About

The Fairhurst Files

Charles Fairhurst, Professor Emeritus of the University of Minnesota and a co-founder of Itasca, has more than 50 years of experience in mining rock mechanics and has consulted on rock stability problems for tunnels, dams, mines and excavations throughout the world. He remains active in consulting, and has been elected to the U.S. National Academy of Engineers and the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences.

This page will host assorted papers, articles and thoughts from Professor Fairhurst that are relevant to today's geomechanics industry.

Scale Effects in Rock. Originally presented at the Lassonde Institute, University of Toronto, September 21, 2009. This presentation requires a Windows Media Player enabled browser.

Fundamental Considerations Relating To The Strength of Rock. Originally presented at the Colloquium on Rock Fracture, Ruhr University, Bochum, Germany, April 1971. Revised and published in Report of the Workshop on Extreme Ground Motions at Yucca Mountain, August 23-25, 2004, U.S. Geological Survey, USGS Open-File Report 2006-1277. T. C. Hanks et al., Eds. Reston, Virginia: USGS, 2006.

Rock Mechanics and Radioactive Waste Isolation. “One small step for geology, one giant leap for rock mechanics”. Originally presented at the Tenth Congress of the International Society for Rock Mechanics, Sandton, South Africa, September 8-12, 2003.

Closing the Circle: Some comments on design procedures for tunnel supports in rock. Originally published in Proceedings, University of Minnesota 50th Annual Geotechnical Conference (February 2002), pp. 21-84. J. F. Labuz and J. G. Bentler, Eds. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota.

Hard Rock Blasting Developments and Possibilities. Originally published in Proc. Atlas Copco Bench Drilling Days, Symp. Stockholm, Sweden, July 1975.