Geotechnical rock mass documentation in the Bátaapáti radioactive waste repository

Abstract

The geologic, geotechnical and rock mechanical background of the area, which includes an underground cavern system, is very complex. Initially, to describe the rock mass properties, the RMR and Q systems were used, while the rock support system was based solely on the Q system. Later, during construction of the repository chambers, the GSI system was also introduced in addition to the above-mentioned rock classification methods. The correlation and usage of these three different rock mass classification systems were investigated.Special methods were used to obtain more accurate tunnel mapping and documentation, which is based on photogrammetry and photo analyzer software.According to the results, the correlation between the RMR and Q values is independent of the rock type; basically, the same equation can be used for all (differences between experimental error). The GSI intervals also closely follows the same trend as the results of the other two methods.