeotechnical Engineering,
4th Brazilian Symposiumof Young GeotechnicalEngineers and the
6th South American
Conference of Young
Geotechnical Engineersand 11th Luso-Brazilian Congress of Geotechnics.
The main technical topics of this edition of IX SBMR were:Field and laboratory investigations in rock mechanics
Foundations, excavations, and slopes in rocks
Rock mechanics for mining
Rock mechanics for tunnels
Rock mechanics for petroleum geomechanics
New technologies in rock mechanics
Soft rock mechanics
Rock mechanics applied to dams
Rock as a building material
The IX SBMR featured two short courses in its
programming. The former president of the Brazilian Rck
Mechanivs Committee (CBMR), Lineu Ayres da Silva
will teach the course “Rock Blasting by Explosives
in Urban and Underwater Areas”. The course“Fundamental Aspects to the Study of Rock Mechanics”,
to be taught by Carlos Emmanuel Lautenschläger(CBMR Vice-President) will be aimed at students andyoung professionals.

As a tradition of CBMR in its most important national
event, a RockBowl competition for university students
took place during SBMR 2022. This 5th national editionof Rockbowl was again be sponsored by Geobrugg.
The event took place at Expo Dom Pedro, privileged
location in the city of Campinas, which is ranked as thetenth wealthiest city in Brazil and is the main economic
and cultural driver within the region, being remarkablefor its life quality indicators and growth potential.
This will be the first edition of SBMR after theInternational Congress of Rock Mechanics and RockEngineering (ISRM 2019), held in Foz do Igtaçu. It
was an excellent opportunity to discuss the state ofknowledge in rock engineering considering the latest
international experiences.

43

December 2022

09 COUFRAC 2022
Berkeley, USA

The 3rd International Conference on Coupled Processes
in Fractured Geological Media: Observation, Modeling,and Application (CouFrac) took place at Berkeley Lab andonline everywhere else on November 14-16. Berkeley Lab
Research Scientist Mengsu Hu led the conference alongwith Berkeley Lab Senior Scientists Carl Steefel andJonny Rutqvist to explore the exciting new advances inall areas of coupled processes associated with fractured
geological media.
The conference was sponsored by both American
Rock Mechanics Association (ARMA) and International
Society for Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering(ISRM). It was the result of 11 months of effort andpreparation by these Berkeley Lab co-chairs, who werejoined in their efforts by Ki-Bok Min (Seoul National
University), Antonio Pio Rinaldi (ETH Zürich), Pengzhi
Pan (Institute of Rock and Soil Mechanics, CAS),
Hideaki Yasuhara (Ehime University), and 43 organizing
committee members and session conveners. The
conference was a great success, with 256 participants(including 150 onsite and 106 online) from 32 countries
and regions.

Attendees of the CouFrac 2022 Conference.

44NEWS J URNAL
ISRM

The conference included a discussion of “Carbon
Neutrality” with panel members Derek Elsworth,
Dongxiao Zhang, Maurice Dusseault, Hajime Yamamoto,
Ranjith Gamage. Also included were six keynote lectures
given by Chin-Fu Tsang, Wenlu Zhu, Janos Urai, Mark
Zoback, Patrick Selvadurai, and Jishan Liu, and seven
Distinguished Invited Lectures given by Christopher
Spiers, David Nolte, Hari Viswanathan, Hongkyu
Yoon, Yuxing Ben, Gregory Beroza and Nantheera
Anantrasirichai. Peter Kang from University of Minnesota
gave the Chin-Fu Tsang Award Lecture, and Cyprien
Soulaine, Anna Suzuki, Xuhai Tang, Sehyeok Park,
Harrison Lisabeth, and Luke P. Frash gave Emerging
Scientist Plenary Lectures. Berkeley Lab Affiliate
Scientist Tim Kneafsey delivered a Distinguished
Banquet Speech highlighting personal and professional
experiences in investigating coupled processes.

The conference included 24 technical sessions with118 talks (including 7 invited lectures), 6 virtual poster
sessions with 44 virtual posters, and an onsite poster
session with 26 posters. The conference program
covered a wide range of classic topics relevant tocoupled processes in fractured media, including
numerical modeling, lab tests, field tests, hydraulicfracturing, flow and transport, induced seismicity,
geothermal energy, nuclear waste disposal, and carbon
sequestration. In addition, several sessions new
to CouFrac2022 were developed by the organizing
committee members and session conveners, including
machine learning, hydrogen storage, Earth’s criticalzone, shearing of fractures, reactive transport, saltmechanics and science, and clay and shale.
The 2022 Chin-Fu Tsang Coupled Processes Award—
named after Berkeley Lab Senior Scientist Emeritus
Chin-Fu Tsang was given to Peter K. Kang of the
University of Minnesota who
was selected from among
12 outstanding international
nominees. The Chin-Fu Tsang
Award, which will be given
at all subsequent CouFrac
conferences, was created
to recognize outstanding
contributions from early career
geoscientists investigating
thermal-hydrologicalmechanical-chemical (THMC)
coupling in fractured rock.

Keynote lecture by Chin-Fu Tsang

CouFrac 2022 Virtual Poster Session moderated by Roman Makhnenko

45

09

December 2022

10 ISRM TECHNICALOVERSIGHT COMMITTEE
2022 ANNUAL REPORT
Laura J. Pyrak-Nolte, Chair, VP for North America
Leandro R. Alejano, Member, VP for EuropeÖmer Aydan, Member, VP at Large
1. INTRODUCTION

high standards, the ISRM Board created the TechnicalOversight Committee (here in referred to as “the TOC”),
to report on the performance and to act as oversightfor the commissions. The TOC assesses commission
performance based on commission-generated Annual
Reports by the chair of each commission.

The ISRM has established technical commissions tostudy scientific and technical matters of interest to theSociety. ISRM commissions cover different topics, sothey are varied in terms of their aims, type of activities,
membership and products. In recognition of the criticalrole of the ISRM commissions for the achievementof the ISRM goals of international collaboration,
advancement of rock mechanics and the promotion ofThis report contains the TOC’s assessments of thecommission for the 2021-2022 and planned activities forthe next year.

TABLE 1. ISRM TECHNICAL COMMISSIONS
Commission Name

Year Established

Rating

2018
2011
2019
pre 2004
20112019
pre 2012
2019
2010
2007
2019
2019
2021
~1970s2012

Excellent
Very Good
Very Good
Very Good
Excellent
Good
Poor
Poor
Poor
Very GoodGood
Poor
Very Good
ExcellentGood

1. Coupled Processes in Fractured Rock (CTHMCPFR)
2. Crustal Stress & Earthquakes (CSE)
3. Deep Mining (DeepM)
4. Design Methodology (DM)
5. Discontinuous Deformation Analysis (DDA)
6. Planetary Rock Mechanics (PRM)
7. Preservation of Ancient Sites (PAS)
8. Rockbursts (RB)
9. Radioactive Waste (RW)
10. Rock Dynamics (RD)
11. Rock Grouting (RG)
12. Soft Rock (SR)
13. Sorptive Rock (SORPROC)
14. Testing Methods (TM)
15. Underground Nuclear Power Plants (UNPP)

Commission Members by Commission
2020

43

45

2021

40

2022

35
30

26

25
20

18

17

18

14

15

14

13

13

17

19

17

12

11

11

10
5

46

C
O
PR
R

N

TM

SR

D
R
W

D
R

R
B

PA
S

R
G

PR
M

D
A

m
D

D

U

D

ee

pM

SE
C

PP
SO

C

TH

M

C

PF

R

0

NEWS J URNAL
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2. CURRENT TECHNICAL COMMISSIONSThe TOC reviewed the composition of the commissions
to assess and encourage diversity in participationfrom different national groups (Figure 2). For 20212022, 36 national groups have members on a technicalcommission with China and the United States ofAmerica (USA) making the largest contributions tothe commissions. If analyzed by region (Figure 3),
Asia and Europe have the strongest participation in
the commissions. However, participation from Europe
has decreased 22% while members from Asia haveincreased by 24%.

There are 15 ISRM technical commissions (Table 1) with
266 commission members from 36 different nationalgroups. Table 1 contains a list of current commissions,the year the commission was established and the ratingof the performance of each commission.
Commissions are typically composed of 12-15
members (Figure 1). The Commission on Coupled
Processes in Fractured Rock (CTHMCPFR) has nearly
43 members because of their strong commitment toencouraging participation by early- and mid- career
scientist and engineers.

Commission Members by Country

80

73

Series 1

70

Series 2

60

Series 3

50
40

31

30
11

UK

4

USA

TUNISIA1
VIETNAM

1
TURKEY1
TAIWAN

4

SWITZERLANDSLOVENIA

SPAIN

2

9

5

SWEDEN1

SOUTH AFRICA

3 3
RUSSIA

3

SINGAPORE

1PERU

NETHERLANDS

2POLAND

1

5

NORWAY

1
KOREA

1

MEXICOITALYISRAEL0

KASAHKISTAN

25PORTUGAL

11

7

INDIA

3

INDONESIA

0GREECE

5HONG KONG

CHILE

CHINA

CZECH

BRAZILCANADA

AUSTRALIA

06

FRANCE

1

0

5

GERMANY

4

FINLAND

1

5

CROATIA

2
AUSTRIA

10

17

14

JAPAN

15

BELGIUM

20

Commission Members by Region

113

118

2020

95

2021

94

2022
75

73

40

2

2
AFRICA

3

11
ASIA

14

44

45

15

AUSTRALASIA

13EUROPENORTH AMERICA

1412

SOUTH AMERICA

47

10

December 2022

number of regions represented on each commission
10 Theis shown in Figure 4 and the number of members from a

3. SUMMARY OF COMMISSION ACTIVITIESPrevious TOCs developed a standard template for the
Annual report to provide awareness of a commission’s
activities, products, and progress during the year. The
rating for each commission is based on the TOC’s reviewof the annual reports.

particular region for each commission is shown in Figure
5. The commissions on Deep Mining (DeepM), RockBurst (RB) and Test Methods have good representation
with member from all six regions while Radioactive
Waste (RWD) now has members from 4 regions.

Commission Regions per Commission
2020
6

2021
2022

5

4

3

2

1

C
R

PR

O

PP
U

N

TM

SR

D

R

R
W

D

B
R

G

R

M

PA
S

D

PR

D
A

m

C

SO

TH

M

D

ee

D

pM

SE
C

C

PF

R

0

Commission Membership by Regions 2022

S. AMERICA

16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0

N. AMERICAEUROPE
AUSTRALASIA
ASIA

22

R

PR

O

C

PP
22

22

U
N

TM

22

SO
AFRICA

48

SR

22
R
W

D

22

22

R
D

B
R

2
PA
S2

R
22
G

22
M
PR

D
D
A
22

D

m

22

22
pM

ee

D

C
TH

M

C

PF
R
22
C
SE
22

AFRICAASIA

AUSTRALASIAEUROPENORTH AMERICA

SOUTH AMERICA

NEWS J URNAL
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4. SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS
4.1 ISRM Commission Activity Summary

All 15 commissions produced an annual report describing
the commission activities for 2021-2022 and planned
activities for 2022-23.
Most of the commissions are performing at a highlevel or at a sufficient level with no major concerns.
While several commissions continue to perform at avery high/high level of activity with no major concerns(e.g. Coupled Processes in Rock (CTTHMCPFR),
Discontinuous Deformation Analysis (DDA), RockDynamics (RD) and Testing Methods (TM)), a few
commissions have shown a decrease in productivity
and performance (Preservation of Ancient Sites (PSA),Radioactive Waste (RWD) and Soft Rock (SR)). The
relatively new commission on RockBurst (RB) has showna decrease in productivity.

In 2021, the Commission on Preservation Ancient
Sites (PAS) was advised to make significant changes
in the operation and increase the productivity of thecommission to avoid dissolution. This commission
membership is not sufficiently diverse (different
countries, academic versus industry, rock mechanics
specialists, gender, etc.) and all publications have been
in Chinese. The TOC recommends dissolution of the
PAS commission.

The TOC continues to monitor the diversity of thecommissions. Diversity is used in the broadest sense andincludes gender, ISRM region, area of study, academicindustry-national laboratories, academic heritage,etc. The TOC encourages all commissions to seek out
interested members from Africa and South America toparticipate in the commissions and to encourage womento participate in commissions. Commissions that needto broaden regional diversity include Crustal Stresses
and Earthquakes (CSE), Preservation of Ancient Sites(PSA) and Soft Rock (SR) because their membershipis from < 3 regions. A concern are commissions
dominated by members from a single country (Figure6). A suggestion is that membership from a single
country should be ~ 30% or below of the total numberof members.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic continues todecrease with many commissions meeting in person
in addition to virtual meetings. The TOC strongly
commends the commissions for finding virtualapproaches to continue the activities and productivity of
the commissions.
A good number of activities including conferences,meetings, workshops, courses, forums, publication of
relevant journal special issues and suggested methods
are planned by the Commissions for next year.

Most Members from a Single Country
Total Commission Membership

0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1

UNPP22SORPROC22

TM22

SR22

RWD22

RD22

RB22

GR22

PA22S

PRM22

DDA22

Dm22

DeepM22CSE22

CTHMCPFR22

0

Fig 6. Fraction of members from a single country relative to members for a commission for 202249

December 2022

10 4.2 Overview of ISRM Commission Activity Summary
Publications

The commission on Underground Nuclear Power
Plants (UNPP) published a book in October 2022. The
Commission of Testing Methods (TM) will also publish
a book when around 15 new Suggested Methods are
published. The last book was published in 2015 (theOrange Book) and the new one is expected in one or two
years. The TM commission has a suggested methods(SM) publication in preparation: Dynamic Shear Testingof Rock Discontinuities and Interface, and several new
SM proposals: “Determining strength, deformation andtoughness parameters of rock reinforcement tendons
under an impulsive load- Method 1: Mass Freefall (MF)
Method”, “Scale Linear Rock Cutting Test’, Quantitative
Description of Discontinuities in Rock Masses”, “In-Situ
Determination of the Shear Strength of Discontinuities
and Interfaces”, “Direct Tensile Strength Test”, “Triaxial
Compression Testing of Shales and Mudstones”,“Saturation of Rocks”, “Determining the dynamic shear
strength and mode II fracture toughness of rock materials
using the Split Hopkinson Pressure Bar (SHPB)”.
The Commission on Coupled Thermal-HydroMechanical-Chemical Processes in Fractured Rockpublished four special issues of international journals
that include Journal of Rock Mechanics and GeotechnicalEngineering (19 papers), Rock Mechanics and RockEngineering (10 papers), Computational Geosciences(11 papers), and Tunnelling and Underground SpaceTechnology (13 papers), and were completed andpublished by October 2020. This Commission isplanning a a special issue in the international journal
Geomechanics for Energy and the Environment in thespring of 2022.
Conferences, Workshops, Short Courses

The Commission on Coupled Processes (CTHMCPFR)
has organized a hybrid Conference “CouFrac-2022”
at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley,
California that will be held in November 2022
The Commission on DDA held the First Graduate Forumfor Discontinuous Deformation Analysis (online) June
2022; the 16th International Conference on Analysis
of Discontinuous Deformation (ICADD-16), Nov. 2022
in China; a short course of four-dimensional latticespring model (4D-LSM) Aug. 2022, during RocDyn-4 in
China. Organized: a session “Discontinuous deformation
analysis in geotechnical engineering” for China Rock2022, Organized: training course on discrete numericalsimulation tool “NumbericalBox3D” during China Rock
Oct. 2022; and several online lectures.

50

The Commission on Testing Methods held the Workshop
entitled “Recent ISRM Suggested Methods and Future
Prospects” in Aalto University, Espoo, Helsinki, Finland
on 12 September 2022, the day before the startingof the European ISRM Congress Eurock 2022. This
workshop provided a forum of discussion with the aid ofpresentations on the content of some selected new andrevised ISRM Suggested Methods. The idea was also
to serve as a platform to initiate and enhance further
interests on SMs among ISRM members. Reşat Ulusay,
Chairman of the Commission and ISRM President,
moderated this workshop. 41 persons from 17 countries
attended the workshop, including 8 members of theCommission. Moreover, the workshop was video
recorded and hung in the ISRM webpage.
15 of the 16 commissions have held Workshops ororganized sessions at major conferences on their topic
of interest.
In a 2021 virtual meeting of TOC with Commissions’chairmen, Commissions were encouraged to produce
short courses and some guidelines were provided.
A 5-part video course on ISRM website on Crustal
Stress Assessment and its Application in Engineeringand Earthquake Research was created by the CSE
commission, and a 9-part video course “Rock Failure
Behavior and Control in Deep Mining” (with 200-400
views) posted on Commission’s YouTube channel by the
DeepM commission.
4.3 Discontinued Commissions/Inactive Commissions
2020-2021

The commission on the Evolution of EuroCode 7 and
Preservation of Ancient Sites has been dissolved by the
President of the ISRM.
4.4 Activities of the ISRM TOC

In 2022, the TOC assessed all reports that werereceived from the 15 technical commissions and helda meeting of the TOC at EuroRock in Helsinki, Finland
to discuss the commissions.
4.5 TOC Goals for 2022-2023

The TOC plans to hold a meeting at in 2022 with all
available commission chairs to encourage their work,
address questions, to facilitate collaboration among thecommissions and to assess progress on video lecturesand commission collaboration.

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ISRM EDUCATIONFUND COMMITTEE
2022 ANNUAL REPORT
Qiang Yang | EFC ChairEDUCATION FUND COMMITTEE (EFC)

The objective of the ISRM Education Fund is tofurther the ISRM’s mission, by enhancing educationin Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering. It will dothis by planning, funding, coordinating and conducting
educational activities for the benefit of the ISRM
community. The ISRM Education Fund is managed by
the ISRM Education Fund Committee. Qian Yang is the
Chairman of EFC and the other EFC members for theterm 2019-2023 are Manchao He, Seokwon Jeon, José
Pavón, Ismet Canbulat, and Luís Lamas.

The 7th Early Career Forum, chaired by José Pavón,
was successfully included in the IX Latin American
Rock Mechanics Symposium, in Asunción, Paraguay.
On this occasion, nine participants were nominated by
ISRM National Groups from Latin America, including
representatives from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile,
Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, Paraguay, and Peru. It wasan exciting opportunity for those who are still starting
their careers to share ideas and knowledge with those
who have a great and successful experience in the field.

The nine young delegates attending the 7th Early Career Forum are below:

Juan Cruz Barría Argentina | Mechanical and microstructural behavior of cement-rock interface for CO2
geological storage
Vladimir Ugarte Ontiveros Bolivia | Shales and slates of El Sillar, Bolivia: Description of degradation processes
Kimie Suzuki Morales Chile | Use of statistical techniques for improving rock mass characterization
Maria Elena Valencia Vera Chile | Machine learning in mining: Uses and techniques applied in geomechanics
Roy Ruiz Vásquez Costa Rica | Geotechnical design of temporary support for a drinking water transfer tunnel
Hazel Gonzalez Mexico | Modeling of the damage in the contour of tunnels caused by the use of blasting using the DEM
Nicolás Zabrodiec Paraguay | Evaluation of tip bearing capacity of bored piles embedded in the Vallemí-Cambajhopó
limestone formation
Victor Vergara Peru | Geotechnical Design Strategies in Open Pit Mine with the Presence of Old Underground Excavations
MANAGEMENT OF EDUCATION FUND

Qiang Yang has successfully raised a fund of 100 000
RMB (about $15 450) to the EFC Beijing office. The total
amount of $15000 was used to support the 7th Early
Career Forum.
EARLY CAREER FORUM

The ECF is an ISRM Education Fund initiative that occurs
during the ISRM Regional Symposiums. Its objective
is to promote the participation of outstanding young
researchers and/or practitioners in rock mechanics androck engineering from the region in a technical session
with a special format.

SPECIAL EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITY IN
AUSROCK2022

Two EFC Activities associated with AusRock 2022 wereorganized by Prof. Ismet Canbulat. A young professional
focused webinar on Digitalisation and Integrated
Visualisation was held on June 9, 2022, and a panel
discussion on education, training, and professional
development was arranged.

51

December 2022

12 ISRM YOUNG MEMBERS COMMITTEE
2022 ANNUAL REPORT
Sevda Dehkhoda, Chair
Vojkan Jovicic
Michael du Plessis
INTRODUCTIONISRM YOUNG MEMBERS SEMINAR SERIESThe goals of the ISRM Young Members’ Committee (YMC)
have been as follows:. Attracting and engaging with young members of the society. Providing platforms for networking and connection ofyoung members. Building opportunities for technical and professional
learning and development. Showcasing and celebrating the achievements ofyoung members. Attracting future generation into the discipline and. Enhancing the recognition of the profession within thegeneral public

Since its establishment in November 2021, the ISRM
Young Members’ Seminar Series have provided platform
for young members to collaborate and showcase theachievements of their peers. In year 2022, the organizing
committee delivered 11 live seminars with 22 speakers
from all over the world. The recordings of thesepresentations are available on ISRM Young Members
YouTube channel @isrmyoungmemberschannel7287.

In line with set objectives, the Committee’s major
activities for the year 2022 have been:. Providing advisory role to the organizing committee of
ISRM Young Members’ Seminar Series. Collaboration with ISRM Education Fund committee inorganization of Early Career Forum. Coordination of the selection committee of ISRM YoungRock Engineer award. 2022 ISRM members’ survey

52

Young members interested in this event are encouraged
to contact YMC and the organizing committee through
ISRM.YM.Seminar@gmail.com. Criteria for the speakers
are as below:. be an ISRM member. have a maximum age of 35 years, or of 40 years if a
PhD degree was obtained in the previous 5 years;. have worked in rock mechanics and rock engineering
for a period no longer than ten years.
The ISRM Young Members’ Seminar Series has been
managed by an Organizing Committee, composed ofyoung ISRM members from all ISRM regions. The main
duties of the Organizing Committee are to select the
topics of the seminars, to approve the speakers and toplan, manage, and promote the seminars.

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LIST OF 2022 ISRM YOUNG MEMBERS SEMINAR SERIES

26-JanModelling the time dependent behaviour of fractured zone around underground storage structure inargilites, by Sophie Jung (France)
Challenges in the Lyon-Turin base tunnel project, by Alessandra Insana (Italy)

23-FebDevelopment of coupled thermal-hydraulic-mechanical-chemical (THMC) models for predicting rockpermeability change, by Sho Ogata (Japan)
Comprehensive in-situ stress estimation for a fractured geothermal reservoir from drilling, hydraulicstimulations, and induced seismicity, by Sehyeok Park (South Korea)

30-MarNumerical modelling of rock masses in block cave mining, by Kimie Susuki (Chile)
Strategy and tactics for burst-prone conditions in a deep underground mine, by Alexander Ramos (Peru)

28-AprExperimental analysis of burst type extreme rock failures and rock fracture under high-stressconditions, by Selahattin Akdag (Australia)
Coseismic rock slope failure mechanisms - insights from landslides triggered by the 2016 Mw 7.8
Kaiköura earthquake, by Corine Singsein (New Zealand)

27-MayDirectional and 3D-Confinement-Dependent Fracturing, Strength and Dilation Mobilization in Brittle
Rocks, by Masoud Rahjoo (Canada)
Stochastic Discrete Element Modelling for Pillar Strength Determination: a First Step in a Risk-Based
Pillar Design Approach, by Juan José Monsalve (USA)28-JunExtended Finite Element Procedures for the Analysis of Reinforced Dual-Permeable Rock Media, by
Yashwanth Kumar Gujjala (South Korea)
A probabilistic-based approach to rock slope stability analysis in open-pit mine using numericalmodelling, by Lewis Mathe (South Africa)

29-JulInnovation of giant NPR cable and its advantages in critical slip warning for landslide disaster, by
Chun Zhu (China)
Reconciliation between laboratory and in situ measurement of elastic stiffness for Opalinus clay, byLang Liu (Canada)

26-Aug

4D computed tomography of granular force chains, by Wei Li (USA)
Coupled Thermo-Hydro-Mechanical Modelling of Radioactive Waste Disposal in Rock Salt, by Hafssa
Tounsi (USA)30-SepIntroducing CSM2020 –Discrete Event Simulation Model for Predicting TBM Utilization, by Anuradha
Khetwal (USA)Deformation analysis and monitoring in underground constructions: automatic systems to measure
convergence and pre-convergence effects, by Alessandro Valletta (Italy)

27-OctDifferentiating cratering mechanisms behind rock blasting based on geomechanical characterization,
by Jonathan Aubertin (Canada)
Application of recent fracture mechanics criteria to notched rock fracture analyses, by Jon Justo (Spain)

28-Nov

Structural Mechanisms contributing to large-scale hanging wall instabilities on the UG2 Reef Horizon,
by Alida Hartzenberg (South Africa).

53

December 2022

12 Seminar Series Organizing Committee

Romy Ridl

Lina Maria G. Carrillo

Ryota Hashimoto

Daisuke Fukuda

Kimie Suzuki

University of Canterbury& KiwiRail
New Zealand

École des Ponts
ParisTechFranceHiroshima UniversityJapan(currently in USA)

Hokkaido University
Japan

Chile University
Chile

Ignacio Pérez-Rey

Federico Vagnon

Zhihong Zhao

Jennifer Day

yudhidya wicaksana

University of CEDEZ
Spain

University of Torino
Italy

Tsinghua University
China

Queen's University
CanadaInstitute Teknologi
Bandung Indonesia

ISRM YOUNG ROCK ENGINEER AWARD

2022 ISRM MEMBERS’ SURVEY

In October 2020, the ISRM Board instituted the ISRM
Young Rock Engineer Award to acknowledge excellencein the field of rock engineering by ISRM members whoare in early stages of their career.

The survey was released between March to April 2022
and distributed in 3 languages of English, Spanish, andChinese to ISRM members and non-members. Overall,
737 people responded to the survey, 15% of which were
under 35 years old. The members were asked what
the ISRM can do to improve/boost the engagement ofyoung engineers and researchers with the society, theresponses included: inexpensive conferences, better
online presence, free online events, and specialized
courses. The survey results will be provided in a
separate report.

At the 9th Latin American Rock Mechanics and 2022
International ISRM Symposium the second Young RockEngineer Award was conferred to Dr Yota Togashi,
nominated by the NG Japan. Dr Togashi is currently an
Assistant Professor at the Rock Mechanics Laboratoryof the Graduate School of Science and Engineering at
Saitama University, Japan.
The nominations for the 2023 award will open in March
2023, six months ahead of 2023 ISRM Congress.
Nominations for the award shall be by the nominee's
National Group, or by some other person or organizationacquainted with the nominee's work.
The eligibility criteria for the award are as below:. be an ISRM individual member;. have a maximum age of 40 years;. have worked in rock engineering within the relevant
industry for a period of about five to ten years.

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2022 REPORTS OF ISRM
VICE-PRESIDENTS
AFRICA
Michael du Plessis | Vice President for Africa

There are three recognised national groups (NG) of the ISRM within the
African Region. These are the South African National Institute of RockEngineering (SANIRE), the Tunisian Society for Rock Mechanics (TRSM) and the
Zimbabwean National Institute of Rock Engineering (ZINIRE)
Botswana showed interest to establish a new nationalgroup. The process has, however, been delayed due
to several of the interested parties driving the process
moving between jobs or other areas. This remains achallenge in establishing national groups in many of theprominent countries in Africa. Due to the remoteness ofoperations or moving of key people (i.e. Zambia, Congo)
the establishment of new national groups has been
unsuccessful. Membership growth remain a focus of
the ISRM. Areas of attention includes Zambia, Namibia,
Ghana, Morocco, Mali, Tanzania, Nigeria, Egypt and the
DRC. Currently, persons interested in being associatedwith the ISRM are joining through either SANIRE or
TSRM. SANIRE being a very active NG attracts a lot ofinterest from international delegates and has various
active members from various African countries andcountries on other continents.
The following feedback was obtained from the threerecognised national groups:
TSRM (Tunisian Society for Rock Mechanics)

Prof Essaieb Hamdi is the current president. The
membership growth has remained steady over the past year.
Tunisia hosted the Second International Conference
on “Advances in Rock Mechanics” (TuniRock 2022), an
ISRM Specialized Conference which took place from
25-27 March 2022. A total of 28 papers were includedin the proceedings. This included representation from
Cameroon, China, France, Lebanon, Madagascar, Russia,
Tunisia and Turkey.
The society is very active in initiating, arranging andhosting topical research topics. They arranged aseries of webinars on data science applications inRock Mechanics and Rock Engineering. They also
hosted a webinar on machine learning in Nov 2022 andestablished an international working group on this topic.
ZINIRE (Zimbabwe)

Mr. Adias Mudzovaniswa was elected the president for
the term 2022 – 2024. The membership has grown to
59 active members and 38 student members. The group
activity was relatively low during and post COVID withlimited meetings and only 1 technical visit conducted overthe past year. They continue to promote the professional
development of their members and the participation in
ISRM activities and events.

SANIRE (South Africa)

Mrs Lizelle Prinsloo is the president for the terms
2021 – 2023. SANIRE currently has approximately 650
members with membership continuing to grow annually.
The council arranged many technical events, workshops
and social activities. This is further supported by thetechnical visits and technical evenings hosted by the 6
branches which ensures that members in various areasof the country remains engaged.
Some of the prominent events hosted over the past
year included:. National symposium which attracted more than
200 attendees,. Rockbowl competition hosted to select the nationalteam which participated and was awarded theoverall winners at the LARMS 22 international
Rockbowl contest,. AGM hosted in September,. Presidential Banquet and awards ceremony held
in November which was attended by approximately
220 persons,. Various webinars covering areas of interests selectedby the members (i.e. seismicity, education, deep mining
strategies and support methods),. Various golf days.
SANIRE communicates through a quarterly newsletter,
the SANIRE website and social media.
55

December 2022

13 ASIA
Suseno Kramadibrata | Vice President for Asia
ISRM Asia Region currently has 13 national groups. Sri Lanka joined the ISRM as the newest
National Group since October 2022. Iran is no longer affiliated with the ISRM national groupearlier this year. In 2022, some Asian countries still face the Covid-19 pandemic with relatively
lower infection rate than the previous year. Despite the fact some of activities continues, otheractivities have still been impacted. The 12th Asian Rock Mechanics Symposium (ARMS12) was
held successfully in Hanoi Vietnam. However, several national groups were still unable to send
their representatives due to regulations on restrictions of leaving the country, such as China,
Japan, Malaysia, & Singapore. There also have been several regional activities in the period.
This report summarizes the 2022 ISRM activities in Asia
CHINA

Main activities include China Rock 2022 that was
successfully held in Beijing on 3-6 November 2022,
the 11th Asian Rock Mechanics Symposium (ARMS11)“Opportunities and Challenges in Rock Mechanics andEngineering”, was held at Jiuhua Resort & Convention
Center in Beijing, China, on 22-24 October 2021, the
6th Early Career Forum was successfully held during
ARMS11 on 23 October 2021, the second presidential
meeting between Prof. Manchao He, the President of theChinese Society for Rock Mechanics and Engineering(CSRME), and Dr. Gang Han, the President of theAmerican Rock Mechanics Association (ARMA) on 30
January 2022, then the third Hotline between CSRME
and ARMA Presidents on 22 October 2022.
Moreover, the International Correlation Research
Program "Cross-Fault Measurement for Earthquake
Prediction" was established in the International
Consortium on Geo-disaster Reduction (ICGdR) on 1
April 2022, in Beijing, 24th Annual Meeting of the China
Association for Science and Technology “High-level
Forum on National Innovation Platform Construction”
on 26 June 2022, the 10th Sino-Russian Deep RockMechanics and Engineering High-level Forum” wassuccessfully held online from 25 – 26 June 2022, andthe 4th International Conference on Rock Dynamics
and Applications (RocDyn-4), an ISRM Specialized
Conference, was successfully held in Xuzhou, China, on
17-19 August 2022.
Furthermore, the International Consortium on Geodisaster Reduction (ICGdR) held the second council
representative meeting of the year through videoconference on 16 August 2022, and academician Prof.
Manchao He, was successfully elected as Vice President
from Experts, one of the five vice presidents of ICGdR(2022-2023). On 3 March 2022, the CSRME and Keai
Press signed a cooperation agreement on the Journalof "Rock Mechanics Bulletin", the signing meeting andceremony was held in Beijing. China National Group
has several online lecturers: video course of Rockburst
in Deep Tunnels by Prof. Xia-Ting Feng on ISRM
website, Tsinghua University Seminar Series on RockMechanics in 2022, the lecture jointly held by Tsinghua
University and the Chinese Society of Rock Mechanics
56

and Engineering, and Professor Chun Zhu from Hohai
University (China) gave an invited talk on the 7th ISRM
Young Members’ Seminar on 29 Juli 2022.
Individual membership of NG China grew up from 2511
in 2021 to 2762 in 2022 with 27 corporate members.
Since March 2020, CSRME has published Newsletter. It
includes all the related works of CSRME.
INDIA

Indian National Group is adopting new initiatives
and strategies to serve their members as per theircustomized requirements. Online activities are theirattempts in this direction. Main activities include (1)Virtual Training Program on Rock Excavation Tests
for Mechanized Tunnelling, from TBM perspective, on
31 January 2022 with renowned expert Prof. V.M.S.R.
Murthy and (2) Virtual Training Program on Use of
Geosynthetics in rock engineering projects/seepage
control in underground structures/tunnels on 18
February 2022 with renowned expert Mr. Vivek Kapadia.
The objective of the Virtual Training Program in rockexcavation is focus in mechanized tunnelling, both incivil and mining sectors, is on continuous cutting edge
technology such as TBM, road header, and continuous
miners. The objective of the Virtual Training Programin Geo-synthetics have been widely used in various
applications in the field of civil engineering and have
proven effective in addressing several difficult problems.
As a part of celebration of 75th year of Indian
Independence, ISRM India and National Institute of RockMechanics (NIRM) is organizing a weekly web-based
online lecture Series on Rock Mechanics catering tovarious facies of rock mechanics application areas.
These lectures mostly cover the applied rock mechanics
with case studies showing apt demonstration of rockmechanics and rock engineering. Indian National
Group will be hosting 13th ISRM Asian Rock Mechanics
Symposium (ARMS13) in 2024.
Out of the 249 members in the year 2021, 230 members
have renewed their membership/joined the ISRM as
individual members, as on date, for the year 2022. The

NEWS J URNAL
ISRM

Indian National Group of ISRM publishes Technical
Journal - ISRM (India) Journal, on half yearly basis(January – June and July - December), since January
2012. The Journal has both print and online versions.
INDONESIA

Main activities include visiting lectures at universities
in Indonesia regarding Rock Mechanic and RockEngineering, the ISRM Glossary of Rock Mechanics
terms have been translated by the Indonesian RockMechanics Society (IRMS) from an original list in English
into Indonesian language, and IRMS is involved in the
6th Drill & Blast Conference 2022, on 5-6 July 2022 in
Bandung.
Forthcoming events such as IRMS & Perhapi (Indonesian
Mining Professional) will hold webinar series withsubject of mining geotechnics and case studies of big
slope failure in mines in Indonesia, and translation of
ISRM suggested method into Indonesian language,
Joint Conference between Indonesia National Groupand Malaysia National Group on Rock Engineering
Symposium (MIRES) will be held in 2023, and the
5th Workshop & Seminar National Geomechanics in
2023. In 2022, there were 57 individual members fromIndonesia NG.
ISRAEL

Main activities include IRMA organized special session
on geo-hazards within the frame of the Israel GeologicalSociety annual meeting on 5-6 April 2022. The session
covered topics in seismic hazard evaluation, RockMechanics and Geomechanics, and IRMA members
teach Rock Mechanics / Rock Engineering courses in
the master degree track in Geotechnical Engineering at
the Department of Structural Engineering at Ben Gurion
University. This track was developed by members of
IRMA, in light of ever-increasing demand for engineers in
the infrastructure industry, and emphasize on hard rocktunneling. ISRM membership of Israel NG is 15 members.
JAPAN

Main activities include selecting Excellent Paper
Award & Excellent Doctoral Dissertation Award for
JSRM Awards annually, the 48th Symposium on RockMechanics was held virtually on 12-13 January 2022
organized by Japan Society of Civil Engineers (JSCE)
with the support of JSRM, the 27th Symposium on
Underground Space was held virtually on 20 January2022 organized by Japan Society of Civil Engineers(JSCE) with the support of JSRM, and Basic Course on
Rock Mechanics, was held five times from 19 November
2021 to 7 January 2022, the lectures were held jointlywith Japan Society of Civil Engineers (JSCE).
In 2022, a Special Committee for Revitalization
Planning was newly established to revitalize the JSRM,
and scholarship for student to participate at the 3rdInternational Conference on Coupled Processes in

Fractured Geological Media: Observation, Modeling, andApplication (CouFrac2022) held in Berkeley, USA.
For information, JSRM has JSRM News Magazine andRock Net mail news. In 2022, there were 36 corporate
members and 325 individual members from Japan NG.
KOREAMain activities include Spring Conference 2022,
research & technology in rock mechanics & rockengineering on 31 March – 1 April 2022 in Kangwon
National University and Fall Conference 2021 on 28 - 29
October 2021 in Busan BEXCO. KSRM organizes national
conferences twice a year, which usually attracts around
150 participants. The 2021 Fall Conference was a joint
symposium with other Korean academic societies of
the Korean Society of Mineral and Energy Resources
Engineers, Korea Society of Earth and Exploration
Geophysicists, and Korea Society of Petroleum
Engineers. The 2022 Spring Conference provided
keynote lectures, special sessions, and academic
sessions to discuss and share state-of-the-art researchand technology in rock mechanics and rock engineering.
KSRM publishes an official bi-monthly journal in Korean,
Journal of Korean Society for Rock Mechanics (Tunneland Underground Space) and a quarterly electronic
newsletter, ‘U-Space’ to inform and promote the stateof-the-art technologies in rock mechanics both homeand foreign countries. KSRM jointly publishes twointernational journals in addition to Korean journals,
quarterly published ‘International Journal of GeoEngineering’ and bi-monthly published ‘Geosystem
Engineering’, both being Open Access and indexedin ESCI. In 2022, KSRM has 180 registered individual
members and 8 corporate members for ISRM.
MALAYSIA

Main activities include Rockworks by Rockware: Theory& Practical, Introduction of Geological Modelling, on
21-22 June 2021, Expert Panel Discussion on Seismic
Hazard in Malaysia, on 8 July 2021, Forum on Soiland Rock Description for Civil Engineering Purposein Malaysia, on 10 July 2021, Engineering GeologicalModel: Technical Paper Review by New Graduates, on 12
August 2021, SEGRM Virtual Open Day, Forum on Young
Geoprofessionals in Rock Engineering & Engineering
Geology, on 14 August 2021, the 5th SEGRM AGM & Pre
AGM Talk, on 14 August 2021, Webinar on SedimentRelated Disaster Risk Reduction: From Mapping &Modelling to Early Warning & Mitigation, on 29 August
2021, Dr. Tajul Anuar Jamaludin Memorial Seminar, Case
Histories in Engineering Geology & Rock Engineering, on
11 September 2021, GeoXPDC Bentong-Raub Suture, on
18-20 Match 2022, SEGRM Talk Series, on 9 April 2022.
The Malaysian National Group of ISRM publishes MyRock
Bulletin, free access at https://www.segrm.org. In 2022,
Malaysia NG has 54 registered individual members andone corporate members for ISRM.

57

13

December 2022

13 MONGOLIANo report of 2022 activities.
NEPAL

Main activities include 1st International Conferenceon Space Utilization and Research in Underground
Structure (SURUng-I), on 5-6 May 2022, in Kathmandu,
Technical Talk Series on Tunnel Engineering Practicein Nepal Himalaya in early 2022, contribution to Tunnel
Engineering Curriculum in Tribhuvan University, Master
Degree Course in Rock and Tunnel Engineering, andinvolve in research work on Technical Investigation in
Tunnel Support Technology in Hydropower Project in the
Himalayan Region.

16-18 November 2021, Workshop on Engineering Geology
2021, 30 November 2021, by video conference, the 17th
SRMEG AGM, 11 March 2022, and short course on Site
Investigation for Rock Engineering, on 22 April 2022.
Forthcoming events include 18th Conference of the
Associated research Centers for the Urban UndergroundSpace (ACUUS 2023 Singapore), on 1-3 November
2023. In 2022, Singapore National Group has 89
registered individual members and 6 corporate
members for ISRM.
SOUTH EAST ASIA

Not report of 2022 activities.
VIETNAMSINGAPORE

Main activities include monthly webinars for its members
and the industry, from 6 September 2021 to 24 June
2022, 13th Asian Regional Conference of International
Association for Engineering Geology/IAEG (ARC-13), on

Main activities include VIETROCK2021 in Ba Ria City,
Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province, on 16 October 2021, andARMS12 ISRM Regional Symposium, in Hanoi, on 2226 Nov 2022. In 2022, Vietnam National Group has 21
registered individual members.

AUSTRALASIA
Sevda Dehkhoda | Vice President for Australasia
INTRODUCTION

The two national groups for Australasia are:

Australian Geomechanics Society (AGS)New Zealand Geotechnical Society (NZGS)

442 individual members
4 corporate members
Chair: David Lacey 2022-24

235 individual members
Chair: Eleni Gkeli 2022-24
ISRM Liaison: Paul Horrey

AGS and NZGS are technical societies of National
Engineering Institutions:. Engineers Australia. Engineering New Zealand
The two societies operate similarly through regional
chapters. General activities of the two societies include:. Local chapter/branch meetings. Monthly technical seminars by Professionals. Distinguished Speakers Series (coordinated by both
NZGS and AGS national committees for arranging thetours, ie UK Rankine Lecture winners). Annual Chapters and National symposiums. Workshops and courses (Engineering geology,
Geotechnical mapping, Core logging). Students focused events; and. Coordination of national standard reviews
The societies reach and attract young members byproviding free membership for undergraduate students
and heavily discounting the membership fees for
58

graduate students. Several chapters have dedicatedannual student events and awards for final year
thesis presentations as well as networking events forstudents to meet and greet with professional engineers.
In addition, NZGS have formed Young Geotechnical
Professional (YGP) Representative role, which is coopted to the NZGS national management committee.
This is an opportunity for YGPs to get involved with andcontribute to the NZGS, as well as interacting with thewider NZ geotechnical community. The two societies arealso National Groups for:. International Society for Soil Mechanics
Geotechnical Engineering. International Association for Engineering Geology
and Environment
PUBLICATIONS
The regular publications of the two societies are:
. Australian Geomechanics Journal, published quarterly. New Zealand Geomechanics News, published twice a year
. Local symposium proceedings

NEWS J URNAL
ISRM

The current issues of the journals are shown below.
Members can directly download the contents from theofficial websites of the societies. The journals can also
be purchased by contacting society secretariates.

Several events have been organized for year 2022 byboth AGS and NZGS. These included technical talks
either as in person seminars or online webinars,
annual symposia, and workshops. Selected eventsfrom both societies are listed below.

ACTIVITIES IN 2022

59

13

December 2022

13 EUROPE
Leandro Alejano | Vice-President for Europe
Europe is the region encompassing half of the National
Groups (NGs) of the ISRM with 30 countries represented.
Due to their idiosyncratic, historical and linguistic
differences, they are rather heterogeneous. Moreover, theNGs focus different disciplines. While in some cases, they
are restricted to rock mechanics, in some countries they
are part or a branch of a wider typically geotechnical orother type (tunneling, mining) society.
In the last year, Europe was coming out of the Covid-19
times, so whereas many activities were performed in an
on-line manner in 2021, 2022 has seen the coming back offace-to-face meetings and conferences.
The main annual event of the European ISRM National
Groups is the EUROCK symposium.
The EUROCK 2021 took place in 21-24 September 2021 inTurin, Italy in a virtual manner. 215 peer-reviewed papers
published and 250 delegates attended. Relevant keynotes
were presented. Various awards delivered including
Rocha medal lectures and Franklin lectures to Fredrik
Johanson (Sweden) and Rita Migliazza (Italy). Also, a
tribute to Giovanni Barla was featured and the 5th Early
Career Forum delayed from EUROCK 2020 was heldcoordinated by Jovan Jovicic.
The Finnish NG successfully organized the EUROCK
2022 symposium in Espoo on September, 2022. Around
200 papers were accepted corresponding to two tracks,
namely scientific and industry, and around 300 delegates
attended. Some interesting short courses were given
the day before the congress. They included Modern
Rock Engineering Principles (John Harrison and John
Cosgrove), 2D and 3D Modelling of Fracturing Processes
in Rock Mechanics (Omid Mahabadi & Bryan Tatone),
Photogrammetry for Rock Mass Characterization (Mateusz
Janiszewski & Lauri Uotinen). Four keynote lectures weredelivered by John Harrison, Michael Giovinazzo, Caroline
Darcel and Sanna Mustonen. Some excursions took place
after the congress. This was a successful event where theEuropean rock mechanics community were able to meetin person again.
On 2023 there will be not EUROCK, since the International
ISRM will take place in Salzburg (Austria), organized by
the Austrian National Group. Around 60 years ago, a few
NG
AUSTRIABELGIUMBOSNIA-HERZ.

60

rock mechanics experts gathered by Professor Müller inAustria decided to launch the ISRM. So, rock mechanics iscoming back to its very cradle. We invite all European andInternational ISRM members to actively participating inthis congress.
Additionally, last year it was decided to select Alicante in
Spain as the venue of the EUROCK 2024, and in the recent
Board Meeting, Trondheim in Norway was chosen to hold
EUROCK 2025. It is worthy to mention that Norwegian
National group tried to organize EUROCK 2020 that was
finally cancelled due to pandemics.
In order to link the European NGs, the ISRM VP for
Europe organized a council informal meeting in June
2021, where, Charlie C. Li, from Norway, suggested
organizing European Rock Mechanics Debates. A lastcouncil informal meeting was also hold in parallel with
International ISRM symposium in October 2022 in
Asunción, Paraguay.
Based on the above mentioned initiative, the ISRM VP
for Europe with the help of Philippe Vaskou form France
and Charlie Li, from Norway, organized and developed
the First Rock Mechanics European Debate in zoom in
October 2021 on the topic “Using Hydraulic Fracturing
to measure in situ stresses”. This event was moderatedby Philippe Vaskou and featured presentations by Gerd
Klee (Germany) and Arne Marius Raen form Norway. I
was hold in the Zoom platform and broadcasted throughthe newly launched ISRM YouTube channel, where it canbe revisited. A second debate entitled “What model forwhat application in rock mechanics?” was held in Zoom
in June 2022 with presentations by Heinz Konietzky from
Germany and Jonny Sjöberg from Sweden. New seminars
will be coming at the expected pace of 2 per year. Theseseminars are thought to be interested for technical andeducational purposes and have receive some hundreds ofvisualizations in the ISRM Youtube channel.
Some European NGs (France, Italy, Spain…) encouraged
a year ago young members to organize international
webinars. These activities have continued and increased
under the umbrella of ISRM’s Young group with a strong
participation of the European NGs’ members.
The activities developed by European ISRM NGs arevaried. The 2-3 most relevant activities of European
NGs are synthetized in the following table, based on theanswers of ISRM NG’s Presidents to a call sent by the
ISRM VP.

SOME RELEVANT ACTIVITIESOrganization of ISRM 2023.
29/3/2022: on-line conference by C. David and D. Geremia (CY-Cergy University) “Water weakening and fluid-rockinteractions on chalk from the Mons basin”.
9/9/2022 : celebration of the jubilee “50 Years of Engineering Geology and Rock Mechanics in Belgium”, Brussels(Atomium).
Geotechnical Society of Bosnia and Herzegovina distributed first and second announcement of the GEO-EXPO 2022
scientific and expert conference which is to be held in Prijedor, Bosnia and Herzegovina, on October 21, 2022.
Geotechnical Society of Bosnia and Herzegovina published proceedings of the scientific and expert conference GEOEXPO 2021, although the symposium was not held due to Covid-19.

NEWS J URNAL
ISRM

CZECH
REPUBLIC

to Jon Justo Urrutia (Cantabria University) for his PhD thesis "Fracture assessment of notched rocks under different
loading and temperature conditions using local criteria".
International conference - New Knowledge and Measurements in Seismology, Engineering Geophysics andGeotechnical Engineering, March 29-30, 2022 .

FINLAND

Organization of Eurock 2022 in Finland from 12.-15.9.2022.
Organization of short courses, and excursions in parallel with this event.

FRANCE

Organization of technical and scientific meetings.
March 3: characterization and modeling of discontinuities in rock masses, May 5: applications of Artificial Intelligence
methods in Rock Mechanics, October 27: applications of interferometry in Rock Mechanics. December 1: General
Assembly and 2022 Jean Mandel Lecture "New challenges of landslides and ground movements" by A.M. Ferrero.
4 issues of the Revue Française de Géotechnique.
CFMR awards the Pierre Londe prize to a young doctor.
The 11th National Conference on Geotechnics and Engineering Geology (JNGG 2022) organized by CFMR, CFMS and
CFGI on June 2022.

GERMANY

37th Baugrundtagung from 05 - 07.10.2022 in Wiesbaden as a face-to-face event.

GREECEICELAND

ITALY

MACEDONIATHE
NETHERLANDSNORWAYPORTUGAL

13

13th Athenian Lecture, 14/9/2022, University of West Attica, by Prof. Emer. K. Pitilakis (VP of EAEE): “Evolutionof seismic design actions in Greece: From the 1955 map to the proposed new seismic hazard map with new site
amplification factors and site classification scheme”.
Implementation of the “Time Capsule Project”: Final Report by Dr. S. Cavounidis, former President of the HSSMGE.
Theme: Geotechnical engineering & infrastructure in Greece. Available at: http://www.hssmge.gr/2022_2_HELLENICSSMGE-CAVOUNIDIS.pdf.
Approx. 3 meetings on general geotechnical topics.
Iceland will be the host of the 4th Nordic Symposium on Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering, in Reykjavik, May 2426 2023.Preparation activities are under development.
Course on: Geotechnical Models for Slope Stability of excavation faces in rock masses: from theory to case studies –24 November 2022.
Geotechnical Models for Slope Stability of excavation faces in rock masses: from theory to case studies. Chair: Prof.
Tatiana Rotonda.24 November 2022.
Organized 5th Symposium of MAG as an ISRM Specialized Conference (first one under ISRM fully held physicallyafter the pandemic).
Conducted survey and prepared “Time Capsule Project” considering Macedonian geotechnics in the past, present and future
Preparing Price List of engineering services in geotechnics.
18 February 2022- Online invited lecture: Environmental impact assessment of gas extraction below the Wadden Sea
by Dr Robert Hack, Bigbonzoconsulting, formerly Univ. Twente, ITC (retired).
18 May 2022- Ingeokring-TU Delft symposium dedicated to Wim Verwaal for his 40 years of excellent contribution to
the education of Engineering Geology in the Netherlands and beyond.
Stability and securing of rock cuttings (137 participants).
Spring seminar 2022 - Tsension anchorage in rock (63 participants).
Various Board meeting where it was decided to apply for EUROCK 2025.
Celebrations of 50 years of SPG - Seminar "Geotechnics as a reference for Portuguese Engineering" (November 2022)
The XXXIX Manuel Rocha Lecture by Dr. Luís Lamas entitled “Determination of the stress state in rock masses for thedesign of underground structures” (October 2022).

SLOVENIA

Excursion with lectures: Geotechnical challenges in the construction of the Karavanke tunnel, 8.7.2022.

SPAIN

XIX Annual SEMR Meeting: Lab testing in rock mechanics: young res-earchers. 2022 (J. Justo, A. Rabat, I. Pérez-Rey,
A. Muñoz, M. Muñiz).
The 9th best research by a young member SEMR Award.
The SEMR board named Professor Anotonio Gens (Barcelona School of Civil Engineering, UPC) as an Honored
Fellow of the Society.
XI National Symposium on Geot. Engineering, in Mieres, Asturias, May, 2022.

SWITZERLAND

12th May 2022 Conference on “Geotechnical Challenges in Soft Soils” in Muttenz, Switzerland.

TURKEYROCKMEC'2022 13 th Regional Rock Mechanics Symposium is held in in Isparta, Turkey on May 26 and 28, 2022 The
symposium is organized by Süleyman Demirel University Mining Engineering Department with great success under the
auspices of Turkish NG for Rock Mechanics.
Turkish NG Chairman and members who contributed to Rock Mechanics were awarded.

UNITED
KINGDOM

BGA announces Geo-Resilience 2023 conference: It will take place in Cardiff on 28-29 March 2023. (Announced on the
31/07/22). Call for abstracts now open.

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December 2022

AMERICA
13 LATIN
José Pavón | Vice President for Latin America
The ISRM Latin American region has nine National Groups
with over than 500 members, from Argentina, Bolivia,
Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, Paraguay, andPeru. These members include academics, practitioners,
and students, involved daily in rock mechanics.
The interaction between societies has been fundamental
during 2022. Moreover, regular regionals meetings havebeen involved the societies representatives to discuss themain activities and plan for the future ahead. The last one
was face-to-face on the occasion of the Latin American
Rock Mechanics Symposium (LARMS).
The 2022 ISRM International Symposium - LARMS
IX – was held from October 16 to 19 at the Bourbon
Hotel, Asuncion - Paraguay. The event gathered 170
participants from 31 countries, and a total of 71 papers
were presented, divided into 10 technical sessions, anddistinguished experts delivered seven keynote lectures.
It is important to highlight the Early Career Forum, which
involved all the young attendees, with 9 participants from
Latin America, and the "Rock Bowl" competition between
universities team, both carried out with great success.
At the Closing Ceremony, the Award for “Best Papers”(General and Youth Categories) were delivered. The“Milton Kanji” Award, from the Paraguayan GeotechnicalSociety, for the Best Master's Thesis was chosen amongsix candidates, and the winner - Danny Rodriguez - waschosen by the Committee of Former Vice Presidents of
the region.
New efforts have been made in order to increase thenumber of National Groups in the region, considering thepotential of this part of the world. We expect good resultsin the near future.
The technical events started with online meetings andduring the year move forward to face-to-face meeting.
The most important activities of the societies of theregion are described below:
ARGENTINA

The activities were related to courses and seminars.
The main one was held in November and the theme
was “New Technologies for geotechnical monitoring in
Engineering and Mining”. The next congress will be in
Comodoro Rivadavia City, next September. http://saig.org.
ar/congresos/

BRAZIL

9th Brazilian Rock Mechanics Symposium, Campinas,
August 23-26, 2022 (including 4th Rock Bowl Brazil)
https://cobramseg2022.com.br/. Journals publishedquarterly and social media.
BOLIVIA

Online presentations and Webinars: https://www.
geomecanicabolivia.com
CHILE

Online presentations and Webinars like “Geomechanicalchallenges. deep mass mining”, November 30, 2022.
https://www.scmr.cl
COLOMBIA

Colombian Congress of Geotechnics, Cartagena,
November 14-18, 2022.
Online presentations: https://www.scg.org.co/
COSTA RICA

Repair and Restoration of Slopes - Mountain Roads, San
Jose, Octobre 6-7, 2022
Online presentations: https://www.geotecniacr.com
MEXICOXXIII National Meeting on Geotechnical Engineering,
Guadalajara, November 16-91, 2022
Journals published quarterly and social media. http://
www.smig.org.mx/
PARAGUAY

ISRM International Symposium - Latin American RockMechanics Symposium IX (LARMS IX), Asuncion, October
16-19, 2022. https://larms2022.com/
Rock Mechanics, course for young professionals with anemphasis on Geology, September, 2022.
PERU

Peruvian Geoengineering Seminar, Lima, December
1-2, 2022.
Elements of seismic hazard in mines, short course,
November 28, 2022. http://speg.org.pe/

NORTH AMERICA
Laura Pyrak-Nolte | Vice President for North America

North American Membership:The total ISRM membership in North America is approximately 557 members. The US
National Group, ARMA (American Rock Mechanics Association), has 417 ISRM members. The Canadian National group,
CARMA (Canadian Rock Mechanics Association), has 150 ISRM members. Many members of ARMA & CARMA join or
renew at the time of their annual symposia. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 and 2021 symposia were not held in
person resulting in an overall decline in national group membership.

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NEWS J URNAL
ISRMUNITED STATES OF AMERICA

ARMA represents the ISRM’s National Group for theUnited States of America and currently has 712 active
members. One third of its members are from outside the
US and 15% of the members are students. The Presidentof ARMA is Dr Gang Han (Aramco).
ARMA held its 56th US Rock Mechanics/Geomechanics
Symposium (hybrid) in June 26-29, 2022 that included
workshops on Damage Mechanics, Fiber Optics Sensing,
Machine Learning, Induced Seismicity, Fundamentalsof Rock Mechanics, CO2 & H2 and inducted 16 new
future leaders. This was the first in-person symposiumin three years. ARMA also held the 2022 International
Geomechanics Symposium (IGS) on 7-10 November,
2022 in Abu Dhabi, UAE with 144 technical papers
in 25 technical sessions 200 attendees from over 76
international organizations in 36 countries.
ARMA HONORS AND AWARDS

New ARMA Fellows: Mark Board & John Curran
ARMA 2021 Class of New Future Leaders:consists of 16 inductees: Marwah Alsinan, Jeff
Burghardt, Danielli De Melo Moura, Radhika de Silva,
Bing Hou, Wencheng Jin, Zoheir Khademian, Oladoyin
Kolawole, Wei Li, Xiaofeng Li, Meng Meng, Jiehao
Wang,Hui Wu, Qiquan Xiong, Sun Zhuang.
Neville G. W. Cook Ph.D. Thesis Award: Huang
Yao, University of Pittsburgh: “Analysis of Sleeve
Fracturing and Burst Experiments for Measurement of
In-Situ Stress and Rock Fracture Toughness”.
M.Sc. Thesis Award: Mustafa Can Suner, West
Virginia University, “The Effect of Natural Fractureson the Mechanical Behavior of Limestone Pillars: A
Synthetic Rock Mass Approach Application”.
Applied Research Award: Yevengy Samarkin,
Mahmoud Desouky, Murtada Aljawad, Abduljamiu Amao,
Theis Soling, Khalid Al-Ramadan, Murtadha J. Al Tammar,
Khalid M. Alruwaili (FRUPM & SAO): “Hydraulic Fracture
Conductivity Sustenance in Carbonate Formations throughRock Strengthening by DAP Solution".
ARMA ACTIVITIESARMA Technical Committees: There are currently
7 Technical Committees that include (1) HydraulicFracturing, (2) Induced Seismicity, (3) Drilling Mechanics
and Engineering, (4) Underground Storage andUtilization, (5) Tunneling, (6) Discrete Fracture Networks,and (7) Artificial Intelligence and Data.
ARMA Fellows continued to mentor young ARMA members.
ARMA Student Chapters: Supporting engagementwith the next generation of practitioners, ARMA now
has 21 student chapter from Colorado School of Mines,
Missouri University of Science and Technology, Texas
Tech, Virginia Tech, The University of Texas at Austin,
University of North Dakota, Monash University, Universityof Houston, University of Kentucky, Indian Institute ofTechnology (School of Mines), University of Texas/ Permian
Basin, Texas A&M, Universidad Nacional de Colombia,
and University of Toronto, China University of Petroleum
Beijing, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Mining,
King Abdullah University of Science and Technology,

Seoul National University, University of Wyoming, Waseda
University, New Jersey Institute of Technology.
CANADAThe CARMA represents the ISRM’s National Group for
Canada. Members are from CARMA’s two constituent
groups, the Rock Mechanics Division of the Canadian
Geotechnical Society (CGS), and the Society for RockEngineering of the Canadian Institute of Mining andMetallurgy (CIM). CARMA currently has 150 active
members and the President of CARMA is Dr. Jennifer Day(Queens University).
RockEng22, the highly anticipated 22nd Canadian RockMechanics Symposium was held during August 8-10,2022 in Kingston, Ontario with 150 delegates and wasorganized by Dr. Jennifer Day (Symposium Chair) and
Dr. Mark Diederichs (Technical Chair). Other past andfuture CARMA related events include: (1) CIM AGM,
Vancouver in May 2022; (2) GeoHazards8, the 8th
Canadian Conference on Geotechnique and Natural
Hazards – June 12th to 15th, 2022, Quebec City, QC,
Canada; and (3) GeoCalgary 2022, the 75th Canadian
Geotechnical Conference – October 2-5, 2022, Calgary,
AB, Canada; (4) CIM 2023 Convention & Expo, Montreal,
QC, April 30-May 1, 2023; (5) GeoSaskatoon 2023,
the 76th Annual Canadian Geotechnical Conference –October 1-4, 2023, Saskatoon, SK, Canada.
In 2022, CARMA launched social media accounts on
LinkedIn (694 followers) and Instagram (112 followers).
New initiatives by CARMA include: (1) Website update tomodernize the design, as well as to add both English andFrench languages (both Official Languages of Canada),(2) Create a Master’s Thesis Award; (3) Create a Student
Scholarship, and (4) Early-stage planning of the 23rd
Canadian Rock Mechanics Symposium.
CARMA HONOURS AND AWARDS

1st Prof. Doug Stead PhD Thesis Award: Dr.
Jonathan Aubertin, Queen’s University, thesis on“Characterization of rock salt response to blasting using
terrestrial laser scanning technology”.
Best Poster Award RockEng22: Apostolos
Vasileiou, Matthew Perras for their poster on “Numericaland machine learning based approaches to study the
influence of environmental conditions on crack growth in
the Theban Necropolis, Egypt”.
The 2022 RES Rock Mechanics Awards: Dave
Mackintosh (Nutrien).
The 2022 RES Best Student Poster
Presentations: 1st Place (Innovation in RockEngineering): Mahdi Rabiei; 2nd Place: Negin
Houshmand for her poster on “Rock hardness prediction
using geophysical and geochemical data and machinelearning”.
Activities by the Vice President for North America
Member, Scientific Advisory Committees, for EuroRock2022 Finland and for the 4th CouFrac workshop 2022 at
the ARMA annual symposium in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Held a Technical Oversight Committee meeting at
Eurorock 2022 in Helsinki, Finland.
Gave the opening remarks at the 4th CouFrac Workshop in
November 2023.
63

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December 2022

13 VICE-PRESIDENTS
AT LARGEÖmer Aydan
Qiang Yang
Vojkan Jovičić

In each term of office, the ISRM Statutes allow the Board to appoint a maximum of three VicePresidents at Large. Their role is to support their regional Vice-President and to contributeto the Board activities, to ISRM Committees and Commissions and sponsored events, and toassist the organizing commission of the sponsored events with their know-how.
Ömer Aydan served as the member of ISRM TechnicalOversight Committee and evaluated the activities of
ISRM commissions. He also participated in the online
and face-to-face ISRM Board and Council meetings
held in Asuncion, Paraguay, in October 2022. Besides
he presented the report on Asian Continent and theevaluation report of TOC on ISRM Commissions in theCouncil meeting.

He encouraged his colleagues to contribute to 56th
US Rock Mechanics/Geomechanics, EUROCK2022,
International Symposium on Rock Dynamics (RocDyn4)
and 48th Rock Mechanics Symposium of Japan in thisdifficult period due to Covid-19 besides his contributions.
He delivered a keynote lecture at RocDyn4 - ISRM
Specialized Symposium held on “Earthquake Prediction”.
He has served as a moderator for the 37th ISRM online
lecture 2022 by Emeritus Prof. Dr. Yuzo Ohnishifrom Kyoto University, Japan entitled as “Evolutionof numerical method for coupled problems in RockMechanics and Rock Engineering”.
Ömer Aydan continued to write essays to convey theactivities of ISRM to the digital newsletter of the heJapanese Society for Rock Mechanics (JSRM), theJapanese National Group, denoted as “From the ISRM
Vice-President”. He has written three articles entitled“The utilization of new recent monitoring techniques
for the advance of Rock Engineering: SAR and Laser
Technologies”, “The re-assessment of hazard associatedwith the possibility of rock cliff, rock slopes” and“Sinkholes and a proposal for their reflection in hazard
assessment regulations” and a report on Board andCouncil Meetings held in Asuncion, Paraguay.
Ömer Aydan is also a member of the ISRM Planetary
Rock Mechanics Commission and he has been promoting
its activities. Within this regard, he participated in
the panel discussion held during “Off-Earth Mining
Forum-OEMF2022” and he has written some articles,
specifically, on “Sinkhole Issues in Mars” in LARMS IX
and “Some Thoughts on Rock Slope Issues in Mars” in
EUROCK2022, “Some considerations on rock dynamics
issues in Mars” in AUSROCK2022 and “Some attempts
to infer mechanical properties of rock and discontinuities
in Mars and some comets” in the Workshop organized by
the ISRM PRMC in Melbourne in November, 2022.
64

Fig 1. Presentation at LARMS IX held in Asunción, Paraguay.

He has been promoting the activities of the ISRM
Commission on Testing Methods as its member. He
participated in the workshop of the Commission held in
Helsinki before EUROCK2022 and delivered a possible
new testing procedures on “Drop Weight Testing for
Assessing the Dynamic Characteristics of Rocks
Under Shock Loads” and he has been collaborating hiscolleague (Prof. T. Ito) on preparing another possible
index testing technique on “Impression Creep Tests as
Index Testing Technique in Rock Mechanics and RockEngineering”. He has been continuing to prepare a video
lecture on “Rock Dynamics” as an ISRM Video Course.
He has also been a member of the Underground Nuclear
Power Plants Commission, and promoting its activities.
Ömer Aydan has been promoting new member countries
and new members from Africa, Central Asia andAzerbaijan as new National Groups of ISRM.
He published a book on Earthquake Science andEngineering from a rock mechanics view point andhe has been now planning to publish another book on“Geomechanical aspects of Abandoned Room and Pillar
Mines and Remediation, which is now under review andwill be published in the ISRM Book Series category.
This is the outline of activities that Vojkan Jovičić in2022. It is divided into several main events he took partor organized, as follows:
Activities at the YMC (Young Members Committee).
Vojkan Jovičić, VP of ISRM at large, took part on several
sessions of the Committee on how to use advantagesof new digital technologies and best approach young
members of ISRM. As a result of the activities of YoungNEWS J URNAL
ISRM

13

Invited keynote lecturer on ChinaRock2022 organised by
China Society of Rock Mechanics and Engineering (CSRME),
November 2022
As an invited speaker, Vojkan Jovičić delivered the
keynote lecture on the topic: ˝ Temporary and Final
Portal Structures for Tunnels in Soft Rock˝. The lecture
was delivered during the plenary session on 4th
November. The annual conference was organised on-lineby the NG of China (CSRM) and assembled engineersfrom Rock Mechanics related professions of PRC.

Qiang Yang is the Chairman of the Education Fund

Committee. Other EFC members include Manchao
He, Seokwon Jeon, José Pavón, Ismet Canbulat, andLuís Lamas. He has successfully raised a fund of 100
000 RMB (about $15 450) to the EFC Beijing office.
The 7th Early Career Forum chaired by José Pavón
was successfully organized in 2022, and nine young
engineers from Latin America participated in the forum.
In addition, two EFC activities associated with AusRock2022 were organized by Prof. Ismet Canbulat. A young
professional focused webinar on Digitalisation andIntegrated Visualisation was held on June 9, 2022, and apanel discussion on education, training, and professional
development was arranged prior to the closure of
AusRock 2022.
Members Committee an ISRM Young Members channel
opened at You Tube in January 2022 with Monthly
Seminar Series. So far, seven seminars has beendelivered, all permanently available at You Tube.
Invited keynote lecturer on 5th Symposium of Macedonian
Association for Geotechnics – ISRM Specialized Conference,
June 2022
Vojkan Jovičić was a member of the organisingcommittee of 5th Symposium of Macedonian Association
for Geotechnics – ISRM Specialized Conference, which
took place in June 2022. As an invited speaker, hedelivered the keynote lecture on the topic: ˝Impact ofWater Inflow and design solutions for constructionof Karavanke Tunnel˝ and wrote a paper under thesame name. The event was a regional conference that
assembled around 200 attendees from 25 countries.
Invited keynote lecturer on 16th Symposium of Serbian
Association of Structural Engineers, September 2022
As an invited speaker, Vojkan Jovičić, delivered the
keynote lecture on the topic: ˝Geotechnical Aspects ofCivil engineering˝ and wrote a paper under the same
name. The event, organised by Association of StructuralEngineers of Serbia took place in Arandjelovac, Serbia
in September 2022. This was a regional conference that
assembled around 300 attendees from 10 countries.
Vojkan Jovičić, used this opportunity to inform the civilengineers from the region about the role and the missionof the ISRM and to invite them to participation.

Qiang Yang served as the organizing committee chairof the ChinaRock 2022, which was virtually held on
Nov. 3-6, in Beijing, China. There were 29 parallelsessions, 590 oral presentations, and 12 technicaltraining courses. The technological innovationindustrial exhibition attracted 100 exhibitors.
Qiang Yang was invited to attend the workshop on
ISRM commissions organized by Chinese Society ofRock Mechanics and Engineering on Nov. 10, 2022.
He presented the latest news of ISRM, and provided
constructive suggestions on development of ISRM
commissions led by Chinese researchers.
The seminar series
on Rock Mechanics
organized
by Tsinghua
University was
virtually held from
May to in Octoberin 2022. Thisseminar series
were initiatedand organized by
Prof. Qiang Yangand Assoc. Prof.
Zhihong Zhao from Tsinghua University. Five outstanding
researchers including Dr. Jonny Rutqvist, Prof. Shemin
Ge, Prof. Musharraf Zaman, Prof. Leandro R. Alejano,and Prof. Antony P.S. Selvadurai were invited to givepresentations on theories, simulations and engineering
applications related to rock mechanics rock engineering.
65December 2022

LECTURE
14 FRANKLIN
W. Bilfinger | Vecttor Projetos Ltda., São Paulo, Brazil
ROCK STRENGTH DEGRADATION IN TUNNELING

Although rock tunnels are often associated with hard rocks, where the rock mass
behavior is governed by its discontinuities, almost all rocks present some formof time-dependent behavior. Typical time-dependent behavior is associated withswelling and slaking rocks, in which physicochemical reactions involving moistureand stress relief generate changes in the rock properties. Swelling rocks usually
suffer significant volume changes; slaking rocks do not necessarily suffer volume
changes, but strength degradation. Several tunnel projects around the world havesuffered severe problems, such as delays and costs increases, making previous
knowledge and adequate planning an important tool for designers and decisionmakers. This paper focuses on rock strength degradation, its different mechanisms,
available tests to predict the phenomena, and design recommendations.
1. INTRODUCTION

2. ROCK DEGRADATION

Tunneling in rocks is often associated with hard rocks,
where rock mass behavior is primarily controlled byits discontinuities. Two of the most traditionally usedrock classification methods, RMR (Bieniawski, 1989)
and Q (Barton et al.1974; NGI, 2015) are based on the
discontinuities of the rock mass: spacing, orientation andcharacteristics (including roughness, weathering andfillings). Nevertheless, in some cases, the rock mass may
present time-dependent behavior, changing its properties
significantly over time. Although there are some attempts
in the traditional rock mass classification methods toinclude this type of behavior, actual rock mass behavior
often requires more complex approaches.

2.1 Overview

Typically, rocks with swelling and slaking behavior
change their properties during tunnel construction
or its design life, and the evaluation of the involved
mechanisms, rock types, identification and quantificationof effects on the tunnel is relevant. Squeezing rocks also
have time-dependent behavior but associated to the typeof rock and the stresses around the tunnel, and not tochanges in properties (Carter et al, 2010).

Fig. 1 Typical slope stability problem associated to slaking rock.
(Source: Photo taken by the author).
66

Permanent changes of rock properties that reduce
strength and increase deformability are usuallyassociated with two different mechanisms: slaking (often
called “accelerated weathering”) and swelling. Several
problems related to these mechanisms are described ingeneral rock mechanics. In all situations, moisture plays
an important role.
A typical slope stability problem caused by the slakingof soft rocks can be seen in Figure 1. The road cut in thestate of Santa Catarina, Brazil, shows interbedded layersof claystone and sandstone. The claystone layers show
slaking behavior, breaking down in small pieces, and, inturn, generating destabilization of bigger blocks of themore stable sandstone layers.
Figure 2 shows an example of slaking basalt mappedin the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. Weathering due toexposure is accelerated and generated severe slope
stability and erosion problems.

Fig. 2. Slaking basalt in a road cut generating stability and erosion
problems. (Source: Photo taken by the author).

NEWS J URNAL
ISRM

Other problems associated to accelerated rockdegradation can be found in several civil and mining
engineering applications, showing that weathering ofrocks is not always an issue associated with geologicaltimes, but may be relatively short termed.
2.2 Rock Degradation in Tunneling

In tunneling, different authors, summarized in Bilfinger(2022), describe lining collapses and damages to linings
due to slaking and/or swelling behavior. An example oflining is presented in Figure 3.

Piaggio et al (2017) and others discuss problems fromvarious tunnels built in Chile through different rocktypes: reddish tuffs, volcanic siltstones, sandstones,
brecchia and conglomerates, andesitic-basaltic lava
flows and shales. One of the difficulties was to identify
the problematic rock stretches before excavationand in some case, exposure to water: swelling tests
were in some cases inconclusive and the associationof more than one test is described as necessary toproperly identify critical stretches. Although variable
swelling pressures of up to 1.5 MPa were measured in
the laboratory, most pressures were under 1.0 MPa.
Although measured swelling pressure is not usually high,these pressures and other chemical processes seem tohave led to the transformation of relatively sound rockinto soil-like material.
Marinos et al. (2013) describe the behavior of molassicrock in Greece, with slaking behavior of siltstones.
Olivier (1990) discusses similar behavior of mudrocks inSouth Africa.

Fig 3. View of damaged and overstressed tunnel lining,with cracks in the shotcrete and deformed anchor
plates. (Source: Photo taken by the author).

Several mechanisms leading to time-dependent changeof rock properties have been discussed by various
researchers. Bell et al. (2000), Boniface (1999) andBroch (2010) describe rock degradation of basalts of
the Lesotho Highlands Water Project by “crazing” –opening of microcracks due to the presence of swellingclay minerals in the rock matrix of basalts and accessto water or moisture. The process of degradation is“self-perpetuating”, because of the advance of thecracks, allowing for access of water and swelling of clay
minerals at greater depth.
Brattli & Broch (1995) describe failures at the Chingaza
tunnel in Colombia in shales and siltstones. The failure
mechanisms are attributed to an initial drying out of therock in the stretches where a 5 to 15 cm thick shotcrete
lining was installed. The drying out caused strength
reduction and contact of the existing clay minerals towater, leading to swelling and progressive degradationof the lining and the surrounding rock. It is interesting tonote that in the stretches where a circular unreinforced
cast in place concrete lining was installed, no problems
were observed.
Bilir (2011) presents data on stability problems, such as
closure or floor heave of horseshoe shaped steel andconcrete cross sections, in mining tunnels excavatedin claystone in Turkey. Swelling tests performed on insitu material did not show swelling potential. After
grounding and preparation of artificial samples bypressing, swelling pressures of up to 2.06 MPa were
measured. Swelling potential was associated tosmectite group clay minerals.

Steiner (1993) describes 11 tunnels excavated in shales
in Switzerland, France, Italy and Canada, where swellingpressures were back calculated and usually varied
between 0.1 and 0.3 MPa.
Steiner et al. (2010) present the analysis of different
tunnels, tests and numerical models and conclude that,for brittle rock, damage initiates for a stress level of
svmax/UCS = 0.35 to 0.5. In the case of swelling ground,brittle failure increases swelling potential or may eventrigger swelling.
Few references describe strength deterioration due
to swelling and slaking: Yoshida et al. (1997) present
numerical modeling of strength deterioration of
mudstones due to softening over time. Vergara &Triantafyllidis (2015; 2016) show results of tests onargillaceous rocks, where strength and stiffness
decrease after swelling.
An example of rock properties degradation in gneissicrock was observed in a tunnel recently built in Brazil.
During the construction, geological excavation front
mapping registered high Q and RMR values at several
locations. One year later, the tunnel was re-mapped
and lower RMR and Q values were obtained at several
locations. Approximately one year thereafter, the tunnel
was re-mapped and, again, lower RMR and Q wereobtained for some stretches. Geological descriptions of
the rock degradation included:. Block detachment due to weathering of biotite rich bands;. Block detachment due to the combination of rock
discontinuities, probably associated with weathering of
the discontinuity surfaces;. Weathering of the rock mass, specifically pegmatitewith signs of hydrothermalism, transforming sound rockinto soil-like material that could be hand-excavated.
Horizontal borehole cores drilled from the tunnel in
one of the most critical regions are shown in Figure 4.
67

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December 2022

14

Shotcrete

Weatheredrock

Fig 4. Horizontal borehole cores. Totally weathered rock in contact
with the tunnel lining shotcrete. (Photo: personal file of the author).

Fig 5. Partial failure of tunnel lining due to degradation. (Photo:
personal file of the author).

Completely weathered rock can be identified in directcontact with the tunnel lining shotcrete.

the location of critical stretches before excavation or
exposure to moisture for a certain time. In some cases,
the potentially swelling and degrading material isrestricted to rock joints, and, in others, the swellingminerals are part of the rock matrix.

Based on the analyzed cases and the experience of theauthor, at least three different types of behavior canbe identified:. Soft rock slaking: wetting and drying cycles degrading
the rock into small pieces or lumps, destroying its
structure progressively and transforming it into a soil
like material. Swelling minerals may be present, but do
not generate significant expansion. A typical example
can be seen in Figure 1.
. Soft rock swelling: increase of moisture and/or
decompression/stress relief generates chemicalswelling, often associated with swelling clay minerals.
In many cases, significant swelling pressures and/or
expansion are generated. Typical examples are shales
with significant swelling clay content.
. Hard rock slaking and swelling: increase of moisture
content and decompression, associated with swellingclay minerals, “destroying” its structure. Expansive
pressures and strains are not high in several cases,
but the rock strength decreases sometimes drasticallyand deformability increases.
A characteristic behavior that all cases have in common
is that the process of degradation is progressive:
degradation and swelling lead to more access to waterand additional swelling or slaking. Figure 5 shows a viewof a tunnel wall, where degradation caused a “slabbing”like behavior, with soil-like material between more soundrock slabs. The strength reduction leads to a localized
failure of the lining, reduction of horizontal stresses
and the possibility of continuity of the process, if nostabilizing actions are taken.
In tunnels with limited access for inspection andmaintenance, such as hydro tunnels, this processoften leads to significant degradation or full tunnel
closure. Additionally, in hydro tunnels, swelling is often
potentialized by unlimited access to water and additional
direct erosive action.
One of the key unsolved issues when dealing withrock degradation and/or swelling rocks is identifying
68

Even in the so-called “stable rock,” some rock strength
degradation may occur. Cacciari (2014) describes anunlined railway tunnel excavated in gneiss between 1970
and 1980, where loose rock blocks must be periodicallyremoved mechanically to avoid accidents. The sameprocedure of occasional rock block removal is necessary
in unlined road tunnels excavated in granite and gneissin the city of Rio de Janeiro, which is evidence that, tosome extent, even rocks masses which are not known
for slaking or swelling behavior suffer some type ofstrength degradation. These types of effects are not thefocus of this paper.
3. TYPICAL MECHANISMS
3.1 Slaking

Slaking is normally defined as “…the crumbling anddisintegration of rock or hard soil upon exposure to air orwater…” (ITA-AITES, 2022). This definition is supported
by several authors (Franklin & Chandra, 1972; Goodman,
1993; Skrede, 2017), who describe slaking as short-term
weathering or break down by wetting and drying.
Franklin & Chandra (1972) describe three factors that
influence slake durability:. Permeability and porosity, that control the entry,
retention and mobility of fluids inside the rock;. Action of fluids, once inside the rock: adsorption
resulting in surface energy changes, solution of
cements or disruption of bonds, or disruptive forces bypore-pressure generation;. Capacity of the rock to resist disruptive forces.
Slaking mechanisms are complex and vary according totype of rock. In soft rocks, such as mudrock, the slaking
mechanism is associated with changes in moisture
content, where entrapped air due to capillary action
is pressurized, leading to failure of the rock skeleton,
according to Terzaghi & Peck (1948), Bell (2007), andNEWS J URNAL
ISRM

others. According to Pelissier & Vogler (1990), slaking
is controlled by the interaction of the rock structure,permeability, matrix suction and swell of clay particles.
Fookes et al. (1988) stated that slake durability is
conditioned by the following petrological tests: specificgravity, porosity, hardness, texture, moisture content
and secondary mineral content.
Problems associated with slaking behavior are describedfor several sedimentary, metamorphic and igneous rocktypes (Bilfinger, 2022).
3.2 SWELLING

Swelling is usually defined as “…increase in volume upon
exposure to water …” (ITA-AITES, 2022). This definition
is in line with other references, such as FHWA (2009).
Galera et al. (2014) claim that swelling is associatedwith stress changes, increase in water content or the
association of both phenomena.
Two main types of swelling processes are described(Pimentel, 2015):. Physical mechanisms, associated with the presencesof swelling clay minerals;. Chemical mechanisms, due to the anhydrite-gypsum
transformation or oxidation or the transformation of
calcium carbonate to gypsum, due to the oxidation of
pyrite (Brattli & Broch, 1995).
According to Skrede (2017), kaolinite, illite, smectite
and vermiculite are the most common groups of clay
minerals. Swelling behavior is usually associated tosmectites, consisting mainly of subclasses that include
montmorillonites, and vermiculites.

should maintain the same density and water content as
in their in-situ conditions, as outlined in ISRM (1989).
Even though the ISRM recommendations were aimed atswelling rocks, they also apply to slaking rocks, in whichchanges in confinement and moisture can cause changeof properties as well.
4.1 Slaking

For the evaluation of slaking potential, the following tests
are available:. Slake Index Test: proposed by Deo (1972, as cited in
Santi, 1998) and modified by Santi (1998);. Slake durability test (SDT), proposed by Franklin &Chandra (1972) and described as suggested method in
ISRM (1979);. Jar slake test (Santi, 1998; Mohamad et al, 2011);. Ethylene Glycol test (Paige-Green, 2008; van Blerk et
al, 2016; Piaggio et al, 2017).
. ASTM D5313 (2021), method for evaluation of the
durability of rock for erosion control under wetting anddrying conditions.
Another test is described by Okamoto et al. (1981), whereslaking is measured during wetting and drying cycles,
under controlled temperatures. The described apparatus,
however, does not seem to have been employed recently
to investigate slaking.
The most common test to quantify slaking potential is
the SDT. A SDT result is conventionally defined as theratio between final to initial tested masses after 2 cyclesof the test procedure (ID2 or Id). Slake durability can beclassified according to Table 1:
Table 1. Variations of the SDT

Anhydrites, when in contact with water, transform into
gypsum by absorbing water molecules into its structure.
This process leads to a volumetric increase of around
60% (Wittke-Gattermann & Wittke, 2003; Anagnostou
et.al., 2010). The transformation of calcium carbonate togypsum, due to the presence of oxidized pyrite causes a
volume increase of 23%. These types of swelling will not
be further addressed in this paper.

Classification

Problems associated to swelling behavior are describedfor several sedimentary, metamorphic and igneous rocktypes (Bilfinger, 2022).
4. TESTS TO EVALUATE SLAKING AND SWELLING

There is consensus that more than one test is necessary
to adequately characterize slaking and swelling potential.
In this item, a list of the most commonly available tests ispresented.
Initial assessments of swelling and/or slaking potential
can be made using simple field tests, for instance, thesmear test, taste test and water reaction test, as proposedin ISRM (1994).

Slake Durability Id(%)

Very Low

0 – 25%Low

25 – 50%

Medium50 – 75%High

75 – 90%

Very High

90 – 95%

Extremely High

95 – 100

Some authors discuss if 2 cycles are adequate andoften different number of cycles are tested and theobtained index is usually defined as ID number of cycles.
Other variations of the SDT and tests on samples after
cycles of the SDT are also available and summarized in
Bilfinger (2022).
Interesting test results, corelating SDT results with UCS,
show that in general, “stronger” rocks, with higher UCS,
are less affected by slaking and have higher ID2. Figure
6 shows graphical regression results of the relation
between UCS and ID2 for some rock types.

An important pre-laboratory testing issue is samplingand storage of samples to be tested. Ideally, samples
69

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December 2022

14

180
160
140
Igneous- Bozdag & Ince (2018)

UCS (MPa)

120

Bozdag &I nce( 2018)
Shale- Konkagul &S anti (1999)

100

Calcareous -Y agiz et al. (2012)
Pyroclastic- Kahraman et al. (2017)80

Kahraman et al.( 2017)
Volcanic sandstone

60

Granodiorite
Illite tu

40

DioriteAndesite

20
0
20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Slake Durability Index (ID2)

Fig 6. Regression results of the relation between UCS and ID2 for different rock types (including data from personal file).

Igneous rocks (Bozdag & Ince, 2018)
UCS = 6 x 10-5 x e 0.1358(ID2) for ID2 <98(1)

UCS = 69.267 x ID2 −6758.8 for ID2 <98(2)Shales (Koncagül & Santi, 1999) – adjusted for MPa.
UCS = 0.658 x ID2 + 9.081(3)

4.2 Swelling

For the evaluation of swelling potential, the suggested
laboratory test methods by the ISRM (1989) are:. Determination of maximum axial (confined)
swelling stress;. Determination of maximum axial and radial freeswelling strain;. Determination of axial swelling stress as a function ofswelling strain.
Additional relevant tests to identify swelling potential
include:. SEM, XRD, thin sections, to identify potentially swellingminerals;. Ethylene Glycol test (Paige-Green, 2008; van Blerk et
al, 2016; Piaggio et al, 2017);. Huder-Amberg test (Huder & Amberg, 1970), a
variation of axial swelling test as a function of swellingstrain, which includes an unloading and reloading
cycle, prior to sample saturation;. Cyclic swelling tests, as described by Vergara &Triantafyllidis. (2015) and Selen et al. (2020);. Powder swelling tests (Thuro, 1993; Rauh et al., 2006).
Instead of testing “undisturbed” samples, in these tests
milled rock is tested using ISRM suggested methods or
as proposed by Rauh et al. (2006);. Atterberg limits, to estimate clay mineral activity;.
Difficulties of quantifying swelling pressures andswelling potential become clear in the paper published70

by Selen et al. (2018), which highlights significant
differences of similar test results by two importantlaboratories.
5. VARIATION OF UNIAXIAL COMPRESSIVE
STRENGTH DUE TO WATER CONTENT

Uniaxial compressive strength (UCS) is one of the mostimportant and common tests in rock mechanics. An
ISRM-Suggested Method (SM) (Ulusay & Hudson, 2007)
describes test details which, among others, include
the recommendation to perform the test on samples
not stored for longer than 30 days and under natural
moisture conditions. The SM recognizes the importanceof reporting the moisture content and of evaluating UCS
for different moisture contents. Several authors present
data of variable UCS results as a function of moisture
content or for both “dry” and saturated tests. Studies byVasarhelvi (2002) and Vasarhelyi & Van (2006) showed
an approximately linear relationship between dry andsaturated UCS for volcanic tuffs and sandstones:
Volcanic tuffs:
UCS (sat) = 0.729UCS (dry)(4)

Sandstones:
UCS (sat) = 0.759UCS (dry)(5)

Figure 7 presents a compilation of test results fordifferent rock types under dry and saturated conditions
reproduced from Bilfinger (2022). An almost identicalgeneral trend between dry and saturated UCS values
identified by Vásárhelyi (2002) and Vásárhelyi & Van(2006) can be observed in equation (6), obtained fromthe results presented in Figure 7:
UCS (sat) = 0.758UCS (dry)		 (6)As showed in Figure 7, the UCS ratio varies fordifferent rock types. For example, granite, marble,
diabase and gneiss have an average ratio between
UCS values above 75%. For shales, the ratio is around30%. Romana & Vasarhelyi (2007) present similar

NEWS J URNAL
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14

250

UCS (MPa)

200

150

100

50

0
0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

UCSdry (MPa)
Sandstone

GraniteQuartzite

Phyllite

MarbleLimestone

SchistShale

DiabaseGneissFig 7. Compilation of UCSsat x UCSdry data

100%

UCSsat / UCSdry

80%

60%

40%

20%

0%
11

01

00

1000

UCSdry (MPa)
Sandstone

GraniteQuartzite

Phyllite

MarbleLimestone

SchistShale

DiabaseGneissFig 8. UCS x UCS sat / UCS dry ratio. Same data as in Figure 7.

conclusions regarding wet and dry UCS ratio: forstrong rocks, the ratio varies between 80 and 90%, for
medium strength rocks, between 60 and 70%, and forsoft argillaceous rock, 30%.
Figure 8 presents the data of Figure 7, with the UCS ratio
as a function of UCS.
The results presented above allow some general
conclusions, which are aligned with the conclusions ofWong et al (2016):. Sedimentary rocks usually show higher UCS
reductions due to saturation than igneous rocks;. Fine grained sedimentary rocks (e.g., shale) are usuallymore affected by saturation than sandstones;. UCS reductions due to saturation is higher, in general,
for rocks with lower UCS.

Jaeger et al. (2007) show that mechanical interaction
is governed by the effective stress principle, and thedifference between dry and saturated samples can be
explained by the fact that samples often de-saturate andmeasured strength is artificially increased by suction(Amman et al., 2015). This type of interaction is, inprinciple, fully reversible.
Chemical interaction may also affect rock strength.
Different fluids, and even different types of water, maychange the rock strength (Ou, 2020; Vardé, 2020). Azhar
et al. (2020) presents data of clay rich sandstone, where
slake durability and elasticity modulus decreased after
saturation for some time. A part of the clay minerals was
identified as being montmorillonite, which is assumed
to be the main cause of a reduction of over 90% of theelasticity modulus. Chemical interaction is, in general,
not reversible.

71December 2022

14 6. DESIGN APPROACHES

6.1 Geological-geomechanical Model

The key to a successful project is the development ofan adequate geological and geomechanical model. Thismodel must be developed from early stages on and becontinuously updated throughout the project. During
early stages of the project, a comprehensive desktop
study is necessary, including the evaluation of geologicalmaps, literature and, more recently, readily available
satellite images. The use of the concepts proposedby Fookes et al. (2000), with the construction of ageological model, evolving from a broader global view at
tectonic scale to a more specific local geological model,
is a practical and interesting proposal.
After desktop studies and evaluations, a walkover isfundamental, analyzing in detail local features andupdating the model continuously and anticipating what
conditions might be associated with the findings.
Based on previous findings, the model is continuously
updated with results of an initial phase of groundinvestigations and, possibly, supplementary
investigations. Ground investigations must be
programmed according to the model. Programming,for example, boreholes with fixed spacings may not be
ideal; location of boreholes should be evaluated so thatpossible geological features are investigated adequately.
The geological model must be continuously updated
during construction, especially in the case of tunnels,
where ground investigations are often limited
due to several reasons, like high cover, limited
representativeness of cores, between others. Geologicalmapping and testing during tunnel excavations isfundamental and, as previously discussed, many
problems in tunneling works were detected only aftertunnel excavation.
Fookes et al. (2000) states the following main guidelines
for the construction of a geological model:. Form an understanding of what is found from desktop
studies;. Anticipate what geology conditions might beassociated with the findings;. Develop this through subsequent stages of theinvestigation, design, and construction.
6.2 Rock Mass Classification SystemsÖzkan et al. (2012) proposes a modification of the RMRclassification system specifically for weak rock, called
the M-RMR. This change has the main objective of
including results of the SDI in the classification system,
as well as adjusting some of the other parameters.
Celada et al. (2014) discuss a reviewed RMR, which
considers SDT results when computing RMR values. A
similar approach for the Q-system was presented by
Almenara (2020), where SRF values are suggested as afunction of the SDT.
72

Rock mass classification systems, in general, do not take
into consideration the change of rock properties withtime. In the Q-System (Barton et al, 1974; NGI, 2015),
the SRF factor is used to reduce Q by up to 15 times, if“heavy rock swelling pressure” is expected, which, ina certain way, can be compared to a Q reduction withtime. However, in the opinion of the author, rock strength
degradation may generate soil-like material, for which
the rock mass classification systems and associatedlinings, are not appropriate.
6.3 Swelling

Grunicke & Walter (2004) and Wittke-Gattermann &Wittke (2003) discuss the implementation of a swelling
law into FE codes, where uniaxial stress-swellingstrain relation is approximated to be logarithmic. Using
this approach, they concluded that simply applying auniform swelling pressure on the lining might be nonconservative: lining stiffness seems to play an importantrole on the effect of swelling pressures on the lining.
Hawlader et al. (2005) introduce a model thatincorporates test results of the Ontario shale, where
swelling strain increases as a logarithmic functionof time. Calibrations of the model agreed with
monitoring results. Kramer & Moore (2005) discuss theimplementation of swelling into FE modeling, in order toapproach time-dependent behavior.
Schädlich et al. (2012) present the implementation of aswelling model, with a logarithmic swelling law for the
stress-swelling strain behavior and an exponential decayof swelling strain with time, implemented into Plaxis.
John et al. (2009) discusses a practical approach, due
to the high variability of swelling pressures of claystonealong tunnel alignment of the Pfändertunnel in Austria:
immediately after bench excavation, extensometers were
installed, together with rock sampling and evaluating of
its disintegration for 24 hours. Based on this information,
the swelling potential was evaluated. Prestressedanchors were used to avoid tunnel invert heave along
approximately 50% of the tunnel, with an average load of
0.13MPa. In addition, the rock surface was immediately
sealed after excavation to avoid the access of water.
Amberg (2011), Ladanyi & Gill (1988) and Sulem et al.
(1987) introduce a convergence-confinement approach
including time-dependent behavior and circular tunnels,
showing interesting results. Creeping rock, according tothese authors, may include swelling potential.
Steiner (1993) describes tunnels excavated in shale,
where most problems were solved by controllingdeformations, often by installing an invert. He also
concluded that swelling pressures usually vary between
0.1 and 0.3 MPa in shales
Several authors state that laboratory test results yield
unrealistically high swelling pressures, when comparedto the pressures acting on a tunnel. Nilsen (2016)
proposes to use no more than 50% of the swelling

NEWS J URNAL
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14

Assuming a maximum compressive stress in the liningof 20 MPa and a typical lining thickness of 30 cm, themaximum load p (swelling pressure) is: 			
							σc x A6
p = ______ = __						(9)rr
For a 12 m diameter tunnel, the maximum swellingpressure would be 1 MPa. This simplified approach isconservative, because it does not consider delayed lining
installation, i.e., that some radial displacement may occur
before the lining is installed.

a)b)Refining this simple approach using a logarithmic
relation between swelling pressure and swelling strain,
as suggested by Grob (1972):				
							ε = kq x log ( σσz )						(10)0Where e is the swelling strain, [Equation] is the swellingparameter, [Equation] is the stress at a given strain and[Equation] is the stress for null swelling strain.
Fig 9. (a) Typical structural tunnel lining equilibrium(b) Typical rock tunnel support

pressures measured in the laboratory using powderswelling tests, and he mentions that the Norwegian
Public Road Administration Guidelines recommend using
only 30%. Steiner (1993) concludes that, in general, fieldswelling pressures in argillaceous rocks are significantly
lower than pressures measured in the laboratory.
It is important to state that all linings designed forswelling rocks are concrete structures and notconventional rock tunnels, where tunnel support isprovided by a thin shotcrete lining, combined with rockbolts. This important design decision may be explainedby the following conceptual discussion: a conventionalrock tunnel support consists of a thin shotcrete lining
and rock bolts, which help to create a rock arch around thetunnel. The shotcrete lining does not usually have a regular
geometry, no foundation and no invert, and, therefore, is
not capable of supporting rock mass pressures by axial(compressive) forces. Therefore, rock loads are supported
directly by the bolts and by the rock arch. The shotcrete
has the goal of providing some confining pressure andsupporting possibly loose rock blocks:
In the case of a structural concrete shell, considering acircular tunnel loaded uniformly, the lining loads can be
estimated by:
N = p x r					(7)Where N is the axial force, p is the load on the lining and[Equation] is the radius of the tunnel. The compressive
stress in the tunnel lining (σc) can be estimated, assuming
a uniform stress distribution in the lining, as follows:							Nσc = ___							(8)
A
where A is the cross section of the lining (lining thickness).

Assuming that the rock mass affected by swelling
has a thickness of 2 m, which is compatible withmeasurements presented by John et al. (2009) and Lecaet al. (2000), it is possible to estimate the displacementx pressure relation. Figure 10 shows the displacements
for a soil with maximum swelling pressure of 1 MPa andmaximum swelling expansion of 10%.
For a circular tunnel under radial load, the radialdisplacement [Equation] is a function of the lining
stiffness and the tunnel radius: 				2							
pxr
_____
u
=
r
						(11)ExA
For a 12 m diameter tunnel, with a 30 cm thick concrete
lining, with an elasticity modulus of the lining of 20
GPa, the relationship between pressure and radialdisplacement are represented in Figure 10. An initialdisplacement of 2 cm due to, for example, delayed lining
installation / activation, was assumed.
Figure 10 shows that the lining is relatively stiff and, assoon as installed, will restrain displacements and takehigh loads. Analysis with more sophisticated numericalmodels will allow for a more realistic analysis, with noncircular tunnel geometries, soil-lining interaction andmore sophisticated constitutive models. Nevertheless, it
is clear that structural linings are capable of supporting
high lining loads. Dzialoszynki & Stucchi (2021) present
simulations in another context, but their analysis showsthat conventional tunnels in soils are loaded with loads inthe order of magnitude of the ones obtained in the simple
model above.

73

December 2022

0.20

Swelling Expansion (m)14situ and excavated materials, to evaluate tunnel stretches
that may be affected by deleterious rock properties. To
allow for this approach, it is important that the tunnel
design in its entirety is sufficiently flexible to allow for
the installation of variable linings, designed for specificconditions that may only be detected during tunnel
excavation. Considering that in many cases the internal
shape of the tunnel is defined by its use, the geometryof the tunnel should be chosen in a way that allows
for the incorporation of a structural lining, including a
curved invert.

swelling soil

0.16

lining

0.12

0.08

0.04

0.00
00

.1

0.20

.3

0.40

.5

0.60

.7

0.80

.9

Swelling Pressure (MPa)Fig 10. Lining displacement x lining load and soil
expansion x swelling pressure.

When analyzing a conventional rock tunnel, usual rockbolt loads vary between 100 and 200 KN. In a simplistic
approach, between 3 to 6 rock bolts per square meter
would be necessary to balance a pressure of 0.6 MPa,
which is not feasible.
6.4 Slaking

Marinos et al. (2013) describe successful constructionof 12 tunnels in molassic rock in Greece, where slaking
behavior of siltstones was avoided by the immediate
application of 3 to 5 cm of shotcrete. Olivier (1990)
presents similar recommendations for mudrocks inSouth Africa.
The approach of protecting rocks that are sensitive tomoisture variations seems to be a universally accepted
procedure, not only in tunnel engineering, but also
in other rock mechanics applications. It is, however,fundamental to make sure that the slaking behavior is not
combined to swelling minerals, that may, during the design
life of the structure, increase loads on the tunnel lining.
6.5 Site Investigations

Several different tests are available to evaluate rockstrength degradation, associated to swelling and slaking
rock behavior. Almost all tests are laboratory tests andare relatively sophisticated. Therefore, a successful site
investigation campaign and project need a progressive
approach, starting with an initial geological assessmentthat includes the evaluation of literature and, where
possible, other projects in the area.
If there is risk of swelling and/or slaking rocks
affecting the project, a comprehensive investigation isrecommended. The experience of the author, as wellas in published projects, shows different tests arenecessary to evaluate swelling and slaking potential,
including saturated and dry UCS, ethylene-glycol
immersion, Atterberg limit, SDT, axial swelling tests,
preferably on undisturbed samples and rock powder andmineralogical tests, like X-ray diffraction.
Considering that site investigations usually consist of alimited number of boreholes, it is important that the site
investigations continue throughout the project, testing in
74

1

7. CONCLUSIONSRock strength degradation is associated with slaking
and swelling. Although some rock types are known to
be associated to these phenomena, different igneous,
metamorphic, and sedimentary rocks, usually considered“stable,” have also shown swelling and slaking problems
associated with tunneling works.
Chemical and physical processes are associated withslaking and swelling. However, these processes are still
not well described: for example, in some cases, highcontents of swelling minerals do not lead to rocks withhigh swelling pressures. For that reason, the evaluationof different tests is necessary to assess swelling andslaking behavior.
The lack of deeper knowledge of rock behavior makes arobust design important. The design should incorporate,from the beginning, a comprehensive evaluation ofgeology with possible scenarios based initially on deskstudies, followed by walkover, orienting an evolutive
site investigation campaign, that extends into tunnel
construction. Design should be flexible to accommodate
different solutions for different conditions.
An inadequate design, i.e., that allows for thedevelopment of slaking and swelling mechanisms, willlead to the progressive degradation of the rock mass,
with a significant risk of the rock mass becomingsoil-like. In general, the reduction of access to waterand providing significant confinement to the rock areadequate solutions.
It is, however, seldom necessary to design the lining
for full swelling pressure obtained from laboratory
tests. Several authors conclude that swellingpressures acting on tunnel linings are significantly
lower than values measured in the laboratory.
It is the understanding of the author that future researchis necessary, including the possibility of better previous
mapping of geomechanical properties, as well as thedevelopment of constitutive models that include rockstrength and deformability variations as a function ofswelling strain.

NEWS J URNAL
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank the ISRM Board for the honor of being
chosen as Franklin Lecturer at the IX Latin American
Rock Mechanics Symposium. I would also especially liketo thank Prof. Luiz Guilherme de Mello, for his valuable
technical review of the paper, Ms. Isabel Caram de Souza,
for her editorial help and Mr. Luis Fernando da Silva
Belizario, for his help with the figures.
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Circular Tunnel. Int. J. Rock. Mech. Min Sci. & Geomech.
24m p. 155-164.
Terzaghi, K., Peck, R.B. 1948. Soil Mechanics inEngineering Practice. John Wiley & Sons, New York.
Thuro, K. 1993 Der Pulver-Quellversuch – ein neuer
Quellhebungsversuch. Geotechnik, V. 14, p.; 101-106.
Ulusay, R.; Hudson, J.A. 2007. The complete ISRM
Suggested Methods for Rock Characterization, Testingand Monitoring: 1976-2006. ISRM.
Vardé, O.A. 2020. Lessons learned from dam
construction in Patagonia Argentina. Soils and Rocks.
Vásárhelyi, B., Ván, P. 2006. Influence of water content
on the strength of rock. Engineering Geology, 84, 70-74.
Vásárhelyi, B. 2002. Influence of the water saturation
for the strength of volcanic tuffs. ISRM International
Symposium - EUROCK 2002, Madeira, Portugal.
Vergara, M.R., Triantafyllidis, T. 2015. Swelling behaviorof volcanic rocks under cyclic wetting and drying.
International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining
Sciences, 80, 231-240.
Vergara, M.R., Triantafyllidis, T. 2016. Influece ofWater Content on the Mechanical Properties of an
Argillaceous Swelling Rock Mech Rock Eng, 49, p.
2555-2568.
Wittke-Gattermann, P., Wittke, W. 2003. Dimensioningof Tunnels in Swelling Rock. ISRM 2003 – Technology
Roadmap for Rock Mechanics. South Africa.
Wong, L.N.Y; Maruvanchery, V.; Liu, G. 2016. Water
effects on rock strength and stiffness degradation. Acta
Geotechnica. 11, 713–737.
Yoshida, N., Nishi, M., Kitamura, M., Adachi, T. 1997.
Analysis of mudstone deterioration and its effect ontunnel performance. International Journal of RockMechanics and Mining Sciences,34.

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15

ROCHA MEDAL LECTURE
V.R.S. De Silva | Monash University, Australia

ROCK FRACTURE STIMULATION USING A SLOWENERGY RELEASING FRACTURING COMPOUND FOR
PERMEABILITY ENHANCED IN-SITU LEACHING

ABSTRACT
Conventional mining methods are becoming increasingly uneconomical with declining ore
grades. In-Situ Recovery (ISR) of minerals is one alternative technology that can be adapted toliberate minerals from low-grade permeable mineral deposits. ISR susceptibility is dependent
on the permeability of the host-rock formation. Although prevailing methods such as hydraulicfracturing and explosive blasting are used for preconditioning, these methods have limitations
such as excessive formation damage around well fields and uncontrolled fracture propagation.
Therefore, an alternative method is proposed to initiate fractures around an injection wellusing a patented hydrophobic, injectable, Soundless Cracking Demolition Agent (SCDA). The
fracture performance of the compound was investigated by numerically simulating the fracture
initiation and propagation using the Discrete Element Method. The modified SCDA was also
tested in the laboratory by fracturing multiple low-permeability sandstone specimens underhydrostatic stresses up to 20 MPa. Due to the fracturing nature of the agent, an increase in
the fracture density was observed (by 116%) with increasing confining pressure (from 70 kPa
to 20 MPa). Furthermore, during SCDA charging, the rock is subjected to a gradual fracturing
process (10–25 hrs) facilitating safer, controlled fracture propagation, around the borehole.
Finally, the fracture permeability of the specimen was calculated. Compared to the very low
intact sandstone permeability (7.6x10-20 m2) an improved permeability of 9.79x10-13 m2 at aconfining pressure of 30 MPa was observed following pre-conditioning. The radial fracturingobserved using this method indicates that fracture initiation with SCDA charging is a potential
complementary method to improve the permeability of host-rock formations.
1. INTRODUCTION

The ongoing global decline in ore grades has led toincreased energy consumption in mineral liberation
using conventional mining methods. Conventional mining
accounts for over 6% of world energy consumption(Holmberg et al. 2017) and ore grades are further
expected to decline in the future (Rötzer & Schmidt
2018). Despite this trend, mineral extraction is further

expected to rise with the transition to renewableenergy and electric vehicles (Watari et al. 2022). As
shown in Figure 1a, the embodied energy in mineralliberation shows an exponential increase with declining
ore grades. The increasing waste rock volume in themineral extraction process is the main contributor
to this elevated energy expenditure. In conventional
mining operations, as the host rock volume increases
the subsequent processes of haulage and grinding
operations (Figure 1b) result in a drastic increase inenergy consumption.

a)b)

1.1 Mining: a global outlook and an alternative
approachFig 1. Energy consumption in conventional mining (a) with declining ore grade, (b) proportion of energy usage in operations(Stadler, A. & Boucaut, S. 2015)77

December 2022

target to limit the global temperature rise to 1.5°C
15 Theby 2050 according to the Paris agreement calls foralternative mining technologies that can eliminate thecurrent practices of energy-intensive mining operations.
Furthermore, these technologies must enable theeconomic recovery of minerals from deposits that are
below the cut-off grade for conventional mining. In-situ
recovery (ISR) is an alternative, nonintrusive mining
technology that may be adopted for low-grade mineral
extraction. However, ISR is limited to permeable hostrock formations where a leaching solution can beeasily circulated through an ore body to dissolve target

minerals. This is done by injecting a lixiviant (typicallya weak acid) through a well field drilled into the target
ore deposit. The mineral-rich solution is then extracted
from the orebody using recovery wells (Figure 2).
Typical recovery rates of minerals for ISR could range
between 60- 90% (Northey et al. 2013) depending on

the host-rock formation and mineralogy. Compared toconventional methods of mining, ISR is less intrusive
and requires only the injection and extraction wells to
be formed on-site leading to a lower operation footprint.
Thus, ISR could in theory eliminate excavating, hauling,crushing, and grinding operations that account for overFig 2. Schematic diagram of the ISR process

60 % of the total energy expenditure of conventional
mining (Figure 1b).
However, the efficiency of ISR is reliant on thepermeability of the host rock and at present ISR islimited to previous ore bodies. Application of ISR
in impervious host rocks requires permeability
enhancement by artificial fracture stimulation. Current
practices for fracture stimulation include blasting(McCarter 1996) and hydraulic fracturing (He et al. 2016).
However, both these methods have characteristics,
which are detrimental to the ISR process. Blastingproduces localized fractures that are difficult to control
with large variability of fragment size (Saharan et al.
2006). On the other hand, hydraulic fracturing mainly
generates a single uncontrolled fracture, the directionof which is dictated by the in-situ stress anisotropy.
This is suboptimal for ISR as the risk of groundwatercontamination from the leaching solution increases if thepreconditioning is uncontrolled. From an environmental
point of view, hydraulic fracturing requires a large
amount of fracturing fluid, which could potentially leakoff to surrounding aquifers from uncontrolled fracture
initiation. Therefore, any artificial fracture stimulation
method for enhanced ISR must be able to initiate acontrollable and localized fracture network in the host rock.
1.2 Pre-conditioning using Soundless Cracking
Demolition Agents

SCDA also known as soundless cracking agents,
expansive demolition agents, and non-explosive
demolition agents is a cementitious powdery substance
predominantly consisting of Calcium oxide and othercementing materials. When hydrated, an injectableslurry is produced that overtime solidifies and expands
volumetrically through the formation of Calcium
Hydroxide (Eq. 1) and Ettringite (Eq. 2). When thiscrystal growth is restrained inside a borehole it exerts
an outward thrusting pressure known as crystal growthpressure ΔP, given by ΔP = RT/Vm.ln(as/ao ), where Vm
is the molar volume of the Ca(OH)2 crystal, R is the gas
constant, T is the absolute temperature, as and ao are
the mean activity of the supersaturated and saturated

CaO+H2O→Ca(OH)2+15.2↑(kCal/mol)CaO+H2O→CaOH2+ 266.1↑(kJ/mol)(1)

3CaO.3Al2O3.CaSO4 + 8CaSO4 + 6Ca(OH)2 + 90H2O → 3(3CaO.Al2O3.3CaSO4.32H2O) (2)78NEWS J URNAL
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Fig 3. SCDA charged crack propagation (a) the spherical expansion model (b) crack propagationfrom the borehole, (c) Expansive pressure development in the borehole during crack growthsolutions in the aqueous slurry respectively. As indicatedin Figure 3a, this expansion is explained by the Sphericalexpansion model for Ca(OH)2, where an expansive
pressure is exerted in the surrounding body when thevolumetric expansion of Ca(OH)2 is restrained (IshShalom & Bentur, 1975).
During the fracturing process, SCDA is first mixed
with water (30 % by weight of SCDA) to form a slurry
and injected into the pre-drilled holes in the rock. The
subsequent exothermic reaction allows the material tovolumetrically expand over several hours. Under theconfinement in a borehole, the volumetric expansion
generates an expansive pressure and initiates fractures
around the borehole when it exceeds the tensile strengthof the rock (Laefer et al. 2010) (Figure 3b). SCDA
charging inside a borehole induces a radial compressive
stress field and tangential tensile stress around theinjection well. The initiation of a fracture indicates arelease of confinement of the rock and a resulting dropin expansive pressure can be observed. The idealized
pressure plot in Figure 3c shows that the tensile strengthof the rock is exceeded at expansive pressure Po andthe first crack is initiated by SCDA expansion. The
fracture is only propagated when the tensile stress isfurther increased by SCDA expansion. The slow energyreleasing mechanism and the corresponding controlled
fracture initiation and growth mean that stable andquasi-static crack growth can be maintained during thefracturing process.
The application of SCDA has been limited due tothe inability of SCDA to fracture rock in underwaterconditions and its slow expansive pressure generation.
This is because, in its slurry form, SCDA completely
disintegrates in water. This study presents a patented
modified SCDA that can be used for subsurface rockpre-conditioning under submerged conditions, with aparticular focus on ISR. Next, the fracturing potential ofthe modified SCDA is investigated both experimentallyand numerically. Finally, the fracturing potential andthe resultant permeability improvement of SCDA
are compared against hydraulic fracturing underlaboratory conditions.
2. A MODIFIED SCDA FOR ROCK PRECONDITIONING

Considering the existing limitations of SCDA in
subsurface applications, it was modified to enhancehydrophobicity and fluidity in SCDA. This was achievedin a three-step process involving the precise inclusion of
three additives to SCDA. 1) A viscosifier (VEA- Viscosity
enhancing agent) in the form of welan gum, which is ananionic exopolysaccharide that introduces hydrophobic
properties to SCDA. 2) A high-range water reducer(HRWR) in the form of Sodium naphthalene formaldehyde
sulphonate (SNSF) to increase the fluidity of SCDA
without increasing the water content. 3) A chemical
accelerator in the form of anhydrous calcium chloride(CaCl2) to alter/increase the reaction rate of SCDA.
Welan gum is a long-chained biopolymer produced by acontrolled submerged fermentation using Alcaligenes
ATCC 31555 microorganism species (Kaur et al., 2014). It
adheres to water molecules in the slurry and intertwineswith adjacent molecules (Figure 4a). At sufficiently highconcentrations, the adsorption of welan gum to SCDA
particles increases the hydrophobicity of the material.
Adding 0.15% (w/w) welan gum to the mixing water was
sufficient to decrease the washout mass loss of SCDA
from 36% to 2% (improve hydrophobicity). The washout
mass loss in this instance is the measurement of the
reduction of SCDA mass after multiple immersions in acolumn of water. The adsorption of carboxyl (-COOH)
and hydroxyl (-OH) groups in welan gum to SCDA
particles decelerate the onset of expansive pressure by
400 % (Figure 4b) and the intertwinement of molecules
reduces the fluidity of SCDA by 60 % (Figure 4c). The
79

December 2022

degradation of SCDA was mitigated with the
15 fluidity
addition of HRWR (by 1 % to 2 %). SNSF, in the mixing
water solution, separates into Na+ and Naphthalene
Sulfonate Formaldehyde (SNF) condensate that isnegatively charged. The hydroxyl groups in SNF adsorb
to SCDA particles and create electrostatic repulsion
forces between particles that maintain the fluidity in the
SCDA slurry. The retardation caused by welan gum wasadjusted by adding anhydrous calcium chloride (by 1 % 2 %), which increased the reaction rate of SCDA without
altering the hydration products. The Cl- ions introduced
by CaCl2 accelerate the reaction rate by creating voids in
the Calcium Silicate Hydrate (CSH) gel diffusion barrier
providing access for water molecules to unhydrated
SCDA particles in the system (Figure 4d). Consequently,

this reaction produces smaller clusters of hydrated
products (Fig.3e) allowing more free water to permeate
into unhydrated SCDA particles.
The final composition of 2% CaCl2, 0.1% VEA, and2.5% of HRWR with 30% of water by weight of SCDA
was found to produce a superior SCDA having a
79% improvement in washout resistance and a 44%
improvement in the expansive pressure generation ratecompared to the base SCDA. A performance comparison
between a generic SCDA and its modified counterpart
is shown in Table 1. This new fracturing compoundshows the potential to be used in the subsurface, andsubmerged conditions for rock fracture stimulation invarious engineering applications including permeabilityenhanced ISL.

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

(e)

Fig. 4 Modification of SCDA (a) welan gum molecular structure and intertwinement, (b) SCDA expansive pressurecomparison, (c) SCDA fluidity/flow (mini-slump cone spread) and hydrophobicity (washout mass loss) comparison,(d) effects of CaCl2 in SCDA hydration, and (e) SEM micrograph of CaCl2 induced nano-scale hydration clusters,
WG – welan gum (De Silva et al., 2019)80

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Table 1. Comparison of generic and modified SCDASCDA type

Generic

Modified

Improvement over			

generic SCDA (%)

Washout mass loss (%)

35.67

7.49

79.00

Flow (mm)*

68.12

60.11

-11.76

Onset of expansive pressure (hr)

2.00

0.96

52.00

Expansive pressure after 5 hrs of hydration (MPa)

4.97

12.32

147.89Initial rate of expansive pressure development (MPa/hr)

1.50

2.17

44.67

Dissolution in water* Flow calculated using the mini slump cone test (De Silva et al., 2017)

3. NUMERICAL SIMULATION OF SCDA CHARGED
FRACTURE PROPAGATION

After modifying SCDA for host rock preconditioning deep
saturated host-rock formations, its fracturing performancewas evaluated using the Discrete Element Method. The
numerical simulations were performed using the generalpurpose discrete element modelling software, particle
flow code 3D (PFC3D 5.0 by ITASCA). The numerical
tool was developed to predict and accurately capture thefracturing process during SCDA charging.
3.1 The numerical grain assembly

The laboratory fracturing tests were performedon homogenous coarse-grained silicate cemented
Hawkesbury sandstone, obtained from the Sydney basin
in Australia. Prior to SCDA-charged fracture simulations,a numerical rock mass was assembled in PFC3D
using the flat-jointed contact model (Itasca, 2014).
The numerical rock mass was assembled by packing
spherical particles in a vessel to a predetermined
porosity and density using the grain scaling method
under zero friction, which iteratively scales the grain
size to allow dense packing of particles in a vessel.
Once the desired porosity of the numerical rock massis achieved, the intergranular contact properties wereassigned to particles in the assembly. The flat-jointed

model was used to create the inter-particle bondsof the model. Multiple interface elements in the flat
jointed model allow partial damage to the bond and arecapable of resisting moments at the bond contact. The
bonded assembly was then calibrated using laboratory
test results for Uniaxial Compressive Strength (UCS).
Afterwards, the model was validated against Brazilian
disk Tensile Strength tests (BTS). A comparison between
the experimental results and the numerical simulations
for the mechanical strength tests of the specimens andthe calibration parameters of the flat jointed model are
shown in Table 2.
3.2 SCDA charged fracture simulation

Following the micro-mechanical damage simulation in
the numerical rock mass assembly, the model was used
to simulate SCDA charging. A cylindrical numericalrock assembly with 18064 bonded spherical particles(2.5mm - 3.0mm dia.) was produced by packing in a
vessel (54 mm diameter and 108 mm height). A 5mm
diameter injection well was simulated in the centre of
the cylinder and the particles around the injection well
were scaled by a factor of 0.6 to minimize the size
effect on fracture initiation. The expansion caused by
SCDA in the injection well was simulated using a servocontrolled rigid cylinder where the wall diameter of theTable 2. Comparison of experimental and numerical strength results
Micromechanical properties 			Calibration results

Parameters

Value

Parameter

Experiment

Numerical

Error %

Bonded contact E. modulus, E̅ (GPa)
Bonded contact k-ratio (k̅n /k̅s)
Bonded contact Tensile strength (MPa)
Bonded contact cohesion, C (MPa)
Bonded contact friction angle, φ (°)
Interface elements, on contact
Unbonded contact E. modulus (GPa)Unbonded contact k-ratio (kn/ks)
Unbonded contact friction coefficient, μ

5.9
0.86
5.0
21.0
40
3
1.5
3.0
0.1

UCS (MPa)
E mod. (GPa)Strain at failure
BTS (MPa)

61.97
7.77
0.0084
3.94

63.80
7.85
0.0086
3.89

2.95
1.03
2.38
1.27

81

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was set to increase radially. The expansive
15 cylinderpressure generated within the borehole was measured
by dividing the sum of contact forces acting on the
inner wall by the contact area of the borehole. The top
and bottom flat plates, and the outer walls of the vessel
were also servo controlled where wall velocities were
controlled to apply a constant stress acting on theparticle assembly. This method of simulation allowed the
expansive pressure developed within an injection hole
to be monitored with fracture propagation as shown in
Figure 4. Experimentally observed fracture propagation
obtained from intermittently scanning the specimen
during the fracturing process using X-Ray computed
tomography (X-Ray CT) at the Australian Synchrotron
imaging and medical beamline is also shown in Figure 5
for comparison.

4. SCDA CHARGING UNDER ISOTROPICCONFINEMENT
4.1 The effect of confining pressure

Following the preconditioning numerical simulations
using SCDA, fracturing experiments were performed
to assess the effects of lateral confinement on fracture
performance. The lateral restraint against crack growthprovided by large confining pressures results in thedevelopment of higher peak expansive pressures withincreasing confinement. Furthermore, with increasing
confining pressure, the failure mode of the specimentransitions from a tensile to a mixed tensile and shear
failure. This is due to the confining pressure increasearound the borehole. The stress state changes fromFig 5. (a) Expansive pressure development in the injection well with fracture propagation, final fracture patternof the rock specimen(b) CT reconstruction, (c) numerical simulation, and (d) fracture evolution during SCDA charging, experimental (left)
and numerical (right).

The expansive pressure variation within the borehole
under zero confinement is shown in Figure 5a. The
expansive pressure development within the borehole
could be idealized as a staggered pattern (minorpressure drops) due to the stress release during fracture
propagation around the pressurized borehole (Dowding
and Labuz, 1983) (Figure 3c), which was accurately
captured in the model at peak expansive pressure (Figure5a). As the expansive pressure increased, the tensilestress in the vicinity of the borehole increased andresulted in radial fracture propagation. Consequently, thefractures under zero confinement were predominantly
tensile as shown in Figure 5a. As shown in Figure 5d,
the fractures propagate to the edge of the specimen
leading to an abrupt drop in the expansive pressure
causing the specimen to split.
82

a tangential tensile stress dominant state around theinjection well at zero confinement to a stress state
dominated by radial compressive stress state as theconfining pressure increases. The tensile stresses arecaused by the expansive pressure generated within theborehole, and the compressive stresses increase withthe confining pressure. The reduced extent of the tensilestress field around the injection well due to the increasein confining pressure leads to a greater resistance forcrack growth. Therefore, the strain energy from SCDA
charging is released in the rock mass by initiating
additional fractures around the borehole as opposedto crack growth. A more detailed description of theconfining pressure effect on SCDA expansion is provided
by De Silva et al. 2018.

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Fig 6. SCDA charged fracturing (a) top view of fractured specimens and CT reconstruction of
produced fractures with increasing confining pressure, (b) fracture density and (c) tortuosity

The fracture patterns observed for specimens fractured
under different confining pressures are shown in Figure
6a. As discussed, the experimental fracture observations
indicate an increase in the fracture density and a decreasein the fracture tortuosity around the injection well withincreasing confining pressure (Figures 6 b and c).
4.2 A comparison between hydraulic fracturing and
SCDA charging

The fracturing performance of SCDA was evaluatedagainst hydraulic fracturing in the laboratory byconsidering the number of fractures initiated around an
injection well. Two identical specimens (54 mm dia. and
108 mm height) were fractured in the laboratory using
hydraulic fracturing and SCDA charging. The isolated
fracture network details of each of the specimens
obtained by CT scanning following the fracturingexperiments are shown in Figure 7 and Table 2. The
fracture growth direction in hydraulic fracturing is
dictated by the rock mass heterogeneity and stressanisotropy. This was evident in the experimental
observations. First, the fracture initiated parallel to theinjection well (in the direction of the major principal
stress) and then branched out perpendicular to the initial
direction in a plane parallel to the bedding layers of
the specimen (Figure 7a). Consequently, a continuous
fracture spanning across the entire length of thespecimen was not attainable. Fracture propagation in
toughness-dominant hydraulic fracturing results when
the fluid pressure at the crack tip exceeds the toughnessof the rock. When a weaker plane such as bedding
layers exists in the fracture path, the fractures tend to
propagate in the direction of the weaker plane (Hossain

et al. 2000) and result in fluid leak off preventing
further crack propagation. Although horizontal fracture
propagation is unlikely due to the stress conditions inthis experiment, the presence of faults or weaker planes(bedding in this case) altered the direction of fracturing.
On the other hand, SCDA charging introduces multiple
radial fractures initiating from the borehole irrespectiveof material heterogeneity due to the nature of pressure
exertion described in section 1.2. Four major fractures
were identified in the SCDA charged specimen. Outof the four fractures in the SCDA charged specimen,
fracture 1 and 2 are continuous fractures and fracture 3
and 4 are connected fractures spanning the entire lengthof the specimen.

Fig 7. Fracture networks (a) hydraulic fracturing, and(b) SCDA charging

83

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3: Details of Hydraulic fracture and SCDA
15 Tablecharged facture		Fracture volume fraction 		
Tortuosity 		
Avg. fracture length
1
(mm)
2
3
4

HF
0.006
5.83
30.6
23.73
-

SCDA
0.061
1.26
108
108
78.67
29.33

5. FRACTURE PERMEABILITY

Due to the nature of the hydraulic fracture in theexperiment (Figure 8), the specimen permeability
was dictated by the rock matrix permeabilityof 7.6 x 10-20 m2 (a flow rate of 3.2 x 10-4 ml/s) forwater at the confinement of 30 MPa and an injection
pressure of 6 MPa. Figure 8 shows the steady-stateflow rate variation with injection pressure at different
confining pressures (σ3) for the SCDA charged
specimen. The cubic law was used to calculate an
average hydraulic aperture for the fracture flow in the
SCDA charged specimen and a non-linear correlation
was observed for the steady-state flow rates and theinjection pressures.

Figure 8b shows the variation of the pressure gradientacross the SCDA charged specimen with flow velocity,which is represented by second-order polynomials. It
must be noted that the Polynomial regressions shownin Figure 7b for confining pressures 20 MPa, 25 MPa,and 30 MPa exhibit a disproportional increase in thepressure gradient for each increment of flow velocity.
This is indicative of energy losses in the fluid flow due toinertial and turbulent effects caused by the large fracture
apertures of SCDA charged specimens. Therefore,
Forchheimer’s equation (Eq. 3) was used to describe thisflow behaviour and calculate the Darcian and the nonDarcian permeability components of the fluid flow in the
SCDA charged fracture at the higher confining pressures(20 – 30 MPa).
(Pi – Po) / L = μ/k1.vs + ρ/k2. vs2		

(3)

In Equation 3, Pi and Po are the inlet and outletpressures of the specimen, L is the fracture length,vs is the fluid velocity, μ is the fluid viscosity, and ρ
is the fluid density. k1 and k2 are termed as Darcian
and non-Darcian permeabilities of the material.
Here, the μ/k1.vs component represents the frictional
flow resistance between fluid layers and the ρ/k2.
vs2 component represents the inertial and turbulence
contributions (Innocentini et al., 1999).
At lower confining pressures the opposite was true
where a disproportional increase of flow velocity wasobserved for each increment of the injection pressure
gradient. At low confining pressures (10 – 15 MPa) andhigh injection pressures (6 – 10 MPa), the non-linearity
between the flow rate and the injection pressure
indicates a possible crack dilation as a result of thelow effective stresses caused by the high injection
pressures. Crack dilation for the test series wasobserved for effective stresses lower than 0.6σ3.

Fig. 8 Fracture flow permeability in SCDA charged specimen.
(a) flow rate variation with injection pressure and(b) pressure gradient with flow velocity

84

k1 and k2 in Eq. 3 for the high confining pressure
conditions were calculated from the polynomial
regressions shown in Figure 7b. The experimental results
indicate, that SCDA charging improves the specimen
permeability from 7.6 × 10-20 m2 (7.7e-5 mD) intact rockmatrix permeability to a fracture flow permeability of
9.79 × 10-13 m2 (992 mD) at 30 MPa confining pressure.

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6. CONCLUSIONSREFERENCES

This paper presents a new technology for host-rockpreconditioning in In-Situ Leaching mining applications
using Soundless Cracking Demolition Agents (SCDAs).
First, the study involves the development of a patented(US Patent No. 10836955) hydrophobic slow energy
releasing SCDA which can be used for rock fracture
initiation applications under submerged conditions. Next,a DEM-based numerical model is presented to simulate
the slow energy releasing fracturing process of SCDA
that was used to understand the underlying mechanics
of SCDA charging. Following the numerical model
development, a series of laboratory experiments werecarried out to investigate the fracturing performanceof SCDA under different confining pressures. Finally,
the fracturing performance near the injection welland the resultant permeability improvement following
SCDA charging was investigated and compared against
hydraulic fracturing in a series of laboratory experiments.
Based on the results of this study the following key
conclusions can be drawn.
. The patented SCDA improves hydrophobicity by 79 %compared to generic SCDAs and the onset of expansive
pressure development is improved by 52 %. The
expansive pressure development rate is further improvedby 45 %. This allows SCDA to be pumped into deep
geological formations and initiate controlled fractures.
. The DEM numerical model successfully simulates the
expansive pressure development inside an SCDA-injectedborehole and the subsequent radial fracture propagation,
which were validated by experimental studies.
. Increasing the confining pressure of the surroundingrock causes the SCDA fracturing mode to transition
from tensile to shear dominant mixed tensile-shear
failure mode. Laboratory experiments conducted on
specimens under large confining pressures (up to 20MPa) indicate SCDA chagrining produces multiple
radial fractures around an injection well.
. Compared to fracture stimulation using purehydrofracking at the near vicinity of the injection well,
SCDA charging creates multi-directional fractures aroundan injection well independent of rock mass heterogeneity.

Dowding, C.H. & Labuz, J.F., 1983. Closure to “fracturingof rock with expansive cement” by Charles H. Dowding
and Joseph F. Labuz (October, 1982). Journal of
Geotechnical Engineering, 109(9), pp.1208-1209.
De Silva, V.R.S., Ranjith, P.G., Perera, M.S.A., Wu, B. and
Rathnaweera, T.D., 2019. The influence of admixtures on
the hydration process of soundless cracking demolition
agents (SCDA) for fragmentation of saturated deep
geological reservoir rock formations. Rock Mechanics
and Rock Engineering, 52(2), pp.435-454.
De Silva, V.R.S., Ranjith, P.G., Perera, M.S.A., Wu, B.
& Wanniarachchi, W.A.M., 2018. A low energy rockfragmentation technique for in-situ leaching. Journal of
Cleaner Production, 204, pp.586-606.
He, Q., Suorineni, F.T. & Oh, J., 2016. Review of hydraulicfracturing for preconditioning in cave mining. RockMechanics and Rock Engineering, 49(12), pp.4893-4910.
Holmberg, K., Kivikytö-Reponen, P., Härkisaari, P.,
Valtonen, K. & Erdemir, A., 2017. Global energy
consumption due to friction and wear in the mining
industry. Tribology International, 115, pp.116-139.
Hossain, M.M., Rahman, M.K. & Rahman, S.S., 2000.
Hydraulic fracture initiation and propagation: roles ofwellbore trajectory, perforation and stress regimes.
Journal of petroleum science and engineering, 27(3-4),
pp.129-149.
Innocentini, M.D., Salvini, V.R., Pandolfelli, V.C. andCoury, J.R., 1999. Assessment of Forchheimer's
equation to predict the permeability of ceramic foams.
Journal of the American Ceramic Society, 82(7),pp.1945-1948.
Ish-Shalom, M. & Bentur, A., 1975. Properties of type K
expansive cement of pure components III. Hydration ofpure expansive component under varying restraining
conditions. Cement and Concrete Research, 5(2),pp.139-152.
Itasca (2014) PFC 5.0 Documentation. Itasca Consulting
Group Inc. Minneapolis, MN, USA.
Kaur, V., Bera, M.B., Panesar, P.S., Kumar,H. &Kennedy,J. 2014. Welan gum: microbial production,
characterization, and applications. International journalof biological macromolecules, 65, 454-461.
Laefer, D.F., Ambrozevitch-Cooper, N., Huynh, M.P.,
Midgette, J., Ceribasi, S. & Wortman, J., 2010. Expansive
fracture agent behaviour for concrete cracking. Magazineof concrete research, 62(6), pp.443-452.
McCarter, M.K., 1996. Effect of blast preconditioning
on comminution for selected rock types (No. CONF960234-). International Society of Explosives
Engineers, Cleveland, OH (United States).
Northey, S., Haque, N. & Mudd, G., 2013. Usingsustainability reporting to assess the environmental
footprint of copper mining. Journal of Cleaner
Production, 40, pp.118-128.
Rötzer, N. & Schmidt, M., 2018. Decreasing metal ore
grades—is the fear of resource depletion justified?
Resources, 7(4), p.88.
Saharan, M.R., Mitri, H.S., & Jethwa, J.L., 2006. Rockfracturing by explosive energy: review of state-of-theart. Fragblast, vol. 10, pp. 61-81
Stadler, A. & Boucaut, S., 2015. Unlocking the energy
productivity value proposition. AusIMM Bulletin, (Aug2015), pp.52-55.
Watari, T., Northey, S., Giuro, D., Hata, S., Yokoi, R.,
Nansai, K. & Nakajima, K., 2022. Global copper cycles
and greenhouse gas emissions in a 1.5° C world.
Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 179, p.106118.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The PhD supervision of Prof. Ranjith Pathegama
Gamage was instrumental to the outcomes presented
in this research. The support offered by Monash
University Civil Engineering Laboratory staff, the Monash
Centre of Electron Microscopy (MCEM), the Monash
X-Ray Platform, and the Australian Synchrotron for
the experiments conducted in this research are also
acknowledged.

85

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16 JOHN HUDSONROCK ENGINEERING AWARD
C. Detournay | Itasca Consulting Group, Inc., Minneapolis, MN, USA

STUDY OF THE EFFECT OF COUPLED SEEPAGE AND
ELASTIC/PLASTIC ROCK MASS RESPONSE AFTERIMPOUNDMENT AT THE BAIHETAN DAM

1. CONTEXT

Contractional valley deformation is quite specific to highdams with heights greater than 200 m constructed in
the southwest of China (Figure 1).

Fig 1. Map of Yangtze River valley showing location of main dams

Numerical simulations with coupling of stress and largescale seepage were performed to study the mechanismsof valley deformation after impoundment and to
determine whether and when a similar mechanism could
develop at the Baihetan arch dam site — a very large
structure, second only in size to the Three Gorges Dam.

Fig 2. Baihetan arch dam — under construction
86

Construction of the hydropower station started officiallyin late October 2010. The double curvature concrete
dam is 289 m high. The reservoir storage capacity is
20.6 billion m3 (Figure 2).

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2. BASIC PORO-ELASTIC MECHANISMS

The initial generic 2D analyses show that twobasic poro-elastic mechanisms develop after dam
impoundment: a short-term “Mattress Effect” caused by
the added water load (noting that pushing on a mattresscauses nearby points to move downward and inward);
and a time-dependent “Swelling effect” associated withseepage (the development of a fluid pressure bulb underthe valley causes upward and outward movement).
These opposing behaviors (corresponding to undrainedand drained response) are illustrated in
Figures 3 and 4.
The dominant Mattress effect manifests
itself by a valley convergence at highelevations, together with valley expansion
at low depth, below the impoundment
water level. Both mechanisms are
represented in Figure 3. The Swelling
effect (caused by an increase of porepressure during seepage) generates
displacements that are opposite tothose of the Mattress effect (caused bymechanical loading of the standing water)in the simulations. The magnitude of theporo-elastic displacements induced byseepage are typically significantly smaller
than those generated by the pressure
from the standing water in the valley.
The 2D poro-elastic simulations showed
that, with the two effects combined,
valley convergence was higher at higher
elevations and larger in the short term
after impoundment.

Fig 3. Illustration of 2D mattress effectFig 4. Illustration of 2D swelling effect

3. PRELIMINARY 3D SEEPAGE ANALYSISThe steady-state excess water pressure contours
caused by impoundment in a simplified 3D model of thevalley and dam are shown in Figure 5.
The 3D simulation shows that a 2D behavior, like thatpredicted in Figure 4, develops upstream, away fromthe dam, and that a 3D behavior is expressed under andaround the dam in the valley banks.

Fig 5. Illustration of 3D long-time excess water pressure from impoundment

87December 2022

COMPREHENSIVE MODEL OF BAIHETAN
16 4.DAM
SITE

The large-scale elasto-plastic model (4 km by 3 km by
3 km) included significant faults, drainage structures,and regions of complex rock mass response comprisingcolumnar basalt (Figure 6).

Fig 6. FLAC3D model for the analysis with stratigraphy, structure, and curtain.

Part of the project was to develop a constitutive modelfor the basalt, using up to four ubiquitous joint sets,
which extended the state of the art in modeling such arock mass. The response of this model (called Comba)
matched very well that of samples simulated explicitlywith assemblies of discrete blocks representing thebasalt columns (Figure 7).

Fig 7. Element test responses: comparison between discrete (with joints) and continuum (with the Comba model).

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The overall conservative predictions of rockdisplacements (both upstream and downstream)
resulting from reservoir impoundment are shown in
Figure 8. Below the dam crest elevation, the model
predicts valley expansion upstream from the dam andvalley convergence downstream. Downstream, the model
indicates a sliding mechanism towards the valley on theleft bank and superficial toppling at high elevations on
the right bank.

Fig 8. Contours of x-displacements at 5 years after the start of impoundment.

The mechanisms of valley deformation are illustrated
further in the map view presented in Figure 9.
Upstream

Downstream
Fig 9. Map view of x-displacement contours and red iso-surface of zero x-displacement at 5 years

89December 2022

Mattress effect with valley divergence below the
16 Thewater table and valley convergence at high altitude isrevealed upstream of the dam. The valley convergence
predicted downstream of the dam is attributed to slip
along major discontinuities (fault and bedding plane)
induced by the increase of water pressure due toseepage from impoundment.

Fig 10. Displacement contours and displacement vectors in dam vicinity at 5 years

The combination of a sliding mechanism controlled by
the main faults and bedding planes on the left bankalong with a superficial toppling mechanism on theright bank are attributed to the fact that the bedding
planes are sloping towards the valley on the left bankand into the slope on the right bank.
The model prediction along measuring lines acrossthe valley showed that the main deformation occurred
during the changes of impoundment upstream, and atsome distance (of the same order as the dam width)
downstream from the dam. Continuous deformation
was also observed at constant impoundment level
downstream of the dam. This could be attributed to theseepage effect from impoundment in the valley banks.

5. MODEL TAKEAWAY

Two main potential deformation mechanisms wereidentified in the simulations. The first is the poro-elastic
Mattress effect that induces valley deformation duringchanges of impoundment. The second, governed by slip
along major discontinuities, is caused by changes inwater pressure due to seepage around the dam that also
occurs at constant impoundment level.
A comparison of valley convergence prediction and field
monitoring along measuring lines (available in the first
70 days after the start of impoundment) showed similar
trends: a decrease in convergence when impoundment
increases (caused by stress relaxation in theriverbanks); and an increase in convergence at constant
impoundment level.
Further analysis showed that engineered drainage
significantly reduced the slip along major discontinuities,
and thus had a strong impact on the model predictions.
Numerical modeling allows a deeper understanding of
coupled fluid-mechanical mechanisms at play in highdam sites, including Baihetan.

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Fig 11: Start of hydroelectric production - CCTV – June 28, 2021.

6. EPILOGUE

The project has successfully reached completion.
Hydroelectric production started at the Baihetan site on
28 June 2021.
7. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The work reported here is the result of a team effort. The
invaluable contributions of my colleagues Guotao Meng
(HydroChina – Itasca R&D Center, Hangzhou, China),
Zhao Cheng, Ryan Peterson, Varun, and Peter Cundall(Itasca Consulting Group, Inc., Minneapolis, MN, USA) aregratefully acknowledged.

91

December 2022

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AND MATERIALSApplied Seismology Consulting, United Kingdom

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Tractebel Engineering, Gennevilliers, France
Trilab Pty Ltd, Geebung, Australia
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WSP Sverige AB, Stockholm-Globen, Sweden
C CONSULTANTS

3GSM GmbH, Graz, Austria
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AFRY, Solne, Sweden
AGL Consulting, Dublin, Ireland
Alliance Geotechnical Pty Ltd, Seven Hills, Australia
Applied Seismology Consulting, United Kingdom
Arcadis ESG, Le Plessis Robinson, France
Bauer Spezialtiefbau Schweiz AG, Switzerland
Beck Engineering Pty Ltd, Chatswood, Australia
Beijing Urban Construction Design and Development GroupCo. Ltd., China
Bergab AB, Solna, Sweden
Besab AB Hisings Backa, Sweden
BG Ingénieurs Conseils SA, Switzerland
Boliden Mineral, Boliden, Sweden
Cartledge Mining & Geotechnics, Brisbane, Australia
Cautus GEO AS, Norway
CETU (Centre d’ Études des Tunnels), Lyon, France
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Changjiang River Scientific Research Institute, Wuhan, China
Changjiang Survey Planning Design Research Co. Ltd, China
Chengdu Engineering Co. Ltd:Ç, PowerChina; China
China Academy of Railway Sciences Co. Ltd., China
China Coal Technology & Engineering Group (CCTEG),
Beijing, China
China Ralway 18th Bureau Group Tunnel Engineering Co. Ltd.,
China
China Three Gorges Corporation, China
China University of Mining and Technology-Beijing, China
China University of Petroleum-Beijing, China
Chuo Kaihatsu Corporation, Tokyo, Japan
Cumbra Ingeniería, Peru
Dia Consultants Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan
DL E&C, Korea
DMEC - Dong Meyong Engineering Consultants &Architecture Co., Ltd., Seoul, Korea

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DynaFrax UG, Ltd., Germany
Electric Power Dev. Co., Ltd., Tokyo, JapanESS Earth Sciences, Richmong, Australia
FF Geomechanics Ingenieria Limitada, Chile
Fondasol, Avignon, France
GeoConnect Technology Development Co. Ltd., China
GEOS Ingénieurs Conseils, Courbevoie, France
Geoscience Ltd., Falmouth, United Kingdom
Geoconsult ZT GmbH, Austria
Geosigma AB, Stockholm, Sweden
Glötzl, Rheinstetten, Germany
Golder Associates, Montreal, Canada
Guangdong Hongda Blasting Engineering Co. Ltd., China
Hanjiang-To-Weihe River Valley Water Diversion Projet
Construction Co.Ltd.,Shaanxi Province, China
Hazama Corporation, Ibaraki, Japan
Hubei University of Technology, China
Implenia Suisse SA, Switzerland
Ineris, Verneuil en Halatte, France
Ingenieursozietät Prof. Dr.-Ing. Katzenbach Gmbh, Frankfurt
am Main, Germany
Institute of Complex Development of Mineral Resources of
the RAS (RAS IPKON), Moscow, Russia
Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy ofGeological Sciences, China
Institute jsc „VNIMI“, Russia
Institute of Mining Siberian Branch of RAS,
Novosibirsk, Russia
Institute of Mining, Far Eastern Branch of the RAS,
Khabarovsk, Russia
Itasca, Santiago, Chile
Itasca Consulting Group Inc., Minneapolis, USA
Itasca Consulting Ltd, Shrewsbury, United Kingdom
ITOCHU Techno – Solutions Corporation, Tokyo, Japan
J-Power Engineering Co. Ltd., Japan
Japan Conservation Engineers & Co. Ltd., Japan
Japan Underground Oil Storage Group Comp., Tokyo, Japan
Kajima Technical Research Institute., Tokyo,Japan
Kawasaki Geological Engng. Co., Tokyo, Japan
Kiso-Jiban Consultants Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan
Kolong Global Corporation, Korea
LCW Consult , S.A., Algés, Portugal
LLC Science Development Company,
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LNEC - Laboratório Nacional de Engenharia Civil,
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Locher Ingenieure AG, Zurich, Switzerland
Lombardi Engineering Ltd., Minusio, Switzerland
Lombardi SA, Switzerland
LOTTE E&C, Seoul, KoreaLuleå University of Technology - LTU, Luleå, Sweden
Multiconsult AS, Oslo, Norway
National Institute of Natural Hazards, China
Newjec Inc., Osaka, JapanNGE Fondations, France
Nick Barton and Associates, Høvik, Norway
Nishimatsu Construction CO., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan
Nitro Consult Ab., Stockholm, Sweden
Norconsult AS, Sandvika, Norway
NTNU Inst for Geologi og Bergteknikk, Trondheim, Norway
Ove Arup & Partners Ltd, London, UK
Perm National Research Polytechnic University,
Perm, Russia
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Prof. Quick und Kollegen, Darmstadt, Germany
Ramböll Sverige, Stockholm, Sweden
Ramboll UK Ltd., London, United Kingdom
RCC-Group, Moscow, Russia
RISE Research Institute of Sweden, Borås, Sweden

17

Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Geotechnical and UndergroundSpace Engineering, XAUAT, China
Shandong University, China
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SK E&C, Seoul, Korea
Skanska AB, Solna, Sweden
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Tyréns AB, Stockholm, Sweden
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WSP Sverige AB, Stockholm-Globen, Sweden
Yachiyo Engineering Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan
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Beijing Urban Construction Design and Development GroupCo. Ltd., China
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Changjiang River Scientific Research Institute, Wuhan, China
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93

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Power Dev. Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan
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Beijing Anke Technology Co. Ltd., China
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Hanjiang-to-Weihe River Valley Water Diversion Project
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Stockholm, Sweden
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H UNIVERSITY
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Hubei University of Technology, China
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Shandong University, China
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I GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENTS
CETU (Centre d’Études des Tunnels), Lyon, France

Chengdu Engineering Co. Ltd., Power, China
China University of Mining and Technology-Beijing, China
China University of Petroleum-Beijing, China
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Construction Co., Ltd.SHAANXI Province, China
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Current benefits given to ISRM corporate members are:
• Being listed in the ISRM website, with a link to the company’s website• Being listed in the ISRM News Journal• Access to the members area in the ISRM website• ISRM Newsletter• 1 copy of the ISRM News Journal• 1 registration with a 20% discount as ISRM member in the ISRM Congress, International

and Regional Symposia and Specialized Conferences• Free download of up to 250 papers per year from the ISRM Digital Library at OnePetro:www.onepetro.org.

ISRM

International Society for Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering

Yaraciretá Dam

ISRM Board
President
Vice-President for Africa
Vice-President for Asia
Vice-President for Australasia
Vice-President for Europe
Vice-President for Latin America
Vice-President for North America
Vice-President at Large
Vice-President at Large
Vice-President at Large
President-Elect
Secretary-General

ISRM Secretariat

Prof. Reşat Ulusay
Dr Michael du Plessis
Dr Suseno Kramadibrata
Dr Sevda Dehkhoda
Prof. Leandro R. AlejanoProf. José Pavón Mendoza
Prof. Laura J. Pyrak-Nolte
Prof. Qiang Yang
Prof. Ömer Aydan
Dr Vojkan Jovičić
Prof. Seokwon Jeon
Dr Luís Lamas

LNEC | Av. Brasil, 101 | 1700-066 Lisboa | PORTUGAL | Tel.: (+351) 218443419 | E-mail: secretariat@isrm.net