Rock Mechanics Testing Services
Advanced Terra Testing`s Rock Mechanics division is responsible for performing a wide range of tests under varying conditions and test parameters. Over the past eighteen years, tests have been performed on projects for over 100 clients world wide, ranging from North Sea oil wells, to rock fill dams in Peru, to coal mines in Colorado, to dams in Virginia, to landslides in Utah and Wyoming, to gold mining projects in the former Soviet Union, Australia, and Venezuela, and diamond mines in Canada. Our client base includes numerous civil, environmental, and mining engineering companies based both domestically and internationally.
We also have completed projects both directly and indirectly for several local, state, national, and international government agencies, such as the Wyoming Department of Transportation, the US Army Corps of Engineers, The US Department of Energy, and the Egyptian Department of Antiquities.
ATT has built up a large base of unique test equipment and test capabilities, and often modifies equipment and established procedures at client request in order to satisfy specific project requirements.
The following is a partial summary of test equipment capabilities:
- Axial Compression loading to 500,000 pounds (2,220 kN)
- Triaxial Confining Stresses to 10,000 psi (68,950 kPa)
- Direct Shear 10,000 pound (44.5 kN) Normal Load, 25,000 pound (111 kN) shear load, stress or strain controlled
- Dynamic loading of entire systems, as in a sine wave sense of motion
- Ultrasonic Pulse Velocity
- Large scale (12 inch diameter) loading of percolation columns, to 4,000 psi
- In house sample preparation with water cooled diamond core barrels and rock saws
All equipment is calibrated based on guidelines established by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and are traceable to NIST. Tests performed follow ASTM, ISRM, and US Army Corps of Engineers recommended test procedures. The Rock Mechanics laboratory has been technically audited and approved to provide project testing by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Department of Energy and numerous other organizations throughout the United States. Data are presented in spreadsheet format and can be provided in hard copy (paper) or electronically, via disk/ CD or e-mail.
