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Department of Geo-
science and Petroleum
Spring 2017
Study on Material
Properties Testing of
Various Rock Types
Supervisor:
Krishna K. Panthi
Co-supervisors:
Siri Stokseth & Thomas
Shönborn
In cooperation with:
Statkraft
Lena Selen Kvinge
MASTER THESIS
Background
Statkraft, and its subsidiaries SN Power and
Aqua Imara, have experienced challenging
rock behaviour during development of several
projects in South America, East Asia and Africa.
Many of these challenges were related to a
variation of rock properties during construction
and operation, compared to the estimated
behaviour during planning. Such behaviour
included swelling, disintegration, loss of
strength and deformability properties, which is
less familiar in the Norwegian environment.
Objective
This master thesis shall study material
properties of various rock types from the
actual project sites, to develop a database of
parameters and give input to a methodology for
rock testing of various rocks in future projects.
The thesis will include:
•
Brief review of the geological conditions of
the case project(s)
•
Review and discuss existing test
methodologies for rock properties,
including Ethylene Glycol test, swelling
tests on intact/ crushed rock, cyclic tests,
etc.
•
Discuss existing data from undertaken
testing with the relevant international
testing facilities in Norway, Germany, Italy,
Chile and Canada
•
Sample and test specimen of the various
rock types collected from the case
project(s), including standard test suits
(UCS, PLT, slake durability, etc.) and
mineralogical (XRD test)
•
Compile test data in a database
•
Develop a flow chart for the test suited for
different rock types
Cheves i Peru - tunneling in challenging
inhomogeneous field
Fig. Slake durability testing equipment at
IGB - NTNU