Novel Investigation Methods of Rock Slopes and Tunnels in View of Realistic Modelling in Engineering Applications
Giovanni Barla, former Professor of Rock Mechanics, Politecnico di Torino, Torino, Italy
Abstract
The ability to describe and characterize the rock mass has been greatly advanced through the years, as is the case of modelling rock slopes and tunnels. With this in mind, this paper is to consider the use of 3D investigation methods such as terrestrial laser scanning and photogrammetry. This is done first with two case studies on the investigations performed to gain insights into the understanding of the instabilities occurred at a marble quarry face and during ecavation of a drill and blast tunnel in granite. Then, the case history of a high rock slope in limestone is considered. The interest is to show how 3D mapping of the rock mass with terrestrial laser scanning and optical images was used to obtain a digital elevation model which formed the basis for the numerical modelling performed to analyze the stability conditions.
Keywords: Rock Mechanics, Rock Engineering, Rock Slopes, Tunnels, In situ Investigations, Modelling.