Terzaghi's Rock Load Theory

[Update: This post is by Mr. Ramadoss Muthukuar, details here. He will also be contributing to this blog hereafter]

Karl von Terzaghi (October 2, 1883 – October 25, 1963) was an Czech civil engineer and geologist known as the "father of soil mechanics".

 

In 1900, Terzaghi entered the Technical University in Graz to study mechanical engineering, where he also developed an interest in theoretical mechanics. He was nearly expelled at one point but ended up graduating with honors in 1904.Terzaghi translated and greatly expanded a popular English geology field manual into German. He returned to the university for one year and combined the study of geology with courses on subjects such as highway and railway engineering. Shortly thereafter he published his first academic paper on the geology of terraces in southern Styria.

The Rock load classification method is one of the first methodologies for rock mass classification for engineering. Karl von Terzaghi developed the methodology for tunnels supported by steel sets in the 1940s. By many regarded as obsolete as ideas about rock and rock mass mechanical behavior have since further developed and the methodology is not suitable for modern tunneling methods using shotcrete and rock bolts.

But still the Rock load theory have been in use for shallow tunnel design of tunnel width smaller than 6m.Later the rock load theory was modified by Deere et al to arrive an Quantitative approach to design the support system.

{update} Terzaghi's Rock load theory is covered in the book referred below 

 “Tunnelling in Weak Rocks” by Bhawani Singh and. R.K. Goel.