Back Analysis in Rock Engineering

This book provides practising engineers working in the field of design and monitoring of rock structures such as tunnels and slopes with technical information on how to design and how to monitor the structures during their construction. Based on the long term engineering experiences of the author, field measurements together with back analyses are presented as the most powerful tools in rock engineering practice. The author has developed both "critical strain" and "anisotropic parameter" of rocks, which can make it possible to verify the validity of design parameters by the back analysis of field measurement results during the constructions. Based on the back analysis results, the design parameters used at a design stage could be modified if necessary. This procedure is called an "Observational method", a concept that is entirely different from that of other structures such as bridges and buildings.

It is noted that in general, technical books written for practising engineers mainly focus on empirical approaches which are based on engineers’ experiences. In this book, however, no empirical approaches will be described, although its contents must be useful for practicing engineers working at construction sites. The contents of the book are all based on the theory of rock mechanics, and the back analysis procedure is also based on the theory of solid mechanics. This book will be the first to describe an observational method in rock engineering practice, which implies that the potential readers of this book must be practicing engineers working on rock engineering projects.

Born in 1935, studied Civil Engineering, first at Kobe University (B.E., 1958), then at Kyoto University (M.E., 1960), and finally at Michigan State University USA (Ph.D., 1966), having received his Dr Eng. from Nagoya University in 1975. Prof. Sakurai worked at Kobe University, where he held the position of Associate Professor (1966-73) and Professor in the Division of Rock Mechanics, Dept of Civil Engineering (1973-1999), and then worked at the Hiroshima Institute of Technology as President (1999-2003). He is now Professor Emeritus of Kobe University, and also Professor Emeritus of Hiroshima Institute of Technology. Prof. Sakurai is currently President of the Construction Engineering Research Institute Foundation (CERIF) (2003-present). In 1978-79 he was Guest Professor at the Federal Institute of Technology Zurich ETHZ, Switzerland, and in 1984 Visiting Professor at the University of Queensland, Australia. He was also Visiting Professor at Graz University of Technology in 1998.

He has given lectures in Brazil, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, India, Indonesia, Italy, Kazakhstan, Korea, Poland, Taiwan, Thailand, Russia, and many other countries. In the ISRM, Prof. Sakurai was Vice-President at Large (1988-91), President of the Commission on Communications (1987-91), and Member of the Commissions on Computer Programs (1978-87), on Rock Failure Mechanisms in Underground Openings (1981-91), and on Testing Methods (1983-91). He was also Vice-President of the Japanese Committee for ISRM (the ISRM NG JAPAN) (1995-1999).

Professionally, Prof. Sakurai has been involved in various kinds of Rock Mechanics projects (hydropower, nuclear power, pumped storage, and compressed air energy storage schemes; highway and railway tunnels; slopes; etc.), in Japan and abroad. His research activities have been principally connected to numerical and analytical methods, back analysis, and field measurements, the aim of these activities being mainly concerned with making a bridge between the theory and practice. Prof. Shunsuke Sakurai is the author or co-author of over 100 publications, and the editor of "Field Measurements in Geomechanics" (Proceedings of the 2nd International Symposium, Kobe, 1987).

Prof. Sakurai received the IUE Award (1974), the JSCE Prize for the Best Paper (1990), and the ICMAG Award for Significant Paper (1994). He also received the Science Award of Hyogo Prefecture (1997).