Microseismic Monitoring of the Rock Mass During Full-Scale Uplift Tests of Rock Anchors

Abstract Rock anchors are the cornerstones of modern geotechnical engineering. Adequate dimensioning will both reduce cost and improve safety. We here present microseismic monitoring results of rock anchor uplift tests at full scale. The uplift tests were monitored with a network of surface geophones, amongst other sensor systems. These geophones recorded the failure of the rock mass during uplift. Our results show that this approach gives valuable insight into the fracture evolution in time and space. A main fracture cone develops at a $$23^{\circ }$$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:msup> <mml:mn>23</mml:mn> <mml:mo>∘</mml:mo> </mml:msup> </mml:math> angle, and a secondary fracture cone at a $$35^{\circ }$$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:msup> <mml:mn>35</mml:mn> <mml:mo>∘</mml:mo> </mml:msup> </mml:math> .