Fracture and flow of rocks under stress and their geophysical and seismological implications raise fundamental questions in rock mechanics, particularly in the areas of tectonophysics and seismology. This text exclusively addresses the deformation and fracture of rock specimens under general triaxial compression, in which all three principal stress

This volume summarizes the results of experimental investigations on the mechanical behaviour of rock. These experiments have been conducted over a 40 year period in the Laboratory for the Physics of Rocks at High Pressure.

This monograph deals with the part of the field of ex-' perimental rock deformation that is dominated by the phenomena of brittle fracture on one scale or another. Thus a distinction has been drawn between the fields of brittle und ductile behaviour in rock, corresponding more or less to a distinction between the phenomena of fracture and flow. It is hoped eventually to present a survey of the ductile field in a separate volume. The last chapter of this volume deals with the transition between the two fields. The scope of this survey has been limited to the mec.hanical properties of rock viewed as a material on the laboratory scale. Thus, the topic and approach is of a "materials science" kind rather than of a "structures" kind. We are dealing with only one part of the wider field of rock mechanics, which also includes structural or boundary value problems, for example, those of the stability of slopes, the collapse of mine openings, earth quakes, the folding of stratified rock, and the convec tive motion of the earth's mantle. One topic thus ex cluded is the role of jointing, which it is commonly necessary to take into account in applications in engi neering and mining, and probably often in geology too.

Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering: From the Past to the Future contains the contributions presented at EUROCK2016, the 2016 International Symposium of the International Society for Rock Mechanics (ISRM 2016, Ürgüp, Cappadocia Region, Turkey, 29-31 August 2016). The contributions cover almost all aspects of rock mechanics and rock engineering from theories to engineering practices, emphasizing the future direction of rock engineering technologies. The 204 accepted papers and eight keynote papers, are grouped into several main sections: - Fundamental rock mechanics - Rock properties and experimental rock mechanics - Analytical and numerical methods in rock engineering - Stability of slopes in civil and mining engineering - Design methodologies and analysis - Rock dynamics, rock mechanics and rock engineering at historical sites and monuments - Underground excavations in civil and mining engineering - Coupled processes in rock mass for underground storage and waste disposal - Rock mass characterization - Petroleum geomechanics - Carbon dioxide sequestration - Instrumentation-monitoring in rock engineering and back analysis - Risk management, and - the 2016 Rocha Medal Lecture and the 2016 Franklin Lecture Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering: From the Past to the Future will be of interest to researchers and professionals involved in the various branches of rock mechanics and rock engineering. EUROCK 2016, organized by the Turkish National Society for Rock Mechanics, is a continuation of the successful series of ISRM symposia in Europe, which began in 1992 in Chester, UK.