True Triaxial Testing of Rocks

This is the first book ever published on the problems of true triaxial testing of rocks addressing all aspects of true triaxial testing of rocks, including: (i) true triaxial testing techniques and procedures; (ii) test results: strength, deformability, failure mode, permeability, acoustic emission, and elastic wave velocity; (iii) constitutive laws and failure criteria; and (iv) applications to geoengineering and geosciences.

Recent developments in the field of true triaxial testing of rocks are presented, as well as a thorough review of the most important achievements in the whole history of true triaxial testing of rocks.

Almost all researchers from around the world engaged in the true triaxial testing of rocks over the last three decades have contributed to this work. The authors originate from different branches of geoengineering and geosciences, including civil engineering, engineering geology, geotechnical engineering, mining engineering, petroleum engineering, seismology, and tectonophysics.

Dr hab. Eng. Marek Kwasniewski is Professor of Rock Mechanics and Mining Geomechanics and Head of Rock Mechanics Research Group at the Faculty of Mining and Geology, the Silesian University of Technology in Gliwice, Poland, a Guest-Professor at the China University of Mining and Technology in Beijing, and a Visiting Professor at Qingdao Technological University. He holds an M. Eng. degree in Mining Engineering and a Dr. techn. Sc. degree from the AGH University of Science and Technology in Cracow, Poland, and a Dr. hab. techn. Sc. degree from the Silesian University of Technology. His primary research interests are the behavior of rocks under general triaxial stress conditions and the precursors of brittle failure of rocks. His industry-related activities include leadership positions in numerous national and international R&D projects on various aspects of strata control in underground mines, including the stability of mine workings, rockburst hazard and ground subsidence problems.

He is a member of several scientific and professional societies, including the International Bureau of Strata Mechanics (he served as Secretary-General of the IBSM from 1973 to 1988), the International Society for Rock Mechanics (he presided over the ISRM Commission on Education from 1993 to 2002), and the American Geophysical Union. He co-founded the Polish Society of Rock Mechanics in 1993 and has been serving as the President of this Society since 2007. He has been the Editor-in-Chief of the Geomechanics Research Series from CRC Press/Balkema - Taylor & Francis Group (formerly A. A. Balkema Publishers) since 1987 and a member of the editorial boards of Archives of Mining Sciences (since 1999) and Rock Mechanics & Rock Engineering (since 2009). He has lectured extensively at rock mechanics symposia and congresses all over the world and taught at many universities in China, France, Japan, Portugal, and Sweden. He has published more than two hundred research papers and several monographs on rock mechanics and strata control in mines.