Proceedings of the Rocscience International Conference (RIC 2023)

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Does Rock Engineering Need to Quantify GSI?

Authors
Beverly Yang1, Davide Elmo1, *
1NBK Institute of Mining Engineering, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
*Corresponding author. Email: delmo@mining.ubc.ca
Corresponding Author
Davide Elmo
Available Online 8 November 2023.
DOI
10.2991/978-94-6463-258-3_64How to use a DOI?
Keywords
geological strength index (GSI); quantified GSI; rock mass strength
Abstract

Numbers form the basis of engineering; without them, we could not determine forces, stresses, and safety factors. In most engineering disciplines, the numbers used represent quantitative measurements; however, rock engineering is unique in that many of the numbers used are numerical descriptions of qualitative assessments rather than quantitative measurements. Examples include the numeric values from commonly used rock mass classification systems, such as the rock mass rating (RMR), Q-system, and geological strength index (GSI). This phenomenon of using numbers representing qualitative descriptions has been further exacerbated in recent years with the attempts to quantify GSI. The motivation behind these quantification attempts is to purportedly improve the accuracy and precision of GSI and provide experience for inexperienced engineers. In this paper, we critically review GSI quantification attempts throughout the years and argue against the paradigms of (1) determining an accurate numerical description of qualitative assessments and (2) the quantification process by adding the experience factor for inexperienced engineers. Using RS2 and RSData, we also demonstrate that determining a more precise GSI value does not result in significant changes to estimating rock mass strength.

Copyright
© 2023 The Author(s)
Open Access
Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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Volume Title
Proceedings of the Rocscience International Conference (RIC 2023)
Series
Atlantis Highlights in Engineering
Publication Date
8 November 2023
ISBN
978-94-6463-258-3
ISSN
2589-4943
DOI
10.2991/978-94-6463-258-3_64How to use a DOI?
Copyright
© 2023 The Author(s)
Open Access
Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

Cite this article

risenwbib
TY  - CONF
AU  - Beverly Yang
AU  - Davide Elmo
PY  - 2023
DA  - 2023/11/08
TI  - Does Rock Engineering Need to Quantify GSI?
BT  - Proceedings of the Rocscience International Conference  (RIC 2023)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 700
EP  - 710
SN  - 2589-4943
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6463-258-3_64
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6463-258-3_64
ID  - Yang2023
ER  -