Rocks rheology in the stability of underground mining works

This book includes own studies and results obtained by the author in the field of rocks rheology and its implications in the stability - reliability of underground mining works; it was done out of a desire to open the knowledge horizon of rock mechanics and highlight its role in the underground constructions. Particularly, are presented the results of observations and in situ measurements performed in underground, the rheological results of studies conducted in the laboratory and the methodology to establish the rheological behavior models of the analyzed sedimentary rocks from Jiu Valley basin - Romania. Based on these results, it has been studying the mechanism of interaction rock - support taking into account the time. The geomechanical placement conditions of the main horizontal mining works, observations and in situ measurements well as results of their stability analysis showed that ensuring the reliability of main horizontal mining works should be achieved through imposed stability; that can be solved only by considering the time parameter, namely taking also into account the behavior of rocks in time.